It’s looking like we can expect a dream-sequence, flashback, or hallucination in Marc Webb‘s The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Last Friday, Martin Sheen was on the RTE’s Late Late Show [Via Bleeding Cool] with Ryan Tubridy, and said, “I’m going to be Uncle Ben in Spider-Man once again next year. We shoot it in February.”  It’s welcome news considering that Sheen was one of the best parts of the original film.  Of course, how we see him in the sequel will be fun, but I’ll put my money on flash-back, although hallucinatory Obi-wan-like-councilor-figure would be hilarious.

Over the past couple of months, the sequel has been lining up new cast members including Jamie Foxx as the villain Electro, Dane DeHaan as Harry Osborne, and Shailene Woodley in a small role as Mary Jane.  The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is due out May 2, 2014.

The weirdest part about the release of The Amazing Spider-Man was finding out that a lot of people didn’t like the Sam Raimi films. Not just the third film, which is – for the most part – reviled, but all of them. Marc Webb had the hard job of rebooting a franchise that was still fresh in audience’s minds, and did so with Andrew Garfield as the titular web-slinger, and Emma Stone as his girl Gwen Stacy. The approach mostly fails by trying to avoid being too much like the Raimi version. Our review of the Blu-ray of The Amazing Spider-Man follows after the jump.

With Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man set to release on DVD/Blu-ray next week (it’s currently available on VOD), a new Honest Trailer has debuted just in time.  The trailer takes shots at Webb’s origin story and hilariously points out the film’s shortcomings, all in good fun.  We’ve had a wealth of news on The Amazing Spider-Man sequel as of late, with Jamie Foxx in talks to play the villain Electro, Shailene Woodley’s role as Mary Jane Watson and Steve’s recent interview with Webb, which revealed quite a bit about the upcoming film.

The Amazing Spider-Man stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Martin Sheen, Sally Field and Denis Leary.  Hit the jump to see the new honest trailer.

A couple weeks ago, a couple of deleted scenes from The Amazing Spider-Man went online.  The scenes helped to better understand Peter Parker’s origin and clear up some of the ambiguities of the original film.  Now, with the Blu-ray/DVD set to be released on November 9th, all of the deleted scenes have leaked out.  Most of the deleted scenes focus on Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), so if you were looking for more explanation of the movie’s inconsistencies and plot holes, you won’t find them here.  However, they do make Connors a more sympathetic character, so I can understand why these scenes were shot but later cut.

Hit the jump to check out the deleted and extended scenes, and click here to pre-order The Amazing Spider-Man on Blu-ray/DVD.

Writer/director Paul Haggis (Crash) has made a couple of last minute casting additions to his next project, Third Person.  Maria Bello and Adrien Brody are the latest to join a cast that now includes Liam Neeson, Olivia Wilde, James Franco, Kim Basinger, Mila Kunis, and Moran Atias.  In the vein of Haggis’ Oscar-winning 2004 drama Crash, the film follows three intersecting stories set in Paris, New York, and Rome, “with each storyline following a different stage of a love relationship from the beginning, middle, and the end.”

Variety’s report doesn’t provide details on Bello’s character, but Brody plays the love interest of Atias.  We also know that Neeson and Wilde play a journalist and a gossip columnist, respectively, in the New York storyline.  Production begins this week in Rome.  Hit the jump for casting news concerning the 9/11 drama September Morn.

Aaron Sorkin returned to the world of television this year with HBO’s The Newsroom, and while I didn’t hate the show as much as some did, it was a far cry from the glory days of The West Wing.  For those feeling nostalgic, or for the West Wing obsessed (of which I’m a card-carrying member), a video has surfaced called “Walk and Talk the Vote” which reunites a large chunk of the show’s cast.  The ad is in support of Bridget Mary McCormack, a non-partisan candidate for Michigan State Supreme Court, but it touches on the importance of all non-partisan voting.

It’s great to see Martin Sheen, Allison Janney, Bradley Whitford, Richard Schiff, Joshua Malina, Mary McCormack, Janel Moloney, Melissa Fitzgerald and even Lily Tomlin back together, but I really would’ve loved to see Rob Lowe return and complete the “original five.”  Nevertheless, hit the jump to take a trip down memory lane, and if you’ve still never seen The West Wing I highly suggest you rectify that as quickly as possible.

It doesn’t look like Charlie Sheen will be leaving the airwaves anytime soon.  It was announced today that Sheen’s new series Anger Management has been picked up for a whopping 90 more episodes from FX.  Sheen moved to the new series following his meltdown/firing from CBS’s Two and a Half Men, and the show was greenlight for 10 episodes with the possibility of a back-90 pickup should the series meet certain ratings guidelines.  It appears that the show did indeed meet FX’s expectations, as the show averaged 4.53 million total viewers and 2.5 million in the coveted 18-49 demographic, for some reason.

Barring any more meltdowns or outrageously dickish behavior by Sheen (which is really not out of the question), this 90-episode order ensures that Anger Management will be up to 100 episodes by 2014, solidifying its place in the lucrative syndication market.  Production on the second season begins this September and new episodes will begin airing in January.  Hit the jump to read the press release.

As much as I enjoy film, my first entertainment love will always be music. As such, this weekend finds me in Chicago in anticipation of what could be my final Warped Tour appearance. That’s right, I’m a 26 year-old man (I use the term “man” lightly, of course) who still finds immense joy in the pop-punk genre. Nevertheless, it’s becoming harder and harder for my oldness to blend in with a predominantly sub-18 crowd without looking like a total creep and, therefore, today may very well be my last Warped experience. On the bright side, I still have XBox Live to remind me that I’ve never completely grown up.

Maturity issues aside, on tap in this week’s version of the Top 5 is a slew of interviews for The Amazing Spider-Man, the first trailer and new images for Tom Cruise‘s Jack Reacher, our most anticipated movies from July to September, Savages interviews with Oliver Stone, Blake Lively, etc., and more The Dark Knight Rises coverage than most humans are capable of comprehending. Links and brief recaps for each reside after the break.

Several weeks ago, Sony Pictures invited us to attend the press junket The Amazing Spider-Man.  The reboot takes a grittier, more realistic approach to Peter Parker’s journey to becoming your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, and sees the wall-crawler struggling to come to grips with the mysterious disappearance of his parents.  For more on the film, click here for all of our previous coverage.

During my on-camera interview with Martin Sheen, who plays Uncle Ben, we talked his experience working with Andrew Garfield (Peter Parker/Spider-Man), the blockbuster feel on set, his thoughts on Spawn, and what it was like being on The West Wing during the Aaron Sorkin years and after Sorkin left the show.  Hit the jump to check out the interview, and click on the corresponding links for my interviews with co-stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans and Denis Leary. The Amazing Spider-Man opens in 3D on July 3rd.

Director Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man is primed for a big Fourth of July weekend opening, but that doesn’t stop him from thinking ahead.  In a recent interview, Webb talked about potential sequels for the superhero film, saying that he departed from canon just enough to allow successive iterations to “withstand…[and] anticipate future storylines.”  Who does Webb think would be a good villain for Spidey in the future?  Well, he does stress that Spider-Man already has an impressive rogues gallery, but also suggested an original villain of his own creation.  You can find out who that would be after the jump.

The Amazing Spider-Man, starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Martin Sheen, Sally Field and Denis Leary opens July 3rd.

The Amazing Spider-Man is intended to be a new origin story about a powerless kid who got superpowers and became hero.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t know which origin story to tell, nor does it understand what it means to be “powerless”.  Wrapped up in the notion of being “grittier” and “realistic”, Marc Webb‘s reboot attempts to spin a fresh new vision for the wall-crawler, but it constantly forgets the story its trying to tell by getting tangled up in lazy coincidences and idiotic character motivations.  The film’s problems are further compounded by the woefully miscast Andrew Garfield, who carries the sweet, good-hearted nature of Peter Parker, but none of the powerlessness that makes us root for him.  What works in the film—the visuals, set pieces, the performances, and the score—work wonderfully, but everything else in the movie is far from amazing.

With The Amazing Spider-Man opening next week on July 3rd, you may feel like you’ve seen the entire movie through the recent marketing barrage.  Well, you have seen about twenty-five minutes of it, because someone’s gone through the trouble of editing all the footage together into a mini-film for your viewing pleasure.  Add to it a new clip, TV spot and featurette and you can watch nearly a third of The Amazing Spider-Man without paying a dime.  Check out all of our previous coverage for The Amazing Spider-Man here.

Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man, starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Martin Sheen, Sally Field and Denis Leary, opens in 3D on July 3rd.  Hit the jump to check out the new clip, TV spot, featurette and 25 minutes of footage.

Early reviews are in for the overseas release of The Amazing Spider-Man and so far they are generally positive.  The common theme seems to be broad support for Andrew Garfield’s performance as Peter Parker, lending a nervier version to the highschooler than Tobey Maguire’s character.  Reviewers also praised Emma Stone, Martin Sheen, Sally Field, Denis Leary and, to an extent, Rhys Ifans for their performances, but decried the narrative for being a bit thin and lacking dimension.  Interestingly, The Amazing Spider-Man is coming across as more of a romantic drama with action elements than an action movie with a love interest thrown in; this observation was taken to the extreme with one reviewer calling it, “the superhero film for the Twilight generation.”  Hit the jump for much more from the early reviews.

Andrew Garfield is set to swing into action in Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man when it debuts July 3rd, but how did they make all that web-swinging action come to life?  Sony has released about 25 minutes of B-roll footage that shows the behind-the-scenes workings of the production.  Sure, this clip of Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) being all heroic is nice and it’s fun to watch Spidey swing away from pursuing cops with the greatest of ease, but the impressive “making of” footage really shows off the physical demand that was required.  It’s definitely worth a watch for you web-heads who just can’t get enough.  The B-roll also features Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Sally Field, Martin Sheen, Chris Zylka and some awesome stunt performers.  Hit the jump to check it out.

The Australian trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man has gone online, and it contains a few bits of new footage.  The new footage provides a little more humor (I love the gag with Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) tossing Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) out a window) and little more Curt Connors/Lizard (Rhys Ifans).  The reboot is definitely turning into something where the more I see, the more I like, and I just really hope it all comes together.

Hit the jump to check out the Australian trailer.  The film also stars Denis Leary, Sally Field, and Martin Sheen.  The Amazing Spider-Man opens in 3D on July 3rd.