Sony Pictures has released the first trailer for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.  The plot revolves around Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) and Sam Sparks (Anna Faris) returning to Swallow Falls to clean up the mess created by the FLDSMDFR, only to find that food is now taking on the form of mutant beasts.  I laughed a lot during this trailer, but keep in mind that I love puns, so I crack up when the beasts are called “Mosquitoast” and “Shrimpanzees”.  The trailer also shows off the strange, offbeat humor that made the first film such a delight.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also features the voices of Andy Samberg, Benjamin Bratt, Terry Crews, and Neil Patrick Harris.  Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 opens in 3D on September 27th.

The producers of the wildly popular CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother finally have an answer as to the fate of their series.  Creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas began writing the current eighth season as if it would be the show’s last, and they’ve been patiently waiting for the network to come down with an answer regarding whether or not they needed to plan for one more season, or wrap things up in May.  Dealing was complicated as contracts for both Bays and Thomas as well as the entire cast were up at the end of this year, but CBS made no secret of the fact that they would be keen on ordering another full season for the ratings-smash show if all the deals could be renegotiated.

Now it looks like the long-awaited answer to the statement posed in the title won’t come until 2014, as How I Met Your Mother has been renewed for a ninth and final season.  Hit the jump for more details.

The first trailer has been made available for The Smurfs 2. This time around, it looks as if Gargamel (Hank Azaria) is making his own version of Smurfs called “Naughties” in the hopes of bottling the powerful “Smurf-essence.” Poor Smurfette (voiced by Katy Perry) gets caught up in the plan and runs the risk of turning into one of the Naughties herself, unless the other Smurfs can rescue her.

The Smurfs director Raja Gosnell returns to direct the sequel, starring Neil Patrick Harris and Jayma Mays, and featuring the voices of Sofia Vergara, Jonathan Winters, Alan Cumming, Fred Armisen, George Lopez, Anton Yelchin and John Oliver. The Smurfs 2 will debut in theaters on July 31, 2013. Hit the jump to check out the first trailer.

It’s hard to blame the movies themselves for the less-than-ultimate “ultimate collection” containing them. That goes double for Harold & Kumar , the Cheech and Chong of the 21^st century, whose amiable stoner antics don’t invite the sort of double-dipping this set was meant for. The movies are fine… only the packaging leaves something to be desired. Hit the jump for my full review of the Blu-ray featuring Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, and A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas.

Audiences who liked The Smurfs know what they’re getting in The Smurfs 2 (and again in The Smurfs 3), so this new teaser trailer doesn’t try too hard to win over new viewers. It’s just a cutesy reminder that the little blue critters still exist and that they’ll have a movie coming out next summer.

The Smurfs director Raja Gosnell returns to direct the sequel, starring Neil Patrick Harris, Hank Azaria and Jayma Mays, and featuring the voices of Sofia Vergara, Jonathan Winters, Alan Cumming, Fred Armisen, George Lopez, Anton Yelchin and John Oliver. The Smurfs 2 will debut in theaters on July 31, 2013. Hit the jump to check out the teaser trailer.

Fans of Robot Chicken and DC Comics will want to skip right to the jump to watch the new trailer from Robot Chicken DC Comics Special.  We brought you the news of this special earlier this year and this new trailer proves it’s been worth the wait.

The special will feature the voices of Seth Green as Batman, Robin and Aquaman, Paul Reubens as The Riddler, Neil Patrick Harris as Two-Face, Alfred Molina as Lex Luthor, Nathan Fillion as the Green Lantern, Megan Fox as Lois Lane, and Breckin Meyer as Superman, along with a few heroes and villains you may have forgotten over the years.  Hit the jump to watch the hilarious trailer!

The popular internet hit Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, created by Joss Whedon in 2008, has been available online and through streaming since its inception, but to continue preaching its gospel to the masses, The CW will be broadcasting it in full October 9th starting at 9PM.  The three-part musical stars Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother) as the title character, Nathan Fillion (Castle) as his nemesis Captain Hammer, and Felicia Day (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) as their shared love interest.

Though Whedon had hoped to shop his project around to a bigger venue at the time in order to pay the cast and crew (who worked on it for free), subsequent DVD sales have reportedly paid those bills.  Still, the popularity of Dr. Horrible continues both in book form (with essays from the main actors, the shooting script, sheet music, etc) as well as in college and cult theaters, so while this broadcast may feel behind the times, it shouldn’t.  Dr. Horrible is certainly a classic.  For details on the CW broadcast, hit the jump.

Seth Green and his crew behind Robot Chicken have already skewered the Star Wars universe several times over with entire specials dedicated to mocking George Lucas and the classic sci-fi saga. Now the stop-motion animated comedy series has their sights set on DC Comics as Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim will present a Robot Chicken special featuring Seth Green as Batman, Robin and Aquaman, Paul Reubens as The Riddler, Neil Patrick Harris as Two-Face, Alfred Molina as Lex Luthor, Nathan Fillion as the Green Lantern, Megan Fox as Lois Lane, and Breckin Meyer as Superman. More after the jump!

It’s easy to call A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas the best of the ramshackle series. The franchise has been defined by stoner humor and gross out gags that work as often as they don’t, but here the filmmakers –energized by the absurdity of making the film in three dimensions – have their best hit to miss ratio yet. John Cho and Kal Penn returns as the titular heroes who are no longer best friends but must save Christmas by getting a perfect tree for Harold (Cho) and his wife’s family (headed up by Danny Trejo). If it were easy, there’d be no movie. Our review of A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas on Blu-ray follows after the jump.

The latest installment in the Harold & Kumar franchise, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas just opened in theaters to an enthusiastically warm reception from audiences and critics alike. Just as the film was about to open, news broke of a possible animated series iteration of the characters. If you’re familiar with the franchise, it’s not hard to imagine a pretty great animated iteration of the White Castle-loving friends. Steve recently got the chance to sit down with Hayden Schlossberg and Jon Hurwitz, the writers of all three films in the Harold & Kumar series.

The two are behind the animated series version of everyone’s favorite multi-cultural duo, and talked pretty extensively about their plans for the series. They speak about what led them to the idea of an animated series, if the series would impact the feature film franchise, reveal that they’ve met with Comedy Central regarding the show, and talk about the involvement of Neil Patrick Harris in the half-hour animated series (John Cho and Kal Penn are already attached to voice their characters). Hit the jump for the full interview.

Happy Saturday, folks. I’m writing to you this week surrounded by a mountain of used facial tissue (that’s right, I’m not endorsing Kleenex on the site without some sort of kick back…wait, dang it). Cold season has officially set in which means I’m on a daily regimen of Dayquil (which I have no problem endorsing), warm tea, and self-pity. In case you’re a longtime reader of the “Top 5″ and you’re wondering to yourself, “Wasn’t Jason just complaining about the summer heat?”, the answer is yes. Out of the 52 yearly weeks, I’m generally not complaining about the weather for approximately 2 or 3 of them. It’s sad, I know.

In this week’s “Top 5″ you can find our video interviews with the cast of A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, press conferences with Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and more from The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 junket, the red band trailer for Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum’s  21 Jump Street, a sit-down with the great Albert Brooks, and our coverage to date of this year’s American Film Market. Find a brief recap and link to each after the jump.

The Harold & Kumar franchise is a cult hit at its best.  The Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle was a modest hit in theaters but it found a rich life as a word-of-mouth DVD hit.  Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay was an earned sequel, and while it wasn’t quite as good as the first, it was still enjoyable.  But there’s always a danger when good movies go Christmas.  Christmas has been done to death, it has rules, and it’s meticulously designed to engender warm feelings based on jingles and iconography.  A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas embraces not only Christmas movies but brilliantly combines it with the gimmick of 3D, and the result is a painfully funny R-rated X-mas flick that will be worth watching every holiday season.

With director Todd-Strauss-Schulson’s A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas opening this weekend, I recently got to speak with the cast. Each day this week we’ll have a new interview up, kicking things off yesterday with Thomas Lennon and continuing today with NPH (Neil Patrick Harris).  For fans of the Harold & Kumar franchise, you may remember that Harris was shot and killed in the last film.  Don’t worry.  Everything is explained in the 3rd chapter and you’ll understand why he’s still alive and girl crazy.

During the interview, Harris talked about if there was anything that he couldn’t believe made it into the release, if he ever thinks the dialogue is a bit too much, what pranks he’s been involved with on-set, and he reveals his favorite karaoke song.  In addition, Harris touches on how the first Harold & Kumar was his ticket back into pop culture and thinks during his next How I Met Your Mother hiatus they could make the Smurfs sequel.  Hit the jump to watch.

Warner Bros. has released a new red band trailer for A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas.  The sequel takes place six years after Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay—the duo has grown apart, but when Kumar decides to bring a mysterious package to Harold’s house, Kumar inadverdently burns down Harold’s father’s prized Christmas tree.  In place of White Castle, the stoner quest at the center of Christmas is to replace the tree.

John Cho and Kal Penn return as the title characters, joined by Neil Patrick Harris, Patton Oswalt, Thomas Lennon, Danny Trejo, Eddie Kaye Thomas, David Krumholtz, and Elias Koteas.  A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas opens in 3D on November 4th.  If you’re over 17, watch the red band trailer after the jump.

Part of me feels like I’m one of the few people looking forward to another Harold & Kumar movie, but I don’t care.  The Harold & Kumar movies are delightfully madcap, feature a nice mix of gross-out humor and absurdity, and it looks like they’ve gone all out with A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas.  Director Todd Strauss-Schulson seems to have acknowledged that 3D is a mostly-gimmicky technology and used it to augment the shenanigans of his lead characters.

New Line has released twenty-five new images along with four new set photos and I continue to remain jazzed to see the movie.  Hit the jump to check out the images.  A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas opens November 4th.