Warner Bros. has released a batch of new high-resolution images from some upcoming summer films.  Briefly:

• The Hangover Part III – A new image from Todd Phillips’ trilogy-closer teases a familiar scene as Zach Galifianakis, Bradley Cooper, and Ed Helms ride an elevator.  The film opens on May 24th.
• The Great Gatsby – A couple of new images from director Baz Luhrmann’s colorful adaptation highlight Leonardo DiCaprio’s titular character flanked by his new friends.  The film also stars Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire, and Joel Edgerton and opens in 3D on May 10th.
• The Conjuring – Director James Wan’s new horror film debuted a ridiculously creepy teaser trailer earlier last month, and these new images feature Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga’s psychic investigator characters.  The film also stars Lili Taylor and Ron Livingston and opens on July 19th.
• Getaway – A new image from this car-set thriller gives us a canted look at Ethan Hawke and Selena Gomez’s lead characters.  The film opens on August 30th.

Hit the jump to check out the images and synopses.

The nationwide expansion of Harmony Korine‘s Spring Breakers meant that I had the opportunity to catch the film last night at my local theater. We’ll talk a more specifically about our coverage of the film after the jump. For now, I’d like to make a futile attempt at encapsulating my feelings on the pic in the next few sentences. There’s a lot to like about Breakers whether it be the performances (James Franco‘s especially), the music, the slick editing and use of foreshadowing, etc. Nevertheless, for me this isn’t a movie that I “liked” as much as it’s one I respect. It’s beautiful, surreal, challenging, abhorrent, and vapid all at the same time. In other words, it’s art.

I could go on for days about the pic but that’s not why we’re here. In this week’s Top 5 we’ll take a look at our Breakers coverage, some Transformers 4 plot details, Olympus Has Fallen interviews with Gerard Butler and Antoine Fuqua just to name a few, a new trailer and poster for Star Trek Into Darkness, and The Croods interviews with Nicolas Cage and more. As is standard, a brief recap and link to each awaits after the jump.

Now playing in limited release and expanding nationwide this weekend is director Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers.  The movie centers on a group of girls (played by Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, and Rachel Korine) who go to disturbing lengths to keep their spring break going, and their journey becomes even stranger when they encounter unhinged drug dealer, Alien (James Franco).  For more on the film, watch the red band trailer or read Matt’s review.

At the recent Los Angeles press day, I got to speak with Hudgens, Gomez, Benson, and  Korine.  We talked about what it was like making a movie with so many people watching them work, how the majority of the film was improvised, how even though it’s an independent movie, it’s being covered like a 200 million Hollywood blockbuster, and what it was like working with James Franco.  Hit the jump to watch.

From writer/director Harmony Korine, Spring Breakers shows another, even seedier side of the seasonal American ritual known as spring break, which draws hordes of college students to the Florida coast and elsewhere, each year.  When best friends Brit (Ashley Benson), Faith (Selena Gomez), Candy (Vanessa Hudgens) and Cotty (Rachel Korine) decide to go on their own spring break adventure, their lack of funds leads them down a path straight to local rapper/drug pusher/arms dealer Alien (James Franco), who lures them away from the party of a lifetime into the criminal underbelly that they may never escape from.

At the film’s press day, actress Selena Gomez spoke to Collider for this exclusive interview about why this script intrigued her and made her want to sign on, what she learned from the experience that she wishes she could go back and tell herself on the first day of filming, how nervous she was about Harmony Korine’s more improvisational style, how much they rehearsed and talked about scenes ahead of time versus being in the moment, what it was like to work with so many non-actors in the film, seeing the film for the first time at the Venice Film Festival, and how this experience has influenced where she’d like to go next, with her career.  She also talked about whether she’d like to do a big comic book movie, who she plays in Behaving Badly, working with Ethan Hawke on Getaway, and why she wants to share a mutual respect with her fans.  Check out what she had to say after the jump. 

[This is a re-post of my review from the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.  Spring Breakers opens today in limited release.]

Harmony Korine‘s Spring Breakers is a wild, aggressive, mildly disturbing, darkly comic, and surprisingly thoughtful film about hedonism so thick you’ll about to choke on it. For college kids who feel entitled to a good time and never want the party to stop, Spring Breakers takes their debauched desires, and plays them out to a grotesque degree where the characters are tested in how far they’ll go to keep the passion of spring break burning forever (the other burning will require penicillin). Complimented by the glorious stunt casting of James Franco as a goofy drug dealer, Spring Breakers defies simple explanation, and sends the audience spinning as we grasp for some kind of anchor in this sweaty mosh pit of a movie.

A bounty of new material from director Harmony Korine’s upcoming film Spring Breakers has made its way online, with a new red-band trailer, two TV spots, and a featurette awaiting your eager eyeballs.  The movie centers on a group of girls (played by Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, and Rachel Korine) who go to disturbing lengths to keep their spring break going, and their journey becomes even stranger when they encounter unhinged drug dealer, Alien (James Franco).  There’s plenty of new footage to thumb through in these materials, and the featurette provides an interesting look behind the scenes of the film.

Hit the jump to check out the new red-band trailer, TV spots, and featurette.  Spring Breakers opens on March 15th.

A new red-band trailer has been released for Harmony Korine‘s Spring Breakers.  The movie centers on a group of co-eds (played by Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, and Rachel Korine) who go to disturbing lengths to keep their spring break going, and their journey becomes even stranger when they encounter unhinged drug dealer, Alien (James Franco).  The fun thing about these trailers is that they can’t really spoil the film, because so much of what defines Spring Breakers is the tone.  And as strange as these trailers make the movie look, they’re somewhat misleading, because the flick is not constant, poppy intensity as much as it’s something that absolutely overwhelms the audience.  I caught the film at TIFF, and I can’t wait to see what the widespread reaction will be when the film opens next month.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  Spring Breakers opens in New York and L.A. on March 15th, and opens nationwide on March 22nd.

We’ve got some new French posters to share with you today from Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers.  As you can see, the hook of this particular feature is “young attractive women in bikinis.”  Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson and Rachel Korine star as the titular Breakers who encounter the rapper Alien (James Franco) and experience a Spring Break they will never forget.  You can check out Matt’s review of the film here, along with a green and red-band trailer.  Spring Breakers opens stateside on March 22nd.  Hit the jump to see the new posters. 

An international red band trailer for director Harmony Korine’s new film Spring Breakers has made its way online.  The movie centers on a group of girls (played by Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, and Rachel Korine) who go to disturbing lengths to keep their spring break going, and their journey becomes even stranger when they encounter unhinged drug dealer, Alien (James Franco).  Like the first domestic trailer, this clip highlights the film’s overall nuttiness and Franco’s sublime work as Alien (a nugget of Alien wisdom: “Titties and big booties, y’all, that’s what life is about”).  It also happens to involve more cursing and Britney Spears sing-alongs.

Hit the jump to watch the new trailer, and click here to read Matt’s positive review of the film.  Also, if you missed them, click here to check out 24 images from the movie.  Spring Breakers opens on March 22nd. 

The first trailer for Spring Breakers has gone online.  The movie centers on a group of girls (played by Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, and Rachel Korine) who go to disturbing lengths to keep their spring break going, and their journey becomes even stranger when they encounter unhinged drug dealer, Alien (James Franco).  The trailer looks pretty nuts, as we see a barrage of footage in a short amount of time.  The highlight is most definitely Franco’s character, and I can’t wait to see just how far he takes the quirky role in the full film.  In his review, Matt described the film as “wild, agressive, mildly disturbing, darkly comic, and surprisingly thoughtful.”  In short, Spring Breakers clearly looks like a Spring Break movie made by the director of Trash Humpers.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  Directed by Harmony Korine,  Spring Breakers opens March 22nd.

What’s the best course of action should you ever find yourself a boring married person who’s hesitant to cash in “movie favors” due to the fear that your return favor will come in the form of the next four Katherine Heigl movies? Align yourself with like-minded boring married people and schedule yourself a significant-other-free triple feature. This advice comes directly from my own playbook and is the reason why this week’s Top 5 is arriving a little earlier than usual; so that I can make time to check out Gangster Squad, Zero Dark Thirty, and Django Unchained all in one glorious day. While you likely didn’t come here for relationship advice, as an added bonus to an already robust palette of content, I’m confident that you’re getting your time’s worth and then some.

All creative thinking pertaining to movies and how we can watch them while in a relationship aside, this week saw the announcement of the 2013 Oscar nominations, a little Evil Dead remake set visit coverage, Gangster Squad interviews with Ruben Fleischer and more, a healthy portion of posters and images from Harmony Korine‘s Spring Breakers, and developing news regarding Christopher Nolan potentially taking on Interstellar as his next directorial effort. All of the above resides in brief recap and link form after the jump.

Four posters and 24 images have been released for Harmony Korine‘s upcoming film, Spring Breakers.  The movie centers on a group of girls (played by Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, and Rachel Korine) who go to disturbing lengths to keep their spring break going, and their journey becomes even stranger when they encounter unhinged drug dealer, Alien (James Franco).  Spring Breakers was one of the trippiest movies I saw at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, and I found it quite enjoyable.

Hit the jump to check out the posters and the images.  Spring Breakers gets released sometime this year.  [Update: We added one more poster after the jump.]

The first trailer for the disaster thriller Aftershock, co-written by and starring Eli Roth, has been released online.  The film takes place in the wake of a deadly earthquake, but as this trailer shows, it quickly turns into a bloody horror film in true Eli Roth fashion.  It looks like a mix between Final Destination and Hostel, and I’m not sure if there’s simply one deranged killer on the loose or many, but the pic does indeed look to be quite gory.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer, and click here to watch Steve’s interview with Roth and co-writer/director Nicolas Lopez.  The film also stars Andrea Osvart, Ariel Levy, and Selena Gomez.

Warner Bros. has released a number of new high-resolution images from some of their upcoming 2013 titles.  Briefly:

• Bullet to the Head – Written and directed by action veteran Walter Hill, the film stars Sylvester Stallone, Sung Kang, and Jason Momoa.  The film opens on February 1, 2013.
• 42 – Directed by Brian Helgeland, the Jackie Robinson biopic stars Chadwick Boseman, Harrison Ford, and Jon Bernthal.  The film opens on April 12, 2013.
• The Great Gatsby – Directed by Baz Luhrmann, this 3D adaptation stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, and Carey Mulligan.  The film opens May 10, 2013.
• We’re the Millers – Directed by Rawson Thurber (Dodgeball), this pot comedy stars Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis, and Emma Roberts.  The film opens on August 9, 2013.
• Getaway – Directed by Courtney Solomon and Yaron Levy, this thriller set within the confines of a car stars Ethan Hawke, Selena Gomez, and Jon Voight.  The film opens on August 30, 2013.

Hit the jump to check out the images and synopses.

If you haven’t seen director Genndy Tartakovsky’s Hotel Transylvania (or were considering seeing it again), then perhaps a new animated short will give you the incentive to do so.  Airing in front of the 3D animated feature will be Goodnight, Mr. Foot, a 2D short directed and animated by Tartakovsky himself.  The short will screen exclusively in Regal Entertainment Group cinemas starting tonight, just in time for Halloween.

Hotel Transylvania features the voices of Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, David Spade and Fran Drescher.  Hit the jump to see the full press release and new images from the 2D animated short, Goodnight, Mr. Foot.