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.

[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.

Director Robert Rodriguez’s sequel Machete Kills now has a release date, as the continued adventures of the titular Machete will commence on September 13th of this year.  The pic is the second in a planned trilogy (the third film supposedly takes place in space) and centers on Machete’s (Danny Trejo) quest to stop an eccentric billionaire arms dealer who has plans to spread war and anarchy across the planet.  On the September release date, the pic will open opposite the dancing film Battle of the Year and the Aaron Eckhart-led action horror adaptation I, Frankenstein.

Hit the jump to read the full press release.  The colorful cast includes Michelle Rodriguez, Sofia Vergara, Amber Heard, Charlie Sheen, Lady Gaga, Antonio Banderas, Jessica Alba, Demian Bichir, Alex Vega, Vanessa Hudgens, Cuba Gooding Jr., William Sadler, Marko Zaror, and of course Mel Gibson.

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.]

A double-barrel of good news on the Machete Kills front, as the Robert Rodriguez-directed and Danny Trejo-starring sequel has been picked up for North American distribution in 2013 by Open Road Films and has released its first official image!  The second installment in a planned trilogy features Trejo as the former Mexican federale out to stop a madman and a billionaire arms dealer from unleashing war across the globe.

The crazy cast which crowds Trejo out of his screen time features Michelle Rodriguez, Sofia Vergara, Amber Heard, Charlie Sheen, Lady Gaga, Antonio Banderas, Jessica Alba, Demian Bichir, Alexa Vega, Vanessa Hudgens, Cuba Gooding, Jr., William Sadler, Marko Zaror and Mel Gibson.  Hit the jump to check out the first image of Machete Kills.  Mr. Machete, what are you doing to Miss San Antonio?

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 rough trailer for Frozen Ground has leaked online.  The crime thriller stars Nicolas Cage as an Alaskan detective who sets out to end the murderous rampage of Robert Hansen (John Cusack), a serial killer who has gone unnoticed for 13 years after one of his victims (Vanessa Hudgens) escapes.  It looks like another low-budget Cage thriller, and in this one he’ll get to have a glower-off with Cusack while Hudgens tries to make everyone forget that she was in the High School Musical movies.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Dean Norris and 50 Cent.   Frozen Ground is currently set to hit theaters on November 30th.

Earlier today, TIFF announced that they were adding new films to their already stellar Galas and Special Presentations line-up.  Among the new additions are:

• Passion (directed by Brian De Palma) Starring Rachel McAdams, Noomi Rapace, Karoline Herfurth, and Paul Anderson.
• Love Is All You Need (directed by Susanne Bier) Starring Pierce Brosnan, Trine Dyrholm, and Paprika Steen.
• Spring Breakers (directed by Harmony Korine) Starring Selena Gomez, James Franco, Vanessa Hudgens, and Heather Morris.
• Yellow (directed by Nick Cassavettes) Starring Sienna Miller, Gena Rowlands, Ray Liotta, David Morse, Lucy Punch, Max Theoriot, Riley Keough, Daveigh Chase, Heather Wahlquist, and Melanie Griffith.

Hit the jump to check out the images and synopses.  The 2012 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 6 – 16th.