Anyway, the movie has a typically Woody Allen cast full of standouts, including Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard,  Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody, and a cameo appearance the wife of the President of France, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. I hope she speaks English and knows how to pronounce “Dostoevsky,” otherwise she’s doomed to fail in a Woody Allen movie. (via Deadline)

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

For those not hip to the concept here, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was originally a novel with a revisionist take on Lincoln‘s presidency, and by “revisionist” I mean the author asked, “Hey! Wouldn’t it be cool if Lincoln killed vampires?” Author and screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith has a pedigree in this type of mash-up, also having penned the sleeper best-seller Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. The man has a style, that’s for sure.

It goes without saying that AL:VH will be brought shot and shown in magnificent 3-D, which we can hope will be a more immersive experience than Burton’s last outing, Alice in Wonderland.

The casting decision is, of course, a big one, but let’s not give too much weight to the actor playing Lincoln. When you’ve got Abe Lincoln throwing axes at Dracula, you’ve clearly waved goodbye to realism a long time ago.

^{Eyes up, Brody!}

Adrien Brody has signed on for cuckoo bird director Tony Kaye‘s Detached. Brody will star as a substitute teacher who becomes attached to a teenage prostitute while working at a troubled school. He later gets in trouble when he shows a gay film in class in an attempt to teach tolerance. I’m going out on a limb here and guessing it was Victor Salva’s Clownhouse.

Christina Hendricks also stars as a teacher and potential love interest who encourages Brody’s sub to go full-time. Brody has proven talented in a number of complex roles but this may be his greatest challenge yet. Can you imagine trying not to look at Christina Hendricks‘s boobs all day, every day? That’s a test of endurance even David Blaine wouldn’t be able to pass. (The Playlist)

It’s 4/20, so of course a trailer centering around the sweet sticky-icky has dropped. Stoner comedy HIGH School follows a valedictorian who, out of fear of losing his college scholarship, begrudgingly teams up with a charismatic pothead to do the only thing they can think of to neutralize the threat—get the entire student body stoned. 

If you can’t tell by the above screen shot, Adrien Brody plays the drug dealer with a penchant for stink eyes, and Matt Bush, the kid from those "don’t throw your f*ckin’ minutes away!" AT&T commercials, plays Henry Burke, the student. Michael Chiklis dons a full head of whispy hair as the smarmy principal who institutes a zero-tolerance policy at the school and wants Henry’s head on a pike.

Those crazy kids at this past Sundance loved the film, but I heard that crowd only smokes kind buds, so your experience may differ depending on your allowance.

Check out the… Oh man. **Giggles uncontrollably** I know I put something after the jump.

HIGH School Teaser Trailer – Watch more Funny Videos

(Twitch)

Cast: Adrien Brody, Matt Bush, Michael Chiklis, Colin Hanks

Synopsis: With his college scholarship hanging in the balance, Burke begrudgingly teams up with charismatic pothead Travis Breaux to do the only thing they can think of to neutralize this threat—get the entire student body stoned.

Here we have a second featurette for Predators focusing more on interview footage with director Nimrod Antal and producer Andy Capp. The video doesn’t show much footage beyond what we’ve seen in the trailer and previous featurette, but it does show what the film would look like with German subtitles. So there’s that.

Rodriguez and Antal come off as genuine fans of the franchise while talking a bit about the importance of creating characters and not overdoing the CGI. That should set those let down by AvP at ease. For those who weren’t let down by AvP, there also promises to be a sword fight between a samurai and a Predator. Oscar-caliber performers and gimmicky fight scenes. Something for everyone.

Check out the featurette after the jump.

^{She’ll grow out of it.}

There’s finally a trailer for Vincenzo Natali’s eery sci-fi/horror Splice, that movie with Adrien Brody and the hot, bald chick with the mouth in her scalp (still kinda hot though). The movie impressed at Sundance and will see wide release on June 4th as a result.

The film warns against the dangers of queefing in the face of God and law by creating your own monstrous human-animal hybrid. So seriously, guys. Don’t do that kind of thing. Did Species teach you nothing?

Check out the trailer after the jump.

I loved Rian Johnson’s first film, Brick* – the neo-hard boiled detective story set amongs high school social circles.  It was the one with a bespectacled Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the anachronistic dialogue and the fantastic score by Johnson’s brother.  I saw it three times in the theaters.  Even bought it on DVD.  But as I sat down for my screening of Rian Johnson’s followup, Th Brothers Bloom, a wave of doubt washed over me.  No way he can do it again, I thought.  Besides, the trailers made it seem like a hodgepodge of styles culled from Johnson’s contemporaries.  It was Hudson Hawk through the off-kilter lens of Wes Anderson.  Not necessarily a bad thing (I’m one of the few with fond memories of Hawk), but it wasn’t promising to be a revelation like Brick…

Well, turns out The Brothers Bloom wasn’t Brick.  It was totally different, but in a nonetheless welcome way.  Rian Johnson’s sophomore effort unabashedly demonstrates the filmmaker’s respect and passion for the magic of storytelling, which is ultimately what the movie is about.  It’s joyous, masterful, cinematic sleight-of-hand, and worth viewing multiple times just to try and see the artifice behind the trick. 

Essentially, it’s the story of two brothers, Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) and Bloom (Adrian Brody), who’ve been successful con artists since childhood, always two steps ahead of everyone else.  (The opening sequence, narrated by P.T. Anderson and David Mamet mainstay Ricky Jay, features the young brothers, one of whom is played by Max Records, who stars in the upcoming Where the Wild Things Are.)  They’ve always worked the same way, with Stephen creating the cons – essentially telling the stories – and Bloom befriending the mark – essentially playing the lead part in the Brothers’ plays, which wind up costing their audience members a pretty penny, usually a savings account. 

Flash forward to, presumably, present day – the film smartly lacks certain trappings that obviously assign it a time period, like cell phones – and the Brothers have added another to their ranks – the virtually dialogue-less Bang Bang, a demolitions expert played with impeccable comic timing by Babel’s mute Japanese girl, the oh-so-hip Rinko Kikuchi.  But a malaise has set upon the the younger romantic Bloom, who’s ready to leave the conniving life. Stephen convinces him to go after one last mark, however, the eccentric heiress Penelope (Rachel Weisz), who lives all by her lonesome, collects hobbies, and has a penchant for crashing Lamborghinis.  I should mention here that if you’re a Rachel Weisz fan, just stop reading the review and go see the movie.  It’s one of her best performances, and… well… Darren Aronofsky is one lucky dude.

Without giving too much away, Stephen’s scheme to rob Penelope blind involves Bloom getting close to her, and he of course gets way too close.  But perhaps older brother Stephen expected this very thing to happen… What follows is a fast-paced, lighthearted second act in which the plot thickens, as the Brothers – who’ve now "recruited" Penelope into their cadre of gentlemen thieves under false pretenses – travel across Europe and attempt to steal away with a rare book that’s ultimately just bait.  They also have a run-in with a shady man from their past, Diamond Dog (Maximilian Schell), whom the Brothers refer to as their "Fagan."  (For all you young’uns out there, that’s a reference to the bad dude from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.  Rent the movie.)  His couple of scenes on-screen belie his great importance in the film’s climax. 

At face value, The Brothers Bloom is a flat-out fun flick about funny con artists.  But all the little Easter Eggs to be found throughout make it much more.  And the ending – a testament to the love and selflessness among brothers – was surprisingly emotionally satisfying.

Admittedly, that’s something not even the great Hudson Hawk provided. 

The Brothers Bloom opens today in New York & Los Angeles, then starts a limited run in other cities on May 22nd. 

* For all you Brick lovers watching Brothers Bloom, look for a dialogue-less cameo by Joseph Gordon-Levitt; and a slightly less microscopic part for Nora Zehetner, who played femme fatale Laura in Brick. 

P.S. Check out this piece Rian Johnson wrote on Con Man films for the Huffington Post