Teaser Trailer for CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE Starring Dwayne Johnson

While the Kevin Hart/Will Ferrell collaboration this year wasn't all it could have been there is good reason to believe the Kevin Hart/Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson one that comes out next year might be. Teaming up with director Rawson Marshall Thurber (Dodgeball, We're The Millers) this is basically a slam dunk from the time you throw out the two headlining names and pair them with a premise that puts them in an action comedy. I can't imagine this thing not blowing up and being huge, especially if the movie's even halfway decent and with Thurber you're at least always guaranteed that. As for this first teaser, it looks promising and the tagline is golden. It is slightly reminiscent of the Dwayne Johnson/Sean William Scott action/comedy masterpiece that is The Rundown. If we're getting anything close to that pinnacle of a genre exercise this will be all good and as far as I can tell from the trailer there is no reason to not be optimistic. The running joke of Hart always saying no and Johnson taking it with a grain of salt and throwing the comedian into ridiculous action situations is played nicely and the gag at the end of the trailer, while Just Friends-esque, is classic as The Rock is selling the hell out of it. This is also exciting as this is something of an original property banking solely on the idea of stars plus concept and despite the fact it will be facing off against Disney/Pixar's Finding Dory this could prove the perfect alternative programming for the crowds without kids that will be looking for something to see that weekend. Central Intelligence also stars Aaron Paul, Amy Ryan, Danielle Nicollet, Ryan Hansen, Slaine and opens on June 17, 2016.

THE NIGHT BEFORE Review

Sitting down for a Seth Rogen comedy now means one of two things in that 1) we're either going to get a stoner comedy extravaganza with over the top comedic bits or 2) we'll still get those things, but they will be balanced out by some type of life lesson that typically holds real dramatic weight. Which Seth Rogen movie we end up getting usually depends on who he's collaborating with and lucky for us, with The Night Before, Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt have reunited with their 50/50 director Jonathan Levine. 50/50 was one of my favorite films from 2011, but I haven't felt the need to re-visit it as often as I'd initially imagined. While The Night Before isn't as impactful simply by virtue of not dealing with as serious a subject as cancer it is a film I could see myself returning to more often than not, especially during the holiday season, due to the fact it's solid, raunchy fun. While the gist of the film is just that, to be a dirty, filthy, drug-fueled and foul language-filled R-rated Christmas comedy, there is clearly something more at play here and we can sense that from the opening sequence in which Tracy Morgan narrates as if reading a classic Christmas storybook. The film is framed and presented as something of a spoof on the traditional Christmas movie where everything is softly lit as if every viewer is cuddled up next to a fireplace watching and finding solace in the thought that things will never change and traditions will hold up for decades upon decades, but that is the exact theme in which The Night Before hopes to tackle. One has to wonder how long Rogen and his writing partner Evan Goldberg (who is credited as a screenwriter here along with Levine and two other writers) were going to continue to harp on the themes of boys becoming men and growing up even if it's something you don't necessarily want to accept. They have more or less been harping on these ideas for ten years now as here Rogen is playing the opposite of his Knocked Up character and the movie overall is something of a Superbad eight years down the road. The catch is, it works, and it puts a kind of kibosh on the theme as each character either comes to realize these truths or is able to get over the hump of revealing them to the ones they care about most.

First Trailer for Jeff Nichols MIDNIGHT SPECIAL

Jeff Nichols latest, Midnight Special, was easily one of my most anticipated of the year and then, unfortunately, this past summer it was delayed from it's original release of next week until March 2016. Typically, delaying a movie is a bad sign as far as the quality of the final product is concerned, but with Nichols there isn't the slightest hint of doubt in his skill. The move, while mainly fueled by rumors of reasons that additional work was needed after test screenings, was probably for the best financially as well given the film would have been facing off against Mockingjay-Part 2 and Creed (both franchise films) as well as a new Pixar film that would have certainly buried what could potentially be a great family film. In discussing the film before even beginning production Nichols was quoted as saying, "I want to make a 1960's biker film. I want to make a big, PG summer blockbuster family film, kind of like I want to revamp Tremors. I've got an idea for that. That kind of movie." Given that Midnight Special tells the story of a father and son who go on the run after learning the child possesses special powers it seems Nichols might have captured a story that could convey such a tone and with the release date change it takes Nichols idea of being a "big, PG summer blockbuster" one step closer to becoming a reality. Midnight Special stars Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst, Adam Driver, Bill Camp, Scott Haze, Paul Sparks, Sam Shepard, Jaeden Lieberher and opens on March 18, 2015.

Teaser Trailer for NOW YOU SEE ME 2

When Now You See Me opened a little over two years ago no one expected the small-ish Lionsgate heist thriller with a rather credible cast and cool premise to outgross the Will Smith sci-fi flick it was opening against, but Now You See Me then went on to gross over $350 million worldwide on a budget of $75m. Cue the need for a sequel and almost three years to the date after the premiere of the Louis Leterrier-helmed original property we will receive the Jon M. Chu directed sequel. Now, Chu is coming off one of the worst box office performances for a movie ever with Jem and the Holograms and so this will be a perfect opportunity to rectify whatever damage Jem might have done to his career. I haven't seen Jem and the Holograms so I can't speak to the quality of that film, but the reputation it has garnered alone for it's poor box office performance and the fan backlash it received for seemingly straying so far from it's source material (again, I've never seen the 80's cartoon that inspired it) has been nothing short of pure vitriol. Chu has also made several of the Step Up films as well as the G.I. Joe sequel that was, if nothing else, better than it's predecessor speaking to the fact the guy is more than capable. From this initial teaser it looks as if Chu has at least kept Leterrier's kinetic energy intact and has enlisted the likes of Lizzy Caplan and Daniel Radcliffe to fill fill the hole left by Isla Fischer as well as carrying on the ongoing struggle between the Four Horsemen and Michael Caine's Arthur Tressler as Tressler's son, Walter, intends to mix things up. Now You See Me 2 also features the return of Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Dave Franco, Morgan Freeman and opens on June 10, 2016.

First Trailer for THE HUNTSMAN WINTER'S WAR

2012's Snow White and the Huntsman was a fairly modest hit, but didn't even recuperate it's budget stateside as it relied on the international box office to reach it's $400 million worldwide total that has seemingly justified the existence of this prequel/spin-off that will center on the second tier character of the Kristen Stewart starrer. A mouthful, I realize, but it has taken much to get to this would-be sequel to the screen. While I initially found it strange that Universal would take this opportunity to turn a Snow White film into anything but a Snow White franchise (especially given the success Disney is having with their live action fairy tales) the studio has essentially cut Stewart from the mix and added two of the more popular female actors working today. While Charlize Theron will return, making the story that Winter's War tells an obvious prequel or coinciding with the previous films events-type continuation, first time feature director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan (who served as second unit director on Snow White and the Huntsman) has also added Jessica Chastain and Emily Blunt to the mix. Having both starred in action-heavy films in the recent past both Chastain and Blunt are more than capable of hanging with the likes of Chris Hemsworth. Hemsworth, who is nicely shaping his resume outside of his Thor roles, looks as if he will bring more of the same here if not his typical balance of charm and intimidation. I enjoyed the aesthetic of the first film more than anything and if nothing else it seems Nicolas-Troyan has been able to keep that visual style intact. While I'm not necessarily excited for the film, I'm intrigued as to where this could possibly take us. The Huntsman Winter's War also stars Nick Frost, Sam Claflin, Rob Brydon and opens on April 22, 2016.