Drew Barrymore and Justin Long have great chemistry and the script offers plenty of situations in need of their veteran comedic charms. It also helps that the supporting cast is game, especially Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis and his time machine mustache, who offers some of the funniest moments in the film. Every time the film nearly goes completely into romantic-comedy conventions, it pops a bit of reality in, which gives the film a little heart, where most of these films feel fake. Honesty goes  along way in films like this, and we really don’t get that much. Going the Distance has the vague sense of familiarity, with the happy ending – hey, I’m not spoiling the ending, because you know it by the end of the opening credits – the wacky friends, the caring sister, but in the acts of trying and failing – a key to a successful LDR and the film, that lead to the film getting points for the effort. The film never gets too deep, but it never promised it was going too, as it just tackles the trying broadly. But it is one of the more funnier rom-com films recently.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Erin’s (Drew Barrymore) wry wit and unfiltered frankness charm newly single Garrett (Justin Long) over beer, bar trivia and breakfast the next morning. Their chemistry sparks a full-fledged summer fling, but neither expects it to last once Erin heads home to San Francisco and Garrett stays behind for his job in New York City. But when six weeks of romping through the city inadvertently become meaningful, neither is sure they want it to end. And while Garrett’s friends, Box (Jason Sudeikis) and Dan (Charlie Day), joke about his pre-flight calorie-cutting and his full-time relationship with his cell phone, they don’t like losing their best drinking buddy to yet another rocky romance. At the same time, Erin’s high-strung, overprotective married sister, Corrine (Christina Applegate), wants to keep Erin from heading down an all-too-familiar road. But despite the opposite coasts, the nay-saying friends and family, and a few unexpected temptations, the couple just might have found something like love, and with the help of a lot of texting, sexting and late-night phone calls, they might actually go the distance.

Going the Distance flutters into theaters everywhere on August 27th from Warner Bros Pictures. Check out the trailer and a couple of new images (via Collider) below.:

After a horrific car accident, Anna (Ricci) wakes up to find the local funeral director Eliot Deacon (Neeson) preparing her body for her funeral. Confused, terrified and feeling still very much alive, Anna doesn’t believe she’s dead, despite the funeral director’s reassurances that she is merely in transition to the afterlife. Eliot convinces her he has the ability to communicate with the dead and is the only one who can help her. Trapped inside the funeral home, with nobody to turn to except Eliot, Anna is forced to face her deepest fears and accept her own death. But Anna’s grief-stricken boyfriend Paul (Long) still can’t shake the nagging suspicion that Eliot isn’t what he appears to be. As the funeral nears, Paul gets closer to unlocking the disturbing truth, but it could be too late; Anna may have already begun to cross over the other side.

After.Life comes out in theaters on April 9th from Anchor Bay Films. Watch the new clip below.:

Sometimes it’s alright to just enjoy a flick for what it is. Even when the flick is an average animated flick that doesn’t bring anything new to the table. Planet 51, the new flick penned by Shrek writer Joe Stillman is a pretty standard issue family flick that offers up standard issues laughs.

The story centers around Lem (Justin Long) a shy little green man that lives on Planet 51 and is doing his best to get his life together. He just landed a new job, is working on landing the girl of his dreams, and is doing his best to move past his adolescent interests. In the midst of his good fortune an alien lands in his back yard. Actually, the alien is human astronaut, Captain Charles “Chuck” Baker (Dwayne Johnson). The citizens of Planet 51 are terrified by the visitor that they believe will turn them into zombies with just a passing glance. So it quickly becomes evident after the the planet’s military, led by General Grawl (Gary Oldman) decides to capture the hostile human, that Lem must help his new friend get home.

There were lots of pop culture references in the flick that were obviously aimed at the older audience members, but that didn’t stop the children in the crowd from enjoying the it. The light tone set by the inhabitants of Planet 51 reminded me of the old black and white science fiction movies of the ’50s, and the abundance of fart and body fluid jokes kept my kids laughing.

Some of the characters were extremely similar to characters we’ve seen on the animated screen lately (Wall-E), and the pop culture references (Star Wars, Grease) seemed to be complete misfires for the younger audience members. The animation itself was pretty solid, but nothing that we haven’t seen before. The muted green colors seemed to blur the beautifully rendered landscapes together, making the impact of the animation appear weaker than it should have been.

The filmmakers tried hard to create a fun movie and for the most part they accomplished their goal. Sure, the flick could have been a little more original, it could have relied less on cheap jokes, but it also could have sucked and it didn’t. Planet 51 is an enjoyable animated flick that the whole family can enjoy together. It isn’t the best movie I’ve seen this year, hell it most definitely isn’t the best animated movie I’ve seen this year, but it kept my children smiling for its entire runtime and in my world that makes it a killer film.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Now here’s the huge slew of pictures for you to gaze at:

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel

The Betty Thomas directed live action and CGI animated feature stars Jason Lee and the voice talents of Justin Long and Anna Faris among others. One thing is for certain, this kid friendly sequel has a fair chance of being seen since it is released after the possibly epic sized James Cameron film Avatar rolls into theaters.

Universal Home Video has sent over details and artwork for director Sam Raimi’s Drag Me To Hell, which will be available to own on both DVD and Blu-ray on the 13th of October and retail for $29.98 (DVD) and $39.98 (Blu-ray) respectively. The DVD will feature English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround audio tracks with English, French, and Spanish subtitles, while the Blu-ray will feature English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, French DTS 5.1 Surround, and Spanish DTS 5.1 Surround audio tracks with English, French, and Spanish subtitles. Extras on each will include both unrated director’s cut and theatrical versions of the film and production video diaries. The Blu-ray will also include D-Box enhancement, BD-Live connectivity, and a digital copy of the unrated director’s cut on a second disc.

Source: dvdactive

Piranha 3-D-Alexandre Aja of The Hills Have Eyes remake fame is currently in preproduction remaking this horror film scheduled for a late 2010 release.

 Alice in Wonderland- Tim Burtons remake of the classic Disney cartoon is getting a 2010 release with Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter starring.

Toy Story 1 and 2 are being given a re-release in theatres and being converted to 3-D, with both looking for a 2010 release to build hype for the upcoming Toy Story 3 sequel.

Avatar- James Cameron’s anticipated first film since his Oscar winning Titanic back in 1997, is slowly creeping closer and closer to its release date of December 18th of this year.

G-Force- Jerry Bruckheimer’s upcoming children’s film featuring talking Guinea Pigs (don’t worry you read that right) is getting the 3-D treatment, and featuring the voices of Penelope Cruz and Nicolas Cage.

UP- Pixar‘s latest film featuring the voice and startling similarity to Ed Asner is coming to theatres this summer.  UP, marks Pixar‘s first foray into the 3-D arena. 

Battle for Tera- This animated film featuring the voices of Evan Rachel Wood, David Cross, and Justin Long is beginning it’s run on May 1st of this year.

Monsters Vs. Aliens-Dreamworks Co-Owner Jeffrey Katzenberg, has been touting 3-D technology for quite some time now so let’s see if his first foray into 3-D films is worth the trip when Seth Rogen and Reese Witherspoon lend their voice talents this March 27th.

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs- The third and final (?) entry into the animated tale of scrat and the rest of the pre historic creatures make their debut this September 28th 2009.

A Christmas Carol-Robert Zemeckis makes his anticipated return this christmas in yet another 3-D animated tale this time starring Jim Carrey taking 4 roles including the role Ebenezer Scrooge.

Planet 51- The Rock stars with the beautiful Jessica Biel in this upcoming animated film which has the stars lending their voices to tell the tale of an alien planet living in fear of an alien invasion. The invasion starts November 20th 2009.

Rango-Gore Verbinski recently announced this animated tale as an upcoming project featuring the voice of Johnny Depp which will be filmed in 3-D.  No release date has been announced.

Final Destination Death Trip 3d- The fourth installment in the popular horror franchise  will bring viewers to 3d carnage during a Nascar type race on August 14th 2009.  Thanks to killerfilm reader SagiMewtwo  for the heads up.

Films rumoured for a 3-D treatment:

The Lord of the rings have often been touted as being re released in 3-D, along with King Kong as Peter Jackson was said to have been using the technology at the time. 

Battle Angel- James Cameron has been stating that he would be making films in 3-D and that he would love to tackle this film as his next project. Of course he said this before Avatar so who knows when he will work again.

Re-Animator-I struggled to put this one in rumoured, as day by day it seems closer to fruition.  Brian Yuzna who is the films producer, and may direct this film, has stated himself he would like to make the film in 3-D but no approval or confirmation as of yet.

The Avengers-Way too early to tell if this will come.

Crank 3- With the sequel still not released, this is very premature but there have been rumblings.

Thanks to killerfilm reader Will for pointing out that there is also rumours of Star Wars being given the 3D treatment as wel,l cuz as we all know 2 dimensions just isn’t enough. Totally forgot about this one.

Drag me to Hell is Raimi first horror film since 200′s The Gift, but is more well known for his iconic Evil Dead series which concluded back in 1992.  Drag me to Hell stars Alison Lohman and Justin Long and will open theatrically may 29, 2009.

The film had an early screening last month L.A and already had wonderful reviews some which said it was one the better horror films in years.

Source: THR

The films will be Lionsgate’s first animated foray into the 3D realm, because obviously 2D just isn’t enough.

Check out the trailer for The Battle for Terra HERE!!!

Source: Moviefone

I’m not a huge fan of romantic comedies.  Unless of course they were made by Kevin Smith or Judd Apatow.  Unfortunately for He’s Just Not That Into You  neither of those directors made this movie.  I was sort of stoked about checking this one out with my wife and a bucket of popcorn, but after a few minutes into it, I just wasn’t that into it.  

I’m not going to go into the complete story behind He’s Just Not That Into You because there are to many stories for me to try and keep track of.  In fact I think that the movie suffered because of all the subplots and characters.  There were a few interesting story-lines populating this overcrowded movie, but none of them were strong enough to keep this sinking ship afloat.  First of all, I was confused by the fact that these unbelievably hot women had problems with men.   How does that work?  What moron would cheat on Jennifer Connelly?  Even if her character is a little cold in the flick, she’s still Jennifer Connelly.  

Basically throughout the whole flick people talk about their relationship problems, talk about their relationship problems, and talk about their relationship problems.  The one thing that kept me in the theatre, despite how irritating her character is, was Ginnifer Goodwin, she was cute and sexy.  There’s something about her that I find extremely attractive, but she tested my limits with the aggravating character she played.  Jennifer Connelly was also attractive, but her character was really boring.  And besides all the hotties in the flick we also get Ben Affleck who surprisingly plays the only character in the movie that’s not irritating.  

On a positive note, the cinematography was beautiful.  Every shot looks fantastic, and the scenes with large groups of people in them were handled with class.  I’m willing to bet that most women that see this flick are going to really love it, but as for me, I just wasn’t that into it.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars