Opening in theaters on March 22nd comedy/crime drama from writer and director Harmony Korine (Gummo) called Spring Breakers. The film stars an eclectic of actors including Selena Gomez (Hotel Transylvania), Vanessa Hudgens (Sucker Punch), Ashley Benson (TV's Pretty Little Liars), Rachel Korine (Trash Humpers), and Academy Award-nominee James Franco (Oz the Great and Powerful). 

IAR's Managing Editor Jami Philbrick recently had a chance to sit down with writer and director Harmony Korine to talk about his controversial work on Spring Breakers. The acclaimed filmmaker discussed his new movie, attempting to make a commercial film, the controlled chaos on set, working with real college kids on spring break, casting Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens against type, and collaborating with James Franco to create his unusual character. 

Opening in theaters on March 22nd comedy/crime drama from writer and director Harmony Korine (Gummo) called Spring Breakers. The film stars an eclectic of actors including Selena Gomez (Hotel Transylvania), Vanessa Hudgens (Sucker Punch), Ashley Benson (TV's Pretty Little Liars), Rachel Korine (Trash Humpers), and Academy Award-nominee James Franco (Oz the Great and Powerful). 

IAR's Managing Editor Jami Philbrick recently had a chance to sit down with Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, and Rachel Korine to talk about their controversial work on Spring Breakers. The young actresses discussed their new film, why Selena Gomez is so tired, the controlled chaos on set, acting with real college kids on spring break, the craziest thing they saw happen while they were shooting, why Gomez wanted to be a part of this project and play against type, if Vanessa Hudgens expected it would cause such a controversy when she agreed to do the movie, what it's like for Rachel Korine to work with her husband director Harmony Korine, if James Franco is really crazy, why he stayed in character throughout production even when they weren't shooting, and the fact that the actresses don't feel like they ever met the real James Franco.

Synopsis: A serendipitous encounter with rapper “Alien” promises to provide the girls with all the thrill and excitement they could hope for. With the encouragement of their new friend, it soon becomes unclear how far the girls are willing to go to experience a spring break they will never forget.

Character actor Luis Guzman is probably best known for his collaborations with director Steven Soderberg on Out of Sight, Traffic, and The Limey, as well as his work with director Paul Thomas Anderson on Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Punch-Drunk Love, but the iconic actor has also appeared in such popular films as Carlito’s Way, Yes Man, Arthur, and The Taking of Pelham 123. The talented Puerto Rican born actor, who now resides in Vermont, was most recently seen starring on the HBO series How to Make it in America but now returns to the big screen with his latest film Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, which opens in theaters on February 10^th in 3D.

The film serves as a sequel to ‘2008s Journey to the Center of the Earth but only features actor Josh Hutcherson (The Kids Are All Right) from the original film reprising his role as Sean Anderson. The new cast includes the addition of Dwayne Johnson (Fast Five) as Sean’s new stepfather Hank Parsons. When Sean finds a clue that was sent to him by his long lost grandfather (Michael Caine) explaining that the islands in the novels Treasure Island, Gulliver’s Travels, and Mysterious Island are all the same body of land, Sean begins to believe that the island really exists and that his Grandfather is stranded there. Wanting to prove to Sean that it doesn’t exist, and grow closer to his stepson, Hank agrees to travel with Sean to Palau to find the lost island and save his grandfather. Along with a partially incompetent tour guide named Gabato (Guzman) and his daughter Kailani, played by Vanessa Hudgens (Sucker Punch), Sean and Hank embark on finding the island and rescuing Sean’s grandfather. But what they find on the island … maybe stranger than they ever could have imagined.

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with actor Luis Guzman on the phone while he was in Hawaii promoting Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. Guzman discussed the new movie, his character, the film’s special effects, working with director Brad Peyton (Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore), Dwayne Johnson’s improvisational skills, acting opposite screen legend Michael Caine, and his next film Last Stand, which will mark actor and former-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s fist starring film role in almost a decade.

Synopsis: In this follow-up to the 2008 worldwide hit “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” the new 3D family adventure “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” begins when young Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson, reprising his role from the first film) receives a coded distress signal from a mysterious island where no island should exist. It’s a place of strange life forms, mountains of gold, deadly volcanoes, and more than one astonishing secret.

Unable to stop him from going, Sean’s new stepfather, Hank (Dwayne Johnson), joins the quest. Together with a helicopter pilot (Luis Guzmán) and his beautiful, strong-willed daughter (Vanessa Hudgens), they set out to find the island, rescue its lone inhabitant and escape before seismic shockwaves force the island under the sea and bury its treasures forever.

For the world premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Disney kicked open the doors to Casa de Mikey and rolled out a Blackbeard-style black carpet at Disneyland.  None other than Kermit the Frog was on hand as a special correspondent. This five minute 'Kermit-Cam' video of Kermit on the black carpet features the lead muppet rubbing elbows with Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Penelope Cruz, Vanessa Hudgens, Teri Hatcher, and Ian McShane, among others.  Well worth watching just to see Keith Richards lapse into giggles when confronted by Kermit.

So Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch didn't debut at number one last weekend; despite our consensus-minded culture, popularity and quality don't necessarily go hand in hand.  There's always next weekend, anyways, and in order to entice you into paying hard-earned money to see the fetishized action-fantasy, Warner Bros is offering the first five minutes of the film online for free.  So take a few minutes and get acquainted with Baby Doll, played by Emily Browning.

After just three live action feature films, director Zack Snyder has developed a signature visual style, and with his fourth movie, Sucker Punch, it looks like he's taken that style to new extremes.  The story – which has certain thematic similarities to Pan's Labyrinth – contrasts stunning, action-packed fantasy sequences with the oppressive daily reality faced by an institutionalized young woman known only as Baby Doll.  You can see Emily Browning in action as Baby Doll in four new clips from Sucker Punch, which jumpkicks its way into theaters this Friday.

Watchmen and 300 director Zack Snyder director sure knows how to create visuals that leave an impression, particularly when what looks like a whole movie's worth are crammed into a minute-and-a-half long trailer.  The latest trailer for the director's first original feature, Sucker Punch, is a rush of imagery, most of it the product of much labor from visual effects artists.  Starting at about 26 seconds in, the whole thing is just a whole lot of money shots, featuring battle bots, flying bullets, fire-breathing dragons, sexy women, and an ungodly amount of slow motion.  Check it out, folks, or be doomed to square-dom for all time.

Since his Dawn of the Dead remake first crotch-kicked audiences, both of director Zack Snyder's live action films have been released in March.  Comic book adaptations 300 and Watchmen both hit theaters early in the month, but the director's latest for Warner Bros, the original action fantasy Sucker Punch, will assault your feeble senses on March 25th this year.  Seeing as how that's next month, the marketing for the film, starring Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Vanessa Hudgens, and Jon Hamm is about to begin an assault of its own.  Pretty soon Sucker Punch will be everywhere, but in the meantime, enjoy these two new television commercials for the film.