The first clip from Safe House has debuted online, and shockingly, it features not a single line of dialogue. 

Instead of introducing Tobin, the character played by two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington, with a well-written monologue or an observant character note, it focuses mostly on his attempt to choke out Ryan Reynolds with a pair of handcuffs.  You might think of that scene in No Country for Old Men when Javier Bardem similarly chokes an unsuspecting rural cop, but this clip happens while Reynolds is trying to drive a car at inadvisable speeds through a metropolitan area.  Take that, Coen Brothers.

Standard Sequel Operating Procedure dictates that, though the filmmakers can mix up certain elements in order to keep things fresh, some other elements that audiences responded to must be kept firmly in place.  2010's The Expendables was a testosterone-fueled shakey-cam actionter with no shortage of foul language and arterial blood spurts, and as such bore an R-rating for, in the inimitable words of the MPAA, "strong action and bloody violence throughout, and for some language."  Turns out, The Expendables 2 won't repeat the rating of its predecessor, and will instead be rated a more tame PG-13.

Up until now, we've seen nothing official from Jack the Giant Killer, director Bryan Singer's 3D action adventure that uses the beanstalk-climbing fairy tale as the basis for an epic journey.  Today, Warner Bros. has gone ahead and dropped the teaser trailer online, complete with thumping giants and what looks to be in-process effects work.  Anyone seeing Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows this weekend will see the trailer in theaters, along with the second trailer for a little picture called The Dark Knight Rises, but why not check it out right here and now?

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is just a few days away from its release on IMAX screens, after which it will hit normal-sized theaters on December 21st.  As such, Paramount is saturating the market with Ghost Protocol promotion, including a brand new three-minute clip that consists exclusively of action, as Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt pursues some random dude into a sandstorm sweeping through Dubai.  The whole thing is set to a score by Michael Giacchino that doesn't hold back on the bongo fury.

Opening in theaters on December 16th is the long awaited sequel to '2009s hit action mystery Sherlock Holmes, entitled Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Director Guy Ritchie returns to helm the second film of the franchise that once again stars Oscar-nominee Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man 2) in the title role and fellow Oscar nominee Jude Law (Hugo) as his faithful sidekick Dr. Watson. Also making a return are actors Rachel McAdams (Midnight in Paris), Eddie Marsan (Hancock), and Kelly Reilly (Me and Orson Welles), who are joined by series newcomers Noomi Rapace (Prometheus), Stephen Fry (V For Vendetta), and Jared Harris (TV's Mad Men) as the villain Professor Moriarty. 

IAR's managing editor Jami Philbrick recently had a chance to sit down and chat with writers Kieran and Michele Mulroney (Justice League) about their work on Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. The writers discussed the new film, joining the franchise, the "bromance" between Holmes and Watson, limiting Rachel MacAdams' role and creating a new female character, developing Moriarty's evil scheme, and introducing Sherlock's brother Mycroft Holmes. 

About eight months ago, we saw some spy photos from the set of Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, and those pictures showed that the titular duo in this 3D action comedy love black leather.  Now, the first crystal clear official image of Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton as Hansel and Gretel reaffirms that the leads kick witch ass while wearing stylish leather and sporting gigantic weaponry.  The title probably clued you in, but the would-be franchise follows grown-up versions of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale siblings, who have taken their Gingerbread House-based trauma and used it as motivation to hunt down witches and supernatural baddies with extreme prejudice.

Lionsgate has released the very first trailer for the action-thriller Safe on this most auspicious Friday.  At one point in the trailer, you see an ungodly number of bad guys – Triads, Russian gangsters, and corrupt cops – all lengthily arming themselves with all manner of firearms and you know, with a certainty, that Jason Statham's character is going to kill each and every one of them, no matter how many guns they have.  At this point, it pretty much goes without saying that if Statham's in a movie, he'll be killing a bunch of people, and in Safe, he's an ex-cop whose killing motivation is the protection of a little girl who knows some valuable information.  That seems to be more or less the extent of the story, but nobody sees a Statham picture for the story, they see it for his fists, who I believe are named "Rosie" and "Huntington-Whitely."

Production on The Expendables 2 is going on right now in Bulgaria, and you'd imagine that the cast, with their combined action movie resumes reaching roughly to the moon and back, would be wrasslin', throwing knives, and setting up bear traps.  Based on all these new photos from the set, though, the ensemble cast of the action sequel spend most of their time smiling and taking pictures.  A whole bunch of new images show Sylvester Stallone, Jean Claude Van Damme, Terry Crews, Chuck Norris, Randy Couture, Bruce Willis, and Dolph Lundgren doing just that.  Based on these image, I'm inclined to believe that in a no holds-barred survival match between all these actors, Terry Crews would be the last man standing.

You know how it is, you're a single mother just trying to get from point A to point B with your little boy in tow, when suddenly a bank robber on the run hops in your cars, threatening both your life and the life of your son.  That the scenario in Carjacked, the upcoming release from Anchor Bay Films.  Maria Bello, currently holding it down weekly with a sweet hat on Prime Suspect, plays the protagonist, whilst Stephen Dorff portrays the robber.  Since it's Bello, you can guess that she won't be playing the victim for long, but in a new clip from Carjacked, her character, Lorraine, is still waiting on help from the police when she and Roy encounter a roadblock meant specifically to nab the suspect.  It's a tense little scene, and one that makes you yearn for the moment when Lorraine turns the tables on that scumbag Roy.

Remember just a few days ago when stars Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum were engaged in a battle to win more Twitter followers in order to win the unparalleled honor of unveiling the first trailer for 21 Jump Street?  Well, that whole thing is over, and Hill won the right to tweet a link to the new red band trailer, which is also extra long, clocking in at more than three minutes.  The trailer gets across the basic idea, carried over from the 1980's television series that starred Johnny Depp: full grown cops go undercover as high school students in an attempt to eliminate a drug ring with extreme prejudice.  There's also lots of inappropriate behavior, enthusiastic obscenities, and a good portion of action.  Though Hill is a proven comedic presence, it's actually Tatum who gets the bigger laughs here, throwing himself into his meatheaded, overzealous character.