When is a good old-fashioned home invasion movie not a good old-fashioned home invasion movie? When it sets itself in the near future and forgets to be all that good. Welcome to The Purge. It’s 2022, and the United States has finally solved its growing problem with violence and crime by making it legal. More precisely, it’s legal for a twelve hour period one night per year. Citizens are encouraged to stay safe in their secure homes, unless of course they care to vent their animalistic rage and partake in the annual event. The Sandin family feels safe behind their state of the art security shutters, but when their dumbass son has a crisis of conscience and lets an injured man in, all hell breaks loose.

Brian De Palma’s classic, and best film, Blow Out, isn’t the most obvious inspiration for co-writer/director Scott Derrickson‘s Sinister. They’re in different genres all together, but both focus on two characters dealing with failure who find themselves reduced to sitting alone in a room trying to figure out a plot that is bigger than they ever would’ve imagined. What is obvious about Sinister is its level of accessibility. The movie is never extreme with its scares, never relies on cringe-inducing carnage, and is straight-forward in its plotting, all of which probably helped make it a box-office success late last year. Speaking with Derrickson via email for the film’s Blu-ray release, that simplicity is entirely what he aimed for — making a horror movie for everyone. Here’s what else Derrickson had to say about creating the look of Sinister with the Alexa camera, Blow Out and working with child actors: 

Seeing as Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise and Before Sunset are movies that basically consist of two characters walking and talking for their entire run times, they’re the niche sort of films that aren’t going to appeal to everyone. Those that fell in love with Ethan Hawke’s Jesse and Julie Delpy’s Celine in that first film fell hard though, and most continued to love what they got in the sequel 9 years later. Well, here we are, 9 years after that, and the third film in the trilogy has a trailer. What does it tell us to expect from the film? Of course, it gets Jesse and Celine together in a gorgeous European location (this time Greece), and it gets them walking around, taking in the sights, and debating life, love, and human nature. But there are some differences here, as well. They’re older now, parents, and their talk seems to be less about the possibilities of love and romance and more about the reality of what it is to love and be loved. Also, instead of keeping them isolated somewhere on their own, this film seems to see them spending much more time together while interacting in groups. Has too much time passed for Linklater, Hawke, and Delpy to rekindle the magic a third time? Has too much changed about these characters and the setup for this to really feel like a Before movie? By all accounts, no. Everyone who has seen the film has responded to it very strongly,

Perhaps the days of waiting months (and sometimes years) to see Sundance films are finally on the wane, as Exhibitor Relations reports (via /Film) that Sony Pictures Classics has set a limited release date for festival favorite Before Midnight on May 24th, when it will open in both New York and Los Angeles. The film was a true darling at last month’s festival (it even earned an A- from this critic) and is widely considered to be a wonderful end to Richard Linklater‘s globe-trotting romantic trilogy starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Fans of the trilogy have been anticipating this one for years and, we daresay, they will not be disappointed with this final entry. We mentioned the film in our wrap-up of purchased features from the festival that we posted last week, and while we didn’t have an exact opening date then, we did guarantee that it would be a 2013 release. We’re certainly pleased that our prediction proved true, and you’ll probably share the sentiment when you get to see the film this spring. Before Midnight will also play at SXSW, which kicks off on March 8.

It’s no easy feat to review one of Richard Linklater’s Before films – including Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Sundance premiere Before Midnight – because to attempt to chronicle and summarize films that primarily feature two characters walking and talking would likely prove boring and definitely end up reducing the experience of watching one of the Ethan Hawke- and Julie Delpy-starring films. Here it is straight – do you love Before Sunrise and Before Sunset? You will love Before Midnight. Do you just like the previous two films? You’ll probably still love Before Midnight. Do you hate the film’s predecessors? Well, perhaps you’re best advised to stay away from this one. Have you never even seen one of the Before films? Well, you’ll probably do pretty okay with Before Midnight, thanks to its impressively well-crafted flow, its increasingly more relatable characters, and its less-starry-eyed but much more satisfying approach to what it means to actually love someone. Nine years have passed since we last left Celine (Delpy) and Jesse (Hawke) in Paris on the tail end of their nearly-a-decade-in-the-making reunion, and Linklater’s film only strings us along for a matter of minutes before answering – quite conclusively – what happened immediately after we left the pair in the past and what is happening between them in the present. In the least spoiler-ish terms possible, at some point Before Midnight puts Celine and Jesse back doing what they do best – walking and talking, this time in Southern Greece.

What is Casting Couch? It’s a daily movie news column that that wants to make you a star, baby. Filmmaker Cameron Crowe hasn’t said much about his next project. We don’t yet have a title or a plot synopsis for it. But what we do know is that it’s said to be similar in tone to things like Almost Famous and Jerry Maguire, and it’s got Emma Stone playing a lead role (and it might just be a rewrite of his Deep Tiki script from years ago). So basically, expect something that lines up with Crowe’s best work and stars one of your favorite actresses. Sounds great. The new news regarding the project is that Crowe is reportedly close to finding his male lead. Deadline Hollywood says that he has his eye on Bradley Cooper, and he’s close to making a deal happen. Bradley Cooper and Emma Stone in a Cameron Crowe movie? Yeah, that should be enough to get the attention of every person of every gender and sexuality ever. Remember how we reported that Christopher Nolan’s regular DP, Wally Pfister, is going to be directing his first movie, it’s going to be called Transcendence, and it’s going to star Johnny Depp? Well, all of that stuff is still true, but the L.A. Times has dug up even more information. Turns out the film is actually going to have three leads, and Pfister is very game to get Christian Bale to sign on as number two of the three. Anyone out there want to see Johnny Depp

Editor’s note: This review has previously appeared as part of our SXSW 2012 and Fantastic Fest coverage, but since it’s so well-written and increasingly relevant thanks to Sinister’s opening this week, it’s back! In recent years the found footage style of horror has been done, pardon me, to death. Whole films have been cobbled together with bits of the fake stuff in service to pretend storylines, delivered to their audiences in tidy packages that often place style over substance. In Scott Derrickson‘s Sinister (this year’s SXSW “secret” screening), the found footage conceit is instead used as a source of information and scares, a clever little bit of storytelling that delivers the creeps with ease. Derrickson’s film (co-written with C. Robert Cargill) centers on Ethan Hawke as a true crime writer who has stumbled on his biggest gig yet – penning a book about the mysterious deaths of four family members, hung from a tree in their own backyard in a ritualistic manner. Not only is the perpetrator of the crime still at large, but a fifth member of the family (the youngest girl) who disappeared after the crime is still missing. Hawke’s Ellison routinely moves his family to new towns that have been struck by some sort of tragedy, tragedies that Ellison investigates and writes about to some apparent acclaim. But it’s been years since Ellison had a hit, and it’s imperative that Ellison’s next book is one, just for simple financial reasons.

Mark our words, Sinister is going to scare you. It doesn’t matter if you’re a hard-bitten horror freak or a screamer who watches scary films with your hands over your eyes, this thing is going to get you. Not sure about that? Well, here’s a red band trailer for you. Now, really, can someone please hold me? While we can recommend the trailer to those who want to get a real sense of the atmosphere and tone of the film, it does feature a number of scenes that could be considered spoilers (and a number of scenes that are part of some of the film’s most eye-poppingly scary moments). While most horror films certainly benefit from being viewed fresh, Sinister in particular works tremendously well if you take it in without any preconceptions (and without any knowledge of some of the truly disturbing stuff within it). Having seen it as a Secret Screening during this year’s SXSW, I got to watch it with absolutely no expectations, and it completely terrified me. Brave enough? Watch the new red band trailer for Sinister after the break.

If you’re looking forward to Scott Derrickson‘s Sinister, then you may want to get in on this chance to catch his restrained horror film sooner rather than later. The movie had its “surprise” premiere at SXSW this year and, after receiving some positive buzz there, Summit Entertainment is continuing to show promise in the project. Today the studio has launched “See Sinister First,” offering audiences the opportunity to attend an early screening of the film. You can join a screening which is already live or even request a showing for your hometown, and, for the latter option, use Tugg. The chance to make a screening close by you happen only lasts a week, so move fast. So far there are only showings scheduled in California, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and one in Washington D.C. that Film School Rejects happens to be co-hosting. The screenings that reach full attendance will receive a collectible poster for Sinister, as well as possible Q & A from the filmmakers. All in all, a pretty snazzy deal.

Let’s get this out of the way – there’s quite a bit different about Len Wiseman‘s remake of Paul Verhoeven‘s Total Recall. Although the film hasn’t exactly been greeted with the most pleasant of critical responses thus far, one thing you can’t criticize the film for is being a carbon copy of the 1990 film. Obviously missing is the iconic Kuato and the setting of Mars, but also absent from the film is a widely reported appearance by Ethan Hawke. Although it sounds like Wiseman’s remake lost a sizable amount of material in the editing bay – considering there is a 17-minute-longer director’s cut in the works – Mars and Kuato never even made it past the script stage. While speaking with Wiseman yesterday, he told us why there is no Mars, no appearance or mention of Kuato, and why you won’t see Ethan Hawke’s brief role in the theatrical cut:

Books and films are two very different mediums capable of eliciting the same reactions of joy, disappointment and every emotion in between. Both are essential, but they each have at least one distinctly related advantage over the other. Books rely on descriptions to create their world, but it’s ultimately up to the reader to envision what that world and its inhabitants look like. On the flip side of that, movies allow storytellers to show viewers exactly what they want them to see while still leaving open the option of interpretation. Tom (Ethan Hawke) is an American writer/college lecturer who arrives in Paris anxious to see his wife and young daughter after an extended absence. It’s only when he arrives at their residence that we begin to suspect this may not be a traditionally happy reunion. His wife is clearly upset to find him on her doorstep, and after he politely barges in to see their daughter the woman phones the police to report that he’s breaking a restraining order issued due to past violent behavior. Tom runs from the police only to have his suitcase and wallet stolen while asleep on a bus. Devoid of baggage and identity he struggles to retain his family, security and sanity in the face of an uncertain menace that threatens to bring him past his breaking point. What exactly that menace is, and how far Tom will go to combat it aren’t always clear, but neither is much else in The Woman in the

Richard Linklater has been tight-lipped about the possibility of there being a third installment in his Julie Delpy-and-Ethan Hawke-walking-around-a-city-and-talking series of films that so far include 1995’s Before Sunrise and 2004’s Before Sunset. But, unfortunately for him, one of his stars and collaborators can’t stop spilling the beans everywhere he goes, that star being Ethan Hawke. The last time Hawke was talking about the potential project, he remarked, “I don’t know what we’re going to do but I know the three of us have been talking a lot in the last six months. All three of us have been having similar feelings that we’re ready to revisit those characters. There’s nine years between the first two movies and, if we made the film next summer, it would be nine years again, so we’ve really started thinking that would be a good thing to do. We’re going to try write it this year.” Well, it seems like the writing went well, because in an interview with IndieWire that was supposed to be about his upcoming project The Woman in the Fifth, talk turned to the new Before Whatever project again, and Hawke confirmed that the third film was indeed on its way. Of his future collaborations with Linklater (which also include a still-untitled series of short films) Hawke said, “we’re also doing a follow-up to Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, so that will be fun. We’re going to shoot that this summer.”

One of the worst kept secrets at SXSW this year was the “surprise” screening of director Scott Derrickson‘s Sinister, thanks to The Hollywood Reporter leaking the news before the screening. However, the movie itself still managed to deliver with some surprises. For one, this isn’t a found-footage movie, but, as Kate Erbland describes it in her positive review, “the found footage conceit is instead used as a source of information and scares, a clever little bit of storytelling that delivers the creeps with ease.” That’s a suitable way of describing Sinister. The movie has its scares, but many of them only hit you after the credits roll. This first trailer does almost too good a job of selling Derrickson’s restrained horror story, considering it gives away a handful of Sinister‘s finest moments. If you want to go into Sinister unspoiled, stop watching this at the 1:15 mark. Check out the trailer below.

The basic premise of The Woman in the Fifth is that Ethan Hawke is playing an American writer who moves to Paris and strikes up a romance with a mysterious widow played by Kristin Scott Thomas. After hearing this you probably immediately get visions of the two actors sipping espressos at street side cafes, browsing for books at kiosks set up along the Seine, you know… doing Parisy-type stuff. But The Woman in the Fifth isn’t that sort of movie at all. It’s much darker, and more disturbing. How do I know? Because in the film’s new trailer there’s all sorts of spooky music and Ethan Hawke is talking in Christian Bale’s Batman voice. That’s how.

More than a few opinions were changed about the upcoming Total Recall when that trailer hit last month. The big summer sci-fi blockbuster’s preview sold an epic scope, the chance to explore a new world, and a fresh take on Philip K. Dick‘s story. Gone was Mars, the mutants, and a body builder acting like a killing machine. What director Len Wiseman is bringing to the table is more in line with the tone of Dick’s short story: serious, heady sci-fi. Wiseman has unquestionably made a film that will contain its fair share of explosions and one-liners, but the mystery of Douglas Quaid is what piqued the Live Free or Die Hard filmmaker’s interest the most. “Who am I?” is a quintessential life question, so imagine the stakes of having to answer that while being chased down and shot at. Speaking with Wiseman, the busy director discussed his reliance on practical effects, building an entire world without too many talking heads, and the identity crisis Douglas Quaid faces.

A lot of people still fondly remember Before Sunrise, the romance Richard Linklater released in 1995 about a couple of young people (played by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) who meet on a train, spend a day together in Vienna, and then part ways, perhaps never to see each other again. It’s a quiet little movie about love and relationships, a character piece that focuses pretty solely on maintaining a dialogue and travelogue-esque location spotlighting. But it worked, and the ambiguity of the ending, where you never knew if these two kids with this immediate connection would ever really see each other again, was pretty sublime. So there was a lot of apprehension when it was announced that a sequel, Before Sunset, would be released in 2004, at least on my part. This one was about the same two characters reuniting nine years later, and this time spending a day together in Paris. Surely this sequel would ruin the perfection of the first film and all of that delicious ambiguity that it left you with, wouldn’t it? Turns out, not really. Before Sunset showed us how Hawke and Delpy’s characters had aged and matured in interesting, but authentic ways, it completely recaptured the magic of the first film, and it diminished the original in no way. That’s no small feat, but surely a third film would be the charm when it came to ruining what those first two offered up, wouldn’t it? Could Hawke and Delpy walking around a city

The remake that nobody asked for of the Paul Verhoeven action classic Total Recall has a secret. Is it a long hidden alien reactor that can supply Mars with enough oxygen for everyone to breathe? Is it a surprise cameo by the original film’s star Arnold Schwarzenegger? No, it’s neither of those things: at all. As a matter of fact, this new version of the story isn’t going to take place on Mars, it’s set in the future countries Euromerica and New Shanghai. There is a super secret cameo that’s going to take place in the movie though. Are you ready for it?

When I look back at the films of my youth one thing remains constant—I love a 90s slacker. Tall, long-haired, ripped up jeans and cardigans falling disheveled off their shoulders. These are the men I always kept in the back of my mind as I entered the dating world. However, it wasn’t until a friend pointed it out that I realized I had such a 90s slacker fixation. To me, the characters Ethan Hawke, Christian Bale, and Rory Cochrane played in early to mid 90s films embodied everything sensual and perfect about being an adult. Especially their rejection of the adult world as it was. As I aged, I started to notice other benefits to these men. They were creative, romantic, adventurous, smoked (which always makes you sexy, no?), and most of all magnetic to everyone around them. Reality Bites’ main bad-boy Troy Dyer (Hawke) was the ultimate artist. He painted, wrote music, and left every woman swooning after him. His detachment from his best friend Lelaina (Winona Ryder) only intensified her need for him, and encouraged their eventual coitus. It wasn’t that he tried hard to get the girl, he just couldn’t keep them from coming at him. Who cared if he couldn’t hold down a job, or pay his share of the rent? Troy was always a charmer capable of surviving, and with him went my heart.

Kevin Carr sits his chubbiness down weighs in on Alice in Wonderland and Brooklyn’s Finest.

It’s a monumental time for the Fat Guys at the Movies. Both Kevin and Neil have seen the movies for the week, but they can’t agree on a damn thing… especially in regards to Gentlemen Broncos in the DVD Roundup. It’s a Fat Guy Smackdown all around!