When Lee Daniels signed on to direct The Butler, it was unclear how Wil Haygood’s “Washington Post” article would be converted into cinematic storytelling. There was a lot of room for maneuvering. Although deft and interesting, there are about a dozen different tones that could emerge from the profile of White House butler Eugene Allen — who served eight presidents from Truman to Reagan and is played here by Forest Whitaker. Judging from the trailer, Daniels and screenwriter Danny Strong swung for the fences. It’ll be fascinating to see how they’ve packed so many trenchant, racially-charged years of American history into an intimately human story. Allen was born in 1919 and would live to see Barack Obama elected president. That’s not merely a lot of time to cover; considering the loaded symbolism, the people who sat behind the Resolute desk while Allen was stacking champagne, and his rich personal struggle with the paperwork behind shuffled on Capitol Hill, Daniels and the production have their work cut out for them here. Of course there’s also John Cusack, whose face looks like its about to explode playing Richard Nixon. Check out the trailer for yourself:

When The Last Stand hits theaters in a few months it will finally put an answer to two congruent question marks. One, can Arnold Schwarzenegger still carry an action film? And B, can Kim Ji-woon manage the same level of quality with his American debut that he’s enjoyed with his Korean films? The first teaser for the film gave us little to judge (aside from too much of co-star Johnny Knoxville), but now a true trailer has debuted. It fleshes out the supporting cast to include Forest Whitaker, Peter Stormare, Luis Guzman and Jaimie Alexander (who was kind enough to bring along the tiny town from Thor), but the story remains similarly simplistic. A high-profile prisoner escapes federal custody and makes for the Mexican border in a souped-up sports car and protected by a small army of thugs. The only thing standing between him and freedom? A small-town sheriff, his ill-equipped deputies and the guy who pretended to be mentally handicapped from The Ringer. Check out the full trailer below.

Today in trailers that make little to no sense – Aaron Harvey‘s Catch .44! Big bossman Neil told us a smidgen about this film back in July of last year, when cast additions Nikki Reed and Deborah Ann Woll were announced – and while that piece of news sold the film as a lady assassin flick, there’s not much of that to be seen in this first trailer for the film. Leading lady Malin Akerman is indeed front and center, but she looks like less an accomplished assassin (with an equally as talented and attractive crew backing her) and more like a pretty gal trying to make a quick buck with a big gun. But, hey, Bruce Willis is there doing an older Dov Charney impersonation, along with Forest Whitaker having a whole bunch of fun experimenting with some truly bad accents. Guns! Drugs! A secluded diner! Confusion and hijinks! After the break, try to make heads or tails of the first trailer for Catch .44.

Jee-Woon Kim’s Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring story about a western sheriff running afoul of a Mexican drug cartel leader seems to be getting closer to shooting, because a bunch of names have been added to the cast list. We already found out that Friday Night Lights star Zach Gilford would be joining the cast as Schwarzenegger’s young deputy, but now a whole host of pretty diverse, kind of interesting actors have been added to support that duo. The biggest of the new names on the Lionsgate cast list are probably Forest Whitaker and Johnny Knoxville; one man who is famous for acting in a bunch of movies over the last three decades and another for getting hit in his balls a lot. Okay, that’s not fair, Knoxville has been fine in the few films I’ve seen him in, and I’m sure he’ll be fine with whatever they give him here. And Whitaker is always at least interesting to watch, even when he goes super hammy. But that’s a weird couple of actors to pair with Schwarzenegger if you ask me. I’d probably feel more comfortable with the choices if I knew what kind of characters they were playing. Whitaker and Knoxville aren’t the only new names though, a handful of less famous but still notable actors have been added as well. Let’s run through them: there’s Jaimie Alexander, Luis Guzman, Harry Dean Stanton, and Eduardo Noriega. Jaimie Alexander I’ve only seen in her small role in Thor, but she was playing a

Welcome back to Junkfood Cinema: we’re on a mission from God. And that mission is to bring you a weekly catalogue of the best of the worst that cinema has to offer you. Broadcasting live from the free Wi-Fi signal we picked up sitting behind that McDonald’s, each week we pick a deliciously awful film and tear it apart piece by piece. But then we remember how much we actually love it, and try, futilely, to convince you why. We’ll top it off with a tasty treat for you to enjoy while watching that will go with the film like peanut butter and ketchup. So grab a spork and let’s get started! This week’s treat? Bloodsport! Bricks not hit back this time!

In what is perhaps the most shocking and unexpected TV news of the day, Deadline Oxford is reporting that House M.D. star Lisa Edelstein (Cuddy) will not return to the show next season. Supporting cast members Omar Epps (Foreman) and Robert Sean Leonard (Wilson) both renewed their contracts this month to return for the eighth (and what is most likely going to be final) season. Edelstein was the only remaining cast member still in the negotiation process and has apparently decided not to return. There is no word on how her character will be written out of the show or if she will appear for the premiere of season eight to conclude her character’s story line. But the silver lining is that the news will most likely soften the blow of recent CBS show cancellation, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior. A spin-off starring Forest Whitaker to CBS’s hit procedural Criminal Minds was never really that good and the ratings were a testament to the fact that the series truly felt like a cash grab. It also didn’t help that unlike many of CBS’s spin-off series, this one had nothing new to offer to the franchise, not even a city. It was nothing more than another (and inferior) BAU unit going around the country to stop serial killers.

The new trailer for The Experiment promises to eat the weak or at least release some battery acid into your bloodstream with tension and social commentary. History and Psychology buffs will recognize the story as The Stanford Prison Experiment which saw volunteers divided into two groups to see how normal people would respond when given power over others or seeing their rights taken away. Such a fantastic premise for a film – and adding Academy favorites Adrien Brody and Forest Whitaker to the bill is a masterstroke – so why is it going straight to DVD again?

Kevin Carr sits his chubbiness down weighs in on The Bounty Hunter, Repo Men and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Jude Law and Forest Whitaker star as Remy and Jake the repo men, who have been both buddies and rivals since the fourth grade. Their corporate hack boss (Liev Schreiber) sends them on missions to retrieve the unpaid for organs of everyone from wealthy businessmen to hotshot musical artists to your everyday overweight schlubs. The men might believe they’re engaged in a respectable pursuit, but they are in fact angels of death forced to reclaim company property by any means necessary.

At first, the new red band teaser for Repo Men, a futuristic action film starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker, seems like a tired old girl. That is, until she busts loose with bloody intensity.

Where the Wild Things Are is beautiful, successful in its task, and moving. But you might not like it. It’s darker than it is whimsical, sadder than it is sweet.

At this point we can’t even wrap our minds around the concept of not being excited about Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. Therefore, we are super jazzed over these new photos.

The awesome, exciting, and truly interesting casting news coming out of Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables had to come to an end sometime.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Trejo have both been announced as joining Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables. To that I can only say… sweet. And to that I can only add… it’s not too late Jean Claude! Apologize for your egotistical idiocy and get your ass to South America! Anyway…

Lock your doors and bust out your flashlights because the world as we know it is coming to an end: Jean-Claude Van Damme has turned The Expendables because he wasn’t given enough detail about his character or the story.

Not exactly how we missed it a few months back, but it appears that we are way late in reporting that Forest Whitaker is circling the wagons on Sly Stallone’s hotly anticipated thriller The Expendables.

I hate to be one of those guys who waters this one down to “the one with Jessica Biel as a stripper,” as Powder Blue might have something more to offer than just one of my favorite Jessicas in her naughty clothes, but how else was I going to get your attention?

“…a terrific surprise with balls, brains, and even a heart.”

Let me break down Vantage Point‘s tagline, “8 Strangers. 8 Points of View. 1 Truth.” 8 Strangers: The people going to see this movie on week two. 8 Points of View: A twelve minute film shown eight times. 1 Truth: The studio has your money and you are pissed. This will probably be the worst film of the year, that people will like.

If there is one thing that you may learn from Vantage Point, it is that you should never judge a movie by its trailer.