I spent at least half an hour yesterday in my kitchen trying to explain the smaller details of the Harry Potter movie universe to my wife, and I found myself forgetting a lot. Names, dates, why things happened the way they did, how to cure a case of the Mudbloods. Fortunately, Warners has put out this video. Will it fill in all the details? No. But it will provide a decent enough refresher by showing moments from the previous films. It’s effectively a long-form trailer for all the movies, delivered in a brisk 5 minutes, but it will probably have you slapping your forehead a few times when you remember one of the millions of details you temporarily forgot. Or, it might just be a great bit of instant nostalgia. Either way, it’s a pretty sweet video.

Every week, Landon Palmer and Cole Abaius log on to their favorite chat client of 1996 as holeinmyshower and RepWeiner08 in order to discuss some topical topic of interest. This week, the two wonder whether fans should educate themselves before hopping into a movie. Can the movie-going experience be made better by a little research before getting our ticket ripped or should we be able to go blindly into the darkness and expect great entertainment?

Apparently the MTV Movie Awards happened Sunday night. If this is something you care about, enjoy your summer break. It’s a big step to High School this fall. While perusing Twitter to see if anyone had retweeted the cool things I say (they hadn’t, because I don’t say cool things), I noticed a fair amount of people and peers complaining about the dominance of Twilight, which won a shit ton of awards alongside Harry Potter and Justin Bieber. I’m sure Hot Topic also unofficially won “Best Store.” There is a very simple way to view the MTV Movie Awards and MTV itself. Ask yourself this question: Am I 16 years old? If you answered ‘yes’ to this question, congratulations, go about your day. If you answered ‘no’ to this question and you spent more than 30 seconds thinking about the results of the movie awards, pour hot cocoa on your nipples – male or female, I don’t care. Do it. For the past twenty years, MTV hasn’t been relevant to anyone who isn’t 16 or the parent of a 16 year old, and that’s a travesty.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is going to have to be a lot of things to a lot of people. It will need to be explosive but thoughtful, dramatic but lighthearted, focused and fearless. The movie has its work cut out for it, but as for the trailer, it does every single thing right. Check it out for yourself:

The penultimate Harry Potter film is now available on DVD and Blu-ray, which is as much cause for celebration as my proper use of the word “penultimate.” This is one of the longest Harry Potter films, and there’s still more to come after its 146 minutes are over. That would, of course, be Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II, due in theaters this summer. To catch up on things and ready yourself for the final movie, you can enjoy the first part with a drink in hand. Whether it be Polyjuice Potion, pumpkin juice or good a old fashioned brew, knock a few back in honor of Harry Potter.

Some new footage from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 was shown at Cinema Con, and afterwards Potter producer David Heyman sat down with Cinema Blend to talk about what from the novels is going to be included in the film, and what will be changed. Their conversation included some pretty specific spoilers about the end of the film, but presumably most people have already read the books; so giving away story details isn’t as big of a deal as it might be normally. If you’re one of the people who haven’t read the books, and who would like to see Deathly Hallows: Part 2 without any idea of what it has in store, then you should probably not read this article. Or, you know, do it anyways and then bitch about how stuff was given away in the comments section. Either way is good. Spoilers ahoy…

A very strange thing happened at this year’s Golden Globes ceremony. Somewhere between Ricky Gervais’ biting monologue/critique and Robert De Niro’s uncomfortable lifetime achievement acceptance speech, an epic international arthouse film won the award for Best Made for Television Movie or Miniseries, beating out the other nominations in the typically HBO-dominated category. Olivier Assayas’ Carlos is, from an American perspective, quite difficult to classify. We first heard about it when it was met with rave reviews at Cannes and other festivals, then it was distributed theatrically through IFC (in its original 5 ½ hour run time) while it had a three-episode “miniseries” run on the Sundance Channel just as it had done in France when originally commissioned for French television. Now, before an explicitly planned DVD release (though there is some certainty that the film will be the latest IFC release to get the Criterion treatment), it’s available streaming in its three-part miniseries form via Netflix (which is how I eventually saw it). All this is to say that it’s quite a task to say with any certainty precisely what Carlos is and in which medium it belongs. The film was financed by French television, yet it’s shot in a widescreen aspect ratio (2.35:1) typically reserved for theatrical cinema, and its 3-episode structure doesn’t follow the expectations of brief closure at the end of each segment typical of, say, an American television miniseries (it comes across more like a necessary break for exhibition and an arbitrary break in storytelling). Now [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

You’ve stumbled upon Circle of Jerks, our sporadically published, weekly feature in which we ask the questions that really matter to our writers and readers. It’s a time to take a break from our busy lives and revel in the one thing that we all share: a deep, passionate love of movies. If you have a question you’d like answered by the FSR readers and staff, send us an email at editors@filmschoolrejects.com. What movie universe would actually want to live in? Susan C.

I have to start this post off with an admission: I have yet to see the new Harry Potter. I’m saving it for Thanksgiving weekend when I can return to my home state and see it with loved ones, so hopefully next week I’ll have a post on something more appropriately Potter-specific. But what I want to talk about today is not something related to Deathly Hollows specifically, but what it represents, which lies somewhere in the film’s critical reaction. While heaps of praise have been given to the newest installment of one of the biggest movie franchises in history based on one of the biggest book franchises in history (many calling it one of the best entries in the series), the biggest voice of detraction has been the notion that Deathy Hollows pt. 1 is not a “complete movie” per se – that it abruptly stops in medias res, that it has no “third act.” Whether or not this is how I will feel when I see the movie this week is unimportant, but what this movie – and its subsequent reaction – represents is of great importance.

With $127 million in ticket receipts for one weekend, an IMDb rating of 8.3, a Box Office Mojo user rating of A-, and a Rotten Tomato score of 79% fresh (with a 90% audience like rating), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 definitively has the longest title of the weekend and is a massive, giant success. Following the lines of the book, the franchise has taken a darker turn (several movies ago) and things here are quite often nightmarish, dreary, and devoid of the fantastic element that initially captured the imagination. This is all well and good, in fact it’s probably the smartest turn the story could have taken, as more and more adults enjoy the franchise and the initial audience who enjoyed the books as children have grown up with it. A ten year old watching the first film would be nineteen years old today – clearly someone who has grown, experienced more, and is now capable of seeing R-Rated movies by themselves if they wanted. All of that prelude is just to bring it around to the fact that, from the ratings to the critics to the fans, all signs point to The Deathly Hallows Part 1 being one of, if not the most, well received films in the franchise. People love it. People call it the best of the franchise and slap A+ stamps on it. While what we see on screen was good and technically proficient, calling it the best film of the franchise [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr puts on a wizard’s robe, wears a colorful scarf and dances around in the woods with his magic wand yelling, “Stupify!” And that’s just to celebrate the release of Fair Game in his home town. He also takes a look at this little independent film that few people have even heard of, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I. Sadly, a bizarre mishap with his wizarding skills causes a boulder to fall on his hand and pin him for 93 minutes, which was actually quite fortunate because it gave him just enough time to watch 127 Hours.

*** EDITOR’S NOTE: This review contains spoilers. Those of you who haven’t read the book or simply don’t want to know what happens in the film have been warned! *** I won’t deny the massive amount of anticipation I harbored going into Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I. I am an enormous fan of the books, and the subsequent films, but the final book was more far more meaningful to me than any of those that had preceded. Deathly Hallows was the book that most inspired me, most moved me, and ultimately validated my reading the entire series. It struck me as the lights went down in the theater that these were no longer just characters, these were people with whom we, the fans, were as familiar as some of the more ancillary members of our social circle. We have watched them grow up over the course of six, soon to be eight, films in an almost identical fashion as they grew in the text over seven books. No other fantasy film series can boast this. This more than any other Potter film had to deliver in order that the entire journey on which we’ve been led up to this point not seem a waste. I am happy to report that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I not only delivered, but may in fact be my favorite of the entire franchise thus far.

One thing that the Harry Potter series has always gotten right is the humor. It doesn’t matter who directed it, each film seems to have that unique comic sensibility that mostly comes from the trials and tribulations of puberty and young love. With the last installment, the focus is decidedly off of the awkwardness and onto the bloodbath on the horizon. Fortunately, it looks like the humor is coming from giving Emma Watson the eyebrows off of Daniel Radcliffe’s face. Plus, you just can’t beat the punch line from the twins. Well played. Check it out in HD over at their facebook page.

These are just gorgeous. It’s amazing when the art of film advertising seeks to design something that will carry the tone of the film correctly while actually aiming for a bit of artistic merit. These new character posters for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 may be simple, and the name may be unusually long, but the effect is strong. The latest film (and beginning of the end) boasts the usual suspects all returning with the addition of Bill Nighy to what amounts to a roster of the best British actors in the business. Expect even more promotional materials, because after the Summer release of the trailer, Deathly Hallows will probably inundate fans with even more reasons to head to opening night in November. As if people needed more reasons.

Every so often, a film emerges from the fray to prove its popularity and warrant a sequel. More and more, franchises are planned out in advance, but when one film turns into a franchise, a cash register sound goes off in the ears of the studio. Even though the kid stays in the picture, sometimes the director does not. Maybe the director is done working with the material. Maybe the producers want a more seasoned hand. Maybe a simple schedule conflict keeps him or her out of the chair for the next round up. But the show must go on, so the producers find another director to fill the slot – a director who ostensibly inherits all the strengths and weaknesses of a franchise birthed by someone else. Cinematic sloppy seconds that could have easily turned into sloppy sequels if it weren’t for a steady, talented director guiding the ship. Here’s a list of the ten best.

It would be perfect to see Tom Felton and Daniel Radcliffe sign on to films that have the same release date. At least, it would be fantastic for unimaginative headline writers and fans of sports betting. The release dates are yet to be seen, but Radcliffe might have signed on for something new (and entirely new for him), and Felton is readying his first film after graduating from the school for witches and wizards. For one, it’s the end of the world. For the other, it’s a life that will surely lead to drug abuse and multiple mistresses.

Last weekend was the crucible of Comic-Con, and no fewer than one billion trillion news stories came out of the convention aimed directly at your sensibilities as an audience member. We weren’t the only site on the block that had coverage of course, and hopefully you read more than a few of our peers (because there really are some great sites out there). You were most likely inundated with new information about the movies hitting theaters soon or in the next year. Did any of it change your mind? Was there a movie you were dying to see that you cooled on? Was there a movie that landed on your radar for the first time? Is your confidence renewed in anything?

Warner Bros. will release the official trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in a few hours, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take an early peek. And by early peek, I’m referring to these still images from the trailer. The studio saw fit to shoot them over to us this afternoon in anticipation of the trailer. And seeing as they are full of gnarly villains, explosions and general wizardry, we thought you might find them interesting.

Is the MTV Movie Awards self-defeating? Probably. But does it make money off your 12 year-old? Definitely. And you didn’t even know you had a kid, did you?

If you’ve already read the books, you probably already know what this is. If you haven’t steer clear unless you want to be let in on the ending.