What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly movie news column that enjoys having Saturdays off. But it’s not Saturday yet, is it? That means it’s time for another round of the best movie-related links from around the web. So lets get on with it. We lead tonight with the first shot of Bruce Willis in Rian Johnson’s Looper, which includes a look at Willis likely eviscerating something or someone. This one comes to the world via Empire, who has promised that they will be bringing you some news from the set. I’ll read that.

As the classic soul song “Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City” plays over the opening credits of The Lincoln Lawyer, the perfect tone is set for the movie. At its core, it’s a classical lawyer procedural thriller, but is smoothly played by its star and large cast so much so that you can’t help but be entertained for two hours. It’s a movie where the title explains it all. Mickey Haller (Matthew McConaughey, looking little older, but still with some breezy cool swagger) is a high profiled LA defense lawyer who works out of his Lincoln Town Car. As he wheels and deals throughout the day with his driver Earl (Laurence Mason), we meet the various lawyers, bail bonds men, private investigators, celebrity drug addicts, and gang members that he works with. Some of them love him, but most have some sort of card to play with him.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr starts a new regimen of drugs that comes in a clear little pill. The guy on the street corner told him that it would unlock the full potential of his mind, and he assured Kevin it was FDA approved. Why would this guy lie to him? While waiting for the drugs to kick in, Kevin decided to take a trip across the American southwest and search for skinny little aliens with fat man voices. He knows he’s safe, even if he’s picked up by the cops, because he’s retained a dead-sexy lawyer who runs his practice out of the back of his Lincoln Town Car.

The trailer for The Lincoln Lawyer is a confounding mess of imagery. With it as the sole source of information about the film, it paints a picture of a high-priced lawyer who uses his Lincoln Towncar as a mobile office for unexplained reasons (fingers crossed for an emotional speech about his dad always driving him around in it before abandoning the family). It also flashes a few out-of-context images of Ryan Phillipe’s character being very wealthy and possibly in a dream sequence but possibly in reality raping and killing a young woman. Lastly, we’re treated to the most awkward ending to a trailer since Flight of the Navigator. Can you stare down McConaughey before getting a creepy feeling in your gut? If so, then you’re a better person than I. The synopsis promises that our hero Mickey Haller will soon find himself in danger, so maybe all the action and chase scenes are yet to come – otherwise, the whole thing sort of seems (from the trailer) like a brooding episode of Law and Order: SVU that someone wanted to expand to fit the big screen.

This week, on a very special episode of Reject Radio, co-director of the Oxford Film Festival Melanie Addington joins fan favorite Luke “Fat Albert” Mullen to discuss the prospect of being sued by Bill Cosby, the prospect of “just doing it,” and the prospect of stealing David Slade’s agent. Plus! We find some spare time to review The Last Exorcism and Make Out With Violence without devolving into a fist fight.

It seems that if you’re going to do an indie film, the premise should be daring and new. Not, say, something that stands in as the filler plot for most Mid-life Crisis Guy Fixing His Life and His Family since Liar Liar and the 100 movies that came before it. Matthew McConaughey may have gotten older, but his film’s premise stays the same age. He’s close to signing on for The Headhunter’s Calling – a movie about a ruthless businessman who has already destroyed his family and his sense of ethics after years of corporate life. His evil ways will have to end (or hilariously keep going) when he finds out his oldest child has leukemia. It’s high concept and nothing new, but the joy of indie film might be in doing something cliched like this with an innovative eye or fresh characters. Many disparage McConaughey’s acting skills, but the last time he was in an indie film, he created an iconic character. That’s not bad work. Still, it’s going to take a lot more than what’s presented here to raise any excitement for this thing – like McConaughey launching a rapping career or something. [Pajiba]

McConaughey wants to get audiences into the backseat of his ride and orate.

Way I see it, the one upside to the US endlessly perpetuating the drug war is hot people making movies about the US endlessly perpetuating the drug war.

‘Ghosts of Girlfriends Past’ is a bad movie that nonetheless interestingly (and most likely unintentionally) dissects Matthew McConaughey’s archetypal onscreen persona.

Kevin Carr reviews this week’s new movies: X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and Battle for Terra.

The Fat Guys ring in the summer movie season with a Fat Guy Five – The Most Anticipated Films of Summer, while Kevin risks a backlash of political correctness by explaining why he thinks Obsessed with Beyonkadonk did so well last week.

There was a lot of fake movie news floating around yesterday, but there’s always a lot of fake movie news floating around. We take a look at eleven rumor stories (some true, some false) that really should have been posted on April 1st.

There are certain questions in life one puzzles over furiously. Today, we examine a tricky one by asking what the hell happened to Kate Hudson’s career? Cinema Sleuth is on the case.

How do you make a stoner comedy and forget the comedy? Having watched both Surfer, Dude and the DVD’s special features, my guess would have something to do with the cast and crew sampling the ganja used as set dressing a bit too often and succumbing to short term memory loss.

Some have suggested that this movie goes too far with inappropriate language, situations and characters, but unlike some movies, Tropic Thunder isn’t just going for shock value. At its heart, Tropic Thunder is a parody of its own industry and nothing more.

This article has absolutely nothing to do with the real Thundercats movie currently set to see theater time in 2010. This is all about a faux production created in the minds of a few fans.

Remember when Chevy Chase made great movies? I know, it’s been a while. You have to go back twenty-five to thirty years to Chase’s heyday as a comedy king.

In the latest rumors to come out of the Marvel rumor mill (which has, by the way, been working overtime this week), we now think we know that Leonardo DiCaprio is very high on the list for the lead role in Captain America. Interesting…

Here is a look into our dark future. These are actors that would be terrible as Indiana Jones, but you know that someone somewhere is going to seriously suggest them to inherit the Fedora…

I have heard some doozies in my day, but this one might just take the cake. Our friends over at Cinema Blend have it on high that Matthew McConaughey, king of bedding hot babes, not bathing and surviving with little to no acting talent, may be on the top of Marvel’s short-list of candidates to step into the role of Captain America.