That the final Harry Potter film became the biggest opening weekend of all time seemed only natural and inevitable. Something so monumentally culturally pervasive could have only gone out with a loud bang. After all, it is – as I’ve been repeatedly reminded – the most successful movie franchise of all time, adapted from a series of books whose sales history rivals that of The Holy Bible. Yet unlike some head scratch-inducing huge opening weekends of the more uninspired entries of blockbusting franchises who rival Harry Potter in their monetary intake but not their longevity (Spider-Man 3, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest) and the former reigning champ whose buzz was accompanied by fascination with the untimely death of a star (The Dark Knight), the mass participation in the cultural event that was the release of Deathly Hallows Part 2 won’t likely be rivaled anytime soon. The Harry Potter films simultaneously represent the inevitable logical extent of franchise filmmaking as much as it is exceptional and anomalous in this same regard.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr heads to the desert to grade Sex and the City 2 and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

If director Mike Newell were to take a rapper name, it should be ‘Money Shot’ Mike. For over the years, he has been developing the craft of capturing that one moment when the film’s shirtless, sweaty star is in clear focus, slowed to the perfect frame rate so that the audience can marvel in the 60-foot of an action adventure star.

Walt Disney Pictures has released the second full trailer for the upcoming video game adaptation Prince of Persia, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton and Sir Ben Kingsley. This new trailer provides a bit of new footage, but mixes it with healthy helpings of previously seen footage. New or old, it all seems to be cut together in a way that makes this film feel exciting, even grand.

Gemma Arterton and Jake Gyllenhaal stare you down from the land of Persia.

We dig rumors just as much as the next site, but over the years we have learned that when something sounds a little too good to be true, it doesn’t hurt to do some fact checking first, even if that means we miss out on breaking a story.

Love in the Time of Cholera is a gorgeous disaster of a film. The movie is filled with some rich visuals and scenery, but that is about the only good quality that can be said of it.

We don’t usually report on what’s not happening in the news. However, with word that Michael Bay will not be directing the Prince of Persia adaptation, how could we not report on what’s not happening?