Paramount Pictures and Marvel Studios have released the full theatrical trailer for their upcoming magical hammer-throwing superhero flick Thor, from director Kenneth Branagh. And with it comes that one missing link that has been lacking in footage thus far — scope. For a story about a God-like warrior who falls to Earth after being cast out of Asgard, the first teaser trailer and Super Bowl spot sure made the entire affair feel small. That is with the obvious exception of the final money shot in the teaser. Now we have an abundance of money shots, displaying a scale that defies you to call it anything but epic. It also gives us a more detailed look at the story on Earth, involving our hero (played by Chris Hemsworth) and his Earthly woman friend (Natalie Portman).

I’m going to share something with you. I have a sick obsession with sex movies. I don’t mean I always watch them with salacious intentions, because I have to draw the line between art and pornography somewhere. Let me be clear, I really enjoy a movie whose sole purpose is to titillate a viewer so much that they question what they are really watching. I’ve spent many nights snuggled up on my couch cringing my way through Catherine Breillat’s many sex shockers. I made a boyfriend attend a viewing party for the highly controversial, yet exceptionally boring, 9 Songs. I’ve even gotten into fights with Netflix over its recommendation of Salo based on my high rating of Irreversible. Those last two movies have nothing in common, by the way. Sex-centric dramas have been a secret, back alley passion of mine. But in all my years devouring these movies, I rarely see comedies that both deal frankly with sex and show it. Sex is usually the butt of a joke in comedies, rather than a catalyst for moving a couple forward.

The emotional beats are telegraphed a bit too obviously in Don Roos’ The Other Woman, an adaptation of Ayelet Waldman’s novel Love and Other Impossible Pursuits. The picture – about the burdens of being the second wife – ties itself into a neat Manhattan valentine dramedy bow, and it makes no great attempt to bypass the occasional thinly drawn character or overdone scenario.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr trolls around hospitals looking for a scorching hot young doctor who doesn’t want a real relationship but would rather have someone she can have copious amounts of sex with many times throughout the week. Upon returning from that fantasy land, he heads to a job-placement agency to rub elbows with laid-off corporate executives who have trouble making ends meet so they can pay the lease on their Mercedes. Kevin is handing out grades for No Strings Attached and The Company Men, and the grades are not good.

There’s a sweet romance developing in No Strings Attached that’s infused with equal parts hope, humor, and hesitation. Both the characters and the actors bringing them to life are funny and capable of expressing their desires and doubts with brief exchanges and glances that feel honest and heartfelt. But unfortunately for the movie (and the viewers) the romance in question is not the one featuring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. Instead it’s a couple of supporting characters who manage to do in fifteen collective minutes of screen-time what the leads fail to accomplish throughout the entire film. Adam and Emma (kids here, but soon to be played by Kutcher and Portman) first meet at summer camp where he tries to turn sympathy over his parent’s impending divorce into a sexual opportunity, but she finds his emotional needs even less appealing than his offer of a good old fashioned fingering. They meet in passing a couple more times over the years, but their story proper begins when Adam awakens naked one morning on a couch belonging to Emma and her three roommates. He’s an emotional mess after discovering his ex-girlfriend is now dating his father (Kevin Kline) and she’s an overworked doctor uninterested in relationships, so the duo decide the best course of action is a ‘friends with benefits’ arrangement. And the downside is…?

What is Movie News After Dark? This is a question that I am almost never asked, but I will answer it for you anyway. Movie News After Dark is FSR’s newest late-night secretion, a column dedicated to all of the news stories that slip past our daytime editorial staff and make it into my curiously chubby RSS ‘flagged’ box. It will (but is not guaranteed to) include relevant movie news, links to insightful commentary and other film-related shenanigans. I may also throw in a link to something TV-related here or there. It will also serve as my place of record for being both charming and sharp-witted, but most likely I will be neither of the two. I write this shit late at night, what do you expect?

What is Movie News After Dark? This is a question that I am almost never asked, but I will answer it for you anyway. Movie News After Dark is FSR’s newest late-night secretion, a column dedicated to all of the news stories that slip past our daytime editorial staff and make it into my curiously chubby RSS ‘flagged’ box. It will (but is not guaranteed to) include relevant movie news, links to insightful commentary and other film-related shenanigans. I may also throw in a link to something TV-related here or there. It will also serve as my place of record for being both charming and sharp-witted, but most likely I will be neither of the two. I write this shit late at night, what do you expect?

Every time Nina Sayers gets near sex, something terrible happens. It is the focal point catalyst for almost every major event of Black Swan – where a character is forced to grow up in the most violent way possible. For a bulk of the film, this character – brought to life by Natalie Portman – is passive about the world around her. Nina’s mother has kept her in a state of arrested development, her boss relegates her to the background as he pleases, and even when she’s given a chance to shine, she is unable to do so because of the psychological barriers she faces. All of those barriers are brought down by sex. A few more are created because of it.

There’s a lot of trailer action this morning as Hollywood executives are just now waking up from their Hybernol-induced winter comas, but the funniest one out there (counting the past few months even) is hands down this new red-band trailer for No Strings Attached. The premise is simple and as old as sex itself, but when you toss in Natalie Portman staring at Asthon Kutcher’s penis with 3D glasses on (a commentary on the fad if there ever was one), a metric ton of clever cursing, and Ludacris making a self-reference to every “Ho” pun-themed song he’s written – the world has a little bit more brilliance in it. In fact, the catalyst for the pair getting together will make you look at your own father in a gross and terrible new way. Don’t put yourself in Ashton Kutcher’s character’s place. Don’t do it. Just don’t. Seriously, don’t.

The year 2010 may have ended, but the cycle of movie news keeps on a-cyclin’. Most of the news this time of year has something to do with a list — the best, the worst and the otherwise notable performances, directorial efforts and nude scenes, just to name a few. Everyone wants to have their say and we at FSR may be the worst among them with our Year in Review. So you’ll have to excuse me if my innagural edition of Movie News After Dark, the movie news column you can read while mostly asleep, is full of other people’s “best of” lists. There are also some worthy surprises, I assure you…

Slimy puppets with water pipes! Natalie Portman channeling Xena The Warrior Princess! An evil magician! This is definitely not the typical Medieval action adventure (except for the evil magician. That’s sort of par for the course). David Gordon Green is a director that takes chances, which should always be applauded. The trailer here for Your Highness is sort of a mixed bag, but the good parts are great, and the average parts aren’t exactly bad. Plus, it’ll be great to see Danny McBride attempt something out of his normal wheelhouse playing characters whose main motivations are scratching crotches and being mildly offensive. That last line of the trailer kills. Your Highness hits theaters April 8th, 2011, and you can see the trailer in even higher def at Apple.

Even though we have seen most of the footage before in leaked clips from Comic-Con, there is still something shiny and new in the way this first official trailer for Marvel’s Thor conducts itself. More shots of the action, more of the Destroyer sent down from Asgard to lay waste to Earth, and of course, more of Chris Hemsworth’s abdomen in all of its 8-part, ripped up glory. He would need to be muscular, after all, to wield that big ass hammer. And wait until you see what that thing can do.

Does it bother you that everyone in the blogosphere and social networks are gushing over Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan but it hasn’t opened in your neck of the woods? Well, if you live in Ohio, here’s your chance to catch Black Swan for free before it opens in flyover country. Here at FSR, is helping your Natalie Portman fans out by hosting an early screening in Columbus, Ohio. If you live in the Columbus area, you can use this super-secret code that allows you to print out two tickets to the Columbus screening of Black Swan on Thursday, December 16 at the AMC Lennox at 8:30 PM.

This week, on a very special episode of Reject Radio, Rob Hunter drops by in order to explain why he got circumcised, explain why there was no movie news this week, and to drool professionally over Natalie Portman(‘s career). Plus, we find time to review movies that aren’t coming anywhere near you! Including I Love You Phillip Morris, Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale, and Black Swan. Listen Here: Download This Episode

Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan is many things, including a dark and sexually charged drama, a cautionary tale, and even a horror film of sorts. It’s a study of madness in the guise of obsession, a look at an artist striving for perfection, and a tour de force performance by both the lead character and the lead actress. (Hell, it could even be an unofficial sequel to Mirrors 2.) But for all the beauty and brilliance on display as the film explores the idea of suffering for the sake of art, it fails to find a human heart at the center of the story. We’re dazzled and terrified, but much like beauty itself the effect is only skin deep.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr thumbs his nose at the major studio releases like The Warrior’s Way and The Nutcracker in 3D. Not only do they look like direct-to-DVD releases at best and stinkers of the year at worst, the studios didn’t let him see any of them. So he turns his sights on some award-bait films in limited release: Black Swan and I Love You, Phillip Morris.

The landscape of cinema is full of monsters – those human, and otherwise. Many of these monsters, as we’ve seen over the years, begin as something like us and are changed somehow, transforming into a creature that is equally interesting and terrifying. This is the crux of great monster stories – we can’t look, yet we cannot take our eyes away. In his completely fresh monster story Black Swan, director Darren Aronofsky shows us a transformation for the ages – one that combines the grace and beauty of ballet with the exhilaration and terror of the classic monster tale. Visually stunning, violent and at times breath stealing, Black Swan gives us the great cinematic monster that we never saw coming: Natalie Portman in a pink tutu. Just remember to breathe.

Sometime in the next few days, I will be dropping upon you my review of Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan. Here’s a preview: “this is the movie you should see in theaters this fall.” It has something to do with the intensity that Aronofsky and his skilled cast bring to the world of high-stakes ballet. It also has something to do with the blurred lines between passion and obsession, determination and unbridled aggression. Some of those themes come through brightly in this manic music video, released last night.

Director David Gordon Green has come a long way in three years. 2007 marked his last indie drama before turning completely to the dark side with more popular, humorous, and immature fare like Pineapple Express and HBO’s Eastbound & Down. Next year sees his latest feature, Your Highness, and based on the trailer (seen after the jump) it looks like he plans on sitting in this niche for awhile longer.

Director Will Gluck had a fairly middling (yet harmless) introduction with the world through Fired Up! but his follow-up, Easy A, has earned him a place as one to watch. With more eyes on him, he’s chosen to make Justin Timberlake perform oral sex on Mila Kunis while singing a Semisonic song. Ivan Reitman, on the other hand, is a veteran. He’s the man who directed every movie you liked in the 80s. He’s hit a snag as a director recently (with My Super Ex-Girlfriend), but he’s on fire as a producer. Friends with Benefits is the Casual Sex Between Friends Armageddon to No Strings Attached‘s Deep Impact. Both movies deal with the same exact plot, both involve incredibly attractive people that in no way would ever realistically be hurting for carnal pleasure, and both come out around relatively the same time. Who will come out on top? Probably Kunis, but you should check out both trailers and weigh in for yourself.