The future of the Lego film franchise isn’t yet written in stone, but what’s certain is that there are a number of studio execs out there really excited at the prospect of making movies about multi-colored, plastic blocks. The first studio to fire a shot in the Lego arms race was Warner Bros., who hired Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs helmers Phil Lord and Chris Miller to write and direct Lego: The Movie, or whatever they’re going to end up calling it. Despite the fact that making movies based on a line of building blocks is completely asinine, Lord and Miller’s take on the material sounded like a case of the best being made out of a ridiculous situation; as they’ve actually come up with a promising story. But suddenly they’re not the only players in the Lego game. Now Universal wants to get their hands on a Lego property of their own, in order to prove that they’re the only name in town when it comes to basing horrible movies off of inanimate children’s toys. Heat Vision is reporting that they’re in negotiations with The Lego Group to bring their line of Hero Factory toys to the big screen.

Every week, Landon Palmer and Cole Abaius log on to their favorite chat client of 1996 as ghostfacekillah and olddirrtybastard5 in order to discuss some topical topic of interest. This week, it’s the horrifying growth of the trend in Hollywood to take old movies and make sequels for them. The fans are too hip to reboots and remakes, but if they can convince an aging actor to retread barren ground, then it’s all aboard the money train. Of course, that’s not always the case, but how else do you explain Indiana Jones 4? The problem is that these movies either suck or are hollow shells of what a franchise once was. So if you’re making a decades-later sequel, what are the problems and how do you avoid them?

This Week in Blu-ray, my usual role as expert tour guide through the wild and wonderful world of Blu-ray takes a back seat. Emerging in its place is my new role: guy who points out the obvious. For instance, if I told you that Criterion successfully put out an impressive version of Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, I wouldn’t exactly blow chunks of your brain out of your skull and all over your office walls. If I said that Universal took great care in presenting Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho in glorious high definition on its 50th anniversary, it wouldn’t slice through the fabric of your reality, revealing for you a fresh, unique worldview. And if I told you Robert Rodriguez’ Predators was just ok… well, you get the idea. The time is now for me to tell you that which you probably already know. But I will certainly try to do so with style.

Join us each week as Rob Hunter takes a look at new DVD releases and gives his highly unqualified opinion as to which titles are worth BUYing, which are better off as RENTals, and which should be AVOIDed at all costs. And remember, these listings and category placements are meant as informational conversation starters only. But you can still tell Hunter how wrong he is in the comment section below. This week sees two titles worth buying that couldn’t be more different… DisneyNature: Oceans and the goofy and gory Japanese flick Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl. There are also several DVDs worth renting or avoiding all together including Assault Of the Sasquatch, Giallo, Predators, Please Give, Forbidden Lies, and more. Oh, and don’t miss the feel good release of the year in our first installment of “WTF Of the Week”… Forgive Me For Raping You. Click on any of the titles below to magically head over to Amazon.com and pick up the DVD. And don’t forget to check out Neil Miller’s hilariously titled This Week In Blu-ray for reviews on the latest high definition Blu-ray releases!

Editor’s Note: As with many of our Ten and Five articles, this article does contain spoilers. Consider yourself warned. For some, Predators may be the sequel to a beloved film catalyst that they’ve been waiting for. This may be because of how beloved the original is or how absolutely atrocious the franchise became almost instantaneously, but for whatever reason, fans seem stoked to see their favorite mandible-flexing killing machines on screen again. The film is a fun one. Unfortunately it’s marred by some of the same sort of crappy issues that plagued most mindless action films of the 1980s. Call it homage, but we had presumably moved on, grown up, and learned how to make an action movie without forcing the audience to turn their brains off. In FSR’s continued commitment to numbering everything, here’s the 5 things I enjoyed about Predators and the 10 things I didn’t.

This week, on a very special Reject Radio, Landon Palmer grabs half a handle of expensive whiskey and gets nostalgic about Cinematic One Night Stands (those movies that you love but never want to see again). We also dig deep into the question of how a CGI character can be fired, debate who should direct Wicked, and discover Youtube. Plus, we manage to squeeze in a few minutes to review Despicable Me, I Am Love, and Predators. Check it out after the jump!

Hollywood is numbers obsessed. From box office to budget, to franchise installments and ensemble casts, it seems bigger is better and the more the merrier. You’d think by now, with a history of increasing the size of things, they’d have a handle on how things behave when they’re bigger or more numerous. Let’s take a look at some fairly popular franchises currently in the news: Alien and Predator. Each is a stunning example of how Hollywood doesn’t understand multiplication, though one is a better example than the other. First, let’s look at the originals and how they compare to the sequels in namesake. Alien was followed, logically, by Aliens. Where there once was one, now there were many. Predator was technically followed by several movies, most of which only featured a single Predator, but thanks to Troublemaker Studios, my analogy will now make more sense with the recent release of Predators.

It’s time to put the skepticism to bed like the nice orphan of past failures that it is.  Just about every film this weekend performed either right around or above expectations, and some second, third, and even fourth weekend films had drops that were impressively minuscule.  As expected, Despicable Me was the big winner of the weekend, but even its take was head and shoulders above most analyst’s best guesses. Predators wasn’t a slam-dunk champion, but it performed on par given its rating and mid-range budget.  Even limited releases that didn’t break into the top 10 had notable debuts.  All in all it was a lucrative weekend to own a movie studio.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr found himself awake on a distant planet being hunted by macho Rastafarian aliens. Then he realized he was still dreaming. Sucked back into reality, he dove into the 3D experience of Despicable Me and reached for a dunce cap for Predators.

As is the case of the rest of the Twilight franchise, Eclipse‘s stay at the top is sure to be short-lived. Two new films hit this weekend, neither of which have the potential to set box-office standards but both that are sure to deliver more than dismal numbers. An animated film in Despicable Me and a return to an R-rated legacy in Predators. The top spot is sure to be a toss-up between the two. Thank God it’s not a hand-to-hand battle, because I feel the spear-wielding, shoulder cannon-blasting alien hunters from another world might serve as a challenge to Steve Carell’s plot to steal the moon. The minions might help though, and that could level the playing field if just for a bit. Full box office analysis and predictions after the jump…

One of the most vivid memories I have of the original Predator film is the no-fluff approach to storytelling. The audience, like the film’s team of mercenaries, is dropped right into the action with little exposition and plenty of machismo. It’s fitting then that Predators, a sequel that disregards everything that has happened since 1987, would do the same — in a more literal sense. When we meet Royce, played by Adrian Brody, he is falling. When he lands, the action begins and the audience is instantaneously transported back to a familiar place. A place deep in the jungle, where a team of killers is hunted by something otherworldly. A place that feels exactly as it should, as it has in the past.

Trying to keep up with the massive amount of chatter around Predators is becoming quite a chore. And while the Austin-produced, Robert Rodriguez created, Nimrod Antal directed production is high on my list of things to do next week, I just don’t have time to write 35 articles about it today. Not when there are burgers to be grilled and fireworks to be exploded this weekend. So I’m bringing you everything I’ve got (at the moment) in one big, juicy Predators update.

A new trailer has hit online and while it features some of the same dialogue beats and punches from the previous domestic one it also adds in a whole lot of bloodletting, gore, and action. There’s even a f*ck between Laurence Fishburne and Topher Grace…

According to NECA, one of the Predator action figures they are making is called “Falconer Predator.” This can only be a great thing.

One look at these new posters from international markets for Robert Rodriguez and Nimrod Antal’s Predators, and you might be reminded that all of the cool marketing happens outside the United States.

It’s that time again. Every year, Film School Rejects is looked to by readers the world over to be the guiding light for summer movie-going. What can we say? We just have a knack for it. And this summer, we’re excited…

20th Century Fox continues to slowly roll out more footage from their big summer actioner Predators, from producer Robert Rodriguez and director Nimrod Antal. This time, we’ve got a behind the scenes featurette focused on Adrien Brody’s character, Royce.

We are all going to die someday. At the hands of predators. Get to know your eventual killers right now with the new teaser trailer.

I won’t start off with a lie and say that Predators was one of my most anticipated films of the year, but I will say that after seeing the sneak peek…Predators is now. Chatting with director Nimród Antal was a great way to understand where the film came from and where it is going. I have a feeling that this one will sneak up on everyone and just blow us all away.

When you have a chance to sit with someone like Robert Rodriguez, a few things go through your mind. Like, “I can’t believe I get to meet one of my favorite directors”, or “What if I come off as a tool?”, and even “Wow, he is tall.” One of the things that is really great about Rodriguez is that he keeps everything close to home, literally.