A Las Vegas-set comedy centered around three groomsmen who lose their about-to-be-wed buddy during their drunken misadventures, then must retrace their steps in order to find him.

Hmm, did Ashton and Cameron’s success in Vegas influence director Todd Phillips to finally pick his first project since the woefully misguided School for Scoundrels remake? Whatever the case, Phillips and Warner Bros. are keeping it low budget here, with a B-list cast (at best) that should keep this comedy in the black.

Rated R for pervasive language, sexual content including nudity, and some drug material.

Director: Todd Phillips
Stars: Zach Galifianakis, Bradley Cooper, Justin Bartha
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: 5 June 2009 (USA)
Genre: Comedy

Set in post-apocalyptic 2018, John Connor is the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the future Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright, a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet’s operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind.

Terminator Salvation reminds me of Iron Man in that it capitalized on Comic-Con to get fans of the saga off of McG’s back and on his side instead. After a spirited presentation in San Diego last year, where the director eloquently described the story’s theme of an individual’s free will versus their destiny, the haters unfolded their arms and realized that the man up on the stage isn’t the same guy who made Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. In all honestly, once Christian Bale signed up to play John Connor, I sensed that TS might wind up being the second best Terminator movie ever. And with Sam Worthington bending the story’s mythology a bit more, do you really need a Schwarzenegger cameo here? (No, but I, in narrator mode, give a roar of approval for the presence of Linda Hamilton.) More memorable awesomeness from Comic-Con was Anton Yelchin’s quote regarding his ambition for his character, Kyle Reese: To show “how Michael Biehn became so awesome that Linda Hamilton would sleep with him.”

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and language.

Director: McG
Stars: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Anton Yelchin
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: 27 May 2009 (Indonesia)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller

At the Forest Ridge Mall, head of security Ronnie Barnhardt patrols his jurisdiction with an iron fist, combating skateboarders, shoplifters and the occasional unruly customer while dreaming of the day when he can swap his flashlight for a badge and a gun. His delusions of grandeur are put to the test when the mall is struck by a flasher. Driven to protect and serve the mall and its patrons, Ronnie seizes the opportunity to showcase his underappreciated law enforcement talents on a grand scale, hoping his solution of this crime will earn a coveted spot at the police academy and the heart of his elusive dream girl Brandi, the hot make-up counter clerk who won’t give him the time of day. But his single-minded pursuit of glory launches a turf war with the equally competitive Detective Harrison of the Conway Police, and Ronnie is confronted with the challenge of not only catching the flasher, but getting him before the real cops do.

While the Foot Fist Way failed to make director Jody Hill a household name, the weird-o action comedy did capture Hollywood’s attention, and one of the undying movie trends in Los Angeles is the desire to push the boundaries of mainstream comedy. Call it the Apatow effect. From what we understand, OaR might even offend perverts with its uncouth behaviors. Rogen’s playing an unlikable character for the “first” time (that’s what Internet boys are saying, to which I say: Did you not see Knocked Up?), and his clashes with Liotta are reportedly as un-politically correct as his tryst with Anna Faris (playing a put-upon cosmetics-counter girl) is gag-inducing. Plus, full frontal male nudity. JoBlo has some scoop.

Rated R for pervasive language, graphic nudity, drug use, sexual content and violence.

Director: Jody Hill
Stars: Seth Rogen, Anna Faris, Ray Liotta
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: 10 April 2009 (USA)
Genre: Action | Comedy

“Watchmen” is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society, and the “Doomsday Clock” – which charts the USA’s tension with the Soviet Union – is permanently set at five minutes to midnight. When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the washed up but no less determined masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes. As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion – a ragtag group of retired superheroes, only one of whom has true powers – Rorschach glimpses a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future. Their mission is to watch over humanity… but who is watching the Watchmen?”

With this movie and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, comic-book superheroes will continue to dominate the box office in 2009, a year after the genre truly broke as a bankable entity. And in Watchmen’s case, never has a storyline been so intricate, with arcs that span from the Cuban Missle Crisis to the Reagan Era, and out to Mars and back again. Is it fit for mass consumption? Surely, especially now that audiences are connecting with anti-heroes (or, in this case, ex-superheroes), and let’s not forget how in the 1980s are, too. Already people are talking about director Zack Snyder’s page-to-screen take on the graphic novel by Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore (the latter of whom is not on board with the project, thank you very much) — has he copied the look of it too much? Not enough? Or are you, like thousands of other people, reading the book for the first time?

Rated R for strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity and language.

Director: Zack Snyder
Stars: Jackie Earle Haley, Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: 6 March 2009 (Indonesia)
Genre: Action | Drama | Fantasy | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Young friends Whitney (Amanda Righetti), Mike (Nick Mennell), Richie (Ben Feldman), Amanda (America Olivio), and Wade (Jonathan Sadowski) end up missing in the woods near the abandoned Camp Crystal Lake (made famous by the original 1980 film), after allowing their curiosity to get the better of them and visiting the site where a physcopathic killer resides. Meanwhile Trent (Travis Van Winkle) invites friends Jenna (Danielle Panabaker), Bree (Julianna Guill), Chewie (Aaron Yoo), Chelsea (Willa Ford), Lawrence (Arlen Escarpta), and Nolan (Ryan Hansen) to his cabin on the lake for a weekend of sex, booze, and drugs. However their seemingly fun weekend soon escalates into a nightmare after lone traveler Clay (Jared Padalecki) shows up looking for his missing sister Whitney and the young adults soon find themselves face to face with evil reborn, reimagined, and rebooted, and his name is Jason Vorhees (Derek Mears).

Most of the behind-the-camera dudes who made the well-received Texas Chainsaw Massacre are present here, including director Marcus Nispel and producers Andrew Form and Brad Fuller. Form and Fuller sneaked some footage and addressed fan concerns at Comic-Con this year, a sign of their commitment to the horror genre and its never-ending barrage of remakes and reboots. Expect to be treated to an old-school horror movie, heavy on slasher tension and a more aggressive Jason — Derek Mears described his take on Voorhees as more of a fast-moving predator who sets up his prey. Also, Jason’s mom figures into the action somehow!

Rated R for strong bloody violence, some graphic sexual content, language and drug material.

Director: Marcus Nispel
Stars: Jared Padalecki, Amanda Righetti, Derek Mears
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: 13 February 2009 (USA)