This weekend’s opulent 3D fantasia “Oz, The Great And Powerful,” directed by former “Spider-Man” directorSam Raimi, is one of Disney‘s biggest movies of the year – a dreamy, technologically advanced marvel that cost $200 million to produce and god knows how much to market. And while this is the latest film from the Mouse House to flirt with the “Wizard of Oz” mythos (originally developed in a series of best-selling fantasy novels by American author L. Frank Baum), it is far from the first. In fact, Disney has been doggedly pursuing the world of Oz, to varying degrees of success, since the…

Hey movie fans, we’re going to be climbing that beanstalk up into the land of the giants on our live broadcast this evening and we’d love for you to join us and contribute in the chatroom, or even just enjoy listening.

I don’t know about Joe, but I’m going to be talking about how good this film is, why I like it, and muse about why in the world critics are panning it. It should be great fun. Even if you didn’t like the film, be sure to tune in and throw popcorn at your screen speakers, and offer up your disagreements via the live chatroom and we might even address them.

Below is the…

Disney is going to continue the Star Wars saga, producing movies set to hit theaters starting in 2015. Can you confirm whether you’ll reprise the role of Princess Leia?

Yes. 

What do you think Princess Leia is like today?

Elderly. She’s in an intergalactic old folks’ home [laughs].

   I just think she would be just like she was before, only slower and less inclined to be up for the big battle.

Kind of old news, but it was never confirmed before. Now it is. I have a feeling that the original cast will be there as more of a send off, but that’s just a working theory. I don’t think…

Here it is, the latest trailer for Iron Man 3, opening on May 3rd. I’m excited for this film and I can’t wait. It looks dark and menacing, but it also looks to have Tony Stark humor as well. What’s more important is that it looks like a far better film than Iron Man 2 was.

Particularly interesting to me is the way the scenes unfold in the trailer that lead up to this statement:

No politics here, just good old fashioned revenge

Of course, trailers can be cut together in deceiving ways and all that, but what does Tony Stark want revenge for? I have a theory, but I don’t want to spoil…

If it worked for Batman and James Bond, why not Lara Croft?

When the producers behind the now 17-year-old “Tomb Raider” videogame franchise considered options to breathe new life into the series, they turned to movies like Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Begins” and 007 adventure “Casino Royale” for inspiration.

The result is the simply titled reboot “Tomb Raider,” out today through Square Enix, that introduces a younger Croft (now 21) and sends her off on her first big adventure. The action and setpieces are amped up; the graphics are slicker to cater to a younger generation of…

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I haven’t said much about the upcoming film Epic yet. It’s an animated film about a teenage girl who finds herself transported by magic into a secret universe in which she must join forces with a rag-tag band of whimsical characters to save their world and ours. I’m skeptical but it may be fun.

EPIC is a 3D CG action-adventure comedy that reveals a hidden world unlike any other. From the creators of ICE AGE and RIO, EPIC tells the story of an ongoing battle deep in the forest between the forces of good who keep the natural world alive and the forces of evil who wish to destroy it. When a…

Apparently, we’re going to be digging in to the characters, and there’s going to be spectacle, and Joss is really excited about the film… who knew, right?

But I am posting this for those of you who, like me, will eat it up anyway. Avengers 2 can’t get here soon enough in my book. What’s taking them so long anyway?

Not much to this one, but we’ve now got confirmation that Halle Berry will once again wear a platinum wig to play the mutant Storm for director Bryan Singer in X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Other cast members from the original X-Men cast assembled by Singer are returning for the director’s new chapter, including Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman, Ellen Page, and Anna Paquin. Berry has been rumored for a while, along with other potential returnees James Marsden and Famke Janssen. Those last two are not confirmed at this point.

All I have to say about this one is, good. I want…

Don’t forget that tomorrow Joe and I will be live broadcasting The MovieByte Podcast Episode #34 in which we will discuss Jack the Giant Slayer.

It does sound like Joe didn’t like it as much as I did so it’s sure to be a lively discussion (as always) and a lot of fun. Be sure to tune in tomorrow night to join in the fun, participate in the chat room, and hear our differing opinions on this film.

And if you can’t make it tomorrow night, well, shame on you! But, we will of course post the episode on the site and to the podcast feed on Thursday so you can enjoy it then.

See you in the…