MPAA demands that The Hangover Part II trailer be pulled

The Motion Picture Association of America has demanded that the Hangover Part II trailer no longer be shown due to what it deems obscenity.

Last week when the trailer for the upcoming The Hangover Part II aired, there were a few concerns. The jokes were not all that great, the gags seemed familiar, and–worst of all–the plot seemed to be a carbon copy of the original, down to the supporting actors from the first film improbably making their way across the ocean to suddenly run into the film’s stars. But while fans may have been slightly concerned, or at the very least underwhelmed by the clip, there was a much bigger problem with the trailer. Simulated monkey sex.

After viewing the trailer, the MPAA immediately contacted the film’s distributor, Warner Bros., and demanded that the trailer be removed from all theaters and not aired on any of the official websites.

The problem stems from the scene at the end, where Zack Galifianakis’ character puts a water bottle in an old man’s pants and has a monkey simulate a…well, very non PG-13 act, which earned the ire of the MPAA. Warner Bros. quickly apologized for the trailer in a statement given to The Hollywood Reporter, and complied by yanking the trailer offline and out of the theaters.

We applaud the quick work of the MPAA in their diligent monitoring of all potentially offensive video clips–like that of The Hangover Part II–and we are glad that the offending trailer will no longer plague the innocent and unsuspecting eyeballs of unwitting theater audiences. The trailer is both disgusting and obscene, and should never be aired again! You can find it here, or just watch it below.

The Hangover Part II will hit theaters on May 26, Memorial Day weekend.

[Warning: The following trailer may not be suitable for all MPAAs]

L.A. Noire blurs the line between film and video game in this new trailer

Trailer: Rockstar Games and Team Bondi have released a new trailer for the upcoming L.A. Noire, which shows just how far stories in video games have comes.

It is one of the oldest questions in the video game industry—can a game tell a truly immersive story in the same way that a movie can? Sure, there have been plenty of titles with a cinematic slant, but the nagging question of whether or not a game can actually be used as a medium to deliver a riveting story with real emotions remains. It is an old argument, and one that many gamers have strong opinions on, but for the majority of people, it is a gray area at best. But judging by the clips released for the upcoming L.A. Noire, that question may be put to rest for good.

Set in 1947 Los Angeles, LA. Noire is a detective story that uses the noire theme to its full effect.  You play as L.A.P.D. Detective Phelps, as he journeys through the underworld of Los Angeles in pursuit of a killer. Along the way you come across a new influx of drugs on the streets, gambling, prostitution and all the vices you might expect. Corruption and lies are all part of the job, and the open sandbox style game which allows you to roam the streets of LA will offer multiple side stories.

Looking at the trailer, it really is no surprise that L.A. Noire is the first video game to ever be chosen as part of the Tribeca film festival. As you can see in the trailer below, the graphics are solid, but the real emphasis is on the facial animations that make the characters not just come to life, but to tell a story through the way they look and move. In theory it is something many games have tried, but few have truly succeeded at, especially not to this scale.

As with the previous trailer, this trailer is filmed using all in-game graphics. Check out the pre-order trailers as well, which advertise the two DLCs that you can obtain by buying your copy at certain retailers.

Look for L.A. Noire on PS3 and Xbox 360 on May 17, 2011.

[Warning: The following trailer may not be suitable for all ages]

Roland Emmerich blows up Shakespeare in this trailer for Anonymous

Trailer: In Director Roland Emmerich takes us back to Elizabethan times with a story about the truth behind Shakespeare.

Director Roland Emmerich has made a career out of disaster themed movies. Typically he has the world doing its best to actively kill us pesky humans, whether it be through ice in The Day After Tomorrow, aliens in Independence Day, or whatever that was in 2012. His movies are spectacles, and they are designed to entertain through disaster. In his newest film though, Emmerich brings the disaster to a smaller group of people—English majors.

The story of Anonymous questions whether or not Shakespeare actually wrote his own plays. Set during the succession of Queen Elizabeth (Vanessa Redgrave), Anonymous follows the possible “real Shakespeare”, the Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere (Rhys Ifans), as a battle between the Tudors and the Cecils looms over who will succeed the queen.

Through a series of strange events, de Vere hides his identity behind a proxy. He then sire’s an illegitimate child with the Queen, who may or may not be his mother. And thus English majors heads’ everywhere will begin to explode.

It is actually not an original theory, weird though it may be. The story is based on the obscure “Oxfordian theory”, which claims that de Vere actually wrote the plays attributed to Shakespeare.  There are several reasons why this theory persists, but one of the most significant is that Oxford’s life shared many similarities to the plays of Shakespeare, especially Hamlet. To fans of Shakespeare, it is an interesting theory in the same way that Ebola is an interesting disease, but it is a theory that has held up throughout the centuries.

Anonymous hits theaters on September 30, 2011.

Dragon Age: Redemption releases live action trailer

The upcoming web-based miniseries based on Bioware’s Dragon Age series, written by and starring Felicia Day, has released a new trailer.

Felicia Day fans, today is your lucky day! Behold the first trailer for the upcoming web-based miniseries, Dragon Age: Redemption. The six episode series was written by, and stars Day as an elven assassin named Talis, who is hunting a renegade magician through the land of Ferelden.

Although the series was just announced earlier this week, filming has already completed.

No air date has been officially announced, although in the clip–which debuted last night on Jimmy Fallon–it claims a summer release, which seems somewhat odd with the release of the game Dragon Age II on March 8. So either the summer release date is incorrect, or perhaps more likely, EA and Bioware are looking at the Dragon Age franchise as more than just a series of games. This web series might be the first step towards a possible feature film or live-action TV show, although that is pure conjecture.

Check out the trailer below, and keep an eye out for Dragon Age: Redemption in the next few weeks or months.

Rage brings the awesome in this new trailer

Bethesda Softworks and id Software have released the new “Untethered” trailer for their upcoming first-person shooter Rage.

So id Software and Bethesda have been doing their mad scientist thing in the metaphorical video game lab, and the result is the monster new title Rage (usually stylized as RAGE). And it looks fairly awesome–ok, it looks more than awesome, and we wants it now like Gollum wanted the precious.

As the trailer claims, RAGE pretty much blew people away during E3, partly because it just looks kinda amazing, but also because of the pedigree and potential behind the production. Id has long had a tradition of releasing epic titles like the Doom, Wolfesntein and Quake games, while Bethesda has earned a reputation for quality titles as well. Then there is the debut of the highly anticipated id Tech 5 engine, which is sort of the cherry on top of what is easily among the most anticipated titles of the year.

Set in a post-apocalyptic world, you awaken after the Earth has been devastated by an asteroid. You were supposed to be part of a contingency plan that cryogenically preserved a select group of people to help repopulate the planet, but things—as they tend to do in these types of games—went wrong and you find yourself alone and confused in a hostile, mutant-infested wasteland.

Check out the trailer below, and look for RAGE on PC, Mac, PS3 and Xbox 360 on September 13.

[Warning: Trailer may not be appropriate for all ages]

Final Fantasy XIII-2 confirmed (Updated with a trailer)

Square Enix has announced that it is working on a direct sequel to last year’s Final Fantasy XIII. Final Fantasy XIII-2 is due out sometime next year.

Earlier today, Square Enix announced that last year’s Final Fantasy XIII will take the same route that Final Fantasy X did when it released the Final Fantasy X-2, and receive a direct sequel.

Final Fantasy XIII was something of a divisive title. In general, Japanese audiences loved the fighting system and heaped massive praise on the game, going so far as to name it one of the best games of 2009. When it was released the next year in the US, it was well received by some and hated by others. As with the Japanese fans, the story received top marks from American gamers, but the battle system failed to impress many and the pacing was an issue that was frequently brought up. The linear nature of the game also received criticism in America, while the Japanese market seemed to enjoy that same linearity.

The sequel will once again follow Lightning, the hero from the first game, although it will feature a revamped battle system. Final Fantasy XIII-2 will hit Japan sometime “next winter”.  No immediate word yet on when to expect it in the U.S., but the original followed its Japanese predecessor roughly four months later.

[Updated with the clip below. The trailer is technically unofficial as it has been leaked, but not officially sanctioned by Square Enix]