New posters for 'Now You See Me', 'World War Z', 'Turbo', and more

No, the blockbuster month of May is not over yet. Far from it, actually, as there are still a couple of major films looking to cast a spell next weekend. If you listened to the latest episode of Cinema Royale, then you heard +Tim Gordon and I discussing the prospects for Louis Leterrier's heist film, Now You See Me. Featuring a remarkable cast that includes Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Mark Ruffalo, and Melanie Laurent, it centers on a team of illusionist bank robbers squaring off against a special FBI unit. Anticipated for more than two years, it nonetheless faces stiff competition at the box office, and may not get the attention it probably deserves. Its star power remains the best weapon in Now You See Me's favor, and the latest French poster puts all of it out there in the open. The photo-shopping sucks, but oh well. Look for the film to arrive next week on May 31st.

The new poster for Marc Forster's World War Z is....basically the same as the last one. Is this lazy update a sign that Paramount has essentially thrown in the towel after a chaotic, troubled production that included massive delays, rewrites, and reshoots of critical scenes? It does still have Brad Pitt in the lead role of a U.N. officer traveling around the world to find a cure for a zombie outbreak, but the buzz on this film is incredibly negative right now. Even with a team of talented writers that include Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the Woods) and Damon Lindelof (Lost), along with the huge budget making it the most expensive zombie movie ever, there's every chance that World War Z will flop hard when it opens on June 21st. We shall see.

The Indianapolis 500 is tomorrow, and Dreamworks has been counting down the days with the release of new character posters for Turbo.  The film features the voices of Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, Snoop Dogg, and more in telling the story of a snail with an unlikely dream of entering the famous race. When he's accidentally zapped by nitrous oxide and gains superhuman speed, he hooks up with his own pit crew in order to make his dreams finally come true. Dreamworks has big plans for the character, as he'll be a part of a new Netflix series titled Turbo: F.A.S.T., which debuts this December. The film hits the track on July 17th.

The closing night film at this year's Cannes will be Zulu, the latest film from Jerome Salle, the director of Anthony Zimmer, which was then remade here in America as The Tourist. The film stars Orlando Bloom and Forest Whitaker as a pair of cops in Cape Town circa 2010, investigating the murder of a rugby star's daughter. As the case begins to unfold, they make a startling discovery that could implicate those at the highest levels.

Even though I think we can all agree that The Smurfs 2 will probably be insultingly awful, the fact remains it's probably one of the summer's few guaranteed hits. Exactly what that says about us as moviegoing society, well, that's for you to decide. The sequel takes Smurfette (Katy Perry), Papa Smurf (Jonathan Winters), and the gang to Paris where the evil Gargamel (Hank Azaria) hopes to use the Eiffel Tower to power his latest scheme. They'll face the appropriately-named Naughties (voiced by Christina Ricci and JB Smoove) and get help from their human friends, Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays, Brendan Gleeson, and Sofia Vergara. >yawn<  The Smurfs 2 opens on July 31st.