This just in. Tropic Thunder, the war movie spoof starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr., has just launched three new sites to add to the rainofmadness.com site that kicked off their viral marketing campaign.

The three sites are all devoted to Ben Stiller’s character in the movie, Tugg Speedman. One is a Tugg Speedman fan site, and the other two are fake movie sites for Tugg Speedman’s previous two movies, Simple Jack and Scorcher 6. Both of these sites will debut fake trailers for these fake movies sometime in the near future.

Anyways, here are the sites. Check em out!

http://www.tuggspeedman.com/
http://www.simplejackmovie.com/
http://www.scorchermovie.com/

If after seeing the lackluster The Other Boleyn Girl you are still jonesing to see a period piece somewhat based on actual events, then The Duchess may be of interest to you. Based (loosely, one must assume) on the life of the Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire, The Duchess stars Keira Knightley as Georgiana, a woman forced into marriage with the Duke of Devonshire, a man who barely acknowledges his wife’s existence. When the Duke lashes out at her for not producing a male heir and then begins an affair with another woman, Georgiana acts out and attracts the attention and affection of every man in England. And while the Duke may not see fit to pay his wife any attention, it certainly doesn’t go over well when she seeks it elsewhere.

As I’ve stated before, I’m a sucker for movies featuring funny wigs and ruffled shirts, and The Duchess looks like it’ll be filled with plenty of good old-fashioned bodice-ripping passion. Knightley has certainly proved that she shines best in period pieces, and it’ll be interesting to see her hold her own against Ralph Fiennes (playing the Duke), so I’ll definitely RENT IT.

The Duchess is rated PG-13 and opens in limited release September 19. (Official site)

The trailer for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is very careful not to give away any major plot points. But when the premise of your movie is the story of a man who ages backwards, I guess you don’t need to reveal too much to get people interested.

Brad Pitt stars as Benjamin, and Cate Blanchett is the woman he knew as a child, when he was an old man, who he falls in love with as an adult, when he’s a young man. Confusing, yes, but after seeing the bizarre old-man child in the trailer, I am indeed curious to see how Benjamin looks as a young-child old man. I’ll eventually RENT IT.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is not yet rated and opens December 19. (Official site)

The Coen brothers are back with a new movie that’s not meant to scare the living crap out of you. There’s probably not much I need to say to convince you to go SEE IT, so here’s just a few key elements for you to consider:

• Coen brothers
• Frances McDormand
• Comedy-Drama
• Brad Pitt
• Crime caper
• George Clooney

Convinced yet? OK, John Malkovich is in it, too. I’ll see you at the theater.

Burn After Reading is rated R and opens September 12. (Official site)

Why is it that so many people get so upset over old movies getting remade? Sure, most of the remakes kind of suck, but nobody made you watch them, and the remake doesn’t diminish the quality of the original movie we all know and love so well. Hell, Cruel Intentions was actually a great remake of Dangerous Liaisons. But The Women, a remake of a 1939 classic by the same name, is the latest remake that has classic movie lovers in an uproar.

Which is too bad, because it actually looks like a decent movie. The plot has certainly withstood the test of time: a group of socialite women discover that the husband of one of their own is cheating on her, so she leaves the cheater and joins her female friends at a ritzy resort. Cue the female bonding, plenty of cattiness and gossip, and lots of twisted relationships. With a cast that features Annette Bening, Bette Midler, Candice Bergen, and Meg Ryan (coming out from under the rock she’s been living beneath), this could be another great 2008 movie for female audiences (the other being some small movie about four women getting laid in a city of some kind). I’ll definitely RENT IT when it comes out on DVD.

The Women is rated PG-13 and opens September 12. (Official site)

Well, it’s taken me a while, but I’ve finally completed my list of The Top 20 Movie Trailers of All-Time.

This list is obviously just one person’s opinion (albeit a person who’s seen a whole lot of movie trailers in his lifetime), so please feel free to comment on my selections or to let people know which trailers you think I missed.

I must be getting hard up from some decent movie releases, because I actually find myself drawn to this trailer for an animated children’s movie. Granted, it looks like it’s slightly edgier than your average kid’s movie, but still…

Igor tells the story of, well, Igor, the fabled hunchbacked lab assistant from the various Frankenstein movies. Turns out, there are many mad scientists out there, each with their own personal Igor who they belittle and abuse. One Igor in particular (voiced by the amiable John Cusack) is tired of being treated so poorly, and decides to break out of his mold and try his own hand at inventing something that will win him the annual evil science fair. Throw in a couple of kooky sidekicks, and you have one irreverent “triumphing against all odds” movie.

While I doubt Igor will be worth an $11 movie ticket (it ain’t Pixar, after all), I’ll probably eventually RENT IT.

Igor is not yet rated and opens September 19. (Official site)

I would hope that even the most die-hard Woody Allen fan would admit that the man’s work is either hit or miss. When he’s on, he’s on fire. When he’s off, you get The Curse of the Jade Scorpion. I can’t quite get a handle on which end of the spectrum Vicky Cristina Barcelona will fall, since the trailer really doesn’t give anything away. No, really…there’s not even any dialogue in it.

From what I can cobble together based on the snapshots in the trailer and my own reading about the film, Javier Bardem (looking far less terrifying than the last time I saw him) is a Spanish artist who gets it on with a lot of women. He’s sleeping with two American tourists (one played by Allen’s new favorite ingénue, Scarlett Johansson) and also has a jealous ex (Penelope Cruz) tracking him down. And there’s lots and lots of sex.

The trailer shows little more than short clips of some steamy love scenes all set to a Spanish song, with any dialogue from the movie removed. I would think they would want to market a Woody Allen film as something more than a sensationalized adult film, but what do I know? Well, I do know this: as for this particular Allen film, I’m going to SKIP IT. If it turns out to be his next Annie Hall, I’m sure someone will tell me.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona is rated R and opens in limited release August 29. (Official site)

Finding Amanda is the story of a guy with a gambling addiction who goes to Las Vegas to convince his runaway niece to stop working as a hooker and go into rehab. Sounds like a pretty good role for someone like Steven Buscemi. But somehow Matthew Broderick is the one playing it.

Fully embracing the sad sack middle-aged loser persona, Broderick stars as Taylor, a man who has traded his drug and alcohol abuse for a gambling problem. When his wife finally has enough and kicks him out of the house, he decides to head for Vegas, where his niece Amanda is now living and working as a prostitute. Taylor figures if he can not gamble while there and convince Amanda to enter rehab, maybe his wife will take him back. But Amanda’s not too interested in turning her life around, and even a nun couldn’t go to Vegas and not gamble, so problems with the plan naturally ensue.

The movie is currently a part of the Tribeca Film Festival with no immediate wide release plans, so I’ll eventually RENT IT to see Ferris Bueller all grown up and dealing with his hooker niece.

Finding Amanda is rated R with an unknown release date. (IMDB site)

Don’t you hate it when all you want is a little peace and quiet for one day, but it seems like everyone you know has chosen that day to harass you? That one day is Henry Poole’s entire life.

Longing for a life of quiet solitude, Henry (played by the ever-affable Luke Wilson) retreats to his childhood suburban neighborhood and adopts a hermit-like lifestyle. But then a nosy neighbor notices a water stain on the side of his house that resembles the face of Jesus (or maybe it’s God; I sort of dropped out of Sunday school). So now, much to his chagrin, every devout believer in the area is coming to Henry’s backyard to worship and pray at his wall. But when he starts a tentative relationship with the women next store with a daughter who never speaks, Henry realizes that these “holy rollers” (as he calls them) may not be so crazy after all and maybe there is something to the whole faith and hope thing.

While this looks like it could be a moderately entertaining movie, I’m going to SKIP IT. Movies that use kids with weird disabilities or personality traits to tug at the heartstrings rub me the wrong way, as do overly-preachy movies. Plus, while I have enjoyed Wilson in his many supporting roles, I’m not sure he has what it takes to carry an entire movie by himself.

Henry Poole Is Here is rated PG and opens in limited release August 15. (Official site)