I want to start this post off with a warning (although it may be too late): If you’re like me and you’re going to watch the next Guy Ritchie film no matter how good the preview is, please do not watch this trailer. It gives away far too much about the movie, and I really wish that I could rewind time and unwatch it.

That said, this trailer does prove that Guy Ritchie is finally back to form. After the atrocity known as Swept Away, it looks like Guy Ritchie has finally learned a very valuable lesson: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Let’s face it. Guy Ritchie only knows how to make one kind of movie, as he proved by following Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels with Snatch, which was essentially the same film but with the addition of a gibberish-talking Brad Pitt.

But the truth is that although Guy Ritchie may be just a one-trick pony, he is certainly a very talented pony, and his one-trick is pretty damn impressive. And any movie Guy Ritchie makes that doesn’t star his wife will always be a SEE IT for me.

Now if only his marketing guys had as much faith in him as I do…maybe then they wouldn’t feel the need to show me the whole damn movie to try and convince me that it’s worth my 11 bucks.

Revolver is rated R and opens December 7 (although it opened in Europe two years ago…that’s probably a bad sign, but oh well).

I have a very fond memory of the night I first saw Pulp Fiction back in High School. This mainly has to do with the fact that I was with Beth Ritchie, a girl who was blatantly out of my league and who two years later went on to become Homecoming Queen (not that she acknowledged my existence at that point). But a big part of my memory has to do with how amazing Pulp Fiction was, especially that first time I watched it. I don’t think I had ever seen another movie that was so unabashedly cool before.

Since that time, I’ve tried hard to find another movie that equaled the coolness of Pulp Fiction, and like many of us, I’ve been fooled a few too many times by slick-looking trailers and unwarranted hype. (2 Days in the Valley is a perfect example.) This is sort of like trying to duplicate my luck of going out with the future Homecoming Queen, only to find out that the girl I was with is actually a Drag Queen.

The point is, I’ve become very skeptical over the years of movies that claim to be the “coolest film since Pulp Fiction.” And this is exactly what Smokin’ Aces has tried to bill itself as.

It’s sort of a shame that I’m so skeptical, because Smokin’ Aces does have a lot of things going for it. First and foremost, it’s got Jeremy Piven, and I’ve been a huge Jeremy Piven fan since before he had hair (and I’m so glad that Entourage has given him the opportunity to be more than just John Cusack’s sidekick in films). Smokin’ Aces is also the next project from the writer and director of Narc, which has somehow earned the simultaneous distinction of being both a movie that everybody loved and a movie that nobody saw. And lastly, the trailer for Smokin’ Aces does actually look kinda, well, cool.

But alas, I refuse to waste more money on another “coolest film since Pulp Fiction,” only to find out that it’s actually dumber than The Big Hit. It’s like our great president once said…fool me once, shame on you; fool me again,…uh…well, you can’t get fooled again!

There’s a slight chance that Smokin’ Aces may turn out to really be as cool as the trailer suggests, but I’m personally going to wait until I RENT IT to find out.

Smokin’ Aces is rated R and opens on January 26. (Official Site)