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)

If you’ve ever taken the time to read TrailerSpy’s “About” page, then you have way too much time on your hands. But also, you would have noticed that Grosse Point Blank is one of my favorite movies of all-time. I own the VHS (google it) and I’ve watched it more times than I care to admit publicly.

Anyways, a couple weeks ago, I was reading some guys blog, and he said that John Cusack’s new movie, War, Inc. looked like Grosse Point Blank 2. And I remember thinking, “Yeah right buddy, nice try.”

But then I saw this new trailer, and I have to say that the similarities are suddenly undeniable.

After all, John Cusack is once again playing a hit-man, and once again, his sister is playing his head-set wearing, foul-mouthed assistant. Dan Aykroyd is in this one as well (although this time they’re on the same team). And once again, he’s having morality issues and delaying the hit that he was sent to perform (this time on a foreign oil minister). Obviously there are a number of differences, but for the most part, Cusack’s character and the tone of the movie look to be exactly the same.

The truth is, this movie was bound to be a SEE IT for me, anyway. I love John Cusack, and the idea of him humorously tackling the Iraq War and the whole terrorist thing is music to my ears. But now that I see this movie for what it really is, a clever non-sequel sequel to one of my favorite movies, well, I am beyond excited.

War, Inc. is rated R and opens in limited release on May 23 (although the IMDB Page says that the DVD premiere is July 1st…are they serious?!! They’re really just going to do a pseudo straight-to-DVD for this movie?!! Maybe these guys just don’t like making money, because I guarantee this movie would gross at least $10 million on opening weekend. Hopefully they rethink that, so that my SEE IT doesn’t involuntarily become a RENT IT, because I’m just dying to pay someone, anyone, $11 to see this movie on the big screen. Alright, I’m done complaining now.)

The more trailers I watch, the more I feel like it really ain’t that hard to make a good one. For those aspiring trailer makers out there, I’ll tell you what I think are the three most important things to consider while making your trailer: Music, Music, and Music.

There’s a misconception out there that movie trailers are supposed to be mini-movies. In other words, you take the best dialog and drama and comedy from your movie, and you cram them into a two and a half minute short. However, in my opinion, a good movie trailer isn’t a mini-movie; it’s a Music Video.

Trailers are a medium far different than a movie. They’re not meant to teach you anything or move you or surprise you. They’re just meant to pump you up for the future film. So I say, leave the heartwarming drama and the intriguing twists for the actual movie, and instead, just make a fun little music video. Pick out a couple catchy tunes, throw in some flashy scenes, finish it off with a witty one-liner, and vuala, a sure seat-filler.

And with that, I give you the trailer for Street Kings. It’s the best trailer I’ve seen in a long while (which automatically makes the movie a SEE IT for me). And I don’t say that because I like the Speed/Training Day feel they got going on, nor because I’m a die-hard House fan and love the idea of seeing Hugh Laurie on the big screen. The real reason I love this trailer is because of the music. It’s perfect.

And speaking of music, if you’re like me and you just have to know what songs are playing in a trailer, I’ll clue you in.

The song in the beginning is Lupe Fiasco’s “Put You On Game.” And the song at the end is RZA’s “Fatal,” from the Blade:Trinity soundrack.

Street Kings is rated R and opens April 11. (Official Site)

Oh, and as always, you can leave a comment here.

Every once in a while, a trailer comes along that makes me giddy with delight. A huge grin spreads across my face as I clap like a four-year-old on Christmas morning. The trailer for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is one of these trailers, a trailer that reminds me why I love going to the movies.

Prince Caspian, like its predecessor The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, is a faithful adaptation of the saga written by C.S. Lewis. I read The Chronicles of Narnia annually during my dorky childhood, and so far the movies are even better than I had ever imagined in the books. In this installment, the Pevensie kids return to Narnia one year later to find that an eon has passed and their kingdom is in turmoil. The battle scenes alone will be worth my $11.

Prince Caspian is unmissable. For everyone who loves an epic adventure on the big screen, SEE IT. For everyone who wishes there could be another installment of Lord of the Rings, SEE IT. For all you Harry Potter fans in withdrawal, SEE IT. For all the fellow dweebs who still hope to find Narnia waiting behind the next door, SEE IT.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is not yet rated and opens May 16. (official site)

P.S. This installment comes to you from Puerto Iguazú, Argentina. Check Globestompers.com for the latest on my trip around the world.

Feel free to comment on Julie’s post here.

In my post for Dan in Real Life, I stated that I was officially experiencing Steve Carell overload. Which is still true. By my estimation, Steve Carell has starred in about 200 movies over the past year (OK, so it’s actually only 4 or 5, but it does feels like a lot more).

I guess that’s why I was so quick to discredit his new movie, Get Smart. That is, until I saw this trailer.

The idea behind Get Smart is pretty simple: bumbling idiot becomes international spy. However, the idea behind casting Steve Carell in this role is nothing short of brilliant.

Get Smart is essentially a live-action version of Inspector Gadget. Or to put it in terms of more modern pop-cultural phenomenon, Get Smart is what would happen if Michael from The Office became an international spy. Which is exactly why this casting is so spot on. There’s a lot of good comedic actors around these days, but none of them do the self-righteous moron character quite as well as Steve Carell does. And this movie seems to be the natural progression for Carell’s self-righteous moron character. In other words, if you think he was funny running an office, wait till you see him trying to save the world…

So I guess that Get Smart is going to be a SEE IT for me. Granted, I still wish that Carell would tease us a little more by making fewer movies. However, this is certainly one of the movies that he should have made. And from the looks of the trailer, I expect it to be damn funny.

Get Smart is rated PG-13 and opens on June 20. (Official site)

There’s a theory in the entertainment industry that women, for the most part, aren’t funny. And if there was ever a woman to disprove this ridiculous theory, I believe that Tina Fey is her. She managed to inject a much needed dose of humor into SNL (a show that, let’s face it, has been struggling for laughs ever since she left). She even managed to keep Mean Girls from being a soppy teenage drama bomb and made it a truly hilarious, and eerily accurate, movie. And if you don’t think that 30 Rock is one of the best comedies on TV right now…I don’t even know what to say to that. Fey is both a great comedic writer and actor, and despite the fact that she’s so hilarious and probably rich enough to buy me on the black market, she manages to remain a down to earth and relatable person. She not only proves that women can be funny, but she proves that they can also be smart, sexy, and normal, all at the same time.

Because of all this, I’m definitely interested in her upcoming film, Baby Mama. Fey plays a successful businesswoman of a certain age longing to have a baby. But due to fertility issues, she has to find herself a surrogate. Enter fellow funny lady Amy Poehler as a dimwitted, Southern-drawling, junk food eating, yet highly fertile baby mama (could her character be based on a certain former Mouseketeer whose life is currently spiraling out of control?). Poehler moves in with Fey during the pregnancy, upsetting Fey’s meticulously ordered life, and naturally, hilarity ensues.

Normally I wait for comedies to come onto DVD, but I might actually make the trip to the theater to SEE IT. I think I owe it to Fey and all the funny women trying to make it in show business.

Baby Mama is not yet rated and opens April 25. (IMDB page)

Feel free to tell us your opinion here

Thanks to this TrailerSpy gig, I’m constantly searching the internet to see if there have been any new trailers released lately. However, the majority of the trailers I find are either for movies that really don’t interest me or for movies that I already knew were in the pipeline. But then, every once in a while, I’ll stumble upon a trailer for a movie that I had no idea was being made and which looks frickin’ awesome.

Such was the case with this Hancock trailer. Maybe I just wasn’t paying enough attention, but I had no idea that one of my favorite actors (Will Smith) was making a movie on one of my favorite topics (superheroes). And not only that, the protagonist in this movie is one of my favorite types of protagonist: the anti-hero (or in this case, anti-superhero). In other words, Hancock is about a superhero with serious character flaws, who really could care less about being a superhero. How can you not love that premise?

With the recent spate of cartoon superhero adaptations, it seems to me that this movie is exactly what we need right now. Superman is great and all, but all that do-gooder stuff can get a little boring sometimes. So why not utilize all that great CGI technology to make a superhero who’s a little more interesting. And did you see the scenes with him flying without a cape…tell me that didn’t look pretty cool.

As you may have guessed, Hancock is a SEE IT from me. I’ve been hearing bad things about I Am Legend (which is probably why I haven’t seen it yet), but even if that does flop, it looks like Will Smith has enough good stuff in the works that he won’t completely fall out of the public’s good-graces.

Hancock is not yet rated and opens July 2. (IMDB page)

I’ve been watching Adam Sandler for almost two decades now, and the entire time, I’ve been thinking the same thing: “What the hell is it that makes this guy so damn funny?” And to this day, I haven’t been able to figure it out.

Do you guys remember Sandler’s Halloween bit on Saturday Night Live, where he went on Weekend Update and described some possible Halloween costumes? But instead of elaborate costumes, he’d just use some minor prop (like a newspaper) to make a silly character. “Hey, I’m crazy newspaper face…now gimme some candy!” And for some reason, each character was hilarious.

Well, it seems to me that Sandler has taken that bit and stretched it out into a unbelievably successful movie career. Instead of creating elaborate characters by drastically altering his personality or appearance (i.e. acting), Sandler has basically just used minor character devices and then proceeded to act like himself but with a funny voice. “Hey, I’m a crazy waterboy who plays football.” “Look at me, I’m a crazy 1980’s wedding singer.” “Hey, I’m a crazy gay firefighter…” And for some reason, it’s been hilarious every time.

But I guess maybe there just isn’t anything complicated to figure out. Maybe it’s just that good old fashion “it factor.” I mean, the guy is obviously one of the funniest men in Hollywood, and apparently anything he does is going to be funny. Period.

Which is why this new movie, You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, is an automatic SEE IT for me. I don’t know why, but I know this movie is going to be funny. Because it’s Sandler, and he always cracks me up, even if all he’s doing in this film is putting on a funny Israeli accent and saying “Look at me, I’m a crazy Mossad agent turned New York hairdresser…now gimme your money!” And give him my money, I will.

You Don’t Mess With the Zohan is not yet rated and opens June 6. (IMDB page)

As I promised in my Sweeney Todd trailer review, I’m going to tell you to go see Mamma Mia! this summer. I’ve seen it on Broadway (at the request of my ABBA-loving mother) and can sum up the show in a few brief words: cheesy, unsubstantial, and bloody good fun.

The story is as flimsy as tissue paper: Girl wants her dad to attend her upcoming wedding, but she doesn’t know who he is. She finds three possibilities by digging into her mother’s sordid past, and invites them all to the wedding. They all show up, mom gets flustered, girl attempts to find out which one is her dad, lots of silly singing and dancing ensues.

But as most Mamma Mia! fans will tell you, the story doesn’t matter, it’s all about the music. The show was constructed around the tunes of everyone’s favorite 70’s Swedish pop group, ABBA (if you can’t at least admit that “Dancing Queen” is a catchy tune, you may have no soul). And in trying to create a show around preexisting songs, some (OK, a lot) of artistic license is taken with the storyline.

While the stage show is certainly entertaining, I’m somewhat concerned about how well it’ll translate to film. What makes the stage show so entertaining is the fact that it’s all live; you feel like you’re at an ABBA cover band concert. Audience members can even sing along and dance in the aisles at the end of the show. So how well will this translate to the screen, where you’re supposed to sit in the dark, quietly, and watch actors who are unable to feed off the audience’s energy? I don’t know, but I’ll be at the theaters to SEE IT opening weekend and find out.

Mamma Mia! is not yet rated and opens July 18. (IMDB page)

Is it possible to have absolutely no desire to see a movie and yet, at the same time, be very excited to see that same movie? Well, I suppose it is possible, because that’s exactly how I feel about this new Speed Racer flick.

When I first heard that they were making a Speed Racer movie earlier this year, I recall feeling very nauseous. Granted, I had recently eaten some bad sushi, but I’m sure the Speed Racer thing didn’t help. Maybe I’m alone on this one, but I personally think it’s a horrible idea to make a movie off of the Speed Racer cartoon. Not that the cartoon wasn’t entertaining, but I don’t remember the episodes being all interesting or the plots that engaging. All I remember is some fun animation and a catchy song. Plus, I’m still not convinced that cartoons make for good live-action movies (Scooby-Doo comes to mind).

Of course, then I heard that the Wachowski brothers (The Matrix, V for Vendetta) were writing and directing this film, and my nausea started to subside a bit (then again, I hadn’t eaten any sushi in a while). And then I heard that Emile Hirsh was playing the starring role, and that again made me feel a little better (have you seen Into the Wild yet????). And then I finally saw this trailer, which does look pretty cool, so now I suddenly find myself very excited about seeing this film.

Except that I still have absolutely no desire to see a movie based on Speed Racer!!!

As you can see, I’m still fairly confused about this one. But I guess when I really think about it, I know I’m going to SEE IT in the theaters. And that’s really for only one reason: the Wachowski brothers. Those guys are geniuses, and I know that this movie will be great because of them. But I still wish that they would have chosen a different vehicle (pun intended) with which to display their genius.

Speed Racer is not yet rated (though it’s rumored to be rated G) and opens May 9 (Official Site)