Trailer Thursday: A trio of fun clips

Actually, the first and most distressing news this morning comes from Latino Review, who I've never known to get anything wrong, as much as I wish they would this time.

Yesterday came the news that "Friday Night Lights" ultra-hottie (for lack of a more technical or less piggish) term Adrianne Palicki, along with Chris Hemsworth and Josh Peck, would be joining the cast of a remake of "Red Dawn." Unaddressed in that news, of course, is the question of why in the world anyone would want to remake "Red Dawn," but I really don't want to get into that today ...

Instead let's just deal with the rather depressing fact that none other than Tony Gilroy has apparently already turned in a rewrite of this monstrosity. Now, I thought "Michael Clayton" was perhaps a tad overrated but still very enjoyable, and I think I'm one of the very few people in the world who loved Gilroy's "Duplicity" almost unconditionally. Even if you didn't, I'd imagine it's gotta be pretty much a consensus that the man deserves better than this.

Oh well, I'll just say I hope he's being very well paid for this, and move on to three things that are just thoroughly fun time-wasters.

First up is another viral marketing installment from the makers of Judd Apatow's "Funny People," and I have to say, judging from the two clips they've put together so far, there's little doubt Apatow's third directorial effort will be thoroughly entertaining when it comes out at the end of July.

First came the trailer for the fake NBC tv show "Yo Teach!" starring Jason Schwartzman, which you can still watch here, and the clip below is even funnier. I don't want to spoil it too much, but it's Adam Sandler and Justin Long in a dead-on spoof of "Little Man" and any other flick that makes the always hilarious (sarcasm, in case it doesn't come through) move of putting a man's face on the body of a baby. Enjoy.



I was thinking the other day about doing a midyear scorecard of sorts, listing my 10 top movies from the first half of 2009, but I decided to cheat and put that off until the end of July to include the aforementioned Apatow flick and Michael Mann's "Public Enemies," set to drop July 1 with Johnny Depp, Marion Cotillard and Christian Bale in the saga of John Dillinger vs. the FBI. Those would have to be the two flicks I'm most looking forward to for the rest of this summer (unless Hayao Miyazaki's "Ponyo" somehow gets a wide theatrical release, keep hope alive!), so enjoy this 90-second clip "Assault" clip, because what workday isn't just a little bit better with a good gun battle?



And finally, like apparently everyone else in the world, I just can't get enough of vampires. I've made my love for "Let the Right One In" (for the sorry American remake, that title is apparently too long - it will simply be "Let Me In" - blurg!) clear on this site many times, and I thought the second season premiere of "True Blood" just set things up perfectly (and I'm about to dive into the fourth of Charlayne Harris' Sookie Stackhouse novels, on which it's based.)

But the one vampire vehicle I'm most looking forward to this year would have to be Chan-wook Park's "Thirst," the poster for which is at left. Of Park's movies so far, I've only managed to see "Oldboy" (another lame American remake alert - see a theme here?) and "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance," and those were both just fantastic. As you can see from the (redband, though I really can't imagine why after watching it) trailer below, the flick is about a priest who goes to Africa to find the cure for a deadly disease but, of course, comes back as one of the walking dead. Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Thursday. Peace out.