FILM NEWS: The Villains of Sherlock Holmes & Mission Impossible 4, Aliens Prequel Plot, Bateman & Reynolds Switch Bodies, Hangover 2 Plot, and more

• Looks like Noomi Rapace has been initiated into official American stardom. Not only will she star opposite Jeremy Renner (Hurt Locker & The Town) in the re-imagining of Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, but she scored the lead in the Sherlock Holmes sequel. A role she turned down, however, was the new recruit in Mission Impossible 4—fortunately for Paul Patton (Deja Vu), who was ultimately cast. Also joining Tom Cruise's new team, playing the resident wise-cracker I'm sure, is Josh Holloway ("Lost"). As for the villain, it's rumored that Rapace isn't the only one getting famous off the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo hype machine. Her co-star Michael Nyqvist (right) will play the charming, calculating villain who engages in a brutal fight with Ethan Hunt in the end. And playing Moriarity, the main villain in Sherlock Holmes 2, will be the dashing, penny-pinching gent Jared Harris (left), who has been charming us on "Mad Men" for the last two seasons.

• Everybody's super-hyped that Zack Snyder has finally been chosen as the new Superman director. But I 1) wonder if he can erase the memory of Watchmen bombing, 2) am surprisingly not too keen on Christopher Nolan producing and adding his dark Batman vibe to it—I like my Clark Kent bumbling, not brooding—and 3) would rather hear the news of who's been cast as Superman. It's too bad Jon Hamm is 10 years too old.

• OMG! Will Smith might be the president in the Independence Day sequel. Of course.

• Speaking of Sir Holmes, Robert Downey Jr. is interested in starring in The $40,000 Man, it's a recession-friendly version of "The Six Million Dollar Man," where a legendary astronaut is rebuilt by the government after a horrible accident. The catch is that they don't use the most hi-tech equipment. Think JVC instead of Sony.

• I'm a little worried about Steven Spielberg. First Indiana Jones 4 bombs, then he spends years working on Tintin (?), and now he's doing Robopocalypse, a sci-fi action film that sounds exactly like The Terminator. He can't possibly be running out of money. Right?

• Angelina Jolie is set to make her directorial debut. She's chosen Zana Marjanovic (Snow) to star in a drama about "a Bosnian woman who is in love with a Serbian man amidst the war."

• The Affleck brothers and Matt Damon want to make a 70s-set baseball film together called The Trade. Apparently, in 1973 New York Yankee teammates Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich decided to trade wives. *eyeroll* Originally, the plan was for Ben and Matt to play the leads and for Ben to direct, but now it looks like the brothers will write the film and maybe (just maybe) give Matt the option of directing for the first time. Stop for a second. Kudos to Matt for branching out and everything—maybe he'll get some pointers from Clint Eastwood—but why are two Red Sox fans being allowed to make a film about Yankee players? Isn't there some sort of law against that? I mean, in 2007 the man admitted to owning a "Jesus Hates the Yankees" t-shirt in Entertainment Weekly. Blasphemy!

• When I first heard that Mickey Rourke was doing the film Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer, I thought it sounded incredibly stupid. Then I heard Michael Shannon ("Boardwalk Empire"), Benicio Del Toro, and James Franco have been cast, so now I'm in. Yes, I'm that easy. The film is "based on the true story of Richard "The Ice Man" Kuklinski, a man who for more than 40 years led a double life as both a professional assassin and a doting husband and father in suburban New Jersey." *shaking head* Seriously, who buys Mickey Rourke as a suburban family man? Granted, it's New Jersey, but still. No matter how he's dressed or groomed, he always looks like an escape prisoner from Riker's Island.

• I'm so glad Emma Stone beat out Hilary Duff to play Gwen Stacy in Spiderman (Mary Jane is taking a backseat in this version). I don't have anything against Hilary Duff. I've loved her since Casper Meets Wendy, but she's no superhero girlfriend. She just doesn't have enough spunk. Stone is also rumored to be up for the female lead in the "21 Jump Street" film adaptation. I wonder if her former Superbad co-star Jonah Hill is the one who suggested her?

• Ridley Scott is looking to direct a two-part prequel to the Aliens saga. Normally, that wouldn't be newsworthy. Aliens is awesome. When it shows up in theaters, you watch it, whether the original cast is in it or not, and whether the plot makes sense or not. But this time the plot intrigues me. Scott says it might run along the lines of: "Were the aliens designed as a form of biological warfare? Or biology that would go in and clean up a planet?" Now that's interesting. Can you imagine an "Alien" being the next step up from a nuclear warhead? And if it was a planet-cleanup technique, are we the ones who send it as like a vicious version of Wall-E, or did something else send it before they land and commandeer our planet? So many possibilities. Rumored to be starring in the prequels are Noomi Rapace, Carey Mulligan (Wall Street 2), or Gemma Arterton (Clash of the Titans). I'm not even going to comment on the hilarity of Mulligan trying to fill Sigourney Weaver's shoes.

• Why did I just know after hearing that the Battleship board game movie was in production that Liam Neeson would get cast? After starring in A-Team, he was bound to get a truckload of army-related roles thrown at him. He's just so convincing as a leader in war. In Battleship, he'll play a navy admiral, father of Brooklyn Decker, and Taylor Kitsch's future father-in-law. Alexander Skarsgaard ("True Blood") is playing Kitsch's brother and Rihanna will play a weapons analyst...hopefully one without a Caribbean accent.

• Will Ferrell is really putting himself out there. He's teaming up with Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal for a Spanish-language comedy called Casa de mi padre (House of My Father). In the dramatic telenovela-style story, he'll play Luna's brother, and Bernal will be a friend of the family.

• Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds are teaming up for the body-switching film The Change-Up. Reynolds takes over Bateman's family life and Bateman takes over Reynolds' responsiblity-less slacker lifestyle. Olivia Wilde plays the person who causes the body-switch and Leslie Mann, veteran body-switching actress, will play Bateman's wife. I'm assuming they're both supposed to have a revelation at the end of this, Freaky Friday-style. Bateman will probably learn to appreciate his family and Reynolds will probably realize what he's missing out on. Despite its predictability, it's always great to see these two make fools of themselves. P.S. Who do you think is getting the better deal on that bodyswitch? *wink wink*

• The plot of The Hangover 2 will be about the guys going to Thailand and Ed Helms' character waking up after having had sex with a local transsexual prostitute, and trying to figure out what happened.

FILM NEWS: Twilight's Renesmee, Blunt Iron Man 3 Villain?, Bieber in Grease Remake, and more

• Nine year old Mackenzie Foy, that little angel to the left, will play Edward and Bella's adorable little demon spawn Renesmee in Twilight: Breaking Dawn.

• Jennifer Garner is about to get dark. She'll star alongside Jeremy Renner in the dramatic thriller Better Living Through Chemistry, where she'll play a trophy wife who introduces prescription drugs as a recreation to a small-town pharmacist, and seduces him into plotting her husband's murder. I knew she had it in her.

• Scarlett Johansson has signed on to do a spin-off of her Black Widow character from Iron Man 2. Hopefully, she won't be as rigid and her hair won't look like plastic.

• In related awesome news, Emily Blunt is in talks to play a villain in the next Iron Man film. In not so awesome news, she just signed on for one of those condescending wedding comedies, and unfortunately it's following the same vein as Bride Wars. In Engagement Games, three sisters participate in their dad's proposed Family Olympics to help him determine who gets to have their mother's wedding ring. You're so much better than this Emily.

• OMG! There's going to be an Emily the Strange movie—and to make that fact even cooler, Chloe Moretz (Kick-Ass and Let Me In) is going to play her! "The film will serve as the origin story of the gothic and odd young lady who owns four mysterious cats."

• When did Vincent Kartheiser ("Mad Men") get old enough to play Amanda Seyfried's dad? He's only 31. Well, apparently he will in the untitled sci-fi film formerly named I'm.mortal, also starring Justin Timberlake.

• Justin Bieber wants to star in a Grease remake. The funniest part about this report was when he said: "It's been talked about a lot over the years..." How would he know? *shaking head* Anyway, his choice of Sandy is Miley Cyrus because she can sing, act, and dance. Well...she can sing and act. I personally would prefer seeing Demi Lovato in the lead. She's not as famous, but she can sing better, she's funnier, and she doesn't look like his big slutty sister. If they're planning on doing the exact same film, I dread the accent we'll have to endure from whichever one decides to be the exchange student. Hopefully, they'll lean more towards the High School Musical version: new sweet girl + popular guy, etcetera, etcetera, but add back in the hot-girl makeover and the non-campy frenemy Rizzo. Oooh and drag racing. Oh wait, it's not 1960. Skateboarding tournament? Dance-off? Battle of the bands? Whichever.

• I've always wanted to see Alexis Bledel do something badass. She's reportedly signed on for the teen assassin film Violet and Daisy, starring opposite Saoirse Ronan. The film is about two contract killers who "are lured into what is supposed to be just another quick and easy job, only to find complications as the man (James Gandolfini) they're supposed to kill is not what they expected."

• I love Syfy channel's attempts at reimagining classic tales—from The Wizard of Oz ("Tin Man") to Alice in Wonderland ("Alice"), so I'm excited about their latest project, "Neverland," which will be about—you guessed it—Peter Pan. "In this version, Peter is an orphan on the streets of turn-of-the century London who serve as pickpockets for their mentor Jimmy Hook. They snatch a magical treasure and find themselves transported to the magical world of Neverland where various people from different times have found themselves." Charlie Rowe (The Golden Compass) stars as Peter Pan, Rhys Ifans as James Hook, Anna Friel ("Pushing Daisies" and Land of the Lost) as Captain Elizabeth Bonny, Raoul Trujillo ("Tin Man"), and Bob Hoskins as Smee (he played Smee in Steven Spielberg's Hook too). Aww, I hope there's a Rufio!

FILM NEWS: Reynolds & Cooper, Diaz & Del Toro, Mulligan & Ronan, & and more pairs

• As far as I'm concerned, an actor is officially in the big leagues when he co-stars with a heavyweight (i.e. Shia Labeouf & Michael Douglas/Josh Brolin in Wall Street 2)—of course it all depends on how good the content is, something Josh Hartnett & Harrison Ford learned with Hollywood Homocide. Ryan Reynolds has been racking up the comic book roles, building his brand on commercial franchises. Now, he'll get to team up with Denzel Washington in the thriller Safe House, where he'll play a CIA agent who has to transport a dangerous criminal (Washington) after their location is compromised. Can you imagine how much witty repartee will come from their pairing? I hope it's as awesome as Bruce Willis & Samuel L. Jackson in Die Hard: With a Vengeance.

• Reynolds has also signed on for a buddy cop action comedy with Bradley Cooper that is said to be along the lines of Lethal Weapon. They'll play two second generation San Francisco cops, whose dads are forced out of retirement to help them on a big case. Hmmm, who could play their dads? I'm going to skip the obvious De Niro/Pacino/Michael Douglas options and say Tom Hanks and James Caan. lol Or let's make it a Twins reunion and cast Arnold Schwarzenneger (for Ryan of course lol) and Danny DeVito...if Cooper were adopted. Ok, last one, last one. Ben Kingsley and Steve Buscemi? lol I'm just saying, something needs to counter-act the ultra hotness that is the pairing of Reynolds and Cooper.

• Of all the romantic comedy pairings, I'd never picture these two: In the adaptation of Jane Heller's novel An Ex to Grind, Cameron Diaz plays a financial planner who wants to divorce her couch-potato professional football playing husband, played by Benicio del Toro. She tries to get out of paying alimony by making him violate the cohabitation clause and hiring a woman to live with him. However, the plan backfires when he falls for the woman and becomes the man she's always wanted, inspiring her to try to win him back. They'll have to pick someone to top off the trio, who is slightly less famous than Diaz and smoking hot, but not really a threat, like...ummmm.

• This is the complete opposite of typecasting: Carey Mulligan (An Education) and Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones) are seemingly being pursued to star in the project described as Thelma and Louise meets Superbad and Pulp Fiction.

• Speaking of tanking careers, Wesley Snipes is teaming up with Joey Lawrence ("Mel & Joey") of woa!-"Blossom" fame for the action film Havana Heat. It'll be about the investigation of the murder of an undercover Homeland Security agent. And apparently the addition of several mixed martial arts actors means there'll be karate. Does any or all of this sound like an acid trip to you?

FILM NEWS: Noomi Rapace in Sherlock Holmes 2?, The New Cast of Fantastic Four, Renner Joins Mission Impossible, and more

• It looks like X-Men: First Class is going to be for hardcore comic fans, because unless you know who Havoc, Sebastian Shaw, and the Hellfire Club are, then you're going to be in for an education. Due to its 60s timeline, only two "familiar" faces will appear in the film: Magneto and Xavier. It'll tell the tale of how their friendship fell apart and how Xavier became paralyzed.

• Even though Hollywood is remaking The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the star of the original Swedish version will not go unnoticed. Noomi Rapace is mulling over offers for roles in Sherlock Holmes 2, Mission: Impossible 4, McG's This Means War, Ninja Assassin director James McTeigue's thriller The Raven, and the reimagining Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. My vote's for Sherlock. Let's see if the newbie can go toe-to-toe with Downey, Jr.

• While I do think that Johnny Depp would make a better Edgar Allen Poe than John Cusack, given James McTeigue's (V for Vendetta) plan for how he'll direct the film, Depp's ability to be creepy (see: Sweeney Todd, Edward Scissorhands, etc.) isn't actually necessary. The film will follow Poe in the last week of his life, reimagining him as a mid-19th century profiler who is searching for a serial killer whose murders are inspired by his stories. During that last week, he goes missing and then turns up wandering the streets, repeating the name Reynolds before eventually dying a few days later in a hospital. I know it sounds like I told you the ending, but that actually happened to Poe...which makes it THAT much more intriguing.

• I was sincerely excited by the news that Fantastic Four was getting a reboot. But now after hearing that they're considering replacing the original cast (Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, and Michael Chiklis) with Adrien Brody (Mr. Fantastic) and Amber Heard (Sue Storm), I'm a little deflated. I mean, I understand the choice of Brody, because of his long, thin body that's perfect for the stretch CGI effect, but I'm not on-board for the 24-year-old Heard, who looks more like Brody's little sister than his one-true love. Not to mention, after 6 years in the business, 1 TV show ("Hidden Palms") and 3 commercial films (Never Back Down, Pineapple Express, and The Stepfather), she has yet to impress anybody. I prefer the second rumored option: Alice Eve (She's Out of My League and Sex and the City 2). She, at least, looks smoking hot. Then came the absurd news that Stephen Moyer (Bill from "True Blood") would replace the campy Julian McMahon as Dr. Doom. While that's an improvement, I'm not in the least bit frightened of Moyer—not even when he's showing his fangs.

• I'm a little bummed that Tom Hardy and Chris Pine are too booked up to star alongside Tom Cruise in the next Mission Impossible. After seeing The Town, I just can't imagine Jeremy Renner being suave or kind enough to take over the franchise, but he's a chameleon so we'll see.

• While we're on the topic of newbies. Did you watch NBC's nurse dramedy "Mercy"...before it got cancelled? I loved it. Millions of other people, however, didn't. I attribute my appreciation for it to the storylines and the chemistry between the actors, but I wouldn't necessarily say I was gaga over the lead actress, Taylor Schilling. While she is MUCH less annoying than Meredith Grey and far more legitimately damaged than her, she wasn't singularly alluring. But that hasn't stopped the producers of the next Nicholas Sparks film, The Lucky One, from casting her as Zac Efron's love interest. There are so many things wrong with that last sentence. First off, why is there another Nicholas Sparks movie? Isn't two per decade enough? Secondly, 26-year-old Schilling looks too old to be interested in 22-year-old Efron. And lastly, Efron is set to play a Marine who credits his survival of three tours of duty in Iraq to his lucky charm, a photo of a woman he's never met. Three tours? He doesn't even look old enough to have completed one, unless each one of those tours lasted a week. Then again, that could explain why he's grown a beard. That said, I'm glad she beat out Katie Cassidy for the role. I prefer my Katie mean not lovable.

• Seems Channing Tatum is aiming to prove that he's not just all-brawn. He recently signed on for the adaptation of The Contortionist's Handbook, a psychological thriller about an identity forger, who makes a new identity for himself in order to escape a mental hospital he accidentally got himself committed to. And once he gets himself out, he has to deal with his criminal clients who are demanding his illegal services. Interesting plot? Check. Handsome leading man? Check. Alluring leading lady that can distract the lead character enough to make him slip up and potentially blow his con, while drudging up his tawdry past? Yet to be chosen. Suggestions?

• Tatum is also attached to co-star and co-produce the ensemble drama Ten Year, the title of which refers to a reunion of friends. The list of actors being "sought after" (Anna Faris, Chris Pratt, Chris Pine and Scott Porter) has one surprisingly comical name attached: Jenna Dewan. The actress, Tatum's former co-star in Step Up, is actually his wife, who has yet to reach the stardom that he did. So it's a little funny to say "sought after" when it's not like 1) it isn't a done deal and 2) she has anything better to do.

• Jason Bateman has been quoted suggesting Jennifer Aniston for a bit-role in the upcoming Arrested Development film. If I'd read that before seeing her guest spot on "Cougar Town," I would've thought that was stunt casting. But it turns out Aniston can play quirky pretty well. Her portrayal of a dog-obsessed, vindictive, hippie therapist came a little too naturally for her. She could easily play Lindsay's nemesis.

• Topher Grace, Paul Rudd, and Kristen Wiig are set to star in the indie comedy Bobby Blue Sky, which will focus on three dysfunctional siblings coming to terms with the way their baby brother’s accidental fame as a character in their father’s children’s book series warped their lives. Random/unique plot aside, I really like the idea of Topher Grace and Paul Rudd in a movie together. This could finally steer Grace's career in the direction it needs to go.

• Tony-winning musical Memphis is being adapted into a film. The story is about the first white DJs to play black music in the 1950s. Guess who's vying for the role! Justin Timberlake (no-brainer) and Zac Efron (huh?). That is a LONG way away from a high school musical.

• I just read the weirdest news brief. I still feel like I was dreaming when I read it. Casey Affleck + rom-com + the title The F-Word does not compute. But apparently it's happening, and producers have a long list of potential leading ladies that include Rose Byrne ("Damages" and Get Him to the Greek), Rebecca Hall (The Town), Deborah Ann Woll (Jessica on "True Blood"), and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World). Speechless.

• I don't even know who the lead actors are in the upcoming comedy Ricky Stanicky, but I'm already excited to see the shenanigans unravel within it. It follows three friends who have spent the last two decades using a made-up friend named Ricky Stanicky to get out of "sticky" situations, and are now being ordered to introduce this friend to their spouses. Caught in a lie, they choose to do the logical thing and hire an actor to pretend to be this blame-ridden friend. Playing the title character is James Franco. Most people would picture Zach Galifianakis being perfect for this role, since it could be rife with humiliation and lewd behavior, but I think Franco's track record of being unpredictable (Pineapple Express, soap opera, etc.) might make him the perfect fall-guy. Of course, the movie's written by the guy who wrote Beverly Hills Chihuahua, so my expectations are pretty low.

• Freida Pinto hasn't really been front-and-center after starring in her first role, the Oscar-nominated Slumdog Millionaire, unlike her boyfriend and former co-star Dev Patel. But 2011 is going to be a big year for her. First she'll star alongside James Franco, Tom Felton (Harry Potter), Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings), and John Lithgow ("Dexter") in the sci-fi action film Rise of the Apes. Then she'll play Phaedra in the Greek epic Immortals alongside Mickey Rourke, Kellan Lutz (Twilight), John Hurt, Stephen Dorff (Somewhere), Henry Cavill ("The Tudors"), Isabel Lucas (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen), and Luke Evans (Clash of the Titans). Then she'll get serious with the 1930s-set romantic/political drama Black Thirst, which will tell the story of a young Arab prince who is "confronted with the problem of what the discovery of oil will bring to the Bedouins." With Tahar Rahim, the star of the much-talked about indie A Prophet, at the helm, this has the potential of getting a lot of Oscar buzz.

• Idris Elba is inheriting Morgan Freeman's James Patterson character Alex Cross (Kiss the Girls and Along Came A Spider) for a reboot of the character's saga. In the new film Cross, he'll play the forensic psychologist who's tracking a serial rapist that may have murdered his pregnant wife years ago.

• Jeffrey Dean Morgan needs a new agent. His "Grey's Anatomy" cred is slowly petering off. First there was the incredibly boring and much-delayed rom-com The Accidental Husband. Then the much-anticipated comic adaptation Watchmen, which bombed. And then the action ensemble The Losers, which barely cleared its budget. And now he's signed on to a film that sounds exactly like The Transporter. Someone in Hollywood cleverly whipped out their thesaurus and dubbed it The Courier. What a waste of a great actor.

• Kristin Kreuk is in talks to play the female operative in the next Mission Impossible. I hope she beats out Paula Patton (Just Wright and Deja Vu), because she needs it more than her to up her game.

• Of all the bizarro plots I've ever read, this one's pretty cool: The film 11 11 11 is about the idea that Heaven's eleven gates, at 11:11am on 11/11/11, will open and something from another world will enter our earthly realm. Oddly enough it'll be here not for 11 minutes but the inverse, 49 minutes.

• Because of the popularity of the Facebook film The Social Network, a film about the founding of Google is in the works. The problem with that is that Social Network had a built-in fanbase: millions of people who have profiles on Facebook. While billions of people do use Google, nobody gives a crap how it was built.

• Foodies might be excited to learn that there's a rebel culinary film in the works. Neil Marshall (The Descent) is directing Underground, a horror thriller about an ambitious chef who ventures into gourmet underground supper clubs that serve extreme cuisine, food that hasn't been approved by food & drug authorities in specific countries. If I didn't know that blowfish and sea urchin are incredibly poisonous Japanese delicacies, I would think this was lame.

ALBUM REVIEW: Bruno Mars' "Doo-Wops & Hooligans"

I gotta be honest, I was going to ignore Bruno Mars' debut album. I don't have anything against him. I've loved every single he's sung ("Just the Way You Are"), collaborated on ("Billionaire" with Travie McCoy & "Nothin' on You" with B.O.B.), co-written (many, including Cee-Lo Green's "Fuck You"), and produced, but I didn't think he had the ability to construct an album that didn't have just one repetitive pop sound.

What encouraged me to try it out was the album's hilarious first single, an overly dramatic declaration of love called "Grenade," where he says lines like "I'll catch a grenade for ya / throw my hand on a blade for ya." Hyperbolic lyrics—I hope—aside, the musical production has the intensity of a Leona Lewis ballad and the mass appeal of those annoyingly catchy Jason Derulo songs.

Intrigued, I conducted a more thorough investigation and discovered an entire library of genres. On "Our First Time," he channels Robin Thicke—very well! "The Lazy Song," currently climbing the charts, sounds like it's in the same vein as comedy troupe Lonely Planet's "Lazy Sunday," except sung well and with less jokes. Then there's the incredibly catchy "Marry You," which despite its lack of respect for the sanctity of marriage, actually sounds romantic. The only straight-up duds were the rockin' "Runaway Baby" and the ballad "Talking to the Moon."

Check out the tracks that'll get everyone talking:

"Liquor Store Blues" (feat. Damian Marley)
True, having music royalty on a track doesn't hurt. But pulling off Reggae is no small feat, especially if you don't have a Rastafarian-like reputation. Bruno went the smart route though, treating the genre like it was "Blues with a side of Mary Jay" and griping about his troubles.


"Count on Me"
Here, Bruno adds a little of his culture to the mix, inserting the bongo drums and giving it that Hawaiian feel. If you love Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat, you'll love this.


"The Other Side" (Feat. Cee-Lo Green and B.o.B)
It has that big-band motown feel that Cee-Lo is most associated with, and Bruno's falsetto floats perfectly through it. Fun fact: Patrick Stump of the now defunct Fall Out Boy co-wrote the song. (Note: Please ignore the fact that the lyrics sounds like he was inspired by Twilight.)

ALBUM REVIEW: A Moment's Worth's "Start Where You Are"

What I've always loved about this band is that even though they haven't officially hit the big time yet, their music never sounds like amateur hour at the nearest karaoke bar. Their musical production, vocals, instrumentals, and lyrics are always on point. Check out their latest, Start Where You Are, on MySpace.

I'm particularly partial to the stadium-friendly songs that are ripe for audience participation: the title track (chant: "Are you afraid again? / Is nobody listening? / Does nobody comprehend / what it is you're going through?!") and "Rule No. 1" (chant: "Whose side are we on?!!!"). But the song I had to have was "Dedicate," a huge departure from their usual sound, with a folksy, Train-like rhythm, and proof that they're not a one-trick pony.

TRAILER: Vince Vaughn & Kevin James' "The Dilemma"

PLOT: A man (Vaughn) discovers that his best friend's (James) wife (Ryder) is having an affair.

CAST: Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Jennifer Connelly, Winona Ryder, Channing Tatum, and Queen Latifah

VERDICT: I'm not a fan of the route Vaughn's career is going down. Couple comedies are hit-or-miss depending on the cast choices, which Vaughn proved with the critical failure of Couples Retreat. Connelly is never funny. Ever. Ryder's criminal history is too distracting to laugh with her. And then there's Channing Tatum, who's playing her lover, and has the same comedic timing as Mark Wahlberg in The Other Guys, which is to say...none. The funniest part of the trailer is the rash he gets. But I'm not paying $13 for slapstick.


RELEASE DATE: January 14

TRAILER: Leighton Meester & Minka Kelly's "The Roommate"

PLOT: College student Sara (Kelly) finds her safety jeopardized after she's assigned to a dorm room with a new roommate, Rebecca (Meester).

CAST: Leighton Meester ("Gossip Girl"), Minka Kelly ("Friday Night Lights"), Alyson Michalka (Easy A and "Hellcats"), Cam Gig andet (Easy A and Twilight), Matt Lanter ("90210"), Billy Zane, Danneel Harris ("One Tree Hill" and Harold and Kumar 2), and Katerina Graham ("Vampire Diaries")

VERDICT: Besides the fact that the cast is like the bottom of the young Hollywood barrel, a majority of which are from the CW, there's also the unfortunate circumstance of Blair Waldorf playing some needy psycho who stalks pretty girls that are nice to her. Meester will never have a better character than the one she has on "Gossip Girl" and seeing her as anything less than a self-important, manipulative socialite is going to be difficult. This won't help. However, I give her props for trying to play against type. As for Kelly, *sigh* I really hate actresses who continuously play "adored" characters—that includes you Alexis Bledel.


RELEASE DATE: February 4

TRAILER: Angelina Jolie & Johnny Depp's "The Tourist"

PLOT: A dramatic thriller about an American tourist (Depp) visiting Italy to mend a broken heart, and the extraordinary woman (Jolie) being pursued by gun-toting men, who deliberately crosses his path.

CAST: Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, Paul Bettany, Rufus Sewell (A Knight's Tale)

VERDICT: It's basically Knight and Day, if Depp was in the Cameron Diaz role and Jolie was in the Tom Cruise role, and if the mysterious person had no intention of immediately explaining why the civilian is being hunted down like a dog. I really liked Knight & Day, but I think this will be cooler because there's a lot more mystery to it. The only part I'm worried about is having to watch Depp behave like a goofy everyman. There's nothing everymanish about Johnny Depp. I'd buy Ryan Reynolds or some bumbling idiot like one of the Wilson brothers playing this part, but Johnny Depp is too awesome to play second fiddle to Jolie...no matter how badass she is.


RELEASE DATE: December 10