Bonjour! Buenos dias! Whassup! It's diversity week here at the Trailer Park and we're looking at previews for films from our about different cultures.

Dragonball
I've seen only a a few episodes of the Japanese cartoon on which this live action film is based, but I'm not seeing a whole lot here that reminds me of the anime. Frankly it reminds me more of Mortal Combat Kombat. Like the original, this is a martial arts fantasy with prophecies, super powers, lots of action and a hero with preposterously spiked hair. Chow Yun Fat is in there to add some action movie cred, but will that be enough? From what I've read the anime fans are not thrilled with this one, and it's not doing a lot for me either. I don't think this one if for me.

Amexicano
Here's a charming looking indie about a friendship between and Italian American and an illegal immigrant from Mexico. Bruno (Carmine Famiglietti) is behind on his rent and reluctantly goes into the construction business, hiring Mexican day laborers to help him. When he hires Ignacio (Raúl Castillo) the two forge a bond despite the fact that Ignacio does not speak English. I'm looking forward to this one.

Chalk up another number one opener for Shia Labeouf as Eagle Eye took the top spot with Richard Gere's romantic drama Nights in Rodanthe sliding into second. Here's the top five:

1. Eagle Eye: $29 million
2. Nights in Rodanthe: $13.4 million
3. Lakeview Terrace: $6.9 million
4. Fireproof: $6.8 million
5. Burn After Reading: $6 million

We've got a whopping six new releases this week, so let's get started...


How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
What's It All About: Simon Pegg stars as a small time gossip journalist from England who joins the staff of a prestigious New York magazine and proceeds to piss off a lot of people.
Why It Might Do Well: Dude, it's Simon Pegg.
Why It Might Not Do Well: No zombies or cricket bats in sight.
Number of Theaters: 1,750
Prediction: $6 million

The first trailer for Will Smith's new flick has just arrived online, and it's called Seven Pounds ... and it was directed by Gabriele Muccino (The Pursuit of Happyness) ... and it definitely looks like one of them tear-jerkers. (For those obsessive, need-it-right-now folks, you can watch the trailer after the jump.) In the film, Smith plays a guy who's feeling guilty about mistakes he's made over the years, and so he decides to help change the lives of seven total strangers. In doing so, he winds up falling in love with one of the aforementioned strangers, played by Rosario Dawson. So here we have a movie about giving to others, it comes out December 19 (right in time for Christmas), and it stars our most precious A-list actor. Mmmm ... makes you just wanna wash it all down with a slice of apple pie.

Seven Pounds marks Big Willie's second trip to the multiplex this year, after first starring in the summer superhero action/adventure Hancock. A quick glance at his previous two films spots a similar pattern of action blockbuster and quiet drama -- and even though Smith will always guarantee you great numbers on opening weekend no matter the genre, one wonders which version of the man you all prefer? For ten bucks, would you rather spend it watching Will Smith kick ass on a $200 million budget, or would you prefer to spend the time with his gentler, Oscar-nominated side? Or, would you rather watch the man star in more straight-up comedies, a la Hitch?

How do you like your Will Smith?

Related: Fan Rant: Will Smith Needs to Play a Villain

A brand new trailer for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has just arrived online via Apple (head there to view it in brilliant HD). Directed by David Fincher, Benjamin Button stars Brad Pitt as a man who's born old and slowly begins to age backwards. The film tells his life story -- one that follows him through a war and a love story with Cate Blanchett (the two also starred opposite one another in Babel). And in true extended trailer fashion, this one gives us a lot more meat -- snippets of scenes and dialogue from across the entire film. Visually, it looks stunning, and I wouldn't be surprised if this freakish flick hit the radar hard come Oscar time. Check out a few stills from the trailer up top and below, then head over to Apple to view the whole thing.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button hits theaters Christmas Day.

Whaddya think?

Halloween's still a month away, but these films all have some afterlife in them.



The Spirit
The second trailer for the highly anticipated adaptation of Will Eisner's classic graphic novel looks a lot like Robert Rodriguez's Sin City. That's not surprising, since comic book great Frank Miller not only co-directed that flick, he also wrote the book it was based on. The Spirit marks his solo directorial debut, and he's definitely got the film noir thing down. After a rookie cop is brutally murdered, he's resurrected as the title character (Gabriel Macht), a masked crime fighter dedicated to keeping the city streets safe. Of course he has to vanquish a supervillain (Samuel L. Jackson as the Octopus) and a couple of femme fatales, first. It's clearly got a dark vibe, but it doesn't take itself too seriously. There's a bunch of one-liners in the trailer. My favorite: "Somebody get me a tie ... and it sure as hell better be red!"

Cinematical has just received this cute and quirky exclusive trailer for The Pleasure of Being Robbed (watch it below), which marks the feature directorial debut of Joshua Safdie, and is a comedy that revolves around a kleptomaniac who touches the lives of everyone she steals from. Eleonore Hendricks stars as the attractive, fearless and stealthy thief, and also co-wrote along with Safdie. Pleasure first debuted back at the SXSW Film Festival before hopping across to Cannes where IFC eventually picked it up, and it's left a trail of great buzz all summer long. The Pleasure of Being Robbed will enjoy an exclusive theatrical run at the IFC Center in New York City beginning October 3, and will be available On Demand as part of IFC's Festival Direct (which I love, and have used multiple times) on October 22.

Bonus points go to the reader who can name the artist and song in the trailer. (And yes, this is for purely selfish reasons ...) Enjoy.

If there's a number in a film title you've got a sequel, right? Not necessarily, unless Oceans 1 through Oceans 10 came out on some obscure underground label I've never heard of. The trailers are getting all mathematical on our collective ass this week, and each of them (sort of) sports a number in the title.

Four Christmases
It happens every year. The first time I see a sign of the coming holiday season I cringe. I like Christmas fine once it gets here, but being forced to think about it in September is asking too much. Anyway, this is actually a TV spot, which is appropriate since it sounds like the plot was lifted from a sitcom. Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon are playing a couple who, thanks to a canceled flight to Fiji, are forced to visit all four of their divorced parents on Christmas Day. Pretty wacky, huh? This flimsy plot is being held up by an impressive cast which includes Mary Steenburgen, Robert Duval and Sissy Spacek ... but I doubt that will be enough. Note: Link above now pointing to new full-length trailer.

Terminator: Salvation
OK, there's actually no number in this title, but we're all mentally planting a "4" after the word Terminator. After Terminator 3 I really didn't care if the series lived or died. Without James Cameron at the helm and Linda Hamilton in the lead we were left with mindless action and none of the compelling elements from the first two films. This is only a teaser, but with Christian Bale taking over the role of John Connor, I'm thinking there may be hope. We get a glimpse of a post-apocalyptic future, and Connor tells us via narration that this is not the future his mother warned him about. Considering how bleak that future was portrayed in the previous films, it's chilling to imagine how it could get worse.

This week, the eyes have it. We're looking at films for which vision is key.

Knowing
Nicolas Cage has the only new film going into wide release this week with Bangkok Dangerous, but frankly this tale of prophetic doom better grabs my attention. Cage plays a school teacher who digs up a time capsule and finds several pages of hand written numbers. He finds dates within those numbers, each of which corresponds to a major disaster that has occurred since the capsule was buried. More importantly the numbers apparently list disasters which have yet to occur. I'd be a little more enthusiastic if Cage's record hadn't been so hit and miss lately. (Ghost Rider? Puh-leeze.) Still the premise sounds kind of cool, despite reminding me of the lackluster The Number 23, and there's a disaster in the trailer that's pretty chilling, especially if you've ever been to Logan Airport in Boston. The preview is pushing the fact that director Alex Proyas helmed I, Robot, but I'm more impressed that he was the man behind the excellent Dark City.

Milk
This one isn't so much about visions of the future as visions for the future. Gus Van Sant directs and Sean Penn stars in this true story about Harvey Milk, who in 1977 became the first openly gay man to hold public office in the United States. Penn is engaging in the role, and we see him struggle against bigotry and death threats to give a voice to the gay community. I wasn't familiar with Milk's story, but now I'm curious. Here's William's take on the trailer.

It's no secret that Hollywood is sequel crazy, but it's gotten to the point where it's hard to tell at a glance if a movie is a sequel or something new all together. Here are five trailers I had to closely scrutinize before I could determine whether or not sequalization was occurring.

Fast & Furious
Yup, this one's definitely a sequel, the fourth installment in the series launched by 2001's The Fast and the Furious. First off I give the whole franchise kudos for having the originality to give each of the films its own title and not just slapping on an escalating series of numbers. Furthermore, despite never having seen any of the others in the series, this trailer piqued my interest. Vin Diesel and co-star Michelle Rodriguez are seen here hijacking a tractor trailer hauling multiple tankers of gasoline, and the action is downright spectacular. Granted, the almost subliminal lesbian make out scene doesn't hurt either, but I could get behind seeing this. Here's what William had to say on the trailer.

Sukyaki Western Django
At first glance one might think this was a belated sequel to the 1966 spaghetti western Django. In reality this is an ultra violent homage to the genre with Takashi Miike at the helm and with Quentin Tarantino appearing in a supporting role. I've seen a few of Miike's film's, but the one I remember best is the bizarre and brutal Ichi the Killer, so I'm curious to see how he does with a Western. The preview is a frenetic barrage of action scenes with plot details being of secondary concern, but there's some wild stuff here, including bullets being deflected by samurai swords much in the way a Jedi would deflect a laser blast with his light sabre. The film is shot in English, though according to Jeffrey's review of the film, the mostly Japanese cast's unfamiliarity with the language is a drawback. Still, this looks pretty cool. Sukyaki Western Django goes into limited U.S. release this weekend, so I don't imagine it will be long before it's available on DVD.

Trailers are taking to the air this week as we discuss five previews that make me think of flying.

Up
This is a real quick little teaser but it makes me smile every time I watch it, and I'm pretty certain that's Ed Asner voicing the single word used. I suspect this brief bit of film will not even end up in the final flick, but it's already sold me through its ability to be charming as hell. This is Pixar's tenth animated feature, though not having seen Wall-E yet I'm starting to fall behind. In addition to Asner the voice cast includes Christopher Plummer and Pixar mainstay John Ratzenberger, and is described as "a 'coming of old age' story," in which "a seventysomething hero, alongside his clueless wilderness ranger sidekick, travels the globe, fighting beasts and villains, and eating dinner at 3:30 in the afternoon."

Fireflies in the Garden
If Willem Defoe were my father and he was half as crazed as he looks here I'd be pretty screwed up too. This is a semi-autobiographical feature from director Dennis Lee and deals with a family trying to deal with an unexpected tragedy. Defoe plays the father and presumably the source of much of the dysfunction and Ryan Reynolds is the son publishing his memoirs and stirring up the muck. Julia Roberts is there too, along with Carrie-Anne Moss and Hayden Panetierre. The trailer comes off as fascinating but grim, so if you're looking for the feel good movie of the year you should probably look elsewhere. Here's what Eugene thought.