Trailer Wednesday: Expendables, Splice & “Schmucks”

Summer movie trailers are really hitting the web lately, so I’ve packed three trailers into today’s update, all of which are very different and will be released in each of the three main months of summer. There’s June’s artsier science-fiction horror thriller Splice which hit it big at Sundance, July’s standard but appealing-titled comedy Dinner for Shmucks, and August’s testosterone-celebrating action film from Sylvester Stallone, The Expendables.

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Splice

Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley star as two scientists who decide to cross some ethical boundaries by mixing human and animal DNA. What starts as a science morality thriller quickly turns into a horror flick as the creature grows rapidly from wily infant to full-blown sharp-tailed she-creature.

Vincenzo Natali’s film appears to be the closest thing to a modern-day Frankenstein thriller and the trailer provides a heck of a convincing narrative that would make just about anyone actually consider a movie that could be filed in the horror section. Suspense, drama and mystery galore, Splice comes out on June 4.

Watch the Splice trailer on YouTube

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Dinner for Schmucks

Brick Tamland and Brian Fantana  — er, Steve Carrell and Paul Rudd — re-team for a comedy from esteemed comedy director/producer Jay Roach (Austin Powers, Meet the Parents) and a mishmash of seven writers. Rudd stars as his usual dead-pan corporate upper-middleclass in-a-relationship but unmarried character and Carrell a completely idiotic hybrid of Michael Scott and his The 40-Year-Old Virgin character — with highlights. The Hangover star Zack Galifianakis co-stars as a self-labeled mindreader.

As a huge fan of all three of those comedians, I have to say this movie, despite its title, looks completely uninspired. Rudd plays a guy trying to land a big promotion, but to do it, he has to pass a “test” of sorts: bring the most hilariously dumb person he can find to a dinner where all the business guys make fun of those people. Rudd finds his guy in Carrell and somehow Galifianakis comes along. It sounds like a great idea for a scene in a movie, but not an entire film. The trailer is not very funny, but I’ll withhold judgement given the reputation of the cast and director. “Schmucks” arrives for dinner on July 23.

Watch the Dinner for Schmucks trailer on YouTube

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The Expendables

The financial success of District 9 and Inglourious Basterds last August and Tropic Thunder the year before means the month is no longer a wasteland for unloved summer flicks. In step the Expendables, a team of the best action stars around, assembled by Sylvester Stallone. With The Losers out on Apr. 23 and The A-Team coming in June, it would seem that 2010 is oddly the year of the team of top government mercenaries forming a deadly team, but one look at this trailer and you can see what makes The Expendables worthy of its own category.

Stallone, Mickey Rourke, Jason Statham (Biggest English-born action star), Jet Li (China’s biggest action star) and Terry Crews are The Expendables. That’s man-power right there. Add to that the cameos, which were sadly given away in the trailer, and you have a heck of a cast. Will “Expendables” deliver what those names suggest? A lot of action fans will be way too curious to find out.

Watch The Expendables trailer on YouTube