Comedies

Seth Rogen is no stranger to the buddy-comedy genre, but this Christmas he's trading in his bros for . . . Barbra Streisand? In The Guilt Trip, Rogen plays a guy who comes home to visit his mom and decides to invite her along on his cross-country car ride. Along the way, they encounter hitchhikers, the Grand Canyon, and strip clubs (obviously).

There's not much that feels new or fresh in this trailer, except for the fact that we rarely see Rogen playing the polite, buttoned-up guy. Streisand is believable as the mother that mortifies him, but the odd-couple road-trip-from-hell premise has been done before. The film opens Dec. 25, and you can watch the trailer when you read more

Though Colin Firth usually has the Midas touch when it comes to picking projects, I'm not sure that applies to Gambit, which looks like a wacky mashup of heist movie elements. He stars as Harry Deane, an employee who's grown tired of his filthy-rich boss (played by Alan Rickman), so he schemes against him, attempting to fool him into buying a fake Monet. For this he needs the help of rodeo queen PJ Puznowski (Cameron Diaz) to get his hands on the painting, and predictably, everything seems to go wrong, especially since PJ is looking out for herself (a girl's gotta keep herself in sparkly Western wear, after all).

I can't say that Gambit looks that great from the trailer — Cameron Diaz's Southern accent had me instantly cringing — but that's not to say it doesn't look fun. Firth walks around in his underwear while Rickman swans around his office in pretty much nothing at all, but despite those mildly funny bits (and the fact that it was written by the Coen brothers), the movie still comes off as a generic caper film full of clichés we've seen before. Gambit comes out Nov. 21, but you can watch the trailer and judge for yourself after the jump.

He's played an undercover cop, a hopeless romantic, and a stripper in 2012, and Channing Tatum is adding to his banner year with another memorable performance in 10 Years. Tatum is part of an ensemble as Jake, a man returning to his hometown for his high school reunion. Not only does the film provide its fair share of belly laughs, but it also paints a bittersweet portrait of what all those archetypes from our favorite teen comedies (the ones where someone's trying to lose their virginity at prom) might be up to 10 years later. All the players are still the same, but this time around, the cruel jock (Chris Pratt) is attempting to make amends with the geeks he beat up in high school, the popular girl's (Lynn Collins) life is no longer one to envy, and everyone is struggling to reconcile who they used to be with the people they've become.

Jake's on-the-brink-of-engagement relationship with his girlfriend Jess (Jenna Dewan) is the primary focus of the movie, but it's just one of the dynamics on display throughout the night. The couple arrives in town for a preparty at old high school royalty Sam (Ari Graynor) and Cully's (Chris Pratt) house. Now living in the 'burbs with kids and a mortgage, their life is far from the homecoming court of yesteryear. One of the things that I appreciate about this movie is that it could so easily slide into a superficial trip down memory lane, but instead it plays up the realism. It's evident that despite their popular past, Sam and Cully aren't content with the paths they've taken, and they're not the only ones. To find out more about why I loved 10 Years, just keep reading.

In the trailer for The To Do List, Aubrey Plaza plays a high schooler in the '90s who gives herself quite a checklist of tasks. Let me be clear — everything on her list is pretty dirty, because her character, Brandy, is trying to get as much sexual experience as she can before heading off to college. Previously titled Hand Job, the movie's cast is made up of an impressive ensemble of TV stars, including Connie Britton, Andy Samberg, Rachel Bilson, and Bill Hader (whose wife, Maggie Carey, wrote and directed the movie). Scott Porter also pops up to play Brandy's crush, while Donald Glover is the friend who's more than willing to experiment with her.

This red-band trailer is definitely not safe for work, but it is very funny — I particularity liked Bilson as Brandy's sister and the '90s references — even if Plaza herself interrupts the teaser a few times to tell you about the movie. As the lady says, The To Do List comes out on Valentine's Day 2013, but you can get your first look after the jump.

In the trailer for Butter, Jennifer Garner tackles the high-stakes world of competitive butter sculpting as Laura Pickler, an intense woman whose career in butter carving is just a front for her political ambitions. Laura's plan gets a few wrenches thrown into it when she discovers her picture-perfect husband and fellow carver (Ty Burrell) is cheating on her with a stripper (Olivia Wilde) and she has to face a new competitor in the form of a young butter-whittling prodigy, played by little Yara Shahidi.

Butter carving (or really any type of perishable-item sculpting) isn't a hobby I'm familiar with, but it seems like the movie is more of a character study than a feature on margarine expositions anyway. Jennifer Garner has played the anxious domestic goddess before (see Juno), but here she's got a little more of an edge. Rob Corddry is also one of my favorite comic actors and he had me laughing out loud in the trailer, despite the fact that his character is probably the most "normal" guy in the movie. Butter opens on Sept. 4, but you can check out the trailer after the jump.

Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis are two of the funniest comic actors in the game, and pitting them against each other as political candidates in The Campaign seems like a stroke of genius. The two men should be at their best, challenging each other as comedic actors in a parallel to their characters' onscreen sparring. Unfortunately, neither actor wins this race, because the script is mediocre at best and wastes the talent of its leads.

Ferrell stars as Cam Brady, the incumbent US congressman of North Carolina, who's set for another term — until the diabolical Motch Brothers (Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow), a pair of greasy entrepreneurs, get involved. They want to put a new candidate in office for their own selfish purposes: they need a pawn who will support laws that will allow them to do shady business. They set their sights on simple, small-town Marty Huggins (Galifianakis), and groom him with the help of a conniving campaign adviser (Dylan McDermott). The political plot is about as stimulating on screen as it sounds on paper, so it's up to the jokes to make the movie entertaining. Sadly, the humor is as dumb as Cam's nonsensical stump speeches. To find out what else I thought of The Campaign, just keep reading.

Once you get past the bizarre title, there's actually a lot to like about the trailer for 3, 2, 1. . . Frankie Go Boom trailer. First, there's Sons of Anarchy's Charlie Hunnam looking adorable as ever as Frank. Frank's an average dude with an obnoxious older brother (Chris O'Dowd) whose just gotten sober and wants to make movies. Instead of getting serious about his craft, he secretly makes a sex tape of Frank and sells it to a Hollywood bigwig (Chris Noth). Unfortunately, the female star of the sex tape (Lizzy Caplan) is the daughter of said bigwig. Thus begins an adventure to intercept the DVD, which includes a pig and a transvestite (among other things).

I love that Bridesmaids star O'Dowd is starting to pop up everywhere now, and his rapport with Hunnam is enough to make me want to see more of this movie. Plus, the supporting cast includes funny people Whitney Cummings and Adam Pally (Happy Endings), who we don't see on the big screen nearly enough. Watch the trailer when you read more