Trailer Stash: Gran Torino, Harry Potter, Watchmen, more

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And now, a brief look at a few of the latest movie trailers to hit the web:

Gran Torino
Release Date: Dec. 17 (limited)
Director: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Cory Hardrict, John Carroll Lynch

The "other movie" Clint Eastwood has in the pipeline this year looks to make a late entry in the fall Oscar game, just as Million Dollar Baby famously did in 2004. The new trailer makes the movie look almost identical to that one, too. Cranky, caustic old guy overcomes old-school prejudice (sexism in Baby, racism here) to immerse himself in people he never thought he would, only to be forced into a dark moral decision as the consummate act of his new friendship. Throw in a young priest for good measure and you get basically the same movie, but then Million Dollar Baby was a surprise, so why shouldn’t this be?

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Release Date: July 17, 2009
Director: David Yates
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint

“She’s only interested in you because she thinks you’re the chosen one!”

“But I am the chosen one.”

Adorable!

Watchmen
Release Date: March 6, 2009
Director: Zack Snyder
Starring: Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Matthew Goode

The new trailer is a similar montage of glossy images cut to that same Smashing Pumpkins song. Other than the full-frontal nudity, it doesn’t provide much more of a sense of the film than the first trailer, except to revive our hopes that it will be more than a bunch of flashy digital images spliced together. That it’s supposedly faithful to one of the best graphic novels in circulation gives us hope. Memories of 300 do not.