The trailer for My Best Friend's Girl (originally known as "Bachelor No. 2"), starring Kate Hudson and Dane Cook, is now online, and the only word that comes to mind is "monstrosity". Why don't you take a look at it up top. Go ahead, I'll wait here.

Are you as horrified as I am? Normally I prefer not to inflict my negativity about upcoming releases on you; if all I have to contribute is whining, I try to leave the blogging to someone else. But I couldn't pass this up. What we seem to have here is: a) the ten-millionth iteration of the plot where X starts a relationship with Y on a bet or a job but ends up falling in love; b) starring Kate Hudson, the reigning queen of the nondescript rom-com (at least Matthew McConaughey is nowhere to be found); c) co-starring Dane Cook, whose very presence is the equivalent of nails on a chalkboard, as a professional a**hole, and Jason Biggs as an awkward nice guy; and d) directed by Howard Deutch, who is responsible for some of the worst comedies of the last ten years. Oh, and it's named after a song. Despite not being dead, the Cars are spinning in their graves.

On one hand, I'd love to be proven wrong about My Best Friend's Girl; on the other hand, I really, really don't want to subject myself to it. Would it be a dereliction of duty to skip the thing?

Ah, Dane Cook. He's the guy many have been loving to hate recently -- or just love, I guess, if Waiting..., Employee of the Month, and Good Luck Chuck are your cup of tea. He's also taken stabs at playing Roman Polanski, and more recently, co-starring in the crime drama Mr. Brooks. Now he's taking the big step into the territory that many men have boldly gone before him. Dane Cook wants to be an action star.

During a recent interview with MTV, Cook said that he's getting ready to fight crime in Dead Already -- a buddy cop movie "in the vein of Lethal Weapon." Wait... Is Cook the next Mel Gibson? Will we get a collection of huge, mainstream flicks before Dane jumps behind the camera for some heavy, religious, and controversial fare? According to the comedian, this flick has a "really interesting take-off" from the usual buddy cop flicks: "This definitely had an element that was like, 'Wow, I've never seen that before.'" He doesn't explain how it's different, and instead goes on to say that the film has "crazy stunts" and action along with comedy.

As for the flick's ties to Lethal Weapon, Cook seems really interested in bringing a mixture of "being really funny and silly to really tragic" to the big screen, Lethal-style: "I forgot how many scenes in this movie are dealing with suicide and all kinds of insane, heavy topics. Then, all of a sudden, he's being wacky and doing Three Stooges. I haven't seen anything like that in an action movie since. I'd love to see, or be part of, a movie that pulls that off again."

But that's not all, action fans. Cook says this is one of several action flicks he's looking at, since action is on "the game plan next." Are you all ready for Dane Cook: Action Hero?

If you're one of the millions of kids who weren't able to snag (i.e. afford) tickets to see Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus in concert, you now have an opportunity to see the next best thing. For one week in early February, a film of one of the concerts will be shown at movie theaters nationwide. And to make it seem even more like you're attending the real thing, the film is in 3D! Compiled from three concerts in two cities from the "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds" tour, the Disney-produced film is directed by Bruce Hendricks (Ultimate X: The Movie) and was shot using 3D digital cameras rather than shot with regular digital cameras and rendered in the format later (meaning sorry, no 2D versions of this one), as has been the case with most digital 3D movies so far. By the way: the cinematographer in charge of those cameras is Transformers DP Mitchell Amundsen.

Not only is this a big deal for Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus fans, but also it's a huge deal for theater owners and their continued attempts to offer substantial alternative entertainment at their cinemas. I'm sure you all know this isn't the first concert to be shown in theaters. There have been Rolling Stones concerts, drumline concerts, Metropolitan Opera performances, Dane Cook stand-up concerts, and many other events. Some of them have even been broadcast live to theaters via satellite. Many of them, such as today's (Dec. 2) live presentation of the St. Olaf Christmas Festival, are one-day-only events.

As the end credits roll on Dan in Real Life, I imagine most people will have roughly the same reaction -- a smile and a shrug. You won't be angry at yourself for watching it, but you'll be hard pressed to remember the thing in two weeks. It's a relentlessly average movie, packed full of "nice" moments but lacking a single great one.

Steve Carell stars as Dan, a widowed advice columnist trying to be a good father to his three daughters, well played by Alison Pill, Marlene Lawston, and a very funny Brittany Robertson. A widowed man raising his three daughters is also the premise of the old sitcom Full House, and the comparison isn't far off. These daughters are fleshed out a bit more than the Olsen twins, but the relationship beats feel the same -- forced, cutesy, a little tired.

Dan and the girls go to visit their extended family in a lakeside Rhode Island cottage. Dan takes a trip to the local bookstore, and in a very Woody Allen-esque scene, he meets and develops a crush on a woman named Marie (Juliette Binoche). There's a "falling-for-each-other" montage that doesn't really convince, Dan gets her number, and heads home to brag about his new "hottie" and meet the girlfriend of his brother (Dane Cook). Surprise surprise -- his hottie and the girlfriend are one and the same -- Marie. Cue the laugh track.

The biggest story surrounding the midsummer release of the odd and messy but ultimately satisfying thriller Mr. Brooks centered around Kevin Costner's resurgence and willingness to play a killer (though personally I'm more impressed he's managed to resist playing another baseball player now for two years and counting). But Earl Brooks, the wealthy business owner and Portland "Man of the Year" honoree who dabbles in homicide on the side, isn't cut from the same cold-blooded vein as Patrick Bateman or Mickey or Mallory. He's constantly at odds with himself, and is largely let off the hook by the presence of his bloodthirsty alter-ego/invisible friend Marshall, who takes the shape of an aging William Hurt. The poor guy's got a devil on one shoulder but no angel on the other. To that effect, Mr. Brooks feels far less festive than American Psycho or Natural Born Killers, and is in some ways more surprising, even if Costner didn't do the film's suspense any favors when he spoke pre-release about making multiple Brooks movies (perhaps Mr. and Mrs. Brooks is next?). The film has plenty of other "lovable mess" qualities to it. It's overplotted: whereas Dane Cook's wannabe-slayer Mr. Smith is a necessity, a separate storyline involving an escaped convict is pure overkill. It's campy: Brooks has a secret lair, for one. And something about Demi Moore playing a multimillionaire who daylights as a cop screams bad Verhoeven. The film also inexplicably morphs into a John Woo movie for one bizarre action sequence. That all said, there's not a single dull moment to it.

Bonus Points: There's endless joy time for the serial killer enthusiast here: This disc comes with deleted scenes, commentary from director Bruce A. Evans his co-writer Raynold Gideon, and featurettes called The Birth of a Serial Killer: A Look at the Writing of Mr. Brooks, On the Set of Mr. Brooks, and Murder On Their Minds: Mr. Brooks, Marshall & Mr. Smith.

Other New DVD Releases This Week (Oct. 23)
Meet the Robinsons
Hostel: Part II
Fido
Home of the Brave
Into Great Silence
Nearing Grace
Saw III: Director's Cut
A Clockwork Orange: Special Edition
O Lucky Man: Special Edition
Hostel: Director's Cut
Wild Style: Anniversary Edition

One of my fellow film critics breezed into Good Luck Chuck right before it began. "I don't even know what it's about," she noted as she sat. I, charitably, leaned forward with a synopsis: "Dane Cook plays a young man laboring under a curse where every woman he's involved with then goes on to find true love and marriage with the next man she dates. When he meets and falls for Jessica Alba, though, he wants to break the curse." I then added, half-hopingly and half-jokingly, "It may be a whimsical piece of magical realism."

I assure you wholeheartedly, it is not. The problem's not the pitch -- you could probably make a sweet, silly, movie from that premise -- but in the execution, which is so ham-fisted and blunt that you feel like you're being beaten about the head with clubs made out of artificial breasts, sexism, gross-out humor and Dane Cook's naked body. Another friend, after I dismissed Good Luck Chuck as unfunny trash, said "It'll probably be the top of the box office, then" and offered that I was "an elitist." Well, to paraphrase David Rees, if 'elitist' means 'not the dumbest person in the room,' then hell, yes, I'm an elitist. And Good Luck Chuck may make money; so does cocaine, but I don't feel like that alone is a reason to endorse either product.

During a teen game of spin-the-bottle, young Charles draws 'seven minutes in heaven' with a Goth girl who's secretly longed for him; spurning her advances, he brings down her wrath, and a curse. Leaping to the present day, Chuck (Dane Cook) has grown to be a dentist, and his 'lucky charm' status is something of an urban legend. Now, women hurl themselves at Chuck so that, after sleeping with him, they might then find true love. Chuck is willing to take advantage of this, but only up to a point: "What's sex without love?" His boorish plastic surgeon buddy Stu (Dan Fogler) howls an answer: "It's SEX! It's STILL SEX!"

No huge surprises in last weekend's box office returns. Jodie Foster's new thriller took the lead with slithery CGI serpents bringing up the rear at number five. Superbad is definitely getting some McLovin' after being in the top five for five weeks now. Here are the numbers from last weekend:

The Brave One: $13.4 million
3:10 to Yuma: $8.9 million
Mr. Woodcock: $8.7 million
Superbad: $5.1 million
Dragon Wars: $5 million

This weekend we've got three new releases, plus two more flicks going into wider release. Check it out:

Good Luck Chuck
What's It All About: Dane Cook plays a man cursed. Every woman he has ever slept with has found true love with the next person they meet after dumping him. Now that he's in love with a woman played by Jessica Alba he has to find a way to break the curse.
Why It Might Do Well: Judging from the trailer, Ms. Alba spends at least part of the film in her underwear. Not a bad thing.
Why It Might Not Do Well: The plot synopsis and all the pratfalls in the trailer remind me way too much of Three's Company.
Number of Theaters: 2,500
Prediction: $10 million

Resident Evil: Extinction
What's It All About: Milla Jovovich returns as Alice, kicking zombie butt in the Nevada desert and taking on the evil Umbrella Corporation in this third installment of the video game-based franchise.
Why It Might Do Well: Halloween's success at the box office showed that people are up for a good scare, and for my money I'll take a zombie flick over a slasher movie any day of the week. I'm even willing to overlook my lukewarm feelings about Resident Evil: Apocalypse.
Why It Might Not Do Well: The list of crappy movies based on video games is a long and sad one.
Number of Theaters: 2,700
Prediction: $22 million

Sydney White
What's It All About: Amanda Bynes stars in this modern take on Snow White, playing a college student who after being rejected by the sorority she hoped to join is taken in by seven dorks.
Why It Might Do Well: Bynes has a great sense of comedic timing. If you thought The Amanda Show was just for kids, you might be surprised at how intelligent the humor was.
Why It Might Not Do Well: It's basically a teen comedy, and Superbad is a tough act to follow.
Number of Theaters: 1,900
Prediction: $7 million

And, although these next two opened last weekend, they're both spreading out into a greater number of theaters:

Across the Universe
What's It All About: A musical love story that takes place in the turbulent 1960s set to the music of The Beatles.
Why It MIght Do Well: It looks downright trippy, and it's got Beatles tunes. What's not to love?
Why It Might Not Do Well: It's not a huge release so this won't make the top five.
Number of Theaters: 400
Prediction: $2.5 million

Eastern Promises
What's It All About: David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen, the director and star of A History of Violence, re-team for this thriller. Naomi Watts plays a London midwife who comes into possession of a diary that could be dangerous for Russian mobsters.
Why It MIght Do Well: After their last collaboration, I'm dying to see what Mortensen and Cronenberg come up with.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Oh, don't be so negative.
Number of Theaters: 1,325
Prediction: $8 million


Here's how I'm betting things will go this coming weekend:
1. Resident Evil: Extinction
2. Good Luck Chuck
3. The Brave One
4. Eastern Promises
5. Sydney White

And here's how our little competition went last week:
1. Josh: 13
2. Matt: 11
2. Anna07: 11
2. Porcalina: 11
3. Ness265: 9
3. drklrdbill: 9
4. Lee: 8
4. Max: 8
4. Brad: 8
5. Ray: 7
6. peter: 6
7. ABIRD0006: 4
7. MikeJM79: 4

Here's how the competition works:
Please post your prediction in the comments section below before 5:00PM on Saturday. One point for every top five movie correctly named, two points for every correct placement, and one extra point for the top movie.

Hey, remember Jason Biggs? Since starring in Woody Allen's Anything Else, he hasn't really appeared in ... anything else. Okay, so he co-starred in Jersey Girl and Eight Below, but he hasn't done anything of notice in years -- except for that hysterical short film, The Glitch, of course. I was beginning to think I might see him in the next American Pie direct-to-video sequel before I see him in a big-screen starring role again. Fortunately, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Biggs just got a new gig playing Dane Cook's best bud in Lionsgate's Bachelor No. 2. In addition to Cook, he joins Kate Hudson, Alec Baldwin and Lizzy Caplan (Mean Girls), who just signed on as Hudson's roommate.

As we told you previously, Bachelor follows a guy named Tank (Cook) who makes a living by giving women the worst dates of their lives. Hired by dumped men, Tank's promise is that he'll make the exes come crawling back. However, when his friend (Biggs) is the one broken up with, Tank ends up falling for the dumper (Hudson), making it a tough decision whether to stay loyal to his buddy or follow his heart. Yeah, in some ways it sounds a bit like Cook's upcoming movie Good Luck Chuck -- in which he sleeps with women who then go on to marry their next beau -- with a bit of the competitive love triangle thing from his Employee of the Month thrown in. Bachelor will be directed by Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful's Howard Deutch, but I wouldn't count on anything similar to those John Hughes classics, even with the love triangle storyline. So far this decade, Deutch's most notable work has been The Whole Ten Yards.

Other Biggs movies that could see the light of the projector one day include Michael Ian Black's The Pleasure of Your Company (aka Wedding Daze, aka The Next Girl I See), which MGM has been sitting on in the U.S. for almost a year now. He's also got another movie that seems to have changed names since the last time we wrote about it: Over My Dead Body, which was formerly titled How I Met My Boyfriend's Dead Fiancee (phew! good thing they changed it) -- though THR still gives the longer name.

OK, so it's a pretty slow news day, but I think one of the cool things we movie bloggers do is shine a light on titles that might have been underrated, overlooked and plain old dismissed. Bruce Evans' Mr. Brooks didn't blow many doors down at the multiplexes ($33 million worldwide gross) -- nor did it wow the critics all that much (56% positive at Rotten Tomatoes) -- but I dug it. Maybe it's just the novelty of seeing Kevin Costner, Dane Cook and William Hurt in the same movie ... or maybe it was the collective presence of Demi Moore, Reiko Aylesworth, Danielle Panabaker and (rowr!) Marg Helgenberger that kept me enraptured.

All I know is that (aside from one really nagging complaint) I really liked the movie. In it, Costner plays a seemingly normal upper-class family man -- but inside his brain lives a psychotic who looks a lot like William Hurt. And together they do very terrible things. You'll rent it, you'll like it. Thank me later. Demi Moore plays a millionaire police detective. You'll have a ball.

According to DVDActive.com, Mr. Brooks will hit DVD on October 23 courtesy of MGM Home Video, and the disc will come packing a few solid goodies: Evans and longtime collaborator Raynold Gideon will provide an audio commentary (together the duo penned the beautiful Starman, the lovable Stand By Me ... and ... Cutthroat Island), several deleted scenes (with optional commentary), three featurettes and the theatrical trailer. (And hopefully an alternate ending that doesn't ... never mind. Forget I said anything.) Lastly, what's up with that lame-ass DVD cover? I thought the theatrical poster was pretty damn cool.

The Hollywood Reporter is ... reporting that the great Alec Baldwin has joined the cast of the Dane Cook comedy (isn't that an oxymoron?) Bachelor No. 2. Baldwin was not expected to take on any acting work before resuming his Emmy - nominated role on one of the funniest comedies on television -- 30 Rock -- this month. I guess the opportunity to work on a project of this caliber was too difficult to resist. In the film, Cook will play Tank, a guy who is "hired to take girls on horrible dates so they crawl back to the boyfriends they dumped." Tank "struggles with his libido and the meaning of friendship when his best pal needs his help with the girl who dumped him." That girl will be played by Oscar-nominee Kate Hudson, who you'd think would be fleeing from this genre after the dismal You Me and Dupree.

It took me about five minutes of re-reading the plot descriptions of both films that Bachelor No. 2 is different from the upcoming Cook vehicle Good Luck Chuck. Chuck, opening September 21st, is about a guy who girls want to have sex with so they can meet the man they're going to marry. But then he falls for one of them. Um ... really? These movies don't strike anyone as a trifle similar? Oh well. Cook has got the right idea knocking out as many film roles as he possibly can, while he can. I imagine we're about two years away from never hearing his name again. First-timer Jordan Cahan wrote the script for Bachelor, and Howard Deutch is directing. Deutch had a glorious run directing John Hughes scripts in the 80's -- he did Pretty in Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful, and The Great Outdoors, but it's all kind of been downhill from there. Speaking of Bachelor No. 2, why don't I take this opportunity to recommend the excellent Aimee Mann album of the same name?

There is just something about Steve Carell that makes him damned perfect poster material. With just a few subtle (or not so subtle) facial expressions, he can turn a normal pose into something much, much more. He did it with The 40 Year Old Virgin, just sitting there smiling -- making a simple pose flipping perfect. Then the Apatow gang tried to do it again with Seth Rogen, who rocks in his own sense, in Knocked Up, but it just wasn't the same. Well, now, Coming Soon has got Steve's poster for Dan in Real Life, and he's done it again. Mind you, it's not quite as perfect, but it's just got that thing -- making those pancakes look like the perfect pillow.

It's been a while since we've covered the flick, so let's catch up. Dan (Carell) is a widower and parenting columnist trying to raise three girls. The current plot outline says: "A widower finds out the woman he fell in love with is his brother's girlfriend." Last year, it was three brothers competing for the woman's affections, so maybe that will still happen too. And yes, oh yes, Juliette Binoche is the lucky lady, with Carell, Dane Cook (her boyfriend) and Norbert Leo Butz playing the brothers. Between Carell and Binoche, there's no way I will miss this. I last saw the French actress in the drama Quelques jours en septembre, and while the topic was serious, her snarky French agent was just great. The woman can do it all. If you need more reasons to look into it, try John Mahoney, Dianne Wiest and Emily Blunt. The flick comes out this October, and in the meantime, there's an E! news clip here and trailer here.*

*Edited to add trailer.

I'm not sure whether Dane Cook is moving up in the big-screen world, or down. So far he's gone from Jessica Simpson (Employee of the Month) to Jessica Alba (Good Luck Chuck) and, now, to Kate Hudson for his upcoming comedy Bachelor No. 2. Well, one thing's for sure -- he's decided to ditch the Jessicas. Variety reports that Hudson has signed on to star opposite Cook in the film, which was penned by Jordan B. Cahan and will be directed by Howard Deutch (Pretty in Pink). Production is set to begin this August in Boston (Cook's hometown, I believe) with Manangement 360, Terra Films and Cook's Superfinger Entertainment producing.

In all fairness, I think Cook finally found a role that suits him perfectly; one that allows him to utilize the raunchy style of comedy that made him famous in the first place. In Bachelor No. 2, he'll play a guy hired by men who have recently been dumped to take out their ex-girlfriends and show them a miserable time. The idea is that they'll be so disgusted and turned off by what is out there, they'll immediately run back to their old boyfriend who'll lovingly welcome them with open arms. However, problems arise when Cook's character is asked to take out the ex-girlfriend of his best friend who, I assume, will be played by Hudson (the ex-girlfriend, not the best friend). The two hit it off, he screws over his best friend and the moral of the story will be ...

I've always had a thing for Hudson (she was my celebrity crush in our Cinematical/Moviefone poll), but the girl is killing me with all these romantic comedies. Do something different Kate! I really want to pimp your skills, but you're giving me absolutely nothing to work with. You, Me and Dupree? Raising Helen? Alex & Emma? And what's next -- Fool's Gold with Matthew McConaughey? I guess I'll just have to keep watching Almost Famous over and over until the girl finally gives us a role worth talking about.

I'm not usually into the kinds of movies distributed by Lionsgate, but I have to admit that I'm a fan of their marketing department. Even when they're controversial or tasteless, I still have to give them props for having guts. Just to recap on some of their major achievements in boundary breaking: there's the nude, decapitated Bijou Philips poster for Hostel II; there's the controversial torture-depicting billboards for Captivity (though reportedly After Dark Films was responsible, not Lionsgate); and of course those Saw movies always seem to come with some interesting and "unacceptable" ad campaigns. Typically, it's just the horror movies that give us such gross or outrageous posters, but now Lionsgate has some new racy ads for its upcoming comedy Good Luck Chuck.

There are two posters, and I'm sure you won't see either of them hanging up at your local, family-friendly multiplex -- and not just because they are international teasers. The first features Jessica Alba holding a phallic ice cream cone, which is dripping all over her hand. I guess some people might not get the point, but it is more than a little obvious what that cone is supposed to represent. Then there's the second poster, featuring a shirtless Dane Cook with a very pleased look on his face. Oh yeah, and there's also the top of someone's head at the bottom of the poster. Nobody's missing the point with that one.

What's got Dane Cook and Jessica Alba, looks like a dozen other "high-concept" romantic comedies, and really kinda stinks? The answer lies here, within the brand-new trailer for something called Good Luck Chuck. Sort of a cross between 40 Days and 40 Nights, Just My Luck and a particularly lame sitcom, the flick seems to be about a dashing young bachelor who creates brides: Sleep with the guy just once and >boom< you're headed to the altar with your dream husband. But what happens when the bride-maker falls for a girl he actually (yep) likes? Why, he's gotta practice abstinence! No sex, ironically, to keep the girl! How very clever.

And I haven't even gotten into the subplot about how he plans to lose his "good luck mojo" by having sex with an obese (and therefore un-marry-able) woman. I just respect you too much. I'll also spare you the play-by-play of the horny sidekick dentist and his desperately witless rejoinders. Anyway, Good Luck Chuck comes from longtime editor / first-time director Mark Helfrich with a screenplay from the guy who wrote that severely mediocre Kids in America flick. On the other hand, the movie promises to show us Jessica Alba's panties at least once -- which should guarantee at least a $15 million opening weekend. Release date is August 24. Here's the trailer. (And just for the record: I really dig Dane Cook's stand-up material, but that Employee of the Month flick was really freakin' awful, which makes me a little more skeptical of the guy's cinematic output. And trailers like this one sure don't help much.)

Kevin Costner's latest, the rather intriguing serial killer thriller Mr. Brooks, doesn't hit screens until June 1, but that hasn't stopped the star from broaching the topic of sequels -- which is kind of strange when you consider that Costner's never done a sequel! It was in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the actor talked sequels: "''This was written with the idea that we would do a couple others ...When the writers first presented the notion to me, I said, 'Oh, bulls---! I haven't done Tin Cup 2, or Bull Durham 2, or Open Range: The Early Years, so you don't have to try to hook me with that.'

But when they told me their idea, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. We're hoping this little movie develops a following so we can play this story out the way it should.'' Co-starring Demi Moore, Dane Cook and William Hurt (in a role that looks pretty darn juicy), Mr. Brooks hails from the long-standing writing duo of Raynold Gideon and Bruce A. Evans, the guys who've penned movies very good (Starman, Stand By Me) and not-so-good (Cutthroat Island, Jungle 2 Jungle). Check out the trailer if you like.