Take note, studio marketers -- there are movies out there that can show a lot, and explain a lot without spoiling the whole movie. Back in November, I posted about the first Kit Kittredge: An American Girl trailer. It was cute, but it didn't really say much. This time around, it describes all the players, giving enough cuteness for those that love cute kids and family films, and enough about the adults to pique some more mature tastes. (It's not perfectly spoiler-free however. There's a certain brief clip that I would bet comes at the end of the film, but this is family fare for tykes, so it's not really a surprise to see it, and I can forgive it.)

*Correction: The trailer is exclusive to KOL, and was leaked to YouTube, so the post has been changed to embed the KOL trailer.

Back in February of this year, I posted about the American Girl doll Kit Kittredge, who was finally making her way to the big screen by means of HBO, who had taken the reigns from Walden Media. A "resourceful girl during the Great Depression," Kit is a writer who tries to keep life going through her words. Mansfield Park director Patricia Rozema helmed the movie, titled Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, from Narnia scribe Ann Peacock's script, and it has one heck of a good cast for a family film. Abigail Breslin is starring as Kit, Chris O'Donnell and Julia Ormond are her parents, Stanley Tucci and Joan Cusack are her uncle and aunt, and there's also Wallace Shawn as a Register reporter.

Now, finally, a trailer has popped up over at the film's American Girl website. It's looking like a cute, retro Nancy Drew, with mystery spy equipment traded in for an old-school typewriter and Breslin's insidious quirk. As the story goes, Kit is a writer, and a kid, who is trying to get her foot in the door at the local paper. Obviously, she isn't taken very seriously, but gets involved with a mystery to get the scoop and get the job. Breslin looks cute as the lead, although I have to say that I'm most intrigued by Joan Cusack's stint as some wild-driving crazy aunt. (That, and it's nice to see her co-star without brother John.) Nancy Drew had only a moderate response, so I'm wondering if putting the girl in the retro period, rather than putting her in retro clothes in modern-day, will help the film out. Besides, the flick already has a whole legion of girls with American Girl dolls waiting to see this.

You guys are growing up so fast, I hardly recognize you anymore!

-- Clark W. Griswold (Chevy Chase)

Before the Griswolds head out on yet another vacation, Clark speaks these words to his children, a sly (for this movie, anyway) jab at the fact that the Griswold kids have been played by four different sets of actors in four different films. He might as well have been speaking for the series itself. Watching this movie again for the first time since its theatrical release, I hardly recognize Vegas Vacation as a Vacation film. If European Vacation was a disappointment, Vegas Vacation is a crying shame -- a sad, laughless cash-in devoid of wit, charm, and signs that anyone is doing anything more than grabbing a paycheck. It's the kind of bad that casts a negative light on the good Vacation films that came before. In short, it sucks.

I still remember the day I went to see Vegas Vacation. At this time I had seen the trilogy (particularly the first and third entries) countless times, but Vegas would be the first I saw in a theater. I am not ashamed to say I was excited. Within about five minutes, I was slumped in my seat and was checking my watch. Why do the makers of movie franchises do this? If you've got a beloved property on your hands, why not put a little care into making each installment work? Just a little! It's not like they didn't have time; Vegas Vacation was released eight years after Christmas. Why sign off on such a lazy, unfunny script?

If this isn't one of the stranger projects announced this year, featuring one of the stranger casts, then I dare you to top it. The Hollywood Reporter tells us that a live-action Jack and the Beanstalk flick is in the works. Not only that, but it seems Jack discovered a group of way-passed-their-prime actors to star while up there in the sky. Perhaps the Beanstalk is a time machine, because the last time these folks were popular -- well, let's just say it's been awhile. We're talking Katey Sagal, Wallace Shawn, Gilbert Gottfried, Chevy Chase, Christopher Lloyd and James Earl Jones. I swear -- that's the cast! Next thing you know, they'll be trying to dress up Fred Savage so that he can age-down and play Jack.

As it stands right now, James Earl Jones will play the giant (what, did you think they'd make Darth Vader an errand boy?), Segal will play Jack's worrisome mother, Shawn (who I've always found to be one of the most overlooked character actors) will play the dude who sells Jack the beans, Gottfried will somehow become the live-action goose that lays a golden egg and Chase will play the father of a family who gets lost while on their way to Wally World. Yeah, I wish. Actually, he'll have some sort of cameo as a guy in a labyrinth. As of now, Jack has not been cast. Gary DePew will produce; he was also a line producer on Warner Bros.' Hansel and Gretel, and produced Children of the Corn III and Children of the Corn IV. Well, at least all the films have something to do with children. Beanstalk will mark the first of ten low-budget family films that will be produced through DePew's Avalon production company. Looking at this cast, I can only imagine what will come next: Little Red Riding Hood, starring Cyndi Lauper? Heck, I'd see it.

Way back in June we had Crazy Chris Campbell informing us that Lionsgate had just purchased North American distribution rights to Happily N'Ever After, a CG-animated fairy tale spoof from the producer of Shrek -- and today we get our very first peek at the long-gestating project. ComingSoon.net is where you'll find the goods.

The plot deals with all the heroic fairy tale characters dealing with conflict from all the villains ... or something like that. (Let's give it up for characters in the public domain!) What I find most amusing is the voice cast. We got Sarah Michelle Gellar as Ella (as in Cinderella), Sigourney Weaver as an evil witch (cool!), Freddie Prinze Jr., Andy Dick, Patrick Warburton, Jon Polito, Wallace Shawn and George Carlin -- and when I say "amusing," I actually mean it. Most of those actors have pretty funny voices!

So in addition to the previously linked clip, this just-discovered teaser trailer at YouTube, and a release date of January 5, I can also inform you that both the writer and the director are first-time filmmakers. But hey, I liked Hoodwinked, so I think this flick looks pretty, well, amusing.

There's no good reason for it whatsoever, but I'm sort of perpetually annoyed at Frank Whaley. I've actually seen a lot of his movies, but I think he somehow bears the brunt of my desperate hatred for Swimming with Sharks, in which he had the great misfortune to play personal assistant to Kevin Spacey's absurdly sadistic (like, so sadistic that it just gets stupid) boss. I'm sorry, Frank, because I really like your gooey early movies (particularly Field of Dreams and Swing Kids), but I just don't think I can get over Swimming with Sharks.

For the Whaley fans among you, however, your man is getting ready to direct his third film, New York City Serenade.* The movie, which The Hollywood Reporter describes in such detail that I suspect they're on someone's payroll, is based on a period in the actor/director's own life, and tells the story of "two close friends who realize that sometimes to keep a friend you have to grow up and grow apart." (And here we go again with the summary that spells the movie's moral out for us before it's even made. Super.) The plot becomes pretty complicated, but basically the friends are an aspiring filmmaker (Owen, to be played by Freddie Prinze Jr.) and "a drummer, ex-husband and father who plays the dive bar circuit" (Ray, played by Chris Klein); they have a falling-out which, like all good falling-outs, revolves around Wallace Shawn. Also in the cast is Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who plays Owen's finaceé.

*For the musically-inclined among you, the movie takes its title from a Bruce Springsteen song. And, in further news, Ed Harcourt will both "[oversee] the original songs and score" and record a cover of Springsteen song for the soundtrack.