Let's get the crap out of the way first: the new trailer for the upcoming disaster flick 2012 (you can view the teaser trailer here.) Starring John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Danny Glover, Woody Harrelson and a bunch of other people who either did it for the paycheck or because the script is a lame allegory about the dangers of global warming (or both), 2012 asks the question: what if the ancient Mayan civilization was right when they predicted many centuries ago that the world would end on December 21, 2012? And how does Hollywood and director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Patriot, 10,000 BC) think the world will end? Why, like every other stupid, moronic and insipid disaster movie that came before it, of course! Look on the bright side: if this prediction does come to pass, at least you won't have to buy any Christmas gifts that year. There's your silver lining, folks, you're welcome.
Finally today on two for one trailers, here is the first trailer for Whiteout. Based on the award winning graphic novel (which this critic read and loved), the film stars Kate Beckinsale as Carrie Stetko, a U.S. Marshal investigating a murder in Antarctica. The graphic novel was written by the excellent Greg Rucka and was a real page turner, full of suspense that had the reader guessing "who-dun-it" until the very end. Will the old cliché of "the book is always better than the movie" be true here? Probably, and this trailer doesn't exactly do anything to quell that fear. It's not that it necessarily looks bad, it just looks bland; like your average, run-of-the-mill crime procedural that CBS airs 10 different kinds of every week. I kept expecting one of those idiots from Criminal Minds or one of the CSIs to pop their head in and deliver a cheesy line while over emoting via their facial expression.