Trailer Blazer: M. Night Shyamalan, Kristen Bell, and more

Four hot new trailers:

Lady in the Water (Summer 2006) Ooooo, intriguing! "Once upon a time… There was a man named Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti, left) whose life would change forever." So go the title cards that accompany this purposefully vague trailer for a "bedtime story" by writer-director M. Night Shyamalan. Here’s what we know: Cleveland is a superintendent in an apartment building and apparently there’s a lady of some sort in the pool. Airy, operatic music tells us she ain’t no ordinary lady. But we don’t see her (she’s reportedly played by The Village star Bryce Dallas Howard), just the ripples she creates in the pool as Cleveland peers in from above. "How many of you are there?" he asks, over a dark screen, but we don’t get an answer — and we won’t until next summer.

The Sentinel (April 21, 2006) "I’m innocent, damn it!" says disgraced Secret Service Agent Pete Garrison (Michael Douglas). Well, of course nobody believes him, including his coworkers (Kiefer Sutherland, in full-on 24 mode, and a very proper-looking Eva Longoria) and his former lover, who is also the First Lady (Kim Basinger). So he’s on the run, and — as it tends to happen in the movies — someone is also trying to kill the president. Looks pretty tense, but haven’t we seen this before? When it was called In the Line of Fire?

Pulse (March 2006) After a friend commits suicide, Kristen Bell, Christina Milian, and Lost‘s Ian Somerhalder start seeing dead people inside their computer monitors, even when — gasp! — they aren’t connected to the Internet. Er, okay, it’s an interesting idea — we could all afford to spend less time in front of the electric mistress. But we get it; the Internet is evil, and these dead people are more than just chat buddies; they want to suck the life out of you. Creepy! Can we now say that Kristen Bell has officially turned into Sarah Michelle Gellar?

Something New (Feb. 3, 2006) What’s this? A trailer for a romantic comedy that looks like it didn’t leave out the romance or the comedy? As Vivica Fox once said in Two Can Play That Game: ”That’s what I’m talkin’ about!” The always terrific Sanaa Lathan looks like she’s got some serious chemistry with costar Simon Baker (TV’s The Guardian), and the supporting cast is first rate, too. I mean, Scrubs‘ Donald Faison is one of the only actors I can think of who could still score a laugh just by walking into a glass door, and when you add Alfre Woodard, Blair Underwood, and Girlfriends‘ Golden Brooks to the mix, you’ve got a movie I’ll catch in its opening weekend. –Michael Slezak