Welcome to a brand new weekly feature here at WorcesterMovies.com, “Trailer Stash.” As a remedy to Monday morning, we will offer up a quintet of trailers for your information, entertainment and misappropriation of company time while at work. We will do our best to theme them appropriately, though if we’re really tired from watching movies all weekend, they might be just five trailers that we want to share.Make sure you have QuickTime installed, as most of the trailers we share with you will be in that format (yes, we are Mac loyalists).

[WINDOWS XP/VISTA DOWNLOAD] [MACINTOSH DOWNLOAD]

SHARKWATER [In Limited Release] - Filmmaker Rob Stewart fills part of the void left by the passing of Steve “The Crocodile Hunter” Irwin as he takes on the myths surrounding sharks. He suggests that a major extinction will upset the ecological balance of the entire planet, which is why he is so outspoken regarding the 100 million sharks that are needlessly killed every year to satisfy Asia’s demand for shark fin soup, which is a status symbol more than it is a delicacy (the essentially flavorless fin serves mainly as a flavor sponge). What starts out as an informational film turns out to be an intriguing adventure as Stewart and company encounter and illegal finning operation and corrupt foreign governments that have it in for them.

I AM LEGEND [December 14] - Will Smith plays Robert Neville, a scientist and survivor of a worldwide plague that has eliminated most of the world’s population. He soon finds himself in a race to find a cure from his own immune blood as his three years of solitude in Manhattan come to an end when “The Infected” – mutant plague survivors – descend upon his position. Originally, Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) was to adapt this in the lat ’90s, with Arnold Schwarzenegger to star, but the budget spiraled out of control and it was scrapped. This is the fourth adaptation of Richard Matheson’s novel, the first being the fun Vincent Price cheapie The Last Man On Earth (1964) and the second being the trippy Charlton Heston flick, The Omega Man (1973) and the most recent being the unauthorized lawsuit waiting to happen, I Am Omega (just out on DVD). Also opening in IMAX.

ALIENS VS. PREDATOR: REQUIEM [December 25] - Not that the holiday season needs another violent xeno-cat-and-mouse game, but Fox is delivering one, anyway. A sequel to 2004’s murky dud, Alien vs. Predator, this one has the residents of a small town running for cover when the two aliens land and use their hamlet as a hunting ground (which sounds a bit like Invaders From Mars to us). Age verification is required to view this way-bloody “red band” trailer (meaning that the trailer is R-rated). For another “shared universe” concept, check out the quickie Batman: Dead End.

THE WATER HORSE: LEGEND OF THE DEEP [December 25] - 12-year-old Alex Etel, who starred in Danny Boyle’s lovely 2005 family film, Millions, plays a Scottish boy who finds a mysterious egg which hatches a “sea horse,” a creature so rare that only one of them can exist at a time. It looks very cutesy, with a lot of broad daylight CGI (like The Host, only no one gets eaten) and family friendly action. It brings to mind John Sayles’ The Secret of Roan Inish, which is good, as well as the Mark Harmon flounder, Magic in the Water, which is not-so-good.

CLOVERFIELD [January 18, 2008] - Before J.J. Abrams lands his Star Trek prequel in theatres next Christmas, he’s producing this mega-monster movie, which has been shrouded in secrecy (and up until recently, it didn’t even have an official title). The trailer looks pretty kick-ass, with a group of partygoers’ revelry interrupted by explosions on the New York skyline, followed by some major league mayhem (the headless Statue of Liberty on the poster will give you some idea as to how large scale the destruction is). Look for this one to end the annual January post-holiday drought.

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Welcome to a brand new weekly feature here at WorcesterMovies.com, “Trailer Stash.” As a remedy to Monday morning, we will offer up a quintet of trailers for your information, entertainment and misappropriation of company time while at work. We will do our best to theme them appropriately, though if we’re really tired from watching movies all weekend, they might be just five trailers that we want to share.Make sure you have QuickTime installed, as most of the trailers we share with you will be in that format (yes, we are Mac loyalists).

[WINDOWS XP/VISTA DOWNLOAD] [MACINTOSH DOWNLOAD]

JUNO (December 14) - Early awards buzz swarms around this comedy by Thank You For Smoking director/Hollywood legacy Jason Reitman. It’s about a teenage girl, played by enchanting X-Men: The Last Stand waif Ellen Page, who gets pregnant and decides to give her baby to a childless couple, played by Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman. The story behind it is bound to create many a water cooler discussion, too: first-time screenwriter Diablo Cody is a former stripper/ad exec (which is the more honest living?) Studio Fox Searchlight seems to have a lot of confidence in what could be a big sleeper hit for them, as they are screening it aggressively in advance of its opening (Click here to find out about free advance Boston area screenings.)

WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY (December 21) - The Midas touch of Judd Apatow, the man behind The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Superbad, may falter with this apparently lowbrow spoof of music biographies like Walk the Line, Ray and the fictional Dreamgirls. Perpetual supporting player John C. Reilly (Year of the Dog) steps up and plays a Cash-like star over numerous decades, though the real star may turn out to be the music, all crafted to be period authentic and played pretty straight (which is why it, like the tunes from Christopher Guest’s A Mighty Wind did, might get some mention come Awards Time).

27 DRESSES (January 11, 2008) - If the Writers’ strike isn’t resolved soon, January may be the soonest that a lot of “Grey’s Anatomy” fans will get to see Emmy winner Katherine Heigl. This romantic comedy, written by The Devil Wears Prada scribe Aline Brosh McKenna, is about a woman who, after playing bridesmaid 27 times, falls for her sister’s fiancé. James Marsden (Hairspray), Judy Greer (The TV Set) and Malin Akerman (The Heartbreak Kid) co-star in one of 2008’s first post-Holiday releases.

BE KIND REWIND (January 25, 2008) - Lately, Jack Black has played it alternately straight (The Holiday) and silly (Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny). This one fits into the latter category, about a guy who accidentally erases all the tapes in his friend’s video store and sets out to create home-made versions of all of them, looks like it may be fun, if director Michel Gondry can get beyond the gimmick. He pulled this off in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but wasn’t able to overcome it in The Science of Sleep. Black, who has taken to producing movies like Year of the Dog, stars in DreamWorks’ summer 2008, the CGI comedy Kung-Fu Panda.

HAROLD & KUMAR ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY (February 8, 2008) - 2004’s Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle may have been a fun lark, but did it really need a sequel? Someone thought so, which is why Kal Penn, who is now on “House,” and John Cho, who will star as Sulu in “Alias” creator J.J. Abrams’s untitled 2008 Star Trek prequel, is on tap. The stoner buds get mistaken for terrorists while en route to Amsterdam, which sounds suspiciously like the plot to a Cheech & Chong movie, but we supposed that is the point.

JOE STRUMMER: THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN [November 2] - Punk rock warlord Joe Strummer, frontman for pioneering punk band The Clash, gets his due in insider Julien Temple’s documentary, which features interviews with the likes of Bono (of the not-punk band U2), Martin Scorsese (multiple maker of fine music docs himself, see below) and John Cusack, who adapted and starred in the film version of Nick Hornby’s punk-flavored High Fidelity. Also check out one of Strummer’s last interviews, shot at WCCA while on tour in 2001 with his last band, The Mescaleros.

AUGUST RUSH [November 21] - There’s so much “power of music” vibe in the trailer for this romantic drama that it may as well be about a superhero called “MusicMan” (known by day as the mild-mannered symphony hall janitor J.P. Jellyroll) who shuffles from place to place (while humming a jaunty tune) and thwarts evil. No, this one is about a musically gifted but doleful moppet (played by dramatically gifted but doleful moppet Freddie Highmore) who goes on a quest to find his birth parents, played by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (”The Tudors”) and Keri Russell (Waitress), with Robin Williams as The Crazy Guy With The Hat Who Lives In The Park.

I’M NOT THERE [November 21] - Like the folks whose faces grace coins and stamps, so too do music icons have to wait until they are late music icons to have their own biopics. Unless you’re Bob Dylan. This way-out take on the folk rocker’s life has six different actors playing the Hall-Of-Famer – Richard Gere, Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw, 14-year-old black actor Marcus Carl Franklin…and Cate Blanchett (yes, Cate Blanchett). If anyone can pull this off, it is co-writer/director Todd Haynes, whose other musical flights of fancy include the glam-tastic Velvet Goldmine (1998) and Superstar (1987), a biopic of Karen Carpenter shot using Barbie dolls (and unauthorized Carpenters music, which is why it is only available underground).

SWEENEY TODD [December 21] - You wouldn’t know from the trailer, but this ghastly Tim Burton film about a barber who bakes bad people into pies is a musical, based on the Sondheim show. Frequent partner in crime Johnny Depp plays the title role, and judging from this first look at the joint Warner/DreamWorks venture, neither studio knows what the heck this bird is. Neither do they seem to want to let any of the whole concept’s innate humor show. They better figure it out soon – they’re propping up their holiday line-ups with the big-budget tentpole.

SHINE A LIGHT [April 8, 2008] - All-around proficient guy Martin Scorsese, who finally won an Oscar this year (for The Departed) returns to the music documentary territory which he made fertile with The Last Waltz (about the last gasp of the supergroup The Band) and more recently, No Direction Home, about Bob Dylan. This one is about The Rolling Stones (perhaps you’ve heard of them), shot on their recent tour and covering their entire storied career. Why release it to theatres, you ask? When you’ve got a brand like IMAX behind you, projecting your wizened faces on to some of the largest screens in the world, amping up your music to pee-inducing levels (so the people who have gone deaf with you at your concerts can hear it), why not? [See also the early IMAX film, At The Max, for Stones performances more vintage).

Welcome to a brand new weekly feature here at WorcesterMovies.com, “Trailer Stash.” As a remedy to Monday morning, we will offer up a quintet of trailers for your information, entertainment and misappropriation of company time while at work. We will do our best to theme them appropriately, though if we’re really tired from watching movies all weekend, they might be just five trailers that we want to share.Make sure you have QuickTime installed, as most of the trailers we share with you will be in that format (yes, we are Mac loyalists).

[WINDOWS XP/VISTA DOWNLOAD] [MACINTOSH DOWNLOAD]

THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD [October 19]
Not only does Casey Affleck step out of his Oscar-winning brother Ben’s shadow in Oscar-winning brother Ben’s directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone (also opening October 19), but he throws down and holds his own opposite Brad Pitt in this account of famous outlaw Jesse James’s last days. The Boston-born actor’s stock sure is shooting up in value, and soon, Ben might be referred to as “Oscar winner Casey Affleck’s brother.”

POSSIBLE OSCARS: Best Actor (Affleck)

AMERICAN GANGSTER [November 2]
This crime drama has Oscar written all over it. Literally. Star Denzel Washington, who plays a self-made crime boss, has two. Russell Crowe has one. Cuba Gooding Jr. has one. Writer Steven Zaillian has one. And director Ridley Scott has been nominated three times. The film that will surely be the first grown-up hit of the season also has the best chances at winning come February (and Crowe has a shot at a nom with 3:10 To Yuma, as well).

POSSIBLE OSCARS: Washington (Best Actor), Crowe (Best Actor),
Scott (Best Director), Film (Best Picture)

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN [November 9]
Here is another film that seems destined for decoration, with Oscar winners for Fargo Joel and Ethan Coen directing a golden cast. Tommy Lee Jones, who plays an over-the-hill lawman in a Midwestern town under siege, has one statue already, with his turn in In the Valley of Elah seriously increasing his chances of another. Spanish heavyweight Javier Bardem, who earned a nomination for Before Night Falls (and deserved one for The Sea Inside), plays the mysterious psycho who drives the story.

POSSIBLE OSCARS: Bardem (Best Actor), Jones (Best Actor),
The Coens (Best Director), Film (Best Picture)

ATONEMENT [December 7]
Director Joe Wright puts his Pride and Prejudice star, Kiera Knightley, in this epic story about a tragic love spanning decades. Based on the novel by Ian McEwan, the story, which also stars James McAvoy of The Last King of Scotland, is the kind of grand, weepy tale that gives actors, composers and cinematographers all the chance to shout, “Hey, look what I can do!” and hope that the Academy remembers them through the Oscar season din.

POSSIBLE OSCARS: Knightley (Best Actress), Film (Best Picture)

GRACE IS GONE [December 7]
As the flag-draped coffins continue to pile up, so do the films about the Iraq War, like The Kingdom, In the Valley of Elah and this emotionally raw drama. It stars John Cusack as a war widower who must find the strength to move on and raise his two daughters by himself, and it appears to be not only the kind of movie that presses all the right buttons with Oscar voters, but one that also earn the title “career best.” You’ve come a long way since Better Off Dead, Johnny…

POSSIBLE OSCARS: Best Actor (Cusack)

[In Limited Release] - The producers of Touching the Void deliver this documentary about the first solo, non-stop, around-the-world boat race in the summer of 1968 and the psychological toll it took on the nine sailors who dared to accept the challenge. It looks a lot like a Heart of Darkness type of story, with the cast mad from solitude rather than from drugs, like in Apocalypse Now.

[In Limited Release] - Brazil may be a beautiful country, but in cities like Sao Paolo, one person is kidnapped every day and ransomed, and the outcome is seldom clean. In this Sundance award winner, the effects of violence and class-based economic divisions have on the Brazilian population is explored in depth, and the unsettling feeling it instills is best summed up in the last shot of the trailer in which a life-sized human dummy takes a bullet to the head.

[In Limited Release] - See L.A. like you’ve never seen it before – covered in radioactive ash and under martial law. When multiple dirty bombs are detonated in the city, a man played by Rory Cochrane (A Scanner Darkly) attempts to get to his girfriend, played by Mary McCormack (1408), who is all the way across town. Fans of ’80s nuclear annihilation movies like The Day After, Testament and Miracle Mile will certainly dig this flick, which is tense, moody and efficient and features the best ending…ever.

[October 17] - Go inside the establishment of the state of Israel in this historical drama that carefully reconstructs the events that led to and followed that controversial historic 1948 event. Anyone who needs a Cliff’s Notes version to understand what still echoes throughout the Middle East 60 years later, this looks to be the film for you. Based on historical accounts from the best-selling novel written by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre.

[March 21, 2008] - Seldom does one get to use the words “heartwarming” and “illegal immigration” in the same sentence, but director Patricia Riggen’s family-oriented drama about a mother working in the U.S. for the sake of her son back in Mexico and their sudden need to reunite will warm more than a few cockles when it is released next year. Be sure to bring a handkerchief (or “pañuelo”), as this one looks to be tearjerker of the highest order.

Welcome to a brand new weekly feature here at WorcesterMovies.com, “Trailer Stash.” As a remedy to Monday morning, we will offer up a quintet of trailers for your information, entertainment and misappropriation of company time while at work. We will do our best to theme them appropriately, though if we’re really tired from watching movies all weekend, they might be just five trailers that we want to share.Make sure you have QuickTime installed, as most of the trailers we share with you will be in that format (yes, we are Mac loyalists).

[WINDOWS XP/VISTA DOWNLOAD] [MACINTOSH DOWNLOAD]

FEAST OF LOVE [Sept. 28] - A trio of Oscar nominees and winners — Morgan Freeman, Greg Kinnear and Jane Alexander — head up a cast of familiar faces which also includes Selma Blair, Missi Pyle and Fred Ward. Wrangling them all is Oscar-winning writer-director Robert Benton (Kramer vs. Kramer), delivering a story that explores love’s many faces set in a community in Oregon. A date movie if there ever was one, which looks like it might require an extra bundle of napkins from the concession stand. Also check out the Cary Brothers’ music video for “Honestly” from the movie.

MICHAEL CLAYTON [Oct. 5] - For those who like their drama with a sinister edge, there is this angsty legal thriller about a law firm’s “fixer” (George Clooney) who gets deeper than he planned with a prosecutor (Tilda Swinton) and a loose cannon attorney at his own firm. Written and directed by Tony Gilroy, who penned all three movies in the hugely popular Bourne series.

TYLER PERRY’S WHY DID I GET MARRIED? [Oct. 12] - Many-hatted man Tyler Perry adds his name to the title of his latest ensemble drama, just so we don’t confuse it with William Shakespeare’s Why Did I Get Married? This one is about a quartet of couples working out their issues at a ski lodge, and stars Perry (not in drag as giant matron Madea this time), Janet Jackson and Michael Jai White.

THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE [Oct. 19] - The elements for great drama are here, in the form of a pedigree. There’s the decorated Suzanne Bier, the Danish director who made the soul-slamming After The Wedding. There’s producer Sam Mendes, who won an Oscar for directing American Beauty. And Oscar winners Halle Berry, off of formula fare like Perfect Stranger (at least for now) and Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro. Berry plays a recent widow who invites the troubled best friend (Del Toro) of her late husband to live with her and her children, and then things get really heavy. With David Duchovny, Alison Lohman and a whole lot of sexual tension and crying.

THE KITE RUNNER [Nov. 2] - And speaking of Halle Berry, her director on Monster’s Ball, for which she won her Oscar, sure has some range. He’s made historical dramas like Finding Neverland, deep human comedies like Stranger Than Fiction and soon, the next James Bond movie. In this one, he tells the story of Amir, a man who returns to his native Afghanistan after years in the U.S., only to find that his friend Hassan’s son is in trouble. Peeping the MPAA’s reason for the film’s rating reveals that it’s not a heartwarming culture clash comedy — “Rated PG-13 for for strong thematic material including the sexual assault of a child, violence and brief strong language.”

Welcome to a brand new weekly feature here at WorcesterMovies.com, “Trailer Stash.” As a remedy to Monday morning, we will offer up a quintet of trailers for your information, entertainment and misappropriation of company time while at work. We will do our best to theme them appropriately, though if we’re really tired from watching movies all weekend, they might be just five trailers that we want to share.Make sure you have QuickTime installed, as most of the trailers we share with you will be in that format (yes, we are Mac loyalists).

[WINDOWS XP/VISTA DOWNLOAD] [MACINTOSH DOWNLOAD]

I WANT SOMEONE TO EAT CHEESE WITH [In Limited Release] - Anyone who stayed up late last night watching the rebirth of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” on HBO will know that show’s co-star and executive producer, Jeff Garlin. He’s on triple duty here — writing, directing and starring in this tale of a lovelorn, nearly-40-year-old guy (Garlin) who finally meets a girl who gets him (Sarah Silverman), who may or may not be a “chubby chaser.” In limited release now, but available on IFC’s on-demand service, IFC In Theaters (on some cable systems).

GREAT WORLD OF SOUND [Sept. 14] - A regular Southern guy named Martin (Pat Healy of Rescue Dawn) answers an ad to work with a company called Great World of Sound that claims to make real the dreams of would-be musicians, signing up a lot of William Hungs and no Kelly Clarksons. Slowly, he realizes that the company is not all that it seems, and the scammer becomes the scammed. A 2007 Sundance Film Festival favorite.

SYDNEY WHITE [Sept. 21] - This Snow White and the Seven Dorks stars the comically gifted (and terrifically cute) Amanda Bynes (Hairspray) as a college freshman who ditches her sorority and is taken in by seven downtrodden young geek, who aid her in her quest to return the college campus to the status quo by taking down the campus royalty.

THE COMEBACKS [Oct. 19] - In the same way Scary Movie skewered popular horror films, this one goes after sports dramas like Miracle and Radio (to name just a couple). Just-plain-funny and perpetually employed comic actor David Koechner plays a losing football coach who must mold his team of misfits into a winning squad. One glimmer of hope for this one is that it is from the producer of Wedding Crashers. A black mark would be that the same producer also had something to do with unleashing Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj upon the world. And the director also made the Rob Schneider floater The Hot Chick.

DRILLBIT TAYLOR [March 21, 2008] - Here’s an all-star comedy line-up for you (and don’t read that with any hint of sarcasm, either): Star Owen Wilson, writer and ’80s movie god John Hughes (using his pen name, Edmond Dantes) and producer Judd Apatow, riding high on his summer hits, Knocked Up and Superbad. The story is about some kids who hire a homeless guy (Wilson) to serve as their bodyguard, and the trailer does look pretty funny.

Something look funny to you? Stupid?
Click on ‘Comments’ below to add your own opinion to the mix.

Welcome to a brand new weekly feature here on WorcesterMovies.com, “Trailer Stash.” As a remedy to Monday morning, we will offer up a quintet of trailers for your information, entertainment and misappropriation of company time while at work. We will do our best to theme them appropriately, though if we’re really tired from watching movies all weekend, they might be just five trailers that we want to share.Make sure you have QuickTime installed, as most of the trailers we share with you will be in that format (yes, we are Mac loyalists).

[WINDOWS XP/VISTA DOWNLOAD] [MACINTOSH DOWNLOAD]

THE GAME PLAN (Sept. 28, Sneaks Sept. 22) - If for no other reason than to see their friends and family as extras in the airport scene, Worcester folks will go see this sports comedy about a football star, played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who gets a dose of reality when his illegitimate daughter shows up on his doorstep. What illegitimate children are doing in a Disney movie, we may never know.

ENCHANTED (Nov. 21) - Disney sends itself up in this story of an animated storybook Princess (played by the adorable Amy Adams) who steps into the very real world of New York City, pursued by her Prince (James Marsden) and the Evil Queen (Susan Sarandon). While they have done this sort of fish-out-of-water tale before, with their 2001 Visitors remake Just Visiting, this one has a distinct American flavor (and “Grey’s Anatomy” star Patrick “Dr. Dreamy” Dempsey).

ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS (Dec. 14) - Jason Lee may have started his career with naughty boys Kevin Smith and Richard Linklater, but recently, his career trend has been toward the squeaky-clean. He loaned his voice to The Incredibles and Underdog, and now, his mug to this live-action/CGI take on David Seville’s three mischievous musical rodents. There isn’t much to the trailer, but if the poop gag is any indication as to what to expect from the movie, it’s tag line (and subsequent reviews) might as well be, “Poop, there it is!”

THE PIRATES WHO DON’T DO ANYTHING (January 11, 2008) - The animation might be basic and bordering on crude, but the writing on “VeggieTales,” the TV series on which this movie is based, is extremely strong. This follow-up to 2002’s very Biblical Jonah plays on the seafaring appeal of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean, minus the grotesque monsters, violence and perpetual innuendo.

HORTON HEARS A WHO (March 14, 2008) - The movie adaptations of the late Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Cat in the Hat may have stunk worse than a Lorax with a moss infection, but this CGI affair, featuring the voices of Jim Carrey as the way-sensitive elephant Horton and Steve Carell as the Mayor of the very, very small town of Whoville looks like it might get the esteemed Doctor right.

Welcome to a brand new weekly feature here on WorcesterMovies.com, “Trailer Stash.” As a remedy to Monday morning, we will offer up a quintet of trailers for your information, entertainment and misappropriation of company time while at work. We will do our best to theme them appropriately, though if we’re really tired from watching movies all weekend, they might be just five trailers that we want to share.Make sure you have QuickTime installed, as most of the trailers we share with you will be in that format (yes, we are Mac loyalists).

[WINDOWS XP/VISTA DOWNLOAD] [MACINTOSH DOWNLOAD]

*SEPTEMBER DAWN [August 24] - A contentious incident in Mormon history — the 1857 slaying of 120 emigrant men, women and children by Mormon militiamen and Paiute Indians — becomes even more so with this dramatization of the infamous Mountain Meadow Massacre. The film stars Terence Stamp as the Mormon leader Brigham Young, with Jon Gries as John D. Lee, the confessed leader of the attack, and has drawn considerable attention from LDS elders for its suggestion that Young actually ordered the attack.

*IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON [September 7] - Unless you follow the conspiracy theorists who swear that the six manned moon landings were faked on a Hollywood sound stage, this documentary from producer and far-out space nut Ron Howard looks like it will satisfy. The film features remastered archival footage and interviews with all the surviving Apollo astronauts, and paints a vivid portrait of the heroism (paired with a smattering of crazy) that it took to satisfy JFK’s 1962 pledge to “go to the moon in this decade.”

*ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE [October 12] - For fans of Oscar winner Cate Blanchett, this follow-up to the lush 1998 historical drama Elizabeth will surely serve as cultural porn of the highest order. The story in this one center’s on the Queen’s approach to the impending attack by the Spanish Armada, and one look at the trailer will show that action is the order of the day.

*NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS [December 21] - Before director Jon Turtletaub scored with the soon-to-be-resurrected TV series “Jericho,” he made a moderately successful Indiana Jones pretender starring Nicolas Cage called National Treasure in 2004 (perhaps you’ve heard of it). This time around, Benjamin Franklin Gates (Cage) must clear the name of one of his ancestors who is believed to be a conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Already, the movie looks to be the biggest performer over the Christmas holiday.

*10,000 B.C. [March 7, 2008] - Set the Way-Back Machine to way-way back in this epic drama…featuring a cast of cavemen. It’s about a young Mammoth hunter named D’Leh (Steven Strait of Sky High) who must triumph to assure the future of his family (The Quiet cutie Camilla Belle plays his conquered Evolet) and his tribe. Some may say that German director and master-of-the-obvious Roland Emmerich, whose career highs are clunkers like Independence Day, Godzilla and The Day After Tomorrow, is suited only to this kind of barebones storytelling, though if he pulls it off (better than Mel Gibson did in Apocalypto), he may finally start to get the critical respect that has evaded him to date.

Welcome to a brand new weekly feature here on WorcesterMovies.com, “Trailer Stash.” As a remedy to Monday morning, we will offer up a quintet of trailers for your information, entertainment and misappropriation of company time while at work. We will do our best to theme them appropriately, though if we’re really tired from watching movies all weekend, they might be just five trailers that we want to share.

Make sure you have QuickTime installed, as most of the trailers we share with you will be in that format (yes, we are Mac loyalists).

[WINDOWS XP/VISTA DOWNLOAD] [MACINTOSH DOWNLOAD]

*NO END IN SIGHT [Now In Limited Release] - For many, the title says it all and the footage culled from over 200 hours of interviews only reinforces that which they already know — the war in Iraq is an impossible quagmire. The first film of its kind to chronicle the reasons behind Iraq’s descent into guerilla war, warlord rule, criminality and anarchy, this documentary holds the promise of serving as an extraction primer for the politicians who must clean up this expensive, post-9/11 disaster. Opens at Cinema 320 on November 13.

*IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH [September 14] - Tommy Lee Jones plays a father who goes looking for his son who has been missing since his return from Iraq. Judging from his furious demeanor in the trailer, this tense drama, which also stars Susan Sarandon and Charlize Theron, looks like a real balls-out, Old Testament eye-for-an-eye night out.

*THE KINGDOM [September 28] - A team of FBI investigators goes to the Middle East to find the bomber of an American facility there. Just watching the trailer makes you want to dab the sweat off your brow with a big wad of concession stand napkins. Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Chris Cooper and Jeremy Piven star.

*LUST, CAUTION [September 28] - Oscar-winning Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee gives us a break from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and brings us back to World War II with this story of espionage set in Shanghai. Fans of Asian cinema will dig star Tony Leung, who starred in Hero and In The Mood For Love, in this thriller, which looks a bit like a Chinese version of Paul Verhoeven’s Black Book.

*LIONS FOR LAMBS [November 9] - Robert Redford, the Very Important Filmmaker who founded the Sundance Film Festival, directs this potentially controversial barrel o’ valid questions about the muck of the War On Terror, with heavy hitters like Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise backing him up as he makes his points. The trailer isn’t very long, but it certainly sets up the movie to be an impassioned Oscar contender, especially considering it is coming out in the fertile run through Christmas.