App of the Week: iPad/iPhone Movie Trailers Festival

Clint Eastwood's take on the life of FBI czar J. Edgar Hoover, J. Edgar, with Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role opens today. Or, in a change of pace, Adam's Sandler cameo-filled comedy, Jack & Jill can be seen starting today at a theater near you.

But you knew that. You're likely sick of seeing the ads for both already.

What you'd really like to see is the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trailer. Or clips from the Sigmund Freud vs. Carl Jung movie A Dangerous Method. Or scenes from Carnage, the adaptation of the Broadway play God of Carnage, with Jodie Foster and Kate Winslet. Or footage from any of the Oscar-bait movies that will be flooding theaters between now and the end of the year.

You don't have to wait for the TV commercials or even go to the theater. Just download the free Trailers app for iPhone and/or iPad.

Coming to an iPhone or iPad near you

I love trailers, the anticipation they generate (which usually exceeds the actual movie, but then anticipation always exceeds the actual event – at least according to Snoopy). If you're like me (my apologies) in my love of trailers, you'll love this app.

Trailers is a simple app that provide short bursts of entertainment once you finish more immediate or important tasks or tire of playing a game and there's not enough time to start a more substantial activity. You can watch the trailer and get all the salient release date, cast/crew and synopsis info.

You will have to have an Internet connection, however.

You can aimlessly browse through apps, you can sort by Calendar to what movies will be opening between now and the end of August 2012 (ParaNorman, an animated horror comedy from the makers of Coraline), by Genre, by the Top 25 and by In Theaters, which sorts trailers by the theaters the movies are playing in closest to you.

There's even The Dark Knight Rises trailer listed under July 20. I've already marked my calendar (the app needs an "Add to Calendar" option).

You can add trailers to Favorites, you can email or Tweet a link to the trailer on the Apple site and in a fine bit of cross-promotion, order previous related films from iTunes.

Or, just tap on posters and feast on trailers.