You Won't Like Edward Norton When He's Angry in the Trailer for Stone

The last time Edward Norton and Robert De Niro shared the screen together it was in the convoluted 2001 caper The Score. That outing -- which wasn't very good beyond a preposterous third-act switcheroo -- co-starred the legendary Marlon Brando. Who did they get to join their threesome this time around in Stone? Well, Milla Jovovich isn't that much of a step down, right?

On the cusp of retirement, parole officer Jack Maybury (De Niro) encounters Stone (Norton), a cornrow-sporting prisoner, guilty of some horrible crime that involves lighting a pretty serious-looking fire. Not getting any breaks from the by-the-book P.O., Stone sends his pretty wife (Jovovich) to Jack with the hopes that she'll be able to use her feminine wiles to trick the retiring codger into letting him go. Except things don't go as planned, an affair begins, lies beget more lies and Norton loses his snazzy 'do. It all points to some horrible third-act gut-punch that the trailer smartly leaves vague.

Generic? Yes. But if the idea of watching De Niro try to regain his fastball opposite someone as reliably excellent as Norton doesn't get you too jazzed, how about the behind the scenes crew? John Curran -- who wrote The Killer Inside Me -- directs from a script by Junebug writer Angus MacLachlan. If you can get past the ridiculous sight of Norton's corn-y coif, this could be a good one.

VERDICT: Cautiously optimistic.

If the trailer gets pulled down, watch it over at Apple.