First off, forgive us for not having the budget to upgrade this summer movie preview to 3D. Rest assured, there are plenty of eye-popping (brain-numbing?) epics in the preview list that follows, but to our pleasure and surprise there is a surplus of attention-worthy 2D flicks too. Happy summer, movie fans. And this time we mean it. (As always, all dates are subject to change.)
Grown Ups
Despicable Me
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June 4
Get Him to the Greek
Jonah Hill plays a record company intern whose career-making assignment could be considered a music business rite of passage: escorting a drug-addled rock star (British comic Russell Brand) to a big gig. From the director of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Nicholas Stoller.
Killers
Jen (Katherine Heigl) and Spencer (Ashton Kutcher) are blissful newlyweds until the day Jen discovers that her dream man was once a government assassin. The news does not thrill her. Catherine O'Hara co-stars in this action-comedy from Legally Blond director Robert Luketic.
Splice
Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley are geneticists whose experiment in human cloning goes creepily awry in this thriller from director Vincenzo Natali and executive producer Guillermo Del Toro.
June 11
The A-Team
Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley, and UFC champ Quinton "Rampage" Jackson are a disgraced special ops team out to clear their name in director Joe Carnahan's adaptation of the 1980s TV show [insert Mr. T joke here].
The Karate Kid
This remake of the 1984 Ralph Macchio/Pat Morita flick about a teenage boy who gains personal wisdom as well as mad skills from a kung-fu master stars Jaden Smith (son of Will) as the pupil, and Jackie Chan as his teacher.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead
There are vampires in the state of Denmark, or so it appears to a young Manhattan director (Jake Hoffman, son of Dustin) whose staging of Hamlet has more bite than he expected. Written and directed by Jordan Galland.
June 18
Cyrus
Marisa Tomei and John C. Reilly are newly, blissfully in love in this drama from the brotherly filmmaking duo of Jay and Mark Duplass (The Puffy Chair). Jonah Hill co-stars as Tomei's clinging, interfering son.
8: The Mormon Proposition
Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (Milk) narrates this expose of the Mormon Church's alleged financial support of California's Prop. 8 amendment which denies marriage rights to same-sex couples. Co-directed by Steven Greenstreet and Reed Cowan.
Jonah Hex
Based on a long-running DC Comics character, this supernaturally tinged comedy-Western features Josh Brolin as badly scarred post-Civil War bounty hunter in search of a mad-dog killer, played, of course, by John Malkovich.
Toy Story 3
Where do toys go when their kid grows up and moves away? After they survive one of their patented Pixar adventures, be prepared to well up as Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and the toys of Andy's room see their favorite human off to college. Written by Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine) and directed by Lee Unkrich.
June 25
Grown Ups
Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, and Rob Schneider star as childhood buddies reuniting for the first time in 30 years. We're thinking it's a comedy. Directed by Dennis Dugan (I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry)
Knight and Day
Tom Cruise is a renegade secret agent and Cameron Diaz his unwitting blind date, and, all too suddenly, his reluctant sidekick in a mission to save a brilliant scientist (Paul Dano). Directed by James Mangold (3:10 To Yuma).
June 30
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
A dreamboat vampire, a hunky werewolf, a confused teenage girl — stop us if you've heard of this one. Directed by David Slade (30 Days of Night)
July 2
The Last Airbender
Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense) adapts Nickelodeon's animated fantasy series about a 12-year-old (Noah Ringer) with the ability to control all four elements — water, earth, air, and fire. No pressure there.
Twelve
Gossip Girl heartthrob Chace Crawford is the best-looking drug dealer on Manhattan's Upper East Side and Emma Roberts his clueless girlfriend in this adaptation of Nick McDonell's bestseller, published, famously, when the author was only seventeen. Directed by Joel Schumacher (St. Elmo's Fire) and featuring Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson as Crawford's rival.
July 7
The Kids Are All Right
Julianne Moore and Annette Bening play a Southern California lesbian couple with two teenagers they had with the sperm of an anonymous donor. When the kids track down their biological father (Mark Ruffalo), the mothers are more than a little freaked. Written and directed by Lisa Cholodenko (Laurel Canyon).
July 9
Despicable Me
There are villains aplenty in this 3D animated comedy, chief among them the cranky, unfulfilled Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) whose plan to steal the moon is hitting a few snags.
Predators
The alien creature that stalked Arnold Schwarzenegger back in 1987 and then spawned a host of bad sequels is back, thanks to executive producer Robert Rodriguez. Adrien Brody, Lawrence Fishburne, and Topher Grace are the unlucky mercenaries about to become alien bait.
[Rec] 2
This sequel to the decidedly creepy Spanish horror film Rec (the Hollywood version was called Quarantine) picks up moments after the original ended, as a special ops team enters a Barcelona apartment whose inhabitants are infected with a virus that turns them drooly and demonic.
