THE NEXT FIVE MONTHS

Let the summer movie season begin.  Well...mostly begin.  It's just the begining of April but there's plenty of high profile releases on their way. 

In April, I'm expecting funny idiocy from Your Highness, stylish thrills from Hanna, hot babes and fast cars in Fast Five, some decent thrills (hopefully) from Scream 4, a good history lesson from The Conspirator, a riveting look at Oregon trail life in Meek's Cutoff, and dreamy, magical realism from Water for Elephants.

The big-dog of May is unquestionably Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life.  There is no other film for the rest of the year that I'm anticipating this much.  Pirates 4 looks decent, Thor looks fun, The Beaver looks funny and sad, Bridesmaids looks like a pisser, and The Hangover 2 looks surprisingly tepid but I can't imagine it won't be a hoot.  But really, at the end of the day, it's all about The Tree of Life.

In June, the superhero onslaught continues.  X-Men First Class looks good and dare I say it -- subtle?  Green Lantern looks epic and expensive and like an 8-year olds fantasy come to life.  Super 8 looks utterly brilliant.  Bad Teacher looks like nasty fun.  Mr. Popper's Penguins has potential.  Cars 2 does nothing for me.

It wouldn't be the summer without an offering from Michael Bay -- Transformers 3-D is gonna melt faces.  I'll definitely be bringing a change of shorts to the theater that day.  Larry Crowne will surely be a nice adult offering in the midst of all of the CGI rubble.  Horrible Bosses has a great cast and a great premise.  Winnie the Pooh will be a delight.  Captain America looks fantastic -- can't wait to see what Joe Johnston's pulls off.  Friends with Benefits could be sexy/funny.  Cowboys & Aliens is gonna be fucking amazing -- you can just tell from the trailers that Favreau is gonna nail this one.

August has a lot of question marks -- Rise of the Apes with James Franco?  Crazy/Stupid Love with Ryan Gosling in comedic mode?  A new, R-rated Conan the Barbarian?  I'm most excited for the action-comedy 30 Minutes or Less with Jesse Eisenberg, Danny McBride, and Aziz Ansari.  Fright Night could be the rare horror movie I check out in the theater.  The Change-Up has two great comedic leads (Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman).  And Our Idiot Brother sounds like this summer's little indie movie that will break out.