Lean & Mean

It's still the usual guns 'n' ammo show. But some of the show has been directed by men (and, sadly, pretty much only men) who know what they're doing. Michael Mann uses digital video to show us Johnny Depp as the gangster John Dillinger ("Public Enemies"). Quentin Tarantino sics Brad Pitt's mustache on the Nazis ("Inglourious Basterds"). And Tony Scott remakes "The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3" with Denzel Washington and John Travolta. For each of those stand-alone movies there's a franchise offering - a "Terminator" sequel, another "Transformers" movie, and the first in what Paramount surely prays will be many summers spent with "Star Trek" and "G.I. Joe."

Following "Borat," Sacha Baron Cohen looses himself again on America in "Bruno," playing the eponymous gay fashion reporter. Judd Apatow takes a break from being the most referenced force in comedy to direct "Funny People," a love story (of sorts) between Rogen and Adam Sandler. And Woody Allen gives us "Whatever Works," starring Larry David, who's basically Allen marinated in bile.

Boys will also get to play with Will Ferrell in a movie version of "Land of the Lost," then Jack Black and Michael Cera as cavemen in "Year One." Ladies will - well, they'll get to watch the boys watch "Year One." For what it's worth, Sandra Bullock and Katherine Heigl will show up in romantic comedies, because movie executives still haven't figured out what to do with women from May to September (let alone the rest of the year). There is Nia Vardalos heading to Greece in "My Life in Ruins." No word yet on whether she'll be doing ABBA. Odds of a "Mamma Mia Wears Prada" seem slim, regardless. But come August, Meryl Streep does return, with Amy Adams, as Julia Child in Nora Ephron's "Julie and Julia." How did Streep become summer's surest thing? The blockbuster ceiling seems to apply to every woman but her.

Here's our guide to the next four months in movies.

ON THE WAY: WIZARDS, A WOLVERINE, AND ALIENS FROM UPSTAIRS

MAY 1

(OPENING DATES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE)

American Violet A true-story legal thriller that takes on the nation's drug laws and a racist prosecutorial mindset driving African-Americans into prison. Directed by Walt Disney's great-nephew, no less. Buzz is already coalescing around Nicole Beharie's performance as a Texas single mom rounded up in a housing project raid and forced to make impossible choices; with the help of a canny lawyer (Will Patton) she ends up taking the system itself to court. The always welcome Alfre Woodard plays the heroine's mom.

Ballerina A 2006 documentary about Russian dancers' road to success makes its belated US debut. Think it's easy to get into the Kirov? The film suggests otherwise, with both nuts-and-bolts details and sympathetic surrealism.

Battle for Terra Invaders from a ruined Earth threaten a peaceful planet in this computer-animated sci-fi story with a message. A Terran female (voiced by Evan Rachel Wood) befriends a stranded Earthling (Luke Wilson) and tries to fight off the military conquerors. To quote Pogo, we have met the enemy and he is us.

Every Little Step A look at the much-loved musical "A Chorus Line" that relates the history behind the show (including rare audiotapes of Michael Bennett and company creating the characters) and documents the suspense-filled casting of the recent Broadway revival. Very meta, surprisingly moving.

Is Anybody There?Michael Caine in sentimentally crusty mode (again). He plays a magician at an English seaside retirement home, who forms the old unlikely friendship with the morbid young son (Bill Milner) of the home's proprietors.

Lemon Tree Hiam Abbass ("The Visitor") plays a Palestinian widow protecting her lemon tree from Israeli forces. A political tearjerker.

Revanche Austria's entry for last year's foreign language Oscar, and a provocatively nasty yet heartfelt little neo-noir involving a Ukrainian prostitute (Irina Potopenko) and her bank-robbing boyfriend (Johannes Krisch) trying to find peace in a vastly altered Eastern Europe.

TysonIn this documentary, James Toback gets to conflate two of his artistic obsessions - black men and affronting women - in one subject: the boxer Mike Tyson, who explains his life in his own words.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Lately we've seen Hugh Jackman conquer WWII Australia and the Academy Awards telecast, but can he launch the next big-screen iteration of the beloved Marvel Comics franchise? This one's actually a prequel set 20 years before the "X-Men" movies, when Wolverine is part of the nefarious Weapon X program and has yet to have his skeleton bonded with indestructible adamantium. If that sentence makes sense to you, you've probably already downloaded the pirate version. Co-starring Liev Schreiber as Sabretooth, Ryan Reynolds, and Black-Eyed Pea will.i.am. in his movie debut.

Also opening: "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past"

MAY 8

Julia At last, the return of Erick Zonca ("The Dream Life of Angels"). The Frenchman hasn't made a film in a decade. This one has Tilda Swinton as a woman holding a boy for ransom.

Limits of Control From Jim Jarmusch ("Down by Law," "Broken Flowers"), a philosophical thriller of sorts about a natty gentleman (Isaach de Bankolé) who gets mixed up in sideways lawlessness. The cast includes Tilda Swinton, Hiam Abbass, Gael García Bernal, and, recent Jarmusch regular Bill Murray.

The Merry Gentlemen Not only does Michael Keaton live, he directs! Himself! He plays a man with a troubled past who befriends a young woman (Kelly Macdonald) with a troubled past. Healing, presumably is on the way.

Next Day Air Broad who's-got-the-money crime caper about a box of cocaine dropped off at the wrong apartment, the losers who try to sell it, the delivery men who want it back, and the gangsters trying to kill everyone. Mos Def, Donald Faison, and Mike Epps star.

Outrage What are the ethics of outing? Does fighting gay rights void the right of privacy? Documentary filmmaker Kirby Dick ("Sick," "This Film Is Not Yet Rated") takes on anti-gay conservative politicians who are themselves in the closet.

Star Trek J.J. Abrams reboots the eternal space franchise. Chris Pine is Captain Kirk. Zachary Quinto is Spock. And Zoe Saldana is Uhura. The ads say, "It's not your father's 'Star Trek.' " True. It looks like your mother's hot, inappropriately young boyfriend's "Star Trek."

Tokyo Sonata The latest from poetic bad-boy director Kiyoshi Kurosawa ("Bright Future") details the breakdown of the Japanese nuclear family with a growing sense of surrealistic doom. Dad loses his job but doesn't tell the family, the rebel son sneaks off for secret music lessons, and mom embarks on a voyage of freedom with bizarre consequences. Sounds like we're ready for the US remake.

MAY 15

Adoration A French teacher (Arsinée Khanjian) gives her class an assignment involving the translation of a news story about a would-be terrorist. One kid imagines the story is about a mystery in his family. His search for the truth becomes known and a public furor ensues. Another curiosity from the Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan ("The Sweet Hereafter," "Ararat").

Angels & Demons Tom Hanks is back as Dan Brown's globe-trotting academic hero, Robert Langdon, but he has shorter hair than in "The Da Vinci Code," a new brainiac love interest (Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer), and a fresh mystery to unravel that involves the Vatican, CERN, and the ancient cabal known as the Illuminati. Now that the pressure's off, director Ron Howard may return to form.

Big Man Japan Giant monsters attack Tokyo. One is built like a giant sumo wrestler who, until a freak accident, used to be a middle-aged human sad sack. He will try to save the city. Everything here gets the WWE treatment: creatures, cars, skyscrapers. Written and directed by the comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto.

Management A hotel manager (Steve Zahn) stalks a traveling saleswoman (Jennifer Aniston). Sounds creepy, looks cute. With Woody Harrelson. Written and directed by the playwright Stephen Belber ("Tape").

Rudo Y Cursi Actors Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna are reunited for the first time since "Y Tu Mamá También," with that film's writer, Carlos Cuarón, making his directorial debut. A wry, satiric comedy-drama about country bumpkin brothers who make it big as Mexican futbol stars, the film delighted Sundance audiences while poking fun at the national obsessions with goalposts and macho.

TulpanThe Kazakh documentary filmmaker Sergey Dvortsevoy ("In the Dark," "Highway") makes his first feature, about a young soldier who returns to his village with dreams of becoming a shepherd. Described by one festival as an "ethnographic drama cum wildlife movie."

MAY 21

Terminator Salvation The fourth installment in James Cameron's doomy franchise has been directed by McG, who brought us two "Charlie's Angels" movies, and promises more world-ending war. Christian Bale is the fourth actor to play John Connor, the series' hero (including the kid who played the part on TV). Maybe all the hand-me-downs are what's melting Bale down. Can this guy get a blockbuster franchise that he originates?

MAY 22

The Brothers Bloom A caper comedy with Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo, and Rachel Weisz that's allegedly been coming out for months. We'll believe it when it's actually here.

The Country Teacher In Bohdan Sláma's drama, a young, gay teacher, a lonely widow, and her teenage son bring social progress to a small homophobic Czech town.

The Girlfriend Experience You have to hand it to Steven Soderbergh. The line he straddles between robust commercialism and recondite cinema is tough to do. But he's committed to both. The movies themselves are a crapshoot. This one is an improvised drama focused on a few days in the life of a Manhattan call girl, played by the porn actor Sasha Grey. It sounds very HBO.

Little Ashes A melodrama-thriller revolving around the complicated, art-bound friendship between the Spaniards Salvador Dalí (Robert Pattinson), Luis Buñuel (Matthew McNulty), and Federico García Lorca (Javier Beltrán). Lorca loved Dalí, Dalí loved Lorca, but he married the surrealist muse Gala (Arly Jover). Given the ratio of Brits to Spaniards, who knows what this movie will do with three iconic artists, the politics of the Franco era, and all that sex.

Mystic India An IMAX documentary that attempts to combine the scenic and the spiritual while gawking at India's geological wonders.

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian Maybe you didn't ask for a sequel to 2006's "A Night at the Museum," but your kids did, so here's Ben Stiller back as museum guard Larry Daley, causing a ruckus in our nation's capital. Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, and Robin Williams return, joined by Amy Adams as Amelia Earhart, Bill Hader as General Custer, Eugene Levy as Einstein, and - yes - Christopher Guest as Ivan the Terrible.

Summer Hours From France's Olivier Assayas ("Irma Vep," "Demonlover"), a stately drama about family, possessions, memory, and value. A matriarch (legendary actress Edith Scob) passes away and her grown children (Juliette Binoche, Charles Berling, Jérémie Renier) wrestle with the art and heart of her estate. A film that asks us to consider where, exactly, home is.

Also opening: "Dance Flick"

MAY 29

Drag Me to Hell Sam Raimi takes a break from Spider-Man to return to his schlock roots with this horror movie about a young woman (Alison Lohman) having one of those days. You know: evil stopping at nothing to ruin her life. Cowritten with Raimi's brother Ivan.

Easy Virtue Noel Coward's 1924 comedy about a young Englishman who horrifies his folks when he brings home his new divorcée wife is now a movie about a British dude who starts a family scandal after he marries - with apologies to Coward - a blithe spirit from America. Said spirit is played -with further apologies - by Jessica Biel. Ben Barnes plays the son. Kristin Scott Thomas and Colin Firth are mom and dad.

The Song of Sparrows A country ostrich farmer (Reza Naji) becomes a city taxi driver and learns hard but ultimately rewarding lessons about human nature and life. Iran's Majid Majidi ("Children of Heaven") directs this festival favorite.

Up Can Pixar do it again? Not just great family animation, but can the company maintain the higher entwining of art, craft, and storytelling achieved by last year's "WALL-E"? Early trailers for this Pete Docter-directed film, featuring a cranky old man taking his house aloft by balloon, weren't promising, but the next round let slip some serious visual wonder, and the lucky few who've already seen the movie have indicated that, yes, it is as good as "WALL-E."

JUNE 5

The Hangover For the dudes in the house. Three groomsmen try to find the missing groom-to-be after a wild Vegas weekend. With Bradley Cooper, Justin Bartha, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham, and a cameo by Mike Tyson. Directed by Todd Phillips ("Road Trip").

Il Divo Like an Italian Oliver Stone, writer-director Paolo Sor rentino brings phantasmagoric filmmaking chops to bear on the life and times of his country's most powerful politician, Giulio Andreotti (played by Toni Servillo). Some of the details may not translate to foreign audiences, but apparently enough does: The film won a jury prize at last year's Cannes.

Land of the Lost Sid and Marty Kroft's Saturday-morning prehistoric adventure series-cult item was great for its surreal sets and cheesy effects. This movie appears to be just the opposite: expensively lifelike. With Will Ferrell as an archeologist sucked into a wormhole along with a redneck survivalist (Danny McBride).

My Life in Ruins In only her second film since 2002's out-of-nowhere smash "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," Nia Vardalos goes back to the old country as a tour-bus guide taking wacky Americans like Richard Dreyfuss and Rachel Dratch to see the monuments while dealing with her own issues of the heart. If it's Tuesday, this must be Athens.

JUNE 12

Away We Go The pedigree on this one is impressive: Sam Mendes ("American Beauty") directing, co-scripter and cult novelist Dave Eggers writing, John Krasinski ("The Office") and Maya Rudolph ("SNL") starring as a shaggy young couple expecting their first child and crossing America in search of meaning and a manger. The movie promises some actual substance amid the sweet shallowness of a Hollywood summer.

Imagine That Eddie Murphy plays a stressed-out executive who winds up in his daughter's imaginary play world, where all his problems are solved - well, if the preview is accurate, not all of them.

O'Horten On the day of his retirement, a train conductor's life takes an irrevocable turn. A new film from Bent Hamer ("Factotum," "Kitchen Stories"). With Scandinavian actor Baard Owe as the conductor.

The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 A big, pricey-looking update of the hammy but still-effective 1974 suspense film about the hijacking of a New York subway train. The update has a husky Denzel Washington as the MTA schedule operator and a huskier John Travolta as the head crook. The ham of the original appears to have gone to their tummies and jowls. Tony Scott ("Crimson Tide," "Man on Fire," "Déjà Vu") directs. Morton Freedgood wrote the 1973 novel that started it all.

JUNE 19

Departures An unemployed cellist (Masahiro Motoki) takes a job working with an undertaker. Family complications follow, the heartbreaking sort that made Yojiro Takita's drama a surprise foreign-language Oscar winner in February.

Food Inc. Director Robert Kenner goes behind the scenes of the food industry to document what really happens to the chickens and cows that end up on your table. Expect to be eating a lot of veggie burgers after seeing this; it's like "Fast Food Nation," but all too real.

Moon Sam Rockwell plays a worker at a moon mining station in this compact little sci-fi head trip about fear and identity, an audience favorite at Sundance. Kevin Spacey provides the voice of the station's all-knowing computer system - a HAL with a conscience - but it's Rockwell's tour de force performance as a guy having a severe personality crisis that makes the movie stick.

The Proposal Ryan Reynolds again, this time as an office drone whose Canadian boss (Sandra Bullock) forces him to marry her so she can avoid visa problems. We assume that hijinks and (maybe) true love ensue, and probably quite entertainingly - this comedy from Anne Fletcher ("27 Dresses") has tested so well it was bumped from the February graveyard to a prime summer slot.

Year One Jack Black and Michael Cera play prehistorics on an adventure of some sort after eviction from their village. Their crime was laziness. The comedy's crime might be the writer and director Harold Ramis's Mel Brooks impersonation.

Also opening: "Treeless Mountain."

JUNE 24

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen The Decepticons are back and this time they've got Constructicons. If that sentence didn't get you all a-tingle, stay very far away. Michael Bay returns to the giant, steam-snorting summer tent pole franchise about mutant alien-machine thingies and the people who love them. During production, Shia LaBoeuf was in a car accident that crushed his hand and then he almost lost an eye. See, kid? These things are dangerous.

JUNE 26

Fireflies in the Garden Family dysfunction with a hell of a cast: Julia Roberts and Willem Dafoe as mom and dad, Ryan Reynolds as the grown son, Emily Watson playing the mature version of Hayden Panettiere. So why has writer-director Dennis Lee's film spent the past year playing in every country except the United States? Either they're leaving the best to last or there's something they're scared to show us.

My Sister's Keeper Kleenex alert. Jodi Picoult's bestseller is a movie about a girl (Abigail Breslin) who sues her parents (Cameron Diaz, Jason Patric) for the right to make her own decisions, namely whether to donate her organs for a kidney transplant that may save her sister's life. Alec Baldwin plays Breslin's lawyer. Nick Cassavetes ("The Notebook") directs.

Surveillance Eons after her notorious debut (1994's "Boxing Helena"), Jennifer Lynch (daughter of David) returns with this thriller in which FBI agents (Julia Ormond and Bill Pullman) investigate the differing accounts of a serial killer's latest crime.

Whatever Works After three movies in Europe, Woody Allen comes back to Manhattan with this comedy starring Larry David as a West Village grouser who gets mixed up with a cute young Southerner (Evan Rachel Wood) and her family. With Patricia Clarkson, Kristen Johnson, and Michael McKean.

Also opening: "Cheri," "$9.99" and "The Stoning of Soraya M."

JULY 1

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs Does the little cave-squirrel dude finally get to eat the acorn? Because frankly, at this point, that's all we care about.

Public Enemies Michael Mann directed and cowrote this adaptation of Bryan Burroughs's book, whose subtitle was "America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34." Set during the Great Depression, the movie's been sculpted into a crime thriller involving FBI Agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale; where does he find the time?) and his mission to curb Chicago's crime sprees, chiefly by bringing down the gangster John Dillinger (Johnny Depp). With, among many others, Billy Crudup as J. Edgar Hoover, Marion Cotillard as Dillinger gal, and Channing Tatum, aptly enough, as Pretty Boy Floyd. Could be the timeliest political blockbuster of the season. After "Year One," of course.

JULY 3

The Girl From Monaco From the Frenchwoman Anne Fontaine ("Dry Cleaning") comes this movie set in Monte Carlo about a lawyer (Fabrice Luchini), his mother (Stéphane Audran) on trial for murder, his bodyguard (Roschdy Zem), and a sexy blonde weathergirl (Louise Bourgoin). The most enticing description of this movie is also the most hilarious: "a summer sex comedy/courtroom drama with a sunny Riviera backdrop."

JULY 10

Brüno There can't be anyone left in America who sees Sacha Baron Cohen coming with his handlers and legal waivers and doesn't expect to be thoroughly punked. Can there? Apparently so: advance word on Cohen's latest, in which his outré Austrian fashion plate character manages to outrage some of our more homophobic citizens, is that it's just as merrily offensive as "Borat."

The Hurt Locker A US Army bomb squad in Iraq. The first film in six years from Hollywood maverick Kathryn Bigelow was shot in Jordan, with some of the cast reportedly getting shot at in the process. Jeremy Renner plays an Army Explosives Ordnance Disposal sergeant who gets hooked on the adrenaline; Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, and Guy Pearce co-star. Early buzz is that a master craftswoman is working at peak powers.

I Love You, Beth Cooper But, Beth, do you love him back? A romantic comedy directed by Chris Columbus. With Hayden Panettiere (TV's "Heroes") as the pretty blond object of a high-school nerd's affection.

Also opening: "Herb & Dorothy"

JULY 15

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince After shepherding the last installment, "Order of the Phoenix," to box-office glory, director David Yates has been tapped to bring the series to its conclusion with this film and the upcoming two-part "Deathly Hallows." Apparently they're running out of great British character thespians to play supporting parts, since Jim Broadbent, as Horace Slughorn, is the only new professor on hand. Look for young Hero Fiennes-Tiffin, though, as Tom Riddle, the childhood version of the evil Voldemort played by the actor's uncle, Ralph Fiennes. We just want to see more of Nymphadora Tonks.

JULY 17

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane Not the sequel to "Beth Cooper," just a movie that sounds the same. Written and directed by Jonathan Levine in 2006, before the release of his movie "The Wackness" last summer.

500 Days of Summer Joseph Gordon-Levitt + Zooey Deschanel = would-be offbeat art-house canoodling.

Soul Power In 1974, as Muhammad Ali and George Foreman were preparing to "Rumble in the Jungle," the promoters scheduled a music festival for the capital city of Zaire, with headliners James Brown and B.B. King sharing the stage with African artists like the legendary Miriam Makeba. Jeffrey Levy-Hinte's documentary resurrects the footage from the vaults.

JULY 24

The Answer Man Writer-director John Hindman's poignant character drama got respectful notices at Sundance under the title "Arlen Faber." The ever-underrated Jeff Daniels plays Arlen, a reclusive crank who long ago wrote a bestseller about spirituality and has regretted it ever since. Lauren Graham, Kat Dennings, Lou Taylor Pucci, and Olivia Thirlby are some of the others swirling through this slice of urban Philadelphia life.

G-Force In live-action 3D . . . from Jerry Bruckheimer. The new most relevant movie of the summer: An elite team of guinea pigs try to stop an evil billionaire from world domination. (Not to be confused with the Globe's daily Q&A feature. Not entirely, anyway.)

Humpday If only through a fluke of release timing, this stands as the indie-mumblecore response to "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" - a bromantic comedy that tips nervously into the physical after two ex-college buddies (Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard) drunkenly dare each other to be intimate with each other on video. Lynn Shelton directs, while Alycia Delmore, as Duplass'swife, looks on appalled.

In the Loop A snappy war farce, focused in part on the relationship between the United States and Britain, that's inspired enthusiastic comparisons to "Dr. Strangelove." With James Gandolfini and Steve Coogan. Directed and cowritten by Armando Iannucci.

Orphan A nice couple (Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard) adopt a little girl who turns out to be a nightmare - in a horror-thriller kind of way. Chalk up another one for the pro-reproduction lobby.

The Ugly Truth Katherine Heigl takes another stab at becoming the queen of the chick flicks. She plays a TV producer with a cocky hunk of a correspondent (Gerard Butler) who's sure he's right about relationships and she's all wrong. From the director of "21" and "Legally Blonde" and the writers of "She's the Man" and "The House Bunny," so you pretty much know what to expect.

JULY 29

Adam Hugh Dancy ("Confessions of a Shopaholic") plays a loner with Asperger's syndrome who develops a relationship with downstairs neighbor Rose Byrne ("Knowing"). It's small, sweet-natured, and - say those who caught it at Sundance - quite special.

JULY 31

Funny People Judd Apatow's new dramedy, the first he's directed since "Knocked Up," concerns a popular standup comedian (Adam Sandler), his adoring protégé (Seth Rogen), his deadly cancer scare, and what happens to his outlook after it goes into remission. With Eric Bana, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman, and, Apatow's wife and not-so-secret weapon, Leslie Mann. It's wrong to say this sounds like "Beaches" for boys, right?

They Came From Upstairs Great title for a comedy about a group of kids fighting off nasty little CGI aliens. Think "E.T." meets "Gremlins" meets "Home Alone." Star Ashley Tisdale really hopes this breaks her out of the Disney-"High School Musical" box.

AUGUST 7

Julie & Julia - An intertwined adaptation of two books: the autobiography of chef and television personality Julia Child (played by Meryl Streep) and the journal of a 20-something blogger (Amy Adams) trying to commune with the legend by cooking her way through Child's 1961 "Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1." Writer-director Nora Ephron referees, while the invaluable Stanley Tucci plays Mr. Child. That's a lot of cooks for one soufflé, but we'll eat anything Streep dishes out.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra The action figure. The comic book. The TV cartoon. The animated movie. Now the flesh-and-blood Hollywood action flick. Installment one explains how the series' evil-military machine came to be. With Channing Tatum as Duke, Marlon Wayans as Ripcord, Dennis Quaid as Hawk, Ray Park as Snake Eyes, Sienna Miller as the Baroness, Rachel Nichols as Scarlett, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Cobra Commander, and Christopher Eccleston as Destro. Please, oh please, be fun.

Shorts Robert Rodriguez takes a break from schlock for this family-filmish tale of a small town going bananas over a magic rock.

Also opening: "Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg"

AUGUST 14

Bandslam Vanessa Hudgens starts a rock band. Duck.

District 9 In this science-fiction drama, a race of aliens (the E.T. kind) are exploited for work and forced to live in squalor. Written and directed by Neill Blomkamp and set, allegorically enough, in South Africa.

The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard Jeremy Piven, Ari of "Entourage" and the food-poisoned scourge of Broadway, gets his big-screen starring moment as a legendary used-car salesman. It's from co-producers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, so you know refined wit will be the watchword of the day. Lorna's Silence Belgium's Dardennes brothers, Luc and Jean-Pierre, put their muted naturalism to the service of a moral tragedy. A young Albanian immigrant (Arta Dobroshi) in Belgium agrees to a complex green-card scam in which she marries a junkie (Jérémie Renier) for his citizenship, only to become unmoored by guilt.

Post Grad Alexis Bledel plays a recent college graduate who moves back in with her parents when she can't find a job. Finally, the girl version of all those boy-slacker comedies.

Spread Ashton Kutcher plays a Los Angeles gigolo - wait, come back. The star coproduced and gave himself some sex scenes that reportedly caused controversy at Sundance. Director David Mackenzie made last year's sleeper favorite "Mr. Foe," so chances are the movie at least looks good.

Taking Woodstock Demetri Martin, the standup comic with the bowl-cut and the dry wit, plays a young man in 1969 upstate New York who helps set in motion the concert that defined a generation. Ang Lee directs in a comedic changeup from "Lust, Caution" and "Brokeback Mountain." A fascinatingly large and hairy cast, including Mr. Eugene Levy as Max Yasgur, the taciturn farmer who owned the field.

Also opening: "Paper Heart."

AUGUST 21

Inglourious Basterds Quentin Tarantino makes his first summer movie, a WWII epic about a group of Jewish soldiers, led by Brad Pitt, taking on a gang of Nazis and a German Jew (Diane Kruger) going after the same gang of Nazis (they killed her family). Tarantino's been insisting this isn't some "Valkyrie" situation. He swears he's made a spaghetti western, instead. Great, we'll be ready for irreverent pasta by then.

World's Greatest Dad The title's meant ironically, since Robin Williams plays a very bad dad in this dark, dark comedy from comedian-turned-director Bob Goldthwait. Suicide, literary fraud, the madness of crowds - just another fun Bobcat night at the movies.

Also opening: "Not Quite Hollywood"

AUGUST 28

The Boat that Rocked Philip Seymour Hoffman, Emma Thompson, Bill Nighy, and Kenneth Branagh head Richard Curtis's ensemble comedy about pirate-radio DJs on UK-bound boats in the 1960s.

Final Destination Death Trip 3D No, this isn't "Final Destination 3" - that came out in 2006. This fourth installment of the profitable horror franchise about teens who get Death all riled up when they don't die like they're supposed to is merely getting released in 3D. It's amazing; you can actually see right through the plot holes.

H2: Halloween 2 Rob Zombie continues his run through the original horror series.

It Might Get Loud Davis Guggenheim, director of "An Inconvenient Truth," tackles the marginally less apocalyptic subject of the electric guitar in rock 'n' roll. The film deals in art, rhythm, pop history, and has enough shredding to make your ears bleed, courtesy of three storied axmen: Jimmy Page, the Edge, and Jack White.

Mesrine: A Film in Two Parts The French gangster Jacques Mesrine gets his own national epic, a four-plus-hour drama (released in two halves) about his life, times, rise, and fall, with Vincent Cassel in the title part. Based on Mesrine's autobiography and directed by Jean-Francois Richet, he of the lousy 2005 remake of "Assault on Precinct 13.