Maggie Smith as Minerva McGonagall and Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter in Warner Bros. Pictures' fantasy Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Photo by Jaap Buitendijk. ©2008 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

I find myself on the road this Summer – not in a Nicholson/Hopper/Fonda “Easy Rider” escape, but rather in a contemplation of the great conundrums manner. Heavy stuff, like: Kobe v. LeBron. (and why DO they live together. as Muppets??). Is my nephew – at 6'4'', 280 lbs, too “sophisticated” for SpaceCamp? And how hot – and I mean equatorial, upperdeck sizzling at LandShark hot – does it have to get before I succumb to Tom Hanks and
his modified Mardona/Riles greasy Angels and Demons coif...just for the air-conditioning? Decisions, decisions. The sobering truth – if you're reading this and you're not a 15 yearold boy...in Space Camp...then the Summer
blockbuster season isn't for you. Every week between now and Labor Day, a host of new films will spill into your neighborhood multiplex, and for every “Angel,” there will be a “Demon,” or at least three films starring Christian Bale. I'm firmly on the side of the halos, and rather than make your decision based on the obvious, or the a/c, here's a preview of the Summer's counter-life, the stuff you should catch while everyone else is queueing up for Transformers 2, Shia's Revenge. It's gonna get hot, but to quote the great Bill Paxton, whom before he was a TV polygamist, was one fierce Aliens hunting marine; “Yeah man, but it's a dry heat.”

JULY 1 - ICE AGE 3: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS Quick – close your eyes! And riddle me this Batman; Can you honestly remember the difference between Ice Age, and Ice Age 2? Between Ice Age 2 and Madagascar? Between Madagascar 2 and Happy Feet? Between Happy Feet and Surf's Up? Penguins, Froyo, some kind of feral thing that sounds like John Leguizamo. It's back to hypnotherapy if you can recall any of these sub-Pixarlooneytoons. Everyone loves Raymond? Not true, and even less so as a Woolly Mammoth with a deviated septum.

PUBLIC ENEMIES Johnny Depp was 4 years old in 1967, perhaps too young to rock the lead in the then-modern/ now-classic Bonnie and Clyde. Three decades later, he's pencil-mustache perfect as John Dillinger in Michael Mann's Public Enemies. The latest installment in Mann's HD digital trilogy (Collateral, Miami Vice) Public Enemies returns Mann to the gangland stomping ground of his best work (Thief, Manhunter, Heat.) Growing up in Chicago, there were two things every kid knew about John Dillinger; first, that F.B.I. G-men employed a seductive “Lady In Red to lure him into an ambush outside the Biograph theatre in Lincoln Park, still standing to this day. Second...well... let's just say Hendrix had nothing on Johnny D – is that a smile on the “Lady in Red's” face? Kiss Kiss/Bang Bang.

JULY 17 - HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE Aka, Harry Potter Six, aka “ How many years does it take for this kid to graduate??” Have you ever seen an adult reading a Potter book on a plane and wondered, wow – how long did it take THAT DUDE to graduate high school? I don't read the novels but something tells me Half-Blood Prince does not refer to Billy Jack. Instead, that pesky Potter kid finds a book in the Hogwarts library – at least someone is reading at the adult level – and uncovers critical information about the nefarious Lord Voldemort's past. Scathing stuff like...Voldemort took out a book on Jacques Cousteau – and scribbled in the margins! I don't want to spoil anything, but I predict this time there's a penultimate showdown between Harry...and... Voldemort. Someone close to Harry -- but not critical to another installment in the series -- gets hurt. And this time, it's for REAL! Until...you know...the next time.

(500) DAYS OF SUMMER Joseph Gordon-Levitt keeps threatening to quit acting – which would be a shame considering his captivating performances in Brick and Mysterious Skin...but perhaps not to soon to save us from the portrayal of Cobra Commander in G.I. Joe. A Sundance hit which promises to be this year’s Eternal Sunshine, (500) Days of Summer spins movie romance on its post-modern head like a B-boy. It’s Boy meets Girl meets misery. It’s Annie Hall with ZooeyDeschanel. To paraphrase Woody, why do we keep coming back for bittersweet Summer romances, even though we know they’re not going to work out? ‘Cause we need the eggs.'

JULY 24 - G-FORCE, THE UGLY TRUTH, ORPHAN Don’t go into the theater. Take your chances at the beach. Shark-infested waters. French- Canadian infested malls. If your only options are a Jerry Bruckheimer produced animated feature (“family fun from the man who brought you Con-Air!”) about super-charged rodents, or a romantic comedy starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler as a pair of mismatched co-workers who fall in love (see: Ashley Judd and Hugh Jackman in Someone Like You) or a bad seed horror film starring Vera Farmiga and a creepy kid (see: Joshua,) I’d vote for reading a book – something intellectually enriching, like...say...Dreams From My Father...or Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Talk to your kids. Do you remember their names? Talk to your spouse – he or she might!

JULY 31 - FUNNY PEOPLE You know what’s scarier than talking to your kids...or your spouse? This statement from Funny People writer/director Judd Apatow: "I'm trying to make a very serious movie that is twice as funny as my other movies. Wish me luck!" (Sigh.) Sandler’s a comedian bouncing back from a near-death experiment. Seth Rogen is thin. (Sigh.) Back to the magic movie calculus chalkboard: Adam Sandler + serious x (funny) = Punch Drunk Love. Best case scenario: Spanglish. Are you scared yet? (Sigh.) Why must he mess with the Zohan?

LORNA’S SILENCE Summer seems like the wrong season to spring Belgium’s Dardenne Bros. on an unsuspecting American public. Known for their back-to-back Palme d’Or winners Rosetta and L’enfant, the Dardennes are strident neo-realists – serious as a mortgage broker, these dudes make Mike Leigh and Ken Loach look like merry pranksters. Lorna’s silence expands the Dardennes into Coen Bros. territory, call it neo-noir, picing thriller elements into this tale of an Albanian immigrant trying to untangle herself from an arranged marriage, a murder plot, and the ubiquitous Russian mobsters. A fringe social landscape layered over genre grit with bite. Call it Dirty Pretty Things, minus the pretty.