GET SMART - Hathaway and Carell review the spy spoof.

Barbecue Spectacular | The Big List

SUMMER IS THE SWEETEST SEASON, especially to the movie industry, since it is when at least 40 percent of its tickets are sold. Last summer was especially sweet, with franchises like Spider-Man, Shrek and Pirates of the Caribbean each earning more than $300 million, and 28 movies surpassing the magic $100 million mark.

This summer's fortunes are less certain. Iron Man, the Marvel Comics epic, has vastly exceeded box-office expectations. But one swallow does not make a summer, as Aristotle said, and one hit doesn't send studio earnings soaring. Of the season's planned releases, only Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Sex and the City and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian are expected to be blockbusters. The rest is a hodgepodge of offerings whose popularity is far from guaranteed.

THE DARK KNIGHT - The late Ledger makes for a sinister joker.

Still, there's more to summer movies than profits, unless we own stock in Paramount or Disney. With the economy slumping and war dragging on, we desperately need to escape into fantasy, to coddle the inner child with superheroes, special effects and silly laughs. "No matter what's going on in the world," Motion Picture Association of America head Dan Glickman observed in USA Today, "there's a great desire for people to see films." With or without a Spider-Man, people will still fill the seats.

Although the season's already opened, many people don't click into summer-movie mode until after Memorial Day. Sex and the City (May 30) rejoins, four years later, Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda (Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon) of the popular HBO series about four Manhattan women and their dating issues and improbable shoe budgets. Carrie finally gets engaged to Big, whose real name is revealed to be the sadly prosaic John James Preston. Rumor has it someone dies in the movie, though writer-director Michael Patrick King denies it. Will it be Big who bites the big one?

It wouldn't be summer without Adam Sandler, and in You Don't Mess with the Zohan (June 6), he plays an Israeli commando who pursues his dream of becoming a hairdresser in New York. Also on June 6, DreamWorks Animation unveils Kung Fu Panda, with Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman and Angelina Jolie providing voices for a story about a panda who works in a noodle shop and dreams of becoming a kung fu master. Louis Leterrier takes on Marvel's The Incredible Hulk (June 13), perhaps helping to erase the memory of Ang Lee's disappointing 2003 version. Edward Norton plays Bruce Banner, the radiated scientist who can't control his monstrous rage. Leterrier promises his monsters will be scarier, but with "a tenderness and humanity."

With Cold War revivalism all the rage now, a new version of the spy spoof Get Smart (June 20) seems timely. Bumbling agent Maxwell Smart is played by Steve Carell, an inspired casting choice, though odds are Anne Hathaway, as Agent 99, is no Barbara Feldon. Also on June 20, Mike Myers brings us The Love Guru, a comedy that oddly combines Hinduism and hockey. Myers plays a self-help guru who helps a Maple Leafs player with romantic problems. Hindus are miffed about the movie's mockery of their religion; hockey fans have yet to be heard from.

Pixar Animation's summer entry is Wall-E (June 27), about a robot trash compactor left behind when mankind leaves earth in 2700. Fred Willard, Sigourney Weaver and John Ratzenberger provide voices; Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo) directs. Also on June 27, James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie star in Wanted, based on a graphic novel about an office worker who is recruited into a secret society of assassins. Will Smith plays a different kind of superhero in the comedy Hancock (July 2), a lazy, sardonic alcoholic whose improbable superpowers leave destruction in their wake.

STEP BROTHERS - Ferrell and Reilly ham it up.

One of the most eagerly awaited summer movies is The Dark Knight (July 25), with Christian Bale starring as Batman, who confronts the evil Joker (Heath Ledger, in his last screen performance). Did Ledger's method acting — prepping for the role by isolating himself for months in a hotel room — contribute to his early death? Probably not, but it will be a performance worth watching.

The storyline of The X-Files 2, which follows the first film version of the TV series by 10 years, is top secret. All we know is that it's directed by Chris Carter and stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. On July 25, the truth will finally be out there. On the same day, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly star in Step Brothers, a comedy about a pair of mismatched middle-aged losers whose parents get married, forcing them to live with each other.

Nothing comes between Brooke Shields and her Clive Barker; in Midnight Meat Train (Aug. 1), based on a Barker short story, Brooke plays a gallery owner who draws a photographer (Bradley Cooper) into pursuing a serial killer. The Superbad guys, Seth Rogen and James Franco, return in the action comedy Pineapple Express (Aug. 8), about a lazy stoner (Rogen, of course) who becomes sole witness to a murder.

One of the season's few "chick flicks" is The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (Aug. 8), continuing the journey based on Ann Brashares' novels about lifelong gal pals. A first-class cast bodes well for Tropic Thunder (Aug. 15), a comedy starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. Stiller plays a pampered action hero who stars in an expensive war movie whose actors get caught up in a real-life conflict with no way out of the jungle. Sounds like a documentary about Bush foreign policy.

Violence is pretty well covered this summer, so how about some sex? In The House Bunny (Aug. 22), a former Playboy bunny (Anna Faris) becomes the bikini-cute housemother to a nerdy sorority. And Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Aug. 29), the new Woody Allen film, set in Spain, is rumored to feature a steamy lesbian scene with Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz. We're certain it will give new meaning to the term "getting a woody."