One thing is certain... it's going to be a good summer to go to the movies. While the economy is still sputtering and folks are screaming about gas prices, it seems that people still don't mind shelling out the money to mount records at the box office for the likes of Shrek 2. My prediction: it won't end there. After an hour or so cruising Apple.com's trailers, I'll have to say that the field looks very nice indeed.

There are a few obvious big-budget hits. Will Smith's new i, Robot looks like a sure thing, as well as Spider-Man 2, King Arthur, (Keira Knightley as a warrior Guenivere? Okay, maybe..) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and the Vin Diesel outfit The Chronicles of Riddick. Folks just never can get enough of that action/fantasy stuff in their blood.

One that I've not heard much about, but am intrigued by the trailer of is Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. While it has maybe the stupidest name I have heard, the concept looks really neat. It's one of those flicks like The Rocketeer that seems to be set in the past and the future at the same time, (no, smart-aleck, that does not equal "the present") creating some sort of otherworldly fantasy setting that ends up feeling really neat. Of course, having Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, and Angelina Jolie doing the acting honors can't hurt, either. It should be a feast for the senses... the acting in the movie was reportedly ALL shot in front of a blue screen, so the digital effects ought to be off the hook. Unless the plot ends up being as stupid as last summer's disappointment, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, (another one of those past-meets-the-future flicks) I predict a good showing for this one.

I'm really looking forward to seeing The Stepford Wives. Not just because I think that, right now, Nicole Kidman can't miss, but also because it seems like it might be as enlightening as Big Fish was. Also on my radar of goodness is M. Night Shyamalan's The Village, sure to be the thriller of the summer. Why not? What other thrillers are there to speak of?

I'm not usually that optimistic about comedies, but there are two on the schedule that look like they could rival the success of last summer's Bruce Almighty craze. The first (and on my list, a must-see) is Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. The trailer for this one had me in stitches. Factor in Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Stephen Root (Milton from Office Space), and a director whose short resume includes that office linebacker commercial from the Superbowl, and you've got a darn good recipe. I suppose I could be a little biased... I've always been a big Ben Stiller fan, but I see a lot of potential there.

The other comedy that looks pretty good is Will Ferrell's Anchorman, set in the '70's, about a pompous, self-absorbed newscaster. I haven't been a big fan of Ferrell's in the past, usually finding his brand of humor a bit on the crude side, but I have to say this looks good. The trailer for this one also causes a fair amount of chuckling on my part, so maybe that's a good indication.

Summer blockbuster season also brings the inevitable box-office bombs. My crystal ball says that the biggest disappointment of the summer is surely going to be Catwoman. I can't even claim this as an original thought... it seems that the maddening crowds are ganging up on this flick like they did Gigli... and I predict the box office to be the same for it. It's a confusing character they've picked to make the subject of their movie, for starters... the Catwoman in this movie is NOT the same catwoman from Batman, she apparently just has the same name. And the same powers. And the same costume. I'm getting a headache. To make things even more confusing, they've made this movie more like The Crow than anything else, which ought to just about finish off any chance the movie ever had to be, you know, any good. Why not go ahead and throw in a dash of The Bowler from Mystery Men while you're at it, maybe even a tablespoon of Supergirl? It's almost as if the studio is just hoping that that comic book genre of movies has reached such a feverish pitch that just making a movie about someone who's been in a comic book (or is sort of the same as someone who's been in a comic book) will guarantee a box office hit. Two words, folks... "Hulk bad."

Elsewhere, I predict great insulting of intelligence to take place in the comedy White Chicks, in possibly the dumbest idea ever to enter the Wayans Brother's heads. I won't even waste space saying much about this movie, other than this: Black men do not, through ANY amount of makeup, make attractive (or convincing) white women. Also doomed, I predict the Garfield movie will NOT be impressive to the people who liked the Scooby-Doo movies, who I suspect is who they are hoping back the flick. And can you believe there's profanity in it? In the PREVIEW, even! Jim Davis, what were you thinking?

The Brothers will not be cute enough to stay in theaters for more than a couple months (only that long if people who thrive on PBS make a big showing) and will quickly bring to light a great truth: live-action, non-animated movies about animals were only cool for a very narrow window of time, that time was when Homeward Bound was made, and that time is over. The producers of Alien vs. Predator will quickly realize that, while Alien and Predator were great movies on their own, nobody is going to care who wins THAT fight. Jason and Freddy already took away anyone who previously might have cared. The only hope will be that people were so disgusted by horribleness of Predator 2 that they might actully cheer for the Alien. And on that note, might want to give those guys new names. Aren't they both aliens AND predators? How about naming one Keenan and one Shawn? Here's a twist... how about having Garfield and Catwoman come out and fry them both with a flamethrower? Now THAT would be a good movie.

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