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Posted on Wed, Apr. 30, 2008 04:15 PM

Summer movie guide | ‘Indiana Jones,’ superheroes and ‘Sex and the City’ battle at the box office


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To save the family business (Susan Sarandon and John Goodman are his parents) and avenge his dead brother, Speed must take on the racing world and a crooked corporation. Look for Christina Ricci as Speed’s girlfriend, Trixie.

Yeah, the dialogue on display in the trailer suggests a grade-school mentality. Let’s hope the visuals make up for it.

ALSO: “What Happens in Vegas”: Strangers Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz get drunk in Sin City and wake up married. The divorce is delayed when the unhappy couple win millions from a slot machine and are ordered by a judge to cohabit before dividing the fortune. “Young@Heart”: Raves are pouring in for this doc about a chorus of New England retirees who sing rock ’n’ roll. You don’t appreciate the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated” until you’ve heard it performed by nursing home residents. “Redbelt”: David Mamet directs a “Karate Kid” for grown-ups. Brit actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (“American Gangster,” “Children of Men”) portrays a principled martial arts instructor forced into the world of ultimate fighting. With Tim Allen, Joe Mantegna. “Then She Found Me”: Helen Hunt stars in and directs this effort about a teacher who’s dumped by her husband (Matthew Broderick), falls for a student’s father (Colin Firth) and discovers the mother (Bette Midler) who gave her up for adoption. ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’

As kids, a lot of us read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. But very few went on to consume all of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia books.

Which means there’s only limited audience familiarity with Prince Caspian.

Happily for the Disney folk, 2005’s “LW&W” was a monster hit ($292 million in ticket sales) that left young fans eager for more. So while the actual plot may be new to them, the whole Narnia thing is now a known quantity.

In the latest installment of the saga, the dimension-traveling Pevensie children return to Narnia to find that a millennium has passed (in Narnia years) and the kingdom is ruled by yet another despot. The sword-wielding Prince Caspian (newcomer Ben Barnes) leads the rebellion.

Andrew Adamson returns as director, the special effects should be better than ever and Tilda Swinton is back as the witch and Liam Neeson as the voice of Aslan the lion. New to the cast are Warwick Davis, Eddie Izzard and Peter Dinklage. ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’

Set in 1957, “Crystal Skull” finds our swashbuckling hero looking for a mysterious antiquity with supernatural powers (nothing new there) and battling a Soviet agent (Cate Blanchett) bent on world domination. Indy is reunited with old flame Marion (Karen Allen) and teams up with a cycle-riding, leather-jacketed teen (Shia LaBoeuf, who seems to be wearing Brando’s wardrobe from “The Wild One”).

The Indy films have always been the child of two fathers: Steven Spielberg (who directs) and George Lucas (who comes up with the stories). Our fear is that if the last three “Star Wars” films were any indication, Lucas’ storytelling skills have deteriorated. Still, screenplay writer David Koepp has a good track record (“War of the Worlds,” “Spider-Man,” “Panic Room”), and Spielberg can direct a great action scene.


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