2 GUNS (R) After a summer of superheroes, giant robots and giant-er special FX, these two guns loaded with humor-piercing banter, accurately shot by two dead-eyes like Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg, are a welcome change of pace. (Red 2, another comic book adaptation with similar tonal aspirations, wasn’t as consistently successful at the action-comedy changeup.) DEA Agent Bobby “Beans” Trench and Navy Intelligence Officer Michael “Stig” Stigman are two unlikely partners. Both believe the other to be a law breaker. When they unwittingly steal $43.125 million from a shadowy organization, represented by Earl (Bill Paxton at his homily sociopathic), they must trust one another again to clear both their names. Wahlberg’s first venture with director Baltasar Kormakur, the decent crime thriller Contraband, had little of the charm or wit of this thoroughly entertaining buddy action comedy. Washington and Wahlberg have great chemistry, and the latter shines. He’s as goofily funny as he was in The Other Guys. Kormakur smartly stays out of the way, confidently allowing his leads and supporting cast (Edward James Olmos, Paula Patton, James Marsden and Fred Ward) to do the heavy lifting. 2 Guns is loaded and hits the bull’s eye with every shot.

BLUE JASMINE (PG-13) Oh my god! Andrew Dice Clay in a Woody Allen movie? I’m so in. Not to mention Louis C.K., Bobby Cannavale, Sally Hawkins (so good in Happy-Go-Lucky), Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin and Peter Sarsgaard. I don’t even need to know what the film’s plot is. (A rich woman moves in with her down to earth sister after her cheating husband loses everything.) Apparently, Allen’s back from his European sojourn, though he hasn’t returned to New York yet; this drama is set in San Francisco.

CLOSED CIRCUIT (R) The trailers give very little away about this thriller starring Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall. Bana and Hall play lawyers and former lovers who find themselves in danger while preparing the defense for an international terrorist. Director John Crowley won several international awards for his previous features Boy A and Intermission. Academy Award nominee Steven Knight (Dirty Pretty Things), best known for writing Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises, wrote the screenplay. With Jim Broadbent, Ciaran Hinds and Julia Stiles.

THE CONJURING (R) James Wan has directed several horror films since bursting on the scene with the original Saw. Insidious looked like it would be his masterpiece, but a mushy final act stole the goodwill generated by a wonderful setup. Not so with Wan’s The Conjuring. An excellent haunted house-cum-demonic possession movie, this film, much like Pacific Rim, excels in its genre because of its innocence and its lack of cynicism. Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) investigate the things that go bump in the night. Most times, a rational explanation solves the case; sometimes, it’s something paranormal. The occurrences in the Perron family’s new house are not just paranormal; they’re malevolent. Wan stages the Perron’s haunting with utmost care for mise-en-scene and framing. Don’t expect a lot of CGI ghosties. From the font in the opening credits, the film harkens back to the 70s and places itself not as a wannabe, but as a peer next to such modern classics as The Amityville Horror and (dare I type it) The Exorcist. Horror movies don’t get much better than this flick nowadays.

DESPICABLE ME 2 (PG) As far as animated sequels go, Despicable Me 2 has more creative life in it than might first be thought; it’s way better than Cars 2. Gru (v. Steve Carell) may no longer be a master criminal, utilizing his freeze rays and other diabolical inventions to raise his three adopted daughters—Margo (v. Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (v. Dana Geier) and Agnes (v. Elsie Fisher). When a new super villain steals a dangerous, experimental serum, the Anti Villain League – represented by sweet potential love interest Lucy (v. Kristen Wiig) – enlist Gru’s assistance. Watching this enjoyable kiddie flick with a kid definitely increases the appeal of the little yellow Minions, whose roles have been enlarged with their own spinoff in the works for 2014. Carell’s Boris Badunov accent still entertains and warms the heart, as does little Agnes. A little long, even at 98 minutes (remember when Disney cartoons clocked in under 80?), Despicable Me 2 has no shot at surpassing expectations like its underdog predecessor, and its appeal to anyone over ten probably depends on one’s tolerance for the Minions. Still, it’s a funny movie for kids and parents. On a hot or rainy summer day, that’s more than good enough.

DR. NO 1962. James Bond’s first adventure was a doozy (though it’s no Goldfinger). In Jamaica, Sean Connery’s legendary 007 faces off against Joseph Wiseman’s metal-handed madman, while wooing beautiful Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress in an iconic bikini). Dr. No introduced series stalwarts like M (Bernard Lee, veteran of 11 Bond films), Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell, who appeared in 14 Bonds) and Bond’s CIA pal, Felix Leiter (here played by “Hawaii Five-O”’s Jack Lord). This film started the longest running film franchise of all time.

ELYSIUM (R) Science fiction offers a rich canvas upon which ambitious authors and filmmakers can point out the flaws in modern society via a far-off future. Think Orwell, Bradbury, Kubrick, etc. Filmmaker Neill Blomkamp certainly sees the polemical advantages of sci-fi. Unlike his near perfect District 9, his immigration parable, Elysium, rarely ventures past its bleak concept to become an entertaining movie. In 2154, the Earth has gone from third rock from the sun to third world. Orbiting in the skies above the planet is Elysium, where the wealthy live forever thanks to breakthroughs in medical technology. An ex-con turned factory worker, Max De Costa (Matt Damon), gets sick in an industrial accident and seeks a means to get to Elysium. Tricked out with an exoskeleton that makes him stronger and nearly invincible, Max goes all Terminator until he gets to Elysium, run by ice-cold Defense Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster). District 9’s Sharlto Copley impresses as Delacourt’s psychotic merc, Kruger, though his accent’s incomprehensibly thick. With Blomkamp’s mastery of ultraviolence, cyborg tech and high concept satire, the South African could be a new (and improved?) Paul Verhoeven, were he to also equal the Dutchman’s exuberant sense of overkill.

EPIC (PG) Epic, from Ice Age and Robots director Chris Wedge, is like Star Wars in a forest; wait, that would just be Return of the Jedi. Still, another monomyth should be less exciting than this animated family film based on the William Joyce book, The Leafmen. Unbeknownst to humanity, the forests are protected by the Leafmen, who constantly do battle with the Boggans, led by Mandrake (v. Christoph Waltz). When M.K. (v. Amanda Seyfried) is magically transported to the world of the Leafmen, she must team up with wizened soldier Ronin (v. Colin Farrell) and young turk Nod (v. Josh Hutcherson) to ensure the survival of the forest. Stunningly animated, Epic could be an American attempt at Miyazaki—bigger, blunter, more action, less subtlety, more Pitbull (whose voicework is better than expected). Nevertheless, the movie does far too little to avoid Star Wars comparisons; it practically invites them. See bird racing (pod racing) and the two slugs (humorously voiced by Chris O’Dowd and Aziz Ansari) who give off a distinct R2D2/C3PO sidekick vibe. When Star Wars isn’t being referenced, it’s The Lord of the Rings. I’d still rather sit through Epic than most kids’ movies.

FRUITVALE STATION (R) Fruitvale Station enters theaters having established quite a pedigree, picking up Sundance’s prestigious Grand Jury Prize (and Audience Award) plus the Best First Film Award at the Cannes Film Festival. Writer-director Ryan Coogler based his feature debut on the real life events that occurred to Oscar Grant, played by “Friday Night Lights”’ Michael B. Jordan, on the last day of 2008. With Chad Michael Murray, Kevin Durand, Melonie Diaz and Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer.

GETAWAY (PG-13) Ethan Hawke continues his genre tear, leaving horror and venturing into action exploitation. Hawke stars as Brent Magna, a former racecar driver who must follow a mysterious man’s directions if he hopes to ever see his kidnapped wife again. Selena Gomez costars as his passenger. Courtney Solomon hasn’t directed much (his previous two features are Dungeons & Dragons and An American Haunting) but has produced a lot as head of After Dark Films. With Jon Voight.

GIRL RISING Academy Award nominated director Richard Robbins (Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience) has assembled an impressive cast of narrators—Cate Blanchett, Selena Gomez, Anne Hathaway, Salma Hayek, Alicia Keys, Chloe Grace Moretz, Liam Neeson, Freida Pinto, Meryl Streep and Kerry Washington—to tell the story of nine girls seeking to escape arranged marriage, child slavery and more through education. GATHR is presenting the screening, which may or may not happen depending on how many people made reservations before the deadline expired. 

THE GREAT GATSBY (PG-13) Baz Luhrmann (his Moulin Rouge! was nominated for Best Picture) tackles F. Scott Fitzgerald’s best known novel and brings his Romeo, Leonardo DiCaprio, with him. If you’ve never read The Great Gatsby, you should, especially before you see Luhrmann’s adaptation. Tobey Maguire stars as Nick Carraway, the Midwesterner drawn into Gatsby’s circle, which includes the married Buchanans, Tom and Daisy (Joel Edgerton and Carey Mulligan). For related Gatsby fun, check out the 8-bit video game at www.greatgatsbygame.com.

THE HEAT (R) After taking far too long to warm up, this buddy cop comedy starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy hits its stride when it counts. Uptight FBI agent Sarah Ashburn (Bullock) needs the help of foulmouthed, unpopular Boston cop Shannon Mullins (McCarthy) to take down a dangerous drug lord. Bullock and McCarthy don’t have Fey/Pohler chemistry. The just under two hour comedy needs about 45 minutes for its actors/characters to lose enough of their flaws for the jokes to stick. McCarthy flails too wildly early, while Bullock’s too tightly wound for comedy. Nevertheless, enough cannot be said about how refreshing it is to watch a buddy cop comedy starring two women; “Cagney & Lacey” has been off the damn air since 1988, for crying out loud, and still no campy remake? Unlike a sillier, lesser comedy, writer Katie Dippold and Bridesmaids director Paul Feig never explain away Ashburn and Mullins’ tough, brash exteriors as shields needed to survive their male dominated profession. Ashburn’s just weird and Mullins grew up with four brothers (Michael Rapaport, Bill Burr, Nate Corddry and, yes, that is Joey McIntyre). The Heat may not be smoking, but after a barren first act, it’s pretty darn funny.

IRON MAN 3 (PG-13) Happily, Shane Black has taken over the Iron Man franchise from Jon Favreau (Black also co-wrote the script), and it’s mostly a blast right out of 1987. I dig Black’s vision of Iron Man 3 as a buddy movie; I just wish his Stark had suited up more. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) may be the rare superhero alter ego that is more interesting out of costume, but watching him investigate a mystery in Small Town, Tennessee (child sidekick in tow) felt more like episodic television than the initial, post-Avengers solo adventure. The climactic showdown where a hoodied-and-Polo’ed Tony and Rhodey (Don Cheadle) run around a cargo ship with guns drawn was way more Lethal Weapon 2 than Iron Man 2. Armor them up, and you have yourself a cool twist on the 80s' buddy concept Black helped pioneer. The Iron Man franchise goes 0 for 3 on villains; none are in Iron Man’s league. The potential of The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) is wasted with a twist that, while amusingly executed, leaves the film villainously bereft. Such minor quibbles don’t devalue Iron Man 3’s entertainment worth; it’s one high quality blockbuster (terrifically pulpy, worth watching credits included).

JOBS (PG-13) Were this biopic of tech and cultural giant Steve Jobs airing on HBO, the movie and star Ashton Kutcher would be up for an Emmy. How such a small screen biography made it to the big screen is beyond my pay grade, but it’s unfortunate, because as Swing Vote director Joshua Michael Stern’s biopic goes on, Kutcher shows surprising talent, becoming less the former Mr. Demi Moore and more the visionary co-founder of Apple. It's mostly focused on Jobs’ time (and failures) at Apple; don’t expect much insight into his personal life. As deep as Jobs gets is the not so shocking realization that Steve Jobs could be a major a-hole. Kutcher, who already resembles Jobs, really nails his speaking, mannerisms and gait, and as the end credits reveal, the film’s casting, makeup and costuming should be applauded for making Kutcher, Dermot Mulroney, Josh Gad, Lukas Haas, Nelson Franklin and more into near perfect facsimiles of their real-life counterparts. Anyone who hasn’t read Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs and wants a two-hour abridged account of the life it recounts will find some marginal benefit from this film, though I’d recommend waiting to see it in its proper medium, the small screen.

KICK-ASS 2 (R) Original writer-director Matthew Vaughan, who’s moved on to the X-franchise, is missed, but Kick-Ass 2 still charms in its vulgar, violent cinematic depiction of the MillarWorld. Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) again dons the togs of Kick-Ass, while Hit-Girl, aka Mindy Macready (Chloe Grace Moretz), tries to live the life of a normal fifteen-year-old girl while living with her late father’s former partner, Marcus (Morris Chestnut). Meanwhile, Chris D’Amico (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) has transitioned from Red Mist into the world’s first supervillain and is recruiting other baddies. Fortunately, Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl are no longer the only costumed do-gooders. The presence of Nick Cage is not missed, as Jim Carrey shines as former mob enforcer turned hero, Captain Stars and Stripes. Writer-director Jeff Wadlow lacks Vaughan’s vision and talent, but Mark Millar’s colorful comic is just too much fun for Kick-Ass 2’s rough edges to matter. It may not be a stronger movie than its predecessor, but it feels like a truer adaptation of its source material. However, the movie would be more honestly titled Hit-Girl, as Moretz’s character is the true hero and Moretz the film’s real star. Talk about kicking some ass.

LEE DANIELS’ THE BUTLER (PG-13) I wonder if Lee Daniels now wished he’d followed up Precious with this crowd-pleasing slice of historical nostalgia, chronicling the major events of the second half of the 20th century through the eyes of White House butler Cecil Gaines (Forrest Whitaker). Were this film released later in the year, I’m sure Whitaker would be in the awards hunt; however, this August release date didn’t hurt The Help. With its exceptional cast—Robin Williams, James Marsden, Liev Schreiber, John Cusack and Alan Rickman appear as Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Reagan, plus there’s Oprah, Terrence Howard, Mariah Carey, Melissa Leo, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Lenny Kravitz, Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave—The Butler overcomes the natural tendency of such films to drift into sentimental nostalgia. Daniels never sugarcoats the Civil Rights Movement, especially impressive for its PG-13 rating. The Butler’s anecdotal narrative inevitably draws comparisons to Forrest Gump, but Daniels’ film is more complicated. Too bad the scenes of Gaines’ home life, dominated by Oprah as his unhappy wife, lack the strength of those set in the White House and the Deep South. (Note: The title was changed to Lee Daniels’ The Butler for reasons of copyright, not ego.)

THE LONE RANGER (PG-13) Is the Lone Ranger that hard to get right? This second failed attempt to bring the masked man back to the big screen (do you recall 1981’s Legend of the Lone Ranger?) reunites Johnny Depp with his Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski for another bloated blockbuster that misses the mark. Depp’s Indian savant Tonto is one of the oater’s strengths; the star swaggers and mugs like a silent film star. Otherwise, this over-plotted, overlong origin story establishes the wrong tone for its masked hero. With Tonto providing the comic relief, John Reid should have been a one-track-minded vigilante of justice—the Lone Ranger as a cowboy Batman. As John Reid, Armie Hammer stammers and stumbles along like Clark Kent or Jack Burton. He’s not a natural Wild West lawman; he leaves a lot of the heavy lifting to Tonto. Verbinski and his team of scripters play everything for slapstick laughs, despite slaughtering hundreds, including an entire Native American tribe. The final action spectacle aboard two moving trains, scored to the "William Tell Overture," ends the movie properly, but it’s not enough to right the wrongs done to this classic character.

MAN OF STEEL (PG-13) Superman returns (again) with Christopher Nolan tasked to give Supes his Dark(ened) Knight treatment. Then Nolan, writer David S. Goyer and director Zack Snyder realized Superman is an alien and nearly impossible to ground in the real world. Their solution: Treat the material like serious science fiction. The extended time spent with Superman's birth parents (Russell Crowe rules as father Jor-El) on dying Krypton is the film's strongest, most original segment. The middle chunk, retelling Kal-El's transformation from a hunky Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) into Superman, intriguingly tweaks a well-known origin with the benefit of fatherly wisdom from Kevin Costner's Jonathan Kent. Despite some well-executed set pieces pitting Superman against fellow Kryptonian General Zod (cast standout Michael Shannon) and his alien army, the final act never fully takes flight. Instead, the blockbuster soars in fits and starts, seeming most confident in its final frames than the previous hour and a half of repetitive conflict. The entertaining if (mostly) humorless and heartless Man of Steel proves it’s harder to make a great Superman movie than a bad one. However, if one hero stands for hope, it's Superman. Here's hoping Man of Steel's sequel will be this generation's Superman II.

MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (G) So let’s call it a slump. Cars 2 was a clunker; Brave was good verging on really good but not close to great; and Monsters University lacks the Pixar pop of their undeniably great features (Up, Wall-E, Toy Story 3). In this prequel to Monsters, Inc., we learn how Mike (v. Billy Crystal) and Sully (v. John Goodman) met. Apparently, the two scarers didn’t start as best buds. First, they were scaring rivals at Monsters University. This Revenge of the Monster Nerds doesn’t creatively bend college life for monsters as one would expect from Pixar. The life lesson is trite—don’t let others define your limits or some similar sentiment—and is taught as cleverly as an inferior animation studio’s Monsters, Inc. knockoff. Fortunately, the animation, especially the creature design, is as lush and lifelike as ever, and the voicework from Pixar newcomers like Nathan Fillion and Charlie Day saves the comic day. Kids will love the silly, low scare fun, and parents will be happy it’s not Cars 3. (Just wait, that’s coming in August in the form of Planes.)

THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES (PG-13) I am so over romantic-tinged, supernatural fantasies aimed at teens. The first movie in what the makers hope to be the new Twilight et al. contains every single YA genre trope. When her mother (Lena Headey) disappears, a seemingly normal girl, Clary Fray (Lily “Daughter of Phil” Collins), discovers her significance in a shadow world of demons, vampires, werewolves and witches. Apparently, Clary is the only one able to find The Cup, one of the Mortal Instruments, which was hidden by her mother. With bad people played by the likes of Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Kevin Duran after the Cup, it’s a good thing Clary can count on a punkishly cute, part-Angel, part-human Shadowhunter named Jace Wayland (Jamie Campbell Bower). Maybe this sort of Junior “True Blood” seemed original a few years ago, but all it is in 2013 is boring. Don’t expect new Karate Kid director Harald Zwart to liven up the proceedings, and the cast is terribly underwhelming. God love Jared Harris, but Lane Price certainly cannot do this alone.  At least Beautiful Creatures had Jeremy Irons, Emma Thompson and Viola Davis to gleefully camp it up. The Mortal Instruments is desperately frumpy and achingly serious in comparison. 

NOW YOU SEE ME (PG-13) A magical heist flick, you say? I’m skeptical, I say. Four street magicians (Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco) are enlisted in a mysterious, magical plan to do something, but nobody is really sure what until the last reel. Hot on their heels is a dogged FBI Agent, Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo), and a debunker of magicians (Morgan Freeman). Now You See Me is as entertaining as it is eye-rollingly contrived. However, this smug band of protagonists is hard to pull for despite game attempts by Harrelson and Fisher; Darth Eisenberg finally crossed over to the Smug Side. Fortunately, Ruffalo, the lovely Melanie Laurent and underused sidekick Michael Kelly (check out Netflix’s “House of Cards” for his best work) are present to pick up the slack. Clash of the Titans’ Louis Leterrier (to be fair, he should probably be remembered for the first two Transporters and Unleashed) keeps the illusions moving along too fast for anyone to see through the script’s tricks until the woeful reveal. Now You See Me has the slick, breezy air of a ‘70s TV show, an okay trait for forgettable summer fun.

ONE DIRECTION: THIS IS US (PG) The popular boy band hits the big screen in a movie directed by Academy Award nominee Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me). (This kind of pop-blum does not fit into Spurlock’s oeuvre.) The rise of Niall, Zayn, Liam, Harry and Louis from competing on “The X Factor” to performing at London’s O2 Arena is chronicled. If you liked Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never, you’ll be hard-pressed to justify any animosity for the Brit boy band’s musical doc.

PACIFIC RIM (PG-13) Yes, Pacific Rim’s giant monsters versus giant robots concept is unbelievably dumb, but the level of unironic fun is bigger than Knifehead and Gipsy Danger combined! (Granted, that comparison won’t mean much to you until you see the movie, but trust me, it’s big.) A portal to another dimension opens in the Pacific, unleashing giant monsters called Kaiju on humanity, who builds giant robots called Jaegers to counter them. Controlled by two mind-linked (the film calls it drifting) pilots, Jaegers give us the edge over the Kaiju, until they don’t. Years into a losing war, the Jaeger program leader, Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), takes one last chance, sending the last surviving robots and pilots (including Charlie Hunnam, “Sons of Anarchy”) to close the portal for good. I could gush about this film for pages. The most well-realized blockbuster of its kind, Pacific Rim delivers the childlike robot action missing from all three misguided Transformers flicks. Writer-director Guillermo del Toro’s smartest move was leaving the snark and the cynicism to lesser movies (Sharknado, anyone?), and Pacific Rim delivers on the geek promise of his previous features. Summer 2013 thanks you, Mr. del Toro!

PARANOIA (PG-13) This techno-thriller that will soon be as forgotten and outdated as The Net is notable for its cast (a bald Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman and Richard Dreyfus) alone. A tech hotshot, Adam Cassidy (Liam Hemsworth, who is such a C-Tates knockoff), is caught between feuding billionaires, Jock Goddard and Nicolas Wyatt (Ford and Oldman). The taste of the good life doesn’t outweigh the dangers faced by Adam’s friends, girlfriend (Amber Heard) and sick pops (Dreyfus). The esteemed elder cast of this wannabe Wall Street gets little help from its young, bland lead (he’s a small step up from Taylor Lautner), generic screenplay and uninspired direction from 21’s Robert Luketic (not that 21 is cause for faith in Luketic’s abilities). The climactic “heist” is one of the most lamely shot and edited sequences perpetrated by any recent thriller. This flick is a paycheck movie for all its players, though Ford and Oldman strike sparks in their scenes together. Still, those brief exciting interludes are not worth any of a viewer’s paycheck.

PERCY JACKSON: SEA OF MONSTERS (PG) Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief was not terrible, but it definitely suffered from Chris Columbus Syndrome. Well, its successor, Sea of Monsters, has full-blown, terminal sequelitis. The titular hero, Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman), must save Camp Half-Blood, the safe haven for the gods’ half-mortal children, so he embarks on a quest for the legendary Golden Fleece. Backed by his pals—Athena’s daughter Annabeth (the gorgeous, unnecessarily blonde Alexandra Daddario) and his Cyclops half-brother, Tyson (Douglas Smith)—Percy must defeat bland villain Luke (Jake Abel), who’s still mad at his dad (Zeus), rescue satyr Grover (Brandon Jackson) from Polyphemus (fortunately voiced by Ron Perlman) and defeat a reborn Cronos. Even with the additions of Nathan Fillion, Stanley Tucci and Anthony Head (stepping into Pierce Brosnan’s digitized hooves as centaur teacher Chiron), Sea of Monsters is a giant misfire. This flick isn’t even worth the excuse to stare at Alexandra Daddario for almost two hours. Even the all right FX cannot overcome the awful writing and charmless acting, especially from Lerman. Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters has almost surely sunk the chances of Percy Jackson: The Titan’s Curse ever seeing the light of day. Someone else cast Daddario stat! 

PLANES (PG) What with its Cars pedigree and Dane Cook voicework, Planes could have been a lot worse. It’s no more disagreeable than Turbo, a kiddie flick with which it shares some central DNA. A cropduster named Dusty Crophopper (v. Cook) longs to race across the skies. Unfortunately, he’s afraid of heights. With the help of his friends—including a Mater stand-in named Chug (v. Brad Garrett)—and mentor, Skipper (v. Stacy Keach), Dusty conquers his fears and the skies. It’s cute, sweet, and maybe a smidge direct-to-DVD; the voice cast—Teri Hatcher, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, John Cleese, Cedric the Entertainer, Anthony Edwards, Val Kilmer and Sinbad (?!)—is a step below the usual Pixar crop (though John Ratzenberger does pop by for his obligatory vocal cameo). Kids that love Cars will not care and will most likely fall for Planes. What’s next? Ships?

RIDDICK (R) Vin Diesel returns as Riddick, the anti-hero of David Twohy’s excellent Pitch Black and the over-hated, underrated follow-up, The Chronicles of Riddick. The third movie looks more like the first, with the goggled not-quite-baddie holed up on a remote world that is inhabited by some not-so-friendly creatures. Enter some mercs and a man from Riddick’s past. I’d like to thank Diesel’s revved up star power via the Fast and Furious franchise for getting us another Riddick adventure. With Katee Sackhoff (“Battlestar Galactica”) and Karl Urban.

SALINGER (PG-13) Filmmaker Shane Salerno (he co-wrote the screenplay for Oliver Stone’s Savages) attempts to solve the mystery that is J.D. Salinger. Salerno interviewed 150 subjects, many of whom were close to the reclusive author. Famous folk like Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edward Norton, John Cusack, Danny DeVito, John Guare, Martin Sheen, David Milch, Robert Towne, Tom Wolfe, E.L. Doctorow, Gore Vidal and Pulitzer Prize winners A. Scott Berg and Elizabeth Frank also contribute their thoughts on Salinger and his influential works, particularly The Catcher in the Rye. (Ciné)

THE SMURFS 2 (PG) Even the Smurfs seem less “smurfed” up about their sequel. Gargamel (Hank Azaria, still ruining a great cartoon villain) creates some fake Smurfs—he calls them Naughties. Vexy (v. Christina Ricci) and Hackus (v. J.B. Smoove) are an un-Smurf-like gray, so Gargamel kidnaps Smurfette (v. Katy Perry), who holds the secret to turning the Naughties blue. Sadly, Smurfette is an easier target than usual as the birthday girl feels forgotten by Papa Smurf (v. the late Jonathan Winters) and the rest of her blue brethren. (She’s the only girl; no blue-blooded Smurf ever forgets Smurfette.) Maybe the kids will be entertained again, but the illogical trip to Paris, where Gargamel has become a big celebrity magician, will flummox adults. Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays and franchise newbie Brendan Gleeson don’t add that much to the movie. I’d have preferred a more fantastical adventure that takes place wholly in the Smurfs’ home realm. Kudos to the voice work by Anton Yelchin, Winters and “The Daily Show”’s John Oliver. They really “smurfed” it. The rest of the disposable family film is just “smurfy."

THE SPECTACULAR NOW (R) Let’s just pretend for a moment that you are not interested in a film as astonishing as The Spectacular Now. Maybe romantic high school dramedies where teen sweethearts like Sutter (Miles Teller) and Aimee (Shailene Woodley) trudge through their senior year of high school do not appeal to you. Then you can still enjoy seeing our great Athens on the big screen. Clarke Central students, faculty and alumni definitely don’t want to miss seeing their beloved school on the big screen. After hot sophomore picture Smashed, acclaimed filmmaker and Cedar Shoals grad, James Ponsoldt, returns with what, in a perfect world, would be his breakthrough film, an Oscar-worthy effort certain to make waves at the Independent Spirit Awards. Ponsoldt has a knack for choosing the right actors at the right time. In Teller and Woodley, Ponsoldt has chosen two young actors with the natural, charming effortlessness of bigger stars, and both are poised on the brink of superstardom. Adapted from Tim Tharp’s novel by (500) Days of Summer writers Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, The Spectacular Now is a teen movie made by and for adults that stands out by not indoctrinating audiences into the cult of youth.

STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (PG-13) Star Trek Into Darkness, the second film in J.J. Abrams’ revamped Trek-verse, is the best Star Wars movie since 1983. Don’t think I typed that wrong. The second new Star Trek is the giant, sci-fi, matinee serial that the Star Wars prequels never were. The new Trek improves upon its already superb predecessor in every way. Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) leads the crew of the Starship Enterprise—Spock (Zachary Quinto), Bones (Karl Urban), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Sulu (John Cho), Chekhov (Anton Yelchin) and Scotty (Simon Pegg)—after a rogue Federation operative (Benedict Cumberbatch) turns terrorist. Trek has never looked better, been more thrilling or more humanly humorous, and those praises come from a lifelong Trek fan (I eschew the Trekkie/Trekker nomenclature).

THE WAY, WAY BACK (PG-13) After winning an Oscar for writing The Descendants, Jim Rash (Dean Pelton on “Community”) and Nat Faxon (the sadly cancelled “Ben and Kate”) reteamed for their directorial debut. This coming of age comedy stars Liam James as Duncan, who negotiates a summer with his mom (Toni Collette) and her boyfriend (Steve Carell) by getting a job at a local water park, where he is befriended by its odd owner (Sam Rockwell). This Sundance favorite looks appealing enough to be summer’s indie breakout hit. With Allison Janney, AnnaSophia Robb, Maya Rudolph, Rob Corddry and Amanda Peet.

WE’RE THE MILLERS (R) We’re the Millers doesn’t break any laugh records, but after a few laughless weeks at the cinema, it more than accomplishes its goal. Its silliest problem is its star, the hilarious Jason Sudeikis, who comes off far too smug far too easily. (One wonders how this movie would have played with a more sympathetic David Clark, played by Jason Bateman or Jason Segel, etc.) After running afoul of his drug kingpin pal (Ed Helms), Dave (Sudeikis) must smuggle a smidge that turns out to be a lot more than a smidge of marijuana across the border. Dave hatches a brilliant plan to fake a family with stripper Rose (Jennifer Aniston, who is getting hotter with age), runaway teen Casey (Emma Roberts) and virginal Kenny (Will Poulter, Son of Rambow). Everything works out great until he runs into a swell DEA agent and his wife (Nick Offerman and Kathryn Hahn) and the big-time Mexican drug lord to whom the weed really belongs to catches up with them. We’re the Millers will probably gain popularity once it starts airing non-stop on FX. Still, it’s a funny afternoon diversion, thanks mostly to its clever cast, not its familiarly sitcom-ish script.

WHITE HOUSE DOWN (PG-13) Much like the summer of 1998 when discussions of July’s Armageddon required mentioned of May’s Deep Impact, a critique of White House Down cannot take place without comparisons to March’s Olympus Has Fallen. Unlike Armageddon and Deep Impact, two distinctly different movies about an asteroid on its way to Earth, White House and Olympus are nearly interchangeable. In White House, Channing Tatum stars as D.C. cop John Cale, who must protect the President (Jamie Foxx) and rescue his precocious daughter (Joey King) after terrorists take over the White House. Disaster master Roland Emmerich stages the destruction with his usual crowd-pleasing clarity (how many times can he blow up the White House?), and the movie, written by The Amazing Spider-Man’s James Vanderbilt, has a sense of humor about it (though nothing as entertaining as Melissa Leo’s “Star-Spangled Banner” in Olympus occurs). At 131 minutes, WHD drags a bit in its final act, but C-Tates and Foxx are the appealing duo I prefer to be thrust into the most Die Hard of Die Hard rip-offs. It is kind of hard to hate a summer blockbuster concerned with a constitutional crisis, even if its POTUS fires a rocket launcher.

THE WOLVERINE (PG-13) With Walk the Line’s James Mangold (just imagine if the film’s first director, Darren Aronofsky, had stuck around) in the director’s chair, The Wolverine can’t be worse than its predecessor, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, right? The movie also uses Frank Miller’s classic mini-series as a framework, as Wolverine ventures to Japan. This fanboy is pretty stoked, even if they are trotting out my one of my top two least favorite superhero tropes—the loss of powers.

THE WORLD’S END (R) The Cornetto Trilogy, begun in Shaun of the Dead, concludes pitch-perfectly with The World’s End. Five old friends—Gary King (co-writer Simon Pegg), Andy (Nick Frost), Ollie (Martin Freeman), Steve (Paddy Considine) and Peter (Eddie Marsan)—reunite in their hometown to again attempt an epic pub crawl. They just didn’t realize the world as they know it might be ending, when their pub crawl is interrupted by a Who-vian invasion of blue-blooded robots. Pegg and director/co-writer Edgar Wright know comedy. The jokes all land and the comic beats/pauses are perfectly synced. You will want to watch The World’s End again just to hear the jokes you laughed through the first time. Franchise filmdom (Mission: Impossible and Star Trek) hasn’t dulled Pegg’s charm, and grown-up teenager Gary is a wonderfully well-drawn slacker bookend to Shaun. Frost seems to enjoy playing the straight man, at least for a bit. The increasingly giddy Marsan, though, will be the revelation for most viewers. As silly as the bits can be, The World’s End captures the melancholy of growing up, old and apart from childhood friends. It’s like a Big Chill for Generation Zed. With jokes. And robots.

WORLD WAR Z (PG-13) The biggest zombie (and arguably horror) movie EVER MADE is better than expected, judging from its PG-13 rating and tortured production history. Former U.N. employee Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) is sent around the globe to discover the source of the zombie pandemic threatening to wipe out humanity. Also, if he doesn’t go, the U.S. military is going to kick his wife (Mirielle Enos of “The Killing,” another TV show you should be watching) and two daughters off their aircraft carrier. One-time Bond director Marc Forster (he of the uber-versatile filmography) and his stable of writers (the screenplay’s credited to three writers including The Cabin in the Woods’ Drew Goddard and “Lost”’s Damon Lindelof) turn Max “Son of Mel” Brooks’ oral history of the zombie conflict into a more focused, traditional “one hero must race time to save the world,” and it works. Minor quibbles range from a lack of blood (blame the need for a PG-13 rating to recoup the massive budget) and way too fast, superstrong zombies; still, it’s way more exciting than the second season of “The Walking Dead.” With its focus on action over scares, WWZ is the Resident Evil 5 of zombie movies.

YOU’RE NEXT (R) Wow. Ridiculously overhyped horror movies typically cannot live up to the hyperbolic claims crafted by overzealous marketing folk. You’re Next, directed by Adam Wingard (check out his earlier feature, A Horrible Way to Die), is the best horror film since the last best horror film, except, unlike the new Evil Dead, You’re Next really is that great. With the strongest cold open since Scream, this home invasion flick (my favorite slasher subgenre) ratchets up the tension for an hour and a half without ever letting up. A well-to-do family—including indie darlings Joe Swanberg (check out his new feature, Drinking Buddies), Ti West (House of the Devil and The Innkeepers), Aimee Seimetz and former Tasty World bartender AJ Bowen—are stalked by a group of killers in animal masks, who may have met their match in one son’s new girlfriend, Erin (Sharni Vinson). Hopefully, I haven’t said too much to ruin the horrific fun. Wingard and collaborator Simon Barrett take a well-known, beloved and maligned genre, turning it on its head with gleefully violent abandon. Remember; it’s okay to laugh. The horror movie of the year may well be one of the year’s best films, period.