Summer Movie Preview: July (Part 2)

The Sorcerer's Apprentice (already out): Nicolas Cage is kind of like a younger Al Pacino these days: You want to watch him in what looks like crap just to see what kind of wackiness he'll unleash. Ideally, he'd be more like a rougher Johnny Depp: someone you'll see in anything because you know the performance will be both interesting and good. There are worse Disney properties to Bruckheimerize--after all, this movie is based on the one segment of "Fantasia" the average Joe could identify--but there are probably better ones, too: How about Cage as a jittery gunslinger and Philip Seymour Hoffman as a seedy prospector in "Big Thunder Mountain"? Let's face it, Cage has to take his acting way over the top of the mountain to make this watchable. Yellow light.

Inception (Already out): LALALALALALALA Nobody tell me anything about this movie! Christopher Nolan movies are always mindbenders and/or very good. Heck, I half-expected The Joker to kill off Batman in "The Dark Knight." I think people still anticipate the twist in a Nolan film with a positive spirit, unlike the reaction audiences had in that dry patch endured by a certain director whose last name rhymes with...rhymes with...eh, what DOES rhyme with Shyamalan?

Twists are one thing, but you have to have a compelling story. I hope I'm not setting myself up for mild disappointment a la "Shutter Island," but I do want to see "Inception," and maybe I will...in a theater, too! Golly! Green light.

Salt (opens Friday): I'm already seeing stories get out about Angelina Jolie "turning the adventure genre on its head" and "invading the boys club" and nonsense like that. Fact is, Angie already did that years ago when she played Lara Croft. Say what you will about the movies, but she was a legit action hero and gave us one of the best one-sheets in the history of the biz (Sigh). The Angelina Jolie of 2010 is a much different version.

That said, this role was originally designed for Tom Cruise, and I'd sure rather watch Angelina Jolie. Maybe this will be decent. Yellow light.

Ramona and Beezus (opens Friday): I'm not gonna go so far as to say I'll see this in a theater or anything, but I will admit that I read this and other Beverly Cleary books as a kid. Hey, how macho does a 7-year-old need to be? Red light (but I hope it's a decent family movie).

Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (July 30): What's with this trend of sequels requiring some kind of pithy subtitle? A simple "Cats and Dogs 2" would suffice. Red light.

Dinner for Schmucks (July 30): Paul Rudd and Steve Carell teaming up must be comedic brilliance right? Well, no, not necessarily. Much as I like Rudd, I think I've experienced at least slight disappointment in about 4 or 5 straight of his movies. I'm not sure about this one, but I do know I am stunned that Jay Roach directed a movie with "Schmucks" in the title before Mel Brooks. Yellow light.

The Extra Man (limited July 30): Kevin Kline and John C. Reilly in a quirky comedy from the team that made "American Splendor"? Reilly looking like he just failed an audition for Hagrid in the last "Harry Potter" movie? I'm intrigued. But all I'm really taking in about this one so far is that, as the ads on HDNet tout, I can SEE IT NOW on demand before or while it's in theaters. On one hand, this is pretty cool, and I respect the distributors for experimenting with this. On other, a small part of me can't help but think, "It must not be that good." That's a bad attitude, isn't it? But I think the strategy does devalue the content a little bit. Yellow light.