SUPERMAN RETURNS

WHEN: June 30 WHO'S IN IT: Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey WHAT HAPPENS: The world waits for no one, not even the Man of Steel (Christopher Reeve near-lookalike Routh), who comes back to Metropolis after an extended absence and discovers that everyone, including Lois Lane (Bosworth), has moved on. At least one thing remains constant: the ever-scheming Lex Luthor (Spacey). WE'RE REVVED UP FOR: The first chance to see Superman go up, up and away onscreen since 1987's Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Routh's airborne euphoria was tempered by spending endless hours dangling in super-uncomfortable harnesses. "You get really stiff from hanging that long," says Routh. "At the end of a 12-hour day, it was, 'Let me down!' I got weekly massages and drank a lot of green tea."

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III

WHEN: May 5 WHO'S IN IT: Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Michelle Monaghan, Ving Rhames, Keri Russell WHAT HAPPENS: Cruise's Ethan Hunt chooses to accept another mission (with returning vet Rhames and new team members Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Maggie Q) and faces off with baddie Hoffman, who—yes, this time it's personal—pulls Cruise's girlfriend (Monaghan) into the action. WE'RE REVVED UP FOR: The onscreen clash between Cruise and recent Oscar winner Hoffman, who in his first eeeevvillll role, is just a wee bit more assertive than when audiences last saw him in Capote.

POSEIDON

WHEN: May 12 WHO'S IN IT: Kurt Russell, Josh Lucas, Richard Dreyfuss, Emmy Rossum, Andre Braugher WHAT HAPPENS: May is a dangerous month for cruises—Tom or transatlantic. In this remake of 1972's The Poseidon Adventure, passengers on a lavish luxury liner find their New Year's Eve festivities waterlogged by the mother of all tidal waves. WE'RE REVVED UP FOR: That whopper of a wave, more massive—and higher-tech—than the one director Wolfgang Petersen unleashed in The Perfect Storm. And, of course, finding out whether anyone in the cast will have to reenact the late Shelley Winters's epically melodramatic swim from the '72 flick.

THE DA VINCI CODE

WHEN: May 19 WHO'S IN IT: Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Paul Bettany WHAT HAPPENS: Based on the wildly successful 2003 Dan Brown novel, a bizarre murder at the Louvre brings together a Harvard symbologist (a shaggy-haired Hanks) and a French cryptologist (Amélie's Tautou) to investigate what one character calls "the biggest cover-up in human history." Expect plenty of controversy from religious groups upset with the plot's take on Mary Magdalene's relationship with Jesus. WE'RE REVVED UP FOR: Bettany's turn as Silas, the creepy albino assassin pursuing our heroes.

CARS

WHEN: June 9 WHO'S IN IT: The voices of Owen Wilson, Paul Newman and Bonnie Hunt WHAT HAPPENS: In Pixar's latest computer-animated film, a headstrong rookie race car (Wilson) breaks down in the tiny town of Radiator Springs. WE'RE REVVED UP FOR: High-speed races and playful touches: The bugs are tiny Volkswagen Beetles.

X-MEN: THE LAST STAND

WHEN: May 26 WHO'S IN IT: Hugh Jackman, Famke Janssen, Halle Berry WHAT HAPPENS: The motley supercrew reunites for a third (and perhaps final) time to combat a "cure" for their genetic mutations and the resurrection-gone-wrong of Jean Grey (Janssen), who died in X2. WE'RE REVVED UP FOR: A climactic battle in which evil mutants lay waste to the Golden Gate Bridge.

More From This Article

Comedy Central
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA A small-town girl (Anne Hathaway) toils for the fashion editor from hell (Meryl Streep). Based on the 2003 book. (June 30)

THE BREAK UP Perhaps you've heard about this one? Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn live unhappily ever after when they split, but each refuses to move out of the condo they jointly own. (June 2)

OVER THE HEDGE You snooze, you lose: A raccoon (voiced by Bruce Willis) helps animal pals who awake from hibernation and find their habitat has turned into a suburban sprawl. (May 19)