The 2003 Summer Movie Preview

But June also has some promising original material coming out. Ron Shelton, well known for his ability in directing some of the best sports movies, tries his hand at the buddy cop comedy genre, directing Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnett in Hollywood Homicide ... just that pairing sounds promising. Rob Reiner returns to comedy as well, this time an unconventional romantic comedy with Alex & Emma, starring Luke Wilson, Kate Hudson, and Cloris Leachman. It's loosely based on the story of Fyodor Dostoyevsky and the woman he loves.

It was supposed to have been released a year ago, and supposedly we can plan on finally seeing Christina Ricci's film Prozac Nation this summer. Our recent Best Actor winner, Adrien Brody, will play a New York City con man in Love the Hard Way. We'll also get a bizarre futuristic horror film with 28 Days Later, and the World War II drama The Cuckoo. A promising independent film which may be worth finding will be Whale Rider, which was a favorite at the Toronto Film Festival. It's about the history and traditions of a fishing village in New Zealand.

And finally in June, the two stars of the first American Idol television experience, Justin Guarini and recent pop hit sensation Kelly Clarkson, will make their feature film debut in From Justin to Kelly, a spring break beach movie. It will undoubtedly be a hit with the teenage crowd.

OSCAR OUTLOOK FOR JUNE: Take my word for it ... the Academy will try to forget that June even existed. I don't even think The Hulk will manage a single technical nomination.

So that's the preview of the first two months of summer ... X2 is about to get it all started next weekend, and the summer movie season will be off and running! But it won't stop with May and June ... July and August have some big releases of their own, just when the weather starts getting the hottest! Next week, we'll conclude the 2003 Summer Movie Preview with a look at July and August.