In general, the summer movie season has me a little disheartened, as all the dumb nonsense not fit for a more pensive, cold weather audience, explodes onto cinemas everywhere. Usually the fare is idiotic to the extreme. This May, though, there are some films coming out, followed by some seeming winners in the heat of the summer, that look ridiculously awesome, even if a tad dumb. I´m talking sublimely dumb to some extent, but maybe, hopefully, with some redeemable content (finally).

Here are some movies to watch out for and why you will sit in a smelly theater to enjoy them.

Chef

Jon Favreau has written, directed, and starred in a film about a dude who runs a food truck with Sofia Vergara. How can this not be charming and amazing all at once? Also, Dustin Hoffman and Robert Downey, Jr. are in it? I am so damn excited for this film, which looks to be veritable food porn, served up with steamy co-stars (Scarlett Johansson is in it too, damnit!).

Godzilla

The original kaiju is back to smoosh everything in his path, and this time, the director took special care to follow the vision of the original design, while giving it a reboot in terms of content (apparently, Godzilla is a force of nature now). While that premise may be a bit preachy, the film still looks crushingly huge, and Bryan Cranston’s involvement can only mean good things.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Andy Serkis returns as Caesar, the chimp that wishes to take over the world (monkey revenge!). Set some years after that plague wiped out some of humanity, this sequel follows some jungle style conquest. Gary Oldman is in it too, for some reason, and that always spells wonderful things for a film (unless it’s RoboCop). I’m excited to see what the folks making Dawn have in store for us this year.

Guardians of the Galaxy

This ridiculous feature, based on the characters in the Marvel comic universe (we’ve already seen Benicio del Toro’s Collector character in Thor 2), looks absolutely crazy, especially with Bradley Cooper playing a raccoon marksman, and Vin Diesel playing a destructive, talking tree alien monster. There’s every chance this film, sillier in nature than a lot of other stuff in the Marvel universe, is going to be too much to handle, but after the successes of the last few Marvel flicks, I believe this is going to be a heart stoppingly fun adventure.

There you have it, a list of films to be excited about. And also, if you missed it, watch for DVD releases of Under the Skin, because there is nothing better than an ambient masterpiece about Scarlett Johansson as an alien succubus.

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