SUMMER MOVIES: FROM A TO X

Coming to a cinema near you . . . Michael Dwyer previews the movies that will keep you out of the sunshine this year

AQUAMARINE Sara Paxton plays a teen mermaid swept into the pool of a Florida beach club in this coming-of-age tale co-starring Emma Roberts, daughter of Eric. Jun 23

ASK THE DUST Robert Towne's gorgeously lit film of John Fante's novel features an understated, charismatic Colin Farrell as an aspirant screenwriter falling for a fiery Mexican waitress (Salma Hayek) in 1930s Los Angeles. Jun 2

ATOMIZED Oskar Roehler's film of Michel Houellebecq's novel intersects the experiences of a geneticist (Christian Ullmen), who is planning to return to his Irish laboratory, and his half-brother (Moritz Bleibtrau) who lusts for the girls he teaches. Jul 14

THE BENCHWARMERS Rob Schneider, David Spade and Jon Heder play adult losers taking on junior teams for baseball games. Expect lots of fart jokes. Jun 2

THE BREAK-UP The subject of much behind-the-scenes speculation, this romcom features Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn as a couple who split up, but neither is willing to move out of the home they share. Aug 25

BRICK Writer-director Rian Johnson injects a high school drama with the plot twists and hard-boiled dialogue of a Dashiell Hammett story. With Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emilie de Ravin. May 12

CARS Pixar maestro John Lasseter is at the helm for a computer-animated romp in which a cocky racing car (voiced by Owen Wilson) learns traditional values from an older vehicle (Paul Newman). Jul 28

CAVE OF THE YELLOW DOG Director Byanbasuren Davaa follows The Story of the Weeping Camel with an observational docudrama set among a nomadic Mongolian family. Jul 21

THE CHUMSCRUBBER Jamie Bell leads a trio of Californian teens who concoct a kidnap scheme but steal the wrong child in this dark picture of US suburbia. With Rory Culkin, Glenn Close and Ralph Fiennes. Jun 30

CURIOUS GEORGE The title character is a mischievous monkey in this animated feature directed by Matthew O'Callaghan. May 26

THE DA VINCI CODE Cleared in court but condemned by the Vatican, Dan Brown's hit novel comes to the screen with Tom Hanks as symbologist Robert Langdon and Audrey Tautou as cryptographer Sophie Neveu. Directed by Ron Howard. May 19

DISTRICT 13/BANLIEU 13 Pierre Morel's thriller set in a ghettoised Paris in 2010 features dazzling, gravity-defying action sequences. Jul 21

DOWN IN THE VALLEY In David Jacobson's modern western, Edward Norton is as impressive as ever playing an insecure drifter involved with a prison officer's daughter (Evan Rachel Wood). May 26

ELECTION Johnny To's vigorous Hong Kong thriller deals with contemporary Triads and has spawned a sequel showing at Cannes next month. Jun 9

THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT Lucas Black replaces Paul Walker for this second sequel, in which the high-speed street racer goes to Japan. Jul 21

FATELESS Lajos Koltai's factually based Holocaust drama is haunting and visually stunning as it charts the experiences of a 15-year-old Hungarian boy (Marcel Nagy) in concentration camps. May 19

FEARLESS Jet Li plays a celebrated 19th century martial arts expert in a biopic directed by Ronny Yu. Jun 23

FORTY SHADES OF BLUE Ira Sachs's Sundance prize-winner features Dina Korzun as a Russian woman unhappily married to a much older man (Rip Torn) in Memphis and drawn to her married stepson (Darren Burrowes). Jun 30

FRIENDS WITH MONEY Lovely and Amazing director Nicole Holofcener observes how the growing disparity in their incomes separates four friends, played by Jennifer Aniston, Catherine Keener, Frances McDormand and Joan Cusack. May 26

GARFIELD 2 The animated cat is back, voiced again by Bill Murray. The original title was Garfield's A Tale of Two Kitties. Aug 18

HALF LIGHT Demi Moore plays a world-famous novelist grieving after the death of her young son and moving to a remote Scottish village where things go bump in the night. Jun 23

HARD CANDY David Slade's disturbing, factually based drama features Ellen Page as a 14-year-old girl planning to castrate an adult male (Patrick Wilson) she meets over the internet. Jun 16

HARSH TIMES Eva Longoria (from Desperate Housewives) and Freddy Rodriguez (Six Feet Under) play a couple whose relationship is strained when he falls under the bad influence of a volatile Gulf War veteran, edgily played by Christian Bale, in this gritty thriller. Aug 11

HEADING SOUTH/VERS LA SUD In Laurent Cantet's compelling, provocative picture of sex tourists in late 1970s Haiti, the predators are middle-aged women (Charlotte Rampling, Karen Young) jealously competing for a beach boy. Jul 7

HOODWINKED! The Little Red Riding Hood story gets an irreverent CGI-animated makeover. Aug 11

HOW TO EAT FRIED WORMS Bob Dolman, who scripted Far and Away, directs a school bullying story in which the title refers to a dare undertaken by an 11-year-old boy. Aug 25

I AM CUBA/SOY CUBA Restored and reissued with the support of Martin Scorsese and Francis Coppola, Mikhail Kalatozov's 1964 film, scripted by poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, shimmers with technical virtuosity as it celebrates the fall of capitalism in Cuba and the rise of Fidel Castro. Jun 23 TBC

IMAGINE ME & YOU It's lesbian love at first sight when a London bride (Piper Perado) is about to marry her fiance (Matthew Goode) and she sets eyes on the wedding florist (Lena Headey). June 16

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH Well received at Sundance, this documentary is a filmed record of Al Gore's touring multi-media presentation to raise awareness about global warming. Jun 9

INNOCENT VOICES Luis Mandoki's moving drama charts the experiences of a 12-year-old boy conscripted during the Salvadoran civil war in the 1980s. Jun 30

JUST MY LUCK Opposites attract in this romcom charting the changing fortunes of two young people, one confident and successful (Lindsay Lohan), the other awkward and accident-prone (Chris Pine). Jul 21

THE KING In James Marsh's handsome, disturbing Texas drama, Gael Garcia Bernal plays an amoral ex-soldier confronting the evangelist father (William Hurt) he never met. May 19

LADY IN THE WATER The new M Night Shyamalan movie certainly has an original premise. Paul Giamatti plays a caretaker who finds a sea nymph (Bryce Dallas Howard) in a swimming pool and discovers she's a character from a bedtime story. Aug 18

THE LAKE HOUSE In the remake of a 2000 South Korean melodrama, a doctor (Sandra Bullock) and an architect (Keanu Reeves) begin a romantic correspondence. The twist is that one is living two years ahead of the other. Jun 23

LITTLE FISH Cate Blanchett plays a recovering drug addict struggling to build a new life for herself in an Australian drama directed by Rowan Woods. With Hugo Weaving and Sam Neill. Jul 21

LOBO This factually based Spanish thriller features Eduardo Noriega in an aptly intense portrayal of a man who successfully infiltrated ETA in the 1970s. Jun 16

MIAMI VICE Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx step into the sockless shoes of Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas to play detectives Crockett and Tubbs in Michael Mann's mega-budget movie of the TV series he launched in 1984. With Gong Li as a Mob moll. Aug 4

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE III Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the latest nemesis of agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) in an action spectacle directed by JJ Abrams, creator of Lost and Alias. With Billy Crudup, Michelle Monaghan and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. May 4

MONSTER HOUSE A hi-tech CG-animated comedy in which three teens battle it out with a menacing house that's devouring the neighbours. Aug 14

MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND Uma Thurman plays a spurned lover using her secret super powers to wreak revenge on her ex (Luke Wilson) in this romcom from Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman. Aug 14

NACHO LIBRE The second movie from Napoleon Dynamite director Jon Hess is a comedy with Jack Black as a Mexican priest moonlighting as a wrestler to save an orphanage. Aug 14

THE OMEN Dundalk native John Moore remakes the 1976 horror movie. Liev Schreiber and Julia Stiles play the couple with good reason to suspect their little Damien (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) is the devil incarnate. Jun 6 (that's 6/6/6)

OVER THE HEDGE This animated feature follows forest animals feasting on the leftovers in a suburban neighbourhood. Bruce Willis, Steve Carell and Garry Shandling head the voice cast. Jun 30

PARADISE NOW Hany Abu-Assad's gripping, timely thriller follows what may be the last 48 hours in the lives of two young Palestinian men chosen as suicide bombers for a mission in Tel Aviv. Jun 2

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST Johnny Depp returns as Captain Jack Sparrow in the first of two sequels shot back-to-back - the second is due in May 2007. Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley are back, too, as is director Gore Verbinski. Jul 6

POSEIDON The eponymous ocean liner is upturned again in Wolfgang Petersen's hi-tech remake of The Poseidon Adventure (1972). The new cast includes Kurt Russell, Josh Lucas, Richard Dreyfuss and Freddy Rodriguez. Jun 2

PRIME Uma Thurman plays a 37-year-old divorcee smitten by a 22-year-old painter (Bryan Greenberg). Meryl Streep is her shrink. May 12

REGULAR LOVERS/LES AMANTS REGULIERS Philippe Garrel's black-and-white autobiographical drama features his son Louis (from The Dreamers) as a young man caught up in the turbulent events of May 1968 in Paris. Jul 21

RV Robin Williams plays a workaholic who slyly persuades his family to switch their Hawaii holiday plans for a cross-country road trip. Barry Sonnenfeld directs. Jun 9

A SCANNER DARKLY Richard Linklater employs the rotoscoping process he used in Waking Life (the live action is traced over by animation artists) for this Philip K Dick adaptation set in the near future, in a paranoid America that has lost the war on drugs. With Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr, Woody Harrelson and Winona Ryder. Aug 18

THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP Director Michel Gondry follows Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with a reputedly whimsical and visually inventive picture of an insecure graphic artist (Gael Garcia Bernal) falling for his new neighbour (Charlotte Gainsbourg). Jul 28

SECUESTRO EXPRESS Jonathan Jakubowicz's taut Venezuelan thriller deals with Caracas hoodlums who abduct people for ransom, and with the young couple who are their latest victims. Jun 23 TBC

SNAKES ON A PLANE The entertaining trailer has triggered a flurry of internet anticipation for this thriller in which a ruthless assassin unleashes 500 snakes on the aircraft carrying a key witness and a slew of stereotypes. Can FBI agent Samuel L Jackson come to the rescue? Aug 18

STORMBREAKER Alex Pettyfer plays a 14-year-old linguist, crack shot and martial arts expert who turns secret agent to track the villain (Mickey Rourke) suspected of killing his uncle (Ewan McGregor). Jul 21

SUPERMAN RETURNS Newcomer Brandon Routh fills the tights in Bryan Singer's hi-tech reworking of the enduring DC Comics creation. With Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor and Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane. Jul 14

TAXI DRIVER Martin Scorsese's chilling urban drama, which failed to win a single Oscar but took the Palme d'Or at Cannes and deservedly has achieved classic status, returns in a restored new print to mark its 30th anniversary. Jul 14 TBC

THANK YOU FOR SMOKING Jason Reitman (son of Ivan) turns director with a cynical satire on the culture of spin. Aaron Eckhart plays a slick tobacco industry lobbyist. With Mario Bello, Rob Lowe and William H Macy. Jun 16

THREE TIMES Hou Hsiao-Hsien's meditative Taiwanese picture on longing and loneliness is formed as short stories set in 1911, 1946 and 2005, and featuring the same actors, Chang Chen and Shu Qi. Aug 4

TIME TO LEAVE/LE TEMPS QUI RESTE Prolific director François Ozon draws a challenging, unsentimental picture of an arrogant fashion photographer (Melvil Poupaud) who, at 30, learns he has terminal cancer. With Jeanne Moreau. May 12

36 HEAVYWEIGHTS Gérard Depardieu and Daniel Auteuil play Paris detectives competing for the top job as they pursue a notorious armed gang. Directed by former police officer Olivier Marchal, it was released in France as 36 Quai des Orfevres. Jun 2

ULTRAVIOLET Milla Jovovich stars in a futuristic yarn slated by US critics. One dismissed it as a "pile of poorly pixelated vampire poo". Jun 23

AN UNFINISHED LIFE Lasse Hallström's belatedly released Wyoming rural melodrama features Robert Redford, Jennifer Lopez and Morgan Freeman. Jun 16 TBC

UNITED 93 Paul Greengrass follows Bloody Sunday and The Bourne Supremacy with a critically acclaimed dramatic recreation of the 9/11 flight where the passengers fought back. Jun 23

VOLVER Pedro Almodóvar returns to his favourite preoccupation with a movie all about women, in this case two sisters in Madrid: an airport cleaner (Penelope Cruz) and a hairdresser (Lola Duenas). Aug 25

WAL-MART: THE HIGH COST OF LOW PRICE Robert Greenwald's documentary takes a caustic view of the powerful US retail chain. Jun 9

WHEN A STRANGER CALLS Simon West's remake of the sleeper 1979 horror hit stars Camilla Belle (from The Ballad of Jack & Rose) as the babysitter who answers a phone call and realises it's from inside the same house. May 12

THE WILD A lion (voiced by Kiefer Sutherland) escapes with other creatures from the zoo and goes in search of his missing cub in this animated yarn. May 26

THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY Showing in competition at Cannes next month, Ken Loach's War of Independence drama is set in Co Cork and features Cillian Murphy, Liam Cunningham and newcomer Padraic Delaney. Jun 23

X-MEN: THE LAST STAND Brett Ratner takes over from Bryan Singer to direct the third instalment, dealing with a cure to treat mutations. Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry and Patrick Stewart lead the cast of regulars. May 25

Release dates are subject to change