Put the cap and gown in the closet and stow the red grading pens in your desk drawer. May ushered in the summer movie season, and we want to give you a guide to the biggest box office contenders.

Summer generally means popcorn-tossing fun, a time when you can let your brain settle into a lower, more forgiving gear and let the testosterone-soaked movie heroes do all the heavy lifting. Oh, and there is at least one movie for the younger set this summer. Say a prayer of thanks to Dreamworks and the ever-manic Jack Black for that one.

Indiana Jones
and the Kingdom
of the Crystal Skull

Rated PG, 124 minutes
Opens May 22

Dr. Jones is back. Harrison Ford dons his dusty hat, coils his bullwhip and jumps back into a young man’s game: hunting treasures that academics and the sophisticated world crave. The crooked Ford smile hasn’t slipped. The early reports on the movie’s plot feel a tad, well, tired. Jones, an archaeologist and treasure hunter, gets a tip that Soviets (ah, our old rivals again) are trying to uncover something called crystal skulls.

Karen Allen reprises her role as Marion Ravenwood and Shia LaBeouf is pulled in as a nerdy new recruit in Jones’ treasure hunt.

Part of the fun is watching for fresh ways for director Steven Spielberg to continue the saga and keep the hard-core fans pleased. So far, it looks like Spielberg is sticking to the retro look in his set and costume designs, but opting for high-intensity action-adventure effects for those of us who have come to expect them.

Could it be that Harrison Ford is preparing to pass down his bullwhip to young Shia?

Be in the theater May 22 and find out.

—Lucinda Breeding

The Love Guru

Rated PG-13
Opens June 20

If you liked Austin Powers, The Love Guru might be for you. Consummate funnyman Mike Myers puts on another funny accent to tell a ridiculous story of a man who likes to talk about sex.

His Holiness Guru Pitka — an American left at the gates of an ashram in India — travels to Toronto to reconcile a hockey star with his wife, who has started dating L.A. Kings star Jacques Grande, played by Justin Timber­lake. Jessica Alba plays hockey team owner Jane Bullard. If Guru Pitka can reconcile the feuding husband and wife, he might break the Bullard family curse and make a way for the Maple Leafs to win the Stanley Cup.

It’s standard-issue Myers in this flick, which means plenty of groaners delivered by a showman who can fade into a character and not break the magic — all mindless summer fun, and a cinematic cheer for true love.

—Lucinda Breeding

Sex and the City:
The Movie

Rated R, 135 minutes
Opens May 30

Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessi­ca Parker), Miranda Hobbes (Cyn­­thia Nixon), Charlotte York Golden­blatt (Kristin Davis) and Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall) are back, but this time, the fashionable sorority is on the big screen.

The four New Yorkers made a huge splash on HBO when the network launched the series in 1998, in part because of the crisp writing. The frank takedowns of human sexuality and the timeless tension between the sexes certainly didn’t erode the series’ popularity.

The movie picks up where the group of uppity lasses left off: Charlotte was searching for upper-crust maternal bliss with her husband and an adopted daughter. Miranda was trying to give as much gusto to her mismatched but fiery marriage as she gives her law career. Samantha was busy making money while man-eating. Carrie, the sex columnist narrator, was just trying to make sense of “happily ever after.”

What to expect: just as much sass and drama as the television show, and just as much high-fashion idolatry. Rumors are that someone important dies, someone cheats and “happily ever after” gets severely tested.

—Lucinda Breeding

The Dark Knight

Rated PG-13

Opens July 18

Director Christopher Nolan continues his vision of the Batman legend with this follow-up to 2005’s Batman Begins. Christian Bale is again Bruce Wayne by day and the Caped Crusader after dark, finding his reduction of crime in Gotham City halted by The Joker, played here by the late Heath Ledger. Nolan’s first Batman installment drew heavy critical praise three years ago — mainly for its skillful use of qualities that many comic book adaptations don’t bother with: thoughtful dialogue, pensive pacing and a very sober and mature tone. Those same qualities were on display in Nolan’s The Prestige in 2006, and are fully expected again this time. Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Gary Oldman return to their Begins roles along with the introductions of Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent and Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes.

—Greg Russell

Hancock

Opens July 2

This Will Smith comedy-action combo is based on a script that was written more than 10 years ago. The story follows once-loved-and-now-unpopular superhero Hancock (Smith) who starts a relationship with Mary Embrey (Charlize Theron), who happens to be the wife of the hero’s public relations manager (Jason Bateman). The film, clearly light-hearted, was co-written by X-Files writer and executive producer Vince Gilligan and directed by Peter Berg, who showed with The Rundown that he can combine likable actors and elaborate action sequences.

—Greg Russell

Kung Fu Panda

Rated PG

Opens June 6

Jack Black, Jackie Chan and Dustin Hoffman combine their energies in this animated family comedy. Black voices Po, a slacker panda who is forced to train into “kung fu master” status so that he can protect his village from the evil snow leopard Tai Lung, voiced by Deadwood heavy Ian McShane. The film was co-directed by Mark Osborne, who has worked on the SpongeBob SquarePants series. Also, the voiceover cast for this one is unusually strong, with Angelina Jolie, Michael Clarke Duncan, Seth Rogen and David Cross joining the roster.

—Greg Russell

 Ironclad blockbuster

Book it to the local multiplex and pony up your matinee change for the movie that signaled the start of summer box office: Iron Man. Here’s what Denton Record-Chronicle film critic Boo Allen had to say about the Marvel Comics extravaganza:

That audible sigh of relief comes from knowing that the first blockbuster of the summer is a lot of fun. The loud, brassy and explosive Iron Man may not walk away with many Oscars but it certainly will draw audiences, and will probably satisfy the demanding tastes of the Marvel comic book fans.

What originally looked like against-type casting now looks like a shot of genius. Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony Stark Jr., who becomes the iron-encased hero with the ability to fly, shoot off weapons and stand up to any barrage. Downey is a rare serious actor who can speak a piece of routine dialogue and, with his inspired delivery, turn it into biting humor. But any actor could disappear under a mound of metal.

So, instead, Downey showcases his immense talents as Stark, the wizard industrialist with a playboy reputation and a knack for trouble. Downey breathes life into the character of Stark, someone who could have been a stiff, cardboard cliche.

In his biggest assignment to date, Jon Favreau Made, Elf) directs and takes a minor role. Painting by numbers, Favreau follows the script laid out by a quartet of writers who still can’t elevate the story above comic book banality.

Iron Man does deliver what its fans will most demand: plenty of explosions; a parade of high-tech gadgetry; computer-generated sequences highlighting the action, and beautiful women, including Gwyneth Paltrow, looking lovely, as Stark’s side-kick Pepper Potts.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (***1/2) More is more in this follow-up to the 2005 fantasy hit The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. It’s simultaneously darker and funnier, more substantive and more engaging, more violent and more technically accomplished. You can’t really call it a sequel because it’s an adaptation of the second book in C.S. Lewis’ series, but seeing its predecessor is a must to understand what’s going on — and it’ll make you appreciate how much better this movie is. This Narnia is strictly for tweens and older with its palace intrigue and protracted battle scenes, and some creatures and action sequences may be too frightening for little ones. Rated PG, 137 minutes. — The Associated Press