Cinema: Aieee! It's Summer!!

(2 of 4)

ARMAGEDDON (July 1). The last two big films to open on the July 4th weekend, Independence Day and Men in Black, earned a combined $1.375 billion worldwide. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer's macho movies (The Rock, Con Air) do testosterrific at the wickets. So this Dirty Dozen in outer space will get a rousing send-off. If there's a question, it's about instant deja vu. Armageddon will be the second film this year to star Bruce Willis, to deal with an astral collision--and to destroy the Chrysler building.

LETHAL WEAPON 4 (July 10). Six years is a long time between sequels, but this is a hardy franchise. Mel Gibson goes crazy; Danny Glover fumes. What's new? Well, Chris Rock is along to goose the youth market; Hong Kong's Jet Li kicks some Occidental butt and helps sell the film to Asia. Moral: good business is more important than than great moviemaking.

SMALL SOLDIERS (July 10). After MouseHunt, DreamWorks keeps acting out its Disney animus with this warped take on Toy Story. Nuclear-powered action figures (think of an Arnold doll with Chucky's soul) march amuck. More artillery than LW4, but less bang for the buck?

MASK OF ZORRO (July 17). This twentysomethingth version of the Latino avenger fable looks sumptuous and serious. Yet one wonders about Antonio Banderas, a sexy, able actor whose films almost no one pays to see. Is he the Spanish Jeff Bridges?

SNAKE EYES (Aug. 7). Since his Oscar turn in Leaving Las Vegas, all Nicolas Cage has done is star in three action films that each topped the $100 million mark and, for a romantic change of pace, made audiences believe in angels. So don't discount this Brian De Palma crime thriller.

BLADE (Aug. 28). Wesley Snipes--buff body and best menacing display of teeth since the early Kirk Douglas--saves the world from some hyperactive vampires. Action in the gaudy John Woo mode; can it find viewers beyond teenage boys?

GIRL POWER!!!

MULAN (June 19). A girl becomes a woman warrior in this chow-mein cartoon: Chinese savor meets American-do. Now that industry analysts no longer expect every Disney animated feature to do $300 million domestic, they can appreciate the suave storytelling and cross-generational lure of a nice little epic like this. And accountants at the Mouse House can expect black ink, not Mulan rouge.

QUEST FOR CAMELOT (May 15). The Disney formula may have become predictable, but is it imitable? Warner Bros., with its first all-animated feature, hopes so. The film's troubled production history and its wan trailer suggest otherwise. The power-pop score and name-brand singers may make the CD a hit, leaving Camelot as its own ancillary marketing device.

MADELINE (July 10). Little Madeline (Hatty Jones) schemes to save her school in an adaptation of four Ludwig Bemelmans books. A few years ago, summer was bloated with children's movies. Now the kid sisters of the girls who saw Titanic 47 times have only this and...

EVER AFTER: A CINDERELLA STORY (Aug. 7). The film's pedigree promises a fractured fairy tale: the last time its star (Drew Barrymore) and director (Andy Tennant) teamed, it was for ABC's trash package The Amy Fisher Story. So let's see...Cinderella lives on Long Island; Prince Charming runs a garage; the glass slipper comes from Wal-Mart; and the wedding is on the front page of the New York Post.