June movie releases

Opening June 6

Kung Fu Panda

Genre: Animation, Comedy

MPAA Rating: PG (for sequences of martial arts action)

Cast: Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Ian McShane

Story: “Kung Fu Panda” features Jack Black as Po the Panda, a lowly waiter in a noodle restaurant, who is a kung fu fanatic but whose shape doesn’t exactly lend itself to kung fu fighting. In fact, Po’s defining characteristic appears to be that he is the laziest of all the animals in ancient China. That’s a problem because powerful enemies are at the gates, and all hopes have been pinned on a prophesy naming Po as the “Chosen One” to save the day. A group of martial arts masters are going to need a black belt in patience if they are going to turn this slacker panda into a kung fu fighter before it’s too late.

Directors: John Stevenson, Mark Osborne

Studio: DreamWorks Animation

Web site: KungFuPanda.com

You Don’t Mess with the Zohan

Genre: Comedy

Cast: Adam Sandler, John Turturro, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Nick Swardson, Rob Schneider

Story: In “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan,” a comedy from screenwriters Adam Sandler, Robert Smigel (Triumph the Insult Comic Dog), and Judd Apatow (“Knocked Up”), Sandler stars as Zohan, an Israeli commando who fakes his own death in order to pursue his dream: becoming a hairstylist in New York.

Director: Dennis Dugan

Studio: Columbia Pictures (Sony)

Web site: YouDontMesswiththeZohan.com

Opening June 13

The Happening

Genre: Thriller

Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Betty Buckley, Spencer Breslin, Ashlyn Sanchez

Story: A couple goes on the run from an apocalyptic crisis that presents a large-scale threat to humanity.

Director: David Mamet

Studio: Sony Pictures Classics

Web site: SonyClassics.com/Redbelt

The Incredible Hulk

Genre: Action, Thriller

Cast: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, Tim Blake Nelson, Ty Burrell, William Hurt

Story: “The Incredible Hulk” kicks off an all-new, explosive and action-packed epic of one of the most popular superheroes of all time. In this new beginning, scientist Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) desperately hunts for a cure to the gamma radiation that poisoned his cells and unleashes the unbridled force of rage within him: The Hulk.

Living in the shadows – cut off from a life he knew and the woman he loves, Betty Ross (Liv Tyler) – Banner struggles to avoid the obsessive pursuit of his nemesis, General Thunderbolt Ross (William Hurt), and the military machinery that seeks to capture him and brutally exploit his power.

As all three grapple with the secrets that led to The Hulk’s creation, they are confronted with a monstrous new adversary known as The Abomination (Tim Roth), whose destructive strength exceeds even The Hulk’s own. And on June 13, 2008, one scientist must make an agonizing final choice: accept a peaceful life as Bruce Banner or find heroism in the creature he holds inside – The Incredible Hulk.

Director: Louis Leterrier

Studio: Universal Pictures, Marvel Studios

Web site: IncredibleHulk.com

Opening June 20

Expired

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Cast: Samantha Morton, Jason Patric, Teri Garr, Illeana Douglas

Story: The sight of a dark-suited municipal employee doling out parking violations stirs a primal hate in all but the most enlightened souls.

And the heroine of our film, “Expired,” the meter maid Claire (Morton), knows it.

The film revolves around Claire, a kind soul who resents having to enforce the law at all times, and Jay (Patric), an angry Traffic Officer who loves his job, it being the perfect outlet for his anger and frustrations.

Coming both from a place of despair and loneliness, Claire and Jay meet and engage in a tumultuous and twisted relationship, which will eventually teach them that love can spread magic seeds of redemption and hope, even in the most unlikely of souls.

By the end, Claire is faced with the question of whether to engage or to run.

Director: Cecilia Miniucchi

Studio: Not Available

Web site: Not Available

Get Smart

Genre: Action, Comedy

Cast: Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Alan Arkin, Terence Stamp, Terry Crews, David Koechner, James Caan, Masi Oka, Nate Torrence, Kenneth Davitian

Story: Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) is on a mission to thwart the latest plot for world domination by the evil crime syndicate known as KAOS. When the headquarters of U.S. spy agency Control is attacked and the identities of its agents compromised, the Chief (Alan Arkin) has no choice but to promote his ever-eager analyst Maxwell Smart, who has always dreamt of working in the field alongside stalwart superstar Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson). Smart is partnered instead with the lovely-but-lethal veteran Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway). Given little field experience and even less time, Smart—armed with nothing but a few spy-tech gadgets and his unbridled enthusiasm—must thwart the doomsday plans of KAOS head Siegfried (Terence Stamp).

Director: Peter Segal

Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures

Web site: GetSmartmovie.com

The Love Guru

Genre: Comedy

Cast: Mike Myers, Jessica Alba, Justin Timberlake, Ben Kingsley, Meagan Good, John Oliver, Verne Troyer, Romany Malco, Jim Gaffigan

Story: In the comedy, “The Love Guru” (Myers), Pitka is an American who was left at the gates of an ashram in India as a child and raised by gurus. He moves back to the U.S. to seek fame and fortune in the world of self-help and spirituality. His unorthodox methods are put to the test when he must settle a rift between Toronto Maple Leafs star hockey player Darren Roanoke and his estranged wife. After the split, Roanoke’s wife starts dating L.A. Kings star Jacques Grande out of revenge, sending her husband into a major professional skid — to the horror of the teams’ owner Jane Bullard and Coach Cherkov. Pitka must return the couple to marital nirvana and get Roanoke back on his game so the team can break the 40-year-old “Bullard Curse” and win the Stanley Cup.

Director: Marco Schnabel

Studio: Paramount Pictures

Web site: TheLoveGuru.com

Opening June 27

WALL•E

Genre: Adventure, Animation

Cast: Fred Willard, Jeff Garlin, Sigourney Weaver, John Ratzenberger, Kathy Najimy

Story: What if mankind had to leave Earth, and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off?

Academy Award(r)-winning writer-director Andrew Stanton and the inventive storytellers and technical geniuses at Pixar Animation Studios transport moviegoers to a galaxy not so very far away for a new computer-animated cosmic comedy about a determined robot named WALL•E.

After hundreds of lonely years of doing what he was built for, WALL•E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) discovers a new purpose in life when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. EVE comes to realize that WALL•E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet’s future, and races back to space to report her findings to the humans. Meanwhile, WALL•E chases EVE across the galaxy and sets into motion one of the most exciting and imaginative comedy adventures ever brought to the big screen.

Joining WALL•E on his fantastic journey across a universe of never-before-imagined visions of the future, is a hilarious cast of characters including a pet cockroach, and a heroic team of malfunctioning misfit robots.

Director: Andrew Stanton

Studio: Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation Studios

Web site: Wall-E.com

Wanted

Genre: Fantasy, Thriller

Cast: James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Terence Stamp, Thomas Kretschmann, Common, Angelina Jolie

Story: Based upon Mark Millar’s explosive graphic novel series and helmed by stunning visualist director Timur Bekmambetov—creator of the most successful Russian film franchise in history, the Night Watch series—Wanted tells the tale of one apathetic nobody’s transformation into an unparalleled enforcer of justice. In 2008, the world will be introduced to a hero for a new generation: Wesley Gibson.

25-year-old Wes (James McAvoy) was the most disaffected, cube-dwelling drone the planet had ever known. His boss chewed him out hourly, his girlfriend ignored him routinely and his life plodded on interminably. Everyone was certain this disengaged slacker would amount to nothing. There was little else for Wes to do but wile away the days and die in his slow, clock-punching rut.

Until he met a woman named Fox (Angelina Jolie).

Director: Timur Bekmambetov

Studio: Universal Pictures

Web site: Wantedmovie.com