July offers an unusually rich spate of new blockbusters looking to pack the multiplexes with movies like Hancock and Mamma Mia! The Movie and blow minds with highly anticipated films like The Dark Night and the latest in the X-Files saga. Click the titles below to add your opinions and comments. Now, sit back and enjoy the trailers… if you rub your eyes really hard and then squint, it kinda looks like fireworks!!!

Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
For those looking to celebrate America sans massive CGI explosions, this could be the Fourth of July flick for you and the fam. Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) stars in this first film based on the wildly popular, historically themed, American Girl books.

Hancock
On of Hollywood’s most clean-cut and bankable stars, Will Smith, is back on the big screen a… dysfunctional, misanthropic quasi-homeless super-hero!? Looking to rethink the superhero summer blockbuster, Hancock is a comedy/action flick set to take big risks while still having an explosion filled great time. As of blog-press time the question remains, will this be where the Fresh Prince jumps the shark, or will this be the kind of refreshing blast of revision that the genre needs?

Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Guillermo del Toro’s 2004 film Hellboy is one of the action genre’s best kept secrets, critically admired, but doomed to an indifferent box office. Well, comic book fans rejoice, Hellboy is back and ready to sarcastically kick butt. With Pan’s Labyrinth wunderkind del Toro remaining in the director’s chair look for this movie to be an artfully put together spectacle.

Journey to the Center of the Earth
This summer’s only 3D film, follows Brendan Fraser down to the center of the earth — in search of oil to ease summer gas prices? — no, to find his missing brother. The trailer promises many PG-rated terror, creatures, and adventure.

Meet Dave
Stepping out of his last fat suit vehicle, Norbit, Eddie Murphy is set to star in this sci-fi comedy that looks like a cross between Borat and Men in Black. The famous funnyman will lend his charisma to a script penned by former Mystery Science Theater 3000 writer Bill Corbett.

Dark Knight
Among the summer’s most blogged-about film, The Dark Knight is the sequel to  Batman Begins, and is the late Heath Ledger’s last completed role on film. Ledger’s turn as the Joker has already earned him Oscar murmurings and expectations couldn’t be higher for the caped crusader’s most recent foray onto the big screen. Only time will tell if this Batman is up for this truly super human task.

Mamma Mia! The Movie
Okay, so this summer’s movie selection tends to be a bit heavy on the testosterone, what with the explosions and the superheroes and all. So, for those who are looking for something a bit different, there’s Mama Mia! The Movie, based on the smash hit Broadway revue. Meryl Streep and more channel their inner ABBA as wedding bells ring.

X-Files: I Want to Believe
Just when you thought you were cool enough to stop declaring yourself an X-Phile, special agents Mulder and Scully suck you right back in with the promise of this latest cinematic installment in the storied franchise. The film has been kicked around in development for years and the studio has kept very tight lips on the film’s plot, but sci-fi fans “want to believe” this movie will be a winner.

Step Brothers
After hanging up the skates and the white afro, Will Ferrell is teaming up with Walk Hard star John C. Reilly in this comedy about fully grown men acting like children. The duo, who worked together famously on Ferrell’s Talladega Nights, play spurious step brothers who ultimately become best friends.

This weekend looks to be a heavyweight box office bout between two much anticipated and wildly different movies, as Wall-E and Wanted are set to bust blocks across the nation come Friday night. If you’ve been fretting over which flick you wanna slap down your hard earned $10+ on, we here at Hey! Nielsen have you covered, giving you objective takes on both mammoth movies. Just remember, no matter which path you should chose…come back to Hey!Nielsen and let us know what you thought about it! If both are sold out, a documentary on writer Dalton Trumbo might be playing near you as well.

Wall-E
Set in a dystopian future where mankind has abandoned earth (which resembles a global landfill), one adorable robot will find out the meaning of true love via a zany inter-galactic romp. Fresh off of the success of Ratatouille, the good folks at Pixar are looking to spin more of their patented magic over and leave audience’s hearts wonderfully warmed.

Wanted
Based on the sordid (and widely acclaimed) comic book mini-series, this summer actioner is the only CGI explosion-fest to feature Angelina Jolie in the cast, and looks to keep summer movie goers ears ringing for weeks after leaving the local Googaplex. Look for this flashy feature to include high-octane car chases, heart stopping bullet-time action sequences, and of course, lots of huge explosions.

Trumbo (limited release)
A documentary about the once-blacklisted author Dalton Trumbo (Johnny Got His Gun, Sparticus) as told through archival footage and dramatic readings by top actors.

Class Clown: The godfather of politically incorrect comedy, George Carlin, passed away this weekend at the age of 71. Fans no doubt will gather to recite seven dirty words to pay their respects.

But who really was George Carlin? He explains it better than anyone:

Bad Karma: A steady flow of bad reviews perhaps kept viewers away from The Love Guru, the new Mike Myers movie (which the the NY Times called “antifunny“). The flick opened in fourth place while the big-screen version of the spy vs. spy tv show Get Smart nabbed the #1 spot.

Shutter Thugs: A group of surfers tangles with photographers trying to snap pictures of a shirtless (surprise!) Matthew McConaughey. Oh, and two years later, Woody Harrelson gets sued for allegedly assaulting a photographer and breaking his video camera.

What R U Debating Now?: Political soundbites and spin are being reduced to 140 characters of text as the Obama and McCain camps go at it, Twitter style.

There are many reasons to spend a humid summer’s eve at your local MegaPlex movie theater this June: self-serve hot butter dispensers, free air conditioning, and, of course, great entertainment. No month offers more explosions for your 10 (or more) dollars than the month June and that should be reason enough to go to the movies soon and often.

You Don’t Mess With the Zohan
Hair hygiene has been a steady theme in Adam Sandler’s oeuvre. From his nascent days on the silver screen where he meditated on the question of superiority of shampoo or conditioner, Sandler has come full circle, introducing his first feature-length cinematic rumination on the role of the hairdresser in today’s geopolitical climate of fear and war. Expect lots of silly accents and topical humor in this globe-trotting comedy.

Mongol
For action fans tired of the relentless CGI bludgeoning marring their summer block-busters as of late; Mongol just might slake your relentless blood-thirst. Set in the barbaric Steppes of Eastern Asia, this film looks to finally say, fur is not murder, slaughtering the Tartars is. This epic take on the legendary and brutal rise of Genghis Khan comes from acclaimed Russian director Sergei Bodrov and looks like an Asiatic take on a very heavy sword and sandal epic. Nominated for an Foreign Picture Oscar in 2007.

Kung Fu Panda
Jack Black is back as a high kickin’, karate chopin’ panda bear who must fight the forces of evil in ancient China. Fresh from his role in Nacho Libre, Jack Black joins an all star cast that boasts names like Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman and Jackie Chan who lend their voices to major roles in this animated romp from Dreamworks.

The Incredible Hulk
There are some American cineastes that appreciate great casting, acting and pacing in their films. But there are others, still, who like their explosions huge and their super-heroes green and Jason Giambi sized. From the early looks of it, The Incredible Hulk could be this summer’s block-buster that will leave both camps walking out from under the marquee smiling, as the film features critical faves Ed Norton (who also penned the script) and Tim Roth under the direction of Louis Leterrier who still has our ears ringing after directing both Transporter films.

Get Smart
This silly secret agent caper promises to take the classic Mel Brooks TV show to the silver screen to do combat with those evil jerks at KAOS, who look as though they’ve been awful busy since the Cold War ended. Featuring Steve Carrel and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson this film’s quirky cast is seasoned in the action-comedy genre. Remember to set your shoe phones to vibrate in the theater.

The Love Guru
This David Archuleta approved Mike Myers vehicle features wacky facial hair and funny accents…if that isn’t enough to get you off the couch and into the Googaplex, then maybe the fact that the preview indicates that Justin Timberlake is in it doing a Borat impersonation of some kind will; and if you’re STILL not convinced, it’s got Jessica Alba in a role of dubious magnitude.

Wall-E
Starring two lonely robots in some sort of futuristic quasi-post-apocalyptic existence, Wall-E looks like it could deliver something that most dystopian flicks just can’t: wholesome fun for the whole family. From the creators of The Incredibles and Finding Nemo comes another colorful nail in the coffin of traditionally animated feature length pictures that looks like it could make even the coldest robot heart short-circuit, throw sparks, burst into flames, and eventually…melt.

Wanted
What do you get when you combine bullet time action sequences, massive explosions and elite Hollywood hard-body Angelina Jolie? Box office gold, that’s what. Expect this action thriller to explode into megaplexes all across the country with guns a-blazin.

Is it possible to predict how much buzz a movie opening will get based on the buzz three days before it opens? Using BlogPulse, Nielsen Online’s free tool that mines data from over 78 million blogs, I queried two recent movie premieres (Iron Man and Speed Racer) and one about to open today (Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull).

The results are interesting, showing that buzz levels for each movie seem to be equal as they spike and decline in the days before and after the opening. Does this pattern hold true for all premieres? Three days before the premieres of Iron Man and Speed Racer their buzz levels began to spike and eventually tripled on opening day. Iron Man went from 0.182 to 0.486 percent of all blog posts and Speed Racer went from 0.055 to 0.195 percent of all messages measured by BlogPulse.

The buzz level for Indiana Jones three days before was 0.273 percent of all messages. If the theory holds true on opening day, we will see the spike for Indy triple to somewhere in the 0.8 percent range… well beyond Iron Man which has been the biggest blockbuster this year. We’ll check back next week to compare the buzz and the box office for Dr. Jones.

Stephen Tompkins is the Digital Marketing Manager for Nielsen Online.

Before the internet (yes, such a dark time once existed), movie goers had few choices when it came to getting information about new movies on opening weekend. Sure, you’d get a 30-second commercial, the same clip from the actor on the late-night shows, and a printed review from your local critic, but it’s a pretty limited view. Now, with trailers online, and more entertainment blogs than newspapers, fans can get a broader scale of feedback.

Twitter, the short text messaging community that asks “What Are You Doing?” is often criticized for being full of meaningless answers to that question (”buying a stapler”, “waiting in line at starbucks”, and the like). But the immediacy of the interface, and the fact that you can use your phone to post, makes it a handy tool for the instant movie review.

You can find out what people are saying across Twitter by using filters and tools like Tweetscan. A quick search there tells me: uniquefrequency : Really enjoyed speed racer! but other Twitics noted bad reviews and were thinking about staying away. One avid Twitter fan jazzychad has developed a page where he scans tweets and compiles them into a quick graph of positive/negative/neutral reviews for the latest movies.

If you think the summer movie season is going to heat up all that tweeting on Twitter… just wait until the 2008 elections, which sites like twittermeter.com are tracking already.

A rather gloomy box office in April inevitably leads to the blossoming month of May, and this year will be no exception. Last week Iron Man showed us that an ex-playboy with a substance abuse problem can play a fictional playboy with a substance abuse problem with superpowers and net over 100 million in one weekend. Join us on a fantastical spring journey that will take us to the future, Narnia, and even Connecticut (one of the settings for the highly anticipated Indiana Jones sequel).

Oh, and check out these YouTube trailers too.

Redbelt - A Jiu-Jitsu teacher with a strict code of honor is forced to battle for his life in an illegal underground fighting circuit. Learn the true meaning of being a warrior while seeing someone’s teeth kicked in, all for just $10.

Speed Racer - An old childhood cartoon is remade by the Wachowski brothers, the creators of the Matrix trilogy. Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild) stars in a that dares to ask: Would an adolescent fantasy make money if we put it on the big screen?

What Happens in Vegas… - Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz star in a movie that proves Dude, Where’s My Car doesn’t have to be the pinnacle of an acting career. Kutcher wins big on the slots, but Diaz is the one who pulls the lever. The two battle over the winnings as they look for a solution to their monetary disagreement.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - In a year where Mr. Potter is on hiatus, the nation’s youth can look towards the newest installment of C.S. Lewis’ fantasy epic. Previews show the new Narnia as a darker, more disturbing place, populated with fearsome creatures and men with heavy Spanish accents.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - Let’s face it, we’re all waiting to see if Indy can still beat up Nazis and crack a whip like he used to, all while explaining to his young sidekick that social security does matter. Yes, there is a crystal skull involved, and yes, Shia LeBeouf will continue to establish his growing status as a hearthrob.

War, Inc. - John Cusack is a mercenary/assassin who falls in love with Marisa Tomei while charged with protecting Hillary Duff (who plays a pop-star). All this takes place in the future, in the fictional country of Turagistan. Palme d’Or, anyone?

Sex and the City: The Movie - Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte are back, hoping to show that you don’t need superpowers or a fast car to be a summer blockbuster. What’s the deal with Mr. Big? Is someone going to die? Does this mean there’s going to be a Sopranos movie?

The Strangers - If you missed Funny Games, never fear. Liv Tyler stars as a woman who comes home one night, only to find three masked murderers waiting to terrorize her and her husband. Don’t look for the sequel.

Robert Downey Jr. straps on the iron while Patrick Dempsey picks out wedding dresses. It’s an all out Action Flick Vs. Chick Flick showdown!

Iron Man: Robert Downey Jr. stars as a weapons man who becomes a weapon, man! Gwynneth Paltrow and Terrence Howard round out the cast.

Made Of Honor: Patrick Dempsey (Grey’s Anatomy) stars as a playboy who’s not feeling great about the fact that his BFF (that’s best female friend) is getting married.

Two notable movies this weekend have a built-in track record and duos with some star power.

Emmy winner Tina Fey (SNL, 30 Rock) teams up with her old SNL co-anchor Amy Poehler for Baby Mama, about a career woman desperate to be, er, knocked up. The box office will decide how painful/joyful this birth will be.

Burger-munching stoner homies Harold And Kumar return only to find themselves knocked up, sorry, locked up in Gitmo in Harold And Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay. Special (?) appearance from Neil Patrick Harris.

This BlogPulse chart shows the rising buzz on both as the release date nears, with Fey getting an extra boost from 30 Rock’s recent return post-writer’s strike.

In a world with an increasing demand for ethanol… where corn supplies are tight.
Will there be enough popcorn for the nation’s theaters when this group of summer action blockbusters hits the screens!?

Take our new poll and tells us which one you’re most eager to see.