Well, summer is here and you know what that means. Time for the latest crop of blockbuster movies.

Some summer movies are, inevitably, sequels to the successful films of recent years, such as the early hit "The Mummy Returns". Further installments in the series are expected to include "Oh No, Not the Mummy Again", "Four Mummies and a Funeral", and "The Mummy Goes Hawaiian."

Another eagerly awaited sequel is "Speed 3". Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves reprise their roles yet again in this action thriller. This time, they’re driving a Ford Explorer cross-country, unaware that their tires have been replaced by Firestone Wilderness XT’s that could explode at any minute. In the film’s climax, Anthony Hopkins as Ford CEO Jack Nasser and Chow Yung Fat as Bridgestone President Shigeo Watanabe square off in a no-holds-barred fight to the finish. (Yeah, I know Chow is from Hong Kong and Watanabe’s Japanese. This is Hollywood we’re talking about here.)

Another summer-movie tradition is the teen gross-out movie. This year, we have "American Pie 2", the sequel to the film that guaranteed that you’d never look at pastry the same way again, and "Freddy Got Fingered," the latest offering from the gratingly awful Tom Green, a man whose work is so mind-bogglingly bad that he actually has actually caused me to re-evaluate the wisdom of the First Amendment. Don’t worry, I’m still for it, but it was a struggle.

Perhaps the strangest trend in movies is the adaptation of video and computer games to the small screen. The most-hyped movie in this genre is "Tomb Raider", in which the pneumatic and highly decorated Angelina Jolie portrays archaeologist Lara Croft, who is supposed to be a sort of Indiana Jones in the body of a Hooters waitress. Following close on the heels of "Tomb Raider" is "Final Fantasy", also based on a video game I was never any good at. Next season, we can expect to hear that Jim Carrey has been signed to play the lead role in "Frogger: The Movie" and Rosie O’Donnell will be starring as Ms. Pac Man.

Then there are the remakes of older classic movies, especially cheesy sci-fi flicks jazzed up with modern special effects. I for one am really looking forward to the remake of "Planet of the Apes," although I confess, I’m going to miss Charlton Heston’s scenery-chewing performance in the original. Apparently, the producers tried to get Big Chuck back for the updated version, but every time they tried to meet with him, he kept waving that musket around and yelling "from my cold dead hand!" until everybody got freaked out and left.

What would summer movies be without the latest offering from Disney? This year, it’’ "Atlantis", in which a group of intrepid explorers go searching for the lost empire of the same name. Maybe they should look in the file cabinets of the FBI. All sorts of amazing things apparently turn up there.

Finally, of course, there’s the most-hyped movie of all, the one you can’t turn around without seeing a promo for. I’m talking, of course about "Pearl Harbor." The producers must have thought "how can this go wrong?" You’ve got good-looking heroes, doomed lovers, sinking ships...it’ll be like "Saving Private Ryan" crossed with "Titanic". The only thing missing is Celine Dion singing some ghastly song about her heart going on.

"Pearl Harbor," by the way, had generated some pre-release controversy by virtue of the fact that the US Navy lent a couple of its aircraft carriers to the filming and even sailed the carrier John C. Stennis from San Diego to Hawaii so the filmmakers could stage the film’s premier on the actual flight deck. The Navy brushed off the criticism of the expense by pointing out that the film was great publicity for the Navy and that it would probably bolster recruiting efforts. Yeah, but all those new recruits are going to be pretty cheesed off when they find out they don’t get to fight the Japanese.

All kidding aside, though, one of the things I like best about summer is the movies. One of the best ways I know of to beat the heat is to kick back in a theater that’s air-conditioned to the point of refrigeration, get the monster-sized Pepsi, the one you could fill a swimming pool with, and take a two hour vacation. I’ll see you there.

COPYRIGHT 2001 BY JERRY D. RHOADES, JR.