Your Summer 2013 Movie Guide

May 31 - Now You See Me

Action filmmaker Louis Leterrier's output is all over the map, from the fitfully delightful Transporter 2 and superior Jet Li vehicle Unleashed to that irredeemable Clash of the Titans remake. His latest sounds pretty dopey—the FBI tries to stop a group of bank-robbing magicians—but Leterrier is sure to deliver at least one killer set piece, and who could argue with a cast boasting Morgan Freeman, Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo, and Michael Caine? At the very least, those four are getting pools out of this.

May 31 - Shadow Dancer

X-philes, all those years of wanting to believe have finally paid off: Gillian Anderson finally gets a good part! Already celebrated by critics, this thriller from James Marsh, director of the award-winning Sundance hits Man on Wire and Project Nim, is set in Belfast in the '90s and follows an IRA agent (Andrea Riseborough) who goes undercover for England's MI5 after being arrested by a spy played by Clive Owen—this is as close to an Owen James Bond film as we'll get.

May 31 - Student

Kazakh filmmaker Darezhan Omirbaev isn't a household name, but he does have a big fan in Jean-Luc Godard, who calls Omirbaev "one of the most outstanding directors of today." Student, Omirbaev's contemporary adaptation of Crime and Punishment, was a hit at Cannes last year. Spoiler: There's not a happy ending.

June 7 - Much Ado About Nothing

The Bard comes to Sunnydale in this adaptation/update of Shakespeare's comedy, all filmed in director Joss Whedon's house. (But not set there; that would be weird.) As Avengers co-creator Stan Lee might put it, the director's handling the greatest English playwright in the mighty Whedon manor.

June 7 - After Earth

While it's not being advertised as "an M. Night Shyamalan film," this big-budget science fiction flick was helmed and co-written by the once-promising filmmaker. Will Smith and son Jaden star as space-age foragers on a post-human Earth. The ads suggest this is a vanity project to promote Big Willy's kid, but with Shyamalan there's always a twist—maybe it will be that the film doesn't suck.

June 7 - Passion

Brian De Palma returns with this visually delirious, Hitchcock-inspired pulp remake of 2010 French thriller Love Crime. Rachel McAdams and original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Noomi Rapace co-star as social-climbing ad women whose rivalry leads to a hilariously convoluted murder plot. The film is full of everything De Palma's fans and detractors have come to associate him with, building to a fantastic orchestra hall set piece, complete with split-screen photography. It's good, mean fun.

June 14 - Man of Steel

Now that Christopher Nolan's Batman is dining (and probably whining) across the Mediterranean, and Marvel is cramming multiplexes with Avengers-related entertainment product, DC and Warner Brothers have prioritized the reboot of comics' biggest, nicest hero. Director Zack Snyder may have struck out with Sucker Punch, but the most recent Man of Steel trailers suggest this could be a serious, character-driven adventure. And we can't wait to kneel before Michael Shannon as General Zod!

June 14 - The Bling Ring

Sofia Coppola's based-on-batshit-true-events drama follows celebrity-obsessed teenage thieves who robbed Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan of roughly $3 million in cash, clothes, and jewelry. Emma Watson, Leslie Mann, and American Horror Story's Taissa Farmiga co-star in Coppola's follow-up to Somewhere, that really good drama starring the guy in those electronic cigarette ads.

June 14 - A Hijacking

Better known as "That Other Somali Pirate Drama, the One Not Starring Tom Hanks," A Hijacking is Danish filmmaker Tobias Lindholm's follow-up to R, an impressive, uneven prison drama. In the much buzzed-about A Hijacking, pirates hold a Danish ship crew hostage while that crew's employers work out whether to cut their losses or negotiate a rescue.

June 21 - World War Z

How many people does it take to save a horror-thriller? First, Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski penned a script, then Lions for Lambs screenwriter Matthew Michael Carnahan rewrote it, then Cabin in the Woods director Drew Goddard and Lost showrunner Damon Lindelof stepped up for substantial rewrites—after much of the movie had been filmed. But even after seven weeks of re-shoots and a six-month release delay, we still want to see this adaptation of Max Brooks's imaginative "oral history of the zombie war. " It's a big-budget zombie movie starring Brad Pitt, and character actor wiz David Morse. Tickets, please.

June 21 - Monsters University

A prequel to Pixar charmer Monsters Inc., Monsters University reveals the backstory kids have been dying to find out: how exactly Mike the cyclops (Billy Crystal) and Sulley the muppet-bear-thing (John Goodman) became BFFs. Besides Pixar's still-fantastic record, the voice cast should sell this: Steve Buscemi, Nathan Fillion, Sean Hayes, Helen Mirren, Alfred Molina, and, best of all, Frank Oz reprising his role as Fungus.

June 21 - Maniac

This remake of sleaze-meister William Lustig's singularly depraved riff on Psycho is shot mostly from the perspective of a killer, as in actual first-person POV photography. That killer is played by lil' Elijah Wood, so presumably achieving that Wood's-eye view involved setting the camera on a Roomba. Wood may seem like a weird choice to play a mommy-and-hooker-obsessed serial murderer, but remember him as Sin City's lady-killing cannibal?

June 28 - The Heat

Melissa McCarthy is funny as hell, and hopefully, re-teaming with Bridesmaids director Paul Feig for this buddy cop comedy will give her her second big-screen role worthy of her talents. Sandra Bullock co-stars, but then again, so does Marlon Wayans.

June 28 - I'm So Excited

Pedro Almodóvar chases his masterfully disturbing body horror melodrama The Skin I Live In with this sex comedy about flight attendants who will do anything to keep their customers happy. It's exciting to see Almodóvar return to peppy, deranged farces, especially as he's now a better filmmaker than when he made lopsided gems like Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. It would be better still if Almodóvar discovery Antonio Banderas's part in this showcases how far he's come as an actor since Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down!

June 28 - Museum Hours

Among the most buzzed-about titles at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, Jem Cohen's Museum Hours stood out, partly because it didn't star James Franco with a grill and wasn't directed by P.T. Anderson. Set in the Viennese Kunsthistorisches Museum, Cohen's breakout follows a security guard and a mysterious guest as they pore over paintings, and talk about their lives and the city's history.

July 5 - The Lone Ranger

After Rango, we shouldn't underestimate director Gore Verbinski, even if he did direct two of those dire Pirates of the Caribbean sequels. Yes, watching Johnny Depp play Tonto sounds offensive, but the film is bound to be visually dynamic thanks to Verbinski's knack for cartoonish set pieces. Jack White provides the score, and nostalgia provides the audience.

July 5 - The Way, Way Back

Once the Sundance Film Festival is underway, it only takes a couple days before a few titles are hyped as that year's must-see films. The Way, Way, Back, a sweet coming-of-age story set at a water park, is one of this year's word-of-mouth hits. Word is the directorial debut of Jim Rash—Community's dean!—is a Meatballs-meets-Adventureland pleasure that benefits from stars Steve Carell, Toni Collette, and Sam Rockwell.

July 5 - Hammer of the Gods

This bloody Viking drama is the directorial debut of Farren Blackburn, whose previous TV credits include Doctor Who and Luther. The film follows a young, probably often bare-chested Viking's quest to reunite with his brother. Let's hope it's not Ragnarök.

July 12 - Pacific Rim

Giant monsters fight giant robot in Guillermo del Toro's high-concept action film. If it's anywhere near as violent and operatic as del Toro would have us believe, it might make up for the fact that the Pan's Labyrinth director will never make that adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness he's been trying to land. Bonus: Sons of Anarchy stars Charlie Hunnam and Ron Perlman turn up, along with Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, and Charlie Day from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

July 12 - V/H/S 2

Like pretty much any portmanteau film made by multiple directors, the first V/H/S, a compilation of found footage horror shorts, was a mixed bag. Still, it proved that creative things that can still be achieved in Paranormal Activity-style found-footage horror films. V/H/S 2 includes new shorts by the makers of The Blair Witch Project, The Raid: Redemption, and Hobo with a Shotgun. Seriously, one guy we know really liked it!