The 84th Annual Academy Awards return Sunday, February 26.  Here are the Hipfish major award predictions.

BEST PICTURE   Unlike the past couple of years where there was a clear frontrunner, this year’s field is more open, with several contenders for the big prize out of nine nominees.  Top contenders:
The Artist  The French black-and-white silent film is a salute to the early days of Hollywood.  Jean Dujardin stars as the arrogant matinee idol George Valentin, dashing leading man of the silent era, at the peak of his fame.  Berenice Bejo plays Peppy Miller, struggling actress.  After meeting on one of Valentin’s films, the two fall in love, but the rise of sound pictures destroys Valentin’s career while Peppy becomes an overnight sensation.  Now a has-been, reduced to selling off his belongings, Valentin becomes morose, while Peppy tries behind the scenes to save Valentin and somehow revive his career.
The Descendants  After a seven year absence director Alexander Payne (Sideways) returns with his dramedy about a family faced with a life-changing crisis. George Clooney stars as Mathew King, a middle-aged Hawaiian lawyer whose world has suddenly collapsed.  His wife lies in a coma from a boating accident. Suddenly cast into the unfamiliar role of primary parent, King realizes he has two out-of-control daughters and a wife he didn’t really know.
Movies with the most number of nominations have gone on to win 15 out of the last 21 Best Picture Oscars.  Hugo leads this year’s list with 11 followed by The Artist with 10, but the many nominations seem more about the parts of the movie than the whole.  The Help is the highest-grossing nominated pic, and three of the cast have been nominated but the pic itself doesn’t seem as well regarded as the actors.  Safest bet – The Artist, although some have pointed out that no film about Hollywood has won Best Picture.
Pick:  The Artist
Other nominees:   Hugo / Moneyball / Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close / The Help / Midnight in Paris / War Horse / The Tree of Life

BEST DIRECTOR  Film is thought of as a directors’ medium so generally this Oscar goes to the helmer of the Best Picture unless a superstar director is in the field as in 1998 when Shakespeare In Love won Best Picture but Steven Spielberg picked up the directing prize for Saving Private Ryan.  The past two years the Best Picture/Best Director pairing as held up so if The Artist triumphs then expect director Michel Hazanavicius to pick up the directing statuette, likewise Alexander Payne if Best Picture contender The Descendants wins.  Superstar director Martin Scorsese is in the field for Hugo, but he’s already won an Oscar for The Departed and Hugo doesn’t seem to be a contender.
Pick:  Michel Hazanavicius
Other nominees:  Alexander Payne (The Descendants) / Martin Scorsese (Hugo) / Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris) / Terence Malick (The Tree of Life)

BEST ACTOR  It’s a two-horse race between George Clooney (The Descendants) and Jean Dujardin (The Artist).  Clooney as Mathew King dominates every minute of his movie – the story is told from his character’s point of view.  Clooney, who usually plays affable, smooth nice guys with a touch of wiseguy self-awareness displays more vulnerability than he probably ever has in a role as his character struggles to deal with the reality of his wife’s probable death and children that have spun out of control.  Dujardin dominates The Artist with his performance as silent star George Valentin, whose career comes crashing down with the onset of sound film.  Dujardin perfectly captures the brilliant charm of the movie star at his peak and the quiet desperation of the reduced Valentin after his star has faded.
Clooney had the early lead but Dujardin has the momentum after winning Best Actor at the Screen Actors Guild awards.  The simpler, but consistent charm of The Artist might also play better with voters than the mixed drama/comedy of The Descendants.
Pick:  Jean DuJardin
Other nominees:  George Clooney (The Descendants) / Demián Bechir (A Better Life) / Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) / Brad Pitt (Moneyball)

BEST ACTRESS  Veteran actress Viola Davis has been turning great performances for years now in supporting roles but rarely carrying a movie.  In 2008 she earned an Academy Award nomination for a one scene performance in Doubt – arguably upstaging star Meryl Streep.    After earning her Best Actress nomination, her main competition is none other than Meryl Streep for playing Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.  It’s Streep’s 17th Oscar nomination.  Still, it looks to be Davis’s year.  In The Help, Davis plays Aibileen Clark, a black maid in a small Mississippi town in the early ‘60s who raises the children of white families at the expense of her own.  Clark is the emotional center of the film, the family maid that young aspiring writer Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone) turns to when she delves into the lives of maids who bring up other people’s children against the backdrop of the pre-Civil Rights deep South.  In a way, Davis’s Oscar nom mirrors her role in The Help – a career/life in the background finally getting its due.
Pick:  Viola Davis
Other nominees:  Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady) / Rooney Mara (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) / Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs) / Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR  Christopher Plummer is 82 years old.  When he made his film debut in 1957 Dwight Eisenhower was President.  For 55 years the Canadian-born stage and screen vet has made dozens of movies but was mostly known for his appearance in a movie that he detested – The Sound of Music.  All that is about to change.  With his peformance as Hal, an elderly man who comes out as gay after his wife dies, Plummer has stamped himself as the Oscar favorite.  In director Mike Mills Beginners Oliver (Ewan McGregor), confused about his mother’s death and Hal’s late-life makeover, starts a relationship with a French woman he meets (Melanie Laurent) who also has parental issues.   Although not the leading character, Plummer’s character dominates the film.  Straight in real life, Plummer believably plays a gay man who had repressed that side of himself for nearly his entire life – without resorting to “working” the part like Sean Penn in Milk.
Pick:  Christopher Plummer
Other nominees:  Kenneth Branagh (My Week With Marilyn) / Jonah Hill (Moneyball) / Nick Nolte (Warrior) / Max von Sydow (Incredibly Loud & Unbearably Close)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS  The surprise hit of the summer, The Help was powered by the strength of its cast, with three members nominated.  At the Screen Actors Guild awards the film received a “best cast” award as well as individual awards for Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer.  While not the favorite for Best Picture, this could benefit the cast awards with Viola Davis leading the Best Actress race and Octavia Spencer, who played Minnie Jackson, the smart-mouthed maid who has a way with pies, expected to join her cast mate by picking up the Best Supporting Actress prize.  A possible contender is Bérénice Bejo, who plays up-and-coming starlet Peppy Miller in The Artist.
Pick:  Octavia Spencer
Other nominees:  Bérénice Bejo (The Artist) / Jessica Chastain (The Help) / Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids) / Janet McTeer (Albert Nobbs)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY  With writing awards often handed out as second place awards, look for The Descendants writing team of Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash adaptation of Kaui Hart Hemmings’ novel to win the prize.  The Moneyball script was written by heavyweight writers Steve Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin, but Sorkin won last year for The Social Network and Moneyball isn’t a contender – sports movies, even interesting, offbeat ones don’t usually win awards.
Pick:  Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
Other nominees:  John Logan (Hugo) / George Clooney & Grant Heslove and Beau Willimon (The Ides of March) / Steve Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin (Moneyball) / Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY  The screenplay awards are often paired with Best Picture as in the past the past two years but leading contender The Artist is a silent movie with no dialogue.  The screenplay clocks in at only 44 pages. (Most screenplays are at least twice that length.)  Midnight in Paris was Woody Allen’s highest-grossing movie ever. With comedies not usually awarded the top prized look for the Academy to award Woody the screenplay award.  But don’t look forward to a funny acceptance speech – Allen never does award shows.  Possibly the first Iranian filmmaker to be nominated for this award is writer/director Asghar Farhadi for his script for his mesmerizing domestic drama A Separation, also up for Best Foreign Language Picture.
Pick:  Woody Allen
Other nominees:  Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist) / Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids) / J.C. Chandor (Margin Call) / Asghar Farhadi (A Separation)

Post Labor Day offerings are generally slim, with C-level genre pics and the odd late summer release for the specialty markets, but this September brings a biological thriller from an Academy Award-winning director, a wheelman thriller from the Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival a possible breakout family film, a sports underdog film that’s not about winning the big game and a cancer comedy.

At the tail end of the summer season all the big blockbusters have already appeared, leaving lower-budgeted genre fare – commercial movies that can’t compete with big popcorners but are still commercial movies, not end of the year awards films.  This month we have new movies from James Franco, Emma Stone, Anne Hathaway, Jesse Eisenberg and Ryan Reynolds.

The Change-Up (Aug. 5)  A body-changing comedy that plotwise greatly resembles an R-rated Crazy Stupid Love.  Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds play Dave and Mitch, best friends who live opposite lifestyles.  Dave is the overstressed, responsible family man with a corporate job, a loving wife and three kids while Mitch live the swinging singles life and avoids responsibility at all cost.  Yet the two of them envy each others lives.  After barhopping and pissing into a fountain they utter the magic words:  “ I wish I had your life.”  They wake up in each others’ bodies and the typical body-switching comedy ensues.  Unfortunately, with Crazy Stupid Love coming out a week earlier in which suddenly single Steve Carell gets taught to date again by lothario Ryan Gosling, this movie could get lost in the shuffle.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Aug. 5)  A reboot of the 70s Apes series, Rise is an origins story on the order of Batman Begins.  James Franco, (in his first special effects movie since Spiderman 3) plays Will Rodman, a geneticist bent on finding a cure for Alzheimers.  He tests a virus that improves brain function on a test chimpanzee, Caesar (Andy Serkis) resulting in Caesar gaining human intelligence.  After being taunted by visitors Caesar manages to escape his cell and spread the virus to the other apes in the government facility.  After facility manager Steve Jacobs wants the apes destroyed, the apes escape and a war between apes and humans begins to determine the dominant species.  Photorealistic special effects for the apes might be the best reason to see the movie.

The Help (Aug. 10)  Kathryn Stockett’s 2009 bestseller about the lives of African-American maids who raise the children of white families in the South comes to the screen with an all-star cast including Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Janney and Sissy Spacek.  Set in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 60s, story follows the intertwining lives of Aibileen (Davis), an African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children; Minny (Octavia Spencer), Aibileen’s best friend, whose penchant for speaking her mind has resulted in 19 dismissals; Skeeter (Emma Stone) a young white woman just returned from college who finds that Constantine, the maid that raised her has mysteriously vanished.  When snooty social leader Hilly Holbrook suggests that there should be separate bathrooms for coloreds, Skeeter decides to investigate the lives of these women so close to her which she knows very little about.

30 Minutes or Less (Aug. 12)  Jesse Eisenberg and Danny McBride star in this day-gone-horribly-wrong comedy.  Eisenberg plays Nick, a slacker pizza delivery guy who is kidnapped by would-be criminals Dwayne (McBride) and Travis (Nick Swardson).  In need of money to pay a hitman to commit a murder, they tie a bomb to Nick and tell him to rob a bank.   He has ten hours to get the money to them – or else.  Director Ruben Fleischer brings the same off-kilter humor to this story as he did to Zombieland.  Eisenberg surprises by ditching his usual deadpan style, bringing manic energy to Nick’s desperate situation.  McBride does what he does best – raunchy, crude humor.  Michel Peña steals every scene he’s in as the hitman.  Although not quite as original as Zombieland, 30 Minutes or Less still manages to make the most of its concept and consistently amuse.

One Day (Aug. 19)  Director Lone Scherfig had a surprise hit with her 2009 Academy Award-nominated coming-of-age romance An Education about a teenage girl’s first romance with an older man.   She follows up with One Day, the story of one-time lovers whose lives are revisited on the same day for the next 20 years.  Based on David Nicholls 2009 novel, story follows Emma (Anne Hathaway) and Dexter (Jim Sturgess) as they spend the night together after graduating from the University of Edinburgh in 1988.  Emma is working class and idealistic.  Dexter is wealthy and a charmer.  Life comes easily for him.  They separate.  Dexter is an immediate success in TV while Emma struggles.  But through relationships and the ups and downs of life, they remain friends.  In 2001,  both are single again, their lives having taken totally different trajectories.  Dexter’s career is a wreck while Emma has become a successful writer.  He travels to Paris and the two mull rekindling their relationship as lovers.

The meat of the summer season arrives with the final episode of the Harry Potter series, a big budget Western/scifi mashup, Tom Hanks’ second directorial effort, the second Marvel origin movie in two months and a Steve Carell romantic comedy that’s generating lots of buzz.

Larry Crowne (July 1)  Tom Hanks writes and directs for the first time since That Thing You Do! (1996).  In this light recession comedy, Hanks plays Larry Crowne, 20-year veteran of big box store Unimart, who is so dedicated he’s been employee of the month 22 times.  Until he’s fired in a downsizing because he lacks a college degree.  Middle-aged, jobless, and in danger of losing his house, the enthusiastic-to-the-point of stupidity Larry shakes up his life by buying a motor scooter and enrolling in a community college, in particular a public speaking class taught by outwardly cranky but sweet inside Mercedes Tainot (Julia Roberts) who eventually takes a shine to her eager pupil.  With a colorful array of supporting characters, this is a lightweight romantic comedy for Hanks and Roberts fans with parts perfectly tailored for their onscreen personalities.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Pt. 2 (July 15)  After ten years, seven films and over $6B in ticket sales, the Harry Potter series comes to an end with the second half of the Deathly Hallows book.  Part 1 was more of a character exploration with Harry,  Ron and Hermione leaving Hogwarts to find the Horcruxes that Lord Valdemort needs to gain ultimate power.  Part 2 begins with three Horcruxes destroyed, leading to an action-packed finale where the three must keep Voldemort from finding the remaining three Horcruxes.  They succeed for two, but Voldemort gains possession of the Elder Wand, leading to a final showdown at Hogwarts.

Captain America:  The First Avenger (July 22)  Marvel releases it’s fourth origins story (and second this summer after Thor) in the leadup to next year’s Avengers movie.  Chris Evans stars as Steve Rogers, a scrawny weakling who tries to enlist in the U.S. Army in World War II.  Turned down because of his physique, he enlists in Project Rebirth, a secret program to create super soldiers.  After being injected with a serum, Rogers has the body of an Olympic athlete and he and his sidekick Bucky Barnes take on their Nazi counterpart, Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), who has also taken a super-strength serum and is intent on finding the Tesseract, a magical object said to contain unimaginable power – enough to turn the tide of the war.  Cast include Tommy Lee Jones as the hardbitten Col. Chester Phillips, Stanley Tucci as Dr. Abraham Erskine and Samuel L. Jackson in a cameo scene as Nick Fury (after the final credits).

Cowboys and Aliens (July 29)  Ironman helmer Jon Favreau directs Cowboys and Aliens, a movie mashup of the western and scifi movie genres.  Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) awakens in the desert with a mysterious shackle around his wrist and no memory.  He stumbles into the town of Absolution which is ruled with an iron fist by Colonel Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) who promptly informs Lonergan that he is a wanted man.  Soon, the town and Lonergan have bigger problems when alien spaceships attack.  Lonergan, Dolarhyde and motley group of outlaws and Apaches must band together to fight the alien invaders.  A legion of screenwriters adapted Scott Rosenberg’s graphic novel, with the tone changing from near Men in Black comedy to the leaner, meaner, more true to the Western version coming to the screen, according to Favreau.  Supporting cast includes Olivia Wilde (House), Sam Rockwell, Paul Dano and Walton Goggins (Justified).

Crazy Stupid Love (July 29)  There’s a lot of positive buzz for this Steve Carell comedy.   Carell plays Cal Weaver, a man who has everything.  Perfect marriage to his high school sweetheart Tracy (Julianne Moore), two great kids, everything peachy keen.  But Cal’s world collapses when Tracy informs him that she is having an affair with David Lindhagen (Kevin Bacon) and wants a divorce.  Overhearing Cal’s troubles in a bar, good-looking pickup artist Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling) takes pity on hopeless nerd Cal and offers to tutor him in picking up women.  After a complete makeover and one vital piece of advice (“Don’t talk. Ever.”), Cal starts attracting women like flies.  Just as Cal is successful dating for the first time in his life,  he realizes how hollow it all is and tries to get Tracy back.  Tracy meanwhile, has broken up with David who is now stalking her.  Complications on all sides ensue as all the characters, even Cal’s kids, have their romantic ambitions go from “crazy” to “stupid.”

Summer popcorn season gets into full swing with Marvel rebooting its longest running superhero series, DC’s attempt at catching up, the last entry in the Transformers series, an R-rated bad role model comedy and a J.J. Abrams/Steven Spielberg sci fi that’s been shrouded in secrecy.

X-Men: First Class  (June 3) After three X-Men films and a maligned offshoot (Wolverine), Marvel has rebooted the series with a younger cast, hoping for a new trilogy, much like Paramount did with Star Trek two years ago.  Story is set in 1962 at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis and focuses on Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) before they became known as Professor X and Magneto.  As young mutants, Xavier and Lehnsherr are just coming into their powers of telekinesis and magnetic control.  Xavier and Lehnsherr seek out young mutants and found a mutant academy.  Though friends, Xavier and Lehnsherr have very different ideas about their differences with humans.  Xavier wants to show humans that mutants can be trusted, but Lehnsherr believes mutants are naturally superior.  The two join forces to prevent a nuclear catastophe, but in the process the former friends become the adversaries known as Professor X and Magneto.  Hugh Jackman makes a brief cameo as Wolverine.

Super 8 (June 10) The most closely-guarded secret of the summer is undoubtedly this J.J. Abrams/Steven Spielberg collaboration.  The first enigmatic trailer appeared more than a year ago depicted a train wreck in a small town.  And something is trying to get out of an overturned car.  Abrams, the creator of the TV conundrum Lost and the unseen monster movie Cloverfield, is the master of withholding information.  So perhaps it’s no surprise that plot details are scarce, but what has emerged seems very much a Spielberg (who’s producing)/Abrams melding, like E.T. crossed with Cloverfield.  In 1979, in a small Ohio town a group of teenagers are making a super-8 home movie when a train overturns, unleashing something that wreaks death and destruction in their town.  The train turns out to be a military train bound from Area 51 transporting secrets, one of which escapes in the perhaps not accidental crash.  Elle Fanning toplines mostly no-name cast.

Green Lantern (June 17) With Marvel rolling out three superhero movies this summer (Thor, X-Men: First Class, Captain America) in their leadup to The Avengers movie,  DC Comics found itself playing catchup and is only now bowing its first second-tier superhero movie, preferring to concentrate on Batman and Superman first.  Basically an origin story, Green Lantern stars Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, a cocky Air Force test pilot who is the first human to be selected one of the Green Lantern Corp, an intergalactic order of warriors sworn to keep peace.  When the nemesis of the Corp, Parallax, appears the  Corp turns to newest Green Lantern to save the universe.  Strong supporting cast includes Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong, Angela Bassett and Tim Robbins.  Early buzz on the 150M production has not been good, one industry insider describing it as “troubled.”  Reports of reshoots and a rush to finish effects do not bode well for the film.

Bad Teacher (June 24) Columbia has followed up on their 2003 worst-possible role model R-rated comedy Bad Santa with Bad Teacher.  Cameron Diaz stars as Elizabeth Halsey, the worst seventh grade teacher imaginable whose only ambition is to find a rich man to take care of her.  In the meantime, Elizabeth curses out her students, and abuses substances, all the while waiting for her rich boyfriend to marry her so she can get quit her gig.  But after being dumped, Elizabeth sets her sights on rich, handsome substitute Scott Delacorte (Justin Timberlake) while simultaneously fending off the advances of an irreverent gym teacher (Jason Segel).  While saving up for a boob job, Elizabeth finds herself in a competition for Scott’s affections with the an energetic colleague, Amy (Lucy Punch), who happens to be the best teacher in school.  After nearly going out of existence, R-rated comedies seem to be making a comeback this summer with the two hits Bridesmaids and The Hangover Part II doing boffo business.  Columbia hopes for a third.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (June 29) Although universally reviled as films, Michael Bay’s Transformers series has raked in over $1.5B worldwide box office.  Transformers: Dark of the Moon will be the last in the series.  Shia LaBeouf and all the principals return except for Megan Fox, whose character has been written out.  English model Rosie Huntington-Whitely has the tough assignment of Sam’s squeeze.  Synopsis: The Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, are back in action, taking on the evil Decepticons, who are determined to avenge their defeat in 2009’s Transformers Revenge of the Fallen. In this new movie, the Autobots and Decepticons become involved in a perilous space race between the U.S. and Russia, and once again human Sam Witwicky has to come to the aid of his robot friends.

Summer movie season hits full stride with the release of two popcorn extravaganzas – Marvel’s latest superhero flick and the return of Jack Sparrow in the fourth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean series, possibly the most unusual and controversial Hollywood release of the year, the return of your favorite group of bachelors and Dreamworks much-anticipated sequel to Kung Fu Panda.

Thor (May 6) Marvel rolls out another individual comic book character, gearing up for their big Avengers movie next summer which will feature Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk and Captain America among others.  Although not the most popular Marvel book, Marvel has not skimped on Thor, making the unusual choice of Kenneth Branagh, mostly known for his Shakespearean films and acting than big budget directing.  Also unusual was the choice of unknown Australian actor Chris Hemsworth for the title role of the Norse God of Thunder.  Samuel L. Jackson makes an appearance as Nick Fury as he has in the Iron Man films.  Synopsis:  After precipitating a war in the Norse god kingdom of Asgard, Thor is cast out by Odin, king of Asgard (Anthony Hopkins) to Earth and stripped of his godly powers.  Found in New Mexico by astrophysicist Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), Thor has problems adjusting to life as a mortal.  He begins a romance with Jane, but Loki, his nemesis in Asgard, sends the Destroyer to Earth to kill him.

Bridesmaids (May 13) SNL star Kristen Wiig and comedy producer/director Judd Apatow (Knocked Up) team up for this distaff version of The Hangover.  Single and broke, Annie’s life is a disaster.  But after Annie (Wiig) is asked by her best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph) to be her maid of honor, she and her colorful group of bridesmaids must navigate the pitfalls of the wedding process from fittings to reception to a wild trip to Vegas.  Earthy, blatantly sexual and funny, this is not Sex and the City.  Co-written by Wiig and directed by Paul Feig (the TV show Freaks & Geeks), Bridesmaids is a frank look at female friendship and how it is tested by the frightening ritual of marriage.  Jilly Clayburgh plays Annie’s Mom in her last screen appearance.

The Beaver (May 20) Perhaps the strangest Hollywood release of the year is this dark comedy directed by Jodie Foster and starring Mel Gibson.  Kyle Killen’s script topped the 2008 Black List, Hollywood’s insider list of most-liked screenplays.  After Steve Carell and Jim Carrey signed on and dropped out of the project, Foster came on board as director and convinced her old friend Gibson to take the lead.  Suffering from severe depression, Walter Black (Gibson) has hit bottom.  His sons are embarrassed by him, his wife Meredith (Foster) can’t deal with him and his toy company nears bankruptcy.  After being kicked out of the house and going on a drunk, Walter tries suicide but fails at this, too.  When he wakes up, a beaver puppet is on his hand which speaks with a  British accent (another part of Walter’s personality).  With the puppet giving him confidence, Walter turns his life around.  Patching things up with Meredith and saving his company by manufacturing hand puppets.  Only his teenage son Porter (Anton Yelchin) pushes him away.  However, with things finally looking up, Walter finds the puppet totally in control of him.  Already a pariah in Hollywood after a DUI where he made anti-Semitic comments, Gibson’s standing hit rock bottom after the film was shot and a phone call of his angry tirade to his ex was made public.  Foster asked for understanding, while the rest of Hollywood ran the other way.  Referring to the film’s tone, Foster called it “probably the biggest struggle of my professional career” in The New York Times.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (May 20) Captain Jack Sparrow returns with the fourth installment of the phenomenally successful series. This time Jack has the playing field to himself with no co-stars.  Also, for the first time in the series Jack has a love interest played by Penelope Cruz, something Depp requested after taking the back seat romantically to Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley in the first three films. As implied by the third installment, in Stranger Tides Captain Jack takes on the quest for the legendary Fountain of Youth.  On his quest he encounters killer mermaids, zombies and, most threatening,  a woman from his past, Angelica (Cruz), every bit his equal as a pirate.  Angelica forces Sparrow on board the Queen Anne’s Revenge, the ship of legendary pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane), also seeking the Fountain, leaving Sparrow to wonder if Angelica is his ally or a ruthless competitor.  Geoffrey Rush returns as Captain Hector Barbossa.  Rob Marshall (Chicago) directs.

The Hangover Part II (May 26) Smelling a hit, Warner Brothers asked writer/director Todd Phillips to write a sequel to The Hangover even before the first film opened.  When the bachelor party in Vegas comedy was a worldwide hit, Part II hit the ground running.  To no one’s surprise, the plot to Part II is nearly the same as Part I, except the story is transplanted to Thailand and an actual wedding takes place. Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), Alan (Zach Galifianakis) and Doug (Justin Bartha) travel to Thailand for Stu’s wedding.  After the insanity in Vegas, Stu is taking no chances and wants a safe pre-wedding brunch.  Of course, things don’t go as planned.  Controversy hit the production when Phillips cast Mel Gibson in the cameo part of a tattoo artist.  Coming on the heels of Gibson’s abusive phone calls, members of the cast and crew (including Galifianakis) refused to work with the actor, forcing Phillips to replace him with Liam Neeson before shooting.  Ironically, months later, due to editing choices Phillips had to re-shoot the scene with Nick Cassavetes replacing Neeson due to Neeson’s unavailibility.  Mike Tyson appears again as himself.

Kung Fu Panda 2 (May 26) In 2008, Dreamworks animated story of Po, a panda who dreams of being a kung fu master was a surprise hit, racking up $600M worldwide.  Synopsis: Po is now living his dream as The Dragon Warrior, protecting the Valley of Peace alongside his friends and fellow kung fu masters, The Furious Five – Tigress, Crane, Mantis, Viper and Monkey. But Po’s new life of awesomeness is threatened by the emergence of a formidable villain, who plans to use a secret, unstoppable weapon to conquer China and destroy kung fu. Jack Black (Po), Angelina Jolie (Tigress), Jackie Chan (Monkey), Seth Rogen (Mantis), Lucy Liu (Viper), David Cross (Crane) and Dustin Hoffman (Master Shifu) all return in their respective roles.  Gary Oldman, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Danny McBride and Michelle Yeoh are new additions.