Could it really get any better than “The Avengers?” In an average movie summer, the answer would be a hesitant “possibly,” but Summer 2012 looks to be anything but average. Rather than my usual extensive Summer Movie Preview, I’ve assembled a list of 15 movies post-”Avengers” that I am particularly interested in that I think [...]

This spring’s action movie slate deals mostly in science fiction. Two of 2012′s first blockbusters come out this month including “John Carter” and the highly anticipated adaptation of “The Hunger Games,” and dare I forget “Wrath of the Titans” at month’s end. There’s also a sci-fi prison escape film as well as Jason Statham’s latest.

The independent horror/thriller scene delivers a number of options in smaller theaters these next couple months, but there are a few mainstream films to note, namely Joss Whedon’s much-delayed “The Cabin in the Woods” and John Cusack as Edgar Allen Poe in “The Raven.”

For the first time since last fall, contemporary comedies are finally ratcheting it up. If this is your genre, you should have a busy spring. March features a few, with “21 Jump Street” the most notable, but April has a different comedy (and truthfully a different style of comedy) opening every weekend.

The spring usually brings us one or two great family movies every year. Last March, “Rango” premiered; a few days ago, it won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Will “The Lorax” or “The Pirates! Band of Misfits” from stop-motion masters Aardman Animation be in for a year-long Oscar campaign? Also, a fairy tale [...]

An action triple-header comes in January this year, with a few more offerings in February. George Lucas is responsible for 1/3 of the films on this list and half of them will be presented in 3D. Highlights include a rare winter offering from an acclaimed director in Steven Soderbergh’s “Haywire,” the fourth “Underworld” film and [...]

Winter comedy and romance revolves around Valentine’s Day, so things don’t get promising for the genre until February. The types of comedies offered in the early going this year are surprisingly diverse including a couple niche market family comedies, a couple action comedies, a Nicholas Sparks-inspired romance and an Apatow-produced comedy.

The winter months are the slowest time of year for family films, which beats me. “Gnomeo & Juliet” was the first big animated/family film of 2011 and it finished 2011 with the second-highest domestic gross of any movie that came out in January or February. The offerings aren’t all that strong for 2012, but don’t [...]

Winter is a well-known time of year for studio dumps, for action films that wouldn’t make anything almost any other time of year, for Liam Neeson revenge trillers and phoned-in Nicolas Cage performances. With a lack of dramatic offerings and horror films, I’ve combined them together with thrillers to give you nine films that will [...]

Here’s where the Holidays get interesting. Although in my Comedy Preview I mentioned some of the comedy/drama films that will vie for awards, at no other time of year do audiences get all amped up about dramas. The trouble comes with which films will be the Oscar must-sees and which will sound like Oscar must-sees [...]

Action fans might be pining for the summer this Holiday Season as only three films can be considered pure action movies, yet all but one are among the season’s most anticipated. I’ve paired them up with the season’s two thrillers, which also could be two of the better films you’ll likely see between now and [...]

There might be a lot of “Ho, Ho, Ho!” every Holiday Season, but in 2011 there’s not a lot of “Ha, Ha, Ha!” In by far the most ambiguous genre grouping in Movie Muse Movie Preview history. The one pure comedy is December’s “The Sitter” while some of definite Oscar contenders made it on this list [...]

The holidays bring families together — and often times at the movies. Why? Because you can only talk to those people for so long, and at least this way you’re all “doing something together.” So not surprisingly, we have three animated family films competing for your Thanksgiving weekend dollars. The family genre also has more [...]

Fall brings one thing I don’t often cover on Movie Muse and that’s the festival circuit. With the festival circuit comes awards buzz and with awards buzz comes a few fall releases that are highly acclaimed that you’ll want to check out. Sometimes there are flat-out surprises, such as “The Social Network” last October. What [...]

This fall is unusually weak as far as family-geared entertainment goes with only two animated films and three live-action offerings. Even those live-action films aren’t “mainstream” so to speak and have been under-publicized projects aiming for the heartstrings. What does all this mean? Expect a lot of money for our two animated options.