According to Hollywood calendars, summer begins in May, and it's traditionally the time of year that the studios offer up explosions, robots, car chases, superheroes, and boobs. So in an effort to keep your brain from totally atrophying, I've arranged this handy guide to the warm-weather movies in an alphabet-esque fashion. My hope is that you won't have forgotten how to read by Labor Day, because subtitle season will be here before you know it.

A is for Asia Argento: The crown princess of Italian cinema stars for daddy Dario in June's brutal horror film "The Mother of Tears," then plays a woman scorned for French provocateuse Catherine Breillat in "The Last Mistress." (6/27 ltd.)

B is for "Bangkok Dangerous": Stylish filmmaking twins Danny and Oxide Pang rework their own action flick, tapping Nicolas Cage to play a hired killer on the job in the Thai capital. (8/22)

C is for "Choke": Actor-director Clark Gregg adapts Chuck Palahniuk's novel about a colonial reenactor/sex addict who pays for his mother's care by fleecing restaurant patrons who Heimlich him. Starring Sam Rockwell, naturally. (8/1 ltd.)

D is for "The Dark Knight": Even if Heath Ledger continued to grace the planet people would still be stoked about Christian Bale's second stab at the Caped Crusader, but Ledger as the Joker, Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent, Esq., and Gary Oldman as Lt. Gordon only sweetens the deal. (7/18)

E is for "Encounters at the End of the World": Before he remakes Abel Ferrara's notorious "Bad Lieutenant" for 2009, the unstoppable Werner Herzog takes us on a tour of Antarctica, speaking to the people who live and work on the bottom of the earth. (6/11 ltd.)

F is for "Flight of the Red Balloon": Juliette Binoche stars for acclaimed Taiwanese filmmaker Hsiao-hsien Hou in this fairy tale about a little boy, his babysitter, and the balloon that follows them around Paris. (6/28)

G is for "Get Smart": Steve Carell seems perfectly cast as the famously inept Agent 86, aided in his mission to thwart KAOS by Anne Hathaway's Agent 99. Also stars Dwayne "If you call me ‘The Rock' I will piledrive you" Johnson as Agent 23. (6/20)

H is for "Hellboy II: The Golden Army": Hot off his Oscar-nominated "Pan's Labyrinth," Guillermo del Toro returns to direct Ron Perlman as the snarky teenager in the body of a stogie-chomping, world-saving demon. (7/11)

I is for "The Incredible Hulk": Renowned thespian Edward Norton dons the purple pants for Louis Leterrier ("The Transporter"), going mano-a-mano with Tim Roth's equally angry Abomination. (6/13)

J is for Jet Li: The global megastar plays the bad guy opposite perennial hero Brendan Fraser in "The Mummy: Curse of the Dragon Emperor," a franchise reviled by many but loved, nonetheless, by me. (8/1)

K is for Kazakhstan: The world's largest landlocked country got its first Oscar nomination this year for "Mongol," Sergei Bodrov's ambitious historical epic about the formative years of the warrior Genghis Khan. (6/27)

L is for "The Longshots": "Directed by Fred Durst" is not a phrase I can get past, even if the debut of the former Limp Bizkit frontman is the best movie ever made. (7/25)

M is for "Mister Lonely": One-time enfant terrible Harmony Korine ("Gummo") returns with another aspiring cult film about a Michael Jackson impersonator (Diego Luna) who falls for "Marilyn Monroe" (Samantha Morton). (7/11)

N is for nothing: Seriously. I got nothing beginning with the letter N. I'll just sit here and geek out about "The Mummy" for a little longer. You go rustle up a snack, and we'll meet back at O.

O is for Oscar: The summer is not exactly "For your consideration" time, but bank on a posthumous Supporting Actor Academy Award for Heath Ledger as the Joker.

P is for "Pineapple Express": Director David Gordon Green finally lets his hair down for this comedy about a stoner (Seth Rogen) who witnesses a murder and goes on the run with his lazy dealer (James Franco, will you finally fulfill your potential?). Cannot wait for this one. (Aug 8)

Q is for queasy: Which is exactly how the repulsive trailer for "The Love Guru" makes me feel. (6/20)

R is for "The Rocker": Rainn Wilson ("The Office") plays a washed-up hair-metal drummer given (reluctantly) a chance to drum with his nephew's band. Some dude named Teddy Geiger's in it, too. (8/1)

S is for "Space Chimps": A Homer Simpson fantasy come true! (7/18)

T is for "Tropic Thunder": If anyone has enough goodwill in Hollywood right now to pull off blackface, it's Robert Downey Jr. He plays a Method actor who dyes his skin to portray a man of color in Ben Stiller's comedy about a Vietnam War movie shot guerrilla-style and on location, unbeknownst to Vietnam. (8/15)

U is for Uma Thurman: She stars for Griffin Dunne in "The Accidental Husband," a screwball farce in which a jilted man gets revenge on the arrogant talk-radio doctor who got him dumped by faking a marriage to her. (8/22)

V is for "Vicky Cristina Barcelona": Woody Allen's latest features Javier Bardem as a painter juggling two girlfriends (Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall) and his crazy ex-wife (Penélope Cruz). Oscar winners have it so rough. (8/29 ltd.)

W is for "Wall•E": Pixar Studios will likely continue its unprecedented string of hits with this adorable-looking love story about a lonely trash compactor in the year 2805. (6/27)

X is for "The X-Files: I Want To Believe": And I want to believe that earthlings still care about Mulder and Scully six years out, but I just don't. (7/25)

Y is for Yeoh: Michelle, that is. Besides the third "Mummy," the Malaysian action babe stars in "The Children of Huang Shi" with the great Chow Yun-Fat, and in Mathieu Kassovitz's "Babylon A.D.," which marks the eagerly unawaited multiplex return of Vin Diesel.

Z is for Zooey Deschanel: She plays Mark Wahlberg's estranged wife in the latest from M. Night Shyamalan, a thriller about - oh, who cares? I had me at "Shyamalan." (6/13)