By Desson Howe Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, May 5, 2000

Tom Cruise is back for the sequel "Mission: Impossible 2." (Paramount)

May 12
"Battlefield Earth" (Warner Bros.). In the year 3000, the Earth is dominated by Psychlo aliens, who use Earth's few human survivors as slaves. Jonnie Goodboy Tyler (Barry Pepper), a human, leads a revolt against Terl (John Travolta), the Psychlo security chief who has monstrous plans to rule the galaxies. The movie's adapted from Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's science fiction novel. View movie trailer.

"The Big Kahuna" (Lions Gate). In this dark character drama, Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito play washed-up industrial lubricant salesmen who are looking to snare a big client at a convention. But their plans are gradually undone by their junior trainee, Bob (Peter Facinelli), a highly religious man with an agenda of his own.

"Center Stage" (Columbia Pictures). Nicholas ("The Madness of King George") Hytner directs this drama about the hopes and dreams of a tight-knit group of young dance students (including Zoe Saldana, Amanda Schull and Susan May Pratt) trying to make it in the professional world. Also features Peter Gallagher.

"Dinosaur" (Walt Disney). In Disney's live-action adventure, featuring digitally enhanced live-action photography and special-effects wizardry, a three-ton iguanodon's life is plunged into chaos when a devastating meteor shower forces it to join a group of migrating dinosaurs desperately searching for a safe nesting ground. The movie features the voices of D.B. Sweeney, Alfre Woodard, Ossie Davis, Della Reese and others.

"Held Up" (Trimark). Steve Rash, who made "The Buddy Holly Story," directs this urban comedy, in which Jamie Foxx plays a Chicago businessman for whom everything goes wrong. His girlfriend (Nia Long from "The Best Man") dumps him in the desert. He gets car-jacked. And he's taken hostage at a local Sip & Zip convenience store.

"Human Traffic" (Miramax). Writer-director Justin Kerrigan's movie details the chemically altered weekends of five young working stiffs (including John Simm, Lorraine Pilkington and Shaun Parkes), who club and party in London from Friday night to Monday morning.

"Screwed" (Universal). In this comedy, Norm MacDonald plays a chauffeur who feels abused and underappreciated by his employer (Elaine Stritch). So with the help of his bumbling best friend (Dave Chappelle) and a creepy mortician (Danny DeVito), he kidnaps her dog.

May 19
"Hamlet" (Miramax). Ethan Hawke plays Hamlet as a sort of laptop dark prince in writer-director Michael Almereyda's modernized version of the Shakespeare play. The son of the recently slain president (Sam Shepard) of the Denmark Corporation, he strongly suspects that his uncle (Kyle MacLachlan) and mother (Diane Venora) conspired to murder his father. Bill Murray plays Polonious, and Liev Schreiber plays his son, Laertes.

"Road Trip" (DreamWorks). Breckin Meyer, Seann William Scott, Fred Ward and MTV comic Tom Green are among the cast in this comedy about a college student who brings three friends along on an 1,800-mile trek from New York to Texas to revive a flagging romance. It's directed by Todd Phillips, whose "Frat House" won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance last year.

"Small Time Crooks" (DreamWorks). Tracey Ullman, Hugh Grant, Jon Lovitz, Michael Rapaport and Elaine May star in Woody Allen's light romantic comedy about the illegal misadventures of an ex-con dishwasher and his wife, a manicurist, who dream of becoming rich by staging a bank robbery in New York City.

May 24
"Mission: Impossible 2" (Paramount). The locale: Australia. The mission? You guessed it. The opening weekend? Probably phenomenal. Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt, the agent for whom no mission is completely impossible or motorcycle chase too dangerous. The cast includes Ving Rhames, who returns as Hunt's computer-savvy ally, and Dougray Scott, Thandie Newton and Brendan Geeson. Director John Woo, the best action choreographer in the business, takes over from Brian DePalma, who made the 1996 blockbuster. Robert ("Chinatown") Towne wrote the script. View movie trailer.

May 26
"Bossa Nova" (Sony Pictures Classics). Amy Irving is Mary Ann, an American English teacher and widow who finds new love in Rio de Janeiro when she meets struggling Brazilian lawyer Pedro Paulo (Antonio Fagundes). Bruno Barreto directs this multicultural romance.

"8½ Women" (Lions Gate). From the inimitable Peter Greenaway, maker of "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover," comes this study of sex, power and chance, which is also a parenthetical tribute to Federico Fellini's "8½." Philip Emmenthal (John Standing) and his son Storey (Matthew Delamere) become so appreciative of the Fellini film they decide to establish their own bordello. But their new lifestyle has unexpectedly dark results.

"Passion of Mind" (Paramount Classics). Demi Moore plays a woman with two identities in this psychological romantic drama directed by Alain Berliner. She's Marie, a lonely American widow living with two daughters in the south of France; and she's also Marty, a glamorous New York career woman dreaming of a life in Provence. She has to choose between two lives and two men (Stellan Skarsgaard and William Fichtner).

"Shanghai Noon" (Walt Disney). Stunt genius Jackie Chan is an acrobatic Imperial Guard who journeys to the American Wild West to rescue a Chinese princess (Lucy Liu) kidnapped by some mean varmints. His will is strong, but he can't ride horses and he's stuck with a shifty partner (Owen Wilson) to help him out.

June 2
"Big Momma's House" (20th Century Fox). In this comedy, Martin Lawrence plays an FBI agent on a mission to protect a single mother (Nia Long) and her child from an escaped convict. He's forced to pose incognito as a crass Southern granny named Big Momma.

"Running Free" (Columbia Pictures). Sergei Bodrov directs this animal adventure story about Lucky, a horse who's born on a German supply ship en route to Africa and grows into a magnificent stallion on the inhospitable Skeleton Coast of Namibia. Producer Jean-Jacques Annaud ("The Bear") wrote the story. Lukas Haas narrates.

June 9
"Gone in Sixty Seconds" (Walt Disney). Nicolas Cage is Randall "Memphis" Raines, a legendary car thief who quits his illegal occupation when the heat gets too intense. But when his kid brother (Giovanni Ribisi) tries following in Memphis's footsteps and gets into hot water, Memphis has to return to his old ways to save his brother's life. Also features Angelina Jolie and Robert Duvall.

"Sunshine" (Paramount Classics). Ralph Fiennes plays the patriarch of the Sonnenschein family in an epic that spans 60 years of the 20th century. Director Istvan Szabo wrote the script with playwright Israel Horovitz. Also features William Hurt, Rosemary Harris and Rachel Weisz.

June 16
"Boys and Girls" (Miramax). Freddie Prinze Jr. and Claire Forlani play opposites that do not attract in this romantic comedy directed by Robert ("She's All That") Iscove. Also stars Heather ("The Blair Witch Project") Donahue, Amanda Detmer and Jason Biggs.

"Fantasia/2000." (Walt Disney). Updating the 1940 classic "Fantasia," which featured animated accompaniments for classical music pieces, a new generation of Disney animators has created its interpretations of works by Beethoven, Gershwin, Shostakovich, Stravinsky and others, as performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The latest movie features seven new musical selections and one from the 1940 version. View movie trailer.

"Shaft." (Paramount). John Singleton directs this remake of the blaxploitation classic of the 1970s, which starred Richard Roundtree and featured the famous Isaac Hayes theme. Samuel L. Jackson plays John Shaft, the black detective who gets to the bottom of some bad business while negotiating love time with the ladies. The cast includes Vanessa Williams, Christian Bale, Busta Rhymes and Roundtree.

"Titan A.E." (20th Century Fox). In Don Bluth's animated epic, a rebellious teenager (voiced by Matt Damon) embarks on a voyage through space in search of a legendary spacecraft called the Titan, which holds the secret to saving the human race. The offscreen cast includes Bill Pullman, Drew Barrymore, Nathan Lane, John Leguizamo and Janeane Garofalo. View movie trailer.

June 23
"Boricua's Bond" (USA). In 21-year-old writer-director Val Lik's debut, Allen Miller (Lik) and his mother (Robyn Karp) move into a South Bronx neighborhood where the newcomer is befriended by Tommy Rivera (Frankie Negron), a young painter with a promising future. But Allen's new happiness is threatened when the police round up Allen and Tommy for a crime they did not commit.

"Butterfly" (Miramax). Jose Luis Cuerda's Spanish-language movie, set during the Spanish Civil War, is about the mentor relationship between a shy young boy, Moncho, and his compassionate teacher, Don Gregorio. The cast includes Fernando Fernan Gomez and Manuel Lozano.

"Chicken Run" (DreamWorks). In the first feature-length movie from Aardman Animations (the "Wallace and Gromit" people), chicken comrades Rocky, Ginger, Bunty, Babs and Fowler hatch a plan to escape their coop, a miserable institution that slaughters fowls who don't produce their share of eggs. The offscreen cast includes Mel Gibson, Julia ("Ab Fab") Sawalha, Miranda Richardson, Jane Horrocks and Imelda Staunton.

"Kikujiro" (Sony Pictures Classics). In this Japanese film directed by Takeshi Kitano, a tough guy called Kukujiro (played by Kitano) takes a sensitive 8-year-old boy (Yusuke Sekiguchi) on a quest to find the mother he's never met. Their journey takes them through contemporary Japan, where they encounter all sorts of offbeat characters.

"Love's Labour's Lost" (Miramax). Alicia Silverstone, Matthew Lillard, Natascha McElhone and Nathan Lane star in Kenneth's Branagh's version of the Shakespeare romantic comedy, set as a 1930s Hollywood musical. The King of Navarre and his three best friends pledge to give up women for three years to study philosophy. But their plans are thwarted by the arrival of the Princess of France and her three lady friends.

"Me Myself and Irene" (20th Century Fox). In this much-anticipated comedy from Peter and Bobby Farrelly (the brother team that made "Dumb and Dumber" and "There's Something About Mary"), Jim Carrey plays a mild-mannered Rhode Island cop who falls in love with the woman (Renee Zellweger) he's escorting back to her home town. Trouble is, he has a split personality and both halves are in love with her. View movie trailer.

"Girl on the Bridge" (Paramount Classics). French director Patrice ("Monsieur Hire") Leconte's whimsical romance is about a luckless woman (Vanessa Paradis) who meets a stranger named Gabor (Daniel Auteuil) on a bridge in Paris. Turns out he's a knife-thrower who needs a human target for his show. They become a team.

June 30
"The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle" (Universal). In this "Roger Rabbit"-style mix of live action and animation, our intrepid cartoon heroes, Rocky and Bullwinkle, go after villainous spies Fearless Leader (Robert De Niro), Boris Badenov (Jason Alexander) and Natasha Fatale (Rene Russo), who have discovered a way to break out of their animated world and into the live-action universe. The movie includes cameos by Billy Crystal and John Goodman.

"Groove" (Sony Pictures Classics). In this "American Graffiti" of the San Francisco underground rave scene, written and directed by Greg Harrison, 200 people gather for a big party in an abandoned warehouse. Among the partygoers: Midwest transplant David Turner, a frustrated, lonely writer who's invited along by his artist-brother Colin. For the brothers, the party becomes an Ecstasy-fueled evening that includes a devastating disclosure. The cast includes Lola Glaudini, Rachel True, Hamish Linklater and newcomers from the San Francisco underground.

"Jesus' Son" (Lions Gate Films). Billy Crudup plays the drug-addled FH (which stands for something unprintable), who narrates his own surreal to-hell-and-back story. Dennis Hopper, Samantha Morton, Holly Hunter, Dennis Leary and Jack Black are among the people FH meets on this one-of-a-kind journey.

"The Patriot" (Sony Pictures). Roland Emmerich directs this period adventure set during the American Revolution. Mel Gibson plays Benjamin Martin, a pacifist family man and civilian who becomes a reluctant but ultimately fierce warrior when the British arrive at his South Carolina home. The movie also stars Joely Richardson, Tcheky Karyo and Heath Ledger as Benjamin's patriotic son. View movie trailer.

"The Perfect Storm" (Warner Bros.). Based on a true story, this is about a group of fishermen, including George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg, who run afoul of three raging storm fronts that result in a terrifying hurricane. Also in the cast: William Fichtner, Diane Lane and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. The movie, which features groundbreaking special effects from Industrial Light & Magic, is directed by Wolfgang Petersen, who made "Das Boot." View movie trailer.

July TBA
"Blood Simple" (USA). The rereleased director's cut of Joel and Ethan Coen's darkly comic debut and longtime cult classic about a murder in Texas. The 1985 film starred Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya, M. Emmet Walsh and John Getz.

"The Broken Hearts League" (Columbia Pictures). Writer-director Greg Berlanti's debut is an ensemble comedy about a group of gay friends. The cast includes Zack Braff, Dean Cain, Andrew Keegan, John Mahoney and Nia Long.

"The Five Senses" (Fine Line). Canadian director Jeremy Podeswa's Atom Egoyan-style drama explores the five senses and lives of five characters (including Mary-Louise Parker) in Canada who become entangled in a melodrama about a missing child.

"Shower" (Sony Pictures Classics). Director Zhang Yang's Chinese-language film, starring Zhu Xu, Pu Cun Xin and Jiang Wu, is about an elderly man who runs a bathhouse in Beijing. When his oldest son leaves home to seek his forture, the old man must operate the bathhouse and raise his remaining, retarded son on his own.

July 7
"Bounce" (Miramax). Ben Affleck, Gwyneth Paltrow and Natasha Henstridge star in this romance written and directed by Don Roos, in which one traveler switches plane tickets with another, who dies when the plane crashes. The survivor subsequently falls in love with the deceased traveler's wife. Also stars Jennifer Grey and Tony Goldwyn.

"Scary Movie" (Dimension Pictures). Keenen Ivory Wayans, creator of the TV show "In Living Color," lampoons such horror movies as "Scream" and "Halloween" in this comedy scareflick. The cast includes Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Cheri Oteri, Shannon Elizabeth and Carmen Electra.

July 14
"Numbers" (Paramount Pictures). John Travolta plays Russ Richards, a TV weatherman who's losing money thanks to his extravagant lifestyle and failed snowmobile dealership. In desperation, he teams with Crystal Latroy (Lisa Kudrow), the TV station's lotto ball girl, to fix the results of the lottery. Of course, his plans go wrong.

"X-Men" (20th Century Fox). Patrick Stewart, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, Ian McKellen and others star in this live-action adaptation of the popular comic book series, which is about a group of genetically mutated superheroes whose good intentions are misunderstood by the human race. It's directed by Bryan Singer and co-written by Christopher McQuarrie, the creative duo that made "The Usual Suspects."

July 21
"Chuck and Buck" (Artisan). "Freaks and Geeks" producer Michael White wrote and stars in this dark comedy about an an infantile 27-year-old who becomes obsessed with renewing his relationship with a childhood friend. It's directed by Miguel ("Star Maps") Arteta.

"Disney's 'The Kid'" (Walt Disney). Bruce Willis is a successful image consultant named Russ Duritz who magically meets himself as a young child. But the 8-year-old version of Russ (Spencer Breslin) does not approve of the way Duritz has turned out. The movie's directed by Jon Turteltaub, who made "Phenomenon."

"Loser" (Columbia Pictures). Amy Heckerling directs this college comedy about a nerd (Jason Biggs from "American Pie") who is shunned by his pot-smoking roommates at New York University. But his life changes when he meets kindred spirit Dora Diamond (Mena Suvari of "American Beauty").

"Pokemon the Movie 2000" (Warner Bros.). Ash, Pikachu and their countless companions return for another adventure. This English-language version (directed by Michael Haigney) of the original Japanese movie was originally written by Takeshi Shudo and directed by Kunihiko Yuyama. The movie features the voices of Veronica Taylor, Rachael Lillis, Eric Stuart and Ted Lewis, with Ikue Otani (as Pikachu).

"Trixie" (Sony Pictures Classics). In writer-director Alan Rudolph's detective fantasy, Emily Watson is Trixie Zurbo, a blue-collar detective working undercover at a casino. She runs into a mess of trouble, including Dex Lang (Nick Nolte), a raffish jack-of-all-trades who thinks he's seen everything until he meets Trixie. The cast includes Lesley Ann Warren, Nathan Lane, Dermot Mulroney and Will Patton.

"What Lies Beneath" (DreamWorks). Robert Zemeckis, who made "Forrest Gump," directs Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer in this supernatural thriller. Ford and Pfeiffer, teaming for the first time, play a happily married couple whose idyllic life is disrupted by mysterious events. The cast includes Joe Morton, Diana Scarwid and James Remar.

"Woman on Top" (Fox Searchlight). Penelope ("All About My Mother") Cruz plays a sexy Brazilian restaurateur who entices men's hearts and palates. Leaving a confining marriage and restaurant partnership in Brazil, she comes to San Francisco to start a new life with the help of her cross-dressing childhood friend Monica (Harold Perrineau Jr.).

July 26
"Thomas and the Magic Railroad" (Destination Films). In this film version of the popular children's television series, Alec Baldwin plays the magical Mr. Conductor, a mystical figure who transports the 11-year-old Lily (Mara Wilson) to the fantasy world of the Island of Sodor, where she meets Thomas the Tank Engine and his many train friends. Peter Fonda plays Lily's grandfather.

July 28
"Girl on the Bridge" (Paramount Classics). French director Patrice ("Monsieur Hire") Leconte's whimsical romance is about a luckless woman (Vanessa Paradis) who meets a stranger named Gabor (Daniel Auteuil) on a bridge in Paris. Turns out he's a knife thrower who needs a human target for his show. They become a team.

"Hollow Man" (Columbia Pictures). Elisabeth Shue and Kevin Bacon star in this suspense thriller from Paul ("Basic Instinct") Verhoeven. When a group of scientists discovers a way to achieve invisibility, the team's arrogant leader (Bacon) demands to have the procedure performed on himself, but the team doesn't know how to reverse it.

"Nutty Professor II: The Klumps" (Universal Pictures). In this sequel to the successful "Nutty Professor" remake, the lovable Sherman Klump (Eddie Murphy) is due to marry Denise (Janet Jackson). But he can't seem to shake off his brazen alter-ego, Buddy Love (also played by Murphy). In desperation, he decides to use a DNA-extraction process to purge his demon, but Buddy won't go quietly.

August TBA
"Alice and Martin" (USA). French writer-director Andre Techine reunites with French actor Juliette Binoche for the first time since the 1985 film "Rendez-vous" in this psychological drama about the effect of the past on the present. Binoche plays Alice, a repressed violinist who is drawn to Martin (Alexis Loret), a male model who is haunted by a traumatic childhood.

"An Affair of Love" (Fine Line). French actor Nathalie Baye stars in Frederic Fonteyne's film about a sexual liaison that becomes something more serious. Shot in mock-documentary fashion, the movie details what happens when a woman (Baye) answers an advertisement in a newspaper and starts a relationship with a stranger (Sergi Lopez). The film will open the New Directors/New Films Festival in New York later this year.

"I Was Made to Love Her" (Paramount). Chris Rock plays an amateur comedian, Lance, who finds himself mistakenly at heaven's door. The powers that be send him back to Earth, but the only host body available is that of a rich Manhattan mogul. The cast also includes Mark Addy (from "The Full Monty"), Chazz Palminteri, Regina King and Eugene Levy.

"Loving Jezebel" (The Shooting Gallery). Kwyn Bader directs this black comedy in which Theo Melville (Hill Harper) has an unfortunate romantic problem: His women always seem to be attached to someone else. When another enraged husband (David Moscow) comes after him for stealing his wife, Samantha (Laurel Holloman), the remorseful Theo feels it's about time he was punished.

"Skipped Parts" (Trimark). Tamra ("Guncrazy") Davis directs this coming-of-age comedy, set in 1963, in which 14-year-old Sam Callahan (Bug Hall) moves to a dreary small town with his impetuous mother Lydia (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and falls in love with the school beauty.

"The St. Francisville Experiment" (Trimark). Holy Blair Witch, Batman! Trimark claims this is "real" ghost footage captured on film. Four people (Tim Baldini, Madison Charap, Ryan Larson and Paul Palmer) trained in things paranormal fly to Louisiana to investigate a house that is reportedly haunted by the spirits of slaves.

"Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her" (MGM). Cameron Diaz, Calista Flockhart, Glenn Close and Holly Hunter are in the ensemble cast in writer-director Rodrigo Garcia's movie, a series of interwoven vignettes that focus on a group of women whose lives are changed forever over the course of a few days. View movie trailer.

"Whipped" (Destination). Peter M. Cohen's writing-directing debut is about a group of college buddies who meet every Sunday at the local diner to discuss their exploits with women over the weekend. Things get complicated, however, when they all set their sights on the same woman (played by Amanda Peet). The cast includes Brian Van Holt, Jonathan Abrahams, Zorie Barber, Judah Domke and Callie Thorne.

"Wonderland" (USA). Michael Winterbottom's British film, an entry at last year's Cannes Film Festival, is an intimate portrait of three generations of one family during a weekend in London. It's about Eileen (Kika Markham) and Bill (Jack Shepherd), caught in a loveless marriage, and their complicated relationships with their children (Shirley Henderson, Gina McKee, Molly Parker and Enzo Cilenti).

August 4
"Coyote Ugly" (Walt Disney). When a promising singer-songwriter (Piper Perabo) comes to New York City to pursue her musical dreams, her aspirations are hampered by the notoriety she gets from her job as a barmaid at Coyote Ugly, a morally questionable nightclub. Also features Adam Garcia and supermodel Tyra Banks.

"The Legend of Bagger Vance" (DeamWorks). Will Smith, Matt Damon and Charlize Theron star in this adaptation of Steven Pressfield's novel. In the story, adapted by Richard ("The Fisher King") LaGravenese and Jeremy ("Don Juan DeMarco") Leven, Damon plays a disillusioned war veteran who reluctantly agrees to play a game of golf. He finds the game futile until his caddy, Bagger Vance (Smith), teaches him the Zen of golf and its application to life.

"Space Cowboys" (Warner Bros.). Clint Eastwood directs this drama about a group of former Air Force pilots (Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland and James Garner) whose plans to fly into space were canceled by NASA in 1958. Although they were replaced by a chimpanzee named Sam, their dream never died. They get their chance when a satellite that Eastwood's character designed suffers a systems failure and starts plummeting Earthward.

August 11
"Bait" (Warner Bros.). Jamie Foxx plays Alvin Sanders, a minor ex-con who tries to go straight and work things out with his girlfriend, Lisa (Kimberly Elise). But he doesn't realize a U.S. Treasury investigator (David Morse) is using him to lure a professional criminal (Doug Hutchison). The comedy is directed by Antoine Fuqua, who made "The Replacement Killers."

"Bedazzled" (20th Century Fox). In this remake of the Dudley Moore-Peter Cook 1967 comedy classic, Brendan Fraser plays a nerdy low-level technical adviser who makes a deal with the devil (Elizabeth Hurley) so he can be rich, powerful and sexy. Unfortunately, the devil's influence doesn't help Fraser win the heart of his co-worker, played by Frances O'Connor.

"Cecil B. Demented" (Artisan). Stephen Dorff and Melanie Griffith join Patricia Hearst and Ricki Lake in John Waters's latest comedy, about a group of obsessed cinema terrorists who want to avenge the crass sins of commercial filmmaking.

"Girlfight" (Columbia). Writer-director Karyn Kusama's debut is about Diana (Michelle Rodriguez), a fierce young woman who takes up boxing. The movie won the best direction prize and shared the best dramatic feature prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

"Godzilla 2000" (TriStar). Our 180-foot tall G-monster, who has just crushed the entire city of Nemuro, Japan, faces off with a formidable adversary: an alien life form that's 200 meters wide, is shaped like a rock and just awakened from 6,000 years of sleep on the Japanese ocean floor.

"Impostor" (Miramax). Spence Olham (Gary Sinise), living a perfect life with his wife (Madeleine Stowe) and family, wakes up to discover he's Public Enemy No. 1. Gary ("Kiss the Girls") Fleder directed this futuristic thriller, adapted from the Philip K. Dick short story.

"Save the Last Dance" (Paramount). Thomas Carter directs this multicultural romance about Sarah (Julia Stiles), a white middle-class girl who finds herself in an all-black inner-city school in Chicago. A former ballerina, she starts a romance with Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas), an African American student who's into hip-hop dancing.

August 18
"The Cell" (New Line). Jennifer Lopez plays a child therapist involved in a cutting-edge research program who goes into the mind of a comatose serial killer in the hope of finding a missing girl. Vince Vaughn is an FBI agent also trying to solve the mystery.

"Mad About Mambo" (USA). In John Gorte's directorial debut, Keri Russell (star of "Felicity") plays 18-year-old Irish private school girl Lucy McLoughlin, who lives to dance. When her possessive boyfriend Oliver (Theo Fraser Steele) is injured in a soccer game, Lucy loses a dancing partner. That's when working-class lad Danny (William Ash), another soccer player who's teaching himself rhythm for his sport, steps in.

"Saving Grace" (Fine Line). Brenda Blethyn stars in this British comedy as a gardener in Cornwall, England, who is facing financial ruin. So with the help of a handyman (Craig Ferguson, also the co-writer), she decides to grow marijuana to make ends meet.

"Cheer Fever" (Universal). Kirsten Dunst plays Torrance Shipman, the head of a cheerleading squad who realizes that her girls' impressive routines for a national competition were stolen from the Clovers, an inner-city hip-hop squad. Also stars Eliza Dushku, Gabrielle Union, Jesse Bradford and Nathan West.

August 25
"Blow Dry" (Miramax). In Paddy Breathnach's comedy, a national hairdressing competition held in Keighley overwhelms the lives of everyone in the English working-class city. The movie was written by Simon ("The Full Monty") Beaufoy and stars Alan Rickman, Natasha Richardson, Rachel Griffiths and Josh Hartnett.

"The Crew" (Walt Disney). In this comedy, Richard Dreyfuss, Burt Reynolds, Dan Hedaya and Seymour Cassel play four low-income retirees and former wiseguys who tangle with a drug lord when they try to save themselves from eviction in Miami's affluent South Beach.

"The Replacements" (Warner Bros.). Keanu Reeves is a former football star still dreaming of the big time he never had as a professional. He gets his chance during a professional football strike, when the Washington Sentinels start hiring anyone they can. Gene Hackman plays the contentious coach, Jimmy McGinty, who's pulled out of semi-retirement to start up the makeshift replacement team.

"Texas Rangers" (Dimension Pictures). In Texas, in 1875, Leander McNelly (Dylan McDermott) leads the outmanned Texas Rangers (including James Van Der Beek and Randy Travis) against a gang of renegades led by the ruthless John King Fisher (Alfred Molina). The cast includes Tom Skerritt and Rachael Leigh Cook.

"The Way of the Gun" (Artisan). Screenwriter Christopher ("The Usual Suspects") McQuarrie's directorial debut is a crime drama about two cold-blooded career criminals (Ryan Phillippe and Benicio Del Toro) who kidnap a surrogate mother (Juliette Lewis) whose baby will go to a wealthy couple.

September TBA
"Requiem for a Dream" (Artisan). Writer-director Darren ("Pi") Aronofsky adapts Hubert ("Last Exit to Brooklyn") Selby Jr.'s modern-day fable, set in Coney Island. Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Marlon Wayans and Jennifer Connelly star in the ensemble drama, which parallels the stories of four people who set out in pursuit of better lives only to have their dreams take on horrifying dimensions.

September 1
"Head Over Heels" (Universal). In this romantic comedy, a lonely art restorer (Monica Potter) living in Manhattan wonders if her new beau (Freddie Prinze Jr.) is Mr. Right or a lady-killer – literally.