Act 3 of the summer blockbuster season is already underway, with Brendan Fraser stinking up the screens again with his never-ending mummy chases and Kevin Costner trying to make a voting movie funny. It all exists beneath the shadow of the Bat, however, with last month's The Dark Knight still reigning supreme at the box office. One of the following films is sure to dethrone the caped crusader... but which one will it be?

Pineapple Express

Release Date: August 6
Director: David Gordon Green
Starring: Seth Rogen, James Franco, Gary Cole, Danny McBride
Rating: R

Seth Rogen's Dale, a stoned man smoking in the wrong place at the wrong time, witnesses a murder by a crooked police officer Carol Brazier (Rosie Perez) and the city's most dangerous drug lord, Ted Jones (Gary Cole). In panic, he flees the scene and accidentally drops his roach of Pineapple Express, a killer new strain he got from his friend Saul Silver.
With the roach being traced back to them, the two are forced to run for their lives, quickly discovering that it's not just weed-paranoia - people are trying to kill them!

CraveOnline's Call: We've been fans of Rogen and Franco since "Freaks & Geeks," but the first trailer had us skeptical. The second and third, however, were awesome. Can't wait for this one - head to the drive-in and watch the cloud settle over the parking lot once the lights go down...

Hell Ride

Release Date: August 8
Director: Michael Salomon
Starring: Larry Bishop, Dennis Hopper, Michael Madsen, David Carradine
Rating: R

A throwback to the Sergio Leone spaghetti western days, writer/director Larry Bishop stars as Pistolero, head honcho of the Victors, a group of badass bikers. They're out to avenge the murder of one of their members at the hands of the 666ers, a rival gang whose actions live up to their hellish moniker. Mayhem and badassery ensues for the next 87 minutes.

CraveOnline's Call: We were sold at "Quentin Tarantino Presents," but a cast like this is bound to produce some classic footage. Should be an interesting ride.

Beer For My Horses

Release Date: August 8
Director: Michael Salomon
Starring: Toby Keith, silly. Who else would star in a movie with such a stupid title?
Rating: PG-13

Get the f*ck out of here with this shit. It's barely tolerable enough that Toby Keith's hyper-"patriotic" shitkickin' absurdity has an audience in the country world, but somebody decided to mix a Chevy commercial and Keith's thinly-veiled racist country boy schtick and turn it into a movie. The bad guy is a dark-skinned Mexican, by the way. Yeehaw.

CraveOnline's Call: Take a wild guess.

Tropic Thunder

Release Date: August 13
Director: Ben Stiller
Starring: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr.
Rating: R


Ben Stiller is pampered action superstar Tugg Speedman, star of the biggest, most expensive war movie ever produced. He sets out to Southeast Asia with the cream of the celebrity co-star crop, including Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), an intense, three-time Oscar-winning actor who's undergone... well, an afroplasty for the part. Soon after the production begins the actors are thrown into a real-life situation and are forced to become the fighting unit they're portraying if they want to get out of the jungle alive.

CraveOnline's Call: This looks absurdly fantastic. What sold us was the fake-film featurettes (catch them on the official Tropic Thunder site). A psycho blond Jack Black, a black Robert Downey and a Man Who Knew Too Little-style plotline? Love it.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Release Date: August 15
Director: David Filoni
Starring:
Rating: PG

Anakin Skywalker blah blah struggle between good and evil blah Obi-Wan, Padme, Palpatine, Dooku and an assortment of new characters. Lightsabers and Yoda and intergalactic planetary battles abound. And oh yeah - it's a cartoon.

CraveOnline's Call: George. Please. Stop with all this Star Wars shit already. It's time to move on, man. You can do it.

Mirrors

Release Date: August 15
Director: Alexandre Aja
Starring: Amy Smart, Keifer Sutherland, Paula Patton, Julian Glover
Rating: R

A mall security guard becomes wrapped up in a mystery involving a particular department store's mirrors which seem to bring out the worst in people. Spooooky.

CraveOnline's Call: You had us at "mall security guard." Jack Bauer? Hell yeah.

The Rocker

Release Date: August 20
Director: Peter Cattaneo
Starring: Rainn Wilson, Christina Applegate, Josh Gad
Rating: PG-13

Robert "Fish" Fishman (Wilson) was the drummer for 80's hair band Vesuvius, but was kicked out just before the group became megastars. 20 years later, Fishman slips back into the spandex to join his teenage nephew's band A.D.D. Seizing the opportunity, Fish is determined to reclaim the rock-god throne he's always believed he deserved...

CraveOnline's Call: No thanks. We love you Rainn, but this one just doesn't cut it. Can't wait for "The Office" to start back up though.

Death Race

Release Date: August 22
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Starring: Jason Statham, Tyrese Gibson, Joan Allen
Rating: R

Think of it as Running Man with cars and better outfits. A new pastime is all the rage across the country: hardened criminals race through a deadly course, battling each other and outside attackers while driving heavily armored cars outfitted with flame throwers, machine guns and grenade launchers. Who will win the deadliest, most twisted race on Earth? Probably the good guy.

CraveOnline's Call: Check out Running Man on Netflix instead. Good old fashioned Arnold.

Traitor

Release Date: August 27
Director: Jeffrey Nachmanoff
Starring: Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Jeff Daniels
Rating: PG-13

A CIA operative (Cheadle) working undercover with a terrorist group becomes a terrorist suspect himself. Memento's Guy Pearce is an FBI agent investigating the group - and the operative.

CraveOnline's Call: International counter-espionage thrillers? Hot stuff. Cheadle's always captivating, and Pearce is unfailingly cool. Count us in.

Disaster Movie

Release Date: August 29
Director: Jason Friedbery, Aaron Seltzer
Starring: Carmen Electra, Kim Kardashian and a bunch of other vapid, z-listy type people that you don't care about.
Rating: PG-13

I'm not going to hold your hand here. Scary Movie. Date Movie. Epic Movie. Meet the Spartans. See the pattern? Every natural disaster and catastrophic event imaginable wreaks havoc on the planet- asteroids, twisters, earthquakes, etc. A group of surgically beautuful "twenty-somethings" scamper through the city as they try to solve a series of mysteries to end the rampant destruction.

CraveOnline's Call: Come on. Do you know how much movie tickets cost these days? Every single one of these movies sucks so bad we can't even pay attention when they're on Comedy Central. But we're supposed to pay money for this?