Summer is quickly approaching and with it the onslaught of over-hyped spectacle to relieve the movie-going public of the mentally draining (and tragically over-rated) Ben Buttons and Slumdogs.

Inglourious Bastards: Quentin Tarantino’s long gestating World War II epic finally sees the light of day this summer. If the overly coked-out script is any indication, this should be his most coked-out movie to date. Brad Pitt stars as Lt. Aldo Raine, a man hell-bent on striking fear in the hearts of the nazis with the help of Jewish-American soldiers in his command known as the “The Basterds.” B.J. Novak of “The Office,” director Eli Roth (“Hostel”), and the horribly underrated Samm Levine comprise “The Basterds.” You can never go wrong with QT, as long as the film doesn’t revolve around soldiers sitting around a table dissecting pop culture amidst scalping the Third Reich. Releases August 21, 2009.

Terminator: Salvation: While no one was quite clamoring for another Terminator movie, and particularly for another Terminator movie without the Terminator himself, this one looks pretty decent. Directed by the rather pretentious sounding McG, the man behind “Charlie’s Angels” and starring The Batman, “Terminator: Salvation” finally shows us the post-apocalyptic future promised by previous installments. The cyborgs are bigger and the spectacle grander, but without the Governator and James Cameron at the helm, its possible the only thing moviegoers will remember from this chapter is Bale’s hissy fit. Releases May 21, 2009.

Public Enemies: Tells the story of the notorious John Dillinger, the charismatic bank robber and folk hero to the lower class. With Johnny Depp as Dillinger, The Batman as Melvin Purvis and Michael Mann behind the lens, this is the must see movie of the summer. Michael Mann can do no wrong and defined the crime flick with “Heat.” But then again, he also directed “Miami Vice.” Releases July 1, 2009.

Star Trek: Perhaps the biggest surprise this summer is the rebooting of the Star Trek franchise, a series whose key demographic was virtually no one. J.J. Abrams of “Cloverfield” infamy throws Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto, in a role he was born to play), aboard the Enterprise in a feel good buddy romp about finding one’s self in the deep recesses of space. Eric Bana (who evidently picks his scripts by throwing darts at them) is Nero, their tattoo-faced antagonist. At the very least, Abrams makes Star Trek look cool, and it does feature Simon Pegg. Releases May 8, 2009.