I had thought I was excited about The Order of the Phoenix, but the just-released international trailer has shot me off onto a whole new plane of psyched. With snippets of great character moments and exciting action, this trailer is thick with... dare I say it... magic. Only six more weeks to go. Only six more weeks...

Sorry folks, I just can't endorse the upcoming Hairspray adaptation. After all, if we continue to support this trend of adapting movies into musicals and then back into movies again, American cinema is just going to become a vast wasteland of duds like The Producers.

But if we're going to continue on this path of ruin, we might as well do so with a cast including Michelle Pfeiffer, Queen Latifah, and Christopher Walken. I'm a little nervous about John Travolta as Edna Turnblatt (especially since the trailer goes out of its way to avoid showing too much of his performance); however, the dance numbers look spectacular. I can't support this movie, but I have a feeling that I'll probably enjoy it.

As far as legendary producers go: Selznick, Zanuck, Evans, and now, Apatow?

I've gushed about Judd Apatow here before, so I'll withhold anymore geek love, but it's getting difficult to do when the man, the myth goes into production overdrive. Currently, he has seven upcoming projects loaded in his quality rifle, with a Hughesian teen comedy,"Superbad," being the first to murder us.

While the meaning of the title remains ambiguous, the plot is clear. Two best friends, played by new comedic dynamos Jonah Hill (brilliant in Accepted and Knocked Up) and Michael Cera (brilliant as George-Michael Bluth on Arrested Development), try to get laid and experience the essential bonds of young, platonic guy-love.

As far as producing strategy, Apatow might be more brilliant than all those showmen, because his movies are simply good enough to sell themselves. Can't wait.

Pixar makes me want to have children just so I can bring them up on Pixar films. Is there any production company whose name is such a guarantee of quality? When that little lamp scurries across the screen, it's the equivalent of Grade A stamp on a perfect Porterhouse. At least until Cars, which caught the Dreamworks Animation disease of too many modern in-jokes providing a noisy facade over a weak story.

However, the genius is back. Brad Bird -- writer/director of the brilliant The Incredibles, and the even more brilliant The Iron Giant -- returns behind the computer mouse to bring us Ratatouille, the story of a rat (voiced by comedian Patton Oswalt) who dreams of becoming the best chef in Paris.

This looks like the classiest, most original affair of the summer, making efforts like Shrek 3 and The Simpsons Movie look like the bloated, shallow cash-ins that they are. If you think I'm exposing my non-existent children to that, you are sorely mistaken.