Summer of 'Star Wars' also promises 'Spy,' 'South Park'

For the first time since Steven Spielberg's "Jaws" invented the concept of the summer blockbuster in 1975, a summer movie season seems to be predictable and unexciting.

This summer isn't predictable and unexciting for lack of promising projects vying for attention, it's predictable and unexciting because the inevitable juggernaut that is the exciting, unpredictable "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" is sure to turn everything else into runners-up and also-rans.

But for the last summer of this century, the also-rans couldn't be more attractive or worthy of the "Star Wars" spillover.

The likely first runner-up to George Lucas and company in the summer dollar derby is Mike Myers, who will once again don the frilly lace kravat and Italian boots ("Bonjourno, boys!") as company man Austin "Danger" Powers in "Austin Powers: The Spy W

Courtesy of New Line Mike Myers returns as Austin Powers in "The Spy Who Shagged Me."

ho Shagged Me."

This second entendre-filled Powers adventure, in theatres June 11, finds the International Man of Mystery and his Mars symbol matched by mod Venus Heather Graham, cheekily named Felicity Shagwell, when he travels back in time to retrieve his mojo from Dr. Evil.

Also shagging this summer are Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, in Stanley Kubrick's sexy swan song "Eyes Wide Shut," which will finally be exposed on July 16 after nearly three ultra-secretive years in production.

All that's been seen of "Eyes" thus far, namely the nakedly ambitious trailer that spent sixty seconds showing only Cruise and Kidman pawing at each other, promises an interesting, very adult alternative to the normally kiddie-aimed fare that the heat brings.

Chief among the kiddie fare is the annual Disney animation and merchandising extravaganza, continuing this year with "Tarzan," which finds the Lord of the Apes, voiced by Tony Goldwyn, in the company of a feisty Jane (the voice of Minnie Driver) and a wisecracking ape (voice of Rosie O'Donnell), among others.

The wisecracking menagerie of the Muppets also returns to the big screen, with "Muppets from Space," which follows Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie and friends on an immature intergalactic mission to determine what planet Gonzo actually calls home.

For the juvenile in all of us, first there's the R-Rated "South Park" movie, suitably titled, "Bigger, Longer and Uncut." Second, there's Adam Sandler and "Big Daddy," which finds the erstwhile waterboy so thirsty for affection that he adopts a 5-year-old tyke to woo the ladies.

Also sure to make the ladies swoon is the one-two punch of Brad Pitt and Edward Norton in "Fight Club." But don't expect too much hunkiness and/or romance from this, the dark, violent latest from director David Fincher, who previously spread his own brand of sunshine with "Seven" and "The Game."

A decidedly more sunny summer hunk can be found in Brendan Fraser, who may make the jump to mega-star this summer with not one but two adventures - the big-budget, Indiana Jones-style horror remake "The Mummy," unraveling next week, and "Dudley Do-Right," another wacky comedy for this former George of the Jungle.

Pulling double-duty again this year, as she did with 1997's "My Best Friend's Wedding" and "Conspiracy Theory," is the most romantic of comediennes, Julia Roberts, who teams with Hugh Grant in "Notting Hill" and re-teams with "Pretty Woman" cohorts Richard Gere, Hector Elizando and director Garry Marshall for "Runaway Bride."

If romance is your bag, baby, try "The Thomas Crown Affair," which finds Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo making like Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway in a hot cat-and-mouse thriller.

Or if self-love is more your cup of tea, as it was for so many in last year's "There's Something About Mary," try "American Pie," a ribald teen comedy that follows four horny young lads as strive to lose their virginity.

A far more innocent, if no less amusing pact can be found in "Mystery Men," in which wannabe superheroes, including Ben Stiller, William H. Macy and Janeane Garofalo,use their strange talents to uphold truth, justice and stuff.

Other superheroes out for justice this summer include Matthew Broderick in "Inspector Gadget" and Will Smith and Kevin Kline in "Wild, Wild West," as equally gadget-aided folk who save the Old West world from Kenneth Branagh in the latest snarky effects-fest from Barry Sonnenfeld ("Men In Black").

Also travelling back in time, to the summer of 1977, is Spike Lee and "Summer of Sam," a film recently slapped with an NC-17 rating that follows the lives of Bronx friends, including John Leguizamo and Mira Sorvino, as they live through the paranoia surrounding David Berkowitz's '77 Son of Sam murders.

Also on the dark side is "Lost Souls," starring Winona Ryder as a church lady who uncovers an evil mystery - could it be Satan? - with helpful cop Ben Chaplin.

Others getting to feel like a cop this summer are Martin Lawrence and Luke Wilson in the mistaken-identity, buddy-cop comedy "Blue Streak."

Julianne Moore buddies up to married man Jeremy Northam in "An Ideal Husband," an Oscar Wilde comedy that looks to be an art house hit, as it also boasts accented and Oscar-nominated "It Girls" Minnie Driver and Cate Blanchett.

Art houses this summer can also boast the return of Cher, in Bernardo Bertolucci's semi-autobiographical "Tea With Mussolini," and the writing and directing return of Albert Brooks in "The Muse," a Hollywood satire with commercial potential that stars Brooks and Sharon Stone, who pokes fun at her demanding starlet image.

Will Smith? Tom Cruise? Adam Sandler? Julia Roberts? Sharon Stone? Michelle Pfeiffer? Demanding summer stars all.

But the most commanding star of all this summer is still the one followed by "Wars."

Go ahead, try and avoid "The Phantom Menace," but it'll be futile, as "Star Wars"' resident philosopher Yoda once said, "Either do or do not - there is no try."

04-20-99