I’m sorry, dear readers, but I did not make it to “Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay,” this weekend. I wanted to. I liked the first movie and thought this one had some promise, but, the timing didn’t work out. I’ll wager a guess that unless you saw the first film, there is no way in Hades you are seeing this one.

Anyhoo, “Iron Man,” opens Friday and it looks awesome. It has a great cast (Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrance Howard and Jeff Bridges) and a solid director (Jon Favreau). It looks like it will be a blast. Here are 10 other movies I am looking forward to this summer – my brief summer movie preview, if you will.

1. “Speed Racer” – Are you kidding me? This movie looks insane. The Wachowski Brothers (“The Matrix”) used state of the art technology to make a live action cartoon/family film. It has an amazing cast (Emile Hirsch, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, Matthew Fox) and visuals that make my eyes leak out of my head in a good way. I seriously can’t wait.

2. “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” – You know everyone in the country is seeing this one at least once. Who doesn’t like Indiana Jones? Seriously, who? Let me know and we’ll have them waterboarded for obviously being an enemy of all that is American.

3. “The Dark Knight” – Yeah, yeah, yeah, “Batman Begins” was dark – it was also the best Batman movie of all time. Deal with it. Christian Bale returns beneath the Batsuit and Heath Ledger gives what looks like the creepiest portrayal of The Joker known to man. It looks incredible.

4. “Tropic Thunder” – It is going to be a good summer for Robert Downey Jr. He is already being buzzed about for his role as a serious actor who dyes his skin to play an African-American sergeant in Vietnam. Lots of good buzz on a Tom Cruise cameo in this Ben Stiller comedy, too.

5. “Wall-E” – Every Pixar movie has been worth the price of admission and most of them have been worth even more than that (we own practically all of them on DVD – sorry, “A Bug’s Life”). This one about a lonely robot hundreds of years in the future looks amazing.

6. “The Pineapple Express” – Seth Rogen and James Franco (buddies since “Freaks and Geeks”) reunite in this Judd Apatow produced action-comedy about a stoner who witnesses a murder and must escape the bad guys and crooked cops. It’s going to be really good – people have already seen it and love it.

7. “Hancock” – I love the preview for this new film from Will Smith. Hancock is a reluctant super-hero who sets out to repair his tarnished public image. It looks really kind of twisted and funny.

8. “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” – The sequel to “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” this looks to be more of the same – which is a solid story with fantastic effects. This could also be the last one with all the Pevensie kids because they all don’t reunite in the books until “The Last Battle,” which stunk.

9. “The Happening” – M. Night Shyamalan hopes to right his ship with this thriller about some dastardly thing happening to people all over the country. The trailer is very mysterious and looks like it could be really spooky.

10. “The X Files 2” – Mulder and Scully get called back in to work a case involving gruesome things happening to people in the mountains of West Virginia. It has nothing to do with aliens, UFOs, smoking men or government conspiracies. It acts like a stand alone episode and those were always the best.

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