Summertime is all about blockbusters and counter-programming, as the smaller distributors clear out their backlog of festival acquisitions under the pretense of firing everything they’ve got at the big, bad studio pictures. Either way, it means stuff’s coming out.

“Empties”: Festival favorite Jan Sverak’s comedy about a bored retiree (screenwriter Zdenek Sverak, who’s also the director’s father) looking for something to do finally gets a theatrical run nearly two years after its bow at TIFF 2007. Glenn liked it; Adam did not.

“The English Surgeon”: Glenn was raving about Geoffrey Smith’s profile of neurosurgeon Henry Marsh at last year’s Hot Docs; he’s just as high on it now. So, clearly, we should see it.

“The Hangover“: No, Todd Phillips’ ultimate Vegas nightmare breaks no new ground, but it’s appropriately entertaining and absurd, and almost perfectly cast. I even enjoyed Justin Bartha, which is saying something.

“Land of the Lost”: In which Will Ferrell shouts non-sequiturs at dinosaurs for an hour and a half, apparently.

“O’Horten”: The week’s other movie about a retired guy seeking purpose, this one from the deadpan Bent Hamer. Jason and Paul both enjoyed it; I’ve been trying to see it since Cannes, with no bloody luck.

“My Life in Ruins”: After the disaster of “Connie and Carla”, Nia Vardalos goes back to humping the Greek thing. Susan didn’t mind it; I suspect Adam‘s response is closer to my own.

“Tokyo!“: Three directors, one city, one more metropolitan omnibus film. But it’s worth seeing for the Leos Carax episode alone.

“Waterlife“: Kevin McMahon’s look at humanity’s destruction of the Great Lakes is somewhere between a conventional documentary and a thumb-sucking visual essay; I found the visual-essay stuff so twee that I turned against the documentary portions. Also, it’s at least half an hour longer than it needs to be.

Also: David Carradine, dead at 72 … and, um, apparently not a suicide. Damn.