A financial executive (Murphy) who can’t stop his career downspiral is invited into his daughter’s imaginary world, where solutions to his problems await.

Is Murphy’s real-world profession in the same state as his character’s here? Maybe it’s time to make like Adam Sandler and head back out on the stand-up circuit in order to revitalize your career. Either that, or pull a Johnny Gill and disappear from the industry completely.

Rated PG for some mild language and brief questionable behavior.

Director: Karey Kirkpatrick
Stars: Eddie Murphy, Thomas Haden Church
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: 12 June 2009 (USA), 24 July 2009 (Italy), 31 July 2009 (UK), 21 August 2009 (Mexico)
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy

On his latest expedition, Dr. Rick Marshall (Ferrell) is sucked into a space-time vortex alongside his research assistant (Friel) and a redneck survivalist (McBride). In this alternate universe, the trio make friends with a primate named Chaka (Taccone), their only ally in a world full of dinosaurs and other fantastic creatures. Can they all make it back to our world alive, and if so: Will Dr. Marshall can go from zero to hero with his discoveries?

Say what you want about Kroft’s original ’70s Saturday morning fix (if you can even remember it), sleestaks, pakunies and Marshall Marshall are ripe for parody. And, Ferrell’s just the right guy to deliver it. While many seem ready to write off his various shirtless, man-boy, sport-spoof antics, we’re not. Mostly because he’s still funny as hell. Plus, we can’t wait to see what he and already-arrived comic McBride come up with together.

Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, and for language including a drug reference.

Director: Brad Silberling
Stars: Will Ferrell, Danny McBride, Anna Friel
Studio: Universal Pictures
Release Date: 5 June 2009 (USA)
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi

A couple who is expecting their first child travel around the U.S. in order to find a perfect place to start their family. Along the way, they have misadventures and find fresh connections with an assortment of relatives and old friends who just might help them discover “home” on their own terms for the first time.

Four words I never thought I’d use in the same sentence: Sam Mendes summer comedy. With a screenplay by the marvelous husband-and-wife duo Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, I feel like Mendes will make the shift away from heavyweight dramas with his love for important themes intact. May his process make Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski actual-real movie stars, too. Why am I already seeing Eggers and Vida on awards podiums, spreading the 826 Valencia gospel?

Rated R for language and some sexual content.

Director: Sam Mendes
Stars: John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Allison Janney
Studio: Focus Features
Release Date: 25 June 2009 (Greece)
Genre: Comedy, Drama

A Las Vegas-set comedy centered around three groomsmen who lose their about-to-be-wed buddy during their drunken misadventures, then must retrace their steps in order to find him.

Hmm, did Ashton and Cameron’s success in Vegas influence director Todd Phillips to finally pick his first project since the woefully misguided School for Scoundrels remake? Whatever the case, Phillips and Warner Bros. are keeping it low budget here, with a B-list cast (at best) that should keep this comedy in the black.

Rated R for pervasive language, sexual content including nudity, and some drug material.

Director: Todd Phillips
Stars: Zach Galifianakis, Bradley Cooper, Justin Bartha
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: 5 June 2009 (USA)
Genre: Comedy

A travel guide (Vardalos) rediscovers her romantic side, with a very unlikely match, as she whisks a group of tourists around Greece.

Everybody needs love and affection, and the likeable, relatable Nia Vardalos also deserves a career reboot — it’s totally not her fault that a million copycats lusted after her My Big Fat Greek Wedding success, quickly squeezing the life (and viability) out of indie film. Also needing a certain amount of resuscitation is director Donald Petrie, who rode high earlier this decade but quickly retired to Blandsville. A note Fox Searchlight: Nice counterprogramming here.

Rated PG-13 for sexual content.

Director: Donald Petrie
Stars: Nia Vardalos, Richard Dreyfuss, Rachel Dratch
Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release Date: 5 June 2009 (USA)
Genre: Comedy