It’s sequel season at the local cineplex

TO look at the films coming out this summer is to feel like a character in “Groundhog Day.” Haven’t we seen these pictures before?

In fact, four of the biggest films are sequels to films that were successful during earlier, dimly remembered summers. “X-Men: The Last Stand,” out Friday, is the third (and presumably not the last) X-Men movie; “Superman Returns” (June 30) has the Man of Steel, well, returning; “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” (July 7) brings everyone including Johnny Depp back from the last version, while “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” (June 16) has neither stars nor directors nor setting returning. It’s all about the cars, man.

Speaking of “Cars” (June 9), that’s the name of the John Lasseter-directed Pixar film, his first since 1999’s “Toy Story 2.” Lasseter is one of several summer directors good enough to have their films come out any season they choose. There’s M. Night Shyamalan’s “Lady in the Water,” a there’s-a-sprite-in-my-pool fantasy (July 21); Michael Mann’s “Miami Vice,” a reworking of the 1980s TV series (July 28); and Oliver Stone’s 9/11 drama “World Trade Center” (Aug. 9).

Not surprisingly, summer is also the season of comedies, which seem to come in two categories: star-driven and romantic. The former includes Jack Black as a priest turned Mexican wrestler in “Nacho Libre” (June 16); Adam Sandler likely as someone very much like Adam Sandler in “Click” (June 23); Meryl Streep as an all-powerful fashionista in “The Devil Wears Prada” (June 30); and Will Ferrell in another car movie, “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” (Aug. 4).

Not that the romantic pairings lack for marquee appeal: Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston star in “The Break-Up” (June 2), ironically, the film that reportedly brought them together; Uma Thurman and Luke Wilson coexist in “My Super Ex-Girlfriend” (July 21), as do Michelle Pfeiffer and Paul Rudd in Amy Heckerling’s “I Could Never Be Your Woman” (July 28). There’s even a potential threesome in the well-named Owen Wilson-Kate Hudson-Matt Dillon film “You, Me and Dupree” (July 14).

The season’s best name, however, belongs to the self-explanatory “Snakes on a Plane” (Aug. 18). Now that’s a summer movie title.

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-- Kenneth Turan