The current issue of Rolling Stone features Peter Travers' Summer Movie Preview, a look at the "money season" where studios dredge up stale sequels and prequels for desperate moviegoers trying to beat the heat. His prediction: despite the recession, this will be the biggest summer ever in box office receipts. Pick up the magazine for his full reports, and click above to watch his special edition of At the Movies, where he breaks down the five must-sees, and five flicks with a bad vibe.

Plus, get a look at his quick take on 24 of the season's biggest flicks — from Harry Potter to Taking Woodstock — plus shots from the films in our Summer Movie Preview 2009 gallery.

The Good:

Public Enemies: Michael Mann's July 1st film in which Johnny Depp portrays 1930s gangster John Dillinger. One of Travers' favorite directors teams with the red-hot Depp and Christian Bale.

Brüno: How could Sacha Baron Cohen top Borat? Who's crazy enough to not watch him play a gay Austrian designer?

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This week, Peter Travers boldly goes where all critics are soon headed: the new Star Trek movie. There have been 10 ST films and many iterations of the TV show, which could lead to Trek fatigue — but Lost's J.J. Abrams has made something spectacular: the summer blockbuster Wolverine should have been. The movie is an origin story that tracks James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Mr. Spock (Zachary Quinto) as they are just starting their careers. Winona Ryder is solid as Spock's human mother (OMFG, says Travers about the casting), but Pine and Quinto are standouts. And Quinto manages to utter "Live long and prosper" as a "screw-you salute." The plot was penned by the writers of Transformers, and the casting and look of the film work well. Ultimately, the film allows fans to look at all the characters again for the first time, finding new life in them. And Travers was even touched by a moment of true friendship in the film — "If you can get moved by a movie that's filled with explosions, something is being done right," he says.

So what's the trick to learning the Vulcan salute? Quinto gave Travers a few tips.

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Broadway made it feelings felt this morning with a whopping 15 Tony nominations, including Best Musical, for Billy Elliot, Elton John's song-and-dance version of the 2000 film of the same name about a British lad with a talent for ballet that doesn't go over too big in a town of burly coal miners. Loved the movie, but I felt let down by the clanking, charmless stage version despite the critical raves and now the validating Tony nods that tie the nomination record with Mel Brooks' The Producers. Billy is a huge hit, and good for business. Unlike, say, [title of show], a small gem of a musical that closed in October after playing 13 previews and 102 performances. The show was original, had no Hollywood roots and no marketing budget, but its imagination soared. [title of show] deserved much more than one nomination for Hunter Bell in the category of Best Book of Musical. What about the music and lyrics by Jeff Bowen, and the four terrific lead performances by Bell, Bowen, Susan Blackwell and Heidi Blickenstaff? Aren't the Tonys, under the auspices of the American Theatre Wing, meant to reward art and screw commerce? Let's look at the facts:

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Photo: Michael Muller

X-Men Origins: Wolverine, clawed by the critics, took the box-office crown with $87 million. It's a sharp number, given the pirated copy in circulation on the Web and the swine flu that threatened to (but didn't) keep audiences away from crowded theaters. The studio says it only expected a $70 million debut from Wolfie, and WOW isn't $87 million great, and blah blah blah. That's all spin. Yes, $87 million is a sweet take, but Iron Man opened at $102 million in the same spot last summer, drawing younger audiences. So let's not get too carried away. Variety reports that women made up 47% of the audience, and generally gave the film a higher score than men. So never discount the Hugh Jackman factor with the ladies, unless he's in a movie that doesn't have an "X" in it. If it's Australia, Deception, Scoop or The Fountain, the gals head for the hills or some other hunk's movie. But let's stick with the "X" spot for today. I have two questions:

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