Peter Mucha: Welcome, movie fans. Here's your chance to pick the brains of Inquirer critic Steven Rea. I'm an Inquirer online editor and a movie fan myself (a requirement, I believe, these days for proving your citizenship).

Steven Rea: Over $4 billion dollars in ticket sales, 16 titles that crossed the $100 million mark -- Hollywood has enjoyed a record summer. Never mind the doom and gloom of a few seasons back: people are flocking to the multiplexes, and judging by the success of a spate of sequels and three-quels (Spidey, Pirates, Rush Hour), audiences are coming away happy.

Peter Mucha: But did you come away happy?

Steven Rea: Yes and no. I was happy that extreme horror titles, like Hostel 2, tanked, and I was glad for the large spate of alternative and arthouse fare (Michael Moore's Sicko, 2 Days in Paris, the alarming Iraq War doc, No End in Sight). But most of the big summer "event" pics, the so-called tentpoles, were overstuffed, overcooked and just, well, over. Big exception: The Bourne Ultimatum. Smart, masterful espionage action. Tony Gilroy, its screenwriter, makes his directing debut this fall with the George Clooney starrer Michael Clayton, and I can't wait!

Peter Mucha: I really enjoyed Bourne Ultimatum. Nice to see an action movie without comic book-based characters. But overall, every summer, I have this sense that everything is so over-the-top, it's tough to be truly thrilled anymore. Or is it that storytelling has taken too much of a backseat to special effects?

Steven Rea: Special effects, market research, product placement, miscast "talent" -- all take a backseat to good ol' storytelling. Happily, this was also the Summer of Apatow. Judd Apatow, that is, who wrote and directed the raunchy but sweet Knocked Up and godfathered the raunchy and sweet, teen buddy booze- and-babes odyssey, Superbad. Those two films really set the studio bean counters' eyes popping, because they were low-budget, no-star affairs with huge returns at the box office. In the end, his movies will prove more profitable than Spider-Man 3.

Peter Mucha: That's great. Because some of my favorite films are just studies in character and culture ... with quirky storylines. Like Groundhog Day or Waking Ned Devine or Oh, Brother. Still, as an action movie fan, I do think it's part oversaturation. If this summer's thrill-a-minute rides were released back in the 80s, they'd have wowed everybody no end.

Steven Rea: The bar gets set higher every time. I just saw Shoot 'Em Up, with Clive Owen as a guns-ablazing antihero and Paul Giamatti as this unapologetically creepy bad guy, and the stunts and action and unbelievably over-the-top gunplay practically scream, "See if you can top this, Tarantino!" On another note, let's also mark the flops of summer, mostly deserving: Evan Almighty, Arctic Tale (even with Starbucks as a marketing partner), Daddy Day Camp, No Reservations, Invasion ... all uninspired, and audiences could sense 'em coming.

Peter Mucha: Yeah, more duds there than in the presidential candidates debates. What else did you find noteworthy?

Steven Rea: More duds than a box of Milk Duds! I also want to sing the praises of Ratatouille, which topped $200 million in ticket sales and has to be one of the best things to come out of the Pixar animation studios ever (and that's saying a lot). Smart, funny, eye-poppingly beautiful, and a clever ommentary on food culture, the artistic process and criticism -- and with a hero who's a little French rat. Bravo!

Peter Mucha: How many of the threequals will spawn a fourquel? And who’s a better actor, Jessica Alba, Alberto Gonzales or Sen. Larry Craig? and does anyone care?

Steven Rea: Everybody involved with the Bournes (well Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass, anyway) say no to a Bourne 4, but I wouldn't rule one out. And I'll bet Rush-Hour 4 will happen, even though #3 seemed tired before Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker even got started. Well, Jessica Alba would be my nominee for Attorney General, no doubt about it..... Oh, another noteworthy picture, and a sequel that failed to grab its audience, sadly, was 28 Weeks Later..., which I thought was a terrific followup to the super-creepy pandemic zombie pic, 28 Days Later....It's too bad, too, because they left it open for a third one, set in Paris, and now, alas, that probably won't happen.

Frank: I just saw 3:10 to Yuma and, even though it's technically not a summer movie, it was terrific!

Steven Rea: I agree, Russell Crowe is great -- a wily ol' outlaw he, and director James Mangold updated the '50s original in intelligent, relevant ways. Great to see Peter Fonda on a horse, too, instead of a chopper.

John: Record year? Is it not true that attendance was actually well below record levels? By the way Once was my favorite of the summer.

Steven Rea: Hi John. You're right, ticket-price inflation definitely contributed to the record dollar take, but while the number of actual human beings entering the theaters wasn't a record, it was 6 per cent up over last year: 632.2 million admissions, according to Variety. Thanks for mentioning Once -- it IS terrific, it's lasted for months in theaters, one of the few true sleepers of the summer. Fox Searchlight is already gearing up for an Oscar campaign, so Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová's duets will be with us through the fall, too.

Peter Mucha: One last question, Steven. Besides those you've mentioned, any others well worth catching on DVD?

Steven Rea: Definitely: Rocket Science (teen coming of age comedy), Gypsy Caravan (world music concert doc), Rescue Dawn (true-life Vietnam War-era escape/survival thriller), and Broken English (Zoe Cassavetes' debut, with a wonderful Parker Posey as a loveless New Yorker).

Peter Mucha: That'll liven up some Netflix lists. Thanks, Steven, for the insights. Look forward to reading your reviews in The Inquirer or online.