Hey, did you hear Brendan Fraser is getting work again? Yeah, he’s gonna be in this awesome family comedy where he’s a real-estate developer chopping down a forest for housing and the animals are like, “Awww naw!” And then they beat the hell out of him and he learns the meaning of faux-environmentalism.

Yes, it certainly seems like we’ve entered a period in the history of film where ideas haven’t just stagnated, they’ve fermented and are running at about 120 proof. But like a good liquor, this April does offer some chances for enjoyment and excitement as well as regret.

Aside from the cinematic tour-de-force the aforementioned “Furry Vengeance” with Fraser is promised to be, three films are on my radar this month as an illustration of what modern movies are and hopefully can be. And then there’s one from Michael Bay.

First is “Clash of the Titans.” Everyone’s soon-to-be favorite Australian, Sam Worthington — minus the giant blue “Avatar” effects — is leaping off 3-D screens this week and unleashing as much awe as studios can buy with $70 million. I’m actually excited for this one, as it seems to be a film where the drunken and randy suits running film companies just threw up their hands and said, “Hey, here’s a slow spot in our spring lineup. Put something with violence in there.”

It won’t be intellectually challenging or revolutionary. It will be exciting, and if it can capture the goofy-yet-mythic vibe of “300,” then I’ll get my 3-D ticket price’s worth.

Also, any film where Liam Neeson gets to say, “Release the kraken,” has to have something going for it. Things that awesome are what established his career.

Onto our next item: Admit it, you’re going to see “Kick-Ass.” I’m going to, and it’s because it’s a movie that looks like it gets, well, gets “it.”

It gets genre conventions, it gets the way our entertainment is bleeding over into our social definitions and it gets how inexplicably funny it is to see Nicholas Cage’s blonde moustache peeking out from beneath his batman cowl. If the trailers indicate the mood of the film accurately, this one is a self-aware film in a time where awareness of so many things has gone out of vogue.

And it has McLovin. With a gun. It’s moments like that, which make me proud to be an American.

Next up, “The Losers.”

Most comic-book movies, of necessity, modify their subject matter and come up with a product that loses the soul of the original work. “The Dark Knight” avoided this remarkably and was a smash hit. “The Losers” is set to do it again. There’s something about lovable misfits — most all of whom seem to be played by lookalikes of Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp and Clive Owen — doing stupid things and finding serendipitous success. It’s a comic movie that understands the loud, off-beat nature of what comics embody.

I’m looking forward to it the same way I’m anticipating “Kick-Ass,” and if it’s true to the trailers, we’ll have a winner on our hands.

And of course, I can’t mention Hollywood’s offerings without a mention of Michael Bay. “Nightmare on Elm Street,” one of the earliest and best special-effects-driven modern horror films — until it spun out of Wes Craven’s hands — is being produced by Bay and thundering into theaters at the end of April.

But I have to ask, “Why?” None of the things that are suggested in the trailer are really all that scary. We flinch because we know that the scenes suggested here are going to involve mostly unlikable people meeting unspeakably brutal ends. If I drop a mouse in a blender and film it, I’m written up on charges — and rightfully so. If Bay and his studio lackeys set fire to an enormous pile of money and spend the better part of two hours finding new ways to kill via razor blades, the crime goes unheeded. If this were in 3-D it would be the perfect example of Hollywood excess, but alas the film has an audience.

I for one wish that audience luck. Someone has to keep Bay busy, otherwise he’ll go back to those talking car-robots and systematically destroying John Turturro’s soul.

Mark your calendars. Spring is here, and cinema is blossoming into, well, some sort of plant.

Alexander Hutchins is a junior in journalism and mass communication.