Winter is the time of year for serious films. Heavy dramas that make you think. Summer, on the other hand, is for lighter movies. Movies that don’t make you use your brain too much, that are all about fun.

Which brings me to “Six Days, Seven Nights.” This movie is the cinematic equivalent of a rice crispy treat. They’re just empty calories and without much to them. Rice crispy treats are just basically marshmallows and rice crispies, full of air. But they sure are good, aren’t they?

Harrison Ford stars … I’ll stop right there for a second. After a statement like that, do I really need to give you another reason to see this? Ford is the absolute definition of the term “movie star.” In the dictionary next to the word “movie star,” there is just a picture of him.

Here, Ford stars as Quinn Harris, a roguish charter pilot living in a tropical paradise. For a guy in his mid-fifties, Ford looks amazing. When I get to be his age, I hope I look half as good as he does. Hell, I wish I looked half as good as he does right now. Maybe then I could get a date.

Anne Heche costars as Robin Monroe, a smart, independent magazine editor on vacation with her boyfriend (David Schwimmer).

Because Heche is half of Hollywood’s most famous lesbian couple, she’s been getting a lot of attention for playing the female lead in “Six Days, Seven Nights.” Will people accept her in this romantic role? Here’s some advice for people wondering that: it’s called acting. Get over the lesbian thing.

Robin hires Quinn to fly her to Tahiti, and faster than you can say “a three hour tour,” a huge storm comes up and the two are stranded on a desert isle. Or is that deserted isle? What difference does it make, right? (I’m sure I’ll now get a couple letters from English majors with nothing better to do than correct my grammar. I always do.)

Anyway, you can pretty much fill in the rest of the plot for yourself, since it isn’t terribly complicated. Robin and Quinn try desperately to get off the island, and romance ensues. Then the pirates show up. Yes, pirates, as in “Arrrrrgh matey.” Complete with bottle of rum.

What makes this movie worth watching is the chemistry between Ford and Heche and their funny, sparring dialogue. This movie is kind of like a cross between “Moonlighting” and “Gilligan’s Island.” In fact, you can pick some plot elements lifted from specific episodes of “Gilligan.”

Early in “Six Days, Seven Nights” Ford has a fabulous and hysterical drunk scene. He is thoughtful and philosophical in a bombed out of his gourd sort of way. Similarly, Heche has a funny scene in the plane when her character has snacked on a few too many Zantacs.

There are little bits like those all through the movie. Moments where you’ll laugh out loud. There are also some tense, exciting moments.

There’s nothing in this movie that will change your life. It won’t stay with you long. But it is a great way to kill a couple hours and have some fun. It may be fluff, but it’s extremely likeable fluff.

Sure, I could complain about the formulaic set-up, the thin premise and the high predictability in “Six Days, Seven Nights.” But if I was going to do that, I might as well start complaining about the lack of nutritional value in a rice crispy treat.

4 stars out of five

Mike Milik is a senior in advertising from West Des Moines.