The summer movie season is usually considered the most fun time of the year for films. The kids are out of school, and Hollywood is only too happy to offer up movies they can badger Mom and Dad into seeing over and over again.

Of course, there are also plenty of big splashy movies for adults. With easily 100 movies to choose from opening in theaters from the start of May through Labor Day, it’s hard to know what’s worth seeing and what isn’t.

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Here are some of the standouts on the schedule:

“Captain America: Civil War” (May 6):
This superhero extravaganza is considered THE movie to kick off summer.  Not only does it bring together all of the Avengers and an array of new characters for upcoming Marvel movies, but it also deals with intriguing and surprisingly deep issues paralleling the war on terror, as the Avengers are torn into two factions: one that wants to continue operating without government oversight, led by Captain America, and the other side, which is willing to come under the thumb of the feds, led by Tony Stark (aka Iron Man).

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“The Nice Guys” (May 20):
Writer-director Shane Black reinvented the cop movie genre with his 1987 classic “Lethal Weapon,” and now he’s poised to shake up the genre again with this action comedy set in 1970s Los Angeles. Russell Crowe plays an illicit strongman-for-hire and Ryan Gosling plays a private eye who teams up with him to solve the murder of a washed-up porn star. The conspiracy that unfolds from there. Nobody makes two guys with guns feel funnier and fresher than Black.

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“Maggie’s Plan” (May 20):
It would be remiss to leave out an indie film in any top ten list, so we’re spotlighting this comedy about a young New Yorker who falls in love with a married professor, only to find that her plot to be with him goes way off track. The reason why this should be a must-see is its star Greta Gerwig, who has been lighting up the screen for the past six years in movies like “Mistress America,” “Frances Ha,” and “Lola Versus.” Luminescent, funny, beautiful and free-spirited, there’s no one quite like her in the movies today. Time to discover her.

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“Finding Dory” (June 17):
Fans of the original “Finding Nemo” movie have been begging for a sequel to that smash-hit 2003 sequel for more than a decade, and Ellen DeGeneres finally found enough time to record new lines for lead character Dory for this chapter in the story of animated life under the sea. This time, Nemo returns the favor by crossing the ocean to find Dory’s family.

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“Central Intelligence” (June 17):
In what looks like the summer’s funniest movie (unless “Ghostbusters” hits its potential), Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart team up for two hours of big-guy/little-guy jokes and comedic action scenes. Johnson used to be a geek in high school, but he returns to his reunion as a lean, mean fighting machine for the CIA and recruits his old enemy Hart for a mission in this movie directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, whose previous films “Dodgeball” and “We’re The Millers” are among the funniest movies of the 21st century so far.

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“The BFG” (July 1):
After a decade spent making historical dramas for adults such as “Lincoln,” “Bridge of Spies,” and “War Horse,” Steven Spielberg has finally remembered that everyone loves him most for being our most wondrous director of fantastical entertainments. He tackles Roald Dahl’s classic here, about a little girl named Sophie who befriends a Big Friendly Giant after he becomes an outcast for refusing to eat children. The awe-inspiring trailer and release date on the 4th of July weekend bodes well for this to be incredible fun for everyone.

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“Ghostbusters” (July 15):
Probably no other movie this summer has the hype and the controversy that this female-driven reboot of the 1984 sci-fi/comedy classic has drawn. That’s because this time around, the Ghostbusters are all women, and sadly its amazing cast of Melissa McCarthy, Kristin Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones not only have to do battle onscreen with a supernatural attack on New York City, but also offscreen with the ridiculous mentality that women can’t be as funny as men. The first preview was a mess, however, with an overabundance of CGI ghosts and creatures and a dearth of laughs, but with director Paul Feig at the helm after his smash hits “Bridesmaids,” “The Heat,” and “Spy,” this still has a shot at being a rollicking good time.

“The Infiltrator” (July 15):
After six seasons of playing high school teacher turned drug kingpin Walter White on “Breaking Bad,” Bryan Cranston must have wanted to mix things up a little. So this time, he stars in the true story of a federal agent who went deep undercover to break into drug kingpin Pablo Escobar’s 1980s empire. With Cranston bringing his trademark intensity to a story that had even higher stakes than anything that happened to Walter, this should be a real treat for fans of suspenseful filmmaking, where the truth is stranger than fiction.

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“Jason Bourne” (July 29):
Matt Damon appeared to die at the end of “The Bourne Ultimatum” in 2007, but the filmmakers wisely left him floating in water so it could be ambiguous enough to believe it if his character returned. While Jason continues to battle his impaired memory of his superspy days, Matt Damon apparently remembered that he could get a fat paycheck by coming back and saving the world from another second-rate offshoot with Jeremy Renner.

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“The Founder” (Aug. 5):
Some expect this recounting of how Ray Kroc turned McDonald’s into a global fast-food phenomenon and the dirty business deal that started the empire to be a critique of capitalism, but director John Lee Hancock is the man behind “The Blind Side” and “Saving Mr. Banks,” two of the most family-friendly and positive films of the past several years. Michael Keaton continues his amazing comeback after “Birdman” and “Spotlight” to take on Kroc, and the result looks like a Big Mac-sized shot at an Oscar with a side of Golden Globe.

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