April movies include a few keepers

March 28, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

By Rafer Guzman

Newsday

With April coming up, we’re heading into the pre-summer movie months, or what the tourism trade would call the “shoulder season.” The weather is nice, but the crowds are still thin, and there isn’t much happening in town.

Still, this is a good time to travel to the multiplex.

You probably don’t have to worry about sold-out shows (except maybe for “Titanic” in 3-D), and if you hunt around, you might make a few pleasant discoveries.

The animated “Pirates! Band of Misfits” (due April 27) could have some clever jokes — the curvy character dubbed “Aye Candy” is a good one. “Lockout” (April 13), a sci-fi actioner starring Guy Pearce, comes from writer Luc Besson, who’s almost always good for a guilty pleasure (“The Fifth Element”). And for the weepy crowd, there’s “The Lucky One” (April 20), another Nicholas Sparks (“The Notebook”) adaptation, starring Zac Efron as a really cute soldier.

Here’s what else April has to offer:

“American Reunion” (April 6): You know you’re getting old when the cast of “American Pie” is entering the high-school reunion stage. At least Eugene Levy is still alive to play Jason Biggs’ lovable dad, so we don’t have to face mortality quite yet. With Seann William Scott and Tara Reid.

“Titanic 3-D” (April 6): Though “John Carter” stiffed at the box office, it proved that 3-D conversions don’t all have to look as lousy as “Clash of the Titans.” That has made this buzzed-about re-release something of a moot point, but expect Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet to bring back the crowds to James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster.

“The Three Stooges” (April 13): Trailers for this long-gestating Farrelly Brothers project look abysmal, with cartoonish eye-gouging, head-bonking and few new ideas. Sean Hayes, as the relatively dry-witted Larry (aka “the gentlest Stooge”) may be the film’s best hope.

“Chimpanzee” (April 20): The latest Disneynature documentary focuses on cute little Oscar, orphaned in the jungle (a Disney tradition). It also captures what is apparently a rarity in chimp societies: his adoption by a male guardian. Who says guys can’t be good parents?

“The Raven” (April 27): In this dark thriller, John Cusack turns Edgar Allan Poe into a sleuth hunting a serial killer who likes Poe’s fiction a little too much. James McTeigue (“V for Vendetta”) directs.

“Safe” (April 27): After hobnobbing with Robert De Niro and Clive Owen in “Killer Elite,” Jason Statham heads back to the trash-action trenches as Luke Wright, a hard-luck cage fighter caught in a crime-gang war. Boaz Yakin (1990’s “The Rookie”) directs.