Your house is losing value, gas is outrageous, and let's not even talk about the price of groceries.

But at least one major industry is doing its best to give cash-strapped Americans their money's worth in these tough economic times. One summer movie blockbuster after another has been offering more bang for your inflated ticket buck, and more after that.

This is nothing new - Hollywood was not built on its sense of tasteful restraint - but it does seem more prevalent, and desperate, than ever this year. And in some cases, spoiled types that we are, Americans haven't necessarily responded with all-consuming gratitude.

"Summer movie audiences demand larger-than-life action, over-the-top stunts and special effects, impossible heroics, and outrageous jokes - it's why we go to see summer movies," observes Chuck Walton, managing editor for the movie ticketing Web site Fandango.com.

"Having said that, I'm not sure that movies are more over-the-top this summer than in summers past, but it's true that audiences have responded most favorably to the things they want to see."

I'd argue with Walton's first conclusion. Although 2008 hasn't yet dropped the kind of more-More-MORE masterwork that last year's "Transformers" represented, half a dozen of this summer's films clearly strove to copy that style of ultra-excess.

"Speed Racer" seemed to boast an average of 17 digital effects per frame. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" went, literally, nuclear, and that was before the main story, with its high-speed jungle chase, Shia of the Apes tree-swinging, triple-waterfall plunge and the alien earth-moving extravaganza, even got started.

In "You Don't Mess With the Zohan," Adam Sandler's Israeli commando not only had superhuman powers, he had superpotent sexual prowess that he happily shared with a parade of babes and great-grandmothers. And he discovered the path to Middle East peace with an equally cartoonish and ultra-powerful Arab terrorist.

Mike Myers' "The Love Guru" wasn't super (in any sense of the term), but his manic, anything-for-a-life attitude and arsenal of juvenile sex jokes - culminating with elephants coupling in an arena full of hockey fans - rivaled Sandler's film.

Meanwhile, the marching orders behind "The Incredible Hulk" reboot were to avoid any of that nasty, contemplative stuff that "ruined" Ang Lee's "Hulk" five years ago, and instead focus on the spectacle imperative of "Hulk smash!" Bullets get smashed by other bullets, and can fly around solid objects to hit their intended targets, in "Wanted." Cars, trains and people also perform physically impossible, visually pumped-up feats every minute or so in the R-rated assassin fantasy ... which also includes a beyond-grotesque boss from hell who gets hers in one of the wildest office freak-out fantasies ever filmed.

Walton is right about audiences going for what they want, though. Of the six films mentioned above, only "Wanted" seems to be outperforming box-office expectations. "Speed Racer" and "Love Guru" were spectacular flops. The highly anticipated Indy film, though a mighty moneymaker, was supposed to be the slam-dunk biggest hit of the year; it only limped past the $300 million domestic gross mark this week, and it's still lagging embarrassingly behind "Iron Man" for the top cumulative box-office spot and may not surpass it.

"Zohan" should also make decent money, but it's on course to being the lowest-attended of Sandler's flat-out comedies since "Little Nicky" way back in 2000. And speaking of attendance: "Incredible's" reboot may not even surpass that of "Hulk's," which grossed $132 million five years ago when ticket prices were cheaper.

The season's most favorable responses, on the other hand, have so far gone to movies that emphasize the relatively low-key virtues of writing, acting, design and more traditional forms of craftsmanship.

"Iron Man," a superhero film that spends more screen time on engineering than on action, has been the No. 1 hit of the season for two solid months. The cartoon "Kung Fu Panda" was praised for its painterly visuals and for eschewing the culture-reference-joke-a-minute style of most current animated features; it's on track to become DreamWorks' top-earning non-"Shrek" CGI release.

When they both opened over the weekend of June 20, "Get Smart" slaughtered "Love Guru," $38.7 million to $14 million. The films were neither very good nor very funny, But Steve Carell's understated deadpan energy and Anne Hathaway's solid character work made "Smart" seem less antic, better - ahem - controlled and, well, actually funnier.

"Hard to believe, but maybe the audience is getting a little burned out on that over-the-top," notes Matt Atchity, editor in chief of Rotten Tomatoes, an Internet site that aggregates movie reviews from print and cyberspace sources. "The ridiculousness of even just the concept of something like 'Zohan' or `'The Love Guru' may be turning some off.

"`Speed Racer' is another example. Ultimately, the story didn't grab enough people, and when you go over the top with the presentation, it becomes more of something people don't want to see."

But what are aspiring blockbuster-makers to do? Big-budget comedies and action films are huge investments that, during the summer months at least, are in cutthroat competition with one another to attract viewers and their now-shrinking entertainment dollars. And like the new media, such as video games and the Internet, that producers have long complained also competes for their youthful core audience, filmmakers are not necessarily wrong to believe that anything that will draw attention to their product is worth doing. Noisier, flashier, cruder and packed with more stuff theoretically accomplishes that goal.

"Without a lot of big scenes, an action movie is just a thriller with a few pieces of action thrown in, isn't it?" reckons "Wanted" star James McAvoy. "You've got to live up to your market and your publicity and all of that stuff. There's a lot of pressure on these guys who compete for the big stakes. If that means more action for a greater thrill or more outrageous comedy, then so be it."

And quantity doesn't necessarily negate quality. While the power fantasy was reviled by some, many critics praised "Wanted's" loony ultra-stylishness. Of the few who saw "Speed Racer," a substantial number have adamantly defended its visionary digital artistry against those who just see cinematic motion sickness. "Sex and the City" clearly wallowed in a kind of excess different from other summer movies', but it was obviously just what its target audience longed to indulge in.

It's even possible that over-the-top and the art of cinema can co-exist. The Batman sequel "The Dark Knight," opening July 18, bursts with amazing action, go-for-broke performances, multiple character arcs and drawn-out storytelling - and I'm hardly the only critic who thinks it's the best movie of 2008 by a mile.

"It really does all boil down to whether you can get the audience to go for the core of your idea," Rotten Tomatoes' Atchity says. "You have to have something that appeals to people; then you can take it to the next level."

-- Bob Strauss