This July there’s no shortage of fun summer movies coming
out, which makes the dark and disturbing ones all the more dark and disturbing.
I’m not sure how I managed to do this but I did not read The BFG in grammar school. I remember my
classmates reading it and we all said BFG stood for Big Fat Guy and thought
that was hilarious, so yeah, I never got around to reading it. Apparently it
stands for Big Friendly Giant, so we were 1 for 3, and it is indeed about a
giant who is friendly. But he is an outcast because, and remember this is a
children’s story, he doesn’t eat children. People love this book and it’s
directed by Steven Spielberg, so this one might be a pretty darn good nostalgic
tear jerker.
Much like the little engine, The Purge series is the little action/horror series that could.
Made on a small budget the first one takes place on ‘Purge’ night, a night
where all crime is legal and many, many people commit horrible crimes -
legally. The first one is primarily a small, home invasion thriller. It made a
lot of money on a small budget and since the Saw series had run its course, the industry, and viewers, needed a
new [SR1] low
budget series that yielded big results in theaters. So The Purge: Anarchy was made. This time it was focused on one man,
only known as Sergeant, who tries to survive the night while gunning for the
man who killed his son. Each film touches on the fact that the rich stay
protected in their homes while the poor are left to fend for themselves on the
street. The Purge: Election Year
brings back Sergeant who is now in charge of security for a presidential
nominee who wants to do away with the Purge. As with any presidential nominees
big claims she is met with resistance and the group in charge of the Purge wants
to do away with her and thus begins another violent night out on the streets on
Purge night. You know what you’re getting into when watching these films. They’re
fast and brutal and most certainly not for everyone.
I like the idea of a film beginning in the middle of a story.
It’s an interesting approach but ultimately it’s just a set up for prequels and
we all know how Star Wars wound
up. In The Legend of Tarzan our titular hero, Alexander Skarsgard, has put
his limb swinging days behind him and is living in London but hears word of a
mining job that disrupts his old home and goes off to save the day. I was
initially very uninterested but the trailer for this is pretty cool, the cast
is great and it’s by the director of several Harry Potter films (the mature darker ones, not the yay we’re kids
and we can do magic ones) so tonally this might be a darker themed film. It’s
also got Christoph Waltz in it and he just doesn’t know how to act poorly.
I’m a dog owner now so I’m now more likely to see a
movie like The Secret Life of Pets,
which is about an adventure pets embark (get it, bark) on when one of their
group goes missing. Originally I thought it was just about pets hanging out at
home while humans go to work, but I guess all of these goofy cartoons need to
have a conspiracy subplot and that’s fine. The biggest selling point is from
the trailer when a snooty dog owner leaves for the day and once he is out of
the house the dog promptly turns on a System of a Down song and rocks out. If
that part was just shot for the trailer and doesn’t wind up in the movie, I
will be disappointed.
If there was ever a time to make a raunchy comedy starring
Anna Kendrick, Zac Efron, Aubrey Plaza and Adam Devine now is that time. They’re
on the top of their game right now so they might as well have some fun before
they either become character actors or have to do serious acting gigs. In Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, Efron
and Devine play hard partying brothers who are asked by their sister to find
proper wedding dates for her wedding. They have a history of going overboard at
family events so they promise to try and think they’ve found perfect dates,
Kendrick and Plaza. When they get to Hawaii for the wedding they soon realize
they’ve been tricked and Kendrick and Plaza are even harder partiers than Efron
and Devine. I’m sure it all just gets more ridiculous and more R-rated from
there.
It’s been a while since we’ve had a Viggo Mortensen movie
right? He was a character actor in the 90’s, then became very popular with the Lord of the Rings films but since then
he’s taken on smaller projects and Captain
Fantastic is no different. Viggo plays a father who has raised six kids in
isolation in the Pacific Northwest to be physically fit and very smart. When
they are forced from their home they are not at all prepared for the real world
because today in the real world being smart and in good shape doesn’t mean
you’ll be successful. Kind of sad but that seems to be the point in what looks
to be a poignant, charming little movie.
Every time there’s a reboot there’s going to be people who
are against it, so it comes as no surprise that there is a large amount of disdain
surrounding Ghostbusters - a reboot of a film that everyone I know
enjoys. Some people just don’t like it when you remake/reboot a classic and
that I can understand. But some pretend to feel that same way but really
they’re just sexist jerks, since this time around the Ghostbusters are females.
It’s from the same people that made Bridesmaids,
The Heat and Spy, one of my favorite movies from last year so I’m looking
forward to it. I do wish that it was a continuation from the original story and
not a total reboot, but the cast is great and the ghosts look freaky so I’m
thinking I’ll enjoy this one.
I forget just how busy an actor John Leguizamo is, but
looking at his film credits he has had a small role in lots of movies that I’ve
seen -some pretty recent ones, too - and he’s been busy as Sid the Sloth in the
Ice Age series (which I’ll get to in
a little bit). He’ll also have a supporting, and hopefully bigger than usual,
role in The Infiltrator. The film
stars Bryan Cranston, an actor who gets a lot of well-deserved praise, as an
undercover customs agent who’s tracking the money flowing to and the drugs
flowing from Pablo Escobar. We’re over-due for a well-made, well-produced,
period piece true crime story so I have high hopes for this, as long as the
story is kept interesting and it doesn’t become a depressing mess or an over
the top action film that so many drug dramas turn into.
Now that J.J. Abrams has left the Star Trek universe and joined the Star Wars universe, we can expect some different things in Star Trek Beyond, the first installment
in the newly rebooted franchise. I didn’t mind the 2nd, but it sort
of lived up to the ’Into Darkness’ subtitle
so I believe this one will be lighter and more fun. It’s from the mastermind
Justin Lin (I recognize that I’m over editorializing here) that turned the Fast and Furious series into the giant
that it is today. This time around the crew of the USS Enterprise gets stranded
on an alien planet and must survive the elements. Kirk must round up his crew
and fight a whole new enemy. It sounds vague but the trailer and available
descriptions don’t give a lot of information. It will be the first of many films
to come out featuring Anton Yelchin after his unfortunate passing, so that
might take a toll on the tone, but the producers did make a wise choice and gave
Scotty, Simon Pegg, a shot at co-writing the screenplay. Since he helped make Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, I’m thinking we’ll have a good
time at the movies.
In the first Ice Age,
the film not the actual age, the creators apparently reached out to the
American Museum of Natural History so there might be some accuracy in the
depiction of the creatures and environments shown in the film. That’s a nice
bit of effort put forth for a kid's movie right? Well after 4 movies they’ve
given up on accuracy because now in the 5th (did you know they made
that many?!) entry in the series, Ice Age
Collision Course, the little acorn chasing creature featured in all of the
films blasts off to space somehow and begins a world ending event. It’s wild
that given enough time many film series nowadays will eventually deal with a
world ending event. So now that the world is in danger Ray Romano, Denis Leary
and John Leguizamo have to save the day. Yay. I haven’t seen any of these since
the first one.
Is everyone afraid of the dark or is that just something I,
and many movie producers, assume to be true? Well those movie producers are
banking on it with Lights Out,
another film that deals with a creature that attacks when the, well I’m sure
you can guess. A sister and brother are tortured by a being that appears once
the lights are out, it is somehow connected to their mother. They need to
figure out why this thing is attacking them - and keep the lights on. The
trailer for this is super creepy so if you’re looking for some good jump scares,
I think this is the movie.
Mike Birbiglia is on a real short list of comedians I’ve
seen live so I think the fact that he also makes movies is pretty cool. His
first one was Sleepwalk with Me,
which was a sort of docu-comedy about his standup career, his relationships and
his battle with sleepwalking. It’s real charming and funny. He’s again writing,
acting and directing in Don’t Think Twice,
a comedy about an improv group and the one member who goes on to make it big. I
really like the cast they have for this one. It’s got Birbiglia, Keegan-Michael
Key, Kate Micucci and Gillian Jacobs. It might not get a wide release but I
think this one is worth finding.
Mila Kunis and Kristen Bell were stars of two T.V. shows I
loved and starred in Forgetting Sarah
Marshall, but they weren’t friends in that one. Fortunately in Bad Moms they do play friends. The two
of them join Kathryn Hahn as fed up, over-worked mothers who haven’t had a good
time in a long time and decided to let loose and party. This goes against
stereotypes and angers the PTA leader, Christina Applegate, and well, it’s from
the writer of The Hangover, so I
imagine things escalate to comically over the top levels.
After 3 pretty cool movies and one not starring him, Matt
Damon has returned to his action franchise with Jason Bourne and so has Julia Stiles. I always forget she’s in
these movies. Bourne suffers amnesia and cannot fully remember his past as a
government agent, so he digs deeper and deeper and every stone he turns reveals
yet another secret, along with some hired killer trying to stop him. He always
manages to escape and find out more secrets about his past - and anger another
government organization. These movies are pretty unique in that the style of
action is quick cuts, but it actually looks good. The actors, directors and
editors really put together cool movies and even after all of these years Damon,
looks like the action star we always forget he is.
