july movies

The 3rd rendition of Spider-Man! A new attacking human’s movie! A Christopher Nolan War movie! Another huge sci-fi adventure! An 80's set action flick! A movie that will make you wonder if there are any original ideas left in the world of film!

If you ever wonder why producers are so quick to reboot/remake superhero movies here is my uneducated, unofficial answer: with the right team, cast and marketing every superhero film has the chance to make a billion dollars. How could you pass up that opportunity? Even if the last Spider-Man film was a critical failure and a domestic financial disappointment (made $202 mil, cost 200 mil) it's still worth making another one to try and hit that billion mark. Fortunately Sony, who owns the rights to Spider-Man, saw the writing on the wall, made a deal with Marvel and we the viewer get Spider-Man: Homecoming. After our friendly neighborhood webslinger popped up in Captain America: Civil War, he has to go back to high school. He fought alongside and against some of the world’s most powerful superheroes and he's supposed to just go back to school? Well he has a bit of a problem with that so when a weapons developer (Michael Keaton!!!) gets his hands on alien weaponry and starts messing up NYC, Spidey comes to help. He's still a kid though, and needs help from Tony Stark/Iron Man to save the day. The director has made some small thrillers and this is a big next step. He also worked for The Onion and the writing team has worked on several big comedies and TV shows. The cast also has its fair share of funny people so while the action is why people are going to come, I'm pretty sure the sense of humor will be pretty great too.

The original Planet of the Apes series went in a very different direction than this new series. It involved nuclear weapons and time travel. We're not there in this current series, not yet anyway. After Dawn and Rise, we are now at the War of the Planet of the Apes. The words 'of the' are very popular among movie titles and, barring the wordy titles of the Lord of the Rings movies, this is one of the only other time it's shown up two times, But I'm sure some satire will come out called 'Silence of the Pirates of the Shaun of the Raiders of the Return of the Masters of the Clash of the Apes’. But for now let's see how the War turns out. It's been years since James Franco and Tyler Labine wiped out most of human civilization (watch the first movie) and now the survivors are in a constant battle to remain on top of the food chain. There's some human-ape sympathy but for the most part there is tension and fighting between the two. Woody Harrelson (who is just so darn good at being very dramatic, very funny and very intense when he wants to be) is the leader of an army of humans leading the charge against the apes and their leader Caesar, played once again by Andy Serkis. These films tend to be lots of drama that leads up to a big action finale and being that this is called War, I figure this one won't be different - but it'll probably be exciting.

Christopher Nolan has made films about disorders, magic, space travel, dreams and three movies featuring a character named Batman. After nearly two decades and many hit films he finally has his first war film, Dunkirk. When Allied Forces found themselves surrounded by German forces, they had a very intense battle ahead of them. The battle was fought on land, sea and the air and rather than focusing on one group, Nolan is focusing on all fronts. Tom Hardy will be the pilot we see fight in the air, Mark Rylance will play a civilian who ventures into the battle to help evacuate soldiers and Harry Styles, that kid from One Direction, will play a young soldier on the ground. Nolan loves film and loved practical effects, at one point he wanted to destroy an actual WW2 plane for a scene. This film will most likely be exciting, moving and look great.

The Fifth Element is one of my favorite movies. My wife and I love it so much we named our dog after the lead character. I'm a huge fan and I was very excited when the director, Luc Besson, decided to make another big space adventure. Between Guardians and Star Wars, I'm afraid that American audiences are all spaced out but I still have high hopes, quality wise, for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Valerian, Dane Dehaan, and Laureline,Cara Delevingne, are a pair of government agents sent to the planet of Alpha where representatives of all planets come together in harmony and work together for the better of the galaxy. So of course someone wants to ruin that and the pair must find out who before all is lost. Every movie should stand on its own, but I would be very happy if Fifth Element heavily influenced Valerian and judging by the trailers, that looks to be the case. There are flying vehicles, musical numbers, action galore and weird looking creatures. I can't wait.

Brad Pitt has done a few action movies and we've seen him fight before, well it was all an illusion! Thanks to his stuntman, David Leitch, he has never been in any actual danger of getting punched by Ed Norton. After years of taking Pitt’s punches, he joined forces with the guy that takes Keanu Reeves punches and the two made John Wick - and the action world rejoiced. Leitch was uncredited, probably due to SAG rules, but now he is the sole and credited director for the new Charlize Theron action film Atomic Blonde - and I'm pretty sure the action world will rejoice again. Theron's action career has really taken off since Mad Max: Fury Road, where she totally stole the show. She didn't have much to do in F8 of the Furious but, judging by the trailer, she will have a lot to do in this 80's Berlin Cold War action thriller where she goes undercover with James McAvoy to save the lives of fellow agents. The story could be thin, or it could be complex, but it's the action I'm looking forward to. The key here is long-take action scenes, the days of quick cut
Jason Bourne action is over. John Goodman also appears, he's usually entertaining especially in an action film that doesn't take itself too seriously.

Sir Patrick Stewart is a respected actor of film, television and stage. In The Emoji Movie he'll be voicing the Poop emoji because why the heck not? The film posits that in our phones exists a world called Textopolis where all of the Emoji's live waiting to be used. Looking through the emoji's on my phone I think I've used like 2% of them. I mostly stick with the smiley two handed wave, beer and heart eyes emojis, so my Textopolis would be more of a ghost town. In this town lives Gene, an emoji of many expressions. Gene, voiced by T.J. Miller, wants to be normal and only have one expression like all of the rest. Along with his best friend Hi-5 (who would probably be everyone's best friend) they travel through the apps on the phone to find a way to become one singular expression. I'm sure the producers didn't have to put up any of their own money, the movie was probably completely funded by all of the apps wanting to get in on the movie game. It worked for Angry Birds, after all.  Steven Wright is the Meh emoji. Now that's perfect casting.