August

It's the end of the summer and there's certainly a variety of films to choose from.
 

I'm a big fan of Hook, where adult Peter Pan gets pulled back into Neverland, so I'm very curious about Christopher Robin. Similar to Hook, this shows us an adult Christopher Robin who has escaped the adorable clutches of Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, too and Roo and Eyore - who is such a bore. He's now an adult with a job and a family who has put his Hundred Acre Wood adventures behind him until a talking stuffed bear who used to be his best friend shows up again. It seems Pooh has lost his friends (probably pretty easy, a Hundred Acres is pretty big) and needs Robin’s help finding them! Instead of pseudo-realistic looking animals, à la The Jungle Book, the animals are represented by digitally enhanced talking stuffed animals. The animals look kind of weird but I find it unique and the Roger Rabbit fan in me loves it when animation and real life blend together, so to add another layer to that is interesting.

It may look like an X-Men and Hunger Games rip off,  but The Darkest Minds might have a shot at a decent opening weekend if those feeling superpower fatigue during this minor lull (Ant-Man and Wasp came out July 6th and Venom won't be here until October 5th) and fans of the YA novel come out to see it. Taking place in a world where young kids suddenly develop powers and are considered a threat by the adult world, the most powerful teen joins a resistance group to put an end to the child prison camps. As I write this it seems like there might be a political statement behind this, but the writer’s only credits are a few TV shows I'm mostly unaware of so I don't think it'll be that deep, probably just a bunch of kids using powers we've seen before and hoping to kick start a new franchise.

I'll watch any action comedy. It's my favorite genre and as long as it has one decent action sequence and a handful of laughs then it's a win for me. Some may lean more towards comedy or more towards action but lately there's been a rise of films that are a good balance of both genres. I'm not sure where The Spy Who Dumped Me lies but it sure looks entertaining. When Mila Kunis is dumped by Justin Theroux, she figures that's the last she'll see of him - until he arrives at her door with assassins in tow. It turns out he is a spy and needs her help. She recruits her best friend, played by Kate McKinnon, and they're off on a dangerous and funny European adventure where they are immediately in over their heads, but still continue to attempt to save the world from a dangerous threat.

Nothing says summer like a shark movie. Now there are a LOT of shark movies, mostly made for SyFy silly movies with titles like Sharknado, Jersey Shore Shark Attack, 5-Headed Shark and loads more of the like, but every once in a while a studio will put up a lot of money and make something big like The Meg. Based on a book written 20 years ago, The Meg has had quite a long journey to the big screen but now fans of the book, shark movies and Jason Statham will be able to view it. For those who haven't researched sharks or watched some low rent shark movies, Meg is short for Megalodon - a giant shark from the days of the dinosaurs that is 70 feet long - which has come from the depths of the sea to attack us pesky humans. The film boasts quite a worldly cast with actors like Statham, Ruby Rose, Bingbing Li, Cliff Curtis and Dwight from The Office, so there is an international appeal to go along with the shark attack appeal.

From the director of The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island comes a violent, crass, offensive, puppet murder mystery, The Happytime Murders. Taking place in a world much like The Muppets, where humans and puppets live side by side, the cast of a popular 80's TV show is being killed off and it's up to Melissa McCarthy and her puppet partner to team and solve the murders. The director, Brian Henson, is actually the son of Jim Henson, who has a long history working in this field so the puppetry will be top notch, but if the trailer is any indication this is NOT for children. 

BlacKkKlansman, the newest from director Spike Lee, seems like a movie that will garner a lot of attention, and already has in the festival circuit. The film gives the Hollywood treatment to the real life story of Ron Stallworth, the first African American detective on the Colorado Springs Police Department. This story follows Stallworth (played by John David Washington - son of Denzel) and his ambitious journey to take down a sect of the KKK in the 1970s. The infamous former KKK leader David Duke will be portrayed by Topher Grace (best known for not being Toby Maguire). Stallworth has assistance from colleague Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver from Star Wars but more importantly Logan Lucky) and the two of them embark on an undercover operation that was kept from the public for nearly 30 years. Considering the subject matter it can be expected this movie will be a riveting retelling of an important event in history. In case this project didn’t already have your attention, it should be mentioned that the production team also made Get Out. 

Papillon is the most recent movie adaptation of the 1969 book of the same name, having previously been released in 1973. This movie is being directed by newbie, Michael Noer, and the writer of Contraband (2012 Marky Mark movie, don’t worry about it.) It stars 2 TV actors that are doing their best to break into serious movie roles, Charlie Hunam of Sons of Anarchy and Rami (future Freddie Mercury) Malek of Mr. Robot. Hunam takes the lead role of Henri "Papillon" Charrière, so nicknamed due to the butterfly tattoo on his chest, a Parisian man unfairly convicted of murder in 1931. Papillon is sent to the ghastly penal colony, Devils Island, which lies off the North Atlantic coast of South America in French Guiana. On the boat ride from France to South America, he meets Louis Dega (Malek), a counterfeiter with a wallet full of fake money. Papillon agrees to protect Dega and Dega agrees to finance Papillon’s escape, according to this movie’s synopsis. However, (adjusts glasses), the book involves Papillon trying and failing at several escape attempts, all occurring well after landing at Devils Island. There’s more to that, but no spoilers. I love me some Charlie Hunan and Rami Malek but I’m probably going to skip this one. If you enjoy escape, drama, period pieces, then have at it!

Dog Days is listed as a comedy but it actually falls better into new type of category for movies called “nicecore,” where things work out and everyone is happy despite differences and brief moments of conflict. This movie stars  SO MANY PEOPLE, Nina Dobrev (Perks of Being a Wallflower), Eva Longoria (Desperate Housewives), Vanessa Hudgens (Spring Breakers), Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things), Adam Pally (Happy Endings), Tom Lennon (Reno 911) – basically if you’re looking work in LA and not in this movie, you’re doing it wrong. On top of all that it is directed by Ken Marino (Wet Hot American Summer). This movie features some wonderful puppers, floofers, woofers and doggos. Occasionally I guess you’re going to care what the human folk are up to but if you’re anything like me, basically you’re just watching to make sure those fur babies are all okay at the end. All these actors are leading different stories and come together at the end to save the building that Hudgens and Pally live in. Also, Pally’s sister has a baby. So, there’s dogs, coworkers not getting along, dogs, old people and young people, dogs, bumbling flirting, dogs, a baby being born, a fundraiser for dogs and a happy ending that saves all the dogs. 10/10 can’t wait to watch. I’m sorry but watch the trailer and then tell me that this isn’t the best explanation for this movie.

July

Beat the July heat with the many sequels that are coming out this month!

Even before taking his powers into consideration, Ant-Man is the little guy in the Avengers crew. He's not a trained soldier, he's not a king, he's not a billionaire, he's not a being whose power comes from alien technology. He's just a low-level thief, but he's got a lot of heart and that's why the creator of the shrinking suit, Michael Douglas as Hank Pym, gave it to him in the first film. After causing minor trouble in the first one and big trouble in Captain America: Civil War, he has been ordered to lay low. Of course this doesn't last long and he needs help. That help comes in the form of old acquaintances and Pym's daughter, who dons another suit to make them Ant-Man and The Wasp. In the first we heard of this quantum realm, a dimension you risk entering and never returning when you mess with the powers of the shrinking technology. We find out that Pym's wife has been trapped there and a being known as Ghost has escaped and has powers that let her walk through walls. Can shrinking and flying and utilizing an army of ants help stop a ghost? Well, I can't wait to find out.

It's hard to tell if The Purge series always has political aspirations or if it just fell into that field and rolled with it. The latter makes the most sense and it worked out pretty well as Purge: Election Year was a big enough hit warrant a new Purge movie. The first two showed a world where people took the streets on Purge Night, the one night a year where crime is legal, and wreaked havoc on the less fortunate. The 3rd made it pretty clear that the purge was a way for the rich to rid the world of those they saw as less-than and the hero from the 2^nd movie is now head of security for the one politician who intends to put an end to the cruelty. The First Purge is a prequel that posits the idea that The Purge was a psychological experiment that quickly got hijacked by the government as a political tool and will focus on the citizens who fight back. These movies are dark and violent and it's been an interesting ride seeing this horror series become an action series with a message about fighting the powers that be.

I can't say I'll be going out of my way to see Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, but I do appreciate the fact that they throw in some Dracula lore into this kids series. I'm still not convinced I've seen the first Hotel Transylvania but my wife swears we watched it. I can't tell you a thing about it, or the 2nd one for that matter but best I can tell it's just like any other Adam Sandler movie - an excuse to get him and his friends together and hang out while they make a movie. In this one the whole group of monsters from Transylvania board a ship for a cruise only to find out a descendant of famous vampire killer Van Helsing is on board as has plans for the ships undead and monstrous vacationers.

Dwayne Johnson is too physically big to just play a safety inspector, he has to be an ex-FBI, ex-soldier who lost his leg on a mission and is now a safety inspector. His newest task takes him to the world’s largest, most luxurious Skyscraper and he finds some problems with it. When terrorists kidnap his wife and kids and then set the building on fire and frame him, he's got even more problems. Now this is my kind of movie. It's a disaster movie, it's a Die Hard movie, it's a Dwayne Johnson movie. The director has done comedies up until this point (Easy A, Dodgeball: A true Underdog Story, Central Intelligence) and while Johnson's natural charisma can be humorous this does not look like a comedy at all, just an over the top action summer blockbuster.

Denzel Washington turns in a pretty great performance no matter what he appears in and fortunately for me, he seems to enjoy doing action movies and always delivers a charismatic and/or deep performance. In The Equalizer, he works at a home repair store but uses his skills as an ex-CIA assassin to protect those around him when trouble comes knocking. The Equalizer 2 (squandering an opportunity to call it Sequalizer) finds our hero working as an Uber driver and is again brought out of retirement when and old colleague is killed. In the first one we saw his skills, where he turns household items into tools of death, put to graphic use and I imagine we'll see more of that along with casual Denzel cool guy quips. After working in retail and then as a driver I’m curious what profession he will take up in the Threequalizer.

Iko Uwais should be the star of Mile 22, but he didn't have a hit song in the early 90's so he's not billed as high up as Mark Wahlberg. Uwais is an Indonesian actor and expert martial artist and while he did appear briefly in a Star Wars film, this will be his first big American movie. He plays a police officer with information that makes him a target, so Wahlberg and his team of super-secret agents are assigned to escort him to a location where he can be debriefed. Along the way is a lot of gunfire, car crashes and fist fights. Hopefully there's a lot of fist fights because Uwais fighting on screen is a thing to behold.

From its humble roots as a twisty noirish thriller to the action spectacle that it is today, the Mission: Impossible series has been on quite a journey. It's also been an interesting experiment as each film was directed by a different director.  Since the last one, subtitled Rogue Nation, worked so well the director has returned for the 6th entry, Mission: Impossible - Fallout. The title alludes to a nuclear subplot and to the fact that star Tom Cruise will probably fall out of many moving vehicles during the film’s run time. Cruise's Ethan Hunt has once again gone rogue and put his friends, series regulars Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg, in danger but it's not just the bad guys after him. The C.I.A. has sent an assassin after Hunt, played by Superman himself Henry Cavill, it looks like these two will cause a lot of damage.

I haven't seen the Teen Titans Go! tv show but I know this movie refers back to a movie that never was: Superman Lives, which was to be directed by Tim Burton, written by Kevin Smith and starring Nicholas Cage back in the late 90's. Well, that movie never happened but in Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, Nicholas Cage will finally portray Superman on screen, even if it's just a voice role it's still something. The film comes out at a time when DC is known for their bleak movies so it's nice to see Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the rest in a silly movie about a bunch of young superheroes who want to make it big in Hollywood but get derailed by bad guys.

june

The weather may not feel very summery, but the movies this month sure are.

I think it's about time we have a fun summer movie about people having a fun summer and that's what Action Point looks like. Where Adventureland and The Way, Way Back were more drama than comedy, Action Point looks like a whole lot of irresponsible fun. Loosely based on the real life and notably dangerous New Jersey theme park Action Park, the story is about a park owner who needs to attract customers and does so by stripping away safety regulations. Johnny Knoxville stars as the park owner and went to the emergency room many times during production. The guy is almost 50 and still beating himself up for our entertainment. As a fan of the Jackass movies and TV show I am very excited for this.

Baltasar Kormákur is an Icelandic director with a penchant for making man v. nature films. American producers tapped him to make a couple Mark Wahlberg action films, but after that he made Everest, which seemed more fitting. Now he's made Adrift which, like Everest, is based on a true story but this one is a bit more romantic than a treacherous mountain climb. Two young lovers embark on a journey across the sea that gets interrupted by a deadly storm. With the boat destroyed and one of them wounded they make the long, dangerous trip to a safe port. Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin seem like likeable enough leads and the director has a talent for putting people in danger, so if you think you'll like this it may just be for you.

True story heist films usually embellish the facts, but the more I read American Animals the more I realize it doesn't need to embellish the facts - the facts are crazy enough. When a student realizes his college library houses extremely rare books, he decides he and a group of his friends are going to steal and attempt to sell the books. Spoiler alert - the plan doesn't go well, but the film features interviews from the real life thieves inter-spliced with the actions of the actors portraying them. It's an odd method for what will most certainly be an odd film.

You can really make a movie about anything if you have a fun cast and  the 'true story' of Tag - the game where you are 'it' and you make contact with another so they become 'it' - did just that. Based on the schoolyard kids game, Tag stars Hannibal Buress, Jon Hamm, Jake Johnson and Ed Helms as friends who have played tag since they were in high school. They're all older and some are married and successful, but they still make time to get together and play their silly game. But one friend, Jeremy Renner, has never been 'it' and the friends team up to finally tag him. If you have a moment, look up the article in WSJ article It Takes Planning, Caution to Avoid Being 'It', it's pretty charming.

Leigh Whannell has been in the screenwriting business for several years now. He's worked on the Saw movies which are over the top and pretty gross, the Insidious movies which are freaky and kind of funny and now he has Upgrade which looks over the top, gross, freaky and kind of funny. In his sophomore effort as a director, Whannell is abandoning his horror roots and going full on action sfi-fi with a story about a man with new, enhanced robot abilities. After his wife is killed and he is left for dead, the road to recovery is sped up significantly when he agrees to partake in an experimental procedure that fuses his body and mind to a computer program called STEM that helps him track and kill those responsible. The trailer alludes to a violent, sadistic sense of humor that probably won't click with all audiences.

The Ocean's 11 series is a fun series about a group of guys coming together for a massive and complicated theft. George Clooney starred as Danny Ocean and now in Ocean's 8, it's his sister’s turn. Debbie Ocean, Sandra Bullock fresh out of prison, hatches a major heist during the Met Gala. Much like her brother her role is to plan the heist, round up the crew and look classy while doing so. The crew includes Helena Boham Carter, Rihanna, Cate Blanchette, Mindy Kaling and Sarah Paulson while Anne Hatheway plays a mark. As this does take place during the Met Gala expect lots of cameos along with the intrigue and snappy dialogue.

Trailers for bigger movies tend to be mini-movies, some even go so far as to show key scenes of the ending! It's frustrating but sometimes you get some inspired marketing that tells you little about the movie while showing some scenes that give hints at the plot and themes. Hereditary succeeds at this. The film is about is about a woman passing and her daughter discovering secrets that will have an impact on her and her family. You wouldn't get that from the trailer. It just includes some unsettling images, including a person on fire, and some reviews for how good the movie is. It worked for me. I want to see this.

Disney is still relatively new to the Marvel superhero world but14 years ago they released one of the best superhero movies ever and this month, we get the long awaited sequel: Incredibles 2. The Incredibles are comprised of Mr. Incredible - super strong, Elastigirl - ability to stretch her whole body, Violet - can become invisible and create force fields, Dash - can run real fast and Jak-Jak - a baby who's appears share the powers of his entire family and potentially even more. This sequel takes place in a world where superheroes need a rebranding and a PR exec places Elastigirl front and center and keeps everyone else out of the spotlight. Mr. Incredible stays at home and tries to care for two grumpy teens who can't use their powers and a baby who can't control his, while Elastigirl saves the world. The trailer shows the funny stuff but I'm hoping the action and excitement delivers because it sure did in the first one.

After the events of Jurassic World, it finally became clear that having a theme park based around genetically superior deadly creatures was a terrible idea and the doors were closed. Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom takes place a few years after the World events when it is discovered that a deadly volcano will destroy all of the surviving dinos. Owen and Claire (Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard) are tasked to track down some of the dinosaurs under the impression they are there to save living things but soon find out there is something shady going on. It seems the Jurassic World series has surpassed the Austin Powers series in terms of ridiculousness when some rich evil doers plan to sell the deadly dinos and the world once again finds itself under attack by dinosaurs. Jeff Goldblum is back. Can't wait.

Sicario stars Emily Blunt as a young federal agent on the Mexican - American border who works under the charismatic Josh Brolin and alongside the mysterious Benecio Del Toro who seems to have a mission of his own. Sicario: Day of the Soldado, continues the story of Del Toro's character, who is once again working with Brolin (having the biggest year of his career). Their goal is to start a war with drug cartels when the U.S. Government lists them as a terrorist organization. When a young child is witness to a shootout with Mexican police, Brolin is ordered to take her out and Del Toro takes it upon himself to protect her - probably in an attempt to redeem his twisted and dark past. This may sound like a typical action film but having seen the first I believe this will be more upsetting than exciting.