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.

april

There’s always a couple of fun of movies in April and that means I have something fun to watch on my birthday. This year it'll be the one where The Rock goes up against giant monsters.

After John Cena appeared in Trainwreck, producers realized they've been using the wrestler all wrong. He may look the part for an action movie but, he's better used in comedic roles. A bit role in Sisters also proved to be pretty funny so now it's time for him to headline a comedy with Blockers. Originally titled something a bit more inappropriate, it's about parents played by Cena, Leslie Mann and Ike Barinholtz who join forces to stop their children from having too much fun on prom night. These three are funny people so that basic plot should provide them enough raunchy material for a silly movie.

Thanks to his charming personality and role as Jim in The Office, John Krasinksi seems like a nice guy. In recent years he's tried to distance himself from this persona a bit by taking on some tough guy roles like 13 Hours and the upcoming Jack Ryan series (if that names sounds familiar it's because Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and Chris Pine have all played him before). The move to star, write, produce and direct A Quiet Place is another step in his distancing himself from Jim. The film follows him and his wife (played by his actual wife Emily Blunt) as they live in solitude, trying to stay 100% silent because there is something out there and it is dangerous and it hunts by sound. The trailers have been mysterious and eerie.

Are there any happy films about the Kennedy's? There's JFK, which is about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. There's Bobby, which is about the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. There's Jackie, which is about hardships Jackie Kennedy and her family faced following the JFK assassination. Now there's Chappaquiddick, which is about Ted Kennedy being responsible for the death of a young woman in 1969 and the fall out from that incident. So no, it seems there are no happy films about the Kennedy's.

After the success of Transformers, producers began mining their old toy boxes to come up with other ideas. This lead them to board games and we got Quija and Battleship now it seems they've gone even further and they want to make movies out of the most basic games like the upcoming Tag and Truth or Dare. If you're unfamiliar with the rules: someone asks you 'truth or dare?' if you say truth, they ask you a question and you tell the truth, if you say dare they dare you to do something and you do it. Simple. Some people choose to lie or not carry out the dare because who cares it's just game, right? Well not in this movie! If you cheat, you die and there may be some supernatural forces at work here. This sounds dumb but should prove to be a bit edgier than the very dull Cry Wolf, another horror from this director and one that bothered me a whole lot because of a very lame twist ending.

At BEST a film based on a video game will receive middling reviews (from critics and audiences) but that hasn't stopped companies from buying up the rights to nearly every single video game I've ever heard of in hopes of creating a successful franchise. Fortunately for critics and audience members there's one actor that seems to entertain everyone: Dwayne Johnson. He's been brought in on several sequels to inject life in a franchise (Fast and Furious, Jumanji, G.I. Joe just to name a few) and now he's been brought in to star in Rampage to inject life into an entire sub-genre. The video game is a simple sidescroller where giant beasts crash their way through a city decimating all in their path. In the film, these beasts are victims of a genetic experiment and only an ex-special forces primatologist can save the day. One of the beasts is his pet gorilla, George, and he intends to save the humans from the rampaging monsters and save George from the government agents out to kill him. It's so goofy. I can't wait.

With her last few films including entries like Mad Max: Fury Road, Fate of the Furious and Atomic Blonde, it took me a moment to recall that Charlize Theron wasn't always an action star (but her filmography is not lacking in the action department). A few years ago she teamed up with writer Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman and they created the cringe worthy dramedy Young Adult and the team is back with Tully. Theron is a mother of with young kids, a new born and a baby on the way. Needless to say she is constantly exhausted and that's when Tully comes in to her life. Tully is a night nanny who helps out at night with the kids so the parents can sleep. These movies often have some sad moments but for the most part this looks sweet.

When I was a freshman in high school my friends and I bought tickets to see the Britney Spears movie Crossroads and proceeded to walk into a showing of Super Troopers. 16 years later I'm happy to say I do not need to sneak into Super Troopers 2, a movie the creators have been promising for about a decade, maybe more. The plots to these films really don't matter but I think these guys are geniuses. The first has to do with corrupt cops, the 2nd has to do with a Canadian border dispute. I don't know that all the jokes will land but if this is anything like the last few films they've created, the jokes will come flying so fast that the ones that do land will warrant the run time.

10 years and 18 movies ago, Iron Man flew onto the screen and brought casual movie goers and comic book fans together. That was the first in the now hugely popular Marvel Cinematic Universe. It seems cliché to say but it really has all been building to Avengers: Infinity War. Throughout the series we've seen glimpses and references to Thanos, a big evil world destroyer guy, and his sought after Infinity Stones, fancy stones that when placed into a cool glove makes him super powerful. Infinity War shows Thanos visiting earth to mess things up and battle the Avengers, who are currently experiencing a bit of a break up. The team have to put their petty (well, not too petty since they destroyed an airport last time they argued) differences behind them and save the world. This movie is going to be HUGE. It contains so many stars, the trailer alludes to so many key scenes and I can't imagine how they're going to pull all of this together but the MCU folks are on a hot streak. If they went ahead with this I can't imagine they didn't put in a lot of effort.

March

There is no shortage of action and adventure this March and more than a few movies involve traveling to different worlds.

In the late 90's there was a movie called Hard Rain where an armored car driver went up against thieves during a massive rainstorm. The Hurricane Heist takes that concept and injects a little Fast and Furious in there since it's from the director of the first Fast and Furious. I couldn't be happier with the look of this silly movie about thieves raiding a U.S. Treasury facility during a Category 5 storm that brings tidal waves and hurricanes to, what appears to be, the mid west. There are shootouts, car chases, a truck heist and actors from England and Australia putting on faux Southern accents. This looks like the kind of dumb fun that I want at the movies.

The Russia vs America thriller was pretty topical decades ago, then not so topical for a while and now it's very topical so Red Sparrow is coming out right on time. Jennifer Lawrence plays a Russian citizen forced into an elite group spies who are as intelligent and elegant as they are deadly. She is assigned to track a CIA agent carrying information that could unravel Russian and American governments. This looks to be a dark thriller, I'm not sure those looking for a Jennifer Lawrence action film will get that they want.

One of the undying action movie sub-genres is the 'widowed family man on a revenge fueled rampage.' They're usually sent straight to video and made on the cheap unless they carry the name Punisher or Death Wish. This newest incarnation finds horror regular Eli Roth directing Bruce Willis as the wronged family man bent on tracking down those responsible for his family’s demise. It's been several years since we've seen Willis on the big screen in a leading role and I'm not sure this remake will be his Willisaince that fans like myself are hoping for. Type in 'Bruce Willis' on Amazon Prime or RedBox and you'll see a long list of generically titled thrillers that quickly find rental or streaming homes. I'm just waiting for the Unbreakable sequel, did you know we're getting an Unbreakable sequel?

I didn't see the first and since it's not October I doubt I'll see The Strangers: Prey at Night anytime soon, but this series does slightly pique my interest. The Strangers is a well-regarded, 'based on  a true story' home invasion thriller starring Liv Tyler and the sequel stars Christina Hendricks. These two aren't regulars to the horror genre so what attracted them, I wonder? From what I can tell the masked intruders from the first are now attacking a family at an abandoned trailer park. This sort of horror seems to rely heavily on setting and mood over gore and that makes it much more interesting. Although I'm sure there are plenty of jump scares. 

Nash Edgerton is an Australian stunt actor who's been a stunt double for his brother Joel and has worked on Superman, Wolverine, Star Wars and Matrix movies. After years behind the scenes he's made some famous friends and he's brought them along to star in Gringo, which he's produced and directed. Gringo features David Oyelowo as a middle man for a drug manufacturer who is trying to cut out their old business partner, a Mexican drug cartel. He tries to enjoy himself during the business trip but is almost immediately thrown into several dangerous situations and his bosses, Charlize Theron and Joel Edgerton, are pretty much no help. Thandie Newton, Sharlto Copley and Amanda Seyfried also star in this action comedy that, from what I can tell, seems to have been made just for the fun of it.

Alica Vikander won an Oscar for her performance in The Danish Girl but she should've at least been nominated for her role in Ex Machina, where she played an all too human robot. She also appeared in the underrated Man from U.N.C.L.E. remake and is very good at genre jumping. I'm excited that she's the lead in Tomb Raider, based on the popular adventure video game. She'll play Lara Croft, rebellious daughter to a famed adventurer who's gone missing. When she takes it upon herself to track down her father, she finds an unknown island and comes across a shady acquaintance of her father, the always great Walton Goggins, who may be the key to his going missing. There will be no shortage of adventuring, jumping, climbing, punching, kicking, arrow shooting and, most likely, tomb raiding. This looks fun and may be the fabled 'first great video game movie' that video game fans have yet to see. 

The first Pacific Rim was a big robots v. monsters movie with a fun cast and cool action directed by the great Guillermo Del Toro. It did not do well in the U.S. but internationally it did big enough to warrant a sequel! This was exciting but then the director and most of the cast dropped out. Fortunately, Star Wars newbie John Boyega signed up and unfortunately he was joined by Clint Eastwood's son, Scott, who I am not a fan of because he was the replacement for Paul Walker in the Fast and Furious series and can't act. Pacific Rim Uprising sees the creatures from another dimension returning to Earth with new abilities that should promise fun destruction for viewers and hopefully provide distraction from Scott Eastwood. 

When a disease connected to dogs spreads across Japan it is decided that all dogs are to be transported to an Isle of Dogs. A young boy takes it upon himself to steal a plane and search for his dog. Sounds cute right? To make things more interesting this is from Wes Anderson, director of Rushmore, Grand Budapest Hotel and several other great movies. It's also an animated film in the style of his other animated film, The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Like many of his movies it's going to be weird and loaded with stars. I'm a fan of everything I've seen from him so I can't wait. 

When lawn gnomes disappear, Gnomeo and Juliet seek the help of Sherlock Gnomes. This sequel to Gnomeo and Juliet hits close to home because while I was away on vacation there was a snowstorm and one of the biker lawn gnomes  my wife and I got as an engagement gift got knocked over, losing both feet and part of the hat.Would my randomly placed lawn gnomes that my brother in law hid around my yard without asking or telling my wife and me also seek help to find out the truth behind the biker gnomes demise? Who knows? Anyways, this movie looks silly. 

A young girl who's a bit of a social outcast (constantly wearing bunny ears doesn't help) takes it upon herself to defend her community from evil in I Kill Giants. Unfortunately, only she seems to be aware of these incoming evil giants. Her sister, Imogen Poots, just thinks she’s weird and her counselor, Zoe Saldana, thinks she’s troubled but she's ready either way. The trailer doesn't reveal whether the giants are in her imagination or not. It does, however, allude to a fight with a pre-teen wielding a massive battle axe going up against a giant who looks like he walked out of a Transformers movie and into something with a little more heart. 

When the creator of a massive virtual reality world called OASIS, that serves as the most popular form of escape, passes away, he leaves behind a dying message. Somewhere within OASIS is a hidden item, the finder of which will be granted a huge sum of money and control over the VR world. This prompts kids and stock holders alike to scramble and one young man finds himself in over his head when the dangers of the VR world collide with dangers in the real world. Ready Player One is based on a popular book that is overflowing with movie references from the past 30+ years. In the trailer I saw Freddy Kruger, The Iron Giant and The Delorean. Not sure how they all work their way into the plot but with Steven Spielberg directing there's a good chance this will be solid entertainment. 

When a scientist, Chris Pine, working on a new way to travel through space goes missing, his daughter gets help finding him from three otherworldly beings played by Oprah, Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling, possibly by utilizing A Wrinkle in Time. I originally thought this was more of an Alice in Wonderland deal, since it's a Disney movie and looks very strange, but I'm interested in the space travel aspect. Outside of a few massive movies (all owned by Disney) space adventures are rarely a hit. With Disney backing the project, a good following and that cast this might do all right.

february

February sees the finale of the 50 Shades series and the latest Marvel movie: Black Panther. Other than that there are a few fun movies to look forward to.

According to HGTV (and plenty of other sources but they came up first) one of the most famous haunted houses in the U.S. is the Winchester house. Belonging to the heir of the Winchester rifle fortune, the story goes that Sarah Winchester (Helen Mirren) was haunted by the souls who lost their lives to a Winchester firearm. She came up with a pretty unique plan to build more and more rooms in the mansion she resided in and ordered day and night construction so that the evil spirits would become confused - this was her actual intention. Now aside from the ghost part, the rest is verified. The heir to the Winchester fortune had a massive mansion with loads of rooms (today the count is 161) and she was the sole, and possibly unhinged, architect. The movie posits that eventually these ghosts got loose and started terrorizing Sarah and her guests at the house. The directors have made some visually interesting films in the past so hopefully, since this about a house with bizarre features like doors and staircases to nowhere, this will look good and give audience members the jump scares they're looking for.

Clint Eastwood has been directing films since the 70's and looking through the filmography, there's more range than I expected. There's no shortage of action and war movies, but there's very few westerns and more comedies and dramas than I thought there would be. Lately, however, Eastwood seems to be sticking with recent events. American Sniper, Sully and now The 15:17 to Paris all stem from events that were big news stories only a few years prior to the film’s release. You may recall the story in the news about a man on a train to Paris with a rifle and a group of Americans, two of them soldiers, helped prevent the man from causing any fatalities. The incident took place over several harrowing minutes and you can't make a full length feature about that, so the film focuses on the three Americans as childhood friends and their journey that brought them on board the train. He's tasked the three men to play themselves and filled out the rest of the cast with comedians playing dramatic roles. Judging by the trailer, Eastwood knows his audience. If you think this is for you, it's probably for you.

When Family Guy was brought back on air after being cancelled, there's a bit where Peter lists many shows that were cancelled during the show’s absence, forcing FOX to reevaluate their decision and bring the show back. Peter Rabbit is by the creator of a couple of these cancelled shows, Will Gluck. He then went on to make Friends With Benefits, Easy A and Annie, all of which were modest hits (didn't break 100 mil domestic but still made money). So that's an adult comedy, a teen comedy, a preteen musical comedy and now he's got his animated feature. A cartoon like this is usually for kids but this one has the added advantage of coming out RIGHT before Valentine’s Day and going up against a horror, a true story and a certain movie about a guy with the last name of Grey. If none of those peak your interest then there's this story about Peter Rabbit (James Corden) who just wants to get into Mr. McGregor's (Sam Neill) garden and eat. I imagine this will have some updated jokes as the original story is over 100 years old and it's James Corden, so it'll probably be very charming.

I'm not sure what Universal Pictures is going to do next Valentine's Day. 2015, 2017 and 2018 all saw a 50 Shades of Grey movie, this year's series closer is 50 Shades Freed. 2016 was when Deadpool came out and I guess competitors saw no reason to go up against that film. This latest tale of Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele sees them as a rich, happy couple living it up and doing...whatever it is they do in these movies. Something comes up, things aren't so hunkydory anymore and...look I have no idea what happens. If a talking rabbit, a Clint Eastwood film and a haunted house don't do it for you then this one is here too, that's all I know.

All previous films sure are lucky that Black Panther is coming out AFTER Valentine's Day. Chadwick Boseman reprises the role of T'Challa, alias Black Panther, who stole scenes in Captain America: Civil War - which is no easy task. He's now returned to his home, the technically advanced Wakanda, that is so advanced it is hidden from the rest of the world. After getting involved in the events of Civil War, he brought with him some unwanted attention to his home and threats from inside (Michael B. Jordan) and outside (Andy Serkis) which force T'Challa to don his super cool suit. He also teams up with Wakandan soldiers headed by Lupita Nyong'o and a curious C.I.A. agent played by Martin Freeman, also reprising his role from Civil War. This will be Michael B. Jordan's third film directed by Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station, Creed) and with ticket sales already supremely high a month before it premiers, the hype for this one is big.

Before writing and directing Ex Machina and garnering lots of deserved attention, Alex Garland wrote The Beach and followed that up with a few films that contained varying levels of sci-fi plotting (Dredd being my favorite). After Ex Machina received a couple Oscar noms and even won for visual effects, it's no surprise that he would make something like Annihilation. When her husband, Oscar Isaac, comes back with a strange illness while on a mysterious military expedition an army biologist, Natalie Portman, leads a group of scientists in an attempt to figure out what's going on. She is sent through 'the shimmer', which is an environmental anomaly that is getting bigger and bigger. Its effects on animal life is something never before seen and it's just as fascinating as it is dangerous. Good thing these scientists brought big guns with them. This is probably more heady sci-fi than Aliens, but from the trailer it's hard for me not to make the comparison. This is the from the first book in a series known as the 'Southern Reach' trilogy, so if this gets good reviews and makes money we'll probably see a couple more of these.

It was only within the last year that I began getting together with friends and playing board games on a semi-regular basis. I never thought I'd enjoy it all that much but it turns out I love it. Game Night is also about a group of friends who get together to play games, but on this particular night one of the friends tells them things are going to be a bit different. He says that one of them will be kidnapped and things will get so crazy that they won't know if it's real or fake. When he's kidnapped by gunmen they eat snacks and laugh it off. When they find out the prop gun they come across is actually a real gun, they begin to realize this game might not be a game at all. Car chases and gunfights ensue and since it's Rachel McAdam's, Jason Bateman and plenty of other recognizable faces seemingly enjoying themselves, it looks like a fun time.

Happy Valentine's Day all!