september

September is still viewed as a movie dumping ground between Summer and Oscar season but some of these look pretty solid. Or maybe I'm just really, really excited about the new Predator movie and it being released this months elevates the quality of everything else.

Back in 1987, a young Shane Black was an up and coming writer in Hollywood and after making Lethal Weapon he was given a small role in Predator. He dies pretty quickly but plays a memorable character who tells dirty jokes. 30+ years later he's back, but this time as director and writer of The Predator. When a group of soldiers and research scientists come across advanced alien technology they find themselves targeted by its owner - an alien who hunts for sport and has an appreciation for explosions and sharp objects. Predator hunting soldiers, tough guys, cops and killers is nothing new but this time around there is a new, tougher monster and it is a threat to human and Predator alike. I have been a fan of everything Shane Black has worked on and I enjoy everything involving Predator, even the really bad ones where he fights Alien, so I am very excited for this.

With last year’s release of The Mummy, the Universal production company was hoping to create a whole Universal Monster universe. It did not work. Audiences and critics hated it and the plan was put on hold and potentially scrapped.  While that universe failed, The Conjuring universe is doing quite well. Originally a film about paranormal investigators, it has spawned a sequel, 2 films about the creepy doll Annabelle and now The Nun, based on a demon character previously seen in The Conjuring 2. When the Vatican tasks a priest and a nun to investigate the mystery surrounding the death of a nun in Romania, they come across an evil force that will more than likely lead to several jump scares.

Back when she was the lead in Alias, Jennifer Garner had a few action movies, but it's been 11 years since her last and now she's back in the genre with Peppermint. After witnessing her family’s murder at the hands of gang members, a grieving mother hopes that the legal system will do what they are supposed to do. When the gang members go free she disappears and five years later, she resurfaces as a self-trained assassin out eliminate any criminal or corrupt official connected to her family’s murder. This story has been told a million times but the female lead action film is something we don't see enough of.

Paul Fieg has been in the comedy business for years as an actor, writer and director but he has now joined forces with Jessica Sharzer, producer and writer of American Horror Story, to create a film darker than his usual fare. A Simple Favor Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick who hit it off pretty quickly when their children become friends. [SR1] Lively has a mysterious way about her but Kendrick enjoys being around her. One day Lively calls and asks for a favor and then disappears. This puts Kendrick on a path where she has to dig into the life of her new friend, who she realizes she knows nothing about. The plot sounds like a familiar small town mystery but the actors, writer and director have my attention.

When a young kid in Detroit gets tired seeing his dad, Matthew McConaughey, barely scraping by, he starts selling drugs and that comes with it a life style he so desired. Known as White Boy Rick he, predictably, gets in too deep and winds up nearly dying after getting shot. Armed with the knowledge and the reputation, he then continues his criminal lifestyle, but starts to inform on his cohorts to the FBI, making him the youngest informant. These crime dramas have a habit of glamorizing the lifestyle rather than showing its downfall. I feel like glamorizing it may be difficult to do with a kid at the center.

Taking a break from his usual aggressively violent horror movies, Eli Roth has directed a PG fantasy-mystery starring Jack Black and Cate Blanchett called The House with a Clock in Its Walls. Based on a book of the same name, the story is about a young boy who moves in with his quirky uncle who turns out to be a wizard with fun powers. It turns out another wizard planted a clock in the halls of his uncle’s mansion and it has the power to destroy the world. With the help of a witch, Blanchett, they must find the clock, defeat all of the creatures trying to stop them and save the world. This looks like another version of the Goosebumps movie Jack Black was in a few years ago, I'm guessing this is why he won't be appearing in the sequel to that movie.

A western with John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix playing brothers is certainly going to get some awards attention. This is only getting a small release in September so I imagine we'll see a wider release between October and November. Portraying The Sister's Brothers, Reilly and Phoenix are assassins in 1850's Utah on the hunt for a man, Riz Ahmed, who has discovered a new and easy way to find gold. Jake Gyllenhaal seems to tow a line and helps out the hunters as well as the hunted, but uncertain alliances are nothing new in the Western genre. While the trailer has a few laughs, it also hints at a darkly violent movie, so film goers expecting a John C. Reilly western comedy might be surprised.

The end of September seems like a strange time for a comedy to be released, but I imagine it's because producers had to space out the Tiffany Haddish movies this year so they're not competing with one another. Recently there was Uncle Drew and in a couple months there will be The Oath and Nobody's Fool and this month it's Night School. Haddish is teaching a GED class so a group of adults can become high school graduates. She singles out one student, played by Kevin Hart, and takes a different approach to teaching where she beats him up until he decides to start learning. There's a couple other funny people in this but pairing Haddish and Hart is pretty much comedy gold.

When a yeti spots what he believes to be the legendary Smallfoot, a.k.a. a human being, he leaves his mountaintop yeti society and goes down to investigate a world he was told didn't exist. Now this is one silly looking cartoon that just flips the bigfoot legend on its head but this stars Lebron James, so I'm hoping that it's tied into some complicated Warner deal where if he made this movie, then they'll finally green light the long rumored Space Jam 2. Lebron has a pretty small acting resume (and stole the show in Trainwreck) so this makes sense to me.

Robert Redford has announced his retirement from acting so The Old Man and the Gun may be his last film. Based on a true story, Redford plays a 70 year old resident of San Quentin prison who manages to escape prison and goes on a somewhat charming robbery spree. The cop hunting him is Casey Affleck and the woman who loves him is Sissy Spacek. I'm not sure on the authenticity of the story but for Redford, this seems like a good way to finish his acting career.

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.