The Summer Movie Preview
The Nice Guys (May 20th)
From the director who brought us Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (an underratted classi BTW) and Iron Man 3, comes a buddy action comedy of a different sort. Walking “Hey Girl...” meme, Ryan Gosling plays a down-on-his-luck private eye who, after getting beaten up by an enforcer (played by Russell Crowe), must now work with him to solve a missing persons case. The 70s locale and comedic chops makes it seem like a Boogie Nights meets Big Lebowski affair. We can’t promise it’ll be as good as either of those masterpieces, but it sure as hell does seem like some retro fun. In all likelihood, it’ll be irreverent without being too cheesy.
X-Men: Apocalypse (May 27th)
Let’s face it: every X-Men fan has been waiting for this moment, the moment when the film franchise takes on the X-teams’ most terrifying villain: Apocalypse, the first mutant and arguably the most powerful one. He makes even Magneto seem manageable. Yet as exciting as it is to see Apocalypse on the big screen, we’re equally stoked to see Angel transform into Archangel and watch Psylocke wield her psionic blade (and only partially because she’ll be played by fox Olivia Munn). With Bryan Singer back at the helm, as he was for the first two X-Men films and the more recent X-Men: Days of Future Past, hopefully the franchise will avoid an X-Men: Last Stand level debacle.
Independence Day: Resurgence (June 24th)
This long-awaited sequel to Independence Day may not star Will Smith, which might make you skeptical of spending your hard-earned cash on a ticket twenty years after the original, but it has the only thing more important to the first film’s success: no, not Harvey Fierstein; it has the great Jeff Goldblum. Two decades have passed since Bill Pullman gave that iconic stirring speech on the fourth of July, and now Goldblum has to save the day again. If anyone can save this from unnecessary sequel status, Goldblum is surely our guy. Here’s hoping he can kick the tires and light the fires, big daddy. Plus, you know, aliens and massive explosions, so, yeah, we’re in.
The BFG (July 1st)
For most people under 40, The BFG was a BFD (a “big f*cking deal”). Released in 1982, it was one of Roald Dahl’s most successful and memorable books. The tale about a “big friendly giant” seems tailor-made for modern CGI and motion-capture technology, and with Steven Spielberg in the director’s chair, it’s sure to be the family-friendly entertainment movie of the season. Mark Rylance, fresh off his Oscar win for Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies, will play the titular BFG through mo-cap performance. It’s bound to be a big friendly performance and a big f*cking movie.
The Purge: Election Year (July 1st)
Election jokes aside, it probably makes sense that just as the election heats up, a few weeks before both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, The Purge: Election Year will drop to mercifully distract us from our election fatigue. If it’s anything like the first two in the trilogy, it’ll be just what the doctor ordered: a slab of entertaining action-thriller-horror with a little political seasoning. We vote “YES”.
Ghostbusters (July 15th)
It’s a hard sell—a Ghostbusters film without Bill Murray? Why? But, there’s a distinct possibility that the all-girl-cast-doing-bro-comedy formula that Paul Feig mastered with Bridesmaids could work as a new alternative take on our favorite foursome to call when there’s something strange in our neighborhood. It might end up being a huge disappointment, but we ain’t afraid of no Ghostbusters. So you better believe that we’ll be there to check it out and see if Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon, two of the best SNL castmates of the last decade, can cross their streams as successfully as the men can. Plus, it’s probably going to be Leslie Jones, not Melissa McCarthy, that really steals the show.
Star Trek Beyond (July 22nd)
The rebooted Star Trek film franchise has been a huge success. Though J. J. Abrams has departed the franchise (except as a seemingly in-name-only producer), this third film is now being written by Simon Pegg and so has some serious potential to go in an all-new direction. Pegg has played Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott since the first reboot, but now he’ll stretch his writing chops, which he’s proven hes possesses in droves with writing credits on Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Paul. Expect more of the same sci-fi action meets comedy and laced with incredible visuals and the awesome addition of the incredible Idris Elba as the films big bad guy. Beam us up! (Sorry, you probably saw that coming).
Jason Bourne (July 29th)
Let’s face it: The Bourne Legacy kinda sucked and it was mostly because there’s sort of no point for a Bourne movie with no Bourne in it. Luckily actor Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass are back in the fray righting the course of the franchise. If Jason Bourne will be running around rooftops, pancaking cars, and kicking some serious ass, then we’ll be sitting in those theater seats with popcorn in our laps and a big smile on our faces.
Suicide Squad (August 5th)
After the disaterous reviews and so-so box office performance from Batman v Superman, DC’s first next-wave movie outing, there’s a lot riding on this fim for the newly-created DC Films studio. Not to mention, Jared Leto has some big shoes to fill as Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson’s iterations of the Joker are both iconic in their own ways. Leto’s version has the potential to wed both of these versions—the sociopathic with the silly, the chaotic with the charming. The good thing is, they surrounded him with a top-notch cast and and intriguing storyline. Let’s hope his dance with the devil goes well, because we’re sure it’ll make or break the success of Suicide Squad.