After a long and mostly uneventful winter and spring, the magic of summer movie season is finally upon us. The 2016 summer movie slate-which officially starts on May 6th with the release of Captain America: Civil War-doesn't feature an abundance of intriguing titles, but there's still a fair amount of titles on the docket that I'm highly anticipating. Regardless of the relatively low quantity of titles I'm looking forward to, I'm just hoping that this summer won't offer up as many monumental letdowns as 2015 did. Without further ado, here are the 10 films I'm most excited to see this summer.
10.Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (7/8): The trailer that came out in February wasn't that funny, but the comedic talent of its four leads (Adam DeVine, Zac Efron, Aubrey Plaza, Anna Kendrick) paired with the overwhelmingly positive reception from its screening at last month's South by Southwest Festival in Austin gives me faith that this could be a rock solid R-rated comedy.
9.The Nice Guys (5/20): Shane Black's first original film since 2005's Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is one of only a dozen or so non-blockbusters set for wide release over the next four months. The pairing of two vastly different yet well-matched leads in Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling is very appealing and the film appears to have the zany, darkly comic vibe that has made Black's previous projects a ton of fun.
8.Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (5/20): The first Neighbors was one of the funniest movies of 2014 and the sequel is in prime position to duplicate that success. All of the key players from the original are back and Chloe Grace Moretz looks to have crushed her role as the leader of the sorority that's terrorizing the Radner's (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) and their small children this time around.
7.Ghostbusters (7/15): Based on the overwhelmingly negative reception to the first trailer, I seem to be one of the very few people that's excited for this. Ghostbusters is a film that needed to be remade and given the presence of four comedy superstars (Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon Leslie Jones) in the leading roles and a top-flight director in Paul Feig (Spy, Bridesmaids), I'd be surprised if this wasn't one of the better remakes to come out in quite some time.
6.Star Trek Beyond (7/22): This would be much higher on the list if J.J. Abrams was still attached to it. While Justin Lin (Fast and Furious 3-6) is a gifted filmmaker who excels at directing massive action sequences, he doesn't have the magic touch that Abrams has with sci-fi films. That being said, I loved the first two Star Trek films too much to not be excited about spending another two hours with the crew of USS Enterprise (once again led by Chris Pine as Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Spock and Zoe Saldana as Uhra.)
5.War Dogs (8/19): Veteran comedy director Todd Philips (The Hangover trilogy, Old School) has taken a page out of the Adam McKay (Anchorman, The Big Short) playbook by making an unexpected departure from the world of lowbrow comedies to dark, fact-based satire. With a fascinating premise (a pair of 20-something dudes wind up getting a $300 million Pentagon contract to supply weapons to American allies in Afghanistan), a pair of tremendous actors in Jonah Hill and Miles Teller in the lead roles and an excellent trailer, War Dogs has the potential to be a game-changer for Phillips' career.
4.Sausage Party (8/12): Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's R-rated animated passion project about a group of food items who live in a grocery store discovering the true nature of their existence is quite possibly the most bizarre release on the entire summer schedule. Early reports are that its one of the most deranged, strange and over-the top vulgar movies to ever hit theaters in the United States. If that's not an effective sales pitch, I don't know what is.
3.Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (6/3): It may taken nine long years for a studio to greenlit another project for them after the financial failure of Hot Rod, but Andy Samberg and The Lonely Island are finally bringing their brand of brilliant, absurd humor back to the big screen with Popstar. With a mockumentary style and an absurd premise documenting the rise, fall and rise of an excess-obsessed popstar (Samberg), they appear to have the perfect backdrop to create another unpredictable, oddball comic masterpiece.
2.X-Men: Apocalypse (5/27):The X-Men franchise has made a massive turnaround since it was rebooted in 2011. The franchise is completely independent from Marvel Studios, which means the filmmakers can focus on telling satisfying, standalone narratives instead of consistently churning out films that merely exist to set up the next Avengers film. With the latest installment bringing back writer Simon Kinberg, director Bryan Singer and all of the pivotal members of the cast (Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, etc.) and adding the always fantastic Oscar Issac to the fold as the titular villain, X-Men: Apocalypse seems poised to be another stellar entry in this consistent and highly underrated series.
1.Suicide Squad (8/5): The rumors of reshoots to add more humor almost forced me to remove this from the top spot of this list. Then the third trailer came out and I realized that nothing could possibly spoil my excitement for this. The consistently astonishing quality of the trailers combined with the presence of a phenomenal ensemble cast led by Will Smith, Margot Robbie and Jared Leto and top-notch writer/director in David Ayer (End of Watch, Fury) are responsible for making this my most hotly-anticipated blockbuster since 2010's Inception. If this ends up sucking, I might have a mental breakdown.
Also Interested In:
Captain America: Civil War (5/6)
High-Rise (5/13)
The Lobster (5/13)
Money Monster (5/13)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (6/3)
The Conjuring 2 (6/10)
Now You See Me 2 (6/10)
Central Intelligence (6/17)
Clown (6/17)
Finding Dory (6/17)
Swiss Army Man (6/17)
Free State of Jones (6/24)
Independence Day: Resurgence (6/24)
The Purge: Election Year (7/1)
Captain Fantastic (7/8)
The Infiltrator (7/15)
Bad Moms (7/29)
Jason Bourne (7/29)
The Founder (8/5)
Cafe Society (8/12)
Hell or High Water (8/12)
Spectral (8/12)
Ben-Hur (8/19)
Southside with You (8/19)
Don't Breathe (8/26)
Hands of Stone (8/26)
The Hollars (8/26)
Mechanic: Resurrection (8/26)
No comments:
Post a Comment