One of the most magical times of the year is almost here! That's right kids, the official start of summer movie season is just a mere 36 hours away. 2018's slate of high-profile sequels, Sundance-acquired indie fare and mid-tier original dice rolls will look to top a pretty impressive 2017 slate that delivered a number of gems (Baby Driver, The Big Sick, Ingrid Goes West, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Wind River) while also attempting to continue the near-constant level of excellence that this year's winter/spring releases have displayed. Here are the 10 films from May-August's densely-packed release schedule that I'm most looking forward to seeing.
10.Sorry to Bother You (7/6): There were several titles, including Ant-Man and the Wasp, Mission-Impossible: Fallout and The Spy Who Dumped Me, in contention for this spot, but the potential insanity factor gave Sorry to Bother You the slight edge over the rest of the field. While the trailer makes it look a lot more restrained than I expected, I'm excited to see Atlanta scene stealer Lakeith Stanfield get his long-deserved opportunity to lead a project and notoriously gonzo musician Boots Riley try his hand at filmmaking.
9.Solo: A Star Wars Story (5/25): Despite only really enjoying one of the last six entries in the canon, I plan on seeing Solo on opening weekend. The mid-production director change and subsequent extended reshoots are notable red flags that can't be ignored, but the primary cast (Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton) is very appealing and it'll be cool to see Han Solo return to the screen after watching Oscar Issac play the dollar store version of the legendary smuggler over the past few years.
8.The First Purge (7/4): This overtly political action horror franchise has significantly improved with each subsequent installment and I look forward to seeing if the origin story can continue that impressive trend.
7.Ocean's 8 (6/8): As underwhelmed as I was by the first trailer that dropped back in December, I'm starting to really come around to the idea of another Ocean's film. Co-writer/director Gary Ross (The Hunger Games, Seabiscuit) has a pretty strong track record of delivering entertaining blockbusters, the titular band of thieves largely consists of charismatic actors (Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Sarah Paulson, Mindy Kaling, Rihanna) that should be fun to spend a couple of hours with and the Met Ball is an absolutely perfect place to stage the type of elaborate heist this franchise is known for.
6.American Animals (6/1): Heist film mania continues!!!! This fact-based Sundance acquisition starring American Horror Story cornerstone Evan Peters looks like a unique, eccentric and super fun take on a subgenre that I almost always love.
5.Deadpool 2 (5/18): I've never been this excited for a sequel to a film that disappointed me to such a soul-crushing degree. Every single piece of promotional material has been a home run, director David Leitch (Atomic Blonde, John Wick) is an elite action scene choreographer and Josh Brolin, fresh off a great performance in a little indie film called Avengers: Infinity War, is a strong bet to solve the anonymous jabroni villain problem that played a pivotal role in dragging down the original.
4.Hotel Artemis (6/8): An ensemble action flick set in a members-only hospital for criminals starring the likes of Jodie Foster, Dave Bautista, Charlie Day, Jenny Slate and Jeff Goldblum is perhaps the closest a studio has come to sending me a personalized invitation to go see one of their movies. In all seriousness, I'll be legitimately offended if Hotel Artemis doesn't at least end up being the almost-as-good cousin of John Wick.
3.Tag (6/15): Summer is the best time of year to drop R-rated comedies and none of this summer's (sadly) small batch of titles is more intriguing to me than Tag. Having Jon Hamm, Hannibal Burress, Jake Johnson, Ed Helms, Jeremy Renner, Isla Fisher and several other funny people play a high-stakes game of tag for 90 minutes could yield a ton of dumb laughs.
2.Upgrade (6/1): This year's South by Southwest Midnighters Audience Award winner from Saw scribe Leigh Whanell centered around a widow (Logan Marshall-Green) that turns into a superhuman killing machine once he gets an experimental computer chip implanted in his spine looks like it has the makings to be the type of ultraviolent B-action grimefest that Hollywood doesn't make nearly enough of anymore.
1.Sicario: Day of the Soldado (6/29): While the absence of Emily Blunt and Denis Vileneuve is admittedly pretty disappointing, I'm still really hyped for the second chapter of the Sicario saga. The original was one of my favorite crime thrillers in recent memory and I have complete faith in screenwriter Taylor Sheridan's (Hell or High Water, Wind River) ability to craft a worthwhile follow-up to the film that helped establish him as one of the industry's most exciting talents.
Also interested in:
Tully (5/4)
Beast (5/11)
Life of the Party (5/11)
Revenge (5/11)
Terminal (5/11)
Cargo (5/18)
On Chesil Beach (5/18)
Ibiza (5/25)
Action Point (6/1)
Adrift (6/1)
Alex Strangelove (6/8)
Hearts Beat Loud (6/8)
Hereditary (6/8)
A Kid Like Jake (6/8)
Won't You Be My Neighbor? (6/8)
Superfly (6/15)
The Yellow Birds (6/15)
Damsel (6/22)
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (6/22)
Under the Silver Lake (6/22)
Leave No Trace (6/29)
Uncle Drew (6/29)
Woman Walks Ahead (6/29)
Ant-Man and the Wasp (7/6)
The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter (7/6)
Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot (7/13)
Eight Grade (7/13)
Skyscraper (7/13)
Blindspotting (7/20)
The Equalizer 2 (7/20)
Mission-Impossible: Fallout (7/27)
Mile 22 (8/3)
The Miseducation of Cameron Post (8/3)
The Spy Who Dumped Me (8/3)
BlacKkKlansman (8/10)
The Meg (8/10)
A Prayer Before Dawn (8/10)
The Happytime Murders (8/17)
Juliet, Naked (8/17)
Three Seconds (8/17)
Replicas (8/24)
Kin (8/31)
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