Let’s Go To The Movies
Summertime and movies go together like bread and butter—you can’t have one without the other. When the temperature rises, people everywhere flock to the movies to escape the heat and enjoy the best Hollywood has to offer.
And I’m no exception. Can’t wait to find another really good movie to add to my list of all-time favorites. Pretty sure “Iron Man 3” (released May 3) will beat records this summer, considering it will play for a couple more months and has already earned ridiculous amounts of money at the box office.
In fact, Hollywood analysts at Box Office Mojo predict that as many as 20 movies could potentially make more than $100 million in theaters across the country this summer.
Here’s what’s coming out this summer. Look over the list and decide which you want to see on the big screen, and which movies fall into the “watch at home” category.
Friday, June 7
THE INTERNSHIP Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson play two middle-aged, unemployed salesmen who land an internship at Google and try adapting to the digital age. Times Movie Review
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHINGThe Avengers’ director Joss Whedon shot this non-star update of Shakespeare’s rom-com in his backyard. Times Movie Review
Purge, Dirty Wars, Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie, Finding Joy, Hello Herman, Hey Bartender, Passion, Rapture-Palooza, Syrup, The Wall, Tiger Eyes, Violet and Daisy, Wish You Were Here.
Wednesday, June 12
THIS IS THE END Think of Night of the Living Dead with the paranoia but not the zombies, or a one-room Pinter play with way more shouting. Times Movie Review
More Than Money, Pandora’s Promise
Friday, June 14
MAN OF STEEL The Superman saga gets its latest reboot from director Zack Snyder and producer Christopher (Dark Knight) Nolan. With Henry Cavill as the Kryptonian muscleman, Amy Adams as Lois Lane and Russell Crowe as Jor-El (Brando played him in 1978). Kevin Costner, Michael Shannon, Laurence Fishburne and Diane Lane grace the slick supporting cast. Times Movie Review
THE BLING RING Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, obsessed with her clothes, had nothing on the gang of klepto-cuties who in 2010 stole frocks and jewels from the homes of L.A.’s glitterati. Coppola’s highly-caffeinated film version, based on a Vanity Fair article, stars Emma Watson, a long way from Hogwarts. Times Movie Review
A Hijacking, Apostles of Comedy: Onwards and Upwards, Berberian Sound Studio, Call Me Kuchu, Far Out Isn’t Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story, Hatchet 3, Stuck in Love, The Guillotines, The Stroller Strategy, Twenty Feet from Stardom, Vehicle 19
Sunday, June 16
My Little Pony: Equestria Girls
Friday, June 21
MONSTERS UNIVERSITY Pixar’s first prequel feature sends Monsters, Inc. creatures Mike (voiced by Billy Crystal) and Sully (John Goodman) back to their college years, under the severe tutelage of M.U. Dean Hardscrabble (Helen Mirren). Times Movie Review
WORLD WAR ZAs in Zombies! Brad Pitt stars as a UN troubleshooter trying to save humanity from a terrorist conspiracy of the walking dead. Pitt also produced this expensive, problem-strewn adaptation of the novel by Max Brooks (Mel’s son), directed by the genre-trotting Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball, Finding Neverland, The Kite Runner, Quantum of Solace). Times Movie Review
As Cool as I Am, Between Us, Somm, Storm Surfers 3D, The Attack, Unfinished Song
Friday, June 28
THE HEATIt’s a cop comedy, with girls: FBI agent Sandra Bullock and Boston policewoman Melissa McCarthy find that opposites distract as they chase a drug lord. Times Movie Review
WHITE HOUSE DOWN The President is in peril again in this fantasy drama from Doomsday-dependent director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, 2012). Times Movie Review
I’M SO EXCITED Pedro Almodovar, perhaps the world’s top director-showman, returns to his campy, dyed roots in ’80s comedy with this delirious comedy about the passengers and crew on a plane that may be headed for disaster. Think Flight, relaunched as farce. Times Movie Review
100 Bloody Acres. A Band Called Death, Byzantium, Copperhead, Detention of the Dead, Redemption, Some Girls, The Secret Disco Revolution, The Stroller Strategy
Wednesday, July 3
Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain , Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me
Friday, July 5
DESPICABLE ME 2In this sequel to the 2010 animated smash, the naughty-nice Gru (Steve Carrell’s voice) faces a new world-dominator wannabe, voiced by Andy Garcia. Tell the kids the adorable Minions are back! Times Movie Review
The Lone Ranger, The Way, Way Back, Hammer of the Gods
Wednesday, July 10
Israel: A Home Movie
Friday, July 12
PACIFIC RIM It’s robots vs. aliens in this worlds-collide action epic—the Earth robot steered by two pilots, one for each side of the machine’s brain. Pacific Rim could be Transformers with a high I.Q. and a cinematic high. Times Movie Review
Blackhats, Crystal Fairy, Dealing With Idiots, Fruitvale Station, Grown Ups 2, Hot Flashes, The Hunt, V/H/S/2
Wednesday, July 17
Turbo 3D/2D
Friday, July 19
R.I.P.D. Or: Zombie Cops! Ryan Reynolds, a recently deceased policeman, joins the Rest In Peace Department of undead vigilantes to find his murderer. This weird comedy presence, directed by Red’s Robert Schwentke, sports a cast of veteran overachievers: Jeff Bridges, Kevin Bacon and Mary-Louise Parker. Times Movie Review
Girl Most Likely, Red 2, The Conjuring, Evidence, The Act of Killing
Friday, July 26
THE WOLVERINE Or: Hugh Jackman Goes to Japan. After the X-Men trilogy, his own 2009 spinoff and the briefest cameo in X-Men: First Class, the Clawed One faces the Silver Samurai (Will Yun Lee, one of People’s Sexiest Men Alive in 2007) in a Marvel smackdown directed by James Mangold (Walk the Line). Times Movie Review
BLUE JASMINEWoody Allen is back home for just the second time in his last nine films. The plot synopsis — “the story of the final stages of an acute crisis and a life of a fashionable New York housewife” — hints at a quarter-century-later return to Allen’s murky psychodramas starring Mia Farrow. Cate Blanchett heads the writer-director’s usual sterling cast: Alec Baldwin, Bobby Cannavale, Sally Hawkins and Louis C.K. Times Movie Review
Blackfish, Frankenstein’s Army, Stranded
Wednesday, July 31
The Smurfs 2 3D; 2D, Smash and Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers
Friday, August 2
2 GUNS In the current climate, that might seem two guns too many. But two is never enough in a Hollywood action picture, especially with Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg holding the firearms, as a pair of federal officers double-crossed by the mob ring they have been stealing from. Times Movie Review
Cockneys vs Zombies, Europa Report, The Artist and the Model, The Spectacular Now, Top Cat
Wednesday, August 7
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
Friday, August 9
ELYSIUM In the future world of 2154, rich humans luxuriate on an Edenic space station called Elysium, while the 99 percent are stuck on Earth. Starring Matt Damon, Bourne again as a proletarian rebel, and Jodie Foster as the CEO of Elysium. Times Movie Review
We’re the Millers, Disney’s Planes 2D/3D, Blood, I Give it a Year, In a World . . . , Lovelace
Wednesday, August 14
The Patience Stone
Friday, August 16
Kick Ass 2, Paranoia, The Butler, The To-Do List, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, Austenland, Cutie and the Boxer, Prince Avalanche
Friday, August 23
THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONESAn urban-contemporary Twilight Saga crossed with the Underworld movies, Cassandra Clare’s novels about a New York girl discovering her inner power, and a host of demons trying to destroy her, aim for teen franchise gold. Lily Collins (Snow White in Mirror Mirror) is Clary, the half-angel, all-warrior heroine. Times Movie Review
THE WORLD’S ENDDirector-writer Edgar Wright and writer-star Simon Pegg, along with designated lovable-oaf character actor Nick Frost, are back with a movie about a five-friend pub crawl that explodes into a defense of imperiled Planet Earth. Times Movie Review
Grandmasters, You’re Next
*See you at the movies. I’ll be the one hiding behind a big tub of popcorn.