13 Movies You Should See This Summer
San Andreas (May 29)
Every summer has to have a disaster film. This one involves a massive earthquake that devastates California. Dwayne Johnson plays a search-and-rescue pilot who travels to save his daughter from a quake big enough to become a "global event." Warner Bros. decided to go ahead with the May 29 release even after the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that killed thousands in Nepal, but it modified its marketing to be more sensitive to those who were affected and to provide information about Nepal relief efforts and earthquake preparedness.
Warner Bros. Pictures
Aloha (May 29)
Cameron Crowe's return — his last movie, We Bought a Zoo, came out in 2011 — is packed with an all-star cast. Bradley Cooper stars as a defense contractor caught in a love triangle with Rachel McAdams and Emma Stone. The cast also includes Bill Murray and Alec Baldwin. Sony's former studio chief bashed the movie in hacked emails, but the final release will reportedly be much different than the one she criticized. Crowe has traditionally been a crowd-pleaser, so while this project won't be another Jerry Maguire, fans and critics alike might be satisfied as long as it isn't another Vanilla Sky.
Columbia Pictures
Entourage (June 3)
Vince Chase and the gang are back showing how much better it is to be a movie star than a regular person, but this time they are doing it on the big screen. Fans of the hit HBO series should enjoy it, as it looks like just a (much) longer version of a typical Entourage episode. The movie has all the ingredients that fans will enjoy: Hollywood glamour, celebrity cameos, beautiful women, Ari yelling and Johnny Drama saying something dumb.
Warner Bros. Pictures
Jurassic World (June 12)
Chris Pratt, Hollywood’s new blockbuster go-to actor, stars in the fourth installment of the Jurassic Park franchise. This movie takes place 22 years after the original Jurassic Park. John Hammond’s vision of a dinosaur theme park has been fulfilled, but after visitorship starts to decline the park creates a new hybrid monster dinosaur to draw people back. Will we never learn? Apparently not. This may be the blockbuster hit of the summer. Hold on to your butts.
Universal Pictures
Terminator: Genesys (July 1)
The former governor of California is back, again, in his most successful movie franchise, with Jason Clarke as John Connor and Emilia Clarke of Game of Thrones in the role Linda Hamilton made famous. Are audeiences ready for another round in the fight against the machines?
Paramount Pictures
Magic Mike XXL (July 1)
Steven Soderbergh's 2012 movie was a sleeper hit powered by Channing Tatum's muscle. Soderbergh didn't direct this sequel, and sorry ladies, Matthew McConaughey has moved on to acting roles, but plenty of other chiseled stars of the original are back as the band of stripper brothers takes "one last ride" to a convention where they can show off their moves. Surprisingly or not, Internet audiences have been buzzing over this one.
Warner Bros.
Trainwreck (July 17)
With apologies to Louis CK, Amy Schumer may be the hottest comedian around right now. She wrote the screenplay for Trainwreck. Judd Apatow liked it so much he decided to direct it. This is Schumer's first starring role in a movie. The reliable Bill Hader co-stars along with none other than Lebron James, who — judging by the trailer — looks like he might someday choose to take his talents to Hollywood.
Universal Pictures
Ant-Man (July 17)
Ant-Man is the latest Marvel character to hit the big screen. A thief and con-man (Paul Rudd) is tasked with stealing and protecting the Ant-Man technology, a suit that enables its wearer to shrink in size and grow in strength. Aside from what is revealed in the trailer, there’s not much else known about the plot, but expect the typical Marvel formula: stunning effects, good-natured humor and an ensemble cast, all wrapped into a slickly edited package.
Disney/Marvel
Southpaw (July 24)
In the sports drama of the summer, Jake Gyllenhaal plays Billy Hope, a boxer who goes on an emotional journey after his wife (Rachel McAdams) is accidentally killed and he loses custody of his daughter. This might be a typical boxing tale of redemption, but even those can be plenty entertaining and director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Replacement Killers) knows how to pack some emotional punch.
The Weinstein Company
Vacation (July 29)
More than 30 years after the original National Lampoon's Vacation, Rusty Griswald — played here by Ed Helms — is all grown up with a family of his own. This time it's Rusty who wants to revisit the vacation of his youth and take his family on a road trip.
Warner Bros. Pictures
Mission: Impossible-Rogue Nation (July 31)
Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hunt in the fifth instalment of the Mission Impossible franchise. Ethan Hunt and his team have to take out an organization of assassins who threaten the Impossible Mission Force’s existence. The previous Mission Impossible release, Ghost Protocol, was great action-packed fun and may have been the best in the series. If Rogue Nation comes close, it will be well worth a trip to the theater.
Paramount
Straight Outta Compton (August 14)
The story of “The World’s Most Dangerous Group” has been made into a biopic recounting how Dr. Dre, Easy E and Ice Cube revolutionized popular music. The tensions that erupted over the past year after the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. and Freddie Gray in Baltimore, among others, are bound to make the look back at the rise and fall of N.W.A. even more meaningful.
Universal Pictures
Sicario (September 18)
Released at this year’s Cannes film festival to popular acclaim, Sicario stars Emily Blunt as a police officer from Tucson who hunts down a Mexican drug kingpin with the help of a hitman and a shadowy CIA agent (played by Josh Brolin). This isn’t your average blow-em-up PG-13 blockbuster, though: In a review, Variety called it “A densely woven web of compelling character studies and larger systemic concerns” that “may prove too grim and grisly for some audiences and too morally ambiguous for others”.
Lionsgate