This summer at the movies looks promising. The eight movies below are all films I’m looking forward to in some form or capacity. It all began with “The Fall Guy” in early May and is tentatively scheduled to end with a familiar battle with contemptible sci-fi aliens in mid-August.
“The Fall Guy” (Opens May 3)
I like director David Leitch. He’s done credible work with “Atomic Blonde,” which was amazing in 2017. “The Fall Guy” was a stuntman TV show in the 1980s starring Lee Majors in the title role.
In this incarnation, Ryan Gosling, on screen on-screen last summer as Ken in “Barbie,” steps into the role of stuntman Colt Seavers. The other major character is Emily Blunt (“Oppenheimer”), as an ex-girlfriend and director of the movie. Seavers is working on doing stunts for star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson).
“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” (Opens May 10)
The familiar ape saga leaps forward many years in this latest edition. Caesar is long gone. His time came and went.
In this all-new version directed by Wes Ball (“The Maze Runner” trilogy), a young ape named Noa (Owen Teague) goes on an adventure trying to figure out his place in the world.
“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” (Opens May 24)
Director George Miller returns to the sci-fi action-adventure with a prequel to the highly successful ultimate dusty road-rage saga. Anya Taylor-Joy is out front as Furiosa, who
battles Chris Hemsworth’s Dr. Dementus in this high-speed adventure tale.
I’m like a kid in a candy store waiting for this one to open.
“Bad Boys: Ride or Die” (Opens June 7)
I know this has all been done before, three times in fact, but audiences, including me, will flock to it regardless.
Will Smith, who’s earned the moniker of Hollywood’s bad boy in real life thanks to his Oscar slap of Chris Rock, and Martin Lawrence are still able to ignite the old screen chemistry and pizzazz.
“Twisters” (Opens July 19)
Gone are the storm-chasing days of the late Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt in the 1996 original.
In this rejuvenation directed by Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”), we have Glen Powell as storm chaser Tyler Owens with a big ego and Daisy Edgar-Jones as Kate Cooper in a twister tale of dark clouds and foreboding elements.
I’m waiting with bated breath on this one. It looks like a money grab for Universal Pictures and Warner Bros.
“Deadpool & Wolverine” (Opens July 26)
Forget the fact that Wolverine supposedly died in the previous entry, but Ryan Reynolds, who portrays Wade Wilson or Deadpool, convinced Hugh Jackman to come fact for one more Wolverine go-round with the giant claws.
“Trap” (Opens Aug. 9)
M. Night Shyamalan (“The Sixth Sense”) returns with a very good horror-mystery about a father (Josh Hartnett) who takes his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to a concert featuring a worldwide star sort of in the Taylor Swift vain.
“Alien: Romulus” (Opens Aug. 16)
The xenomorph space aliens are despicable fictional monsters. You don’t want them around. But they keep showing up in sequel after sequel. As long as people keep coming, “Alien” flicks will light up movie marquees. Cailee Spaeny, on-screen recently in “Civil War” and as the title character in “Priscilla,” takes on the aliens in this big-budget sci-fi horror opus.
