Summer Movies of 2017

'Wonder Woman' (June 2)


How lucky that this DC Comics heroine makes her big-screen feature debut in the person of Gal Gadot. A former combat instructor in the Israeli army, she is every inch a Wonder Woman. Her worst enemy is the bad blood remaining from last year's two critically reviled DC films, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad. In this origin story, set during World War I, Gadot is pretty much the whole show (Chris Pine stands by adoringly in the ingénue role). The actress states her mission is "to show the stronger side of women." No problem.



'It Comes at Night' (June 9)


For the horror movie of the summer, look no further than this mind-twisting hellraiser from writer-director Trey Edward Shults, whose debut film, Krisha,heralded a ferocious new talent. Now his artful and intensely personal approach to terror puts him in a class by himself. A viral plague has sent dad (Joel Edgerton), mom (Carmen Ejogo) and teen son (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.) to the woods for refuge. Then a stranger (Christopher Abbott) comes knocking. Nothing is predictable in the hands of Shults, who found his own father’s death from cancer a sorrowful inspiration. His searching mind and heart resonate in every thrilling frame.



'The Mummy' (June 9)


No, Tom Cruise does not spend this movie wrapped in bandages. In a gender reversal, Sofia Boutella plays the title role originated by Boris Karloff in 1932. Her Egyptian Princess Ahmanet is calling in a promise her long-dead daddy didn’t keep – to make her Pharaoh. Cruise is the dude who tracks her down in the labyrinths under modern London. Director Alex Kurtzman saw something in Boutella's mostly silent turn as an assassin in Kingsman: The Secret Service that got her the role: "There's a whole performance going on in her eyes." This movie is the first step in re-imagining Universal's famous creature features, including Frankenstein, Wolf Man and the Invisible Man. It'll be burial time for studio suits if The Mummy falls on its fat one.



'Rough Night' (June 16)


Every summer deserves a Bridesmaids, and this may be 2017's all-female raunch-com to beat. Scarlett Johansson is the bride-to-be hitting Miami Beach with her best friends for a bachelorette weekend; Gillian Bell, Kate McKinnon, Zoe Kravitz and Ilana Glazer are her partners in debauchery. After a coke-and-booze–fueled night of partying, the crew finds themselves with a dead make stripper on their hands. And then things get really nuts. Broad City veteran Lucia Aniello directs.



'The Big Sick' (June 23)


Despite the "Big" in the title, this is an intimate love story, hilarious and heartbreaking, that Kumail Nanjiani (of HBO's Silicon Valley) and co-writer Emily V. Gordon carved out of their own culture-clash relationship. Nanjiani, a super talent, plays a standup comic much like himself. And Emily, portrayed by the wondrous Zoe Kazan, is the girl he hides from his strict Muslim parents. Then she gets sick. And the movie, produced by Judd Apatow and directed by Michael Showalter, goes off to places too funny and touching to spoil. It's one of the best movies of summer. That The Big Sick opens the same day as The Epic That Must Not Be Named (OK, it's Transformers: The Last Knight) just shows you there is an antidote to Michael Bay even in stupid season.

'Baby Driver' (June 30)



Bubbling under the mudslide of summer rot (we're talking to you, Pirates of the Caribbean 5), this crazy good display of cinematic fireworks will be the one everyone will be talking about. Ansel Elgart Is spectacular as Baby, the getaway driver for a gang of bank robbers, including the hilariously unhinged Kevin Spacey, Jon Hamm and Jamie Foxx. As the wheelman listens to the soundtrack in his earbuds, director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) goes for broke in a series of visually explosive chase scenes choreographed to a kick-*** soundtrack that make Baby Driver a start-to-finish sensation.



'The Beguiled' (June 30)


Sofia Coppola, one of only four women ever nominated for a directing Oscar, tells the gothic tale of a wounded Union solider (Colin Farrell) who seeks Southern comfort at a girls' school run by Nicole Kidman and Kirsten Dunst. Then, as Coppola notes, "it takes a dark turn." Things ended badly for Clint Eastwood when he played the Farrell role in 1971. Expect Coppola, whose film will screen in competition at Cannes, to bring her own unique vision to the power games between the sexes.



'Despicable Me 3' (June 30)


Steve Carrel says his kids' friends always beg him to do the voice of Gru, the animated villain – now reformed – that he first voiced in 2010. And the fact that Carell will also play Gru's newly discovered twin, Dru, puts Despicable Me 3 on my summer must list. When it comes to this character, I'm a toadying minion.



'Spider-Man: Homecoming' (July 7)


Sony is shameless about rebooting this Marvel hero – the fact that the last two Spider-Man films had "Amazing" in the title mocked the very idea of truth in advertising. But this one has two words that make a difference: Tom Holland. He showed up briefly as the webslinger last year in Captain America: Civil War and charmed the cynicism out of us. The 20 year-old plays Spidey as a 15-year-old high school student, and sure, he's got Robert Downey, Jr around for Iron Man backup, as well as Michael Keaton onboard as the villainous Vulture. But Holland is the reason to see this. He does his own back flips. I'm sold.



'War for the Planet of the Apes' (July 14)


Unlike most franchise films that make you scream "Make it stop," the Apes series found a shot of adrenaline ever since the great Andy Serkis took on the role of simian leader Caesar in 2011. In his third go at the role, Serkis – in a motion capture suit – is poetry in motion. Returning director Matt Reeves makes the personal war between the head simian and the villainous Colonel (Woody Harrelson in a chilling variation of Brando in Apocalypse Now) thunderously exciting in the most epic and ambitious Apes movie yet.

'Dunkirk' (July 21)



With Christopher Nolan at the helm, this epic take on the massive World War II battle and evacuation of Dunkirk, France is told from air, land and sea and features such actors as Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hardy and Harry Styles. "It's a survival story first and last," says Nolan, whose precision and passion are a lock for awards attention.



'Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets' (July 21)


As a fan of French director Luc Besson (La Femme Nikita, The Professional), I have high hopes for this visionary sci-fi thriller starring Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne as space cops charged with maintaining order on the intergalactic city of Alpha. Clive Owens plays their commander; Rhianna shows up as, well, you have to see. Trust us on this one. With teasing ambiguity, Besson has issued the statement: "The villain is not the villain we think, and the evil is not the evil we think." Plus the Fifth Element vibes are strong on this one. How are we not intrigued?



'Atomic Blonde' (July 28)


All hail Charlize Theron, the summer's real-deal, R-rated, ball-busting wonder woman. As undercover agent Lorraine Broughton, Theron makes male action stars look like wimps as she rips through 1989 Berlin on a brutal, bloody, tear that reinvents the spy thriller as a femcentric brawl. "It was hard," Theron says of her fight scenes in this espionage thriller directed by David Leitch (John Wick). But worth it? Hell, yeah.



'The Emoji Movie' (July 28)



There's always one animated summer treat that sounds silly and then blows everyone away. Remember The Lego Movie? Besides, how do you resist a poop emoji voiced by Patrick Stewart? I can't.



'An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power' (July 28)


Al Gore's doc on environmental dangers won an Oscar in 2007. Now, with climate change deniers on the rise, including at the White House, the topic is even more timely, and the former Vice-President is back with a follow-up to his award-winning doc. Watch as Gore stumps around the world in order to remind politicians, pundits and even the POTUS that it's our responsibility to tend to the planet. That subtitle is no lie.

'The Dark Tower' (August 4)



In Stephen King's Dark Tower novels, Roland the gunslinger is described as pale and blue-eyed – but there's no better actor to play this baddass hero than Idris Elba. Having Elba mix it up with Matthew McConaughey as the Man in Black is guaranteed to perk up the dog days of summer. "I play him as the devil having a good time," says McConaughey. All right, all right, all right.



'Detroit' (August 4)



Set against the roiling backdrop of the 1967 Motor City riots and the three black men killed by white cops at the Algiers Motel, Detroit returns Kathryn Bigelow to the visceral urgency that made her the first woman to ever win a directing Oscar. Joined again by Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty screenwriter Mark Boal, Bigelow digs deep into America's systematic racism, then and now. Awards attention is a given.



'Logan Lucky' (August 18)



A heist film set at North Carolina's Charlotte Motor Speedway may not sound like much even with Channing Tatum, Adam Driver and Daniel Craig among the professional thieves. But this caper marks Steven Soderbergh's return to feature directing after five years of "retirement" and doing TV. That makes what the director calls "the anti-glam version of an Oceans movie" an event to end the summer of 2017 on a high note of originality and expectation.

U sure u ain't shazam in disguise?

Difference is, I won't be posting irrelevant stuff like box office numbers.

Despicable Me 3, maybe Dunkirk, for sure Valerian and Atomic Blonde. That crappy new Spider-Man won't see a dime, and I lost most of my interest in the new Wonder Woman movie with her appearance in BvS already. And I hope that emogee BS sucks worse than Power Rangers so Hollow Wood will start trying those crapshots even, and in a not too distant future.

I have to say, there are several movies that I'm interested to go see. Besides the obvious must sees, Rough Night sounds like a female version of The Hangover which I'll probably wait to catch it on Netflix. The least interested ones are the Emoji movie, the Al Gore documentary, and The Big Sick. And that War of the Planet of the Apes looks good and I hear Charlton Heston will be appearing. Those damn dirty apes!

Despicable Me 3 is going to be great. If I was bigger fan, I'd pay to go see it. Its due out 6/30.

Heston died in 2008 so it would be a cgi or a cut scene

Hey, at least "Wonder Blunder" will finally put an end to "Catwoman" as being the worst female super hero movie, of all time, so, it has that going for it

As for "The Mummy: the Reboot of the Reboot", since when did London have a labyrinth under it? Not even The Tube could be considered a 'labyrinth', at least not by anyone with a real idea about what a labyrinth actually is

The Tom Cruise movie, The Mummy is due out on 6/09.

Hey Everyone,

So I just came back from seeing Alien Covenant and...yeah...it was disappointing. In a nut shell, the movie is a glorified pit stop within the planned Alien prequel series. And yes, I said series because FOX cancelled the supposed Neill Blomkamp Alien sequel to go instead with Ridley Scott's vision for the Alien prequel that will span several films .

Firstly, the characters. I hope you watched the trailers and promotional videos on youtube because some of those scenes that fleshed out the crew are not in the film! From the get go, none of the human characters are interesting or memorable enough except maybe for a few but the rest of them are pretty much faceless red shirts. I kid you not, some of them act annoyingly hysterical which results in some face-palming reactions and all painfully follow the by the numbers slasher flick tropes. The best part has to go to James Franco because that guy deserves an oscar for the tour de force performance.

Second, if you were expecting the movie to answer the questions left from the previous film, Prometheus, and learn more about the Engineers, prepare for utter disappointment. While visually the film is superb because it's a Ridley Scott film, all his movies are beautifully filmed. The only problem, the CGI-Alien was okay and for some reason, Scott never questioned the script which portrayed human actions and motivations in a very warped manner, so much so that the choices made by every character seem completely irrational.

In the end, this is not worth going to the theater, save your money and catch it when it hits Netflix

source: Boxofficemojo.com

Here I am with another box office report. Despicable 3 is doing well. So far,
its pulled in about $47,563,759. Its expected to pull in about $83 M,
by Monday morning. We'll see. I love the 1st 2 movies. Not too fond of Minions.
Wonder Woman is expected to have another strong weekend. We're expecting about
$70 M in home media sales, alone. FYI, no date is set for the Blu-ray release. I
plan to order a copy for myself. I am guessing by, 1/1/2018. The studio has not set
a date, yet. Wonder Woman is expected to pull in about $400 M, in ticket sales.
We'll have to wait for UK to do their part. Bman, out.

source: Boxofficemojo.com and IMDB.com

Here I am with another box office report. Despicable 3 is doing well. So far,
its pulled in about $192.3. Its expected to pull in about $200 million,
by Monday morning. We'll see. I love the 1st 2 movies. Not too fond of
Minions. We'll have to wait for UK to do their part. Wonder Woman is going
strong. So far, its pulled in about $708.4 million. I'm shocked. That's more
than Man of Steel. Bman, out.

No, of course not. Me and Shazam! are 2 different characters.

Spiderman: Homecoming is due out, July 7th. I don't expect quite a
public response as much as we did with Wonder Woman. We'll see.

Just saw this today. Wow. I mean Wow. Great movie. Along with the lead (Elgart), Spacey and Foxx both pull off their roles perfectly. The whole cast seemed to have good chemistry as well. And the soundtrack is pure adrenaline with the action the cherry on top.

I just saw Spiderman: Homecoming. I'll do a full review tomorrow.

Rating: A good time no alcohol required.