May 24: "The Hangover III," "Before Midnight" aha
As Memorial Day rolls
around, you have two trilogies to choose from: "The Hangover III" and
"Before Midnight," the three-quel to Richard Linklater's accidental
trilogy that began with 1995's "Before Sunrise" and continued with
2004's "Before Sunset."
In the presumed end to
the "Hangover" franchise, the Wolf Pack reunites because Alan (Zach
Galifianakis) is in crisis, and then they have to team up with their
one-time nemesis, Mr. Chow, to retrieve something that was stolen. "It
does not revolve around a wedding, and it does not revolve around a
forgotten night," director Todd Phillips said. "It's a different
structure."
In "Before Midnight," we
catch up with lovers Jesse and Celine (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) to
see if they've finally made their relationship work, and under what
terms, during a visit to Greece. "These films are the opposite of
victory-lap sequels," Linklater said. "We've had six to nine years to
think about it and dig in, and we wouldn't do that if we didn't feel
that there was something new for them to say and some new station in
life."
May 31: "Now You See Me," "The East," "After Earth"
Following Memorial Day
weekend is the magic-heist film "Now You See Me," which squares off
against star/co-writer Brit Marling's "The East."
"Now You See Me" is a
glossy tale about four magicians (played by Jesse Eisenberg, Woody
Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco) who execute a bank robbery as
part of their act (part of the fun is learning how the tricks are done).
"The East," meanwhile,
is an indie thriller about a corporate spy infiltrating a freegan
anarchist collective that executes "jams" on unsuspecting companies.
Whether it's done by magic or terrorism, both films are about free
thinkers teaming up to hold corporate America financially and morally
responsible for its wrongdoings; consider them companion pieces.
Despite taking place in
the future, at its heart, "After Earth" is a father/son survival story
in which Will Smith tries to build his son Jaden's movie career -- er,
tries to direct his son toward a rescue beacon. Smith's original idea
for the film had the father and son crash their car in the mountains,
but screenwriter Gary Whitta jazzed up the piece with a primordial
planet filled with defense mechanisms meant to kill humans. "Earth has
evicted us because we were messing (it up)," Whitta said. "If you took
'Jurassic Park' and dumped 'King Kong' in the middle of it, that's what
you have in this environment."
June 7: "The Purge"
In "The Purge," a future
version of America has decriminalized murder for a 12-hour period once a
year. Those who can afford to do so either participate and kill off the
have-nots or go on lockdown to protect their families. Ethan Hawke's
character, who became rich selling security systems, finds his family
besieged after his son lets in a man on the run. It's basically a
home-invasion story with some sociopolitical underpinnings, but it'll
provide some summer chills as the purge begins.
June 14: "This Is the End," "Man of Steel"
"This Is the End," which
opens ahead of the weekend on June 12, will also provide a high body
count but for comedic effect. Various celebrities are at a party at
James Franco's house when the apocalypse occurs. "We thought it would be
funny to see famous people die in graphic ways," star, co-writer and
director Seth Rogen said. "We killed most of our favorite stars. ...
Michael Cera plays a lunatic cokehead version of himself. He makes the
best corpse."
Does Henry Cavill make
the best Superman, though? "Man of Steel" is another reboot, this time
with director Zack Snyder at the helm. Unlike the last Superman film,
Bryan Singer's "Superman Returns" (2006), this is an origin story with a
young Clark Kent realizing the scope of his powers and what he was out
on Earth to do.
June 21: "World War Z"
Brad Pitt is also out to
save the world, but only because it's infested by zombies. The producer
and star of "World War Z" (based on Max Brooks' book) plays a former
U.N. staffer caught up in a zombie pandemic. Pitt has said the film
offered up a couple of challenges, and not just how to fight the undead:
"How do we keep the global, dynamic scope of the book, and how do we
originate a genre that's been done quite often and really, really well?"
One of the solutions is to show the pandemic as it unfolds instead of
merely documenting the aftermath.
June 28: "White House Down," "Byzantium"
Channing Tatum also
plays the hero, but on a smaller scale. In "White House Down," he plays a
man who has just interviewed for his dream job with the Secret Service
and is on-site when terrorists storm the White House. He may not have
gotten the job officially, but he in effect does it anyway by protecting
the president (Jamie Foxx). Expect lots of explosions.
For a female-action
alternative to most of June's fare, Neil Jordan ("Interview with the
Vampire") has another story of the undead on the way called "Byzantium."
Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan play a mother-daughter vampire duo
who've broken a cardinal bloodsucking rule of no females allowed. "It's a
feminist movie," Arterton said. "Traditionally men, not always, are
sexualized as vampires, not women. Women are the ones who are usually
victimized."
July 5: "The Way, Way Back"
Sam Rockwell stars in
the latest film from writing team Jim Rash and Nat Faxon ("The
Descendants") as the owner of the Water Wizz water park who takes an
awkward teenage boy under his wing. They head out on vacation with his
mom (Toni Collette) and her boyfriend (Steve Carell). "It's inspired by
real-life happenings," Rash said, "but it's heavier on the funny side
than 'The Descendants,' even if both are dysfunctional family comedies."
It won audiences over at Sundance.
July 12: "Pacific Rim"
Guillermo del Toro knows
his monsters, and in "Pacific Rim," he brings to life his biggest ones
yet: kaiju (Japanese for giant monsters). The film also features giant
robots controlled by soldiers battling the race of alien beasts who rise
from the ocean. There's a stellar cast as well (Charlie Hunnam, Ron
Perlman, Idris Elba, Charlie Day and Rinko Kikuchi), but really, the
selling point here is monsters vs. robots, right?
July 19: "The Girl Most Likely"
Kristen Wiig has her
first post-"Bridesmaids" starring role in "The Girl Most Likely." Her
character pretends to commit suicide to get a guy's attention, but the
move backfires and lands her back at home with her mother (Annette
Bening). "It's a comedy with an underpinning of real emotion, because
this character is a hot mess and falling apart at the seams,"
co-director Shari Springer Berman said. "But it's Kristen, so you love
her. Kristen can do anything."
July 26: "The Wolverine"
Hugh Jackman is back for
another round as Logan in "The Wolverine," in what should be a
stand-alone film within the" X-Men" series (hopefully erasing any bad
memories leftover from "X-Men Origins: Wolverine.") This time, the story
is from Chris Claremont and Frank Miller's 1982 comic series, so Logan
is in Japan, where he meets up with a man he'd saved from a POW camp
during World War II. Logan's lived a long time, but his friend offers
him a way out: to make him mortal. In his way are Viper and Silver
Samurai, the Yakuza and members of the Japanese criminal underworld.
August 2: "The Spectacular Now," "2 Guns"
An indie teen
coming-of-age story ("Spectacular Now") starring Shailene Woodley and
Miles Teller is no box office match against "2 Guns," but it'll remind
audiences of John Hughes films that they love -- and make Teller a
break-out star.
In the meantime, Mark
Wahlberg teams up with Denzel Washington (and re-teams with his
"Contraband" director Baltasar Kormákur) for "2 Guns," in which a DEA
agent and a naval intelligence officer are forced to work undercover
together as members of a narcotics syndicate, but neither one knows the
other is also a federal agent. When they discover the truth about each
other, they have to go on the run -- together.
August 9: "Elysium"
A little more
high-concept is the much-anticipated sci-fi film "Elysium," starring
Matt Damon and Jodie Foster and directed by "District 9"'s Neill
Blomkamp, about the wealthy living on a space station while the
impoverished live on a polluted planet. "It's not a sequel; it's not a
franchise," Foster said at San Diego Comic-Con. "This is completely
original, and it has a real sociopolitical relevance. It's about all
sorts of things that matter to me, plus beautiful gut-wrenching
explosions."
August 16: "Austenland"
In a summer filled with
"gut-wrenching explosions," "Austenland" offers a respite for those
looking for something more gentile. Keri Russell plays a mega-Jane
Austen fan who spends her life's savings for a weekend getaway at a spot
that promises to re-create life as portrayed in such classics as "Pride
and Prejudice" and "Sense and Sensibility." She's hoping to find her
own Mr. Darcy, but fantasy and reality collide in this comedy about
role-playing romance, also featuring "Flight of the Conchords" star Bret
McKenzie.
August 23: "The World's End"
Edgar Wright ("Shaun of
the Dead," "Hot Fuzz") completes his Simon Pegg-Nick Frost trilogy with
"The World's End." A group of friends (including Pegg, Frost, Martin
Freeman, Paddy Considine and Eddie Marsan) want to re-create a classic
pub crawl from their youth: 12 pubs in one night, ending at a pub called
(what else?) the World's End. On the way, they discover that their
hometown has been invaded by aliens! But that won't stop these
determined drinkers. "We are going to get to the World's End if it kills
us," Pegg vows. We'll probably die laughing.
