BlacKkKlansman
Spike Lee has always been one of the most essential American filmmakers in history, and it seems like we’ve collectively taken him for granted in recent years. Chi-Raq was one of my favorite films of 2015, and I’ve been eagerly awaiting for his next big project.
Which brings us to him adapting the true story of a black detective infiltrating the KKK in the late 70s, and man, this looks incredible. Lee seems to be having a blast stylistically and with the humor and time period, and the cast looks fantastic. This was already one of my most anticipated films of the year, and that excitement has practically doubled after seeing this. I can’t wait to see it.
BlacKkKlansman will hit theaters August 10th.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout
I swear, unless the movie is like four hours long, these trailers make it look like nothing but a series of increasingly insane stunts, and I would honestly be fine with either option. This looks awesome, and while I may have had initial hesitations about a director returning to the franchise, given the whole appeal of it was seeing different directors add their flair to a pretty standard formula, Christopher McQuarrie knocked those hesitations away as soon as that first trailer popped up.
This new trailer isn’t necessarily better than the first one, but it’s good to have some more details as to what exactly is setting off these crazy series of events. In a way, this almost seems like the big finale for the franchise. The stakes have never seemed higher, and all the fan favorite characters are back together. This feels like a “one last hurrah” type adventure, which I doubt is actually the case, I mean, just look at Rogue Nation’s box office numbers. But that’s not the point, the point is, this looks great, and it’s probably the safest bet of the summer in terms of having a damn good time in the theater.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout will be released July 27th.
Mile 22
So, I can’t be the only one who is only in this for Iko Uwais, right? I like Mark Wahlberg, but his collaborations with Peter Berg have not been my cup of tea, which is putting it rather nicely, so I’m otherwise not that interested in this. However, having Indonesian actor and martial artist, Iko Uwais, play a big supporting role in a big mainstream production is a tradeoff I’m willing to take.
I guess the lack of sociopolitical self-importance that plagued Berg’s last several films in this is somewhat more appealing, but still, having a team of (seemingly) mostly white officers running rampant in a foreign country is a bit weird. But for Uwais, I’ll give it a shot.
Mile 22 is scheduled to release in theaters August 3rd.
Bohemian Rhapsody
That’s a damn good trailer for a movie I’m not particularly excited for. Ever since Sacha Baron Cohen left because the band was insistent on making a more standard, sanitized bopic, I lost much of my interest. Sure, this trailer is well edited, and I’m sure Rami Malek will do a fine job (though, it would’ve been kind of cool to see someone of South Asian descent to play Freddie Mercury, but whatevs).
Then there’s also the whole “Bryan Singer was booted off after the allegations came out and got replaced” thing. The movie already looks like it’s covering a lot of history, and I wished current director, Dexter Fletcher, was at least given a chance to maybe rebuild the project to his sensibilities, as opposed to just finishing the job, which is what this looks like. That’s about all I have to say about it, I wish I was more excited, but who knows, maybe it will surprise me.
Bohemian Rhapsody will be released on November 2nd.
Destination Wedding
This looks so pure and wonderful, and I love everything about it! Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder as two misanthropes brought together by fate. Give me this movie now! I don’t have much else to say about it, it’s a rom-com, and it’s got two actors I love in it. Of course, I really want to see this.
Destination Wedding will be released in theaters August 24th.
Bleeding Steel
The bad guy in this looks like Darth Vader when Luke took off his helmet in Return of the Jedi. Just a weird little thing I noticed…in a sea of a million big, weird things. This looks completely bonkers, and I’m not entirely sure what to make of it. At first, it looked like a generic cop movie, but then all this crazy sci-fi stuff appears out of nowhere, and nothing in the cityscapes seem to imply that this is the far future or anything. It’s so bizarre.
And of course, in the middle of all that is Jackie Chan doing his thing. Naturally, I’m curious for whatever he does, but this is something I did not expect. Chances are this won’t be very good, but a part of me is genuinely curious about it.
Bleeding Steel will be released in select theaters and on various VOD platforms on July 6th.
Whitney
This is going to be a hard watch, but one that will likely give us some insight to the genius and tragedy of Whitney Houston. It kind of reminds me of the documentary Amy, which was a devastating piece of filmmaking, and I’m expecting this to have the same effect.
The film is directed by Kevin MacDonald, who has had a rather distinguished career in both films (The Last King of Scotland, State of Play, and How I Live Now) and documentaries (One Day in September, Touching the Void, and Marley). The guy knows what he’s doing, so I imagine his work with this project will hit the mark.
Whitney will hit theaters July 6th.
Escape Plan 2: Hades
I totally forgot that this was going to be a thing. For the record, I actually quite liked the first Escape Plan. Not only was it a pretty fun throwback to 90s action movies, but it was really cool seeing Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger working side by side like that for the first time. And honestly, that was the big appeal for that film, seeing those two bounce off each other.
But apparently, the studio thought people just liked seeing Stallone breaking out of a prison since it looks like Arnold is nowhere to be found here. Although, to be fair, Dave Bautista is not a bad substitute. He’s kind maybe the only reason I’m kinda looking forward to this, plus the fact that this looks like the kind of DTV schlock that I can dig. I’m not expecting much, but I will see it.
Escape Plan 2: Hades will be released on Blu-Ray and various VOD platforms on June 29th.
Thoughts on any of the trailers? Feel free to sound off in the comments below!