Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings
Yeah, looks fun. It’ll be cool to see Marvel go for a full on Kung Fu movie. I don’t know much about this character, so I don’t have much to comment on. I’m just amused by the presence of the amazing Tony Leung. This is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, who has earned a lot of good will from his breakthrough film, Short Term 12. Neither of his follow ups have reached the heights of that film, though Just Mercy is pretty solid. I just hope his voice can be felt here, and it doesn’t feel like he’s just shooting some shot-reverse-shots in between all the pre-visualized setpieces. I’m also not entirely sold on Simu Liu. He has the physicality down, but he doesn’t quite have the presence of a Joe Taslim, Andrew Koji, or even a Lewis Tan. Granted, that could just be the way the trailer is put together. I’m sure it’ll be fine.
Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings will hit theaters on September 3rd.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
Honestly, I’m still pretty bummed that James Wan isn’t directing this. It’s not that I think Michael Chaves is a bad director, I think the problems with The Curse Of La Llorona mostly stemmed from an underwhelming and generic script. His direction in that film was fine, but it definitely lacked the ingenuity and imagination that Wan would often put into his camera work. That said, this still looks pretty good. I love the first two Conjuring films, and I adore Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga in these films, they provide so much heart and sincerity to the proceedings, and they work so well together. While I have some slight reservations, this is still a film I am very much excited for.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It will be released in theaters on June 4th and on HBO Max for 31 days.
Werewolves Within
I was totally thrown off by the Ubisoft logo until I looked it up, and found out that this is based on a VR game from a few years back. Honestly, if it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t have assumed this was based on a game. I really like that it’s a werewolf movie filtered through a whodunnit style concept. Just based on the bit of research I did, the only big difference between this and the game is that this is set in the real, modern world while the game has a fantasy setting. I’m curious why this movie got made because the game certainly doesn’t look high profile enough to warrant an adaptation. Perhaps they saw an opportunity to do something cool and fun. It certainly looks to be that way. I’m definitely looking forward to this.
Werewolves Within opens in select theaters on June 25th and VOD platforms on July 2nd.
12 Mighty Orphans
It’s not often you see Robert Duvall, so that’s pretty cool. I think the last time we saw him was in Widows. Anyway, I generally enjoy sports movies, but this one doesn’t seem to be doing much for me. The hook is good, but the production itself seems to be lacking. It’s hard to articulate why, but a lot of the sets look lifeless, almost as if you can’t imagine a world beyond what we see happening on the screen. If that makes sense. A lot of low budget movies that try to have a prestige element experiences this from what I’ve observed through the years. It doesn’t look terrible, I might still give it a shot, the story seems interesting enough, and it’s shining a light on a piece of history that might be worth revisiting.
12 Mighty Orphans opens in select theaters on June 11th before expanding nationwide starting June 18th.
Riders Of Justice
Like most normal people, I’m a huge fan of Mads Mikkelsen. So, anything he’s involved with is immediately going to get my attention. I love the little hints of humor here, and I have a feeling that the film is going to be more quirky than the trailer is advertising, for two reasons. One, comedy is listed as one of the genres on IMDb, and two, this is a trailer for the American release, and American audiences are notoriously confused by mixing tones. We like things to be consistent, so I imagine that’s why this trailer feels like it’s aiming for a Taken vibe. If I’m right, and this is a blend of action and dark humor, I think I might really love it, but if it is just a straight forward revenge movie, I think I would still love it. It just looks like a really good time.
Riders Of Justice hits select theaters on May 14th and VOD platforms on May 21st.
The Dry
I feel like Eric Bana doesn’t often get the chance to use his regular accent, so that’s a nice thing to see here. In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen Eric Bana star in a film in a while. I think the last time I saw him was in that Guy Ritchie King Arthur movie. I think this looks pretty good. I like me a small town mystery, and this looks like it’s gonna be quite the trip. It was a big hit in Australia, so I imagine it resonated quite a bit. It certainly makes it more intriguing to me, and I will be keeping my eye out for it.
The Dry hits select theaters and VOD platforms on May 21st.
Thoughts on any of the trailers? Feel free to discuss in the comments!