Ingredients are assembled for summer movie magic
By Richard Roeper
In the 2010s, the key ingredients for the Summer Blend Recipe for Movies are as follows:
• Multiple portions of costumed superhero adventures
• Equal helpings of reboots and sequels
• A spoonful of romantic stories and hard-R comedies
• Just a dash of adult drama
• A sprinkling of edgy original fare
• Add a dash of hope
Here’s a look at some of the films I’m most anticipating this summer, some of the movies that have me asking, “WHY ME!” — and a few predictions about how it will all shake down.
THE ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE
Having said that, The Angry Birds Movie falls squarely into the category of “WHY ME!”
THE NICE GUYS
A 1970s period piece, with Ryan Gosling’s private eye and Russell Crowe’s veteran detective teaming up to investigate the seedy and violent world of Los Angeles porn. Co-written and directed by Shane Black, who wrote the first two Lethal Weapon movies and a number of other big action films in the 1980s and 1990s, disappeared from the scene for years at a time and resurfaced in a big way in 2013 as the writer and director of Iron Man 3.
Here’s hoping this harkens back to Black’s work on the original Lethal Weapon and not The Last Boy Scout.
X-MEN APOCALYPSE
The X-Men series is one of the few superhero franchises to improve over the years. And the great Oscar Isaac is Apocalypse. Color me in.
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: OUT OF THE SHADOWS
“WHY ME!”
SWISS ARMY MAN
This sounds like a much creepier version of Weekend at Bernie’s, which was pretty creepy in the first place when you go back and take a look at it.
Paul Dano, who has played more oddballs (Love and Mercy, There Will Be Blood, Prisoners) than just about anyone of his generation, is marooned on a desert island, where a corpse (Daniel Radcliffe) with a rope around its neck washes up. Turns out this dead man is plagued by flatulence, can talk and can even get aroused.
Oh, that old storyline again.
FINDING DORY
It’s a Finding Nemo sequel. How can we go wrong!
CLOWN
Question: Does anyone actually like clowns, with the possible exception of other clowns? You were afraid of clowns as a kid and they freak you out now that you’re an adult, right? Me too!
By now it’s beyond cliche to make clowns the villains on TV shows and in movies, but I have to say this entry looks intriguingly horrific: When the hired clown is a no-show at a boy’s 6th birthday party, his father gets a clown outfit and entertains the kids. Ah, but this suit is cursed and could turn Daddy into a sadistic maniac who likes to kill children.
He’s no Fizbo!
FREE STATE OF JONES
Inspired, as they say, by true events. Matthew McConaughey stars as Newton Knight, the Jones County, Mississippi, farmer who teamed up with slaves to rebel against the Confederacy. One of the relatively few “heavy” films coming out this summer.
THE SHALLOWS
Blake Lively has the timeless beauty of a 1940s movie star and she can act when given the right vehicle, which hasn’t happened all that much. This one could be a nifty little sleeper. Lively is in the water here and the beach is over there — and the one thing keeping her from swimming to safety is that killer shark right there.
THE BFG
Steven Spielberg’s first Disney movie is an adaptation of the Roald Dahl book, with Oscar winner Mark Rylance as the Big Friendly Giant. This is the opposite of a “WHY ME!” movie.
GHOSTBUSTERS
Here’s an idea. Why don’t we all settle down and wait to see the movie before going all social media crazy about the casting, the trailer, the perceived slights to minorities, etc., etc.?
EQUALS
It’s the future, and emotions are forbidden because it’s movie law that about eight out of 10 movies about the future paint a bleak picture of totalitarian rule where attractive young people in monochromatic wardrobes must meet secretly to express their love, lest “The Elders,” or whatever the heck they’re called, find out and condemn them to “The Great Wasteland Beyond the City,” or whatever the heck it’s called.
LIGHTS OUT
David F. Sandberg’s feature-length adaptation of his cool, wickedly dark, award-winning 2013 short about a demon who surfaces only when the lights go out. And that demon just might have a connection to Mommy.
JASON BOURNE
Yeah! Matt Damon returns to erase our memories of Jeremy Renner as the franchise star.
THE FOUNDER
Ever since 1982 and Night Shift, Michael Keaton has been one of those actors who add something special to a role every time out, whether he’s starring in a blockbuster, a thriller, a comedy or a quirky indie. (OK, Keaton couldn’t do anything with Jack Frost, but even the greats have their limits.) In The Founder, Keaton headlines as Ray Kroc, who purchased a small chain of hamburger restaurants from Richard and Maurice McDonald in 1961 and had just a little bit of success expanding the franchise.
SUICIDE SQUAD
This is my most anticipated movie of the summer: a superhero version of The Dirty Dozen, about a team of Death Row arch-villains who are granted freedom in exchange for doing black-ops work for the government. Starring Viola Davis, Margot Robbie, Will Smith, Cara Delevingne, Jai Courtney — and Jared Leto, whose Joker looks so chilling I’m wondering if this will be the SECOND time an actor is nominated for playing the pasty-faced, cackling maniac. (Heath Ledger, of course, won best supporting actor posthumously for his portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight.)
NINE LIVES
Kevin Spacey as an evil billionaire trapped in the body of a cat he gave to his daughter.
WHY ME.
SAUSAGE PARTY
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg team up for a hard-R, animated film. What could possibly go subtle?
SOUTHSIDE WITH YOU
Nifty premise: The entire film covers one day in the summer of 1989, as one Michelle Robinson goes on a first date with one Barack Obama. Writer-director Richard Tanne’s Southside With You, filmed last summer in Chicago’s Loop and on the South and West sides, received strong reviews at Sundance. With the Indiana-born, London-based Parker Sawyers (who has had small roles in Zero Dark Thirty and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit) as the future POTUS and Tika Sumpter (Gossip Girl, Kevin Hart’s significant other in the Ride Along movies) as the future FLOTUS.
Hmmmmm, perhaps years from now we’ll get a sweet little movie about the party in 1998 when future POTUS Donald Trump was on a date but still tried to get future FLOTUS Melania’s number, or maybe an indie film about the day when future FLOTUS and POTUS Hillary met future POTUS and FMOTUS Bill on the campus at Yale. — Chicago Sun-Times/Universal UClick
