(This article first appeared in the July print edition of the Hendersonian)
All it takes is one stellar weekend in the theaters to turn the tide of negative sentiment these days. After a record-breaking weekend for Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 and its continued success throughout the past few weeks (earning well over $350 million domestically after two weekends), industry prognosticators are surprisingly excited for a strong finish to the summer blockbuster period, especially with a handful of highly anticipated July openings. Here are a few to keep an eye on this month, and as always, don’t leave your house until you’ve checked the listings at your local Showplace Cinemas and AMC Theaters locations.
Despicable Me 4 (July 3) – Just when you thought it was safe to buy that Despicable Me Trilogy boxset (for those of us who still buy physical copies), Illumination and Universal Studios have gone and made this successful franchise a quadrilogy! The whole Gru crew is back, including the voice talents of Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Will Ferrell, Sofia Vergara, and Joey King. Adding some new jokes that are sure to land with the adults in the crowd is co-writer Mike White, the creator of HBO’s Emmy-winning limited series The White Lotus. Veteran illumination animation director Chris Renaut makes this release his sixth outing with the studio, co-directing with feature newcomer Patrick Delage in the process.
MaXXXine (July 5) – A trilogy of an entirely different kind, writer/director Ti West (X, Pearl) closes out his series of slow-burn slashers with this thriller. Back again as the Pearl/Maxine character is starlet Mia Goth, who is sure to bring more layers of traumatized gore this time around. Instead of the horrors of sinister farmhouses, this installment takes place in the seedy underbelly of 1980s Los Angeles during the wrath of a serial killer. Another stacked A24 cast includes Elizabeth Debicki (Netflix’s The Crown), recording artists Moses Sumney and Halsey, Michelle Monaghan (those new Spectrum commercials) and Bobby Cannavale (Ant-Man, The Irishman) as the detectives, Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad, The Mandalorian) and Kevin Bacon.
Longlegs (July 12) – Couldn’t get enough slow-burn horror after seeing MaXXXine? You’re in luck! The Nicolas Cage renaissance continues with this performance as the title character, a serial killer who sends an FBI agent (played by the star of It Follows, Maika Monroe) down a path of occult clues she must solve to find him before his next victim. Writer/director Oz Perkins (The Blackcoat’s Daughter, Gretel & Hansel) brings this twisted tale to the screen, with Blair Underwood (Origin, Deep Impact) and Kiernan Shipka (Totally Killer, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) co-starring.
Fly Me to the Moon (July 12) – Will this be the sleeper hit of the summer? Apple TV+ sure hopes the launch doesn’t get scrubbed and the gamble pays off in releasing this romantic comedy in theaters. The movie stars Channing Tatum as a NASA launch director whose life and mission to the moon is upended by Scarlet Johansson, an advertising maven hired to stage a fake moon landing if the mission doesn’t succeed. Joining this madcap trip to the moon are comedy legends Woody Harrelson and Ray Romano. Veteran TV writer and producer Greg Berlanti directs.
Twisters (July 19) – With two highly acclaimed performances under his belt in the last six months (Anyone But You and Hit Man), Glenn Powell looks to add a third hit to his impressive year with this reboot/indirect sequel to the 1996 pop culture phenomenon. Joining Powell on the storm chase is a who’s who of young stars, including Daisy Edgar-Jones (Where the Crawdads Sing, Normal People), Anthony Ramos (Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, In the Heights), Katy O’Brian (Love Lies Bleeding, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania), Kiernan Shipka (Longlegs, TV’s Mad Men), Sasha Lane (Hellboy, American Honey), and Brandon Perea (Nope). Director Lee Isaac Chung (Minari) makes the jump to big budget filmmaking with this release.
Deadpool & Wolverine (July 26) – Logan may have been the cinematic Wolverine sendoff we wanted for the beloved character, but this team up with the Merc with a Mouth is exactly what fans needed. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman reprise their iconic roles, as they team up to battle a common foe. The rest of the Deadpool gang are back as well, with a few potential surprise appearances rumored to hit the screen (cough…Patrick Stewart as Professor X…cough, cough). As always with these two Marvel characters, please leave the small kids at home, as the amount of foul language will keep pace with the number of shots fired.
Henderson resident McManus Woodend is an Assistant Professor of Digital Media at the University of Southern Indiana and has worked in film, television and commercials for more than 20 years. To see some of his work, visit www.mcmanuswoodend.com.