The Eight Movies I'm Most Excited to See in the Summer of 2015
By Jason McIntyre
In a summer with no Olympics and no World Cup, the sports calendar from the end of the NBA Finals to the start of the NFL season is extremely barren. There’s very little original TV programming. Hence, the movies. Hollywood caters to young men in the summer – loud noises, superheroes, blockbusters. But there’s more! The eight movies I’m most excited to see this summer.
8. We Are Your Friends. The trailer is just OK. But it has Emily Ratajkowski. Yes, I’ll sit through a bad 100 minute movie if she’s in it. Reminder: on a Thursday afternoon when it’s raining and muggy and there’s nothing to do, something like this is probably worth $10.
7. Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation. I’m a fan of the Mission Impossible series, even if it is on its last legs and crazy Tom Cruise is a tough sell. Still – Ving Rhames, Alec Baldwin and Jeremy Renner are a solid supporting cast. As long as you know what you’re getting – good, if unbelievable action sequences; far-too-convoluted plot; utterly predictable ending – you should be fine with this.
6. Terminator: Genisys. A 67-year old action super star? That’s a real tough sell. Even I’m dubious. But if you’re cool with spending $10 (and I’m using that figure because nobody sane will see some of these cheesy big budget flicks with me) for some futuristic madness, perhaps capping a tremendous franchise, you’ll almost certainly enjoy this.
5. Ted 2. This is either your kind of movie or it isn’t. There’s no in-between here. A crass teddy bear telling dirty jokes, written and directed by Seth McFarlane. Yeah, that’s my kind of movie.
4. Aloha. Emma Stone and Rachel McAdams? Two of my favorite actresses on the planet. I was sold on the billboard. I’m going into this fresh – no Rotten Tomatoes, no critics, nada. Written and directed by Cameron Crowe, who is nothing short of brilliant (Singles, Jerry Maguire, Vanilla Sky).
3. Entourage. Falls into the Ted 2 category. You either loved the series on HBO and you’re seeing it despite knowing your 13-year old cousin could decipher the plot 15 minutes in, or you hated the HBO series and you’re going to spend every waking hour bashing the movie on twitter. I’ll be there opening weekend.
2. Jurassic World. The first one will forever be legendary, and then #2 and #3 not surprisingly were letdowns (but successful at the box office). Jurassic Park III was so awful, they waited 14 years for the reboot (or as the studio puts it, “development hell”). I can stomach 124 minutes of dinosaurs running around and a few people getting eaten. In fact, I’m looking forward to it.
1. San Andreas. You had me at “End of Days.” Unlike the other movies on this list … this could really happen! No, really – do some homework on the San Andreas Fault and get back to me. The prospect of LA, Orange County, San Diego, and Palm Springs sliding into the Pacific Ocean is very real. When could it happen? Tomorrow or a decade from now, nobody knows. It’s really a fascinating topic … if you’re into that sort of thing.