Summer Blockbusters: Staying Inside with the Lights Off

Summer is here and event movie season is upon us. There are many types of event films, from the overblown special effects extravaganza to the highly anticipated sequel; we’ll be getting plenty of all types this summer. While I may be known as a critic around these parts I’ll declare this an opinion-free article and just give you a rundown of the summer’s big releases while peppering in a few non-blockbuster mainstream releases that look interesting.

If you haven’t started your summer viewing yet, then you probably have some catching up to do with the super hero hit Avengers: Age Of Ultron, the futuristic Disney adventure Tomorrowland, the disaster epic San Andreas, and the long overdue sequel Mad Max: Fury Road.

June will start summer off pretty big with some hyped sequels as well as one of the biggest event films of the year. The world gets an Entourage movie that brings the exploits of Vincent Chase and Co to the big screen while Ted 2 sees its titular character trying to prove that he legally exists for his family’s sake. Inside Out is sure to be another animated hit for Disney / Pixar and gives us a look at the inner workings of a young girl’s mind as she deals with her family moving. June’s biggest picture is certainly going to be the eagerly awaited Jurassic World. This time the park is up and running but on the decline, so a new attraction is concocted, which we can be certain will backfire spectacularly.

July kicks off with three big sequels. Terminator Genisys finds Arnold Schwarzenegger’s good guy terminator returning to help Kyle Reese and Sarah Conner in a new timeline, Magic Mike XXL has Channing Tatum returning for a male stripper road trip, and Minions has your favorite minions returning to assist a new super villain. And that’s all before aliens use weaponized classic video game characters against us in Chris Columbus’ Pixels starring Adam Sandler, while Paul Rudd steps into the Marvel superhero world in Ant Man.

On to August as it will bring us some guaranteed box office toppers and a couple of left field picks that could be bigger hits than expected. The last month of summer starts big with a new Fantastic Four movie, which will presumably reboot the franchise to be worked into the current Marvel universe. We get another reboot with The Man From U.N.C.L.E., a big screen adaptation of the beloved comedic spy television series of the ’60s. Straight Outa Compton may not be on everyone’s must watch list, but I’m certain that this film about the formation and career of 1980s hip-hop super group N.W.A. will be a bigger film than expected along with the horror sequel Sinister 2, which concerns a family who move into a house and may be the target of a supernatural killer.

This summer and this list has barely scratched the surface of all the summer releases coming our way. It’ll be a good season for movie fans!