Thursday, August 1, 2013

2013 Preview: August


Welcome back to Rhode Island Movie Corner’s Year-long preview of the films set to come out during 2013. This is Part 8 and today we’ll be looking into the final month of summer with the films coming out during the month of August.

AUGUST 2- While one holdover from July, ‘Smurfs 2’, opens early on the Wednesday of that week, one new release is set to come out on the first Friday of the month.

*The first major release of the month is ‘2 Guns’, an action/crime comedy from director Baltasar Kormakur, whose last project was 2012’s ‘Contraband’. Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg star as a DEA and NCIS agent, respectively, who investigate one another, believing that they are stealing money from the mob. They are then forced to work together when they learn that they were both set up by the mob. The film is an adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name by Steven Grant.

AUGUST 7- The weekend of August 9-11 is going to be busy. Four films are set to come out, 2 of which are opening early on the 7th.
*‘Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters’ is the second installment in the ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympian’ film series (based off of Rick Riordan’s bestselling novels) and the sequel to 2010’s ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief’. Thor Freudenthal (‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’) takes over directing duties from Chris Columbus for this film, which sees Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman), the demigod son of Poseidon, embark on a journey to find the Golden Fleece in order to save his training ground, Camp Half-Blood. Brandon T. Jackson and Alexandra Daddario reprise their roles as the satyr Grover and Annabeth, demigod daughter of Athena, respectively, alongside newcomers Stanley Tucci as Dionysus and Nathan Fillion as Hermes.
*‘We’re the Millers’ is a comedy directed by Rawson Thurber, who directed 2004’s ‘Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story’. Jason Sudeikis stars as a drug-dealer tasked with transporting some marijuana over the border. To do so inconspicuously, he hires a fake family, including his stripper ‘wife’ (Jennifer Aniston) and their two ‘kids’ (Emma Roberts and Will Poulter).

AUGUST 9- As for the two releases that are set to come out officially on the Friday of that weekend…
*After the success of 2009’s ‘District 9’, Neill Blomkamp returns with another original story, ‘Elysium’. In this film, which takes place in the year 2154, the rich live on a luxurious crime-free habitat called Elysium while everyone else remains on the war-torn Earth and are struggling to escape the planet. Matt Damon stars as a factory worker who attempts to get to Elysium after he ends up with a cancer virus. The film also stars Jodie Foster as the secretary of Elysium and Sharlto Copley as the leader of her secret police force.
*The final release of the August 9-11 weekend is ‘Planes’, a spinoff of Disney/Pixar’s ‘Cars’ franchise. Produced by DisneyToon Studios (the company behind Disney’s direct-to-video projects), the film was originally supposed to be a direct-to-video release. But, because Disney was impressed by some of the completed sequences, they decided to have it released in theaters. The film follows a small-town plane named Dusty (Dane Cook, who replaced Jon Cryer in the role) who dreams of becoming a racing plane, despite the fact that he’s not built for racing and he’s also afraid of heights. The film’s supporting cast also includes John Cleese, Val Kilmer, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

AUGUST 16- Another big week with four major releases.
*While the original ‘Kick-Ass’ was not a huge hit at the box office when it was released in 2010, its solid critical and audience reception has led to a sequel, ‘Kick-Ass 2’, which will hit theaters this weekend. Jeff Wadlow (‘Never Back Down’) takes over for Matthew Vaughn as director for this new film. Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Chloe Grace Moretz reprise their roles as Kick-Ass and Hit Girl, respectively, who join forces with a team of up-and-coming superheroes, led by Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey) to take on Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), who is reborn as the super villain known as ‘The MotherF***er’.
*Two historical dramas are set to hit theaters this weekend. The first is ‘Jobs’, a biopic based on the life of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who passed away on October 5, 2011. Ashton Kutcher stars as the entrepreneur/inventor while Josh Gad stars as Apple I/II inventor and company co-founder Steve Wozniak. It’s the story of how Jobs and Wozniak started the personal computer revolution with the help of Wozniak’s invention, the Apple I.
*The other ‘biopic’ is ‘The Butler’, which is based off of the real-life story of Eugene Allen, who served as the official butler at the White House for eight presidencies from 1952-1986. The film is directed by Lee Daniels (‘Precious’) and stars Forest Whitaker as the fictional version of Allen, Cecil Gaines. The film also stars Oprah Winfrey, Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrence Howard, and for the Presidents of the United States; Robin Williams as Dwight D. Eisenhower, James Marsden as John F. Kennedy, Liev Schreiber as Lyndon B. Johnson, John Cusack as Richard Nixon, and Alan Rickman as Ronald Reagan.
*The final release that weekend is ‘Paranoia’, a thriller that stars Liam Hemsworth as a worker at a technology corporation who is tasked with an espionage assignment at a rival company when he is faced with losing his job after a prank. Gary Oldman stars as the CEO of the company Hemsworth’s character works for while Harrison Ford stars as the CEO of the rival company.

AUGUST 21- Three films come out this weekend, although one opens early on Wednesday
*‘The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones’ is the latest adaptation of a popular book franchise; in this case, ‘The Mortal Instruments’ series from author Cassandra Clare. Directed by Harald Zwart (the 2010 ‘Karate Kid’ remake), the film stars Lily Collins as Clarissa ‘Clary’ Fray, a young girl who learns that she is the daughter of a Shadowhunter, a half-angel/half-human warrior and that she also has the abilities of these warriors despite the fact that she is not one of them. She uses these powers in order to rescue her mother (Lena Headey).

AUGUST 23- As for the two films set to come out on that Friday…
*While it was released in the U.K. on July 19th, ‘The World’s End’ will hit U.S. theaters on August 23rd. It is the third and final film in the ‘Cornetto Trilogy’, a series of comedy films from director Edgar Wright which also includes 2004’s ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and 2007’s ‘Hot Fuzz’. This film follows five friends (played by Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine, and Eddie Marsan) as they attempt an epic pub crawl in their hometown, which they had attempted years ago but failed to complete. However, they soon learn that things have changed in their town and completing this pub crawl becomes the least of their problems.
*‘You’re Next’ is a horror-thriller directed by Adam Wingard (who worked on the anthology films ‘V/H/S’ and ‘V/H/S 2’). The film, which made its debut at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, is about a group of serial killers who descend upon a family reunion.

AUGUST 30- Two films close out the month
*In ‘Closed Circuit’, Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall play a pair of lawyers (and ex-lovers) who take on the case of an alleged terrorist.
*Finally, there is, for the fans of the group, ‘One Direction: This is Us’, the latest 3-D concert film (directed by Morgan Spurlock (‘Super-Size Me’) following the boy band ‘One Direction’.

No comments:

Post a Comment