I was noticing all of the movies that are coming out this upcoming summer and it looks like a major movie like every other week or so! Once I started down the list, I had lots of opinions and I figured I’ll get them out of my head.
For anyone who wants to follow along:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_in_film
January
Glass. I still need to watch Split but I’m super excited from what I’ve seen from the trailers. I just loved Unbreakable and anything that gives us more stories from that world, the better! Why is Dunn even locked up?! I could see if he made various visits to Glass and then it timed out well with the Split fellow but he’s clearly locked up there too.
February
Jacob’s Ladder. Can you believe they are remaking Jacob’s Ladder?! That’s when I knew I was going to want to write this article.
Lego Movie 2 : The Second Part. This movie once I tell Walker Dennis that it is coming out, is going to be very eagerly anticipated. He saw the trailer and wanted to watch it immediately. Luckily, he’s forgotten about it for a minute so that’s good for us. We’ll watch it probably the second weekend it is out.
What Men Want. On the flip side of Jacob’s Ladder, I read this title was thought to me self “what is this, a female version of What Women Want?” And it totally is and I love it! Especially as it stars Taraji P. Henson! I imagine there will be at least one joke about how men are always thinking of sex, or it would be a running gag but I’m hoping it has more than that.
All-Star Weekend. Jaime Foxx is writing and directing films now. Pretty great cast with Robert Downey Jr., Dr. Ken Jeong, and Gerald Butler. I’m not sure why Butler doesn’t act more, him and Clive Owens should have much better careers.
March
Chaos Walking. I’m not familiar with the series but this has Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley, both of whom must have filmed it in-between breaks from their bigger films. This is supposed to be the start of a new franchise so we’ll see about that.
Fighting with My Family. Stephen Merchant wrote and directed this movie about WWE’s Paige, who I’m not familiar with at all. But I do love me some Stephen Merchant. If you haven’t listen to his episode of Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum, please do so!
https://player.fm/series/series-2331217/ep-29-stephen-merchant
So great!
The Rock co-produced the film and will be in the movie too.
Captain Marvel. I can’t wait for this film, my first film of the year that I really want to see. I want to see Lego Movie 2 as well but if I had to choose only one film, will it probably be a later film but I wouldn’t watch that one unless I got to see Captain Marvel. My wife might be done with the Marvel films so I might have to take Walker Dennis with me. The Marvel films are usually rated PG-13 but that’s for like superhero violence and he sees that type of stuff with most action cartoons. I was folding laundry and he sat through Scott Pilgrim just fine. He seemed way into it, now that I typed that. I was building some Lego sets that he received for his birthday and I had Captain America : Winter Soldier and he didn’t seem to pay too much attention to that one. Those are two completely different films though. Scott Pilgrim holds up like crazy. This past weekend, I was folding laundry again (a weekly chore), and I started Black Panther and that movie starts off pretty slow for a now five year old. I’m sure watching it in the movie theater will help too.
Dumbo. Tim Burton’s Dumbo. The trailers look pretty good and I like how they seem to focus on Dumbo but I’ve seen Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and I’m hoping Dumbo is treated better.
April
Shazam! I’m all for funny super hero films and Captain Marvel probably lends itself to more comedy or at least, more family friendly fare, but that first trailer left me rather cold. I do like how both Captain Marvels are getting films in the same year. At least Carol came first.
Pet Sematary. Another remake but horror movies can be remade all the time, with special effects being what they are and how long ago the first film was, I don’t see a problem with it.
Hellboy. I’m really hoping this new version works out as I would love a new Hellboy movie every other year. He could easily sustain that type of franchise. David Harbour should be great in the role too.
Breakthrough. I saw a thumbnail of Chrissy Metz on YouTube and made a dumb judgment call on what the trailer would be like and what type of film it would be but I was pleasantly surprised. I also had to look up the true story as I do with any film based on true events.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Impossible_(2017_novel)
It comes out on Easter so that’s pretty smart. The film also stars Topher Grace and Mike Colter. We just started Luke Cage’s first season last night too. Such a great first episode. We’re hoping to go between Luke Cage and Season Five of Agents of SHIELD but we’ll see how that works out.
Under the Silver Lake. A neo-noir film starring Andrew Garfield and Topher Grace, could be interesting.
Avengers : Endgame. My buddy Greg has a theory the film will end with Tony in space, giving Pepper that farewell speech of his that can be seen in the trailer. I’ll be curious who survives and how Captain Marvel plays into the film. I’m really hoping no one dies and any of these actors can just come back as they please. But I also get why the studio has to write them out if the actor doesn’t or can’t come back.
May
Pokémon : Detective Pikachu. I had shrugged my shoulders when I first heard of this film and figured it would come and go like the other Pokémon films that come to the theater. Then I saw the trailer with Ryan Reynolds as Pikachu and now I’m all on board.
The Hustle. A female version of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, starring Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson. Could be good. I do like Anne Hathaway.
John Wick 3 : Parabellum. I have yet to see any of these John Wick films but I really should.
Aladdin. I’m still iffy on Will Smith as the Genie but once I see the first official trailer, I’m sure I’ll be sold on him.
Brightburn. A horror film using the premise of Superman, written by the Gunn brothers (but not the third one, he’s producing it though), I’m all signed up for this. Teenage Superman but with invisibility and maybe only heat vision? Also, the film has Elizabeth Banks, so that’s great too.
Godzilla : King of the Monsters. This film will have Mothra, that’s all I needed to know! One day, we’ll get Mechagodzilla but I imagine that’ll only come with a Pacific Rim crossover. Hopefully this would be the film that makes it 80/20 monsters vs humans seen on film but I doubt it.
Rocketman. The Elton John biopic, with Taron Egerton has Elton John. I still only really know him as the voice of Johnny from Sing! He was the gorilla.
June
Dark Phoenix. So odd they dropped “X-Men” from the title as this is going to be the last X-Men film made by FOX. I’m still hoping that they go into space but it seems like this will be based more off of Ultimate X-Men’s Dark Phoenix, which we sort of did to poor results. I have high hopes for it.
The Secret Life of Pets 2. Another film Walker Dennis is going to love. I wish Patton Oswalt was at least attempting a Louie C.K. impression but I also completely get why Illumination didn’t want that.
Men in Black International. I didn’t even know we were set to get this picture. Doesn’t look like we’re getting either Will Smith or Tommy Lee Jones but maybe they are holding that as a surprised. I know it was the first thing I looked up. This is the London based MiB with Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, both great in Ragnarok. I’m also happy to see Kumail Nanjiani will be in it as well as Liam Neeson.
Shaft. I was all about Samuel L. Jackson as Shaft with Christian Bale as the villain way back in 2000. This one stars Jessie Usher as the latest Shaft. Richard Roundtree is back as well. Tim Story of Fantastic Four fame is directing the film. I was hoping they were going to make Usher the nephew to Jackson’s Shaft, so that it was always the brother of the previous Shaft but they are not going in that direction.
Toy Story 4. I still wished they stopped at 3 but 3 made $1.067 billion so that’s pretty hard to walk away from that type of money.
Grudge. Another horror movie remake.
Child’s Play. The eighth installment but a reboot! Aubrey Plaza is in this one so that’s two things.
Ford vs. Ferrari. James Mangold who directed the 3:10 to Yuma remake and The Wolverine and Logan, is giving us our sole Christian Bale film of the year. I thought Vice was supposed to come out but it must have had a limited release in 2018. Bale is neither Ford or Ferrari but based on the events of the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans. Matt Damon is also in this but is neither Ford or Ferrari.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_24_Hours_of_Le_Mans
Tracy Letts is Ford II and Remo Girone is Ferrari.
47 Meters Down : Uncaged. This reminds me I hadn’t seen the Mandy Moore first film where she fights sharks. Probably not a good sign for her that she’s not in this one. I do wish they titled it, 48 Meters Down. That would have been awesome.
July
Spider-Man : Far From Home. The European Vacation of Marvel films! I’m all for Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio and Cobie Smulders is in this too! Keaton is back as the Vulture too! So many coincidences!
The Lion King. I know they were never going to do this but it would be great if they let Jon Favreau had his way with the film but just carried over the audio from the 1994 film. Since there is no human element like Jungle Book, this is just going to be a feast for the eyes. Plus, they had James Earl Jones come back as Mufasa, so they should have just let everyone come back.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Quentin Tarantino’s ninth film, and I like how we’re still counting these. His take on the Charles Mansion instructed murders. A giant cast for this film! DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Damian Lewis, Luke Perry, Emile Hirsch, Dakota Fanning, Nicholas Hammond. Yes, that Nicholas Hammond! thwip thwip! I forget he was one of the young children in The Sound of Music. Apparently he made two films in 2018, The BBQ and Ladies in Black. Ladies in Black has Julia Ormond as one of the ladies who was Sabrina in the 1995 Sabrina remake. Which is always high on my list of worthwhile remakes.
Al Pacino is also in the movie. Lena Dunham and Rumor Willis too. Damon Herriman is Charles Manson. Looks like a guy who has been in known films but wasn’t known from said films. Bruce Dern rounds out the cast. In nondisclosed roles are – Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Kurt Russell, Timothy Olyphant, and James Marsden!
August
Hobbs & Shaw. The Fast and the Furious spinoff.
The New Mutants! Hopefully this movie doesn’t get pushed back any further! Several July/August horror films so they can be released on BluRay in October. I can’t wait to see more of Anya Taylor-Joy as Magik and I really hope Lockheed makes the cut into the film too. I also want to see them in a variation of the New Mutants classic uniforms. Since this is going to be the last last FOX X-Men project, I want them to just go crazy and include everything as there will not be a sequel. Unless there is and we can get Warlock and Karma but time will tell.
Dora the Explorer. A live action take on the story. I wonder if the plan is to make one of these every year or have this transition into a live action series. Benicio del Toro is Swiper, I’ll have to rewatch a scene but it feels like a miscasting but I’m sure he’ll be fine in the role. She’s entering high school and there’s a plot about rescuing her parents. You know, like in the cartoon.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. I want to be in so hard with this film! I love the classic children’s stories so much! They are barely a page long but the images and the words really stick with you as you read. I used to reference this as my favorite horror stories back in high school and only a few even remembered it.
Such a great collection and Amazon has it for under $20!
The film is co-written by Guillermo del Toro. Imagine if this was done like a 30 minute HBO series, roughly animated and retold five stories in those 30 minutes? That would have been awesome or at least, another take on the story.
Angry Birds Movie 2. Can you believe they are making a sequel? I can now that I see the first one made $352.3 million. That and I’m sure the tie in game makes Rovio Entertainment tons of bank.
Playmobil : The Movie. Like the Lego Movie but harsher on the eyes is my best guess for the film. I’m hoping it steals a lot from Lego and has a wealth of references to their playsets.
Especially their Ghostbuster sets! Walker Dennis got all of these except for the Egon/Ghost and the Terror Dogs sets. Mostly as I didn’t even know they made a Terror Dogs until right now. He still wouldn’t have gotten it but still. The Firehouse, Ecto-1, Stay Puft and Slimer all look amazing. But the individual figures do not look great on the box. They are fine and clearly in the Playmobil model but ooof.
A real shame we ended up with two Janines and no Egon but that’s how you sell a boxset. Walker doesn’t mind at all and he got plenty of people and he’s all for a play house set.
Angel Has Fallen. A film I was going to scroll pass even though it has Gerald Butler and Morgan Freeman in it. So first the White House (Olympus) falls, then London fell, now Butler’s character is being framed (of course!). Classic Jack Bauer nonsense where the one guy who has spent years (or two days?!) saving the country and should have a school in every state named after him, is of course, turned traitor and everyone immediately doesn’t question it. But this one taking place on Air Force One does catch my attention. I have yet to see any of these films but I’m a sucker for a airplane hostage film. I get that from my mom’s love for disaster films.
September
It : Chapter Two. I’ll watch these eventually.
Downton Abbey. My wife was interested in this once I told her about it. The show has been off the air since December 2015. It doesn’t feel like three years has passed but I also haven’t heard people talk about the show in a while. Probably at least two years. I wonder if it was better to do a film than a revised television series. I guess it was as they went with the feature film route.
October
Gemini Man. Ang Lee directed. An aging assassin (Will Smith) has to fight a younger clone of himself, also played by Will Smith? For some reason the younger clone can predict the older one’s moves when you’ll think it would be the other way around. So the original older model will have to come up with some new tricks, I supposed. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is in this, which is what caught my eye. She’s so great in Scott Pilgrim and one of these days, I’ll pick up Mercy Street again. I read All About Nina was a good film of hers that came out in 2018.
The Addams Family. A few horror movies get released in actual October. This is the kid friendly animated horror movie.
Zombieland Too. I have to still watch the first one.
The Goldfinch. Our sole Luke Wilson film of 2019. Another great actor that I don’t see why he doesn’t get more roles.
November
Terminator 6. With this film, I’ll be three movies behind on the Terminator series, and one television series. Linda Hamilton is back, so this one might be the one to watch.
Charlie’s Angels. This was the other movie that sparked wanting to write this article. I’m all for Elizabeth Banks directing this film. I wonder if this is why she didn’t direct Pitch Perfect 3. The cast on the other hand, ooof. Kristen Stewart, probably ran out of Twilight money and now needs another success story. I imagine she’s available for two more films. Naomi Scott, of Pink Ranger fame in the last Power Rangers film. She’s also going to be Jasmine in the Aladdin live action adaption, so 2019 could be big for her, she’s on both ends of the year, so that works for her. Ella Balinska rounds out the trio. I guess she’s the Lucy Lu of this cast. I’m sure the other two are fine to great but Kristen Stewart being the star of the film isn’t ideal. Maybe she’s loosen up these days and is ready to have some fun. Patrick Stewart is also in this so that could be really neat too. Seems like this could be a television series if it wasn’t for Naomi Scott blowing up.
I had to check. Taylor Lautner hasn’t acted since 2016, Run the Tide as his last film and he had a main role in Scream Queen’s second season.
Robert Pattinson has been steadily in films and has four films in post production right now. I heard Good Time was supposed to put him back on the map.
Sonic the Hedgehog. We didn’t get Walker the Sonic Lego Dimensions set so he still doesn’t have much connection to the game. He’ll love it if we got it for him but it doesn’t seem likely. I like that they kept his red shoes but apparently are giving him two separate eyes, which seems disappointing. Once the official image comes out, I’ll make up my mind if we’re going to watch it. It has to be better than the Mario film, right?
Midway. We way into playing Lego Dimensions again and my initial thought was this was going to be related to the Midway Arcade era of games but that isn’t the case at all. This movie gives us the sole Aaron Eckhart film appearance of the year. Not sure why he doesn’t get more work either. He had four films in 2016 and now this film. I forgot he was in London Falling and he was in Tom Hank’s Sully film too that year. The film is about the Battle of Midway:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Midway
A decisive naval battle between America and Japan during World War II. So it will be pretty intense. I should check to see if there are any documentaries or docuseries that have dealt with the subject material as Wikipedia doesn’t offer any insight with that.
The film also has Woody Harrelson, Mandy Moore, and Patrick Wilson in it. I like Wilson in most things I see him in but he’s making those Insidious and Conjuring films. He’s always working and it is hard to keep up with him. Glee’s Darren Criss is in the film as well and Nick Jonas is back to acting as well. Jonas is also in that Choas Walking film too.
Margie Claus. Ben Falcone and Melissa McCarthy are bringing us a new holiday musical about Mrs. Claus stepping up.
Last Christmas. One of my favorite Christmas songs and it is being turned into a film now.
Frozen 2. This is finally happening and I’m sure we’ll be taking Walker Dennis to it.
December
Jumanji 3. Combining story elements from both previous films and recognizing the sequel was a sequel and not a reboot.
Star Wars : Episode IX. Working title has been Black Diamond but I’m sure that’s not what will be on the poster.
Cats. The famous musical will be finally given the movie treatment. Jennifer Hudson and Taylor Swift are in it so that’s happening. JHud has been growing on me with the previous season of The Voice so either she’s tone down her antics or I’ve grown to accept it. I’m sure it is the latter. The film of course will be a big deal, lots of names in it. Ian McKellen, James Cordon (of course), Idris Elba, Dame Judi Dench, Rebel Wilson (also back in a big way in 2019), and Jason Derulo. I recall watching some of Cats on VHS back in the day from the Broadway show but I think I lost interest 20 minutes into it.
Super Intelligence. Ben Falcone and Melissa McCarthy are also bringing us a Sci-Fi Action Comedy and they are bringing James Cordon along as well.
Little Women. This film is finally being remade as 1994 was 15 years ago. 1994’s version is when Christian Bale met his wife, Sandra Blažić, who was Winona Ryder’s personal assistant during the film. That was mine and his main take away from that film. So it is time to remake that story. Apparently there was a remake done in 2018 but it doesn’t look as big of a deal but it does have Lea Thompson as Marmee March. Susan Sarandon was the character in 1994 and Laura Dern is the character in the 2019 edition. So a rich legacy there.
Call of the Wild. Jack London’s 1903 classic novel come to life. Harrison Ford, Dan Stevens, Omar Sy and Karen Gillan are in it. Omar Sy was Bishop in X-Men : Days of Future Past. He was also in Jurassic World as Barry and provided the voice for Lego Dimensions : Jurassic World – it is truly all connected!
. . .
So that’s the 2019 in Film! Some big films and some small ones and several sequels and remakes.
Happy New Year from your friends at S&FwM!