Ladies and Gentlemen, the day has finally arrived — Isle of Dogs has hit theaters nationwide. While still a little bitter that it took so long to get here, I’m seeing it tonight and can’t wait. Meanwhile, there were also all kinds of new trailers that were dropping left and right this week, so we have lots to talk about.
Opening this week:
Isle of Dogs
The movie I’ve been plugging on Trailers by Brandon for the past three weeks now, so yeah, you could say I’m a little excited. Wes Anderson is an ingenious filmmaker and the fact that he’s returning to stop-motion is something we should ALL be excited about. Just for the record, Fantastic Mr. Fox (his first stop-motion outing) is my second favorite Anderson film to date.
Rampage
If Wes Anderson doesn’t really sound like your kind of thing, then maybe watching Dwayne Johnson fight a 500-foot gorilla is what you’re looking for instead. Rampage looks like the kind of dumb fun we expect from The Rock, I'm sure it’ll be a good enough time at the theaters as well.
Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare
I went at Tyler Perry for the same thing a couple weeks ago, WHY do we need to put Blumhouse in the title of the movie? I don’t think I’ll ever understand. As for the movie itself, I could go either way. I’ll probably end up seeing it just because I’ll watch any stupid horror movie you put in front of me, but the trailers all seem a bit over-the-top and somewhat ridiculous.
Beruit
To be honest, I’m not sure what to think. The trailers are fine and Jon Hamm is a likable action hero, but Beruit is rocking a 42% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Compare that to the 77 percent critic score and this one is turning into a bit of a head-scratcher. Is it good? Why aren’t audiences responding to it? These are the questions.
New trailers:
Solo: A Star Wars Story (May 25, 2018)
As a general rule, I try to only watch the first official trailer for movies because I find the second and third trailers often spoil information I didn’t want to know. Solo was an exception — we knew practically nothing about this movie (except the production problems, of course) and it’s only a few months away from being released. I gotta say though, the trailer does its job well: Solo isn’t looking half-bad after all. I can’t speak for the movie itself, of course, but the version we’re seeing here looks like a fun space western that hopefully likes up to the Star Wars name.
The Incredibles 2 (June 15, 2018)
Same applies for The Incredibles 2, I’ll watch any footage Pixar puts in front of my eyes on this one because all of the trailers seem SO funny. This time, it was the joke at the very beginning about vegetables that got me. Also, we get our first look at the villain at the very end of the trailer and he seems terrifying, so get ready to have some nightmares kids.
American Animals (June 1, 2018)
Okay, I’m sorry, but I’m getting kind of sick of movies that are called American whatever. They’ve all been done before. Find something new to name your movie. As for American Animals itself, I’m actually really excited to see it. The cast is great (Dunkirk kid is actually a great actor) and it looks like there’s a lot of high energy in this one.
Hot Summer Nights (July 27, 2018)
Timothée Chalamet continuing to do bold and original work, and this time he looks TOTALLY different. Hot Summer Nights looks great though, it’s got that indie A24 vibe with a really interesting story at the heart of it.
The Meg (August 10, 2018)
Jason Statham is fighting a giant shark. What more could you possibly want? While Sharknado kind of ruined the entire shark genre, The Meg looks like it might find a good balance between dumb fun and actual stakes. I don’t want this to be as ridiculous as humanly possible, I want them to take themselves seriously and I want to have a good time watching them doing it.
The First Purge (July 4, 2018)
The first Purge movie sucked. The second, surprisingly good. The third, worst of them all. Are we going to keep the every-other pattern going by having The First Purge actually be good? Hard to say, but the trailer has some promise to it. Granted, I thought the trailer for The Purge: Election Year was good too and I hated everything about that movie, so who’s to say at this point?
Dark Crimes (May 11, 2018)
Jim Carrey is doing serious dramas again and that’s a very good thing. While it hasn’t always worked out for him in the past — The Number 23 comes to mind — it’s good that he’s doing something different. Let’s just hope the story around him can support that.
Future World (May 25, 2018)
That’s gonna be a no for me, dawg. I don’t even know how to put it into words. Watch the trailer and you’ll see how stupid this looks. Do it at your own risk though, because just these two minutes alone of footage makes me angry of how terrible this looks.
Rewind:
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
If Fantastic Mr. Fox is my second favorite Wes Anderson flick, then The Royal Tenenbaums is my first. Everything about it is perfect — the cast, the Wes Anderson-ness, the strange family dynamic, the soundtrack and the humor that feels so out of place but somehow works so well.