My podcast may be starting this week. So yay for that. Or it may be starting next week. Either way, the Future Flicks blog is still going because print is strong and reliable. So without further ado, here are the movies coming out the week of June 17th 2016.
Billiam’s Pick of the Week
Central Intelligence:
Synopsis: Calvin Joyner was the popular kid in high school and did a good deed when he helped his classmate Bob Stone during an embarrassing incident. Fast forward a few decades and the two reunite. It turns out Bob got in shape and is in the CIA. Not only that, but he needs Calvin’s accounting skills to help track down a missing piece of government property.
Thoughts: This looks like a dumb action comedy that’s guaranteed to put a smile on your face. I’ve been excited about this one since I saw the first trailer. Kevin Hart (The Wedding Ringer, Get Hard) is always hit or miss for me. To his credit, the misses aren’t bad, they just aren’t as good as I thought they could have been, but when he makes a good comedy, it’s gold. Dwayne Johnson (Come on, he’s The Rock, you know him) on the other hand is a pretty reliable actor. Not only is he good, but the movies he does are, at the very least, entertaining. I’ll probably never watch The Tooth Fairy again but it got honest laughs out of me and made me smile. This looks like a by the book action comedy and I bet you at some point there’s something that’s going to come between the two and they’ll have to come together with the power of friendship to become a team again. It’ll be predictable but fun. A great popcorn flick.
Finding Dory
Synopsis: Dory remembers she has a family and starts off on a journey to find them.
Thoughts: This movie didn’t need to be made. Finding Nemo was a great Pixar film that had a complete story with the loose ends tied up in nice little bows. But Pixar looked at their wallets and decided that yes, they did need more money. In 2013, Indiwire did an interview with Pixar president Ed Catmull who said that they were planning on releasing an original movie every year and only doing a sequel every other year. If you go to Pixar’s website you’ll see that they have sequels planned for the next four years with only one original movie. Money grubbing sequels aren’t a bad thing. Who knows. Maybe writer Andrew Stanton had a brainstorm one day and was inspired to write a sequel that’s going to blow us all away. Or maybe it’s going to be crap that only a kid would love. Pixar is planning on doing Toy Story 4 which is stupid because the story was finished with 3. Toy Story was about the relationship of Andy with his toys and 3 had a very definite end to the trilogy. I’d be willing to forgive a bad sequel to Finding Nemo than I would watching Pixar do injustice to their three best movies. But enough about that, lets move on. A huge cast joins Ellen DeGeneres and Albert Brooks. Such names as Ed O’Neill (Married With Children), Kaitlin Olson (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), Ty Burrell (Modern Family), Diane Keaton (The Godfather Trilogy), Eugene Levy (Best in Show), Idris Elba (Luthor, Thor), Dominic West (John Carter), Kate McKinnon and Bill Hader (SNL), and Sigourney Weaver (Alien, Aliens) and more. If you have kids then you’re probably not going to have a choice and this will be the movie you see. If you do see it, tell me what you think. Drop me a line at BilliamReviews@gmail.com
Tickled
Synopsis: This is a documentary by journalist David Farrier about the world of Competitive Endurance Tickling and its seedy and possibly criminal underbelly.
Thoughts: This is a real documentary, not a mockumenary like This is Spinal Tap or What We Do in the Shadows. I was watching the trailer and kept on waiting for the goofy music to begin and Borat to jump out. But no, this is real, and as the trailer goes on, it takes a dark turn. Let me calm any fears that may be arising and say that all the boys that take part in the tickling events are of age. At least that the trailer let on. The seedy nature comes when they try to leave the world and find that the woman behind the curtain won’t let them. I really want to watch this just to see where it all ends. What scares me even more is that Rule 34 applies to this. The internet is a wonderful place, my friends. But it’s also a dark hellhole.
No Stranger Than Love
Synopsis: A big hole forms in Lucy Sherrington’s living room and swallows her boyfriend. She enlists the help of Rydell Whyte, who just happens to also be the suspect in the boyfriends disappearance. They put their heads together to try and get him out and grow closer in the process.
Thoughts: This movies stars Alison Brie (Community), Justin Chatwin (Dragonball Evolution, Shameless) and Colin Hanks (Orange Country, The House Bunny) and together they form the main cast of what looks to be a by the numbers romcom. This looks bad, but the kind of bad where fans of romcoms can still find enjoyment. It even has a very interesting plot but either the trailer was poorly put together, or the movies bad and the trailer people did the best they could. Either way, I’m going to skip it in theaters and catch it on some cable channel one weekend.
Range 15
Synopsis: A group of vets wake up after a party only to find that they missed the start of the zombie apocalypse. Together they must take the cure to a military base called Range 15.
Thoughts: This looks like a Syfy original and a Skinemax movie had a baby and it looks terrigreat. Look at that poster. Look at it. It says it all. This is a cheesy zombie movie that will be full of dumb laughs. It has an impressive supporting cast with actors like Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings, Goonies), Danny Trejo (Machete), Keith David (The Arbiter in Halo), and William Shatner (T.J. Hooker duh). I’m not going to see it in theaters but my God, I’m going to buy this movie and I’m going to sit down with a beer(s) and a pizza and love the hell out of it. I support movies like this because they’re proof that if you do the wrong thing in the right way, you can get a great result.
Warning: This is the redband trailer. Click at your own risk.
Also Coming the Week of June 17
Gridlocked: A former SWAT leader and a hard-partying movie star must do everything they can to stop a group of mercenaries from robbing a cache of illegal goods hidden in a police training facility. This looks like a straight to DVD release. The spiritual opposite of Range 15. This looks like a dumb action movie that you find on the shelves in the sale section of your local bargain store.
Bang Gang: This is a French film about a group of students who decide that orgies are a fantastic way to spend time together after school. I know there’s more to this plot, but after watching two trailers, the only think I know is that kids in their late teens (I assume) are just having a lot of sex. This didn’t make it above the fold because I can’t recommend this movie without knowing what the plot is. This just looks like an artsy porn flim.
Udta Punjab: This is an Indian film about the drug problem in Punjab and how it affects the lives of the four main characters. This could be a really good movie but from the looks of the trailers it seems like they couldn’t make up their minds if it’s serious or not. Half of it looks like a goofy comedy but half looks like a serious drama. It would have made it above the fold if it had leaned just a bit more towards the drama with just a hint of comedy.