The last month of the summer movie season is upon us and it’s time for The Movie Mensch to give you the spiel on some of the biggest films hitting screens this most scorching month of the year.
There’s much to choose from during this eighth month of 2015 and the choices range from superhero movies (The Fantastic Four) to Guy Ritchie’s latest action franchise start-up (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) to a biopic on the world’s most dangerous band, N.W.A. (Straight Outta Compton).
So sit back, grab a cold drink and get ready to dive deep into the hottest releases hitting theaters during this hottest month of the year.
August 7
The Spiel: Fox once again reboots the first family of Marvel Comics and hopes that audiences turn out in droves to see how Mr. Fantastic (Miles Teller), The Invisible Woman (Kate Mara), The Thing (Jamie Bell) and The Human Torch (Michael B. Jordan) came to be and came to save the world.
The Gift
The Spiel: Joel Edgerton wrote, directed and stars in this thriller that could not be getting better buzz if it tried. It appears to be The Gift that keeps on giving, and audiences that have seen early previews are aghast at its awesomeness. No plot details here, you need to go in blind like The Movie Mensch did and leave with jaws dropped.
Ricki and the Flash
The Spiel: Meryl Streep (again) shows us that there is nothing she cannot do. This time out, she’s an aging musician in a cover band who is trying to come to terms with how she lived her life. It is a life that involves her abandoning her family (husband and three kids, led by her real life daughter Mamie Gunner) to pursue her rock and roll dreams. Think of Streep as a hybrid of Sheryl Crow and Stevie Nicks who just didn’t quite make it to the big time. The big scene stealer here (yes, even in a Meryl Streep movie) is Rick Springfield as her guitarist/love interest.
August 14
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Spiel: Guy Ritchie turns his lens on the classic 1960s TV show about two bitter Cold War enemies (a Russian and an American), who have to work together to solve threats to the entire world. Henry Cavill is the American CIA agent and Armie Hammer is the Soviet KGB agent. In this first picture in what Ritchie hopes is his next franchise (after Sherlock Holmes), they must put aside their indoctrinated differences and figure out how to stop an arms dealer from selling a nuke to the highest bidding terrorist that will surely result in Americans or Russians paying the ultimate price.
Straight Outta Compton
The Spiel: Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Eazy E and the world’s most dangerous group get the biopic treatment in a stunning piece of filmmaking from director F. Gary Grey. The casting is spot on and for fans of NWA, prepare to be amazed. For those who don’t know the story of NWA, also prepare to be amazed. What is so special about this music biopic is how what NWA did is not only put in perspective culturally, but it is incredibly still resonant to what is going on today in the USA.
August 21
The Spiel: The blockbuster video game gets its second movie version in a decade. Rupert Friend stars as the clone who is the ultimate killing machine. Zachary Quinto also stars as John Smith and the two leads are merely the tip of the iceberg in what Fox hopes will become a franchise after the Timothy Olyphant-starring version failed to ignite audiences’ interest in 2007.
The Spiel: Bughuul is back after the surprise success of the first Sinister that starred Ethan Hawke. This time out the evildoer is back to haunt another family that will feature children put in the most perilous of situations and their parents wondering what came over them. Bughuul is what!
American Ultra
The Spiel: Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg star as a couple of stoner lovebirds who are content living their lives as retail workers who hang up their smocks each end of day and smoke away their nights. One day, Connie Britton walks into Eisenberg’s Mini-Mart and with just speaking a couple of words, triggers something in him that turns him into a highly trained killer. The CIA (led by Topher Grace) swings into action to stop this killer they thought they had put to sleep and Eisenberg and Stewart’s lives will never be the same.
August 26
No Escape
The Spiel: Owen Wilson stars as the father of a family who moves to Southeast Asia. When the country erupts in Civil War, he must find courage he never knew he had and get his family to the American Embassy before all hell breaks loose.
August 28
We Are Your Friends
The Spiel: Zac Efron is an EDM DJ who with his three friends as party promoters, starts becoming huge on the rave music scene. When a manager with real money promises Efron riches and fame, it splits him from his friends in this story of greed, loyalty and the American dream.
Regression
The Spiel: Ethan Hawke stars as a father who is accused of a horrible crime that he does not remember. Emma Watson stars as his daughter, who is also key to the did he or didn’t he mystery.