Summer is my favorite time of year to see a movie. Almost all of the blockbusters come out during the summertime, banking on the kids being out of school and the adults being on vacation. My favorite time to see movies is the matinee showing on the weekends. There’s nothing like wasting away a hot day with a good flick. I’ve taken the time to profile 14 new releases that will be screened at theaters in the coming months.
JUNE/JULY
Transformers 4: Age of Extinction
This venerable movie franchise starts four years after the events of the last film. Humanity was spared after an epic battle, and as they move on with their lives, a mechanic and his daughter cross paths with a cunning businessman who is willing to stop at nothing to advance technologically and militarily.
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, Nicola Peltz, Jack Reynor, Kelsey Grammer, Li Bingbing
Release Date: June 27
Tammy
Tammy has the day from hell after her car breaks down, she gets fired from her job flipping burgers, and she walks in on her husband making love to another woman. She wants to get away, but she didn’t think running off to Niagara Falls with her grandmother would be the way she’d be getting out of this town.
Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Susan Sarandon, Allison Janney, Toni Collette, Sandra Oh, Dan Aykroyd, Kathy Bates
Release Date: July 2
Earth to Echo
Four teens are sucked into a world nobody could have imagined after they answered ominous and mysterious text messages they received on their cell phones. After being enlisted to aid aliens on a special space mission, will the adults in their lives believe what happened to them?
Starring: Teo Halm, Astro, Reese C. Hartwig, Ella Wahlestedt
Release Date: July 2
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
This movie continues to advance the story of Caesar, an ape imbued with speech and learning, as he becomes king of the world and oversees the end of life on Earth for humans as they know it. The few human survivors are forced to go to war against the nation of apes.
Starring: Andy Serkis, Keri Russell, Jason Clarke, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Gary Oldman, Judy Greer
Release Date: July 11
Sex Tape
A young married couple decides to spice things up in the bedroom by making a sex tape. When they wake up in the morning and find it is missing, they go on a mission to find out who took it and why, and how they can get the very private video back into safe hands.
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel, Rob Corddry, Ellie Kemper, Randall Park
Release Date: July 18
Hercules
This film is based on the story of Hercules as illustrated in the comic book series by Steve Moore. After Hercules’ twelve labors, he has chosen the life path of a brutal mercenary. When the king of Thrace asks for his help, Hercules has to use his reputation as a hero to defeat a menacing warlord.
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Aksel Hennie, Ian McShane, Joseph Fiennes, John Hurt, Rebecca Ferguson
Release Date: July 25
Lucy
A woman caught in the wrong place and the wrong time is kidnapped, and has to use her wits to fight back against her captors. As she hones her skills and strengths, she becomes the captors’ worst nightmare, showing no mercy to anyone standing in her way.
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Min-sik Choi
Release Date: July 25
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER
Guardians of the Galaxy
A dastardly force is lurking in the universe, and a pilot and a ragtag group of alien outlaws must fight to keep a supernatural orb away from the forces of evil. The safety of the universe and the pilot’s freedom depend on keeping the orb in trustworthy hands.
Starring: Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Michael Rooker, Glenn Close, Benicio Del Toro
Release Date: August 1
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
This live-action film is a reboot of the popular 1980s comic book series and 1990 film. The story focuses on four crime-fighting turtles, Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo, their mentor and martial arts instructor, Splinter, their human ally April and her love interest Casey.
Starring: Megan Fox, Alan Ritchson, Pete Ploszek, Jeremy Howard, Noel Fisher
Release Date: August 8
Into the Storm
The town of Silverton is decimated by a tornado outbreak, and even as the destruction rains down upon the people who live there, the worst is yet to come. Storm chasers want to go directly into the “big one” and see exactly what it’s like to be inside one of the strongest twisters ever.
Starring: Richard Armitage, Jeremy Sumpter, Sarah Wayne Callies, Nathan Kress, Matt Walsh
Release Date: August 8
The Giver
This science fiction movie is set in a futuristic utopia where there is no war, strife, hunger, sickness, racism, or hatred. Every person has a specific role, and the teenager who has been instructed to serve as the people’s historian is surprised to learn what his forefathers did to create such an idyllic society.
Starring: Brenton Thwaites, Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Odeya Rush, Alexander Skarsgård, Katie Holmes, Taylor Swift
Release Date: August 15
If I Stay
A teenage girl who is a budding musical talent must make the biggest decision of her young life when she is stuck in “limbo.” A car crash takes the life of her parents and brother, and she is left in a coma. As she lay partially in life and partially in death, she is forced to choose her fate.
Starring: Chloë Grace Moretz, Mireille Enos, Lauren Lee Smith, Liana Liberato, Jamie Blackley, Joshua Leonard, Jakob Davies
Release Date: August 22
Jessabelle
A woman, Jessie, is devastated after her fiance dies in a car accident. Wanting to leave everything behind, Jessie visits her father’s old mansion in Louisiana, where she finds a present from her mother, and discovers a horrifying presence from the afterlife who wants to bring her to the other side.
Starring: Sarah Snook, Mark Webber, Joelle Carter, David Andrews, Amber Stevens, Ana de la Reguera
Release Date: August 29
Addicted
An adaptation of the popular novel written by Zane, Addicted tells the story of Zoe, a woman with a beautiful husband, kids, house, and life…who has an insatiable hunger for sex, and not just with her husband. Not all in this marriage is as it seems, and so many beautiful lives can be ruined in an instant.
Starring: Sharon Leal, Boris Kodjoe, Kat Graham, William Levy, Tasha Smith, Maria Howell, Tyson Beckford
Release Date: September 5
