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A lot of movies come out every year, and it can be hard to know where you should spend your money. This preview will help you out by showcasing 20 of the most interesting movies that are scheduled to be released in spring 2016.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Directed by Zack Snyder. Produced by Charles Roven and Deborah Snyder. Written by Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer. Release date: March 25, 2016.
One of the three big superhero movies of this quarter, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is the real start to the DC movie universe (even if Man of Steel is technically its beginning). We’re going to get Batman fighting Superman, Wonder Woman showing up, and cameos from a bunch of other DC superheroes. It’s going to be dark, it’s going to be long, and one can only hope it’ll also find a way to be entertaining. Regardless, it’s certainly something to look out for, as it’ll be interesting any which way it plays out.
Get a Job
Directed by Dylan Kidd. Produced by Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher. Written by Kyle Pennekamp and Scott Turpel. Release date: March 25, 2016.
Despite being filmed in 2012 and featuring a cast of talented and relatively well-known actors like Miles Teller, Anna Kendrick, Bryan Cranston, Alison Brie, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Nicholas Braun, Get a Job sat on the shelf for so long that some of its actors thought it might never come out. But, a couple of months ago, it was given a poster, a trailer, and a release date. It looks pretty funny, and I know I want to see it just to see if there was any reason it was shelved for as long as it was.
Everybody Wants Some!!
Directed and written by Richard Linklater. Produced by Megan Ellison, Richard Linklater, and Ginger Sledge. Release date: April 1, 2016.
While I’m sure there are some out there, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who actively admits to disliking Dazed and Confused. It’s one of those films that seems almost universally loved. Richard Linklater, its director, has now made a spiritual successor called Everybody Wants Some!!. Yes, it has two exclamation marks in the title. The idea here is that it’s Dazed and Confused, but set in the 1980s instead of the ’70s. There are worse ideas for a movie. I’m in.
Hardcore Henry
Directed and written by Ilya Naishuller. Produced by Timur Bekmambetov, Ilya Naishuller, Inga Vainshtein Smith, and Ekaterina Kononenko. Release date: April 8, 2016.
The Doom first-person sequence didn’t work, and the two that were found in The Brothers Grimsby were pretty bad, but Hardcore Henry has been relatively well received in its festival appearances, and it’s one about which I’m intrigued, if not necessarily excited. Will it be a gimmick that grows tiresome after a few minutes? Will it be nauseating? Or will it be an experiment that pays off and gives filmmakers a new way to tell a story? We’ll find out in just a few weeks.
Demolition
Directed by Jean-Marc Vallee. Produced by Lianne Halfon, Russ Smith, Molly Smith, Trent Luckinbill, Sidney Kimmel, Jean-Marc Vallee, Thad Luckinbill, and John Malkovich. Written by Bryan Sipe. Release date: April 8, 2016.
Jake Gyllenhaal has really come into his element in the last few years, and he’s worked especially well with Quebecois directors – for whatever reason. First we saw him team up with Denis Villeneuve for two films, and now he’s teamed up with Jean-Marc Vallee, who’s a great talent in his own right. Bolstered by a supporting cast featuring Naomi Watts, Chris Cooper, and Heather Lind, and an intriguing premise that sees him playing a man whose life begins to crumble around him, Demolition looks like a film that shouldn’t be missed.
Mr. Right
Directed by Paco Cabezas. Produced by Bradley Gallo, Michael A. Helfant, Rick Jacobs, and Lawrence Mattis. Written by Max Landis. Release date: April 8, 2016.
Max Landis is a screenwriter who is perhaps better known for his Twitter profile than any of the films he’s written – likely because two of them were Victor Frankenstein and American Ultra. But – and maybe this is just me – Mr. Right looks really funny, based solely on its trailer. Sam Rockwell stars as a hitman who kills the people who hire him, and he teams up with Anna Kendrick as his love interest who’s more into the killings than most people probably would be. It looks like a quirky comedy with just enough action.
The Jungle Book
Directed by Jon Favreau. Produced by Jon Favreau and Brigham Taylor. Written by Justin Marks. Release date: April 15, 2016.
I’m not sure if we needed another Jungle Book movie, but two studios got together and decided that instead of giving us just one, we’d get two of them! The first comes from Disney, and is brought to us by Iron Man director Jon Favreau. It’s the second time Disney has tried to do a live-action version of the animated film, and it looks like this time it’ll be closer to the original (and the book). An all-star voice cast should guarantee that at least the animals will be performed well. It remains to be seen how they all look, or if Andy Serkis‘ Jungle Book movie in 2017 winds up being more worth our time.
Green Room
Directed and written by Jeremy Saulnier. Produced by Neil Kopp, Victor Moyers, and Anish Savjani. Release date: April 15, 2016.
Full disclaimer: I saw Green Room back in September. It’s awesome. A punk rock band squares off against white supremacists led by Patrick Stewart? It’s filled with black comedy, intense action, lots of blood, and is just really, really fun. I can’t wait to see it again.
Sing Street
Directed by John Carney. Produced by Anthony Bregman, John Carney, Kevin Scott Frakes, Christian Grass, Martina Niland, Raj Brinder Sign, and Paul Trijbits. Release date: April 15, 2016.
The plot of Sing Street is simple: A boy starts a band to win the affections of a girl. I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about Sing Street. It’s supposedly unbelievably sweet and funny, and contains some pretty solid music. In the cynical world we live in, a movie that manages to be genuinely sweet is a pleasant sight.
Elvis & Nixon
Directed by Liza Johnson. Produced by Holly Wiersma and Cassian Elwes. Written by Joey Sagal, Hanala Sagal, and Cary Elwes. Release date: April 15, 2016.
Kevin Spacey and Michael Shannon play Richard Nixon and Elvis Presley as they meet at the White House in 1970? Okay, that sounds awesome. They don’t even need to do much. Those two actors alone are enough to sell me on a movie. Kevin Spacey is almost always amazing, and Michael Shannon continues to be one of the most underrated actors currently working. Putting them up against one another is bound to be entertaining.
A Hologram for the King
Directed and written by Tom Tykwer. Produced by Stefan Arndt, Gary Goetzman, Arcadiy Golubovich, Tom Hanks, Uwe Schott, and Tim O’Hair. Release date: April 22 2016.
Director Tom Tykwer reunites with Tom Hanks to tell the story of a washed-up American salesman who travels to Saudi Arabia to secure an IT contract. Both of those names make films worth seeing more often than not, and the last time they teamed up, they helped make one of the best films of 2012. I can’t imagine this not being at least pretty decent.
Keanu
Directed by Peter Atencio. Produced by Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Peter Principato, Paul Young, and Joel Zadak. Written by Jordan Peele and Alex Rubens. Release date: April 29, 2016.
It has a gangster cat. Gangster. Cat! Furthermore, it’s the first feature film from the Key & Peele team. It sees a cat called Keanu get stolen, so Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele must pretend to be gangsters in order to rescue it – mostly shooting their way to their goal. It has a plot similar to John Wick, or so it appears, which makes its title, Keanu, all the more interesting. Oh, and guess what: Keanu Reeves has a voice role in the film (it has to be as the cat, right?). Hopefully it’s as funny as it sounds.
Captain America: Civil War
Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo. Produced by Kevin Feige. Written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. Release date: May 6, 2016.
While Batman v Superman has some points of intrigue, Captain America: Civil War probably has more of them. The debut of both Spider-Man and Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and a big fight between teams of Avengers is enough to excite me. It’s like an Avengers movie, but with more of a focus on Captain America – whose two films have been some of the best in the franchise thus far. At this point, Marvel/Disney is doing some of the best superhero work, so let’s hope that trend continues.
Money Monster
Directed by Jodie Foster. Produced by Lara Alameddine, George Clooney, Daniel Dubiecki, and Grant Heslov. Written by Jamie Linden, Alan Di Fiore, and Jim Kouf. Release date: May 13, 2016.
George Clooney, Jack O’Connell, and Julia Roberts star in a pointed thriller about a financial collapse and its ramifications? Directed by Jodie Foster, who previously directed The Beaver and, therefore, is exempt from criticism for life? Okay, that sounds pretty awesome.
Love & Friendship
Directed and written by Whit Stillman. Produced by Whit Stillman, Katie Holly, Lauranne Bourrachot, and Raymond van der Kaaij. Release date: May 13, 2016.
Almost two decades ago, Kate Beckinsale and Chloe Sevigny starred in Whit Stillman‘s The Last Days of Disco, probably his most accessible film before Damsels in Distress came out in 2011. Stillman’s fifth film is Love & Friendship, and sees Beckinsale and Sevigny reunite with him. The film is an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Lady Susan, which as far as I know has never had a film version. Stillman is talented, his lead actors are strong, and it’s an adaptation of something we haven’t seen. Great!
Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising
Directed by Nicholas Stoller. Produced by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and James Weaver. Written by Andrew J. Cohen, Brendan O’Brien, Nicholas Stoller, Seth Rogen, and Evan Goldberg. Release date: May 20, 2016.
Neighbors was one of the surprise comedy hits of 2014, and while comedy sequels are rarely good – and this one does look like a rehash – I’m holding out hope that it’ll surprise us. The trailer isn’t bad, they brought back the main cast from the first film – and added Chloe Grace Moretz and Selena Gomez – so we’ll see how it goes.
The Nice Guys
Directed by Shane Black. Produced by Joel Silver. Written by Shane Black and Anthony Bagarozzi. Release date: May 20, 2016.
Shane Black‘s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a great film, and if you haven’t seen it, you really should. The Nice Guys looks like it’s been made in a similar vein, teaming up two actors to do a comedic crime thriller. The leads this time? Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. They’ve got solid chemistry together, based just on the trailer and their Oscar presentation skit, and with Black as the director and co-writer, it should be very entertaining.
X-Men: Apocalypse
Directed by Bryan Singer. Produced by Lauren Shuler Donner, Bryan Singer, Simon Kinberg, and Hutch Parker. Written by Simon Kinberg. Release date: May 27, 2016.
The final superhero film this quarter is X-Men: Apocalypse, which will hopefully mark the end of the Bryan Singer X-Men series. I’ve liked more of the entries than I’ve disliked, but it’s run its course at this point. Still, the stakes are higher than ever, the cast is wonderful, and the action should be solid. Most of these are good-to-great, so let’s hope Apocalypse is no different.
Warcraft
Directed by Duncan Jones. Produced by Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni, Charles Roven, Alex Gartner, and Stuart Fenegan. Written by Charles Leavitt and Duncan Jones. Release date: June 10, 2016.
Normally, I wouldn’t be even remotely excited for a video game adaptation. Historically speaking, they’ve pretty much all been bad-to-mediocre in quality. However, Warcraft comes to us from Duncan Jones, whose Moon and Source Code are both great. He’s earned the benefit of the doubt. Warcraft very well could be the first genuinely great video game movie.
Finding Dory
Directed and written by Andrew Stanton. Produced by Lindsey Collins. Release date: June 17, 2016.
Look, we don’t need another Finding Nemo movie. I don’t even want one! But since we’re getting one, and it is still Pixar, I think we’re better off waiting to see if it’s any good before outright hating it. The trailer makes it look at least okay, and I’m more than willing to give it a chance. Fingers are crossed.
What movies are you excited for this spring?
If you want more of Matthew “Marter” Parkinson, you can follow him on the Twitter @Martertweet and check out his weekly movie podcast.
Published: Mar 17, 2016 07:00 pm