In Theaters: June 1, 2018

There are three wide releases this weekend.

Adrift

Boy and girl fall in love.  Boy loves to sail.  Older couple hires boy to sail their yacht to California.  Girl goes with.  Hurricane hits.

I don't know when the actual event happened, but it looks pretty intense.  I personally don't like stormy sea type action very much, so I probably wouldn't like this one, but you might!

Adrift is rated PG-13 for injury images, peril, language, brief drug use, partial nudity and thematic elements.

Action Point

Action Point is about a failing theme park of the same name that resorts to extreme danger to stay open, introducing thrill rides without safety concerns.  It's Johnny Knoxville.

Action Point is rated R for crude sexual content, language, drug use, teen drinking, and brief graphic nudity.

Skip this one.

Upgrade

It's a revenge thriller with a twist.  A bunch of bad guys kill this guy's wife and mess him up so he gets paralyzed.  It's the near future though, so he takes some experimental implant computer thing to fix him up.  Then he learns that not only does it allow him to walk again, but it can also take control of his body and beat up the bad guys for him if he wants.  And it's really good at beating up bad guys.

Upgrade is rated R for strong violence, grisly images, and language.

      Big Shot Critic

In Theaters: May 25, 2018

There is only one wide release this weekend.

Solo: A Star Wars Story

The second Star Wars spin-off effort since Disney bought Lucasfilm.  And, boy howdy, did it have a rough road getting here.

The truth is that the post-Disney Lucasfilm world has been kind of a mess, although they are trying SO hard to make it look like everything is under control.  Before Episode VII was even written they were having issues.  They originally hired writer Michael Arndt for Episode VII, but after a full year he had produced nothing they liked enough.  Somewhere in there they finally got J.J. Abrams to agree to direct it (he said no the first time they asked), and writing duties shifted to him and Lawrence Kasdan, who I believe they brought out of retirement for Episode VII.  And just before The Force Awakens hit theaters, Lucasfilm announced that Josh Trank's spin-off movie (supposedly it was a Boba Fett film) was scrapped.  Oddly enough, this news came just days after reports started surfacing of Trank's horribly unprofessional behavior while working on Fantastic Four for Fox, and just weeks after that film became 2015's biggest flop.  In the meantime, Gareth Edwards still had his Rogue One movie coming along nicely with a date for December 2016.  Or did he?  In the summer of 2016 there were some very expensive reshoots happening for Rogue One, and we know another director was brought in to oversee them while Edwards was sidelined.  He didn't make a fuss over it, however, and the movie came out and did just fine.  By summer 2017, Lucasfilm had successfully convinced us that these were all just normal studio incidents that could happen anywhere, and indeed do happen all the time.  So no big deal.  Things were looking good.  And then Lucasfilm fired directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller from Solo: A Star Wars Story, and replaced them with Ron Howard.  Just so we're clear, Kathleen Kennedy (Lucasfilm President) replaced The Lego Movie/21 Jump Street filmmakers with the guy who made Apollo 13 and The Da Vinci Code.  And she did it with only three weeks of principal photography left.  This was an insane move, and it's the decision that got people like me believing Kathleen Kennedy is unfit as Lucasfilm President.  Her micromanaging tendencies were exposed completely.  And not long after that shake up, she fired Colin Trevorrow from writing and directing Episode IX.  This happened just weeks after his movie, Book of Henry, came out and didn't do very well.  To be fair, that movie is a complete mess (really, it is), but we aren't buying it, Kathleen!  The guy is responsible for Jurassic World, and that movie rocked!  Moving on, things calmed down for a couple months leading to the release of The Last Jedi.  Most film journalists noted the lack of on-set drama coming from The Last Jedi.  Things seemed to be going perfectly smoothly for once!  And I thought I was in for a treat.  But I wasn't.  The Last Jedi was the one movie Kathleen Kennedy seems to have been perfectly pleased with the whole way through, and it was easily the worst Star Wars movie of all time.  Such a huge disappointment.  What a disaster.  And I'm not the only one who thinks so, as that movie's 46% user score on Rotten Tomatoes, and box office take $700,000,000 short of The Force Awakens demonstrates.

And here we are!  After the broken expectations behind The Last Jedi, the hideously troubled production of Solo has borne fruit.  Will it be good?  I don't know.  All three directors are talented, that's for sure.  And I have total faith in the cast (seriously, it's an amazing cast).  I'm sure I'll end up seeing it in theaters.  Probably.  I'll see what my friends think.

My prediction is that if Solo doesn't do well, Kathleen Kennedy will get fired by Disney CEO Bob Iger.  I think the movie will do well by normal standards, but just okay by Star Wars standards, like finishing somewhere between $700 million and $900 million worldwide.  In which case I think Kennedy will be on a sort of probation.  Bob is watching.

Solo: A Star Wars Story is rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action/violence.  And I have no idea what it's about, besides featuring younger Han, Chewie, and Lando, so don't ask me.

      Big Shot Critic

In Theaters: May 18, 2018

There are three wide releases this weekend.

Deadpool 2

Just in case you were living under a rock sometime around February 2016 . . . Deadpool happened.

The character was introduced to film audiences in 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  Immediately people talked about a Deadpool movie.  Fans wanted it, but the studio was scared.  Deadpool is a total goof in the comics, and routinely breaks the fourth wall, talking to the reader.  He is known as "the merc with a mouth" because he talks a lot.

Anyway, someone "leaked" some test footage (we're pretty sure that was a publicity test) and the fans went nuts over it.  So nuts that a movie actually got made.  I have to give credit to Ryan Reynolds.  He really wanted a Deadpool movie to get made, and he did a lot to make it happen.

It was a smash hit.

Now there's a sequel!

Deadpool 2 is rated R for strong violence and language throughout, sexual references and brief drug material.

The first one is known for being extremely crude throughout.  Do not go to this expecting a family friendly experience.

Book Club

You know all those movies about old people these days?  I think it started with The Expendables, actually.  All these aged stars gotta have their own movie now.  Except Morgan Freeman, who has to be in every single one of them for some reason.

Anyway, this one is about four older women who decide to . . . do something?  About something?  It's very unclear.  You know, old people wanting to live life again or whatever.

I've heard worse ideas for movies, I'll tell you that.

Book Club is rated PG-13 for sex-related material throughout, and for language.

Show Dogs

Why?  Will someone please tell me why?

It's literally Miss Congeniality with dogs.  They talk and everything, and one has to go undercover in a dog show.  It's Miss Congeniality with dogs.

Show Dogs is rated PG for suggestive and rude humor, language and some action.

Again, truth be told, I've heard worse ideas for movies.

In Theaters: May 11, 2018

There are TWO wide releases this weekend.

Breaking In

You know the type of movie where the bad guy threatens someone's family so they can get into the safe, or the bank account, or have their buddy released from prison, or whatever else?  Those movies are always led by women these days.  Just a consequence of the times.  I don't really mind it as long as it's not a remake of a movie that originally had a male lead.  It's kinda cool actually.  I like that motherhood and the strength of women is being explored.  There are two questions though.

Who is the intended audience?  I get that we want strong female leads for women to cheer for, but women don't go around dragging their boyfriends/husbands to action films.  Now, these films are cheap enough that it won't matter.  This movie will make its money back without a problem.  But looking ahead to movies like Ocean's 8, this is going to be an important question.

Where is the line between a strong and truly female character, and a woman playing out a man's role?  Frankly, if you make the strong female lead to masculine, it's not gonna connect well with audiences.  Instead of a "strong female character", perhaps we should be trying for a "strong feminine character".  If you lose too much femininity, you'll lose credibility and likability.  I don't think this particular movie will have this problem.  It actually looks like it'll be worth a watch if I found it on TV in a couple years.  Sadly, these days that's high praise from me.

Breaking In is about a woman whose children are kidnapped inside a fortress of a house with an intense security system.  In exchange for help getting into the safe (the house belonged to the lady's father) the children's captors will release them.

Breaking In is rated PG-13 for violence, menace, bloody images, sexual references, and brief strong language.

Life of the Party

Melissa McCarthy is growing on me oh so slowly.  She's funny, I admit.

Life of the Party is about a mother who gets divorced after twenty-three years of marriage, and feels like she has nowhere to go in life.  She decides to enroll in college alongside her daughter, and commits to taking in the full college experience.

It's a throwaway comedy, for sure, but it'll probably have a few good gags.

Life of the Party is rated PG-13 for sexual material, drug content and partying.

      Big Shot Critic

In Theaters: May 4, 2018

There are three wide releases this weekend.  Three movies that will certainly fall to Marvel's wrath.

Bad Samaritan

This is actually kind of a neat idea.

In Bad Samaritan, a young small time crook (Robert Sheehan) looks around his rich mark's house (David Tennant) for stuff to steal.  Instead, he finds a tied up young woman in the house, and he has to leave the house before he can help her.  He goes to the police and they find nothing when they search the house.  And now the psycho kidnapper has his sights on the crook.

Bad Samaritan is rated R for violence, language throughout, some drug use and brief nudity.

Overboard

This is the gender-swapped version of the original with Kurt Russel.

Eugenio Derbez (one of my favorite comedic actors) plays a wealthy and selfish man who hires a cleaning lady (Anna Faris) to clean the carpets on his yacht.  He fires her on a whim and throws her equipment over the side of the boat.  The cleaning lady is a single mom putting herself through college who now must find a way to pay for the cleaning equipment as well.

The rich guy falls overboard in the night and is rescued, but he has amnesia.  The cleaning lady goes to the hospital to "claim" him, stating that he is her husband, so she can use him to help pay for the equipment he destroyed.

It actually looks really funny to me.

Overboard is rated PG-13 for suggestive material, partial nudity and some language.

Tully

Not to be confused with "Sully".

Alternative titles include "Diablo Cody Thinks She's Still Relevant".

Screenwriter Diablo Cody made big news, and had her fifteen minutes of fame . . . eleven years ago, when Juno came out.  Ever since then she's had a handful of near misses.  Movies that critics are pretty okay with, but nobody really goes out and sees.  This is just the latest one of those.  It's about a mother who is stuck in a movie that only features the crappy parts of being a mother.

Let me be clear.  I have a lot of faith in the acting ability of Charlize Theron, and her co-star in this movie whose name I forget right now.  It's the chick from The Martian who runs the satellites.  But when independent movies try to take on themes related to how families should operate, they always fail miserably.  Always.

Tully is rated R for language and some sexuality/nudity.

Just go see Infinity War again.  Or see Overboard.

Big Shot Critic