Can you feel it? You can, can’t you? If not just go to a release schedule of movies and start reading week by week. It’s pretty amazing the glut of awesome that lands every summer, isn’t it? This summer is no different and we’re ready to tackle it, but are you? Of course not, because you haven’t read our summer movie preview yet!
Like the summers before this one is looking pretty awesome with plenty of superheroes and comedy and a few smaller films creeping in (including one of the best horrors we’ve seen in a while). You’ll notice we don’t have every big film landing and are far from including all the small ones, but these are the movies that get our juices going. Hopefully by the end of summer we don’t regret all the effort of getting excited for these films.
Director: Shane Black
Release Date: April 25, 2013 (UK), May 3, 2013 (US
Trailer
The Marvelfestivities continue into Phase Two with the post-Avengers solo flick starring Robert Downey Jr. To many this is the first Summer blockbuster and Marvel’s first gamble outside of its ensembleathon. The question on everyone’s mind is whether or not they can go back to the smaller and more personal films after such a bombastic show-and-tell. Personally, I have utter faith for them to do it right. With a slew of hot action-comedy auteurs attached there really isn’t anything that smells fishy about this flick. – Nathan Hardisty
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Release Date: May 3, 2013 (UK); June 28, 2013 (US)
Trailer
After making a riveting and twisted little thing like The Skin I Live In, it seems like Pedro Almodóvar is going back to zany, campy comedy as a reprieve. And I have no problem with that. Something about the trailers for the film make me think this will be a light romp on a kitschy aeroplane, which is something I’ll want to see if I duck into a theater to get out of the humidity. – Hubert Vigilla
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Release Date: May 10, 2013
Trailer
I liked The Great Gatsby when I read it in high school, and as soon as I heard that Baz Luhrmann would be doing a bastardization of it, I was intrigued. There’s no way that the movie will be able to keep its apparent style and the themes of Fitzgerald’s work, but I don’t know that that’s really an issue. If Luhrmann brings his Luhrmann-iest to the party, it’s going to be something worth watching regardless. Especially because it’s in 3D. I mean, The Great Gatsby is in 3D. What the actual fuck, right? — Alec Kubas-Meyer
Director: J.J. Abrams
Release Date: May 17, 2013
Trailer
The follow up to the biggest sci-fi reboot in history looks as if it’s bringing all of the character and action that made the first one so much, with just a fraction of the lens flair. There’s also a much more menacing villain this time around: Sherlock Holmes! Well, technically Benedict Cumberbatch, but he’s looking formidable nonetheless. My interest in Into Darkness isn’t so much a matter of excitement as being curious if Abrams can continue to deliver, and now that he sits in the driver seat of the worlds two largest science fiction franchises, he better damn well be able to. – Thor Latham
Director: Chris Wedge
Release Date: May 24, 2013
Trailer
Epic is kind of shaping up to be this generation’s Fern Gully with its setting in a forest and war battles and probably some subtle jab at our terrible treatment of the environment. Moving beyond that, the Blue Sky Studios film (Rio) flaunts an extremely talented cast that includes Aziz Ansari, Christoph Waltz, Colin Farrell, Beyonce, and Pitbull. Epic indeed. – Geoff Henao
Director: Justin Lin
Release Date: May 24, 2013
Trailer
All roads may not lead to Fast and Furisix anymore thanks to the existence of Fast Se7en, but that isn’t lessening my hype for it in the slightest. Dom and his crew are up against an “evil” crew of car thieves, Tanktop Jesus is back and lovelier than ever, and although they’re on the same team, there’s still a good chance we’ll get more some sweaty bald men wrestling. I mean, I’d settle for a tussle too. Anything’s good. Oh yeah, this is Justin Lin’s last turn as director of the series so I’m guessing he’s reached the highest point that he could take it. Consider this his opus. – Nick Valdez
Director: Todd Phillips
Release Date: May 24, 2013
Trailer
The Hangover Part III and its nihilistic “It Ends” tagline hopes to alleviate the problems Part II had with the series. While Part II was essentially the same as the first with a new skin, Part III takes a darker turn for the Wolf Pack with a fresh new story that doesn’t involve blacking out in one way or another. Does darker mean funnier? Who knows. All I know is Part III has got John Goodman as the villain and that’s all I need to commit. – Nick Valdez
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Release Date: May 31, 2013
Trailer
While it seems like an overused joke, why was M. Night Shyamalan allowed to direct After Earth? Like seriously, I don’t understand how he even has a job still. Regardless, I can say that it’ll be interesting to see how much acting talent Jaden Smith has inherited from his father. While, yes, he has starred in The Pursuit of Happiness and The Karate Kid, we have yet to see how well he does as he gets older. My only quarrel with this (besides Shyamalan) is Gary Whitta, who wrote the screenplay for The Book of Eli, also wrote this. I’m just not a fan of that film and the writing, but I’m giving him another chance. – Logan Otremba
Directors: Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen
Release Date: June 12, 2013
Trailer
Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, and Craig Robinson face a post-apocalyptic Hollywood the only way they know how: with drugs, alcohol, and ridiculous cameos from Hollywood stars from Emma Watson to Rihanna. Hopefully it’s as funny as the names attached make it out to be. – Geoff Henao
Director: Zack Snyder
Release Date: June 14, 2013
Trailer
I’m not a fan of Zack Snyder, but the most recent trailer for Man of Steel shows a lot of promise, leaving me cautiously optimistic. (Cautiously because I remember looking forward to Superman Returns, but it wound up being joyless and derivative.) Snyder may prove my initial doubts wrong, and I’m looking forward to seeing how Henry Cavill portrays both Clark Kent and Superman. If the film captures the inspirational and aspirational aspects of Supes, I’ll be a happy guy. Those are the aspects of Superman that I love most and that make him my favorite superhero. He can also punch things really hard and is smart as hell, and that’s awesome. – Hubert Vigilla
Director: Dan Scanlon
Release Date: June 21, 2013
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If you’ve been around the site for a long time, you may already know that I am the Flixist staff member with the most beef towards Pixar. However, I have to admit that they have made some great movies, and Monsters Inc. is a wonderful film to watch. Monsters University is the prequel to Monsters Inc. and will follow the franchise’s two main characters, Sully and Mike, through their college days and presumably how they first meet and become best friends forever. Monsters University will probably follow most Pixar movies and be an enjoyable experience for all ages. I’m calling it now – it’ll be a predictably good movie, nothing surprising, but not bad either. – Liz Rugg
Director: Marc Forster
Release Date: June 21, 2013
Trailer
Zombies are funny, right? Because I’m going to be laughing the whole time while watching World War Z. These zombies are just the rage-infected ones from Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later except they introduced steroids into their system and are done with awful CGI. Also, the fact that they needed another seven weeks to reshoot the movie already shows that it may be doomed to failure. So if you’re looking for a potentially good laugh and zombies are your thing? You might have found the right combination. – Logan Otremba
Directors: Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn, and Anonymous
Release Date: June 28, 2013 (UK); July 19, 2013 (US)
The Act of Killing is a documentary that lingers a long time after watching in. I find myself thinking back to that film and what it has to say about the nature of power through the lens of the brutal 1965-1966 Communist purge in Indonesia. I also think of a lot of moments in our SXSW interview with Joshua Oppenheimer, in which he said that we (as individuals and as a people) aren’t so far removed from the murderers in the film. Oppenheimer and his co-directors have crafted one of the best documentaries of the year and a testament to the power of storytelling as both a tool for evil and for good. – Hubert Vigilla
Directors: Jeff Howlett and Mark Christopher Covino
Release Date: June 28, 2013
One of the great triumphs of musicology in the last few years is the discovery and rise of the Detroit proto-punk band Death. Though they recorded their material in the mid-1970s and it sounded incredible, no one cared about their work until it resurfaced. In chronicling the band’s story, directors Jeff Howlett and Mark Christopher Covino uncover a moving portrait of the Hackney family which is just as fascinating as find as the band’s music. – Hubert Vigilla
Directors: Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud
Release Date: July 3, 2013
Trailer
I should probably come clean here. I am a sucker for cute things. Like I really can’t handle myself around them. I was completely ready to ignore Despicable Me 2 since the first film tried to exploit my cutesy weakness, but when the first full trailer released and I realized it was backed by Eminem’s “Without Me,” I melted. D2 looks to build on everything I liked about the original as Gru becomes more of a good guy and father, his girls get older, and the Minions do stuff too I guess. I’ll probably wait a week or two so I’m not the only full grown single man in a theater full of kids. – Nick Valdez
Directors: Gore Verbinski
Release Date: July 3, 2013
Trailer
I’m not really sure how to describe my feelings toward The Lone Ranger. I’m not particularly excited for it, I know relatively little about its source material, and I’m dreading a Depp performance that may go the way of Cap’n Jack and his ship of diminishing returns. Despite these misgivings, though, I see a glimmer of something fun and exciting, something that a summer blockbuster should be, and something The Lone Ranger deserves to be. With a long production and a bloated budget, Disney is looking for this to be a hit. The question is: Can Verbinski play cowboys and indians just as well as he plays pirates and scallywags? – Thor Latham
Director: Dennis Dugan
Release Date: July 12, 2013
Trailer
Fuck you, Hollywood. Fuuuuuuuck you. – Matthew Razak
Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Release Date: July 12, 2013
Trailer
Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim is one of the most anticipated Hollywood blockbusters coming this summer. The story will focus around giant alien monsters that are hell-bent on destroying humanity, and the giant robot-like creatures called Jaegers that humans create to fight back. This logline seems to almost have the potential to be just like any other giant monster action film, but under Del Toro’s direction, Pacific Rim looks beautiful and somehow not cheesy. Despite how one could draw similarities to it as an Americanized, Hollywood version of the Japanese anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, Pacific Rim seems to be well worth seeing for its own merits. We’ll see if it will live up to the excitement! – Liz Rugg
Director: James Wan
Release Date: July 19, 2013
Trailer
The teaser for The Conjuring was so creepy that even describing it to people gave me chills. The actual trailer for it (above) got me even more excited. Rapidly catching up on The Bates Motel (which features The Conjuring star Vera Farmiga) put it over the top on my must-see list. The fact that James Wan (Insidious) is directing and Patrick Wilson (also Insidious) also stars? Needless to say, if this film disappoints I will have to start several sizable fires in protest. – Sean Walsh
Director: Jeff Wadlow
Release Date: July 19, 2013 (UK), August 16, 2013 (US)
Trailer
Mark Millar’s fingers seem to be in a lot of pies at the moment. The original Kick Ass was his fingers at work to craft a balls-to-the-walls superhero classic. It was really refreshing to find black comedy, a great Nicolas Cage performance and a tone that wasn’t afraid to play it outside of the safe zone. With the Jim Carrey starring sequel, it seems the film’s going all out once more. I honestly think this will be just a fantastic show of violence, destruction and be, once more, the antithesis to the superhero template we’re used to seeing. – Nathan Hardisty
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Release Date: July 19, 2013
Trailer
Amid a summer full of supermen and giant robots, this is by far my most anticipated release. I’ve heaped praises upon Refn’s Drive (as have just about everyone else), and will continue to do so until I can hopefully do the same for his follow up, Only God Forgives. A seedy and violent revenge tale starring Ryan Gosling, this film is looking to be everything I could hope for. I can’t even properly express my anticipation in words, which should within itself demonstrate my unreasonable excitement. Disappointment is just not an option. – Thor Latham
Director: James Mangold
Release Date: July 26, 2013
Trailer
Has the world entirely forgotten about the X-Men Origins: Wolverine? I mean there’s a lot more hope for The Wolverine, but let us not forget how excited we all were for the first standalone Wolverine film and that really, really, really didn’t pay off. With a new director and at least the early marketing campaign looking like it has a bit more understanding of the character there is hope that this will not suck as bad as the first one, but who the hell knows. At least one thing is guaranteed: the CG claws have got to look better this time around because they aren’t CG. – Matthew Razak
Director: Paul Schrader
Release Date: August 9, 2013
Trailer
We can all admit it. We’re just interested in The Canyons because we want to see the train wreck that is Lindsay Lohan do some moretrain wrecking. Anyone who read the New York Times insanely fascinating story about the film’s production has got to want to see this thing. With Paul Schrader’s career hanging in the balance, Bret Easton Ellis barely keeping his name attached, a porn star who seems to be the sanest of the bunch and plenty more background trouble, watching this movie is pretty much every movie fans obligation no matter how terrible it turns out to be. – Matthew Razak
Director: Wong Kar-wai
Release Date: August 23, 2013
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Wong Kar-wai has been working on this for ages, so it better be good. I’m not reading any reviews on The Grandmaster until after I see it because I want to see if this long-brewing Yip Man yarn is worthwhile on my own. I have no doubt that it’ll be beautiful to look at, but more than that, maybe I’m just more curious if this movie was worth the wait and the effort. – Hubert Vigilla
Director: Adam Wingard
Release Date: August 23, 2013
Trailer
You’re Next (reviewed here) is easily one of the best slashers you’ve seen in a long while. A home invasion horror film, it quickly subverts itself, twists its plot and then delivers on the blood and gore you want. I’ve already seen the movie and I’m excited for it to be released just so I can see it again. Unlike the plethora of horror movie remakes and senseless blood baths (not always bad) You’re Next is smart, original and kick ass throughout. – Matthew Razak
