The Fate of the Furious
Directed by F. Gary Gray (Straight Outta Compton), The Fate of the Furious is the eighth installment in the long-running Fast and the Furious franchise. Cast members Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Nathalie Emmanuel, Elsa Pataky and Kurt Russell return and are joined by newcomers Charlize Theron, Scott Eastwood and Helen Mirren. In The Fate of The Furious, the globetrotting team suffers a devastating betrayal. Can their family survive?
Furious 7 was one of the fastest movies to make $1 billion worldwide, proving that the long-running franchise's success and popularity were at an all-time high - nevertheless, the tragic passing of cast member Paul Walker left the future of the franchise uncertain and many, myself included, felt that Furious 7 should be the final entry. The first trailer for The Fate of the Furious, however, shows that there's still so much that this series can give us in terms of sheer, unabashedly ludicrous entertainment. The action set-pieces manage to top the insanity of Furious 7 with ease, the cast seems in top form, even though the material is as absurdly cheesy as always - this looks like another big win for the Fast and the Furious. The trailer already broke records with more than 139 million views in less than 24 hours and it's easy to see why.
The Fate of the Furious is scheduled for an April 14, 2017 release.
Dunkirk
Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk is a war movie about the evacuation of allied soldiers from Britain, Belgium and France that were surrounded by the German army on the beaches of Dunkirk in 1940. The cast is made up of mostly young or relatively unknown actors, such as Fionn Whitehead, Jack Lowden, Aneurin Barnard, and One Direction singer/songwriter Harry Styles, that will work alongside more experienced actors like Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, James D’Arcy and Tom Hardy.
This is a damn good trailer for what looks like an incredible World War II-era war movie. It sets the right kind of ominous tone while giving a taste of the movie's epic scale. Visually, it looks gorgeous and manages to do something quite rare - showing WWII in a previously unseen way. WWII is a conflict that's been immortalized countless times in cinema, so even a relatively fresh and distinct perspective on the conflict is impressive.
Dunkirk is set for a 21 July 2017 release.
Despicable Me 3
Directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda, co-directed by Eric Guillon, and written by Cinco Paul & Ken Daurio, Despicable Me 3 will see the return of Gru (Steve Carell), Lucy (Kristen Wiig), Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), Agnes (Nev Scharrel) as they face off against Balthazar Bratt (Trey Parker), a former child star who’s grown up to become obsessed with the character he played in the ’80s.
This trailer focuses more or less on one very particular sequence, which introduces the new villain Balthazar Bratt - he looks like a fun antagonist for sure and the trailer has its fair share of laughs, but overall, it's a weird first impression that will undoubtedly leave those unfamiliar with the series confused; yet, maybe still intrigued enough to give the movie a shot.
Despicable Me 3 is scheduled for a June 30, 2017 release.
Snatched
Directed by Jonathan Levine and written by Katie Dippold, Snatched stars Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn as a mother-daughter caught in a South American vacation gone terribly wrong.
It's actually amazing how unfunny this trailer is. None of the jokes seem to land, the kidnapping bit comes in so late it feels jarring and out of place, as opposed to what is presumably the main story, given the title. Comedy is hard to sell at the best of times, but nothing about Snatched seems funny to begin with. It's a shame because Amu Schumer is talented and can be funny, but this doesn't seem to capitalize on that at all.
Snatched is set for a May 12, 2017 release.
Going in Style
Directed by Zach Braff, from a screenplay by Theodore Melfi, Going in Style stars Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin as lifelong buddies that decide to rob a bank when their pension fund becomes a corporate casualty.
The premise for Going in Style is promising, but the trailer doesn't exactly make it look all that great. Sure, it's fun to see Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin crack a few jokes about being old, but there's a real risk of that, well, getting old rather quickly. It's a silly idea that seems to be played a little too safe. With this cast, a movie that went all out could be proper hilarious, whereas Going in Style looks, at best, slightly amusing.
Going in Style is scheduled for an April 7, 2017 release.
The Boss Baby
Tom McGrath (Madagascar series, Megamind) directs The Boss Baby, a Dreamworks animated feature about a suit-wearing briefcase-carrying baby that pairs up with his seven-year-old brother to stop the dastardly plot of the CEO of Puppy Co.
This is somehow even worse than the first trailer. The world of The Boss Baby appears to follow no rhyme or reason. How can babies be secretly intelligent enough to speak, wear clothes and make complex plans, and yet simultaneously dumb enough so that the movie can make jokes at their expense? Ha ha, that baby that can talk and is having a meeting with other talking babies can't write because it's just a baby? The comedy doesn't work, because there is absolutely no sense of suspension of disbelief. The whole thing seems to be built on an infuriating set of contradictions. Oh, and that Glengarry Glenn Ross reference was just painful.
The Boss Baby is set for a March 31, 2017 release.
