The Summer Movie Season is upon us, which means lots of blockbuster popcorn movies, sequels and comedies before we get hit with all the hardcore Oscar-Bait dramas of the fall and early winter.  While I am normally more of a fan of the deep contemplative dramas, I love the bombastic  action movies and star-driven comedies as well.  I still miss getting the 3 month summer vacations of my school days, but I can at least relive them a bit by turning everything off and enjoying some pure entertainment.  This year there are MANY movies that I highly anticipate and plan on seeing.  So much so that it was very difficult to come up with a list of only 10.  To help myself out I made a rule: No sequels or prequels.  I don’t have a problem with sequels or prequels during the summer , and am looking forward to quite a few.  This was just to make my job easier.  Hey, at least I admit it!  So yes, I am definitely looking forward to seeing Iron Man 3, Kick-Ass 2, Star Trek Into Darkness and Monsters University.  Quite a bit, actually!  But since I pretty much know what I am going to get from those films, I decided to go out on a limb and choose films that might end up being complete and utter shit.  See what I did there?  I already said I made the rule to make it easier on myself, and now I am trying to make it sound like I did it to make it more difficult.  Which is it?  Maybe a little of both?  I mean predicting whether or not a movie will be good based on a synopsis and a trailer can be pretty tough.  I’ve certainly been burned many times in the past, and I’ve also been very pleasantly surprised.  So yes, this is all just a complete fucking shot in the dark here.  But here we go, my 10 most anticipated summer movies of 2013!

10. 2 Guns (August 2)

 

Mark Wahlberg  and Denzel Washington as a DEA agent and a Naval Intelligence officer who don’t get along needing to team together to take on the mob.  This is a concept that has never, ever been done before.  Seriously though, it’s the summer!  Sometimes it’s fun to turn your mind off and just have fun with a good action movie, and that is what this looks like here.

 

 

 

9. The To-Do List (August 16)

Aubrey Plaza from Parks and Recreation has her own starring vehicle as an incoming college freshman who wants to have a lot more sexual experience before getting to college. Also starring Donald Glover from Community, there is too much potential for great laughs in here for me not to put it on the list. The film was originally due out on Valentine’s Day, but moving a film from the dumping grounds of February to the Summer usually indicates confidence rather than problems. Or so I hope.

 

8. The East (May 31)

Screenwriter Brit Marling joins Alexander Skarsgard and Ellen Page in this thriller where an anarchist group is attacking corporations in revenge against their criminal activities.  Yes, it is pretty much Project Mayhem : The Movie.  While it could certainly fall apart or be just a cheap ripoff of Fight Club, it did get a lot of great feedback from Sundance and has a pretty compelling trailer, so I am more than willing to give it a chance.

 

7. The Bling Ring (June 12)

Sofia Coppola returns writing and directing Emma Watson in this crime drama based on actual events of a group of teenagers who broke and entered the homes of several celebrities in 2008 and 2009.  I’m hoping that Coppola really skewers the worship of celebrity culture, and if the trailer is any indication she does just that.  I’m also looking forward to see Emma Watson in her next post-Potter film after her excellent turn in last year’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

 

6.  The Way Way Back (July 5)

Nat Faxon and Jim Rash follow-up their Academy Award winning script for The Descendants with considerably lighter fare with a coming-of-age comedy starring Steve Carell, Toni Collette and Sam Rockwell.  I admit, I’m a total sucker for a good coming-of-age comedy, and the trailer makes this one look very funny.

 

5. The Great Gatsby (May 10)

I read The Great Gatsby early in high school, but all I remember is that I really hated it.  However, I was also a hardcore young Republican in high school.   That isn’t to say that politics may shape my enjoyment of the film, but only that I am a much different person than I was back then.   Baz Luhrman directing Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire in a film scored by Jay-Z?  Fuck yes, count me in.

 

4. Elysium (August 9)
Neil Blotkamp follows up the excellent District 9 with a science fiction film set in 2154 that once again explores class strife. Starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, I have very high expectations for this film. District 9 was outstanding and Blotkamp is making what appears to be another excellent science fiction film in what appears to be the Summer of Sci-Fi. Star Trek Into Darkness is sure to make the most money, but I have a strong feeling that Elysium will be the strongest film.

 

3. This Is The End (June 12)

The first of 2 apocalypse comedies this year that I really want to see, I went with This Is The End because I feel it has a better concept.  The entire “Apatow Gang” is here, all playing themselves at a party thrown by James Franco when the Apocalypse begins.  With so many actors it could certainly be a mess, but Rogen wrote this with his writing partner Evan Goldberg and they have a very strong track record thus far (Pineapple Express, Superbad) so I have faith that they will pull it together.  I have high hopes that we will have a lot more strong comedies this year as opposed to the barren wasteland of comedies that 2012 brought us.

 

 

2. Much Ado About Nothing (June 7)

Honestly, I am not a huge Shakespeare fan.  I mean I like Shakespeare just fine, but I’m far from obsessed with any of his works.  I’ve never even read Much Ado About Nothing and quite frankly don’t even know what it is about.  It certainly isn’t difficult to find out anything I could possibly want to know about the story before seeing it, but I kind of want to go in knowing next to nothing about it.  So why is it so high on my list?  Joss Whedon.  I am a huge Whedon fan from the days of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Angel to Firefly…Hell even Dollhouse.  The Cabin in the Woods was one of my favorite movies last year, and The Avengers was one of the best Comic Book adaptations of all time.  This film also brings in many actors from across the Whedon-Verse so I have zero doubts that they will be able to fulfill Whedon’s vision perfectly.

 

1. Only God Forgives (July 19)

Only God Forgives is the re-teaming of Nicolas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling from Drive, my favorite film of 2011.  Refn writes and directs this crime thriller about an American who runs a Thai Boxing Club as a front for a drug smuggling operation.  The theatrical trailer doesn’t give away much as far as plot, but shows it to be balls to the wall action that I will rush to see on opening weekend.  I don’t expect it to be quite an action movie, however, as Drive was marketed as a Fast & Furious type of high octane action, and it proved to be vastly different, and much better than I could have hoped for.

So there is my list, narrowed to only 10 movies.  I will re-visit the list at the end of the summer where I find out if I was on the mark or way the fuck off of it.  Oh and guess what?  After mentioning 14 movies that I am looking forward to quite a bit this summer, I can’t stop there!  I have an honorable mention list as well!  Yes, I really think there is the potential for there to be that good of a summer.  Some Film Festival circuit films that intrigue me a great deal are Short Term 12, Fruitvale Station, Stories We Tell, In A World… and Ain’t Them Bodies Saints.  I also wanted to only have 1 Apocalyptic Comedy and 1 Coming Of Age comedy on my list, but I am very much looking forward to The World’s End and The Kings of Summer as well.  And who wouldn’t be pumped to see Charlie Day and Charlie Hunnam dress up in giant robot suits and fight fucking monsters in Pacific Rim? And I didn’t even mention Goddamn Superman?  This summer is going to fucking rock.