2016 Summer Movie Preview: The 35 Must-See Movies
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35. ‘Now You See Me 2’ (June 10)
The Four Horsemen have a new member (Lizzie Caplan replacing Isla Fisher, whose pregnancy kept her from returning) and a new adversary (with Daniel Radcliffe playing his first big-screen baddie), but the razzle-dazzle remains intact in this follow-up to the 2013 sleeper hit. | Watch trailer (Lionsgate)
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34. 'Alice Through the Looking Glass’ (May 27)
The Muppets maestro James Bobin takes over the reins from Tim Burton in this Alice in Wonderland sequel. Our titular heroine (Mia Wasikowska) once again ventures down the rabbit hole, this time to save her old buddy, the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), who has fallen into an unfathomable funk. | Watch trailer (Disney)
- 3/35
33. ’Kubo and the Two Strings’ (Aug. 19)
The latest animated feature from Laika — the company responsible for Coraline and ParaNorman — promises to be another sumptuous stop-motion wonder. When young Kubo inadvertently unleashes a vengeful spirit on his village, he embarks on a grand adventure through ancient Japan to find supernatural armor. | Watch trailer (Focus)
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32. 'Search Party’ (May 16)
Old School and The Hangover Part II writer Scot Armstrong makes his directorial debut with this expectedly outrageous R-rated comedy. T.J. Miller (Deadpool) and Adam Pally (Happy Endings) head south of the border to (possibly) save the day after their buddy (Silicon Valley’s Thomas Middleditch) ends up in deep doo-doo in Mexico. | Watch red-band trailer (Focus)
- 5/35
31. 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows’ (June 3)
The Turtles find a new ally in the hockey-loving vigilante Casey Jones (Arrow’s Stephen Amell) —and they’re going to need him to battle the four new villains in this sequel: Baxter Stockman (Tyler Perry), Bebop, Rocksteady, and Kraang (voiced by Fred Armisen). | Watch trailer (Paramount)
- 6/35
30. 'Central Intelligence’ (June 17)
Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart tag-team in this role-reversal buddy action-comedy. Former high school sad sack The Rock has grown into a dashing international man of mystery, who enlists his comic foil — now a humdrum adult who used to be the Big Man on Campus — for a high-stakes spy mission. | Watch trailer (WB)
- 7/35
29. ’Warcraft’ (June 10)
Director Duncan Jones (Moon) promised us that his take on the popular MMO about the clash between races in a mythical realm wouldn’t suffer from the pitfalls of other classic games-turned-stinky screen adaptations. With its mix of fantasy, action, and effects — did we mention kick-ass orcs? — Warcraft has a great shot at making good on Jones’s word. | Watch trailer (Universal)
- 8/35
28. 'The Free State of Jones’ (June 24)
Matthew McConaughey bears an eerie resemblance to Newton Knight, the real-life Mississippi farmer the actor plays in this rare summer war epic directed by Gary Ross. The film follows Knight’s bold rebellion against the Confederacy in 1862 and his ensuing relationship with a freed slave (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). | Watch trailer (STX)
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27. ’The Legend of Tarzan’ (July 1)
Call it The Ape Man Rises. After years away from the jungle, Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgård) and his wife, Jane (Margot Robbie), are lured back to his childhood home and promptly betrayed by Christoph Waltz’s revenge-minded villain. That forces Tarzan to suit up … er, strip down to reclaim his rightful heroic heritage. | Watch trailer (WB)
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26. 'Weiner’ (May 20)
The year of living “Carlos Danger”-ously ended with a sexting scandal crushing Anthony Weiner’s dream of becoming New York City mayor. Yet that self-inflicted reversal didn’t derail this campaign documentary, which kept the cameras on him and his wife, Huma Abedin (top aide to Hillary Clinton), for an inside view of his election bid unraveling. | Watch trailer (Sundance)
- 11/35
25. 'Independence Day: Resurgence’ (June 24)
Twenty years after the first alien invasion, the extraterrestrial horde is back to wreak havoc in this new sequel. Jeff Goldblum’s prescient scientist, David Levinson, returns to provide the rueful wisecracks, and this time around, the world’s got a high-tech space defense force and a new president (Sela Ward) to rally the troops. | Watch trailer (Fox)
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24. 'The Infiltrator’ (July 15)
Breaking Bad alumnus Bryan Cranston crosses to the other side of the law (and wears a wicked 'stache) in this '80s thriller about a federal agent who goes deep undercover to infiltrate Pablo Escobar’s drug trafficking ring. Also unlike Bad, it’s based on a very true story. | Watch trailer (Broad Green)
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23. 'Me Before You’ (June 3)
Based on the bestselling novel by Jojo Moyes, this sure-to-be-weepy drama follows a struggling quadriplegic man (The Hunger Games series’ Sam Claflin) and the quirky charmer (Game of Thrones’s Emilia Clarke) hired to care for him. Clarke recently warned Yahoo readers to pick up a “man-sized box” of tissues before settling in to watch. (WB)
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22. 'Pete’s Dragon’ (Aug. 12)
Fresh off The Jungle Book’s big roar at the box office, Disney reaches back into the vault to see if a reinvention of its 1977 live-action/animation hybrid can catch fire with 2016 audiences. Robert Redford and Bryce Dallas Howard share the screen with the titular flying creature, who’s less cuddly than his hand-drawn predecessor but just as important to his orphan pal. (Disney)
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21. 'War Dogs’ (Aug. 19)
Old School and The Hangover director Todd Phillips puts the emphasis on action in this new action-comedy that kicks off his producing partnership with Bradley Cooper (who also co-stars). Miles Teller and Jonah Hill play the real-life bros hired by the Pentagon to arm U.S. allies in Afghanistan. | Watch trailer (WB)
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20. 'Elstree 1976’ (May 6)
No members of the British royal family dropped by for a tour when George Lucas’s team assembled in suburban North London for the first Star Wars. For many, this was a paycheck job that turned them into witnesses of movie history; this documentary asks 10 of them to tell their stories. (FilmRise)
- 17/35
19. 'Lights Out’ (July 22)
Swedish filmmaker David F. Sandberg was plucked from obscurity to direct a feature-length version of his terrifying three-minute horror short, and it looks as if we’ll want to keep the lights on for this one. Teresa Palmer stars as a young mother haunted by spirits of darkness. | Watch trailer (WB)
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18. 'The Founder’ (Aug. 5)
The origin story of the Happy Meal isn’t so happy in this biopic about Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton), the hard-charging salesman who helped turn a modest little burger chain called McDonald’s into a global juggernaut. Standing in his way? The actual McDonald brothers (Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch). | Watch trailer (TWC)
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17. 'The Conjuring 2’ (June 10)
The Conjuring told a classic, chilling haunted-house story and became one of the summer of 2013’s surprise hits. Its sequel goes back to the same, spooky well, with paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) back to rid a London family of their demons. | Watch trailer (WB)
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16. 'Southside With You’ (Aug. 19)
The first step Michelle Robinson (Tika Sumpter) took toward becoming first lady was her first date in 1989 Chicago with community organizer Barack Obama (Parker Sawyers), which this delightful Sundance hit imagines and invites us to join. | Watch clip (Roadside)
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15. 'The Secret Lives of Pets’ (July 8)
The directors of Despicable Me pull the curtain back on what our furry friends really do when humans leave the premises. With cats, dogs, birds, and a bunny voiced by the likes of Louis C.K, Kevin Hart, Ellie Kemper, and Albert Brooks, expect this animated creature feature to be a not-so-secret hit. | Watch trailer (Universal)
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14. ’Sausage Party’ (Aug. 12)
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg apparently intend to help you lose weight by making you afraid to open your refrigerator with their first foray into R-rated animation. An all-star cast, including Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, and Michael Cera, voice various foodstuffs that are horrified to discover what it really means to be on the menu tonight. | Watch trailer (Sony)
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13. 'Swiss Army Man’ (June 17)
Yes, this is that movie that stars Daniel Radcliffe as a flatulent corpse and Paul Dano as the possibly mentally ill man who becomes Dead Harry Potter’s new BFF. Need we say more? | Watch trailer (A24)
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12. 'Money Monster’ (May 13)
Jodie Foster directs the power pair of George Clooney and Julia Roberts in this thriller set in motion by a terrible stock tip. Clooney plays a Jim Cramer-esque TV guru taken hostage by a desperate man (Unbroken’s Jack O'Connell) who just lost his life savings. Roberts plays the TV producer who tries to keep the situation from exploding on air. | Watch trailer (Sony)
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11. 'The Nice Guys’ (May 20)
What happens when Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe team up in a '70s noir detective comedy directed by Shane Black in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang mode? We’re not exactly sure, but based on the trailers, we’re dying to find out. | Watch trailer (WB)
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10. ’Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising’ (May 20)
Until Neighbors came along, who knew that Seth Rogen and Zac Efron would make a great comedy team? The duo returns for a sequel, which adds Chloë Grace Moretz’s party-hearty sorority girl to the original’s Family Man vs. Frat Boy mix. Expect scene-stealer Rose Byrne to once again emerge as the comic champion of this collegiate clash. | Watch trailer (Universal)
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9. 'The BFG’ (July 1)
Roald Dahl’s tale about the relationship between an orphan girl and a kindly giant, played here in a motion-capture performance by Oscar-winner Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies), gets the full filtered-light-and-childhood-wonder treatment from director Steven Spielberg. | Watch trailer (Disney)
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8. 'Jason Bourne’ (July 29)
A lucrative franchise is re-Bourne as Matt Damon returns to the super-spy game alongside director Paul Greengrass. Lured out of hiding to tackle yet another CIA-related mystery, Bourne takes his one-man wrecking crew act on the road, eventually winding up in Vegas for an epic car chase. Our biggest question? Just how shaky will the shakycam be? | Watch trailer (Universal)
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7. ’Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping’ (June 3)
The Lonely Island guys give the pop documentaries the Walk Hard treatment, with Andy Samberg playing a Bieber-esque singer who’s headed for a very public meltdown. Cameos are added by Maya Rudolph, Will Forte, and Bill Hader, but we’re mainly rooting for a Dewey Cox/Conner duet. | Watch trailer (Universal)
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6. ’Star Trek Beyond’ (July 22)
Justin Lin (Fast and Furious 3-6) takes the helm from J.J. Abrams in the third installment of the rebooted saga, which finally finds the Enterprise on that five-year mission. Complicating matters, however, is Idris Elba’s terrifying Krall, who threatens the fabric of the final frontier. Bonus: Lin promises lots of new aliens previously unseen in the Trek universe. | Watch trailer (Paramount)
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5. 'Ghostbusters’ (July 15)
Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones are taking on all the spooks and specters in New York City in Bridesmaids director Paul Feig’s reboot. Joining the new fab foursome will be some familiar faces from the 1984 original, including Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Sigourney Weaver. | Watch trailer (Sony)
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4. ’X-Men: Apocalypse’ (May 27)
It’s Poe Dameron vs. Professor X! Oscar Isaac plays the titular big bad guy, the Earth’s first — and most powerful — mutant bent on wiping out the planet’s civilization with the help of some possessed X-folks, including Magneto (Michael Fassbender). Xavier (James McAvoy), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), and super-pals who face their biggest test yet in this trilogy-capper. | Watch trailer (Fox)
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3. 'Finding Dory’ (June 17)
Thirteen years after the release of Finding Nemo, Ellen DeGeneres’s Dory gets her chance to track down long-lost relatives, specifically a mom and dad who sound like Diane Keaton and Eugene Levy. Disney showed the first 27 minutes at CinemaCon and, as we reported, it had all the feels. | Watch trailer (Disney)
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2. 'Suicide Squad’ (Aug. 5)
A bunch of DC supervillains — including Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and Deadshot (Will Smith) — are forced to take on an impossible mission, along the way meeting up with the Joker (Jared Leto) and Batman (Ben Affleck). The Squaddies might be the worst heroes ever, but we’re betting on them to deliver a great time at the movies. | Watch trailer (WB)
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1. 'Captain America: Civil War’ (May 6)
Cap vs. Iron Man is the main event, but this hugely anticipated Marvel offering also features the introduction of Spider-Man and Black Panther to the MCU, a mystery-thriller plot, and an examination of civil liberties in an age of heightened security. It promises to be everything that Batman v Superman wasn’t. | Watch trailer (Disney)
It’s not just superheroes hitting cineplexes in the coming months, though there are a lot of those, with the Avengers, Suicide Squad, and X-Men all springing (summering?) into action. We’ll also get plenty of spaceships (Star Trek Beyond, Independence Day: Resurgence), family fun (Finding Dory, The BFG), laughs (PopStar, Neighbors 2), scares (Lights Out, The Conjuring 2), and laughs and scares (Ghostbusters). Oh, and have we mentioned the farting corpse yet (Swiss Army Man)? Here’s our countdown of summer’s most exciting movie releases. —By Ethan Alter, Jen Cheney, Marcus Errico, Steve Korn, Kerrie Mitchell, and Kevin Polowy