Film Friday (5/29): This Week's New Movies & Trailers

Metacritic
Updated

This article, Film Friday (5/29): This Week's New Movies & Trailers , originally appeared on Metacritic .

Opening this weekend



Nationwide releases .
San Andreas PG-13 ACTION/THRILLER
Trailer(s)

For fans of bad movies, San Andreas probably isn't quite enough of a disaster to make it worthwhile, though the film is certainly not bereft of spectacle. Dwayne Johnson reunites with his Journey 2: The Mysterious Island director, Brad Peyton, for a film that imagines (and graphically depicts) what might happen if the Big One finally hit California. Johnson plays a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot who teams up with his estranged wife (Carla Gugino) to save their only daughter (Alexandra Daddario).

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Aloha PG-13 DRAMA/COMEDY
Trailer(s)

There's no getting around the fact that Aloha is writer-director Cameron Crowe's worst movie. All of those early fears (spurred on, of course, by the Sony leak, which revealed studio executives' disdain for the film) proved correct, with critics finding little to recommend in a muddled Hawaii-set dramedy that nevertheless boasts an impressive cast that includes Bradley Cooper, Rachel McAdams, Emma Stone, Bill Murray, John Krasinski, Danny McBride, and Alec Baldwin.

Notable limited and/or VOD releases .
Tu Dors Nicole NR FOREIGN/COMEDY
Trailer(s)

Stéphane Lafleur's well-reviewed, French-language, black-and-white comedy follows an aimless 22-year-old girl (Julianne Côté) during her summer vacation.

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Results R COMEDY — Also available on VOD

iTunes
iTunes


Andrew Bujalski’s follow-up to his 2013 Sundance hit Computer Chess is an Austin-set comedy about a pair of personal trainers, played by Guy Pearce and Cobie Smulders. Their private and professional lives are disrupted by a rich, lonely New York transplant played by Kevin Corrigan.

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Gemma Bovery R FOREIGN/ROM-COM/DRAMA
Trailer(s)

This French dramedy stars Gemma Arterton in her second adaptation of a Posy Simmonds’ graphic novel (following Tamara Drewe), which itself plays around with the story of Flaubert’s Madame Bovary.

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Barely Lethal PG-13 ACTION/COMEDY — Also available on VOD
Trailer(s)

iTunes
iTunes


Imagine Kick-Ass's Hit-Girl in high school and you have something akin to this action-comedy that stars Hailee Steinfeld as a teenage special ops agent who decides to switch gears and attempt to live a normal life as a high school student—which proves to be just as difficult as her day job. Samuel L. Jackson and Jessica Alba also star

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Survivor PG-13 ACTION/THRILLER — Also available on VOD

iTunes
iTunes


The latest thriller from director James McTeigue (V for Vendetta, The Raven) stars Milla Jovovich as a foreign service officer who is framed for a terrorist bombing by an assassin played by Pierce Brosnan. A supporting cast of Dylan McDermott, Angela Bassett, and Robert Forster adds to the intrigue, though critics, frankly, aren't all that intrigued.

Additional limited and/or VOD releases (in alphabetical order) .
Club Life NR DRAMA — Also available on VOD

iTunes
iTunes


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Guidelines NR DOCUMENTARY

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Heaven Knows What NR DRAMA

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I Believe in Unicorns NR DRAMA

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Sunset Edge NR DRAMA/THRILLER

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The True Cost PG-13 DOCUMENTARY

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Uncertain Terms NR DRAMEDY

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Unfreedom NR DRAMA — Also available on VOD

iTunes
iTunes


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Welcome to This House NR DOCUMENTARY


All movies now in theaters... | New on DVD/Blu-ray... | New on Netflix... | New on Amazon Instant Video...

New trailers and updates for upcoming films


Two hits of American Ultra

Jesse Eisenberg stars as a stoner who is actually a sleeper agent, and quite a skilled killer, in this action-comedy from director Nima Nourizadeh (Project X) and writer Max Landis (Chronicle). Kristen Stewart plays his live-in girlfriend, and the rest of the supporting cast includes Topher Grace, Connie Britton, John Leguizamo, Walton Goggins, Bill Pullman and Tony Hale. American Ultra opens on August 21st.


Utah, get me two!

One of the reasons 1991‘s Point Break attained cult status was its cast: Keanu Reeves as ex-football star/FBI agent Johnny Utah, Patrick Swayze as zen-surfer/bank-robber Bodhi, and Gary Busey as agent Angelo “Get me two” Pappas. So while this 2015 version has gone international and amped up the stunts to a startling level (get an excellent behind-the-scenes look here), Luke Bracey, Edgar Ramirez, and Ray Winstone don’t quite have the charisma of the original stars. Directed By Ericson Core (Invincible), who’s also not exactly Kathryn Bigelow, the new Point Break opens everywhere on December 25th.

Johnny Depp gives fatherly advice in the second Black Mass trailer

Directed by Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart, Out of the Furnace) and starring Johnny Depp in an attention-grabbing performance as Whitey Bulger, Black Mass follows Bulger’s story as he is recruited by FBI Agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) in the 1970s to help take down the Italian mob, and then becomes one of the most powerful gangsters in Boston history, eventually going on the run and evading law enforcement for 16 years. The film’s strong supporting cast includes Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson, Juno Temple, Corey Stoll, Jesse Plemons, Peter Sarsgaard, and Kevin Bacon. Look for it in theaters September 18th.

The Diary of a Teenage Girl

A critical favorite when it premiered at Sundance this year, The Diary of a Teenage Girl stars Bel Powley as Minnie Gotze, a teenager in 1976 San Francisco who begins a love affair with her mother’s (Kristen Wiig) boyfriend, played by Alexander Skarsgård. Based on Phoebe Gloeckner’s graphic novel, this August 7th release serves as writer-director Marielle Heller's directorial debut.

The End of the Tour: Five days in the life of David Foster Wallace

Director James Ponsoldt returned to Sundance this year for a third time, following 2013’s The Spectacular Now and 2012’s Smashed, with this adaptation of David Lipsky’s memoir of his five days with David Foster Wallace during the author’s 1996 book tour for Infinite Jest. Jesse Eisenberg plays Lipsky, and Wallace is played by Jason Segel. Both actors earned praise from critics, with The Playlist claiming Segel gives a “career best performance.” Co-starring Anna Chlumsky, Ron Livingston, Mamie Gummer, Mickey Sumner, and Joan Cusack, The End of the Tour opens in select theaters July 31st.

Cop Car

In the August 7th release Cop Car, Kevin Bacon stars as a county sheriff whose car is taken for a joyride by two good-natured but rebellious young boys (James Freedson-Jackson and Hays Wellford). Unfortunately for them, their decision makes them a target of Bacon’s sheriff, who might be more than a little corrupt. Co-written (with Christopher D. Ford) and directed by Jon Watts and co-starring Shea Whigham and Camryn Manheim, this thriller earned mixed reviews when it premiered at Sundance.

A Walk in the Woods

In this adaptation of Bill Bryson’s memoir A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, a comedic recounting of Bryson’s struggles to hike the 2,200 mile trail, Robert Redford and Nick Nolte star as Bryson and his long-lost friend Katz. Larry Charles (Borat, Bruno, The Dictator) was originally attached to direct, but Ken Kwapis (Big Miracle, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) replaced him prior to the start of production. A Walk in the Woods, co-starring Emma Thompson, Mary Steenburgen and Kristen Schaal, comes to theaters September 2nd.

Pawn Sacrifice

Tobey Maguire is American chess genius Bobby Fischer, and Liev Schreiber is his Russian rival, Boris Spassky, in this look at their famous 1972 "Match of the Century." Directed by Edward Zwick from a script by Steven Knight (Locke) and co-starring Peter Sarsgaard, Michael Stuhlbarg, Lily Rabe, and Robin Weigert, Pawn Sacrifice opens in select theaters September 18th.

Short takes

Starring Anton Yelchin, Ashley Greene, and Alexandra Daddario, Burying the Ex, Joe Dante’s first film since The Hole, comes to theaters June 19th.

In Eli Roth’s Knock Knock, Keanu Reeves plays a husband who gets into trouble when he allows two young women (Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas) into his house. A U.S. release date is still to be determined.

Coming to select theaters June 26th, Felt, directed by Jason Banker (Toad Road), stars Amy Everson as Amy, a young woman struggling to cope with past sexual trauma and the daily aggressions of a male-dominated society. Watch the red-band trailer below.

News and notes

  • Tilda Swinton is in talks to play the Ancient One opposite Benedict Cumberbatch in Marvel’s Doctor Strange. - Heat Vision

  • Chris Pine is in talks to play Gal Gadot’s love interest, Steve Trevor, in Warner Bros.'s Wonder Woman feature. - Variety

  • Even though Now You See Me: The Second Act is not due in theaters until July 10, 2016, Now You See Me 3 is already in development. - Variety

  • Alicia Vikander is in talks to join both Matt Damon in the new Jason Bourne movie and Michael Fassbender in Assassin’s Creed. Emma Watson is in line to take Vikander’s role in The Circle opposite Tom Hanks. - Deadline

  • Robert Rodriguez will direct and co-write (with Terry Rossio) an adaptation of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon Johnny Quest. - Heat Vision

  • Vincent D’Onofrio has been cast as the villain in writer-director Dax Shepard’s CHiPs adaptation. Michael Pena and Shepard will play Ponch and Jon. - THR

  • Cary Fukunaga has dropped out of directing the planned adaptation of Stephen King’s It, pushing the project out indefinitely. - TheWrap

  • Saoirse Ronan, Dakota Fanning, Lili Simmons, and Alison Sudol are up for the role of Tina, and Kate Upton, Katherine Waterston, and Elizabeth Debicki are in the running to play Tina’s older sister Queenie opposite Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander in David Yates’ adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. - TheWrap

  • Joe Wright (Pan) is in talks to direct Anne Hathaway in The Lifeboat, an adaptation of Charlotte Rogan’s novel set in 1914 about a woman’s struggle to survive on an overcrowded lifeboat. - Deadline

  • Belle director Amma Asante will direct David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike in the interracial marriage drama A United Kingdom. - THR

  • Benedict Cumberbatch will play Thomas Edison in The Current War, a biopic focusing on his battle with George Westinghouse to implement a system of electricity. - The Tracking Board

  • B.J. Novak has joined Michael Keaton, Laura Dern, and Nick Offerman in John Lee Hancock’s The Founder, the story of McDonald’s empire-builder Ray Kroc. - THR

  • Jason Reitman will write and direct an animated adaptation of Dan Santat’s award-winning picture book The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend. - Deadline

  • Craig Johnson (The Skeleton Twins) will direct Woody Harrelson and Laura Dern in an adaptation of Daniel Clowes’ graphic novel Wilson. - Heat Vision

  • Justin Timberlake and Josh Gad are the favorites to star in Paramount’s comedy Bad in Bed. - The Tracking Board

  • Will Forte has joined Method Man and Gabrielle Union in Key and Peele’s comedy Keanu. - THR

  • Andy Serkis will be playing a character named Supreme Leader Snoke in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens. - StarWars.com