Top 5 – Awesome Movies Coming Out in August

And here we are, the homestretch of the summer movie season.  The months of blockbusters, sequels, and franchises are coming to a close.  But, we still have one month left, and that month is August.  August can be either a dead month for movies or can have some really great films come out.  Such films as Straight Outta Compton (2015), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), The Help (2011), and Inglorious Basterds (2009) dropped in August and all made huge splashes critically and financially.  Will we have any of those this year?  Let’s take a look at the most exciting movies coming out in August.

5 – KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS (Travis Knight, August 19)

2016 has been a huge year for animation, and it looks to only be getting better with Kubo and the Two Strings.  This is from the studio that brought us the twisted Coraline (2008) and the inventive ParaNorman (2012).  Kubo tells the story of a young boy who must find a suit of armor worn by his father in order to defeat a vengeful spirit.  The animation looks simply stunning, much like Coraline and ParaNorman.  And the voice cast of Matthew McConaughey, Charlize Theron, Rooney Mara, Ralph Fiennes, and George Takei is stellar.  This movie is going to be as inventive as it is pretty.

4 – SUICIDE SQUAD (David Ayer, August 5)

I’m so torn when it comes to this movie.  On the one hand, it looks awesome.  The cast, including the likes of Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, and Viola Davis, is more than enough to get me intrigued, especially with director David Ayer behind the camera.  Plus, the plot, about a group of bad guys, like Harley Quinn, Deadshot, and The Joker, hired by the government to take down a worse evil, is awesome, and one of the most beloved comics there is.  However, it is DC, and that is my biggest worry.  This studio has no idea how to handle its material and that was clearly evident in this year’s shitshow Batman v. Superman.  Even if Batman v. Superman was decent, I would be stoked for Suicide Squad.  But because DC can’t make a good movie, I have to be cautiously optimistic.

3 – WAR DOGS (Todd Phillips, August 19)

War Dogs looks absolutely bonkers.  It tells the true story of two twentysomethings (Miles Teller and Jonah Hill) who won a $300 million contract from the Pentagon to arm America’s allies in Afghanistan.  Todd Phillips, the man behind The Hangover films, directed the film and it feels like he is trying to pull what Adam McKay pulled off last year with The Big Short by taking a more serious subject matter and use their bizarre humor to make it their own and legitimize themselves as directors.  Teller looks solid, but it’s Jonah Hill that really steals the trailers for me.  He looks like the weirdest version of Tony Montana from Scarface (1983).  This could be the wildest movie of the summer.

2 – MORRIS FROM AMERICA (Chad Hartigan, August 19)

My indie pick of the month is one I already had the opportunity of seeing at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.  Morris from America is the coming of age story about Morris (Markees Christmas), a hip-hop loving, thirteen year old living in Germany who is the only black kid anyone knows of.  This movie is such a delight to watch.  It’s smart, funny, sweet, and adds the necessary dramatic notes to round out the story.  Christmas knocks it out of the park in his debut performance and Craig Robinson, who plays Morris’s father, gives the best performance of his career and one of the my favorite performances of the year.  Check out my full review of the film here, and definitely to make sure to seek this movie out when it drops.

1 – SAUSAGE PARTY (Greg Tiernan, Conrad Vernon, August 12)

So speaking of the animation domination this year, here’s one unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.  From the vulgar and brilliant minds behind Superbad (2007) and This Is The End (2013), Sausage Party is an R-rated animated movie about a bunch of food who have finally been purchased by a human, only to realize they are to be eaten.  The voice cast includes the usual crew of Seth Rogan, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Bill Hader, and Danny McBride, as well as Salma Hayek, Kristen Wiig, Nick Kroll, and Edward Norton.  This movie looks incredibly raunchy, laugh-out-loud funny, and incredibly creative, which is exactly what we need in a summer filled with sequels and remakes.

What movies coming out in August are you excited for?  Comment below or hit me up on Twitter @kevflix and make sure to find Kevflix on Facebook.