Top 5 – Awesome Movies Coming Out in July

Two of July’s most anticipated movies have already been released; Ari Aster’s Midsommar (review here) and the latest movie in the MCU, Spider-Man: Far From Home (review here).  But what’s great about this July is the amount of exciting movies coming out this month.  The first half of 2019 was a solid one, but slightly disappointing compared to some previous years.  But July kicks off the second half of the year with a bang with one of my most anticipated movies of the year and one of the best movies I have seen in 2019 so far.  Here are my picks for the best movies coming out in July.

5 – STUBER (Michael Dowse, July 12)

• I have limited expectations for Stuber, which should work in the movie’s favor in terms of me liking it.  This is a buddy-action-comedy starring Dave Bautista as a hyper-intense detective and Kumail Nanjiani as the Uber driver driving him around on the case.  Here is what I expect from this film: I expect an excellent dynamic between Bautista and Nanjiani, with the two bringing their own brand humor to the film, some fun action, and the film to be adequately made.  That’s it.  I don’t care about the plot, story, or any of that.  As long as the film isn’t sloppily made and keeps me entertained, that’s all I’m asking for.

4 – CRAWL (Alexandre Aja, July 12)

• Much like Stuber, I don’t have a ton of expectations for Crawl.  It’s a movie about a woman who is trying to save her father during a Category 5 hurricane while being hunted by dozens of alligators.  Sounds like a twisted version Sharknado, and with director Alexandre Aja behind the camera and the legendary Sam Raimi producing, things should get weird in a hurry.  I expect relentless gator violence and tons of fun, cheap jump scares.  That’s it. I’m actually most excited about seeing Barry Pepper, whom I always enjoy seeing on screen.  Crawl should be a thrilling, fun time.

3 – THE LION KING (Jon Favreau, July 19)

• Calling Jon Favreau’s The Lion King Disney’s latest live-action adaptation is a bit of a stretch since the film isn’t made with actual lions.  This is a CGI-heavy animated film that aims to bring the Disney classic to the big screen with photo-realistic animals.  The cast of voices is incredible, featuring the likes of Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Chewitel Ejiofor, Beyonce, and the great James Earle Jones reprising the voice of Mufasa, among others.  It will be interesting to see how this movie goes, but Favreau did some great work with The Jungle Book back in 2016, so I am hoping he can repeat his success here.

2 – THE FAREWELL (Lulu Wang, July 12)

• I already had the pleasure of seeing the movie earlier this year and it is a true delight.  Lulu Wang has made one of the best movies of 2019.  A delightful, sweet, funny, heartwarming look at culture, family, and death.  It features two of my favorite performances of the year from Awkwafina and Shuzen Zhao and Wang’s screenplay and direction grabbed my heart from the beginning and didn’t let go.  I love, love, LOVE The Farewell and you will too.

1 – ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD (Quentin Tarantino, July 26)

• Quentin Tarantino is one of my favorite directors of all-time and, like most film lovers of my age, one of the formative directors in terms of my love of cinema.  Every time Tarantino makes a movie it’s an event.  With the unique, endless dialog, fascinating characters, and stylized violence, nobody makes a movie like Tarantino, so you can’t help but get excited about his latest feature.  Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood brings Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt to the big screen for the first time, as they play an aging movie-star (DiCaprio) and his stunt-double (Pitt) attempting to find fame in the final years of the Golden Age of Hollywood in 1969.  What Tarantino has in store for us is a mystery.  Along with DiCaprio and Pitt, the cast is incredible, with the likes of Margot Robbie, Timothy Olyphant, Kurt Russell, Damien Lewis, Dakota Fanning, Michael Madsen, and Al Pacino, and the film features multiple storylines, one including Charles Manson and his cult.  This is one of my most anticipated movies of the year.

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