Taking on your next Jason Statham movie is a lot like flashing back to the 1980s and early 1990s to watch the next Jean-Claude Van Damme movie. Both almost-A list but really B list actors mastered the tough guy genre of their eras, and both have movies that can always be looked back on again and re-watched by fans. Along with those better-quality flicks are those movies that lag behind the others by way of storytelling, energy, and action. Unfortunately Guy Ritchie’s Wrath of Man falls in the latter camp–with cardboard characters and a preposterous script even for a “movie for guys who like movies” flick. It’s not among the best Statham movies nor a great Ritchie movie.
Happy New Year! My wish for everyone is they get their own bacta tank jacuzzi to help recover from last year… and the year before that, and…
It’s been 38.5 years since I first saw Boba Fett die, at the sneak preview of Return of the Jedi. It was the low point of the movie–I’d rather they’d kill off Han Solo. Let the mysterious bounty hunter drift off into the sunsets. Practically speaking it meant decades of no Boba Fett, and nothing but minor appearances of Boba Fett in the Marvel comic books. So we’ve all had a long time to picture how Boba Fett survives bumbling into the Great Pit of Carkoon, nesting place of the all-powerful Sarlacc, to be slowly digested over 1,000 years, which was as baffling as making the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs. Now thanks to Jon Favreau, we get to see the vision in his head, in the first episode of The Book of Boba Fett, now streaming on Disney Plus. (Moderate episode highlights and a revisit to 1983 and 1997 follow).
It’s that time of year again, time to take a look forward at what movies should be on your radar for 2022. We’re changing up this year’s preview by adding several trailers. Unlike in previous years, we have trailers for most of these movies. These are the genre films we think borg readers will want to know about to make their own checklists for the coming year. In all we pulled 60 movies from the hundreds of films that have been finalized or are in varying stages of final production and slated for next year’s movie calendar. Many of these will be more than familiar to you, as we’ve previewed some going back to 2019.
The biggest surprise is there aren’t a lot of surprises on the horizon, at least for big movies, like Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, Black Adam, Lightyear, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse, Halloween Ends, Top Gun: Maverick,Jurassic World: Dominion, a new Predator movie called Prey, and The Batman.Compare the below list to our 2021 list, 2020 list, 2019 list and even the 2018 list, 2017 list, 2016 list, 2015 list, or 2014 list, and you’ll see the studios continue moving genre content from the big screen to the small screen via streaming services. Hollywood hasn’t made its way back to full production mode yet since the pandemic risks aren’t over yet, and it’s beginning to look like TV will be the location most people watch their movies for the foreseeable future, if not permanently. What do the big movies have in common? They’re all sequels–and more remakes of movies, books, and TV shows are on the way.
First up, the top 15 movies expected in 2022 that don’t have an announced release date yet, followed by our annual month-by-month rundown of trailers. Grab your calendar and start making your plans–here are the movies you’ll want to see in 2022 (and some you might not!):
Havoc –Tom Hardy stars as a detective in a crime drama directed by Gareth Evans (Netflix)
Enola Holmes 2 –sequel, starring Millie Bobby Brown and Henry Cavill (Netflix)
Prey – the fifth movie in the Predator franchise will be a prequel, starring Amber Midthunder as a Comanche who must protect her tribe from the alien threat (Hulu)
Pinocchio– live-action version of the fairy tale stars Tom Hanks as Geppetto and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jiminy Cricket (Disney+)
The Amazing Maurice – animated young adult fantasy about a sentient cat, based on the 2001 book The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett, starring Emilia Clarke, Hugh Laurie, David Thewlis (theatrical release)
Blonde – a biopic about Marilyn Monroe starring Ana de Armas, with Adrien Brody and Bobby Cannavale (Netflix)
Wendell and Wild – comedy duo Key and Peele create a stop-motion dark horror comedy (Netflix)
The Gray Man –the Russo brothers direct a film about a an ex-CIA agent, starring Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, and Ana de Armas (Netflix)
The Adam Project – sci-fi movie stars Ryan Reynolds as a man who goes back in time to get his younger self for help (Netflix)
Spaceman – sci-fi movie stars Adam Sandler and Carey Mulligan (Netflix)
The School for Good and Evil – long-delayed young adult fantasy with Charlize Theron (Netflix)
Slumberland – kids fantasy adventure starring Jason Momoa and Kyle Chandler (Netflix)
All Quiet on the Western Front – remake of novel adaptation, this time starring Daniel Bruhl (Netflix)
Blade of the 47 Ronin – sequel to 47 Ronin, starring Mark Dacascos (Netflix)
Deep Water– another Ben Affleck bad marriage “erotic psychological thriller,” with Ana de Armas (Hulu).
January
The 355 – Spy/thriller, starring Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Bingbing Fan, Diane Kruger, Penelope Cruz, Sebastian Stan – January 7.
The Tender Bar – Coming of age story starring Ben Affleck and Christopher Lloyd (Amazon) – January 7.
Hotel Transylvania: Transformania– Latest entry in the animated franchise (Amazon) – January 14.
Scream– Horror, the big reboot/sequel stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette – January 17.
Twenty years as an action hero and Jason Statham hasn’t changed a bit. Probably the only actor who could fill the shoes of Stallone, Schwarzenegger, and Willis, he’s back to open this summer after a year without movie theaters in what’s bound to be another hit, a revenge flick called Wrath of Man. Revenge is a dish best served by Statham? In the first trailer for Wrath of Man, Statham plays a guy known only as H. And he leaves no one standing. Check out the trailer below.
We first noticed Statham’s cool and cocky bravado under the direction of one of the all-time genre greats, John Carpenter, in Ghosts of Mars, playing opposite Pam Grier and Joanna Cassidy. He quickly led the first of his three Transporter movies beginning in 2002, then he co-starred in one of the best heist movies of all time with an all-star cast in 2003’s The Italian Job, followed five years later in one of the best heist movies of all time without an all-star cast in The Bank Job. He’s co-starred in both The Fast and the Furious franchise and The Expendables, played Donald E. Westlake’s well-known crime lead in Parker, and starred in the summer hit The Meg and a dozen other single-word action flicks, including Collateral, Cellular, Revolver, Snatch, Crank, Safe, and Redemption. This trailer leaves the impression H could be a combination of all Statham’s past tough guys.
Yes, a tricked-out, revved-up Pontiac Fiero is cool.
As movie trailers go, if you’re a fan of the Fast & Furiousseries, it can’t get much better than the new nearly four-minute trailer for F9: The Fast Saga. The film is the tenth in the franchise and ninth in the main storyline following Vin Diesel’s action hero car driver Dominic Toretto. Diesel returns with all the major players from the last film, 2017’s The Fate of the Furious: Michelle Rodriguez’s Letty Ortiz (who already died once in the series), Jordana Brewster as Dom’s sister Mia, Tyrese Gibson as Rome Pearce, Ludacris as Tej Parker, plus Charlize Theron (sporting a Seven of Nine vibe with that earring) as Cipher, the franchise’s ultimate villain.
There’s been nothing definitive released yet about the next return of Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham after last year’s hit tie-in film, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw. But Helen Mirren, who played Shaw’s mom, will be back in the new film and is featured in the first trailer for F9: The Fast Saga(below).
Surprise sibling trope alert! New to the series is a surprise for fans of the series, a brother to Dom played by John Cena. And good news: Lucas Black is back as Sean Boswell (we haven’t seen him in the series since Furious 7) and, after an even longer break from the series, look for Sung Kang’s surprise return as Han Lue, who we haven’t seen since he was supposedly killed by Shaw in Fast & Furious 6 (it’s not a spoiler if it’s in the trailer!).
Here is the great, new, over-the-top (and we love it that way) first trailer for F9: The Fast Saga:
The biggest action film of the summer is easily the most enjoyable film of the year. That’s Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, a movie that gets so many genre formulas right it just can’t miss. Certainly one of the better entries in the Fast & Furious franchise, it knows what works and uses it. That’s a sure-bet cast of Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham, Mission: Impossible–Fallout’s Vanessa Kirby, Idris Elba in the ultimate badass role as a James Bond spy gone bad with Superman powers, lots of futuristic cyborg tech, and an understanding of why audiences come to the movie theater in the first place. Hobbs & Shaw is a movie for people who like movies.
The trailers gave audiences a glimpse at what to expect, and they delivered on all promises: laugh-out-loud funny dialogue, nonstop action, road races and camera angles that the franchise is known for, and lots of surprises and callbacks, and a script that doesn’t take itself seriously. There’s something for everyone here. If you’re after only the fast cars, action, and speed of the franchise, this entry measures up. And that family drama that the regular franchise leads Diesel, Paul Walker, and Jordana Brewster built the franchise on is here, too. This time that includes digging into the past between Statham’s Deckard Shaw and sister Hattie, played by Kirby, and Helen Mirren back again as their mother (Luke Evans’ brother Owen from the last film may or may not be mentioned this time), and Johnson’s Luke Hobbs is pals with his young daughter at home and returns to the family he left behind years ago in the Samoan Islands.
But stuntman-turned-director David Leitch(Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, John Wick) and script writers Chris Morgan (writer of five prior Fast & Furious films) and Drew Pearce (Hotel Artemis, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation) know why audiences are really buying tickets, and you just need to drift over their previous film credits to see why they were tapped for Hobbs & Shaw. Hattie is a badass equal to Charlize Theron’s Atomic Blonde (Theron also co-starred in the most recent sequel), any of the four lead characters could give Leitch’s John Wick a run for his money, and moviegoers will hardly remember last year’s much-lauded Mission Impossible: Fallout’s action scenes after they see this. (A few casting spoilers follow).
Discovery′s annual Shark Week programming is back beginning this weekend. From July 27 to August 5 look for ten days of shark-centered features. Shark Week is television’s longest running summer TV event. That means Narragansett is back with new promotions and local activities for those on the East Coast, and an online store full of tie-ins to Steven Spielberg’s Jawsto coincide with Shark Week 2019. Not only is Narragansett one of America’s oldest beer companies (they turned 21 in 1911), Jaws made its beer famous again in 1975 when Robert Shaw′s character Quint downs a can and crunches it to look tough in front of Richard Dreyfuss′s character Hooper. Hooper created the funniest moment of the film, countering Quint by crushing his Styrofoam cup.
Look for Naked and Afraid: Surviving with Sharks, Shark Trip, Isle of Jaws, Shark After Dark, Sharkwreck, Alien Sharks, Sharkpocalypse, Air Jaws, Sharks Gone Wild, Jaws Comes Home, Laws of Jaws, Sharkzilla, Shaq Does Shark Week, Ocean of Fear, Sharks in the City: LA, Guy Fieri’s Feeding Frenzy, and How Jaws Saved the World, and more, all throughout the week. Check out your local listings here at Discovery for air times.
Narragansett′s online shop has some great new T-shirts featuring Jaws and the Quint can, plus a foam stress can, a skateboard deck, stickers, pins, logo shirts, hats, hoodies, ornaments, sunglasses, beach towels, posters, even skis and hockey sticks–all featuring the image of the beer can design from 1975 or the shark or 1975 Narragansett logo–as it appeared in the film classic Jaws. The lager beer itself is also available in ‘Gansett markets with the retro cans. See the entire 1975 retro collection of tie-ins here at the Narragansett online store. And check out the Narragansett website here for a series of Jaws screening parties along the East Coast all week, plus other parties, trivia contests and more, announced via the company’s Twitter account: @Gansettbeer.
It’s no surprise the movie studios are releasing trailers more frequently this time of year. In the weeks leading up to San Diego Comic-Con, just as studios are holding back more genre and “pop culture” trailers to showcase in San Diego, they’re giving audiences a peek now at everything else. We have five new trailers today, three for films we haven’t yet previewed, and two are new trailers for films you already know about. What do they all have in common? They all feature stars from the British realm.
So what’s new from Keira Knightley (why doesn’t she have an Oscar yet?), Ralph Fiennes, Matt Smith, and Katherine Kelly? You’ll find them in the political thriller Official Secrets, based on the story of Katherine Gun, who leaked a secret memo exposing an illegal U.S. spying operation. The Good Liarstars master thespians Dame Helen Mirren and SirIan McKellen in a swindler story about meeting online. Luke Evans and Ed Skrein lead a new World War II historical drama in Midway. And from the two films you’ve probably heard of: Jason Statham, Vanessa Kirby, Idris Elba, Helen Mirren, and Eddie Marsan all star in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, and Margot Robbie plays Sharon Tate and Damian Lewis plays Steve McQueen in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Finally, don’t forget, another Brit, Tom Holland, stars in next week’s latest Marvel movie, Spider-Man: Far From Home. Check out these trailers:
A smartly constructed assemblage of events and characters collided in a tightly written crime story in Edgar-winning writer Duane Swierczynski′s mini-series, Breakneck. One of the most exciting of Hard Case Crime and Titan Comics′ line of books and comics based in a modern setting, Breakneck is a spy tale, terrorist story, and diehard action thriller about an unassuming Everyman who gets mixed up with a federal agent trying to foil a terrorist bombing in historic downtown Philadelphia. The four-issue series from this past winter is getting released in a trade paperback this month, and is available for pre-order now here at Amazon (the UK edition is in bookstores now). Fans of the crime genre and quick action graphic novel reads will find this story worth checking out.
If an incapacitated federal agent needed your help to save the world in the next 93 minutes, could you drop everything and do anything imaginable to help, even if that agent is someone you hated so much you were planning his death? Swierczynski doesn’t give you any time to answer that question, as he sweeps the protagonist into a seedy motel, with guns pointing in every direction, guys being thrown from windows, and a woman tied up asking for help. Before you have time to ask how all these characters keep crashing back together, another woman is tapped to join in the race to stop the end of the city from happening.
Artists Simone Guglielmini and Raffaele Semeraro, and colorists Lovern Kindzierski and Chris Chuckry nicely choreographed 109 pages of action with the streets of Philadelphia as a backdrop. Breakneck began as a novel for Swierczynski, which then turned into a screenplay, and finally landed as a comic book story. An excerpt of the novel is included as an appendix in the new graphic novel format compilation.
It’s not a Fast & Furious, or Deadpool, or Kickboxer movie like her past films, but mixed martial arts pro-turned-actor Gina Carano is getting her next leading role, following up on last year’s post-apocalypse B-movie, Scorched Earth. It’s called Daughter of the Wolf, a snowbound survival tale in the vein of Liam Neeson’s Taken movie series. Carano will soon co-star opposite Pedro Pascal in Lucasfilm’s live-action Star Wars series The Mandalorian, but first she’ll go head-to-head with iconic genre actor Richard Dreyfuss as her character fights to get her son back from a kidnapper and his accomplices.
Could Daughter of the Wolf be part of a trend of solo action films Carano adds to her portfolio, just as action stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and Jason Statham once stacked up a vast list of smaller action movies between co-starring stints in major films? Carano certainly has the physical prowess, style, and charisma to be tomorrow’s next action hero.
Take a look at this trailer for Daughter of the Wolf:
