Forget Barbie and Oppenheimer - your guide to the next big films out this year
Summer is looking rosy for film fans as cinemas prepare for a clash of the titans between two very different blockbusters.
Box offices are set for one of their strongest weekends since the pandemic as Greta Gerwig’s Barbie arrives in cinemas alongside Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.
Social media has even come up with the Barbenheimer challenge.
Unfortunately this is not a mash-up sequel in which Manhattan Project Barbie dons a white lab coat and glasses to debate national duty versus global moral responsibility with Prof Ken. Instead, it’s the race to watch – in back-to-back screenings the same day – both the feminist-friendly pink explosion and the biopic of the “father of the atomic bomb” starring Peaky Blinders’ Cillian Murphy and more Oscar winners than a Vanity Fair after-party.
But they’re not the only big releases at cinemas this summer.
Unexpected royal starred in Hollywood film due to her likeness to Queen Victoria
After a tough few years for the industry, there are plenty of top movies on the way, all begging to be seen on the big screen. Here’s our round-up, with the excitement rating in popcorn buckets…
BARBIE
★ OUT: Now
★ STARS: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling
C’mon Barbie let’s go party! This summer it’s all about being pretty in pink, without sacrificing your feminist beliefs (thanks to right-on director Greta Gerwig).
And having whipped most of the world into a hot pink frenzy, it’s now set to be the hands-down hit of the summer (Sorry, Mission Impossible 7!)
Ryan and Margot in Barbie (FILM STILL / HANDOUT)The plot’s genius: Margot’s Barbie and Ryan’s bleach-blonde Ken are happily living in Barbie World, surrounded by other Barbies and Kens, pink convertibles and Malibu Dream Houses as far as the eye can see, until… Margot begins asking about DEATH.
Suddenly Barbie’s experiencing real-world[ital] problems - and must take a road trip into our far less rosy reality.
Between her witty dialogue, the feminist undertones, her spot-on costumes and her star-packed soundtrack, this Barbie’s won’t be heading to the recycling bin anytime soon.
★ EXCITEMENT RATING: 5/5
OPPENHEIMER
★ OUT: This weekend
Dark Dick Van Dyke tragedy that nearly killed him and curse of Mary Poppins cast
★ STARS: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt and a whole lot of Oscar winners
From the director of Inception and The Dark Knight Trilogy, Christopher Nolan, comes this latest visually-stunning epic. In his first biopic, Nolan’s cast Cillian, aka Peaky Blinders’ Tommy Shelby, as the eponymous and complex J. Robert Oppenheimer, the so-called ‘father of the atomic bomb’, whose own life ironically implodes during the communist witchhunts of 1950s and 60s America.
Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer (AP)It’s not exactly a feelgood summer flick like its box office opposition, Barbie.
But after dazzling five-star reviews, it is[ital] an early shoo-in to pick up some serious silverware come next year’s Awards Season.
Not that the supporting cast need any more gongs. It features some super top-tier talent: Oscar winners Matt Damon, Gary Oldman, Kenneth Branagh, Rami Malek and Casey Affleck; Oscar nominees Tom Conti, Robert Downey Jnr and Florence Pugh; and - just what every good film needs - a former Hollyoaks hunk-turned-Hollywood-actor Guy Burnet (one-time ‘Oaks’ fan favourite Craig Dean).
★ EXCITEMENT RATING: 4.5/5
HAUNTED MANSION
★ OUT: August 11
★ STARS: Jamie Lee Curtis, Winona Ryder, Jared Leto, Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson
A psychic, a priest and an historian walk into a haunted house...
No, it’s not some variation on an old joke – it’s the plot for Disney’s new big-budget offering, in which single mum Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) invites three eccentric experts to help rid her new home of some even more eccentric spirits (think BBC ’s Ghosts, but more PG).
Halloween’s scream queen Jamie gets to dish out the scares for once as Madame Leota, a medium trapped in a crystal ball, and Stranger Things’ Winona is once more in her spooky Edward Scissorhands-style comfort zone.
Wilson (right) in his spirited role (DISNEY)Throw in some quirky performances from Danny DeVito, Jared Leto, Owen Wilson, Schitt’s Creek star Dan Levy and Girls Trip’s Tiffany Haddish and it looks like another franchise starter for the House of Mouse.
It’s inspired by a theme park ride. But before you scoff, four words: Pirates of the Caribbean.
★ EXCITEMENT RATING: 3.5/5
BLUE BEETLE
★ OUT: August 18
★ STARS: Susan Sarandon, Xolo Mariduena, George Lopez
The DC superhero movie is hoping to be the Latino answer to Marvel’s Black Panther in terms of representation.
Starring Xolo Mariduena, from Netflix ’s Karate Kid spin-off Cobra Kai, it is effectively an origin story.
Mexican graduate Jaime Reyes is sent a mysterious package and, against all judgement, opens it.
A scene from Blue BeetleHe finds himself with “the Scarab”, an ancient relic of alien technology that makes him its host and causes him to develop an exo-skeleton suit of armour with amazing powers. And so the Blue Beetle is born.
He has already won a battle for survival in real life.
The film had just started production when DC brought in Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn to overhaul its strategy for superhero movies.
Blue Beetle was expected to be crushed but, unlike Superman, is one of the very few heroes who will not be facing the (re)boot.
★ EXCITEMENT RATING: 3/5
THE EQUALIZER 3
★ OUT: September 1
★ STARS: Denzel Washington
Now here’s a man you don’t want to mess with. Denzel’s Robert McCall is a disillusioned former CIA operative, turned violent Good Samaritan. A vigilante with a code of honour, using his skills to help those justice has failed.
And while his heart’s in the right place - his targets’ hearts usually aren’t. Not by the time he’s done with them anyway.
Denzel’s movies - the first of which was in 2014 - are notably more gory than Edward Woodward’s 1985 original TV series.
Denzel Washington on The Equalizer 3 (Dumfries And Galloway Standard)And they are certainly a lot darker than Sky’s current gender-swapped TV reboot, with Queen Latifah.
This latest instalment sees Denzel in Southern Italy where he takes on one of his toughest opponents yet. Oh, and the rest of The Family.
Yes, someone’s going to find Dobbin’s noggin on their pillow, because it’s Denzel vs The Mafia.
★ EXCITEMENT RATING: 4/5
Best of the rest
Cowabunga! Everyone’s favourite pizza-munching heroes in a half shell are back on Aug 4 with the live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Jason Statham battles a super shark so ripped it makes Jaws look puny in Meg 2: The Trench (also August 4)
Lily Allen’s hubby David Harbour and Katy Perry’s fiance Orlando Bloom star in Gran Turismo (Aug 11), a trues tory of a video gamer who won a competition to be a real racing car
Strays, out on August 18, features live-action pets, voiced by Jamie Foxx, Sofia Vergara and Will Ferrell, who prove dogs are not always man’s best friend
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