Marvel Studios has way too many movies scheduled for release this year but a couple of them look pretty promising. We've also got another Robert De Niro mob flick and Ryan Coogler's fifth film together to look forward to. Here are those four along with the other top prospects for eager cinephiles this year:
Captain America: Brave New World
Release Date: February 14
Sam Wilson headlines his first mission in the MCU's comeback film (Admit it, Deadpool& Wolverine was more a sendoff for the 20th Century Fox Universe than anything else). The last good Marvel Studios movie (the streaming series are distractions at best) to follow that universe's storyline was 2023's Guardiansof the Galaxy, Vol. 3, so it's high time that Kevin Feige and company got back on track. The Falcon & the Winter Soldier should've been a full-length feature to begin with, so we know that the new Cap has the goods. LFG.
The Alto Knights
Release Date: March 21
Robert De Niro plays dual roles as mob bosses Frank Costello and Vito Genovese in director Barry Levinson's return to the gangster genre (after 1991's Bugsy).
The Amateur
Release Date: April 11
With shades of Sicario, Rami Malek portrays a pencil-pusher who trains to be a CIA field operative in order to get revenge on the terrorists who killed his wife.
Warfare
Release Date: April 11
This true-to-life story follows a platoon of Navy SEALs behind enemy lines in 2006 Iraq.
Sinners
Release Date: April 18
Good things always happen when critically-acclaimed director Ryan Coogler teams up with Michael B. Jordan. This time they've collaborated on a vampire thriller, which sounds like a cinematic slam-dunk.
Sneaks
Release Date: April 18
Anthony Mackie headlines an all-Black voice cast which includes Martin Lawrence, Laurence Fishburne, and even DJ Mustard, for this animated feature.
The Accountant 2
Release Date: April 25
We'll never see a solo Batfleck movie but at least we'll get Christian Wolff back behind a rifle scope in this long-awaited follow-up to the 2016 original.
Thunderbolts*
Release Date: May 2
The members of the Marvel brain trust deliver their version of the Suicide Squad in this team-up featuring Bucky "The Winter Soldier" Barnes, Alexei "The Red Guardian" Shostakov, Antonia "Taskmaster" Dreykov, Ava "Ghost" Starr, Yelena Belova and John "U.S. Agent" Walker.
F1
Release Date: June 27
Brad Pitt passes the torch to Damson Idris in this sports drama centering around a retired Formula One driver who mentors a talented rookie.
Nobody 2
Release Date: August 15
Seemingly mild-mannered retired wet work operative Hutch Mansell is back in another ageism-defying mission. Hopefully, this long-awaited sequel doesn't suffer from bigger and louder-itis and instead gives us a continuation of what we loved the first time around.
Tron: Ares
Release Date: October 10
Though Tron's first stab at a sequel (2010's Tron: Legacy) was a spectacular disappointment, the 1982 original was good enough to inspire confidence in another attempt.
The Black Phone 2
Release Date: October 17
Ethan Hawke's creepy serial killer is back, apparently, in a sequel to one of the best horror movies of the decade.
The Running Man
Release Date: November 7
Can Glrn Powell fill Arnold's huge, muscle-bound shoes? If Top Gun: Maverick and Twisters are any indication, the up-and-comer's more than capable of carrying an action movie. And having a more human-looking guy in the lead is a welcome change.
Movie trailers are proof that film-editing is an art form. There are plenty of great movies that were promoted by terrible trailers. There are also trailers that outshine crummy films. And 14 of them are works of art in their own right.
22. It
The trailer for the 2017 theatrical version of It is better than the entire 1990 television movie version that preceded it.
21. The War for the Planet of the Apes
The creative minds behind War for the Planet of the Apes knew something that's true of every movie trailer -- less is more.
20. Ghostbusters: Afterlife
19. Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire
18. Captain America: Brave New World
17. Creed II
16. Star Trek
15. Dunkirk
14. Colombiana
If Oscar nominations were handed out for trailers, Zoe Saldana's would've been a slam-dunk. It seems like some unspeakable childhood tragedy had rendered her an emotional wreck. Too bad the actual movie turned out to be dumb as sh%t.
13. The Lord of the Rings
It's one thing to announce that you're adapting a classic fantasy book to the big screen. Proving that you've really brought hobbits, cave trolls and balrogs to life is a whole different story. And director Peter Jackson did just that with his clip for the first movie in his Middle Earth series, The Fellowship of the Ring.
12. Live by Night
The trailer is a masterpiece. The movie sucks.
11. The Age of Ultron
10. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
9. The Batman
8. Batman v. Superman
A great trailer -- and only a glimpse of a great movie.
7. G*dzilla
The teaser for this monster movie is literal. It even teases the gigantic star of the movie.
6. Revenge of the Sith
Say what you want about the Star Wars prequel trilogy but two of those movies had incredible trailers -- including these. It was rumored that Star Wars creator and Revenge of the Sith writer/director George Lucas enlisted his old friend Steven Spielberg to edit the trailers. He probably should've hired him to direct the movie as well.
5. Solo
4. Rogue One
The trailers for Rogue One told you right away that you were in for something special. But the movie's so good that they only scratch the surface. As an added bonus the trailers contain footage that didn't make it into the movie. While all good trailers leave you wanting more these leave you yearning even after you've seen the movie -- not because what you've seen wasn't good enough but because you know there's more to the story.
3. The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight is arguably the first comic book movie masterpiece but there's no debating the fact that its trailer is the absolute best teaser for a superhero film.
2. The Force Awakens
A
couple of years ago, I stopped watching trailers and for the same
reason that I'd stopped reading movie reviews. I just wanted to know as
little as possible going into the theater. I didn't wanna be sitting
there knowing that what's-his-face would make it through the suicide
mission without a scratch because he still hadn't done that thing from
the commercial. But, after that whole prequel mess, I broke my new rule.
I figured going to see a Star Wars movie on blind faith wasn't worth
the risk.
True
-- the teaser trailer, which came out almost a year before the movie
did, is only 88 seconds long. But, it's one hell of a minute-and-a-half.
It had the best aspects of the original trilogy and at the same time it
also had the seriousness of the best trailers for the video games.
Just as important, there was none of the cheesiness that was a constant
presence throughout, say, Attack of the Clones. Seriously,
you got your ominousness -- a guy in all black with a red lightsaber;
spaceships (although not actually in space -- whatevever) -- the
Millenium Falcon, TIE Fighters and X-Wings; and John Williams' music. It
was like a fan movie with financing. Although there's plenty of
goofiness to go around in the actual film, none of that bs is in the
trailer.
1. The Phantom Menace
The teaser trailer for The Phantom Menace debuted on November 13, 1998 and preceded screenings of Meet Joe Black. Star Wars fans paid full price for tickets to the Brad Pitt romance drama, watched the trailer and left before the movie started. When the second trailer was released with the film WingCommander, fans followed the same pattern. On March 13, 1999, Lucasfilm premiered the trailer on the movie's website and the ensuing traffic overloaded the servers.
The Phantom Menace is not a good movie by any stretch of the imagination. But the first two trailers are mind-blowing. They kinda had to be to trick so many millions of people into looking forward to see what turned out to be such a garbage film.
No Time to Die was initially scheduled to hit theaters in April 2020, which is the strangest part of its release date move, given that so many past James Bond movies have debuted in November. The 25th 007 flick was later landed where it always should've been -- November 2020. But due to the ice-cold reception to the movies that debuted in theaters between late August and early October, No Time was shifted to nearly a year after its original release date.
October 15
The Last Duel
October 22
Dune
The new Dune is a do-over for the 1984 mega-flop starring Sting and a pre-Star Trek Patrick Stewart that cost the studio an estimated $23 million. With Blade Runner 2049's Denis Villanueve behind the wheel, it's a good bet that no matter how much money the remake brings in, it'll at least be a better movie.
In Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the MCU will debut its second movie featuring a mostly minority cast and the first appearance of the real Mandarin, Iron Man's arch-nemesis from the comics. Shang-Chi has all the makings of the best MCU movie in three years. Unfortunately, Awkwafina seems to have a sizable role.
Since Free Guy is about a mediocre dude who doesn't realize that he lives inside of a video game who falls for a woman of action who shows up outta nowhere, it seems to pretty much be a live-action version of The LEGO Movie. But the visuals look great, so let's do this.
