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In: 2016, Ranked, Trailers

Disney has dominated 2016 but with only The BFG on the horizon in July, it looks like the House of Mouse is willing to let someone play in the box office sandbox this month. There are 25 movies ready to hit theaters in July and here are the trailers for all of them, ranked by anticipation:

1. The Secret Life of Pets (July 8)
The question is will The Secret Life of Pets be Despicable Me big or Minions big at the box office? Our guess is somewhere in the middle but it is more than capable of winning July. According to Box Office Pro, it should run away with the crown but stranger things can happen.

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Aristotle said, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” Aristotle didn’t see Free State of Jones which has some great parts but falls short as a great movie.

For my money, Free State of Jones was the most promising film of the summer. At one point, my expectations were set way too high. Fortunately, before seeing it, the first batch of reviews were mixed and brought down my expectations a little. You can’t blame me for getting excited though. Matthew McConaughey almost always delivers a strong performance (and does again in Free State of Jones).  Writer/director Gary Ross also delivers more hits than misses and when he misses — The Flintstones, Mr. Baseball — no one is too surprised nor are the stakes particularly high. Read More →

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In: BuRStS

Eight movies hit the DVD rack this week. Eye in the Sky highlights this lukewarm batch of releases which also features two documentaries, another Tina Fey disappointment, another generic Bruce Willis flick, another low budget shark horror and another shining example of 2016’s love of the sequel. Here’s MHT’s guide to what to buy, rent, stream or skip for June 28th:Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Despite the all-star cast, Get A Job fails to be funny. It’s kind of important for a comedy to be funny, don’t you think?

Get A Job is about as lazy and predictable as they come. It’s a lot like How to Be Single in the way it is structured. You could say it is to employment what How to Be Single is to dating. The only problem is How to Be Single was actually funny. Get A Job has very few moments that even bring a smile to your face let alone make you laugh.Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Ummmmmm… Twisted?

Admittedly, I’m not familiar with director Nicholas Winding Refn’s earlier works. The Neon Demon was my first foray into his world of art. It’s fair to call it art. One thing The Neon Demon isn’t is a straightforward movie with a cut and dried plot. This is one for the film school crowd. If it were 1996, my Film History & Appreciation class would have had a field day with this one. Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Beautiful visuals combined with some tense scenes. The perfect contrast. Kind of the perfect summer popcorn flick, actually.

Whether or not you enjoy the actual movie, one thing is surely certain about The Shallows: It’s beautiful. Not just the setting — a secret beach somewhere in Mexico — or the star — a bikini-clad Blake Lively — or the camerawork even. Everything about it is beautiful. Even in the most terrifying moments, The Shallows has a natural beauty to it that keeps you watching. Read More →

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In: To See or Not To See

This week features two very summer movies paired with two very un-summer flicks as sequelitis continues to plague the summer box office. The four wide releases might not even add up to Finding Dory‘s second week haul and the two platform releases — including one about a flatulent corpse — won’t help. Here’s MHT’s recommendations of what to see and not see for the weekend of June 24th:Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: Never a big fan of clowns, Clown doesn’t help. Sick, twisted and more serious than expected. Fitting for a movie about a clown.

Can you judge a horror movie by the premise? Considering the way Clown starts — a father stumbles across a clown outfit in a house he is selling on the day his son’s birthday party is nearly ruined because the clown scheduled to perform cancelled — it’s almost expected for the film to be campy and silly.Read More →

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In: 2016, Hot Take

Hot Take: It might be a little preposterous but Finding Dory is also a lot of fun.

Parts of Finding Dory are actually more enjoyable than parts of Finding Nemo. The storyline is secondary here as we’ve already come to know the characters and pretty much know what to expect. The second adventure across the ocean is actually as much fun as the first and, at times, surpasses its predecessor. Read More →