8 Movies to Watch This Summer
The Barbie movie comes out on July 21 | Photo Credit: Warner Bros.
Insidious: The Red Door (July 7)
As Hamberites finish their finals and drop their notebooks for the summer, Sony Pictures is dropping a whole different thing to fear. The long-awaited conclusion to the Insidious horror-movie series that began in 2010 is coming out on July 7. Insidious: The Red Door follows the Lambert family years after their first encounter with evil spirits. With the spirits threatening to haunt the family again, Josh and Dalton Lambert have to venture deep into the Further, a vast and dark dimension filled with malicious spirits, to stop them once and for all.
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One (July 12)
For audiences that love nail-biting car chases and death-defying stunts, the first and second parts of Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning are coming out July 12, 2023 and June 28, 2024, respectively. Dead Reckoning Part One features Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, and Part Two, coming out June 2024, is expected to be his last time playing the role. This latest action-packed installment in the Mission Impossible saga will follow the adventure of Ethan Hunt and the Impossible Mission Force as they attempt to track down and secure a weapon with apocalyptic capabilities before it falls into the wrong hands.
Oppenheimer (July 21)
Theoretical physicist Julius Robert Oppenheimer is credited as the ‘father of the atomic bomb’ due to his contributions to the Manhattan project. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer details Oppenheimer’s journey in leading the development of first nuclear weapons during World War II, and explores its effect on his conscience despite him believing it was a necessary invention.
Barbie (July 21)
The first live action Barbie movie, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, accompanies Barbie and Ken as they are transported from the idyllic ‘Barbie Land’ to the real world. Many big names are appearing in the Barbie movie, with Margot Robbie playing the lead role of Barbie, and Ryan Gosling playing Ken. Actor Simu Liu looks back with GQ Magazine on his motivation for auditioning for a role in the Barbie movie, recalling how one of his agents claimed that it had the best script he had ever read. The Barbie movie comes out on July 21.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (Aug. 4)
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a cornerstone of many childhoods, and its latest movie will be coming out on Aug. 4. First announced in 2020, the movie follows Donatello, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo as they are exposed to human society in New York for the first time. There will be lots of ninja action as the gang fights off a horde of mutants after biting off more than they can chew with a mysterious crime syndicate.
Meg 2: The Trench (Aug. 4)
The second movie in the Meg series joins Jonas Taylor in his expedition into the depths of the Mariana Trench after detecting increased aquatic activity there, where he runs into a malicious mining corporation that forces him into a game of life and death and sharks. The trailer shows that there will be multiple megs this time around, with one of them being the ‘biggest meg’ the crew has ever seen, and features other sea creatures such as a giant octopus monster. Coming to theatres on Aug. 4, Meg 2: The Trench is certainly not recommended for viewers with thalassophobia (the fear of the ocean and other large, deep bodies of water).
Blue Beetle (Aug. 18)
A ‘Top Movies to Watch’ list would be incomplete without a classic superhero movie. DC’s Blue Beetle, previously only seen in comics and cartoons, is getting its own live-action movie adaptation on Aug. 18. The movie will explore Jaime Reyes’s origin story as the Blue Beetle after an alien exoskeleton biotechnology called ‘The Scarab’ chooses him as its symbiotic host, giving him all sorts of superpowers. For all the CGI lovers among us, end the summer with a bang by seeing Blue Beetle in theatres.
White Bird (Aug. 25)
Coming out on Aug. 25, White Bird, a sequel to R. J. Palacio’s hit book Wonder, tells the story of Julian Alban’s Jewish grandmother, also known as Grandmère, hiding in a Nazi-occupied French village during World War II. In order to highlight the scarcity, and importance therefore of kindness, Grandmère tells Julian about a boy that helped her escape the Nazis during her childhood, hoping to change his outlook on kindness after he is expelled on account of bullying August Pullman. Palacio ends summer break with a very important message for the next school year: that although Hamberites will inevitably forget the math they learned this school year, they should never forget the value of kindness.