Most Anticipated Movies Of August 2021!

How is it August already? So to cut to the chase, August’s lineup is not the strongest sure there’s the obvious ones like The Suicide Squad, Coda, Candyman and a few others but it’s not as big as some of the other months have been. With that said the ones that are on the list I am really excited for, so let’s get right to it!

As always let’s start at the bottom and work our way up to the top!

Starting off there’s Mortal Kombat Legends Battle Of The Realms which is a direct sequel to Scorpion’s Revenge which came out last year (and it was quite a strong movie) it even made my best list last year! I’m glad they are doing a series of animated Mortal Kombat movies, I said in my review for Scorpion’s Revenge that I would love to see what they do next and here we are, can’t wait! It releases August 31st on all VOD platforms!

Cryptozoo I saw back in January at the Sundance film festival, this is one of the ones I’ve been waiting to rewatch for quite sometime. I even said in my review that I want to rewatch it mostly due to how strange and bizarre it really is. This is the type of movie that’s almost guarantee to divide audiences. It releases on all VOD Platforms August 20th!

Homeroom is a film I wanted to see at Sundance but due to my schedule being filled up I couldn’t get the chance. Luckily It has a release date, it looks really solid and I’ve heard it was great! It releases August 12th on Hulu!

Respect is finally going to release this month, Jennifer Hudson is going to do a fantastic job in her role as Aretha Franklin! Not much else to say here! It releases August 13th in theaters!

Reminiscence looks really promising between a really great cast (Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson), a really interesting premise and what looks like a pretty neat atmosphere. I truly hope this movie is great! It releases August 20th on HBO Max and in Theaters!

Annette a film that premiered at Cannes film festival and was met with very divided opinions, some people say it was a waste of time but appreciated the filmmaking. While others say it’s quite incredible and a lot of fun to watch. I’m very excited to check this one out!! Annette releases in theaters August 6th and on Amazon Prime Video August 20th!

There’s not a whole lot on The Witcher: Nightmare Of The Wolf, besides the trailer which is quite great! I do love The Witcher Netflix series and it does seem like they are taking a similar step like they did with the Castlevania Netflix series only that this is a movie. Which I absolutely loved the Castlevania Netflix series so here’s to hoping this is just as good!! It releases August 23rd on Netflix!

Demonic is Neil Blomkamp’s next film his last full length film was Chappie in 2015 this time he’s tackling the horror genre which I have always wanted to see how Blomkamp does the horror genre. The trailer itself looks very promising so I’m pretty excited about it! Demonic releases August 20th on all VOD Platforms!

While I was working on my list I had no idea what to do with Don’t Breathe 2, the marketing has been very awful however that’s because the trailers are misleading the film. Some people linked me to a interview with the director of the first movie Fede Alvarez pretty much saying the marketing is very misleading, I’m willing to trust Alvarez in this case plus he’s co-wrote this movie and he is one of the producers. I’m very excited for this one, I’m a huge fan of the first film that was a surprise hit in 2016! Don’t Breathe 2 releases August 13th in theaters!

The Night House looks really solid, I’m glad that it finally got release date! It has a lot of potential from the trailers, Rebecca Hall looks great and the story seems very interesting! It releases August 20th in theaters!

Speaking of movies that took forever to get a release date…Ema I’ve heard is quite fantastic, I’ve been avoiding trailers mostly due to people saying “the less you know about this movie going in the better” the plot sounds interesting so I’m down! Ema releases August 13th in theaters (and I think VOD don’t quote me on that)

No Man Of God I saw back in March for the SXSW film festival, It was one of my favorite films of the festival and I’m quite excited to rewatch it again. It’s definitely one of the best films about Ted Bundy, Luke Kirby and Elijah Wood both do an incredible job, I highly recommend seeing this one when it releases August 27th on all VOD Platforms!

Candyman is one of my most anticipated films of the entire year, I’ve been waiting to watch it since last year. The trailers are fantastic, the cast looks incredible and it does look like they are doing something different which is quite great! Candyman releases August 27th in theaters!

Every passing day I get more and more excited for The Suicide Squad, from the early reactions it sounds fantastic and a whole lot of fun. There’s also this wonder of “which characters are going to survive and which aren’t” it’s truly all a mystery which I really like! The Suicide Squad releases August 6th in theaters and on HBO Max!

Finally there’s Coda which I saw back at Sundance in January, in fact it was the very first film I saw at Sundance…..and it was one of the best films I saw! Coda is still sitting in my Top 10 Best Films Of 2021 list. It’s truly an incredible film that is such a win for representation when it comes to deaf actors, I cried at least 3 times during the film and I absolutely can not wait to watch it again! Please watch this film when it releases! Coda releases August 13th on Apple TV+

And that’s all she wrote! Despite only having 13 films on the list, August still looks like it can be fantastic when it comes to film! What will you be checking out this month? Are there any movies not on the list you are excited for?

Jolt (2021) Movie Review!

A bouncer with an anger-management problem goes on a revenge-fueled rampage after the murder of a friend.

When the trailer for Jolt was released online I wanted to be excited but knew this was going to be a trainwreck, while Jolt is not one of the worst movies to come out of this year so far it’s definitely one of the most forgettable and cliched. Despite dealing with a terrible script Kate Beckinsale gives it her all and does the best she can. My main two problems with this movie are the bunch of moments where Jolt tries to be funny and falls flat on itself and the camera work combined with the editing when it comes to the action scenes. Jolt does what Taken 3 did with the action scenes and editing which is make it as messy as possible so the viewer can’t tell what’s going on whatsoever. Sure every now and then the movie has a couple okay shots but they aren’t anything to write home about, as for the jokes the movie tries to thrown in….good god. Look I get action movies have their jokes and cheesy lines, but none of what was shown in this movie was funny or creative. It was a bunch of “a lot of other action movies have done this, let’s do it ourselves” I genuinely have no idea what they were trying to for here but whatever it was it failed.

Jolt is now available on Amazon Prime Video!

3/10 D-

The Tomorrow War (2021) Movie Review!

A family man is drafted to fight in a future war where the fate of humanity relies on his ability to confront the past.

The Tomorrow War is the end result when you try to make your movie as unnecessarily big as possible, it’s clear they were trying to go all out with this movie a lot of it didn’t stick. I’ll give credit where credit is due the action scenes were entertaining and I thought some of the monsters were pretty neat especially some of the designs. Despite Chris Pratt’s performance being almost identical to a lot of other movies in his career he wasn’t terrible, what ultimately hurts this movie is the very generic plot combined with the running time. The movie is 2 hours and 20 minutes and it’s unfortunately one of those movies where you feel the running time going by painfully slow, it doesn’t help that the characters aren’t interesting at the slightest and the writing doesn’t really do much for the movie at all. It’s just kind of there to tell a very generic story and to move it along to the finish line, it’s a shame because The Tomorrow War definitely had potential but it suffers from either lazy or safe decisions that hold it back from being anything good. Unless you are a die hard Chris Pratt fan I don’t recommend this one, it’s not one of the worst of the year (far from it) but it is one of the most forgettable.

The Tomorrow War is now available on Amazon Prime Video!

5/10 C

P!nk: All I Know So Far (2021) Movie Review!

A behind-the-scenes look at P!NK as she balances family and life on the road, leading up to her first Wembley Stadium performance on 2019’s “Beautiful Trauma” world tour

This is sort of hard to review but I’ll try my best. P!nk All I Know So Far focuses on P!nk and her relationship with her daughter which is touching and absolutely beautiful, it’s one of those documentaries where you get to see more into a celebrity’s life that feels raw and meaningful. A lot of the film is behind the scenes and home videos which again keeps it more interesting, P!nk really shows the audience how she keeps a balance between family and her career as it can be hard to balance the two. It’s a very wholesome documentary, it’s almost like those old family videos your family made when you were younger. It does surprise me how Amazon did very little advertising for this documentary because it is quite interesting. As far as filmmaking there really isn’t anything mind blowing but I feel in this case it really doesn’t have to be. If your a fan of P!nk you are most definitely going to love this documentary!

P!nk: All I know So Far is now available on Amazon Prime Video!

7/10 B

The Boy From Medellin (2021) Movie Review.!

Colombian reggaeton singer J Balvin prepares for his 2019 homecoming concert amid intense political turmoil, in Matthew Heineman’s latest documentary.

I was very unfamiliar who J Balvin is , I knew of him and know some of his songs but that’s about it. I feel like the best bits in this movie are when it tackles Balvin’s depression and anxiety it starts to feel somewhat relatable…it’s too bad the rest of the documentary couldn’t do that, look I’m glad J Balvin eventually did use his platform to speak about what was going on in Colombia the problem is for way too long he felt like he “was obligated” to comment and use his platform. Which I get being scared about commenting on politics (look what happened to The Chicks previously known as The Dixie Chicks) but in this case I would argue is a little different, his fans were actually the ones who wanted him to say something. It’s very hard to actually review this movie to be quite honest because nobody really knows what was in J Balvin’s mind, as far as how well made it is? It’s nothing really special but nothing bad either. It’s something that I really don’t think I’m ever going to watch again. If your a fan of J Balvin you will probably like this one.

The Boy From Medellin is now available on Amazon Prime Video!

6/10 C+

Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse (2021) Movie Review!

John Clark, a Navy SEAL, goes on a path to avenge his wife’s murder only to find himself inside of a larger conspiracy.

I really don’t have much to comment on about Without Remorse so I’ll just go over a little bit of it. Without Remorse is the latest Tom Clancy movie, I’m not a huge fan of the series like many other people are. But I do always look forward to watching them due to the action and the fun factor, Without Remorse does have some fun scenes with Michael B. Jordan doing a pretty solid job in the leading role as well as a surprisingly great score. Everything else just falls really flat, the writing is very below average with not a whole lot going on, the movie itself feels like the most typical action movie out there. It plays everything way too incredibly safe to the point where it just starts being very noticeable, which is a shame because I do think there is a very fun movie somewhere buried in this movie…it’s just refusing to happen. It’s definitely not a bad movie, I’m sure some fans of the Tom Clancy movies will love it I just prefer some of the other movies!

Without Remorse is now available on Amazon Prime Video!

5/10 C

Most Anticipated Movies Of May 2021!

April pretty much came and went! While April didn’t have the largest number of releases, May is when things get really busy. With more theaters opening up, release dates getting more common and being reveled, plus very few delays now. May is jam packed with releases I had to narrow it down to 18, so throughout the month of May definitely expect more and more reviews. Anyway here’s my most anticipated for May!

In The Earth I saw back in January, last week it got it’s theater release now it’s getting it’s VOD release which is May 7th highly recommend checking it out!

Street Gang: How We Got To Sesame Street is another film I saw at Sundance back in January and it’s also getting a VOD release May 7th. If you want a really good history on Sesame Street this is definitely something worth checking out. Or if you just want the nostalgia factor you will get it here.

Sound Of Violence I saw back in March from the SXSW festival, a very different slasher movie that’s a whole lot of fun. It releases on VOD May 21st.

The last one of the movies on the list I’ve already seen is The Killing Of Two Lovers which I saw back in December of last year. It’s a fantastic movie that highly recommend, it releases on May 14th on VOD and Theaters!

Let’s skim a few of these movies

Together Together releases May 11th on VOD

Pink All I Know So Far releases May 21st on Amazon Prime Video

Plan B releases May 28th on Hulu

Blast Beat releases May 21st on VOD

New Order releases May 21st in Theaters

Four Good Days releases May 21st on VOD

Cruella surprisingly looks very promising, it has a lot of talent involved which gives me hope that it could actually turn out to be a very solid movie! It releases May 28th on Disney+

Those Who Wish Me Dead is the next movie in the Warner Bros and HBO Max deal, it looks like a solid movie that I truly hope is pretty good! Releases May 14th on HBO Max.

Oxygen is directed by Alexandre Aje who previously did Crawl, this one seems pretty decent!! It releases May 12th on Netflix!

Woman In The Window was stuck in limbo for quite awhile until it finally got it’s release date May 14th on Netflix, it looks really promising!

Army Of The Dead is a movie that has been in talks ever since Zack Snyder’s Dawn Of The Dead Released! Now it’s finally coming out and it seems like a ton of fun!!! It’s out on Netflix May 21st

Finally there’s the 3 theater releases I’m really excited for!

Profile is said to be a lot like Searching, it was stuck in release date limbo for quite awhile (since 2018) until very recently, it’s out in theaters on May 14th! The trailer looks really interesting as well, definitely one of my most anticipated of the year!

Spiral: The Book Of Saw I’ve been excited for ever since the first trailer was shown last year, I’m a huge fan of the Saw franchise and this one looks just as interesting as some of the other movies. It releases May 14th in theaters.

Finally there’s A Quiet Place Part II a movie that I’ve been excited for awhile now, I absolutely loved the first film and this one looks just as interesting! This has potential to be another fantastic horror movie sequel!!

And that’s it! Quite a lot to look forward to!!!

Coming 2 America (2021) Movie Review!

The African monarch Akeem learns he has a long-lost son in the United States and must return to America to meet this unexpected heir and build a relationship with his son.

Coming 2 America is a sequel to the 1988 film Coming to America…a sequel that just sort of came out of nowhere. Coming 2 America is one of those sequels where it definitely tries it’s hardest to be like the first film but doesn’t quite make it. There is a lot to like however, Eddie Murphy seems like he had a ton of fun and his performance shows that as well, I said in my Dolemite is My Name review that I love seeing Eddie Murphy return and that applies here as well. All of the rest of the cast were quite great as well Arsenio Hall, Jermaine Fowler, Tracey Morgan, Leslie Jones and many others did a solid job. The production design I thought was very solid as well, it added a lot of detail and gave a lot of energy. What does hold Coming 2 America back however is the writing which isn’t exactly that strong, as I said earlier the movie tries very hard to be exactly like the first movie but it doesn’t quite make it. It’s a shame to because Craig Brewer (who previously directed Dolemite is My Name) is in the directors chair and I feel there could have been so much potential. With that said the movie isn’t bad, it’s just the writing really does not do too much for the film and it’s overall forgettable.

5/10 C

Barb And Star Go To Vista Del Mar and The Map Of Tiny Perfect Things (2021) Movie Reviews

Lifelong friends Barb and Star embark on the adventure of a lifetime when they decide to leave their small Midwestern town for the first time – ever.

I will tell you one thing I was NOT expecting, that I would end up liking Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar. The film was supposed to come out in theaters but like some other movies got switched to a premium VOD release, I knew absolutely nothing about this movie going into it. The film itself has this personality to it that I really like, it’s very bright and colorful with some great performances from Annie Mumolo, Kristen Wiig and Jamie Dornan, all three of which have quite a great chemistry with one another. However the chemistry between Mumolo and Wiig is quite hilarious, the jokes the two share are quite great and got a ton of laughs out of me. Something not many films have been doing as of late so I give huge props to that. The film is very silly but charming at the same time, which is what truly helps the film in the long run. It has a silly plot with very ridiculous villains but the film is aware of that, it makes jokes of pretty much any scene happening in the movie which is truly great. The writing gives the audience some cleverly written jokes which is again refreshing to see, but overall Barb And Star Go To Vista Del Mar is a huge blast of a movie, I highly recommend giving this one a watch!!

7/10 B

Two teens who live the same day repeatedly, enabling them to create the titular map.

Well this was a surprise, Ian Samuels who previously did Sierra Burgess is a big loser shows a vast improvement with The Map Of Tiny Perfect Things. Remember back in my Palm Springs review where I said that Palm Springs took the whole Groundhog Day concept and changed it up to make it it’s own? Well the same applies here with The Map Of Tiny Perfect Things, although it may not be as good as Palm Springs. The movie still has a ton of charm and is very well written, Kathryn Newton and Kyle Allen have wonderful chemistry with one another and both give really solid performances. As I said before the Groundhog Day concept feels very fresh here, it’s done in a way that seems familiar yet manages to be new at the same time. The writing also feels raw at times especially when we get a ton of character moments, that’s where the movie shines the most. When it focuses on the characters and talks about their backgrounds and what they are thinking in the situation in question. Overall The Map Of Tiny Perfect Things is a well made movie that I recommend giving a watch!

7/10 B

Earwig And The Witch and Bliss (2021) Movie Reviews!

It follows an orphan girl, Earwig, who is adopted by a witch and comes home to a spooky house filled with mystery and magic.

I know there was a lot of criticism about Earwig and the Witch when the trailer first came out online, seeing that was 3D animated rather than Studio Ghibli’s traditional drawn animation was very surprising and felt out of the blue. Plus the movie itself did not look anywhere near as good as the other films, despite this I wanted to give it a try and see that maybe it could be decent….it wasn’t. The main issue here is hardly anything ever happens, the writing just does not have a whole lot of material. It’s the type of movie where someone clearly had a somewhat interesting idea but then decided to water it down quite a bit. It feels like a movie that needed more time to be worked on, the animation is not that great either. While it’s not as bad as some people said it was it’s definitely not inspiring at all. With a lot of Studio Ghibli’s films you feel magic in the film, through the characters and animation….you just don’t get that here at all, it feels like someone who spent like 15 minutes of watching a Studio Ghibli film idea of what a Studio Ghibli film is like. I completely understand they were trying to go for something different with this movie, but it heavily backfired pretty badly and it’s a shame too. There’s a few scenes here and there that work, I do find some of the film charming as well, but it’s really not enough to save this movie from being a disappointment. It’s a movie with absolutely no substance.

3/10 D-

A mind-bending love story following Greg who, after recently being divorced and then fired, meets the mysterious Isabel, a woman living on the streets and convinced that the polluted, broken world around them is a computer simulation.

I’m going to be completely honest here….I’m not exactly sure what Bliss was supposed to be. What I do know is this was a dreadful start for Amazon Prime Video’s original movies for this year. It’s absolutely no wonder this had nonexistent advertising, the only reason why I found out about this movie is because I occasionally check the “list of Amazon Prime Video Original Movies” Wikipedia page and saw it listed. Anyway the movie itself is dreadful, a lot of the movie feels like a bunch of different ideas from other movies blended into one gigantic mess. Owen Wilson feels completely out of place here, I’m all for Owen Wilson trying different things (heck I actually really liked No Escape) but this just does not work at all. Salma Hayek definitely tries her best but it’s just not enough to save this movie, this is most definitely one of her weaker roles. The script feels very empty with no direction and very little idea of what it wants to truly be, there isn’t any passion or anything showing that anyone cared about this movie at all. The best compliment I can give it is maybe some of the filming is okay but even then it’s not that great. Most of all Bliss just felt like release date fodder, my guess was this movie was just laying around somewhere and they had to release it eventually. Overall really not much else to be said here, it’s a terrible movie that I recommend skipping.

1/10 F