Breaking In

Release date: May 11
Cast: Gabrielle Union, Seth Carr, Ajiona Alexus, Christa Miller
Directed by: James McTeigue (V for Vendetta)
Why we're excited: Gabrielle Union's Straw Dogs? Gabrielle Union's Panic Room? Gabrielle Union's The Strangers? We're not sure which home invasion movie to which Breaking In is comparable, but we do know Gabrielle Union stars as a single mom who relocates to a Malibu mansion and finds herself the target of four willing-to-kill criminals. And she's going to kick their asses.
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Life of the Party

Release date: May 11
Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Gillian Jacobs, Maya Rudolph, Julie Bowen
Directed by: Ben Falcone (Tammy)
Why we're excited: Inspired by Rodney Dangerfield's Back to School, Life of the Party stars McCarthy as a newly divorced mom who reinvents herself by heading back to college. Which would be fine, if her daughter wasn't attending the same university at the same time. Cue: hell.
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Deadpool 2

Release date: May 18
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller
Directed by: David Leitch (Atomic Blonde)
Why we're excited: Even in our current comic book movie moment, an ultraviolent meta-comedy based around a cult X-Men character with a foul-mouth wasn't anyone's idea of a sure thing. The sequel looks like a safer bet: The red jumpsuit-ed hero (Reynolds) is back and he's bringing fighting Josh Brolin's villainous Cable with a whole X-Force of new sidekicks, including Atlanta's Zazie Beetz as Domino and Catastrophe's Rob Delaney as a seemingly normal guy named Peter. Expect the Deadpool you know (and maybe love?), but super-sized. 
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First Reformed

Release date: May 18
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, Cedric the Entertainer
Directed by: Paul Schrader (Auto Focus)
Why we're excited: Paul Schrader is perhaps best known as screenwriter of Martin Scorsese classics like Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, but he's also had an equally compelling career as a director of his own hard-edged, morally complex films like Hardcore and Affliction. His latest, First Reformed, finds Ethan Hawke playing a man of the cloth picking up the pieces of his life following the death of his son. With a creepy trailer, strong reviews, and A24 distributing, this will be a must-see for anyone with a FilmStruck subscription. 
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Book Club

Release date: May 18
Cast: Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Mary Steenburgen
Directed by: Bill Holderman (A Walk in the Woods)
Why we're excited: Summer movies can't be all about comic book adaptations, sci-fi sequels, and Tom Cruise hurling his body out of moving vehicles. There's gotta be time for a movie like Book Club, which finds a group of aging friends getting their respective grooves back after they all decide to read 50 Shades of Grey together. While the premise sounds like an SNL sketch from 2012, the trailer doesn't dwell on E.L. James's bestseller and instead looks like How to Be Single for an older generation less familiar with Tinder. Think of it as the white wine spritzer of blockbuster season.
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Solo: A Star Wars Story

Release date: May 25
Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover
Directed by: Ron Howard (Willow)
Why we're excited: The latest Star Wars prequel recounts the Corellian smuggler's early days, from his acquisition of the Millennium Falcon to his partnership with Chewbacca to his time running with Lando Calrissian (Glover). Other than that, we have no idea where the movie will go, except that Howard, who took over for original directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, is prioritizing a balance of laughs and adventure.
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Action Point

Release date: June 1
Cast: Johnny Knoxville, Chris Pontius, Aidan Whytock, Camilla Wolfson
Directed by: Tim Kirkby (Brockmire)
Why we're excited: Johnny Knoxville is 47 years old, but the Jackass and Dirty Grandpa star is still finding innovative new ways to get hit in the nuts. This comedy based on the true story of a dangerous New Jersey theme park looks like it combines the free-wheeling, beer-drinking comedic mayhem of '80s joke-fests like Caddyshack with the actual stunt-filled chaos of Knoxville's prior work. It sounds risky, but if anyone can pull it off it's these guys.
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American Animals

Release date: June 1
Cast: Evan Peters, Barry Keoghan, Blake Jenner, Jared Abrahamson
Directed by: Bart Layton (The Imposter)
Why we're excited: This ripped-from-the-headlines heist film mixes narrative storytelling with documentary-style interviews of the actual young men who plotted to steal valuable rare books from the special collection of a Kentucky university's library. If you like dumb criminal stories told with pizazz, you'll flip for this one, which features another tricky performance from Dunkirk's mercurial break-out star Keoghan.
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Upgrade

Release date: June 1
Cast: Logan Marshall-Green, Betty Gabriel, Harrison Gilbertson, Benedict Hardie
Directed by: Leigh Whannell (Insidious: Chapter 3)
Why we're excited: Audiences at SXSW flipped for this cheeky-looking sci-fi thriller about an average guy (Marshall-Green) who gets a chip implanted in his spine and becomes a hi-tech killing machine. Whannell got his start in Hollywood as the writer behind the brutal Saw franchise and he's teamed up with low-budget hitmakers Blumhouse for this one, but Upgrade looks more like an '80s action throwback than a scare-fest. Imagine a crazy article you'd read in Wired spliced with the DNA of the original Terminator.
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Ocean's 8

Release date: June 8
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Rihanna, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson
Directed by: Gary Ross (Seabiscuit)
Why we're excited: It's an Ocean's movie! This female-led spinoff of director Steven Soderbergh's winningly light-weight caper trilogy boats a killer cast of movie stars making jokes, wearing cool outfits, and stealing expensive shit. Specifically, the team of thieves is led by Bullock's Debbie Ocean, the sister of Clooney's lead from the original, and she's targeting the glamorous Met Gala in New York. Even with Ross replacing Soderbergh behind the camera, we're pretty confident this one will be an ideal warm weather diversion. Rihanna is in it! Cate Blanchett is in Brad Pitt mode! It's an Ocean's movie!
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Hereditary

Release date: June 8
Cast: Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, Gabriel Byrne
Directed by: Ari Aster
Why we're excited: This wildly intense twist on the haunted house film scared the hell out of us at Sundance, but we can't wait to sit through it again. Collette plays a woman left reeling following the death of her mysterious, difficult mother, and soon her family is being haunted by a seemingly demonic force that shouldn't be trifled with. To reveal more about the plot would be a sin. What's important to know is Aster has the type of confident, controlled take on the horror genre that will get your skin crawling
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Hotel Artemis

Release date: June 8
Cast: Jodie Foster, Sterling K. Brown, Sofia Boutella, Jeff Goldblum, Brian Tyree Henry, Zachary Quinto, Charlie Day
Directed by: Drew Pearce (Iron Man 3)
Why we're excited: This is the directorial debut of proven blockbuster screenwriter Pearce, who had a hand in penning clever, spectacle-filled hits like Iron Man 3 and Mission: Impossible -- Rogue Nation. The story centers around a secret, members-only hospital in a dystopian future that caters only to criminals, which sounds like a possibly delightful twist on John Wick's joyfully convoluted assassin hotel idea. The trailer has a Smokin' Aces vibe that makes us a little nervous, but the cast list is impressive enough that will sit through a few eye-roll-ey quips to get to the good stuff.
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Incredibles 2

Release date: June 15
Cast: Holly Hunter, Craig T. Nelson, Sarah Vowell, Samuel L. Jackson
Directed by: Brad Bird (The Incredibles)
Why we're excited: It's been over a decade since Pixar first blew audiences away with Brad Bird's self-consciously retro comic book riff on mixing family life with crime-fighting. In that time, the superhero genre has exploded and the Marvel Cinematic Universe has reshaped the movie business, but don't expect Bird, who returns from the world of live-action filmmaking to write and direct, to change up his tactics too much. This should be another quippy, rollicking blast from the past.
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Tag

Release date: June 15
Cast: Ed Helms, Jeremy Renner, Hannibal Buress, Jake Johnson, Jon Hamm
Directed by: Jeff Tomsic (The Detour)
Why we're excited: As the trailer points out, this tale of an adult friend group obsessed with playing an elaborate game of tag is based on a true story, which should help ground what looks like a pretty goofy, broad studio comedy. The prospect of watching Jeremy Renner crash through windows is less appealing than getting the chance to enjoy comedians like Johnson and Buress, along with supporting cast members like Rashida Jones and Isla Fisher, stretch their legs a bit. If they can balance the physical hijinks with some decent jokes, this might be a fun summer surprise.
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Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Release date: June 22
Cast: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, B.D. Wong, James Cromwell, Jeff Goldblum
Directed by: J.A. Bayona (A Monster Calls)
Why we're excited: Dinosaurs, mostly. At this point, the appeal of the Jurassic Park franchise is self-explanatory: There's nothing quite like sitting in a giant air-conditioned theater and watching enormous, genetically-engineered prehistoric creatures do damage on a massive scale. Chris Pratt's first trip to raptor island was a box office smash that racked up over $1.5 billion across the globe, so a sequel was inevitable. Director Colin Trevorrow is out of the director's chair this time -- Bayona will attempt to fill those Spielberg-ian shoes -- but Trevorrow and his writing partner Derek Connolly still penned the script, which finds Pratt and Howard returning to the island to execute a dino-rescue mission.
(Watch the trailer)

Under the Silver Lake

Release date: June 22
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Riley Keough, Topher Grace, Laura-Leigh
Directed by: David Robert Mitchell (It Follows)
Why we're excited: Mitchell's It Follows was a genuine indie hit with carefully composed, mood-soaked style to spare. Another horror-tinged follow-up would be highly anticipated, but this sunny California noir starring Garfield as a slacker searching for his beautiful (and missing) neighbor looks like it has a touch of Inherent Vice to it. That delicate mix of cryptic clues, bong hits, and swimming pools should feel mighty refreshing in the summer heat.
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Damsel

Release date: June 22
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Mia Wasikowska, Robert Forster, David Zellner
Directed by: David and Nathan Zellner (Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter)
Why we're excited: This oddball Western puzzled audiences and critics at Sundance with its absurd comic vignettes, curious plot twists, and bursts of bloody frontier violence. But if you can get on its wavelength, there's quite a bit of fun to be he had, particularly with the fiercely committed lead performances from Pattinson and Wasikowska, who plays a woman pursued by multiple men in a twisted, dirt-filled take on There's Something About Mary. Like the Coen Brothers, the Zellner's clearly take pleasure in throwing you off their trail.

Sicario: Day of the Soldado

Release date: June 29
Cast: Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin, Isabela Moner, Catherine Keener
Directed by: Stefano Sollima (Suburra)
Why we're excited: Did you see the first Sicario? Even if director Denis Villeneuve and star Emily Blunt aren't returning for the sequel -- and, yes, the trailers have a pulpier, direct-to-DVD vibe -- we're still willing to head south of the border with Del Toro and Brolin for the next chapter in this drug war saga. Oscar-nominated screenwriter Taylor Sheridan (Hell or High Water) again wrote the script, which finds Brolin and Del Toro teaming up to take on cartels smuggling terrorists into America. It doesn't exactly look subtle, but if it can skillfully mimic the dread-soaked tension of the original, we're there.
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Leave No Trace

Release date: June 29
Cast: Ben Foster, Thomasin McKenzie
Directed by: Debra Granik (Winter's Bone)
Why we're excited: This survivalist story of a father (Foster) and a daughter (McKenzie) living off the land near Portland, Oregon was one of the best movies we saw at Sundance this year. Told with an eye for natural beauty and a keen understanding of human behavior, Granik's first narrative feature since her Oscar-nominated Ozarks thriller Winter's Bone is a more intimate, less grisly affair but it still packs an emotional wallop. Bring tissues. 
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The First Purge

Release date: July 4
Cast: Y'Lan Noel as William, Lex Scott Davis, Joivan Wade, Lauren Vélez, Marisa Tomei
Directed by: Gerard McMurray (Burning Sands)
Why we're excited: Your favorite sociology experiment is back. No recent high-profile horror franchise has poked and prodded at America's economic anxieties with the same curiosity and sadism as The Purge series, which takes place in a dystopia where all crime is legal for one night a year. For the fourth entry in the series, we're getting a prequel that will attempt to explain the origins of the New Founding Fathers of America and their endlessly cruel plan to better the world through chaos and violence.
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Ant-Man and the Wasp

Release date: July 6
Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Michael Peña
Directed by: Peyton Reed (Ant-Man)
Why we're excited: After the shocking twists and cosmic girth of Avengers: Infinity War, the Marvel Cinematic Universe could use a breather. Ant-Man and the Wasp, the sequel to 2015's tiny super-hero hit, should be a playful, comparably low-stakes joyride that's more concerned with making you laugh than working your tear ducts. Comic fans are excited that the plot will find Rudd's thief-turned-crimefighter Scott Lang exploring the Quantum Realm, but we're mostly just psyched to see Michael Peña crack jokes again.
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Sorry to Bother You

Release date: July 6
Cast: Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Danny Glover, Armie Hammer
Directed by: Boots Riley
Why we're excited: Telemarketing might not be the most thrilling subject matter, but, with Atlanta's Lakeith Stanfield and Thor: Ragnarok's Tessa Thompson in the lead roles, this should be more surreal than your standard call from a solicitor. Stanfield plays Cassius "Cash" Green, an aimless young man who finds he has a gift for making sales over the phone when he uses his "white voice," which in the movie is provided by David Cross. Things only get stranger from there in this cutting satire from musician-turned-filmmaker Boots Riley.
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Eighth Grade

Release date: July 13
Cast: Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton, Emily Robinson
Directed by: Bo Burnham
Why we're excited: Comedian Bo Burnham is best known for his gleefully unhinged viral songs like "My Whole Family Thinks I'm Gay" and his absurdist stand-up specials, but that's likely to change with Eighth Grade, his directorial debut that played at Sundance earlier this year. In choosing to follow the story of Kayla (Fisher), a quiet and kind-hearted teenager just trying to fit in, Burnham constructs a Welcome to the Dollhouse-like chronicle of youth in the age of Snapchat. He brings an anthropological eye to each painfully awkward encounter -- and even finds some moments of sweetness in the middle of all the angst. 
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Skyscraper

Release date: July 13
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Neve Campbell, Chin Han, Roland Møller, Pablo Schreiber
Directed by: Rawson Marshall Thurber (Central Intelligence)
Why we're excited: This year's Rampage, which found Johnson battling enormous animals and flying a helicopter around, might have been a dud, but we still have high hopes for the other movie where he performs insane physical feats in a disaster scenario. When it comes to the Rock, we're optimists! Especially when he's playing a former FBI Hostage Rescue Team Leader protecting a giant futuristic building under siege by terrorists. It's Die Hard with the Rock -- where do we line up?
(Watch the trailer)

The Equalizer 2

Release date: July 20
Cast: Denzel Washington, Melissa Leo, Ashton Sanders, Pedro Pascal
Directed by: Antoine Fuqua (Training Day)
Why we're excited: Denzel Washington is back in skull-cracking, power-tool wielding mode for this sequel to his violent 2014 hit, which was an adaptation of the '80s TV series of the same name. Robert McCall (Washington) is a retired CIA black ops specialist who just wants to live a quiet life as a hardware store employee, but -- who could have guessed it? -- his old life keeps coming back to haunt him. This time he's out for revenge, so expect more Bourne-like mayhem from the 63-year-old star.
(Watch the trailer)

Mission: Impossible -- Fallout

Release date: July 27
Cast: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Henry Cavill, Alec Baldwin
Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie (Jack Reacher)
Why we're excited: The Mission: Impossible series is Hollywood's most versatile franchise, a multi-million-dollar playpen where star Tom Cruise can plan elaborate stunts and work with a rotating cast of marquee filmmakers tuned into his adrenaline-junkie frequency. The hilariously titled Fallout, which again finds Crusie's Ethan Hunt on the run, features the first returning director in the history of the series, with McQuarrie coming back for more after 2015's Rogue Nation, but that shouldn't be cause for concern. These are trained professionals.
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Christopher Robin

Release date: August 3
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Hayley Atwell, Jim Cummings, Chris O'Dowd
Directed by: Marc Forster (World War Z)
Why we're excited: Disney has the live-action adaptation thing down to a science, but they're also willing to take the occasional creative risk. This Hook-like reimagining of Winnie the Pooh told from the perspective of an older Christopher Robin (McGregor) boasts a screenplay that was originally written by art house favorite Alex Ross Perry, director of the brutally funny Listen Up Phillip. Will that give the Hundred Acre Wood a more barbed, acerbic tone? We'll have to wait and see, but if Tigger is revealed to be a frustrated novelist, you'll know why.
(Watch the trailer)

The Meg

Release date: August 10
Cast: Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Ruby Rose
Directed by: Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure)
Why we're excited: Jason Statham battles a shark! Last summer had 47 Meters Down, where Mandy Moore fought a shark, and the summer before had The Shallows, where Blake Lively fought a shark, so it only makes sense that the Artist Formerly Known as The Transporter would get a shot at duking it out with a giant fish. Judging from the size of the animal he's facing, he's probably going to need a bigger boat. 
(Watch the trailer)

BlacKkKlansman

Release date: August 10
Cast: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, Topher Grace
Directed by: Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing)
Why we're excited: A new Spike Lee movie is always worth checking out, but this time he's working with Get Out producers Jordan Peele and Jason Blum on a project that sounds guaranteed to push some buttons. BlacKkKlansman is an adaptation of the memoir of Ron Stallworth, an African-American detective in Colorado Springs who infiltrates the Klu Klux Klan in the late 1970s, and it features John David Washington, the son of Lee's frequent collaborator Denzel Washington, in the lead role. This should be a good one.

Crazy Rich Asians

Release date: August 17
Cast: Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Gemma Chan, Lisa Lu
Directed by: Jon M. Chu (Now You See Me 2)
Why we're excited: Based on Kevin Kwan's bestselling novel, this romantic comedy follows an American-born Chinese professor (Wu) who travels to Singapore for a wedding and gets caught up in the drama of her boyfriend's ridiculously wealthy family. The trailer has a lavish, celebratory vibe and the early word is that the movie is every bit the crowd-pleaser it looks like. After a summer of capes and dinosaurs, Crazy Rich Asians will be a welcome change of pace.
(Watch the trailer)

Slender Man

Release date: August 24
Cast: Jaz Sinclair, Joey King, Julia Goldani Telles, Annalise Basso
Directed by: Sylvain White (The Losers)
Why we're excited: The internet-born story of Slender Man is ripe for horror movie fodder, if not controversial (the myth recently inspired two young girls to attempt murder). It's unclear how the filmmakers behind this movie will drop Slendy onto the unsuspecting victims, but however it happens, it will 100% give you nightmares.
(Watch the trailer)

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