On this week’s episode, El Kaiser and J.D. ruminate on flimsy smartphones and even flimsier superhero movies. And El Kaiser offers advice to a PTJ listener about finding an affordable microphone for podcasting at home.
Links to Things We Mentioned in the Episode:
• Shure Microphones
• Yeti Microphones
• RIP to my Pixel Fold: Dead after four days (Ars Technica)
• How the Marvel Cinematic Universe Swallowed Hollywood (The New Yorker)
It’s not global warming, but the traditional action-movie season felt like it began to heat up way early this year with those DC Comics stalwarts in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice blasting into theaters on March 25. Of course, the arguments about that film’s merits (or lack thereof) were still going on when the next big comic-book flick opened earlier this month: Captain America: Civil War.
Marvel’s Avengers reunited on May 6th and while Civil War got better reviews (and more love from the fandom), it had less than a month to bask at the top of the box office before The Angry Birds Movie took the top spot this past weekend.
So, here we are on the edge of Memorial Day Weekend 2016, the traditional start of the summer science-fiction, superhero, bang-bang-blow-’em-up season of cinema. If you want to create your nerd-flick reminders now, here are some of the films headed to theaters over the next few months.
This weekend: Marvel strikes again.
• X-Men: Apocalypse. This ninth chapter in the overall X-Men film series is already open overseas, and has already gotten mixed reviews. The plot concerns with the ancient mutant Apocalypse waking up and deciding to take over the world. Familiar mutants played by Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and the usual crew join the fray.
• Alice Through the Looking Glass. This surreal adaptation of the Lewis Carroll classic also opens May 27th and stars Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Mia Wasikowska, Anne Hathaway, Sascha Baron Cohen and the voice of the late Alan Rickman.
Moving into June:
• Warcraft. Angry Birds can’t have the video-game-as-a-movie market to itself this summer. The film version of the World of Warcraft MMORPG arrives June 10th.
• Finding Dory. It wouldn’t be summer without a Pixar offering. This animated sequel to the 2003 hit Finding Nemo opens June 17th.
• Independence Day: Resurgence. Will Smith gave this one a miss perhaps to go do Suicide Squad, but Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman and Judd Hirsch are back in a sequel to the original 1996 Independence Day film about aliens invading the Earth. In this sequel, the aliens try again. The film has a separate promotional site at Warof1996.com to get you up to speed if you forgot what happened 20 years ago — or, you know, you weren’t born yet.
After the July 4th weekend, we have:
• Ghostbusters. The 1984 hit gets a 21st century reboot courtesy ofKristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Melissa McCarthy and Leslie Jones all donning the familiar brown jumpsuits. Dan Ackroyd, one of the original crew, was an executive producer this time around. The film opens on July 15th.
• Star Trek Beyond. This third film in the modern-era film series stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana and the gang — and also brings along British actor Idris Elba as the villain. Simon Pegg pulls double-duty playing the part of Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott and co-writing the script. The movie arrives July 22nd and adds to the ongoing celebration of the 50th anniversary if the original series debuting on television in September 1966.
• Suicide Squad. Batman v. Superman was not the only movie in the DC Comics inventory this year and Guardians of the Galaxy proved you could have a lot of fun with minor characters on your comics universe, especially in a late-summer release when expectations are kind of low anyway. The film follows a team of imprisoned supervillains — Harley Quinn, Deadshot, the Joker, Katana, and others — on mission for a clandestine government agency. Jared Leto plays the Joker, Will Smith is Deadshot and Margot Robbie takes on the part of cosplay idol Harley Quinn. That movie rolls in August 5th.
Plenty of other flicks are landing this summer as well, so if you want to get your calendar locked and loaded, check out the iTunes Movie Trailers site or similar one-stop shop for upcoming film previews. And, as we noted last year, it all helps pass the time until this year’s installment in the Star Wars franchise arrives in December.
May is upon us and the summer movies are starting to fly fast and furious. In fact, Fast & Furious 7 has already flown by, having dominated the box office for much of April. But as geeks everywhere know, Avengers: Age of Ultron opened last Friday here in the States and quickly became the second-largest film opening of all time, scoring $191.3 million dollars at the box office. But now that Avengers: Age of Ultron is open, what else is coming up for the film-loving nerd?
How about:
Mad Max: Fury Road (May 15) Thirty years after the last installment, this fourth film in the franchise brings more gritty action in the post-apocalyptic world with Tom Hardy taking the Mel Gibson role of Mad Max Rockatansky and Charlize Theron playing Imperator Furiosa.
Tomorrowland (May 22) George Clooney and young Britt Robertson travel to a place called Tomorrowland, a mysterious place in space and time that’s probably right near Disneyworld.
Jurassic World (June 12) Another fourth-installment arrives, this time in the dinosaur-park saga. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are in with the dinos.
Inside Out (June 19) This Pixar film is set in the mind of a young girl named Riley Anderson and features the voices of Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Bill Hader, Lewis Black and Mindy Kaling as five different emotions helping her through a move from the Midwest to San Francisco.
Terminator: Genesys (July 1) Not counting TV’s The Sarah Conner Chronicles, this is fifth theatrical film in the franchise that started back in 1984. In this edition, Arnold Swarzenengger reprises his original role as the eponymous deathbot while new cast members play alternate timeline versions of Kyle Reese, Sarah Conner, John Conner and Miles Dyson.
Minions (July 10) Those little yellow things from the Despicable Me films have their own picture this summer. Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm and Allison Janney also do voicework.
Mr. Holmes (July 17) Sir Ian McKellen plays an aging and retired Sherlock Holmes recounts his final case. Laura Linney co-stars as his housekeeper.
Ant-Man (July 17) Another Marvel entry, this time with Paul Rudd as the snarky crook given super-strength and shrinking powers.
Pan (July 17) This origin tale of Peter Pan and Captain Hook got some press earlier for the casting of Hugh Jackman as the pirate Blackbeard and not-remotely-Native-American Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily. (Some people have pointed out that the depiction of Native Americans in the original Peter Pan was pretty darn disrespectful to the First Nations to begin with, sort of like that Adam Sandler movie that’s currently shooting and offending everyone around with its sophomoric script and overt racism.)
Pixels (July 24) So, about Adam Sandler… His new summer film is about aliens misinterpreting 1980s arcade games as declarations of war and attack the Earth likewise with holographic pixels in the shape of Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and other retro classics.
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (July 31) Tom Cruise is back doing manly action in this fifth chapter in the franchise, which started its modern incarnation in 1996.
A LEGO Brickumentary (July 31) This documentary, about the wonderful world of Lego bricks, is narrated by Jason Bateman and arrives in simultaneously in theaters and on iTunes.
Fantastic 4 (August 7) Yet another Marvel movie! The studio is really running the summer table with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby creations, and this one is a reboot of the squabbling superhero quartet that had their first modern-era outing in 2005.
The Man From UNCLE (August 14) Henry Cavill, the actor currently playing Superman for Warner Brothers in 2013’s Man of Steel and next year’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, takes a break from the cape. He stars as government agent Napoleon Solo in this big-screen version of the popular 1960s TV spy show.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend (August 28) Last but not least, the sequel to the 15-year-old Chinese martial arts love story lands in IMAX theatres and streams the same day on Netflix, just in time for the end of the summer.
