Issue 6 / Get Reel: July's Must-Watch Movies

by Matthew Currie

Get Reel: July’s Must-Watch Movies

Jul 14, 2015

This month’s silver screen and DVD picks include the newest Marvel superhero, Ben Kingsley turning into Ryan Reynolds and a thoroughly shirtless Channing Tatum.

IN THEATRES

Magic Mike XXL (Now playing, Warner Brothers)

Image Courtesy Warner Brothers/Collider

The boys are back . . . and buffer than ever. After the surprise success of 2012’s Magic Mike, the titular stripper (Channing Tatum) and his equally chiseled co-workers (Joe Manganiello, Matt Bomer, Adam Rodriguez) — presumably realizing that they’re all pushing 40 and maintaining an eight-pack isn’t so easy anymore — head out on a farewell tour from Tampa to Myrtle Beach. Original director Steven Soderbergh is out, and with him any sense of dramatic restraint, as the guys unabashedly strip, dance and grind their way to exotic-dancer immortality.

Self/less (July 10, Focus Features)

Image Courtesy Focus Features/wvgazette.com

A second chance — it’s something all of us have longed for. The opportunity to go back and relive your youth with the benefit of a lifetime’s worth of hard-won wisdom. But that’s just the chance that dying billionaire Damian (Ben Kingsley) gets when a mysterious scientist (Matthew Goode) offers to transplant his consciousness into a young, buff, handsome new body (Ryan Reynolds). Damian agrees, but, as foreshadowed by the character’s very name, it winds up being a deal with the devil. Indeed, as much fun as he’s having in what can only be described as a Ryan Reynolds-like body, gradually memories that aren’t his own begin seeping into his mind, leading him to seek out the former identity of his “vessel” and the horrifying truth behind his newfound immortality.

Ant-Man (July 17, Marvel/Disney)

Image Courtesy Marvel/stitchkingdom.com

Following the success of last summer’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel ventures out into even weirder territory with this goofy comic book adaptation. Ant-Man stars Paul Rudd as small-time thief Scott Lang, who is enlisted by brilliant scientist Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) to snatch and protect a highly advanced suit of armour that shrinks the wearer down to the size of an ant and gives him the eight-times-its-body-weight strength of an ant from the clutches of a dastardly colleague (House of Cards’ Corey Stoll) with a much-deadlier insect suit of his own. Thus, Ant-Man is born. We can’t guarantee a sequel, but we do know you’ll be seeing this pint-sized hero again in the third Captain America movie, Captain America: Civil War.

Trainwreck (July 17, Universal)

Image Courtesy Marvel/stitchkingdom.com

Having already set the comedy world abuzz with her edgy standup and groundbreaking Comedy Central sketch show, Amy Schumer makes the jump to the silver screen with this raunchy, R-rated laugher from Knocked Up director Judd Apatow. Schumer stars as a young boozehound reporter who specializes in one-night stands . . . that is, until she meets a sports doctor (SNL alum Bill Hader) who compels her to defy every impulse she's ever felt and head out on a second date.

On DVD

The Road Within (July 7, Well Go USA)

Image Courtesy Well Go USA/wesonerdy.com

When his mother dies, Vincent (Misfits’ Robert Sheehan), a young man with Tourette’s syndrome, is sent to a mental health facility. There, he meets up with two equally troubled youngsters — Marie (Zoë Kravitz), who has anorexia, and Alex (Dev Patel), who has obsessive-compulsive disorder. But it’s not long before all three bust out and head on the lam for a life-changing three-day journey that will help them come to terms with their pain and their troubled selves.

It Follows (July 14, Mongrel Media)

Image Courtesy Mongrel Media

One of the most talked-about horror movies of the year comes to DVD. A stylish, ever-so-slightly tongue-in-cheek throwback to the John Carpenter slashers of the late-’70s and ’80s, this psychological horror flick follows 19-year-old Jay (breakout star Maika Monroe), who has a one-night-stand with a seemingly nice boy, only to find out that doing the deed has saddled her with his curse — a shape-shifting specter that stalks her wherever she goes. As Jay and her friends come to learn, there’s no running from this particular beast — you can only hope to pass it on and hope that the person you did the deed with has the good sense to have sex with someone else before the creature eats them up and comes back for you.

Ex Machina (July 14, Mongrel Media)

Image Courtesy Mongrel Media

After winning a raffle at work, computer programmer Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) finds himself whisked away to the home of eccentric CEO Nathan (Oscar Isaac). Once there, he’s made privy to a remarkable secret — his boss has invented what could be the world’s first android, Ava (Alicia Vikander). As it happens, Nathan wants Caleb to perform a Turing test to judge whether Ava is just a really advanced computer or a genuine artificial intelligence. What ensues is a three-way game of cat and mouse that will have bone-chilling consequences — for the three people in this secluded compound and for humankind as a whole.

Poldark (July 7, PBS)

Image Courtesy ITV/youtube.com

This eight-part British TV adaptation of Winston Graham’s celebrated historical fiction novels stars Hobbit hunk Aidan Turner as the titular character, an 18^th-century soldier who returns home to Cornwall following the American Revolution. It’s not exactly a warm welcome. His father has died, his fortune is gone and his betrothed, believing him dead, has become engaged to his cousin. Forced to start over while also healing from the wounds of a long war, he finds an unlikely fresh start and maybe even the chance for love with a comely young maid (Eleanor Tomlinson).

Main Image Courtesy Marvel/screenrant.com

Matthew Currie

Author

A long-standing entertainment journalist, Currie is a graduate of the Professional Writing program at Toronto’s York University. He has spent the past number of years working as a freelancer for ANOKHI and for diverse publications such as Sharp, TV Week, CAA’s Westworld and BC Business. Currie ...