Halfway through the year, and it’s been kind of a meh year so far for me. We have had some definite winners in Project Hail Mary, Josephine, Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie, and Obsession. We have also had some stinkers. Looking at you, Corporate Retreat. What I have had a whole lot of, though, is 3/5 and 3.5/5 films. So, looking forward to the second half, there are some of the huge films that have been on my list for quite awhile. One note for this list: a lot of the Festival films don’t have release dates, and some (like Jack of Spades) might not even come out this year. So, it is what it is below.
10. Digger – October 2nd – Alejandro G. Iñárritu had a run for a minute where he was on top of the world in terms of Directors. He had three straight wide releases (Babel in 2006, Birdman in 2014, and The Revenant in 2015) where he was nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards, winning for Birdman and Revenant. Then came the very strange Bardo in 2022. That kind of threw things a little off the tracks. In 2024, Warner Bros announced Iñárritu was going to direct his first English-language film since Revenant, and it would involve Tom Cruise. What we know is just the one sentence premise that was given to us, and set reports of what prosthetics Cruise will be wearing to become the lead character. We also got a weird marketing ploy where a giant shovel was placed near Coachella. The teaser trailer that we have for this is kind of pointless as it only tells us the title of the film. I think it was only meant for that announcement in the first place. With a supporting cast including Sandra Huller, Jesse Plemons, and John Goodman, this has all the makings of a fun black comedy, especially with Cruise who always is at 110%.
9. Hope – September 9th – This looks awesome and I think NEON has a real winner on their hands. I do appreciate that the trailer we got looks like it is hiding its hand a bit. The reports from Cannes were good, as it was the first South Korean film to compete for the Palm d’Or since 2022’s Decision to Leave. I don’t think this will really compete during Awards season outside of the international area, but there has to be a place for these films in the marketplace. I do know of two well known actors in this that are not in the trailer, and I’m not sure if their inclusion is a spoiler, so I will let you seek out that out if you are so inclined. If I am to be nervous about something for this film, it would be the design of the aliens from what we see in the trailer looks rough. We are only seeing brief moments, and I know it isn’t fair to judge it this point, and I really am not. That just serves to keep expectations in check for me.
8. Madden – November 26th – Nicolas Cage as John Madden and Christian Bale as Al Davis. That is pretty much all you need to tell me to sell me on this. I’ll keep going. This is David O. Russell’s latest film, and after 2022’s Amsterdam was a disappointment, ideally this will be a return to form from a director who has received 5 Oscar nominations. This film will reportedly focus on Madden’s involvement in the development of the iconic Madden NFL video game series. I refuse to think Cage is ever bad in anything, so I look forward to his portrayal of Madden. I also hope this will get a theatrical release and not just go to Prime. At one point, Gerwig’s Narnia was scheduled to open this same weekend, but that got moved to next spring. That still leaves Hexed, Focker-in-Law, and The Adventures of Cliff Booth opening that weekend, so it’s a full dance card for Madden to make any real noise. If anyone could do it though, it’s Nicolas Cage.
7. Street Fighter – October 16th – I was higher than a lot of people with the recent Mortal Kombat entries, so it shouldn’t be a shock to see Street Fighter here. What this looks to have that MK didn’t is that this appears to know what kind of movie it is. This looks stupid in the best of ways, and the cast looks great for who they have playing each character. There is a part of me that kind of hopes WWE has Rhodes and Reigns have a match on Raw where they are playing their characters from the film. Cross promotion is something WWE knows how to do after all. The only person I think is playing a character under a major shadow, and that is David Dastmalchian. It isn’t his fault either. Really the only good thing about the 1994 film is Raul Julia’s M. Bison, and there is really no way anyone would be able to top what he did in the film. To me, is was greatness. To him, is was just Tuesday.
6. The End of Oak Street – August 14th – David Robert Mitchell’s last two films have been ones I really enjoyed, and that isn’t just because he is from Metro Detroit. It Follows is one of the best recent horror films. For this, his fourth feature, he is going in a different direction. In Oak Street, a neighborhood from Suburbia is sent (after a cosmic event) it a land with prehistoric creatures. Basically Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway vs dinosaurs. Interesting premise, and a trailer that makes this look really cool. If this hits like I think it will, it will make me excited what Mitchell comes up with after They Follow, his next film after this one
5. Spider-Man: Brand New Day – July 31st – I will go into this in the next section, but the Spider-Man films have not failed to hit. We can haggle on quality (See Spider-Man 3 and Amazing Spider-Man 2), but when they are good, they are good. One would imagine this will be the final Holland solo film. This will be his 4th entry, which makes him the longest running Spidey, and it might be the time for him to move on. That would be a shame because he has been a terrific Spider-Man/ Peter Parker. In this new entry, we are seeing Peter in a world following the events in No Way Home, where he had Dr Strange cast a spell to make everyone forget about him. Now, he is just Spider-Man, and with the possibility of a restart. A possible issue with this film is one that sunk Spider-Man 3: too many villains. In this, we know we are getting Tombstone, Tarantula, Scorpion, Boomerang, and what looks like The Hand. Add on to that The Punisher, Bruce Bnner/Hulk, and most Sadie Sink playing most certainly the MCU’S version of Jean Grey. That is a lot of plates to keep spinning, but there is also the storyline where Peter is evolving. This is why I have slight trepidations going into this film and kind of need another trailer to further set the tone of the film. I don’t doubt that it will perform well, and have a monster opening weekend. It is the quality side that I worry a bit about, especially in a landscape where you can see the superhero bubble reaching its breaking point.
4. Avengers: Doomsday – December 18th – There is a chance this is a disaster. There have been reports for some time now that there isn’t a locked script for this, which isn’t a great sign. All we have seen as of me writing this were those 4 teasers back in December/January, but those were just announcement teasers, and what they showed was the Thing meeting the Wakandans, and some angry Cyclops action. We haven’t seen a real trailer yet, and we might not until later this month closer to Brand New Day‘s release. What we do know is there will be a lot of characters in this from all sorts of universes. I would say this might be the thing that breaks things for those that are tiring of the multiverse, but the good thing here is this is ending the multiverse saga. To say this is an important film for Marvel would be an understatement. With Sony still in control of Spidey, there have been very few for sure wins for the MCU since Endgame. The only films that never fail to make all the money are Avengers films, and by bringing RDJ back in the fold as Doom, you can definitely view it as the hail mary throw by Marvel. I choose to hope for the best, and I’m sure the trailer will trick me into thinking this should be higher on the list, but trailers can be deceiving…..
3. Resident Evil – September 18th – Cregger is 2 for 2 for me after Barbarian and Weapons both were excellent. For his third film, he is now going with an IP that has been pretty beaten up after 6 Paul W.S. Anderson films with Jovovich, and a reboot in 2021 that came at went. Cregger for this new version is, from what it appears, creating a new story that takes place in the world closely based on the video games Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, and Resident Evil 4. The only trailer we have looks promising based on how little we actually see, and Austin Abrams should be fun to watch, especially if he brings some of the energy he had in Weapons. I know I have made it known that I don’t do great with gory horror films, so might be surprising to see this one so high on the list. What I hope this has is some of the dry sense of humor that Cregger’s other films have, and that will be the thing that gets me through it.
2. The Odyssey – July 17th – I would watch a three hour film of Matt Damon reading names out of the phone book if Christopher Nolan directed it. I am that far on the Nolan train. The dude does not miss, and don’t come at me with Tenet or Dark Knight Rises. They are all great. I remember listening to a podcast shortly after Oppenheimer came out and it was rumored Nolan was adapting a major property. They joked he was only following up Oppenheimer with an adaptation of The Odyssey or The Bible. Those were the only two that were big enough scope for him. They were right on one of them. The rumor runtime according to AMC is 2 hours, 52 minutes, and that is 8 minutes shorter than Oppenheimer was. I usually don’t care about runtime, but for this I wanted a longer film. There is lot of story to tell with this one, and you need a lot of runway to tell it. There is an old joke by now that most of Hollywood was cast in either this or Dune, and it kind of is true. The cast is stacked for this one, but something to know based on Nolan’s previous works, just because you see all those names doesn’t mean they will be substantial parts of the film. I think the only major characters we will see throughout the film is Damon’s Odysseus (obviously), Holland’s Telemachus, Hathaway’s Penelope, and Pattinson’s Antinous. At least that is what the newest trailer seems to be saying. I know this is not the number one anticipated film, but if this one ends up being disappointing, it will seriously bum me out for a bit. That is the standard of a Nolan film for me. It’s either greatness or failure. It’s only been the former so far.
Before I get into my number one film, here are a few other films I am looking forward to this year, lightning round style: The Adventures of Cliff Booth (November 25), Buddy (September 4th), The Dog Stars (August 28th), I Play Rocky (November 13th), Paper Tiger (TBA), The Social Reckoning (October 9th), Tony (TBA), Werwulf (December 25th), Whalefall (October 16th), Wild Horse Nine (November 6th), Wildwood (October 23rd), and The Whisper Man (August 28th)
1. Dune: Part Three – December 18th – My favorite film of 2024 was Dune: Part Two. Number 13 in 2021 was Dune: Part One, but after about a dozen rewatches of it since then, it really should have been higher up that year’s rankings. To say the hype for this is stupid high for me is an understatement. That trailer we got for this is so good, and hearing the rumblings of what was shown at CinemaCon only adds to things. A fun fact for this is it will become the 4th straight film for Timothee Chalamet to be released during the Christmas season (Wonka, A Complete Unknown, Marty Supreme, Dune: Part Three). This will be based on the second novel in the series, Dune: Messiah, but what we have seen in the trailers so far, it doesn’t look quite as insane as that novel can get. We are going to get a more substantial part from Anya Taylor-Joy as Paul’s sister Alia, who we saw very briefly in Part: Two. New to the cast as one of the anagonists is Pattinson (he is everywhere) as Scytale, who is looking to dethrone Paul. I have long argued that the Lord of the Rings trilogy is the greatest trilogy, but if this film sticks the landing, there will be a good discussion for me. People are looking at Doomsday and Part Three as the new Barbenheimer, but I am not sure it will reach that level this time. The two films are just two similar for both to get huge numbers. Doomsday will probably grab the most money, but what might show during that weekend is a clear difference in quality between the two. I could be very wrong as both are 6 months away, but Dune, as a clear finale, should be the better film. Theater owners syre wont be mad about either film though.
Mitten Film Nerd 
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