Nicole Kidman being wowed by the movies haven’t enticed you back into a theater yet, then a summer movie season packed with Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Elvis, Thor and a heap of dinosaurs should do the trick.
Let’s not even go into 2020’s COVID-19 closures or last year’s dip back into normalcy. With adults and many kids vaxxed and the box office ready to roll, studios are releasing a stacked slate of films between now and Labor Day guaranteed to keep everyone entertained, starting next weekend with the Marvel superhero sequel “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”
Whether you’ve been waiting two years for the “Top Gun” sequel or your kids are ready to watch Pixar films on a big screen again, Hollywood is hooking everybody up. Plus, streaming services like Netflix and Apple TV+ are also debuting at-home options for those who enjoy watching new flicks on their couch.
Here are the 10 movies you absolutely, positively must see this summer:
‘Top Gun: Maverick’ (May 27)
Stars: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Glen Powell
Director: Joseph Kosinski
The skinny: Three decades after the original 1986 classic, test pilot Maverick (Cruise) trains a new crop of Top Gun graduates (including Powell and Monica Barbaro) for a dangerous mission. However, Maverick also revisits a past tragedy when one of the aviators is Rooster (Teller), the son of Maverick’s late best friend and wingman Goose.
Where to watch: In theaters
‘Top Gun’:New flyboy Glen Powell talks that Oscar ‘insanity’ and Tom Cruise
‘Jurassic World Dominion’ (June 10)
Stars: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Neill
Director: Colin Trevorrow
The skinny: “Jurassic Park” characters past and present, from Pratt’s recent hero Owen Grady to Neill’s scientist Alan Grant, converge in a new adventure set four years after the destructive last film in 2018, in which humans try to keep their spot on the food chain co-existing in the same world with dinosaurs, including the deadly new Atrociraptor.
Where to watch: In theaters
‘Jurassic Park: Dominion’:Bryce Dallas Howard shows off ‘crazy sick’ bruises from stunt work
‘Cha Cha Real Smooth’ (June 17)
Stars: Cooper Raiff, Dakota Johnson, Leslie Mann
Director: Cooper Raiff
The skinny: The heartfelt coming-of-age drama took the same Sundance Film Festival audience award this year as Oscar best-picture winner “CODA” did last year. “Cha Cha” centers on a 22-year-old bar mitzvah party-starter (Raiff) who forms a strong connection to an older woman (Johnson) with a teenage daughter on the autism spectrum.
Where to watch: Apple TV+
Sundance Film Festival:Dakota Johnson’s ‘Cha Cha,’ horror film ‘Nanny’ win top prizes
‘Lightyear’ (June 17)
Stars: Chris Evans, Keke Palmer, Taika Waititi
Director: Angus MacLane
The skinny: The Pixar animated sci-fi adventure acts as an origin story for Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Evans), the hero who inspired the plastic “Toy Story” icon. The square-jawed space ranger tries to get back to Earth after being stranded on an alien planet with his commander (Uzo Aduba) and leads a motley crew of wannabe heroes against the evil Zurg (Josh Brolin).
Where to watch: In theaters
‘Lightyear’:New trailer for ‘Toy Story’ spinoff arrives with Buzz’s hilarious robot cat
‘Elvis’ (June 24)
Stars: Austin Butler, Tom Hanks, Olivia DeJonge
Director: Baz Luhrmann
The skinny: The stylish music drama digs into the influential life and hip-shaking music of Elvis Presley (Butler), including his rise to superstardom under the management of the enigmatic Colonel Tom Parker (Hanks) as well as the important relationship between the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll and his wife Priscilla (DeJonge).
Where to watch: In theaters
First ‘Elvis’ trailer:Austin Butler explodes to life as Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s new movie
‘Marcel the Shell With Shoes On’ (June 24)
Stars: Jenny Slate, Rosa Salazar, Thomas Mann
Director: Dean Fleischer-Camp
The skinny: The 1-inch-tall, sneaker-wearing shell star of Slate and Fleischer-Camp’s animated short film and children’s book now hits the big screen in an adorable comedy. The soft-spoken Marcel (voiced by Slate) decides he wants to find his family and, with the help of a documentary filmmaker, becomes a social-media sensation.
Where to watch: In theaters
‘Marcel the Shell’:Jenny Slate finding herself after motherhood ‘really caught me by surprise’
‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ (July 8)
Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Natalie Portman
Director: Taika Waititi
The skinny: After saving the universe, Marvel’s resident thunder god just wants to find inner peace, man. But when vengeful villain Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) appears on the cosmic scene, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie (Thompson) and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Portman), who now wields the magical hammer Mjolnir.
Where to watch: In theaters
‘Thor: Love and Thunder’:Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman flex in new trailer
‘The Gray Man’ (July 15)
Stars: Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas
Directors: Anthony and Joe Russo
The skinny: Based on the 2009 Mark Greaney novel, the “Avengers” filmmakers’ international action thriller stars Gosling as a CIA operative with a bounty on his head after accidentally uncovering dark agency secrets. Evans plays his psychopathic ex-colleague leading the global manhunt.
Where to watch: In theaters (and on Netflix July 22)
‘Nope’ (July 22)
Stars: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun
Director: Jordan Peele
The skinny: Following “Get Out” and “Us,” Peele’s back to scare us all again with a new film starring Kaluuya and Palmer as horse trainers living in a California gulch who make a strange and unsettling discovery, plus witness some seriously bad news coming out of the sky.
Where to watch: In theaters
Scary movies:From ‘Halloween Ends’ to ‘Nope,’ here’s every horror movie you need to see in 2022
‘Bullet Train’ (July 29)
Stars: Brad Pitt, Zazie Beetz, Sandra Bullock
Director: David Leitch
The skinny: Pitt headlines the ensemble action comedy as an assassin hired to retrieve a mysterious briefcase from a high-speed train going from Tokyo to Kyoto but becomes embroiled in violent high jinks with a bunch of other colorful killers (including Beetz, Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Bad Bunny) onboard.
Where to watch: In theaters
‘Bullet Train’:Andrew Koji eagerly awaits an invite to Brad Pitt’s house