2015’s Box-Office Summer Smashes

Summer is here. 2015 is set to be one of the biggest blockbuster years of all-time. With films like Avengers: Age of Ultron, Jurassic World and Terminator: Genisys, this will be an important summer for fanboys of comic books and feature-film franchises. But most of what I’m excited for are some of the smaller summer films that I feel everyone should check out. Best get your notebooks out and take a few tips, these are a few summer movies that will not only be great but also well worth your time and money.

Mad Max: Fury Road

Release date: May 15

George Miller’s return to his iconic franchise has already hit theaters and the buzz behind the film has been ecstatically positive and they are all true. The story is deep and moving. The acting, especially from Charlize Theron, is spectacular and yes, the action scenes you have been bombarded with in the trailers are even better than you thought. The film spent a large amount of time in post-production simply from the 480 hours of footage Miller gave his wife, Margaret Sixel, to edit. It shows just how much editing matters; you can tell where everyone is, what car they are in, what they are doing, etc. The fact that a majority of the stunts are real is even more impressive. Most impressive though, you don’t have to see the original three films to get this one, not because it’s a reboot, but because the franchise has been known for all the films to stand on their own. This is not only the best action film of the year by far, it’s just one of the best films, period.

Inside Out

Release date: June 19

For many people, Pixar, one of the biggest and best animation studios in the business today, has been on a downslope ever since Toy Story 3. Cars 2 was a critical flop, Brave divided audiences, and Monsters University (while I personally loved it) was not as good as Pixar’s earlier works in the eyes of most people. So after a year-long break in 2014, Inside Out represents the first of a one-two punch that Pixar has planned this year; their second film, The Good Dinosaur, stomps into theaters this Thanksgiving but little has been shown about this film. However, Inside Out has been receiving rave reviews from early screenings. The concept is so unique and mature for American animation (the story of a middle-school girl having to adjust to moving to a large city told from the perspective of her emotions) that this has Oscar written all over it.

Ted 2

Release date: June 26

Love him or hate him, Seth MacFarlane is one of the biggest comedians of our time. Family Guy, for many, is still going strong 15 years later. MacFarlane co-created two superior animated comedies, The Cleveland Show and American Dad, the latter of which is still going. Easily his biggest achievement in my eyes was creating the funniest film of the decade so far with 2012’s Ted. He then proceeded to take a massive step back with his next film, A Million Ways to Die in the West, an overlong, slow-paced, bore of a film that while having a few solid laughs here and there, doesn’t change the fact that Ted was easily the superior film. Ted 2 has brought back the confidence I have in MacFarlane simply from the trailers. With me being simultaneously one of MacFarlane’s biggest fans and apologists, this feels like a hilarious return for him. I’m still waiting for that Family Guy movie though.

Straight Outta Compton

Release date: August 14

In the 1980’s South Central Los Angeles, also known as Compton, was considered the most dangerous city in the U.S. The police were infamous for being racist and corrupt and the majority of citizens were often found defending themselves against their fellow man—whether they were involved with illegal gang violence or not. Out of Compton came a rap group known as N.W.A (Niggaz Wit Attitudes) which included Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, DJ Yella, MC Ren and the late Eazy-E. Their songs revolutionized the rap era and brought the attention to the violence in L.A. with songs like “Express Yourself” and “F*** Tha Police” which soon became anthems for those against police brutality. This biopic tells their story and in this day and age, with cases like Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Freddie Gray, we need a film like this. In 1989 N.W.A gave enlightened America on police violence. I hope this movie does the same for today’s audiences.