All eyes will be on Supreme+ in July for several good reasons, chief among them the long-awaited return of season 4 of Star Trek: Strange New Worldsthe emotional end of the chi at the end of the month, and who could forget Conor McGregor’s controversial return to the UFC, which will air live on CBS on July 11 and then the next day on Paramount+.
But there’s also good reason not to dismiss the Paramount+ movie shelf, as it’s added a ton of new movies to its library, including these three standouts below, ranked from good to best: a workplace comedy with a star-studded cast including Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis and Ben Affleck, a small-town monster mystery drenched in nostalgia, and a true war story so remarkable it barely rings true.
Fans of Mike Judge’s The Office will see this workplace comedy
If you’re a fan of Mike Judge’s brilliant and oft-memed workplace comedy office space (or your future prediction movie Idiocracy), Extract has been described as a complement to the first, only this time, instead of feeling sorry for a disgruntled employee, the sympathy is with the boss.
Jason Bateman leads an incredible cast as Joel, the owner of Reynolds Extract, a flavoring factory that he is about to sell for early retirement. When a freak (and hilariously slapstick) assembly line accident hits employee Step (Clifton Collins Jr.) squarely in the twig and berries, Joel’s plans are derailed.
Enter Cindy (Mila Kunis), a beautiful con artist who, after reading about the accident, lands a job at Reynolds in a scheme to get a piece of the looming lawsuit. Meanwhile, Joel is in love with Cindy, mainly because he is trapped in a sexless marriage to Suzie (Kristen Wiig). Things get even more out of control when Joel, following the bad advice of his stoner friend, Dean (Ben Affleck), hires a dim-witted gigolo to test Suzie’s fidelity in the hopes that it will justify his advances on Cindy. Excerpt flew under the radar in 2009, but Bateman’s exasperated loser boss alone is worth a watch.
2
Super 8
JJ Abrams’ tribute to Spielberg with a monstrous problem
After trip to the stars but before JJ Abrams took the keys to the Star Wars movies, he made Super 8a 2011 love letter to the Amblin Entertainment-era Steven Spielberg films he grew up on. But what’s more, Spielberg not only inspired the film, he produced it in this first original team-up between Amblin and Abrams’ Bad Robot.
And boy, does the movie give off some beautiful Amblin vibes. In the summer of 1979, in a small town in Ohio, young Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) is helping his friend Charles (Riley Griffiths) film a zombie movie with his Super 8 camera when the young crew, including Alice (Elle Fanning), the group’s collective crush, witness the devastating derailment of a military train… and something huge and alien escapes from the rubble. Soon, all the dogs begin to mysteriously flee the city, electronic equipment and car engines disappear, and the Air Force intervenes to contain the event. Meanwhile, Joe’s father, Jack (Friday night lights Deputy Sheriff Kyle Chandler demands answers.
Super 8 (81% RT Score) was a $260 million hit, and it’s serious eastern time and Goonies The energy makes it a fun watch for adults and children. Stick with the credits, though: the finished zombie movie for kids plays in its entirety.
1
Hacksaw ridge
Andrew Garfield shines as a doctor who goes to war without a weapon
Hacksaw ridge is one of those inconceivable real-life wartime stories that Hollywood filmmakers dream of encountering. And in this case, it was Mel Gibson who returned as director with this 2016 war epic that earned six Oscar nominations, including best picture, and won for film editing and sound mixing.
Adapted from the 2004 documentary. The conscientious objector, Hacksaw ridge is the incredible true story of Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield), a devout Seventh-day Adventist who enlists as a combat medic in World War II. But what makes Doss’ story so unique and compelling is that because of his beliefs, although he wants to serve his country on the battlefield, he refuses to touch a weapon of any kind. Of course, this causes all kinds of problems for Doss. But after surviving the abuse of basic training by Sergeant Howell (Vince Vaughn) and Captain Glover (Sam Worthington), and a near-martial, he heads to the meat grinder of Okinawa’s Maeda Escarpment, nicknamed Hacksaw Ridge, where he saves 75 men by carrying them off a cliff one by one.
Garfield is dazzling as the mild-mannered but determined Doss, Teresa Palmer plays his girlfriend, Dorothy, and Hugo Weaving is devastating as his tormented World War I veteran father. Be warned: the battle scenes are fierce in this 84% rated war drama.
Starting July on the right foot
Whichever movie you watch first, it’s a good week to stick with a good movie. And when you’re done, How-To Geek’s transmission section has many more recommendations where they came from.
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