Online Reporter
LOS ANGELES.— From Spielberg’s epic alien drama to J-Lo in an office romcom and the return of Toy Story, these are the films to watch at the cinema and stream at home next month.
- Masters of the Universe
“By the power of Grayskull! I— have— the power!” Readers of a certain age may remember that booming battle cry: it rang out every week in a 1980s cartoon series, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, when Prince Adam of Eternia transformed into a super-strong (and identical) warrior named He-Man.
A live-action film followed in 1987, starring Dolph Lundgren and a pre-Friends Courteney Cox. Now the sci-fi / fantasy franchise returns, with Nicholas Galitzine (Red, White & Royal Blue) as He-Man, Idris Elba as his mentor, Man-At-Arms, and Jared Leto and Alison Brie as the villains, Skeletor and Evil-Lyn.
“It’s a peculiar thing, being in a miniskirt and harness while everyone’s fully dressed in puffer jackets and whatnot,” said Galitzine about the shoot in Entertainment Weekly. But as long as the resulting film is better than the Lundgren version, it might be worth it.
Released on 3, 4 and 5 June internationally
- Scary Movie 6
The Scary Movie franchise got started in 2000, mainly as a way of spoofing Scream (1996) and its imitators. (Fun fact: the working title of Scream was Scary Movie).
Now that the Scream series is up and running again, it makes sense that Scary Movie is back, too.
In the franchise’s sixth instalment, its original stars, Anna Faris and Regina Hall, are on duty again for the first time in 20 years, as are the Wayans brothers, who wrote and directed the first couple of Scary Movies.
The good news is that horror films are a bigger deal than ever, and so the likes of Sinners, Weapons, Get Out and The Substance will all be parodied.
The not-so-good news is that Marlon Wayans has said that he will be taking potshots at “woke” and “cancel culture”, a comedy idea that seems outdated already. As Teresia Gray says in The Mary Sue, “Scary Movie 6 looks to add another entry of ‘Oh, these progressive kids are annoying’ to an already roaring fire.”
Released on 4 and 5 June internationally
- Office Romance
The reigning queen of the romantic comedy, Jennifer Lopez is back with a Netflix film that puts the premise right in the title. In Office Romance, Lopez plays the CEO of an airline who gets together with a corporate lawyer played by Brett Goldstein (Roy Kent from Ted Lasso). But if any of their colleagues find out, her job will be in jeopardy. The film is directed by Ol Parker, who made another starry rom-com, Ticket to Paradise, with Julia Roberts and George Clooney. And it’s written by Joe Kelly and Goldstein himself.
“It’s easy to write a rom-com when you have JLo in mind,” Goldstein said in People. “She’s the best at this stuff.
“We just wanted to write something funny and smart enough to be worthy of her saying yes.”
Released on 5 June on Netflix internationally
- Disclosure Day
Steven Spielberg may be the master of every conceivable genre, but he is especially keen on films about alien visitors.
They appeared in Firelight, the film he made as a teenager in 1964, and he has returned to the subject in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, War of the Worlds, and Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (What do you mean those were “interdimensional beings”?
That still counts!) More than six decades on from Firelight, he has made Disclosure Day, an epic drama starring Josh O’Connor, Emily Blunt, Colin Firth and Colman Domingo. Along with screenwriter David Koepp, he imagines a scenario in which aliens have already made contact with humans, but the world’s governments have kept that contact secret — until now.
“The question has always remained for me: are we alone on our own planet?” Spielberg said in Empire.
“That question has not only haunted me, but it has inspired me. But, I think, it has now resolved itself to my satisfaction in Disclosure Day.”
- Toy Story 5
The first Toy Story introduced the world to computer-animated feature films back in 1995, but, luckily, toys don’t age, and neither do cartoon characters.
And so it is that, seven years on from Toy Story 4, Pixar’s signature franchise continues, featuring Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), and their plastic pals.
The intriguing thing about this Toy Story is that it acknowledges that times have changed since the original film.
The issue is no longer that one favourite toy might be superseded by another. The issue now is that all toys might be put aside by children: they’ve got electronic tablets to play with instead.
“It’s a very, very clever story,” said Allen in Collider. “Had they not come up with a brilliant script, they wouldn’t have done it and they wouldn’t have called me and Tom.”
Released on 17, 18 and 19 June internationally. — BBC
