What Movies Are Releasing This Weekend? (July 12th, 2019)

Jeff D Lowe 7/12/2019 3:00 PM

The second half of the year is underway and we are about to get a slew of fantastic movies. What’s coming to theaters this week? Let’s check it out…

* I LIKE SEEING EVERYTHING IN THEATERS, BUT THAT ISN’T THE CASE FOR EVERYONE *

When a mild-mannered Uber driver named Stu (Kumail Nanjiani) picks up a passenger (Dave Bautista) who turns out to be a cop hot on the trail of a brutal killer, he’s thrust into a harrowing ordeal where he desperately tries to hold onto his wits, his life and his five-star rating. (via Google)

Disney’s first R-rated movie in a long, long time (it came over in the Fox deal) features a few Marvel actors in Dave Bautista (Drax), Karen Gillan (Nebula) and Kumail Nanjiani (soon to be in ‘The Eternals’). I was initially looking forward to this movie, but the reviews have been pretty poor. Comedy movies have been better over the last two-or-so years, but I am still hesitant with any movie from the genre released nowadays. With the way the box office has been lately, and the poor early reviews, I could see this movie being a bit of a bomb.
JEFF’S VERDICT: Wait for streaming

When a massive hurricane hits her Florida town, young Haley ignores the evacuation orders to search for her missing father, Dave. After finding him gravely injured in their family home, the two of them become trapped by the rapidly encroaching floodwaters. With the storm strengthening, Haley and Dave discover an even greater threat than the rising water level — a relentless attack from a pack of gigantic alligators. (via Google)

Starring Kayla Scodelario (‘Maze Runner’) and Barry Pepper (so many movies), ‘Crawl’ looks like one of the craziest movies of the summer. We had the pleasure of interviewing Barry Pepper for Lights, Camera, Barstool and it will drop this Sunday. When done right, these disaster-thriller movies are spectacles and ‘Crawl’ lives up to that hype. It isn’t a perfect movie and one could argue it is very “schlocky,” but this is a great popcorn flick to enjoy during the blockbuster month of July.
JEFF’S VERDICT: See it in theaters

After a brutal mugging, a man takes up karate to better defend himself but soon falls under the spell of the dojo’s enigmatic leader. (via Google)

A movie starring another actor we interview this week on Lights, Camera, Barstool, Jesse Eisenberg, ‘The Art of Self-Defense’ is one of the best movies of the summer and a top contender for best dark comedy of the year. The Oscars buzz shouldn’t be too surprising with Bleecker Street releasing the movie. They’ve released some great movies from the last few years, including ‘The Lost City of Z’, ‘Logan Lucky’ and ‘Hotel Mumbai’. In a year packed with sequels, remakes and tentpole franchise releases, this is well worth your time for a geat change of pace.
JEFF’S VERDICT: See it in theaters

To save his pregnant wife, an emergency room nurse teams up with an injured murder suspect in a race against time, rival criminals and renegade cops. (via Google)

Speaking of remakes, ‘Point Blank’ is a remake of a Franch movie by the same name from 2010. Starring more Marvel characters in Anthony Mackie (The Falcon/Sam Wilson/Captain America 2.0) and Frank Grillo (Brock Rumlow/Crossbones), ‘Point Blank’ is coming out on Netflix. While I do pay for Netflix, any movie on the platform should be considered “free” in my book, which gives it a near-automatic vote of “watch it.” The reviews for the movie aren’t all that great but I like the actors and the trailer is intriguing enough for me to watch it this weekend. I envision myself sitting down with some wings or garbage food and hitting play this weekend.
JEFF’S VERDICT: Watch it

Billi’s family returns to China under the guise of a fake wedding to stealthily say goodbye to their beloved matriarch — the only person that doesn’t know she only has a few weeks to live. (via Google)

This is the movie I am most looking forward to this weekend. Anything with a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and 85-or-above on Metacritic is bound to be fucking dynamite (we didn’t get a chance to see it early, unfortunately). I’ve been a little down on the over-abundance of Awkwafina in comedies, but she is apparently Oscar-worthy in ‘The Farewell’. These types of movies are right up my alley and, once again, a big change of pace with the movies we’ve been getting this year. A24 rarely makes bad movies (‘Midsommar’ their most recent release) and it seems like the trend will continue.
JEFF’S VERDICT: See it in theaters (PICK OF THE WEEK)

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Make sure to rate all 2019 movies (and 2018 movies) in the links below. Tune in to this week’s Lights, Camera, Barstool where we did a full spoiler review of ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’.

2019:
January: https://goo.gl/forms/tyUaQnv8QgMyHfcf1
February: https://goo.gl/forms/N98XcvIy3SukhrIw2
March: https://goo.gl/forms/4QbmSMj6wK0feMZ13
April: https://forms.gle/uRUg5xPyfsE8bk9B6
May: https://forms.gle/cdBDBdjNcHZ93sog6
June: https://forms.gle/z3cK9LSRCzNCwxYS8
July: https://forms.gle/8i1B8dMgSADefyU5A