April Movie Preview

Ah, summer. Such a great time of year. The days are longer. It's warm outside. Schools are out. I can switch back to sandals...Except, it isn't really summer yet, is it? It sure feels like it though. DC and Marvel both have major releases this month. Thanks, year-round scheduling. Blockbusters, even the biggest movies of the year can happen any month. It is still April though, and the depth of the month isn't great.

1. Avengers: Endgame (4/26)

After the Snap, the remaining Avengers attempt to stop Thanos and save the world world from a future with no MCU sequels.

Working For It: You can choose to hate the Marvel machine if you want, but I'd rather enjoy it for what it is. This movie is the culmination of something. The same people who praise the commitment of a project like Boyhood really should laud the work Marvel has put in to get to this point. The cast has an embarrassment of riches. I fully expect action and laughs - the Russo brothers are great with that balance. This is the "event" movie of the year.

Working Against It: That doesn't mean it will be the best movie of the year. It'll probably be overstuffed and predictable. Popcorn over prestige.

2. Shazam! (4/5)

A  young boy gets powers that turn him into an adult superhero.

Working For It: Zachary Levi is one likable guy. I'm still not sure how roles like this weren't already waiting for him the second Chuck ended, but they're here now. I can't wait to see what DC with a funny bone looks like.

Working Against It: I have almost no idea what the plot of the movie is. It's being sold entire as Superhero Big and the comedy to be milked out of that idea. This could be a complete mess with a few laughs for all I know.

3. Little (4/12)

An overworked woman's abusive boss is turned into a little girl.

Working For It: I didn't keep up with the show Insecure, but after watching only a few minutes of it, it was obvious that Issa Rae is a star. This is her first big break in a movie and she looks more than up to the task. Marsai Martin has been a stand out on Blackish for a while now. Regina Hall is great in everything I've seen her in. It's funny that between this and Shazam!, this month has two inversions of the movie Big.

Working Against It: I'm a little worried by how heavily they're advertising that BMW (Black Momma Whoopin') joke. It's my least favorite part of the trailer and they are treating it like the centerpiece joke. I sure hope the comedy is more along the lines of the rest of the trailer.

4. Pet Sematary (4/5)

A family moves to a country house with a graveyard capable of bringing anything buried there back to life.

Working For It: It's a simple and effective premise that can get a lot of scares easily.

Working Against It: I really disliked the original movie and the directors of this one don't have any feathers in their filmography cap that excite me. This is getting the It bump, which could be giving it a higher profile than it deserves. We'll see.

5. Under the Silver Lake [Limited] (4/19)

A man investigates the disappearance of a woman he met and fell for.

Working For It: This looks wacky and ambitious. It has Andrew Garfield in odd-ball mode, which he's pretty good at, and puts him in the middle of a strange world, putting together clues of a massive conspiracy. This is a big, risky swing for the sophomore effort from It Follows director David Robert Mitchell.

Working Against It: The film's release was delayed several months while they tinkered with it. From what I hear, it falls very short of its ambitions - more glorious mess than glorious success.

6. The Curse of La Llorona (4/19)

A woman and her children are terrorized by some supernatural creature.

Working For It: The main appeal of this is Linda Cardellini in a lead role. I'll never understand how she was unable to turn Freaks & Geeks into something bigger, like so many of her costars. She's great and should be a fine horror movie lead.

Working Against It: I don't care for major studio horror a lot of the time. The focus is more on jumps and cuts than simmering unease. I'm sure it will do pretty well though in the box office. Hispanic audiences love horror and the title should help with that.

7. Hellboy (4/12)

Hellboy is a creature pulled from Hell to fight evil, but, you know, in a funny way.

Working For It: David Harbour (Stranger Things) looks alright for the role. Humor is a good way to endear me to any comic [book] franchise.

Working Against It: This feels like such a second tier effort. A cast including David Harbour, Ian McShane, Milla Jovavich, and Sasha Lane sounds like they got the second choice for every role. The trailer looks like Lionsgate trying to pass off a mid-tier budget as a blockbuster.

8. The Best of Enemies (4/5)

A black woman and the head of a local KKK chapter become unlikely allies as their children's schools are desegregated.

Working For It: I like the idea of Taraji P. Henson and Sam Rockwell going head to head. This kind of movie is often ham-fisted in its messaging but very watchable.

Working Against It: I haven't researched this movie, but I'm assuming it was made with Oscar hopes in mind. That it ended up with a March release tells me a lot about how effective the studio thought it was. Coming off a - let's just call it - contested Green Book Oscar win, I don't have much of an appetite for another version of this story yet.

9. Teen Spirit [Limited] (4/5)

Elle Fanning is an aspiring pop star who competes in a major TV singing competition.

Working For It: Elle Fanning is on the shortlist of best performers who can't legally drink* yet. After getting out of her sister's shadow with a few major studio movies, she's moved into artier films lately. I'm having the hardest time describing this as anything other than "The Neon Demon but music instead of modelling". I liked The Neon Demon (kind of), so maybe I'll like this too.

Working Against It: I have no reason to trust writer/director Max Minghella as a director yet. This seems quite ambitious, and the trailer looks light on story and heavy on visuals.

*Her 21st birthday is this month, actually.

10. Little Woods [Limited] (4/19)

Two sisters work outside the law to secure a better life.

Working For It: Tessa Thompson and Lily James play these sisters in a movie that looks a lot like a gender-reversed Hell or High Water. I loved that movie, so maybe this will follow suit.

Working Against It: If memory serves, I wasn't looking forward to Hell or High Water at the time, because there's a lot of room for this kind of movie to go nowhere. And it's a first time director. I don't trust those.

Other Nationwide Releases

After (4/12)

This story of a nice girl falling for a bad boy at her college looks like Nicholas Sparks trying to write a 50 Shades movie. No thank you. 

Missing Link (4/12)

A bigfoot goes looking for his cousin (the Yeti) in the mountains of Nepal. I've mostly loved these Laika Animation movies, but they've all had to prove me wrong going in.

Breakthrough (4/19)

A woman prays for her son to come back to life after drowning in a frozen lake for 15 minutes. I really don't know how they'll fill a whole movie if that is the premise.

Penguins (4/19)

Disney Nature film about a penguin. So, if you love Penguins, maybe you should see this.

Movie Reaction: Dumbo

Formula: (Dumbo + The Greatest Showman) / Big Fish

(Tim Burton Walks into a Disney Executive's office)

Disney Executive: Tim, glad to see you.

Tim Burton: I hear that you have a project for me?

DE: Always. So, you know how live action remakes are all the rage right now. Since people won't show up any more for re-releases of our animated classics, the next best thing is to turn a cartoon into live-action.

TB [Excited]: You want me to direct another Alice in Wonderland?!

DE: No, no, NO. That franchise is dead. Never speak of it again. We've all agreed.

TB: The first movie made a billion dollars, but OK.

DE: We've been pushing this strategy hard. We've already got The Lion King and Aldaddin in the works, and we have an idea that we think would be perfect for you. Circuses are huge right now. The Greatest Showman just became a sleeper hit. And that movie wasn't even that good. That has us thinking: "We have a circus property too." We have Dumbo.

TB [Excited]: Dumbo? So, I get to animate a flying elephant?!

DE: Naturally, you we the first person we thought of. You already brought your gothic sensibilities to a circus in Big Fish. We've had a lot of success with you in the past, even when the critics didn't agree. And we know how much you love your little stories about outcasts.

TB: And I can make his ears big?

DE: Very big.

TB: What kind of budget will I have to make Dumbo fly?

DE: Well over $100 million of course.

TB: Imagine how good I can make Dumbo look with all that money.

DE: The $100 million isn't all for the Dumbo animation. This is a tentpole movie we're looking for.

TB: And I can give him adorable blue eyes.

DE: We've had a lot of success with these remakes. But if we are getting that kind of budget, we need to know you have a grand vision for it.

TB: How believably do you think we can make an elephant smile?

DE: Tim, I'm glad you are excited about making the CGI elephant, but we are going to need a full movie. This isn't one of those small, personal late summer projects like Pete's Dragon or Christopher Robin. We need to know you'll treat it as an event.

TB: Yeah, yeah. Sure. As long as I get to make an adorable flying elephant protagonist.

DE: None of this stuff where you just CGI all the locations. People can tell when they are looking at computer gernerated sets. They don't have any depth to them. We end up with a lot of complaints about the whole thing feeling fake.

TB: Don't worry. I know that's been a problem before. I'll make sure the CGI sets look better this time. And even if they don't, people won't care if the elephant looks good enough.

DE: You're worrying me, Tim. It can't be all about the elephant.

TB: Again, Alice in Wonderland made you a billion dollars. Trust me on this.

DE: This isn't a blank check, mind you. The studio has a few demands, I mean, requests.

TB: Of course. You know I'm a team player.

DE: The animated classic wasn't very long, barely an hour, so we will need you to flesh out the story some. Give the human characters more backstory.

TB: Ugh, do I have to? I can't just make it about Dumbo.

DE: The humans need a story.

TB: Can I just selectively pull from the Greatest Showman story?

DE: Great idea. We'll get our best guys to put together a script treatment.

TB: Phew.

DE: But, cut the racist crows. People will have none of that.

TB: That fine. I can just use that time for some trapeez stuff or something.

DE: We are targeting young audiences hard with this one. We aren't focusing of all-ages entertainment even. So, this needs to push up again a G rating.

TB: OK, so only one death then.

DE: One death?! Why do you go straight to death?

TB: Don't worry. It can be off-screen and I'll make sure the guy is really repugnant.

DE: (Sighs) Fine. Alright, we're going to need it to have some kids in it. And the girl, she has to be into STEM subjects. Make her a scientist or something.

TB: These are circus kids though. That's a little weird. What if I can't find a way to make that fit with everything else going on in the movie?

DE: That's not a suggestion. It's an order. Look, we have a half century of princess tropes to make up for. We've got the Tomorrowland girl, the Wrinkle in Time girl, and Shuri from Black Panther. We want to be a studio of science girls now. That's going to be our thing. Find a way to make it work.

TB: I guess that won't be so hard. I can give her lines like "I believe in the scientific method" and "I want to be a scientist."

DE: Perfect. Do you have any ideas about casting?

TB: I can call in my regulars. Michael [Keaton] has been looking for something where he can over-act. Eva [Green] is always lovely. Her precense reminds me a lot of Helana [Bonham Carter]. Danny [DeVito] of course. He was born to be the ring leader of a circus. And, well, Johnny [Depp] -

DE: No. No, Johnny. All that stuff with him and his wife is getting a little toxic. And, as you said. The elephant needs to be the star.

TB: You make a good point. I don't need Johnny taking focus away from Dumbo.

DE: How about Collin Farrell instead?

TB: I like that idea. I can make him a horse-wrangler from Kentucky. And he'll have one arm?

DE: Wait, What? Why one arm?

TB: Because he lost it in the war.

DE: The war? What war? (sighs) You know what? Fine. And we'll need some kids.

TB: Of course.

DE: I'm sure some celebrities have kids or something. I hear Thandie [Newton's] daughter is looking for something.

TB: Is she any good?

DE: Good enough. Oh, and don't ask why, but I'd really like Alan Arkin to show up. You don't have to give him much. Five lines should be plenty. He doesn't even have to be playing a part really. He can phone in the whole performance. I just think he'd be fun to have

TB: Sure why not?

DE: So, we have a deal then?

TB: Absolutely.

DE: Now remember. You can't just put all your effort into the Dumbo character and let the story and other effects fall to the wayside.

TB: I wouldn't dream of it.

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend