Film lovers associate summertime with air-conditioned theaters, questionable popcorn and broadly entertaining movies that remind us that life, sometimes, can be pretty darned fun. It all started when the studios finally realized that teenagers were a lucrative demographic, and that releasing material that appeals to adolescents at a time of year when they aren’t distracted by school was basically like printing money.
But even though those days are over, and blockbusters can emerge at literally any time of the year, the summer still represents an enormous glut of broad entertainment. So many action movies and comedies and family films are being released over the next few months that it can be hard to keep track of them all. And frankly, we’re not really going to try. Simply listing every movie coming out between the first week of May and the last week of August won’t help you narrow it down, it will just remind you that you will never be able to see them all (unless you have a LOT of free time, anyway).
Also: The 11 Must-See Indie Films of Summer 2016
So instead, here are the twelve films that our film experts at Crave think are the most important to keep on your calendar. You may notice that a handful of prominent movies aren’t on it, and a lot of the time that’s because we’ve already seen them (X-Men: Apocalypse sucked, and Alice Through The Looking Glass was even worse), or because they just don’t seem as exciting as the competition.
Our goal was to strip the films of summer 2016 to their bare essentials, and with that in mind, we present the following…
The 12 Must See Films of Summer 2016
Top Photos: Columbia Pictures / Warner Bros. / Universal Pictures
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon, and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved, Rapid Reviews and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
12 Must-See Summer Movies in 2016
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Captain America: Civil War (May 6)
If you haven't seen it yet, go out and see it now. Marvel's big superhero fight movie lives up to the hype with a breathtaking central action sequence, fantastic cameos by Spider-Man and Ant-Man, and a plot that turns the MCU's greatest heroes into each other's greatest villains.
Photo: Marvel Studios
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Money Monster (May 13)
Jodie Foster tackles the modern economy and the 24-hour news cycle in a hostage drama about a destitute man (Jack O'Connell) who takes a stock market show hostage, forcing the host (George Clooney) to finally do his job and get to the bottom of stock market corruption.
Photo: TriStar Pictures
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The Nice Guys (May 20)
Shane Black is back with another crime comedy in the vein of the classic Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe play a mismatched detective and enforcer who team up to find a missing girl and solve the greatest mystery in 1970s porn.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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Warcraft (June 10)
All eyes are on Moon director Duncan Jones, whose adaptation of the hit MMO might just be the first great video game movie. But can this film really shake that curse? And can it really prove to mainstream audiences that it's completely different from The Lord of the Rings?
Photo: Universal Pictures
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Independence Day: Resurgence (June 24)
1990s nostalgia hits the big time with Independence Day: Resurgence, a film that shows what humanity looks like decades after the original alien invasion, and shows just how devastating the war will be when our extraterrestrial oppressors come back to have their revenge. The devastation looks insane, but is that enough in today's marketplace? Do audiences still care?
Photo: 20th Century Fox
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The BFG (July 1)
Steven Spielberg returns to children's fantasy with an adaptation of a classic novel by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory author Roald Dahl. And he's bringing recent Oscar-winner Mark Rylance with him. If any summer blockbuster is likely to enchant us, it's The BFG.
Photo: Walt Disney
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Ghostbusters (July 15)
Sony's surprisingly controversial decision to remake Ghostbusters with an all-female cast is the blockbuster experiment of the summer. Do general audiences really care as much as the internet trolls? And in the end, will Paul Feig's film actually be any good? These questions make us bite our fingernails in anticipation.
Photo: Columbia Pictures
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Lights Out (July 22)
Several high profile horror movies are coming out this summer, including The Conjuring 2 and The Purge: Election Year, but Warner Bros. is throwing a lot of clout behind this original creation based on a viral video. Lights Out, about a monster who can only be seen in the darkness, could be the next big thing in horror. Or it could be just another scary movie with a gimmicky premise. We hope it's the former!
Photo: Warner Bros.
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Star Trek Beyond (July 22)
Justin Lin's Star Trek sequel looked uncharacteristically action-heavy in the early trailers, but we hold out hope that Star Trek Beyond - co-written by super-geek Simon Pegg - will have something meaningful to offer lifelong fans of the franchise. Because if it's nothing but nonsense and explosions that would totally suck.
Photo: Paramount Pictures
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Jason Bourne (July 29)
Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass return to their Oscar-winning action franchise with a new installment that looks an awful lot like ex-assassin Jason Bourne is teaming up with Edward Snowden (played by Julia Stiles), and damn if that doesn't sound fascinating. But if nothing else the car chases are basically guaranteed to kick ass.
Photo: Universal Pictures
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The Founder (August 5)
Michael Keaton plays the founder of McDonalds restaurants in an ambitious new drama that aims to do for fast food what The Social Network did for Facebook. Will it be as good as it looks? Will it finally get Michael Keaton an Oscar? And will audiences even care? We'll find out in August.
Photo: The Weinstein Company
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Suicide Squad (August 5)
After Batman v Superman performed under expectations, it's up to David Ayer's supervillain team-up movie Suicide Squad to save Warner Bros.' ambitious shared universe franchise. Fortunately, the film looks like a total blast, teaming fan favorites like Deadshot (Will Smith) and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) against The Joker (Jared Leto) in a fight to the finish. If this movie kicks ass, all might be forgiven. Maybe. We'll see.
Photo: Warner Bros.
