By Chris Kavan - 06/07/18 at 06:36 AM CT
While Solo was expected to cruise to the end of the month until it faced off against Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the Star Wars film has failed to ignite the box office, leading things wide open. That mean's good news for the female-driven heist film Ocean's 8 as well as the action-packed Hotel Artemis. But it's really the third film this week that has me pumped - Hereditary, being touted as one of the best horror films this year.
OCEAN'S 8 While doing a gender-swapped version of a popular film is dicey at best (Ghostbusters, anyone?), it can lead to good things. While I'm still waiting for that all-female version of Expendables, Ocean's 8 will have to do for now. If you know the Ocean's franchise (and I'm sure you do) the previous films followed a group of men on one impossible heist after the other - all of which were pulled off thanks to ingenious planning and maybe just a bit of luck (and Hollywood magic). Led by George Clooney and Matt Damon, the films have pulled in an impressive $1.1 billion worldwide. This time around, we follow Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock), estranged sister of Danny (Clooney) and who shares the same passion for pulling off the impossible. After being paroled, she wastes no time, with an audacious plan to crash the Met Gala and steal a diamond necklace from a clueless socialite (Anne Hathaway). But to pull off the plan, she will need the perfect team - and what a team we have - Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, Mindy Kaling, Rihanna, Awkwafina and Sarah Paulson - each with their own unique set of skills. The film also features the talents of Dakota Fanning, Richard Armitage, James Corden, Elliott Gould and a special appearance from Mr. Damon himself. All told, while I sometimes scoff at these gender-swapped premises, this one actually looks like it will be a lot of fun.
Now we arrive at one of my more anticipated films of the year. Hereditary follows a mother, Annie (Toni Collette) who would rather spend time making her detailed miniatures than with her own family. This includes her therapist husband, Steve (Gabriel Byrne), stoner teen son Peter (Alex Wolff) and quiet, shy daughter Charlie (Milly Shapiro - sure to join the ranks of creepy child characters). Charlie shares a close relationship with her grandmother but when Annie's mother dies, it begins a journey that leads to madness and discovering inheritances aren't always welcome. Ann Dowd also joins the cast as a concerned friend of late matriarch and the trailers show a lot of crazy things - a dude on fire, reflections that move on their own, Charlie making that weird cluck sound - and it appears this is going to scare the ever-living crap out of you. To be sure, this is not your slasher/gore horror delight - this is more Babadook than Purge - with horror that is brought on as much by what you don't see and with a kick-ass score to unsettle the mood even more. I'm am looking forward to this so much, I'm willing to travel a bit further than usual to watch it. I'll see it next week and can't wait to see if it lives up to all the adulation it has been receiving.
The final new film this weekend is Hotel Artemis. Now, while this is not a John Wick spinoff, the trailer really reminds me of that action-heavy series. In this, a woman known as The Nurse (Jodie Foster) runs a special hotel in the middle of a near-future war-torn Los Angeles. Gangs and violence rule and our Nurse tends to those who are wounded - provided they meet the criteria for entry. The cast looks superb - Sterling K. Brown, Sofia Boutella, Jeff Goldblum, Zachary Quinto, Dave Bautista, Brian Tyree Henry, Jenny Slate, Charlie Day and Kenneth Choi are just a few of the names involved. Even if it doesn't live up to the sheer awesomeness that is John Wick, this looks like a solid action choice - plenty to like but it's hard to say if that will be enough to propel it to the top of the box office - but close is probably going to be good enough for Drew Pearce's wild ride.
As Solo fades away ever-so quickly, the door is wide open for a new blockbuster. Sure, we know Fallen Kingdom is going to blow everything away, but there are two weeks before it drops - we'll see what other films can distinguish themselves in the mean time.
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