Sun screens: The movies you need to watch this summer

From WWII to Wonder Woman, here are the blockbusters you need to be paying attention to this summer.

By SHAWN RODGERS
Gal Gadot stars as the fierce Amazon warrior princess out to save the world in ‘Wonder Woman' (photo credit: COURTESY OF SHALMOR PR)
Gal Gadot stars as the fierce Amazon warrior princess out to save the world in ‘Wonder Woman'
(photo credit: COURTESY OF SHALMOR PR)
Summer is officially upon us, and there are few better ways to beat the heat than to spend a couple of hours in a nice, air-conditioned movie theater. So if you love popcorn movies full of horse-riding apes, WWII battles, cursed Egyptian mummies, Amazonian warrior princesses and Charlize Theron effortlessly murdering rows of Russian spies, it’s time to celebrate.
‘Wonder Woman’
According to a survey of moviegoers by the online ticketing service Fandango, Wonder Woman is the most anticipated summer movie. Our very own Gal Gadot stars as the title character in the epic action-adventure from director Patty Jenkins. Gadot stars as the young Amazon princess who decides to use her powers to aid mankind during the First World War. Chris Pine co-stars as the US pilot whose crash-landing alerts the future Wonder Woman to the outside world.
According to Gadot, intensive training in swordsmanship, horse riding and kickboxing was harder than the Israeli army training: “I was a dancer for 12 years and learning the fight choreography reminded me a lot of dancing. I thought I was going to love horse riding because it always looked easy, but it was not easy at all, it was super painful.”
Wonder Woman also stars Connie Nielsen, Robin Wright and Danny Huston.
Wonder Woman will be released in Israel on June 1.
‘The Mummy’
Think Mission Impossible with a side of the undead. Tom Cruise headlines a spectacular, all-new cinematic version of the legend of The Mummy.
Cruise stars as Nick Morton, a man who awakens the ancient evil Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella) and becomes the conduit for her return to power. As Morton tries to figure out how to stop the Mummy, he’ll seek the aid of Annabelle Wallis’ Jenny Halsey and Russell Crowe’s Dr. Jekyll – yes, that Dr. Jekyll.
According to Variety, for a plane crash sequence in the film Cruise did 64 takes in zero gravity. The sequence took two days to shoot and four high-altitude flights. “There was a lot of barfing,” said Alex Kurtzman, the film’s writer and director.
Universal Studios hopes to build a cinematic universe out of its vault of classic creature features. Other potential films revolve around the characters of Dracula, Frankenstein, the Invisible Man, the Bride of Frankenstein, and vampire hunter Van Helsing.
The Mummy will be released in Israel on June 15.
‘War for the Planet of the Apes’
War for the Planet of the Apes is near the top of many most-anticipated lists this summer, and for good reason. Its predecessor was one of the strongest offerings of 2014 from both a technical and narrative perspective and viewers can’t wait to see where the story goes from there. This time around, Caesar (Andy Serkis) and his apes are forced into a deadly conflict with an army of humans led by a ruthless Colonel (Woody Harrelson). After the apes suffer unimaginable losses, Caesar wrestles with his darker instincts and begins his own mythic quest to avenge his kind.
The final teaser for the film caused some headlines recently as it featured the voice of the late Charlton Heston, who starred in the first two films in the original Planet of the Apes franchise. But the lines are not from an old Planet of the Apes film, they are actually a vintage audio recording of Heston quoting William Faulkner’s famous Nobel Prize-winning acceptance speech in 1950.
War for the Planet of the Apes will be released in Israel on July 13.
‘Dunkirk’
Christopher Nolan has become a household name, largely thanks to his role in revitalizing the Batman franchise in Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises. Now, Nolan will try to make his mark on the period war genre, with his World War II epic, Dunkirk.
When Hitler’s army smashed through Northern France in the spring of 1940, the British Expeditionary Force and a few Allied divisions were knocked back to the port city of Dunkirk. Surrounded, with their backs to the English Channel, hundreds of thousands of soldiers faced capture or certain doom. Until, that is, some 800 civilian watercraft – merchant ships, fishing boats, yachts, dinghies – joined the Royal Navy in an operation that, over eight days, ferried nearly 340,000 Allied troops to safety in Britain.
In a recent interview with Fandango, Nolan said “I think people who know the story of Dunkirk, in particular, may be surprised by the intensity of the experience. It’s a very suspenseful story and we really try to do justice to that. The pacing is relentless, and the story and action scenes are extraordinarily intense.”
Dunkirk stars Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh and Cillian Murphy.
Dunkirk will be released in Israel on July 20.
‘Atomic Blonde’
Charlize Theron stars as Her Majesty’s most lethal (and sexiest!) assassin in the action packed spy thriller Atomic Blonde. The film takes place in Berlin, in 1989 – a time when Communism still divided the city and the Berlin Wall was in its final days. British MI6 spy Lorraine Broughton (Theron) is sent to Berlin in order to retrieve a dossier of double agents who are being smuggled into the West.
While on the mission, she pairs up with fellow spy David Percival (James McAvoy) and the two take on a mysterious – and lethal – espionage ring. The movie is based the Antony Johnston graphic novel The Coldest City, which Theron purchased the rights to five years ago.
According to Variety, Theron went through some serious stuff while filming the movie.
“My teeth are in bad shape,” Theron said. “I’m actually still undergoing surgery. It’s really crazy. When I trained, I cracked two teeth in the back of my mouth, clenching while fighting, because apparently my arm strength wasn’t strong enough.” She had to complete an operation before the shoot started. “And I’m still f#@king dealing with it.”
Atomic Blonde also stars John Goodman, Til Schweiger, Eddie Marsan, Sofia Boutella and Toby Jones.
Atomic Blonde will be released in Israel on July 27.