The Most Anticipated Movies of the Second Half of 2024
Has this been the best year in the history of movies? It has not. However, as I recently pointed out, there has been some great stuff nonetheless. Whether it’s because of last year’s strike slowing down production or just the simple fact that we rarely get back-to-back years of absolute bangers (and yes, last year was def banger-heavy), 2024 has been fine and it’ll continue to be just that. Yet, amongst all the date fillers (or lack thereof), there are some very good movies on the horizon (that’s lower case “horizon,” don’t get smart).
We got some big stuff, some weird stuff, and some stuff that I’m not really sure who even asked for it, but I’m pleased regardless (and yes, I indeed will be entertained). Here are the seven movies I’m looking forward to most the rest of the year.
Want to read about some of this year’s best performances so far? Head right this way.
Deadpool & Wolverine (7/26)
Do you have something smarmy to say about Ryan Reynolds? Or would you like to discuss how Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine already died on film? I don’t give a flying fuck. Look, we all contain multitudes and one of mine is that I like wisecracking assassins who make dumb fourth wall-breaking jokes that involve the Disney corporation and pegging. Sue me. This movie is already predicted to make roughly a gajillion dollars and will somehow act as a bridge between the existing Marvel properties and the recently acquired Fox properties (X-Men, The Fantastic Four, etc.) while potentially resetting the entire MCU and appealing to all the Deadpool-loving dummies who liked the previous two movies because they weren’t MCU-ish. Will it work? I hope so. Will I still enjoy it even if it’s somehow god awful? Yes, yes I will.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (9/6)
You know what’s a pretty fucking weird film? Beetlejuice. For those of you haven’t watched it recently, here’s the basic synopsis (and the original trailer if you’re uninterested in reading words not my own, bless your heart):
After Barbara (Geena Davis) and Adam Maitland (Alec Baldwin) die in a car accident, they find themselves stuck haunting their country residence, unable to leave the house. When the unbearable Deetzes (Catherine O'Hara, Jeffrey Jones) and teen daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder) buy the home, the Maitlands attempt to scare them away without success. Their efforts attract Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), a rambunctious spirit whose "help" quickly becomes dangerous for the Maitlands and innocent Lydia.
The weird shit that isn’t mentioned here includes Beetlejuice (who is many hundreds, if not thousands, of years… dead) trying to wed teen Lydia, an alternative reality full of sandworms that’s basically Dune, and an ending musical number involving Harry Belafonte’s “Jump in the line (Shake, Senora).” Man, the ‘80s were wild.
Now, when I heard this movie was happening, I was concerned. Michael Keaton, who plays the frantic Beetlejuice, is 72 years old. Winona Ryder, who’s had a nice late-career resurgence with Stranger Things, was very late to sign on. And ol’ Timmy Burton hasn’t made a good movie in… 20+ years (hell yeah, Big Fish). But then mumblings started coming out from the set: Jenna Ortega would be joining as Lydia’s daughter… Burton was committed to doing as many visual effects practically as possible… Fucking Monica Bellucci would be appearing! And once the trailer dropped and you could see they’d be following more of the Beetlejuice cartoon model with Lydia and the undead ghoul teaming up for hijinks, I realized that this movie had potential to be very odd and delightful. I’m fully in.
Wolfs (9/20)
Ocean’s 11 is one of my favorite movies of all time. Ocean’s 12 is wonderful and has one of my favorite movie scenes ever. Ocean’s 13 is better than you think and yes, the nose plays. Ocean’s 8 is OK, but Rhianna as a world class hacker in Ocean’s 8 is fantastic. There are also rumors of a ‘60s Ocean’s prequel starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, which could be very fun. But there hasn’t really been another movie that’s nailed what was so perfect about the first 2000s-era Ocean’s film. Well, that is until now because now we have Wolfs. I mean, just watch this shit:
Clooney and Pitt playing dueling hitmen/mysterious criminals that make your problems disappear? A story that appears to take place over the course of one night when they realize their mark is actually… alive? What more could you want!? Nothing. The answer is literally nothing. Wolfs could actually be terrible and I’d still love it. But between the two guys on the poster and director Jon Watts on a mission to prove that he can do more than make good Spiderman movies, it has the potential to be one of the surprise delights of the movie year.
Megalopolis (9/27)
I’m gonna let you into the trust circle for a second. I completely forgot about Megalopolis somehow – that is until I went to pour myself a glass of Francis Ford Coppola Sauvignon Blanc and had the following sequence of thoughts:
1. I wonder what Francis does with all that wine money?
2. What wine money? He bet the entire farm (aka his own fortune) on fucking Megalopolis!
Roll the tape…
There’s a lot to like/fear/wonder about this movie. For instance:
Yes.
Less yes.
Look, there’s no way to sugarcoat this: Megalopolis is the most likely movie on this list to be an absolute disaster. The early reviews have been… tough. The early screenings included a sequence where an actor appeared in the theater to have an actual conversation with a character from the film. As such, film execs didn’t exactly see a way to widely distribute the movie. Or market it. Or really do anything with it.
But the good folks at Legendary, who are still counting their money from Dune 2’s success earlier this year, decided to step up and “distribute” the film. Aka, they’ll put it in theaters and do nothing else to ensure its success. If nothing else, Megalopolis is the final film from the man who made the Godfather trilogy, Apocalypse Now!, and Jack, an absolutely unhinged trio of properties to include in one sentence. It’s going to be ambitious and absurd and extremely allegorical and if you care about true cinema, do yourself a favor and go see it on a big ass screen with an edible in hand.
Gladiator 2 (11/22)
I wrote a whole separate breakdown of this trailer because of how sick it is. Check it out.
As someone named Max, the film Gladiator is very important to me. And yes, I do think about the Roman Empire quite often as a result. It is the apex of historical epics (the film, not that rather bloody period of history). It’s the apex of Russel Crowe and maybe Ridley Scott. It is the apex of speeches that get overused in emotional pre-game sports montages I watch on the internet sometimes. And for years, there have been talks of a sequel – the first of which was written by musician Nick Cave and involved Maximus questing through the underworld in search of his wife and son’s lost souls, which honestly sounds rad as hell (you can read the script, in its entirety, here. If you do, I will take you to see Gladiator II).
However, it never happened. And so we soldiers of the North and members of the Felix Legions waited until a year or so ago when it was announced that Gladiator II was going into production and would be centered around an adult Lucius played by five-inch-inseam enthusiast, Paul Mescal. Even better, Denzel god damn Washington would be playing the potential mentor figure, Hannibal (a la Oliver Reed in the previous movie). And Barry Keoghan would be playing another villainous emperor, although he was sadly replaced so he could star in a movie called Bird where he looks like this. UPDATE: There are two emperors now and they look positively insane!
While it’s easy to point your finger at Mescal as being the lynchpin of the film, it might actually be Scott who will decide what kind of movie we end up getting. Your mileage may vary on his recent filmography (The Martian? Great film. The Last Duel and House of Gucci? Interesting and fun-ish! Exodus: Gods and Kings? What in the actual fuck?), but if the 86-year-old Sir Ridley can bottle even half the magic of the original into the sequel, I’ll be happy. Oh and Napoleon? I don’t care, I will love this moment until the day you pull it from my cold, dead, historically-inaccurate thumbs down’d fingers.
LOTR: The War of the Rohirrim (12/13)
My interest in anime varies, but as someone who actually watched the entire first season of The Rings of Power and didn’t completely roll my eyes at it, The War of the Rohirrim is definitely in my hobbit-sized bag. Set 183 years before LOTR, this story covers an epic war between the riders of Rohan, led by Helm Hammerhead (the namesake of Helm’s Deep) and some dudes called the Dunlendings, who sound pretty sick. Will I go to the theater to see this? Probably not. Will I thoroughly enjoy watching it on a random Thursday night, drink in hand, pointing and whistling at the TV whenever I recognize any reference that any character makes to something from LOTR? Absolutely. Did I mention Brian Cox is voicing Lord Hammerhead? I, he, we.. we’re all lovin’ it.
Nosferatu (12/25)
Just in time to celebrate our lord Jesus H. Christ’s 2024th birthday, we get my single most anticipated movie of the year: the actual prodigal son Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu remake. Merry Christmas, lizards.
Do you like a gothic bloodbath? I know I do. But even if you don’t, the cast itself – which features Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bill Skarsgård as Count Orlok himself, Lily-Rose Depp, and Eggers’ main dude (and soon-to-be Marvel big bad) Ralph Ineson – is reason enough to get excited. My favorite detail of this movie so far, however – aside from Eggers being the modern day king of blending extraordinarily well-researched period-specific detail and horror – is Willem Dafoe’s casting.
While he appears to be playing a mad professor, it’s his previous role in the 2000 movie Shadow of the Vampire that’s such a fun little Easter egg for Nosferatu. Shadow of the Vampire is the story of the making of the original silent German film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror from 1922 (that shit is so metal) in which Dafoe plays a creepy actor named Max Schreck who’s cast as Count Orlock, but turns out to be – wait for it – an actual vampire. It’s the first time I remember watching Dafoe and it was without a doubt the scariest performance I’d ever seen to that point in my life.
As someone who’s fascinated by The Witch, lovingly perplexed by The Lighthouse, and thought The Northman ruled pretty damn hard, I’m psyched for anything Robert Eggers makes. But a hyper-period accurate Nosferatu movie on Christmas Day? It’s really gonna be the most wonderful time of the year.
