Despite the emergence of round-the-clock accessibility and Hollywood’s revved-up attempts to combat home viewing by putting out mind-blowingly expensive movies every 10 minutes or so, the annual cavalcade of Big Summer Movies is still a thing. This year’s slate is packed with the expected franchise installments and reboots, but there are also a few interesting big-budget one-offs and long-gestating arrivals as well. But which ones would be worth camping out in line for? Yeah, look, we know nobody camps out for movies that don’t have the word “Episode” or “Avengers” in their titles anymore, but in keeping with the theme of this year’s Summer Guide, here are 10 of the most hotly anticipated dog-days flicks, rated 1 to 5 tents on whether or not they’d be worth a night pitching one in the concrete jungle.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows Produced by brosplosion laureate Michael Bay, this second installment of the live-action TMNT reboot has at least one thing going for it: Making a movie more generally derided than the first one would be difficult. We’ll see — but anticipation isn’t exactly skyrocketing. (PG-13, June 3) 1 out of 5
The Conjuring 2: The Endfield Experiment Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga (aka Norman Bates's mom) take their earnest, long-glance-exchanging method of paranormal investigation to London for another famous case. Given that the first Conjuring was one of the better angry-spirit flicks of the past decade, genre fans are pretty excited about this sequel. (R, June 10) 4 out of 5
Finding Dory The sequel to one of Pixar’s most beloved? Duh. Bring the kids and make s’mores. (PG, June 17) 5 out of 5
Independence Day: Resurgence Most of the folks who saw Bill Pullman’s speechifying and Jeff Goldblum’s anxious patter between pat action scenes 20 years ago have probably aged out of regularly attending movies altogether. That said, nostalgia and patriotism are big draws; this looks like a faithfully updated sequel, and the name of America’s blowy-uppiest holiday is right there in the title. (Not Yet Rated, June 24) 3 out of 5
The Legend of Tarzan Everybody knows the story, it’s been forever since we’ve seen a live-action adaptation, and, let’s face it, the trailer for this one is creating quite a bit of buzz. We’ve all been fooled by that before, but with David Yates (the eye behind the last four Harry Potter films) directing Alexander Skarsgard, Margot Robbie and Samuel L. Jackson, at the very least this thing’s gonna be damn good-lookin’. (PG-13, July 1) 4 out of 5
Ghostbusters Director Paul Feig’s Femme-tastic Four reboot of the classic has stirred up a lot of meaningless controversy, but whatever — Feig’s got both a great cast and a successful track record on his side. Folks will be lined up not only to enjoy it, though, but also to tear it down. (Not Yet Rated, July 15) 5 out of 5
Star Trek Beyond In the wake of Into Darkness’ Khan fiasco, the rebooted Trek franchise seems to have lost some momentum. This installment — helmed by Justin Lin, director of multiple The Fast & The Furious sequels, and co-written by cast member Simon Pegg — may put it back on track, but there does seem to be some trepidation. (Not Yet Rated, July 22) 2 out of 5
Ice Age: Collision Course Manny, Sid and the whole prehistoric gang are back, and dealing with an extinction level event. If you’ve got kids, you’ve probably already got tickets reserved. (Not Yet Rated, July 22) 4 out of 5
Suicide Squad And the most heavily buzzed movie of the summer comes courtesy of the DC Comics universe. Jared Leto as The Joker? Harley Quinn? Will Smith, for some reason? Could be a watershed, could be a mess, but there’s no question that diehard comics fans, mainstream action-movie fans, and the entire Harley fandom are all pretty fucking worked up. (Not Yet Rated, Aug. 5) 5 out of 5
Pete’s Dragon Not one of Disney’s highest-profile properties, but a beloved one nonetheless. This live-action version — starring Robert Redford and Bryce Dallas Howard — looks to deviate from some of the original story’s plot points, but there’s no doubt some folks are expecting to have their inner child riled. (PG, Aug. 12) 4 out of 5
This article appears in May 26 – Jun 2, 2016.