By Chris Kavan - 05/24/17 at 08:11 PM CT
The board has granted us a fine updated once again. Charlize Theron, fresh off her kick-ass performance in Mad Max: Fury Road looks to up the ante on her action quotient with Atomic Blonde. We get yet another take on the classic Monkey's Paw dilemma with the horror film Wish Upon and those crazy critters in City Park are back once again to protect their home in Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature. And while it doesn't have a release date just yet, I'm also happy to report that the long-awaited sequel Super Troopers 2 has also gotten its due. It looks like a fun update, let's get started!
Who says women can't be strong and sexy? Charlize Theron has proven she can be strong - Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road is one of the most impressive female characters to have come along in quite awhile. But it looks like she's taking that role, cranking the action back up to 11 but still keeping the sensuality alive as well. Atomic Blonde, based on the graphic novel by Antony Johnston, takes place during the Cold War. Lorraine Broughton (Theron) is a top MI6 agent, capable of using spycraft, sexuality and savagery in equal parts to get the job done. She is sent to Berlin in order to investigate the murder of a fellow agent and deliver a dossier of double agents safely out of the city. She meets up with the embedded station chief David Percival (James McAvoy) and starts to weave her way through a deadly game of cat and mouse. The trailer is simply phenomenal - I found myself having to catch my breath based on the teaser alone. Throw in the beautiful Sofia Boutella, along with Bill Skarsgård, John Goodman, Toby Jones and Eddie Marsan - well, that's a recipe for success. Theron may become the female version of John Wick - only even cooler. Rated R for sequences of strong violence, language throughout, and some sexuality/nudity.
Horror tends to be one of the genres that goes back to the same well again and again - changing things up every so slightly, but still the same old story. The upcoming Wish Upon looks to be another take of that old chestnut known as "The Monkey's Paw". Long story short, someone is granted an item of great power that allows them to be granted any wish but, of course, those wishes also come at a great price. Joey King (no stranger to horror having appeared in the excellent The Conjuring) is our subject and as soon as she begins to use the wishes for personal gain - it results in several gruesome deaths to those around her. It will be interesting to see how they shake things up - I mean, there is only so much you can do with the story, but I give most horror a change - usually streaming, so it could be decent. The film also stars Sherilyn Fenn, Elisabeth Röhm, Ryan Phillippe, Shannon Purser, Ki Hong Lee and Sydney Park. Rated PG-13 for violent and disturbing images, thematic elements and language.
I admit I have yet to see the first Nut Job movie - it just didn't hold as much interest to me as say, Zootopia or The Secret Life of Pets. Still, the movie did well enough ($120.88 million worldwide on a $42 million budget) to greenlight a sequel with the punny title The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature. In the original film, ostracized squirrel Surly (Will Arnett) was brought back in to the fold in order to raid a nut store (as well as being a front for some local bank robbers) in order for his fellow friends to survive (voiced by the likes of Brendan Fraser, Liam Neeson, Katherine Heigl, Stephen Lang, Maya Rudolph and Jeff Dunham). Now that the gang is back together, things seem better - until the local Oakton City Mayor (Bobby Moynihan) announces he is going to tear down the park in order to make way for a new (and quite shoddy) amusement park. It doesn't take long for the animals to form a plan to save their home. Most of the cast is back - Arnett, Heigl, Rudolph, Dunham are joined by the likes of Jackie Chan, Isabela Moner, Peter Stormare, Bobby Cannavale and Kari Wahlgren. I'm sure this will play well - but it's hard to say if this will be a case where the sequel will outperform the original or not. Rated Rated PG for action and some rude humor.
As promised, while it doesn't have a solid release date yet, the upcoming Super Troopers 2 has been granted a R rating for R for crude sexual content and
language throughout, drug material and some graphic nudity. The gang is back - Broken Lizard members Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Erik Stolhanske and Paul Soter with Brian Cox, Lynda Carter and Marisa Coughlan also reprising their roles as the captain, governor and Ursula. New faces include Emmanuelle Chriqui, Rob Lowe, Tyler Labine and Will Sasso. The plot is also currently unknown, but I freely admit the original Super Troopers is a guilty pleasure and totally hilarious. While the Broken Lizard crew has never quite been able to capture that magic with their follow-up films, who knows, maybe this will be a welcome surprise.
Those are the big films for the week, but the full MPAA Ratings Bulletin can be found below:
ARMED RESPONSE
Rated R for strong violence, some grisly images, and for language.
ATOMIC BLONDE
Rated R for sequences of strong violence, language throughout, and some sexuality/nudity.
BEATRIZ AT DINNER
Rated R for language and a scene of violence.
CARTELS
Rated R for strong violence, language and some drug use.
THE DISASTER ARTIST
Rated R for language throughout and some sexuality/nudity.
THE KING'S DAUGHTER
Rated PG for some violence, suggestive material and thematic elements.
THE NUT JOB 2: NUTTY BY NATURE
Rated PG for action and some rude humor.
S.W.A.T.: UNDER SIEGE
Rated R for violence and language throughout.
SCALES: MERMAIDS ARE REAL
Rated PG for some mild peril and thematic elements.
SUPER TROOPERS 2
Rated R for crude sexual content and language throughout, drug material and some graphic nudity.
WISH UPON
Rated PG-13 for violent and disturbing images, thematic elements and language.
