Summer Movie Guide 2024: From Deadpool to Alien, Here's the Must-See Movies to Watch For

Hit Man – June 7th (Netflix)

As proven in both Top Gun: Maverick and Anyone But You, Glen Powell has become one of the hotter new performers who manages to blend a snarky charm with leading-man sensibilities, resulting in director Richard Linklater tapping him to star in the all-new romantic action comedy Hit Man. While it was more of an ensemble piece, Powell previously worked with Linklater in the 1980-set Everybody Wants Some!!.

Based on a true story, when a professor Gary Johnson (Powell) realizes his untapped potential of inhabiting different identities, he’s enlisted by local authorities to pose as a variety of different hit men in hopes of apprehending would-be criminals. Complications arise when he falls for one such criminal (Adria Arjona), forcing Gary to balance his own identities, that of his fake hit men, and also woo his newfound love interest.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die – June 7th

Even with the disappointment that the fourth entry into the series couldn’t embrace the «Bad Boys 4 Life» moniker, fans are still looking forward to the latest installment of the franchise with Bad Boys: Ride or Die, bringing back Will Smith’s Mike Lowrey and Martin Lawrence’s Marcus Burnett for an all-new adventure.

This time around, the unconventional detectives discover that their former captain, Conrad Howard (Joe Pantoliano), is posthumously framed for working for a drug cartel, which ignites a mission to uncover the truth of the conspiracy to find out who set up their late superior.

Joining Smith and Lawrence are Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Paola Núñez, Jacob Scipio, and DJ Khaled, with Ride or Die being directed by Bad Boys for Life and Batgirl directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah.

The Watchers – June 7th

For more than two decades, the name «Shyamalan» has been synonymous with twisted tales of terror, thanks to filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan having given us movies like The Sixth Sense, Signs, The Visit, and Knock at the Cabin, but with the upcoming The Watchers, his daughter Ishana Night Shyamalan shows that the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.

Keeping in line with her father’s filmmaking sensibilities, the actual plot of The Watchers has been kept under wraps, with trailers showing a bizarre world in which people are living out their lives in a strange shelter in the middle of the woods that is equipped with a massive two-way mirror, allowing strange «watchers» to witness their daily activities despite the inhabitants not being able to see their audience.

The Watchers stars Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finnegan, and Olwen Fouéré.

Inside Out 2 – June 14th

It’s been a challenging few years for Pixar, as many of their releases were stifled of reaching their potential due to the coronavirus pandemic, as films like Onward, Soul, and Luca all had their theatrical releases compromised. The Toy Story spinoff Lightyear then had to overcome a complicated premise that fans had trouble grasping, while Elemental earned mixed reactions from critics and audiences, though ultimately proved to be a long-time earner at the box office. While their latest effort has been years in the making, Inside Out 2 marks a return to one of the studio’s more ambitious narratives of the last decade and a storyline that is rife with storytelling opportunities.

The first Inside Out explores the inner workings of the young Riley struggling with adolescence and her family making a major move, with this sequel bringing back Riley (Kensington Tallman) to explore the emotions of a 13-year-old girl. Amy Poehler (Joy), Phyllis Smith (Sadness), and Lewis Black (Anger) return to reprise their roles, while Tony Hale takes over for Bill Hader (Fear) and Liza Lapira takes over for Mindy Kaling (Disgust), while all-new emotions are voiced by Maya Hawke (Anxiety), Ayo Edebiri (Envy) Adèle Exarchopoulos (Ennui), and Paul Walter Hauser (Embarrassment).

A Quiet Place: Day One – June 28th

A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place Part II became hits with both audiences and critics alike, and while both of these films focused on the harrowing events that the Abbott family endured, A Quiet Place: Day One marks the first spinoff in the franchise, as it explores what other characters in this world experienced on the first day of an alien invasion.

The first two films highlighted relatively suburban locales and how the remote nature of these settings allowed the Abbott family to avoid monstrous creatures that hunted by sound a bit more easily due to isolation, yet Day One instead heads to New York City, chronicling how terror unfolded in a metropolis.

A Quiet Place: Day One was directed by Michael Sarnoski and stars Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff, and Djimon Hounsou.

Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter I – June 28th

Kevin Costner has spent the last few years playing the patriarch of the Dutton family in the fan-favorite Yellowstone, and while the actor is exiting the popular franchise, he won’t be straying away from the world of Westerns for long, thanks to his upcoming epic Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter I.

Directed by, co-written by, and starring Costner, this first chapter of the sprawling saga will chronicle the four years of the American Civil War, depicting the trials and tribulations of the hardships faced by families between from 1861 to 1865.

Joining Costner are Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Giovanni Ribisi, Jena Malone, Abbey Lee, Michael Rooker, Danny Huston, Luke Wilson, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jeff Fahey, Will Patton, Tatanka Means, Owen Crow Shoe, Ella Hunt, Jamie Campbell Bower and Thomas Haden Church.

Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2 is set to hit theaters on August 16th.

Despicable Me 4 – July 3rd

The latest entry in the Despicable Me franchise was 2022’s Minions: The Rise of Gru, with the upcoming Despicable Me 4 marking the first new entry in the proper series since 2017’s Despicable Me 3.

Gru (Steve Carell), wife Lucy (Kristen Wiig), their three adopted daughters Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), and Agnes (Madison Polan), as well as Gru Jr. are back for another adventure, with the latest movie seeing them become the target of up-and-coming supervillain Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell) and his girlfriend Valentina (Sofia Vergara).

Joey King, Chloe Fineman, Stephen Colbert, and Steve Coogan all also lend voices to the movie.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (Netflix) – July 3rd

Back in 2021, Eddie Murphy delivered the Prime Video movie Coming 2 America, the long-awaited sequel to 1988’s Coming to America. The actor is once again returning to a familiar property to develop a new story for a fan-favorite character, this time reviving Beverly Hills Cop‘s Axel Foley.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, the first new installment since 1994’s Beverly Hills Cop III, sees Murphy’s Axel returning to the posh California locale when he discovers that his daughter’s life has been threatened.

Murphy isn’t the only veteran of the franchise returning for the new adventure, as he’s joined by Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot from the original films, while also adding Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Taylour Paige, and Kevin Bacon into the fray.

Space Cadet – (Prime Video) July 4th

After playing the iconic role of Mary Parker, Peter Parker’s mother, in Madame Web earlier this year, Emma Roberts is getting to revive her comedic chops for Prime Video’s Space Cadet. Back in 2020, Roberts’ Holidate on Netflix was one of the streamer’s bigger hits of the year and Space Cadet looks to find similar success on Prime Video.

In hopes of turning her life around and fulfilling her dream of going to space, Tiffany «Rex» Simpson (Roberts) gets into NASA, thanks to a bit of «doctoring» on her application. Despite her resume embellishments, Rex uses her passion for her dream and her quick thinking to stand out in the highly competitive program to prove herself. Also starring in the film are Tom Hopper, Poppy Liu and Gabrielle Union, Kuhoo Verma, and Desi Lydic.

MaXXXine – July 5th

Filmmaker Ti West, a fan-favorite in the indie horror community, earned one of his biggest releases in 2022 with X, thanks to his collaboration with A24, and while that project was intended to be a standalone experience, the unique quarantine protocols of filming a horror movie during the coronavirus pandemic led he and Mia Goth to also develop the prequel Pearl, which was released later that year.

MaXXXine is set to close out the trilogy, serving as a sequel to X in which Goth’s Maxine aims to make a name for herself in Hollywood after all of her friends were brutally murdered, all while the real-life Night Stalker murderer stalks Los Angeles in the process.

West once again serves as the writer/director, with this new installment adding Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Lily Collins, Halsey, Giancarlo Esposito, and Kevin Bacon.

Longlegs – July 12th

Based solely on the pedigree of those involved with Longlegs, this project is one of the most anticipated indie horror movies of the year. Starring Nicolas Cage and The Guest and It Follows star Maika Monroe, Longlegs was written and directed by Osgood Perkins, who previously delivered audiences The Blackcoat’s Daughter and Gretel & Hansel. The film also comes from studio NEON, who delivered this year’s Immaculate and previously having offered up Possessor and Infinity Pool.

Little is known about the intricacies of the plot of Longlegs, outside of it exploring the pursuit of a serial killer by an FBI agent, but the previously released teasers and images offer up eerie and unsettling imagery, leaving our imaginations to run wild when it comes to the terror that Longlegs will contain.

Twisters – July 19th

The original Twister was a seminal summer blockbuster of the ’90s, as it was released at a time in which practical and CG effects were blended seamlessly to create an action-packed adventure that was also full of plenty of humor. With that film focusing on a group of storm chasers researching tornados, it didn’t seem to inherently require a sequel, though Twisters aims to recapture the spirit of the original without necessarily including much narrative connection.

Twisters comes from Minari director Lee Isaac Chung and stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell as a pair of storm chasers with entirely different approaches to capturing the power of tornados, though they become intertwined when they each offer one another unique insight into harnessing the intensity of the weather.

Also starring in the film are Anthony Ramos, Maura Tierney, Brandon Perea, Daryl McCormack, Sasha Lane, Kiernan Shipka, and Nik Dodani.

Deadpool & Wolverine – July 26th

With Deadpool & Wolverine being the third entry into the financially and critically successful Deadpool film series, that’s already reason enough for audiences to be excited for this outing, but when you add in the fact that this is Deadpool’s first official entry within the Marvel Cinematic Universe and that it sees Hugh Jackman coming out of his seeming retirement of playing Wolverine, and this movie is arguably the