TEN SUMMER MOVIE STUNNERS, SURPRISES, BOMBS
Let’s be clear: This summer was a huge bummer as far as most tent-pole movies were concerned. But never fear -there were a few cinematic bright spots. USA TODAY’s movie team anoints the good, the bad and the (very) ugly of the box-office offerings these past few sweltering months. (Plus, a few shoutouts to films we still think you should see.)
KING OF SUMMER: CAPTAIN AMERICA
Sure, he may have been surpassed at the domestic box office by a fish. But Chris Evans’ star-spangled Avenger made a huge splash with Captain America: Civil War (No. 1 for the year to date worldwide), took on his buddy Iron Man (and kind of won) and introduced new friends Spider-Man and Black Panther. Oh, yeah, he finally kissed a girl, too. Way to go, Cap!
MOST DISMAL: ALL THE SEQUELS
We love you, Hollywood, but this summer of sequels needed rebooting almost immediately. Mutant heroes and talking animals faced the end of the world in mediocre fashion in X-Men: Apocalypse and Ice Age: Collision Course -- is it bad that we rooted against them? That’s not all: Alice Through the Looking Glass was a disastrous trip to Wonderland, Jason Bourne and Star Trek Beyond managed only to be so-so next chapters in huge franchises, and perhaps the aliens should have won 20 years ago so we could have been spared Independence Day: Resurgence.
CRUSH OF SUMMER: KATE MCKINNON
The Saturday Night Live standout was at her nerdy best in the new Ghostbusters as Jillian Holtzmann, GIF-ready driver of the Ecto-1 and the team’s goggled, wild-haired spark plug. In a period when politics and Internet hate got us down, the sight of her dancing to DeBarge’s Rhythm of the Night took all those blues away.
BEST UPPERCLASSMAN: ELLEN DEGENERES
How did Pixar’s Finding Dory swim gracefully through a summer stocked with reviled sequels? Give credit to DeGeneres, who reprised her beloved regal blue tang Dory from 2003’s Finding Nemo, and a story that made the return not only plausible but somehow profoundly necessary.
SUPERHERO WHO DESERVED TO FLUNK OUT: CAPTAIN BOOMERANG
No supervillain emerged unscathed from the critically slammed mess of Suicide Squad. But Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney) was the biggest clunker, with the atrocious misuse of Aussie clich?s as his most lethal weapons, from his boomerang throwing to his lager swilling.
BEST MOVIE WITHOUT ONE SUPERHERO: ’HUNT FOR THE WILDER-PEOPLE’
A chubby foster kid runs off into the bush with a surly woodsman, with New Zealand police in pursuit. Director Taika Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows) won us over with his droll adventure comedy, which began its run at Sundance Film Festival and helped pave the way for Waititi to score his latest gig, directing Thor: Ragnarok. Cheers, mate.
GEM YOU MISSED (SHAKES FIST): ’POPSTAR: NEVER STOP NEVER STOPPING’
Seriously, why didn’t any of you go see this? We tried to tell you that the Lonely Island’s latest This Is Spinal Tap-like mockumentary (which skewers the likes of Justin Bieber and the entire music industry) was hilarious, but, no, you let it slink off with a sad $9.5 million take at the box office. Here’s hoping fans shower Popstar with the cult comedy status it deserves when it hits Netflix.
BEST LATE ARRIVAL: MERYL STREEP
The ads for Florence Foster Jenkins were underwhelming at best. And Oscar bait released in August? Few movies (unless they’re called The Help) manage that feat. But once we saw Streep playing a wealthy, tone-deaf socialite who insists on singing wretchedly for the masses, we fell hard. There’s no resisting you, Meryl. Not even when your purposefully lethal pitch almost cracks the screen.
BEST FULL FRONTAL: VIGGO MORTENSEN
Captain Fantastic only sounds like a superhero movie. It’s actually a touching and often hilarious story of an ideologically rigid dad (Mortensen) raising his family off the grid. Ben causes a big stir when he heads to civilization (in this case, a trailer park), notably his preference for sipping morning coffee in the nude. Viggo sure puts it all out there in this memorable performance
BEST MOVIE WE CAN’T BELIEVE GOT MADE: ’WEINER’
There’s not a lot left that can shock us after this movie season, which showcased farting corpses (Swiss Army Man), lesbian necrophilia (The Neon Demon) and bachelors being turned into animals (The Lobster). But our jaws were on the floor for the entirety of this comically cringe-worthy documentary, an all-access look at ex-congressman Anthony Weiner’s disastrous run for New York mayor amid a second sexting scandal.