Annabelle, Logan Lucky: 6 Promising Hollywood Films To Look Out For This August!

As the summer movie season winds up, and it becomes clear that 2017 has been a year for original movies and not sequels and reboots, we gear up for the dead zone.

August has traditionally been that time of the year where movies that couldn’t fit into the summer are dumped - like January. It’s neither here nor there. The big blockbusters have come and gone, and the awards contenders are still a couple of months away. So usually, we get a smattering of mid-budget thrilllers, horror movies, and leftover fare.

And August 2017 is no different. But we’ve sorted throught the mediocrity (hopefully), and pulled out six titles we’re looking forward to.

Atomic Blonde - August 11

After a couple of release date shuffles, it looks like we’ll finally get the Charlize Theron action movie this month. Directed by one half of the team behind John Wick, David Leitch, who’ll go on to helm Deadpool 2, Atomic Blonde retains a similar, stylish action style, and promises to cleanse our palette after Charlize’s turn in the Fate of the Furious.

The Hitman’s Bodyguard - August 18

While on paper this movie seems like it arrives two decades too late, those trailers were better than we’d anticipated. Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L Jackson seem to have genuine chemistry, and it’s been a while since we’ve seen a good R-rated comedy. Here’s hoping the CBFC doesn’t treat it like a summer project.

Annabelle: Creation - August 18

While the release date hasn’t yet been settled, Annabelle: Creation comes with terrific buzz. The movie, directed by Light Out’s David F Sandberg, premiered at the LA Film Festival in June and the word coming out of that screening is unbelievably good. It currently sits at 100% on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, a rarity for horror movies.

The Dark Tower - August 25

The first cinematic adaptation of Stephen King’s epic fantasy series had a rocky road to the theatre, but it’s finally here. They’re also being experimental with it, exploring a cross-platform technique which will see a TV follow-up and non-sequential storytelling. The first trailer was rather disappointing, but the subsequent material looks better, selling a more complete-looking film.

Logan Lucky - August 25

There is no other reason to watch this movie than the fact that it’s Steven Soderbergh’s grand return to directing feature films after he declared he would retire. In his ‘retirement’, the already prolific filmmaker directed two seasons of a great TV show (The Knick), executive produced another, and wrote a ‘novel’ on Twitter.

Death Note - August 25

But perhaps the highest-profile release of this week isn’t going to be shown in theatres at all. Netflix will release director Adam Wingard’s adaptation of the popular manga series worldwide, making it their third film this year designed to directly compete with theatrical offerings, after Brad Pitt’s War Machine and Bong Joon-ho’s Okja.