August movie preview: What you need to know about TMNT, Gran Turismo, Blue Beetle and more

Who says August is a bad month for movies? With Strays, Meg 2, Heart Of Stone, and an Adam Sandler film about a bat mitzvah, there's reason for optimism

By Mark Keizer | July 25, 2023 | 2:00pm

Film Features TMNT

August movie preview: What you need to know about TMNT, Gran Turismo, Blue Beetle and more

Clockwise from upper left: Blue Beetle (Warner Bros.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (Paramount), Meg 2: The Trench (Warner Bros.), Heart Of Stone (Netflix), Oldboy (Kino Lorber) Graphic: Libby McGuire

Barbenheimer is living up to its billing as a cinematic phenomenon and both films will still figure prominently in August. But the month also offers plenty of other multiplex pleasures. This, of course, wasn’t always the case. August used to be considered a dumping ground for cinema’s unwanted children. However, in the tentpole era, there are too many nine-digit behemoths and not enough weekends, so the summer movie season has slowly been extended into the eighth month of the year.

2016’s Suicide Squad currently holds the record for the biggest domestic August opening, a record that will probably not be broken in 2023. That said, next month offers an array of films. On the budgetary high side we have the promising (yes, it actually looks good) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, the cleverly conceived video game adaptation Gran Turismo, and DC’s Blue Beetle. But let’s not forget smaller releases like Casey Affleck’s melancholy story of musical redemption, Dreamin’ Wild, and the re-release of the South Korean classic Oldboy.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (in theaters, August 2)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem | Teaser Trailer (2023 Movie) - Seth Rogen

Cast: Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, Brady Noon, Ayo EdibiriDirector: Jeff RoweIt would take a lot for any Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot to earn the descriptor “highly anticipated.” But one look at the trailer for —with its school notebook-style animation and cheeky humor—and even we’re hooked. Seth Rogen is a producer here and, no matter what you think of him as an actor, he still helped birth Superbad, Sausage Party, Joy Ride, TV’s The Boys, and many other projects you gotta admit are funny. So you’ve got Rogen onboard as a producer and Jeff Rowe, from Netflix’s terrific The Mitchells Vs The Machines, as co-director. The voice cast for this seventh (really, seventh?) big-screen TMNT adventure is top-shelf for two reasons: 1) the teenage mutants are voiced by actual teenagers and 2), the all-star lineup includes Hannibal Buress, Rose Byrne, John Cena, Jackie Chan, Ice Cube, Ayo Edebiri, Giancarlo Esposito, Post Malone, Rogen, Paul Rudd, and Maya Rudolph. So color us green with excitement at the possibilities.

Dreamin’ Wild (in theaters, August 4)

Dreamin’ Wild | Official Trailer | In Theaters August 4

Cast: Casey Affleck, Noah Jupe, Zooey Deschanel, Walton Goggins, and Beau Bridges.Director: Bill Pohlad—the new film by Love & Mercy director Bill Pohlad—is based on an incredible story of second chances. In 1979, two teenage musician brothers, Don and Joe Emerson, recorded the album Dreamin’ Wild on their father’s 1,600-acre farm in rural Washington. The disc went nowhere, so the brothers gave up on their dream of musical stardom until the album was discovered over 30 years later at a Spokane, Washington, antique shop. From there, it received very belated airplay and acclaim, and the brothers suddenly found themselves living their musical fairy tale … three decades late.Casey Affleck and Walton Goggins play the adult Don and Joe, respectively, while Noah Jupe (A Quiet Place) plays Don as a teenage prodigy. Dreamin’ Wild played out of competition at the Venice Film Festival earlier this year where it received warm reviews. It’s said to be a melancholy tale of redemption and renewed purpose that also argues that once the dreams of youth give way to the realities of adulthood, there’s no going back, no matter how loud the applause.

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Meg 2: The Trench (in theaters, August 4)

MEG 2: THE TRENCH - OFFICIAL TRAILER

Cast: Jason Statham, Wu Jing, Sienna Guillory, Cliff Curtis, Skyler Samuels, Page KennedyDirector: Ben WheatleyBen Wheatley has always seemed on the cusp of making a great film (see: High-Rise and Free Fire) and while may not be the one to launch him onto the A-list, this fishtastic follow-up to the 2018 original Meg looks like a case of a director stooping to conquer. The film, about a giant fish that eats things, looks to be gleefully ridiculous in a way that suggests Deep Blue Sea combined with Sharknado. Jason Statham presumably had his scowl recharged for maximum side-eyed annoyance and he’s joined by a solid supporting cast that includes a returning Cliff Curtis and others who are destined to become fish food. The first film was knocked for not leaning hard enough into how stupid it obviously was. But that was director Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure) on auto-pilot. Wheatley is a much more idiosyncratic director, so the chomping and the dying and the screaming should contain more self-aware humor and irony. Here’s hoping Meg 2: The Trench gives us a shark with some smarts.

The Last Voyage Of The Demeter (in theaters, August 11)

The Last Voyage of the Demeter | Official Trailer

Cast: Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, Liam Cunningham, David Dastmalchian, Javier BotetDirector: André Øvredal In Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula, there is a chapter where the story is told in newspaper clippings and a captain’s log that recounts the ill-fated voyage of the Demeter, a Russian sailing ship traveling from Count Dracula’s Transylvanian estate containing cargo that may include (OK, it does include) a certain vampire. This one section of Stoker’s classic forms the basis of , which stars The Walking Dead’s Corey Hawkins as a doctor on the Demeter and Aisling Franciosi as an unlucky stowaway. The film reportedly took a couple of decades to finally get made, with James V. Hart, who wrote Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula movie, taking an early shot at the script. The directing assignment bopped around town until Trollhunter’s André Øvredal signed on. Adapting one chapter of a novel instead of an entire novel is an intriguing notion and, if the trailer is any indication, this looks to be a bumpy and fright-filled ride on some rough seas.

Oldboy (in theaters, August 16)

Oldboy 20th Anniversary Re-Release Trailer (2023)

Cast: Choi Min-Sik, Yoo Ji-Tae, Gang Hye-JungDirector: Park Chan-wookOne of South Korea’s greatest filmmakers returns with a remastered version of the 2003 thriller that would permanently enshrine him in the pantheon of world directors. is Park Chan-wook’s anguished, violent, and downright sadistic revenge thriller about a man released 15 years after being imprisoned in a hotel room for unknown reasons. Oldboy won the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and almost singlehandedly launched the English-language fascination with South Korean films and TV shows, allowing Squid Game, Parasite, Train To Busan, and countless others to seep into our collective nightmares.Oldboy contains some of modern cinema’s most arresting images, from the one-take corridor fight to the squirm-inducing close-up of star Choi Min-sik eating a live octopus. It is both poetic and repellent, ambiguous yet clear-minded. It works you over until you’re disgusted, thrilled, and exhausted.

Heart Of Stone (Netflix, August 11)

Heart of Stone | Gal Gadot | Official Trailer | Netflix

Cast: Gal Gadot, Jamie Dornan, Sophie Okendo, and Alia Bhatt.Director: Tom HarperIt seems Netflix will not stop launching would-be action franchises until every A-list star has one to call their own. Following in the questionable footsteps of Extraction, The Grey Man, The Old Guard, Bright, Mother, and The Adam Project, comes . The difference-maker here is Gal Gadot, who slam-dunked the near-impossible task of bringing Wonder Woman to the screen and making it a bonafide, satisfying hit. Here, Gadot plays an intelligence agent and member of an elite band of super spies who must protect an A.I. doodad called the Heart from a computer hacker. Achieving this goal will presumably require a lot of running, punching, kicking, and jumping.It all sounds pretty generic and invoking the name of director Tom Harper (2019’s The Aeronauts and a few episodes of Peaky Blinders) will hardly get your heart racing. However, the film is written by acclaimed comic book writer Greg Rucka, who’s written issues of Detective Comics and Wonder Woman for DC, and Elektra and Wolverine for Marvel. Given his four-color bonafides with Wonder Woman and that his first produced screenplay was Netflix’s female-fronted thriller The Old Guard, we’re starting to put it all together. So with Rucka and Gadot onboard, we’re feeling good that Heart Of Stone could break the curse of the Netflix action franchise launcher.

Blue Beetle (in theaters, August 18)

BLUE BEETLE | OFFICIAL FINAL TRAILER

Cast: Xolo Maridueña, Susan Sarandon, Harvey Guillén, George Lopez, Bruna Marquezine, and Raoul Max TrujilloDirector: Angel Manuel SotoBlue Beetle may be a minor superhero in the DC canon, but he recently won two big battles: the character graduated from a lower-profile drop on HBO Max to a full-blown theatrical release, and new DC overlord James Gunn said that Blue Beetle will be part of his master redesign for the DCEU. These two votes of confidence are all we need to line up for this Angel Manuel Soto-helmed franchise launcher. Cobra Kai’s Xolo Maridueña stars as Jaime Reyes, a recent college grad who comes to possess a magic scarab that transforms him into the star of a $120 million film. The trailers suggest that will lean on the family aspects of the story—George Lopez plays Reyes’ uncle—as well as Reyes’ Latino heritage, which only gets us more excited for the film’s mid-August release. Oscar winner Susan Sarandon co-stars as the villain, even more proof that it’s gonna be very difficult to stomp out this Beetle at the multiplex.

Strays (in theaters, August 18)

Strays | Official Trailer [HD]

Cast: Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Will Forte, Isla FisherDirector: Josh GreenbaumFans of R-rated free-for-alls like Ted and Sausage Party look to be the target audience for , a combo live-action/CGI comedy. Strays features a top-notch voice cast that includes Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, and Will Forte, which suggests some serious ad-libbing in the VO booth that could up the laugh quotient even more. Ferrell stars as a hopelessly optimistic Border terrier whose dirtbag owner, Doug (Forte), abandons him. When he meets a human-hating Boston terrier (Foxx), they embark on a journey to find Doug and enact the specific kind of revenge that could turn a man into a soprano. Isla Fisher and Randall Park also play anthropomorphized, wise-cracking dogs under the direction of Josh Greenbaum (Barb And Star Go To Vista Del Mar).

Gran Turismo (in theaters, August 25)

GRAN TURISMO - Official Trailer (HD)

Cast: David Harbour, Orlando Bloom, Archie Madekwe, Geri Halliwell Horner, and Djimon HounsouDirector: Neill BlomkampMy goodness, what happened to director Neill Blomkamp? After bursting onto the scene with his instant classic sci-fi allegory District 9, he’s been treading water on an Aliens sequel that never happened and a bunch of uninspiring follow-ups, including 2015’s WTF Chappie. The video game adaptation may not be sci-fi but it looks to revive Blomkamp’s stalled career, unless it’s 134 minutes of watching someone play the video game, in which case we’ll just go home and log on to Twitch.Luckily, the film has a clever and quite promising conceit; it’s based on the true story of Jann Mardenborough, the English son of a footballer, who parlayed his expertise playing Sony’s Gran Turismo video game into a 2011 victory at Nissan’s PlayStation GT Academy competition and then into a career as a professional race car driver. Archie Madekwe plays Mardenborough, who is otherwise known as the coolest dude on the face of the Earth. So given our enduring, and possibly foolhardy, love for Blomkamp and the smarter take on a video game adaptation, we’re hoping Gran Turismo finishes first, takes the checkered flag, or whatever car racing term you’d like to insert here.

Retribution (in theaters, August 25)

Retribution (2023) Official Trailer – Liam Neeson

Cast: Liam Neeson, Noma Dumezweni, Lilly Aspell, Jack Champion, Embeth Davidtz, and Matthew ModineDirector: Nimród AntalWell, it’s that time again: Liam Neeson is about to unleash his particular set of skills to bring justice to the big city by defeating mysterious wrongdoers who speak in hushed and menacing tones on cell phones. On the heels of Unknown, Non-Stop, The Commuter, and The Unknown Non-Stop Commuter comes , where Neeson—who, we must remind you, was once nominated for an Oscar—plays a Wall Street executive named Matt Truner who must follow the orders of an unknown bad guy or he’ll detonate the bomb in Matt’s car … that also happens to be carrying Matt’s children. Neeson’s sad slide into B-movie badassery is occasionally interrupted by a solid little thriller and we think Retribution could be the next good one. It’s got a tasty elevator pitch, a strong supporting cast (including Embeth Davidtz and Matthew Modine), and it’s based on the popular 2015 Spanish film El Desconocido. Plus, despite it all, we still love Liam Neeson. So you better see it because you don’t want to make Liam mad.