Among this week’s cinema releases, Count Dracula and his family set off on a leisure cruise for monsters in “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation,” Dwayne Johnson tackles a towering blaze, family rescue, and covert ops mission in “Skyscraper,” and a middle schooler can’t wait to leave a dreadful year behind in “Eighth Grade.” Meanwhile, Joaquin Phoenix plays a dryly humorous wheelchair-bound cartoonist in “Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot,” and Woody Harrelson and James Marsden take on the US Government in “Shock and Awe.”
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (PG)
Select release dates: July 12 – Brazil, Russia, Singapore; July 13 – Canada, USA, Vietnam; July 25 – France, Netherlands; July 27 – Ireland, UK; August 8 – South Korea; August 16 – Hong Kong; August 29 – Philippines; August 31 – South Africa. Since June in Oceania.
Story: Count Dracula embarks on a holiday cruise and falls for the ship’s captain.
Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky and starring Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Andy Samberg (all “Hotel Transylvania” franchise) and Kathryn Hahn (“Bad Moms”).
Skyscraper (PG-13)
Select release dates: July 11 – France; July 12 – Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong, Ireland, Netherlands, Russia, Singapore, UK; July 13 – Canada, USA, Vietnam, South Africa; July 20 – China
Story: Man-mountain with a prosthetic leg, Will Sawyer, deals with a burning skyscraper, and whoever framed him for its destruction, in order to save his wife and child.
Starring Dwayne Johnson (“Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” “Fast and Furious” franchise), Neve Campbell (“Scream” franchise, “House of Cards”), Chin Han (“Ghost in the Shell”)
and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber (“Central Intelligence,” “We’re the Millers”).
Eighth Grade (R)
US release date: July 13
Story: Based on the life of John Callahan who, crippled by a car accident at the age of 21, then became a controversial cartoonist.
Starring Joaquin Phoenix (“Her,” “Gladiator”), Jonah Hill (“21 Jump Street,” “The Wolf of Wall Street”), Rooney Mara (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”), Jack Black (“Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle”) and directed by Gus van Sant (“Good Will Hunting,” “Promised Land”).
Shock and Awe (R)
US release date: July 13
Story: In the lead up to the 2003 Iraq War, a team of reporters dig into the claim that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction and are disturbed by their findings.
Starring Woody Harrelson (“True Detective”), James Marsden (“X-Men,” “Westworld”), Jessica Biel (“The Sinner,” “The texas Chainsaw Massacre”), Tommy Lee Jones (“The Fugitive,” “Men in Black”) and directed by Rob Reiner (“A Few Good Men,” “Spinal Tap,” “The Princess Bride”).
