A Summer Of Sequels, And More

Jurassic World, Terminator: Genisys, Pixar’s Inside Out, and Amy Schumer’s Trainwreck. We’ll preview this summer at the movies.

Arnold Schwarzenegger shot his first Terminator film in 1984. As promised, he’s back. In 2015! And he’s not alone, hopping out of the way back machine. Mad Max. Mission Impossible. Jurassic Park – now “world” – all back this summer. It’s summer movie time travel. But there’s more. An Amy Winehouse documentary. A David Foster Wallace road trip. Ant Man. Minions. Paper Towns. Dope. Spy. And the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson’s Love and Mercy. This hour On Point: we talk summer films, 2015 with A.O. Scott of the New York Times and Rotten Tomatoes’ Grae Drake.
-- Tom Ashbrook

Grae Drake, senior editor at Rotten Tomatoes. (@graedrake)

A. O. Scott, chief film critic for the New York Times. (@aoscott)

New York Times: This Summer’s Action Heroes Are Several Shades of Gray — "Out in the real world, Americans live longer, more active lives — life expectancy hovers around 80 for both sexes — and the legions of retiring baby boomers and graying Gen Xers are not going quietly into the pop-cultural twilight. Rock ’n’ roll dinosaurs sell out stadiums, and the comic books and movies once beloved by today’s parents and grandparents are continually recycled for millennial consumption. Maybe that stuff is just better, and its durability is a matter of quality. Or maybe the people who think so — who are loyal to the movie and rock stars who defined their own adolescence and early adulthood — are still flexing their muscles in the marketplace."

The Wall Street Journal: Hollywood Digs Into Archives to Revive Old Franchises — "Tina Turner had it wrong. Apparently we do need another hero. 'Mad Max: Fury Road' brings the infuriated Aussie back to the big screen for the first time since Ms. Turner sang the theme song to 'Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome' in 1985. Tom Hardy is the hero now, instead of Mel Gibson. 'Fury Road' kicks off a throwback summer-movie season when studios are digging up movie franchises that had seemed buried for ages. Maybe it’s just a coincidence that one of them literally is about reviving dinosaurs."

Bloomberg Business: This Year's Summer Box Office Could Be the Largest Ever -- "Ticket sales for all of 2015 are widely predicted to set a record, with domestic revenue possibly growing as much as 6 percent to more than $11 billion.Reaching that number hinges on summer films — releases from May 1 to Labor Day weekend that typically account for 40 percent of the annual box office. In past years, studios have released big films in April to avoid cannibalizing each others’ ticket sales."