Your Ultimate Guide to This Summer’s Best Movies

Don’t miss any of the action with our critics’ picks of what’s coming and where to watch

Tim Appelo,

AARP

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En español

Published May 18, 2023

/ Updated July 05, 2023

cillian murphy stars as j robert oppenheimer in a promotional poster for the film oppenheimer tom cruise stars as ethan hunt in mission impossible dead reckoning part one and margot robbie stars in the film barbie

(Left to right) Cillian Murphy in "Oppenheimer," Tom Cruise in "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One" and Margot Robbie in "Barbie."

Universal Pictures; Christian Black/Paramount Pictures; Warner Bros. Pictures

Everyone ready for the movies to come back big-time after COVID cleared the cineplexes for years? Good, because screens big and small are lighting up with an exciting mix of comedies, dramas and blockbusters this summer. Make your movie nights worth it with our critics’ picks of the best of what’s coming up.

COMING IN JULY

The Out-Laws (on Netflix July 7)

You think the parents in Meet the Parents were hard to deal with? Try Pierce Brosnan, 70, and Ellen Barkin, 69, as an infamous crime duo called the Ghost Bandits. When their soon-to-be son-in-law, an uptight bank manager (Adam Devine), gets his bank robbed the week they arrive for his wedding, he suspects the in-laws are, you guessed it, the outlaws in question.

Check it out: The Out-Laws

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning, Part One (in theaters July 12)

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise, 61) drives a Fiat down Rome’s Spanish Steps while handcuffed, wrecks a 70-ton train, rides a motorcycle off a Norwegian cliff and hopes his parachute opens. Top that, Bond!

Check it out: Mission Impossible — Dead Reckoning, Part One

The Miracle Club (in theaters July 14)

In hardscrabble Ballygar, Ireland, in 1967, two ladies (Maggie Smith, 88, and Kathy Bates, 75) win a miraculous trip to the sacred French town of Lourdes. But when they meet Chrissie (Laura Linney, 59), who’s been exiled in America, old wounds are opened and bitter secrets exposed. Hearts can’t be healed until they’re first broken.

Check it out: The Miracle Club

The Deepest Breath (on Netflix July 19)

Laura McGann’s harrowing documentary follows Italy’s Alessia Zecchini, a champion of diving without oxygen tanks, as she trains to swim the length of a 70-story skyscraper and reach a cave deep in the Red Sea.

Check it out: The Deepest Breath

Barbie (in theaters July 21)

Think pink! Helen Mirren, 77, narrates the madly colorful tale of that doll Barbie (Margo Robbie), racing her convertible from Barbie Land to the real world. Will Ferrell, 55, plays Mattel’s weird and insensitive CEO.

Check it out: Barbie

They Cloned Tyrone (on Netflix July 21)

Jamie Foxx, 55, had a No. 1 Netflix hit with his 2022 vampire film Day Shift, so hopes are high for this sci-fi spoof. He plays a man investigating President Richard Nixon’s plot to clone his friend (John Boyega).

Check it out: They Cloned Tyrone

Oppenheimer (in theaters July 21)

In the latest epic by The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan, 52, a high-strung former child prodigy (Cillian Murphy) becomes the father of the atomic bomb — even though his wife and mistress are communists, and the general who’s his boss (Matt Damon, 52) says, “You’re a dilettante, you’re a womanizer, unstable, theatrical, neurotic!”

Check it out: Oppenheimer

Haunted Mansion (in theaters July 28)

Jamie Lee Curtis, 64, plays Madame Leota, summoning ghosts in New Orleans with help from a smug professor (Danny DeVito, 78), a psychic (Tiffany Haddish) and an exorcist priest (Owen Wilson, 54). Jared Leto, 51, plays the Hatbox Ghost. “It’s scary like a Disney ride, and funny,” Curtis told Entertainment Weekly.

Check it out: Haunted Mansion

COMING IN AUGUST

Gran Turismo (in theaters Aug. 11)

True story: Young Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe) is so obsessed with the excellent video game Gran Turismo, his parents (Djimon Hounsou, 59, and Geri Halliwell, 50) are worried. But he wins a gamer contest — and becomes a professional driver of real race cars!

Check it out: Gran Turismo

The Last Voyage of the Demeter (in theaters Aug. 11)

The captain of the Demeter (Liam Cunningham, 61, Game of Thrones) is sailing from Carpathia (Romania) to London, but unfortunately, the scariest-looking Dracula you ever saw (Javier Botet) is aboard, hiding in a coffin. If you try hiding under a bed behind closed doors, don’t think you’re safe. Plus, if he bites you, the sunlight will set you on fire.

Check it out: The Last Voyage of the Demeter

Jules (in theaters Aug. 11)

What happens when a UFO crash-lands in the backyard of a small-town Pennsylvanian named Milton (Ben Kingsley, 79) and the extraterrestrial he dubs Jules couch-surfs at his house? His neighbor (Jane Curtin, 75) sings “Free Bird” to Jules, and they find late-life meaning and connection. And then the government intervenes.

Check it out: Jules

Heart of Stone (on Netflix Aug. 11)

Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) plays Rachel Stone, a secret agent whose secret weapon is the Heart — the world’s most powerful AI, which can track anyone’s online history and use the data to predict and advise what they might do in the future — about dinner tonight, or global menaces. What’s Rachel like? “I choose roles that show that women can be beautiful and strong,” says Gadot.

Check it out: Heart of Stone

Strays (in theaters Aug. 18)

In the sweetest of revenge movies, Will Ferrell, 55, voices a terrier as kindly as Will Ferrell usually is. But a more hard-nosed terrier (Jamie Foxx, 55) opens his eyes to the fact that his owner (Will Forte, 52) is a rotten person who abused and abandoned him. So with the help of a high-IQ Australian shepherd (Isla Fisher) and an anxious emotional-support great Dane (Randall Park), he plots to bite the owner where it hurts.

Check it out: Strays

The Hill (in theaters Aug. 18)

Dennis Quaid, 69, plays a pastor trying to convince his spinal-disease-afflicted son, Rickey Hill, to quit dreaming of becoming a pro baseball player. Spoiler: The kid makes it to the major leagues, and it’s based on a true story.

Check it out: The Hill

Golda (in theaters Aug. 25)

Is Helen Mirren ubiquitous this year, or what? She plays Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in a historical thriller about the 19-day Yom Kippur War in 1973, when Israel’s existence was at stake. Liev Schreiber, 55, plays wily Henry Kissinger.

Check it out: Golda

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Tim Appelo covers entertainment and is the film and TV critic for AARP. Previously, he was the entertainment editor at Amazon, video critic at Entertainment Weekly, and a critic and writer for The Hollywood Reporter, People, MTV, The Village Voice and LA Weekly.