The Complete Guide to Hollywood Movies Opening in July 2019

Breaking this month: Spider-Man doesn’t remain as dust, else he wouldn’t be appearing in Spider-Man: Far from Home (opens 2 Jul), but we already knew that. Am nervous for The Lion King (18 Jul) because I’m afraid it won’t do the animated movie justice. But Jon Favreau has experience with live-action, anthropomorphic animal movies — his 2016 Jungle Book was very well-received though I didn’t watch it — so I shall trust him not to screw it up.

Movies coming out in July 2019

(Click on the movie titles in the bullets to jump to that section if you don’t want to scroll through the entire list. You can also click on each movie’s heading to go to their IMDb pages. Release dates below are for Singapore, but if you’re outside Singapore, IMDb can tell you fairly accurately what’s the release date in your country.)

Opening on the week of 4 July

Spider-Man: Far from Home (2 Jul)

Director: Jon Watts (“Spider-Man: Homecoming”)

Cast: Tom Holland, Jake Gyllenhaal, Samuel L. Jackson, Zendaya, Cobie Smulders, Jon Favreau, Marisa Tomei, Jacob Batalon, Angourie Rice, Tony Revolori, Martin Starr

Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy

Synopsis: Peter Parker returns in SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME, the next chapter of the “Spider-Man: Homecoming” series! Our friendly neighborhood Super Hero decides to join his best friends Ned, MJ, and the rest of the gang on a European vacation. However, Peter’s plan to leave super heroics behind for a few weeks are quickly scrapped when he begrudgingly agrees to help Nick Fury uncover the mystery of several elemental creature attacks, creating havoc across the continent!

Escape Plan: The Extractors (4 Jul)

Director: John Herzfeld (“Bobby Z”)

Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Dave Bautista, Jaime King, Harry Shum Jr., Devon Sawa, 50 Cent

Genre: Action

Synopsis: Screen legend Sylvester Stallone kicks this explosive action tale into high gear. After security expert Ray Breslin (Stallone) is hired to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a Hong Kong tech mogul from a formidable Latvian prison, Breslin’s girlfriend (Jaime King) is also captured. Now he and his team, which includes Dave Bautista and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, must pull off a deadly rescue mission to confront their sadistic foe and save the hostages before time runs out.

Red Joan (4 Jul)

Director: Trevor Nunn (“Twelfth Night or What You Will”)

Cast: Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Alfie Allen, Tom Hughes

Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance

Synopsis: The year is 2000 and Joan Stanley is living in contented retirement in suburbia at the turn of the millennium. Her tranquil life is suddenly disrupted when she’s arrested by MI5 and accused of providing intelligence to Communist Russia. Cut to 1938 where Joan is a Cambridge physics student who falls for young communist Leo Galich and through him, begins to see the world in a new light. Working at a top-secret nuclear research facility during WWII, Joan comes to the realisation that the world is on the brink of mutually assured destruction. Confronted with an impossible question – what price would you pay for peace? – Joan must choose between betraying her country and loved ones or saving them.

Opening on the week of 11 July

Child’s Play (11 Jul)

Director: Lars Klevberg (“Polaroid”)

Cast: Aubrey Plaza, Brian Tyree Henry, Tim Matheson, Gabriel Bateman

Genre: Horror

Synopsis: A contemporary re-imagining of the 1988 horror classic, CHILD’S PLAY follows Karen (Aubrey Plaza), a single mother who gifts her son Andy (Gabriel Bateman) a Buddi doll, unaware of its more sinister nature.

Crawl (11 Jul)

Director: Alexandre Aja (“The Hills Have Eyes”, “Piranha 3D”, “Horns”)

Cast: Kaya Scodelario, Barry Pepper

Genre: Horror

Synopsis: When a massive hurricane hits her Florida hometown, Haley (Kaya Scodelario) ignores evacuation orders to search for her missing father (Barry Pepper). Finding him gravely injured in the crawl space of their family home, the two become trapped by quickly encroaching floodwaters. As time runs out to escape the strengthening storm, Haley and her father discover that the rising water level is the least of their fears.

Tolkien (11 Jul)

Director: Dome Karukoski

Cast: Nicholas Hoult, Lily Collins, Colm Meaney, Anthony Boyle, Patrick Gibson, Tom Glynn-Carney, Craig Roberts, Laura Donnelly, Genevieve O’Reilly, Pam Ferris, Derek Jacobi

Genre: Biography, Drama

Synopsis: Tolkien explores the formative years of the orphaned author as he finds friendship, love and artistic inspiration among a group of fellow outcasts at school. This takes him into the outbreak of World War I, which threatens to tear the “fellowship” apart. All of these experiences would inspire Tolkien to write his famous Middle-Earth novels.

The Professor and the Madman (11 Jul)

Director: Farhad Safinia (debut feature)

Cast: Mel Gibson, Sean Penn, Natalie Dormer, Jennifer Ehle, Ioan Gruffudd, Jeremy Irvine

Genre: Biography, Drama, Mystery

Synopsis: Professor James Murray begins work compiling words for the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary in the mid 19th century, and receives over 10,000 entries from a patient at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, Dr. William Minor.

Opening on the week of 18 July

The Lion King (18 Jul)

Director: Jon Favreau (“The Jungle Book”, “Iron Man”)

Voice Cast: Donald Glover, Beyoncé, Seth Rogen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Keegan-Michael Key, John Oliver, Billy Eichner, Alfre Woodward, John Kani, James Earl Jones

Genre: Animation, Adventure, Drama

Synopsis: Director Jon Favreau’s all-new “The Lion King” journeys to the African savanna where a future king is born. Simba idolizes his father, King Mufasa, and takes to heart his own royal destiny. But not everyone in the kingdom celebrates the new cub’s arrival. Scar, Mufasa’s brother—and former heir to the throne—has plans of his own. The battle for Pride Rock is ravaged with betrayal, tragedy and drama, ultimately resulting in Simba’s exile. With help from a curious pair of newfound friends, Simba will have to figure out how to grow up and take back what is rightfully his.

Opening on the week of 25 July

Ma (25 Jul)

Director: Tate Taylor (“The Help”, “The Girl on the Train”, “Get on Up”)

Cast: Octavia Spencer, Juliette Lewis, Diana Silvers, Luke Evans, McKaley Miller, Missi Pyle, Corey Fogelmanis, Gianni Paolo, Dante Brown

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Synopsis: Everybody’s welcome at Ma’s. But good luck getting home safe. Oscar® winner Octavia Spencer stars as Sue Ann, a loner who keeps to herself in her quiet Ohio town. One day, she is asked by Maggie, a new teenager in town (Diana Silvers), to buy some booze for her and her friends, and Sue Ann sees the chance to make some unsuspecting, if younger, friends of her own. She offers the kids the chance to avoid drinking and driving by hanging out in the basement of her home. But there are some house rules: One of the kids has to stay sober. Don’t curse. Never go upstairs. And call her “Ma”. But as Ma’s hospitality starts to curdle into obsession, what began as a teenage dream turns into a terrorizing nightmare, and Ma’s place goes from the best place in town to the worst place on earth.