Laal Singh Chaddha is Indian cinema’s biggest offering this month, as Aamir Khan plays an autistic military man in what’s a (much delayed) remake of Hollywood film Forrest Gump. The film hits theaters nationwide on August 11. On the Bollywood side, we also have the Alia Bhatt-directed Darlings, which is part of the Indian Originals lineup for Netflix in August. Starring Shefali Shah, Vijay Verma and Roshan Mathew, Darlings premieres August 5 on Netflix worldwide.
Bullet Train, a hilarious action-thriller starring Brad Pitt, tops the pack of greatest Hollywood films in August 2022. The surrounding hype is shocking, especially to people in India, as Sony Pictures prepares to screen the movie a whole day earlier for us. Not only that, but the film will premiere in multiple Indian dubs – English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu on August 4. Another hotly anticipated entry is Jordan Peele’s Western sci-fi horror feature Nope, marking his second collaboration with Oscar-winning actor Daniel Kaluuya. Nope is released on August 19 in India.
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August has even more movies to offer, including a new superhero movie from Sylvester Stallone on Prime Video based on the graphic novel series, Samaritan. For your convenience, we’ve selected the best August 2022 releases coming to cinemas, Netflix and Prime Video, which you can check out below.
High-speed train
When: August 4
Where: Cinemas
From the director of Deadpool 2 comes Bullet Train – a high-octane thriller set on the rails of modern-day Japan. Taking inspiration from the action sets of Train to Busan, this Brad Pitt-starring character takes a ridiculous John Wick premise and throws it on a fast-moving train. The hapless assassin Ladybug (Pitt) is determined to do his job peacefully after several failures. As fate would have it, his car is loaded with four other assassins who share different goals, setting off a chain reaction of overwhelming battles.
Time is running out, as the bullet train reaches its destination, Kyoto, revealing each deadly adversary and their motivations. Aaron Taylor-Johnson has taken a liking to action movies since Tenet, taking on the role of Tangerine, a British assassin adept at hand-to-hand combat. Joey King plays an age-appropriate role, an assassin in the guise of a schoolgirl, while Hiroyuki Sanada wields a katana to slice through the incoming hordes.
Director David Leitch adapted the film from the Japanese novel Maria Beetle, which is also the character name of Sandra Bullock, Ladybug’s trainer. The cast is loaded, as evidenced by the oversaturated poster, featuring Michael Shannon, Andrew Koji and Zazie Beats as assassins, while Karen Fukuhara (The Boys) plays a member of the train crew.
Watch the official Bullet Train trailer
Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Brad Pitt in Bullet Train
Photo credit: Sony Pictures
darlings
When: August 5
Where: Netflix
Set against the backdrop of a poor Mumbai neighborhood, Jasmeet K. Reen’s debut film explores the lives of a mother-daughter duo, navigating their love lives through bizarre circumstances. Alia Bhatt and Shefali Shah lead the cast of Darlings as a duo – the former playing a troubled housewife hoping to fix her unstable husband’s drinking problem.
Vijay Sharma (Mirzapur) plays alcoholic husband Hamza, displaying bouts of rage when he suspects his wife is cheating on him with Zulfi (Roshan Mathew) – a man around the same age. The Darlings trailer hints that Zulfi is in a relationship with the mother. As feelings of mistrust lead to a heinous act, it’s up to Badru and his mother to boldly, if clumsily, seek revenge.
The 134-minute Darlings also stars Rajesh Sharma (The Tashkent Files), Vijay Maurya (Gully Boy) and Pooja Swaroop (That Girl in Yellow Boots).
Watch the Official Netflix Darlings Trailer
Alia Bhatt and Vijay Sharma in Darlings
Photo credit: Netflix
Thirteen Lives
When: August 5
Where: Prime Video
Directed by Ron Howard (Apollo 13), Thirteen Lives is based on real events that happened just four years ago in Thailand. When a group of young boys and their soccer coach are trapped in an underground cave flood system, an international rescue team is dispatched to rescue them. The acclaimed filmmaker brings his expertise in true stories to try and dramatize the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue operation for audiences at home.
Colin Farrell makes his first film appearance since The Batman, as one of the expert divers tasked with rescuing the children. He’s joined by Viggo Mortenson (Future Crimes) and Joel Edgerton (The Green Knight), as they tirelessly fight their way through the dank, dark caverns as the walls close in around them.
Visually, the film seems to take notes from Neil Marshall’s The Descent, creating a suffocating, claustrophobic feel with dimly lit hallways and handheld cameras to heighten the tension. And while there is an online documentary based on said events, Ron Howard’s touch is nothing short of magical.
Laal Singh Chaddha
When: August 11
Where: Cinemas
A Hindi remake of Oscar-winning Forrest Gump marks Aamir Khan’s return to film in nearly four years. Laal Singh Chaddha (Khan) follows the life story of an autistic individual with big dreams, taking audiences on an emotional journey of childhood experiences serving as a decorated member of the Indian Army.
Judging by the Laal Singh Chaddha trailer, director Advait Chauhan appears to have altered the plot to suit Indian sensibilities – setting the story in Punjab and introducing romantic tropes aimed at Bollywood lovers.
Kareena Kapoor plays the love interest Rupa, who understands the complexities of living with someone like Chaddha, while Mona Singh plays the ever-loving mother. The film also stars Naga Chaitanya, Manav Vij and Kim Sharma.
Watch the official trailer for Laal Singh Chaddha
Aamir Khan plays an autistic in Laal Singh Chaddha
Photo credit: Aamir Khan Productions
Dobaara
When: August 19
Where: Cinemas
Another remake on this list comes from filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who attempts to reimagine the Spanish Netflix film Mirage. Taapsee Pannu (Pink) leads the cast as Antara who moves with her family to a new house. An old television found in the stash sets off a series of strange events, as Antara is able to interact with a child’s ghost through transmission. The brief interaction causes a space-time continuum problem – altering reality and affecting events in the present.
The Dobaaraa trailer never really explains the logic behind the events, but fans can expect horror themes and an age-old murder mystery hanging atop.
Hardy Nation (as listed on IMDb) plays the 12-year-old kid who delivers the message 25 years in the future, while Rahul Bhat plays Antara’s neglectful husband. Pavail Gulati, who starred alongside Pannu in 2020’s Thappad, returns as a DCP officer, while Mr. Nassar (Baahubali films) plays some sort of scientist in Dobaaraa.
Nope
When: August 19
Where: Cinemas
From the scant information in the trailers so far, Jordan Peele’s Nope looks pretty dope. In a remote California town, two siblings, played by Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer, discover a strange phenomenon in the skies. A UFO, whose presence is informed by horses reacting violently, appears from time to time to devour the beasts at night. Taking note of this, Jupe – played by Steven Yeun (Minari) – the owner of an adjacent theme park, attempts to cash in on the otherworldly phenomenon by using horses as bait.
From there, things seem to go awry, as the aliens start attacking everyone in sight. It’s also implied that looking at the sky could put you in danger, as evidenced by Palmer repeating to himself, “Don’t look. Compared to his last two films, Get Out and Us, Peele has a bigger scope to work with here – even adding cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema to his arsenal for those large-scale visuals. Nope is already out in US theaters, while Indians will have to wait a few more weeks.
Samaritan
When: August 26
Where: Prime Video
Sylvester Stallone (Rocky) plays Joe Smith, a retired superhero well past his prime in this new Prime Video Original. Samaritan, based on the graphic novel series of the same name, takes a grounded approach to storytelling – similar to M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable. Set in the fictional town of Granite City overrun by criminals, the plot follows a 13-year-old Sam Cleary – played by Javon Walton (Euphoria) – who realizes that his elderly neighbor is the famous superhero, Samaritan, who was pronounced dead 25 years ago. .
As the friendship blossoms between the two, a new villain played by Pilou Asbæk (Game of Thrones) begins to wreak havoc on the town, forcing Joe out of retirement. Bragi F. Schut, one of the comic’s original creators, scripted it, with Julius Avery directing. Previously, the movie suffered several delays due to various studio acquisitions, and at one point it was even slated for a theatrical release.
Samaritan also stars Martin Starr (Spider-Man: Far From Home), Dascha Polanc, Moisés Arias, Natacha Karam and Jared Odrick.
Watch the official trailer for Samaritan
Sylvester Stallone in an image of Samaritan from Prime Video
Photo credit: Amazon Prime Video
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