MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
The film industry had a difficult 2024, hobbled by strike delays, still recovering from the pandemic. But this year is expected to be Hollywood's big comeback. And to give us a sneak peek at the films it's coming back with, at least through Memorial Day, here's Bob Mondello.
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: Movie trailers feel awfully urgent this spring - pounding scores, earnest entreaties, huge stakes - almost as if Hollywood knows that to come roaring back, it needs to shock and awe.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: THE FINAL RECKONING")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) When the need for certainty is absolute, and the odds are deemed impossible, the mission falls to him.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Should he choose to accept.
MONDELLO: Oh, he accepts, even if it means hanging off a plane or riding a motorcycle off a cliff for real, because this is "Mission impossible: The Final Reckoning."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: THE FINAL RECKONING")
VING RHAMES: (As Luther Stickell) You've always been on the right side, brother. I have no regrets. Neither should you.
MONDELLO: Neither should anybody. It's been quite a ride for almost three decades now, with Tom Cruise as IMF agent Ethan Hunt.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: THE FINAL RECKONING")
TOM CRUISE: (As Ethan Hunt) I need you to trust me - one last time.
MONDELLO: You got it, Tom. And he's not the only former Brat Packer riding to Hollywood's rescue. With "The Outsiders" now a musical on Broadway, his long-ago castmate in that one, Ralph Macchio, is also returning to his roots.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "KARATE KID: LEGENDS")
RALPH MACCHIO: (As Daniel) You knew Mr. Miyagi?
JACKIE CHAN: (As Mr. Han) I did not come looking for Sensei Miyagi.
MONDELLO: Whoa, that's Jackie Chan.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "KARATE KID: LEGENDS")
CHAN: (As Mr. Han) I came looking for you.
MONDELLO: And he's brought along a new protege they're going to tag-team train in "Karate Kid: Legends." Another legend, Robert De Niro, will star in a new Mafia epic playing mob boss Vito Genovese...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE ALTO NIGHTS")
ROBERT DE NIRO: (As Frank Costello) Where do I start?
MONDELLO: ...And also playing rival mob boss Frank Costello.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE ALTO KNIGHTS")
DE NIRO: (As Frank Costello) You're going down a very dangerous road.
(As Vito Genovese) And we ain't been down dangerous roads before? But that's the risk you take. Me? I take that risk.
(As Frank Costello) Yeah, but you're not where I am. I give to charities, I pay my taxes.
MONDELLO: De Niro meets De Niro in "The Alto Knights."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE ALTO KNIGHTS")
DE NIRO: (As Vito Genovese) Let's remember something. I put you where you are today.
MONDELLO: And Michael B. Jordan has a similar double assignment in the thriller "Sinners."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SINNERS")
DAVID MALDONADO: (As character) You twins?
MICHAEL B JORDAN: (As character) Nah, we cousins.
MONDELLO: Directed by "Creed" and "Black Panther" director Ryan Coogler, "Sinners" features Jordan as troubled twins Smoke and Stack.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SINNERS")
JORDAN: (As characters) We've been gone a long time. We back now.
MONDELLO: If double casting seems tricky, it's child's play next to what Oscar-winner Bong Joon Ho does in his cloning epic "Mickey 17," where Robert Pattinson's title character gets killed again and again...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MICKEY 17")
MARK RUFFALO: (As Kenneth Marshall) You're an expendable. You're here to be expended.
ROBERT PATTINSON: (As Mickey Barnes) Every time I died, they just printed me out again.
MONDELLO: ...Until one day he met himself.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MICKEY 17")
PATTINSON: (As Mickey Barnes, screaming) I'm multiple.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) Is that a problem?
RUFFALO: (As Kenneth Marshall) In the case of multiples, we exterminate every individual.
MONDELLO: Oh, right - that's what makes him expendable. Also expendable, at least in the eyes of their handlers, "Thunderbolts," Marvel's latest team of antiheroes and minor superheroes.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THUNDERBOLTS")
HANNAH JOHN-KAMEN: (As Ava Starr) Who are you?
LEWIS PULLMAN: (As Robert Reynolds) I'm Bob.
MONDELLO: Some of them very minor. Less super, but plenty lethal is Rami Malek as a CIA tech guy who everyone underestimates in "The Amateur."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE AMATEUR")
HOLT MCCALLANY: (As Moore) I don't think you could beat a 90-year-old nun in an arm-wrestling match.
RAMI MALEK: (As Charles Heller) Do you ever account for the things I'm good at?
MONDELLO: That would be a no.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE AMATEUR")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) We got a ping in Rome.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #5: (As character) He's in London.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #6: (As character) He just got on a bus in Prague.
LAURENCE FISHBURNE: (As character) He practically invented half of our surveillance. Maybe y'all misjudged this individual.
MONDELLO: And speaking of misjudging, Michael Fassbender gets totally blindsided in "Black Bag," a Steven Soderbergh spy thriller, when he's tasked with plugging an information leak.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BLACK BAG")
DANIEL FEARN: (As character) How long do you think you'll need?
MICHAEL FASSBENDER: (As George Woodhouse) Give me two weeks.
FEARN: (As character) Thousands of innocent people will die.
FASSBENDER: (As George Woodhouse) OK, one week. Who's the suspect?
FEARN: (As character) Your wife.
MONDELLO: That would be Cate Blanchett, who's also a spy.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BLACK BAG")
CATE BLANCHETT: (As Kathryn Woodhouse) I can feel when you're watching me.
FASSBENDER: (As George Woodhouse) Sorry.
BLANCHETT: (As Kathryn Woodhouse) I like it.
MONDELLO: Life or death situations not what you're looking for in your leisure time? There are sweeter stories, too - quite a few about animals. In the friend, Naomi Watts inherits her mentor's great dane when he dies.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE FRIEND")
NAOMI WATTS: (As Iris) You OK, bud?
(As Iris) I could feel him missing Walter in the same way I did.
MONDELLO: The Legend Of Ochi is about a town terrified by a fearsome, mythical critter...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE LEGEND OF OCHI")
HELENA ZENGEL: (As Yuri) You're not like they say.
MONDELLO: ...That doesn't seem all that fearsome to one little girl.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE LEGEND OF OCHI")
FINN WOLFHARD: (As Petro) Yuri, what is this?
ZENGEL: (As Yuri) I'm taking him home.
MONDELLO: And an English teacher in Argentina saves the life of - and to his great annoyance is then adopted by - a more down-to-earth critter that ends up helping him with his students.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE PENGUIN LESSONS")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #7: (As character) Why do you have a penguin on your desk?
STEVE COOGAN: (As Mr. Michell) To get you all to pay attention. If you keep this between ourselves, then I'll let you all feed him some fish at lunchtime. Deal?
MONDELLO: "The Penguin Lessons" is based on a true story. If animals don't appeal, there's always sports to provide inspiration, say, for a determined woman underdog in "Uppercut"...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "UPPERCUT")
LUISE GROSSMANN: (As Toni Williams) Just give me one chance, OK?
RHAMES: (As Elliott Duffond) So you want to box.
GROSSMANN: (As Toni Williams) And I want you to train me.
MONDELLO: ...Or a woman who makes professional wrestling her calling in "Queen Of The Ring."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "QUEEN OF THE RING")
EMILY BETT RICKARDS: (As Mildred Burke) I'm actually the highest-paid female athlete.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #8: (As character) In Washington?
RICKARDS: (As Mildred Burke) In history.
MONDELLO: "Eephus" is about aging baseballers and their trips.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "EEPHUS")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #9: (As character) Eephus pitch is a type of curveball so unnaturally slow that it confuses the batter, makes it lose track of time.
MONDELLO: And then there's an athlete story that's less inspiring, "Magazine Dreams," about a bodybuilder hopped up on steroids and obsessed with making the cover of a fitness magazine.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MAGAZINE DREAMS")
JONATHAN MAJORS: (As Killian Maddox) Like my deltoids? Judges always say they're too small. Think they're liars?
TAYLOUR PAIGE: (As Pink Coat) Everyone's a liar.
MONDELLO: Jonathan Majors was expected to earn Oscar recognition for "Magazine Dreams" until an assault and harassment conviction derailed the film's opening. His performance remains mesmerizing. While we're talking performance, there's a film called "The Performance" about a 1930s tap dancer.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE PERFORMANCE")
JEREMY PIVEN: (As Harold) I've been polite and nice, you know? I've said, yes, sir and no, sir. And it's OK that you underpaid me 'cause I love to dance.
MONDELLO: When he finally gets an invitation to perform, there's a catch. He'll be dancing for the Nazis.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #10: (As character) Harold doesn't even look Jewish.
ADAM GARCIA: (As Benny) People like you are trying to get out of there. Do any of you read a newspaper?
MONDELLO: Sorry, things have gotten dark again. There are also some straight-up comedies, including a Lily Gladstone, Bowen Yang remake of "The Wedding Banquet," about two couples - one gay, one lesbian - who stage a fake wedding.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE WEDDING BANQUET")
BOWEN YANG: (As Chris) Min's grandmother flew in from Korea to meet her future granddaughter-in-law.
LILY GLADSTONE: (As Lee) What are we supposed to do, exactly?
YANG: (As Chris) We got to de-queer the house. God, you have so much lesbian literature.
MONDELLO: A wedding also figures in "Ex-Husbands" about three generations in a family of inept spouses.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "EX-HUSBANDS")
RICHARD BENJAMIN: (As Simon Pearce) We're getting a divorce, your mother and I.
GRIFFIN DUNNE: (As Peter Pearce) Is there someone else?
BENJAMIN: (As Simon Pearce) Not at the moment, but say I got 30 good years left in me.
DUNNE: (As Peter Pearce) Thirty?
BENJAMIN: (As Simon Pearce) Twenty, twenty-five.
DUNNE: (As Peter Pearce) You'll be 110.
MONDELLO: Also playing the elder card, the assassin comedy "Old Guy" makes an aging hitman work with a Gen Z hit dude...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "OLD GUY")
CRISTOPH WALTZ: (As Danny Dolinski) You can do as I say.
COOPER HOFFMAN: (As Wihlborg) Sure thing, Obi-Wan.
MONDELLO: ...While in "Riff Raff," former criminal Bill Murray gets drawn back into domestic squabbles at a family gathering.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "RIFF RAFF")
PETE DAVIDSON: There was a food incident. Rocco - if it's OK, I would just really like to torture him a little bit, if it's OK.
BILL MURRAY: (As Leftie) Shouldn't have done that, Rocco. Yeah, knock yourself out.
JENNIFER COOLIDGE: (As Ruth) Oh, my God. Are we all going to die?
MONDELLO: Even in family films, that question comes up occasionally, say, from the animated characters who must fight off a zombie attack in "Night Of The Zoopocalypse."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCALYPSE")
GABBI KOSMIDIS: (As Gracie) Did you just punch my grandma in the face?
DAVID HARBOUR: (As Dan) Sorry, kid, but your grandma's a monster.
MONDELLO: There's also a "Looney Tunes" movie, "The Day The Earth Blew Up."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP: A LOONEY TUNES MOVIE")
ERIC BAUZA: (As Porky Pig) There's only one person that can do the job, Daffy Duck.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #11: (As character) The duck?
BAUZA: (As Porky Pig) That's right. The duck.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #11: (As character) You got to be kidding me. Who greenlit this garbage?
MONDELLO: Some popular digital worldbuilding comes to the big screen...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "A MINECRAFT MOVIE")
JACK BLACK: (As Steve) A wonderland where anything you can imagine is possible, as long as what you imagine can be built out of blocks.
MONDELLO: ..."A Minecraft Movie." And a story we all know from an animated classic returns as live-action.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SNOW WHITE")
GAL GADOT: (As the Evil Queen) Magic Mirror on the wall, who's the fairest one of all?
ANSU KABIA: (As the Huntsman) The Queen is evil. You must flee into the woods.
MONDELLO: And what will Snow White find in the woods? Dwarves - seven of them.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SNOW WHITE")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #12: (As character) It's a human.
RACHEL ZEGLER: (As Snow White) What did you think I was?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #12: (As character) Nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #13: (As character) Ghost.
MONDELLO: Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to films we go. I'm Bob Mondello.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WAITING ON A WISH")
ZEGLER: (Singing) Hoping somehow, some way, There comes a miracle to find me. I close my eyes and see the girl I'm meant to be. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
