Movies Not to Miss: June 2014

Writer: Casey Lee

Which of these June releases are you going to watch?

As we enter into the mid-point of the year, we hope that your movie going experience so far has been entertaining! Looking at this month's calendar of releases, June has come out to be a varied month. Even though we should be riding towards the thick of the summer blockbusters, June won't be seeing many major ones clumped up together for your box office moo-lah. While that could be good news for your wallet at least, this month also gives a good chance to check out some smaller and lesser known titles that quite surprisingly are making it to our screens.

Whether you are a looking for that next explosion round the corner, sinking in your seats from terror, laughing out loud at well-timed hilarity or composing yourself from jerking tears, here's our suggestions of movies not to be missed for the month of June 2014. We even got Anime fans covered for this month too!

After getting drunk and hooking up with a stranger at a party, Samantha wakes up with the all too familiar side effects of a lingering hangover, but this is no ordinary one. As more sickening and serious symptoms start to appear and affect her daily life, Samantha goes to a doctor to find out that what she had contracted that could be more than just a sexually transmitted disease.

Although we haven't heard much about director Eric England of "Madison County" and "Chilling Visions: 5 Senses of Fear", but his latest micro-budget thriller does sport a visually impressive trailer that does put an interesting spin on the horror-infection subgenre. To those who would get a kick out getting their stomachs turned from the effective gory makeup, they should get their money's worth of cringes and onscreen nausea, if they can swallow the admittedly cracker thin plot and characters.

Release Date: 5 June

Businessman Ryota Nonomiya receives a phone call from the hospital one day, informing him that the son he has been raising for the last 6 years is not his own. Due to a mistake resulting in his biological son being switched at birth, Ryota and his wife and the other family, who have been bringing up Ryota's biological son, must come to terms with this new reality and decide what is the best thing to do as parents for their children.

Serious film buffs would have plenty of reasons to look forward to the month of June this year, and the first among that is that they would get to see "Like Father, Like Son" in Malaysian cinemas. Taking the Jury Award at last year's Cannes that was headed by Steven Spielberg, it impressed Spielberg so much that he had already acquired the rights for a remake. Directed by Kore-eda Hirokazu, "Like Father, Like Son" was also a major winner at the recent Japanese Academy Awards, sweeping up the awards in the acting categories, screenplay, directing and Best Film, making this one of the best films to have come out from Japan in 2013.

Release Date: 5 June

There are a million ways to die in the American wild west in 1882, as sheep farmer Albert Stark would tell you. After cowardly withdrawing himself from a gun duel, Albert is left by his girlfriend Louise who finds a husband in a notorious gunfighter. Albert soon finds his courage, with the help of a wandering woman named Anna, and prepares himself for a showdown with Louise's new and for some reason angry husband.

Returning after his triumphant feature debut "Ted", Seth MacFarlane makes a lead appearance in "A Million Ways to Die in the West" to make wise cracks against the beloved American film genre: the Western. While we can pretty much expect the raunchy, unapologetic and meta-humour that MacFarlane is so good at, it gets better when it has a cast with Charlize Theron, Amanda Seyfried, Neil Patrick Harris, Sarah Silverman and Liam Neeson.

Release Date: 12 June

Set five years after the events of "How to Train Your Dragon", Vikings and dragons are now living together in harmony as Hiccup and Toothless take to the skies to explore the world beyond. While finding new lands and new types of dragons, Hiccup stumbles into a cave inhabited by a woman who has innate knowledge about dragons. Just as Hiccup is in for a happy family reunion, a new master of dragon arises and brings new threats to both Vikings and dragons alike.

The much anticipated sequel to one of the most memorable animations in recent memory has definitely been on the watchlist for those who watched "How to Train Your Dragon". With the returning voice cast of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Kristen Wiig, joined by the new voices of Kit Harrington and Cate Blanchett, this sequel is set to expand in more ways than just the epic battles of fire and steel, though that alone is reason enough of why we are going back in to the cinema halls.

Release Date: 12 June

Set in the year 2020, Shiori Genpo is the sole surviving descendant of the Phantomhive family and runs the wealthy Fantom corporation. With the help of his butler, Shiori also solves mysterious cases under orders of the Queen of England, until he finds the murderer of his parents and pay the ultimate price for Sebastian's help.

Adapted from the manga series of the same name, fans of both the manga and the anime series wouldn't want to miss the live-action adaptation that was shown in Japan early this year. Co-directed by Otari Kentaro and Sato Keiichi, Ayame Gouriki will play as Shiori with Hiro Mizushima at her side as the ever loyal and deadly butler, Sebastian.

Release Date: 12 June

Eric, a bitter soldier who had lost everything he owned after a world destroying collapse of civilization, travels across the Australian outback to regain his property, with a left-for-dead young gangster in tow that will lead Eric to his robbers.

Another one for the film buffs that is coming out this month is "The Rover". Although set in a vaguely dystopian future, anyone who has seen David Michôd's stunning debut feature "Animal Kingdom" should know what to expect from this crime thriller, especially with Guy Pearce returning to work with the director. However, what is more interesting to watch out in "The Rover" is Robert Pattinson, who can be seen is trying to have a more defining role than his sparkling vampire. Screened recently at Cannes, it is a rare treat when a film like this shows up at our screens so soon.

General Release Date: 19 June

William Luk is a principal investigator of the ICAC who has protected Hong Kong's reputation as a financial center of the world by cracking cases involving corruption and bribery. When a new charity fund is launched that has the suspicious makings of a Ponzi-scheme, William leads his team to get to the bottom of it and unravel the web of those involved, while surviving the dangers that comes with the investigation.

There have been a lot of storms from Hong Kong lately (see "Firestorm" and "The White Storm") and "Z Storm" continues that trend of combating storms, this time, against corruption in this latest outing from director David Lam. With a star-studded cast of Louis Khoo, Gordon Lam, Dada Chen and Michael Wong in major roles, supported by the likes of Lo Hoi Pang and Liu Kai Chi, this one is set to bring out the full force of action and suspense to show that corruption doesn't pay (at least in Hong Kong).

Release Date: 26 June

Four years after the climatic battle at New York that brought an end to the war of Autobots and Decepticons on Earth, no one has seen or heard about the Transformers since. While scientists have started to make major discoveries about the once-unstoppable mechanical invaders and the government continues to hunt down any remaining Transformers on Earth, a new Transformer arrives to destroy humanity once and for all. Awakened once again, Optimus Prime must protect the humans from destruction, but first he will need a new army.

What's a month of summer blockbusters without any fireball explosions, eye-popping action and nonsensical violence to do? Don't worry, June has got you covered. Better yet, we have a Michael Bay explosion fest for you. Hate it or love it, "Transformers: Age of Extinction" is the summer movie of the month everyone will flock to, now that new energy has been sparked into bringing back this franchise with a new hero in tow. Not that we have much hope that Mark Wahlberg would make this any better than the trilogy with Shia LaBeouf, but maybe we will feel less irritated when we see a more manly hero on screen.

Release Date: 26 June