There is some massive entertainment headed your way in July…

This July, three box office monsters roll into town within a week of each other, squaring off over territory on precious IMAX inches. But the battle for your attention takes on a home front too with some massive streaming debuts.

Here are six big-screen and big-stream blockbusters dropping in July.

Big Screens

Mission: Impossible – dead Reckoning Part One

If you’re an action movie fan, they don’t come much bigger, or as frequently — as the films of the Mission Impossible franchise. And like the man who plays core protagonist Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise), they only seem to be getting better with age.

Which is in no small part thanks to the emergence of Christopher McQuarrie as saga director. The sixth outing, Fallout was easily the best of the bunch for us, but gave us little clue what sort of direction, double-crossing and Q-style gadgetry we could expect from the next two entries Dead Reckoning, Parts One and Two — which were shot back-to-back. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to wait patiently until it drops in box offices on July 13.

Expected: July 13

Oppenheimer

films and shows in July

This film has all the right periodic elements for a truly explosive release. Directed by Christopher Nolan (whose lowest rated, of nine, full length feature films currently sits at 7.2 on IMDB), starring Cillian Murphy in the titular role and a based-on-a-real-storyline that follows the ethically-fraught series of events behind the Manhattan Project, the race to master nuclear fission and “become Death, the destroyer of worlds”.

After shaking the atomic genie out of the bottle, Oppenheimer famously spent the rest of his days lobbying against its use, and we couldn’t think of a better pairing (Nolan and Murphy) to smash that sort of internal conflict nucleus apart. Literally zero chance this bombs at the box office.

Expected: July 20

Barbie

films and shows in July

Even after watching the trailer, we’re not entirely sure what sort of energy this big screen live-action Barbie movie is going to give. There are reasons to be hopeful though.

It has Greta Gerwig (Little Women, Lady Bird) directing and a cast that includes Margot Robbie as Barbie, Ryan Gosling as Ken, and support from Will Ferrell, America Ferrera, Michael Cera, Kate McKinnon and Helen Mirren.

Not much is known about the plotline, but in the grand What’s On movie round-up tradition we’ve got some predictions. We’re guessing that it’s going to be hyper-self-aware and full of running gags in the vein of frantic outfit changes, androgynous anatomy and ubiquity of the colour pink.

Expected: July 20

Big Streams

Last Night in Soho

films and shows in July

This film snuck out whilst we were at the precarious peak of pandemic PCRing, so it never really got the audience figures it deserved.

It comes from the mind of Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy collaborator Edgar Wright, stars Anya Taylor-Joy and tells the story of a young woman who, through her dreams, is able to travel back in time to London in the swinging sixties.

It’s in one of these fits of retro reverie, where central protagonist Ellie (Thomasin McKenzie) becomes enamoured with beautiful club singer, Sandie (Taylor-Joy).

Embroiled in the seedy underbelly of Soho’s nightlife, it’s not long before Sandie disappears. Ellie uses what she’s learned from the past, to investigate the crime during the present, and unravel a chilling 60-year-old mystery.

Streaming on Netflix, July 7 

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Films from the playwright, screenwriter, producer, and director, Martin McDonagh don’t come around that often (unsurprising given the length of his job title), but when they do — they usually end up being regarded as cult classics.

He’s the man behind In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths, and The Banshees of Inisherin — delicious, award-winning, black comedies and masterclasses in farce and social parody.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri isn’t new, it first came out in 2017 but it absolutely needs to be on your watch list.

It’s the short of a woman, pushed to breaking point by the inactivity of the sheriff’s office investigating the murder of her daughter. It’s fraught with racial tension and the core cast is legend tier.

Streaming on OSN+, July 8 

Bluey

films and shows in July

If you’re a parent it is impossible, like, utterly ​**Princess Bride voice​**​ inconceivable — that you are unaware of the animated kid’s show, featuring the eponymous Australian Blue Heeler, Bluey. “You have to watch it” someone said to us at a barbecue a few months ago “it’s genuinely hilarious”.

After that, more and more parents began turning in their unsolicited oral reviews — usual Aussies (they were the early adopters being Bluey Kabayans) and never less than emphatic. It got to a point where not watching it, just became an untenable position.

we were missing out on so many in-jokes and impassioned discussions about just how much of an inferior father Bluey and Bingo’s dad makes you feel.

Dear reader, this is up there with StoryBots and in the running for most enjoyable (for parents) kid’s show ever created. 5/5. And this July, we’re getting 10 fresh new episodes. Biscuits.

Streaming on Disney+, July 12 

Images: Getty and supplied