Summer movie guide: All the films you should see in July

July 1: Magic Mike XXL

What it is: The sequel to 2012's Magic Mike sees the titular male stripper (Channing Tatum) reuniting with his coterie of fellow performers — including friends both old (Joe Manganiello) and new (Donald Glover) — for one last big show.

Why you should care: Produced for just $7 million, and ultimately grossing $167 million worldwide, the original Magic Mike was one of 2012's biggest breakout hits. This long-in-the-works sequel loses several of Magic Mike's biggest assets — including director Steven Soderbergh and supporting player Matthew McConaughey — but should nevertheless attract a similarly massive audience during a summer movie season that's conspicuously light on movies targeted at both women and adults. Early word is that Magic Mike XXL has abandoned the original movie's darker edges and themes in favor of a lighter and more raucous tone, making for a less sophisticated movie that's also a lot more fun.

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What else is coming out: Terminator: Genisys, the ludicrously titled fifth installment in the popular sci-fi/action franchise, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as an elderly robot; Amy, the controversial documentary about the life and career of deceased R&B singer Amy Winehouse; Jackie & Ryan, a romance starring Katherine Heigl as a Midwesterner who falls for a scruffy musician; Faith of Our Fathers, a Christian-themed drama about a pair of veterans' sons who take a road trip to the Vietnam Memorial.

July 10: Self/less

What it is: A dying billionaire (Ben Kingsley) consents to a groundbreaking new procedure to have his consciousness transferred to the body of a young, healthy man (Ryan Reynolds) — but comes to suspect the truth about his transformation is more sinister than it originally seemed.

Why you should care: Raising intriguing questions about the limits of technology and the blurring of identity, Self/less promises a heady blend of thrills and existentialism. Director Tarsem Singh — whose previous efforts include The Cell and The Fall — is one of Hollywood's most underutilized and striking visual stylists, which should be an ideal set of skills for Self/less' trippy dip into the life of the mind. Ryan Reynolds' ongoing career rehabilitation has been a mixed bag, but he's certainly doing more interesting work than he's done in a while. And at the very least, Self/less can't be any worse than Reynolds' last foray into body-swapping, right?

What else is coming out: Minions, a Despicable Me spin-off about the yellow, gibberish-spewing troublemakers; Tangerine, a Sundance hit about a pair of transgender women who hunt down a two-timing boyfriend; The Gallows, a cheapo horror flick about a school that stages a strange play — 20 years after its previous star died onstage…

July 17: Trainwreck

What it is: A boozing, freewheeling career woman (Amy Schumer) rethinks her priorities when she hooks up with a guy who actually treats her well (Bill Hader).

Why you should care: With a steady stream of clever, topical sketches conquering YouTube every week, Amy Schumer has solidified her status as one of comedy's sharpest new talents — and Trainwreck, which features her as both writer and star, should be a welcome chance to introduce her talents to a broader mainstream audience. Though the basic premise is fairly conventional for a rom-com, the movie seems to have found plenty of room for character in the margins, from Schumer's unapologetic party-hard protagonist to supporting players like LeBron James, playing himself as a Downton Abbey devotee.

What else is coming out: Ant-Man, the latest superhero blockbuster, starring Paul Rudd as one of Marvel's weirder big-screen heroes; The Look of Silence, a follow-up to Joshua Oppenheimer's acclaimed documentary The Act of Killing, which confronts the men responsible for the 1965 Indonesian genocide; Irrational Man, the latest Woody Allen movie, starring Joaquin Phoenix as a neurotic professor and Emma Stone as his much-too-young romantic foil; Mr. Holmes, an independent mystery-drama starring Ian McKellen as a septuagenarian Sherlock Holmes.

July 24: Southpaw

What it is: After an unexpected trauma derails his life, a talented but troubled boxer (Jake Gyllenhaal) cancels his plans for retirement and steps back into the ring.

Why you should care: It's only July, but the Weinstein Company is already gunning to make Jake Gyllenhaal a top contender for Best Actor at next year's Academy Awards. At the very least, Gyllenhaal's physical transformation is genuinely stunning, drawing headlines all the way back in November 2014 when a picture of his bulked-up body was released. Leading man aside, Southpaw seems to follow a pretty conventional boxing movie arc, with an underdog relying on a grizzled old trainer (Forest Whitaker) as he fights his way to the top. Previews for Southpaw have (perhaps unwisely) revealed one of the movie's early twists, which seems fairly melodramatic out of context — a quality that has routinely dragged down the work of Southpaw screenwriter Kurt Sutter — but if anyone can make this material feel fresh again, it's Gyllenhaal, whose justified career renaissance is well underway.

What else is coming out: Paper Towns, another teen-centric adaptation of a novel by The Fault in Our Stars author John Green; Pixels, a movie about classic video game characters like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong launching an Independence Day-style attack on Earth — which would sound like fun if it didn't star Adam Sandler and Kevin James.

July 31: Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation

What it is: The fifth installment in the action franchise follows Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and the rest of his team at IMF as they square off against a rival group of legendarily skilled and brutal assassins.

Why you should care: While the Hollywood blockbuster has been gradually taken over by CGI superheroes and CGI robots, the Mission: Impossible franchise consistently stands out for relying on breathtaking physical stunts. The fourth Mission: Impossible featured one of the greatest stunts in recent history, in which Tom Cruise scaled the world's tallest building, and Rogue Nation ups the ante even further by strapping Cruise to the outside of a plane as it takes off. Mission: Impossible's actual stories tend to be pretty disposable, but the character dynamics are usually a lot of fun — and by bringing Simon Pegg's Benji into the field, Rogue Nation should inject some real humor in between all the high-tech espionage.

What else is coming out: The End of the Tour, a well-acted drama about a journalist (Jesse Eisenberg) who joins David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel) for the last leg of his book tour; Vacation, a sorta-reboot of the Chevy Chase series of the same name, following son Rusty Griswold (Ed Helms) as he leads his family on their own road trip.