15 Awesome Movies To Watch This Summer (Which Aren't Blockbusters)

7. Straight Outta Compton

Release Date: August 14 The Plot: A biopic of rappers Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren and DJ Yella, better known as N.W.A, set largely on the mean streets of Compton, California in the tumultuous mid-1980s, as they changed history forever with their socially incisive brand of rap. Why It's Going To Be Awesome: From the trailer released so far, this looks like an absolute home run: the young, largely unknown actors cast as the five rappers appear to be note-perfect facsimiles of their real-life counterparts, especially Ice Cube's son O'Shea Jackson Jr., who plays a younger Ice Cube in the movie. F. Gary Gray's (The Negotiator, Law Abiding Citizen) direction looks visually sharp and set to capture the spirit of the time extremely well, and Universal smartly didn't chicken out on the giving the movie an R-rating, as anything else would have been the kiss of death. On top of this, Paul Giamatti looks like an absolute hoot as the group's very, very white manager, Jerry Heller. For rap fans, this is one essential movie to watch this summer.