Mads Mikkelsen? Sold! That’s all I needed to be interested in the upcoming film “Riders of Justice”. This Danish action-black comedy mix comes from writer-director Anders Thomas Jensen who previously worked with Mikkelsen on the underrated Western “The Salvation” and the astutely titled “Men & Chicken”. With “Riders” Jensen looks to be pulling from both of those movies, meaning we are in for some gritty violence along with some wacky spurts of dark humor. The new trailer certainly backs that up.

Mikkelsen plays a soldier returning from deployment after his wife is killed in a subway explosion. Late one evening a survivor shows up at his house and tells him the explosion wasn’t an accident. He claims it was a bombing meant to kill the brother of a notorious biker gang leader. This sets the grizzled Mikkelsen on a violent revenge-fueled quest to uncover those responsible and (of course) make them pay. I love the look of this and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more layers to the story than what the trailer shows us.

“Riders of Justice” opens May 21st in select theaters and on VOD. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

A terrific cast leads the way in the upcoming Netflix drama “Monster”. The movie premiered waaay back in 2018 at Sundance and is just now getting released thanks to Netflix. The movie follows a 17-year-old high school honor student with a love for photography who has his young life derailed after he is accused and eventually charged with felony murder. A dense and emotionally-charged legal battle ensues which allows director Anthony Mandler to plow some pretty potent ground.

Aside from an interesting story, “Monster” packs an attention-grabbed ensemble. Rising star Kelvin Harrison, Jr. gets the lead role and is joined by a rich supporting cast including Jeffrey Wright, Jennifer Hudson, John David Washington, Tim Blake Nelson, Jharrel Jerome, and Jennifer Ehle among others. The recent trailer drop is pretty enticing. There are a couple of iffy on-the-nose lines of dialogue, but if the movie can avoid that trap this could be really good.

“Monster” premieres May 7th on Netflix. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

So this should more accurately be called a second, third, or fourth glance, but considering how COVID-19 hit the reset button on so many projects (including this one), I think we’ll let it slide. Despite still not knowing the exact title (is it “F9”, “Fast & Furious 9”, “The Fast Saga”, all of the above), I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen so far. Now Universal has dropped a new action-packed trailer in anticipation of its upcoming June release.

The family’s all back including some surprising old faces and a couple of new ones. The trailer gives us exactly what we expect from a “Fast & Furious” flick – fast cars, big set pieces, ridiculous over-the-top action, and Michelle Rodriguez yelling “DOM!!!”. John Cena (closely following the ‘How to Be the Next Dwayne Johnson’ playbook) enters the franchise as Vin Diesel’s pouty-faced brother and Charlize Theron returns as the bob-haired baddie with a score to settle. It also marks the return of director Justin Lin who last worked on the franchise in 2013. Big, loud, unabashedly silly – it’s a formula that has worked wonders for the series and with “F9” it looks like they are sticking with what works.

“F9: Fast & Furious 9” opens in theaters June 25th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

Zack Snyder has been making entertainment headlines everywhere lately following the long awaited release of his epic “Justice League” director’s cut. But he has had another movie in the pipe, “Army of the Dead”. We got our first tease several weeks ago and now we get our first full look at this upcoming Netflix action-horror flick. Snyder directs, co-writes, and shoots what is a Las Vegas-set zombie heist movie and potential franchise launcher.

Dave Bautista leads a band of down-on-their-luck mercenaries who are hired to swipe $200 million sitting in a vault beneath the zombie-infested Las Vegas strip. The have a 32-hour window to grab the loot and get out of the city. “This should be a simple in-and-out,” they’re told by their employer (played by the always good Hiroyuki Sanada). Yea right. Turns out these aren’t your garden variety undead. They’re smart, agile, organized, and they have a ZOMBIE TIGER! The trailer shows Snyder swinging for the fences with this crazy, hyper-violent, self-aware romp. And it all plays out to Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler”. I’m sold.

“Army of the Dead” opens May 21st in select theaters and streaming on Netflix. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

Fresh off of her recent Oscar nominee Amanda Seyfried and Netflix team up again in the upcoming horror thriller “Things Heard & Seen”. The movie is based on Elizabeth Brundage’s 2017 best-selling novel “All Things Cease to Appear”. The adaptation comes from the writer-director duo of Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman. The first trailer gives us a wickedly satisfying taste of what we can expect later this month.

Seyfried and James Norton play Catherine and George, a married couple relocating from Manhattan to a cozy yet soon to be hellish farmhouse nestled in New York’s Hudson Valley. But their sweet and bubbly romance soon shows cracks and what Netflix describes as “a sinister darkness” marks their new house and their relationship. Everyone seems to know what’s going on except for Catherine and the audience which adds to the suspense. Natalia Dyer, F. Murray Abraham, Rhea Seehorn, and Karen Allen make for interesting supporting players.

“Things Heard & Seen” premieres April 29th on Netflix. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

It took a while, but the long-delayed psychological thriller “The Woman in the Window” is finally set to see the light of day. Originally owned by 20th Century Fox, the rights then went to Disney following their acquisition of Fox. Now Netflix is set to release the film next month. It’s directed by Joe Wright (“Atonement”, “Darkest Hour”) working from a screenplay by Tracy Letts. A new trailer dropped in anticipation showing off its star-studded cast and teasing what looks to be dark, gnarly, and claustrophobic story.

The movie follows Dr. Ana Fox (Amy Adams), a psychologist who never goes outside of her Manhattan brownstone due to a severe anxiety disorder. She begins keeping tabs on a family in the building across the street (think Jimmy Stewart from “Rear Window”). It leads to her connecting with and befriending the woman from the house played by Julianne Moore. But when her snooping leads to her witnessing a murder, the film’s chillingly twisty story kicks into overdrive. A terrific supporting cast featuring Moore, Gary Oldman, Anthony Mackie, Brian Tyree Henry, and Jennifer Jason Leigh only adds to the appeal.

“The Woman in the Window” premieres May 14th on Netflix. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.