Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson? SOLD! That’s all I needed to be onboard with the new sci-fi thriller “Reminiscence”. The film is written and directed by Lisa Joy, the co-creator of television’s “Westworld”. It also stars Thandiwe Newton, Cliff Curtis, Daniel Wu, Natalie Martinez, and Angela Sarafyan. After a number of delays (for a wide variety of reasons) “Reminiscence” final gets a solid release date and its very first trailer. It’s looking really good.

While watching this first full look at the film you can’t help but notice its variety of genre flavors – action, romance, classic noir, science-fiction, mystery. It’s all here. In a flooded near-future Miami, Jackman runs a business where he takes people on “a journey through memory“. He falls for a mysterious yet alluring new client (Ferguson) who suddenly vanishes. Unwilling to accept her disappearance, Jackman ignores the warnings of his colleagues and begins digging into the woman’s complex and dangerous past. The film looks fascinating and the idea of retracing one’s memories is ripe with suspenseful potential. This definitely has my attention.

“Reminiscence” opens August 20th in theaters and on HBO Max. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

Check out the stunning new French poster for the upcoming musical drama “Annette”.

Director: Leos Carax

Starring: Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard, Simon Helberg

Release: July 6th, 2021 (Cannes Film Festival)

Disney continues to warm us up for their summer movie lineup, this time by releasing a new trailer for “Jungle Cruise”. Our new look at this big-budgeted blockbuster that’s based on a popular Disneyland theme park ride looks like it wants to be this generation’s “Pirates of the Caribbean”. The trailer looks, feels, and plays like those Jerry Bruckheimer produced flicks. And just like “Pirates”, it puts a lot on the massive shoulders of a wildly charismatic lead.

“Jungle Cruise” sees Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as a beefy riverboat captain and Emily Blunt as a scientist traveling down the treacherous Amazon in search of the Tree of Life. The tree is believed to have healing powers which could revolutionize modern medicine. But as we see in the trailer, there are countless dangers awaiting including a hilariously devious Jesse Plemons playing the villain. Johnson is a big personality but Blunt can match him step-for-step. Together they make a fascinating and fun pair. Hopefully there’s enough originality to the story to make it more than just “Pirates” in a new setting.

“Jungle Cruise” releases July 30th in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

Now here’s a movie title that grabs your attention! “Gunpowder Milkshake” is an upcoming action-thriller-comedy from Israeli filmmaker Navot Papushado. It has a tantalizing cast that includes Karen Gillan, Lena Headey, Angela Bassett, Paul Giamatti, Carla Gugino, Michelle Yeoh, and more. The film was snatched up by Netflix and has all the feel of a John Wick inspired shoot-em-up but with a few very noticeable twists. Hopefully those twists are enough to make this feel like it’s own thing.

I love seeing Karen Gillan getting starring roles and here she plays an assassin who killed “the wrong people” in order to save an 8-year-old girl. Soon there is an open contract out on her so she seeks the help of her mother (Headey), a fellow assassin who hasn’t seen her daughter in 15 years. The bullet-riddled first trailer shows action aplenty and a cracking sense of humor. You can’t help but recognize the movies it’s imitating, but the fun female led cast will hopefully give the film some extra spark. I’ll certainly be giving it a go.

“Gunpowder Milkshake” premieres July 14th on Netflix. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

A couple days ago we got our first look at the inevitable sequel to 2019’s low budget but highly profitable “Escape Room”. That film was an overly simplistic yet mildly entertaining horror thriller that eventually ran out of steam before completely flying off the rails in its attempt at setting up a sequel. Now we get the hilariously titled follow-up “Escape Room: Tournament of Champions” which looks to be equally silly horror-lite escapism. The film sees the return of director Adam Robitel along with star Taylor Russell.

The first trailer all but promises more of the same as Russell’s character is once again thrust into a series of lethal escape rooms. Once inside she and the new group of victims must solve each puzzle in order to get out of the room alive. Then it’s on to the next one. This time around the rooms look more elaborate and interesting (though undeniably ridiculous). Hopefully this time there is a better story thread to hold everything together. If it manages that this could be a fairly fun diversion. But I’m not getting my hopes up.

“Escape Room: Tournament of Champions” opens in theaters July 16th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

We only got a tiny nibble of M. Night Shyamalan’s upcoming new film “Old” during the Super Bowl. Today Universal Pictures gave us a full plate by dropping the film’s first trailer. I don’t like to put too much into trailers as they have shown to be pretty unreliable when it comes to gauging movies. But this one has me really interested in Shyamalan’s latest effort. The film looks weird, creepy, and it has the kind of mindbending plot I can really get into.

Shyamalan puts together an intriguing cast for his horror thriller about vacationing families on a secluded tropical beach. Their time of relaxing family fun turns to terror once they begin to age incredibly fast. To make matters worse, every attempt to leave the beach is repelled by unknown forces. The film features Gael García Bernal, Vicky Krieps (so good in “The Phantom Thread”), Thomasin McKenzie, Rufus Sewell, Eliza Scanlen, Alex Wolff, and more. While many people are still leery when it comes to Shyamalan, I enjoyed each of his last three movies. So sign me up.

“Old” opens in theaters July 23rd. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.