I can’t remember the last time I had a reaction this mixed to a movie trailer. “Annette” has pieces that should put it near the tip-top of my ‘Most Anticipated’ list. Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver are among my very favorites and the idea of them together on screen is enough to sell almost any movie. On the other hand, the film is directed by Leos Carax whose last film was 2012’s “Holy Motors”. That film received near universal acclaim, but aside from a killer accordion jam, I found it to be eccentric to a fault and incredibly challenging to sit through.

The first trailer for “Annette” highlights the diverse acting chops of Cotillard and Driver as well as the wildly unconventional style of Carax. It leads to some cool images and shots of the two leads really going for it. The big question is how will it all come together? There’s no way I can pass it up, but I’ll be going in with fingers firmly crossed and hoping for something that connects with me much more than “Holy Motors” did.

“Annette” is opening the 2021 Cannes Film Festival on July 6th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

Marvel Studios has been making entertainment headlines with their second successful Disney+ streaming series. But now they’re ready to tease their return to the big screen (after “Black Widow” or course) by giving us our first look at “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”. This is an interesting character choice for the MCU and a chance to breathe some much-needed fresh air into the universe. Shang-Chi (aka The Master of King Fu) is a character with a rich history and the first trailer gives an exciting glimpse into that world.

Simu Liu plays the titular martial artist, trained as an assassin but now hoping to put his troubled past behind him. But when your father is none other than the Mandarin (Tony Leung), one of the greatest supervillains in Marvel history, living a normal life isn’t so easy. The movie is clearly going a different route with the father-son story by tossing out Fu Manchu and bringing in Mandarin. But if that helps erase the Ben Kingsley “Iron Man 3” debacle from my mind I’m all for it. From the peak we get, I love the action, the style, and the assortment of intriguing characters. This could be really good.

“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” hits theaters September 3rd. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

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.