The oddly titled “Waiting for the Barbarians” dropped a new trailer and the first thing you notice is its attention-getting cast. Mark Rylance, Johnny Depp, and Robert Pattinson head this intriguing drama that debuted at the Venice Film Festival. It has finally been given a firm digital and on-demand release date and our first look at the film gives us plenty to chew on.

Set on the remote edges of an unnamed empire, the story seems to revolve around a well-meaning magistrate (Rylance), a sinister security officer (Depp), and an upstart trooper caught in the middle (Pattinson). I love the cast and its particularly great to see Rylance given such a meaty lead role. It has an interesting setting and the cinematography is unquestionably eye-catching.

“Waiting for the Barbarians” is set to release August 7th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

The blandly titled “Dangerous Lies” is a Netflix Original that sounds like a cheap made-for-television thriller. To be honest, at times it feels like one too. It’s actually a competently made cautionary tale that doesn’t come together as nicely or as tidily as it should, but still makes for some breezy, light entertainment.

The film follows a young recently married couple struggling to make ends meet. Kate (Camila Mendes) works night shifts at a diner while Adam (Jessie Usher) tries to finish school. Four months pass and things aren’t much better. Kate now works as an at-home caregiver for a wealthy elderly man named Leonard (Elliott Gould) while a frustrated Adam has quit school to find a job to help pay down their growing debt.

Kate develops a close friendship with Leonard who lives in his big house alone with no family. During a conversation Kate relays her financial woes and Leonard is quick to offer help. She declines money but asks if Leonard would hire Adam to do lawn work since his gardener up an disappeared several months back. The optics certainly aren’t great – a young couple and an vulnerable senior citizen. They get even worse when Kate discovers Leonard dead.

Photo Courtesy of Netflix

All of that sets up the second half which introduces a lurking slimeball named Hayden (Cam Gigandet), a chest full of cash, a possible murder, and a very suspicious police detective (Sasha Alexander). It becomes a series of twists ranging from clever to absurd followed by a series of reveals that are much the same. Director Michael Scott is pretty efficient with the storytelling, keeping things moving at a snappy pace, but not quite fast enough to overlook the gaping holes in logic. But before you can start chipping away at the silliness Scott hurries us along to the next twist or clue, cleverly keeping our attention diverted.

“Dangerous Lies” is one of those easy to make, small budget thrillers that pop up often on Netflix. It’s story of a young couple and a house full of secrets doesn’t sound especially new, but it’s told in a way that keeps things interesting despite juggling too many familiar tropes. And I should mention there are some interesting visual choices as well. It all makes for a movie that is just engaging enough to keep you watching. It still can’t avoid all of the pitfalls that come with movies like this, but it does give a good effort.

VERDICT – 2.5 STARS

Netflix continues their summer movie drops with the latest from acclaimed French filmmaker Olivier Assayas “Wasp Network”. His new film is a Netflix Original and will earn him his biggest premiere audience to date. One thing’s for sure, his film comes with a stacked cast including Penélope Cruz, Edgar Ramirez, Gael García Bernal, Ana de Armas, and Wagner Moura.

The spy thriller follows a Cuban pilot who joins up with a group of defectors in South Florida. They’re called the Wasp Network, a spy ring set on uncovering and infiltrating ant-Castro terrorist outfits in the mid-1990s. There is a ton of information to explore and hopefully Assayas (who also penned the script) doesn’t get bogged down trying to cover it all.

“Wasp Network” opens up on Netflix June 19th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

A quick gander at Will Ferrell’s 50+ film appearances shows that he has made quite the career out of playing absurdly out of place characters. He has played a Christmas elf, a figure skater, a failed disco singer, a time-traveling paleontologist, and the star of a telenovela just to name a few. Now you can add Icelandic pop singer to the list.

In “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga” Ferrell and co-star Rachel McAdams play a musical duo hoping to represent Iceland in the upcoming international Eurovision competition. Obviously Ferrell and McAdams are terrible and obviously they somehow find themselves with the opportunity to represent their homeland. As the trailer shows, absurdity is the main course and it looks like we’ll get plenty of it. For me a little Ferrell goes a long way so we’ll see how this one turns out.

“Eurovision Song Contest” debuts on Netflix June 26th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

If a pilot squawks transponder code 7500 it means the aircraft has been hijacked. That alone should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect from the upcoming Amazon Original “7500”.  The action-thriller is the feature film debut for German writer-director Patrick Vollrath. Paul Dano was originally slated to be the film’s star but left after a scheduling conflict. He was replaced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt who comes across as a much better fit.

Set within the tight confines of a passenger plane traveling from Berlin to Paris, Gordon-Levitt plays a co-pilot of an aircraft taken over by a brutal handful of bad guys. He follows protocol and closes off the cockpit, but the threats of violence to his passengers and crew push him to the brink. The nibble we get from the new trailer shows a tense, claustrophobic thriller that could be a lot of fun.

“7500” hits Amazon Prime on June 19th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

For those needing evidence that absolutely ANY movie can get a sequel, I present to you “Bill & Ted Face the Music”. Now to be fair this is actually the second sequel to the original 1989 “Excellent Adventure”. It was followed by the pair’s “Bogus Journey” in 1991. But when rumors started swirling of a third movie some thirty years later, let’s just say the prospects weren’t what I would call most triumphant.

But yet all the rumors were indeed true and Orion Pictures has dropped their first trailer. Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter reprise their roles as the air-headed but lovable best buds who must go back to their Wyld Stallyns roots to put together one more song that can save the world. Sound preposterous? Of course it does. It’s supposed to. That said, the trailer doesn’t reveal much and what’s there is more nostalgic than impressive. Hopefully they can give us another goofy, light-hearted adventure.

“Bill & Ted Face the Music” is set for release August 21st. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.