Independent film distributor extraordinaire A24 teams with writer-directer Alex Garland (“Ex Machina”, “Annihilation”) in the new horror thriller “Men”. The film stars the wonderful (and now Oscar-nominated) Jessie Buckley and Rory Kinnear. A24 dropped a killer teaser a month or so ago and now have released the first official trailer. To no surprise this looks really good and you can see Garland’s fingerprints all over it.

In “Men” Buckley plays Harper, a grieving woman who retreats to English countryside following the tragic death of her husband (Paapa Essiedu). Her quiet escape is quickly interrupted by a number of men from the village (many played by Kinnear). The images are mysterious and often unsettling, giving us a taste of the horrors to come but also leaving much to our imagination. One thing’s for sure, there will be more going on under the surface that what the trailer shows us. I can’t wait.

“Men” hits theaters May 20th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

Coming off of her stellar performance in “Fresh”, Daisy Edgar-Jones stars in “Where the Crawdads Sing”. The small town drama/thriller is an adaptation of the best selling 2018 novel by Delia Owens and sees Edgar-Jones given a meaty role as a resilient young woman from the North Carolina marshes. The film is directed by Olivia Newton and written for the screen by Lucy Alibar who co-wrote 2012’s superb “Beasts of the Southern Wild”.

Edgar-Jones plays Kya. Abandoned as a child and shunned by most of the local townsfolk, Kya mostly survived in the marsh on her own. But when a young man she was involved with suddenly ends up dead, she becomes the chief suspect in what festers into a witch hunt. The cast also includes the always terrific David Strathairn who instantly elevates any movie he’s in. I like the setting and I like the premise. I also like what I’ve seen of Edgar-Jones, and I’m anxious to see what she does with this role.

“Where the Crawdads Sing” opens in theaters on July 15th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it and taking a pass.

After last month’s bland and thrill-free “Blacklight”, it’s not a stretch to wonder if the Liam Neeson action thriller era has finally reached its end. But not so fast. The first trailer for his new film “Memory” just dropped and it gives a little hope that the great Irish actor still has a few good movies left in them. Directed by Martin Campbell, “Memory” teams Neeson with Monica Bellucci and the often underappreciated Guy Pearce.

In some ways, “Memory” has a lot of the same flavor as every other Neeson flick. But this one has an interesting twist. This remake of a 2003 Belgian film sees Neeson playing a hitman-for-hire who is suddenly targeted after refusing to carry out a job involving a kid. The catch is Neeson’s aged assassin, though still lethal, is showing signs of early dementia. This adds an intriguing wrinkle and both Pearce and Bellucci have some interesting roles to play. How will it all turn out? I have no idea. But I’m genuinely curious about this one.

“Memory” is set to hit theaters April 29th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

I have to admit, back in 2020 my expectations for a “Sonic the Hedgehog” movie were pretty low. And while Jeff Fowler’s zany action-adventure comedy was far from perfect, I was surprised at how entertaining it managed to be. Fowler returns with the inevitable sequel that brings back the anthropomorphic hedgehog with lightning fast speed. And this time Sonic brings along a few new faces from is long running video game mythology.

The new action-heavy trailer sees Sonic (once again voiced by Ben Schwartz) duking it out with a evil mustachioed Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik (Jim Carrey), a mad scientist with serious world domination ambitions. This time Robotnik has brought some muscle – a red echidna named Knuckles (voiced by none other than Idris Elba). So Sonic teams with an orange fox named Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) to stop the villains and save earth. Meanwhile James Marsden returns as the straight man to Sonic’s nuttiness. I’m not sure what to think about this one. The effects look pretty great, but it also could be a case of overkill. Hopefully not.

“Sonic the Hedgehog” races into theaters April 8th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

“Umma” is creepy supernatural chiller written and directed by Iris K. Shim. The name that’ll catch many people’s eye is Sam Raimi who produces. Yesterday distributor Sony Pictures dropped the first trailer, and I can honestly say it wasn’t what I expected. Now “Umma” is high on my ‘to watch’ list thanks in large part to it’s eerie vibe and the intriguing casting of Sandra Oh as its lead.

Oh plays a hermit named Amanda. She’s a Korean immigrant who has made a home for herself and her daughter on a remote rural farm. There she raises bees and holds to a strict policy of no modern technology – no televisions, no radios, not even automobiles are allowed. But her secluded life is interrupted when a mysterious man arrives unannounced carrying the ashes of her recently deceased mother. It opens the door to something wicked and utterly terrifying. The trailer rightly keeps a lot under wraps, and I’m anxious to see where this thing goes.

“Umma” lands in theaters March 18th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

I’ve been waiting for this one. “Bullet Train” is a star-studded action-comedy directed by David Leitch, the man behind movies like “John Wick”, “Hobbs and Shaw”, and “Deadpool 2” (ugh). Here he teams with a stacked cast of noteworthy names that includes Brad Pitt, Sandra Bullock, Brian Tyree Henry, Joey King, Michael Shannon, Andrew Koji, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hiroyuki Sanada, Zazie Beetz, Logan Lerman, Bad Bunny, Masi Oka, and more.

This is the kind of crazy action movie where characters sport goofy names like Ladybug, Prince, Tangerine, Kimura, and Lemon. Set aboard a non-stop train speeding through the Japanese countryside, the story follows five assassins who each find themselves after the same silver briefcase. It looks like we’re in for loads of crazy action and lots of humor. Punch my ticket!

“Bullet Train” hits theaters July 15th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.