Monkey Man Trailer Seeks Bloody Vengeance

Movies

More evidence that action movies are making a comeback appeared today as Universal Pictures released a trailer for Monkey Man. The directorial debut of actor Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire, Hotel Mumbai, The Green Knight), Monkey Man follows an ex-con hunting down the men who killed his mother. Patel stars in the film, with Sharlto Copley, Pitobash, Sobhita Dhulipala, Vipin Sharma, Sikandar Kher, and Brahim Chab in supporting roles. Originally, Monkey Man was going to be released directly to Netflix, but Jordan Peele acquired the rights to the film through his production company, Monkeypaw Productions, and it will now be released in theaters on April 5, 2024. You can see the Monkey Man trailer below:

This year’s movie prospects are looking up. Monkey Man looks great, another wild and well-filmed action flick to add to a thankfully growing list. This is what I want to see from action cinema: original ideas and stories, as opposed to stupid things like remaking Road House or making needless sequels. Someone who’s seen it told Deadline Monkey Man is “John Wick in Mumbai,” and there’s definitely a Wickian flavor in the trailer, with the suits, the beard, the slick long hair, and, of course, the stylish and brutal action. Hopefully, it’s not too derivative; I’d rather it be its own thing as much as possible. I also like that, as with the first John Wick, the premise is simple – a dangerous man wants revenge on bad guys. That’s all you need, and from there, you can explore other things, which is what some of the synopses make it sound like Monkey Man will do, particularly spirituality and the degradation of values in society. On that score, one of the screenwriters is John Collee, who co-wrote Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, so despite Dev Patel’s relative inexperience as a writer, there’s a sure hand on board. I’m really looking forward to Monkey Man.