‘Monkey Man’: Revenge Goes Primal In Electrifying First Trailer For Dev Patel’s Bloody Action-Thriller - Trailer

Jan 29

From Ryan Cordaro

If you catch me on the right day and ask me what my favorite kind of movie is, it’s either gonna be action movies or horror movies. When it comes to action movies, I really like ones that have a palpable kinetic energy. The John Wick movies are probably the most obvious examples of this, but I’ll watch any kind of action movie under the sun. I try to be open with movies I watch, but I’m such a sucker for any action movie, even the bad ones. I’m also a sucker for Dev Patel, who’s been killing it in the last things I’ve seen him in. He had multiple roles in Wes Anderson’s excellent collection of Roald Dahl shorts for Netflix last year, including the Oscar-nominated The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. The big performance from Patel to me, though, is The Green Knight, which I think is one of the most underrated movies of the decade, and Patel’s killer performance is a huge part of why it works.

That’s why I got insanely excited for Monkey Man, which isn’t only led by Patel: he also co-writes and directs this new action-thriller inspired by the story of the Hindu god, Hanuman. Patel plays an anonymous man recently released from prison who goes on a revenge mission to seek down the ones who took everything from him in a world teeming to the brim with corporate greed and eroding spiritual values. One of the big headlines coming out of this movie was Jordan Peele and his studio Monkeypaw snatching it from Netflix to give it a theatrical release after Peele saw a cut of the film, doubling on the extremely strong results from test screenings.

Alongside Patel, Monkey Man stars Sharlto Copley (District 9, the upcoming Boy Kills World), Pitobash (I Am Kalam, Million Dollar Arm), Sobhita Dhulipala (Major, The Night Manager), Sikandar Kher (Monica, O My Darling, 24: India), Vipin Sharma (Hotel Mumbai, Like Stars on Earth), Ashwini Kalsekar (CID, Chargesheet: The Shuttlecock Murder), Adithi Kalkunte (Hotel Mumbai, Asur: Welcome to Your Dark Side), and Makarand Deshpande (Jungle, Sarfarosh).