Mike Schulz, Dave Levora, and Darren Pitra get right into it this time around — very light on the “hail-fellow-well-met” pleasantries and straight onto the business at hand.

And business isn’t, well, good:

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• Speak No Evil (dir James Watkins, starr James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Aisling Franciosi, Alix West Lefler, Dan Hough, and Scoot McNairy). This is a remake of that beloved Danish classic Speak No Evil, released in those halcyon days of 2022 (dir Christian Tafdrup, starr Morten Burian, Sidsel Siem Koch, Fedja van Huêt, Karina Smulders, Liva Forsberg, Marius Damslev, and Hichem Yacoubi). The trailers give away everything, so auf Wiedersehen, suspense. Davis and McNairy seem to have solid characters at the jump, but as soon as McAvoy moves them into the farmhouse, McNairy behaves like he’s taken a room at the Overlook, Davis develops an edge at odds to the customs of their British hosts, and au revoir, character logic. One feels dispirited from having typed out those words. Avoid!
  
• The Killer’s Game (dir J J Perry, starr Dave Bautista, Sofia Boutella, Terry Crews, Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror with Pom Klementieff, and Ben Kingsley). Decent premise: A hit-man (Bautista) who believes he’s dying puts a hit out on himself so his girlfriend (Boutella) can collect on the insurance — except that. . . well, the first half is superb, but turns blood simple in the clutch, when the story mutates into a John Wick narrative, where every damn character is either a secret hit-man or is suspected of being so. Schulz had a fun time, in spite of the latter half, so if it came down to you seeing either film, then this one’s a bit of a no-brainer. Except that, judging by the previews he’s seen, a filmgoer will have a lot of choices that don’t involve The Killer’s Game.
  

And those previews!

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• Transformers One (dir Josh Cooley, voiced Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne, and Jon Hamm). Will we learn from this animated origin story why the Autobots and the Decipticons, who’ve been slugging it out light years away from Earth, look like the vehicles that have only been around since the mid-Twentieth Century? Should we even care?
  
• Never Let Go (dir Alexandre Aja, starr Halle Berry, Percy Daggs IV, Anthony B Jenkins, Matthew Kevin Anderson, Christin Park, and Stephanie Lavigne). A survival horror film that promises the spectacle of Berry Unhinged. Make us feel gooooood!
  
• The Substance (dir Coralie Fargeat, starr Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid, Robin Greer, Hugo Diego Garcia, and Joseph Balderrama). Body horror that’s been getting critical hosannas, despite not having been directed by David Cronenberg.
  
• Omni Loop (dir Bernardo Britto, starr Mary-Louise Parker, Ayo Edebiri, Carlos Jacott, Harris Yulin, Hannah Pearl Utt, Chris Witaske, and Steven Maier). What does Premise Beach say about Omni Loop? “A woman decides to time travel in order to go back to be the person she always wanted to be.” Well, it has Mary-Louise Parker, who Schulz is excited about seeing.
  
• Wolfs (dir Jon Watts, starr George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams, and Poorna Jagannathan). Back to Premise Beach we go: “Inspired by real life Hollywood Fixer Paul Barresi, two professional fixers who prefer to work alone find themselves forced to work together after being hired for the same job.” Oh, goodie. Another caper.
  
• His Three Daughters (dir Azazel Jacobs, starr Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne, Elizabeth Olsen, Rudy Galvan, Jose Febus, Jasmine Bracey, Jay O Sanders, and Jovan Adepo). This was released last year and will be streaming on Netflix presently. Pretty stacked-looking!