''Alien: Romulus,' 'The Crow,' and 'Borderlands' Lead Our August Movie Preview (2024)

If Taylor Swift wrote a song about August, then surveys say it must be a great month. That's certainly true of August's movie line-up. Josh Hartnett explores his villainous side with Trap, M. Night Shyamalan's newest psychological thriller. The studio behind M3GAN terrorizes John Cho's family through AfrAId, a tale about a smart home AI gone bad. Alien: Romulus lets Fede Álvarez, the director of Don't Breathe and 2013's Evil Dead remake, put his horrifying spin on the Alien universe. Cuckoo, an indie body horror, pits Euphoria's Hunter Schafer against an eerie (and German-accented) Dan Stevens.

Eli Roth's high-octane adaptation of the Borderlands video game welcomes a cast as awesome as its action (Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Jack Black, to start). Bill Skarsgård becomes Eric Draven, the role the late Brandon Lee originated in the 1994 cult classic The Crow. Action maestro John Woo remakes his own movie, The Killer, into a Peaco*ck original of the same name. It Ends with Us, starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, brings bestselling author Colleen Hoover to the screen for the first time. Lastly, Bridesmaids director Paul Feig makes Awkwafina and John Cena run for their lives, Joseph Gordon-Levitt gets caught up in a comedic small-town conspiracy, and both kids and Millennials alike can delight in the SpongeBob SquarePants spin-off movie Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie.

Butter your popcorn and grab your remote! Here are all the movies hitting theaters and streaming this month.

'The Instigators'

Robbery isn't Rory's (Matt Damon) forte, but he's taking notes. The former Marine Corps officer is struggling to provide for his son. He joins forces with Cobby (Casey Affleck), an ex-convict who isn't as rehabilitated as he claims, to rob the city's mayor on election night. Despite Rory's literal pen-and-paper notes, the heist doesn't go as planned. Being a wanted man is stressful, so Rory goes a step further than the average person: he invites his therapist (Hong Chau) on the run with him. The Instigators hails from Doug Liman, the director of The Bourne Identity and Edge of Tomorrow.

'Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie'

Things are apocalyptic in Bikini Bottom. A human CEO has plucked the beloved city and most of its residents out of the ocean, and doesn't plan on setting them free. Only Sandy Cheeks (Carolyn Lawrence) and SpongeBob SquarePants (Tom Kenny) can save their home and friends. But there's always strength in numbers: Sandy recruits her family of flying Texan squirrels to help.

'Trap'

Who's hunting whom? Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan follows last year's Knock at the Cabin with Trap, an ambitious thriller pitting Cooper (Hartnett), a notorious serial killer nicknamed "The Butcher," against a massive task force created to catch him. Cooper thinks he's taking his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to a concert like a normal dad, but law enforcement has orchestrated the event and plans to root him out. They don't know Cooper's face, however, and he's clever. Once Shyamalan's done, which side will we be rooting for: the good guys, or the charismatic Butcher?

'Borderlands'

Horror director Eli Roth pivots from the bleak worlds of Hostel and 2023's Thanksgiving for a more colorful genre and a PG-13 rating. Borderlands, based on the Western-inspired sci-fi action game of the same name by Gearbox Software, follows Lilith (Cate Blanchett), a gun-toting criminal determined to rob the galaxy's most notorious treasure vault. She needs a team to survive on the hostile planet, and she gets one that's as ragtag as they come: Roland (Kevin Hart), Atlas (Edgar Ramirez), Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), Dr. Patricia Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis), and Claptrap the robot (Jack Black).

'Cuckoo'

Friendly tip: don't move to an isolated village. When her parents accept a small-town job, awkward teenager Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) reluctantly relocates with them. The German Alps are beautiful, and the residents seem friendly; Gretchen starts working at the front desk at the mysterious Mr. König's (Dan Stevens) resort. Then, the illusion shatters. No one around Gretchen sees the danger König poses, and she's not going down without a fight. Collider's Chase Hutchinson called the inventive Cuckoo, director Timan Singer's sophom*ore film, "a goofy, gory horror romp unlike anything you've ever seen.

'It Ends with Us'

Based on Colleen Hoover's zeitgeist of a novel of the same name, Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni), a charming and handsome neurosurgeon, sweeps flower shop owner Lily Bloom (Blake Lively) off her feet. Their whirlwind courtship becomes a Las Vegas wedding and a pregnancy. All the while, Ryle's loving facade falls, revealing his true colors as a domestic abuser. The child of an abusive household herself, Lily grapples with breaking the cycle and her growing feelings for Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar), her childhood sweetheart.

'Watchmen: Chapter I'

Watchmen: Chapter 1 is the third time that Alan Moore's groundbreaking graphic novel has been adapted for the screen. Part one of this two-part saga, written by Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski and led by an all-star cast including Matthew Rhys, Katee Sackhoff, Adrienne Barbeau, and Titus Welliver, follows costumed vigilante Rorschach (Welliver) as he investigates the murder of a former superhero called the Comedian. The government outlawed superheroes long ago, but to save their lives and potentially the entire planet, an old team will rise again.

'Jackpot!'

In director Paul Feig's Jackpot!, Katie (Awkwafina) is an actress trying to get her career off the ground. Instead, she wins the lottery, and that presents a new set of problems. If a lottery loser kills Katie before the day's over, their money becomes hers. (California laws, am I right?) At least Katie has good guy Noel (John Cena), his butt-kicking skills, and his three-piece suit on her side in this rowdy action thrill ride.

'Alien: Romulus'

Desperate to escape their difficult lives, a handful of friends — led by Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny) — plan a quick heist. The Romulus space station is full of high-end technology they can use or sell. It's also full of xenomorphs. Fede Álvarez's standalone Alien: Romulus occurs between the events of Ridley Scott's original Alien and James Cameron's action-fueled Aliens.

'The Union'

Two high school sweethearts reconnect in The Union when Roxanne (Halle Berry) abducts Mike (Mark Wahlberg) from New Jersey to London. You see, Roxanne is a spy employed by an organization called the Union. She needs Mike's help on a vital mission because their enemies won't suspect "a nobody." It takes effort to get Mike up to speed, but he's as devoted to Roxanne as he ever was — and the feeling's mutual.

'Blink Twice'

"Blink twice if I'm in danger." Zoë Kravitz makes her directorial debut in this dangerous and sexy thriller. Frida (Naomi Ackie) can't believe her luck when she and her best friend Jess (Alia Shawkat) are personally invited to one of billionaire Slater King's (Channing Tatum) "legendary parties." His island means luxury: fancy co*cktail gowns, expensive food and wine, a massive mansion, and more. Once Jess vanishes and Frida starts forgetting things, she realizes that Slater is playing a more sinister game.

'Greedy People'

Will (Himesh Patel) is a rookie cop in a sleepy town, and he does the one thing he shouldn't: accidentally kill someone. His superior officer (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) stages the incident like a robbery gone wrong, which includes taking the one million dollars the victim had hidden away — in the name of realism, of course. The problem is, someone had already conspired to murder this woman and steal her money. What secrets lurk in the heart of this idyllic neighborhood? Ask director Potsy Ponciroli, whose work with writer Michael Vukadinovich recalls Fargo.

'Strange Darling'

Strange Darling is a new horror thriller that has gotten some major names in horror talking, including Mike Flanagan and Stephen King. Not only that, but the movie still holds an impressive 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Directed by JT Mollner, the movie finds an unnamed woman (Willa Fitzgerald) who has a one-night stand with a stranger (Kyle Gallner). Unbeknownst to the woman, her new fling also happens to be a serial killer who is about to embark on one of his deadliest murder sprees yet, and she's one of his targets. - Nate Richard

'The Crow'

After musician Eric Draven (Bill Skarsgård) and his girlfriend Shelly (FKA Twigs) are murdered in a brutal assault, the Crow, a being that guides souls to the afterlife, resurrects Eric and gifts him with supernatural powers. Guided by the Crow, Eric seeks justice for Shelly and clashes with crime king Vincent Roeg (Danny Huston). Director Rupert Sanders' The Crow is the fifth movie in the franchise, inspired by James O'Barr's 1989 comic series and remakes the '90s classic starring Brandon Lee.

'The Killer'

No one does gun-fu action quite like John Woo, the man who helped invent it. Game of Thrones' Nathalie Emmanuel leads Woo's The Killer, a remake of his 1989 film of the same name. France's criminal underworld calls Zoe "the queen of the dead." A skilled assassin, she's earned her unofficial title. But Zoe compassionately spares a witness (Diana Silvers) to one of her hits, and that's a broken rule her employer won't tolerate. Zoe becomes the woman's protector, fights off the bounties on both of their heads and crosses paths with a well-intentioned cop (Omar Sy).

'AfrAId'

What if your smart home device could pay your bills for you? Or read to your children while you make breakfast, reducing the need to multitask? It sounds appealing. That's how Curtis (John Cho), his wife (Katherine Waterston), and their children feel about AIA, the groundbreaking new AI they install throughout their house. AIA anticipates their every need, sometimes before they think about it. You can probably see where this is going — the more AIA learns, the more sentient she becomes, and the more protective of "her" kids against anything she perceives to be a threat, including their human parents.

Other Movies Releasing in August 2024

August 2

• Detained (in limited theaters and PVOD)
• Harold and the Purple Crayon (in theaters)

August 8

• One Fast Move (on Prime Video)

August 9

• duch*ess (on VOD)
• Girl You Know It's True (in limited theaters and PVOD)
• Good One (in limited theaters)

August 16

• The Deliverance (in limited theaters, August 30 on Netflix)
• Gunner (limited theatrical release and VOD)
• Rob Peace (in limited theaters)
• Skincare (Limited theatrical release)
• Stream (in theaters)

August 23

• Incoming (on Netflix)
• Slingshot (in theaters)
• The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat (on Hulu)

August 30

• City of Dreams (in limited theaters)
• Reagan (in theaters)
• 1992 (in theaters)