Dev Patel’s Action Thriller ‘Monkey Man’ Finds Streaming Success on HBO Max

John Wick is dead. For now, at least. And genre fans are looking for their next action thriller fix in the vein of Baba Yaga. Well, many fans are now finding it thanks to streaming, with the 89% Rotten Tomatoes “rated” movie that promises all the violent revenge any Wick lover could hope for is now climbing the global charts.

Released last year, actor Dev Patel’s directorial debut, Monkey Man, has finally (and deservedly) begun to find a wider audience. Starring Dev Patel as the main character, Kid, who sets out on a quest for brutal and bloody revenge, the action outing also stars Sharlto Copley, Pitobash, Sobhita Dhulipala, Sikandar Kher, Vipin Sharma, Ashwini Kalsekar, Adithi Kalkunte, and Makarand Deshpande.

Monkey Man is now trending on HBO Max, climbing the streamer’s Top 10 and standing alongside the likes of Henry Cavill’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Jason Statham’s hit action thriller The Beekeeper, the Tom Cruise-led sequel Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, and recent horror outing Final Destination Bloodlines. You can check out the official synopsis for Monkey Man below:

“Inspired by the legend of Hanuman, an icon embodying strength and courage, Monkey Man stars Dev Patel as Kid, an anonymous young man who ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash. After years of suppressed rage, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him.”

Universal Pictures

While not quite making the impact of John Wick before him, Monkey Man was met with high praise when it first hit theaters back in 2024 and now stands at an impressive 89% from critics on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. The action thriller was equally praised by audiences, earning a score of 81% on the Popcornmeter and with the consensus reading, “Monkey Man’s exciting action scenes hit even harder thanks to a really well-written and emotional story.”

Not only that, Monkey Man was also a winner at the box office. Initially set for release on Netflix, Get Out and Nope director Jordan Peele fell in love with the action outing, convincing Universal Pictures to purchase the movie from the streamer for around $10 million. And it paid off, with Monkey Man grossing $35 million worldwide.

With such success in its wake, will Monkey Man get a “Chapter 2”? While Dev Patel doesn’t want to count his eggs, the actor and director is not ruling out a sequel. “I’m trying not to get ahead of myself. I know this sounds like a cliché, but just to … birth this little thing, it’s been a huge undertaking. This is all a dream come true,” he previously told Variety regarding a possible Monkey Man 2.

Monkey Man

Release Date

April 5, 2024

Runtime

121 Minutes

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