Watch the first trailer for Netflix's crime comedy "The Thursday Murder Club"

As you can see, the acclaimed British actor ratio is high in "The Thursday Murder Club." We have multiple Oscar winners in Ben Kingsley and Helen Mirren. We have a James Bond in Pierce Brosnan. Naomi Ackie, Jonathan Pryce, Richard E. Grant, we could go on.

If there is any trepidation to be found, it's in the fact the director is Chris Columbus. Columbus is a steady hand who, by all accounts, is a great dude. There's a reason why Spielberg and the late John Hughes have/had such great affinity for him. He has been hired to work with child-actor-heavy movies on multiple occasions, including directing the first two "Home Alone" films and the first two "Harry Potter" movies. Again, that's the "great dude" reputation at work. On the other hand, the first two "Harry Potter" movies are by consensus the worst. Columbus has also helmed "Bicentennial Man," "I Love You, Beth Cooper," and "Pixel." On a third hand, he also wrote this movie, for which we will never be able to go in too hard on him:

Based on the trailer for "The Thursday Murder Club," it seems like it will be a perfectly solid, watchable Netflix movie, the kind that proves quite popular with Netflix viewers. It's a talented cast, and Columbus, for his mixed resume, isn't a "get in the way" type of director. The film drops on Netflix on August 28. One assumes if it is successful, the ongoing series of books will generate a sequel or two.

(h/t Variety)