Ronald.phillips

The "Predator" series is a strange beast. John McTiernan's 1987 pic was a testosterone-filled gore-fest, starting off as an action-packed Arnold Schwarzenegger extravaganza before it suddenly turned into a scary monster movie. Ever since then, the franchise has been chasing the high of that first movie with so-so results. The 1990 sequel "Predator 2" brought the Predator out of the jungle and into the big city. "Predators" left Earth for an alien planet, and Shane Black's "The Predator" tried to go back to basics with a rather messy movie that showed signs of studio interference. And oh yeah, there were two "Alien vs. Predator" movies, but let's go ahead and ignore them completely. 

While I wouldn't call most of these movies terrible (and in fact, "Predator 2" is a little underrated), none of them ever quite recreated what made McTiernan's original such a now-iconic action-horror-sci-fi movie. But Dan Trachtenberg's "Prey," the latest title to join the fray, comes perhaps the closest to recapturing the energy of the original — and it does so by shaking things up. At the same time, Trachtenberg's movie also feels mighty similar to the first movie — it's a surprisingly successful blend of old and new. 

For a large amount of the runtime, Trachtenberg's movie, with a script by Patrick Aison, doesn't even feel like a "Predator" movie. It plays more like a revisionist Western, focusing on members of the Comanche Nation in the 1700s. Naru (Amber Midthunder) dreams of being a real warrior within her tribe, but it's her brother Taabe (Dakota Beavers) who gets all the fame and glory, even though it becomes clear Naru is the more knowledgable and skilled sibling (she can do pretty much anything battle-and-hunting-related, including turning her ax into something akin to the rope blade Scorpion fires out of his hand in "Mortal Kombat"). But none of that works in Naru's favor, and the other men in the tribe openly mock and doubt her. The only support she has is her very, very good dog, who accompanies her everywhere (and seriously, major props to this dog actor, who seems like a very good boy). 

Naru wants nothing more than to finally prove herself to her people, and she might get the chance when she spots what appears to be a ball of fire slowly falling to the ground from the sky above. 

A Rustic Predator

"Prey" unfolds at a slow, reflective pace. There are bursts of action when Naru is hunting, but there are also long stretches of silence. Here, Trachtenberg and cinematographer Jeff Cutter make gorgeous use of on-location filming. The camera is often held low, allowing wide open skies and sprawling plains to stretch on, and on, and on. Naru rises in the morning to find beautiful sunrises casting everything in an eerie shadow. She scales mountains and moves about tall grass, silent but focused. The scenery genuinely feels like a time and place long gone, and the long shots of nature and reflective mood will no doubt have some thinking of Terrence Malick (I am not saying "Prey" is anything like a Malick movie, by the way. But I know that connection is going to be made). The wide shots of untouched landscapes are consistently stunning, and it's a shame this movie has been relegated to the world of streaming instead of being projected across the biggest, widest screen possible. 

And then, all at once, an alien monster shows up. This may seem jarring, but it's actually the exact same formula as the first movie: what starts off seeming like one story suddenly, and violently, changes into something else. Because there's a Predator lurking about, and since we're back in the past, this Predator isn't as high-tech as his future counterparts. The alien creature clearly has more advanced weaponry than the Comanche, but it's not quite there yet. Instead of wearing a polished metal mask, this Predator's mask is fashioned from the skull of some unknown creature. And while the now-familiar Predator laser-sighting is still here, the Predator doesn't fire laser blasts from his gun — he shoots deadly projectile darts. Some of this may come across as silly, but this is an inherently silly series, and I found the rustic Predator weapons rather charming, in a gruesome sort of way. 

If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It.

Midthunder is at the center of nearly every scene in "Prey," and she carries the film with aplomb. There's not a single moment where we don't doubt her ass-kicking skills; there aren't an abundance of quick cuts to hide a stunt performer over and over again — it really looks like Midthunder is engaging in the action that begins to unfold. Once it becomes clear a Predator is nearby, "Prey" ramps up that action. At first, the alien creature finds itself targeting the deadly animals that lurk by. This happens so frequently that I began to worry the movie would only show the Predator targeting beasts. Thankfully, more and more human characters — especially a group of nasty, cruel French trappers — arrive, making themselves perfect cannon fodder for the hunter from beyond the stars. 

It's a clash between the idyllic nature of the landscape and the unrelenting killing power of the Predator. The film doesn't quite add a message about the Comanche (and other indigenous peoples) being run off their land by outside invaders, but the implications are clear: what was once a place of peace has become a warzone, and no one is safe. The moments when we see the Predator unleashed on this land will no doubt thrill those hungry for bloody action, but it comes with a caveat: the majority of the blood is rendered via CGI, and you can always tell. Indeed, the movie's reliance on CGI grows frustrating — almost all the animals are CGI, and even the Predator himself, when he pulls off his mask, is given an unfortunately digital face. It's a far cry from the brilliant, disturbing practical effects work used to create the Predator from the original film. 

The shoddy CGI is not enough to completely tank "Prey," but it hampers what was turning out to be an otherwise rousing success, and perhaps the best "Predator" movie since the original. Still, Trachtenberg and company have put together a crackerjack monster pic, full of clever new approaches to old material. Those looking for the familiar will recognize plenty of callbacks to other "Predator" films ("If it bleeds, we can kill it," a character here says at one point), while anyone searching for new thrills will get a kick out of the film's genre mash-ups. Although sooner or later, you'd think these Predators would get tired of coming to Earth and getting their asses kicked. 

/Film Rating: 7 out of 10

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The post Prey Review: The Predator Series Heads Back in Time, Blending a Revisionist Western With a Bloody Monster Movie appeared first on /Film.

By the time "Game of Thrones'" ended in 2019, the show had burned a lot of the goodwill it initially generated for fantasy storytelling. Besides seemingly being designed to "break the cast," it flattened characterization in exchange for blockbuster action setpieces, invalidating nearly a decade of nuanced, complex narrative in the process. If the show had always operated in that mode, it might not have been as big a deal.

The fantasy series surprised people when it came out, not with massive medieval sets or dragon CGI, but with its dense scripting and political heft. The characterizations had depth, enough to ensure that any actor coming in would have a wealth of interesting material. A major character like Cersei (Lena Headey) made for one of the most intriguing antagonistic performances in recent television, and the righteous leader of the people Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) had a suggestive mean streak explored valiantly by Clarke.

Even a longtime supporting character like Ser Davos (Liam Cunningham), the Onion Knight serving under wandering general Stannis (Stephen Dillane), saw a richly felt performance. As Davos, Cunningham has an ineffable weight, adding gravitas and profundity to big setpieces or clunky exposition. The character's inherent warmth and tragedy, brought to life by Cunningham's vital work, turned him into a fan favorite that would play a major role in the show's final seasons.

When he was first pitched the show, however, Cunningham's response was a simple "not interested."

Cunningham Didn't Care

Liam Cunningham was first brought on the show for its second season, as an accomplice to Stannis, one of the brothers of the recently slain King Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy). His storyline in this introductory season sees him as a strangely honorable figure in the midst of the cruelty and backstabbing that makes up a lot of "Game of Thrones." While Stannis plans to kill his other brother in the hopes of securing his own spot on the throne, Davos quietly fulfills his necessary duties. Cunningham plays him as a conflicted man who keeps his doubts on the inside.

For Cunningham, the man who almost played the Doctor on "Doctor Who" many years ago, this role was deep and probing, more challenging than most of what he was offered, and he took it very seriously. As he told GamesRadar in advance of the season airing, "You need to up your game when you're working on this stuff. It's tough, but incredibly rewarding as an actor, it's almost like doing theatre." That wasn't how he initially felt when the role was proposed to him.

Reflecting on his origins on the show for Sunday World, he claimed, "When I was first contacted about being on 'Game of Thrones,' I said very quickly that I was not interested." He was part of a long tradition.

Actorly Disinterest

For starters, fantasy movies and series tend to cast a vast array of middle-aged or older British character actors to sell their authenticity. Many of the actors (including plenty who worked on "Game of Thrones") have no illusions about the quality of the material, thinking of it purely as a job. It's like Michael Caine doing "Jaws: The Revenge" and claiming in his autobiography "What's It All About" that it was worth it for the paycheck and the house he bought with it.

Even on "Game of Thrones," veteran actors like Ian McShane and Stephen Dillane (above left) had little interest in the material. McShane appears in the season 6 episode "The Broken Man" as a retired warrior type who rehabilitates the presumed-dead character of The Hound (Rory McCann). When he inadvertently gave away some of the story he would be involved in, he dismissively (and not entirely incorrectly) referred to the show as being "just tits and dragons." Meanwhile, Dillane had no real idea of what was going on in the show, telling Entertainment Weekly, "I didn't know what I was doing until we'd finished filming and it was too late."

Dillane's most common scene partner was Liam Cunningham, who, he claims, was incredibly invested in the material, in a way that was "quite moving." Cunningham was able to explain much of the dramatic subtext to Dillane, as well as how their material fit into the larger show.

Fighting For The Character

Liam Cunningham became very passionate about the show and very protective of the role of Davos. As he told Sunday World, his initial biases against the material were overcome when he finally got the chance to dig in to the scripts, "I realized it was a story of power, legacy and paranoia, with the fantasy and dragons just a powerful backdrop for a fantastic drama." Because of Davos' lacking ambition and humble demeanor, the character proved valuable as the show began to move from conniving politicking to existential, fantastical threats. Cunningham continued to play him with the same inner-strength and humor, and his enthusiasm for the show's future plotlines was palpable in interviews.

In the "Game of Thrones" oral history, "Fire Cannot Kill A Dragon" (via IndieWire), it's revealed that Cunningham even fought with the show's writers against certain potential threads for Davos, such as a romantic interest in the young Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel). Cunningham recalled saying, "You're not undoing my hard work engendering the sympathy of the audience to have him be a perv."

"Game of Thrones" might have a complex legacy, one that has on occasion come close to poisoning the excitement that greeted the show. But the characters, from Davos on down, continue to be vivid and memorable, proving how lucky we were that Cunningham got involved despite his initial misgivings.

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The post Liam Cunningham Didn't Exactly Jump At The Chance To Join Game Of Thrones appeared first on /Film.

What's it like to be responsible for a billion people's digital security? Just ask the company's Morse researchers.

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"I have a very particular set of skills"; Liam Neeson's iconic threat in "Taken" spawned many internet memes, two disastrous sequels, and a complete career shift for one of Hollywood's most respected dramatic actors. Prior to "Taken," Neeson had dabbled in the action genre with films like "Darkman" and "Batman Begins," but he was best known for his more serious projects. He certainly wasn't someone that film fans would compare to Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, or Keanu Reeves.

After the success of "Taken," Neeson became one of the generation's leading action stars. Even though the Irish actor is in his 70s, he's still the most fearsome person in any room that he walks into. Neeson has done many action films since, but none of them compare to "Taken." "Taken" is the ideal modern action movie: the story is simple, the bad guys are menacing, and the battles are relentless. The film holds up, even if the disappointing sequels did their best to diminish the realism of the series.

Although it has certainly inspired many parodies, the film takes itself pretty seriously. "Taken" isn't trying to set up a larger universe, and you didn't have to stick around for a post-credit sequence. It's pure pulp entertainment. Here are 16 movies like "Taken" that you should check out.

A Walk Among The Tombstones (2014)

Neeson has appeared in several action films that are similar to "Taken," but unfortunately, most of them have just felt like retreads of what he already did. Films like "Run All Night," "Memory," "Unknown," "Honest Thief," and "The Commuter" are pretty much interchangeable. However, Neeson did manage to show a little bit more complexity in the 2014 film "A Walk Among The Tombstones." Similar to "Taken," "A Walk Among The Tombstones" understood that action movie fans wanted to see an intelligent main character, who didn't just have to rely on his physical prominence to emerge victorious.

"A Walk Among The Tombstones" follows the private detective Matthew Scudder (Neeson), who retired following a traumatic incident during one of his previous cases. Scudder is called out of retirement when a drug addict named Peter Kristo (Boyd Holbrook) asks for his help. Peter's brother, Kenny (Dan Stevens), is reeling from the death of his wife. Kenny wants Scudder to track down and kill the men responsible.

Although "A Walk Among The Tombstones" has all the great action that Neeson's fans would come to expect, it allows him to play a much darker character. It's made very clear that Scudder is not a good guy. He's a violent man, but in this dark story, he's hardly the most unlikeable character. "Taken" and "A Walk Among The Tombstones" would make a great double feature for anyone who wanted to see Neeson's range as an actor.

Harry Brown (2009)

One of the coolest things about "Taken" is getting to see an older action hero. Neeson proved that kicking butt wasn't just a young man's game! The legendary British actor Michael Caine made a similarly surprising resurgence within the action genre with the thriller "Harry Brown." It wasn't Caine's first action endeavor; he had starred in classics like "Get Carter," "The Italian Job," "Zulu," and "The Ipcress File" earlier in his career. However, "Harry Brown" allowed Caine to prove to younger viewers that he was much more than Batman's butler.

The titular character is a former Royal Marine, who is shocked to see the level of violence that plagues the streets of modern England. When his best friend, Len Attwell (David Bradley) is killed, Brown seeks justice. The cops are unable to provide that, so Brown takes the law into his own hands. Caine was taking a risk with the role. It easily could have descended into laughable self-parody. However, "Harry Brown" completely commits to its premise, and its depiction of youth violence is actually pretty disturbing. Hopefully, the film is not an anomaly within Caine's late career, and he'll return to the action genre again sometime soon.

Clear And Present Danger (1994)

Neeson's character in "Taken" was relatable because of his sense of honor. This is the same reason that Tom Clancy's iconic Jack Ryan character became so beloved among readers. While Jack certainly has seen his fair share of combat, he swears to put his moral conscience first. Although there are many great Jack Ryan films, 1994's "Clear and Present Danger" shows how Jack begins to question the "official story" that he is told.

In the film, Jack (Harrison Ford) learns that the American businessman Peter Hardin and his family were killed on a U.S. yacht in the Caribbean Sea. Jack discovers that there is a greater conspiracy at play; Hardin was secretly helping to fund the South American Cali Cartel. Jack is wary because Hardin was a close friend of the U.S. President Bennett (Donald Moffat). In his investigation, Jack learns that the President has blood on his hands.

Jack proves how far he is willing to go in one of the film's most powerful scenes. He confronts the President, and accuses him of betraying everything that he has sworn to represent. After Ford completes his fiery speech, it's easy to determine who is the real patriot between the two.

License To Kill (1989)

One of the reasons that Bryan Mills felt like such a unique action hero in the "Taken" franchise is that he wasn't anything like James Bond. Mills wasn't interested in seducing women or indulging in beverages; he was simply a man on a mission, who was determined to protect his family. As a result, the "Taken" franchise feels much more realistic than a majority of the 007 films. That being said, 1989's "License to Kill" is unlike any other film in the Bond franchise. Timothy Dalton's second film as Bond is one of the darkest and most violent entries in the series. "License to Kill" feels closer in style to a Canon pulp thriller than any of the slick 007 films that starred Sean Connery or Roger Moore.

In "License to Kill," Bond has been temporarily suspended from duty as an MI6 agent, and his license to kill has been revoked. Here, Bond isn't working on a new mission to protect his queen and country: He's out for revenge. Bond's friend, Felix Leiter (David Hedison) was brutally attacked after his wedding by the remorseless drug lord Frank Sanchez (Robert Davi), and Felix's new wife, Della Churchill (Priscilla Barnes), has been murdered. Bond decides to avenge his friend's loss. The result of this premise is a James Bond outing darker and grittier that those before it.

Bullitt (1968)

"Taken" was a cool action film because Bryan Mills didn't have the benefit of working with a system that supported him. He is trapped overseas, and knows that he needs to only trust himself if he wants to save his daughter. Action heroes are generally more compelling if they are cut off from help. When you're talking about charismatic action stars that know how to do that, Steve McQueen's name has to be on the list.

Like Neeson, McQueen generally appeared in more serious action films. His characters are less interested in spouting off cheesy one-liners than they are completing their missions. Of all of McQueen's films, 1968's "Bullitt" is perhaps his most iconic. The movie is best remembered for its incredible car chase sequences. During its initial release, "Bullitt" generated a significant amount of hype from action movie fans due to the fact that McQueen himself drove during the film's most exciting chase scene. His commitment made the film even more exciting.

Like Bryan Mills, the character of Lieutenant Frank Bullitt is an underdog fighting against the system. Bullitt isn't just looking for mobsters; he has to fight corruption within the ranks of the San Francisco Police Department.

Commando (1985)

An issue that many modern action movies have is simply being too complicated. When you're dealing with multiverses, sequels, television spin-offs, and hidden Easter Eggs, it can make it much harder to actually just sit back and enjoy the movie you are watching. "Taken" didn't have any of those issues. The story is very simple, and it's easy to pick up on. You don't have to know a lot about Bryan Mills' backstory before the action starts; he is defined by his skill as an ex-CIA agent and his endless love for his family.

Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in many action films and franchises, but 1985's "Commando" is the purest distillation of what he does best. Schwarzenegger stars as Colonel John Matrix, a retired member of the U.S. military that raises his daughter, Jenny (Alyssa Milano). Matrix is comfortable with his quiet lifestyle, but he's called back into duty when a group of mercenaries break into his home and kidnap Jenny. Similar to "Taken," "Commando" realizes that showing fathers during the heartbreaking moments when they fear for their children's lives was critical. Matrix may not be afraid to head into a hectic battle, but the thought of losing Jenny truly terrifies him. Matrix decides to use all of the skills that he learned from his career in the military to track down Jenny's kidnappers and bring them to justice. Although "Commando" is a far goofier film than "Taken," the slower scenes between Schwarzenegger and Milano are genuinely heartfelt.

Air Force One (1997)

A great action hero knows the importance of putting their family's safety first and putting their own life on the line to save the people that they care about. It doesn't matter who they are — they could be a former CIA agent like Bryan Mills, or, they could also be the President of the United States. The idea of the Commander in Chief kicking butt and taking names sounds like a parody of action movie cliches, but surprisingly, "Air Force One" took the idea in an interesting direction. Harrison Ford was completely convincing as both the leader of the free world and a guy that you wouldn't want to mess with in a fight.

Ford stars as President James Marshall, a Vietnam War veteran who is popular among his constituents. Marshall speaks fluent Russian, and attends a meeting in Moscow. He declares that the United States will not negotiate with terrorists. Unfortunately, "Air Force One" is hijacked by the radical terrorist Egor Korshunov (Gary Oldman), a fiercely loyal to the neo-Soviet regime of Kazakhstan and its fascist leader, General Ivan Radek (Jürgen Prochnow). Marshall has learned to hate both of these men; Egor is holding the First Family hostage, and Radek is responsible for the massacre of many innocent civilians.

Marshall uses his wits to save both his family and the country that he has sworn to protect. If you tend to find political movies boring, "Air Force One" is a good alternative.

First Blood (1982)

"Taken" was a breath of fresh air because it wasn't afraid to take itself seriously. Action films had gotten so campy that it was hard to take any of them seriously. In many ways, the "Rambo" franchise is the epitome of everything wrong with the action genre. However, you may be surprised to learn that the first film in the franchise is radically different from the sequels.

"First Blood" is based on the 1972 novel of the same name by David Morrell, and tells the story of the traumatized Vietnam War veteran John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone). After returning home, he isn't offered the mental health services that he needs and feels like a stranger in his native country. Rambo has become a drifter, and searches for an old friend from the war as he treks to a small town called Hope, Washington. After he receives the heartbreaking news that his friend is dead, Rambo is confronted by the corrupt Sheriff, William Teasle (Brian Dennehy). Teasle grows increasingly infuriated by Rambo when he tries to make his way back into town, and declares him to be a vagrant.

Although "First Blood" turns into a survival action thriller, it has very serious themes that were ignored by the subsequent films in the franchise. In the 1985 sequel, "Rambo: First Blood Part II," Rambo seemingly forgets everything that he has learned, and becomes a blind patriot.

The French Connection (1971)

One of the reasons that Bryan Mills was such a unique hero in the "Taken" franchise was that he didn't just rely on his physical skills. Mills' experience with the CIA taught him valuable problem-solving techniques, which turned him into a valuable detective. There aren't a lot of detectives in movies that are quite as iconic as Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman) from "The French Connection." The influential action movie hasn't aged a day since its initial release in 1971.

The New York Police Department tasks Popeye with finding the heroin smuggler Alain Charnier (Fernando Ray) and putting a halt to his syndicate. Charnier is responsible for bringing massive amounts of the illegal drug into New York. Charnier and his partner, Cloudy Russo (Roy Scheider), have to work around yellow tape to complete their investigation. There's a reason that "The French Connection" felt so gritty and realistic; the film was loosely based on a real case, and the characters of Popeye and Cloudy were inspired by the real detectives Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso, respectively.

The Bourne Identity (2002)

In many ways, the success of "The Bourne Identity" paved the way for "Taken." In the early 21st century, action cinema had begun to decline. Two of the biggest action movie franchises, James Bond and "Mission: Impossible," had just introduced embarrassing new installments. 2002's "Die Another Day" and 2000's "Mission: Impossible II" did their best to ruin everything that their franchises had built. Unfortunately, it seemed like the days of truly exhilarating action films were gone.

"The Bourne Identity" managed to return the action genre to its roots by scaling it back. Between the intelligent story, compelling characters, interesting political subtext, and creative fight sequences, "The Bourne Identity" essentially started a new trend in action cinema.

Similar to Neeson before "Taken," Matt Damon wasn't exactly who you would think of when someone said the phrase "action star." While Damon had proven his merit as a dramatic actor in films like "Good Will Hunting," "Saving Private Ryan," "The Rainmaker," and "Rounders," he wasn't quite the action star that he is today. However, no one that has seen "The Bourne Identity" can cast doubt on Damon's physical abilities. Both Neeson and Damon used their experience with more serious films to make their action projects even more emotional.

Live Free Or Die Hard (2007)

If you're talking about the greatest action movies of all-time, it all comes back to "Die Hard" in one way or another. Bruce Willis' performance in the 1988 classic paved the way for an entire generation of imitators. John McClane is the ideal action hero: He's just an average New York cop who gets caught in over his head, and he's forced to use his skills to go up against an impossible enemy. Every action movie hero since, including "Taken's" Bryan Mills, is honoring the legacy of John McClane in one way or another.

Of all the films in the "Die Hard" franchise, 2007's "Live Free or Die Hard" feels the closest to "Taken." Both films force their heroes to be in a vulnerable position when their daughters are kidnapped. McClane does not have a perfect family life, and he has struggled to connect with his daughter, Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Lucy is kidnapped by the villainous cyber-terrorist Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant), a former Defense Department analyst who wants to create havoc by hacking into the American government's computers. Of course, McClane is the only one who can stop him.

Both "Taken" and "Live Free or Die Hard" pull off a very challenging feat: they manage to pack in a lot of action and violence, even though they were both rated PG-13 by the MPAA.

Dirty Harry (1971)

"Taken" combines the action and mystery genres into a fun mix of suspenseful fight sequences and clever problem solving. "Taken" feels a little bit more intelligent than most action movies, but never fails to deliver on the spectacle either. This is one of the reasons that the "Dirty Harry" films are so beloved. Clint Eastwood's San Francisco Police Department Inspector Harry Callahan would probably get along with Bryan Mills; both men are complete professionals who have no time for corruption, distraction, or indulgences.

The "Dirty Harry" movies have plenty of great moments, but if you haven't checked out the series yet, then you can't go wrong with the original 1971 classic. In his first adventure, Harry is forced to track down the insane assassin Scorpio (Andy Robinson), who is responsible for a series of killings throughout the city. Both "Dirty Harry" and "Taken" took their villains seriously; Scorpio is a little eccentric, but he's completely terrifying.

Layer Cake (2005)

In "Taken," Bryan Mills doesn't particularly enjoy his profession. He's glad that he's left his life of violence behind him, and he would rather spend time with his family. Mills is only pulled back into the world of hunting down criminals through dramatic circumstances. The idea of a violent man regretting his life choices was expertly shown by Matthew Vaughn in his 2005 film "Layer Cake." Vaughn's success with his directorial debut allowed him to move on to bigger projects, including "X-Men: First Class" and the "Kingsman" franchise.

"Layer Cake" follows a cocaine distributor known as "XXXX" (Daniel Craig). XXXX is looking to retire from the drug smuggling business, but he's called back into action to track down the drug addict Charlie (Nathalie Lunghi). Charlie is the daughter of a powerful figure within the drug trade, and she's been kidnapped. XXXX starts off on a simple mission to solve the kidnapping, but like Mills in "Taken," he realizes that he's in over his head. "Layer Cake" was released only one year before Craig's debut as 007 in the James Bond reboot "Casino Royale." Bond fans that enjoy Craig's more serious take on the character may want to check out this underrated thriller.

In The Line Of Fire (1993)

Liam Neeson and Clint Eastwood are very similar action stars. Both men take their characters seriously, and often show their respect for the armed services by playing realistic heroes that have learned from their combat experience. Eastwood is also one of the best directors of the past few decades. However, one of Eastwood's best action roles was actually in a film that was directed by German filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen. 1993's "In The Line of Fire" is the type of elevated action-thriller that "Taken" fans may enjoy.

"In the Line of Fire" stars Eastwood as Secret Service Agent Frank Horrigan. Despite his bravery in the service, Horrigan is still traumatized by an event from his past. He had failed to save President John F. Kennedy from being assassinated in Dallas in 1963. Horrigan is put in a similar situation when he learns that the current President (Jim Curley) is being targeted by the obsessive former CIA agent Mitch Leary (John Malkovich). If you thought that the kidnappers in "Taken" were scary, just wait until you see Malkovich's performance. He was so terrifying that he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Body Of Lies (2008)

In "Taken," Mills has to deal with being an outsider in a foreign country. He's not as familiar with the customs, and as a result, he's completely out of his element. "Taken" shows the adventures of a former CIA agent, but Ridley Scott's underrated 2008 thriller "Body of Lies" takes a look at the government agency's current overseas operations. Scott does not completely lionize the CIA; he explores the missteps that have been made during the American campaigns in the Middle East.

In "Body of Lies," the CIA field agent Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio) desperately searches for the elusive terrorist leader Al-Saleem (Alon Abutbul). Al-Saleem's independent terror network in Jordan is aligned with Al-Qaeda. In order to draw the terrorists out of hiding, Ferris and his boss, CIA agent Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe), create a fake radical organization. Even though they are mostly communicating with each other over the phone, DiCaprio and Crowe have excellent chemistry.

Thief (1981)

Neeson has dark charisma with his grim performance as Bryan Mills. Mills isn't trying to impress anyone, and his quiet attitude only makes him feel more calm and collected. No one was cooler than the late great James Caan. When Caan tragically passed away earlier this year, his fans remembered his breakout role in "Thief" as one of his crowning achievements.

Caan stars as Frank, a jewel thief who is called in to perform one last heist in order to save his family and forge a better future for himself. It's a violent, thrilling action film that is tightly written and well-acted. It wasn't like Caan wasn't a star before "Thief"; he had drawn critical acclaim for his performances in films like "Brian's Song," "The Gambler," and "The Godfather." However, "Thief" was a change of pace for him. The atmospheric, neo-noir style of "Thief" made it a distinct new take on the thriller genre. It came to define Caan in the same way that "Taken" defined Neeson. 

Read this next: The 18 Best Action Movie Actors Ranked

The post 16 Movies Like Taken That You Should Check Out appeared first on /Film.

It’s hard to believe it’s been 25 years since Event Horizon was unleashed in theaters. To commemorate this milestone, Paramount Home Entertainment is releasing this sci-fi horror suckerpunch next week (August 9th) in North America.  This 4K/Blu-ray combo release (with digital copy) comes packaged in a steelbook with plastic slipcover overlay, printed with a multitude of villain Dr. Weir’s grabby, undead hands. Those hands, of course, were wielded by Sam Neill under laborious prosthetics (he had to sit though somewhere around eight hours in the make-up chair). Event Horizon was directed by Paul Anderson (Alien vs. Predator, Resident Evil) who later added the “W.S.” to his name after being confused with Paul Thomas Anderson too many times.  As the plot goes, a rescue crew headed...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]

"South Park" turns 25 this year, and for some godforsaken reason, I felt the best way to celebrate would be to binge watch the feature film, play the video games, check out the Paramount+ made-for-TV specials, and consume all TWENTY-FIVE SEASONS of television. Hey, I never said I made good decisions with my free time. Admittedly, I've learned an awful lot by comin' down to South Park and havin' myself a time, and I'm happy to pass on what I've learned with all of you, my dear /Film readers. We've already ranked the best seasons and characters as we reflect on two and a half decades of debauchery, but what about the greatness time forgot?

There are plenty of classic "South Park" episodes that are universally praised by fans and critics alike, but there are also some deep-cut episodes that aren't often brought up in these "Best of" discussions that absolutely deserve their place. By and large, these are 10 of the best "South Park" episodes that no one remembers. Not you, though. You remember. Of course.

Proper Condom Use

Sex education in American public schools is a joke in and of itself, but "South Park" pushes it to new heights with "Proper Condom Use." Cartman and Kenny are tricked by the fifth graders into believing it's possible to "milk" a dog, when in reality, they're just stimulating a dog until it ejaculates. The two show Stan and Kyle what they've learned, which Stan executes in front of his parents and all of their friends to all of their horror. Stan is grounded for months despite not understanding what he did wrong, and since all of the parents are too embarrassed to teach their kids about sex, they tell the school it is their responsibility.

Unfortunately, Mr. Mackey hasn't had sex in over 20 years so his instruction to the boys is totally useless, and Ms. Choksondik terrifies the girls with graphic descriptions of sexually transmitted diseases without actually explaining that the conditions are passed through sexual intercourse. This leads to a "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior" inspired showdown between the boys and girls, convinced that the opposite gender is going to give them STDs. People typically remember bits from this episode like Mr. Mackey and Ms. Choksondik having sex and Mr. Garrison teaching the kindergarteners how to apply condoms in the most Mr. Garrison way possible. The episode ends with Chef highlighting how the children have been failed by both the parents and teachers, which is the same unfortunate reality for most kids across the country.

Royal Pudding

Any Ike-centric "South Park" episode is a winner in my book, and "Royal Pudding" is no exception. At the time of its release, critics disliked the episode, with The A.V. Club calling it, "one of the series' strangest half-hours." The story centers on the Canadian Royal Wedding, complete with nonsensical Canadian royal "traditions" like the Prince of Canada shoving the dismembered arm of his bride-to-be up his anus. The ridiculousness of it all is a way to parody the pretension of the British royal weddings. After the future princess is kidnapped mid-ceremony, all Canadians are called upon to help in bringing her back, which puts Ike on a quest for adventure.

The episode feels like a callback to season 1 episodes like "Volcano!" with the introduction of the Tooth Decay monster feeling an awful lot like Scuzzlebutt. "Royal Pudding" is absurdist "South Park" humor at its best, and offers some great moments for Mr. Mackey as he slowly loses his mind trying to rehearse the kindergarten play about dental hygiene without his star, Ike. Maybe people were too burnt out on Royal Wedding news to fully appreciate the satire in this episode, but upon rewatch, it's too ridiculous not to love. "What a glorious day for Canada, and therefore of course, the world."

A Nightmare On FaceTime

Randy Marsh has slowly become one of the best characters on "South Park," and the Halloween special "A Nightmare on Facetime" is one of his standout episodes. Convinced he's found the ticket to financial success, Randy buys a Blockbuster, despite the fact streaming and Redbox rental machines have all but killed brick and mortar rental stores. The episode spends most of the time lampooning "The Shining," with Randy slowly losing his mind at their isolated store, interacting with the ghosts of Blockbuster customer past and putting his family through hell.

Stan is unable to go trick-or-treating as his dad is forcing him to work at the store, so the rest of the boys strap an iPad on a skateboard so he can virtually join them, and complete their Avengers group costume. Halloween episodes are consistently good on "South Park," but thanks to the biting commentary on our (at the time growing) fixation with streaming and the fear older generations have about pivoting to a digital future, "A Nightmare on FaceTime" is also one of their smartest. This is also the episode where I learned Randy Marsh and I have the same McDonald's order, which honestly has me questioning some of my life choices. (Chicken nuggets with sweet and sour sauce and a Sprite, if you were curious.)

Eat, Pray, Queef

In the second season of "South Park," Parker and Stone played an April Fool's joke on fans by showing "Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus," as the premiere, instead of the promised reveal of Cartman's dad following the season 1 cliffhanger finale. In the season 13 meta episode "Eat, Pray, Queef," the men of South Park are furious when the anticipated episode of "Terrance and Phillip" turns out to be an April Fool's joke and is replaced by a show called "Queef Sisters." The show is exactly like "Terrance and Phillip," but replaces the lead characters with Katherine and Katie, two girls who queef on each other instead of fart.

I know, I know, the premise sounds extremely juvenile even by "South Park" standards, but "Eat, Pray, Queef" is a fantastic look at the sexist double standard when it comes to men, women, and bodily functions. The women of South Park spend most of the episode queefing for fun much to the chagrin of the men, who can't really explain why farts are funny and queefs are gross without admitting they're being sexist. It's a brilliant episode in an already strong season, unfortunately overshadowed by all-time great episodes like "Margaritaville" and "Fishsticks."

Tsst

Liane Cartman spends almost the entirety of "South Park" bending to the whims of her sociopathic bigot of a child (until now), but the season 10 episode "Tsst" is one of the most prominent example we see of how hard it is for her to parent Eric Cartman. She first seeks the help of reality TV nannies to get him under control, but when that doesn't work, she enlists the help of "The Dog Whisperer," Cesar Millan. His techniques, while often reserved for animals, work wonders on Eric and for a brief moment it seems like he's finally changed for good. With Eric no longer taking up all of her time, she attempts to befriend Millan, who makes it clear that his relationship with Liane was simply doing business.

This reignites her codependency issues with Eric, and she immediately goes back to the way things were. This episode is fantastic because not only is it wickedly funny to see someone finally put Eric in his place, but it's also a reminder of how deep "South Park" has the capability of being. The ending moments with Liane resorting to babying Eric again are hard to watch, because we as the viewer recognize how alone she truly is in her community without her son's affections.

The Meteor Shower Trilogy: Cat Orgy/Two Guys Naked In A Hot Tub/Jewbilee

Whenever we talk about the longform storytelling or serialized episodes of "South Park," people often forget about "The Meteor Shower Trilogy" from season 3, featuring "Cat Orgy," "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub," and "Jewbilee." The three episodes all highlight events around the city of South Park during a meteor shower, with each episode becoming more absurd than the last. "Cat Orgy" is one of the only Shelley Marsh centered episodes in the show's entire run, "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub" provides our first real adventure with the soon-to-be beloved character Butters, and "Jewbilee" allows the Broflovski boys to take center stage in a whip smart satire of Jewish stereotypes and the canonical introduction of Moses as a dreidel shaped being resembling Master Control Program from "Tron."

All three episodes take wildly different approaches to comedic storytelling but still manage to fit as a cohesive trilogy with plenty of laughs. Cartman impersonating Will Smith from "Wild, Wild, West" is burned in my memory forever, as is Randy and Gerald's constant sexual tension, and the baby-bear birthday party all of the Squirts attend on their scouting adventures. The trilogy is remembered by die-hard fans for sure, but never gets enough love when discussing the all time great moments.

The Losing Edge

Randy Marsh getting arrested while bloodied and shouting, "Oh, I'm sorry, I THOUGHT THIS WAS AMERICA!" has become one of the most memed moments of "South Park," but few remember the moment comes from an episode about little league baseball. "The Losing Edge" is plotted out similarly to underdog sports movies like "Rocky," with the gimmick being the kids hating baseball and trying to lose on purpose so they can spend their summer playing video games, and Randy training to get into drunken fights with dads of the opposing teams.

The true underdog story belongs to Randy as he gears up to face off with the drunk and obnoxious "Bat Dad," while the kids enlist Kyle's cousin Kyle Schwartz, who is a walking stereotype inspired by Woody Allen, to serve as a reverse ringer to ensure the team loses the little league finals. The drunk and bloodied Randy meme is great, but the episode it comes from is even better.

Informative Murder Porn

I've got a lot of mixed feelings about America's current obsession with true crime, and "Informative Murder Porn" is a shockingly good takedown of people who consume true-crime stories on an unhealthy level. The show takes the concept of "murder porn" quite literally, presenting it as something the adults become obsessed with and watch together during intimate moments. As a means to put an end to it, all of the kids put parental controls on TV by locking them out with a question no parent could answer, "How do you tame a horse in Minecraft?"

The rest of the episode focuses on the parents' quest to figure out the answer so they can take off the parental blocks, even paying a kid to teach them all how to play Minecraft. The idea for the episode came from Trey Parker and Bill Hader, who was working in the "South Park" writer's room at the time. Hader has spoken very positively about his time at "South Park," and has credited the show with how he approaches "Barry." At the bare minimum, that connection alone is a reason to revisit "Informative Murder Porn."

Hummels & Heroin

Remember that time Killer Mike wrote a song about being "Locked Up" in an assisted living facility for the elderly? "Hummels & Heroin" is an episode from season 21, arguably a season that most people haven't actually watched having fallen off the "South Park" train years ago. Stan becomes an unwilling participant in the opioid epidemic, being used as a drug mule delivering opiates prescribed to the elderly in exchange for Hummel figurines. The boys are wrangled in to help distract the elderly at one point, performing as a barbershop quartet that sings songs that uh, had likely never been arranged for barbershop performance before.

The episode features a guest performance from Josh Gad who was starring in "The Book of Mormon" at the time, as one the best one-off characters in "South Park" history, the costume-character obsessed Marcus Preston. "Hummels & Heroin" is one of those timeless "South Park" episodes that aren't limited by whatever was going on in the news that week, allowing it to be endlessly rewatchable. It's also a great episode for Grampa Marvin Marsh, who is always a solid source of humor.

Pinkeye

The season 1 Halloween special "Pinkeye" is, in my opinion, the episode that determined whether or not someone was going to continue watching "South Park." The episode is a satire of horror movies, and easily the most offensive episode of the first season. It's painfully nihilistic, graphically violent, and shows the truth of Eric Cartman's bigotry when he dresses up like Adolf Hitler, only to later wear a ghost costume that closely resembles the Ku Klux Klan hoods. "Pinkeye" is classic "South Park," warts and all, and still manages to bring a lot of laughs despite its utterly ridiculous premise of a zombie infestation confused for an outbreak of pinkeye.

The first season of "South Park" is remembered predominantly by the pilot episode, Mecha Streisand, Mr. Hankey, Big Gay Al, and the season finale cliffhanger, but "Pinkeye" deserves to be hailed right along with the rest of the classics. It started the trend of "South Park" having consistently fantastic Halloween specials, and gave us our first look at the extreme levels of degeneracy the show was willing to tackle.

Read this next: The 13 Best Comedy Shows On Amazon Prime Right Now

The post The 10 Best South Park Episodes No One Remembers appeared first on /Film.

Today, we announced the general availability of Microsoft Defender Experts for Hunting to support organizations and their cybersecurity employees with proactive threat hunting.

Defender Experts for Hunting was created for customers who have a robust security operations center but want Microsoft to help them proactively hunt threats using Microsoft Defender data. Defender Experts for Hunting is a proactive threat hunting service that goes beyond the endpoint to hunt across endpoints, Microsoft Office 365, cloud applications, and identity. Our experts will investigate anything they find, then hand off the contextual alert information along with remediation instructions so you can quickly respond. Our Defender Experts for Hunting explainer video walks you through how it works.

Capabilities include:

• Threat hunting and analysis—Defender Experts look deeper to expose advanced threats and identify the scope and impact of malicious activity associated with human adversaries or hands-on-keyboard attacks.
• Defender Experts Notifications—Notifications show up as incidents in Microsoft 365 Defender, helping to improve your security operations’ incident response with specific information about the scope and method of entry.
• Experts on Demand—Click the “Ask Defender Experts” button in the Microsoft 365 Defender portal to get expert advice about threats your organization is facing. You can ask for help on a specific incident, nation-state actor, or attack vector.
• Hunter-trained AI—Defender Experts share their learning back into the automated tools they use to improve threat discovery and prioritization.
• Reports—An interactive report summarizing what we hunted and what we found.

Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund and one of Microsoft’s first customers to implement a Zero Trust framework, helped Microsoft develop Defender Experts for Hunting, contributing decades of knowledge on how to keep intellectual property and investment data secure. The firm now uses Defender Experts for Hunting to extend its security teams so they can focus on the most complex and immediate security issues. Igor Tsyganskiy, Chief Technology Officer at Bridgewater Associates, believes in working together to protect one another from threats.

“Cybersecurity is a cooperative rather than a competitive area,” he said. “It takes a village to keep us all safer…We are living in a digital world that is completely interconnected, and protecting ourselves singularly, separately from each other, is not going to work.”

More threats—not enough defenders

Modern adversaries are well-organized and possess skills and resources that can challenge even organizations without open cybersecurity roles. These adversaries are also relentless. Microsoft Security blocked more than 9.6 billion malware threats and more than 35.7 billion phishing and malicious emails in 2021. They’ve extended their attack focus from endpoints to identity, cloud apps, and email.

It’s getting harder every day for organizations to build and maintain a full security team, let alone one with the ever-expanding skillset required to meet the range of today’s security demands. Proactive threat hunting—one of the best ways to identify and respond to security threats—is time-consuming, and most security teams are too busy with alert triage and security posture improvement efforts to spend time on proactive hunting.

Additionally, organizations are struggling to recruit top security talent—more important than ever since cybercrime is expected to cost the world USD10.5 trillion a year by 2025 (a 75 percent increase from the USD6 trillion in 2021).¹ With one in three security jobs in the United States unfilled, cybersecurity employees often face huge workloads once hired. As a result, the average detection of a breach has been pushed out to 287 days as the number and impact of attacks continue to grow.²

Technology alone is not enough to fight cybercrime

Many companies don’t face daily security attacks but need deep experience with threat hunting when they do, according to Tsyganskiy.  

“To manage security on its own, a company must sustain a very large and growing team,” he said. “It’s like trying to maintain your own police force. Given the low frequency of the most sophisticated attacks, this is an insane misallocation of resources 90 percent of the time.”

Microsoft is uniquely positioned to help customers meet today’s security challenges. We secure devices, identities, apps, and clouds—the fundamental fabric of our customers’ lives—with the full scale of our comprehensive multicloud, multiplatform solutions. Plus, we understand today’s security challenges because we live this fight ourselves every single day.

Now, our security expertise is your security expertise.

How Microsoft Defender Experts for Hunting works

Every day at Microsoft, threat hunters work alongside advanced systems to analyze billions of signals, looking for threats that might affect customers. Due to the sheer volume of data, we’re meticulous about surfacing threats that customers need to be notified about as quickly and accurately as possible. 

How we hunt:

• Step 1: Microsoft Defender Experts monitor telemetry and look for malicious activity across the Microsoft 365 Defender platform associated with human adversaries or hands-on-keyboard attacks.
• Step 2: If a threat is found to be valid, analysts conduct a deep-dive investigation, harnessing machine learning and gathering threat details, including scope and method of entry, to help protect your organization’s endpoints, email, cloud apps, and identities.
• Step 3: Our AI system and human hunters prioritize threat signals. Defender expert notifications appear in Microsoft 365 Defender, alerting you to the threat and sharing threat details.

Get started

To start your proactive threat hunting journey with Microsoft Defender Experts for Hunting, please complete the customer interest form to request a follow-up from our field team. To learn more, visit the Defender Experts for Hunting product page, download the datasheet, or watch a short video.

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

---

¹Cybercrime To Cost The World USD10.5 Trillion Annually By 2025, Steve Morgan. November 13, 2020.

²Cost of a Data Breach Report 2021, IBM. 2021.

The post Microsoft Defender Experts for Hunting proactively hunts threats appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.

Conventional wisdom says there isn’t really anything you can do for a broken toe. Well, conventional wisdom is dumb as hell. As it turns out, there are interventions that can—and should—be used when you break your toe.

Read more...

The benefits of ZTNA make it hard to ignore

Ensuring that the right people have access to the proper resources when they need them whilst maintaining security and access controls across multiple data centers and cloud environments is one of the biggest technical challenges any organization faces.

read more

Reply from Zyzzle, 03.08.2022, 06:31:

> My experience is that the freeze happens when the WC region overlapps an UC
> region. To avoid the overlap is way more difficult to achieve on Intel
> machines, because they lack the TOP_MEM and TOP2_MEM MSR registers of the
> AMD machines.

Same as my experiences. Very hard to impossible to avoid the overlap! It couldn't be done in my experiences.

As to modern AMD systems, even from the Ryzen 3 released in 2017-18, yes, avoiding WC region overlap is possible, so write-cache combining can be enabled. However all "modern" AMD systems castrate the onboard video BIOS so as to completely eliminate sub-640x480 VGA resolutions (even 320x200 and mode 13, as well as all VESA 8-bit resolutions like 640x480x8bit are excised), so only DOS programs or games utilizing VESA modes in 15-bit (16-bit) or higher work. This is an even worse castration than memory-overlap preventing WC on intel core gen 6-12, since at least the sub-640x480 and 8-bit modes still work! (OOPS, I just checked a 10th gen i5, and all VGA resolutions are cut, *and* wc-catching doesn't work, either, hangs). So, intel gen 6-12 are "worthless" for any bare-metal DOS work at all.

The Raspberry Pi 4 has hit a major graphics milestone, adding support for a more modern Vulkan 3D APIa. Ars Technica reports: Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton announced the Pi 4's Vulkan 1.2 conformance on Monday. Support isn't available yet in downloadable Pi-friendly operating systems but should be coming soon. For most people using their Pi as a server, a DIY controller, or a light desktop, Vulkan 1.2 conformance won't be noticeable. Desktop graphics on the standard Raspberry Pi OS are powered by OpenGL, the older graphics API that Vulkan is meant to replace. There is one group that benefits, says Upton: games and other 3D Android applications. Android uses Vulkan as its low-overhead graphics API. As with most Raspberry Pi advancements, there could be unforeseen opportunities unleashed by this seemingly tiny change. Vulkan 1.2 support gives developers the same 3D-graphics interface (if not anywhere near the same power) as 2019 NVIDIA graphics cards, 2020 Intel chips with integrated graphics, and dozens of other devices. With a Vulkan 1.0 driver installed, developer Iago Toral was able in 2020 to get the original Quake trilogy mostly running on a Pi 4, with not-too-shabby frame rates.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Forbes: According to cyber security firm Volexity, the threat research team has found the North Korean 'SharpTongue' group, which appears to be part of, or related to, the Kimsuky advanced persistent threat group, deploying malware called SHARPEXT that doesn't need your Gmail login credentials at all. Instead, it "directly inspects and exfiltrates data" from a Gmail account as the victim browses it. This quickly evolving threat, Volexity says it is already on version 3.0 according to the malware's internal versioning, can steal email from both Gmail and AOL webmail accounts, and works across three browsers: Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and a South Korean client called Whale. The U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, CISA, reports that Kimsuky has been operating since 2012, and is "most likely tasked by the North Korean regime with a global intelligence gathering mission." While CISA sees Kimsuky most often targeting individuals and organizations in South Korea, Japan, and the U. S., Volexity says that the SharpTongue group has frequently been seen targeting South Korea, the U. S. and Europe. The common denominator between them is that the victims often " work on topics involving North Korea, nuclear issues, weapons systems, and other matters of strategic interest to North Korea." The report says that SHARPEXT differs from previous browser extensions deployed by these hacking espionage groups in that it doesn't attempt to grab login credentials but bypasses the need for these and can grab email data as the user reads it. The good news is that your system needs to be compromised by some means before this malicious extension can be deployed. Unfortunately, we know all too well that system compromise is not as difficult as it should be. Once a system has been compromised by phishing, malware, unpatched vulnerabilities, whatever, the threat actors can install the extension using a malicious VB script that replaces the system preference files. Once that's done and the extension runs quietly in the background, it is tough to detect. The user logs in to their Gmail account from their normal browser on the expected system. The security researchers recommend "enabling and analyzing PowerShell ScriptBlock logging" to detect whether you've been targeted by this attack, reports Forbes. Additionally, they recommend reviewing installed extensions regularly, especially looking for ones you don't recognize or are not available from the Chrome Web Store.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Free games for a limited time

Google Stadia may not have seen the massive success that the company was hoping for, but almost three years after its launch, the streaming service is still holding on. Now it seems that Google has a plan to get more players onboard, because they've just announced that they have over 120 game trials (and more on the way) that you can hop in and try out right now, no payment or Stadia account required. The catalog includes hit games like Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, Far Cry 6, Little Nightmares, Saints Row: The Third, Terraria, Spiritfarer, and many more. Of course, this deal isn't without its stipulations.

The trials may in fact be free, but players' time with each game is limited from anywhere between 120 minutes to 30 minutes, which is pretty insubstantial depending on which game you're playing.

So, it's looking like this is a better deal if you're already looking to try Stadia — as one Reddit user points out, playing the trials of games like Hotline Miami is actually a great way to see if Stadia's streaming will work with your network and hardware.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwb6d2wK3Qw

If you're someone who doesn't want to drop a ton of money on a console or PC gaming rig, Stadia is a nice option, in theory, assuming that it works for you. Okay so maybe there are a lot of "ifs" at play here, but that never stopped Google, clearly.

Regardless of the logistics, others on Reddit praised the trial model, and said they wished Steam would do the same thing. Games are expensive, and only raising in price, so it makes sense that players would want to try out a game before they commit to dropping some major cash for the full thing. If you've ever looked at Google Stadia and thought, "it's a good idea, but..." this is a good no-risk opportunity to give it the ol' college try.

The post Google Stadia has over 120 game trials, no subscription needed appeared first on Destructoid.

The CW has spent most of 2022 cleaning house in anticipation of its likely sale, itself a direct result of the newly-finalized Warner Bros. Discovery merger. This has also led to the gradual death of the network's shared DC TV universe, aka the Arrowverse, a process that will culminate with "The Flash" airing its ninth and final season in 2023. It's a bittersweet turn for those who've spent years watching Grant Gustin's Barry Allen and his faithful "Team Flash" save Central City over and over again... but at the same time, it's hard to deny this news is long overdue.

When "The Flash" premiered on October 7, 2014, it was a breath of fresh air for the superhero genre. Where its predecessor, The CW's "Arrow," was a broody and grounded crime-drama drawn in the vein of "Batman Begins" (sometimes on accident), "The Flash" was brightly-colored, unapologetically soapy, and perfectly willing to indulge in the sillier aspects of its comic book source material. This, in turn, paved the way for other Arrowverse series to further explore the spectrum when it comes to tone and style.

To put it another way: King Shark and Gorilla Grodd walked on "The Flash" so Beebo could body-slam demons in the Old West on "DC's Legends of Tomorrow."

What's more, "The Flash" managed to avoid the dreaded sophomore slump by introducing different realities in its second season, well before the Marvel Cinematic Universe began its own multiverse saga. Yet, over the years between season 2 and the present, the show suffered a stark drop-off in quality, albeit one that happened in fits and starts as opposed to a steady decline. As such, in light of its cancelation, now seems a fitting time to examine how the Fastest Man Alive ended up running off the track.

The First Signs Of Trouble

"The Flash" season 1 thrives by blending a villain-of-the-week formula with an origin story for Grant Gustin's Scarlet Speedster. An effective adulthood coming-of-age parable, season 1 wisely uses the particle accelerator explosion that grants Barry Allen his powers to explain why his home, Central City, is suddenly flooded with meta-human law-breakers. It then balances these cartoony genre elements with earnest sub-plots involving Barry's tragic past, his loving friends and adopted family, and his secret affection for Iris West. And yes, Iris is basically Barry's adopted sister (!), yet their slow-burn romance somehow works in spite of the underlying weirdness.

Most of that approach was successfully carried over into season 2, between the birth of the series' multiverse — itself the source of new allies and threats alike — and the arrival of Iris' brother Wally West as part of a larger father-son motif. It's season 3 where the show's reliance on formula starts to become an issue, courtesy of the show's loose attempt to adapt the famously dark "Flashpoint" comic book storyline (in which Barry creates a bleak alternate timeline while attempting to rewrite his past). It seems an extra dose of broodiness was all it took to begin throwing off the series' alchemy.

To be fair, it wasn't merely that "The Flash" made an ill-advised effort to be more like "Arrow" (re: grittier) in season 3 with its now-infamous Savitar storyline. After two seasons, its villain-of-the-week formula had grown repetitive and was failing to evolve with the rest of the show, leading to weaker one-off villains and week-by-week B-plots. It called for an overhaul and season 4 obliged by bringing in Clifford DeVoe, aka The Thinker, a foe who, in a welcome twist, presented much more of a psychological challenge than the series' previous Big Bads.

A Time Of Crisis

Giving Barry Allen an enemy he couldn't simply speed-punch wasn't the only thing "The Flash" season 4 did right. That year also saw producer Andrew Kreisberg fired in response to multiple sexual harassment allegations, after which (by no coincidence) the series' female characters and their sub-plots got noticeably better. Season 4 subsequently ended by formally bringing in Barry and Iris West's daughter from the future, Nora West-Allen (aka the speedster XS), a development that allowed for a natural progression in season 5 of having Barry go from mentee to a mentor-figure and literal father himself.

Season 5 would thusly set the stage for season 6's "Crisis on Infinite Earths," the major Arrowverse crossover event that would more or less bring "Arrow" to a close and should have done the same for "The Flash." In fact, "The Flash" had hinted it would for years, teasing that Barry would one day vanish in a mysterious future "Crisis" and giving the series a natural endpoint. Except, it was obvious heading into season 6 that Barry would somehow "miraculously" make it out of "Crisis" alive and well, robbing the final episodes leading to the event of any real tension or pathos.

Sure enough, Barry survived "Crisis" and "The Flash" just ... kept going. In doing so, however, it lost the momentum it had heading into season 6. The show felt directionless in a way it never had before, bringing in more characters and launching new story threads with no clear endgame. It didn't help that longtime cast member Carlos Valdes (who plays Barry's adorkable guy-in-the-chair, Cisco Ramon) already plainly had one foot out the door well before his departure in season 7, having planned his exit since as far back as season 4 (as he admitted to TV Line in 2021).

Stop Running Barry!

"The Flash" season 7 was pretty much a perfect storm of problems. After the pandemic cut season 6 short in 2020, season 7 was left to try and quickly wrap up its predecessor's story, then jump right into its own. Coupled with co-star Hartley Sawyer being fired in-between seasons just as his character, Ralph Dibny aka Elongated Man, was about to get his own major sub-plot (mind you, he was fired for valid reasons) and the limits on filming imposed by the ongoing health crisis, season 7 was one giant mess from start to finish. Frankly, there wasn't a single story thread that didn't feel off, forced or both, and even the attempts to bid farewell to Carlos Valdes and Tom Cavanagh (who plays, well, a lot of roles on the show) as main cast members didn't really land.

It was — purses lips like Miranda Priestly — a catastrophe.

While season 8 isn't generally regarded as quite the disaster season 7 was, it's apparent the magic is gone and the series is (no pun intended) running on fumes at this stage. Even if the pandemic hadn't happened, it's hard to imagine there being a reality in the multiverse where "The Flash" wouldn't have been better off ending with "Crisis on Infinite Earths," either. The idea that Barry Allen would inevitably have to vanish during the event gave the show actual stakes, the kind that kept it alive even after its formula became stale and its luster started to wear off. Moreover, "The Flash" was always a show defined by a simple yet powerful idea: Even the Fastest Man Alive can't outrun his fate. Turns out, that was true in more ways than one.

"The Flash" will return for its ninth and final season on The CW in 2023.

Read this next: Every DC Movie Made Prior To The DCEU Ranked From Worst To Best

The post How The Flash Went From the Best Superhero Show on TV to a Total Disaster appeared first on /Film.

There are certain moments in cinema history you remember as real groaners. I believe kids today call it "cringe." Sometimes it's a brief moment from a movie, like the awkward John Cena love scene in "Trainwreck." Other times, you realize the entire direction of the film is about to go very wrong, like when Luke Skywalker chucks his lightsaber over his shoulder in the early moments of "Star Wars: The Last Jedi."

In the case of James Cameron's "Avatar," the cringe moment comes the first time RDA head administrator Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) utters the word "unobtanium." It's not so much the plot point of a rare mineral as the film's MacGuffin (an object, device, or event necessary to move the plot along), but rather the name of it.

After all, at a cost of $237 million to produce, it raises the question: In a film that created an entirely fictional language for the Naʼvi, how was unobtanium the best name Cameron could come up with for the precious mineral?

But he's James Cameron and I'm ... well, I'm writing about James Cameron, so he obviously knows best. But just how did he come up with the name, and what's the justification for the infamous unobtanium?

It's More Than Just A Word

"Avatar" is a sci-fi tale of capitalism and colonialism, all based around the search for a precious mineral, dubbed unobtanium, which is needed as an energy source on Earth. When humans find the mineral in the year 2154 on the planet Pandora, they do what humans would be expected to do: raid the planet and attempt to take as much of the unobtanium they can -– ahem -– obtain.

In a Q&A after an "Avatar" screening, star Zoe Saldana explained how she sees unobtanium as less of a MacGuffin and rather the film's entire message. The actor said:

"That's what I loved most about the movie: It is a telling of what has been going on. Not only have we done this to earth, but we will move on to other environments and other places, we'll do the same things over there unless we learn. 'Avatar' is a very good mirror of what our history has been up to now. It's not a preachy point, it's about curbing our tendencies."

As for the name itself? Cameron admitted that he and his team had been ridiculed for the name of the mineral. But the filmmaker gets the last laugh as the name has roots in actual science, even if that wasn't always his top concern.

Unobtanium Is A Scientific Term – Kind Of

When asked about the name unobtanium, Cameron explained where the term comes from. "If you're in engineering at all, whenever engineers can't solve a problem on a designing a device or a system, they'll say, 'Well, this piece here needs to be made out of unobtainium,'" the director said. "It's the thing you can't have in material science. It's an engineering joke. Like Uranium, Germanium and unobtainium."

We weighed in with the Children's Museum of Indianapolis to check the filmmaker's work. According to their website:

"Unobtainium is not a real element, but it is a real word! Since the 1950s, engineers and scientists have used the word to describe the perfect material to solve a particular engineering problem - except that it doesn't exist! Over the years the meaning of Unobtainium has been expanded to describe real elements on Earth that are very rare and expensive (although they do exist), many of which are used in electronics."

The Chicago Tribune confirmed as well, calling the term "a jokey word used to describe a fantastical material that is either nearly impossible to get or simply doesn't exist. Similar terms include 'handwavium' and 'wishalloy,' as in: 'If only I had some wishalloy, I could make this perpetual motion machine work!'"

So, while it still sounds groan-worthy in the movie, it turns out unobtanium is an actual word used in science. Still, as one of the most groundbreaking sci-fi films of recent memory with a massive budget of nearly a quarter of a billion dollars, we could hope for a term not deemed a "jokey word" for the narrative's main plot device. But now, with four sequels on the horizon, I suppose that's just out of the questionavium.

Read this next: 95 Best Sci-Fi Movies Ever

The post James Cameron Explains The Origins Behind Avatar's Unobtanium appeared first on /Film.

With the recent demise of several popular “proxy” services that let cybercriminals route their malicious traffic through hacked PCs, there is now something of a supply chain crisis gripping the underbelly of the Internet. Compounding the problem, several remaining malware-based proxy services have chosen to block new registrations to avoid swamping their networks with a sudden influx of customers.

Last week, a seven-year-old proxy service called 911[.]re abruptly announced it was permanently closing after a cybersecurity breach allowed unknown intruders to trash its servers and delete customer data and backups. 911 was already akin to critical infrastructure for many in the cybercriminal community after its top two competitors — VIP72 and LuxSocks — closed or were shut down by authorities over the past 10 months.

The underground cybercrime forums are now awash in pleas from people who are desperately seeking a new supplier of abundant, cheap, and reliably clean proxies to restart their businesses. The consensus seems to be that those days are now over, and while there are many smaller proxy services remaining, few of them on their own are capable of absorbing anywhere near the current demand.

“Everybody is looking for an alternative, bro,” wrote a BlackHatForums user on Aug. 1 in response to one of many “911 alternative” discussion threads. “No one knows an equivalent alternative to 911[.]re. Their service in terms of value and accessibility compared to other proxy providers was unmatched. Hopefully someone comes with a great alternative to 911[.]re.”

Among the more frequently recommended alternatives to 911 is SocksEscort[.]com, a malware-based proxy network that has been in existence since at least 2010. Here’s what part of their current homepage looks like:

But faced with a deluge of new signups in the wake of 911’s implosion, SocksEscort was among the remaining veteran proxy services that opted to close its doors to new registrants, replacing its registration page with the message:

“Due to unusual high demand, and heavy load on our servers, we had to block all new registrations. We won’t be able to support our proxies otherwise, and close SocksEscort as a result. We will resume registrations right after demand drops. Thank you for understanding, and sorry for the inconvenience.”

According to Spur.us, a startup that tracks proxy services, SocksEscort is a malware-based proxy offering, which means the machines doing the proxying of traffic for SocksEscort customers have been infected with malicious software that turns them into a traffic relay.

Spur says SocksEscort’s proxy service relies on software designed to run on Windows computers, and is currently leasing access to more than 14,000 hacked computers worldwide. That is a far cry from the proxy inventory advertised by 911, which stood at more than 200,000 IP addresses for rent just a few days ago.

SocksEscort is what’s known as a “SOCKS Proxy” service. The SOCKS (or SOCKS5) protocol allows Internet users to channel their Web traffic through a proxy server, which then passes the information on to the intended destination. From a website’s perspective, the traffic of the proxy network customer appears to originate from a rented/malware-infected PC tied to a residential ISP customer, not from the proxy service customer.

These services can be used in a legitimate manner for several business purposes — such as price comparisons or sales intelligence — but they are massively abused for hiding cybercrime activity because they make it difficult to trace malicious traffic to its original source.

The disruption at 911[.]re came days after KrebsOnSecurity published an in-depth look at the long-running proxy service, which showed that 911 had a history of incentivizing the installation of its proxy software without user notice or consent, and that it actually ran some of these “pay-per-install” schemes on its own to guarantee a steady supply of freshly-hacked PCs.

More on SocksEscort in an upcoming story.

Further reading:

July 29, 2022: 911 Proxy Service Implodes After Disclosing Breach

July 28, 2022: Breach Exposes Users of Microleaves Proxy Service

July 18, 2022: A Deep Dive Into the Residential Proxy Service ‘911’

June 28, 2022: The Link Between AWM Proxy & the Glupteba Botnet

June 22, 2022: Meet the Administrators of the RSOCKS Proxy Botnet

Sept. 1, 2021: 15-Year-Old Malware Proxy Network VIP72 Goes Dark

Adam Sandler is a polarizing figure among film fans, partly due to the odd pendulum swing of the later stage of his career. He'll make a few shaggy comedies (often so that he can go on vacation), follow those up with a well-received turn in a more prestigious film, and then start the whole cycle over again. There's nothing inherently wrong with making goofy movies with your friends and getting Netflix to pay you to visit beautiful locations — it's an opportunity most people would likely jump at, given the chance. 

However, the racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, fatphobia, and misogyny that run rampant through Sandler's comedies make it hard to celebrate the times when he proves how talented he actually is as an actor. Sandler has a Teflon quality produced by a combination of his general affability and many viewers' nostalgic goodwill for his tenure on "Saturday Night Live" and his early comedies on which they grew up. Sandler has made some genuinely good films, but separating the good from the bad can take quite a bit of digging. This list examines his original Netflix films in order to do just that.

The Ridiculous 6 (2015)

Playing off the title of the classic 1960 film "The Magnificent Seven," Adam Sandler's attempt at a Western parody is the bottom of the barrel when it comes to his original Netflix output. Sandler plays a Caucasian man named Tommy, or "White Knife," as he is known to the Apache community that raised him after the death of his mother. When his biological father Frank Stockburn (Nick Nolte) shows up and gets kidnapped by a gang, Tommy sets out to steal the money the gang is demanding in exchange for his father's life, and he encounters five other men along the way who also claim Frank as their biological father.

Ranking Sandler's films can be an exercise in listing them in order from most to least bigoted, as "The Ridiculous 6" demonstrates. The film is filled with distasteful Indigenous stereotypes: two female characters are named "Never Wears Bra" (Jackie Sandler) and "Beaver Breath" (Dana Goodman), and Sandler's character taps into the "mystical" powers he learned under Apache tutelage to do things like turn into a tumbleweed or translate the indecipherable grunts of his half-brother Herm (Jorge Garcia). While the racism in Sandler's other films is often sprinkled on top of the story as throwaway jokes, it is woven into the entire fabric of "The Ridiculous 6," making it the worst film on this list. In fact, several Indigenous actors, along with a cultural consultant, walked off the film in protest of its racism.

The Week Of (2018)

Adam Sandler plays Kenny Lustig, a doting father with financial troubles whose daughter, Sarah (Allison Strong), is getting married in a week. Her fiancé's father, Kirby Cordice (Chris Rock), is a wealthy but distant parent who tries, and fails, to convince Kenny to let him pay for the wedding. On paper, "The Week Of" is probably the least convoluted of Sandler's Netflix comedies. Typical wedding hijinks ensue: too many family members from both sides are packed into Kenny's small house, causing tension and misunderstandings, and the wedding venue incurs damages, leading Kenny to scramble to find a last-minute replacement. However, since this is a Happy Madison production, the complications spiral out into increasingly ridiculous plot developments, like weaponized bats being released into the local mayor's office and the replacement venue bursting into flames.

"The Week Of" is long and aimless, largely ignoring the legitimately moving reason for Kenny's refusal to let Kirby pay for anything — he sees the wedding as his last chance to provide for Sarah before she starts a new family with her fiancé, Tyler (Roland Buck III) — in favor of "trigger" jokes and an extended subplot about a relative whose legs were amputated due to diabetes. Just when you think the movie can't make another joke about Uncle Seymour's (Jim Barone) legs, suddenly Chris Rock is fondling them, having mistaken them for a woman's breasts. There's the potential for a funny, touching movie hidden in "The Week Of," but Sandler and company speed past that potential in favor of puerile and offensive humor.

The Do-Over (2016)

"The Do-Over" sees a return to the convoluted plot familiar to Adam Sandler comedy aficionados. Charlie (David Spade) hates his life. His wife is cheating on him with her ex, whose twins bully Charlie relentlessly. When Charlie runs into Max (Sandler) at their high school reunion, Max invites Charlie to spend the weekend with him to get away from it all. Unbeknownst to Charlie, Max is actually offering him a permanent vacation from his life; Max fakes both their deaths and they head to Puerto Rico under assumed identities. Those identities catch up with them, though, as a labyrinthine web of assassins, bikers, and FBI agents threatens Max and Charlie's good time.

Even for a Happy Madison venture, the misogyny and homophobia in "The Do-Over" are startling. Dakota (Stan Ellsworth), one of the aforementioned bikers, was in love with the man whose identity Max stole, and his sexual overtures toward Max are played for the worst kind of laughs. Max's mom (Renée Taylor), whom Max and Charlie spied on in the shower when they were teenagers (a fact that the film accepts as totally normal and good, actually, since Max's mom winked at Charlie while he violated her privacy), appears topless at the end of the film with "hilariously" saggy breasts. In another disgusting scene, Max's wife Becca (Kathryn Hahn, trying her best to salvage the movie) battles secret villain Heather (Paula Patton) as Madonna's "Crazy for You" plays over the slow-motion "catfight" that Max and Charlie watch with glee. Female characters rarely fare well in Sandler comedies, but the objectification and casual "women are crazy, amirite?" is still difficult to watch even with already low expectations.

Sandy Wexler (2017)

Even for his fans, 131 minutes is a long time to ask someone to sit through an Adam Sandler comedy. "Sandy Wexler" is the most bloated movie on this list, featuring what has to be one of the highest "as themselves"-to-fictional character ratios in movie history. Stuffed with famous faces in a documentary-style framing device, the movie tells the story of Sandy Wexler (Sandler), a bumbling talent agent working in Hollywood in the mid-'90s. When Sandy discovers Courtney Clarke (Jennifer Hudson), a talented singer toiling onstage at a theme park kids' show, he knows he's found his big act. He also falls in love, and the excruciating runtime follows Sandy as he builds Courtney's career, says goodbye to her in an attempt to let her flourish in the big leagues, and ultimately reunites with her.

"Sandy Wexler" leans hard into its '90s setting (dropping harmless Fruitopia jokes in among the unfortunate O.J. Simpson and Robert Blake references), and it will test the patience of viewers who don't think "Adam Sandler does a funny voice" is the height of comedy. Sandy mumbles across Hollywood for the majority of the film, ineptly finagling deals and lying to his clients about their chances of success. Hudson is the movie's only saving grace. Her amiable, wide-eyed performance and her musical numbers earn the film more goodwill than it deserves, and she does her best to sell the romance between Courtney and Sandy. Sandler is fond of making beautiful, charming women fall in love with his rude and awkward characters with supposed hearts of gold, and the inexplicable romance at the heart of "Sandy Wexler" fits right in with the Happy Madison love formula.

Murder Mystery (2019)

Though "Murder Mystery" still features the Adam Sandler standbys of racism, body-shaming, and misogyny, it doesn't lean as hard on its offensiveness, which automatically qualifies it for the top half of his Netflix catalog thus far. Nick (Sandler) and Audrey Spitz (Jennifer Aniston) are a married couple who, 15 years after their wedding, are finally going on their honeymoon. Nick books a bus tour of Europe, but when Audrey befriends bored aristocrat Charles Cavendish (Luke Evans) on the flight, they become guests on his uncle's yacht and suddenly find themselves embroiled in — you guessed it — a murder mystery. Charles' billionaire uncle, Malcolm Quince (Terence Stamp, who brings a deliciously incongruous gravitas to the role), dies just before signing a new will that would leave his entire fortune to his new bride, Suzi (Shioli Kutsuna), and suddenly everyone on board the yacht becomes a suspect.

Murder mysteries, especially those featuring dramatic will-signings, are a delightfully fun premise, and Sandler and Aniston are clearly having a great time traipsing through Europe as dead bodies keep dropping around them. They have an easy chemistry that works well for the playfully bickering Spitzes; in fact, the real-life friends have already wrapped the upcoming sequel. "Murder Mystery" isn't the cleverest comedy or mystery, but, graded on the sliding scale of Sandler's Netflix oeuvre, it's a breezy bit of fun that is easier to recommend than the previous entries on this list. 

Hubie Halloween (2020)

This spooky season offering is the perfect litmus test for Adam Sandler's comedic appeal: either June Squibb wearing a t-shirt that says "Boner Donor" makes you laugh or it doesn't. Sandler plays Hubie Dubois, a well-intentioned resident of Salem, Massachusetts, who faces bullying everywhere he goes. Squibb plays Hubie's kindly mother, who sports an array of thrift store shirts with increasingly silly slogans emblazoned across them. Hubie serves as the official "Halloween Helper" every year, despite the fact that nearly every Salem resident seems to despise him. When a kidnapper menaces the town, Hubie has to put his helper skills to the test to save his beloved Salem.

Celebrity cameos are nothing new in Sandler comedies, but "Hubie Halloween" shines above most of his other films with the casting of Ray Liotta as Pete Landolfa, one of Hubie's biggest bullies. Liotta commits to the bit with everything he has (which is a lot; Liotta was a rare screen presence and is dearly missed), and watching Pete, who recently lost his father, discuss the grieving process while wearing a rainbow clown wig is an unexpected delight. There's a sweetness to "Hubie Halloween" that's missing from many of the other films on this list, along with an uncharacteristic attempt at visual flair, as director Steven Brill injects a tiny bit of horror into this spooky comedy with fun jump scares and a clear love for Halloween aesthetics. "Hubie Halloween" is still a silly Adam Sandler comedy featuring funny voices and gross-out gags, so it won't be to everyone's taste. Still, it should delight Sandler fans and ranks as the best of his Netflix comedies.

Hustle (2022)

Adam Sandler is widely known for his love of basketball, and that passion shines through in the terrific movie "Hustle." He plays Stanley Sugerman, a talent scout for the Philadelphia 76ers who discovers an unknown Spanish player named Bo Cruz (NBA player Juancho Hernangómez). When the 76ers' new co-owner, Vince Merrick (Ben Foster), passes on Bo due to his troubled past and his inability to keep his emotions in check, Stanley quits the team and starts coaching Bo on his own. Featuring many famous players and other sports figures, including Julius Erving, Doc Rivers, and Anthony Edwards as Kermit Wilts, Bo's biggest rival, "Hustle" is a rousing underdog story that thrills and inspires.

Hernangómez actually turned down the role several times, but luckily he reconsidered; he's a natural on camera, and his gentle chemistry with Sandler really sells Bo and Stanley's mutual redemption. The camera work is perfect for a sports movie: dynamic cinematography and crisp editing make the basketball scenes sing, especially the viral "Boa Challenge" where Bo challenges street players in an attempt to raise his profile for the NBA draft. Sandler's obvious love for the game makes "Hustle" feel like a deeply personal film for him. When he's invested, he does great work, and he is great in this movie.

The Meyerowitz Stories (2017)

The best movie on this list is, perhaps not coincidentally, the only one not produced by Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Productions. Written and directed by Noah Baumbach, "The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)" examines the myriad dysfunctions of the Meyerowitz clan. Patriarch Harold (Dustin Hoffman) is a sculptor who never achieved much fame and never made much time to take care of his children, either. When he is hospitalized with a subdural hematoma, his adult kids — Danny (Sandler), Matthew (Ben Stiller), and Jean (Elizabeth Marvel) — must reckon with their father's place in their lives and what it might mean to lose him.

"The Meyerowitz Stories" is a nuanced and incisive exploration of family trauma. It examines the devastation that comes, not from a single horrific instance of abuse, but from the gradual yet consistent "drip, drip, drip" of parental betrayal and neglect. Each of Harold's offspring experienced their own uniquely malnourished childhood, and it's bracingly cathartic to watch them realize that they may never get their own catharsis or closure due to the thorny peculiarities of family life. Sandler is remarkable in the role, capturing the torturous push-pull dynamic that comes from seeking connection and validation from a parent who can give you neither. The final scene between Sandler and Hoffman, who also gives a tremendous performance in the film, is a hard one to forget, and it will make many viewers wish this was the kind of art Adam Sandler put out into the world every time he stepped in front of a camera.

If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.

Read this next: The 15 Best '90s Comedies Ranked

The post Every Adam Sandler Exclusive Netflix Movie Ranked appeared first on /Film.

Solid state drives use far less power than hard disc drives. But a new study unexpectedly reveals that their lifetime carbon footprint is much higher than their hard disc cousins, raising difficult questions for the computer industry. From a report: The benefits of SSDs over HDDs are legion. They are smaller, mechanically simpler, faster to read and write data than their hard disc cousins. They are also more energy efficient. So with many computer manufacturers and datacenter operators looking to reduce their carbon footprints, it's easy to imagine that all this makes the choice of memory easy. But all is not as it seems, say Swamit Tannu at University of Wisconsin in Madison and Prashant Nair at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. SSDs have a dirty secret. Tannu and Nair have measured the carbon footprint per gigabyte of these devices across their entire lifetimes and, unexpectedly, it turns out that SSDs are significantly dirtier. "Compared to SSDs, the embodied [carbon] cost of HDDs is at least an order of magnitude lower," say the researchers. Tannu and Nair come to their conclusion by adding up the amount of carbon emitted throughout the estimated 10-year lifespans of these devices. This includes the carbon emitted during manufacture, during operation, for transportation and for disposal. The carbon emitted during operation is straightforward to calculate. To read and write data, HDDs consume 4.2 Watts versus 1.3W for SSDs. The researchers calculate that a 1 terabyte HDD emits the equivalent of 159 kilograms of carbon dioxide during a 10-year operating lifespan. By comparison, a 1 terabyte SSD emits just 49.2 kg over 10 years. But SSDs are significantly more carbon intensive to manufacture. That's because the chip fabrication facilities for SSDs operate at extreme temperatures and pressures that are energy intensive to maintain. And bigger memories require more chips, which increases the footprint accordingly. All this adds up to a significant carbon footprint for SSD manufacture. Tannu and Nair calculate that manufacturing a 1 terabyte SSD emits the equivalent of 320 kg of carbon dioxide. By comparison, a similar HDD emits just 40 kg. So the lifetime footprint for a 1 terabyte SSD is 369.2 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent versus 199 kg for an HDD. So HDDs are much cleaner. That's a counterintuitive result with important implications. At the very least, it suggests that computer manufacturers and cloud data storage operators should reconsider the way they use SSDs and HDDs. For example, almost 40 per cent of the carbon footprint of a desktop computer comes from its SSD, compared to just 4 per cent from the CPU and 11 per cent from the GPU.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Over the course of just two films, Ari Aster has solidified himself as one of the boldest storytellers in the horror genre, sitting alongside filmmakers like Jordan Peele and Robert Eggers. The director arrived on the scene with 2018's "Hereditary," a horror film that told a frighteningly surreal story about one family dealing with grief and familial trauma. That theme of trauma would carry over into his next horror film in 2019 with "Midsommar." The Florence Pugh-led Swedish folk horror story would find Aster the subject of rave notices once again.

The fact that the two films were released within a year of each other is incredible. Both distributed by A24, "Hereditary" and "Midsommar" each deal with trauma and family dynamics in vastly different ways while still baring that tone and feel only Ari Aster could conceive. The writer/director had developed "Midsommar" during a time of personal turmoil, which led him to make the film hot off the heels of doing press for "Hereditary." 

Unfortunately, such a quick turnaround made taking a break between the two films not much of an option.

Moving From Press To Pre-Production

For those curious about what making two films back-to-back would be like, Ari Aster detailed his very hectic horror movie schedule to Collider, revealing the back-and-forth schedule of finishing marketing for "Hereditary" while starting work on "Midsommar":

"I went straight from 'Hereditary' post to scouting for the film, to then having to take a break from scouting to do 'Hereditary' press, then 'Hereditary' came out on June 8th, and I was in Hungary on June 9th, having found the location, and jumping into full pre-production. Then we had two months to build the entire village and start shooting at the top of August, so the first week of August. So we had two months of actual pre-production to build this world. At the same time, I was juggling press. It was my first experience with press, and it was my first film. So it was very surreal. It was a trial for sure."

Ari Aster's first feature-length production would come with a bevy of new experiences. The burgeoning filmmaker added to this hefty schedule with pre-production work on "Midsommar," leading to the lack of time for a break between films. Thankfully, Ari Aster gracefully handled this transition to Hollywood filmmaking, going through this self-made trial by fire. 

Working Through A Crisis

"Midsommar" bore its tragic and darkly comedic story out of Ari Aster's need to vent following a breakup. Movies are more often than not a personal reflection of those creating them, so Aster's script came at a time when the writer/director was going through relationship troubles of his own. Speaking to The Atlantic, Aster talked about how the film came to fruition:

"I'm putting myself into Dani, primarily. But I think we've all been on either side [of a breakup]... I usually find that writing comes easiest to me in a crisis. It becomes a tool for digging myself out of the crisis. Or at least navigating it. Otherwise, I'm just torturing myself. You always want to write a breakup movie when you're in a breakup, and every time I'd been in one, I'd thought, 'I want to write about this, but I'm not inspired. I just wanna die.' And so, this time, I just happened to find the way in. You find yourself parsing through the ruins, blaming yourself, the other person, working through these things."

Ari Aster channeling his personal life into his filmmaking would result in a hectic work schedule. The filmmaker's back-to-back productions are testament to his passion for unique storytelling. "Midsommar" is an incredible follow-up to "Hereditary," with the film giving the folk-horror genre a darkly comedic twist. Aster's next project, "Disappointment Blvd.," will surely contain the same personal Aster touch as his last two films, even as it steps away from the horror genre. 

Read this next: The Highest Rated Horror Movies Of All Time

The post Taking A Break Between Hereditary And Midsommar Wasn't An Option For Ari Aster appeared first on /Film.

Uncover adversaries with new Microsoft Defender threat intelligence products

The threat landscape is more sophisticated than ever and damages have soared—the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2021 IC3 report found that the cost of cybercrime now totals more than USD6.9 billion.¹ To counter these threats, Microsoft is continuously aggregating signal and threat intelligence across the digital estate, which is enabling us to track threat actors much more closely and to better understand their behavior over time. Today, Microsoft tracks 35 ransomware families, and more than 250 unique nation-states, cybercriminals, and other threat actors. Our cloud also processes and analyzes more than 43 trillion security signals every single day. This massive amount of intelligence derived from our platform and products gives us unique insights to help protect customers from the inside out. In addition, our acquisition of RiskIQ just over a year ago, has allowed us to provide customers unique visibility into threat actor activity, behavior patterns, and targeting. They can also map their digital environment and infrastructure to view their organization as an attacker would. That outside-in view delivers even deeper insights to help organizations predict malicious activity and secure unmanaged resources.

Building on our vision to provide unmatched, actionable threat intelligence, we’re thrilled to announce two new security products that provide deeper context into threat actor activity and help organizations lock down their infrastructure and reduce their overall attack surface:

• Track threat actor activity and patterns with Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence. Security operations teams can uncover attacker infrastructure and accelerate investigation and remediation with more context, insights, and analysis than ever before. While threat intelligence is already built into the real-time detections of our platform and security products like the Microsoft Defender family and Microsoft Sentinel, this new offering provides direct access to real-time data from Microsoft’s unmatched security signals. Organizations can proactively hunt for threats more broadly in their environments, empower custom threat intelligence processes and investigations, and improve the performance of third-party security products. 
• See your business the way an attacker can with Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management. The new Defender External Attack Surface Management gives security teams the ability to discover unknown and unmanaged resources that are visible and accessible from the internet—essentially the same view an attacker has when selecting a target. Defender External Attack Surface Management helps customers discover unmanaged resources that could be potential entry points for an attacker.

These new threat intelligence offerings expand our growing security portfolio, offer deeper insights into threat actors and their behaviors, and help security teams accelerate the identification and prioritization of risks. Keep reading for more detail on these solutions, as well as the new detection and response capabilities for SAP from Microsoft Sentinel. Plus, find out where you can see a live product demo of all of our threat intelligence products at Black Hat.

Unmask your adversaries with Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence 

Today, any device connected to the internet is susceptible to vulnerabilities. Understanding the gaps that can lead to vulnerabilities is key to building resilience.

Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence maps the internet every day, providing security teams with the necessary information to understand adversaries and their attack techniques. Customers can access a library of raw threat intelligence detailing adversaries by name, correlating their tools, tactics, and procedures (TTPs), and can see active updates within the portal as new information is distilled from Microsoft’s security signals and experts. Defender Threat Intelligence lifts the veil on the attacker and threat family behavior and helps security teams find, remove, and block hidden adversary tools within their organization.

This depth of threat intelligence is created from the security research teams formerly at RiskIQ with Microsoft’s nation-state tracking team, Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC), and the Microsoft 365 Defender security research teams. The volume, scale, and depth of intelligence is designed to empower security operations centers (SOCs) to understand the specific threats their organization faces and to harden their security posture accordingly. This intelligence also enhances the detection capabilities of Microsoft Sentinel and the family of Microsoft Defender products.

Microsoft recognizes the importance of working together as a security community to help protect the digital world from threats. As such, the existing free edition will continue to be available. And as we look ahead, we’re excited to continue our journey of innovation and integration. Look for more news later this year on the expanding capabilities of our portfolio.  

Discover your vulnerabilities with Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management

Organizations need to see their business the way an attacker can so they can eliminate gaps and strengthen their security posture to help reduce the potential for attack. Many businesses have internet-facing assets they may not be aware of or have simply forgotten about. These are often created by shadow IT, mergers, and acquisitions, incomplete cataloging, business partners’ exposure, or simply rapid business growth. 

Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management scans the internet and its connections every day. This builds a complete catalog of a customer’s environment, discovering internet-facing resources—even the agentless and unmanaged assets. Continuous monitoring, without the need for agents or credentials, prioritizes new vulnerabilities. With a complete view of the organization, customers can take recommended steps to mitigate risk by bringing these unknown resources, endpoints, and assets under secure management within their security information and event management (SIEM) and extended detection and response (XDR) tools.  

Protect business-critical information within SAP with Microsoft Sentinel 

In the spirit of continuous innovation and bringing as much of the environment under secure management as possible, we are proud to announce the new Microsoft Sentinel solution for SAP. Security teams can now monitor, detect, and respond to SAP alerts, such as privilege escalation and suspicious downloads, all from our cloud-native SIEM. Business-specific risks can be unique and complicated. With the Microsoft Sentinel solution for SAP, customers can build custom detections for the threats they face and reduce the risk of catastrophic interruption.

Learn more

To learn more about these products, join us at Black Hat USA and see live demos at the Microsoft Booth 2340 from August 10 to 11, 2022. You can also register now for the Stop Ransomware with Microsoft Security digital event on September 15, 2022, to watch in-depth demos of the latest threat intelligence technology.  

Explore our new solutions:

• Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence
• Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management

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¹Internet Crime Report 2021, Internet Crime Complaint Center, Federal Bureau of Investigation. 2021.

The post Microsoft announces new solutions for threat intelligence and attack surface management appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.

If you’ve ever woken up to a broken water pipe in your home, a busted water heater, or have suffered through a flash flood that turns your basement into a swamp, you know that water can be one of the most destructive and damaging elements. If you own a home, you will eventually come to the realization that water…

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A paraglider's GoPro recorded his terrifying experience of getting entangled in a parasail. He tried to deploy the reserve chute, which also got tangled in the cords. With seconds to spare, he popped a second reserve chute, which saved his life. — Read the rest

In the below clip from the July 27 episode of The Balanced Blonde//Soul On Fire podcast, host Jordan Younger's guest is "intuitive astrologer and spiritual healer" Danielle Page who reveals that Lyme disease is an "intergalactic substance and it's literally bringing in codes from the beginning of time." — Read the rest

Virtualization technology giant VMware on Tuesday shipped an urgent, high-priority patch to address an authentication bypass vulnerability in its Workspace ONE Access, Identity Manager and vRealize Automation products.

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In the US government's ongoing campaign to protect data in the age of quantum computers, a new and powerful attack that used a single traditional computer to completely break a fourth-round candidate highlights the risks involved in standardizing the next generation of encryption algorithms. From a report: Last month, the US Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, selected four post-quantum computing encryption algorithms to replace algorithms like RSA, Diffie-Hellman, and elliptic curve Diffie-Hellman, which are unable to withstand attacks from a quantum computer. In the same move, NIST advanced four additional algorithms as potential replacements pending further testing in hopes one or more of them may also be suitable encryption alternatives in a post-quantum world. The new attack breaks SIKE, which is one of the latter four additional algorithms. The attack has no impact on the four PQC algorithms selected by NIST as approved standards, all of which rely on completely different mathematical techniques than SIKE.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In terms of Diablo Immortal player counts, the online RPG game has been hugely successful - blazing past 30 million after the China launch. The new Activision Blizzard quarterly results particularly cite it as turning around player numbers, with one surprising fact - half of Diablo Immortal players have never played a Diablo game before.

Activision Blizzard has posted its second-quarter financial results for 2022 and they're generally not amazing for the publisher, with decreasing active monthly users and plans for content but not a new Call of Duty game in 2023.

However, one saving grace was the launch of Diablo Immortal in June, which increased Blizzard's monthly users from 22 million at the end of March 2022 to 27 million now - one of the only increases in users Blizzard has seen across these quarters for a long time.

RELATED LINKS: Diablo Immortal tier list, Diablo Immortal system requirements, Best Diablo Immortal builds