David Warner, star of countless screen roles calling for an intimidating English presence, is dead at 80. However many lights there were, there is now one fewer.
— Read the restThe actor died of a cancer-related illness on Sunday in London, his family told the BBC.
On Sunday, three armed individuals waltzed up to the pulpit at Brooklyn's Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries church and robbed the bishop, Lamor M. Whitehead, of the $1 million in jewlery he and his wife were wearing. He's offered a $50,000 reward for their capture. — Read the rest
The post-pandemic workplace environment has brought significant changes to the network security landscape. Organizations have started relying more on cloud storage solutions, like Google Drive and Dropbox, to carry out their day-to-day operations.
You can download clean game files at absolutely no cost directly from the Battle.net launcher:
--game osi --install, apply, exit
Stray, the adorable, cat-based sci-fi platformer from BlueTwelve, is now ranked as the best Steam game of 2022 based on user reviews, overtaking Sony Santa Monica’s Norse adventure God of War on tracking site Steam250.
RELATED LINKS: Stray beginners guide, Stray review, Stray system requirements
Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon's "Rick and Morty" is arguably the defining adult cartoon of the past decade, a genre-bending comedy that brilliantly explores the wackiest and raunchiest implications of the multiverse while also delivering emotionally complex stories and endless pop culture references.
But because of how long it takes to produce animation, the wait between seasons can be quite long. While we wait for season 6 to get made and released, Adult Swim has been pleasing fans with fun "Rick and Morty" adjacent adventures, from short films to commercials and more. Earlier this year, an anime spin-off series was announced, and now we have a spin-off web series of shorts that is all about Earth's mightiest heroes — The Avengers The Vindicators.
We first met the Vindicators during the season 3 episode "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender," which introduced us to the titular group of heroes comprised of Supernova (Gillian Jacobs), Vance Maxiumus (Christian Slater), Million Ants (Tom Kenny), Alan Rails (Lance Reddick), Crocubot (Maurice LaMarche), and Noob-Noob (Justin Roiland).
In that episode, Morty excitedly forces Rick to go on an adventure with The Vindicators during which they realize that this is actually The Vindicators' third adventure. Furthermore, they dislike Rick so bad that they didn't invite them to their second outing. This causes Rick to get so angry he drunkenly sets up a series of sadistic death games inspired by "Saw" that end up killing all the heroes.
Though The Vindicators were little more than a one-off joke making fun of superhero groups, the title of the episode already hinted at previous stories just ready to be explored. That leads us to the web series, "The Vindicators 2," which tells the story of the fateful adventure that made the team bitter and sad.
"The Vindicators 2" series is comprised of 10 episodes, each between two and five minutes long. All 10 episodes of "The Vindicators 2" are available on the Adult Swim YouTube channel. But make sure you head over to Hulu or HBO Max to watch, at the very least, the episode of "Rick and Morty" where The Vindicators made their debut. Of course, if you haven't already done that, what would you even be doing here?
Kind of. The show is far from groundbreaking or even that surprising, and the episodes are so short that they mostly amount to a single visual joke per episode, like Crocubot being a cold and detached cyborg reptile but also loving to dance. Instead, they are mostly an excuse to revisit these characters, make fun superhero stories, and expand on the implications of the heroes' wild powers. Still, it is fun to see Tom Kenny, Maurice LaMarche, Justin Roiland, Gillian Jacobs and Christian Slater return as Million Ants, Crocubot, Noob-Noob, Supernova and Vance Maximus.
Ultimately, "The Vindicators 2" is a fun and harmless way to pass the time before "Rick and Morty" returns one day, eventually. Plus, the whole thing is about as long as a single episode of the main series, so what do you have to lose?
Read this next: The 15 Best Rick And Morty Villains Ranked
The post How to Watch Every Episode of the Rick and Morty Spin-Off, The Vindicators appeared first on /Film.
When Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige took the stage at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, he made some monumental announcements regarding the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The architect of this massive franchise revealed that Phase Four will end with the highly anticipated "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever." He then outlined the plans for Phase Five, which include projects featuring Nick Fury, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Ms. Marvel, Captain America, Daredevil, the Thunderbolts, and more. And he even announced a few Phase Six films that drove the fans in Hall H and all over the world absolutely nuts: "Avengers: Kang Dynasty" and "Avengers: Secret Wars." Feige even revealed that this whole current MCU story would be known as the Multiverse Saga.
However, the head honcho managed to leave out someone very important. Throughout the entire presentation, True Believers were left without an update on one of the most important figures in all of the multiverse: Pizza Poppa. Thankfully, Bruce Campbell was on hand at SDCC along with the Pizza Poppa food cart to promote the home release of Sam Raimi's "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" and to set the record straight about his integral role in the MCU.
While Feige and company failed to announce the next project for Pizza Poppa, the breakout star of the sequel to 2016's "Doctor Strange," Campbell appeared at the con alongside his trusty pizza ball food cart to make a huge announcement. In an interview with Variety, the actor, best known for his work in the "Evil Dead" series of films, claimed that he has signed a three-picture deal with Marvel. Secrecy be damned, he also shared that there are big things in store for his character:
"I think I need to clarify something: If you think of him as just the Pizza Poppa, you're very, very confused. And you're very wrong. In the multiverse, if he's in one universe, he's in all universes. Think of it not as a cameo, but as a building block for the multiverse. There's so many things that you don't know. Mostly, you don't know that I've signed a three-picture deal with Marvel. This is not a one off thing. I'm really gonna be in trouble just for saying that. Don't get hung up on Pizza Poppa, he's not just a pizza vendor. Not even close."
There's always the possibility that Campbell is pulling our leg, but I hardly think that he would joke about the future of such a prominent character -- the most important character in the entire MCU! Campbell is not a known prankster, and he has certainly never used his celebrity platform to make goofy jokes at the expense of himself and others. Nope. Not at all.
That aside, Campbell makes a very valid point: Just as we met the variants of Loki and Doctor Strange, there's got to be other Pizza Poppas out there too. With this being the Multiverse Saga, I wouldn't be surprised if he shows up in another branch of the Sacred Timeline somewhere along the way.
It's also worth noting that we haven't met the Earth-616 version of Pizza Poppa yet. With a large number of projects left in this saga, the possibilities are pretty endless for where we can finally meet this most important of figures. Maybe he's one of the people replaced by the Skrulls in "Secret Invasion." While he's in space, wherever the Skrulls are holding his true form, what if he ends up in the Collector's collection and crosses paths with the crew of the Benatar in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3"? With his strong chin and uncanny ability to take a punch, Pizza Poppa could be recruited into the Thunderbolts potentially alongside US Agent, Yelena Belova, and Baron Zemo.
Considering the actor's experience with zombies, maybe Pizza Poppa borrows a page from Ash's book and takes on the undead in "Marvel Zombies" or "What If?" season 2? Or, and this is probably the most likely scenario as Pizza Poppa always gets paid, Campbell's character might have been stiffed one too many times on the streets of New York City and decides to join the New World Order featured in Sam Wilson's first headlining film as Captain America. Now that would be just too sweet.
No matter where he's called to pop up next, the very serious and always truthful Bruce Campbell will be ready to unleash the Pizza Poppa whenever he's needed. Until the hero of the working class joins Earth's Mightiest Heroes in their fight against Kang the Conqueror across the multiverse, we'll just have to continue speculating on what the other two projects left on his deal with Marvel Studios could be. Because Bruce Campbell has never once told a joke. He is a serious man.
"Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" hits Blu-ray and DVD on July 26, 2022. It is also available to stream right now on Disney+.
Read this next: The Most Brutal Moments In The MCU Ranked
The post Does Bruce Campbell Really Have a Three-Movie Deal at Marvel Studios? appeared first on /Film.
First appearing in the James Bond spoof "The Silencers" in 1966, the post-credits scene has become one of the most delightful parts of going to the movies. For the most part, post-credits scenes are traditionally used to set up future sequels or offer one last joke (or scare) to the audience, but there are, of course, exceptions to the rule.
Everything changed with the practice of post-credits scenes, however, when Nick Fury showed up at the end of "Iron Man" to discuss a little project with Tony Stark called "The Avengers Initiative." Since then, it seems like every major release has included a post-credits sequence either because they want to, or because audiences have become accustomed to expecting them. Hell, we write a lot of "Does ____ Have a Post-Credits Scene?" posts here on /Film because it's what the people demand of us!
There are hundreds of great post-credits sequences out there, but for the sake of argument, I've narrowed it down to 10 that truly stand out in their execution, or because of the context in which they arrived. And since Marvel post-credits scenes constitute their own list, Marvel Cinematic Universe movies will not be eligible for this one.
Tommy Wiseau is one of the most fascinating figures in film, which made Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell's book "The Disaster Artist" a perfect subject for a film adaptation.
The movie covers the making of Wiseau's unintentional midnight cult film "The Room," in which the peculiar filmmaker makes baffling directorial decisions, spends way, way too much money, and mostly just weirds out everyone he meets. Despite it all, people are weirdly entranced by his passion to get his movie made, and regardless of how odd this guy is, you can't help but cheer for "The Room" and the success that followed. James and Dave Franco play Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero respectively, and the credits include side-by-side reenactments of moments of "The Room" using the actors of "The Disaster Artist."
It's clear that they were not out to make a movie mocking Wiseau, but instead honoring his hard work and unintentional cult status. In the post-credits scene, Franco's version of Tommy meets a party-goer named Henry who invites him to hang out. Tommy declines, but compliments Henry on having a similar "New Orleans" accent. Henry is played, of course, by the real Tommy Wiseau. The face-off of the Tommys is truly delightful to see, even if supporting a movie starring James Franco has gotten ... complicated, to say the least.
Hey kids, you wanna watch Steve Buscemi fight a dude with a mullet in the middle of a gas station minimart? Comedian Dave Sheridan ("Scary Movie," "Buzzkill," "Sex Drive") appears in the cult classic "Ghost World," as an often-shirtless all-American a-hole named Doug, who hangs around the mini-mart where Josh (Brad Renfro) works.
He looks like something out of "Napoleon Dynamite," which only makes it funnier when the post-credits alternate scene of him getting in a fight with Buscemi's Seymour starts to play. After trying to choke Seymour out with his trademark nunchucks, Seymour fights back and humbles this scumbag, complete with cartoonish sound effects. At one point, Doug seemingly jumps from the floor and into the air off of a kick, selling the injury in a way that would make Stone Cold Steve Austin proud. It's only 30 seconds long, but it'll have you begging for a Steve Buscemi action comedy akin to the Bob Odenkirk-led "Nobody."
When it first arrived, critics didn't know what to make of "A Knight's Tale," Brian Helgeland's underdog sports movie set in the medieval era. But two decades later, the film still has a rabid audience of fans and has become a seminal sleepover classic for a generation of teen girls. The film is essentially every '90s sports movie you've ever seen, but swap out the motley crew of baseball or hockey-playing preteens for Heath Ledger, Mark Addy, Alan Tudyk, Laura Fraser, Shannyn Sossaman, and a sometimes-naked Paul Bettany, and you've got it figured out. The anachronistic hero's journey about the son of a peasant moonlighting as a knight in order to compete in jousting tournament plays around with conventions of period-piece cinema, and includes the most flatulent post-credits scene on this list.
Our lovable gang has spent an entire film trying to pretend they are more than just the children of peasants, and with Ledger's Sir William off doing royal whatever-the-heck with Sossamon's noble Jocelyn, the common folk are left to their own devices, which includes a farting contest. It sounds juvenile, I know, but seeing the remaining four enjoy a pint and laugh about farts is hilarious and appropriate to the period. Fart jokes are some of the earliest forms of comedy on record, and by including this scene, "A Knight's Tale" is oddly paying homage to the peasants that history often forgets.
I am an unashamed lover of all things Miles "Tails" Prower, so I am fully admitting my bias by including the post-credits scene of "Sonic the Hedgehog." After Dr. Robotnik has been banished to the mushroom planet, the scene opens with an "Apocalypse Now" parody as the fully transformed "Dr. Eggman" begins to plot out his revenge. Admittedly, I was sad. I loved the movie and loved the hint that there'd be a sequel, but was disappointed not to see my two-tailed bestie. Fortunately, the team of Jeff Fowler, Pat Casey, and Josh Miller had my back, because shortly after, the winds of Green Hills, Montana began to blow, and BOOM! MY BABY BOY ARRIVED LOOKING FOR SONIC! Did I fully start sobbing in a crowded theater where my wife and I were the oldest attendees that weren't also parents of the majority of the crowd? Yes. Yes, I did. Did I high five a six-year-old girl sitting next to me who was also losing her s*** about it? ALSO YES. This is one of the best examples of a film setting up the stakes for the sequel, and had audiences waiting with anticipation for the next film.
John C. Reilly uses a merry-go-round to punch kids in the face around a circle and Will Ferrell uses a kid on a spring horse's face as a speedbag. On paper, that sounds like a horrible TMZ headline, but in the post-credits scene of "Step Brothers," it's comedy gold. Earlier in the film, full-grown adult step-brothers Dale and Brennan (Reilly and Ferrell) cross paths with some junior high-aged hooligans at a playground, who beat them up and make them lick dried out dog poop. It's a one-off scene filled with plenty of great physical comedy, which only makes it funnier when the duo return at the end of the film to enact their revenge in a John Woo-inspired fight scene. Obviously the two aren't beating the snot out of actual kids, but the visible shift to adult stunt performers only makes the moment funnier. Will Ferrell uses a swing set to kick down a group of kids, and of course, they give their biggest bully a taste of his own medicine with dog poop. It perfectly encapsulates the absolute absurdity of the movie, and reminds us that no matter how much they've changed, these two still haven't grown up.
The entire ending sequence of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" is a masterclass, featuring a scene of Mr. Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) as he makes his way back to school after having been bested by Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick). Set to the always awesome "Oh Yeah" by Yello, the film spends nearly four minutes reveling in Rooney's pain. Alas, that is not the post-credits sequence. Instead, once the credits finally cut to black, we return to Ferris Bueller in his bathroom, again breaking the fourth wall and telling everyone to leave the theater. "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" is certainly not the first film to have this happen, but the popularity of the film made this moment an instant classic. Marvel's "Deadpool" even parodied the moment, having the titular character show up in Ferris' same bathrobe to shoo the audience out. With Ferris spending a good chunk of the film talking directly to the audience, it's the perfect end cap to his greatest adventure yet.
(For what it's worth, the best version of this type of ending belongs to Animal in "The Muppets Movie," who shows up and yells "GO HOME!" However, Kevin Feige has gone on record to say that "Ferris Bueller" is why the Marvel movies have post-credits scenes, so I gotta give the point to Ferris.)
Paul Reubens is known by most for his iconic performance as Pee-wee Herman, but he'll always be Amilyn the Vampire to me. In the criminally underrated "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" movie, Reubens dons a wild wig, delivers dynamite one-liners, and feels like the Godfather of the type of hilarious vampires we'd see in projects like "What We Do in The Shadows." During the massive showdown at the dance between Buffy (Kristy Swanson) and the vampire brood headed by Rutger Hauer's Lothos, Buffy stakes Amilyn in the heart, but he's not going down without a fight. Amilyn starts reeling back and forth, delivering dramatic "eee, ahhhh, oooh, aaah, eee" sounds of pain back and forth, sometimes pausing to see if anyone is watching him suffer. His death goes on for what feels like an eternity, before the film cuts away to other action. However, the post-credits scene returns on Amilyn, as he continues writhing and whining until finally succumbing to the stake and falling to the ground. Dying never looked so hilarious.
"Planes, Trains and Automobiles" is arguably John Hughes' finest film, but it is definitely home to his best post-credits sequence. Neal Page (Steve Martin) endures the trip from hell in an attempt to make it home to Chicago for Thanksgiving, having to deal with diverted flights, burglars, exploding cars, and a garrulous (albeit well-meaning) shower ring salesman named Del Griffith (John Candy). Page's struggles begin when a meeting with the vacillate Mr. Bryant (William Windom) runs late and throws everything off schedule. In the post-credits scene, we revisit Mr. Bryant as he continues examining Neil Page's ad layout that was presented in the meeting over his Thanksgiving dinner, unaware of the absolute nightmare he caused with his indecisiveness at the start. Although Page will never know this is what became of Mr. Bryant, it feels like the film is giving him one last middle finger (with love), even after Neal has finally made it home.
Normally a post-credits scene is, well, a scene, but Laika Studios did something really remarkable at the end of "ParaNorman." We don't have to tell you that animation is often under-appreciated by the masses, and few understand just how much hard work goes into making an animated feature. Laika takes that one further, and crafts absolutely stunning stop-motion animation features. After the credits of "ParaNorman," a time-lapse video plays, showing an animator putting together one of the models of Norman Babcock and giving the audience an idea of just how much work it takes to make one character. It's almost breathtaking to see how much detail goes into crafting the character, and the scope becomes overwhelming when you realize that all of that hard work went in for every single character, every single movement, every single change of a facial expression or environmental change, in every single frame. It may not be a cute little zinger or a set-up for a potential sequel, but it's a moment to acknowledge and draw attention to the hard-working animators who made the movie possible.
/Film reader, listen, and you listen close: Choosing the best Non-Marvel post-credits scene is no different than riding a bicycle, just a lot harder to put baseball cards in the spokes. "Airplane!" continues to be one of the greatest comedy films ever made, even if some of the jokes have aged, uh, less than great. The film is a non-stop barrage of one-liners, puns, deadpan humor, sight gags, physical comedy, and long-running bits, so it's no surprise that its post-credits scene would be equally as hilarious. The scene offers closure to a long-forgotten taxicab passenger who was ditched at the beginning of the movie. The film returns to the man, still waiting for his cabbie, who says that he'll wait for him for another 20 minutes, "BUT THAT'S IT!" It's hilarious because, of course, it implies that he spent the entire duration of the film waiting for this cab, but started the continued trend of comedy films revisiting seemingly throwaway moments for one last laugh before the audience leaves the theater.
Read this next: 20 Underrated Comedy Movies You Need To Watch
The post The 10 Best Non-Marvel Post-Credits Scenes, Ranked appeared first on /Film.
I noticed a discord I'm in that used to be just about Diablo 3 server emulation has rebranded to Blizzless and the project now provides offline cracks for remasters of classic Blizzard games. Currently they've posted links for Starcraft Remastered and Warcraft 3 Reforged.
Project Description
Here's the discord link since linking directly to cracks is no allowed by the sub's rules.
Hi there! This is my first post, I hope everything it's OK.
I was surprised that no one noticed this great news!
Yesterday a russian group called Blizzless has achieved an offline cr@ck for both StaCraft Remastered and Warcraft III Reforged.
Finally some BATTLE.NET games being cracked!
Greetings to all
Mike Judge belongs to that cohort of late-era baby boomers who captured the Gen X zeitgeist. Much like Quentin Tarantino and Richard Linklater, Judge had a head start on the next-gen filmmakers. He turned 10 in 1972 and came of age during the advent of the couch-potato age. Reruns of network shows had been syndicated since the late 1950s, but it took a decade or so for the boob tube to wear down parents' defenses. By the early '70s, television had become an after-school babysitter. "Leave It to Beaver," "Mr. Ed," and "The Dick Van Dyke Show" were in heavy daily rotation. Better to have your kids held captive by the cathode ray glow than out cavorting with pot-smoking burnouts.
When Judge's "Beavis and Butt-Head" debuted on MTV via the short "Frog Baseball," it was a crudely animated goof on garden variety juvenile delinquency. You probably grew up with kids who viewed the discovery of a frog in the backyard as an opportunity for animal cruelty. They might've strapped a bottle rocket to the creature's back or blew them to bits with a cherry bomb. Or, if they were low on ordnance, they treated them as an improvised baseball and beat them to death. This was savage and cruel and so very American in the basest sense. If Judge had kept his sights aimed this low, we wouldn't be watching "Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe" in 2022. But we are, and this is because he got his mouth-breathing teenagers out of the backyard and onto the couch, in front of the television, where they belonged. In doing so, he made his own television history.
Although Mike Judge went on to make the cubicle-dweller masterpiece "Office Space" and the depressingly prophetic "Idiocracy," his heart resides with Beavis and Butt-Head. As he told Vulture:
"It's still probably my favorite thing I've ever done. I mean, not all of it is good. We did some of them so quickly. But the stuff that's good I look back fondly on and really like it. I got my foot in the door because of it, so it led to everything. For that reason alone, I'm still fond of it."
For years, younger viewers might've been baffled by Gen Xers' affection for the addled lads, but maybe they'll get it now that Paramount+ has cleared the rights to all the music videos the duo commented on during their '90s heyday. From their headbanging love for The Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated" to their sly slam of Ted Nugent's "Heads Will Roll" ("Hey, it's that dude from Damn Yankees"), Beavis and Butt-Head spoke truth to their network's star-making power. They played favorites, and shredded posers.
And almost no one will remember that they debuted as frog-killing monsters. It's the MTV age's equivalent to Jack Benny realizing Rochester was the master (à la Wodehouse's Jeeves) and not the servant.
Read this next: The 15 Best Simpsons One-Off Characters Ranked
The post Mike Judge Still Sees Beavis And Butt-Head As His Career's Magnum Opus appeared first on /Film.
An upcoming Xbox Series X|S update will reduce the startup time of both consoles in Energy Saver mode, Microsoft has confirmed via Twitter.
As reported by The Verge, the update is currently available to insiders, and will soon become available for all Xbox Series owners. According to Microsoft’s Xbox Integrated Marketing director, Josh Munsee, the team has created a shorter boot-up animation in the Energy Saving mode to reduce overall startup time. For reference, the boot-up animation was reduced from approximately 9 seconds to roughly 4 seconds.
Can confirm - worked with @harrisonhoffman and @jakerose27 to create a shorter boot up animation (~4s) from the original boot up animation (~9s), helping to reduce the overall startup time.
— Josh Munsee (@joshmunsee) July 23, 2022
Cutting down the animation by 5 seconds allows the Xbox Series X|S to boot up in approximately 15 seconds in Energy Saver mode (down from 20 seconds). As part of Microsoft’s sustainability drive, as outlined back in March of this year, it improved the Energy Saver mode of its consoles. In addition, Microsoft also made this mode the default power scheme for the Xbox Series X|S.
Last year, we made improvements to the console’s Energy Saver sleep mode. Energy Saver mode consumes about 20 times less power than Standby mode when the console is not being used or receiving updates. Now, system and game updates can be downloaded during Energy Saver mode, further saving energy.
We also made Energy Saver mode the default option when players initially set up their consoles, which offers a significant opportunity to enable energy savings across the entire Xbox ecosystem
As said, the new Xbox Series X|S will soon be rolled out for everyone. We’ll update you as soon as this update becomes available. For now, stay tuned.
Are you currently using Energy Saver mode, and if not, will you be switching to it once the new update becomes available? Hit the comments down below.
Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are available globally now. Both consoles were released back in November of 2020.
The post Upcoming Xbox Series X|S Update Reduces Boot Time in Energy Saver Mode by Aernout van de Velde appeared first on Wccftech.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has updated its directive for oil and natural gas pipeline cybersecurity, providing owners and operators more flexibility in achieving the outlined goals.
The worst heat wave in human history is still frying the United Kingdom, and in all likelihood, it’s not an anomaly. Climate changes means this is almost definitely the new normal (until it gets worse), so let’s review how to keep cool—or at least not die—during a heat wave. There were over 1,500 heat-related deaths…
But I digress. These are just the thoughts I think when I hear or see the word "Sissy," which probably aren't the same thoughts other gay boys think when they hear the word "sissy." And I should delete the "probably" from that sentence -- if another gay boy hears "sissy" and thinks the ridiculous and very very specific things that I just typed then we've got a whole mirror universe situation happening, and writing a movie review is the least of my worries. Is that what I am doing? I am writing a movie review? Yes I am writing a movie review! The title of this post at least made that clear before I got to the digressing, and digressing, and digressing. The movie is called, funny enough, Sissy, and it's a newfangled slasher comedy from Australia, and it is screening at the Fantasia Film Festival. It's a lot of fun! I am recommending it!
I call it "newfangled" there because the Slasher tropes are getting generously titty-twisted here, upended so you don't really even realize that's what you're in for at first. Although I haven't seen the other two yet I have an inkling that this movie will stand alongside Bodies Bodies Bodies (see the trailer here) and They/Them (see the trailer here) to form an interesting and amusing trifecta of Summer 2022 Queer Slashers that are happily playing with the genre rules in ways Scream did a generation (sigh, we are all so old) before. These movies are actually doing what Scream 5 aka Scream aka 5cream tried to do and failed at (and have I mentioned that my estimation of 5cream has fallen off a lot since it came out? Well it has. I tried to re-watch it and found it much worse on a second go!)
One day while running an errand Cecilia bumps into her childhood best friend Emma (co-director Hannah Barlow), who she hasn't seen in ages. It takes awhile before we come to learn what drove these two apart but in the meantime they catch up quick and fall into immediate affectionate old habits -- it's almost like no time has passed at all! Turns out that Emma is about to get married, and after a bachelorette karaoke night go incredibly well for the reunited friends Emma invites Cecilia for a whole bachelorette weekend away. It'll just be Cecelia, Emma, a few of the people who Cecelia met at karaoke... oh and also this girl named Alex (Emily De Margheriti), who knew Cecilia and Emma when they were little as well.
Unfortunately it turns out that Alex was the mean girl bully who tore the two friends apart back in the day -- starting with the nasty nickname of "Sissy" and working out from there -- and if Cecilia had known Alex was going to be there she probably wouldn't have gone at all. But there she is at the middle-of-nowhere house when the gang arrives, and so stuck together for a weekend they are all going to be. And with alarming swiftness Cecilia's online-celebrated spectacle of mental wellness starts slipping, and before you know it... well, let's just say things get messy real fast.
And how messy truly shocked me -- for a movie so steeped in winky outward dialogues about traumas and cancellation-speak Sissy truly revels in gore and nastiness once the time comes for all of that red splattery stuff. Several of its characters would totally cancel this movie! And old-schoolers rejoice, as much of its violence is practical effects -- this movie pops and drips with yuckiness, in the funnest sense. Sissy is a nasty blast, gamely acted by its cast, nimble-footed, clever and mean-spirited to boot. It's also a swell satire of online know-it-all-ism, cutting to the core of how hollow social media can be, and then backing over it for good measure. Point being I had a total blast with this Sissy and I think you will too.
Kevin Smith returned to Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con 2022 to bring his career full circle with a presentation for the upcoming "Clerks III." This will not only complete the trilogy that began with Smith's feature film debut, but it also represents a very personal tale: It will see Randall making a film after having a heart attack, which is based on Smith's own real-life near-brush with death. But Smith had been trying to get the film made for a decade in various iterations. So how is it that things finally clicked into place now? As it turns out, it's all thanks to Blu-ray and DVD sales. Yes, really.
During the panel, Smith took a moment to acknowledge that the film is only happening because of his fans. Specifically, he pointed out that Lionsgate, the studio making "Clerks III," had the home video rights to 2019's "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot." Apparently, that worked out quite well for them.
"Lionsgate still makes DVDs and Blu-rays and s***. They sold DVDs and Blu-rays of 'Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.' And, apparently, sold enough to reach out to us and say, 'We sold so many f*****g DVDs and Blu-rays that if you ever want to make more of this Jay and Silent Bob bulls****, as long as it's under this pricepoint, f*** it, have a go at it and s***. The only reason we got to do that is because bought hardware, kids. Thank you for that."
It is worth pointing out that Saban Films had theatrical distribution of the film, so Lionsgate was basing its decision purely on what they saw from home video sales. It is also worth mentioning that Kevin Smith tends to make relatively cheap films, which certainly helps. Still, in an era when Blu-ray sales are said to be drying up and the industry at large is looking for other revenue streams to help make up the difference, this is a fascinating story. The fact that a sequel got the green light because of physical media sales in the 2020s is downright strange, if not unwelcome.
From a business perspective, Lionsgate has been playing a smart game by making deals with other streaming services to license its content, while also doing well with mid-budget movies such as "John Wick," a market many other studios had been ignoring. It appears as though they also have a well-functioning home video business that provided a unique business opportunity. If Smith's fans will turn out well enough in terms of buying physical media to justify making a lower-budget movie on its own, whatever is made from theatrical distribution and streaming can, in theory, becoming icing on the cake. In an era where few things feel certain, this feels like good business and, beyond that, it's just downright fascinating.
"Clerks III" is set to hit theaters this fall.
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The post Clerks III Got Made Because Lionsgate Sold So Many Jay And Silent Bob Reboot Blu-Rays [Comic-Con] appeared first on /Film.
In the opening sequence of "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls," our intrepid pet detective is scaling a daunting cliff face to rescue a raccoon stranded on a mountaintop in a plane crash. He almost succeeds in bringing the cuddly critter home via a high wire when disaster strikes: A harness breaks and Ace can't stop the raccoon plummeting to its death.
"Cliffhanger" was enough of a pop cultural moment for the "Ace Ventura" sequel to give an extended homage to the film's most famous scene, but Renny Harlin's vertiginous action thriller now feels like a movie lost in time. While "Demolition Man," also released in 1993, gets kudos nowadays for predicting aspects of our current world, "Cliffhanger" barely even gets a mention in lists of top '90s action movies. It didn't get a whole lot of love back in the day, either. While it was a box office hit for Sylvester Stallone after a string of stinkers, many critics felt it was a formulaic "Die Hard" ripoff, and it was nominated for Worst Picture at the Golden Raspberry Awards.
I think that's a little unfair. Sure, it's "Die Hard on a Mountain," but I've always been a sucker for a good precipitous set piece. If you've got a hero clinging to a tiny ledge while bad guys try to make him fall to his death, I'm dangling off the edge of my seat. Plus, any movie where a Cockney henchman calls Michael Rooker a "slag" can't be all bad.
Remarkably, "Cliffhanger" was one of the rare Stallone movies when he didn't find himself on the Razzie ballots, but John Lithgow was nominated for his turn as the movie's psychotic criminal mastermind, Eric Qualen. He made a memorable pantomime villain, though the actor wasn't even the first choice for the part.
Ace mountain-climbing ranger Gabe Walker (Sylvester Stallone) and his partner Jessie (Michael Rooker) scramble to rescue their two friends, Hal and Sarah, stranded in the lofty Colorado peaks. A harness breaks and despite Gabe's best efforts, Sarah falls to her death.
Eight months later, guilt-stricken Gabe is ready to quit for good, but he can't help responding to a distress call from climbers stranded in the mountains. Teaming up again with Jessie (Janine Turner), who blames Gabe for Sarah's death, they find out the SOS came from a gang of international robbers led by Eric Qualen (John Lithgow). They've found themselves stuck on the peaks after an audacious midair heist went disastrously wrong, leaving three cases stuffed with cash scattered across the mountain range. The plan is to lure rescue rangers to their location and force them to retrieve the loot.
The plot of "Cliffhanger" is pretty thin, but it's padded out with plenty of stupid stuff, like riding a goon down a slope like a bobsled while punching him in the face, and killing another henchman by powerlifting him onto a stalactite in a cave. The overall preposterousness hardly matters, because looking back after a few decades of CG saturation, the practical effects and real-life stunts are thrilling. The highlight is the wild midair heist, where the stuntman was paid $1 million of Stallone's stake to climb from one plane to another at an altitude of 15,000 feet, without safety measures. It remains the most expensive aerial stunt in cinema history, and it was worth every penny.
The nonstop action and violence doesn't leave much room for performances, and Stallone has little else to do apart from grunt, sweat, and grimace. The standout is Lithgow, who really enjoys himself as the sneering, sadistic Qualen.
The phenomenal success of "Die Hard" created a new market for good actors in scene-stealing villain roles. And John Lithgow, with his outsized jack-o'-lantern features, was already moving in that direction when he played the baddie in "Ricochet" opposite Denzel Washington, and the shrink with a psychopathic alternate personality in "Raising Cain." He's such a versatile actor, just as good playing serious roles (Oscar nominated for "Terms of Endearment") as he is in comedic ones (six Emmy Awards for "3rd Rock From the Sun.") His performance in "Cliffhanger" falls somewhere in between, callously murdering people and relishing his sub-Bond quips.
He's a big guy, too. He towers over Stallone in real life and is presented as a believable physical threat to Sly in the final showdown. Lithgow is clearly really into it, which is a testament to his professionalism and adaptability after he was parachuted into the lead baddie role at the last moment. He explained in a GQ interview:
"I think I had been cast as the sort of second villain. My role was supposed to be [played by] Christopher Walken, but he bailed and they sort of moved me up the night before."
One of the main criticisms at the time was Lithgow's attempt at an English accent, which was also a last-minute decision:
"I remember sitting around with Renny Harlin trying to decide what nationality Eric Qualen was. Was he an American Secret Service man, maybe a South African, or how about an Englishman? It was literally that, and I said I don't think I can master South African overnight, and I think we should make it something other than American. Let's just go the Alan Rickman route."
Other casting rumors for Qualen included David Bowie and Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry. Bowie could have definitely worked, but Ferry? I can only picture him walking around the mountains wearing a white tux and a cummerbund, which I would actually love to see.
Curiously, I can imagine both singers in the role more than Christopher Walken. He can certainly overact just as well as John Lithgow and has some memorable villains on his filmography, but I struggle to see him duking it out on a clifftop with Sylvester Stallone. Physicality is rarely his thing, apart from maybe that Fat Boy Slim video where he flies around a hotel lobby, and his menace is usually defined by stillness. Even as a younger man, he seemed somehow decrepit and haunted, which worked wonders from his creepily hilarious turn in "Annie Hall" through "The Deer Hunter" to his wonderfully reflective career best in "The Dead Zone." When Walken talks, we want to listen without distraction, and he might have seemed a little lost out there filming on location in the Italian Dolomites. As for Lithgow, he loved it:
"Cliffhanger" was the best job I ever had ... Pretty much my only flat-out action film, and I was even in the big climactic brawl with the hero, and the hero was Sly Stallone, it was like, wow, at the total top of the action film food chain. It was like as good as it gets."
Lithgow's enjoyment translated to a performance that was great fun, fitting nicely into that '90s rogue's gallery of over-the-top villains alongside Gary Oldman in "Leon" and Nicolas Cage in "Face/Off." So who cares what the Golden Raspberries think?
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The post Cliffhanger Brought in John Lithgow to Replace Christopher Walken the Day Before Shooting Began appeared first on /Film.
David Warner, veteran English actor and star of films like "The Omen" and "Tron," has sadly died at age 80. According to the BBC, the performer passed away due to "a cancer-related illness" and the news was confirmed to the outlet by his family "with an overwhelmingly heavy heart."
"Over the past 18 months he approached his diagnosis with a characteristic grace and dignity," Warner's family told the BBC in a statement. "He will be missed hugely by us, his family and friends, and remembered as a kind-hearted, generous and compassionate man, partner and father, whose legacy of extraordinary work has touched the lives of so many over the years. We are heartbroken."
Warner was born in 1941 in Manchester, England to unmarried parents and led an unstable childhood. After making it through school, he went on to study at the well-known Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, and by 21 years old, he had joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. Much to his surprise, he was cast in the lead role of Karel Reisz's acclaimed picture "Morgan, A Suitable Case For Treatment" shortly after joining the ensemble. Three years later, the RSC cast him as Hamlet, blowing open the doors of his career both on stage and screen despite his portrayal of the character as a young radical being criticized by critics.
Warner's career was vibrant on stage, and in film, television, and radio. His version of Hamlet, many years on, is considered a top tier interpretation of his generation. From there, he made the move into film work, finding his niche as a character actor. He started off working in English cinema of the 1960s, but as he got older, he moved into genre films quite nicely.
In 1971, he starred in "Straw Dogs," which has since been remade, and five years later, he took on the role of Keith Jennings in the original "The Omen." He even went on to appear in several iconic sci-fi universes, including that of "Tron," "Doctor Who," and "Star Trek." To a lot of younger folks, his most memorable role may be his turn as Spicer Lovejoy, the nasty, vindictive enforcer for Billy Zane's Cal in James Cameron's beloved film "Titanic."
In 1987, the actor moved to Hollywood, where he lived for 15 years. During that time, he got his feet wet on the doomed ocean liner and became a regular fixture on American television, with his "Star Trek" appearances — over the years, Warner has played three different characters throughout the franchise — and "Doctor Who" roles, in addition to stints on "Twin Peaks" and "The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse."
Fast forward to present day, the actor was still sought after in his 70s. In 2005, he finally returned to the stage after a 40-year absence to play King Lear in Chichester. Most recently, he played Admiral Boon in Disney's "Mary Poppins" revamp "Mary Poppins Returns" in 2018. In 2020, the performer lent his voice to the animated series "Teen Titans Go!" for one episode.
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The post David Warner, Veteran British Actor Who Starred in The Omen and Tron, Has Died at 80 appeared first on /Film.
Apple has been cleansing its Mac computers of rival silicon for quite some time and has now transitioned from a diet Intel solution to truly Intel free. Intel USB4 timer chips were the last influence team blue had on modern Macbooks since the two companies let their 15-year partnership dissolve in 2020, and Apple’s latest M2-powered laptops no longer include Intel’s solution.
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On June 23, 2018, 12 boys, ages eleven to sixteen, walked into Tham Luang Nang Non cave in northern Thailand along with their 25-year-old coach. Unexpected heavy rainfall soon trapped the young explorers in a life-or-death situation that eventually spiraled into a massive international rescue effort as the growing real-life threat of rising waters propelled the dangerous crisis into the global spotlight. In "Thirteen Lives," director Ron Howard dramatizes the story and its myriad moving parts into a fine dramatic effort. It's a film that boasts well-developed tension, a smart focus on the local community, and understated but complex central performances. The thriller-focus and stoic real-world protagonists do create some emotional distance that may benefit from a little fine-tuning, but it's an impactful dramatic outing overall.
Ron Howard's distinguished directorial career has spanned multiple genres, but historical and biographical films like "Apollo 13" and "A Beautiful Mind" remain where he's found his greatest critical success. He returns once again to this terrain in a ticking-clock thriller that walks a delicate balance in following the real-world rescue divers who pivotally contributed to the boys' rescue and the Thai community that demanded the boys be saved and bent over backwards to make it so. Of course, Howard is no stranger to these sorts of historical films, with "Apollo 13" ably showcasing the director's ability to wring considerable tension from an all-points effort to practically solve real-world, harrowing crises. Here, however, we have a story that takes place in a panicked real-world community. Howard smartly continues to center the narrative on the parents, volunteers, and local decision-makers, in a choice that adds real emotional weight to the narrative. We spend ample time with the divers, but it never forgets to return to the people at the story's heart.
"Thirteen Lives" is a well-scripted and tightly edited film with a keen command of time, and DP Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (of "Call Me By Your Name" and 2018's "Suspiria" fame) lands both Thailand's expansive natural beauty and vibrant communities alongside the tight, dangerous claustrophobia of the treacherous cave system that the boys and the divers find themselves in. "Thirteen Lives" may at times feel a little distant in its performative aspects, an understated approach to narrative that occasionally separates the audience from the characters' subjectivity, but Mukdeeprom's top-notch underwater photography gives a somewhat compensatory feeling of being in their skin as the rescue is underway.
"Thirteen Lives" begins intuitively enough with the boisterous boys and their coach happily trekking into the cave. It pivots to their families, and we get the crucial information that monsoon season has come shockingly early. The boys are in grave danger. The local community, the province governor, and Thai Navy SEALS join forces to attempt to extract the boys as the waters close off access and the local Navy SEALS can only go so far into the caves. Assistance comes in the form of accomplished rescue divers Rick Stanton (Viggo Mortensen) and John Volanthen (Colin Farrell), who take on the dangerous mission to map the caves and find the boys. The pair recruit more rescue divers, including anesthetist Richard Harris (Joel Edgerton) for a dangerous and never-before-attempted rescue deep in the heart of the cave.
The central performers here take on their roles in a highly nuanced fashion. In Mortensen's hands, Stanton is a distant but determined protagonist who becomes more attached as the difficulty rises ... it's subtle but impactful work. Farrell's Volanthen is a real highlight, however, as his own status as a father propels him towards more emotion and empathy for the boys' fraught parents. While Stanton is the risk-taker, the idea man, Volanthen is the divers' moral and emotional core, and the trials impact him the hardest. Farrell plays him with a strong, stoic emotional richness. Also worth noting here is Joel Edgerton's Harris, who first resists the radical steps he must take before taking the full moral weight of saving the boys on his own shoulders. Ron Howard's direction relies on subtlety as the cast portrays relatively stoic individuals (they're accomplished rescue divers, after all, which takes a heightened level of emotional control and professionalism). Interestingly, there are even moments where the emotional core of the protagonists' struggles and sacrifices are sometimes cut short to maintain this tone — a character finds out troubling news from home, for example, and in his reaction, he turns away before a quick cut takes us elsewhere. It's an interesting commitment on Howard's part that maintains a little emotional distance from and for the protagonists, who nonetheless display the depth of their characters. Still, one can't help but want to have a little deeper window into these characters' inner lives in some of these more pivotal moments.
While the rescue divers themselves are given variably stoic parts to play, the bulk of the emotional work comes both from the boys' parents and the self-sacrificing local community. The parents' believably distraught reactions and frenzied search for answers and solutions form much of the story's emotional work. It's a strong choice from the filmmaker to center the bulk of its weight on the community, forcing the film to decenter the visiting protagonists somewhat while it refuses to treat the besieged local community as unimportant to the film's events. At the same time, it would have been a welcome pivot to spend more time with both the boys and their frantic families. While we begin with the young football troupe, the film's focus as more of a ticking-clock thriller necessitates that we don't see the trapped thirteen much at all, except where they're interacting with rescuers. While "Thirteen Lives" is already on the longer side, it would have further ramped up the emotional stakes to allow us to get to know the boys more before the crisis and to follow their fear and harrowing survival within the caves more pointedly. While the film's centering on the community as a whole is successful, there are surely some opportunities for greater depth of emotion.
"Thirteen Lives" boasts a number of virtues on the technical side of things that are worth highlighting. Mukdeeprom's cinematography centers the audience within the region's beauty and the community's lives in a way that grounds the narrative well. As the rescue divers proceed through the caves, the camera slides through the darkened waters of the caves' depths, capturing claustrophobic angles of the rescuers navigating the treacherous terrain. It lands the danger and complexity of the rescue operation in a visual, properly cinematic way that puts us in the actors' flippers. If one of the tried-and-true elements of proper cinematic storytelling is the much-stated commandment to "show, don't tell," it's clearly the ethos that Howard is going for in "Thirteen Lives," and Mukdeeprom's ability to ground the audience both in the community and in the rescuer's subjectivity excels here.
Additionally, with a strong script and James D. Wilcox's accomplished editing, Howard controls the time quite well. Each individual rescue takes considerable hours of swimming in dark terrain. Every minute was undoubtedly tense for real-life rescuers, but it's a delicate real-life balance for the narrative to both showcase the right moments of tension and yet avoid a feeling of overdrawn repetitiveness. The end result is a film that runs nearly 2 1/2 hours but which largely breezes by with few inessential moments. As a whole, it's a strong, tense narrative with successful visual storytelling.
"Thirteen Lives" is a film that truly orients itself around a grounded cinematic approach to story, one largely told without big, grandstanding emotional speeches but instead focused on visually capturing subjectivity, demonstrating tension, and highlighting the life-or-death weight of the characters' choices. It's an approach that succeeds overall, though a little more time with the boys, their frantic families, and a bit deeper window into the central characters' inner lives would have hit the story's tension and impact a little harder home. Nonetheless, it's a fine drama with adept performances that are sure to keep viewers on the edge of their seats./Film Rating: 9 out of 10
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The post Thirteen Lives Review: A Visually Accomplished Ticking-Clock Thriller With Nuanced Central Performances appeared first on /Film.
No one wants to be the target of whatever "discourse" Film Twitter is having. More often than not, that discourse isn't a thoughtful back-and-forth conversation about movies on the internet. It's code for partaking in an exhausting tweeting cycle in which the quippiest takedown wins the most likes. What starts as one tweet about a film opinion can warp into everyone on the silly bird app weighing in on the validity of a subjective opinion. Pray it's not unpopular enough to go viral because then it spirals into a biting conversation about how others agree or disagree with you. Gross. Although tweeting about film is an invitation to play with fire, sometimes the internet plays nice and delivers a fitting end to a viral tweet.
When comic creator Adam Ellis called Jordan Peele the best horror director of all time, the internet was quick to explain how wrong his opinion was and how right they were. Hilariously, the "Nope" filmmaker jumped into the replies and tweeted back, "Sir, please put the phone down I beg you. Sorry. I love your enthusiasm but, I will just not tolerate any John Carpenter slander!!!" In a way, Peele's tweet reads like a life jacket being thrown to Ellis, pulling the internet's attention away from hating on him with kindhearted humor.
In the spirit of Peele's tweet, and because Film Twitter needs to have a bit more fun, I decided to find all the John Carpenter influence I could in "Nope."
Of all of Jordan Peele's films, "Nope" harkens back the most to John Carpenter's sci-fi horror classic, "The Thing." The most obvious comparison between the 1982 film and "Nope" is that both films star genre legend Keith David in a commanding role while alien[s] run amok. On a deeper level, "Nope" depicts its aliens much like "The Thing" does.
Both sci-fi horror films initially show aliens as familiar images — a flying saucer or a husky dog — but their true natures are far more disturbing. We never see the original form of the Thing in Carpenter's film. All we know is it consumes and morphs its DNA to match every being it has eaten. Likewise, the alien in "Nope" is hidden from the viewer. We know it has a membrane-filled eye-mouth that swallows up bodies for sustenance while spitting out their blood, but we never see the form of the alien. The closest look we get at it is from the perspective of someone eaten by it. We see sacks of flesh — both alien and human — and a praying mantis-like head inside its body. Both films show gnarly and territorial aliens while concealing just enough about them to creep us out.
John Carpenter's "Prince of Darkness" embodies all the bad-trip psychedelic dread that cosmic horror fans desire. Satan is, in part, a mysterious green goo. Unwitting college students become possessed and turn into hungry zombies. Jesus is an alien traveler. Messages about the future are transmitted to those involved while they're in a dream state.
Admittedly, "Nope" is not as bonkers nor delightfully strange as "Prince of Darkness." Watching the two back to back makes "Nope" seem like a tragic story about American capitalism. That's partially true, but "Nope" still takes some ambitiously fun swings with its horror set-pieces and tilting camera angles in a Carpenter-esque way. Most notably, "Nope" has a house dripping with blood and like "Prince of Darkness," it plays with splatter and bug imagery. True, there's no chest full of beetles in "Nope," but both films employ bugs to foreshadow impending doom. Whenever a praying mantis appears on screen in "Nope," it warns the Haywood family that the alien is coming for them soon.
Whatever horror subgenre John Carpenter is playing with, he loves to center his plots on a group against an oppressive force. What makes his work scary is how his panicked characters cause just as much chaos as whatever force they're fighting. In "Halloween," it's Michael Myers the unsuspecting teens of Haddonfield. In "The Thing," it's the base camp against the alien force trying to tear them apart. Us vs. them is a clear theme in his work, and it's shown best in his 1980s film "The Fog." More of a ghost story than anything, "The Fog" tells the story of a town with a dirty secret. The terrible past of Antonio Bay is exposed once dead mariners return to wreak vengeance.
Jordan Peele's "Nope" follows a similar setup. It's a tale of a town versus a monster. Allies are found and picked off one-by-one by the unknowable force that seemingly arrives out of nowhere. "Nope" isn't an alien origin story, so we never know why the alien appears when it does. It preys on the Haywood family, and Jupiter's Claim, pitting the town against the UFO in a way that is similar to "The Fog." While the Haywood family didn't cause the alien to appear, they're not guiltless. Everyone's greedy desire to capture the alien's image inadvertently kills several tourists and residents, a fact that's just as shameful as the murders that the Antonio Bay founders committed to secure their wealth.
Written and directed by John Carpenter, "They Live" critiques the dangers of capitalism. Carpenter's film debuted as Ronald Reagan's presidency was coming to an end. The era of "Reaganomics" ushered in an approach to free-market economics that forever changed the country. Reagan erroneously thought if the wealthy had more money, they would expand their businesses and theoretically create more jobs. Historically, we know that did not happen and a trickle-down economy doesn't create more jobs or equitable wealth. Carpenter had a lot of feelings about this unseemly time in history and used "They Live" as a way to humanize the working class while dehumanizing the extremely wealthy. Everyone in power is a corrupt alien. Notably, this film also stars Keith David, but this one lets more of David's natural comedy skills come to the surface, as his character Frank Armitage vows to free Americans from alien mind control.
Like Carpenter, Jordan Peele is not subtle about critiquing America's relationship with money and the power it wields. While the alien in "Nope" doesn't control any governmental office, it does expose the Haywood family's desire for wealth. Getting that "Oprah shot" was never something they needed to do, but the promise of financial success — and the power that brings — was enough to risk their lives for it. While we understand why the financially struggling Haywood family does what they do, we hate the system that forces them to do it.
I have no idea if Jordan Peele ever watched "The Resurrection of Broncho Billy," but as a total film nerd that loves John Carpenter and was crafting a modern-day Western, I bet he did. The 1970 short is one of the first films that Carpenter composed music for, wrote, and edited. Unlike his horror work, this short is more of an imaginative slice-of-life story that dips its toes into genre. The short film follows a young man who dreams of living in the sepia-toned world of the Old West. He has visions of saloons and showdowns as he lives his run-of-the-mill life and goes to work. To achieve this effect, the film alternates between a present-day setting and the Wild West.
In some ways, Ricky (Steven Yeun), the cowboy wannabe in "Nope," seems a lot like the young man in "The Resurrection of Broncho Billy." His tourist ranch, Jupiter's Claim, has all the stereotypical trappings of a Western. Just as Carpenter's character took all he knows about the West from old movies, Ricky grew up in Hollywood, not around livestock, so his commercial cowboy take seems fitting. Peele's imagery in "Nope" takes a similar approach. At times, we're in a Circuit City-like tech store. Other times, we're surrounded by dust-blown sand and an old house that makes the period a bit hazy. Both films carefully — and sometimes sillily — evoke Western sensibilities, showcasing both creators' artistic range.
You can't set a film in Los Angeles without touching upon the influence Hollywood has on anyone who steps foot in the City of Angels. If you're wondering how John Carpenter feels about the glamour of the stardom-fueled city, the image of Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) swinging from a burning Hollywood sign in "Escape From L.A" states it best. As with "They Live," Carpenter uses spectacular action set-pieces in the underrated 1996 film to highlight social issues. "Escape From L.A.," ambitiously tackles social issues like L.A.'s deportation rate, the toxicity of celebrity culture, and America's wealth gap. All the while, it's still a fun popcorn flick. This approach 100-percent feels like something Peele has taken to heart.
Discussing his intent with "Nope," Jordan Peele told Variety, "We tried to make a big summer blockbuster that you can enjoy whatever way you want. If you want to go in, and you just smoked a big blunt, and you want to talk to your friend about some societal issues, you can do that. If you want to come and just relax and get away from it all and see Keke Palmer in the midst of a UFO, then that's what we got for you." Although "Nope" on the surface is a sci-fi-action-horror film, it's also about the lengths that people will go to find fame and attention. In the end, much like the city of L.A. in Carpenter's film, everyone is consumed by the success they chase.
No matter how wild John Carpenter and Jordan Peele's concepts get in their horror films, their characters always seem grounded. Carpenter succeeds best with crafting realistic characters in 1978's "Halloween." Before Michael Myers somehow gained combat skills and superhero strength in David Gordon Green's disjointed entries, the Shape was just a man. The most chilling visuals in 1978's "Halloween" are when Michael is staring through a window at the unsuspecting Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). Nothing is supernatural about him. What's scary about Carpenter and Debra Hill's story is the ordinary way in which Michael is filmed. He's quietly stalking and killing teens. No one seems to notice this but the viewer. There's a day-in-the-life-like feeling in how the camera follows Michael, suggesting the terrifying potential that this could actually happen.
"Nope" succeeds as an alien-chase film because we care about the Haywood family's survival. If Daniel Kaluuya's OJ and Keke Palmer's Emerald didn't feel like real people with complicated desires and a tentative bond, we wouldn't care if an alien ate them. Peele keeps the spectacle of the set-pieces in "Nope" full-blown while never making anything about OJ or Emerald supernatural. They're people who just so happen to find themselves in extraordinary circumstances. They have no quippy catchphrases or fancy weapon training. They have an army of inflatable men and a roll-of-the-dice shot to survive terrible odds.
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The post All the John Carpenter Influence Found in Jordan Peele's Nope appeared first on /Film.
Like us regular folk, celebrities often have surprising hobbies and hidden talents beyond their day job. Witness Angelina Jolie awkwardly flicking around a butterfly knife on Conan O'Brien, or Pierce Brosnan demonstrating his fire-eating skills on "The Muppet Show." You can enjoy Mike Tyson, the world's most unlikely pigeon-fancier, talking about his favorite birds on Youtube, or Christopher Walken revealing his previous occupation as a Lion Tamer in a circus when he was younger. "It was more like a dog," he nonchalantly states.
Earlier this year, John Travolta proudly announced to the world that he had received his 737 license, meaning he could legitimately fly you to your destination on one of Boeing's best-selling passenger jets. In his brief video message, he said:
"Okay, so very proud moment in my aviation history. To add to my 747 and 707 licenses, I just received my 737 license. It went very well, just sharing my moment with you."
The actor has had a passion for aviation since his teens and became a licensed pilot over 40 years ago, his Hollywood star status enabling him to indulge in his hobby well beyond a few flying lessons at the weekends. He has purchased an entire hangar full of jets and other aircraft, and just check out his property in Jumbolair, FA, where he can pull up his planes in the driveway like regular citizens park their cars.
With that kind of experience and knowledge, Travolta certainly had a few pieces of advice when it came to choosing a jet plane for the bombastic opening scene in "Face/Off."
"Face/Off" opens with a prologue where prolific international terrorist Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage), sporting a villainous mustache, is preparing to sniper his nemesis, FBI Agent Sean Archer (Travolta). Archer is enjoying a nice merry-go-round ride with his young son when Troy pulls the trigger, and the bullet passes straight through Archer's back, killing the lad.
Six years later, the intensely driven Archer lives only for catching Troy, neglecting his wife and daughter. His desire for bringing in his son's murderer means he takes things a little too personally, berating his team for having no leads on the madman's whereabouts. Meanwhile, Troy, dressed as a priest and puffing on a joint, plants a bomb in a Los Angeles conference center that will release a deadly nerve agent in a few days' time. He celebrates by rocking out to the "Hallelujah Chorus," dissing its composer, and groping a young choir girl.
Finally, the case breaks: Archer's team receives a tip-off that a getaway plane was chartered at a remote airfield, paid in cash by Pollux Troy (Alessandro Nivola), Castor's younger brother, who is great at building WMDs but struggles with day-to-day tasks like tying his shoelaces.
Castor arrives at the airstrip with his coat flying in slow-mo that would make Michael Bay envious, revealing his flashy dual gold pistols. He warns his goons to stay away from downtown in a few days and the brothers board the private jet, where Castor prepares to enjoy the in-flight entertainment of a very friendly stewardess.
Just as the plane taxis for take-off, Archer arrives in a Humvee with a bunch of cop cars and a police helicopter in support and plays chicken with Castor's jet. That's when the stewardess reveals she is also an FBI agent.
Archer seems hellbent on either ramming the jet or forcing it off the runway until he realizes the agent onboard has been grabbed by Castor (it's never explained how she on the plane in such short notice, but hey-ho, this is "Face/Off"). After Castor kills her and throws her body onto the tarmac Archer goes even more gung-ho, commandeering the police chopper and trying to stop Castor's ride from taking off by using the landing skids to force down the plane's wing flaps.
Castor is enraged and takes a few pot shots at Archer with his pistols, and Archer responds in kind by shooting out one of the aircraft's engines. Now unable to take off, Castor callously murders the pilot and grabs the controls, but can't stop the plane veering off the runway into a hangar which, judging by the sparkly pyrotechnics and whistling sound effects, also doubles as a fireworks factory.
A desperate firefight ensues inside the hangar, with Castor reveling in a little trademark John Woo double-fisted pistol action, diving through the air with both guns blazing. Pollux is captured during the mayhem and Castor and Archer end up in a face-off (see what they did there?). When Castor realizes he's out of bullets, he tries distracting Archer with a little bad singing before pulling a knife. Archer is ready for him, and kicks him in front of a jet engine, sending Castor hurtling down a wind tunnel and knocking him into a coma.
This all sets the scene for the outrageous central conceit of "Face/Off:" With the clock ticking, Archer must undergo a face-swap transplant with Castor and infiltrate a maximum security prison to extract the location of the bomb from Pollux.
John Woo, the Hong Kong action auteur who made his name with over-the-top shooters like "Hard Boiled" and "Bullet in the Head," had already made the leap to big American action movies with "Hard Target" and also directing Travolta in another delicious bad guy role in "Broken Arrow." Those films were just a warm-up for "Face/Off," which remains his Hollywood masterpiece.
It's big, loud, glossy, and extremely silly, and the best bit is that the high concept allows Cage and Travolta to mimic each other's mannerisms once their characters swapped faces. It's a film that barely pauses for breath and pays only the occasional nod to reality, which is where Travolta's expertise in aircraft came in handy for Castor's thwarted getaway vehicle. He said in an interview:
"I chose the jet that was used, it was a JetStar and I chose it for many different reasons, but I thought that for the purposes in this film, they needed to use that one ... It's sinister-looking and they're easy to duplicate in a mock-up, and you'd be smart to use it."
To a layman like me, the choice of plane doesn't make a huge amount of difference to the opening set piece of the most flamboyantly goofy action movie of the '90s, but since Travolta once owned a Lockheed JetStar like the one featured, I'm not going to argue. I guess it does appear a little sinister: if you squint hard enough, it kind of looks like it's wearing a cool pair of wraparound shades.
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The post John Travolta Had More Say Behind The Scenes of Face/Off's Plane Chase Than You Realized appeared first on /Film.
Here's a video describing an AI program that restores blurry and damaged old portraits. The technique is presented in a paper titled "Towards Real-World Blind Face Restoration with Generative Facial Prior."
As Louis Bouchard says in his piece about the software, the results are just best guesses of what the person might look like:
— Read the restThey do not represent the actual image.
If you have a backyard and a desire to make passive income, there is an app for you: Sniffspot connects dog owners with people with fully-fenced yards who are willing to rent their land on an hourly basis. Described as “Airbnb for dog off-leash areas,” Sniffspot has about 7,000 hosts in more than 1,500 cities in the United States, and offers their services in Canada,…
When it was announced this past March that Ti West had already shot a prequel to his throwback horror "X," it's fair to say that nobody had seen it coming. Even more intriguing was the fact that it would center around one of the villains of the film, an elderly and highly sexually repressed woman named Pearl (Mia Goth, who also starred as porn actress Maxine in the film). The reaction to the news was a bit mixed; while many thought that Pearl was an interesting character, people online still questioned what could possibly be revealed about her character and if it really warranted a prequel.
Well, it looks like we're about to find out the answer to that question. A24 announced that a trailer for "Pearl" is expected to be released soon, and we even have an incredible poster to dissect as we wait for more details. That doesn't mean that there aren't already some crucial details we do know about the movie. Here's what is already known about A24's first-ever prequel and the origin story of arguably the best old lady killer in horror.
Details on what "Pearl" will be about are still not entirely known, much like how the plot of "X" was still shrouded in secrecy until its release. However, the announcement of the film back in March was accompanied by some footage after "X's" world premiere. Goth will reprise her role as the titular character, this time without any of the aging makeup that hid the actress' real identity. West is also confirmed to have directed "Pearl," having done so immediately after production on "X" ceased.
The footage shown at SXSW has not been released online, nor has any other cast member for the movie been announced. That being said, there are some details of the footage that have surfaced online that could piece together a general outline of the plot. Taking place in 1919, Pearl can be seen wandering around the farm from "X," dancing, staring up at the sky, and dumping an older man into alligator-infested waters. The footage is also said to have been reminiscent of old Technicolor films of the 1930s and 1940s, something that West says continues throughout the finished film when speaking to IndieWire.
A release date for "Pearl" is not currently known, but it is likely that it will release in theaters by the end of 2022.
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The post Pearl: Everything We Know So Far About Ti West's X Prequel appeared first on /Film.
