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Lisa Loring, best known for being the first person to play Wednesday Addams on the original "The Addams Family" sitcom, has died. She was 64. Loring began her career as a child, first starting out as a child model at age three before appearing on an episode of the 1960s TV series "Dr. Kildare." When Loring was six she landed the role of the gloomy child Wednesday Addams on "The Addams Family," which ran from 1964 through 1966. Loring would also return to the role for reunion specials, including "Halloween with the New Addams Family" in 1977.

"I learned to memorize before I could read," she said in regard to learning her lines. She went on to say:

"I didn't know how to read yet, I hadn't been to first grade, so [producer David Levy] wasn't prepared to see children that young, that he didn't know. But I had my hair down to here [indicates her waist], my mother put a pretty dress and little white gloves on me, and I had a little black patent leather handbag. And he thought I was so adorable -- he told me this later, when I was an adult -- he said, 'So what I did was, I asked you pout first.' And he loved that."Then, because she couldn't read, David Levy read through both the characters' lines for her first."He planned to do it two or three times for me, [but] the second time I came back with the lines verbatim. Then I did a screen test, one of five girls, and ultimately it was [Gomez Addams actor] John Astin and David Levy who picked me."

Loring added that the cast of the original show — including Carolyn Jones, John Astin, Jackie Coogan, Ted Cassidy, Blossom Rock, and Ken Weatherwax — was like a "real family" to her. Known for her non-sunny disposition and fondness for mutilated dolls, Wednesday, first created by cartoonist Charles Addams, became a fan-favorite character, eventually being played in later years by Christina Ricci (whom Loring called "a perfect Wednesday") and more recently, Jenna Ortega. Ortega's viral dance scene from Netflix's "Wednesday" series was actually a partial tribute to a similar dance Loring performed on the original series. As Ortega said:

"I knew there were certain things I wanted to do. I paid homage to Lisa Loring, the first Wednesday Addams. I did a little bit of her shuffle that she does. Of course they cut out of camera when I did do it, but it's there! I know it is!"

Regarding the original dance, Loring said:

"My dialogue in that is so funny. 'You've got to be cool, you've got to be hip!' - this was the '60s. And I saw it and I thought, 'Who taught me how to dance like that? I can't dance like that.' It had like eight million views or something ... I watched it and I hadn't thought of it in years."

'She Went Peacefully With Both Her Daughters Holding Her Hands'

Loring was born Lisa Ann DeCinces on February 16, 1958. Her career also included the TV series "The Pruitts of Southampton," the soap opera "As the World Turns," and B-movies such as "Blood Frenzy", "Iced", and "Savage Harbor." Loring was first married at age 15 in 1973, the same year she gave birth to a daughter. Loring would marry three more times and have another child.

Loring's death was confirmed on Facebook (via Deadline) by her friend Laure Jacobson. Jacobson wrote: 

"It is with great sadness that I report the death of our friend, Lisa Loring. 4 Days ago she suffered a massive stroke brought on by smoking and high blood pressure. She had been on life support for 3 days. Yesterday, her family made the difficult decision to remove it and she passed last night...She is embedded in the tapestry that is pop culture and in our hearts always as Wednesday Addams. Beautiful, kind, a loving mother, Lisa's legacy in the world of entertainment is huge. And the legacy for her family and friends — a wealth of humor, affection and love will long play in our memories. RIP, Lisa. Damn, girl...you were a ton of fun."

Loring's daughter, Vanessa Foumberg, added:

"She went peacefully with both her daughters holding her hands." 

Some of Loring's other work included roles in such projects as TV series "The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.," "Barnaby Jones," and "The Phyllis Diller Show," the TV movie "Gabe and Walker," and films "Way Down in Chinatown" and "Doctor Spine," her final acting job. Like many former child stars, Loring's adult life was tumultuous. As People magazine reported in 1995, Loring "turned to drugs and eventually heroin" in the early '90s, but got clean in rehab. "I was disillusioned about my adult life," she said. At the time, she hoped for comeback work, stating: "I will not do any schlock. But I'd love to do a Quentin Tarantino film."

Read this next: The Moments That Defined TV In 2022

The post Lisa Loring, The Original Wednesday Addams, is Dead at 64 appeared first on /Film.

What are the best turn based RPGs? These games are about character evolution; the nature of progression and the choices you can make means that your abilities and journey may never entirely be the same across multiple playthroughs. They're also about offering robust combat mechanics and making the best use of your squad as a team working towards a common goal.

While this list may have a lot in common with our guide to the best RPG games, turn-based RPGs tend to focus more on squad-based combat and have roots in the classic tabletop RPGs of old. Games in this niche are often similar to turn-based strategy games, though to make the distinction relevant, we're focusing on games with more pronounced RPG features. Let's look at some of the best turn-based RPGs on PC.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Wasteland 3 review, How long is Wasteland 3?, The best RPG games on PC

Loring originated the television version of Wednesday Addams, the braided daughter of a spooky family.

If you look at the commercial Linux gaming catalogue at the turn of the millennium, in amongst all of the 3D shooters and strategic simulations being released, one glaring omission seems to have been the lack of any racing games. Loki Software never ported any to Linux, nor did any of the other porting houses. This left a void for the free gaming community to fill.

Actress Annie Wersching passed away on January 29, 2023. She was 45. She received her cancer diagnosis in 2020, but continued to act, and was most recently seen playing the villainous Borg Queen, the central antagonist of the second season of "Star Trek: Picard." The Borg Queen character was introduced in the 1996 feature film "Star Trek: First Contact," and was the controlling force behind a malevolent species of cyborgs that assimilated whoever they could into their collective consciousness. In "Picard," the Borg Queen was found in an alternate timeline (don't ask) where she was the last of her kind and was set to be executed. However, Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) needed her powerful cybernetic brain to calculate a way to travel back in time, and she was kidnapped and carried along by the heroes. 

The Queen was constantly looking for ways to escape, and Wersching infused the character with genuine, gleeful menace. Eventually, she would infect the mind of the mild-mannered Dr. Jurati (Alison Pill). She gave her all to a role that required a lot of fun, evil moments. 

Wersching had a 23-year acting career that included playing the role of Renee on the hit show "24," and was one of the main cast members of the series "Bosch." She had recurring roles on "General Hospital," "The Vampire Diaries," and "The Rookie." She was a reliable and talented actress and she will be missed. 

Apart from "Picard," Wersching was also a "Star Trek" alumna. Indeed, Wersching's first on-screen credit was playing a character named Liana in a 2002 episode of "Star Trek: Enterprise."

Oasis

In the episode "Oasis" (April 3, 2002), the Enterprise discovered a crashed ship that they felt could be scavenged for parts. When searching the ship, the Enterprise crew discovers a whole team of people hiding out onboard, including a man named Mural. Mural was played by René Auberjonois, a "Star Trek" regular who also played the role of Odo on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," and who had a small part in "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country." Mural had a young daughter named Liana, who had been raised on the crashed ship. 

Over the course of the episode, various crew members are taken hostage by the crash survivors, as they require Enterprise technology to survive. Other crew members will also discover that there doesn't seem to be enough food in the crashed ship's greenhouse to feed as many people as they have seen. The twist in the episode will reveal that only Mural and Liana survived the crash years ago and that Mural, a skilled engineer, had created all the other characters as holograms. His ultimate goal was to ensure Liana was raised in an environment surrounded by people. Capt. Archer (Scott Bakula) gives Mural and Liana the necessary repairs to escape the planet. 

Wersching was stoked to play the part of Liana, happy with the knowledge that a "Star Trek" veteran and long-working actor like Auberjonois would be playing her father. She admitted as much on her Twitter account in 2019, speaking out in sympathy when Auberjonois died. Having come from theater, Wersching had no experience acting for cameras. Auberjonois, it seems, taught her a lot. The lessons clearly took, and Wersching enjoyed two decades of television work. 

The Star Trek Family

"Star Trek," as both actors and Trekkies know, has always been good to its own. When an actor appears on an episode of "Star Trek" in a supporting role, their odds increase of being cast in a larger role further down the line. Famously, actors Armin Shimerman, Ethan Phillips, and Tim Russ all appeared on episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" before going on to act as regulars on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (in Shimerman's case) and "Star Trek: Voyager" (in Phillips' and Russ' case). In many instances, regular "Trek" actors will also be brought back for occasional cameos, as Auberjonois did for "Enterprise." 

"Enterprise" also brought back Phillips, and famously Brent Spiner (Data from "Next Generation") for several episodes. One small role on "Trek" seems to ensure actors easier access to the audition room in the future. 

This was certainly true for Wersching whose first and final roles were both on "Star Trek." Having played a Borg Queen with such aplomb, there was every reason to believe that the character would very well return in a future installment of a different Trek show. True, her Borg Queen was from an alternate timeline, but "Star Trek" would likely have found a way to pop through a space-time aperture and pick her up for dramatic reasons. And, given what audiences witness, Wersching would have done a wonderful job with it. 

Sadly, we must mourn the passing of Wersching instead. Rest in peace. 

Read this next: The Strongest Star Trek Villains Ranked

The post Picard's Annie Wersching Actually Started Her Career With a Small Star Trek: Enterprise Role appeared first on /Film.

AMD has not released a new graphics driver for its Radeon RX 6000 "RDNA 2" GPUs in the past two months.

AMD's RDNA 2 "Radeon RX 6000" GPUs Left Out As Red Team Focuese Its Driver Work On New RDNA 3 "Radeon RX 7000" GPUs

Since the launch of AMD's Radeon RX 7900 series graphics cards based on the RDNA 3 graphics architecture, the red team has released four drivers & all four of these drivers have been entirely exclusive to the new cards.

The last @amdradeon RDNA2, and older, driver was out in November 2022 even though they claim to be a December release

22.11.2 ( for who doesn't know, it's year-month-version)

January is over, that means @AMD hasn't put out a driver for 2 months now

Radeon aged like milk ~ pic.twitter.com/6lSqnL71rb

— Florin Musetoiu (@FlorinMusetoiu) January 30, 2023

To name them, the last graphics driver that was actually released for the RDNA 2-based Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards was the 22.11.12 which was made for a November release. Then, AMD's Radeon RX 7900 graphics cards launched in December, and guess what? All four graphics drivers, 2 in December and two in January (2023) have been exclusive to the RDNA 3 architecture. These are the driver releases over the past two months:

• AMD Radeon Software 23.1.2 (RX 7900 Only) - 24th January
• AMD Radeon Software 23.1.1 (RX 7900 Only) - 12th January
• AMD Radeon Software 22.12.2 (RX 7900 Only) - 21st December
• AMD Radeon Software 22.12.1 (RX 7900 Only) - 13th December
• AMD Radeon Software 22.11.2 (RX 6000) - 1st December

One can understand why AMD has decided to cut off its driver efforts for the RDNA 2 GPU-based Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards since their Radeon RX 7000 series based on the new RDNA 3 graphics core requires more attention and the recent drivers show that their are several known issues that still need to be addressed for the new cards. But that also means that for each driver release, AMD will have to work twice as much to get the same support added for older Radeon RX 6000 (RDNA 2) graphics cards. This doesn't sound like the FineWine that AMD is known for.

Forspoken is just one title and if this continues to be the trend, there will be many other titles that the RDNA 2 GPUs will miss out on. AMD's Radeon RX 6000 & 7000 GPUs have only received 4 game support since December which includes:

• The Callisto Protocol
• Need for Speed Unbound
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Next-Gen Update
• Forspoken

Meanwhile, NVIDIA has included the following game-ready titles to its list of WHQL GeForce drivers since December:

• Marvel's Midnight Suns (DLSS 3)
• Hitman III (DLSS 3)
• Deliver Us Marks (DLSS 3)
• Dead Space
• Forspoken
• Conqueror's Blade
• Dakar Desert Rally
• Portal with RTX
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Next-gen Update
• Jurrasic World Evolution 2
• Need For Speed Unbound
• The Callisto Protocol

2 of 9

NVIDIA not only has 3 times more games supported on their driver suite since December but the company hasn't left out its older GPUs either. The drivers are compatible with both RTX 30 & RTX 20 series graphics cards and many older GPUs too. There's not just the thing about having game-ready support for new titles but there are also various issues still affecting the Radeon RX 6000 GPUs that need to be resolved as was indicated by AMD themselves during the November GPU driver release. We hope that AMD delivers its next driver with both RDNA 3 and RDNA 2 support.

The post AMD Has Not Released A New Radeon Driver For RDNA 2 “Radeon RX 6000” GPUs In 2 Months by Hassan Mujtaba appeared first on Wccftech.

Some developers spend their careers inching towards their dream job, leapfrogging between roles in a grand strategy game of their own making. Others, like Randy Smith, simply show up on their first day and find they’re exactly where they’re meant to be.

“The approach that Looking Glass had to creating games was pretty unique,” he says now. “Even to this day, there are few studios who have that same ideology and mindfulness in how videogames are made.”

Thief: The Dark Project had a great director, in the form of Greg LoPiccolo, who later became a pioneer in the world of music games with Guitar Hero and Rock Band. And before him, Ken Levine had laid down the cobbles of Thief’s setting, defining its noir-ish tone before heading off to work on System Shock 2. Yet Looking Glass games weren’t driven by a singular 90s auteur. In fact, the very absence of ego in the studio’s culture meant its many “bright stars” were happy to adhere to a shared vision.

Read more

This post contains major spoilers for "The Menu."

Mark Mylod's "The Menu" is one dark, deeply twisted take on the fine dining experience, and an important part of bringing that world to life was creating the food within it. The film has several technically-detailed cooking sequences that show Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) and his team preparing meals for their exclusive guests -- but nothing is as mouth-wateringly perfect as his final preparation of a cheeseburger for unexpected diner Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy). The cheeseburger represents so much more than a pair of beef patties, some diced onions, and a couple of slices of American cheese, yet there's no denying it's a gorgeous piece of gastronomy. 

The team behind "The Menu" really went out of their way to create the perfect burger and there are a few places where you can find instructions on how to replicate it, but now the ultimate YouTube cooking show has offered up another course, as cook Andrew Rea of "Binging with Babish" teaches fans two different ways to create their own version of "The Menu" burger at home. Check it out below, and see if you can make your own ideal cheeseburger with just a little bit of help from a funny (and talented!) internet cook.

Watch Binging With Babish Make That Beautiful Burger

In "The Menu," Chef Slowik creates the cheeseburger for Margot after she tells him how terrible his high-concept meal was. She just wants a cheeseburger after sitting and waiting for food all night only to be given strange tidbits to nibble on, so he sets out to make her the best cheeseburger he can. It's a pretty simple burger: two beef patties, smashed on a hot griddle with onions seared into one side; a couple of slices of American cheese because it melts without splitting; and a sesame seed bun. She even gets some crinkle-cut fries.

Rea creates a quick and easy version for audiences at home using frozen and pre-made materials, then he makes one from scratch that's going to require a whole lot more skill (and equipment). Both burgers and their fries look pretty tasty, and the one he makes from scratch looks absolutely incredible, but who has time to knead their own brioche dough for buns? There has to be a happy medium between the two, with some pre-bought but fresh buns and some good cheese. (Not American. Chef Slowik can fight me on that one, because American cheese is gross and should not be put on any burger.) Rea makes his own "American" style cheese, but for the rest of us, some melted medium cheddar or Colby Jack is sure to do the trick.

But Is It Really The Ultimate Cheeseburger?

The menu of "The Menu" was created by chef Dominique Crenn, but chef John Benhase was called in to consult on the cooking and serving sequences. It was important to the whole team that the food not be faked just to look good for the screen, but would also be edible as well. The burger that became the centerpiece of "The Menu" began its life much earlier in Benhase's career, when he learned how to make a really good burger. As he told Vanity Fair:

"I learned the basics of that within a restaurant in Atlanta that I was a sous-chef at when I was younger, called The General Muir. It kind of blew my mind in terms of the approach to a burger and the love put into a burger. I cooked thousands and thousands of this burger and then learned from the guys and gals who were cooking the burger every day and just were absolutely proficient and wonderful at doing it. And then just continue to apply that to pretty much every burger I made since then to hone in on what I felt like was the perfect burger."

The burger at the end of "The Menu" is the most gorgeous on-screen cheeseburger I've seen since Samuel L. Jackson took a bite out of Brad's Big Kahuna in "Pulp Fiction," and now audiences have multiple ways to try and make their own at home. Heck, I've even made my own, except with better cheese and a veggie burger (a little smoked paprika makes it just as good as beef, I swear). We can't all be top chefs, but at least we can all learn to make a tasty burger. 

Read this next: The Best Thrillers Of 2022, Ranked

The post Learn How To Make That Delicious Cheeseburger From The Menu, Thanks To Binging With Babish appeared first on /Film.

Apple reportedly has a grand vision for its upcoming AR headset, which is said to be called the Reality Pro. Apparently, the team behind its launch believes that it is a product that can actually become a revenue-generating machine like the iPhone. However, its high price tag and niche product label will likely cause concern.

Report reveals a high level of criticism for the AR headset, implying that it will not be a game-changer

With the AR headset scheduled to enter mass production in March this year, this is said to be the technology giant’s most ambitious launch to date. In fact, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has written in his latest Power On newsletter that Apple’s top managers believe that the Reality Pro could be worn all day and will not require wearers to log into their laptops or carry their phones any longer.

“Within Apple Inc., some of the top managers in charge of launching its new mixed-reality headset believe the category could ultimately supplant the iPhone as the company’s hallmark product. Internally, Apple has outlined a vision where a headset can eventually be worn all day and everywhere. It would replace the need to tap away on a laptop or even carry a phone. And despite the high price point of Apple’s initial headset — about $3,000 — some within the company believe that the first model will offer consumers a taste of that tantalizing vision.”

However, the high price tag might make it difficult for Apple to sell it in droves, especially when it is a niche product and tech companies are laying off employees left, right, and center as they prepare for an economic downturn. In that regard, customers might prioritize a little saving rather than spending $3,000 on a product that they might or might not enjoy using. Remember, the first iteration will always have some issues that will be ironed out when the successor launches after.

“Will that be enough to make the headset a success? That’s harder to say. While I believe the push into augmented and virtual reality could someday lead to the iPhone’s successor, there’s a real possibility that this first headset turns into something Apple hasn’t had in years: a bomb.”

Also, Gurman has this impression that the AR headset will not functionally be better than an iPhone or iPad in many tasks other than media consumption or FaceTime. Also, when the first iPhone launched in 2007 for $600, a lot of people believed that it was expensive, so imagine paying a large $3,000 sum for an AR headset.

“The initial Apple headset probably won’t be better than the iPhone or iPad at anything other than video watching and FaceTime, and I don’t think there are many consumers willing to pay $3,000 for that. That’s five times the cost of the original iPhone, which some people thought was overpriced back in 2007.”

It is expected Apple will make an announcement of its AR headset before WWDC 2023 kicks off, so we will update our readers when the product finally materializes, so stay tuned. Hopefully, the company will find success with the Reality Pro, which should encourage Apple’s competitors to take the same route with their own augmented reality headsets.

The post Apple’s AR Headset Team Envisions The Device To Be Worn All Day, Negating The Need To Carry A Phone by Omar Sohail appeared first on Wccftech.

Even long-lapsed "Doctor Who" fans perked up their ears at the news that Russell T Davies, the showrunner who brought the series back with roaring success in 2005 and helmed it throughout the Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant eras, is returning for season 14. He'll be kicking things off with three 60th anniversary specials, featuring Tennant as (somewhat confusingly) the Fourteenth Doctor and Catherine Tate as former companion Donna Noble, before embarking on a new series of adventures with the Fifteenth Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa. 

In a new interview with GQ magazine, Davies summarized his reasons for leaving "Doctor Who" in 2010 as "other things to write." Specifically, he wanted to focus on his comedy-drama series "Cucumber," which he'd been working on intermittently during his tenure as showrunner ("If 'Doctor Who' hadn't come along, I would've written that back in 2004"). After handing the reins over to Steven Moffatt, Davies moved to America, where he finished writing "Cucumber" and even received an offer from George Lucas to write "Star Wars: The Clone Wars." However, in 2011 Davies' husband, Andrew Smith, was diagnosed with a brain tumor and given only a three percent chance of recovery, so Davies took several years off work to care for him. Smith passed away in 2018.

"Cucumber" finally premiered in 2015, and Davies followed it up with a string of critically-acclaimed dramas: "A Very English Scandal," "Years and Years," and "It's a Sin." He tells GQ that "it wasn't a plan of mine" to return to "Doctor Who," but a combination of factors -- including the success of "Star Trek," the BBC's distribution deal with Disney, and the bigger budgets that came with the deal -- lured him back. And now it seems he has big plans beyond the main "Doctor Who" series.

To Boldly Go Where Star Trek Has Gone Before

With "Doctor Who" now set to be distributed via Disney+ in global markets, the sci-fi series that's known for its somewhat homemade-looking aliens is about to get a significant budget boost. Though Davies debunked rumors that the upcoming season could cost as much as $10 million per episode ("It's absolutely not. I wish it was, it'd make my life easier"), he also told GQ that the Disney funding will allow him to "tell stories on a bigger scale," and that without the show's former budget constraints "my imagination feels more free, a lot more free, actually."

Beyond new monsters and far-flung cosmic horizons, Davies also hopes to once again expand "Doctor Who" into spin-offs along the lines of "Torchwood" and "The Sarah Jane Adventures." He specifically cited the "Star Trek" franchise, which currently has five ongoing streaming series ("Discovery," "Picard," "Strange New Worlds," "Lower Decks," and "Prodigy"), as an inspiration:

"I watch the 'Star Trek' empire with vast envy: the way that's turned itself from an old archive show into something fantastic. The cast is so progressive, so good, so beautiful. And very cleverly I think 'Star Trek' is reaching out to making something like fifty-two episodes a year. So that's your yearly show, genius."

While "Doctor Who" season 14 won't get underway until 2024, it sounds like Davies already had some big plans in mind when he approached the BBC about returning. "I thought [...] it was time for the next stage for Doctor Who," the showrunner explained. "I thought the streaming platforms are ready, the spin-offs are ready; I always believed in spin-offs when I was there."

The Doctor Who TV Universe

The Disney deal isn't the first time that the publicly-funded BBC has partnered with an American studio for a "Doctor Who" adventure. The 1996 TV movie starring Paul McGann was a co-production with the Fox Network and Universal Television, with Fox providing half of the $5 million budget. Despite hopes that it would become the jumping-off point for a full Fox-funded TV series, the US ratings weren't high enough to convince the network to sign up for more, and "Doctor Who" fell dormant until Davies' revival in 2005.

But almost three decades have passed since 1996 (brief pause here for millennials to recover from that statement) and the TV landscape looks very different now. The dominance of streaming means that geographic borders and even language barriers are less of an issue; shows like "Squid Game" and "La Casa de Papel" have found huge global audiences. Disney+ already has an established model of shared TV universes with its Marvel and Star Wars shows. It also helps that the incoming Doctor has proven appeal among both British and American audiences thanks to his role in Netflix's "Sex Education" (a show that itself exists in a bizarre cross-cultural soup of British accents and American football).

So yes, "Doctor Who" certainly has the potential to rise to new heights with Davies back on board and ambitious plans for a web of spin-offs. Still, while the showrunner might find his imagination set free by the expanded budget, some fans might miss the quaint charm of dodgy aliens designed on a shoestring budget.

Read this next: 12 Underrated Sci-Fi Shows That You Need To See

The post Russell T Davies Is Planning Doctor Who Spin-Off Shows Inspired By The Star Trek Streaming Model appeared first on /Film.

"Greed is good." This is a simplified version of the well-known quote attributed to the character Gordon Gekko, described as a "trader and raider" in Oliver Stone and Stanley Weiser's script for the movie "Wall Street." The full quote, "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good," made the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest movie quotes of all time. It comes during a monologue that Michael Douglas gives in his Oscar-winning performance as Gekko in the film.

Speaking into a microphone to a room full of stockholders, Gekko argues that greed "captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit," that it's "marked the upward surge of mankind," and that it will save the "malfunctioning corporation called the USA." His words are almost dangerously persuasive, as the stockholders proceed to smile and give the very concept of greed a round of applause.

While this scene may seem like a heightened moment of movie drama, Gekko's words were based on those of an actual Wall Street criminal. In December 1986, the Chicago Tribune detailed remarks that real-life insider trader Ivan Boesky had once given in a commencement speech at the University of California, Berkeley's business school. That same month, Boesky made the cover of Time magazine as "Ivan the Terrible," the investor "making millions with your money." For his shady dealings, he was forced to pay a $100-million government penalty. Yet when he appeared at UC Berkeley the year before, it was as the guest of honor.

Under the familiar-sounding headline of "A $100 Million Idea: Use Greed for Good," the Tribune quoted Boetsky as saying:

''Greed is all right, by the way. I want you to know that. I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself.''

The Art Of The Steal

Newsweek magazine (via the aforementioned Chicago Tribune) reported that Ivan Boetsky's "Greed is all right" speech was "greeted with laughter and applause" at Berkeley in 1985. The reaction seems to have been very similar to what Oliver Stone depicted when he — in a bit of poetic thievery — transformed the line for the "Greed is good" scene in "Wall Street" two years later.

Stone's film hit theaters in December 1987, a month after future U.S. president Donald Trump's book "The Art of the Deal" hit bookstores. Gekko's movie quote perfectly encapsulated the excess of the 1980s, a time when then-president Ronald Reagan's "free-market economics," or Reaganomics, led to financial deregulation and "chaos capitalism," as the real-life "Wolf of Wall Street," Jordan Belfort, later termed it in his eponymous memoir.

Belfort also got started as a stocktrader in 1987, and he claimed in his book that Gordon Gekko was a nickname of his. One can well imagine him doing a quote-along with Gekko like the brokers played by Ben Affleck and Vin Diesel in the 2000 film "Boiler Room."

In 2010, on the heels of the Global Financial Crisis and the Great Recession, Stone and Michael Douglas returned to the character of Gekko in the sequel "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps." Three years later, Martin Scorsese delivered his adaptation of "The Wolf of Wall Street," starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Belfort. It remains Scorsese's highest-grossing film.

CNN later reported that the real Belfort, like Boetsky, was now addressing students at the New York University School of Law. Belfort had idolized Gekko, but he told the audience, "The biggest problem is [Gekko] didn't take the fall in the movie. At least in the 'Wolf of Wall Street,' I lose everything. I go to jail."

Baby Gekkos

Technically, Gordon Gekko did go to jail, but he did so between movies. The irony is, the bacchanalia in Jordan Belfort's own biopic, "The Wolf of Wall Street," may have been financed with illicit cash stolen from the Malaysian government (per the Wall Street Journal).

In school, we're brought up hearing the word "capitalist," and for the "Wall Street" generation, at least, it was as if anything less than that was positively un-American. You'd be more likely to hear that word coming out the mouth of a stock villain, some Communist caricature calling the American hero a "capitalist swine."

By the time we got to "The Wolf of Wall Street," the audience has lost the moral anchor of a conflicted protagonist whose honest dad could be adversely affected by the schemes of evil brokers. Both "Wall Street" and "Boiler Room" feature characters like this, which gives the audience a relatable perspective and helps clarify that characters like Gekko are the bad guys, not antiheroes to be admired.

Not everyone got the memo about that. There are those like Belfort who embraced Gekko's ethos and managed to prosper under a system that rewards bad behavior. Meanwhile, somewhere between "Wall Street" and "The Wolf of Wall Street," people started talking about "late-stage capitalism," with Forbes declaring in 2012 that "the American experiment in liberty" had failed.

For his part, Michael Douglas remains bittersweet about Gekko's influence on popular culture and future generations of corrupt brokers, or baby Gekkos: both real ones of the Belfort variety, and fictional ones of the "Boiler Room" variety. He's had to remind people, as the AFI did, that, for all his quotability, Gordon Gekko was still a rank movie villain.

Read this next: The 20 Greatest Human Villains In Movie History

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Keanu Reeves is passionate about many of his roles, but one that continues to delight fans is that of John Constantine, the demon-fighting exorcist from Francis Lawrence's 2005 movie "Constantine." Based on the Vertigo Comics character created by Alan Moore for "Swamp Thing" and later starring in his own comic series called "Hellblazer," Lawrence's movie was not all that accurate to the source material but hbecame something of a cult classic in its own right. A big part of what makes "Constantine" work is Reeves's dedicated performance and clear love for the character, and that love is apparently what got the upcoming sequel greenlit!

In an interview in the subscriber edition of Total Film magazine's February 2023 issue, Reeves revealed that he has been pestering the bigwigs at Warner Bros. for years to get a "Constantine" sequel made, and it seems that his persistence finally paid off. "Constantine 2" is still in the early stages, but it's happening, and we all have Keanu to thank for it. 

'Please, Sir, I Want Some More'

When asked if there was unfinished business with "Constantine" that made him chase the role once more, Reeves was honest about his enthusiasm and how he'd begged the folks at Warner Bros. to give it another shot:

"I don't know if it was unfinished business but it was definitely a role that I loved. And I thought that Francis Lawrence, the director, did such amazing work. I loved playing that character, and I really enjoyed the film. I was like, [adopts Oliver Twist voice] 'Can I please have some more?'"

Apparently this became almost an annual bit for Reeves and Warner Bros. "I kept asking almost every year," said the actor. "I'd be like, 'Can I please?' [and] they'd be like, 'No, no!'" 

While the studio's reticence is sort of understandable given the mixed box office returns and poor critical reception for "Constantine," there is a passionate fanbase that wanted a sequel just as badly as Reeves. It's kind of rare that a star has the kind of pull to get a movie made like this, but Ryan Reynolds did it with "Deadpool" after the monstrosity that was "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," so why not try? 

That trying paid off when Warner Bros. finally came around and decided to give Reeves and the rest of the "Constantine" team, including Lawrence, another chance to play in the weird world of John Constantine. 

One More From Everyone's Favorite Occultist

Like little Oliver Twist, Keanu kept asking until the good folks at Warner Bros. said "sure." Now, Reeves said that the team behind the sequel is "just starting to try and put a story together."

Reeves was so excited that he started mixing metaphors, but given the genre-mashing magic of Constantine himself, it kind of works:

"So it's exciting. It's almost like an open playground that we can hopefully cook something up and play in, and I guess get out of the playground and prepare a meal. But I'm looking forward to it, and hopefully it can happen. You don't know how these things go. But I'm definitely going to try my darndest to try and realise that dream."

It's thrilling to hear that Reeves is this enthusiastic about trying to get a "Constantine" sequel made, and he deserves to do whatever he wants in his career at this point. The man is a part of several major franchises and has left his mark on pop culture, so now I hope he gets to do the movies that make his heart sing. If the gods are good, we'll see Zatanna show up in "Constantine 2" and my heart will sing, too! 

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Quentin Tarantino wears his influences on his sleeve more than almost any other director. From recreating iconic shots and special effects to using music cues from his favorite movies, Tarantino's oeuvre is a film school in and of itself. In particular, "Kill Bill" borrows from (and pays homage to) countless exploitation films, Spaghetti Westerns, and martial arts movies. Tarantino's classic story of vengeance has become a classic in its own right, and fans still hope for a third entry in the Bride's saga.

While "Kill Bill" is a brilliantly executed, entertaining film on its own merits, tracking down its influences deepens the audience's appreciation of Tarantino's work and exposes it to magnificent cinema outside the world of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. An account of every reference in both volumes of "Kill Bill" would require a far longer list than is possible here, but these 10 films are an excellent place to start digging into the films that inspired Tarantino's bloody tale of revenge.

Lady Snowblood

A dying woman (Miyoko Akaza) gives birth to a baby girl in prison. She tells the other inmates that she will pass her vendetta against the gang that killed her husband and son on to her daughter, Yuki. The adult Yuki (Meiko Kaji), now known as Lady Snowblood, continues her mother's quest, hunting down and killing the people who wronged her. With a blade hidden in her wagasa (umbrella), she slices her way down the list to avenge the wrongs done to her family.

Director Toshiya Fujita's 1973 film "Lady Snowblood" is the most obvious influence on "Kill Bill." The film's fingerprints are all over Quentin Tarantino's revenge epic, from the overarching story of methodical vengeance to the non-linear narrative and even the visuals and music from the film. The song "Flower of Carnage," which star Kaji sings, is the theme to "Lady Snowblood" and plays over O-Ren Ishii's (Lucy Liu) death scene in "Kill Bill: Volume 1."

A reporter (Toshio Kurosawa) turns Lady Snowblood's tale of vengeance into a story told via manga panels in the film, and O-Ren's origin is presented in an anime sequence. The climactic katana battle in the snow outside the House of Blue Leaves is another clear callback to the end of "Lady Snowblood." You could fill this entire list with nothing but the "Lady Snowblood" references, which further proves how strongly it influenced Tarantino's work.

Switchblade Sisters

Jack Hill's 1975 exploitation classic "Switchblade Sisters" is one of cinema's most entertaining stories of female empowerment. A power struggle between Lace (Robbie Lee), the leader of the girl gang the Dagger Debs, and tough newcomer Maggie (Joanne Nail) highlights feminist and anti-capitalist themes in Hill's work. Patch (Monica Gayle) is the troublemaker in the middle, exacerbating the rift amongst the Debs due to her jealousy over Maggie usurping her friendship with Lace.

Quentin Tarantino is a big fan of "Switchblade Sisters." He produced a DVD edition through his Rolling Thunder Pictures label and recorded a commentary track with Hill. Though the film might not share quite as much DNA with "Kill Bill" as "Lady Snowblood," the references are clear. Patch is a bitterly jealous woman with an eyepatch who schemes to oust a rival — just like "Kill Bill's" Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah). Tarantino even cast stuntwoman Jeannie Epper, who plays a juvenile hall matron in the film, in "Kill Bill: Volume 2."  

"Switchblade Sisters" is a film about female power and independence from men, and "Kill Bill" is about a powerful woman cutting ties with an abusive man for good. "Switchblade Sisters" is a grindhouse classic, and Tarantino's love for that style is all over "Kill Bill." He even uses the trademark "Feature Presentation" card and music in "Kill Bill: Volume 1" that he would later use in the movie "Grindhouse."

Five Deadly Venoms

Paying tribute to the Shaw Brothers Studio of Hong Kong cinema fame, "Kill Bill: Volume 1" opens with the legendary Shawscope logo. The Shaw Brothers' 1978 film, "Five Deadly Venoms," is an unmistakable influence on the five members of Quentin Tarantino's Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. In the film, the dying master (Dick Wei) of Venom House sends his last pupil, Yang Tieh (Chiang Sheng), to track down five former students and dispatch them if they are using what they learned under their master's tutelage for evil. These five students fight in different styles, taking the names of each style for themselves: Centipede, Lizard, Scorpion, Snake, and Toad.

The parallels between the Five Venoms and the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad are obvious. Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox) is Copperhead. She specializes in knives. Elle Driver, aka California Mountain Snake, has an affinity for poisoning her victims. The Bride's alias is Black Mamba, and her weapon of choice is the katana. Budd (Michael Madsen) is Sidewinder, which is appropriate for his fondness for sneak attacks. Lying in wait for the Bride with a shotgun loaded with rock salt and burying her alive while she's bound and unable to fight back are examples of his trademark underhanded tactics. O-Ren is Cottonmouth. She also fights with a katana, but she's not quite as deadly as the infamous Black Mamba. These five assassins, led by Bill (David Carradine), or Snake Charmer, each have their distinct fighting styles and corresponding codenames, just like the Five Venoms.

Battle Royale

"Kill Bill" is filled with many of Quentin Tarantino's favorite actors. Grindhouse mainstay Sid Haig shows up as a bartender, and kung fu film star Gordon Liu plays the dual roles of Johnny Mo and Pai Mei. While most of the films Tarantino draws inspiration from were released in the 1970s, he pays homage to a more recent film with the character of Gogo Yubari (Chiaki Kuriyama). Kuriyama appeared in Kinji Fukasaku's 2000 film "Battle Royale" as a schoolgirl forced to play a deadly game in which classmates must kill each other on a deserted island until only one is left standing. Her character, Takako Chigusa, fights off a male classmate who threatens to rape her and stabs him.

In "Kill Bill: Volume 1," Gogo uses the same tactic, stabbing a businessman who expresses his sexual interest in her and giggling at the irony. "Do you still wish to penetrate me, or is it I who has penetrated you?" She even wears a schoolgirl uniform in her capacity as O-Ren's bodyguard as a nod to the innocent schoolkids in "Battle Royale." Gogo's gleeful malice and superb fighting skills have made her a fan favorite. This is par for the course for Tarantino, given his interest in propelling his favorite performers (Zoe Bell and Pam Grier, for example) into the spotlight, either for the first time or as a return to former glory.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

Death Rides A Horse

"Death Rides a Horse," a Spaghetti Western revenge epic from director Giulio Petroni, is another prominent stylistic influence on "Kill Bill." Quentin Tarantino uses composer Ennio Morricone's theme in the climactic battle at the House of Blue Leaves in "Kill Bill: Volume 1," and he opens the film with a reworked quote from "Death Rides a Horse" co-star Lee Van Cleef (though he attributes it as an "old Klingon proverb" in a nod to "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"): "Revenge is a dish best served cold."

John Phillip Law plays Bill in "Death Rides a Horse," tracking down and killing the men who murdered his family (a recurring theme on this list). As he encounters each member of the gang, he literally sees red. The scenes are shot with a red filter, as close-ups flash from Bill's eyes to those of his targets. Tarantino borrows this technique for both volumes of "Kill Bill," adding both cinematic context and a stylish flourish that underscores the visceral urgency of the Bride's need for vengeance.

Django Kill ... If You Live, Shoot!

When the Bride digs herself out of the grave Budd trapped her in (thanks to "the cruel tutelage of Pai Mei," according to the chapter title), it is a close reenactment of the Stranger (Tomas Milian) doing the same in the opening moments of Giulio Questi's "Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot!" Both characters grasp towards the sky from the freshly dug dirt and then gasp for air as they climb out slowly from the grave. This Spaghetti Western is another tale of revenge, with the protagonist embarking on a quest for vengeance against the gang that double-crossed him and left him for dead.

Just like "Kill Bill," "Django Kill ... If You Live, Shoot!" is stylish in its brutality. In one particularly striking shot, a man is gunned down as the viewer watches from the ground through the spokes of a wagon wheel. It also has a sense of humor that calls to mind the pratfalls in the trailer brawl between the Bride and Elle Driver. When Django plays cat and mouse in a storage room with the man who betrayed him, he pops up from behind a shelf of hats, appearing to try on different bowlers as he evades bullets. The combination of bloody beauty and comedic violence is a subtle hallmark of "Kill Bill," and you can trace that style back to films like "Django Kill ... If You Live, Shoot!"

Game Of Death

Though her real name is Beatrix Kiddo, Uma Thurman's character in "Kill Bill" is generally referred to as the Bride. One would think that her most iconic look would be a wedding dress, but her yellow and black jumpsuit from the fight at the House of Blue Leaves lingers in the viewer's memory. That jumpsuit is modeled after Bruce Lee's even more iconic look in the climax of "Game of Death," the posthumous film cobbled together using existing footage of Lee and new scenes using body doubles.

Once again, we see a combination of brutal agility and goofy humor in the fight scenes, as Lee's character, Billy Lo, taps out "Shave and a Haircut" with his weapon and smirks before attacking his opponent. The Bride performs a similar move at the House of Blue Leaves, holding back a piece of bent-over bamboo and then snarkily raising an eyebrow before letting it go to smack one of the Crazy 88 in the head.

The structure of the fight scenes is also similar. In both "Game of Death" and "Kill Bill: Volume 1," the protagonist must fight their way through increasingly difficult levels of opponents before they make their way to their primary targets. Billy defeats ever more challenging fighters before he finally faces off against the main boss, and the Bride slices her way through increasing numbers of bodyguards before she gets her well-deserved revenge against O-Ren.

Thriller: A Cruel Picture

In this notorious rape-revenge thriller, a shy, naïve young woman named Madeleine (Christina Lindberg) goes into town and meets a man named Tony (Heinz Hopf). He turns out to be a pimp, and he drugs her and forces her into illegal sex work, getting her addicted to heroin and cutting out her eye to teach her to be submissive. Madeleine uses her earnings to hire tutors in the art of fighting, and she embarks on a methodical path of revenge against Tony and the other people who victimized her.

Quentin Tarantino based Elle Driver on Madeleine. Not only do they share the same fashion sense (both women coordinate their eye patches with their outfits), but they are also brutal and unflinching in their violence. "Thriller: A Cruel Picture" is uncomfortably intimate, even for a rape-revenge film. Handheld POV shots put the viewer in Madeleine's shoes, and the frequent use of slow motion drives home the ruthless physicality of her revenge campaign. Tarantino wisely eschewed this technique in "Kill Bill" since it tends to drag down "Thriller: A Cruel Picture," but Madeleine's systematic quest for vengeance and her fashion sense are clear influences on "Kill Bill."

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

The Searchers

In John Ford's legendary 1956 Western "The Searchers," John Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, a former Confederate soldier searching for his kidnapped niece Debbie (Natalie Wood). Ethan is deeply racist, opining more than once that Debbie is better off dead than with the Comanche raiders who kidnapped her. In the iconic final shot, Ethan stands outside the homestead as Debbie is reunited with her family. He limps into the desert before the door slowly closes on his isolated silhouette.

Quentin Tarantino recreates this shot in "Kill Bill: Volume 2" as the Bride stands in the doorway of the wedding chapel where she and Tommy (Chris Nelson) are to be married. It takes on a special significance considering Bill's final words in "Kill Bill: Volume 1": "Does she know that her daughter is still alive?" Not only is the Bride on a quest for vengeance, but she's also unknowingly searching for her kidnapped daughter. Even more significant, though, is the thematic twist that Tarantino achieves with this cinematic homage.

Ethan walks out of a life to which he no longer belongs and into the unwelcoming desert of his uncertain future. The Bride walks out of a life she can no longer have — a life with her soon-to-be husband and her friends — because the violent, vengeful Bill has come to take it all away. However, Ethan's quest for revenge takes his family away from him, while the Bride's brings her family back together. Bill and the other assassins can't kill her or her child, and in the final moments of the saga, they are reunited as a happy family.

Shogun Assassin

When the Bride finally reaches Bill and learns that her daughter, B.B. (Perla Haney-Jardine), is still alive, she also discovers that B.B. loves jidaigeki films. The little girl requests "Shogun Assassin" as a bedtime video. Directed by Robert Houston, the film edits together scenes from two movies in the "Lone Wolf and Cub" series: "Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance" and "Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx," both of which were directed by Kenji Misumi. The film follows a skilled assassin named Ogami Ittō (Tomisaburo Wakayama) as he travels Japan with his young son, Daigorō (Akihiro Tomikawa), and fights off the ninjas the Shogun (Yūnosuke Itō) sends to murder them.

A lone assassin on a path of vengeance once again serves as a template for "Kill Bill," but "Shogun Assassin" is unique for two reasons: It explicitly addresses the dilemma of working as a hired killer while caring for a young child, which first Bill and then the Bride must contend with, and it is the only movie within a movie from which "Kill Bill" includes extensive dialogue clips. We hear several seconds of Daigorō's narration as the Bride and B.B. cuddle in bed and watch "Shogun Assassin," adding a maternal wistfulness to the already emotional revenge saga. The final words in the film are a title card that reads, "The lioness has rejoined her cub and all is right in the jungle," drawing a parallel between "Kill Bill" and "Lone Wolf and Cub" and providing the best "happily ever after" that a character like the Bride can hope for.

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Few sights are more exhilarating than a well-choreographed martial arts sequence. It's a dance between the actors, stunt team, camera, and director. You're probably familiar with critically acclaimed mega-hits like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "The Matrix," "Ip Man," and "The Raid: Redemption," but for each of these well-known classics, dozens fly under the radar. Whether they got lost in the streaming shuffle or are too niche for general audiences, we wanted to kick and punch our way through the most underrated martial arts films. 

Our list features films we think deserve more respect (and eyeballs on them). On the surface, a movie like "The Transporter" seems like a forgettable B-movie, but it roundhouse kicked Jason Statham into the modern-day action hero A-list. Or maybe you're a fan of Jet Li's more prestigious outings like "Hero," so you skipped his collaborations with Luc Besson, missing out on one of his best acting performances in "Unleashed." Maybe genre mash-ups are a little too hit-or-miss for you, but we guarantee you've never seen anything like 2000's cult classic, "Versus." Now that you've had an appetizer for an assault on your senses, this list of kickass movies will deliver. Let's jump-kick right into it. 

The Night Comes For Us

One of the most brutal action movies ever made, "The Night Comes for Us," follows Ito (Joe Taslim), a member of the Triad's elite death squad known as the Six Seas. When Ito can't bring himself to kill the lone survivor (Asha Kenyeri Bermudez) of the Triad's massacre of a village, he's forced to protect them both from every killer the Triads can throw at them. With the help of a mysterious woman known only as the Operator (Julie Estelle), they go up against dozens of henchmen with fists, machetes, guns, knives, and piano wire.

Joe Taslim and Iko Uwais became instant martial arts sensations after co-starring in "The Raid: Redemption," and pitting them against each other in this film is an action fan's dream come true. Imagine "Man on Fire" meets "The Raid: Redemption," with bone-crunching violence and gore. It's a bloody masterpiece of martial arts mayhem. There are too many incredible fight scenes to list: like the Operator's battle with the piano wire-wielding Alma (Dian Sastrowardoyo) and the assassin Elena (Hannah Al Rashid), in which even disembowelment doesn't stop the fight. We told you this movie is violent, right? The main event between Taslim and Uwais is one for the record books and features the hero getting bloodier and taking more hits than in any fight in recent memory. If copious amounts of arterial spray aren't your thing, steer clear of this one.

SPL: Sha Po Long Aka Killzone

The generic US title "Killzone" may be why this film isn't more popular. The original Chinese title, "SPL: Sha Po Long," refers to stars in Chinese astrology that are destructive when they get too close — a perfect metaphor for this film. The plot follows Detective Chan (Simon Yip), who's diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor and forced into early retirement. Still, he's determined to take down the ruthless Triad boss Wong Po (Sammo Hung). Chan's replacement, the take-no-prisoners martial arts dynamo Ma Kwun (Donnie Yen), is assigned to help Chan finish the job. Combining solid police drama with a complex villain and some tragic moments makes this film essential.

The film's main attractions are director Wilson Yip, the action maestro responsible for the jaw-dropping action in the "Ip Man" saga, and stars  Sammo Hung and Donnie Yen, legends of two generations of Hong Kong martial arts films, facing off. Their final battle is an exhaustingly brutal five-minute brawl combining classic martial arts with jiu-jitsu-style takedowns. As Wong Po's hired assassin, Jing Wu is a fun and ferocious adversary, rocking some impressive knife skills in a fight against a baton-wielding Donnie Yen. However, the profoundly sad third act makes this film's impression last. It leaves the audience feeling the sinking feeling there is no winner in such a violent world. We won't spoil the ending, but be warned: It's an emotional doozy. 

The Villainess

"The Villainess" combines melodrama with some of the most electric action sequences in recent memory. Sook-hee (Kim Ok-bin) was trained from her youth to be an assassin. She eventually falls in love and dreams of a normal life, only to have that shattered by tragedy. Seeking vengeance, Sook-hee kills the gang she believes murdered her boyfriend, only to get scooped up by a government agency that offers her freedom if she becomes their weapon. Betrayals, bullets, and bodies pile up in another South Korean action extravaganza. 

The opening sequence is shot entirely from Sook-hee's POV as she hacks a dozen blade-wielding bad guys to pieces, blasting down flights of stairs, through windows and doorways, and down a narrow hallway. This shot continues until we see her face in a smashed mirror. We then see Sook-hee take on a gym full of goons in one continuous shot until she jumps out a window and is stopped by the police — and that's just the first five minutes. Kim Ok-bin handles the fight scenes and the drama will equal prowess. She's a force of nature. A sword fight on moving motorcycles is so jaw-dropping that "John Wick 3" pays homage to it. The complex plot mixed with brutal and death-defying action scenes makes "The Villainess" a must-see for all martial arts fans. 

Iron Monkey

Yuen Woo Ping's "Iron Monkey" has the Quentin Tarantino stamp of approval, and for a good reason. The plot is very Robin Hood-esque, with Yu Rongguang playing a physician by day and the Iron Monkey, a masked thief who steals from the rich to give to the poor, by night. A new martial artist named Wong Kei-Ying (Donnie Yen) arrives in town and is mistaken for the Iron Monkey and imprisoned. Soon, he's set free to hunt the real Iron Monkey while his son is held captive. What starts as an antagonistic relationship builds into an epic team-up. With the help of a young woman named Miss Orchid (Jean Wang), the trio confront the corrupt leaders in a series of gravity-defying wire-work showdowns, including a particularly mind-blowing fight scene atop flaming bamboo sticks

"Iron Monkey" was released in China in 1993, but audiences in the United States wouldn't see it until 2001. After the international success of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," studios searched for the next martial arts hit. Miramax picked up Yuen Woo Ping's earlier film. "Iron Monkey." The film also introduced Donnie Yen to American audiences. You'll often see his name on many "best of" martial arts lists. His talent and skills are undeniable, and it's no wonder he was scooped up for big-budget Hollywood movies like "Blade 2," "Rogue One," and "John Wick: Chapter 4." 

Kiss Of The Dragon

When you combine the talents of director Luc Besson with a story by the legendary Jet Li, you get the action-packed (and sometimes silly) "Kiss of the Dragon." Jet Li plays Chinese cop Liu Jian, who goes to Paris to help take down a major drug ring. When he's framed for his contact's murder by a corrupt cop (Tchéky Karyo), Jian finds an unlikely ally in reluctant sex worker Jessica (Bridget Fonda). Together they must fight to stay alive and rescue Jessica's kidnapped daughter. 

Jet Li told Hollywood.com this was to be a return to form for action films after wire-work heavy "Matrix" copycats, saying: "You can see next few years, a lot of actresses, actors, little boys, cartoons, everybody can do martial arts because of cable, computer, special effects. I thought it was time for me to go to some traditional way, to show some hardcore action sequence. The audiences say, 'Show us something only Jet Li can do.'" That is exactly what this movie does. The return to practical beatdowns after a wave of overdone CGI and choppy editing was a breath of fresh air for the genre. The fight between Jet Li and a dojo full of police recruits full of police recruits alone earns the film a place on this list alone. 

Azumi

"Azumi" is a samurai action epic directed by Ryûhei Kitamura, starring Aya Ueto in the title role. The plot follows Azumi and a group of orphans trained by a master swordsman for an unknown mission in the mountains of feudal Japan. In their final test, they have to pair up with their best friend and try to kill each other. The remaining assassins leave everything behind and embark on their true mission to change Japan by covertly assassinating a group of ruthless warlords. Sword fights ensue, blood sprays and loyalties are tested and broken, all leading to a wild third-act bloodbath. 

"Azumi" has fantastic samurai swordplay and tremendous human drama. It asks questions like, "Who is worth saving if they don't serve the greater good?" and "How violent is one willing to become in the name of loyalty?" But the real reason this movie makes our list is the final battle between Azumi and 200 soldiers. Kitamura uses wide shots and aerial views to give the audience the scope of the fight. Azumi slices her way through nameless goons, tossing one's head into the crowd. She even cuts an arrow down the middle so that it pierces two foes that were ready to attack. The film climaxes in a zany showdown with the villainous Bijomaru Mogami (Joe Odagiri). It's over-the-top at times, emotionally devastating at others, and overall, an entertaining ride.  

Hard Target

Take the classic premise of "The Most Dangerous Game," add Jean-Claude Van Damme playing a butt-kicking drifter named Chance Boudreaux and John Woo's flare for doves and bullet ballet, and you've got "Hard Target." Boudreaux is hired by Natasha (Yancy Butler) to track down her missing father, only to discover a sadistic group of wealthy men who hunt homeless people for sport. Boudreaux is thrown into this game of life or death, and let's just say the bad guys took a "Chance" on the wrong contestant for their sinister game. This movie is cheesy and excellent, with split-kicks, flying bullets, Van Damme's fantastic flowing mullet, and slow-motion galore.

"Hard Target" is often overlooked in John Woo's epic filmography. After directing Hong Kong action masterpieces like "Hard Boiled," "The Killer," and "A Better Tomorrow," Hollywood came knocking. His biggest hit in the U.S. was "Face/Off," the bonkers cult classic where Nicolas Cage and John Travolta trade faces, but "Hard Target" is a solid action film. It's also a prime slice of '90s cheese, with one-liners aplenty, the same roundhouse kick showcased from multiple angles for maximum impact, and a fiery showdown between Van Damme and genre favorite Lance Henricksen with Woo's trademark doves flying amidst the beautifully choreographed mayhem. There's even a scene where Van Damme grabs a rattlesnake with his bare hands, punches it into unconsciousness, and then bites off its rattle. If that isn't a perfect mix of silly and awesome, we don't know what is.

Headshot

If you saw "The Raid: Redemption" and are clamoring for another ultra-violent flick featuring Iko Uwais dishing out more savage beatdowns, look no further than 2016's "Headshot." When Ishmael (Iko Uwais) wakes up on a beach with no memory, he finds help in Dr. Ailin (Chelsea Islan). Ishmael soon discovers he is part of a ruthless crime syndicate with a penchant for kidnapping children and training them to become loyal soldiers to leader Lee (Sunny Pang). Once Dr. Ailin and a young girl are taken by Lee and his gang, Ishmael becomes a one-man army on a mission to get them back.

Imagine a mix of the amnesia story device of the "Jason Bourne" films, a child soldier backstory, and the visceral fighting style of "The Raid: Redemption," and you get a hint at what you're in store for. Fair warning: This movie is incredibly violent, and the main villain is genuinely awful, with no regard for innocent life. Never fear, though. Ishmael exacts sweet revenge on Lee and his crew, taking on multiple gang members. This leads to a showdown where he works his way through Lee's top assassins in one-on-one combat. Each bout tops the last and reveals more about Ishmael's dark past. Sit back and get ready to be shocked by how far this film goes.

Brotherhood Of The Wolf

This choice may seem odd, given that "Brotherhood of the Wolf" is loosely based on events in 18th-century France and an investigation into the elusive Beast of Gévaudan. In the film, King Louis XV of France sends his knight, Grégoire de Fronsac (Samuel Le Bihan), and his Iroquois warrior friend, Mani (Mark Dacascos), to investigate the brutal murders of women and children in the peaceful town of Gévaudan that locals believe are being perpetrated by a giant wolflike beast. This description may not scream martial arts classic, but with Mark Dacascos' abilities and the gorgeous visuals unleashed by director Christoph Gans, it more than earns its stripes.

Christophe Gans directed the criminally underseen live-action adaptation of the Manga "Crying Freeman," but he demonstrates a true mastery of his craft with "Brotherhood of the Wolf." This film combines the cinematography of a historical epic and infuses it with horror elements and jaw-dropping fight scenes that use slow motion to emphasize but never distract. Mark Dacascos fights scumbags attacking a woman in the rain, and the action slows down to show individual raindrops. He dispatches a group of rival hunters and later goes toe-to-toe with the beast. In the third act, the movie becomes a blood bath. "Brotherhood of the Wolf" is an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink historical popcorn movie that works.

The Transporter

It's hard to believe the wise-cracking cockney crook from "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" would become one of the biggest action stars on the planet, but once Jason Statham blasted on the screen as Frank Martin in "The Transporter," a new action hero was born. The plot is simple. Martin transports packages for shady clientele. He only has three rules: Never change the deal, no names, and never open the package. He breaks his own rule and finds out he's transporting a woman named Lai (Shu Qi), the daughter of a Chinese crime lord, to a Wall Street scumbag. All hell breaks loose as Frank falls for Lai, and several henchmen fall — after being hit by Frank.

"The Transporter" could be overlooked as a silly B-movie (which it is), but it's also a fantastic showcase for Statham's fighting skills. Statham uses guns, hand-to-hand combat, and anything he can find in the room to fight off legions of nameless henchmen. In a scene that is both hilarious and awesome, Statham finds himself surrounded. He kicks over tubs of oil, breaks off two bike pedals, and uses them to easily skip around as the bad guys slip and flop. It's a perfect example of the tone of the "Transporter" franchise. Even if you don't love the movie, there's no denying it launched the dozens of snarling Statham action movies that followed.

Equilibrium

"Equilibrium" had the misfortune of being released the same year as "The Matrix." Its trailers, with leather-clad Christian Bale and Taye Diggs duking it out, seemed too similar for most audiences to take the gamble, but we promise it stands on its own. The story plays out like "Fahrenheit 451" dialed up to 10. After World War III, it is believed that human emotions caused the devastation, so they are outlawed, and the population is forced to take an inhibitor drug called "Prozium II." Christain Bale plays John Preston, a government officer on a task force known as Clerics. After accidentally missing a dose of Prozium II, emotions and memories creep back, sending him down a deadly path to uncover the conspiracy.

While "The Matrix" still reigns supreme for late '90s sci-fi (and action films in general), "Equilibrium" is a more than worthy entry. Not only is this an incredibly dark and dystopian science fiction film, but it also invented a new fighting style known as gun-kata, which envisions guns as an extension of one's self. Gun-kata uses more fluid motions to anticipate the enemy's attack while dodging and deflecting, giving a master of the form nearly precognitive abilities. The idea sounds profoundly silly, and it is, but it's executed with such flair and commitment through the choreography, direction, and acting that you can't help but go along for the ride. 

Versus

In Ryûhei Kitamura's wacky horror-martial arts hybrid "Versus," two escaped convicts, the Yakuza, and a mysterious woman end up in an unexpected supernatural conflict after they discover the Yakuza's favorite spot for hiding dead bodies also happens to be "The Forest of Resurrection." When some of the gangster's greatest "hits" come back to haunt and maim them, it's nonstop action and zombie gore.

We hesitate to give away too much because watching Japanese megastar Tak Sakaguchi take on hoards of undead assassins in a movie chock full of virtually nonstop action sequences is an otherworldly experience. Often described as "The Evil Dead" meets "The Matrix," which only offers a sliver of this completely off-the-wall experience, the movie has a loving and hand-made feel while making the most of its low budget with killer choreography and wild practical gore effects. One bad guy gets his head punched through, and his eyeballs are stuck in Tak's clenched fist. Limbs are lopped off, heads roll, and there may even be a centuries-old conflict in which existence hangs in the balance. "Versus" has the feel of a cult classic splattered across every frame.

Unleashed

Luc Besson and Jet Li make our list for the second time with 2005's "Unleashed." The plot revolves around Danny the Dog (Jet Li), raised by a violent loan shark named Bart (Bob Hoskins) to be his enforcer. Bart unleashes him against anyone who doesn't pay up. Trained to attack the second Bart removes his collar, Danny is an animalistic force to be reckoned with. When Bart is seemingly "killed," Danny flees and is taken in by a blind piano tuner named Sam (Morgan Freeman) and his stepdaughter, Victoria (Kerry Condon). Through their kindness, Danny learns to be more human, but his violent past soon threatens to endanger his newfound peace.

"Unleashed" succeeds by blending the well-worn storyline of a killing machine finding his humanity with just enough of a twist to make it seem fresh and Jet Li's amazing fighting style. Danny the Dog is fierce and frightening while also being a believably sympathetic character. Li gives one of his best performances, walking the tightrope between vulnerability, humor, innocence, and ferocity. The fight tournament scenes where he is set loose are worth the price of admission alone, but the real draw is the compelling story that goes toe-to-toe with the gritty fight scenes.

Top Knot Detective

This last one is a bit of a wild card, but it's also one of the zaniest mockumentaries ever. "Top Knot Detective" follows Australian documentarian Des Mangan as he investigates the behind-the-scenes drama of the infamously failed '90s Japanese samurai show "Ronin Suiri Tantai," retitled "Top Knot Detective" for Western audiences. It tracks the meteoric rise of the show's unstable writer-producer-director-star Takashi Takamoto (Toshi Okuzaki). As detailed by Third Window Films, "on-screen he battles robot ninjas and penis monsters [while] off-screen jealousy threatens to demolish his legacy." If that description doesn't grab your attention, we don't know what will. 

It isn't easy to make a convincing mockumentary. The story needs to be outlandish while keeping the performances and writing believable and never seeming too forced or scripted. "Top Knot Detective" is such an authentic recreation of a very niche fandom that, by the end, no one would blame you for being convinced "Ronin Suiri Tantai" was a real show. The interviews are earnest and deadpan, never tipping their hand that this is a joke. However, the main draw is the intricate VHS-style recreations of wacky '80s and '90s Japanese television. Filmmakers Aaron McCann and Dominic Pearce pay loving homage to "Lone Wolf and Cub," Ed Wood, "Power Rangers," and more. They pack the runtime with fight scenes, catchy jingles, flying limbs accompanied by excessive blood spurts, giant robots, and even an underlying true crime mystery. It's a one-of-a-kind, hilariously gonzo ride you should seek out. 

Read this next: Jackie Chan's 15 Greatest Fight Scenes Ranked

The post The 14 most underrated martial arts movies appeared first on /Film.

The HBO series "Avenue 5" is one of the funniest shows on television right now, and if you aren't watching, you're missing out. It's set in the future when luxury cruises on spaceships are common. This particular ship, Avenue 5, is owned by obnoxious billionaire Herman Judd (Josh Gad). On one particular cruise, the biggest yoga class ever is held, but after a malfunction, the giant group of bendy people is thrown against one wall, knocking the ship off course. Now their short cruise is going to take three whole years.

The other issue? The only person who could have fixed it is dead. The crew everyone sees is made up of actors, including Hugh Laurie's character Ryan Clark, while the actual crew (minus one engineer) is shoved in a crappy room in the bowels of the ship. Everything goes awry. If this helps you imagine what's going on with this series, they have the human waste inside the shell of the ship to protect from radiation (a thing based on actual science), but a pipe explodes, and now it's orbiting the ship. The poop cloud is then lit up, and glitter is shot into it, so it's all pretty now. 

Friends, this is the best show. 

Ryan Clark is one of my favorite Hugh Laurie roles, and it shows off a skill that any viewers of "House, M.D." already know; Laurie has a flawless American accent despite the fact that he's British. Laurie spoke about it in a recent episode of "The Graham Norton Show." 

'I'm Not Really [American] - That's The Whole Point'

In the series, Laurie's Ryan uses an American accent because people apparently find it reassuring. (As an American myself, I do wonder how that could possibly be.) When things fall apart, it slips to certain people that he's British, and he has to switch back and forth continually. When asked if that was a challenge, he says yes, but adds:

"It's also a bit of an escape route because if you mess something up and it doesn't sound right, you've always got the excuse of saying well, I'm not really [American]. That's the whole point. I'm not really an American. That was a deliberate mistake that I put in there -- which I didn't. At all. So I found that actually easier than doing 'House' for example, which I just felt like it had to be right because it would get in the way if wasn't right."

Laurie says he's never been comfortable with it, "not one day," but it's so good that ... well, let's just say that I watched "House" for years before I realized that Laurie was not in fact American. 

'In My Head, I Was American'

In a /Film interview in September 2022, I spoke to Laurie about his excellent accents. I asked him if it was harder to switch back and forth between his natural accent and the American one or if it was harder to stay in the American accent all the time on "House." Laurie said: 

"When I was doing 'House,' I remember, when I arrived at work at the beginning of the day, I would go in through onto the studio lot. And from that moment on, for the next 14 hours, in my head, I don't know if it sounded that way to everyone else, but in my head, I was American. I didn't step out of it. But to be in 'Avenue 5' where, well, first of all, the pace of the production is so very different and the speed. The back and forth of the different characters cannoning into each other means a kind of mental agility that, frankly, I don't think I ever had in the first place. Never mind having it still now."

Fast-paced or not, I have yet to notice a single second where he slips up. Add in the improv and the quick dialogue, and it's a truly incredible performance. He may have an excuse to screw up the American accent for this show, but he certainly doesn't seem to need it. 

"Avenue 5" is currently streaming on HBO Max.

Read this next: The Best TV Episodes Of 2022, Ranked

The post Avenue 5's Hugh Laurie Has a Plot-Driven Excuse For When His British Accent Takes Over On Set appeared first on /Film.

There are plenty of movies about making movies, both literally and figuratively, but you won't find nearly as many films about the art of theater. With so much drama surrounding, well, the drama of theater, it's a setting that is ripe for comedy, and the new Sundance-selected film "Theater Camp" takes advantage of that and delivers sidesplitting laughs in droves with a wonderful assembly of talent both in front of and behind the camera.

As the title suggests, "Theater Camp" follows the mentors and aspiring young actors who come together every summer in the Adirondack mountains for the uplifting and beloved theater camp known as AdirondACTS. Even more beloved is Joan (Amy Sedaris), the founder of the camp, but when the strobe lights of a local stage production send Joan into a seizure followed by a coma, AdirondACTS suddenly finds itself in the hands of crypto-bro Troy (Jimmy Tatro of "American Vandal"), Joan's "en-Troy-preneurial" son who has no stage experience whatsoever. But as anyone who has ever attended theater camp will tell you, the show must go on, even in the face of the camp's crippling debt that threatens to shut the camp down.

Shot in a cinéma vérité style that makes it feel like a lost episode of "Documentary Now," the film follows Troy as he tries to get a handle on running AdirondACTS while the frustrated, annoyed, and perpetually melodramatic instructors of the camp are just doing their best to put on their next show. The de facto leaders of the camp are Amos and Rebecca-Diane, a pair of co-dependent best friends played splendidly by Ben Platt ("Dear Evan Hansen") and Molly Gordon ("Good Boys," "Booksmart"). After meeting at a Juilliard audition, the two became quick collaborators and have been by sparking each others' creative endeavors ever since. Every summer, they're responsible for writing the camp's main show, and this year it's a tall order because it's an entirely original musical production cleverly called "Still, Joan," based on the life of the camp's comatose founder.

Also along for the ride is Ayo Edibiri ("The Bear"), who may have bitten off more than she can chew with an exaggerated resume that includes stage combat experience. Adding plenty of flair and flamboyance to the proceedings are costume designer Gigi (Owen Thiele of "Dollface") who is every bit as glamorous and sassy as you can imagine, and dance instructor Clive (Nathan Lee Graham of "Zoolander"), who isn't shy about telling the kids how he really feels about their inadequate movies. And then there's Glenn (Noah Galvin of "Booksmart"), who is basically running around doing every technical job you can imagine for all the various little productions happening around the camp. 

An Incredible Ensemble Cast

Plenty of laughs come from Troy's inadequacy and inexperience, as he simply doesn't have a grasp on the vibe of theater camp. Hell, he doesn't really understand theater at all, but he certainly perks up when one kid, who is nervous about coming out as straight to his gay dads, performs a rendition of Post Malone's "Better Now" during auditions.

There's even more hilarity to be found in the ongoing theatricality of the camp itself, where everyone takes themselves entirely too seriously in a fashion that only theater kids can. That includes the skilled assembly of aspiring child and teen stars who are attending the camp. These precocious kids don't miss a beat alongside their adult co-stars, which is even more impressive considering how much improvisation was done for this movie. Whether it's Luke Islam ("The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers") refusing to have his "Defying Gravity" audition finale upstaged by behind-the-scenes shenanigans, or young Bailee Bonick catching the disappointment of Amos and Rebecca-Diane for using a tear stick to add genuine waterworks to an emotional rehearsal, the child stars of this movie are undeniably stellar. Young Alan Kim (of "Minari") in particular has a couple scene-stealing moments, as he aspires to be a fast-talking entertainment agent who is always on the phone. It's really not fair for kids to be this talented at such a young age.

What makes "Theater Camp" work so well, other than the amazing ensemble cast that won the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble, are the filmmakers behind it, and they just so happen to be part of the cast too. Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman adapted their own short film of the same name into a feature, and it's clear that they have a burning passion and genuine love for theater and all the silliness that comes with it. That's why they're able to lampoon it so confidently, complete with plenty of gags that feel directly inspired by the extensive stage experiences of Ben Platt and Noah Galvin as co-writers (and they're also newly engaged). The mockumentary framework also allows for a great little collection of funny moments that are "caught" by the camera in an admirably genuine fashion. Furthermore, you will inevitably see many lines from this movie turned into gifs all over social media, though it never feels like that's intentional. Leave that to Netflix. 

But despite having so much to like, "Theater Camp" has a little bit of trouble sustaining its runtime, even at a breezy 94 minutes (including credits). There are a few too many dialogue-free montages that are clearly meant to take up space rather than add anything significant to the overall movie, even if they do include a handful of great physical gags. Thankfully, it all comes together in the end.

A Shockingly Great Finale

Throughout the runtime of "Theater Camp," both the camp and the chief production about its founder continue to encounter new hurdles, from the threat of being bought by a nearby, upscale rival theater camp to the unraveling of Amos and Rebecca-Diane's long-running friendship and creative collaboration. But it all coalesces into a musical finale where we see "Still, Joan" come together in a shockingly great fashion. The original songs created for this faux musical are simply stupendous, and they sound every bit as good as tracks from a legit Broadway musical. There's even an amusing twist to the big show that makes the proceedings that much more funny. 

Though "Theater Camp" doesn't quite match wits with predecessors like Christopher Guest's "Waiting for Guffman," it still delivers a satisfying amount of laughter and it's an admirable successor. Honestly, "Theater Camp" feels like it would be a great lead-in to a full-on TV series that could easily utilize the temporary nature of the summer camp for even more extensively entertaining theater antics. The rich roster of characters mixed with the mockumentary style could easily wipe the eventual poor taste that "Glee" left in our mouths and could even serve as a worthy successor to both "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation." But even if that never happens, "Theater Camp" stands on its own as a quirky, comical mockumentary worthy of your time. Thankfully, Searchlight Pictures grabbed the movie at Sundance, so you'll be able to see it sometime later this year.

/Film Rating: 8 out of 10

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The post Theater Camp Review: This Side-Splitting Comedy Can Rub Elbows with the Best Mockumentaries [Sundance] appeared first on /Film.

Gaming Trend checked out the Adventure Colossal Cave: Colossal Cave review — Back to basics Colossal Cave Adventure was a 1976 text-based adventure game developed by Will Crowther then later expanded by Don Woods. In the game, players would type in commands to explore a massive cave system and find treasure....

This came from my Ask Me thing on my Tumblr thing.

Q: You seem like a pretty good dude, Wil. Thanks for taking time to chat with your fans, and thanks for standing up for what is right. I love following you on social media. You’ve talked about D&D before, and I’ve been kind of curious about trying it out. I would be nervous though as I have no idea what to do. Any tips for 40-year-old beginners???

A: Thank you for your kind comments.

D&D! I love it. I love all RPG games (even the ones I don’t like to play. I’m just glad they exist).

I’ve been playing since the early 80s, and I can confidently direct you to the 5e Starter Set. It is the best introduction to the hobby, to the system, to the experience of collaborative storytelling that makes RPGs so much fun and so special, that I have ever read or played. It gently introduces you to the concepts behind the system and hobby, eases you into the rules, and is filled with sidebars and further reading if you need that as you get deeper into the adventure. By the time you’re finished with it (there’s several sessions in there, probably a few months of gaming if you meet once a week), you will have enough experience to know what questions to ask at the Friendly Local Game Shop about where to go next. It’s a small investment, and a really easy way to find out if D&D is for you.

If you want to make an even smaller investment, this page has TONS of information and resources. You could start here and spend hours without noticing the time pass. Or, at least, I can. YMMV.

I want to share a few warnings with you.

1. Everyone has their definition of the “right” way to play D&D. You will find yours as you play. Don’t let someone else’s definition of “right” limit what yours may eventually be. Maybe you like minis. Maybe you don’t. Maybe you like homebrew rules. Maybe you don’t. Maybe you just want to roll dice and imagine you’re a fantasy hero. Someone is going to tell you you are doing it wrong. We’ve worked real hard to kick out the gatekeepers, but they just keep spawning. Ignore them. Send them to me if you need to and I’ll handle them.
2. The D&D rules system is not the only RPG, or even the only popular one. Pathfinder is beloved by millions of people. FATE Core and GURPS have enormous player bases. Monte Cook’s Cypher System is filled with gorgeous lore and character inspirations (but I’ve never played it, full disclosure). I chose the AGE system for our series Titansgrave, and used a lot of what I learned from running D&D for decades to customize the experience for me and the players. What I’m saying is, RPGs do not begin and end with D&D. It’s as good a place as any to start, but it is only one of many systems.
3. You are going to hear hardcores make impassioned arguments that continue long after you have lost interest about all sort of rules and setting and system crap. Trust me: tune them out. Eventually, you’ll know what you care to listen to/
4. All those non-D&D systems support and encourage playing in different settings, from Science Fiction to Horror to modern warfare combat. The thing that I believe makes D&D VERY special is its singular focus on high fantasy and everything that means in our culture. All those other systems do fantasy very well, but D&D is kind of the canonical “storm the dungeon, kill the monsters, take their stuff” experience. It’s also the only one that is D&D, if that matters to you.

That’s a lot more information than I intended to deliver. I just get excited about this stuff because I love it so much. Whatever you choose, I hope you have fun!

And when it counts, may you roll high.

Remember when gamespy shut down their masterserver back in 2014? Well one of the things that server hosted was the multiplayer servers for Deus Ex. I've noticed the old Deus Ex community is still hugely active in modding, and a while back I came across an automatic installer for an updated masterserver that uses 333networks master server and all of the old servers are still online such as Karky's and whatnot. Its getting kind of lonely in the Deus Ex Multiplayer realms, and I figured it might have been due to not a lot of people wanting or knowing how to modify their ini files to use the alternate masterserver, so I figured I'd add the automatic installer here and see if I couldn't ressurect the old playerbase for Deus Ex multiplayer and get it going strong again.

"Code-hosting platform GitHub has announced that 100 million developers are now using the platform," reports TechCrunch: The figure represents a substantial hike on the 3 million users GitHub counted 10 years ago, the 28 million it claimed when Microsoft acquired it for $7.5 billion five years ago and the 90 million-plus it revealed just three months ago. GitHub has come a long way since its launch back in 2008, and now serves as the default hosting service for millions of open source and proprietary software projects, allowing developers to collaborate around shared codebases from disparate locations. GitHub's announcement argues that "From creating the pull request to empowering developers with AI through GitHub Copilot, everything we do has been to put the developer first." But TechCrunch notes that GitHub's various paid plans "now contribute around $1 billion annually to [Microsoft's] coffers."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"The Goonies" is a prime example of classic '80s kids' adventure cinema, complete with the official stamp of Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment. The influence of the film is difficult to understate, and its DNA is all over modern blockbusters in large part because of its place as, as Roger Ebert said in his review, "an in-between niche" falling in the middle of "children's movies and adult movies."

In contrast to the conventional cleanliness of children's movie dialogue, screenwriter Chris Columbus portrayed the kids in "The Goonies" as vulgar, rude, and noisy. In other words, they were a group of prepubescent boys. Director Richard Donner, however, believed that the film's mild mean streak would make "The Goonies" a hard sell in 2010, 25 years after its release, even with the backing of Spielberg.

"The Goonies" has its fair share of humor ranging from the suggestive to the downright raunchy, not to mention specific characterizations that may not sit as well with a modern audience. There's a bit, for example, with a Michaelangelo statue's penis falling off, scenes where Corey Feldman's character, Mouth, jokingly mentions drugs and "sexual torture devices," and a part when a (bullyish, unlikable) character tries to peer up a skirt. The mentally and physically disabled Sloth may not sit right with viewers today, and Ke Huy Quan's Data comes with his fair share of Asian stereotyping. Chunk would also get some pushback in 2023, especially the fact that his friends are constantly cracking jokes about his weight, most exemplified in the "truffle shuffle" scene.

Goonies Or Good Taste?

In an interview with Assignment X in 2010, Richard Donner expressed that it would be nearly impossible for "The Goonies" to exist in the modern age:

"You couldn't do it. You couldn't do what we did then, because the board of good taste would be down our throats. Chunk saying s***, putting the penis on upside down [on the statue], Mouth talking about the sex tapes in the attic — you couldn't do that today. Yet, it's charming, it's clean and honest."

Donner is mostly referencing the social conservatism found in "church mongers, who are really warmongers," which is probably why he singles out the more suggestive parts of the film (although he does mention that he "could never see a studio greenlighting a movie like this nowadays — especially with Sloth"). The interview was published in 2010 and modern sensibilities have only grown since then, so Donner's assumptions at the time might be even more justified today. The legacy of "The Goonies" as a blueprint for modern adventure movies, however, will long outlive any notions of bad taste that may linger.

Read this next: 12 Best Performances In Steven Spielberg Movies

The post Why Richard Donner Thinks The Goonies Couldn't Be Made Today appeared first on /Film.

Well apparently games are coming out again, because we've got a lot to talk about this week. We dive deep into Hi-Fi Rush, Pizza Tower, Dead Space, and a lot more (like M3GAN)! This week's music:  Sum 41 - Fat Lip

IMDB Rating: 0.0/10
Genre: Fantasy
Size: 1.76 GB
Runtime: 1hr 45 min

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The classic 1997 vidoegame GoldenEye 007 "has finally landed on Xbox and Nintendo Switch," writes the Verge: On Xbox, the remaster includes 4K resolution, smoother frame rates, and split-screen local multiplayer, similar to a 2008-era bound-for-Xbox 360 version that was canceled amid licensing and rights issues but leaked out in 2021. Meanwhile CNET describes the Switch version: You'll need to be subscribed to Switch Online's $50-a-year Expansion Pack tier to access GoldenEye and other N64 games. Online multiplayer is exclusive to the Switch release, the official 007 website noted, but this version is otherwise the same as the N64 original. But "No high-def for them," adds Esquire: GoldenEye 007 marks a rare case in gaming history, where the title never left the gamer zeitgeist. It has been talked about, wished over, remade, and totally Frankensteined in the modding and emulation community.... Rare, a favorite game studio of mine — its crew is responsible for many of my childhood memories, making Banjo Kazzoie, Donkey Kong Country, Perfect Dark, Conker's Bad Fur Day, and so many more — was always a Nintendo sweetheart. Until it was acquired back in 2002 by Microsoft. While Rare didn't pump out as many massive hits after the acquisition, the studio is responsible for one of my favorite games, Sea of Thieves. But arguably no game from those folks made more of a splash than Goldeneye. CNN reports: Based on the 1995 film "GoldenEye," the game follows a block-like version of Pierce Brosnan's 007 as he shoots his way through various locales, all while a synthy version of the signature Bond theme plays.... The return of "GoldenEye 007," often referred to as one of the greatest video games of all time, has been years in the making. The Verge reported last year that rights issues blocked developers from releasing it on newer consoles, including Xbox, since at least 2008. Undeterred N64 fans even attempted to remake the game themselves on several occasions, though the original rights holders usually shut them down. Modern players "may not realise how many of the features we now take for granted in shooters were inspired by this one game," writes the Guardian. "The game that would introduce a lot of players to the concept of using an analogue stick to look around in a 3D game — it's difficult to overstate how important that was." But it was the multiplayer mode that really counted. Four players, one screen, an array of locations and weapons, and all the characters from the single-player campaign.... We would usually play in Normal mode, but as the hours dragged on and the sunlight began to creep in behind the blinds, we'd switch to Slaps Only, in which players could only get kills by slapping each other to death.... It is interesting how fables around the game and its development have survived — and still intrigue. The fact that it is officially cheating to play as Oddjob in multiplayer mode; the brilliance of the pause music, which has been heavily memed on TikTok, and how it was written in just 20 minutes by Rare newcomer Grant Kirkhope. The fact that Nintendo legend and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto was so concerned by the death in the game that he suggested a post-credit sequence where James Bond went to a hospital to meet all the enemy soldiers he "injured". I think the sign of a truly great game — like any work of art — is how many legends become attached to its making. It is lovely now, to see the game getting a release on Nintendo Switch and Xbox Game Pass.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The 1990 song "Blaze of Glory" from the "Young Guns II" soundtrack is impossible to resist. I feel pretty confident in saying that, when you read the title of that song, it began playing in your head. In fact, you'll be singing it for the rest of the day, and if anyone else is around, they'll join in with the harmony. Maybe you, like a young version of me, watched the video repeatedly, admiring ... the music. I didn't mean the exceedingly good-looking Jon Bon Jovi himself. Okay, that's a lie, but the song really is pretty great. There is a reason it's performed at every karaoke bar, including the fictional one in the afterlife in "The Good Place." 

What you might not have realized about the song you cannot stop singing now that I've mentioned it, is that it was written over dinner with two stars of the 1990 sequel to 1988's "Young Guns." Star Kiefer Sutherland ("The Lost Boys," "24," "Flatliners"), who reprised the role of Josiah Gordon "Doc" Scurlock in "Young Guns II," spoke about it in a January 2022 interview with Independent.co.uk. 

If you're unfamiliar with the two films, they're the stories of the famous outlaw Billy the Kid (Emilio Estevez) and the band of Regulators he ran with. Both films were chock full of Brat Packers, including Lou Diamond Phillips, Charlie Sheen, and Dermot Mulroney in the first film, with Estevez, Sutherland, and Phillips returning in the second, joined by Christian Slater, William Petersen, Alan Ruck, and Balthazar Getty. Bon Jovi even has an uncredited cameo in the second film. 

'You Son Of A B****, You Really Did It!'

According to Yahoo!, Emilio Estevez had initially approached Bon Jovi to use "Wanted Dead Or Alive," but Bon Jovi didn't think the lyrics suited the film. The singer/songwriter read the script and came up with "Blaze of Glory" really quickly. The song went on to reach #1 with the eponymous album (inspired by the film and Bon Jovi's first solo offering) hitting double platinum. 

As Estevez's co-star, Kiefer Sutherland told the Independent:

"We were out having a bunch of drinks and something to eat with Emilio Estevez (who played Billy the Kid) and Jon said: 'Here's the first song. Here's the single.' He pushed across these napkins that he'd been writing on all through dinner, which was maybe 20 minutes, and he'd got the whole of 'Blaze of Glory' written down on three napkins. I'm looking at him going: 'You really just wrote this now?' Six months later, I was in Montana trying to find a TV for my house, and as I walk into the store every TV in the place has Jon Bon Jovi singing "Blaze of Glory" on it. I was like: 'You son of a b****, you really did it!' He's a badass songwriter, and that's a clever song."

That's pretty mind-blowing. Plus, we're all still singing it over 30 years later. If that wasn't enough, "Blaze of Glory" was nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards that year. If you want to do a rewatch, Prime Video both films for free with a subscription. 

Now, go forth and sing your heart out. The neighbors are only complaining because you're not loud enough. 

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The post Jon Bon Jovi Wrote His Young Guns II Song Over Dinner With Kiefer Sutherland And Emilio Estevez appeared first on /Film.

By the time Peter Sellers played Chance the gardener in Hal Ashby's satirical "Being There" in 1979, he had already made an incredible name for himself. Between being the face of the "Pink Panther" franchise, starring in "Dr. Strangelove," and even stepping into the shoes of James Bond -- though admittedly in the 1967 parody movie "Casino Royale," not in any of the mainline entries -- there was no doubt that Sellers could take on just about any role.

Still, with "Being There," the actor was faced with a challenge. As Sellers told Don Lane in 1980, Chance was "the most difficult role [he had] ever played," largely due to the fact that the character was hard to bring to life convincingly. A careful balancing act was required. Within the film, a series of misunderstandings caused Chance — a live-in gardener who had never left the property on which he worked — to captivate politicians with his agricultural knowledge, which they mistook as valuable political advice. Since the premise was relatively far-fetched, Sellers would have to come across as simultaneously naive yet wise for the film to have a chance at success.

Of course, given Sellers' repertoire, there was little doubt that he could pull off the job. But in the process of fleshing out the character, he wasn't afraid to take a cue from another great actor: Robert De Niro.

Creating A Convincing Character

Peter Sellers had a relatively unique, old-school way of finding his characters' essence — in fact, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's technique is similar to his. As Sellers would tell Playboy in 1962 (via Far Out):

"I find out how the character sounds. It's through the way he speaks that I find out the rest about him. [...] After the voice comes the looks of the man. I do a lot of drawings of the character I play. [...] After that I establish how the character walks. [...] And then, suddenly, something strange happens. The person takes over. The man you play begins to exist."

Sellers' long, varied career is a testament to his acting method, but the process of finding a character occasionally raised some red flags. When it came time to discover Chance, Sellers noticed a big discrepancy between the character's physique and his own, he told Don Lane. Since Chance worked a "sedentary" job, he was relatively heavyset. In contrast, Sellers was quite thin.

Enter Robert De Niro. The actor had recently put on around 60 pounds for "Raging Bull," which inspired Sellers to gain weight for "Being There." The comedian spoke about the influence while chatting with Lane:

"I noticed that Robert De Niro just put [60] pounds on for a movie, with the supervision of a doctor, and I agree with that, because padding never looks right. I mean, you pad your body out and then your face doesn't look right."

Chance's weight was a relatively minor trait and Sellers could've simply made the character thinner if he so desired. However, the actor's willingness to alter his body in order to do Chance justice displays the level of commitment to his art.

Read this next: The 95 Best Comedy Movies Ever

The post How Robert De Niro Influenced Peter Sellers' Preparation For Being There appeared first on /Film.

An anonymous reader shares this report from OMG! Ubuntu: Developers have just uncorked a brand new release of Wine, the open source compatibility layer that allows Windows apps to run on Linux. A substantial update, Wine 8.0 is fermented from a year's worth of active development (roughly 8,600 changes in total). From that, a wealth of improvements are provided across every part of the Wine experience, from app compatibility, through to performance, and a nicer looking UI.... Notable highlights in Wine 8.0 include the completion of PE conversion, meaning all modules can be built in PE format. Wine devs say this work is an important milestone towards supporting "copy protection, 32-bit applications on 64-bit hosts, Windows debuggers, x86 applications on ARM", and more.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Aubrey Plaza is on a roll. It took a while for her to find her way after "Parks and Recreation" ended and her time as April Ludgate came to a close. Appearing alongside Robert DeNiro in 2016's "Dirty Grandpa" didn't quite catapult her to megastar level, and while 2017's "Ingrid Goes West" was a memorable entry in her filmography, she seemed to fade from the spotlight after her brief flirtation with next-level stardom.

But a consistent output of strong performances in indies like "The Little Hours," "An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn," and "Addicted to Fresno" have demonstrated Plaza's versatile talents and tireless work ethic. And now things have picked up even more, and Plaza is, according to GQ, "leveling up." 2022's "Emily The Criminal" saw her deliver a surprisingly raw performance as an embattled catering company worker turned fraudster. That was quickly followed by a starring role in the second season of HBO Max's hugely popular "White Lotus." And as if that wasn't enough, she'll soon be appearing in Marvel's next attempt at churning out a binge-worthy streaming fare when "Agatha: Coven of Chaos" debuts in late 2023.

In the meantime, to kick off the year, she hosted "Saturday Night Live," where things truly came full circle as Plaza joined her "Parks and Recreation" co-star Amy Poehler in reprising their roles as April Ludgate and Leslie Knope during "Weekend Update." Interestingly enough, the actress' studio 8H visit was even more significant in that it wasn't her first time there. Not only had she worked as an intern on the legendary sketch show, but her journey to stardom could have looked very different had her audition to become an "SNL" cast member gone a different way.

Plaza's Failed SNL Audition

Before she appeared in "Parks and Recreation," Plaza came up in the improv community as part of Chicago's Upright Citizens Brigade Theater — a performance company co-founded by her future co-star, Poehler. It's not surprising, then, that like many a UCB alum, Plaza auditioned for "SNL."

The actress recently appeared on "The Tonight Show" in the lead-up to hosting the NBC sketch show, where she disclosed that she auditioned to become a cast member in 2004. As she told Fallon, "I didn't make it to the Lorne audition, the famous final audition, but I did a preliminary first-round showcase at UCB." And the characters she chose to showcase at the audition were about as off-beat as you might expect from Plaza:

"One character I did was a Puerto Rican news reporter that was always trying to make all of the news stories sexy, even if they were horrific news stories. I was just trying to sex up the news. Then the other one was, I was a pill-popping housewife that had a show called Celebri-Tails, where I would just name celebrities and name what kind of tail they would have if they had a tail. I would say, 'Lindsay Lohan would have a bushy squirrel's tail.' Or, like, 'Bill Clinton would have a polar bear's nub.'"

Despite not making the cut, Plaza went on to become an intern in the design department at "SNL," with four "moody b*****es" who, according to the actress, didn't want to waste time teaching an intern about design. She would also work as an NBC page where she'd frequently lead tours of the studios hungover, sneaking out periodically to "go into the hallway, throw up in a trash can, and continue on." She's come a long way since then.

Fueled By Rejection

Plaza doesn't seem like she'd do too well in an audition environment, especially within the framework of Lorne Michaels' hallowed institution. Her clear-cut irreverence just doesn't mesh with the kind of hushed respect you're supposed to display for "SNL." It makes sense that Plaza told NME back in 2021 that "Auditioning always felt like this f***ed-up game that I was playing with life. Like playing the lottery or something." As she went on to explain:

"I think I've always been very fueled by rejection. It only made me want it more, because I think I just had that thing inside of me that's like, 'I wanna be in the club that I'm not in,' or whatever that is, 'I want the thing that I can't have, or the thing that I don't have. And if you tell me that I'm not good enough, I'll just find a way to prove you wrong somehow.'"

Which is exactly what she's done since not making it onto the "SNL" cast all those years ago. In fact, it's exactly what she's done since leaving "Parks and Rec" — overcoming being typecast as the weird, quiet girl and displaying her diverse acting talents in varied projects, especially with 2020's "Black Bear" and 2022's "Emily The Criminal." And if making out with Chloe Fineman wasn't enough to make up for her failed "SNL" audition, standing on that stage to deliver her monologue must have done it for her. I just wish she'd given us a taste of the "pill-popping Celebri-tales housewife" while she was up there.

Read this next: 14 Awesome Comedies That Never Got Sequels

The post Aubrey Plaza Attempted To Join Saturday Night Live In 2004 (But Failed The Audition) appeared first on /Film.

It's been over a year since Netflix's live-action adaptation of "Cowboy Bebop" began then ended, but it was clear the project was a misfire long before now. The series was canceled three weeks after premiere, lightning speed even by Netflix standards. It turns out that one of those disappointed was the anime's primary creator, animation director Shinichirō Watanabe (he and his team are collectively credited as the creator "Hajime Yatate").

Before Netflix's "Cowboy Bebop" premiered, Watanabe revealed he'd been asked for his input: "I read the initial concept and provided my opinions, but I'm not sure if they will be reflected in the final product." He added that his suggestions being ignored would "leave a bad taste in [his] mouth," but to avoid making the crew's jobs tougher, he would simply hope it "turn[ed] out good." His hopes weren't met.

Watanabe recently spoke with Forbes. Topics ranged from how he entered the anime industry to his later works like "Samurai Champloo" and "Space Dandy." But he was also asked for his thoughts on Netflix's "Cowboy Bebop." Watanabe revealed Netflix sent him a preview of the series; he wasn't able to watch anything beyond the first scene:

"​​I stopped there and so only saw that opening scene. It was clearly not 'Cowboy Bebop' and I realized at that point that if I wasn't involved, it would not be 'Cowboy Bebop.' I felt that maybe I should have done this. Although the value of the original anime is somehow far higher now."

Indeed, the best part of this whole episode is that Netflix added the "Cowboy Bebop" anime to its streaming library. So, why did Watanabe think the live-action series isn't even an imitation of his anime?

The Opening

The opening scene Watanabe mentions is an abridged version of the opening for the "Cowboy Bebop" movie, "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" (Watanabe directed said film). In both scenes, our anti-heroes Spike Spiegel and Jet Black are capturing a gang with bounties on their heads. Spike wanders into the scene, wearing headphones and cool as a cucumber, before they get caught in a stand-off.

In the movie, the setting is a convenience store, but in the Netflix version it's Watanabe Casino — the director either didn't notice or didn't care for the compliment. The scene includes verbatim dialogue from the movie, but that just makes it feel uncanny, not faithful. Rather than the fluid fight choreography of the anime, with often unbroken coverage, the Netflix show has frequent cuts and close-ups to hide the obvious staging of the action.

Poverty and corrupt corporations were themes of the original "Cowboy Bebop," but in the Netflix version, the leader of the bounties says out loud multiple times how much he hates big corporations. Rather than trusting its audience to pick up on themes, the Netflix "Bebop" tries to hold their hand and spell it out with dialogue (more on that later).

The scene diverges when one of the crooks blows a hole in the casino's hull. From there, the scene homages the climax of "Aliens," with the characters holding on as the vacuum of space grabs them. Apparently, the scene in "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" wasn't sci-fi enough.

By turning off the series after this scene, Watanabe avoided the worst the show had to offer.

Faye Valentine

Despite Watanabe's displeasure with their introduction, I'd argue Spike and Jet come through as the most intact of the main characters. John Cho and Mustafa Shakir, respectively, are both solid casting. Even if they're saddled with poor writing, the vague outlines of their anime characterizations are still there. The same cannot be said of Faye Valentine (played by Daniella Pineda).

Faye is a screw-up — and that's why we love her. She's clever in a pinch and a good fighter, but she also bites off more than she can chew. After all, she is a gambling addict (something the Netflix show omits). But that isn't all there is to her.

An amnesiac who doesn't even know her real name, Faye preaches about the survival of the fittest, but really, she's lonely. She won't even admit her longing for connection to herself, because it got her burned in the past. Now, she's convinced the only way to live is to backstab others before they can backstab her. That's why she wears the guise of a femme fatale.

None of this is in the Netflix version. Instead, Faye is a generic kick-ass girl-boss who speaks in "Buffy" leftovers like, "Welcome to the ouch, motherf***ers!" (Anime Faye would die from secondhand embarrassment if she heard someone say that).

Vicious

Faye isn't even the worst that Netflix's "Cowboy Bebop" has to offer. That would be Vicious (Alex Hassell), a captain in the Red Dragon crime syndicate and Spike's friend-turned-enemy.

Vicious in the anime was a nihilistic void of humanity. He was so scary because he was an enigmatic and infrequent presence. In the Netflix series, he's a petulant mustache-twirler, often wearing a goofy grin. In a foolish attempt at serialization, the series also turns him into an overarching villain who pops up in every episode.

Alex Hassell has none of the chilly menace that Norio Wakamoto and Skip Stellrecht (in Animaze's acclaimed English dub) both brought to the part of Vicious. Instead, he offers haughty condescension and screams half his lines. Plus, that flowing white wig simply doesn't go with Hassell's face.

The series also tries to "explain" Vicious' name by revealing it's a pseudonym. Completing the schema, Spike was once called "Fearless." Here we encounter a frequent problem with modern genre writing: in trying to rationalize over-the-top elements, you just underline the silliness.

The Wrong Mood

The problems with the characterizations in Netflix's "Cowboy Bebop" go back to a root problem with its approach. The anime was earnestly cool; it presented its world seriously, and the comedy was always about laughing with the series, not at it. But that's not in fashion nowadays. Instead, entertainment pokes fun at itself with smarmy, wink-wink dialogue. Adding that writing style to "Cowboy Bebop" couldn't be more ill-fitting and results in some truly atrocious dialogue.

But also, dialogue isn't what drives "Cowboy Bebop." The characters never discuss their feelings aloud — they're not those kinds of people. Instead, you have to glean those feelings through their actions. The anime similarly trusts you to piece Spike's past together with largely silent, visually-driven flashbacks.

The most important part of the sound in "Cowboy Bebop" is the music, not the dialogue. Yôko Kanno's score is alternatively jazzy, thrilling, and bittersweet -- it's what gives the anime its trademark ennui. I find turning "Cowboy Bebop" into a manga, a medium without sound, was just as wrong-headed as the Netflix adaptation, because there's no music there.

The Netflix show at least grasped the music's importance, even reusing Kanno's score, but it never relies on it the same way as the anime. It feels more like wallpaper than a mood setter. "Cowboy Bebop" was willing to be quiet and let Kanno set the mood, but in the Netflix show, they've always got to get to the next joke.

Watanabe may feel he should've been more involved with Netflix's "Cowboy Bebop," but the truth is he already gave us all he wanted to from the story, complete with a perfect closing note. Trying to change a classic, and taking it out of the medium which made it sing so beautifully, was never going to work.

Read this next: Anime Shows Like Cowboy Bebop That Are Worth Your Time

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