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Agent Max Payne hit the zeitgeist square in the forehead at the turn of the Millennium. I was only sixteen when Remedy's monologuing undercover DEA operative dropped into my life like a... well, a man diving sideways in slow motion with twin pistols blazing. It was that kind of time. The Wachowskis had, not too long before, left an indelible mark on cinema, and pop culture at large, with their stylish countercultural smash hit The Matrix. Dressing in a leather jacket while falling over and openly wielding automatic weaponry was legitimately cool, and not at all creepy. Why are you frowning like that, it's almost like you don't believe me.

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VirtualBox v7.0.6 is released. VirtualBox is a general-purpose full virtualizer for x86/x64 hardware. Targeted at server, desktop and embedded use, it is now the only professional-quality virtualization solution that is also Open Source Software....More

NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4070 Ti & AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT graphics cards may not offer the best value to gamers but they are certainly the top sellers, in Germany.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti & AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT Top With Highest Sales At Germany's Biggest Retailer

Despite relaunching at a $100 US lower price tag, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti isn't the best value for a gaming graphics card despite offering some spectacular gen-over-gen gains. That has been the case with almost all graphics cards this generation but it looks like the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is selling well in the German retail segment compared to its competition.

In statistics compiled by Techeiphipany from German retailer, Mindfactory, we can see that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti sold 280 units compared to the Radeon RX 7900 XTX which sold just 120 units while the RX 7900 XT sold 100 units. This shows that the RTX 4070 Ti sold almost 3 times more than the RX 7900 XT at the retailer. NVIDIA's other graphics cards such as the RTX 4090 sold 90 units while the RTX 4080 sold only 70 units.

Graphics Cards Sales:

Where the week is heading...#AMD #Intel #Nvidia #NvidiaGeForce #Radeon #IntelGraphics pic.twitter.com/EgxBsjc8Ov

— TechEpiphany (@TechEpiphany) January 17, 2023

However, if you compare the full number of units sold for each card, then it looks like the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT comes ahead of the RTX 4070 Ti with 1865 Units sold versus 1755 units sold for the RTX 4070 Ti. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX hasn't seen that many sales and are outperformed by the NVIDIA flagships, the RTX 4090 & RTX 4080.

Following are the individual sales for each graphics card at Mindfactory:

• GeForce RTX 4090: 1510 Units Sold
• GeForce RTX 4080: 1625 Units Sold
• GeForce RTX 4070 Ti: 1755 Units Sold
• Radeon RX 7900 XTX: 1170 Units Sold
• Radeon RX 7900 XT: 1865 Units Sold

Now, these numbers don't mean that the cards are performing similarly in other regions too. The German market is more open to AMD products than Intel and NVIDIA but once in a while, a certain product, if it really stands out in performance and offers great value, the tech audience in Germany would be willing to give it a try too. So far, we don't have statistics from other retailers but all recent market share numbers have shown that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series cards are pushing share figures for the green team up. AMD has seen a decline in market share which currently isn't even in the double-digit figures but the company hopes to boost that up with its new Radeon 7000 GPUs & especially the refocused mainstream mobility family for laptops.

Amazon Best Sellers GPU (1/19/23):

Newegg Best Sellers GPU (1/19/23):

NVIDIA is expected to enter the mainstream segment by the mid of 2023 with two rumored cards, the GeForce RTX 4070 and the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti. Meanwhile, we haven't heard of any new GPU launches from AMD but they are likely to announce something either by or at Computex 2023.

The post NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti & AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT Are The Best Selling GPUs From Each Camp At Germany’s Largest Retailer by Hassan Mujtaba appeared first on Wccftech.

Films are a form of escapism. Some people gravitate towards slice-of-life dramas, while others enjoy bone-chilling horror. Whatever the genre, when executed correctly, a movie should whisk you away from your day-to-day routine.

Anxiety cinema is guaranteed to erase everything around you. You may be surprised that distracting yourself this way is also quite beneficial. Mental health experts confirm that watching something stressful like a horror flick is a brilliant way to channel and release your worries. Of course, watching a film that makes your chest pound isn't always therapeutic. Sometimes, we're merely out for an adrenaline rush or even bragging rights that we're able to sit through something psychologically grueling.

Nail-biting cinema uses everything in its arsenal to leave us on edge. Overlapping dialogue, frenetic scores, and head-spinning camerawork are all trademarks of this subgenre. I love assaulting my senses, so I'm here to guide you to your own state of panicked euphoria. Remember to pace yourself with the following 12 anxiety-inducing movies. Your nervous system will thank you for it.

Good Time

The Safdie brothers are masters of anxious cinema. Don't believe me? Ask anyone to recall their mental state after watching a film by the famed duo. Josh and Benny Safdie achieved mainstream success with 2014's "Heaven Knows What." However, their following release, 2017's "Good Time," solidified the siblings as purveyors of stress.

Robert Pattinson plays con artist Connie Nikas, who, along with his developmentally disabled brother, Nick (Benny Safdie), robs a bank. Although the men initially think they've scored $65,000, Nick is caught and arrested during their escape. It's immediately apparent that Connie is an absolute scumbag, but his love for his brother is unwavering. Short $10,000 to bail Nick out of jail, Connie crawls through New York's underbelly, desperately trying to come up with the money.

The plot of "Good Time" is undeniably stressful. Compounding the nerve-jangling narrative, it's told through jarring, documentary-style camerawork. The Safdies forgo wide-angle shots, choosing to make viewers feel claustrophobic with relentless close-ups. Coupling the visuals with a loud, imposing score, "Good Time" is an exhilarating (if not exhausting) experience. After violently dragging me along for just over an hour and a half, the final scene comes as a heartbreaking shock. While this thriller is worth the stress, I have to say I did not have a good time watching it.

Pusher

Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn gained global acclaim with his 2011 film, "Drive." While I could wax poetic about this neon-soaked masterpiece for hours, Refn's debut, "Pusher," earns this spot as one of my favorite anxiety-inducing movies.

This 1996 crime drama introduces us to Copenhagen-based drug dealers Frank (Kim Bodnia) and Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen). Frank is in debt to vicious mob boss Milo (Zlatko Burić), who fronts him with a large amount of heroin to sell. Although Frank is determined to pay Milo back, things don't go according to plan. With their kneecaps on the line, they're left scrambling to come up with the money.

"Pusher" is stressful because of its realism. A far cry from Refn's hyper-stylized later works, his first feature focuses on people who actually exist in big cities. Presented through guerilla-style filmmaking, "Pusher" will have your heart racing as a shaky camera follows Frank and Tonny. Refn didn't shoot this way by choice. It's the result of an incredibly modest budget. As the filmmaker told The Guardian in 2011, the movie left him penniless. Having replenished his bank account with the two "Pusher" sequels, Refn shows that all you need is a simple idea and some fantastic characters to make a lasting impact.

Uncut Gems

Effectively adding to their anxiety-driven cinematic universe, Benny and Josh Safdie followed up their manic crime hit, "Good Time," with 2019's "Uncut Gems." Much like their previous films, "Uncut Gems" turned me into a fidgety mess. The Safdies' strength lies in the rawness they bring to their fictional worlds. In a chat with Observer, the brothers describe their filmmaking approach as "gutter realism." When working on a movie, they immerse themselves in gritty subcultures as a means of research, making the result almost too authentic.

Adam Sandler plays Howard Ratner, a neurotic jeweler in New York City. Howard is also a gambling addict, with debts spiraling out of control. One day, he comes across a rare opal and thinks that auctioning it off will solve his financial woes. However, a series of events throws Howard's plan off-track, and he's seemingly incapable of making any good decisions.

Sandler shines as the screw-up Howard, using his erratic (and familiar) acting style to his advantage. The Safdies are also pros at setting the mood, placing their loudmouth lead in rooms where a million things are happening at once. From the overlapping dialogue to the sound design that includes constant notifications exploding from Howard's phone, it's enough to make anyone feel panicked.

Shiva Baby

When a friend urged me to watch 2020's "Shiva Baby," I was told it was a neurotic comedy about a family get-together. While watching it, I felt betrayed almost immediately. The sheer volume of terror and discomfort that bubbled inside me could only come from a horror movie, so take this as your warning.

Directed by Emma Seligman, "Shiva Baby" stars Rachel Sennott as Danielle, a college student who attends a family shiva. Along with dodging her countless relatives, Danielle has to navigate running into her ex-girlfriend, her sugar daddy, and his family. While our aimless lead may feel lost about her future, the shiva's attendees have their own opinions. To some, Danielle lacks direction. To others, she's selfish. As her relatives incessantly probe her, Danielle just wants to leave — and so did I.

"Shiva Baby" reminds me of an unhinged version of "The Graduate," with the stress dial turned to 100. In the 1967 classic, Benjamin Braddock's (Dustin Hoffman) relatives constantly quiz him about his post-graduation plans — just like Danielle. Seligman knows that the divide between the younger and older generation will always exist, which is why these discussions seem so familiar and suffocating.

The Vanishing

Although George Sluizer's bone-chilling thriller, "The Vanishing," came out in 1988, it still manages to get under your skin. So harrowing is the premise that it floored "The Shining" director Stanley Kubrick. "It's the most terrifying film I've ever seen in my life," he once told Sluizer.

The plot is compelling in its simplicity. Dutch couple Rex (Gene Bervoets) and Saskia (Johanna te Steege) are on a biking holiday in France. While stopping at a gas station, Saskia disappears, and Rex must figure out what happened to her. Obsessed, he spends years desperately seeking answers.

"The Vanishing" is a slow burn that takes its time building a sense of dread. The moment Rex notices Saskia is missing drags on, torturing the viewer. The film reveals the man responsible for Saskia's disappearance almost instantly in what becomes a character study of a sociopath. In a time when we love binging true crime documentaries, all of this seems too realistic. As for the ending? To this day, the thought of it makes me claustrophobic.

Climax

"Climax" isn't just a movie. It's an experience. As with his previous films, director Gaspar Noé explores many disturbing themes, including drug use, self-harm, incest, and rape. However, what makes this experimental flick so anxiety-driven is how Noé guides us through this hellscape. This 2018 horror film feels like a hallucinatory panic attack — which is the point.

On a winter night, a dance troupe practices their routine in an empty school. Once they finish their rehearsal, it's party time. However, someone has laced their sangria with LSD, turning their evening into a primal nightmare.

While the plot may seem paper-thin, Noé does something clever. He puts us in the shoes of these characters. When the drugs kick in, the escalation is subtle. As the troupe takes part in a dance-off, their choreography becomes increasingly dangerous. To add to the panic, Noé often shoots single, long takes. It's as if the camera has a mind of its own, crawling up the ceiling to give us aerial views or plunging toward the floor. Drenched in neon hues and accompanied by a pounding electronic score, "Climax" is visceral. It's hands down one of the most immersive (yet, nauseating) experiences I've ever had.

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).

Angst

Gerald Kargl's twisted home-invasion flick, "Angst," has significantly influenced the modern horror genre. Gaspar Noé borrowed heavily from the 1983 movie with his first feature, "I Stand Alone," while John McNaughton's "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" explores similar themes. Loosely based on the real-life crimes of murderer Werner Kniesek, "Angst" was banned throughout most of Europe due to its distressing violence (via "The Book of Horror: The Anatomy of Fear in Film"). Sadly, this effectively ruined Kargl's film career.

Erwin Leder plays an unnamed psychopath who has just been released from prison. He enters a home he believes is empty, only to find a disabled man (Rudolf Götz) inside. Soon, the man's mother (Edith Rosset) and sister (Silvia Rabenreither) arrive, marking the start of the audience's panic attack. In frenzied real-time, we watch the antagonist go on a murderous spree.

On paper, "Angst" may sound like your typical slasher. However, Kargl's impeccable characterization makes it haunting. Kargl places us in the killer's mind, allowing us to listen to his violent inner monologue. Through extremely tight close-ups and overhead crane shots, we're also physically close to him, immersed in every grotesque act. The result is downright sickening.

Possession

Andrzej Żuławski's "Possession" is legendary among horror lovers. Famous for Isabelle Adjani's unparalleled descent into madness, it's sure to test your nerves. Although the film earned Adjani a coveted César Award, it took a severe toll on her mental health. As the director explained in the documentary, "Żuławski on Żuławski," upon seeing the completed film, Adjani attempted suicide. When you watch her now-legendary subway scene, it's haunting to think about what she was going through. The moment is both striking and revolting.

Sam Neill plays Mark, a spy who returns home to his wife, Anna (Adjani), and their son, Bob (Michael Hogben), in West Berlin. Anna alludes to an affair and demands a divorce. They relentlessly argue. Mark, who can't comprehend what's going on, demands answers. Anna, agitated and hysterical, provides nothing. I can't say much else without diving into spoiler territory but believe me, this is one of the most emotionally exhausting movies ever made.

It took years for "Possession" to garner the respect it deserves. It was labeled a "video nasty" in the United Kingdom, and with a third of its runtime cut, it was marketed as a straightforward horror film in America. Equal parts psychological thriller and disgusting body horror, "Possession" is quite layered. Using the motif of the doppelgänger, it toys with the idea of crafting a perfect partner. I can't think of a more suffocating exploration of divorce.

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ by dialing 988 or by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.

Mother!

You can always count on Darren Aronofsky for an intense cinematic experience. While the first half of 2017's "Mother!" is a paranoid thriller in the vein of "Rosemary's Baby," the final act is so assaulting that I had to remind myself to breathe. A marvel of anxiety cinema, "Mother!" impressively builds on the audience's feelings of isolation and frustration. The result is pure, carnal rage.

Jennifer Lawrence stars as the titular Mother, who lives in an isolated home with her husband, Him (Javier Bardem). Mother spends time remodeling their home while her husband, a famous poet, struggles with writer's block. Their idyllic life slowly starts to unravel with the appearance of several strangers. First, a doctor (Ed Harris), who happens to be sick and seeking refuge, arrives. He's later followed by his wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) and their two adult sons (Brian and Domhnall Gleeson). As more characters eventually swarm the house, the plot descends into sheer bedlam.

"Mother!" is drenched in symbolism. Aronofsky uses a very apparent biblical allegory to explore humanity's role in ecological destruction. The filmmaker, a staunch environmentalist, spoke at the Venice Film Festival about his inspiration for the movie. "It came out of living on this planet and sort of seeing what's happening around us and not being able to do anything," he explained to Variety. "Mother!" perfectly captures Aronofsky's pent-up fury.

The Killing Of A Sacred Deer

Yorgos Lanthimos is a master at crafting unease on camera. The Greek director is notorious for weaving his characters into absurd circumstances laced with dark humor. Lanthimos' cinematic universe is alien. Dialogue is impersonal, while bizarre rules lead to cruel consequences. Visually, Lanthimos aims to unsettle his audience, using wide-angle lenses to create an air of unnatural detachment. 2017's "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" incorporates all of Lanthimos' trademarks. The film leaves you with very little breathing room.

"The Killing of a Sacred Deer" is based on an ancient Greek tragedy by Euripides, "Iphigenia in Aulis." In the tale, Agamemnon accidentally kills a sacred deer, resulting in violent retribution from the goddess, Artemis. Lanthimos cleverly takes this concept and places it in modern, suburban America. Colin Farrell plays Steven, a respected heart surgeon who one day fails to save his patient. Fraught with guilt, he befriends the patient's son, Martin (Barry Keoghan). Martin injects himself into Steven's seemingly perfect life, meeting the surgeon's wife, Anna (Nicole Kidman), and their children, Kim (Raffey Cassidy) and Bob (Sunny Suljic). It's soon evident that Martin seeks a violent reckoning.

Lanthimos is one of my favorite directors. His perfect deadpan tone always ramps up my anxiety, forcing me to sit in discomfort. While watching "The Killing of a Sacred Deer," I could feel the panic growing inside me. My emotions exploded in the film's final act, leaving me utterly speechless.

Funny Games

Considering how restrained it is, "Funny Games" is a unique anxiety-inducing film. Austrian director Michael Haneke made two versions of this sadistic thriller, first in 1997 original and then a shot-for-shot American remake in 2007. I've chosen the original as the more unnerving of the two, as it's less polished. The Austrian film has a very bleak color palette, adding to the rawness of the events. It's not a pretty film, and Haneke wants everything to look as normal as possible. 

The movie follows an upper-class family that has just arrived at their vacation home. Their calm environment is swiftly upended by the arrival of two young men who take them hostage and force them to play sadistic games. This premise may seem simple, but Haneke takes a meta approach. He allows the duo to break the fourth wall multiple times throughout the film, leaving the audience completely disoriented.

With "Funny Games," Haneke comments on the thriller genre. He shows how easily he can manipulate an audience y contrasting the seemingly realistic with the antagonists, who come across as manufactured villains. We anxiously root for our protagonists to make it out alive, but how can they? Haneke breaks every rule of the genre.

Whiplash

Damien Chazelle's 2014 drama, "Whiplash," wastes no time making your heart race. From the frantic drumming that opens the movie, you know what you're about to see will be intense. "Whiplash" showcases the extreme lengths we'll go to for greatness — and if these sacrifices are worth it. 

Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller) is a first-year student and drummer at Shaffer Conservatory, a prestigious music school in New York City. One day, the school's ruthless conductor, Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), asks Andrew to fill in as an alternate for the drummer of the school's ensemble band. Andrew is determined to impress his sadistic mentor. However, this isn't easy, as  Terence's expectations of perfection seem unattainable.

Simmons' Oscar-winning performance as the abusive instructor makes "Whiplash" a masterclass in stress. He's a terrifying villain because he's realistic. While some antagonists work to destroy our heroes physically, Terence is out to break his students mentally. Pay close attention to the misleading ending of the movie. At first glance, you may think Andrew has finally achieved the perfection he desperately seeks. Yet, his success has morphed him into Terence's ideal, validating the conductor's vicious tactics.

Read this next: The Best Thrillers Of 2022, Ranked

The post 12 anxiety-inducing movies that are worth the stress appeared first on /Film.

Today's major sci-fi franchises, like "Star Wars" and Marvel, actually have story committees who carefully comb through scripts to ensure they make sense and don't contradict not just their own plot points, but those of other movies. In the past, and to some degree still today, studio interference, writer-director conflicts, unfinished scripts, and the like often led to science fiction movies that would invariably have at least one bad scene that made no sense. Often, such a scene wasn't intended that way, but came about at best a compromise; nonetheless, there's a reason the most notable genre movies have only in recent years started becoming regular fixtures on critics' top-10 lists.

This isn't to say we've solved the problem, as you'll see below. Even with more care toward the story and more interest in creating big twists, today's sci-fi movies can be equally guilty of messing up an otherwise perfect experience with one misstep. Sometimes it's the ending. Other times, it's just a really bad tangent, or a moment that over-explains. Whatever the case, many of the movies herein are still good, and in some cases, highly influential. It's just that one damnable scene that nags at the haters. And they're not necessarily wrong.

Here are 10 otherwise great sci-fi movies that just irritate us with the one thing they get wrong.

Blade Runner

"Blade Runner" is probably the best-known film to fit this list's criteria and the one most notable for actually having its key flaw corrected in later releases. As the grim future noir, set in an eternally dark and raining Los Angeles, comes to its conclusion, replicant hunter Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) and the female replicant, Rachael (Sean Young), whom he's fallen for, leave the urban hellscape to fly away to a beautiful, pristine countryside. If that was there this whole time, though, why don't more people move there? We've previously had it strongly implied by overhead digital billboards that the only real hope of escape is to off-world colonies. The answer, of course, is that director Ridley Scott didn't want that ending, and the studio added B-roll footage from "The Shining" to make one of the multiple endings of "Blade Runner" feel more upbeat.

It didn't help at the time, as "Blade Runner" disappointed at the box office upon release. Over the years, however, fans came to appreciate Scott's world-building and the movie's ground-breaking aesthetic and slave-revolt allegory (in time, we even got a great sequel). When an accidental screening of an earlier print got cheered by its audience, Warner Bros. tried again, this time the way Scott wanted it, minus the happy ending and Ford's divisive voice-over. Unlike George Lucas' latter-year tampering with the "Star Wars" films, thankfully, the original theatrical cut still exists for those who do prefer it -- misguided though they may be.

Dark City

"Dark City," which bears many similarities to the subsequent, better-known "The Matrix," throws Rufus Sewell's Murdoch into a murder mystery where he can't remember anything except vague flashes of a place called Shell Beach. The noir aesthetic and creepy pacing give the whole thing a delicious waking nightmare feel, as "The Crow" director Alex Proyas expanded his gothic sensibility to an even larger canvas. On the run from the police, and weird, inhuman-looking Strangers, Murdoch notices that everyone else falls asleep at midnight, as reality itself is reshaped. Eventually, he realizes he too has that power. But how, and why?

New Line Cinema in the '90s tended to notoriously overexplain its high-concept movies -- "Spawn" and "The Cell" are two other egregious examples -- and decided to spoil the big mystery of "Dark City" upfront, with an opening narration by a horrendously overacting Kiefer Sutherland. The Strangers are aliens whose world is dying, and they're experimenting on humans, with the help and collaboration of Sutherland's Dr. Schreiber. This information puts us way ahead of Murdoch, rather than in his shoes, and puts the movie in the awkward position of playing catch-up. Once Schreiber eventually shows up onscreen, of course, he explains it all over again.

It's lesser known than the "Blade Runner" director's cut, but Proyas did eventually get to release a Blu-ray without the narration. Fans who own the original have another solution -- change the audio to another language for the opening, then switch it back.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

"The Last Jedi" evokes extremely passionate reactions from "Star Wars" fans for being so different from the other films in the saga. Writer-director Rian Johnson's movies often put story structure before character, while calling attention to and critiquing the same. Bringing that to "Star Wars" made "The Last Jedi" appeal to some who had never liked it before, and feel off to some who adore the franchise.

Amid space battles that are still aces, Johnson ended up directing Mark Hamill to his best performance as Luke Skywalker, conveying a life of regret and cynicism that, while drastically different from previous movies, evolved the Jedi Master. And Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) was revealed even more to be a somewhat tragic villain. From his point of view, he's the child of narcissists with PTSD, sent to live with his religious fundamentalist uncle who tried to murder him. 

Plus: Who doesn't love porgs?

No, the problem with "The Last Jedi" is its straight-out-of-Disney-casting child slaves, who look like they walked right out of a "Newsies" prequel. Perhaps if they stayed in that one scene in Canto Bight, it'd be fine. But then, at the end of the movie, after the obligatory group shot that ends most Skywalker saga installments, we see the kids playing with the homemade toys of Luke Skywalker, and a broom-holding boy staring up at the stars. The on-the-nose implication: young Rian Johnson, playing with "Star Wars" figures, was inspired to become a filmmaker. Barf.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park

"The Lost World: Jurassic Park" might be one of Steven Spielberg's most underrated films (some might argue it's even the best "Jurassic Park" movie). It's less a Michael Crichton adaptation than it is a tribute to all the old monster flicks Spielberg seems to love, from the 1925 "The Lost World" (the original dinosaur adventure that gives this movie its name) and "Nosferatu" (the empty boat with eaten crew) to "Gorgo" (Mama monster comes for her baby) and most obviously "King Kong," minus the monster being slaughtered at the end, a change every kid wanted to see growing up. He even names the boat "The Venture," in case the storyline of a huckster bringing a primeval monster to a city with disastrous results wasn't clear enough. Many scenes are beat-for-beat references with Spielbergian twists.

But there's a reason it's consistently underrated, and it's because of one glaringly awful scene. Spielberg the dad sometimes gets in the way of Spielberg the master filmmaker, and there's no moment more emblematic of this than when Ian Malcolm's daughter Kelly (Vanessa Lee Chester) uses gymnastics to defeat velociraptors. These are predators that the first movie established as the ultimate alphas, capable of outsmarting master trackers and attacking a tyrannosaurus without fear. If only we had known that all it took was a young girl swinging on bars to kick them. Maybe the completed Jurassic World park ought to have employed gymnasts instead of Chris Pratt's Owen.

Terminator Salvation

"Terminator Salvation" has a great hook that doesn't even involve the central Connor family, at least not at first. A man named Marcus (Sam Worthington), sentenced to death, instead wakes up in a post-apocalypse future, eventually realizing he's been transformed into a cyborg. On his journey of self-discovery, he encounters Terminator motorcycles, giant Terminator mechs, Terminator serpents, and the creepy, rubber-skinned T-600s. It's our first full-on glimpse of the future war, and in many ways delivers what fans had been asking for.

Sadly, it suffers from Bad Ending Syndrome, by which an otherwise good film sends you out of the theater mad at a stupid final moment and eradicates all the goodwill it has built up until then. When John Connor (Christian Bale) suffers an injury to his heart, Marcus donates his -- pointedly the one part of him that's still human. Nobody does a blood-type match, and the surgery is pulled off successfully in a non-sterile battlefield situation, which seems highly unlikely. The metaphor of the Tin Man from "The Wizard of Oz," who just wanted a heart, is seriously overplayed.

Director McG revealed the "Terminator Salvation" alternate ending would have seen John killed and his skin put on Marcus' Terminator endoskeleton, an idea that would be recycled for "Terminator: Genisys." But when it leaked and got negative responses, a more upbeat one replaced it, which McG knew would "piss off a lot of people." He wasn't wrong.

Batman

Tim Burton's "Batman," a massive hit at the time, was a trailblazer that arguably began the modern obsession with comic book movies. With quirky A-list casting that paid off, a comic book city designed from the ground up, and a fusion of noir and German expressionism, it blew audiences away at the time. Now that we've seen other Batman interpretations onscreen, the 1989 film doesn't need to be everything to everyone, and some fans critique its fealty to the source. But some of the criticisms are misplaced: Batman did kill villains in the very early comics, for example. 

The only misstep that remains egregious is Alfred's massive indiscretion in bringing Vicki Vale into the Batcave. It's not like this is a Batman who needs to retire -- Michael Keaton's Bruce Wayne has only just begun fighting crime. Alfred would seem to be on board with the whole Batcave and all the trimmings, yet he also wants Bruce to settle down with the first desirable woman who comes along, immediately? It's bad enough he blows Bruce's cover story to her right off the ... bat. However, then he just brings this photojournalist into the most secret place in Gotham, presuming she will let her feelings for a guy she slept with once override her career-long instinct to break news?

Even "Batman Returns" addressed this, having Bruce chastise Alfred for it long after the fact. But it's still a bizarre portrayal of Alfred as the world's worst confidante, when his discretion matters the most.

Alien Resurrection

"Alien Resurrection" should have been a slam dunk. Directed by red-hot director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and featuring a cast that included not just Sigourney Weaver and Winona Ryder, but a who's-who of genre VIPs like Michael Wincott, Ron Perlman, Brad Dourif, Dan Hedaya, and Dominique Pinon spitting out Joss Whedon's hilariously macho-posturing dialogue before we knew it was problematic. Set on a space station where horrific experiments bring Ripley back to life as a clone and mutate the xenomorphs, it initially plays out as a perfect fusion of both horror -- of the body and haunted-house varieties -- and action in a franchise that often lets one overpower the other.

Yet again, a movie that's not bad overall generates disproportionate ill will because of a weak ending. Thanks to gene splicing, the xenomorph queen develops a more mammalian womb and gives birth to a new creature that looks like a melting plastic surgery nightmare. Once again, it gets on the escape ship, and once again, it gets sucked out a window, this time through a small hole because it has no endoskeleton to protect it. Right before it dies, it even seems to talk, which doesn't make much sense either -- it's as if everyone wanted to jump the gun to a movie set on future Earth where the creatures do evolve. Movies that save the stuff you really want to see until the sequel are taking a huge risk, and usually, like "Alien Resurrection," pay for that hubris.

Avatar (Both Extended Cuts)

"Avatar" is a great movie. The numbers don't lie -- it's one of the highest-grossing movies ever, and it was nominated for best picture at the Oscars. But we have a nit to pick with the extended cuts.

On the whole, both the 11-minute-longer and the 30-minute-longer versions add context and illuminate the film further. We see what overcrowded Earth looks like. We learn about Neytiri's sister. The origins of the human-Na'vi conflict get more even-handed, as we learn about the natives initiating some of the hostilities. Naturally, we even get to see Jake and Neytiri plug their ponytails into each other, spurring a million or so subsequent erotic fanfics.

Here's the part we'd like to cut: Tsu'tey's extended death. In the theatrical cut, it's straightforward enough: While attacking an RDA gunship, Neytiri's former betrothed gets shot and falls to his death. Simple, heroic, elegant. In both extended versions, he's still barely alive after he hits the ground. He lives just long enough to personally forgive Jake Sully for effectively stealing his woman and his birthright, and declare him the new chief. None of this, frankly, feels necessary -- it just makes Jake even more of an annoyingly noble savior figure, absolving his more problematic deeds. It also makes the extended cuts, for all that they add, ultimately more irritating than the theatrical.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Don't laugh. Just one scene ruins "The Final Frontier?" Isn't the whole thing notoriously ridiculous, from Kirk, Spock, and McCoy singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" to Kirk having a debate with "God?" Well, yeah. We're talking about the classic "Star Trek" crew here, and "ridiculous" is part of the package. Remember that time in the original series when they met the Easter Bunny? Or when Spock's brain was removed, yet he still kept walking around? Or the mirror Spock and his evil goatee? The original cast approached such things with the same intensity as harder sci-fi, and there's not one of those episodes that's unwatchable. A campy "Star Trek" with Picard doesn't work so well (see "Insurrection," or rather, don't). A campy Kirk film, however, fits just fine.

So within those parameters, how can "The Final Frontier" possibly fail? Its letdown scene involves a blatant violation of stakes. We are told nobody has been to the Eden planet Sha Ka Ree because it's beyond the Great Barrier. That sounds threatening. So when the "Enterprise" finally makes it to the Great Barrier, boy, do they seem to be in trouble. How will they get through where so many others tried and failed?

Well ... they just do.

Seriously. They just go through it, and nothing adverse happens whatsoever. Nobody explains how this is even possible. In a movie full of silliness, all the rest of said silliness gets explained, save that.

RoboCop (2014)

This may sound like a stretch but bear with it. The scene that ruins the 2014 remake of Paul Verhoeven's "RoboCop" is the first one in which we learn the protagonist's name is Alex Murphy.

Why? Because up until then, the movie could have been a sequel. It's arguably a better "RoboCop" film than either of the two sequels to the original, and much of the live-action TV series. It also feels further along in the timeline. ED-209s are in the Middle East, Samuel L. Jackson plays a Bill O'Reilly-ish media propagandist, and OmniCorp's robotic ambitions are far from secret. Additionally, 2014's "RoboCop" boasts more overt body horror elements, plus a nifty twist that Murphy's real hand is preserved so there'll always be a human finger on the police gun's trigger, and an excellent cast that includes Michael Keaton, Gary Oldman, Joel Kinnaman, Jay Baruchel, Abbie Cornish, and Jackie Earle Haley. All of these elements made for an excellent follow-up.

What sinks it is that it's a remake. Verhoeven's original film, a pitch-black satire as well as a twisted Jesus allegory, is one of the greatest sci-fi films ever made. Its magic has never been recaptured in any subsequent franchise extensions, so starting again might make sense on paper, but it will always be doomed to fail by comparison. Had it instead been presented as "RoboCop: The Next Generation," audiences might have cottoned to it more, because in and of itself, it's a good movie.

Read this next: The 95 Best Sci-Fi Movies Ever

The post 10 Sci-Fi Movies That Were Absolutely Flawless Except For A Single Scene appeared first on /Film.

In New York City, nobody can hear you scream ... or, at least, that's the idea behind "Scream 6." We're certainly not in Woodsboro anymore, as the newest installment of the classic horror franchise takes the action from one coast to the other. As seen in the full-length trailer for the upcoming slasher sequel, the surviving young heroes from 2022's (somewhat unimaginatively-titled) "Scream" are back once again, seemingly at a safe enough remove from the horrific killings perpetrated by the murderer(s) last time out. Instead, their past appears to have come back to haunt them in very literal fashion, giving viewers the novelty of seeing the Ghostface costume out and about among the streets, bodegas, and subways of New York City as they hunt their next unfortunate victim.

As you'd expect with any franchise that's lasted this long, the footage comes loaded with all sorts of neat Easter eggs, references, and teases for what's to come. Though Wes Craven is sadly gone, his legacy remains alive and well through what looks like one of the most gnarly and brutal additions to the series yet. Regardless of new faces, returning ones, or blasts from the past, there's not a single person who feels safe here ... and that's exactly how the horror director who started it all would've liked it. Check out our intensive breakdown of the "Scream 6" footage below!

Get In Line!

Here's a scenario that'll hit much too close to home for anyone who's ever lived in or even visited the Big Apple. It's a late weekday night and you're waiting patiently to check out of your local grocery store. Suddenly, two clearly terrified girls burst into the building and go right to the counter to scream unintelligible things at the store manager. Obviously, at your wit's end and with absolutely no patience left, you turn around with all the passive/aggressive attitude you can possibly muster and whine about how, "There's a line here, girls."

Honestly, how could anyone not be obsessed with this incredible line reading, which is far and away the highlight of the entire trailer? Yes, yes, the harrowing set piece that follows is important too, where Ghostface bursts into the store, stabs that poor goateed man right in the gut, and proceeds to hunt his prey (Melissa Barrera's Sam Carpenter and Jenna Ortega's sister Tara) with a shotgun in the claustrophobia-inducing aisles of a typical city convenience store. But the first rule of any movie set in New York City is as simple as this: get the local flavor right. So on that note, annoyed goatee guy is a very good sign that "Scream 6" directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett are doing justice to all of the city's wonderful idiosyncrasies.

The Darkness Within

As entertaining as 2022's "Scream" was, a few detractors were never fully won over by the reveal that Sam Carpenter was Billy Loomis' (Skeet Ulrich) daughter. Admittedly, the twist made a certain amount of sense to keep the Ghostface killings in-family, as it were, and "Scream 6" appears to be following that thread to its logical conclusion. Here, we see Sam confessing that, "There's a darkness inside of me," no doubt referring to her blood-soaked family history and the specter of Ghostface that's now haunting her every step -- no matter how far from home she goes. "It followed me here," she continues, as her narration is juxtaposed with images of an abandoned (and bloody) Ghostface mask and Ghostface making their way to the front door of someone's house. "And it's going to keep coming for us." Sounds like a predicament that would require some expert help, right? Well, funny you should say that...

#KirbyLives

There probably isn't a "Scream" fan out there who was happy to hear that Neve Campbell's Sidney Prescott wouldn't be part of the action for the first time in franchise history in "Scream 6." While the behind-the-scenes reasons point towards a continued disappointing trend for women in film, the in-universe explanation would seem to be a little easier to justify. These new post-Craven movies are now about the younger generation of characters and continuing to shoehorn Sidney into the story might end up doing more harm than good.

But that's not to say that no previous franchise veterans ought to show up and impart their knowledge upon our new heroes, right? Cue one of the fan-favorite side characters to ever appear in the series: Hayden Panettiere's Kirby Reed. Introduced in the brilliant "Scream 4," Kirby quickly became a highlight of the film -- though the last time we saw her, she was a bloody mess at the hands of that film's secret killer. Time has clearly done wonders, however, as Kirby indeed lives and is back to team up with Sam, Tara, a returning Courteney Cox as Gale Weathers, and the rest of the cast. "We share a certain history," Kirby says in the understatement of the century. How and why does she willingly return to the world of Ghostface? We'll undoubtedly find out soon enough.

A Shrine

Well, that's one way to make this sequel stand apart from the rest. After a glimpse of Ghostface's famous question ("What's your favorite scary movie?") graffitied on some random alleyway, we get to the real centerpiece of the trailer. Led by Gale and Kirby, our new group of protagonists (including Jasmin Savoy Brown's Mindy and her brother Chad, played by Mason Gooding) stumble upon an alarming sight: a shrine created by some obsessive individual in honor of Ghostfaces of franchise past.

No less than nine robed mannequins are proudly on display at the front of the creepy room, which matches up perfectly with all the killers who've suited up throughout the previous five movies, but look closely and you can spy all sorts of fun little details. There's Billy Loomis' bloodied white undershirt, Stu Macher's (Matthew Lillard) red bathrobe, and Tatum Riley's (Rose McGowan) schoolgirl outfit, all from the original 1996 movie. That flannel shirt sure seems like it used to belong to Jill, the teen killer from "Scream 4" played by Emma Roberts. And you can even glimpse other deep cuts, like the fax machine from "Scream 3" and even that weird stage prop that poor Derek Feldman (Jerry O'Connell) was tied to in the climax of "Scream 2."

How did someone get their hands on all these items, which surely would've been in police custody all these years? Hmm...

Let's Play A Game...

What "Scream" movie would feel complete without that familiar phone call from an unknown number, that carefully modulated Ghostface voice taunting their victim, and a surprise attack from behind by the masked assailant (or, as is more often the case than not, assailants)? This time, Gale Weathers is the unfortunate individual on the other end of this phone call and even a handgun isn't enough to dispatch the threat of this particular killer, who boasts that, "There's never been one like me, Gale. I'm something different." In a franchise defined by the perpetually clumsy antics of whoever happens to be behind the villain's mask, "Scream 6" seems dead-set on throwing a curveball at audiences with perhaps the most proficient killer we've seen yet. Combine that with the new setting of this sequel and it truly feels like we're in for something brand new and game-changing this time around.

Mind The Gap

The preview ends with a frenzied montage of blink-and-miss-it details before arriving at the now-familiar sight of Ghostface hiding out incognito among other costume-wearing travelers (likely during Halloween) on the same New York subway car that our heroes are currently on. We see some sort of Ghostface-themed movie projector showing lots of creepy black-and-white images, Sam covered in blood and wielding a gun as she taunts her would-be killer, and a glimpse of new additions Tony Revolori, Samara Weaving (reuniting with her "Ready or Not" directors), and Henry Czerny. All of this then builds to the frightening subway set piece, which is already a scary enough setting on its own under the most normal of circumstances, much less with masked murderers on the prowl.

"Scream 6" definitely isn't messing around. We'll have to wait and see who escapes the carnage unscathed when the sequel comes to theaters on March 10, 2023.

Read this next: The Best Horror Movie Performances Of 2022

The post Scream 6 Trailer Breakdown: There's A New Kind Of Ghostface Killer In Town appeared first on /Film.

Authorities in the state of New Mexico have said actor Alec Baldwin will face criminal charges for the fatal 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film "Rust." Hutchins was shot and killed on October 21, 2021, when a prop gun that was supposed to be loaded with "blanks" but contained a live round went off during rehearsals. Director Joel Souza was also shot, but recovered from his injuries. The incident led to important discussions about the use of firearms on sets and new legislation to ensure better set safety standards, but the New York Post obtained documents in September 2022 that revealed criminal charges were dependent on the FBI's investigation into the matter and might take some time. 

Baldwin and the movie's armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, will both be charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter, the second of which could carry a mandatory 5-year prison sentence due to the use of a firearm in the incident. Despite the ongoing criminal prosecution, "Rust" was set to go back into production this month, with Hutchins' widower, Matthew Hutchins, serving as an executive producer. The film's production and release are likely to be impacted by the criminal charges, but the production company and Baldwin's attorney have yet to comment. 

Baldwin Faces Felony Charges

Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed will each be charged with two counts: the first is for involuntary manslaughter, which requires that the prosecutors prove there was underlying negligence (essentially, that it wasn't just a "freak accident," but the result of irresponsible actions). Despite being the lesser of the two charges, it is a fourth-degree felony with a sentence of up to 18 months in jail and a $5,000 fine. The second charge is for involuntary manslaughter in the commission of a lawful act, which will require that prosecutors prove there was more than simple negligence. The second charge also includes a firearm enhancement because of the weapon used, which adds a mandatory penalty of five years in jail. 

The stories about problems plaguing the "Rust" set prior to Hutchins' death are likely to be brought up by the prosecution, including allegations that crew members were using the prop guns for target practice prior to filming and reports of three other misfires.

In an ABC interview, Baldwin denied pulling the trigger on the gun, but an FBI forensic report obtained by the outlet showed that the gun could not have fired without the trigger being pulled. The film's first assistant director, David Halls, signed a plea deal and took the charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon, and had his sentence suspended. (He will still serve six months probation.) 

This entire situation is tragic, and hopefully major changes can be made so that nothing like this ever happens again. 

Read this next: The Best Action Movies Of 2022, Ranked

The post Alec Baldwin Facing Involuntary Manslaughter Charges Over Rust Shooting appeared first on /Film.

Stephen Colbert is joining the team that is adapting Roger Zelazny's "The Chronicles of Amber" for television. Variety reports: Colbert will now executive produce the potential series under his Spartina production banner. Spartina joins Skybound Entertainment and Vincent Newman Entertainment (VNE) on the series version of the beloved fantasy novels, with Skyboudn first announcing their intention to develop the series back in 2016. The books have been cited as an influence on "Game of Thrones," with author George R.R. Martin recently stating he wanted to see the books brought to the screen. "The Chronicles of Amber" follows the story of Corwin, who is said to "awaken on Earth with no memory, but soon finds he is a prince of a royal family that has the ability to travel through different dimensions of reality (called 'shadows') and rules over the one true world, Amber." The story is told over ten books with two story arcs: "The Corwin Cycle" and "The Merlin Cycle." The series has sold more than fifteen million copies globally. The search is currently on for a writer to tackle the adaptation. No network or streamer is currently attached. Colbert and Spartina are currently under a first-look deal at CBS Studios, but they are not currently the studio behind the series. "George R.R. Martin and I have similar dreams," Colbert said. "I've carried the story of Corwin in my head for over 40 years, and I'm thrilled to partner with Skybound and Vincent Newman to bring these worlds to life. All roads lead to Amber, and I'm happy to be walking them."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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At this year's CES 2023, Frore Systems showcased their revolutionary PC cooling system that rethinks how to design a viable cooling system that is smaller, more effective, and silent. The company has created the AirJet, a solid-state chip that allows for active cooling and produces twice the cooling performance. It is highly compact, focusing on ultrathin notebooks and tablets, but it could cool larger systems in the future, allowing for more space in PC cases.

AirJet Mini & Pro from Silicon Valley startup Frore Systems will make you look at efficient cooling in a bold new way

Notebooks, phones, and tablets can get hot due to the workload. Manufacturers who design most of the popular 13-inch notebooks rely on passive cooling, which can reduce the processor power by up to seventy percent. This occurs when the processor heats to the heat limitations allowed (the thermal heat unit), which in turn will slow the processing down to let for passive cooling to take over, but in the process, you lose performance, and, as Frore Systems points out, "money."

 

Frore Systems' new AirJet active cooling device works uniquely differently from standard heatsinks. Imagine the same 13-inch ultrathin notebook with its relatively large heat sink to push air through a fan and out the bottom of the laptop. This can be a problem as if you are blocking those air slots, heat is trapped inside, and you lose the effectiveness of the device, causing "throttling" of the processor.

Frore System's AirJet uses tiny vibrating membranes that create superfast pulsating jets, pushing the air out of the device forward instead of down. Using three airjet minis can be connected by a thermal copper strip that is connected to the processor and push the air out of the back of the 12-inch ultrathin laptop at 27 dB while doubling the processor power from 10W (since there is no proper way of cooling that thin of a notebook) to 20W of power. For larger systems, even more, processing power is saved, thanks to Frore Systems' new AirJet cooling.

“As [the membranes] vibrate, they pull air in from the top — they create the suction force which automatically pulls the air from the top into the chip. And then the air is pushed down through, like a sieve at the bottom of the cavity. And it’s kind of like a showerhead, so the air comes through the top, and it’s pushed down through this sieve… And these [shower] jets are impinging on the copper heat spreader on the bottom. Heat transfer happens when these pulsating air jets hit the copper heat spreader. They extract heat from the copper heat spreader with very high efficiency, and then the air exits.”

— Dr. Seshu Madhavapeddy, Chief Executive, Frore Systems

The company, a Silicon Valley startup active for four years, is already working with Intel, Qualcomm, and GiS to incorporate the AirJet technology into the companies' devices. However, the only information that we know at the time comes from Josh Newman, Intel Vice President and General Manager of Mobile Platforms, who is quoted that the new AirJet technology will be used with Intel Evo-based laptop designs in the future, and Madhavapeddy was unable to reveal any other future projects during his interview with PC World.

“A big advantage…is how your notebook operates when you place it on a pillow or a mattress. In a typical notebook, the inlet vents are at the bottom. You’ll see a lot of holes at the bottom of almost every notebook. And if you place it on a desk, that’s okay because they have little stacks to lift the notebook a little bit so that there’s a gap, and the air can go through the gap up through the vents at the bottom of the notebook into the fans. But when you place it on a pillow or mattress, those walls are all blocked, and the fans get choked. As a result, you don’t get the benefit of the fan.”

“We eliminate that problem because, in our case, you don’t need to have any vents at the bottom.”

For more information about the new AirJet Mini and AirJet Pro devices and how they will change the future of cooling devices as we know them, check out their official website at froresystems.com.

The post Frore Systems AirJet Active Cooling Design For Laptops Might Be How We Cool PCs In The Future by Jason R. Wilson appeared first on Wccftech.

It's been a few months since AMD introduced its brand new RDNA 3 gaming architecture and while the company had big numbers promised, it looks like the best RDNA 3 GPU doesn't delivers its best in the workloads it was made for.

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX With Gaming RDNA 3 GPU Does 4 GHz In Non-Gaming Workloads But Not in Games

Testing done by Computerbase shows that AMD's flagship Navi 31 GPU that utilizes the RDNA 3 architecture can hit some really high clock speeds but it only does so in non-gaming workloads.

Can #Navi31 reach 3,0 GHz+ with ease? Yes, it can - but not in games. However, running compute tasks, we measured almost 3,5 GHz on Sapphire's Nitro+ in Blender - not eating up the power budget.

Blender: ~3,5 GHz, ~400 W
Games: ~2,9 GHz, 500 W (limit)https://t.co/6hxG0LtJKb pic.twitter.com/EXP8pj4WnQ

— ComputerBase (@ComputerBase) January 18, 2023

The tech outlet used the Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XTX Nitro+ graphics card and ran it in various workloads. In gaming tests, the graphics card reached a frequency of around 2.9 GHz which is a surprisingly fast number and an increase of around 400 MHz versus the rated boost clock. It also hit the 500W power limit relatively quickly which shows just how power-hungry Navi 31 can get in games however there's no way to bypass the 500W limit at the moment.

But with games out of the way, Computerbase also used non-gaming workloads such as Blender to evaluate the clock speed behavior on the Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics card, and here, the RDNA 3 GPU performed even better with a clock speed hitting 3.5 GHz and we have also seen reports that it can do 4.0 GHz in a few cases. The GPU was also sipping in much lower power, around 400W. The most logical explanation as to why this might be happening might be how games are pushing more hardware blocks on the AMD RDNA 3 GPU compared to the non-gaming applications.

The following results from Computerbase show the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX's clock and power chart while running Blender. Not only is the RDNA 3 card running at higher clocks, but it's also sipping more power. Also, note that higher clocks don't necessarily mean higher performance as the card loses out to the RTX 4080 running at lower clocks.

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The AMD RDNA 3 architecture was and is optimized for games first and hence, there are several IPs on the GPU silicon that run to make sure that users get the best kind of performance. Non-Gaming workloads don't require those extra IPs and can do with little, leaving the GPU to run far above its standard clock operation. As of now, the AMD RDNA 3 GPU architecture can certainly hit 3 GHz and far above that but only if you aren't playing games.

The post AMD’s Gaming RDNA 3 GPU For Radeon RX 7900 XTX Hits 4 GHz Clocks In Non-Gaming Workloads, Less Than 3 GHz in Games by Hassan Mujtaba appeared first on Wccftech.

More information is coming out about how these layoffs will hit Xbox studios

Microsoft confirmed earlier today that it will be laying off 10,000 employees. Reports have since circulated about how those layoffs affect studios within Microsoft, including those behind some big Xbox games.

Bloomberg reports that the Microsoft layoffs have affected workers at both 343 Industries and Bethesda, according to their sources. The scale of the cuts is not clear, but Bloomberg's report notes that some of those affected include longtime Xbox veterans, who have been at the company for over a decade. In a follow-up tweet, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier says it sounds like the Halo Infinite team got "hit hard," citing an email to staff from 343 head Pierre Hintze.

Kotaku also reports that 343 and Bethesda were affected, as well as Gears developer The Coalition.

In addition to layoffs, it seems like movement is also being made around 343 Industries. Schreier reports that Joseph Staten, who was brought on to help bring Halo Infinite development to a close, is leaving 343 to return to Xbox Publishing.

More details have been emerging throughout the day about how these cuts have affected Microsoft.

A shift for Xbox

In a public letter addressing the cuts today, CEO Satya Nadella confirms the 10,000 layoffs will take place from now through Q3 of fiscal year 2023. The news arrives one year after Microsoft announced its plan to purchase Activision Blizzard, a deal which is currently caught up with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

The post Bethesda, 343 among studios reportedly affected by Microsoft layoffs appeared first on Destructoid.

The tech industry is going through waves of layoffs, but the government says it has thousands of open tech positions.

Hated, dogged, scandalous, sordid, nasty—these movies have been called all of those things, and much worse. Many have inspired death threats and physical attacks, while others have engendered heated wars of words that have lasted decades.

Read more...

Since its release in 2007, "Grindhouse" -- the drive-in double feature film experiment from Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino -- has aged quite well, which is ironic considering that it was made to look like a deteriorating film print. In competing styles, Rodriguez shot his entry "Planet Terror" digitally, then added artifacts in post to achieve the weathered look of a circulated print. Tarantino filmed "Death Proof" on 35mm, then beat up the physical print by throwing it around and rolling it in the dirt. It's a combination that works beautifully. After the violent, explosive onslaught Rodriguez delivers on digital, the brain has a little time to recover watching QT's shot-on-film slasher.

While the concept for "Grindhouse" went over the heads of a lot of moviegoers at the time, the idea to deliver the equivalent of an old school double feature of exploitation B-movies is still pretty inspired. Given the box office performance of "Grindhouse" and the directing clout that helped get it made in the first place, it's also a theater experience that will probably never be duplicated again. Unless Tarantino and Rodriguez ever do a sequel, of course.

The "Grindhouse" project came at a good time for Tarantino, who wasn't ready to start the arduous task of bringing "Inglourious Basterds" to the screen, a film that many regard as his masterpiece. Time traveling back to 2007 right around the release of "Grindhouse," it's interesting to take a look at Sight & Sound's interview with QT (done in conjunction with their June cover story) to see what the director was thinking at the time and what he remembers about how the concept came together in the first place.

Roger Corman And Mount Everest

At that point, Quentin Tarantino had done an interview with Sight & Sound for every one of his movies (up until "Kill Bill: Volume 1" at least). He's a rare director that truly appreciates the work of a film critic, a reverence that is perfectly clear with his new book "Cinema Speculation." Now, if you think Tarantino has a lot of far out ideas rattling around his head, Robert Rodriguez is actually the true idea man between the two. When Sight & Sound asked about how "Grindhouse" was originally conceived, Tarantino said, at that point in his career, he needed something that was somewhere in-between Roger Corman and Mount Everest. "I'd done 'Kill Bill' and I wanted a little bit more time before I climbed my next Mount Everest," he reflected.

Tarantino had also just filmed the "CSI" fifth season finale episode, "Grave Danger," over two weeks that felt like making another feature film. While he was starting to gear up mentally to take on the challenges of crafting his WWII movie, his old filmmaking pal stopped by his home for an inspired visit. QT told Sight & Sound:

"Robert Rodriguez came over to my house, and he saw I had an old AIP double feature poster of the Roger Corman movie 'Rock All Night' and the film 'Dragstrip Girl.' And he goes, 'You see that double feature poster you have on the wall there? I always wanted to do a double feature movie.' And he was thinking about doing both of them himself."

Luckily, Rodriguez didn't wind up shooting both movies alone. The balance between the sensibilities of both directors dovetailed wonderfully together, and there was no way that Rodriguez would have shot anything on actual film.

The Grindhouse Franchise That Never Was

The combination of digital and 35mm make a rare project like "Grindhouse" even more unique. In the end, it was Robert Rodriguez' idea to divide and conquer, suggesting he make one and Quentin Tarantino make the other. Rodriguez already had about 30 pages of a zombie movie written before turning his attention to "The Faculty," and that was all he needed to kick off his horror film "Planet Terror." 

Originally, the two movie mavericks of '90s cinema had even bigger dreams for their double feature experience. "We envisioned this being a franchise. It would be fun to keep going back to it -- another one could be a spaghetti western or sexploitation or whatever," Tarantino told S&S. Both decided it would be better to make two horror films together, leading Tarantino to abandon a ghost story about an old enslaved person named Jody the Grinder (a role Samuel L. Jackson may have played) to instead make his subversion of a proper genre film with a killer car. Sadly, though, their greater plans for a "Grindhouse" franchise never made it past a single installment.

Read this next: 13 Tarantino Projects We Never Saw But Wish We Could've

The post How Quentin Tarantino And Robert Rodriguez Found The Idea For Their Grindhouse Double Feature appeared first on /Film.

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A Plague Tale: Requiem, the contender for 2022's GOTY award, has now received a brand new patch that enables Raytracing.

A Plague Tale: Requiem Patch Adds RT Shadows: Raytracing Makes Shadows Crisp At Minimal Performance Impact

Having ended A Plague Tale: Requiem twice now, I must say that the game doesn't only tell a great story but it does so with some of the most impressive environments and visuals, in general, that I have seen in recent years. The game got an almost perfect 9/10 score in our own review & today, it looks like the developers have released a new patch that enables raytracing, delivering even more visual fidelity.

I tried out the new patch which specifically enables Raytraced Shadows. The game is very heavy on the shadows in almost all sections that are brightly lit, especially the Island section in Part 7 of the game. I was running the game on the PC where the patch has landed and the system is spec'd with an Intel Core i9-13900K CPU, 32 GB of DDR5-7600 memory, and an RTX 4090 SUPRIM X from MSI, all of which is running on the latest Windows 11 22H2 build on a fast TeamGroup Cardea A440 PRO SSD.

Just by looking at a few images that I took in-game, we can see that Raytracing really makes the shadows look much sharper and crisper. The borders look more defined and that goes for both characters and objects. You can see some comparison images of RT enabled and disabled below:

A Plague Tale: Requiem RT Shadows Enabled:

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A Plague Tale: Requiem RT Shadows Disabled:

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But most of you might be wondering, just how much FPS loss is there for enabling raytracing in A Plague Tale: Requiem? Well, the good news is that the effect isn't a whole lot taxing. You can see a frame rate deficit between 15-20% which is definitely some of the lowest RT drops I have noticed in a while. I was running the game at Ultra with DLSS disabled at 4K native and got anywhere from 60-70 FPS with RT enabled and 90-100 FPS with RT disabled. This shows decent performance on RTX 4090-class cards but I will be testing out AMD's RDNA 3, RDNA 2, and NVIDIA's older Ampere cards to see if they see a bigger performance loss with RT-enabled compared to the newer Ada cards.

You can also note the following performance and visual differences between Native, DLSS 2, and DLSS 3 in both RT-enabled/disabled settings:

4K Native (RT Enabled):

4K DLSS2 (RT Disabled):

4K DLSS2 (RT Enabled):

4K DLSS3 (RT Disabled):

4K DLSS3 (RT Enabled):

The Raytracing shadows patch is now available for download and has a size of around 200 MB so you should already have it loaded up the next time you boot up Steam (the platform I used to test the game).

The post A Plague Tale: Requiem Patch Enables Raytracing Shadows: Sharper Shadow Quality With Minimal Performance Loss by Hassan Mujtaba appeared first on Wccftech.

In games it's often a delight to be proven wrong. Such as, for example, my longstanding belief that Dwarf Fortress would never make the biggest and most important change it possibly could, and fit itself with an interface fit for purpose.

Bay 12 Games have, of course, gone further than that, and released it for general sale on the biggest shop in the business after sixteen years as freeware. There's even a charming new graphics overhaul to replace the famous ASCII symbols which, depending on who you ask, might not have technically counted as "graphics" at all.

I'm not here to discuss the relative merits of this shiny new version and the "classic" version. Both will be updated in future, the latter still free, and neither expected to reach a full 1.0 release inside 20 years. All this chips around the edges of what I've been pondering, which is this: What exactly is Dwarf Fortress's place within our culture now, after a decade replete with games that looked to it for ideas?

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Any lawyer who is even remotely competent would customarily urge clients to forego public discourse in the run-up to a trial in order to avoid prejudicing the jury or inevitably revealing any damaging information. Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the ex-CEO of the now-defunct FTX crypto exchange, has thrown this rulebook out of the proverbial window by continuing to publicly plead his case via a dedicated substack. Yet, there appears to be a method to this madness. After all, both of SBF’s parents are professors of the law.

SBF’s latest Substack just dropped. (lol - I actually just wrote that sentence!).

I summarize it and a related FTX bankruptcy filing below. https://t.co/GVFMIX4xdO

— Compound248 (@compound248) January 18, 2023

A few hours back, Sam Bankman-Fried published another blog on his personal substack page. While the first blog, published last week, was more of a rant, SBF’s latest attempt appears to be laser-focused on the slipups of Sullivan & Cromwell (S&C), the law firm hired by FTX’s current management to lead the case against its former CEO.

While we encourage our readers to go through the entire blog, in essence, Sam Bankman-Fried has very shrewdly picked up on the supposed inconsistencies that are found in S&C’s submissions to the bankruptcy court. While S&C revealed yesterday that around $5.5 billion in liquid FTX assets have been identified to date, the law firm confirmed net shortfalls at both FTX US and its international subsidiaries under the ambit of FTX.com. Specifically, S&C declared:

“FTX Debtors have identified only $181 million of digital assets associated with FTX US as of the Petition Time.”

However, there is an apparent discrepancy here. S&C has not factored in the $428 million that are held in the bank account of FTX US. Sam Bankman-Fried pounced on this apparent discrepancy to postulate that FTX US currently has total assets worth $609 million ($181 million + $428 million). SBF then compares this amount with estimates of customer balances to declare that “FTX US had at least $111m, and likely around $400m, of excess cash on top of what was required to match customer balances.”

For additional clarity, we have reproduced the calculations by Sam Bankman-Fried in the snippet above. As is evident, SBF estimates customer balances at a little over $497 million as of the 10^th of November 2022. On the other hand, S&C estimates customer balances of around $199 million as of the 11^th of November – one day after a high-profile hack that drained a lot of FTX assets.

The Overarching Strategy of Sam Bankman-Fried

This brings us to the crux of the matter. Sam Bankman-Fried is apparently hard at work to obfuscate the real issue here: the existence of an undisclosed symbiotic relationship between Alameda Research and FTX. While describing what had gone wrong at FTX in his first blog, SBF identified Alameda’s failure to adequately hedge its market exposure as a key contributing factor to FTX’s bankruptcy. However, the fact remains that FTX would not have had any problem if its client funds had not been leveraged out to Alameda. SBF conveniently ignores this assertion in his substack posts.

Sam Bankman-Fried is doing exactly what any good defendant’s lawyer would do: go after the lacunae in the legal case. By hammering home the supposed discrepancy in S&C’s statements, SBF is trying to strengthen his own case, contending that FTX US clients – a key group of stakeholders for the jury – remain financially whole.

BREAKING: Only 19 of 196 Congresspeople who took money from FTX have stated they will return the funds.

— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) January 18, 2023

Meanwhile, as per a tabulation by UnusualWhales, one in every three Congresspeople, consisting of US Senators and House Representatives, received political funding from FTX. Crucially, only 19 out of those 196 Congresspeople have so far provided firm commitments to return these funds. While not legally required to do so, all such Congresspeople should seriously consider returning this tainted funding to prevent the perception of a systemic rot.

The post Here Is How FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) Is Trying to Wriggle His Way Out of a Possible Conviction in the US by Rohail Saleem appeared first on Wccftech.

If you’re seeking a natural 20 on Amazon Prime this weekend, then look no further than the return of The Legend of Vox Machina and we confirm the season 2 release time.

Followers can rejoice after season 2 ends because it was announced back at NYCC 2022 that the anime was green-lit for a third season.

Produced by Critical Role Productions, the adult animation, The Legend of Vox Machina, adapts the first campaign of the Dungeons & Dragons web series Critical Role, and the first ten episodes of season 1 were funded by Kickstarter back in 2019.

• MORE: How many episodes in Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre?

The Legend of Vox Machina release date and time

The Legend of Vox Machina season 2 is scheduled to be released on Friday, January 20, 2023.

Following the release of other Amazon Prime debuts, season 2 will air at Midnight ET. 

This means viewers in the west will receive the debut at 9 pm PT on Thursday, January 19, 2023. 

Below, we have translated what the Midnight ET premiere is the equivalent of in your part of the world:

• United Kingdom – 5 am GMT
• Australia – 2 pm AEST
• Brazil – 1 am BRT
• Europe – 6 am CEST
• India – 9:30 am IST
• Japan – 1 pm JST
• New Zealand – 4 pm NZS

Where to watch

The Legend of Vox Machina is only available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, however, you will need a subscription to access new and all episodes.

Season 1 is also available to stream on the platform, should you need to refresh yourself on the story before jumping into season 2.

Amazon Prime memberships include $14.99 per month/$139 per year in the US and £8.99 per month/£95 per year in the UK.

#TheLegendofVoxMachina drops Friday.

Who’s ready? @FANologyPV

— Prime Video (@PrimeVideo) January 17, 2023

• MORE: Who plays Robert in HBO’s The Last of Us? Meet Brendan Fletcher

Meet The Legend of Vox Machina cast

Season 2 is returning all of your favorite voice actors from Critical Role, including Ashley Johnson and Liam O’Brien.

Matthew Mercer, the dungeon master, will also be on hand lending his voice to various roles throughout season 2.

Additionally, guest stars joining the sophomore season include Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ralph Ineson, Alanna Ubach, Henry Winkler, Lance Reddick, Billy Boyd, Will Friedle, Cree Summer, and Cheech Marin.

Below we have included the main, returning cast for season 2:

• Laura Bailey – Vex’ahlia,
• Taliesin Jaffe – Percy,
• Ashley Johnson – Pike,
• Liam O’Brien – Vax’ildan,
• Marisha Ray – Keyleth,
• Sam Riegel – Scanlan, and
• Travis Willingham – Grog

We can't wait to bring you #TheLegendOfVoxMachina Season Two in January 2023 ??

BUT – it will take more than just two seasons to tell the story of these legends…

? WE'RE OFFICIALLY GREENLIT FOR SEASON 3! ? pic.twitter.com/QSzSl3SY3y

— Critical Role (@CriticalRole) October 7, 2022

By Jo Craig – jo.craig@grv.media

The post appeared first on ForeverGeek.

At 96 years old, movie producer Roger Corman described himself as "semi-retired" in a 2022 interview with Paste, noting that he still has a deal to remake "Little Shop of Horrors" for Paramount Pictures. With a career spanning over 400 movies, which helped launch the careers of filmmakers like James Cameron, Martin Scorsese, and Francis Ford Coppola, Corman has made just about every kind of genre movie under the sun -- including a video game movie starring Mark Hamill.

"Virtually Heroes" isn't a movie based on a video game, but rather a low-budget precursor to "Free Guy," starring Robert Baker and Brent Chase as two video game characters who are tired of dying over and over again. In a nod to his most famous role, Hamill plays a wise monk in brown robes who agrees to teach Baker's character "the cheat codes of life."

Directed by G.J. Echternkamp and executive produced by Corman, "Virtually Heroes" was part of the official selection at the Sundance Film Festival ... in 2013. It has since sat gathering dust for a decade, but in August 2022 it was acquired by Screen Media, which launched the movie digitally on January 17, 2023. According to Variety, Screen Media has partnered with fellow Chicken Soup for the Soul subsidiary Popcornflix, an ad-supported VOD platform, for the release.

How To Watch Virtually Heroes At Home

First of all, if you've seen a lot of Roger Corman B-movies, particularly Vietnam war movies directed by Cirio Santiago, then there's a good chance you've seen chunks of "Virtually Heroes" already. The film's action is largely cobbled together using stock footage from Santiago's movies, and Corman cheerfully admitted that it was an experiment in recycling. "I thought if I could find a way to use the big battle scenes from all of these pictures and put it together in a new picture and shoot just a short period of time to tie them all together, I could get a big-looking picture for very little money," he said back in 2013.

But if you're a connoisseur of Corman films (or a fan of "Mystery Science Theater 3000") and you're not put off by the idea of watching a mishmash of stock footage and hastily-shot new scenes with a bit of Mark Hamill thrown in, you can now watch "Virtually Heroes" in the comfort of your own home. The movie released on January 17, 2023, and can be bought or rented on Google Play and Vudu. The DVD is set to release on January 24, 2023, and "Virtually Heroes" is still expected to end up on Popcornflix eventually, though there's no set release date yet.

Why The Long Wait?

Speaking to Polygon, G.J. Echkternkamp shed some light on how "Virtually Heroes" became a "lost movie" in the first place, and why it's finally being released now. After it screened at Sundance distribution offers did come in, but none that satisfied producer Roger Corman:

"I think it was just one of these weird times. 10 years ago, streaming was taking over, and I think Roger was not happy with the money that all the different platforms were offering. It just wasn't that lucrative. He had been working with Syfy for the past 10 years, doing, like, 'Sharktopus,' and those deals pay a lot more up front. And I think he was just waiting for something better to come along."And I was helpless — I didn't fund it, so I couldn't just say, 'I want it out there. Take whatever, I want people to see it!' And then I moved on, we all moved on. Every once in a while, someone would come back around and make an offer on it, and I would encourage it, but it wasn't enough money. And then, after 10 years, I managed to convince him. Finally, after 10 years, he was like, 'Okay, fine.'"

The director also shared the story behind Mark Hamill coming aboard such a low-budget project. Corman had been pushing to find a star, since even low-budget movies need a big name attached to help sell them. Hamill was ultimately sold on the movie after watching Echternkamp's short film "Captain Fork," a dark comedy about a father who removes all the childproofing from his house in the hopes that his five-year-old son will have an accident and die. Apparently Hamill is just a really big fan of movies about dysfunctional father-son relationships.

Read this next: 17 '80s Action Movies You Definitely Need To See

The post How To Watch Mark Hamill's Lost Roger Corman Movie, Virtually Heroes, At Home appeared first on /Film.

María Laura Cali, Mariana Anghileri and Mauro Altschuler star in the bloody thriller from Argentina, directed by Fabián Forte.

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

What should investors do when the underlying thesis for their investment starts crumbling? Head for the exit, of course. This is exactly what appears to be in store for Digital World (NASDAQ: DWAC)  investors if the latest reporting from NBC pans out.

To wit, NBC is now reporting that the Trump Presidential campaign is planning to petition Facebook's parent company, Meta, to unban the account of the former US President. Reportedly, the campaign has asked Meta for a "meeting to discuss President Trump's prompt reinstatement to the platform." Bear in mind that Twitter, under Elon Musk, has already removed the controversial ban on Trump's account. If the former US President is now eager to return to Facebook, it is only reasonable to conclude that Trump will also reactivate his Twitter account, landing a death knell to his own social media initiative, dubbed Truth Social.

Of course, from a purely political viewpoint, such a move makes sense. After all, Truth Social has just around 2 million daily active users. For comparison, over 200 million people use Twitter daily. With around 500 advertisers recently boycotting Twitter, the global town square is not exactly in a healthy sphere itself.

Bear in mind that Truth Social is a project of the Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG). The SPAC Digital World is slated to take TMTG public via a reverse merger.

With Truth Social's entire raison d'être about to go up in flames, it is hardly a surprise that Digital World shares are tanking, with the stock currently down 3 percent.

Even before today's news, Digital World was largely flailing, besieged by a host of investigations. For instance, the SEC and FINRA are investigating allegations that the SPAC's management violated securities law by holding private discussions about a merger with TMTG as early as May 2021 but failed to disclose this pertinent information in its public filings. The SEC is also looking into reports that Rocket One Capital might have been privy to the impending merger between TMTG and Digital World before the public announcement.

The post Trump Is Apparently Returning to Facebook and Twitter, and Shares of Digital World Are Predictably Crashing by Rohail Saleem appeared first on Wccftech.

Former President Donald Trump has reportedly petitioned Meta to restore his Facebook account. According to NBC News, the Trump campaign sent a letter to the company on Tuesday, pushing for a meeting to discuss his “prompt reinstatement to the platform.” In 2020, Facebook banned Trump following the aftermath of the January 6th Capitol riot. At first, the suspension was set to last 24 hours, but the company made the ban indefinite less than a day later. In June 2021, following a recommendation from the Oversight Board, Meta said it would revisit the suspension after two years and “evaluate” the “risk to public safety” to determine if Trump should get his account back.

Meta did not immediately respond to Engadget’s comment request. The company told NBC News it would announce a decision “in the coming weeks in line with the process we laid out.” In 2021, Meta signaled Trump’s ban wouldn’t last forever. “When the suspension is eventually lifted, Mr Trump’s account will be subject to new enhanced penalties if he violates our policies, up to and including permanent removal of his accounts,” Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said at the time.

The letter is likely a bid by Trump to regain control of his Facebook account ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Trump has more than 34 million Facebook followers, and the platform was critical to his 2016 run. According to a Bloomberg report published after the election, the Trump campaign ran 5.9 million different versions of ads to test the ones that got the most engagement from the company’s users. Meta subsequently put a limit on high-volume advertising. One Trump Organization employee told NBC News that change prevented Trump’s 2020 campaign from using Facebook the way it did in 2016.

Vendors and agencies are actively bypassing the security patch that Adobe released in February 2022 to address CVE-2022-24086, a critical mail template vulnerability in Adobe Commerce and Magento stores, ecommerce security firm Sansec warns.

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One of the greatest joys of actor Ke Huy Quan's seemingly never-ending awards campaign for "Everything Everywhere All at Once" is hearing all of the incredible Hollywood stories he has stored away. Appearing in the '80s hits "The Goonies" and "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," Quan was able to work with some of the greats, including Richard Donner, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Harrison Ford. That's incredible company. Quan, by association, was in rarified air shared with some of the most influential actors and filmmakers in all of cinema history. So, it's no wonder that he has some truly unbelievable tales to share, making him one of the most interesting interviews on the current press trail as we ramp up to the Academy Awards in March.

Until Quan starts revealing more stories about working alongside my childhood hero, Corey Feldman, hearing about his surprise on-set introduction to Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher on the set of "Temple of Doom" will have to do. (I can also go watch Josh Gad's Covid era cast reunion of "The Goonies" for the tenth time.) Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Quan regaled host Josh Horowitz with another heartwarming yarn that just makes me love Quan's comeback story even more.

Not only did Quan get the opportunity to act next to Harrison Ford in his first major role, he also got to spend an entire afternoon with arguably two of the most famous people in the world at that time. "Return of the Jedi" had just been released, wrapping up the original "Star Wars" trilogy. Hamill and Fisher happened to be in London to visit Ford and Lucas on the "Temple of Doom" set at the famed Elstree Studios. The only problem was Quan didn't really know who they were.

Burying The Lead

Addressing Josh Horowitz on Happy Sad Confused, Ke Huy Quan looked back at the surprise meeting that most kids at that time could only dream of experiencing themselves:

"One day two grown-ups came to visit us, and I didn't even know who they were at that time. And it was Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, and we just spent an entire afternoon together. It was not until after the movie when they showed me, when George Lucas screened 'Star Wars' to me that I realized 'Oh my God, that one afternoon I was having so much fun with Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia!'"

I have so many questions. Had Quan never seen "Star Wars" before? Saying that George Lucas screened "Star Wars" for him after they shot "Temple of Doom" seems to suggest that it was Quan's first time watching any of the original trilogy. Quan was around 12-years-old when the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" prequel was filming, literally the perfect age to be obsessed with Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Obi-Wan Kenobi, R2-D2, and C-3PO. Surely, Quan had seen "Star Wars" before but just didn't realize the "two grown-ups" were actually Luke and Leia until he watched "A New Hope" (presumably) again during a personal screening with Lucas (an amazing small detail all by itself). But there's no follow up by Horowitz to confirm this! If Quan hadn't seen any "Star Wars" until 1984 or thereabouts, that's the real story here.

Regardless, it's still incredible to think of Quan as a kid just starting out in the business having that kind of relationship with three legends, all in the span of one afternoon. "You know, those memories that I had of that shoot was that, and it was just so wonderful and amazing, and joyful."

Read this next: Every Steven Spielberg-Directed Horror Movie, Ranked

The post Mark Hamill And Carrie Fisher Surprised A Young Ke Huy Quan On The Set Of Indiana Jones appeared first on /Film.

In 1978, close friends Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell, who shared a history of filming low-budget shorts on Super 8 mm, decided to approach the horror genre with newfound zest. With prior experience directing only comedic films, Raimi started working on a proof-of-concept horror short to attract investor attention and cast Campbell and Ellen Sandweiss as its leads. This project was titled "Within the Woods," which followed a group of friends vacationing at a remote cabin in the woods who experience demonic possession and unimaginable horrors. After the short managed to raise enough money from investors, Raimi fleshed out the initial premise into his low-budget, DIY feature-length horror debut, "The Evil Dead." Upon its release, the face of horror changed forever.

From a narrative perspective, "The Evil Dead" relies on traditional horror tropes that often segue into characters making really dumb decisions that eventually seal their fates. Moreover, the central source of threat in the film, i.e. The Book of the Dead, incorporates the oft-used Lovecraftian motif to rather generic ends. Despite these limitations, the triumph of "The Evil Dead" lies in the way Raimi does so much with so little. For instance, a tense atmosphere is evoked in the beginning solely through a swing battering against the wind, and the film's over-the-top practical effects (read: copious amounts of blood and gore) add a fever-dream tint to the events, helping define the mood of Raimi's cabin in the woods horror.

Raimi's final brush stroke, wherein he leads us to believe that Ash Williams (Campbell) is safe at the end only to violently subvert it, drives the brilliance of the film home. Right at the edge of safety and catharsis, Ash is unjustifiably dragged into another hellish experience. So, what's up with that unexpected, frenetic ending?

Ash Williams, A Reluctant Hero

The final guy/girl trope is a staple in horror, especially the kind where a group is targeted by a deadly threat. This trope has been subverted or reinvigorated to good measure in films like "The Cabin in the Woods," which completely dismantles horror "rules" while paying homage to them. Ash, despite narratively fulfilling the role of the final survivor, continuously undermines the parameters required to achieve that status. Although Ash evolves greatly throughout the franchise, his demeanor in "The Evil Dead" is a far cry from conventional protagonists who survive extreme scenarios in horror movies.

As the film progresses, the audience is made to realize that it's Ash we should be rooting for, even though he doesn't exhibit qualities associated with the final guy. In fact, it is his brash, devil-may-care friend Scott (Richard DeManincor) who does. He proactively fights off Deadites in high-stakes situations and ventures outside to find an alternate escape route. While Scott doesn't hesitate to dismember his possessed girlfriend and subdue Deadite Cheryl (Sandweiss), Ash remains shell-shocked and is initially unable to do what's necessary to survive. However, the reason why Ash survives and Scott doesn't is that the former exhibits compassion even in the face of terror. While Scott's "every man for his own" attitude should've practically saved his life, it doesn't. Ash's predicament emerges as infinitely more nuanced, as he is a reluctant survivor torn between saving his loved ones and butchering them to stay alive.

After Ash succeeds in burning the Book of the Dead, the horrors do not end but mutate. Ash witnesses a horrifying spectacle — guts, blood, and pus exploding out of the Deadites in haunting stop-motion glory — and emerges out of the cabin a changed man. He's been marked, hence hounded in the end despite earning his freedom.

Evil Lurks In Every Corner Of Raimi's World

In "The Evil Dead," no one is safe. Apart from unjustified fates, there's jagged-edged cruelty embedded into the narrative, a case in point being the infamous tree assault scene (which has definitely not aged well). While every character suffers disproportionately, Ash undergoes the cruelest of horrors — his inherent goodness and compassion become weapons for the Deadites to trick and manipulate him, which often lands him in situations that are downright heartbreaking. The kind of evil Raimi posits here does not simply frighten with disgusting viscera and milky-possessed eyes. Here, evil lurks in every corner of the film's worldbuilding, waiting to hook its claws into unsuspecting people, who then transform and taunt their loved ones to the point of psychological abuse.

Circling back to the whooshing camera effect that caps off the film, Raimi used this kinetic shaky-cam effect to denote the ever-watching nature of evil, present way before the group accidentally plays Raymond Knowby's tape. Voyeuristic camera angles saturate the first half of the film, where an unseen force watches the group intently and maliciously while influencing their subconscious. For instance, Cheryl, who seems more psychically attuned than others, etches the Necronomicon in a trance and ventures out alone in the woods despite sensing palpable danger. These decisions, apart from being stock horror devices, also function as machinations of the unseen force.

Even the humor in "The Evil Dead" is tainted by terror, granting the film its telltale unsettling quality. The scene in which Deadite Cheryl mocks Scott's pleas for help to Ash is both hilarious and disturbing, as evil adopts a petty, sarcastic tactic to further traumatize its victims. Using every range of emotion in the human experience, the evil in Raimi's world finds a way to get under your skin.

Laying The Groundwork For A Burgeoning Franchise

The highly-anticipated "Evil Dead Rise" is set to expand Raimi's world and reinvigorate the franchise as a whole. The 1981 original was followed by two sequels, with the second installment re-enacting some of the events of the first film to set the stage for Ash's arc, which still elicits confusion in viewers. Ash's fate at the end of "The Evil Dead" might have initially been written as definitive, but the film's overwhelming success opened avenues for an expanding franchise with Ash as its figurehead. The events of "The Evil Dead II" and "Army of Darkness" re-contextualize Ash's fate in the original, who transforms from a conflicted victim of circumstance to a boomstick-wielding badass ready to do what's necessary. By the third entry in the franchise, Ash finally achieves the thoroughly-earned final guy status.

One of the key reasons why the 2013 soft reboot "Evil Dead" worked so well is that the film managed to expand on the original premise in brutal, creative ways. Despite sharing a similar premise, "Evil Dead" takes a gore-heavy approach that complements the setting while expanding the lore in interesting ways. It ends with a post-credits scene that features an older Ash — an unapologetic reminder of who laid the groundwork for those down the line.

Forty years later, Sam Raimi's "The Evil Dead" still manages to scare. Although some elements seem dated, what persists is Ash's nightmarish journey rooted in radical empathy. Ash does not hack his way to survival or abandon his humanity. He fights as hard as he can, traumatized to no end, shaken but never unmoored from his innate compassion. He grieves, he persists, and he does not look away when evil unravels in hideous ways. Now, that's groovy.

Read this next: Every Sam Raimi Film Ranked

The post The Evil Dead Ending Explained: The Definitive Cabin In The Woods Horror, Even 40 Years Later appeared first on /Film.

There are a lot of great sports movies out there, but very few people will argue with you if you call "Rocky" the most significant sports movie of all time. It's undoubtedly one of the best underdog stories out there. The 1976 film was directed by John Avildsen and written by Sylvester Stallone ("Tulsa King") — in three and a half days — who fought like a champ to not only get the movie made but also to make sure he starred in it. 

In the film, Rocky Balboa (Stallone) is a local fighter and debt collector who gets an opportunity to fight the reigning champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) in a heavyweight championship. He trains in unconventional ways, including punching sides of frozen beef, and though he doesn't exactly win, he does get what he needs; the love of Adrian (Talia Shire) in the end. 

The film is still a favorite among boxing fanatics because of the incredible fights. Weathers (who is now returning to the role of Greef Karga in season 3 of "The Mandalorian") wasn't a boxer, though. He was a former pro football player-turned-actor, and he and Stallone had to do some serious work to make those fight scenes look authentic, according to a 2016 Yahoo! story about the making of the film. 

'Every Champion Was Once A Contender Who Refused To Give Up'

In a 2015 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Carl Weathers recalled that he made a mistake in his audition that could have lost him the role. He said that he was told there was no one to read with and that he was "going to read with the writer." That was, of course, Sylvester Stallone. He said: 

"And we read through the scene and at the end of it, I didn't feel like it had really sailed, that the scene had sailed, and they were quiet and there was this moment of awkwardness, I felt, anyway. So I just blurted out, 'I could do a lot better if you got me a real actor to work with' ... So I just insulted the star of the movie without really knowing it and not intending to."

Stallone apparently thought this was something Apollo Creed would have said, and it got Weathers the role of a lifetime. It seems like they were actually starting on the right foot. However, the Yahoo! story references the 2014 Heavyweight Edition Blu-ray of the film and a story that John Avildsen told about their fight training, and it sounds like it was a bit of a mess. The two of them were working on some fights in a Santa Monica, California gym. Avildsen says, "They got in the ring, and one guy said, 'I'm gonna do this,' and the other guy said, 'I'm gonna do this,' and I realized they weren't going to get anywhere." Avildsen suggested the two map out the fight and learn it as if they were learning a dance, leading Stallone to come in with over a dozen pages of notes the next day with the shape of the fight.

Eye Of The Tiger

Carl Weathers had never boxed before, but if you watch the film, you absolutely cannot tell. Sly Stallone and Weathers did some major training, with Weathers reportedly bulking up for the part through two weeks of eight-hour days in the ring. Not only that, but John Avildsen gave them a little look at what they were doing by shooting 8mm footage of them in that ring, so they could see "how terrible they were." It drove them to get better, sparking the franchise's five sequels and the spinoff/sequel trilogy "Creed," starring Michael B. Jordan. The third film in that part of the franchise will hit theaters on March 3, 2023.

Weathers returned with Stallone in "Rocky II," "Rocky III," and "Rocky IV," and the "Creed" franchise is set around Apollo Creed's son Adonis. "Rocky" went on to be nominated for 10 Academy Awards, winning three, including Best Picture. Even the theme song "Eye of the Tiger" (I won't even apologize for putting that in your head) still conjures up images of that famous final fight.

Read this next: Butkus To Punchy: Ranking All 8 'Rocky' Movies From Worst To Best

The post How Sylvester Stallone and Carl Weathers Nailed Their Rocky Fight Choreography appeared first on /Film.

SHS welcomes the BG1 NPCs for SoA & ToB Mod and with it its AddOn Smiling Imp's Cross Banter Mod. We are happy to give the mods a new home at SHS!

BG1 NPCs for SoA & ToB adds the majority of the NPCs from Baldur's Gate one into Shadows of Amn along with new items, quests, banters, and a city area. It is broken down into different components so that you can mix and match with other mods.

Smiling Imp's Cross Banter Mod adds dialogue between Smiling Imp’s NPCs and other NPCs (Silver Star, Varshoon, Biddekelorak, Yasraena, Saerileth, Tsujatha, Horace, Kindrek, NPCs from "The Beaurin Legacy" mod etc.). The new version v1.6 comes with a readme and one added sound reference for Montaron.

Both mods are compatible with BG2, BGT, BG2:EE and EET.


Forum for both mods

Download for both mods