Did you ever have a friend that continually put you in a bad position or made things problematic? Well if you didn’t, perhaps you could’ve just made one up. This is the storyline for the latest from comedic filmmaker Peter Farrelly. Ricky Stanicky features Zac Efron, Jermaine Fowler and Andrew Santino as childhood buddies who invent a fictitional friend, someone to blame on for the trouble they cause. It works so well, they still use this fake friend whenever things go awry. However, that lie backfires on them and they find themselves hiring John Cena to “play” Ricky, the troublesome friend. And since it’s a Farrelly flick, outrageousness ensues.
We recently spoke with this talented cast and the man who brought it all to life. First up, I spoke with Zac Efron and John Cena about the project. Having had the pleasure of meeting these two fine fellows in the past, it’s nice to see the two together in a comedy. John Cena is an incredibly funny man who opened up about playing this wild character. Efron talked about working with Farrelly as well as stepping away from the serious after his terrific work in The Iron Claw.
Jermaine Fowler and Andrew Santino joined me and Lex Scott Davis, who steps in as Efron’s on-screen wife. For Fowler and Santino, the two talked about working with Farrelly and the cast. And frankly, Santino has one of the most cringe-tastic moments in the film, one that I’ll never forget. The two actors are incredibly funny here, and they work perfectly with Efron. And as for Ms. Davis, the actress adds much-needed heart in the comedy. She talked about working with Efron and being a part of this Amazon Prime flick.
Last, but far from least, we had a conversation with Peter Farrelly and William H. Macy, who plays the friend’s boss. For Peter, he discussed why he brings the heart and soul to the humor. It led to an interesting chat about one of the greatest comedies of all time, Airplane. As for Macy, he echoed the sentiments about the director that his co-stars did about working with Farrelly. If you are in the market for a bit of outrageousness, you will want to check out Ricky Stanicky which arrives this weekend on Prime. Bring all your friends, even the fake ones.
Fans of the new live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender should be pleased to know that Aang will be able to continue his journey for two more seasons. According to Deadline, Netflix has renewed the series that is based on the popular Nickelodeon animated show of the same name, which was created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. In the review from our own Steve Seigh, he stated, “The show’s creator, Albert Kim, has quelled my fears of this show becoming another cinematic blight on Avatar‘s good name, and I hope other fans are as impressed with it as I am. I marched into Kim’s series with my hackles raised and expectations on the low end of the spectrum. Being proven wrong feels pretty good right about now.”
Not only has Avatar: The Last Airbender been renewed, but Netflix has given the mystical fantasy two more seasons, which the original animated series also ran. This news comes after the performance of the first season when the show premiered on February 22, with a recorded 41.1 million views in its first 11 days. This ended up topping its TV list for the last two weeks and the series is on track to become one of the streaming platform’s top ten most-watched shows in the first three months of its run. Netflix instituted this move with the intent of closing the show out with season 3 and they intend to film both of the next two seasons in a near back-to-back fashion after their experience with the young actors on Stranger Things going through growth spurts during the series run.
The show is planning to follow a similar structure of the Nickelodeon series. The original’s narrative featured a story spread across three books that were told in three seasons. The animated show would premiere on the famous children’s network in 2005 to a legion of fans, who have almost unanimously rejected the 2010 feature film version, titled The Last Airbender, from director M. Night Shyamalan. The animated series would reach new heights of popularity as the show became a hit on Netflix during the pandemic.
Avatar: The Last Airbender comes from Rideback. In an ironic twist of events, Rideback boss Dan Lin, who is an executive producer on the series, was announced to be replacing Scott Stuber as Netflix’s new film chief.
Helldivers 2 has only been out for about a month and has already evolved so much. At first, players were only laying waste to bugs, but now there are also killer robots to fight on the other side of the galaxy. Planets have been liberated, while others have fallen, and divers discovered that they’re more or less…
Helldivers 2 has only been out for about a month and has already evolved so much. At first, players were only laying waste to bugs, but now there are also killer robots to fight on the other side of the galaxy. Planets have been liberated, while others have fallen, and divers discovered that they’re more or less…
Last month, Full Moon founder Charles Band announced that his company is launching a new production label called Pulp Noir, which will focus on “edgier, weirder, darker horror and dark fantasy films.” They also set up a Patreon account where fans can subscribe and show their support for the company while getting a behind-the-scenes look at the making of these films. The first movie in the Pulp Noir line, a female serial killer story called Quadrant, has wrapped production, and in the latest episode of his YouTube series Full Moon Universe, Band shared examples of the behind-the-scenes videos Patreon supporters get to see. You can check it out in the embed at the bottom of this article.
Directed by Band, Quadrant was written by C. Courtney Joyner and is described as being an unholy blend of steampunk terror and sci-fi slasher, with a female serial killer using the titular VR device to stalk her prey and channel the legacy of Jack the Ripper, and another heroic woman entering the ether-verse to bring her down!
Promotional art features a more in-depth synopsis: Developed by scientists Harry and Meg, the Quadrant helmet allows your mind to transport you into a world where all your phobias and nightmares are real, while also granting you the strength to defeat them, liberating you from their control forever. But the Quadrant experiment is about to go terribly wrong. When Erin, a young girl who’s obsessed with Jack the Ripper, uses the device to actually become the Ripper, she unleashes a reign of terror, first in her mind in an AI version of old London created by the Quadrant, and then in reality, where she now stalks the contemporary city streets, seeking out victims for her blade. The only way to stop this savage new Ripper is for an even more vicious killer to enter the artificial Quadrant-verse and bring her down. What ensues is a brutal, bloody battle, murderer against murderer, both in this world and the surreal, dangerous, synthetic world of Quadrant!
Well, that all sounds awesome to me.
The film stars Shannon Helene Barnes, Emma Reinagel, and Christian Carrigan.
Are you a Full Moon fan, and are you looking forward to Quadrant? Let us know by leaving a comment below – but first, take a look behind the scenes:
The trailer for uplifting drama Sing Sing has arrived ahead of its July theatrical release.
“To die. To sleep. To dream.” In the trailer for the movie, we see Colman Domingo’s character, who is facing 25 years to life at the infamous New York prison, heavily involved with the small theater within the walls, giving hope to those who take part in its productions.
Here is the official plot for the film, as per A24: “A theater troupe finds escape from the realities of incarceration through the creativity of putting on a play in this film based on a real-life rehabilitation program and featuring a cast that includes formerly incarcerated actors.”
Leading the cast is Colman Domingo, who had one heck of a 2023, earning Oscar, Golden Globe and SAG nominations for his tremendous performance in Rustin, as well as lending his voice to DreamWorks’ Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken, turning up in the latest Transformers movie, and playing a crucial role in The Color Purple. Sing Sing premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. He is also attached to a Nat King Cole biopic.
The supporting cast looks filled with some serious talent as well, notably Sound of Metal’s Paul Raci and Clarence Maclin, who actually went through the Sing Sing’s Rehabilitation Through the Arts program and has earned praise for playing himself. In fact, a good portion of the cast is made up of men who went through the same program. On this and working so closely with Maclin, Domingo previously said it was “the most open and raw that I’ve ever been. You can’t lie. You can’t lie with these guys…I did not think it was important to know about why [Maclin] was ever incarcerated. I wanted to be present with the person that he is today, knowing that the RTA program, what they strive to do, is true rehabilitation.”
Such a story may seem sappy on the surface, but with Oscar-nominated prestige and a dedication to the roots of the story, the movie — which holds a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes as of publication — may get around that.
What did you think of the trailer for Sing Sing? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
In the past couple of years, there’s been a growing trend of big gaming companies acquiring studios. One studio that won’t be getting acquired any time soon, however, is Arrowhead Game Studios. The developer of 2024’s multiplayer hit Helldivers 2 recently had to address growing rumors on social media that the studio…
In the past couple of years, there’s been a growing trend of big gaming companies acquiring studios. One studio that won’t be getting acquired any time soon, however, is Arrowhead Game Studios. The developer of 2024’s multiplayer hit Helldivers 2 recently had to address growing rumors on social media that the studio…
I have been a fan of director Jeremy Saulnier’s work ever since his feature debut Murder Party was given a home video release back in 2007, and it has been great to watch his career progress through Blue Ruin, Green Room, Hold the Dark, and episodes of True Detective season 3. Anything he does will have my attention, so I was excited when another Saulnier film called Rebel Ridge was announced back in 2019. Unfortunately, we still haven’t seen Rebel Ridge because the Netflix production was delayed by the pandemic lockdowns, then by the departure of lead actor John Boyega a few weeks into filming, reportedly due to “family reasons.” Saulnier did eventually manage to make the movie, though, and he talked about the troubled production during a recent interview with Film Stories.
Admitting that the making of Rebel Ridge saw him “slamming right into the Hollywood I’ve tried to avoid,” Saulnier said, “We came back three years in a row to make that movie.” The first time was disrupted by the pandemic and Boyega leaving was the “issue that shut us down in year two,” but the third time was the charm. With Aaron Pierre (M. Night Shyamalan’s Old, pictured below) taking over the lead role, Rebel Ridge did make it through production on the third attempt. It wrapped in the summer of 2022, has had a positive test screening, and will be getting a sound mix soon. Saulnier said, “Whatever happened to us along the way, it allowed us to cast a young man, Aaron Pierre, who’s on the rise, who would not normally be allowed to helm a – I think the budget’s 40 million, 37 million, whatever it is.“
That budget makes Rebel Ridge the biggest film Saulnier has made yet, as his previous highest budget was on Hold the Dark, made for less than $15 million. When asked if this film would have the same “sense of isolation” as his previous works, he said it’s the opposite. “It’s still a small town, but it is bureaucracy, it is the justice system, it is a militarized police force. All these things that go down. But it’s a lot of interactivity and talking and fighting. And it’s much more thrust into the mix. So maybe I had my fill of [isolation] and I wanted to go a different direction.“
Plot details are being kept under wraps, but the film has been described as a “high-velocity thriller that explores systemic American injustices through bone-breaking action sequences, suspense, and dark humor.” The movie co-stars the legendary Don Johnson, who previously had high praise for the film in an interview we did with him last year.
Are you a fan of Jeremy Saulnier’s work, and are you looking forward to Rebel Ridge? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
It never gets easier to look up the horrors of what real life humans are willing to perpetrate but some of them are harder than others. Looking into the purported Scottish myth that inspiredThe Hills Have Eyesfor example is a whole heck of a lot easier to do than find out the absolutely abysmal crimes that were committed against a young girl in The Girl Next Door. Sadly, today’s movie The Snowtown Murders, a.k.a. Snowtown (watch it HERE), is a lot closer to the sickening facts that happened to The Girl Next Door. While Australia already got our notorious spotlight shined on the fictional Mick Taylor who was a composite of two backpack killers, today we will look at the man who is known as the country’s worst serial killer and unpack what he did and who with. The movie is hard to watch and the true story was harder to read. Look out for any suspicious looking barrels as we find out what REALLY happened to The Snowtown Murders.
The Snowtown Murders, or just Snowtown, was announced by Screen Australia as an important film that they would be funding in 2010. Screen Australia is the principal government film funding operation for the country that goes for movies about Australia and made by Australia. Two books were the basis of the screenplay with Debi Marshall’s Killing for Pleasure: The Definitive Story of the Snowtown Murders and Andrew McGarry’s Snowtown Murders: The Real Story Behind the Bodies in the Barrels Killings. The screenplay and story for the movie was written by Justin Kurzel and Shaun Grant. Kurzel only has this as a major screenplay but has directed a few notable movies besides today’s powerful story such as Macbeth with Marion Cotillard and Michael Fassbender, the forgettable Assassins Creed adaptation, and The True History of the Kelly Gang. Shaun Grant has written a handful of movies including other collaborations with Kurzel and the Teresa Palmer thriller Berlin Syndrome.
Australia has a fun history with horror including the very successful and still fondly remembered run of Ozploitation movies. Next of Kin, Turkey Shoot, and Road Games are just a few examples of a hell of a run from the 70s and 80s that included slashers, supernatural movies, and even soft-core skin flicks. While they never stopped making movies into the 90s and beyond, they both slowed down in release and changed their approach in a lot of ways. From the fun and fantastic of the nihilistic 70s and excess of the 80s to the gritty realism of the 2000s with movies like Rogue and the aforementioned Wolf Creekand its sequel. Snowtown isn’t your traditional horror movie but just like the true story it’s based off of, its much more horrifying than some of the other movies we talked about.
A lot of the actors used in the movie were locals to add to the gritty realism of the movie. They werent professional actors and even though it comes through on film, it almost adds a documentary feel like Night of the Living Dead. The heart of the movie is Jaime Vlassakis, played by Lucas Pittaway. Pittaway has only done two other feature films to go along with tons of shorts and that’s a shame because he has an intensity and star face that could take him anywhere. If he is the heart of the movie, then the dark soul of Snowtown is Daniel Henshall’s John Bunting. Henshall has turned his starmaking role here into a bunch of other roles including parts in Ghost in the Shell and These Final Hours while also appearing in the nation’s favorite new horror movie; Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook.
The movie opens with a voiceover and an introduction to the family and main characters of the movie. Jaime, his mother Elizabeth, and his 2 younger brothers and older half brother Troy all live in the poor area of Salisbury. Elizabeth is dating a man Jeffery who turns out to be a pedophile and takes pictures of the kids and it is alluded that he abuses them as well. She finds out and attacks him. He still lives across the street but a new man by the name of John is introduced to Elizabeth by her cross-dressing friend Barry. John protects the family and terrorizes Jefferey with loud noises, defacing of property, and even mangled kangaroo parts until he eventually moves away. John becomes the missing father figure for everyone except Troy who seems indifferent at best and hates him at worst. John also riles up the rest of the neighborhood to see who is willing to do what to the rest of the alleged pedophiles in town since the police aren’t doing enough.
(Factometer 50%) A lot of this movie is painfully, tragically accurate to the real murders and atrocities that the community went through. they used a lot of the same names with Jaime, Mark, Elizabeth, John, and a few others being names after the real people that were involved. Jaime lived with his mother and his half brother Troy. Bunting moved on to the same street as the family and was very good at being the cult leader type figure depicted on film. He was able to get associates to agree with him and talk them into things that would end up putting a lot of them in jail or in the ground. There doesn’t seem to be a Barry character in real life and while there wasn’t a pedophile boyfriend of Elizbeth, there was a history of sexual abuse with many of the people that lived in the area.
Troy starts a fight with Jaime but shockingly and horrifically, it turns into a sexual assault perpetrated on Jaime by Troy. John has Barry give up all of the names of supposed pedophiles in the area. John shaves his head and Jaime’s to continue to bond with him and then asks him why he allows people to push him around and take advantage of him. He then has Jaime practice shooting a gun by killing John’s dog that he apparently doesn’t care about. Jaime shoots him but is clearly broken up about it and John has to finish the job. We then hear a recording or Barry saying he is going to go away for a while and on screen we see an ominous slow-motion of John and one of his associates looking menacing outside. John and Jaime, who is now fully bought in on John’s beliefs, go and visit another supposed pedophile and his mother even though the mom says he is harmless.
(Factometer 50%) While it happened earlier in his life, Jaime did confide in Bunting that Troy had assaulted him when he was 13. While there wasn’t a Barry in real life to give up the names and instead Bunting would just pick people at random to accuse them of the crimes. He was prejudiced against people with weight problems and homosexuals and the fact that he was sexually assaulted when he was younger only helped to fuel his anger. While I couldn’t find anything in the realm of the dog shooting scene, Bunting definitely had Jaime, as well as a lot of other members of the community, under his spell. He also worked at an abattoir and claimed that killing animals was the best part of the job. Finally, in regards to that chilling voicemail from Barry, that was how Bunting would stay under the radar as he had all of the victims after a certain point create these.
The relationship between John and Elizabeth has become rocky but the hold over Jaime from Bunting is still very strong. Jaime comes home late with Bunting watching the other kids and when Jaime asks what happened to his hand, Bunting casually walks him outside and shows him the dead body of his friend who was a heroin junkie that got Jaime hooked too. He also shows him Barry and tells him to man up when he throws up. Jaime is forced to help cover up and Bunting holds court again but has a meaner steak this time. Things continue to escalate, and Bunting wakes up Jaime to show him Troy and they proceed to torture and murder him with Jaime’s help while also recording another message to explain that he is going away for a while. The scene goes on for an excruciatingly long time until Jamie is the one to deliver the killing blow.
(Factometer 50%) One of the victims was indeed a drug addict who also got Jaime addicted to heroin. Troy also met an eerily similar fate with the men waking him up with an attack and killing him. While Jaime in the movie is seemingly a much more sympathetic person and at times a victim himself, he helped Bunting with a lot more from the actual killings to getting the financial information from the other victims. In a horrifying attention to detail, many of the deaths were as awful as what we see Troy go through, even if that is the only one, we see on film. I think that’s best for everyone making it through this movie. It also adds more shock value when most of the killing happens off screen and then we see a full on murder that lasts a long time.
The cycle of violence continues with now seemingly anyone chosen to be killed. Mentally challenged, overweight, and even just homosexual victims are picked by Bunting and executed. Jaime continues to fall deeper and deeper into either depression of apathy depending on how you look at it. Mark Haydon, one of the main accomplices, admits that he drunkenly told his wife about everything they had done. This leads to her murder and then Jaime leading his stepbrother to the abandoned bank fault in Snowtown where he is killed as the movie ends. The movie draws out the trip to go look at a computer for a long time where Jaime has a chance to change his mind but he doesn’t.
(Factometer 75%) This last section of film is probably the closest to real life. Mark did tell his his wife everything and admitted to that fact. Bunting killed her and Mark apparently laughed when he saw the body, showing how deep into the Bunting cult he was. Jaime also helped get all the financial information from the victims which allowed Bunting to collect money to both support himself and spend on things to keep his followers happy. The lure of a cheap computer in the late 90s was in fact what got Jaimes step brother David out to the bank and he was the last victim. Chillingly, Bunting and Robert Wagner who was Bunting’s main accomplice, cut off, fried up, and ate a piece of David before putting the rest of him in the barrel.
The movie tells us what happened to everyone but when the barrels were found, Wagner and Bunting were given multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole and Jaime would get life sentences as well but with some parole options down the line after helping the police. His mother would die of cancer shortly after the three men were taken into custody. The shock remains the most brutal killing in the countries history and the movie is very close to what actually happened. That fact makes the movie one of those that you should watch once, but may never want to again. Snowtown does an almost too accurate job of showing us what REALLY happened in Australia during the 90s.
A couple of the previous episodes of WTF Really Happened to This Horror Movie? can be seen below. To check out the other shows we have on the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel, head over to the channel – and subscribe while you’re there!
