The police procedural series from CBS will be concluding its run this December. Blue Bloods, starring Tom Selleck and Donnie Wahlberg, is currently in its 14th season, and it has turned out to be its last. The show’s star, Selleck, had warned CBS earlier this year that there are an “awful lot of people” who still enjoy the show and will not be ready to see it end. However, Deadline has reported that Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach has officially announced in a press conference yesterday that the show will wrap this year despite the network’s attachment to it.

The first half of Blue Bloods‘ 14th season premiered earlier this year on February 16. The second half, which will serve as the last batch of episodes for the series, will return in October. Reisenbach had told reporters at the press conference, “We really want to thank the cast and crew, everyone involved in the show. We absolutely will miss the family dinners. It is important to give show the sendoff it deserves.” The press conference was called to announce CBS’ slate of shows in the fall. And while many have campaigned to CBS to have them reconsider their decision to end it, Reisenbach insisted, “We love this cast, we love their passion for the show. All shows have to come to an end. It’s important to us to refresh the schedule. We are going to end the show come December.”

Blue Bloods started its run on CBS on September 24, 2010. It would give Magnum P.I. and Quigley Down Under star Tom Selleck a new hit series and the show became a long-running series that spanned over a decade. Selleck released a statement to the fans saying, “For the past 13 years, it has been an honor and a privilege to work on a show that not only celebrates the men and women who protect and serve in New York City, but also displayed the importance of family,” he wrote. “Working alongside these incredible actors, writers, producers, directors, and crew has been a dream come true and I’m grateful to have been a part of this extraordinary group for over 275 episodes.”

The post Blue Bloods will be turning in its badge as the long-running series comes to an end this year appeared first on JoBlo.

Loot Reborn is being positioned as Diablo IV’s most important update since launch. While a bit shorter than most seasons and seemingly lighter on new story content and activities, the underlying rework of the action-RPG’s loot chase and end game grind has players excited. Blizzard recently published the full patch…

Read more…

Loot Reborn is being positioned as Diablo IV’s most important update since launch. While a bit shorter than most seasons and seemingly lighter on new story content and activities, the underlying rework of the action-RPG’s loot chase and end game grind has players excited. Blizzard recently published the full patch…

Read more…

Among the myriad scourges that make playing games in 2024 so tiresome, the need for multiple different accounts to various services ranks high. Helldivers 2 players have just been told by Sony that come next week, they’ll have to link their Steam account with a PlayStation Network account, something it’s been working…

Read more…

Among the myriad scourges that make playing games in 2024 so tiresome, the need for multiple different accounts to various services ranks high. Helldivers 2 players have just been told by Sony that come next week, they’ll have to link their Steam account with a PlayStation Network account, something it’s been working…

Read more…

Back in December, the folks at Spooky Pinball announced that they were making a very limited edition pinball machine inspired by Tobe Hooper’s 1974 classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. If you (like me) weren’t able to get one of those 888 machines, well, at least that wasn’t our only chance to play a Chainsaw pinball game. A while back, Zen Studios brought a horror-themed pinball game called Pinball M to PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store. Pinball M includes pinball games inspired by the likes of John Carpenter’s The Thing, the Chucky franchise, Dead by Daylight, Duke Nukem, and Zen Studios’ Lovecraft-inspired Wrath of the Elder Gods Director’s Cut – and on June 6th, it will be adding a pinball game inspired by the 2022 film Texas Chainsaw Massacre!

Directed by David Blue Garcia from a script by Chris Thomas Devlin (based on a story by producers Fede Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues), the 2022 Texas Chainsaw Massacre has the following official synopsis: After nearly 50 years of hiding, Leatherface returns to terrorize a group of idealistic young friends who accidentally disrupt his carefully shielded world in a remote Texas town. Melody (Sarah Yarkin), her teenage sister Lila (Elsie Fisher), and their friends Dante (Jacob Latimore) and Ruth (Nell Hudson), head to the remote town of Harlow, Texas to start an idealistic new business venture. But their dream soon turns into a waking nightmare when they accidentally disrupt the home of Leatherface, the deranged serial killer whose blood-soaked legacy continues to haunt the area’s residents — including Sally Hardesty (Olwen Fouéré), the sole survivor of his infamous 1973 massacre who’s hell-bent on seeking revenge.

Games Press reports that the Pinball M Texas Chainsaw Massacre will allow you to play as Leatherface and terrorize new arrivals who dare come into your town. Following the harrowing events of the hit 2022 film, you can rev the chainsaw and have a bloodbath on the bus, or sneak up on your unsuspecting victims by shooting the correct targets. Maim and massacre all survivors and reach the Wizard Mode – let no one escape! Aim your shots and use all your skills to take out your victims in one of the most brutal pinball tables ever created.

Mel Kirk, COO of Zen Studios, provided the following statement: “The brutal and unnerving legacy of Leatherface comes to life once again in pinball form. Designer Zoltan Vari did not hold back at all. Players can expect a brutal, bloody, and maniacal table worthy of joining Pinball M.“

A few months ago, we also heard a rumor that Texas Chainsaw Massacre is getting a sequel called Texas Chainsaw Legacy.

Have you been playing Pinball M, and are you excited to learn that a Texas Chainsaw Massacre game is being added into the mix? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Here’s a trailer for the game:

The post Pinball M adding a pinball game inspired by Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) appeared first on JoBlo.

The impressive reboot series of the Planet of the Apes movies continue as the stories look to extend further than the arc of the revolutionary leader, Caesar. The film is upon us as it releases in a few days, and as the film premieres, reactions to the new entry from The Maze Runner director Wes Ball start to roll out on social media. Our official review will be released in the coming week, but our own Chris Bumbray got to catch an extended preview of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes at CinemaCon in Las Vegas and was impressed, calling the footage “pretty jaw-dropping” and a worthy continuation of the modern trilogy.

The reaction from the people at our own site states, “#KingdomOfThePlanetOfTheApes maintains – and builds –  this impressive world that was explored by Matt Reeves. Wes Ball, The Maze Runner director, offers rich characters and an interesting take on the franchise. Perfectly cast, the film continues to take this story to exciting and effective cinematic adventures.”

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff maintains that the series continues to stand strong with this installment, “Between Rise, Dawn, War, and now #KingdomOfThePlanetOfTheApes, this series continues to be one of the very best franchise reboots out there. As expected, there was no better director to take over than Wes Ball. Of course the wizards at Wētā had a big hand in this, but there’s also no doubt that Ball’s personal proficiency with visual effects contributed big time to how incredible this film looks.”

Michael Lee of Geeks of Doom posted that “#KingdomOfThePlanetOfTheApes is a beautiful coming of age story framed around the idea of legacy and what happens to it when it’s lost to time or subverted by the wicked. It doesn’t surpass what Andy Serkis did with his trilogy, but Wes Ball’s approach proves that the franchise has plenty of stories to tell. Kevin Durand’s performance as Proximus Caesar steals this movie.”

Russ Milheim of The Direct also raves, but found the pacing to be off-putting at times, “#KingdomOfThePlanetOfTheApes is a fantastic addition to the series. While it may falter at times in the pacing department, that never keeps the movie from being an absolute thrill. The VFX is astounding and the characters beautifully crafted. Can’t wait to see what comes next!”

Griffin Schiller of Film Speak would interestingly liken this film to A New Hope in his reaction, “Apes have never been STRONGER in @wesball’s MAGNIFICENT #KingdomOfThePlanetOfTheApes! The complexities of Caesar’s legacy loom large, but twisted in this coming of age odyssey of truth & lies, knowledge & power. A breathtaking visual feast! A New Hope for the Apes franchise.”

Total Film’s Emily Murray also had issues with the movie’s pacing as she felt the length, but she was still fascinated by the story, “With #KingdomOfThePlanetOfTheApes being another great chapter, the series continues to hold strong There are undoubtedly pacing issues (too long), but I loved being lost in that world and the exploration of Caesar’s legacy is fascinating. The ending will leave you wanting more”

While Drew Taylor of The Wrap enjoyed the film as well, he also feels the story took some “curious missteps” in his reaction, “Yes, #KingdomOfThePlanetOfTheApes is very good. @WetaWorkshop outdid themselves and it’s good to be back in that world again. (One of the more underrated franchises ever?) The third act is exciting but also features some curious story missteps. Still. Ready for the next one.”

The post Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes reactions hit social media appeared first on JoBlo.

PLOT: When a group of friends recklessly violates the sacred rule of Tarot readings, they unknowingly unleash an unspeakable evil trapped within the cursed cards. One by one, they come face to face with fate and end up in a race against death.

REVIEW: I almost had to check my calendar and make sure we weren’t in January. Usually, this level of horror is relegated to those dark winter months so I was surprised to see Tarot getting a May release. And then even further shocked to not see a single advertisement for the film. I go to the theater a lot and yet I wasn’t exposed to a single Tarot trailer. Never a good sign of a film’s quality. But also brings the advantage of having absolutely nothing spoiled for me leading in. Even still, this film is so generic that I feel like I’d not only seen the trailer, but I’d already seen the entire movie two decades ago.

The story of Tarot follows a group of college friends as they’re off on a weekend getaway. In typical horror movie fashion, they find a mysterious deck of Tarot cards in the basement and decide to use them. What starts as simple astrology readings results in the death of the members of the friend group, correlating to their horoscope. Yes, it’s every bit as dumb as it sounds. Every cliché you can think of, they’ve got here. And given the PG-13 rating, expect tame kills and tired jump scares. With no true establishment of the villain’s powers, the script seems to be constantly making up the rules as it goes along.

I knew I was in for trouble when the film spent nearly ten minutes on Tarot readings. Each friend in the group has theirs read and essentially spells out the rest of the film. The acting is brutal and there lacks any sort of tension. I’ve always found astrology readings to be very dumb so the fact that they’re treated so scientific here is painful. Every reading is taken as an absolute fact. But don’t worry, there’s still a healthy dose of skepticism as characters are constantly wary of their own situation. However, it gets to the point of annoyance as they go back and forth on whether or not they’re cursed. Even after they’ve fully seen the supernatural beings and multiple friends have died. As you can probably tell, you’ll be rolling your eyes a lot during the film.

Jacob Batalon is the only member of the cast that even somewhat works. Harriet Slater‘s accent was constantly popping through and it was very distracting. I loved Avantika in the Mean Girls musical but she just blends into the background here. Thankfully she’s involved in the only interesting kill in the film. I’ll never claim that it’s essential for a horror movie to have a likable cast. It’s an added bonus though not entirely necessary. But if you’re not going to give me someone to root for then at least give me a villain to cheer on. Instead, we’re treated to one of the most unlikable casts imaginable and a villain with weak reasoning. The design of some of the creatures work well but they’re shot awkwardly and lit way too brightly.

Tarot is an unbelievably bad film that will result in more groans than actual scares. It’s increasingly frustrating as it goes along and is lacking in any kind of originality. The creature designs feel very “been there done that” and lack any true tension. The characters are all cliches, constantly making bad decisions. Even looking at it from a trash appreciation angle, it’s hard to see what this film brings to the table. Unlikeable characters, a generic villain, and a story so convoluted it’ll make your head spin. So if you take the chance to see this in theaters, it doesn’t matter what month you were born, your reading is all the same: boredom.

TAROT IS IN THEATERS EVERYWHERE ON MAY 3RD, 2024.

Tarot

TERRIBLE

3

The post Tarot Review appeared first on JoBlo.

The Ghostbusters: Afterlife (watch it HERE) sequel Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (which, of course, also serves as a sequel to the original Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II) reached theatres back at the end of March – you can read our review of the film HERE and see our ranking of the franchise entries at THIS LINK. So far, the film has racked up almost $190 million at the global box office… and now it’s time for its digital release so people can watch it in the comfort of their own homes. According to Film Stories, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will be giving Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire a digital release next week, on May 7th.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife stars Finn Wolfhard and Mckenna Grace are back for the sequel, reprising the roles of Trevor and Phoebe. They’re joined in the cast by Carrie Coon, playing Trevor and Phoebe’s mom Callie; Paul Rudd, back as his Afterlife character Gary Grooberson; William Atherton as Walter Peck, the antagonistic EPA inspector from the first Ghostbusters film; Celeste O’Connor as Trevor’s friend Lucky Domingo; Logan Kim as Phoebe’s friend Podcast; Annie Potts as Janine Melnitz; and new additions Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick), Patton Oswalt (The King of Queens), James Acaster (Hypothetical), and Emily Alyn Lind (Doctor Sleep). And yes, original Ghostbusters Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson are in the film as well, and they have more prominent roles than they had in the previous movie – in fact, the director has said they’re “actual characters” in this one.

At first, Afterlife director Jason Reitman was expected to take the helm of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, once again directing from a screenplay he was writing with Gil Kenan – but then it was revealed that Kenan would actually be directing the new film. He previously directed the animated movie Monster House, the live-action films City of Ember, A Boy Called Christmas, and the remake of Poltergeist, and an episode of the Scream TV series. Kenan has said that he drew inspiration from the Real Ghostbusters animated series and its willingness to be weird and wild when they were coming up with the ghostly threats in this film.

Are you glad to hear that the Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire digital release is just a few days away? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

The post Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire gets a digital release next week appeared first on JoBlo.

PLOT: Michigan, 1963. Kellogg’s and Post, sworn cereal rivals, race to create a pastry that will change the face of breakfast. A tale of ambition, betrayal, sugar, and menacing milkmen, UNFROSTED stars Jerry Seinfeld in his directorial debut.

REVIEW: It took nine years after the series finale of Seinfeld for Jerry Seinfeld’s big screen debut, Bee Movie. That surreal, animated adventure was a spot-on continuation of the stand-up comedian’s brand of observational humor told within the context of a strangely specific world. Unfrosted, which reunited Seinfeld with his team of writers from Bee Movie, is another glimpse into a surreal world that allows him to explore his distinct type of comedy with an all-star cast of talent playing real and fictional characters. Boasting glossy, retro visuals and capitalizing on Seinfeld’s well-known love of breakfast, Unfrosted looks like it was fun to make. I only wish it was as much fun to watch. A safe and strange comedy, Unfrosted made me chuckle a little bit but never rose to the level of comedy it aims to emulate.

Unfrosted is a flashback story about the invention of Kellogg’s breakfast pastry, the Pop-Tart, told by Bob Cabana (Jerry Seinfeld) to a young boy in a diner. In the story, Cabana is a bigwig working for Edsel Kellogg III (Jim Gaffigan) as the company has a stranglehold on the market ahead of rival Post. When Margorie Post (Amy Schumer) reveals she has a product that could destroy Kellogs, Bob Cabana enlists the help of his former coworker Donna “Stan” Stankowksi (Melissa McCarthy), who now works for NASA. Together, Cabana and Stankowski build a dream team of talent, including Chef Boyardee (Bobby Moynihan), Sea Monkeys creator Harold Von Braunhut (Thomas Lennon), bike designer Thomas Schwinn (Jack McBrayer), and fitness guru Jack LaLane (James Marsden). Echoing the Space Race between America and Russia, Unfrosted looks at the ups and downs in the battle of breakfast titans. This includes forays to Russia, run-ins with evil milkmen led by Mike Diamond (Christian Slater), and a bevy of mascots out for vengeance.

For all it sets out to be, Unfrosted should have been an epic comedy masterpiece along the lines of the work of Mel Brooks. With comedic actors like Max Greenfield, Bill Burr, Sarah Cooper, Fred Armisen, and Cedric the Entertainer working with acclaimed actors like Peter Dinklage, Hugh Grant, and Jon Hamm, this movie has one of the most star-studded casts in recent memory. The cameos alone make this worth watching, with a key scene towards the end almost good enough to make the whole movie worth checking out. But, there are so many characters stuffed into this movie that it begins to feel like a parade of everyone that Jerry Seinfeld was able to entice to visit the set and don a funny costume. It is clear that Seinfeld’s connections in Hollywood allowed for Unfrosted to become a celebrity playground, but it is one that was more fun to make than the finished movie is to watch.

While Seinfeld dipped into adult subject matter, Unfrosted is barely a PG-13 endeavor. With very mild profanity and a couple of double entendres, most of this film is fine for general audiences. A lot of the period-specific jokes will fly over the heads of younger viewers, but there is nothing inappropriate in the story. Maybe the safe and wholesomeness of Jerry Seinfeld’s approach to this story prevents it from being funnier. Seinfeld has never been the strongest actor, but he does a decent job as the main character here. Seinfeld allows his co-stars to do the heaviest lifting, with Melissa McCarthy a bit more subdued than usual. At the same time, Jim Gaffigan boasts an over-the-top persona as the fictional Kellogg’s CEO. The combination of historical figures with fictional ones makes for an odd combination, especially with the mascot characters all being played as real people rather than marketing creations. Hugh Grant, who has become one of the funniest actors working, is one of the movie’s bright spots.

As a director, Seinfeld does a competent job with the bright palette of the movie that feels reminiscent of Jay Roach’s work on the Austin Powers franchise. Seinfeld never tries to make the movie look realistic but nails the cartoon-like atmosphere of the story. The screenplay, written by Seinfeld and Bee Movie scribes Spike Feresten, Andy Robin, and Barry Marder, packs in puns and reverent jokes about the 1960s and political figures from that era. Surprisingly, the movie also has a substantial reference to the January 6th insurrection that I did not expect in a movie like this. Jerry Seinfeld has not been shy about politics but never as overtly as he addresses it here. It is not subtle; for some, it may come across in poor taste. I found it to be one of the funnier sections of the movie, and it made me want to see more timely and relevant jokes from Seinfeld instead.

For all the talent involved, including an original song from Meghan Trainor and Jimmy Fallon, Unfrosted is an overly safe and forgettable movie. The credit sequence boasts some bloopers, which adds to my theory of how much fun the cast and crew had making the movie. Netflix clearly shelled out a lot of their seemingly endless cash supply to afford Seinfeld’s dream cast. I do not see how any major studio would have paid to make this movie, which feels like a throwback to an era when projects like this were commonplace. Jerry Seinfeld will likely not make another feature film as Unfrosted was his passion project. Unfrosted ends up like actual Pop-Tarts as a novelty you can enjoy when you remember they exist but never something you will actively seek.

Unfrosted

BELOW AVERAGE

5

–

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The post Unfrosted Review appeared first on JoBlo.