Kevin Bacon and Eddie Murphy are both ’80s icons, but the pair never actually worked together until Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, which Bacon said was a “bucket list” moment for him.
“[It’s a] bucket list thing to work with him. He is one of our greatest movie stars ever,” Bacon told People of working with Murphy on the Beverly Hills Cop sequel. “Our paths never crossed in the ’80s. We never worked together. I don’t remember even having met him — I’m sure we probably did, but I don’t remember.” The actor plays Captain Cade Grant in the sequel, a police captain in the Beverly Hills Police Department.
Bacon also praised Murphy’s fantastic improvisation skills. “Eddie is somebody who is a very relaxed and loose and present actor. He comes in and famously does a lot of improvising,” Bacon said. “But when he improvises, there’s improvisation where you can really feel that the improviser is trying to go for a laugh. I never saw him trying to be funny either on camera or off camera, and he’s still hilarious. To the point where sometimes I was about to lose it just because he would look at me.“
Bacon continued: “He really watches the person that he is working with. I’d noticed that he will pick up on some little thing that the other person is doing or saying or whatever, and kind of put it back to them. It was great. I loved working with him.“
The official logline for Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F: “Detective Axel Foley (Murphy) is back on the beat in Beverly Hills. After his daughter Jane’s (Taylour Paige) life is threatened, she and Foley team up with a new partner (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and old pals Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and Taggart (John Ashton) to turn up the heat and uncover a conspiracy.” In addition to Eddie Murphy, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F features the return of several original cast members, including Judge Reinhold as Lt. William “Billy” Rosewood, John Ashton as Sgt. John Taggart, Paul Reiser as Det. Jeffrey Friedman, and Bronson Pinchot as Serge.
Did anyone expect A Quiet Place to become a full-blown franchise? While I certainly enjoyed John Krasinski’s original movie, I definitely didn’t expect it to be followed by sequels, prequels, and more. The franchise will now be expanding into the realm of video games with A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead, and the first story trailer has been released for your viewing pleasure.
From developer Stormind and publisher Saber Interactive, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is a first-person, single-player, horror adventure game in which you play as Alex, an asthmatic college student trying to survive the end of the world with her boyfriend Martin. In keeping with the movies, you’ll have to stay absolutely silent if you want to successfully avoid the monsters.
The official description reads: “Capturing the frantic terror, unnerving atmosphere and gripping human drama that made the franchise famous, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is designed for fans of the films, horror games, and story-driven adventures alike. Experience the journey of a young woman struggling to endure not only the nightmarish creatures of the apocalypse, but also the anguish of interpersonal family conflicts and her own inner fears. With nothing more than your wits and the simple tools you can scavenge, you’ll have to overcome the many treacherous challenges and obstacles that lay ahead, all while trying to survive an ever-present threat of the unknown enemies. Just don’t make a sound…“
The Quiet Place video game will tell a new story in the movie franchise, letting players “experience absolute horror as you hide, distract, and sneak past the ultimate predatory creatures. But beware: even a single noise can give you away.” You’ll have to use your wits and ingenuity to observe each environment and leverage whatever tools you find to overcome the dangers all around you. The game doesn’t have an official release date yet, but it will be available on Steam, Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5.
A Quiet Place: Day One is now playing in theaters, so be sure to check out a review from our own Chris Bumbray right here.
Outer Range, the sci-fi drama series our own Alex Maidy called the weirdest show you’re not watching, has been cancelled after two seasons. With so many TV shows out there, it’s always a shame when a good show slips through the cracks, which feels like what has happened with Outer Range.
The series stars Josh Brolin as Royal Abbott, a rancher fighting for his territory and family at the edge of Wyoming’s wilderness who must grapple with the unknown after discovering an unfathomable mystery on his land in the form of a dark void. The mystery deepens in the second season as Royal and his wife Cecelia struggle to keep their family together in the aftermath of their granddaughter’s sudden disappearance. The stakes have never been higher for the Abbotts, who now face threats on multiple fronts.
In addition to Brolin, Outer Range also stars Imogen Poots (I Know This Much Is True), Lili Taylor (Perry Mason), Tamara Podemski (Four Sheets to the Wind), Lewis Pullman (Top Gun: Maverick), Tom Pelphrey (Ozark), Noah Reid (Schitt’s Creek), Shaun Sipos (Krypton), Isabel Arraiza (The Little Things), Olive Abercrombie (The Haunting of Hill House), and Will Patton (Yellowstone).
Our own Alex Maidy was a big fan of the series but admitted that it wasn’t for everyone. “While Outer Range may be a complex blend of genres, the first season was unlike anything else. Blending elements of everything from Yellowstone to Arrival and The Twilight Zone, Outer Range ended its first season with some substantial cliffhangers, while the second season wastes no time diving right into the murky complexity of this story of multiverses, parallel timelines and so much more,” Maidy wrote in his review of the second season. “Where the first season tried its best to deliver a mysterious narrative through a main sequence of events, Outer Range goes completely bonkers for the sophomore run of episodes, which will likely require viewers to have a pen and lots of paper handy to keep track of what is happening. While that may sound like homework to some, to myself and others, it makes for an immersive viewing experience that requires active participation rather than casual enjoyment.” You can check out the rest of Maidy’s review right here.
Any Outer Range fans out there saddened to see the series get cancelled?
This episode of The Best of the Bad Guys focuses on Pennywise from Stephen King’s It and was written, narrated, and edited by Mike Holtz.
Sometime around the 16th century, a shape-shifting alien life-form landed here on Earth with nothing to eat except for our children. But it gets worse! It’s not just enough to eat the children, the being must scare them as much as possible first. It supposedly makes them taste better. Like when you put a lime in a Corona. Only with fear and murder. You get the idea. You wish you didn’t but you do. So, this supernatural being takes the shape of whatever scares the children the most. A spider? Their abusive fathers? The prices at Disney Land these days? Or its personal favorite, Pennywise The Dancing Clown. Because most sane people are desperately afraid of clowns.
The character was brought to life by the God of so many other disgusting, vile, and downright loathsome creatures and things that go bump in the night, Stephen Effing King! Or just Stephen King if you’re offended by cursing. Which, is weird that you’re offended by innocuous words while watching a video about an alien that likes to eat children but I’m not judging.
Today, we’re not delving deep into King’s version of IT, but rather the film and TV versions of the character. Welcome, to “The Best of the Bad Guys”, where I, Mike by the way, will be ranking the best of cinema’s worst villains on a case-by-case basis. We’ll be talking about both Tim Curry‘s and Bill Skarsgard’s versions of the character as we rank the best kill, scariest moment, quotes, and even the most frightening looks of that big-toothed piece of sh*t (bleeped): Pennywise the clown.
Get your popcorn anywhere but from the clown in the storm drain, settle in and join us as we rank all things Pennywise. Starting with….
PENNYWISE BEST LOOK
For Pennywise coolest look, you can give me all the Andy Muschietti Mama-type oogey-boogies you want to throw at me. You can give me gigantic Beetlejuice worm-looking Pennywise, the far better looking of the two Spider-Pennywise’, Bill Skarsgard big-head and way too wet lips Pennywise you want….but Pennywise has never been more frightening than good ole’ Tim Curry in some regular ass clown makeup.
There is just something about the natural, haunting look of a grown man wearing those baggy, yellow parachute pants that probably smell like Jason Voorhees post-Jason Takes Manhattan toxic waste bath dipped in the sins of OJ Simpson with the lipstick smeared into his teeth that freaks me the hell out. It’s imperfect, cheap, and off-putting in all the ways that make him so frightening.
Suddenly when this “Movie of the Week” looking psychopath breaks out his alien teeth or Mario’s himself down a pipe, it’s far more frightening than someone who doesn’t look human to begin with. It makes you feel like this child-murdering psychopath dressed in a clown suit can get to you anywhere.
Which, is a lot more upsetting than any of his other-worldly forms in a realistic-based fear type of way.
PENNYWISE Best Quote
I very, very much considered this scene a contender for Pennywise’ “Meanest Moments” but for a thing that feeds on young children….a catfish/fat shaming/sexual assault just couldn’t compare. But my lord was an unholy triumvirate of awful regardless.
In this scene, from part two of the 1990 mini-series, John Ritter’s Ben is all grown up and finally about to do tongue stuff with the woman of his dreams. For far, far too long. You feel great for the guy, even if he is kind of Mark Wahlberging her mouth a little bit. Seriously, have you ever seen Mark Wahlberg kiss? It’s like watching the worm version of Freddy Krueger in Dream Warriors trying to swallow Patricia Arquette whole.
Anyway, Ben and Bev are finally making out feverishly when he looks into the mirror American Psycho Christian Bale style. Only instead of checking his guns out, he realizes he’s got a smidge of clown makeup on his face and mouth and that Bev is wearing clown pants and gloves.
Don’t get me wrong, those pants would be horrifying on anyone not tripping balls at a Juggalo convention….but in this case, he realizes that he’s been sucking face with his biggest fear…Pennywise himself.
To make matters worse, Pennywise rears back (his makeup smudged as well, which somehow makes it feel extra gross), smiles big, and says ”Kiss me, fat boy!”
The invasiveness and awfulness of that moment being compounded with a fat joke is just extra cruel. I would have finished our make-out session and then never called him back. It’s the principal of the matter.
In all seriousness, as mean and freaky as this scene is….the fact that Tim Curry could deliver it in a way that was both funny, quotable, and still frightening is a tribute to why he’s so damn special as an actor.
PENNYWISE MEANEST MOMENT
This one is tough. Pennywise is a real dick. You could choose from him impersonating kids dead dads, using the severed head of a recently deceased friend to communicate, or him catfishing Ben into a quick make-out session. But the thing is when it comes to an alien that eats children…there’s kind of nothing meaner than that.
The obvious moment that comes to mind is either of the two Georgie scenes. Sadly, we had to watch that kid die twice. If they make another remake that poor kid is going to start getting into Uncle Ben territory. Then to have Pennywise the Dancing Douche use his form multiple times to taunt Bill….I could see how that could easily take the cake. Then there’s the moment in IT Chapter 2 when Pennywise lures the skateboard kid into the house of mirrors and makes Bill watch helplessly as Pennywise eats another child he can’t save. Pennywise was again, very Mark Wahlberg in Fear at this moment, (Wahlberg’s voice) “Let me in ya’ house so I can eat this little skateboard kid right here. And Nicole, go get me a coke. I am the eater of worlds. Hey yo, Eddie. Say Hi to your Motha for me”. Wahlberg is catching strays in this video a lot. He doesn’t deserve that. He probably does.
If we’re going for longevity here, you could say Pennywise was as mean to Bill as anyone. But as far as a single scene goes, I will give this one to the poor little girl under the bleachers in IT Chapter 2. This sweet little kid follows an ember under the bleachers because she doesn’t want to watch her brother’s stupid baseball game (probably for the fifth time that week) and runs into Pennywise. She quickly says f*ck that THERE’S A CLOWN UNDER HERE! Before Pennywise starts crying on the spot like that manipulative significant other you wish your friend would leave… and she takes the bait.
This poor little girl just wanted to have Pennywise get rid of the birthmark on her face that she gets made fun of for and instead, he eats her face off. That just makes me really sad.
Quick side note here: You could also go with one of the Derry massacres we hear about throughout the movies…but we never really saw those for the most part. Who knows, maybe the new TV Show ‘Welcome to Derry’ will go to all those places we don’t really want it to.
PENNYWISE Grossest Moment
I’d like to call this one the fortune cookie f*ckaroo (bleeped)…and we’re going with the original scene in the ABC mini-series. While the remake added some nice touches (like severed heads floating in the fish tanks all around them) when it comes to gross-out gags, I’m a practical FX over CG guy any day of the week.
In the scene, the now grown-up Loser’s Club gets together for some laughs, cocktails, and Chinese food at the restaurant from the Drake and Kendrick beef. They are having a great time until Bev opens up her fortune cookie and it explodes blood all over her face. A practical blood gag that you can tell startles the Hell out of her in real life…and us too.
Suddenly everyone’s fortune cookies start shaking at the table and turning into little monsters of different sorts. There’s a moving human eyeball, a crusty crab crawler thingy, a gigantic spider, and finally the worst of all…. an unformed baby bird with all of its goo.
WHO THE HELL THINKS OF THIS STUFF? A skinless baby bird inside of a fortune cookie? I can’t think of anything worse. Maybe in the whole world. Human Centipede didn’t even do baby birds inside of fortune cookies. And this was on Cable TV!
PENNYWISE’S BEST KILL
You know, there aren’t a ton of kills shown on screen in this franchise because it’s honestly more frightening to watch Pennywise play with his food or “salt his meats” as he says. That’s a super gross way of putting it, clown man. But surprisingly this award is going to go to Andres Muschietti’s IT Chapter 2. Which, I’ve shockingly talked about far more than I expected to today as it’s my least favorite of all four half installments. Once again, the opening sets the tone for the entire movie when a couple of homophobic douche nozzle Derry residents are beating up a gay couple outside the fair while some snot nose brat roots them on. What are these guys related to the Melaneys from Halloween Kills or something? I guess at least that storyline would have had more of a point than what you did with them huh, David Gordon Green? I bet that guy doesn’t even finish his sandwiches…anyway we’re getting off-topic.
After the puppy-kicking mouth breathers drop the guy into the river, he’s drowning and looks to the shore to see Pennywise hovering around like a cage fighter sizing up his opponent in round one the way I do the donut display case in the morning.
You see his yellow eyes in the distance and it sends chills down your spine. By the time his boyfriend has found him, Pennywise is dangling him in the air before taking a shark-like chunk out of his chest.
What makes the scene so cool though is not only the way Pennywise looks by this waterfront at night but the way he chomps on his meat after the kill. That’s some mother effin great sound work right there, guys! I think if we had more of this Pennywise, rather than jump scare Jerry throughout the film, it would have been a far more frightening film as a whole.
PENNYWISE SCARIEST MOMENT
What I want to say here is every single time Tim Curry appeared as Pennywise the Clown throughout the entirety of the 1990 film. Because to be honest, there was no one moment that stood out above all others. But with each tiny little snippet where he would show up, it was more the anticipation of what he was GOING to do that scared me so.
Showing up while a kid is forced to shower after gym and cornering him before flying down a pipe like some Old Spice commercial directed by Satan is insanely dark. Even if all he does is threaten him. Standing on the side of the road laughing as a car drives by, digging graves, and popping balloons full of blood in the library…..it was always about the lead-up for Tim Curry’s Pennywise. The movie may have never really had the budget to make good on its threats, for which I am almost thankful. I don’t think kid me could have handled it.
But alas, I refuse to cop out and not do as promised. So, while I think Tim Curry’s Pennywise is far more frightening as a whole, I have to admit that most of the singular scenes would cut away or blur out far too often to win this category. I have to give this moment in terrifying time to a moment from 2017’s IT Chapter One.
While many of the gags in Andy Muschietti’s IT films relied far too heavily on CG to truly grab me, despite a bevy of valiant attempts….this scene, in particular, shook the living shit out of me.
As the Loser’s Club clicks through projector slides in a small dark room, the projector goes haywire and starts clipping quickly through photos. With each projector slide or zoom in to a woman with red hair’s face, the screen flickers to blackness. This creates a sped-up version of the good ole’ Texas Chainsaw Massacre camera bulb gag, to almost a strobe-like effect when suddenly Pennywise pops through the screen, now gigantic, crawling quickly towards the kids as they cowered in fear. All the while, the screen still flickers between black frames and Shaq in a shoe-box Pennywise as he gets closer to the camera. It conjures a literal physical reaction in me to get away from the screen.
Now, I understand many will find this moment as Conjuring-esque, as many of the other jump scares in the two films, but there was something about this moment that genuinely gave me extreme anxiety in the theater….and movies just don’t do that to many very often. Life does. But movies? Not so much.
The perfect balance of unexpected anarchy and size disproportion that royally discombobulated my nervous system. Again, to reference some of the empty Conjuring-type scares, it would have been far more memorable had he actually killed someone at that moment rather than just disappearing into the daylight….but it was still a “wear your brown pants” moment for me, personally.
But still, the true answer is just every time Tim Curry was on screen in the 1990 film.
PENNYWISE MOST ICONIC MOMENT
It has to be the original gutter scene from 1990. Is this not what we all think of every time we’re walking the dog past a storm drain? Hell, sometimes I even smell popcorn in the air and do the little “I have to use the bathroom” shuffle past them…and I’m almost forty years old. Where do you think these dad jokes come from?
I chose the 1990 scene over the remake because although we all know ole’ wet lips Bill Skarsgard does an amazing job as Pennywise, for me there’s nothing that can beat Tim Curry in his Dollar General makeup and bloodshot eyes, looking like someone gave a hobo a bottle of Jack Daniels and a bong hit.
The remake had an amazingly traumatic moment when you see Georgie’s arm get dismembered and then he’s pulled into the gutter…..and admittedly far more frightening than just the slow zoom-in to Pennywise as he looks like he’s trying to make out with you….but once again, CG is these other movies enemy. The wackadoodle face they throw on Pennywise when he goes for the bite completely takes you out of the scene.
What makes the original scene so iconic is that
A) It’s exactly how most of us remember Pennywise in pop culture because it’s such a strange sight…a clown in a storm drain trying to lure kids?…..yet also completely believable. People are messed up out there, guys. In 1990 and 2024. Curry’s portrayal of the clown once again felt all too realistic.
B) Tim Curry’s switch back and forth from charming to completely terrifying. The way he gets excited when Georgie asks if they float will never not give me the heebie-jeebies.
Usually, here’s where I would discuss the best death scene for our iconic horror characters but let’s be honest….both movies had terrible endings. We don’t have to relive that here. I mean who knew you could kill a world-eating killer alien clown by calling him a butthead. Like he’s the opposite of the pink slime in Ghostbusters II? And I think we’re all tired of the “If you don’t believe in the monster, the monster is powerless” horror trope. But hey, that’s how it is and that’s the way it goes.
Nevertheless, Pennywise is one of the all-time scariest horror icons out there and I had a terrible but awesome time digging back into his shenanigans with you guys today. I hope you enjoyed yourselves as well and please comment below, what horror icons would you like to see on “Best of the Bad Guys”? And I’m sure you have some different top quotes, kills, and cool moments so please let us know those as well! Until next time!
A couple of the previous episodes of The Best of the Bad Guys can be seen below. To see more, click over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!
The 4th of July is a day for jingoistic mythmaking and summer merriment. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate it than by grilling food, watching things explode, and ordering a bunch of cool stuff online that you totally don’t need but will still be really awesome to have.
The 4th of July is a day for jingoistic mythmaking and summer merriment. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate it than by grilling food, watching things explode, and ordering a bunch of cool stuff online that you totally don’t need but will still be really awesome to have.
Thus far, only one Activision Blizzard-published game has made its way to Xbox’s Game Pass subscription service, almost a year after Microsoft finalized its deal to purchase the massive Call of Duty publisher. But a new report claims more Activision games will (slowly) start coming to the service in the near future.
Thus far, only one Activision Blizzard-published game has made its way to Xbox’s Game Pass subscription service, almost a year after Microsoft finalized its deal to purchase the massive Call of Duty publisher. But a new report claims more Activision games will (slowly) start coming to the service in the near future.
Lionsgate will be bringing a new version of The Crow to theatres on August 23rd – and while we had previously been referring to this project as a remake, Lionsgate recently let it be known that this is not to be called a remake, but rather a new adaptation of the source material, the comic book series created by James O’Barr. During an interview with Empire, director Rupert Sanders also made sure to let readers know that this isn’t a soulless Hollywood remake – rather, he describes it as a scrappy indie.
Sanders said, “There’s nothing to do with Hollywood in this movie at all, it’s a very scrappy indie movie.” Because of its scrappy indie status (even though it had a $50 million budget), Sanders was “able to remain close to the centre and the darkness and the violence that’s in the graphic novel. The only reason we could do that is because it’s not a studio movie.“
Because he only had $50 million to work with, Sanders aimed at making the movie more emotionally resonant, instead of just being a spectacle. He said, “I really hope we’re in for another kind of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls period of having to make these more down-and-dirty films that still feel like big epic movies [but] are weirder and stranger.“
Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) directed this version of The Crow, working from a screenplay by Oscar nominee Zach Baylin (King Richard). The film is produced by Victor Hadida, Molly Hassell, John Jencks, and Edward R. Pressman. Dan Farah serves as executive producer. Here’s the synopsis: Soulmates Eric (Bill Skarsgard) and Shelly (FKA twigs) are brutally murdered when the demons of her dark past catch up with them. Given the chance to save his true love by sacrificing himself, Eric sets out to seek merciless revenge on their killers, traversing the worlds of the living and the dead to put the wrong things right.
As the synopsis mentions, Bill Skarsgard plays the lead character and is joined in the cast of The Crow by singer FKA twigs, who takes on the role of Shelly, the love of Eric’s life. Danny Huston (Yellowstone) plays the lead villain. David Bowles (Brothers), Isabella Wei (1899), Laura Birn (A Walk Among the Tombstones), Sami Bouajila (The Bouncer), and Jordan Bolger (Peaky Blinders) are also in the cast.
Based on the comic book series created by James O’Barr, the first version of The Crow was released in 1994. Following the production of three sequels (each about a different resurrected character), a redux was first announced in late 2008… then it had to make a long journey through development hell. Several screenwriters came and went, scripts were written and scrapped, studios went bankrupt, and directors like Stephen Norrington, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, Corin Hardy, and Francisco Javier Gutiérrez were all involved along the way. Actors up for the lead role during the long development period included Bradley Cooper, Mark Wahlberg, Tom Hiddleston, Luke Evans, Jason Momoa, and Jack Huston.
Are you looking forward to this new take on The Crow? What do you think of Sanders describing the film as a scrappy indie? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
There are no details on which villain Brendan Gleeson may be playing in Spider-Man Noir or if he will be an original creation, but the actor is always a welcome addition to any project; I hope this one pans out. The series will star Nicolas Cage as an “aging and down on his luck private investigator in 1930s New York who is forced to grapple with his past life as the city’s one and only superhero.” Cage first voiced the character in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, where he frequently stole the show, so fans have been pumped to see him bring the character into the realm of live-action.
In a statement earlier this year, Vernon Sanders, the head of television at Amazon MGM Studios, said: “Expanding the Marvel universe with Noir is a uniquely special opportunity and we are honored to bring this series to our global Prime Video customers. The extremely talented Nicolas Cage is an ideal choice for our new superhero and the accomplished producing team with Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Amy Pascal, and the incredible team at Sony is dedicated to expanding this franchise in the most authentic way.“
Katherine Pope, President of Sony Pictures Television Studios, added: “We are absolutely thrilled to have Nicolas Cage starring in this series! No one else could bring such pathos, pain, and heart to this singular character. Along with our brilliant producers and partners at Amazon MGM Studios and Prime Video, we couldn’t ask for a better team to explore this reimagining of such an iconic character in Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters.“
Spider-Man Noir comes to us from Oren Uziel (22 Jump Street) and Steve Lightfoot (Marvel’s The Punisher), who will serve as co-showrunners and executive producers. Harry Bradbeer (Killing Eve) will direct and executive produce the first two episodes. Uziel and Lightfoot developed the series alongside Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Amy Pascal, the team behind the Spider-Verse movies. Lord, Miller, and Pascal will also serve as executive producers on Spider-Man Noir.
