This weekend, Bethesda is hosting QuakeCon, the annual celebration of developer id Software and the Doom series. There have already been some amazing announcements out of the convention, including official modding support coming to Doom Eternal and the reveal of gameplay for 2025’s Doom: The Dark Ages. But if you…
Some people think Leonardo DiCaprio became a star when he acted in James Cameron’s Titanic. Others believe his stardom predated that movie when he starred opposite Claire Danes in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet. However, the movie that made him an up-and-comer is a film that seems to have been all but erased from his filmography: the 1995 drama The Basketball Diaries, a movie that teamed him with a young Mark Wahlberg, earned good reviews and became a VHS cult hit among teens of the nineties. Yet, it’s a tough film to find unless you’re willing to shell out big bucks for the long, out-of-print Blu-ray (never released in the U.S) or an old-school DVD. You won’t find it on streaming, and it remains an oddly obscure film considering how popular it was in the nineties. What gives?
The Basketball Diaries is based on the life of Jim Carroll, a writer-turned-punk musician, whose 1978 autobiography gives the film its title/ The film tracks Carroll’s dire descent into heroin addiction during his days as a teenage basketball player for a prep school, Trinity College. Living on the Lower East Side with his single mother, Carroll raises hell along with his buddies, hustling basketball, ripping off the teams he plays against, all just being an all-around delinquent while trying to avoid the unwanted attention of his pedophile coach, played by the late Bruno Kirby.
When DiCaprio signed on to do this film, he was fresh off an Oscar nomination for playing a teen with Down Syndrome in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape opposite Johnny Depp. Before that, he starred opposite his future Killers of the Flower Moon co-star Robert De Niro in This Boys’ Life and was on Growing Pains for a season. This movie made him a heartthrob, with ladies (at the time) loving a bad boy. It was an important film for his career and for that of Mark Wahlberg, who was still known best for being the lead singer of Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch and being New Kid on the Block member Donnie Wahlberg’s brother. He was also famous for his Calvin Klein ads, which were photographed by Herb Ritts, and had earned good reviews for a role in Penny Marshall’s Renaissance Man. This movie positioned both him and DiCaprio as heartthrobs in the making, and following it, their careers went into overdrive.
It’s an interesting film to revisit, with Carroll a good role for DiCaprio as he plunges into the depths of heroin addiction with his buddies. It’s well-directed by Scott Kalvert, who did one more juvenile delinquent movie, Deuces Wild, but never landed another movie after it. Tragically, he passed away in 2014 at only 49 of an apparent suicide. This is truly a shame, as it’s fast-paced and well-made, with a propulsive soundtrack that includes many of Carroll’s punk anthems, like ‘People Who Died’, which was recently used in The Suicide Squad. The supporting cast is excellent, with Bruno Kirby and Lorraine Bracco as Carroll’s mom giving good performances. You can also see the Daniel twins, Brittany and Cynthia, turn up as Winkie and Blinkie, the two high society gals that hook Carroll on heroin. Filmed shortly before The Sopranos, you can spot a young Michael Imperioli as Carroll’s leukemia-afflicted best friend, Bobby. Best of all is Ernie Hudson as Carroll’s mentor, a local basketball hustler and ex-gangster who uses tough love to help him get clean of his addiction.
So why is it so hard to find? Part of me wonders if DiCaprio and Wahlberg might be ashamed or wary of revisiting some of the more unseemly aspects of the film. One thing worth noting is that the film has a vivid fantasy sequence where Carroll fantasizes about shooting up his high school, and this sequence, at the time, was widely thought to have been one of the things that inspired the Columbine shootings. The misogyny and casual racism of the film might also shock some fans of the actors, especially when it comes to Mark Wahlberg, who notoriously is a convicted felon for a racially motivated attack when he was a teenager. His role in this film might hit too close to his home for Wahlberg, who’s tried to move on and be a good role model, famously eschewing roles that are too controversial given his faith. The same may indeed be true for DiCaprio, who has his own past he’s trying to live down, as a former charter member of the infamous Pussy Posse, and scenes such as the ones where he hassles Juliette Lewis as a drug-addled prostitute probably make him cringe now.
It should be said that Wahlberg has gone on record about how the film changed his career and how initially he feuded with DiCaprio on set, only for them to bond. He’s also said early roles like this, which made people fear him, were an image he worked hard to shake. That said – it’s a movie, and the unseemly aspects, while hard to watch, make this all the more authentic as a film. Whatever the case may be, considering Scott Kalvert’s short career and the fact that it was so crucial for DiCaprio and Wahlberg, you’d think some studio would snap up the rights or at least issue a decent copy of the movie that you can get through some means beyond piracy. It’s an evocative film of its era and should not be consigned to obscurity. And so what if it’s controversial? It was never meant not to be.
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In any other game, Shadow Of The Erdtree’s the Jagged Peak is endgame shit. It’s a gauntlet of vicious dragons, with escalating difficulty, in an environment that’s about as close to Hell itself without you yourself being on fire—though the dragons themselves will gladly take care of that for you. At the top, though,…
Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy made over $1 billion at the box office, but apparently none of that really trickled down to the actors. At least not ones like Cate Blanchett, recent star of the less-esteemed Borderlands adaptation, who said in a new interview she basically got paid for being in the movie…
In any other game, Shadow Of The Erdtree’s the Jagged Peak is endgame shit. It’s a gauntlet of vicious dragons, with escalating difficulty, in an environment that’s about as close to Hell itself without you yourself being on fire—though the dragons themselves will gladly take care of that for you. At the top, though,…
Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy made over $1 billion at the box office, but apparently none of that really trickled down to the actors. At least not ones like Cate Blanchett, recent star of the less-esteemed Borderlands adaptation, who said in a new interview she basically got paid for being in the movie…
The newest official port of Doom and Doom 2—classic ‘90s shooters from id Software—fully supports player-created mods and maps. And in less than 48 hours, you can now shoot Mario characters in Doom on your Xbox thanks to modders.
The newest official port of Doom and Doom 2—classic ‘90s shooters from id Software—fully supports player-created mods and maps. And in less than 48 hours, you can now shoot Mario characters in Doom on your Xbox thanks to modders.
Two years have gone by since we heard that production had wrapped on Cuckoo, a new horror film from writer/director Tilman Singer that stars Hunter Schafer (Euphoria), Dan Stevens (The Guest), Jessica Henwick (Love and Monsters), Marton Csókás (Freelance), Greta Fernández (Santo), and Jan Bluthardt (Tatort). Now our chance to see the film is upon us, as it has reached theatres today, August 9th. JoBlo’s own Tyler Nichols gave Cuckoo an 8/10 review you can read at THIS LINK, we have interviews with the lead actors HERE, and earlier this week we shared a clip that gave Schafer’s character a terrifying biking experience. A press release noted that Dan Stevens turns in a “brilliant and terrifying” performance in the film, and he has described his role as a “delicious antagonist role.” In the new clip embedded above, we get a 90 second sample of Stevens’ performance, and it is quite creepy.
Here’s the official synopsis: Reluctantly, 17-year-old Gretchen leaves her American home to live with her father, who has just moved into a resort in the German Alps with his new family. Arriving at their future residence, they are greeted by Mr. König, her father’s boss, who takes an inexplicable interest in Gretchen’s mute half-sister Alma. Something doesn’t seem right in this tranquil vacation paradise. Gretchen is plagued by strange noises and bloody visions until she discovers a shocking secret that also concerns her own family. A while back, Variety revealed that the film sees Schafer face off against a mysterious bird-like monster with a scream-like call who seeks to impregnate women with her evil spawn. The story, written by Singer, is based off the lore of the cuckoo bird, some of which are brood parasites, meaning they lay their eggs in the nests of other species.
This is the second feature for Singer, following the 2018 supernatural horror film Luz, which Bluthardt had a role in. Luz told the story of “a young cab driver fleeing from the grasp of a possessed woman, whose confession could endanger the lives of everyone who crosses her path.” Several of Singer’s Luz collaborators joined him on Cuckoo. In addition to Bluthardt, also returning from Luz were cinematographer Paul Faltz, composer Simon Waskow, and production designer Dario Mendez Acosta.
Cuckoo was financed by Neon. The film is being produced by Markus Halberschmidt, Josh Rosenbaum, Maria Tsigka, Ken Kao, Thor Bradwell, Ben Rimmer, in a cooperation between Germany’s Fiction Park and the States’ Waypoint Entertainment. It’s executive produced by Tom Quinn, Jeff Deutchman, Emily Thomas, and Ryan Friscia for Neon. Additional funding came from the Film und Medien Stiftung NRW, HessenFilm, and the German Federal Film Fund.
At one point, it was announced that Gemma Chan (Eternals), Sofia Boutella (The Mummy 2017), Zita Hanrot (Love, Death & Robots), Proschat Madani (Walking on Sunshine), and John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich) would be in the movie as well, but then came the Covid lockdowns and most of them had to drop out of the project. Singer recently revealed that Malkovich was going to be playing the character that ended up being brought to life by Stevens.
Will you be watching Cuckoo? What did you think of the Dan Stevens clip? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
The post Cuckoo clip puts a spotlight on Dan Stevens’ brilliant and terrifying performance appeared first on JoBlo.
Blu-ray.com has announced that Albert Pyun’s 1982 fantasy film The Sword and the Sorcerer is getting a brand new 4K Blu-ray transfer from the British label 101 Films. The movie stars Lee Horsley, Kathleen Beller, Simon MacCorkindale, George Maharis, and Richard Lynch and is scheduled to hit retailers on October 7. Albert Pyun’s 1982 fantasy adventure The Sword and the Sorcerer may not be the most fondly remembered epic of its era, but it was wildly successful. The Sword and the Sorcerer had grossed a spectacular (for the era) $39.1 million, which actually outgrossed Conan the Barbarian in North America by 1 million dollars (at a fraction of the budget).
The description, according to Blu-ray.com reads,
“Meet Talon, a daring mercenary who conquers castles and dungeons alike with his lethal three-bladed sword. But when Talon learns that he is the prince of a kingdom controlled by an evil sorcerer, he is thrust into the wildest fight of his life. Can Talon rescue the beautiful princess and slay the warlock, or will he fall prey to the black magic of medieval mayhem? Lee Horsley (Matt Houston, The Hateful Eight), Kathleen Beller (Dynasty), Simon MacCorkindale (Jaws 3-D) and Richard Moll (House) star in this action-packed adventure saga, filled with brutal battles, plucky maidens, savage monsters and more!”
Special Features and Technical Specs include:
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