I recently got the chance to play four hours of Metaphor: ReFantazio, the fantasy RPG from the minds behind the Persona series. I came away really enthralled by its world and how it seems to be toying with the barriers of fantasy and reality. I was less thrilled with how Atlus attempted to distance its in-universe…
When I was growing up in the ’80s and ’90s, there were a good number of hosted movie shows to choose from. There was, of course, Elvira. On a local channel, I could watch movies that were presented by the duo of Big Chuck and Lil’ John. On The Movie Channel and later TNT, I could watch drive-in critic Joe Bob Briggs host movies. From 1989 to 1998, USA Network aired a hosted movie show on Friday and Saturday nights that was called USA Up All Night, and I regularly tuned in for that. Programming tweaks were made here and there over the years, but for the most part USA Up All Night consisted of three movies that would air from 11 pm to 5 am. Gilbert Gottfried hosted USA Up All Night on Saturday nights, and on January 4, 1991, comedian/B-movie actress Rhonda Shear took over from Caroline Schlitt as the host of the Friday night edition. Joe Bob Briggs now has a show called The Last Drive-In on the Shudder streaming service, which is about to wrap up its sixth season with a six movie marathon called The Last Drive-In: Nightmareathon – and it has been revealed that former USA Up All Night host Rhonda Shear is going to be a special guest during the marathon!
The Last Drive-In: Nightmareathon will premiere on Friday, August 30th at 9pm ET on the Shudder TV and AMC+ TV feeds. The marathon will then be available on demand on both platforms the following Sunday, September 1st.
The special has the following description: Joe Bob Briggs, Darcy the Mail Girl, and a few surprise guests are up all night to party like jungle animals for The Last Drive-In: Nightmareathon, a dusk-to-dawn marathon event celebrating 6 years and 6 seasons with 6 killer movies… just like the devil intended.
On The Last Drive-In, the world’s foremost drive-in movie critic hosts eclectic horror movies, talking about their merits, histories and significance to genre cinema.
Rhonda Shear first hinted at her involvement with The Last Drive-In with a social media post back in June:
After dropping a hint of his own in an interview with our friends at Bloody Disgusting, Joe Bob went ahead and confirmed that Rhonda will be showing up during the Nightmareathon:
Rhonda Shear’s crossover into the world of The Last Drive-In follows in the footsteps of an Up All Night comic book that was published a while back and had Rhonda as the lead character, with Joe Bob Briggs and Darcy the Mail Girl making guest appearances.
Will you be watching The Last Drive-In: Nightmareathon, and are you glad to hear that Rhonda Shear of USA Up All Night will be sharing the screen with Joe Bob Briggs and Darcy the Mail Girl during this marathon special? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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After a quiet few weeks, the dog days of summer seem like they’re finally getting ready to end with the release of one of the most highly anticipated movies of the year, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, next week in theatres. Set for a world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, generations of film fans can’t wait to see Michael Keaton reprise his iconic role as The Ghost With the Most in Tim Burton’s sequel – which we’ve been waiting thirty-six years for!
In the lead-up to its premiere, we were invited by Warner Bros to sit down and chat with some of the key supporting cast members. First up was Catherine O’Hara and Jenna Ortega. O’Hara, of course, reprises her role as Lydia Deetz’s not-so-wicked stepmother, a bo-ho artist who, in the sequel, is now widowed following the death of the character once played by Jeffrey Jones. Jenna Ortega, who’s also working with Tim Burton on the wildly successful Wednesday, plays Lydia’s daughter, Astrid, who accidentally unleashes Beetlejuice (or Betelgeuse) upon the world.
And, it looks like Beetlejuice isn’t alone with time, with our man Eric lucky enough to chat with perhaps the most beautiful woman alive, Monica Bellucci, who co-stars in the film as Beetlejuice’s ex-wife Delores, who has a bone to pick with him. Finally, we spoke to the always genial Justin Theroux, who plays Lydia’s husband, Rory, a television producer who gets dragged into the supernatural proceedings.
Check out the interviews embedded above, and make sure to come back later today for the first reactions to the new film following its Venice premiere. Plus, we have an interview with Tim Burton himself coming up later this week and a whole lot more leading up to our official Beetlejuice Beetlejuice review on September 4th.
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The next installment in Konami’s Metal Gear Solid Master Collection has yet to be officially confirmed or announced, even as fans find evidence of it and reports surface of its existence. So it’s weird that Konami is still playing coy about Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and other games getting new ports.
The next installment in Konami’s Metal Gear Solid Master Collection has yet to be officially confirmed or announced, even as fans find evidence of it and reports surface of its existence. So it’s weird that Konami is still playing coy about Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and other games getting new ports.
Ridley Scott and Paramount have been hyping up the upcoming sequel, Gladiator II, immensely. Paramount President of International Theatrical Distribution Mark Viane would talk up the footage at this year’s CineEurope trade show and declared that he and his peers were blown away by early footage that they saw. Viane would also make the proclamation that Gladiator II has some of the “biggest action sequences ever put on film.”
Additionally, Scott teased, “We begin the film with probably the biggest action sequence I’ve ever done,” Scott teased to Empire. “Probably bigger than anything in Napoleon.” With all the battles the film will feature, both in gladiatorial and war, it’s always been likely that Scott would not shy away from the violence the same way he didn’t with the 2000 original. The upcoming film ratings from the MPA have been released, and Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II has been rated R. The sequel, which stars Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington and Pedro Pascal, is rated R for “strong bloody violence.”
“From legendary director Ridley Scott, Gladiator II continues the epic saga of power, intrigue, and vengeance set in Ancient Rome,” reads the official Gladiator II synopsis. “Years after witnessing the death of the revered hero Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lucius (Paul Mescal) is forced to enter the Colosseum after his home is conquered by the tyrannical Emperors who now lead Rome with an iron fist. With rage in his heart and the future of the Empire at stake, Lucius must look to his past to find strength and honor to return the glory of Rome to its people.“
Gladiator II is set to hit theaters on November 11th, the same day as Wicked, which has some hoping that we’ve got Barbenheimer 2.0 on our hands, including Mescal. “Wickdiator doesn’t really roll off the tongue does it? I think my preference would probably be Glicked if it has a similar effect to what it did for Barbie and Oppenheimer,” Mescal said. “It would be amazing ’cause I think the films couldn’t be more polar opposites and it worked in that context previously. So fingers crossed people come out and see both films on opening weekend.“
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Fortnite’s latest batch of quests for Chapter 5, Season 4 is here. Week 2 introduces five new challenges for you to complete. Each quest is worth 20,000 XP, offering a total of [removes shoes and socks] up to 100,000 XP, used to unlock items in the battle pass. This guide will detail everything you need to know about…
Fortnite’s latest batch of quests for Chapter 5, Season 4 is here. Week 2 introduces five new challenges for you to complete. Each quest is worth 20,000 XP, offering a total of [removes shoes and socks] up to 100,000 XP, used to unlock items in the battle pass. This guide will detail everything you need to know about…
PLOT: An astronaut struggles to maintain his grip on reality aboard a possibly fatally compromised mission to Saturn’s moon, Titan.
REVIEW: Space is a setting that’s often saved for the big budget, bombastic Hollywood films like Star Wars or even Dune. The setting alone is enough to balloon a budget. Yet I’ve always loved it when the horror genre heads to space for a serious outing. Whether it’s Event Horizon or Sunshine, despite their grand concepts, often hit on a more human level. And while Slingshot certainly doesn’t get into any hell-like dimensions, its focus on paranoia and isolation makes it hard to deny its horror roots.
In Slingshot, Casey Affleck stars as John, an astronaut sent on a mission to Saturn’s moon, in an attempt to retrieve resources for Earth. The narrative is told from John’s perspective as he periodically wakes from hypersleep and makes sure the ship is in working condition. When the ship starts showing issues that aren’t picked up by the sensors, his two other shipmates, Nash and Captain Frakes, have differing ideas on how to handle it. Frakes is more level-headed, always seemingly in charge of the situation, while Nash is very paranoid, and wants to abandon the mission. It’s an interesting dichotomy amongst the crew.
Slingshot mostly focuses on the phantom damage to the ship and whether they should go through with the mission. It’s not all set in space as we do get flashbacks to Earth, with a focus on John’s relationship with Zoe (Emily Beecham). Given her limited screen time and importance to the story, I’d argue Beecham is the backbone of the narrative. She’s convincing in every aspect and works well as John’s anchor to earth. She has an intangible quality that I’m shocked hasn’t been taken advantage of in Hollywood. Laurence Fishburne is wonderful as Captain Frakes, with some great monologues to the crew that show how in charge of the situation he is. And it’s hard to see him against the backdrop of space and not immediately think of Event Horizon. Nash (Tomer Capone) works well as the crewmember who is always questioning the mission. Capone really gets to go wild.
The paranoia of whether or not the ship will make it to Titan is evident with every clank and bang of the hull. Can the ship’s instruments be trusted or should they believe what they’re hearing and seeing? Each hypersleep brings them closer to the point of no return as the integrity of the ship comes more and more into question. Despite the looming threat of space, the human element is what shines through the most here. John’s connection with Zoe back on earth leads us to question how someone could even go on a seemingly one-way mission, no matter the achievement. Because loneliness on Earth is clearly a very different thing than loneliness in space, and I love how the film broaches the topic.
One brilliant aspect of Slingshot is its usage of space. Unlike other films with similar budgets (ISS, I’m looking at you), the filmmakers are smart enough to avoid sequences that would break the immersion. In fact, I could actually see the film being done as a stageplay, with its focus on performance and mostly taking place on the ship. The ship is beautifully designed with its simplicity but still dynamic enough that the limited setting never becomes boring. Director Mikael Håfström gives us exactly the right amount of information and spectacle while putting the true focus on the characters. He strikes the perfect balance.
There are some expected as well as unexpected twists and turns throughout the story. As much as they telegraph certain elements, I think that’s to the film’s benefit. Just when you think the answers are revealed, greater questions loom. While it doesn’t go quite as hard with the crazy visuals as I would have liked, this is still a great film about struggle, both physical and mental. And plays beautifully off the notion that the desire and execution of an idea are vastly different. Slingshot is more than just a film about a space mission, it’s a dissection of loneliness, and how that can manifest.
SLINGSHOT will be available in theaters nationwide on August 30, 2024.
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