A Minecraft Movie revealed itself to the world earlier this month with actor Jason Momoa in a bubble gum leather jacket and a trailer that looked pretty bad. New gossip from the set of the movie also suggests there were some toxic moments lurking beneath the vibrant green screens.
Back in early 2022, it was announced that Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect) was set to star in a true crime serial killer thriller called The Dating Game – and at that time, Watcher director Chloe Okuno was attached to direct the film. By the end of 2022, Okuno had vacated the director’s seat and Kendrick had decided to make her directing debut on the film. The finished product, titled Woman of the Hour, was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, where JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray had the chance to watch it. You can read his 8/10 review at THIS LINK. Following the TIFF screening, the Netflix streaming service purchased the distribution rights for an estimated $11 million… and now, they’re ready to send the movie out into the world. Woman of the Hour will be streaming on Netflix as of October 18th, and with that date just one month away, a teaser trailer and poster have arrived online. You can watch the teaser trailer in the embed above and take a look at the poster at the bottom of this article.
Scripted by Ian MacAllister McDonald, Woman of the Hour is based on the stranger-than-fiction true story of Cheryl Bradshaw, who was a bachelorette on the hit 70s TV matchmaking show The Dating Game and chose handsome and funny bachelor number one, Rodney Alcala. But behind Alcala’s charming façade was a deadly secret: he was a psychopathic serial killer. Here’s the official logline: The stranger-than-fiction story of an aspiring actress in 1970s Los Angeles and a serial killer in the midst of a yearslong murder spree, whose lives intersect when they’re cast on an episode of The Dating Game.
Kendrick is joined in the cast by Daniel Zovatto, Tony Hale, Nicolette Robinson, Pete Holmes, Autumn Best, Kathryn Gallagher, and Kelley Jakle.
Roy Lee, Miri Yoon, J.D. Lifshitz, and Raphael Margule produced Woman of the Hour, with Kendrick serving as an executive producer alongside Stuart Ford, Zach Garrett, Miguel A. Palos Jr., Ian Mcdonald, Joe Penna, Matthew Helderman, Luke Taylor, Paul Barbeau, Sean Patrick O’Reilly, Andrew Deane, and Stephen Crawford. Lorelle Lynch, Chris Abernathy, and Tracy Rosenblum co-produced.
What did you think of the Woman of the Hour teaser trailer? Will you be watching this movie on Netflix next month? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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Diablo 4’s Infernal Hordes bring the onslaught of hell itself, but what exactly is this mode about, and what is the purpose of embarking on a quest for massive bloodshed? You know, beyond the natural satisfaction.
Diablo 4’s Infernal Hordes bring the onslaught of hell itself, but what exactly is this mode about, and what is the purpose of embarking on a quest for massive bloodshed? You know, beyond the natural satisfaction.
Efforts to preserve, spotlight, and celebrate important games of the past have been gaining steam in recent years. Consider, for instance, Digital Eclipse’s Atari 50, a compilation of games from across that company’s history that provides wonderful context in the form of interviews and archival materials, illuminating…
Efforts to preserve, spotlight, and celebrate important games of the past have been gaining steam in recent years. Consider, for instance, Digital Eclipse’s Atari 50, a compilation of games from across that company’s history that provides wonderful context in the form of interviews and archival materials, illuminating…
PLOT: The limited series charts the rise and fall of NFL superstar Aaron Hernandez and explores the disparate strands of his identity, his family, his career, his suicide and their legacy in sports and American culture.
REVIEW: The fourth series in Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s American Story franchise, American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez blends a tale focused on a famous athlete with the criminal angle of related series like American Crime Story. The nineteenth volume in the ongoing franchise, Aaron Hernandez is a story that fits right at home alongside Murphy and Falchuk’s subject matter. There are mental illness, murder, celebrity, and queer storylines in abundance, with a new angle that intends to be something of an indictment of the world of college and professional football. However, rather than make a decisive commentary about how the NCAA and NFL have failed to protect players both medically and socially, American Sports Story is another tabloid true crime drama brought to the small screen, but this time without the all-star cast.
Aaron Hernandez opts for a fairly by-the-numbers retelling of the former New England Patriot’s tumultuous childhood. Opening with the murder of Odin Lloyd by Hernandez (Josh Andres Rivera), the series flashes back to his youth and teenage years alongside older brother DJ Hernandez (Ean Castellanos) as the two athletes are mercilessly coached by their abusive father, Dennis. Hiding his bisexuality from his domineering dad, Aaron struggles to come to terms with his own aspirations as opposed to the path his father has set out for him. As he moves on to play for Urban Meyer (Tony Yazbeck) at the University of Miami, Hernandez’s involvement with gangs and drugs intensifies, as do his successes on the field. Becoming an all-star alongside his Miami quarterback Tim Tebow (Patrick Schwarzenegger), Hernandez sets his sights on the NFL. It is playing for Bill Belichick (Norbert Leo Butz) under the intense media scrutiny pro football players endure that the tight end begins to crumble under the vices he keeps hidden from view.
While American Crime Story‘s look at O.J. Simpson’s murder trial referenced his football success, American Sports Story makes a big deal of the coaching staff and leadership at both the University of Miami and the New England Patriots looking the other way for a lot of Hernandez’s actions. There are also some damning accusations that the institutions may have also harbored knowledge of Hernandez’s medical trauma from concussions and suppressed it to capitalize on his athletic skills to lead the team to Super Bowl championships. While Will Smith’s film Concussion raised a lot of buzz about the NFL and concussions, there has not been very much said from the league regarding the contents of this limited series. Maybe that is because the series is adapted from the popular Wondery and Boston Globe podcast Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc., which already took the brunt of the popularity. That leaves this series as a dramatized work of entertainment rather than an investigative indictment.
Over the ten-episode series American Crime Story: Aaron Hernandez is hyper-focused on the title character’s journey, sometimes dropping recognizable names of players and coaches into the storyline to give it some reliability. But, because of the linear format of this story, the writers sometimes fail to realize that it may not be as interesting a story when solely centered on Hernandez. Josh Andres Rivera, best known for roles in West Side Story and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, portrays Hernandez’s wild-eyed and manic persona, which hides his anxiety and fear of revealing his inner nature. But as the story shifts from youth to professional career and then incarceration, Rivera’s performance takes on a somewhat cliche series of mannerisms and dialogue that is designed to make us feel something for the convicted murderer who suffered headaches and traumatic brain injuries during his playing days. The writers seem to be trying to make it seem that Hernandez may not be fully responsible for his actions, which flies contrary to his behavior before he suffered any injuries.
Directed by Carl Franklin, Paris Barclay, Maggie Kiley, Steven Canals, Jennifer Lynch, and Michael Uppendahl from scripts by Stuart Zicherman, Ryan Farley, Chelsey Lora, Domonique Foxworth, Liz Tuccillo, Matthew Hodgson, Lee Edward Colston II, Hadi Nicholas Deeb, Stacey McCormack, and Tracey Scott Wilson, American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez boasts a creative team with roots in Ryan Murphy’s extended production catalog on series including Netflix’s Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Pose, American Horror Story, and more. The unique addition that helps add some realism to the portrayal of football players when they are off-camera comes from Domonique Foxworth, who played both college and professional football. While Foxworth only has one credit on Aaron Hernandez, there is definitely a focus on trying to make the setting of this series as close to reality as possible.
American Crime Story could not have opened with a better subject for their series, but Aaron Hernandez fumbles. The series could have done something with more energy, but it feels like a generic movie-of-the-week style tell-all that used to debut weekly on network television. There is blame and fear-mongering in abundance, with conflicting messages as to whether abuse was to blame for Hernandez’s actions or a brain injury. By presenting multiple theories with less-than-damning evidence for either, American Crime Story: Aaron Hernandez tells us a story about an American who committed a crime with very little insight that sets it apart from every other true crime series out there. It is not terrible, but it is the weakest entry in any of the American Story series to date.
American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez debuts with two episodes on September 17th on FX.
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Fans of the golden age of martial arts action is about to get a new exciting release from The Criterion Collection. The special preservation and remastering label has released Bruce Lee’s famous films in an amazingly crisp 4K restoration, as well as Jackie Chan‘s biggest films, including Police Story and Police Story 2. Fans of this era of Golden Harvest also have Sammo Hung’s My Lucky Stars, which also features Jackie, and Michelle Yeoh‘s Heroic Trio to view in incredible transfers.
Now, Criterion has announced that on December 17, Eastern Condors — Sammo Hung’s ode to The Dirty Dozen, which co-stars fellow Peking Opera performer Yuen Biao, will be available in an all-new 2K restoration with a new Blu-ray release. Criterion has also revealed all the special features that will be included with the release. You can pre-order the item here.
The description reads,
“Legendary actor-director Sammo Hung delivers a bazooka blast of pure adrenaline in this exemplar of Hong Kong action cinema at its most entertaining. Drawing inspiration from Hollywood war films like The Dirty Dozen, Eastern Condors follows a ragtag band of Asian American prisoners dropped into Vietnam on a secret suicide mission to prevent a cache of weapons from falling into the hands of the Viet Cong, who are more than ready for a fight. Propelled by a dynamic ensemble cast that includes the ever-charismatic Yuen Biao as a black-market trader and a superhuman Yuen Wah as a giggling martial-arts monster, this rip-roaring spectacle offers a nonstop barrage of turbocharged set pieces that defy death, logic, and gravity itself.”
BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
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Hayao Miyazaki is a legendary director and animator whose entire filmography is exceptional, so ranking his films is no easy feat. You’d be hard-pressed to find a “bad” film from the Studio Ghibli co-founder, so this piece is more about ranking from great to masterpiece rather than from good to bad. Miyazaki’s…
Hayao Miyazaki is a legendary director and animator whose entire filmography is exceptional, so ranking his films is no easy feat. You’d be hard-pressed to find a “bad” film from the Studio Ghibli co-founder, so this piece is more about ranking from great to masterpiece rather than from good to bad. Miyazaki’s…