Hey Connectioneers, it’s time for the Sunday scramble! Puzzling can become a little obsessive for some people. Not “Disney adults dropping $400K large to get unbanned from a cultish sounding dinner club” obsessive, but a little crazy nonetheless.
On Friday night, the hosts of our weekly Live Stream (which you can watch above), Kier Gomes and Tyler Nichols, discussed the horror movies they’re most excited to see this fall – leading up to the spooky movie season (Halloween!). For a detailed breakdown of what’s coming (and beyond) you can check out our horror movie preview here. But, right now, we want to know what Fall Horror Movie you’re most excited to see. Take the poll below and let us know!
The post POLL: What Fall Horror Movie Are You Most Excited For? appeared first on JoBlo.
Say, would you like another chocolate-covered pretzel? Malls may have passed their prime but the rats still roam, as Kevin Smith is still actively interested in returning to his much-discussed Mallrats sequel, Twilight of the Mallrats, if he can get the right support.
Like a schooner in a Magic Eye poster, Mallrats sequel has never fully materialized (whether as a movie or a TV series), with various postponements tied to everything from studio disinterest to the death of Shannen Doherty. But as discussions have popped up once again, Smith sees a way to navigate Universal. “I think we’re going back to have a discussion again about like, look, you guys are never gonna do anything with this. Like, but we can and would and would and would love to. So can you let us take it out? We’re not asking Universal to finance it, but it’s just like, hey, can we have it so we can go out because I can get that movie financed in a heartbeat, Mallrats 2. So, fingers crossed the good folks at Universal go like, “You know what? We’re never gonna do anything with this. Go ahead.’ I mean, it’s hysterical. There are times when I’ve dealt with folks at Universal to talk about a Mallrats sequel and the people I deal with are like, ‘We have Mallrats?’”
Even still, if Kevin Smith never gets around to his Mallrats sequel for one reason or another, he’s pretty indifferent, saying he’s not fully locked in and he’ll manage to move on. Really, that might be the better decision when it comes down to it. After all, hell hath no fury like a fan scorned for a useless sequel…
Outside of the Mallrats sequel, Kevin Smith — always a sucker for nostalgia — recently released The 4:30 Movie, a coming-of-age movie about teens challenged by life, love and the cinema in the 1980s. You can read our review here.
Has the time passed for a Mallrats sequel or would you welcome it? Get back on the escalator and let us know in the comments section below!
The post Kevin Smith says Mallrats sequel is back on the table — snoochie boochies! appeared first on JoBlo.
A California couple says that their retirement plans were set back five years after they lost a lawsuit against Disneyland (DIS), following a ban from the park’s exclusive Club 33.
A California couple says that their retirement plans were set back five years after they lost a lawsuit against Disneyland (DIS), following a ban from the park’s exclusive Club 33.
What makes a movie good? Better yet, what makes it successful? Is it based on office numbers or streaming views? What attracts a viewer to the theater or to press play? Even Steven Soderbergh isn’t quite sure, but he does have one idea on what filmmakers need to do…
Appearing at the Toronto International Film Festival, Steven Soderbergh stated, “It’s gotten more difficult to quantify what is bringing people to a specific film, and what makes a specific film a hit…At the end of the day, the only solve is good shit. You got to make good shit. You’ve got to focus on that.” Adding to this, Soderbegh said that star power almost always has to be a factor. “For movies to work, they need movie stars. It’s great if the story is big enough to pull people in on its own, but that’s hard, and increasingly harder to do.”
Right now, Soderbergh has horror movie Presence creeping closer to release (read our review here). However, it is relying far less on stars than its hook, showing his confidence in the story, which comes from David Koepp. Let’s face it, most people won’t be checking it out because of Lucy Liu but because Soderbergh is toying with the genre – and in a clever way, no less, as Presence is shot in a first-person perspective).
Steven Soderbergh has been in the game for over 35 years, coming in at a crucial time in American cinema, with his sex, lies and videotape reinvigorating the value of independent cinema and giving it a fresh place in Hollywood. That a film would premiere at Sundance and then go on to win the Palme d’Or was mind-blowing (just ask Spike Lee!). Soderbergh has seen the movies evolve dramatically ever since. And while he has plenty of opinions on the state of the industry, he has also learned to adapt as well. We are all familiar with his perceived “one for them, one for me” model, but it’s also great to see that he can bounce between releasing his films theatrically and on streaming services depending on the work. So if this isn’t a guy who can figure out what makes a hit, then who is?
What pulls you more into seeing a movie: the stars or the story? Or is there a combination?
The post Steven Soderbergh’s trick to hit movies? Just make them good! appeared first on JoBlo.
If ever there was an appropriate title for a documentary on Christopher Reeve, it’s Super/Man, as not only did he play the Man of Steel but proved to be one as well. Truly, the story of Christopher Reeve is an inspiring one. Yes, he will always be Superman to all of us, but to a select few, he was dad. Even still, the superhero shined through.
Speaking with People, Christopher Reeve’s son Will said, “Heroism is so much more than superficial strength and a glossy image. It’s about integrity, showing up for your family, persevering through hard circumstances, and still having that joy for life. That was our dad…You show up for the people you love and give them everything you have because you don’t know how long you have with them. That’s something I took from my childhood and will carry for the rest of my life.”
While Christopher Reeve was not without his flaws and his home life had serious disruptions at certain times – all of which is depicted in Super/Man – he still recognized more often than not just what life was all about for those around him. As his daughter Alexandra put it, “It’s a beautiful thing to be able to see the full picture of a person’s life…There were high highs and low lows but also two deep true loves and [three] kids that together blended into this beautiful family.”
Christopher Reeve, of course, suffered a life-changing injury in 1995 when he was thrown from his horse, resulting in him being paralyzed from the neck down for the rest of his life. Soon after, he got involved in activism for those with disabilities, standing as a fighter and champion. Reeve passed away in 2004.
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where our own Chris Bumbray hailed it in a 9/10 review. The movie opens on September 21st.
Outside of the Superman movies, what is your favorite Christopher Reeve performance? Personally, I’m going with Deathtrap, a terrific dark comedy/thriller that he made between Superman II and III.
The post Christopher Reeve’s kids remember his heroism appeared first on JoBlo.
PLOT: A high school science teacher (Brandon Routh) tries to save his students and town from a parasitic alien entity.
REVIEW: Joseph Kahn is one of the most underrated genre directors. His first movie, Torque, was a big flop but holds up relatively well twenty years later as a kind of quasi-spoof of early-2000s era action movies in the vein of XXX and The Fast and the Furious. His follow-up, the teen sci-fi flick, Detention, was a total blast, and the last movie he made, Bodied, was probably his best movie to date. Sadly, it kinda got lost when the short-lived YouTube Red picked it up (and, in fact, you can still see it on YouTube Premium). Now he’s back with Ick, which is very much in the mould of Detention and was one of the most energetic and fun movies I saw out of this year’s TIFF Midnight Madness.
For those who may not know, Kahn is one of the biggest music video directors of all time, with his heyday arguably being the 2000s (although he’s still quite prolific). Ick is a love letter to that era, with the lead, Brandon Routh’s Hank Wallace, having been a high school glory boy back in the 2000s, who lost his shot at the big time after a drunken accident that crippled one of his legs. After digging himself out of a bottle, he became a high school science teacher and is viewed by his students as well-meaning but lame.
Routh’s casting is especially potent, as back in 2006, he was promised the world when he signed on to star in Superman Returns. Despite the movie making a decent amount of cash (it wasn’t the flop people remember it as), for some reason, he never got the push to stardom many predicted. He was also the butt of a notoriously cruel joke in the movie Ted. He’s worked consistently since then, but Ick is his best role, probably since he played the Man of Steel.
His Hank Wallace is similar to his stammering Clark Kent persona in some ways, with him shy around girls (even if they all lust after him) and struggling to stay sober, which isn’t easy as he inherited a bar from his bartender father (the great Jeff Fahey). Once the Ick starts to spread, he becomes an unlikely hero, motivated by the fact that one of his students, Grace (Malina Weissman), might be his daughter, as her mother (another 2000-era icon, Mena Suvari) is his long-ago ex.
Ick is very much in the mould of Night of the Creeps or The Blob (with characters even watching the 1958 version on TV at one point). The interesting twist is that the Ick has actually been present for years, slowly growing over time, with everyone just too ignorant to care (the Ick is also shown to be have spread over the entire country).
Kahn has a blast satirizing the current era, slamming overly sensitive cancel culture, with the kids this centers around so inundated by it that Routh’s character can barely get a word out without one of them slamming him as “ableist” or inappropriate. The movie’s major villain is a teen who constantly goes around accusing everyone of cultural appropriation or being part of the patriarchy, despite him being a white male teen (although he claims to be “1/8th Cherokee with receipts”). Kahn also gets a lot of laughs out of the fact that the final girl, Grace, has grown up believing that she’s half Korean but is probably just fully Caucasian if Hank is her dad.
In that way, Ick works even better as a comedy than a horror film, although the body count is staggering as it goes on. Kahn wants this to go out with a PG-13, so the dialogue is clever but clean, with gore replaced by goo. It feels like the kind of horror movie I would have watched at a sleepover. It’s also a nostalgic blast for those of us who grew up in the 2000s, with Kahn calling upon his deep bunch of musician pals to allow him to assemble a soundtrack of non-stop hits, including everyone from Blink 182 to Creed.
I really hope Ick gets more of a release than Bodied did, as Kahn may well be the best genre director you’ve never heard of, and it’s scandalous that his movies don’t get the attention they deserve. This one is a lot of damn fun.
The post Ick (TIFF) Review: Brandon Routh gets a comeback in this creature feature appeared first on JoBlo.
This week, we got a look at the upcoming $700 PS5 Pro and what it will be capable of when it launches later this year—amd we have thoughts. We also celebrated a bittersweet milestone with Destiny 2, went hands-on with some Capcom classics, and recommended a few games you should absolutely play. Click through for all…
This week, we got a look at the upcoming $700 PS5 Pro and what it will be capable of when it launches later this year—amd we have thoughts. We also celebrated a bittersweet milestone with Destiny 2, went hands-on with some Capcom classics, and recommended a few games you should absolutely play. Click through for all…