Last month, in what seemed like an eternal battle for the soul of Kevin Smith’s film Dogma, Smith announced that he gained control of the film back from the Weinsteins and is setting up a tour of screenings sometime next year. He explained, “The movie has been bought away from the guy that had it for years and whatnot. The company that bought it, we met with them a couple months ago. They were like, ‘Would you be interested in re-releasing it and touring it like you do with your movies?’ I said ‘100 percent, are you kidding me? Touring a movie that I know people like, and it’s sentimental and nostalgic? Like, we’ll clean up.’”

Deadline is now reporting that Smith has revealed he is now working on a sequel to his 1999 film that drew controversy from Catholic groups. During his Dogma Confessional at the Vulture Festival, the Chasing Amy director expounded, “Some people will be like, ‘Don’t f—ing touch it. You’ll ruin it. And I’m here to tell you: I will. I’m f—ing tickled. I found a way in.”

Not only has he found a way in, but he also hopes that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon will return in — at least — some cameos. Smith expects them to find the time to participate after the director never lets them forget how he helped saved Good Will Hunting and never was acknowledged in either their Golden Globes or Oscar acceptances. Smith said, “I have been able to hold that over both their heads for 25 f—ing years, which is why they keep showing up in all the movies. Expect a cameo from them — more than a f—ing cameo. The only way we get a Dogma sequel made is if they’re there. So count on those guys being there.”

After Smith got back the rights, he hinted not just at a tour and a possible Blu-ray but also even TV versions, citing the cast of Affleck, Damon, Chris Rock and Selma Hayek as still active in the business and thus possibly more options to build on the world. And if not that, they could at least participate in the roadshow in some capacity. He noted that having the rights could mean “sequels, TV versions, in terms of extending the story. Something we could never do before. So, exciting man. And all those people who worked in it are still viable.”

The post Kevin Smith reveals he’s working on a Dogma sequel and is expecting Matt Damon and Ben Affleck to return in cameos appeared first on JoBlo.

PLOT: A father and son working as security guards for an armored truck company encounter a team of would-be robbers while on a bridge. They become trapped and must come up with a plan to escape and ensure their survival.

REVIEW: Sylvester Stallone has been lucky not to have fallen completely down the micro-budget hole to which many other actors of his generation have been relegated. Stallone has been seen in big-screen projects ranging from the Creed series to The Expendables franchise and a great turn in Taylor Sheridan’s Tulsa King series on Paramount+ (read our review of the excellent second season HERE). With documentaries about his career and a reality show with his daughters, Stallone still has bills to pay. Sometimes, a paycheck comes around that you cannot pass up, especially when it requires limited effort. Armor is a generic action flick that benefits from the presence of Stallone and Jason Patric but cannot overcome underwhelming direction and a lack of energy to make it worth investing in despite being a rare villain performance from Stallone. With mediocre effects and lackluster writing, Armor is a misfire in every way.

Armor is a bundle of nonsense wrapped up in bad action and even worse dialogue. The plot centers on father and son armored truck guards James (Jason Patric) and Casey (Josh Wiggins). James is a former cop and an alcoholic, hiding the fact that he is still drinking from his son. James is distant after the tragic death of his wife in an accident years before and makes due driving an isolated route with minimal issues. One day, that route is held up when a crew of thieves, led by Rook (Sylvester Stallone), corners James and Casey on an old bridge in the middle of nowhere to steal what is hidden inside. Having just picked up an unmarked case from a local bank, James and Casey soon realize they are hauling much more than cash. Trapped inside the armored truck, James and Casey must contend with the thieves and the dwindling air as they try to survive.

Conceptually, the concept of Armor could have worked. The dynamic between Jason Patric and Josh Wiggins has some elements that could have stood out if they had been used for more than light character development. For the first half-hour, Armor tries to get us to understand why James drinks and why Casey wants to strengthen his relationship with his father. During these moments, we get prep scenes of Rook and his crew checking their guns and explosives as they get ready for what they expected to be an easy job. As soon as the crew runs down the armored truck, the film loses momentum as the story spends almost half of its running time with Stallone and the bad guys, including Dash Mihok, playing the broadest version of an insane criminal, as they pace the bridge and think of what to do next. Inside, James and Casey try to plot an escape and make time for a quick flashback to give us the context of what fractured their family years earlier. None of these elements are inherently bad, but they do not work well together.

While it clocks in at just under ninety minutes, Armor feels twice as long. There are too many scenes of the characters standing around or talking between a few bursts of action. More attention and time are spent on establishing James’ alcoholism, but it does not serve a real purpose in the film. I waited for Sylvester Stallone to scream or raise his energy level above a grumble, but the legendary actor sleepwalks his way through his scenes. Without divulging plot details, Rook is prepared to let James and Casey die multiple times before professing that he does not kill as he is not that type of person. There is also the fact that not a single vehicle or pedestrian passes the multi-hour standoff on the only river crossing for miles despite seeing houses nearby that would have heard gunfire or explosions. The sheer frequency of illogical and conflicting plot elements and motivations for the characters is enough to drive you crazy if you are not bored to death by the movie.

A quick online search will reveal details about Armor‘s tumultuous production, including the supposed $3.5 million pay Stallone earned for a single day’s work. Other details claim that director Justin Routt, who has not helmed a film since 2011, was not the actual filmmaker and that producer Randall Emmett performed those duties. For a film this small to have this many issues is probably not uncommon, but it does explain why there are over ten minutes worth of establishing shots to pad this film to a feature-length running time. Screenwriters Cory Todd Hughes and Adrian Speckert do not create a single plausible line of dialogue in the entire film, with every actor feeling restricted to a finite list of words they can utter. There is also the bizarre soundtrack, which fades one song out at multiple points and immediately goes into another.

Actors do what they do to get paid, but when a film at least makes an effort to be coherent and enjoyable, it can elevate a film from mediocre to tolerable. In the case of Armor, this film is nowhere near mediocre due to formulaic action that cannot even muster enough energy to keep attention on screen. Jason Patric and Sylvester Stallone still have solid screen presence and deserve much better than movies like Armor. Avoid this one unless you want to see many people talk through a wall between intermittent explosions and gunfire.

Armor will be in Theaters, On Digital, and On Demand on November 22, 2024.

Armor

TERRIBLE

3

The post Armor Review: Sylvester Stallone leads a heist in this by-the-numbers action flick appeared first on JoBlo.

A24 is set to deliver the “disaster comedy of the millennium” when their film Y2K reaches theatres on December 6th – and with that release date swiftly approaching, the marketing department has unveiled a batch of character posters – including one for Fred Durst, whose band Limp Bizkit was enjoying huge success at the time of the movie’s 1999-into-2000 setting.

The feature directorial debut of Saturday Night Live veteran Kyle Mooney, who also crafted the screenplay with Evan Winter, Y2K has the following official logline: On the last night of 1999, two high school juniors crash a New Years Eve party, only to find themselves fighting for their lives in this dial-up disaster comedy.

The film stars Jaeden Martell (Stephen King’s It), Rachel Zegler (West Side Story), Julian Dennison (Hunt for the Wilderpeople), Daniel Zolghadri (Tales from the Loop), Lachlan Watson (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst, Eduardo Franco (The Package), Mason Gooding (Scream VI), Australian rapper The Kid Laroi, newcomer Lauren Balone, Alicia Silverstone (Clueless), Tim Heidecker (Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie), Maureen Sebastian (Revolution), Miles Robbins (Blockers), Ellie Ricker (A Christmas in Royal Fashion), Jacob Moskovitz (Magnum P.I.), Daniel Dale (Elsbeth), Luca R. Stagnitta (Life & Beth), Anzi DeBenedetto (FBI), newcomer Zachary Clark, Frank Langley (Voodoo Possession), Kevin Mangold (Red Clover), Sebastian Chacon (Daisy Jones & The Six), and Mooney himself.

Jonah Hill produced Y2K with Matt Dines, Alison Goodwin, Christopher Storer, Cooper Wehde, and Evan Winter. Steven Fine is co-producer, with James Price serving as executive producer.

I remember the Y2K concerns (and the reign of Limp Bizkit) very well and recall what it was like on the last night of 1999, waiting to see if anything was going to happen to the technology when the calendar switched over to 2000. It’s fun to see a comedic look back on that night 25 years later, although the things that happen in the Y2K trailers are not quite the sort of things people were actually worried about at the time.

Are you interested in Y2K, and will you be catching the movie on the big screen in December? Let us know by leaving a comment below – and take a look at these character posters while you’re scrolling down:

The post A24’s apocalyptic comedy Y2K unveils a batch of characters posters, including one for Fred Durst appeared first on JoBlo.

When there’s something strange in the neighborhood, the first people you’re gonna call are the Ghostbusters. But you better leave Ray Stantz off the list because Dan Aykroyd says he has no place in saving the world anymore.

Speaking with the New York Post, Dan Aykroyd confirmed that he doesn’t see a place for himself – or any of the original Ghostbusters – in the future of the franchise, simply because of how it has progressed over the last couple of entries. “I don’t see that coming. I don’t see where they would need us to carry it on. They’ve got a whole new cast, and they’ve got whole new ideas.”

While Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters – which Dan Aykroyd defends to this day – worked in cameos from the original surviving cast, none of them played their Ghostbusters characters, with Aykroyd as a taxi driver, Bill Murray as an anti-paranormal champion and Ernie Hudson as Leslie Jones’ uncle (Harold Ramis had passed away in 2014.). But the official sequels, 2021’s Afterlife and this year’s Frozen Empire, worked to pay respect to the original crew, using them as legacy characters who could help bring the Ghostbusters to a new generation.

And this is apparently working, as those two movies took in over $400 million worldwide. With a third entry moving forward, the team has established that the likes of Finn Wolfhard and Mckenna Grace are the future of the Ghostbusters franchise (hey, somebody’s got to stop those mini Stay-Pufts). With all of this lined up, the series doesn’t really need Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray or Ernie Hudson (sorry, Ernie, we know you got the shaft in the promos!), as much as it might pain us to say. Then again, it’s not as if we truly want them there anyway – what we really wanted was a legitimate Ghostbusters 3 in the ‘80s…

Across all five films in the series so far, the Ghostbusters movies have grossed over $1.1 billion worldwide, with 1984’s original actually standing as the top earner when adjusted for inflation.

Do you think the future of the Ghostbusters franchise needs the original members? Should it even continue?

The post Dan Aykroyd says don’t expect the original Ghostbusters in any more movies appeared first on JoBlo.

Dune: Prophecy wasted relatively little time setting itself apart from the movies. In the season one premiere of the Dune prequel series, a war is violently declared by the killing of likely the youngest person ever murdered onscreen in director Denis Villeneuve’s Dune universe.

Read more…

Dune: Prophecy wasted relatively little time setting itself apart from the movies. In the season one premiere of the Dune prequel series, a war is violently declared by the killing of likely the youngest person ever murdered onscreen in director Denis Villeneuve’s Dune universe.

Read more…

Wine snobs can be some of the most insufferable people out there. This is displayed perfectly in Alexander Payne’s 2004 dramedy Sideways, if not just through the movie’s most famous line. As delivered by depressed oenophile Miles (Paul Giamatti): “If anyone orders merlot, I’m leaving. I am not drinking any f*cking merlot!” And with that, sales of merlot dropped straight into the barrel.

That sounds like it could be a story tied to the film, sort of like the unfounded rumor that sales of undershirts plummeted because Clark Gable didn’t wear one in a movie. But this is absolutely true. In a new feature marking the 20th anniversary of Sideways, winemaker Doug Margerum remembered the ripple effect that line had, saying everybody started switching to pinot noir instead of merlot. “We were having a hard time selling pinot then, but after the film came out, everyone wanted to drink it and sales skyrocketed. We went from having one page of pinots on the wine list to three.” There was even a Sideways pinot noir released a few years ago.

And this kept building, with sales of merlot continuing to drop while pinot noir – the preferred wine of Giamatti’s Miles – took off. Production even slowed down, with one master sommelier being quoted as saying, “The film had a massive impact on merlot. In many ways, it was necessary. Merlot was planted in vineyards where it should not have been. This led to overplantings. After the film, growers planted less of it.”

One person who could have never figured on such an impact would be admitted merlot fan Alexander Payne, who directed Sideways and co-wrote it with Jim Taylor. “As we were making Sideways, I thought it was just a nice little comedy and had no idea that it would ever stand the test of time. And the merlot line that supposedly changed the wine industry? Well, it was just a joke, one single line in a movie. Who could have ever predicted that?”

Payne and Taylor would end up winning the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar, with the film also snagging four other nominations, including Best Picture. It would also sweep the Independent Spirit Awards, taking home six.

The post How Sideways put a cork in the wine industry’s merlot scene appeared first on JoBlo.

When part one of Kevin Costner’s planned multi-film epic Horizon: An American Saga tanked at the box office – taking in under $30 million on a reported $50 million budget – you really felt bad for the guy. Here was someone who had put over 20 years and millions of his own dollars into his passion project, only to see it pulled from theaters after just a few weeks. But it wasn’t only Chapter 1 that saw an impact: the rest of the four-part saga is suffering as well, with Chapter 2 being lassoed away from the calendar. Yet, while the future seems uncertain for Horizon, Kevin Costner is remaining optimistic.

Appearing at Deadline Contenders Los Angeles, Kevin Costner said he still hopes that Horizon will be seen to its conclusion. “I’m hoping, I’m dreaming, I’m meeting all the billionaires that we all hear about — they’re all hiding in the shadows.” And after Chapter 2, he’s moving onward to the remaining films. “I’m don’t know how I’m going to do it, but I’m going to make it and then I’m going to make the fourth one. And if you want to say ’the end’ at that point, then that’s the end.”

As of now, it feels that, sadly, Chapter 1 might be the end. Shortly after that first part of Horizon was pulled from theaters, it went to Max, marking a rather tragic turn for Kevin Costner, who is one of the biggest champions of the cinemagoing experience. Whether you’re a Costner fan or not (maybe you still hold a grudge over the Yellowstone debacle?), this is awful to see, especially since Chapter 2 had a release date lined up for this past summer.

Our own Chris Bumbray gave Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 a 7/10, saying that had Chapter 2 also been showing that day, he would have caught it immediately after. But with no clear path for that follow-up, it’s hard to say if we’ll ever get a chance to watch all four films consecutively.

Did you see Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1? Do you want to see Kevin Costner complete his Horizon epic?

The post Kevin Costner hopeful that he can finish his Horizon saga appeared first on JoBlo.

 Poetry Comics Month, Day 17: Sky

Is Dwayne Johnson still as big of a star as he seems to think he is? That’s the question that will be at the tip of everyone’s tongue this weekend, with his latest four-quadrant family film, Red One, opening to an underwhelming $34 million domestically. While that’s not a truly terrible number, what makes it sting more than it would otherwise is that the movie carries an astronomical budget of at least $200 million, meaning the movie may – rightly or wrongly – be viewed as something of a flop.

Consider this: Black Adam, which has a reputation for being a flop, still opened with about twice what Red One did. Unless word-of-mouth is terrific, Red One might have difficulty crawling to $100 million domestically.

Yet, it may not be as big of a flop as some think. The fact is, it was designed as a streaming movie for Prime Video, so one could view the theatrical release as an extended tease for its inevitable streaming launch. With the holiday theme, I’d expect it to premiere on Prime within weeks, which may hurt its long-term box office viability. Still, it opened with about $9 million more than I thought it would, and the A-minus CinemaScore rating isn’t half bad.

Venom: The Last Dance slid into second place, with a third weekend total of $7.35 million, adding up to a $127 million total, posting a 54% decline from last week. While that’s not an amazing domestic total for a superhero film, overseas, Venom 3 has been a blockbuster, with it on the cusp of breaking $500 million internationally before long.

Lionsgate’s The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is on track to become their highest-grossing film of the year, making $5.4 million for a total of just under $20 million. It should be able to pass Lionsgate’s biggest earner of the year so far, The Strangers: Chapter One, which made $35 million domestically. Ouch – $35 million is their best? It’s been a BAD year for this studio.

Meanwhile, A24’s Heretic fell 52% – which is a solid number for a horror movie – to a second-weekend gross of $5.3 million and a $20.4 million total, which ain’t bad for a movie that cost under $10 million. The Wild Robot rounded out the top five with $4.3 million and a $137 million total, while Smile 2 started to wrap up its run with $2.9 million in sixth place. The $65 million total is far below the $100 million plus made by the first film, but it still performed well for an R-rated horror film.

Another movie that’s proven to be a word-of-mouth hit is Focus Features’ Conclave. The film only fell 28% this weekend and made $2.85 million for a $26 million gross. It’s nice to see an adult drama having such staying power, which is also the case for Sean Baker’s Anora, which is further down the chart in 10th place with $1.8 million and a $10.5 million gross for Neon.

The Filipino romantic comedy sequel Hello, Love, Again came out of nowhere to make $2.3 million on only 250 screens. It had the highest per-screen average of the week, with $9.3K per screen. Finally, Searchlight’s Sundance breakout, A Real Pain, had a solid wide break with $2.3 million in ninth place. We loved this indie gem (read our review), and it deserves to be seenI

Next weekend should give the box office a huge boost, with Hollywood hoping the Glicked phenomenon (Gladiator/Wicked) becomes the next Barbenheimer. Only time will tell! 

The post Weekend Box Office: Red One has an underwhelming opening appeared first on JoBlo.