Once upon a time, the United States of America would enjoy a holiday called “Thanksgiving.” However, over time, as culture shifted and the country changed, it eventually evolved into the day of celebration we now all know and love. That’s right, Thanksgaming! It’s the day of the year when everyone in America—and all…
Disney’s incredible year at the domestic box office continues, with Deadline reporting that Moana 2 made a gargantuan $57.5 million on Wednesday (including Tuesday previews), which gives the company the single best day they’ve ever had for a Walt Disney Animation title. That’s not too far behind Pixar record-breakers like Incredibles 2 ($71.2 million) and Inside Out 2 ($63.5). Despite those big numbers, I’m expecting Moana 2 to fall short of $200 million over the holiday weekend, with word of mouth a good (but not amazing) A-minus, as reported by CinemaScore. Even still, that will be a massive win for the company, with Moana 2 having started life as a Disney Plus animated series before being reformatted (rather late in the game) to a theatrical tentpole. With numbers like that, clearly, they did the right thing.
So, how is the “Glicked” phenomenon fairing? Well, Wicked is playing to boffo business, making over $20 million yesterday. We think it will finish the holiday weekend in the neighbourhood of $95 million, which would be stunning and pave the way to a $4-500 million domestic finish. Just make sure not to wear green makeup to your screenings, folks!
Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II, which has gotten a mixed reaction from critics and fans alike, is still performing well, with the smart money saying it’ll dip about 50% in week 2, meaning a $27 or so million weekend, and $40 or so million for the holiday. That would put its domestic total well above $100 million, although it might be a slow crawl to $200 million if it can make it to the double-century mark at all.
Red One and Best Christmas Pageant Ever should round out the top five, with neither likely to lose much of their audience given how big the holiday is for family outings to the theatre. Red One should make $12 million, while Best Christmas Pageant Ever should do about $4.5 million.
Here are our predictions:
What are you seeing this holiday weekend? Let us know in the comments.
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Sometimes, you just need to laugh. And in the new comedy The Gutter, from Yassir and Isaiah Lester, you’ll get that chance. The new flick features hilarious performances from Shameik Moore and D’Arcy Carden. It also offers an impressive line up of co-stars including Adam Brody, Rell Battle, Adam Pally, Paul Reiser, and Susan Sarandon. Centering around a miracle bowler, the film offers dramatic actor Shameik (Dope, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse) a chance to try something fresh. And yes, the man succeeds. The chemistry between Moore and Carden is fantastic.
Recently, I had the chance to chat with Yassir, Isaiah, and the film’s co-lead, D’Arcy Carden. First up, speaking to the filmmakers, they opened up about the process of creating this comedy. It’s a rare thing to see an outrageous and sometimes risky comedy in this day and age. They talked about their approach and giving Moore the chance to be funny. As well, we spoke with the lovely Ms. .Carden. She talked about working with the Lester brothers, and finding connection with Shameik. The Gutter opens today in theatres and streaming. If you want to just have a good time and laugh, The Gutter is not a bad place to start.
The post Interview: D’Arcy Carden, Yassir Lester, and Isaiah Lester Talk The Gutter appeared first on JoBlo.
As Nintendo gears up to take down Palworld for its aping of Pokémon game design elements, another high-profile court case seems inevitable with Tencent’s announcement of Light of Motiram (thanks Gematsu), a game that looks uncannily similar to Sony’s Horizon Zero Dawn.
As Nintendo gears up to take down Palworld for its aping of Pokémon game design elements, another high-profile court case seems inevitable with Tencent’s announcement of Light of Motiram (thanks Gematsu), a game that looks uncannily similar to Sony’s Horizon Zero Dawn.
As the evenings get darker earlier, and the leaves turn from red to orange, I can’t help but find myself returning to Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox – which most definitely takes the title of the most autumnal film of all time. The film’s aesthetic pays homage to Quentin Blake’s iconic illustrations that famously brought Roald Dahl’s book to life, it is full of rich colour and the simultaneously unnerving and charming stop-motion animation feels like the ideal way to capture the quirkiness and character of his writing. Anderson knew that in making this feature animated he would lose a percentage of audience interest instantly, yet the film has persevered and remained a firm favourite for thousands. I credit this to how funny, relatable and emotionally engaging the story is in its portrayal of an identity crisis from the perspective of a fox. The story explores themes of acceptance and encourages celebrating difference – a sentiment that is more topical than ever in the current cultural climate.
The stop-motion masterpiece centres on Mr. Fox (George Clooney), who finds his wild animal instincts clashing with the responsibilities he has both as husband to artist Felicity (Meryl Streep) and as father to angsty Ash (Jason Schwartzman). When he decides he doesn’t “want to live in a hole anymore” and moves his family to a cosy house in a tree, he finds it is perfectly positioned opposite the looming industrial farms of Boggis, Bunce and Bean. The delicious possibilities of their presence become an obsession for Foxy, who decides on one last hurrah to steal from each of the farms, and chase the highs of his youth. His actions end up enraging the farmers, who form a plan to fight back, putting the other animals in the community in danger.
Fantastic Mr. Fox was the first Wes Anderson film I ever had the pleasure of watching, and what captured my attention was how unique, engaging and different his style of filmmaking is. It seems poignant, then, that the celebration of difference is one that Anderson explores emphatically in this story. Ash, my favourite character with his small stature, distinct all-white ensemble (cape included), insecure outbursts and insistence that he’s an “athlete”, stands as a representation of difference. Characters repeatedly dismiss him as such, even his father who does not understand his son, but he has an unwavering sense of self-belief. His strong-willed nature in the face of persistent judgement means that when he finally has his hero moment, his realisation that being “little” is not a bad thing is all the more sweet. Foxy’s line is inspired “I think it may very well be all the beautiful differences among us that just might give us the tiniest glimmer of a chance” is my favourite sentiment in the film. The idea that everyone has quirks and distinctions, and the acceptance and appreciation of those traits are what builds a community. It’s a particularly beautiful message to include in a children’s film and one that remains important as we move through life.
It seems strange for a children’s film to centre on the mid-life crisis of its lead. Yet Anderson effortlessly transcends generational boundaries by creating a layered film with a simple ‘David and Goliath’ story at its surface about an underdog (or under-fox in this case) sticking it to three nasty farmers that simultaneously navigates the pretty adult sensation of feeling dissatisfied with the hand you are given and wanting more from life. His world is full of juxtapositions – he justifies his thieving behaviour with the statement “I’m a wild animal”, an ironic statement given the very domesticated life he leads, working a white collar job, wearing a tailored suit and moving his family above ground like a human to not “feel poor”.
“Who am I, and how can a fox ever be happy without…a chicken in its teeth?” Fox says early on; a notion that shapes the entirety of the film. His dreams conflict with his wife who is focused on keeping their family safe, and prefers to exercise her self-expression through painting lightning bolts in her artwork. Mr. Fox’s unrest is the major cause of conflict in the story, as he is itching for more from life, chasing the idea of being “the quote-unquote Fantastic Mr. Fox” – a beatific version of himself intent on perpetually impressing people with his thrill-chasing and perfectly executed heists. The inclusion of the lonely psychotic rat (voiced by Willem Dafoe) who guards Mr. Bean’s cider cellar is almost a warning to Foxy of what he could become if he continues this path of pure reckless desire. Mr. Fox only truly understands what he wants when what he has gets put in jeopardy. The ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ he becomes accepts failure and tries again anyway, shifting his focus from his own glory and channelling that energy for greatness into leading his friends and family to survival.
Foxy’s final stage of acceptance comes when he meets a wolf, a symbol of untameable wildness and the only thing he truly fears. When he sees one in the wild, standing on all fours and wearing no human clothes, Mr. Fox sheds a tear and they raise a paw to one another in solidarity. In this moment, he realises that though he is an animal, he is not as wild as he truly thought. This chance encounter gives him perspective and allows him to make peace with his existence, learning to balance his innate animal behaviour and his domestic life.
Wes Anderson is such a special filmmaker, with his distinct stylised symmetrical visual masterpieces and his ability to not let style overtake substance. 15 years later the emotive themes of identity, the acceptance of change and the idea that “there’s something kind of fantastic” about being different are still just as moving. The message to take away is comforting; as you learn more about your existence, as you grow older and perhaps become a parent, your perspective changes. But this doesn’t have to be a bad thing; it just means that the adventures you’re going to have might be a bit different to the ones you imagined. The Fantastic Mr. Fox he thought he would be isn’t the Fantastic Mr. Fox he became – but that does not make him any less brilliant.
The post Fantastic Mr. Fox at 15: a celebration of change and difference appeared first on Little White Lies.
John Hughes is responsible for the greatest Thanksgiving movie of all time, 1987’s poignant Planes, Trains & Automobiles. This Steve Martin and John Candy-led classic has become a perennial and a movie tons of folks have probably been revisiting this week. However, about four years later, in 1991, John Hughes made another Thanksgiving movie in the same vein, Dutch. Despite being a pretty solid movie with a very recognizable cast, it’s a hard movie to track down nowadays.
Dutch is very much in the vein of Planes, Trains & Automobiles in that it pairs a snooty, white-collar guy with a more down-to-earth, blue-collar kind of guy. The big twist here is that the white-collar guy is a kid, with Ethan Embry (then known as Ethan Randall) playing a prep-school kid who winds up on a long journey home for Thanksgiving with his mom’s new boyfriend, Dutch, played by Ed O’Neill.
At the time, O’Neill was riding high off the success of TV’s Married…with Children. Known for playing the boorish Al Bundy, this was an attempt to turn O’Neill into a movie star, with him also memorably turning up in The Adventures of Ford Fairlane around this time. For whatever reason, Dutch was a box office dud, only grossing about $4.6 million, although it became a major hit on home video.
Dutch is a fun movie, with O’Neill’s Dutch Dooley very much in the mode of the kinds of characters John Candy used to regularly play for Hughes, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if the movie was initially written for him. He’s a funny, blue-collar kind of guy, but he’s also street smart and tough, with the movie climaxing with him punching out the movie’s villain – just like you’d normally see Candy do (such as when he punched the drunk clown in Uncle Buck).
The chemistry between O’Neill and young Embry is great, and about twelve years later, the two actually re-teamed on a short-lived remake of the classic cop show, Dragnet. Of course, O’Neill would eventually star on ABC’s Modern Family, but despite his fame, Dutch never really got rediscovered. It was briefly on DVD and Blu-ray, but it’s long out-of-print and isn’t streaming (legally) anywhere. It’s not typically talked about as far as John Hughes’s body of work goes, as he only wrote and produced the film, with it being directed by Crocodile Dundee’s Peter Faiman. Yet, it definitely feels like a Hughes movie, complete with heavy use of the band Yello on the soundtrack (who memorably contributed to the Ferris Bueller’s Day Off soundtrack).
So, why is Dutch so hard to find? The movie is likely owned by Disney, with it initially being a 20th Century Fox release, although it’s possible the rights have reverted back to the Hughes Estate. It would be a no-brainer for a company like Arrow, Kino Lorber, or Shout Factory to pick up, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Does anyone remember Dutch? Let us know in the comments!
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John Hughes is responsible for the greatest Thanksgiving movie of all time, 1987’s poignant Planes, Trains & Automobiles. This Steve Martin and John Candy-led classic has become a perennial and a movie tons of folks have probably been revisiting this week. However, about four years later, in 1991, John Hughes made another Thanksgiving movie in the same vein, Dutch. Despite being a pretty solid movie with a very recognizable cast, it’s a hard movie to track down nowadays.
Dutch is very much in the vein of Planes, Trains & Automobiles in that it pairs a snooty, white-collar guy with a more down-to-earth, blue-collar kind of guy. The big twist here is that the white-collar guy is a kid, with Ethan Embry (then known as Ethan Randall) playing a prep-school kid who winds up on a long journey home for Thanksgiving with his mom’s new boyfriend, Dutch, played by Ed O’Neill.
At the time, O’Neill was riding high off the success of TV’s Married…with Children. Known for playing the boorish Al Bundy, this was an attempt to turn O’Neill into a movie star, with him also memorably turning up in The Adventures of Ford Fairlane around this time. For whatever reason, Dutch was a box office dud, only grossing about $4.6 million, although it became a major hit on home video.
Dutch is a fun movie, with O’Neill’s Dutch Dooley very much in the mode of the kinds of characters John Candy used to regularly play for Hughes, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if the movie was initially written for him. He’s a funny, blue-collar kind of guy, but he’s also street smart and tough, with the movie climaxing with him punching out the movie’s villain – just like you’d normally see Candy do (such as when he punched the drunk clown in Uncle Buck).
The chemistry between O’Neill and young Embry is great, and about twelve years later, the two actually re-teamed on a short-lived remake of the classic cop show, Dragnet. Of course, O’Neill would eventually star on ABC’s Modern Family, but despite his fame, Dutch never really got rediscovered. It was briefly on DVD and Blu-ray, but it’s long out-of-print and isn’t streaming (legally) anywhere. It’s not typically talked about as far as John Hughes’s body of work goes, as he only wrote and produced the film, with it being directed by Crocodile Dundee’s Peter Faiman. Yet, it definitely feels like a Hughes movie, complete with heavy use of the band Yello on the soundtrack (who memorably contributed to the Ferris Bueller’s Day Off soundtrack).
So, why is Dutch so hard to find? The movie is likely owned by Disney, with it initially being a 20th Century Fox release, although it’s possible the rights have reverted back to the Hughes Estate. It would be a no-brainer for a company like Arrow, Kino Lorber, or Shout Factory to pick up, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Does anyone remember Dutch? Let us know in the comments!
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It’s Thanksgiving time, and one of the most beloved Thanksgiving movies comes from none other than 80s comedy maestro John Hughes, with the turkey holiday classic, Planes, Trains & Automobiles. The buddy comedy is a classic tale of a journey to be home in time for Thanksgiving dinner, but with travel being so tumultuous around this time, our star, Steve Martin, finds himself stalled and dragging along an unwelcomed companion with John Candy in one of his most famous roles.
About two years ago, the movie was re-released in 4K with a whole flurry of special features. One of the coolest, exclusive features for this release is the unveiling of never-before-seen deleted scenes revealing extended performances from the comedy duo. Deleted scenes aren’t anything new for classic releases. However, this set features a full 75 minutes of deleted and extended scenes that were uncovered from John Hughes’ estate from his own personal archives.
Why was so much cut? Well, here’s the thing – Planes, Trains & Automobiles, despite turning out to be a classic, was plagued with rewrites. Writer/director John Hughes was never fully satisfied with the script and was constantly churning out new pages on the set. He wrote so much new material that his assembly cut of the movie was nearly four hours long. While he never intended to release the film at even close to that length, he cut the movie to the bone for its eventual release, when it ran a lean and mean ninety-two minutes.
Hughes had the final cut and was happy with the theatrical version, but the movie did have a hole or two. Ever notice at the end how Neil’s wife is nearly in tears when he gets home? A deleted subplot available on the 4K release reveals that she thought Neil’s travelling companion was a woman and that he was having an affair, making her relief at the end more palpable. Some of these deleted scenes did show up on the TV version of the film. Still, it’s amazing that Hughes Estate released so much of the deleted material, which is a masterclass in demonstrating how even good material sometimes needs to be trimmed to establish pace.
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I’d say we all have to acknowledge certain directors in the horror genre as undisputedly great. You can rank them however you like but there’s really no argument to be made against Wes, George, John, and Tobe leaving indelible marks on the genre we all love. So much so in fact that I didn’t even have to use their last names for you to know exactly who I’m referring to. While Carpenter is my favorite and I believe his run of quality is better than any of the others listed, Craven has more all-time classics. I’d say Craven has more stinkers too, but I think it’s that disparity that makes stuff like today’s film fall under the radar. While Deadly Friend isn’t as good as The Serpent and the Rainbow, The People Under the Stairs, or Red Eye, it’s certainly better than stuff like Swamp Thing, Deadly Blessing, or The Hills Have Eyes Part II, dog flashback be damned. Let’s take a look back at a movie that ended up being drastically different than it was originally conceived as and revisit Deadly Friend.
Coming off the made for TV movie Chiller in 1985 after the full year of 1984, Wes Craven and writer Bruce Joel Ruben were drawn to a novel that was released by Diana Henstell titled Friend. It followed a love story between pre-teens and how far one would go to save or bring back the person they loved. The book heavily focuses on the sci-fi aspect of the main kids’ robot Bee Bee and the transformation into Sam with the horror being focused on the adults around them and showing how terrifying everyday people could be. The first script and even most of what was shot was actually designed this way, but Warner Brothers soon found out what Craven did the previous year and wanted a more blood-soaked horror movie to capitalize. They did the reshoots and released it in October to push that spooky feeling. The movie was a critical and commercial failure when it was released on October 10th, 1986, with a haul of under 9 million on an 11-million-dollar budget. Ouch.
Not for a lack of talent though. Craven doesn’t need to be dissected here but writer Bruce Joel Ruben has had a very interesting career. He is actually an Oscar winner for his original screenplay for 1990’s runaway success Ghost with Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, and fellow Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg. His other 12 credits include a random collection of stuff like Deep Impact, Stuart Little 2, and a personal favorite, Jacob’s Ladder. The cast is a fun collection too. Samantha is played by Kristy Swanson who had a hell of a debut feature film year in 1986. While she was the star of this, mostly, she also appeared in Pretty in Pink and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Matthew Labyorteaux would make this his last on-screen appearance before moving exclusively to voice work, but he was huge on Little House on the Prairie before this. The rest of the cast is filled out with character actors Anne Ramsey from The Goonies, Richard Marcus from Tremors, and Roger Rabbit himself or the zodiac killer Richard Fleischer as the voice of BB.
The movie follows a typical 80s pattern with bullies, fun robots, good parents and bad, childhood friendships and loves, and of course since it’s a horror movie, copious amounts of gore. These added scenes had to be trimmed down to get an R rating, and the team of Craven and Ruben were trying to make a PG or PG13. That wasn’t to be and while a more introspective horror flick with Cravens deft hand could have been great, the extra gore is one of my favorite aspects and quite ludicrous. The basketball death, you know the one, is so fun and over the top that it can be watched on loop without context and enjoyed for its pure schlock. The other scenes they added are just as memorable, but the last one especially is derided but we will get to that one.
The stuff I don’t like about the movie starts with BB and his noises. The thing was expensive to make, and it was Frankenstein’s monster of various parts to put together. It would be done better a year later with Johnny 5 in Short Circuit and as much as I love Charles Fleischer, it’s really annoying here. I respect the work that was put into it and it’s certainly unique but it’s hard to listen to and ranges from distracting to bad. Once he is destroyed by a shotgun wielding stereotypical angry neighbor named Elvira and put into Samantha’s body, it’s a lot better. It gives Kristy Swanson a chance to stretch her legs and something I never noticed was that the way she holds her hands are mimicking the hands of the BB robot. She is menacing when she has to be but also pulls sympathy from the audience. That’s what makes the ending my other pain point for the movie.
The whole time Samantha is a mixed bag of murderous robot and scorned girl. It’s a well-played scenario where you aren’t sure if she is killing the bad adults because of the robot side of her protecting Paul or of these adults hurting her human body and soul before the death. The ending SHOULD have been when Samantha is killed just after getting back some of her humanity when one of the cops mistakenly shoots her when he thinks she is going to kill someone. It tells the moral of not messing with things that God and science can’t fix yet and ends on a somber note BUT the bad adults were also punished for their crimes. What we get instead was an add on ending that the very head of Warner Brothers asked for. Paul sneaks back into the morgue to start the process over again and Samantha rips her skin off revealing an altered version of BB underneath. It chokes Paul and eventually breaks his neck after the screen shifts. If this had been, as my buddy Mike Bracken the horror geek says, Football Practice, and Paul woke up, I’d be ok with it. Where it ends almost turns it into an EC comic or Tales from the Crypt episode. Does it look cool? Yes. Is it dumb as hell? Also, yes and even though I normally love that, it just fails here.
The stuff that works thankfully outweighs my gripes. I think poor Samantha’s situation with her father is heartbreaking and I feel for Paul loving her and his mom wanting to help rather than the typical ignore attitude. The dream sequence, and Craven knows a thing or two about dream sequences, is delightfully unhinged and another fun insert on the same page as the ones mentioned above. When Samantha kisses Paul and then goes home to get killed by her father, it actually gives that dream sequence a deep sense of dread and sadness that you wouldn’t expect from a mid-80’s horror movie. Normally I want a horror movie to get to the actual horror but I like the character building that Deadly Friend does and even the time it spends ramping up after Samantha is brought back adds a little something.
Ok I mentioned its based on a book and I’m our adaptation guy so of course I bought the book so you don’t have to. I know the Arrow himself, John Fallon, is a big fan of both and it’s different enough that it deserves a read. Some of the main differences are the kids being much younger, BB being destroyed by Samantha’s dad instead of Elvira, Elvira dying by drowning in a tub rather than basketball induced head explosion, and an ending that is much more fitting to both this kind of love story and is less tacked on and nihilistic. Its cynical, sure, but its also up in the air enough to let you decide what happens. There are quite a few more differences but those are just a taste. Its under $20 on Amazon or I’m sure you can find a copy of it somewhere.
The movie wasn’t complete when it was originally released on video. It did make it to DVD eventually where it was restored to its original gore. That disc would also come in a pack with Carpenter’s Someone’s Watching Me and Oliver Stone’s The Hand. There was also Eyes of a Stranger, but I genuinely have no memory of that. The movie got its solo release on Blu-ray from Scream Factory with some special features and one heck of a cool cover. While Craven and Ruben were ultimately disappointed, Swanson looks back on it with pride now. The original Vampire Slayer actress had a really hard time at first with both the material and the crew, but Craven ended up pushing her in the right way and she came out better for it. Wes was one of a kind and made this movie during one of the best and worst times of his life. On the one hand he had released two movies the previous year including a franchise starting all timer in A Nightmare on Elm Street. On the other hand, he was going through a nasty divorce and faced a 30-million-dollar lawsuit alleging his most famous story wasn’t even his. The movie should be more of a mess knowing that.
Deadly Friend isn’t going to top anyone’s top list for either 80s horror or movies by Craven. That being said, its better than you remember and as long as you enjoy it in the right mindset, it’s a fun movie to watch with some friends or catch on TV. It’s a revisit worth bringing a dead friend back to life for.
Two previous episodes of Revisited can be seen below. To see more of our shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals channel – and subscribe while you’re at it!
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