$300+ million worldwide doesn’t guarantee you anything anymore in Hollywood. Sure, you might get a sequel, but seeing it on the big screen isn’t a sure thing. This is more or less what happened with Glass Onion, the sequel to 2019’s Knives Out, which had a short theatrical run on fewer than 700 screens because it was deemed more fitting for streaming. And while Rian Johnson has praised the release strategy (then again, Ted Sarandos is writing the checks, so who is he to disagree?), Benoit Blanc himself, Daniel Craig, wants to see Knives Out on the big screen.
Speaking with The New Yorker, Daniel Craig was asked how he feels about the Knives Out sequel not getting a full release in theaters, to which he replied, “Of course, it saddens me, especially with movies like Knives Out. Like I said, it’s a non-effects movie. It did all the things it should have done, and people went to see it. So, of course, it saddens me that people won’t have that experience. Does it anger me? I don’t think I can go that far. But it saddens me. But we’ll see. I have no idea what the plan is for this third one now, so I don’t know.”
Even still, Glass Onion was wildly successful on Netflix, logging a reported around 210 million hours watched in the first 10 days. While we can’t truly determine if that can be equated to box office numbers or not, it does seem like something we might need to get used to, at least as far as Netflix goes.
So where does that leave Knives Out 3, officially titled Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery? While people like Daniel Craig are pushing for a wid theatrical run, with Sarandos saying we shouldn’t expect to see any Netflix productions in movie theaters, it’s extremely unlikely Craig – or those of us who love that experience – will get our way. In short, Netflix is not making this a twisted web.
Like the previous two Knives Out movies, Wake Up Dead Man has assembled a commendable ensemble. In addition to Craig, the movie will feature Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Josh O’Connor, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Cailee Spaeny, Kerry Washington, and more.
$300+ million worldwide doesn’t guarantee you anything anymore in Hollywood. Sure, you might get a sequel, but seeing it on the big screen isn’t a sure thing. This is more or less what happened with Glass Onion, the sequel to 2019’s Knives Out, which had a short theatrical run on fewer than 700 screens because it was deemed more fitting for streaming. And while Rian Johnson has praised the release strategy (then again, Ted Sarandos is writing the checks, so who is he to disagree?), Benoit Blanc himself, Daniel Craig, wants to see Knives Out on the big screen.
Speaking with The New Yorker, Daniel Craig was asked how he feels about the Knives Out sequel not getting a full release in theaters, to which he replied, “Of course, it saddens me, especially with movies like Knives Out. Like I said, it’s a non-effects movie. It did all the things it should have done, and people went to see it. So, of course, it saddens me that people won’t have that experience. Does it anger me? I don’t think I can go that far. But it saddens me. But we’ll see. I have no idea what the plan is for this third one now, so I don’t know.”
Even still, Glass Onion was wildly successful on Netflix, logging a reported around 210 million hours watched in the first 10 days. While we can’t truly determine if that can be equated to box office numbers or not, it does seem like something we might need to get used to, at least as far as Netflix goes.
So where does that leave Knives Out 3, officially titled Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery? While people like Daniel Craig are pushing for a wid theatrical run, with Sarandos saying we shouldn’t expect to see any Netflix productions in movie theaters, it’s extremely unlikely Craig – or those of us who love that experience – will get our way. In short, Netflix is not making this a twisted web.
Like the previous two Knives Out movies, Wake Up Dead Man has assembled a commendable ensemble. In addition to Craig, the movie will feature Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Josh O’Connor, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Cailee Spaeny, Kerry Washington, and more.
Disney’s Snow White has garnered quite a bit of controversy. The film was delayed a full year from March 2024 to March 2025 and there had been outspoken critics, from Peter Dinklage for their handling of the Dwarves issue, to the son of the original animated film’s director. David Hale Hand, son of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs supervising director David Dodd Hand, is very much opposed to the remake. “I mean, it’s a whole different concept, and I just totally disagree with it, and I know my dad and Walt would also very much disagree with it,” Hand said. “There’s no respect for what Disney did and what my dad did… I think Walt and he would be turning in their graves.“
Disney has now released the second full trailer for their Snow White adaptation. The description reads, “From the producer and executive producer of Wicked, Marc Platt and Jared LeBoff, and director Marc Webb (The Amazing Spider-Man) comes Disney’s Snow White, a live-action musical reimagining of the studio’s classic 1937 film. The magical music adventure journeys back to the timeless story with Rachel Zegler (West Side Story) in the title role and Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) as her Stepmother, the Evil Queen. The new trailer showcases the scale and beauty of the lavish production design, the beloved characters Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, and Sneezy, and a first look at the power ballad Waiting on a Wish, one of the all-new original songs from EGOT winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (The Greatest Showman).”
As Disney’s very first animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs holds a special place in the hearts of Disney fans. It’s not like there haven’t been live-action movies based on the original fairy tale before, but from the casting of Rachel Zegler as Snow White to the removal of almost all the dwarf characters, it feels like there has been a backlash against this remake since day one. Hand added that it’s a “disgrace” that Disney is “trying to do something new with something that was such a great success earlier… Their thoughts are just so radical now. They change the stories, they change the thought process of the characters. They’re making up new woke things and I’m just not into any of that. I find it quite frankly a bit insulting [what] they may have done with some of these classic films.“
Xbox giveth and Xbox taketh away. November saw some big names come to the Game Pass subscription service, like Stalker 2, Flight Simulator 2024, and Aliens: Dark Descent, but December sees some some real bangers removed. One of them—Forza Horizon 4—is even worse affected, entering the misery of a storefront delisting.
Xbox giveth and Xbox taketh away. November saw some big names come to the Game Pass subscription service, like Stalker 2, Flight Simulator 2024, and Aliens: Dark Descent, but December sees some some real bangers removed. One of them—Forza Horizon 4—is even worse affected, entering the misery of a storefront delisting.
It wouldn’t be shocking if FromSoftware decided to follow its most successful game with a sequel, but the studio recently confirmed that Elden Ring 2 isn’t currently in the works. Instead, the company behind the open-world RPG is working on other projects. I hope one of them is Armored Core VII.
It wouldn’t be shocking if FromSoftware decided to follow its most successful game with a sequel, but the studio recently confirmed that Elden Ring 2 isn’t currently in the works. Instead, the company behind the open-world RPG is working on other projects. I hope one of them is Armored Core VII.
Plot: A comedy-drama series about Ruth Landry, a maple syrup farmer who, in defiance of a heartless system, assembles a team to undertake the Canadian heist of the century. The target: the country’s multi-million dollar maple syrup surplus.
Review: It goes without saying that the last decade has been a boon for true-crime fans. From adaptations of podcasts to limited series of every tone imaginable, fictionalized retellings of shocking events that took place have served as wonderful opportunities for actors to stretch themselves in every way imaginable. Over that same stretch of time, Noah Hawley’s anthology series Fargo has proven that even the most bizarre and original stories can compete with true tales when the writing is strong enough. Taking the similar sensibilities of Fargo, Prime Video’s new series The Sticky blends dark humor with a true story to deliver an entertainingly original show that showcases a long-deserved leading role for the great Margo Martindale. Alongside supporting performers, Chris Diamantopolous and Guillaume Cyr, The Sticky is a fun but too-short foray into the craziest crime you likely have never heard of.
The Sticky is a dramatized retelling of The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist, which took place between 2011 and 2012. While that event serves as a jumping-off point for the series, both share some key elements, namely how the syrup was covertly stolen from a warehouse in Quebec. What differs is the various people involved in the crime, which centers on fully fictional characters, including farmers, members of the Mafia, and law enforcement in the United States and Canada. Spread over six half-hour chapters, The Sticky could easily have been the narrative for a season of Fargo as it shares that anthology’s small-town setting, quirky characters, and a portrait of people put in a corner. There is violence and death and a decidedly different perspective of Canadians than the overly nice stereotype many Americans have come to expect from our neighbors north of the border. That also means that most non-Canucks likely have no knowledge of the heist at the center of this story, which gives the writers more freedom than a typical true-crime series.
After the opening title card proclaiming that this is not the true story, The Sticky introduces us to the trio of main characters, led by Margo Martindale’s Ruth Landy. Martindale has become a stalwart in great supporting roles in series like Justifiedand The Americans, for which she won Emmys. She has been a staple in shows and films in supporting roles, but here, Martindale takes center stage as a formidable character struggling to maintain her maple trees while her husband is in a coma. A bureaucrat named Leonard Gauthier (Guy Nadon) tries to buy her land cheaply while he runs a local maple syrup union like a dictator. Ruth’s anger and desire for revenge enlists security guard Remy (Guillaume Cyr), who has been secretly stealing syrup from the warehouse where he works. Remy partners with Boston gangster Mike Byrne (Chris Diamantopoulos), bringing in Ruth to take millions worth of maple syrup. All three characters are likable and sympathetic, with Remy wanting to be more than a guard and Mike aiming to prove himself to his criminal superiors, which leads them to embark on their ambitious heist.
As the three partners in crime develop their plot, they are met by several other characters who pose obstacles on their journey to executing their master plan. Detective Valerie Nadeau (Suzanne Clement) and Officer Teddy Green (Gita Miller) begin to unravel the dastardly plot and try to take the thieves down before they can get away with their loot, but that requires Ruth, Remy, and Mike to stay two steps ahead. This forces them to cross paths with an even more dangerous person who is both adversary and ally along the way. Played by Jamie Lee Curtis in one of her string of stellar supporting turns, this character is one of the best things to come out of this series. I won’t divulge who Curtis plays or how she factors into the overall plot of The Sticky, but rest assured that her presence is hilarious and scary in equal measure. With each scene, The Sticky‘s plot becomes more complex as the growing ensemble all help build towards the execution of the heist itself.
And that may be the biggest problem with The Sticky. With only six episodes that clock in at just about thirty minutes each, I expected this to play out like a limited series. The lack of closure in the final episode leads me to believe The Sticky will work as the first season of an ongoing series, something I cannot quite figure out after seeing the full run of episodes for the first season. While it ends with an abrupt cliffhanger, there does not seem to be enough story to sustain more than another episode or two. Series showrunners Brian Donovan (American Housewife) and Jeff Herro (The Neighbors) both have experience working in sitcoms and worked with a couple of other writers on The Sticky, all of whom have experience with the comedy format and episode length. Still, I cannot tell if they have an overall plan for where this story will go. It could be that a second season of six episodes will wrap the tale set up here, but I cannot see how this plot could carry on for an ongoing story. Directors Michael Dowse and Joyce Wong do bring some solid work to this short season, but I kept checking the press materials sent with the series to see if maybe more episodes are coming that I was not given for this review.
Even with the somewhat blunt finale that does not wrap the story in any satisfying manner, there is much to like in The Sticky. Seeing Margo Martindale in a lead role that she nails is more than worth the confusion I felt when I finished the sixth and final chapter of the season. The predominantly Canadian cast, including Mickael Gouin, Joseph Bellerose, Michael Perron, and more, will be recognizable to audiences in the North. In contrast, Americans and others around the globe will get to see a full cast of great performers they may have been unaware of. Performed in both French and English and with a biting and profane script full of great dialogue, The Sticky is a violent and dark comedy that earns a spot as a binge-watch this holiday season. This is a solid show produced by Jamie Lee Curtis and Jason Blum. I would have liked a more conclusive finale, even if this is not intended to be a limited series, but the entertaining tale about the weirdest heist imaginable more than makes up for it.
The Sticky premieres on December 6th on Prime Video.
Plot: A comedy-drama series about Ruth Landry, a maple syrup farmer who, in defiance of a heartless system, assembles a team to undertake the Canadian heist of the century. The target: the country’s multi-million dollar maple syrup surplus.
Review: It goes without saying that the last decade has been a boon for true-crime fans. From adaptations of podcasts to limited series of every tone imaginable, fictionalized retellings of shocking events that took place have served as wonderful opportunities for actors to stretch themselves in every way imaginable. Over that same stretch of time, Noah Hawley’s anthology series Fargo has proven that even the most bizarre and original stories can compete with true tales when the writing is strong enough. Taking the similar sensibilities of Fargo, Prime Video’s new series The Sticky blends dark humor with a true story to deliver an entertainingly original show that showcases a long-deserved leading role for the great Margo Martindale. Alongside supporting performers, Chris Diamantopolous and Guillaume Cyr, The Sticky is a fun but too-short foray into the craziest crime you likely have never heard of.
The Sticky is a dramatized retelling of The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist, which took place between 2011 and 2012. While that event serves as a jumping-off point for the series, both share some key elements, namely how the syrup was covertly stolen from a warehouse in Quebec. What differs is the various people involved in the crime, which centers on fully fictional characters, including farmers, members of the Mafia, and law enforcement in the United States and Canada. Spread over six half-hour chapters, The Sticky could easily have been the narrative for a season of Fargo as it shares that anthology’s small-town setting, quirky characters, and a portrait of people put in a corner. There is violence and death and a decidedly different perspective of Canadians than the overly nice stereotype many Americans have come to expect from our neighbors north of the border. That also means that most non-Canucks likely have no knowledge of the heist at the center of this story, which gives the writers more freedom than a typical true-crime series.
After the opening title card proclaiming that this is not the true story, The Sticky introduces us to the trio of main characters, led by Margo Martindale’s Ruth Landy. Martindale has become a stalwart in great supporting roles in series like Justified and The Americans, for which she won Emmys. She has been a staple in shows and films in supporting roles, but here, Martindale takes center stage as a formidable character struggling to maintain her maple trees while her husband is in a coma. A bureaucrat named Leonard Gauthier (Guy Nadon) tries to buy her land cheaply while he runs a local maple syrup union like a dictator. Ruth’s anger and desire for revenge enlists security guard Remy (Guillaume Cyr), who has been secretly stealing syrup from the warehouse where he works. Remy partners with Boston gangster Mike Byrne (Chris Diamantopoulos), bringing in Ruth to take millions worth of maple syrup. All three characters are likable and sympathetic, with Remy wanting to be more than a guard and Mike aiming to prove himself to his criminal superiors, which leads them to embark on their ambitious heist.
As the three partners in crime develop their plot, they are met by several other characters who pose obstacles on their journey to executing their master plan. Detective Valerie Nadeau (Suzanne Clement) and Officer Teddy Green (Gita Miller) begin to unravel the dastardly plot and try to take the thieves down before they can get away with their loot, but that requires Ruth, Remy, and Mike to stay two steps ahead. This forces them to cross paths with an even more dangerous person who is both adversary and ally along the way. Played by Jamie Lee Curtis in one of her string of stellar supporting turns, this character is one of the best things to come out of this series. I won’t divulge who Curtis plays or how she factors into the overall plot of The Sticky, but rest assured that her presence is hilarious and scary in equal measure. With each scene, The Sticky‘s plot becomes more complex as the growing ensemble all help build towards the execution of the heist itself.
And that may be the biggest problem with The Sticky. With only six episodes that clock in at just about thirty minutes each, I expected this to play out like a limited series. The lack of closure in the final episode leads me to believe The Sticky will work as the first season of an ongoing series, something I cannot quite figure out after seeing the full run of episodes for the first season. While it ends with an abrupt cliffhanger, there does not seem to be enough story to sustain more than another episode or two. Series showrunners Brian Donovan (American Housewife) and Jeff Herro (The Neighbors) both have experience working in sitcoms and worked with a couple of other writers on The Sticky, all of whom have experience with the comedy format and episode length. Still, I cannot tell if they have an overall plan for where this story will go. It could be that a second season of six episodes will wrap the tale set up here, but I cannot see how this plot could carry on for an ongoing story. Directors Michael Dowse and Joyce Wong do bring some solid work to this short season, but I kept checking the press materials sent with the series to see if maybe more episodes are coming that I was not given for this review.
Even with the somewhat blunt finale that does not wrap the story in any satisfying manner, there is much to like in The Sticky. Seeing Margo Martindale in a lead role that she nails is more than worth the confusion I felt when I finished the sixth and final chapter of the season. The predominantly Canadian cast, including Mickael Gouin, Joseph Bellerose, Michael Perron, and more, will be recognizable to audiences in the North. In contrast, Americans and others around the globe will get to see a full cast of great performers they may have been unaware of. Performed in both French and English and with a biting and profane script full of great dialogue, The Sticky is a violent and dark comedy that earns a spot as a binge-watch this holiday season. This is a solid show produced by Jamie Lee Curtis and Jason Blum. I would have liked a more conclusive finale, even if this is not intended to be a limited series, but the entertaining tale about the weirdest heist imaginable more than makes up for it.
The Sticky premieres on December 6th on Prime Video.
With no official announcement yet in sight, hints at the upcoming Switch 2 continue to leak. The latest apparent indicators of Nintendo’s approaching console announcement are accessories that have appeared on the Chinese commerce site Alibaba, and point to a similar design and device dimensions from previous alleged…
