This was a really weird year for Xbox. You could argue that Microsoft’s gaming brand had an amazing year or that it had one of its worst, and either way I’d likely find myself nodding in agreement to most of your points.
Plot: Three years after winning Squid Game, Player 456 gave up going to the States and comes back with a new resolution in his mind. Gi-hun once again dives into the mysterious survival game, starting another life-or-death game with new participants gathered to win the prize of 45.6 billion won.
Review: When Squid Game debuted on Netflix in 2021, it was met with critical acclaim, and a global sensation was born, ushering in a wider audience for many Korean drama series. One month after becoming the first Korean series to top the Netflix charts, it was revealed that a second season was being developed. Three years later, the long-awaited story continuation is here and does not disappoint. With returning stars and a new cast of competitors, Squid Game 2 mines the same tension as the first season with even more complex games, twists, and reveals that set the stage for a third season and beyond. With fewer episodes than the first, Squid Game 2 feels like a solid sequel that knows what worked well the first time while going in a few new directions that will surely make this season as big of a hit as the first.
At the end of the first season, Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) won the titular competition and confronted Oh Il-nam (O Yeong-su), the architect behind the game. On his way to the United States, Gi-hun received a mysterious phone call and decided to stay in Seoul to take down the people behind the games. The first season also saw Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) confront The Front Man in charge of the island, who happened to be his long-lost brother, Hwang In-ho (Lee Byung-hun). In-ho shot Jun-ho and left him for dead. At the start of Squid Game 2, three years have passed, and while Jun-ho has tried to distance himself from what happened with his brother, Gi-hun has used his vast winnings from the first season to finance an operation to stop those running the competition. After developing a plan, Gi-hun finds his way back into the latest competition to save as many contestants as possible while seeing if he can stop those behind the games.
There is a lot to unpack in Squid Game 2, but very little that I can say without divulging major spoilers. I can tell you that the series opens with multiple episodes set in Seoul before moving to the new competition. While the games comprise most of the season, Squid Game 2 has a broader focus beyond the contestants competing for their lives and the massive prize for the survivors. This season gives us more time spent with the guards and orchestrators of the games, including insight into the individuals under the masks. There are also new wrinkles in the games this season, including an opportunity for the players to vote on the outcome of the competition. In the trailers and marketing materials for Squid Game 2, you can see players with an X or an O on their tracksuits, a split that has major ramifications through each round of deadly gameplay. The episodes also add more time with each round of games, ratcheting up the tension and distinguishing how things unfold compared to the first season. We do see what is happening off-island while Gi-hun is competing, but there is far more attention paid within the confines of the squid game facility.
While Gi-hun’s experience with the games makes him a natural focal point in the story, there are several new characters this season,n including Dae-ho (Kang Ha-neul), Myung-gi (Im Si-wan), Hyun-ju (Park Sung-hoon), Yong-sik (Yang Dong-geun), Jun-hee (Jo Yu-ri), Min-su (Lee David), and many more. Rapper Choi Seung-hyun is one of the more intriguing new cast members, as his character serves as a major obstacle for Gi-hun. How the story unfolds follows the overall structure of the first season, with each round of gameplay resulting in numerous deaths, which are again fairly graphic. The bloodshed and profanity are consistent this time with the first season, with some added intensity in the second half of the season. The games are a mix of games from the first Squid Game and new ones. The mix of games lulls the viewer into thinking they know how things will play out, but then we get new rules or new wrinkles. This means no character is safe, not even those returning from the first season.
It is also worth noting that this season is two episodes shorter than the first Squid Game. Each of the seven chapters of Squid Game 2 is significantly longer than the first season, which ran between thirty-three and sixty-two minutes. The shortest episode of Squid Game 2 is fifty-two minutes, with the fifth episode clocking in at just under eighty minutes. The longer episodes give ample time to develop the tension in the story as it amps up each successive chapter with increasing violence. Writer and director Hwang Dong-hyuk wrote and directed every episode of Squid Game 2 as he did with the first season, which gives the narrative a cohesive feel of a long feature film split into sections. Hwang Dong-hyuk and Netflix have been discussing a third season of Squid Game, which concludes the story that started in season one, and by the finale of Squid Game 2, you will know where that final series will be headed.
While the unique structure of Squid Game is no longer as novel in the second series, Squid Game 2 keeps the thrills at a maximum thanks to well-placed twists, a wider focus on characters in and out of the game, and a talented ensemble from different walks of life. Squid Game 2 is chock full of elements I cannot mention here that will be debated and discussed at length once the full season drops the day after Christmas. Fans will have new favorites to root for and even better antagonists to despise, but most of all, they will not be prepared for how Squid Game 2 ends. I expect many polarized reactions will be coming as soon as the credits roll on the seventh chapter, but it will make the wait for Squid Game 3 all the stronger. Squid Game 2 avoids the sophomore slump faced by most sequels while keeping what made the first season so much fun to watch.
Squid Game 2 premieres on December 26th on Netflix.
The post Squid Game 2 TV Review: New games and higher stakes as the hit series returns for a deadly new competition appeared first on JoBlo.
Plot: Three years after winning Squid Game, Player 456 gave up going to the States and comes back with a new resolution in his mind. Gi-hun once again dives into the mysterious survival game, starting another life-or-death game with new participants gathered to win the prize of 45.6 billion won.
Review: When Squid Game debuted on Netflix in 2021, it was met with critical acclaim, and a global sensation was born, ushering in a wider audience for many Korean drama series. One month after becoming the first Korean series to top the Netflix charts, it was revealed that a second season was being developed. Three years later, the long-awaited story continuation is here and does not disappoint. With returning stars and a new cast of competitors, Squid Game 2 mines the same tension as the first season with even more complex games, twists, and reveals that set the stage for a third season and beyond. With fewer episodes than the first, Squid Game 2 feels like a solid sequel that knows what worked well the first time while going in a few new directions that will surely make this season as big of a hit as the first.
At the end of the first season, Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) won the titular competition and confronted Oh Il-nam (O Yeong-su), the architect behind the game. On his way to the United States, Gi-hun received a mysterious phone call and decided to stay in Seoul to take down the people behind the games. The first season also saw Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) confront The Front Man in charge of the island, who happened to be his long-lost brother, Hwang In-ho (Lee Byung-hun). In-ho shot Jun-ho and left him for dead. At the start of Squid Game 2, three years have passed, and while Jun-ho has tried to distance himself from what happened with his brother, Gi-hun has used his vast winnings from the first season to finance an operation to stop those running the competition. After developing a plan, Gi-hun finds his way back into the latest competition to save as many contestants as possible while seeing if he can stop those behind the games.
There is a lot to unpack in Squid Game 2, but very little that I can say without divulging major spoilers. I can tell you that the series opens with multiple episodes set in Seoul before moving to the new competition. While the games comprise most of the season, Squid Game 2 has a broader focus beyond the contestants competing for their lives and the massive prize for the survivors. This season gives us more time spent with the guards and orchestrators of the games, including insight into the individuals under the masks. There are also new wrinkles in the games this season, including an opportunity for the players to vote on the outcome of the competition. In the trailers and marketing materials for Squid Game 2, you can see players with an X or an O on their tracksuits, a split that has major ramifications through each round of deadly gameplay. The episodes also add more time with each round of games, ratcheting up the tension and distinguishing how things unfold compared to the first season. We do see what is happening off-island while Gi-hun is competing, but there is far more attention paid within the confines of the squid game facility.
While Gi-hun’s experience with the games makes him a natural focal point in the story, there are several new characters this season,n including Dae-ho (Kang Ha-neul), Myung-gi (Im Si-wan), Hyun-ju (Park Sung-hoon), Yong-sik (Yang Dong-geun), Jun-hee (Jo Yu-ri), Min-su (Lee David), and many more. Rapper Choi Seung-hyun is one of the more intriguing new cast members, as his character serves as a major obstacle for Gi-hun. How the story unfolds follows the overall structure of the first season, with each round of gameplay resulting in numerous deaths, which are again fairly graphic. The bloodshed and profanity are consistent this time with the first season, with some added intensity in the second half of the season. The games are a mix of games from the first Squid Game and new ones. The mix of games lulls the viewer into thinking they know how things will play out, but then we get new rules or new wrinkles. This means no character is safe, not even those returning from the first season.
It is also worth noting that this season is two episodes shorter than the first Squid Game. Each of the seven chapters of Squid Game 2 is significantly longer than the first season, which ran between thirty-three and sixty-two minutes. The shortest episode of Squid Game 2 is fifty-two minutes, with the fifth episode clocking in at just under eighty minutes. The longer episodes give ample time to develop the tension in the story as it amps up each successive chapter with increasing violence. Writer and director Hwang Dong-hyuk wrote and directed every episode of Squid Game 2 as he did with the first season, which gives the narrative a cohesive feel of a long feature film split into sections. Hwang Dong-hyuk and Netflix have been discussing a third season of Squid Game, which concludes the story that started in season one, and by the finale of Squid Game 2, you will know where that final series will be headed.
While the unique structure of Squid Game is no longer as novel in the second series, Squid Game 2 keeps the thrills at a maximum thanks to well-placed twists, a wider focus on characters in and out of the game, and a talented ensemble from different walks of life. Squid Game 2 is chock full of elements I cannot mention here that will be debated and discussed at length once the full season drops the day after Christmas. Fans will have new favorites to root for and even better antagonists to despise, but most of all, they will not be prepared for how Squid Game 2 ends. I expect many polarized reactions will be coming as soon as the credits roll on the seventh chapter, but it will make the wait for Squid Game 3 all the stronger. Squid Game 2 avoids the sophomore slump faced by most sequels while keeping what made the first season so much fun to watch.
Squid Game 2 premieres on December 26th on Netflix.
The post Squid Game 2 TV Review: New games and higher stakes as the hit series returns for a deadly new competition appeared first on JoBlo.
Today’s a big day for Netflix, as they’re taking a big jump into live sports with them streaming not one but two major Christmas NFL games on the service today, with the Chiefs and the Steelers, followed by the Ravens vs the Texans. But, Travis Kelce’s not only showing up on the field today but also in the first teaser trailer for the streamer’s heavily anticipated Happy Gilmore 2 (embedded above).
Indeed, the quick, forty-five-second trailer featured Kelce, who’s confirmed to have a role in the film, welcoming Gilmore back to his old country club stomping grounds. The trailer also confirmed the return of two of the film’s original co-stars, with Julie Bowen back as Happy’s love interest, Virginia, while Christopher McDonald returns as his old nemesis, Shooter McGavin. His return had previously been teased in a cameo in the streamer’s Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley, where he “seemed” to be playing McGavin.
Happy Gilmore 2 co-stars Bad Bunny and seems certain to be packed with cameos. Margaret Qualley recently announced that she lied her way into a small cameo role by claiming to be a great golfer. Adam Sandler’s Murder Mystery director Kyle Newacheck is directing the film, while the film’s original writer, Tim Herlihy, is returning for the sequel. The original director Dennis Dugan is on board as an executive producer.
There is no news yet on when the movie will be released, with the streamer only teasing a 2025 release date, but it would make sense for this to be one of their big summer releases, with it all but certain to rake in major views. Happy Gilmore still ranks as one of Sandler’s most beloved films, with the sequel coming out a whopping twenty-nine years after the original. He’ll also be starring opposite George Clooney in Netflix’s star-studded Noah Baumbach film, Jay Kelly, later in 2025.
Are you excited for Happy Gilmore 2? What did you think of the teaser trailer? Let us know in the comments!
The post Happy Gilmore 2: Shooter McGavin returns in the first teaser trailer appeared first on JoBlo.
Today’s a big day for Netflix, as they’re taking a big jump into live sports with them streaming not one but two major Christmas NFL games on the service today, with the Chiefs and the Steelers, followed by the Ravens vs the Texans. But, Travis Kelce’s not only showing up on the field today but also in the first teaser trailer for the streamer’s heavily anticipated Happy Gilmore 2 (embedded above).
Indeed, the quick, forty-five-second trailer featured Kelce, who’s confirmed to have a role in the film, welcoming Gilmore back to his old country club stomping grounds. The trailer also confirmed the return of two of the film’s original co-stars, with Julie Bowen back as Happy’s love interest, Virginia, while Christopher McDonald returns as his old nemesis, Shooter McGavin. His return had previously been teased in a cameo in the streamer’s Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley, where he “seemed” to be playing McGavin.
The movie co-stars Bad Bunny and seems certain to be packed with cameos. Margaret Qualley recently announced that she lied her way into a small cameo role by claiming to be a great golfer. Sandler’s Murder Mystery director Kyle Newacheck is directing the film, while the film’s original writer, Tim Herlihy, is returning for the sequel. The original director Dennis Dugan is on board as an executive producer.
There is no news yet on when the movie will be released, with the streamer only teasing a 2025 release date, but it would make sense for this to be one of their big summer releases, with it all but certain to rake in major views. Happy Gilmore still ranks as one of Sandler’s most beloved films, with the sequel coming out a whopping twenty-nine years after the original.
Are you excited for Happy Gilmore 2? Let us know in the comments!
The post Happy Gilmore 2: Shooter McGavin returns in the first teaser trailer appeared first on JoBlo.
The story of boxer Claressa ‘T-Rex’ Shields certainly seems tailor-made for the big screen. Growing up in economically depressed Flint, Michigan, with an alcoholic mother and an incarcerated father, she became an unlikely gold medalist at the 2012 Summer Olympics in women’s boxing and went on to win again in 2016. Amazon/MGM’s The Fire Inside tells her story but does so in a way that gives the film a grounded, earthy vibe.
Recently, I was lucky enough to sit down with stars Ryan Destiny and Brian Tyree Henry (who plays Shields’s coach/ mentor) for an interesting talk in which they examined the roles mentors have played in their own lives, with the on-screen relationship mirrored their offscreen one. Shields, who’d never boxed before, also revealed how she trained for the film but then had to stay in shape for two years as the film was shut down due to COVID-19, only to restart in 2022. I also chatted with director Rachel Morrison, one of the biggest DP’s in the biz (Black Panther), who is making her directorial debut. She reveals why she chose this movie as her first time in the director’s seat and how she wanted to make the boxing in the film seem more grounded than in a typical boxing film.
Watch the interviews embedded above and read my review HERE!
The post The Fire Inside: Interview with Brian Tyree Henry, Ryan Shields and directed Rachel Morrison appeared first on JoBlo.
The story of boxer Claressa ‘T-Rex’ Shields certainly seems tailor-made for the big screen. Growing up in economically depressed Flint, Michigan, with an alcoholic mother and an incarcerated father, she became an unlikely gold medalist at the 2012 Summer Olympics in women’s boxing and went on to win again in 2016. Amazon/MGM’s The Fire Inside tells her story but does so in a way that gives the film a grounded, earthy vibe.
Recently, I was lucky enough to sit down with stars Ryan Destiny and Brian Tyree Henry (who plays Shields’s coach/ mentor) for an interesting talk in which they examined the roles mentors have played in their own lives, with the on-screen relationship mirrored their offscreen one. Shields, who’d never boxed before, also revealed how she trained for the film but then had to stay in shape for two years as the film was shut down due to COVID-19, only to restart in 2022. I also chatted with director Rachel Morrison, one of the biggest DP’s in the biz (Black Panther), who is making her directorial debut. She reveals why she chose this movie as her first time in the director’s seat and how she wanted to make the boxing in the film seem more grounded than in a typical boxing film.
Watch the interviews embedded above and read my review HERE!
The post The Fire Inside: Interview with Brian Tyree Henry, Ryan Shields and directed Rachel Morrison appeared first on JoBlo.
When most people think of Christmas, they envision sentient snowmen, houses with elaborate light setups synced to songs performed by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and elves on shelves in various compromising positions. In my house, it’s all about cozy movie marathons leading up to the big day. While films like Die Hard, Scrooged, and The Nightmare Before Christmas always make the rotation, it’s John McPhail’s 2017 musical zombie horror Anna and the Apocalypse that turns the most heads. McPhail’s delightfully deranged, snow-sprinkled symphony of holiday cheer and coming-of-age angst shambles onto screens like High School Musical mixed with Shaun of the Dead, giving audiences the gift of an off-the-wall Christmas-themed comedy with rhythm, gore, and grim tidings.
Anna and the Apocalypse focuses on a group of students from the sleepy town of Little Haven. What begins as an awkward start to a holiday break before graduation quickly escalates into a life-altering zombie invasion with characters spread across school grounds and the local bowling alley. As students race to reunite with loved ones, civilization falls into ruin, derailing post-graduation plans alongside any hope of living an everyday life. It’s the end of the world, after all.
Before my forties, I always found musical theater awkward and unappealing. However, as I’ve aged, I’ve learned to expand my horizons, and with a push from my friend Joey, a theater director, I’ve learned to appreciate the expressive art form. Anna and the Apocalypse is a perfect blend of young adult drama, cartoonish gore, and earworm-worthy bangers that bolster the characters and plot. I genuinely love all the songs in Anna and the Apocalypse. Many tracks offer clever lyrical wordplay, a sweeping range of emotions, and a window into the cast’s dilemmas in the face of a world-ending catastrophe.
One of my favorite aspects of Anna and the Apocalypse is its imperfections. The choreography sometimes stumbles, and inaugural notes for a few songs can sound off-key. These “subtle flaws” are part of the film’s appeal, and I mean that genuinely. These fleeting moments of imperfection give Anna a “real” feel, like I’m watching people creating something out of passion instead of for a paycheck. All the star players are incredibly talented, with Ella Hunt, Ben Wiggins, Marli Siu, Sarah Swire, and Paul Kaye among my favorite performers.
There’s also a fair amount of depth to the film, with characters undergoing drastic change, from Anna’s longing to explore the world before college to Savage’s obsession with ruling the one thing his black heart desires and Nick overcoming his deeply-rooted toxic masculinity. The characters are more than singing zombie killers and victims. They’re complex, with hopes and dreams shattered by the apocalypse.
If fun, creative gore is your thing, Anna and the Apocalypse has got you covered. Let me put it this way: the first two deaths are death by see-saw and death by toilet. That’s a chef’s kiss in my book. Anna is also a movie in which nobody is safe. There’s no such thing as a Hollywood ending. Get yourself a mug of hot chocolate, give yourself room to rock out, and enjoy the best Christmas movie with Rocky Horror Picture Show vibes.
The post Anna and the Apocalypse: One of the best Christmas films is a zombie horror musical with comedy, heart, and cartoonish kills appeared first on JoBlo.
If you were a young writer with dreams of making it big in Hollywood, you couldn’t have a much better origin story than Shane Black. Just out of film school in his early 20s, Black famously sold his spec script Lethal Weapon to producer Joel Silver and Warner Bros., nabbing over $200 thousand for his work. Lethal Weapon was a significant hit in 1987, effectively putting Black on the map; combine that with the fact he also co-wrote The Monster Squad and starred in and script-doctored Predator that same year and you have a very nice start to a career.
In the 90s, Black became famous—or infamous—for two blockbuster screenplay sales. The Last Boy Scout sold for a record $1.75 million, a record at the time. A couple of years later, his script for The Long Kiss Goodnight made history when he got paid a whopping $4 million for it, still a huge number to this day. But after that film flopped at the box office, Black seemingly fell off the map, retreating to his posh home in Hancock Park and for years not poking his head out of obscurity, except to maybe throw a lavish party. “Whatever happened to Shane Black?” was a question asked by film buffs everywhere in the late 90s—the wunderkind had apparently burnt out all too quickly.
Thankfully, Hollywood loves a good comeback story, and we all know Black didn’t stay down for long. In 2005 he hit us with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, a snarky, cynical, frequently hilarious riff on romantic comedies and film noirs starring two of Hollywood’s most notorious bad boys. If it didn’t make a huge impact upon its release, it would prove to be vital for resurrecting not just Black’s career, but that of his leading man’s as well. So put down that Johnny Gossamer paperback and join us as we find out just What Happened to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
In the years after the big payday for The Long Kiss Goodnight—and its subsequent failure at the box office—Black retreated from public life and struggled to write for a time. He assumed that because of the content of his movies and the tremendous amount of money paid for his scripts, he was thought of as a hack, a brat who got too rich, too quickly. He tried to join the Academy and was rejected—an understandable blow to his ego. Black would later admit his feelings were hurt over the backlash in the press to his success and wanted to try his hand at something different. He felt the need to write a quote-unquote “real” movie that would impress the town, which would then open its arms to him again. He started writing a romantic comedy that had none of the action set-pieces or R-rated comedy that his scripts were known for; as he put it, it was a heartfelt romance about two quirky kids in L.A. He showed it to his friend and mentor James L. Brooks, the director of Terms of Endearment and Broadcast News, and while the famed director liked it, he thought it lost its way about halfway through. And Black agreed with him.
At a certain point, Black decided to put a dead body in the story, obviously changing the trajectory of it. He added the character of a tough private eye, a character ripped from the dime-store paperbacks Black used to read as a kid. However, Black decided to make the private eye gay, a subversive flourish he had never seen in this type of movie before. Before he knew it, Black was writing what he’d later describe as a romantic comedy version of Chinatown. He called his script You’ll Never Die in This Town Again. Shane Black was back.
Like many Black stories, his latest was to combine a convoluted plot with snappy banter, violent shootouts, and, most crucially, a humorous love-hate relationship between two vivid protagonists. The lead was Harry, a petty New York thief who unexpectedly finds himself attempting to solve a murder in Hollywood alongside a no-nonsense private detective affectionately known as “Gay Perry.” And just like most of Black’s tales, this one took place during the Christmas season.
Black would later admit the structure of the plot was cribbed from a 1940s paperback mystery called Bodies Are Where You Find Them, and the whole project was inspired by the pulpy books he grew up on. But the quirky personality of the film would be all his.
With the script in good shape in 2001, Black sent it around town to producers he’d worked with in the past. Only trouble was, none of them would read it—and if they did, they wouldn’t get back to him. According to the writer, one executive told him he wasn’t interested because his studio wasn’t doing period pieces anymore. Considering the fact it wasn’t a period piece, that signified to Black that the executive hadn’t even bothered to read it. Black was concerned that his stalled career would never rev up again.
But an old colleague returned to bail him out. Joel Silver, now hot off the success of The Matrix, agreed to take the project on. A May 2003 Variety article announced that Silver had agreed to produce You’ll Never Die in This Town Again for Black, reuniting the two after many years of not working together. For his part, Silver felt he owed something of a debt to Black; Lethal Weapon had changed the trajectory of Silver’s career and turned him into the super-producer he was, so helping his old friend out made sense—even if the material wasn’t exactly the stuff blockbusters are made of.
Black eventually changed the title to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which was the name of a James Bond song in the 60s and an international nickname for the character; journalists used to snidely refer to him as “Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.” Black liked this new title because he felt it summed up the movie, which was half-romantic comedy, half-thriller. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was also the title of a book of reviews by the famed critic Pauline Kael, and when it was revealed to be the title of his new movie, Black claimed he received hate mail from people who thought he was somehow denigrating the beloved critic.
Nevertheless, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was a go at Joel Silver’s home studio, Warner Bros. The budget was set at $15 million, proof that the studio didn’t intend to spend very much on the project; after all, this was the same time they were making movies like Batman Begins, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, all of which came with rather hefty price tags.
But the budget would also depend on the leading men in the film; if they could attach some bankable names to the project, the money might flow a little more freely from the studio. One surprising actor attached for a while was Johnny Knoxville, then a household name for anyone who watched the ridiculous exploits of Jackass. Another name attached was Benicio del Toro, but how serious his flirtation was with the project is hard to say.
Black was in the process of auditioning actors at Silver’s office on the Warner Brothers lot when he noticed the frequent presence of Robert Downey Jr. in the building. Downey was dating Silver’s right-hand woman at the time, Susan Levine—the two met while making the horror film Gothika, which she produced and he co-starred in. Black asked Downey if he would read some lines from the script while he was hanging around and became instantly enamored with the actor’s take on Harry.
For his part, Downey already knew about the screenplay. In a later interview, Downey said that he would hear Susan laughing to herself as she was reading the script, something that was unusual for her. When she described the wild events contained in the screenplay, Downey was intrigued and wanted to be involved. The actor, of course, was not the RDJ we all know and love today; in the early 2000s he was still attempting to clean up his act and career, and by the time Kiss Kiss Bang Bang rolled around he’d just gotten sober.
Warner Bros. didn’t view him as a bankable star, so the budget would remain in the $15 million range—unless they could get a bigger name to play Gay Perry. Evidently, Black and Silver searched for such a star for months but couldn’t get anyone to agree to take on the role; eventually, Val Kilmer’s agent contacted them and notified them of the actor’s interest and availability, prompting Black to cast the actor, notoriously a handful on set. Now the studio was looking at a novice director in charge of a major motion picture with two actors who weren’t exactly known for being easy-going fellas. It’s no wonder they were only willing to commit $15 million to it.
The other missing piece would be the lead actress for the role of Holly, Harry’s childhood friend and later love interest. Black claimed the studio didn’t require a big name for the female lead so all he had to do was find the right actress. Michelle Monaghan, who Black had never even heard of up until that point, came in and auditioned and knocked it out of the park. A few months later, she read three scenes with Robert Downey Jr. and based on that small sample, she got the part.
Though it was his first time sitting in the director’s chair, Black ultimately found the job surprisingly easy. He prepared thoroughly during pre-production and later said it turned out to be a breeze and wondered why it had taken him so long to do it. He even shot the film’s extravagant party sequences at his own home, perhaps to save on budget, but also as a sly reference to some of the over-the-top gatherings he’d personally become known for throwing. Supposedly, a party at Shane Black’s house could get just as wild as one at the Playboy Mansion.
Black’s tribute to dime-store paperbacks didn’t stop at the material—he paid a debt to author Raymond Chandler by naming the film’s chapter titles after Chandler books: Trouble Is My Business, The Lady in the Lake, and so on. Black viewed the film as a celebration of detective novels, as well as something of a cheeky love letter to his longtime home, Los Angeles.
Thanks to a generally smooth production despite the relatively small budget, Black was convinced he’d made the movie he’d been dreaming up for a couple of years. Despite his leading men’s reputations, Black found the two actors agreeable to work with; most importantly, all three leads had excellent chemistry with one another, which was essential to its success.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang premiered at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, out of competition. It received an enthusiastic response from the filmgoers there, but not so much that Warner Bros. was willing to give it a wide release. In fact, when the time came to put the film in theaters in October of that same year, Warners decided to roll it out as a platform release, putting it out in only eight theaters. It performed respectably opening weekend, making $180 thousand from those theaters, and though Warners did add theaters during the ensuing weeks, it never went wider than 226 theaters. Kiss Kiss Bang Bangwas never really given a chance to reach a mass audience, and it ended its run with only $4 million in the U.S.
Low box office aside, the movie won over plenty of critics and film geeks. Robert Downey Jr. later admitted to being disappointed with the lukewarm reception, having hoped it was going to be the moment he re-entered the Hollywood A-list. However, appearing in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang still ended up changing his life forever—his performance caught the attention of Jon Favreau, then prepping Iron Man, who later made the controversial decision to cast RDJ as Tony Stark. Iron Man would, of course, become a massive success and propel Downey to international superstardom. As he later said, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang ended up being the calling card that led to Tony Stark and ultimately his complete reinvention.
And obviously, it would change things drastically for Black as well. Though he too was massively disappointed with how Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was received at the box office, it would turn out the newly successful Robert Downey Jr. would return the favor in a pretty big way. In 2010, Downey called Black out of nowhere and said he wanted the writer to pen an Iron Man movie. That became 2013’s Iron Man 3, which would gross over a billion dollars at the worldwide box office.
So, one might say we have Kiss Kiss Bang Bang to thank for Robert Downey Jr. being cast as Tony Stark, which led to the entire overall success of the MCU. That might be a lot to hang on a tiny $15 million movie’s shoulders, but like its characters, it’s tough enough to take on such a responsibility.
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It’s time for a new episode of the Real Slashers video series – and since the release of this one coincides with Christmas, we are, of course, taking a look at a Christmas horror movie! Many genre fans watch the 1974 classic Black Christmas every December, and while the film’s first remake (of two, so far) wasn’t very well received when it was first released in 2006, as the years have gone by, it has gained a strong cult following of its own. So with this episode of Real Slashers, we’re digging into Black Christmas 2006. You can hear all about it in the video embedded above.
Written and directed by Glen Morgan, the 2006 version of Black Christmas has the following synopsis: The holiday season turns deadly for a group of sorority sisters who are stranded at their campus house during a snowstorm. These coeds better watch out, for a vicious killer is on the loose, and he will not care if they are naughty or nice.
The film stars Katie Cassidy, Michelle Trachtenberg, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Lacey Chabert, Kristen Cloke, Andrea Martin, Crystal Lowe, Oliver Hudson, Karin Konoval, Dean Friss, Robert Mann, Jessica Harmon, Leela Savasta, Kathleen Kole, Howard Siegel, Peter Wilds, Jill Teed, Anne Marie DeLuise, Christina Crivici, and Cainan Wiebe.
Here’s what Real Slashers is all about: Ahhh the ’80s. A simpler time where the blood ran red, the boobies swung freely, and the weed was copiously smoked. A time where rampant killers were simply excuses for excessive sex and over the top murder. Yes, we’re looking at an era where the slasher movie ran wild over cinemas everywhere. Today, we’re looking at “Real Slashers.”
The show is Written, Narrated, and Edited by Tyler Nichols, Produced by John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.
What do you think of Black Christmas 2006, and how did you like this episode of Real Slashers? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
A couple of the previous episodes of Real Slashers can be seen below. To see more, and to check out some of our other shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals channel – and subscribe while you’re at it!
The post Black Christmas (2006) – Real Slashers appeared first on JoBlo.