At the end of September, JoBlo Media and Octane Multimedia teamed up to launch a new YouTube channel named JoBlo TV, which hosts multiple feature films to watch for free throughout the week. The genres we’ll be focusing on at JoBlo TV are Action, Horror, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Thrillers – and the free movies we shared this week really delivered the thrills!
This week’s line-up consisted of the sci-fi thriller Loophole, the crime thriller The Beast, and the sci-fi horror film Interpreters. Here’s some information on each of them:
Starring Chloe Lukasiak, who is best known for appearing as herself on many episodes of the reality TV series Dance Moms, Loophole was directed by Jenni Ivers and tells the following story: The future of humanity hangs in the balance, as both sides race against time to find the bloodline of Judas Iscariot. When Lexi Smith, a simple college student, finds herself in the middle of an all-out spiritual war, she is forced to trust a complete stranger. Kidnapped, rescued, then in hiding, she knows she has to act, but will she have enough time to save humanity? Lukasiak is joined in the cast by Timothy E. Goodwin, Michael Sigler, Kera O’Bryon, Deven Bromme, Gant Montgomery, Jessica Shannon Kessler, Will Steckman, Mark Shrader, Gabrielle Valladares, Carmen Fullmer, Iris S Moy Bautista, Ronda Suder, Tim Barney, Anna Hess, Emily Lapisardi, Gary Lee Vincent, and Leona Worcester.
Directed by Ryan Colucci and Dragan Roganovic from a screenplay by Colucci, The Beast (which is also known as Suburban Cowboy) is a gritty story based on real events. A drug dealer on Long Island finds himself over his head when one of his soldiers robs a connection to ruthless Serbian gangsters. When the debt falls on his shoulders he is forced to take drastic measures. Frank Raducz Jr., Alandrea Martin, Zoran Radanovich, Matty Finochio, Louie Iaccarino, Jonathan Kowalsky, Peggy Dunne, Scotty Tovar, Brian Johnson, Jeffrey R. Newman, Vonn Harris, Eric Ramey, Jay Eftimoski, Stacey Danger, Jessica Lee, Peter Murnik, Joel Guzman, and Eli Jimenes star.
Written and directed by Michael Ryan, Interpreters (a.k.a. Interpreters: a C & Earth Chronicle – quantum 1) has the following synopsis: An unusual perpetrator using advanced technology murders the inhabitants of Sullen Community while a former black operator and CID Agent investigates with the local police force uncovering a darker scheme and more dangerous threat than anticipated. Ace Marrero, Manny Martinez Hernandez, Sophia Medley, Erin Stegeman, Christopher Kriesa, Stefan Hayek, Wolfgang Weber, Ashley Bracken, Sophia Ferguson, Rachel Kylian, Andy Gates, Terry Maratos, Amber Bracken, Billy Brown, James Matthews, Scott Damien, Nicole Srp, and Travis Michéal star.
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Far Cry 3 was released over a decade ago, and while it supported achievements on console and Ubisoft’s own PC launcher, it didn’t include any Steam achievements. But as Ubisoft returns to Steam, it’s also going back and adding these missing challenges to older games, including Far Cry 3. And even better, Ubisoft is…
Far Cry 3 was released over a decade ago, and while it supported achievements on console and Ubisoft’s own PC launcher, it didn’t include any Steam achievements. But as Ubisoft returns to Steam, it’s also going back and adding these missing challenges to older games, including Far Cry 3. And even better, Ubisoft is…
On the day that Apple TV+ drops the season 2 finale of its dystopian drama series, Silo, we’re hearing that Jessica Henwick (The Royal Hotel, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery) and Ashley Zuckerman (Succession, Fear Street: Part One – 1994) are joining the cast of the show’s third season as series regulars. Jessica Henwick plays Helen, a whip-smart reporter, while Ashley Zuckerman plays Daniel, a young and eager congressman in Silo season 3.
While I understand Zuckerman’s role, I’m curious how Henwick’s Helen influences the show’s events. People in positions of authority don’t last long in Silo, so I get the need to have more players enter that arena. Still, a reporter role is interesting, given that I’m uncertain of how news travels in Silo. Does Helen manage a widely distributed newspaper? Does she give “Runners,” essentially the postmen of the Silo, pamphlets to share with the different levels? We’ll need to wait and see.
From creator and showrunner Graham Yost, Silo tells the story of some ten thousand people who believe they’re the last living humans on Earth. They live in the Silo, a protective housing structure buried a mile beneath a ruined planet. Outside the Silo, the environment is toxic, deadly, and mysterious. Time before the Silo is talked about in hushed tones, and “relics” from the past are illegal. If you mention going outside, authorities will gladly send you there, but not before making an example of you to the rest of the residents.
Rebecca Ferguson leads the series as Juliette, an engineer from the “Down Deep,” who uncovers a conspiracy after her lover dies from a shady suicide. As she unravels the truth, people see her as a savior, and the people at the top don’t much care for s**t disturbers. They’re willing to kill to keep their secrets, and Juliette must go outside.
Silo is produced by Apple Studios and based on the novels by Hugh Howey. I started watching Silo during the holiday break and could not stop until I was current with the series. I’m dying to finish my shift today so I can go and watch the season 2 finale, and I’m intrigued about Jessica Henwick and Ashley Zuckerman joining the Silo season 3 cast.
Do you watch Silo? Are you excited about the additions to the cast? Let us know in the comments section below.
A big 4K Blu-ray movie collection sale is happening right now, letting you grab all of the movies in some popular franchises—like Harry Potter and Mad Max—for around the cost of a single, new UHD film. But you’d better act fast as this deal ends in a few days!
A big 4K Blu-ray movie collection sale is happening right now, letting you grab all of the movies in some popular franchises—like Harry Potter and Mad Max—for around the cost of a single, new UHD film. But you’d better act fast as this deal ends in a few days!
Plot: Mark Scout leads a team at Lumon Industries, whose employees have undergone a severance procedure, which surgically divides their memories between their work and personal lives. This daring experiment in “work-life balance” is called into question as Mark finds himself at the center of an unraveling mystery that will force him to confront the true nature of his work… and of himself. In season two, Mark and his friends learn the dire consequences of trifling with the severance barrier, leading them further down a path of woe.
REVIEW: The first season of Severance was unlike any other series at the time. Created by Dan Erickson and directed and produced by Ben Stiller, the series blended creepy and surreal urban legends with a workplace comedy for a story that defied categorization into a single genre. With a great ensemble featuring Adam Scott, Patricia Arquette, Britt Lower, John Turturro, Zach Cherry, and Christopher Walken, Severance created a whole mythology around the mysterious Lumon Industries and their process to sever a person’s professional consciousness from their personal one. With a quirky retro vibe at the office and a mystery being investigated in the outside world, Severance builds mounting tension episode by episode through the cliffhanger finale. Two years later, we get to reconnect with our favorite innies and outies as we learn more about the truth behind what Lumon is trying to do and how the actions of the team of analysts will impact what is to come. The second season of Severance does not disappoint and achieves the rare feat of improving upon the debut season.
At the end of the first season, Mark Scout (Adam Scott) and his colleagues in Macro Data Refining, including Dylan (Zach Cherry), Irving (John Turturro), and Helly (Britt Lower), disabled the severance protocol and found themselves inhabiting their outie consciousnesses. Mark learned his boss, Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette), knew his outie and revealed to his sister Devon (Jen Tullock) that Mark’s deceased wife (Dichen Lachman) was alive. Dylan learned he was married with children while Irving found his coworker and love interest Burt (Christopher Walken) was in a relationship. Irving also noticed he had been painting a mysterious doorway at Lumon. Helly had the most shocking revelation as she learned she was actually Helena Egan, daughter of the head of Lumon. That cliffhanger opens the second season as the fallout at Lumon results in the dissolution of the MDR team and Mark being placed with a new set of coworkers. The floor supervisor, Seth Milchik (Tramell Tillman), has also taken a more prominent leadership role under the guidance of Lumon executives. The second season deepens the divide between the innies and the outies while not losing the mystery and surreal nature that made the first season so good.
Having seen the entirety of the second season, I can confidently say that Severance is better than ever. There is a lot more going on this season, both inside the Lumon offices and in the world at large, while not once feeling like the series is trying to top the twists and reveals from season one. The uneasy balance between what Lumon tells their severed workers and what they begin to uncover is central to the mounting plot of the show’s overall narrative, but it does not mean that Mark and his friends remain quiet and obedient. There is so much that I want to say about what happens this season, but virtually everything would be a spoiler. What I can tell you is that the trailer only hints at where this series goes, and that includes off-site work meetings, new departments, including the one where Gwendoline Christie’s character works, and episodes focused on the backstory for key supporting characters that have a direct impact on the main ensemble. Some interesting cameos and additions to the cast will surprise you right from the first episode, but what makes this season of Severance feel stronger than the first is the tightly controlled plot threads that connect back to elements from the first season while laying the groundwork for the seasons to come.
Severance‘s early episodes waste no time distinguishing themselves from the first season. The characters now know they are stuck and that something nefarious is happening at Lumon. Adam Scott gets a lot more conviction playing both halves of Mark Scout, who grows in self-confidence as an innie and makes decisive choices as an outie. There is much more for Zach Cherry to dig into this season with a unique romantic subplot, while John Turturro and Christopher Walken remain the best couple to root for on television. Britt Lower gets some heavy lifting as Helly deals with who she is on the outside. At the same time, we meet new characters played by John Noble, Alia Shawkat, Merritt Wever, Robby Benson, Olafur Darri Olafsson, Bob Balaban, and Sarah Bock. The return of actors from season one, including Sydney Cole Alexander as Lumon PR rep Natalie, Michael Chernus as Mark’s brother-in-law Ricke,n and Karen Aldridge as Reghabi, built this world into something much more sinister than I expected. The idea of what Lumon is and the purpose of the severance process continues to be a MacGuffin for this series, but one that is slowly revealing itself. By the end of the second season, there is so much more known than at the end of the first, but the mystery remains intact, and we do not feel like we are being led on a meaningless journey.
Series creator Dan Erickson once again leads the writing team, having scripted four of the ten episodes alongside Mohamad El Masti, Wei-Ning Yu, Anna Ouyang Moench, Erin Wagoner, Mark Friedman, Adam Countee, and K.C. Perry. Outside of Erickson and Moench, the team comprises new writers who delve further into the complex backstory of Lumon and the Egan clan. Ben Stiller helmed five episodes this season, down one from the first year. Stiller directed the premiere and finale with Sam Donovan (The Crown, The Widow) and Uta Briesewitz (Stranger Things, Black Mirror, Westworld), each helming two episodes, and cinematographer Jessica Lee Gagne (Mrs. America, Escape at Dannemora) made her directorial debut on the remaining episode. This season continues to mine the surreal, retro look of the Lumon offices with new forays in midseason episodes that shed light on the larger world of Severance. The eerie music from composer Theodore Shapiro continues to balance the series’ themes. A new opening credit sequence teases hidden messages about the season and where the story is headed. Some episodes do not have a credit sequence for reasons that will be evident when you watch those specific chapters.
Severance was already a unique series unlike any other show on the air and has built on that with an even better second season. The cast is exceptional, and the direction, led by Ben Stiller doing the best work of his career, improves on what came before it. This is such a rich world that has deepened what the audience knows without sacrificing any quality along the way. Each episode is full of character development that makes you care deeply about what happens to each member of the MDR team and even gives reasons to care about the antagonists as well. Few shows on television rival how bizarre and brilliant Severance is, and I look forward to seeing how viewers react to what this season has in store for them. As much as the first season impacted pop culture, season two will result in many memes, quotes, and references that will make this show a hard one to top in 2025.
Severance debuts its second season on January 17th on Apple TV+.
Way back in 2020, we heard that Francesca Gregorini, writer/director of the 2013 psychological thriller The Truth About Emanuel, was not happy about Servant, the Apple TV+ psychological thriller series that was created by Tony Basgallop and executive produced by M. Night Shyamalan. Gregorini was so upset about the show, and so convinced that it was a rip-off of her movie, that she hit Apple, Shyamalan, Basgallop, and the rest of the show’s executive producers and production companies with a copyright infringement lawsuit. While Servant has gone on to complete its four season run since Gregorini filed the lawsuit, Variety reports that the copyright trial got started this week and is expected to last for two weeks. What’s at stake? $81 million.
Jessica Biel and Kaya Scodelario star in The Truth About Emanuel, which told the following story: A troubled girl (Emanuel) becomes preoccupied with her mysterious new neighbor (Linda), who bears a striking resemblance to her dead mother. In offering to baby-sit Linda’s newborn, Emanuel unwittingly enters a fragile, fictional world, of which she becomes the gatekeeper. The twist is that Linda’s newborn is actually a doll, but Emanuel goes along with the act that it’s a real baby.
Starring Lauren Ambrose, Toby Kebbell, Nell Tiger Free, and Rupert Grint, Servant is about a couple that has formed an emotional bond with a doll created to resemble their dead infant daughter and the nanny the couple hired to take care of it.
On the first day of the trial, Gregorgini’s lawyer showed “jurors clips of both projects during his opening statement. He argued that both depict a delusional mother who cares for a doll as though it is a real baby, and a nanny who is complicit in the delusion.” As the trial goes on, jurors will be watching The Truth About Emanuel and the first three episodes of Servant in their entirety.
The defense will be arguing that “Basgallop began developing the show years before The Truth About Emanuel was released, and that those involved with the show never drew on the film. … To prove copyright infringement, the plaintiff must show both substantial similarity and that the defendant had access to the infringed work.“
Do you think Francesca Gregorini has a case, or do The Truth About Emanuel and Servant just happen to be about similar subjects, with no copyright infringement involved? Share your thoughts on this lawsuit by leaving a comment below.
The nine episode first season of the Marvel series Daredevil: Born Again is scheduled to premiere on Disney+ on March 4, 2025 – and during the FAN EXPO San Francisco, series star Charlie Cox revealed that season 2 of the show is scheduled to begin filming sometime before the first season’s premiere date!
Although the initial plan was to rework some elements and make Daredevil: Born Again stand separate from the Netflix Daredevil series (despite sharing some cast members), the show underwent a creative overhaul when the writers and actors strikes shut down production in 2023. Now, this series is a direct follow-up to the Netflix series, picking up five years later.
Dario Scardapane, who worked on Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan and the Netflix series The Punisher, was brought in to serve as showrunner on Daredevil: Born Again during the creative overhaul. The behind-the-scenes shake-up also led to Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, the directing team who were at the helm of multiple episodes of Moon Knight and Loki season 2, being hired as directors on the show. Matt Corman and Chris Ord were previously the head writers on the show, but they were let go. Scaradapane had this to say about the creative overhaul: “It had been conceived as more of a legal procedural, and we really brought it back towards an action-based New York crime story. The real trick was to have the DNA of the old Netflix show, but then push it forward into something very new.“
The cast of the series includes Charlie Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, Elden Henson, Deborah Ann Woll, Jon Bernthal, Wilson Bethel, and Ayelete Zurer, reprising the roles of Matt Murdock / Daredevil, Wilson Fisk / Kingpin, Murdock’s associates Foggy Nelson and Karen Page, Frank Castle / The Punisher, Benjamin “Dex” Poindexter / Bullseye, and Vanessa Marianna Fisk. Also in the cast are Margarita Levieva as Matt Murdock’s love interest Heather Glenn, Michael Gandolfini as a character named Daniel Blade, Genneya Walton as BB Urich, Jeremy Earl as Anti-Vigilante Task Force member Cole North, and Lou Taylor Pucci, taking on an unspecified role.
Cox told FAN EXPO San Francisco attendees (with thanks to SuperHeroHype for the transcription), “It’s been so many years since we released any Daredevil content, I’m really excited about it. By the time we release [Born Again] on March 4th, we’ll already be shooting season 2. So, it’s just a gift that keeps on giving, really.“
Are you glad to hear that Daredevil: Born Again season 2 is going to start filming soon? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
