For so many years, so many have been lamenting the dire state of Pokémon Go’s monthly Community Days. What should be events that encourage players to fill local parks for a fun series of challenges have become repetitive, desultory events that can be completed almost without trying. And now they’re doubling in price!
My favorite animated film of 2024, The Wild Robot, is getting a streaming release on Peacock on Friday, January 24, 2025. Debuting at the latest Toronto International Film Festival, the animated epic based on Peter Brown’s New York Times bestselling novel series, The Wild Robot, stomped to over $324 million at the global box office. If you’re not a Peacock subscriber, you can rent or purchase The Wild Robot on Prime Video, Apple TV+, and other Video On Demand platforms.
Directed by three-time Academy Award nominee Chris Sanders, The Wild Robot is an epic adventure staring Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o (Us, the Black Panther franchise) as Roz, a robot that is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must adapt to the harsh surroundings. Gradually, Roz starts building relationships with the animals on the island, including a clever fox voiced by Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us, The Mandalorian), and becomes the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling named Brightbill, voiced by Kit Connor (Ready Player One, Heartstopper). The Wild Robot is a powerful story about self-discovery, a thrilling examination of the bridge between technology and nature, and a moving exploration of what it means to be alive and connected to all living things.
The Wild Robot features an incredible supporting voice cast alongside Nyong’o, Pascal, and Connor, including Catherine O’Hara (Schitt’s Creek, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice), Bill Nighy (Love Actually, Rango), Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Fall Guy), Mark Hamill (Star Wars franchise), Matt Berry (The IT Crowd, What We Do in the Shadows) and Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible franchise, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2). Showcasing music by Emmy and Grammy-nominated composer and Oscar winner Kris Bowers, the film also boasts two original songs by Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and music sensation Maren Morris.
In my estimation, The Wild Robot is Dreamworks Animation’s best and most mature movie. Beyond the life lessons, laughs, and heart-stopping heroism, it is a carefully crafted tale about breaking the bonds of isolation, trying to fit in where others feel you don’t belong, and going about life your way and no one else’s. Roz’s winning the island over through her selfless acts will surely be a topic of conversation come awards season.
Speaking of awards, I would not be surprised to see The Wild Robot nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 97th Academy Awards. It has a good shot at taking the crown if movies like Inside Out 2, Flow, or Memoir of a Snail don’t beat it to the punch.
Are you excited about The Wild Robot coming to Peacock on Friday, January 24, 2025? Let us know in the comments section below.
The post The Wild Robot gets a streaming release date at Peacock appeared first on JoBlo.
There are a lot of great fan-made Sonic the Hedgehog games out there. Sega has been notoriously chill with fans of the Blue Blur using its characters in their own projects, and there are even a handful of community-driven remakes of old games that could use a modern touch-up. The one we’re talking about today is Sonic…
There are a lot of great fan-made Sonic the Hedgehog games out there. Sega has been notoriously chill with fans of the Blue Blur using its characters in their own projects, and there are even a handful of community-driven remakes of old games that could use a modern touch-up. The one we’re talking about today is Sonic…
Nearly three years have gone by since we heard that Ben McKenzie (Gotham) and Bojana Novakovic (Beyond Skyline) were the stars of the Japanese horror film Bloat, which had already started filming at that time. Now, it looks like Bloat might finally be almost ready to make its way out into the world, as the Motion Picture Association ratings board has announced that they’ve given the film an R rating for language and some violent content. The film will be released by Lionsgate, but they haven’t set a release date for it yet.
Written and directed by Tokyo-based filmmaker Pablo Absento, Bloat is a co-production between Timur Bekmambetov‘s company Bazelevs, the Russian streaming service Okko, French production and sales company Pulsar Content, and Japanese production company flag Co., Ltd. Filming took place in New York and Japan. Bloat does indeed use Bekmambetov’s Screenlife filmmaking technique, “in which the story unfolds on the screens of the devices used by the movie’s characters.” So this is something along the lines of Unfriended, Searching, etc.
Bloat tells the story of a military officer stationed in Turkey while his wife is vacationing in Japan with their kids. During the stay, their younger son almost drowns in a lake. Soon after the accident, the parents realize that something is wrong with their boy.
Sawyer Jones (Antlers) and Malcolm Fuller (New Amsterdam) are also in the cast.
McKenzie and Absento produced the film with Bekmambetov, Maria Zatulovskaya, and Anna Shalashina of Bazelevs; Gilles Sousa and Marie Garrett of Pulsar Content; Hiroko Oda of flag Co., Ltd; and Dzhanik Fayziev of Okko. The Fantasia Film Festival’s artistic director Mitch Davis and Aleksandr Fomin serve as associate producers.
This marks the feature directorial debut of Absento, who previously directed the short films Call My Name, Shi, and Slit. Variety noted that she has also directed several episodes of SMA Horror (Smartphone Horror), a series produced by Takashi Shimizu, the creator of the Ju-on / Grudge franchise.
Does Bloat sound interesting to you, and are you glad to hear that it has finally been given a rating? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
The post Bloat: Ben McKenzie, Bojana Novakovic Japanese horror film earns an R rating appeared first on JoBlo.
Last Updated on January 6, 2025
PLOT: A realistic examination of the challenges facing healthcare workers in today’s America as seen through the lens of the frontline heroes working in a modern-day hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Each episode follows an hour of Dr. Michael “Robby” Rabinavitch’s 15-hour shift as the chief attendant in Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital’s emergency room.
REVIEW: Back in the 1990s, two competing medical dramas debuted on network television the same year. CBS series Chicago Hope hailed from David E. Kelley and lasted for six seasons, while NBC’s ER, from creator and medical doctor Michael Crichton, stayed on for fifteen years. ER launched the careers of Juliana Marguiles, George Clooney, and newcomer Noah Wyle. Fifteen years after its series finale, ER veteran Noah Wyle is back in scrubs in a similar yet unique medical drama. The Pitt, from ER showrunner John Wells. Shifting away from the relationship melodrama to focus on the actual emergency room cases faced by the frontline heroes at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital, The Pitt is told in an almost real-time format, with each hour-long episode set in a single hour of a fifteen-hour shift in the emergency room nicknamed “The Pitt.” With minimal forays into the personal lives of doctors and nurses, The Pitt is a harrowing and powerfully realistic look into the frontlines of emergency medicine in the post-COVID-19 world.
The first episode of The Pitt begins at seven in the morning on an average day at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital. As Dr. Michael “Robby” Rabinavitch (Noah Wyle) arrives for the start of his shift, the waiting room of the ER is packed with dozens waiting to be seen. As the supervising doctor for the emergency room, Dr. Robby is still reeling from PTSD surrounding the death of his mentor, Dr. Aaronson, to COVID four years ago this day. As the shift begins, the team of doctors and nurses at The Pitt take on patients handled by the previous medical experts and take on incoming emergencies along with those in the waiting room. Unlike ER and similar medical shows, which focus on patients within an hour, The Pitt has some patients seen and addressed within an hour. In contrast, others span multiple episodes due to the severity and complexity of their diagnoses. The first episode introduces the viewer to the staff of The Pitt, namely, Dr. Collins (Tracy Ifeachor), who is handling her unannounced pregnancy, Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball), a cocky and experienced doctor, as well as second and third-year residents Dr. McKay (Chucky‘s Fiona Dourif), Dr. Santos (Star Trek Picard‘s Isa Briones) and Dr. Mohan (Supriya Ganesh), recent transfer Dr. King (Taylor Dearden), and brand new residents Dr. Whitaker (Gerran Howell) and Dr. Javad (Shabana Azeez).
While we get moments that provide character development for each supporting character, the insights are quick and peppered between cases. On ER, each episode would see one or two main patients with a handful of minor ones but there was still plenty of time for romantic entanglements, hospital politics, and conflict between doctors. The Pitt still has elements of those subplots, but the focus is on realistic medical situations that never stop coming. Over the ten episodes made available for this review, the doctors of The Pitt treat dozens of patients, with the total nearing a hundred, with some successfully handled and others ending in tragedy and loss. There are recognizable faces in the patients and their next of kin, including actors Joana Going (House of Cards), Drew Powell (Gotham), and Samatha Sloyan (Midnight Mass). Most of these characters are organically woven into the heightened tension and anxiety of an overloaded emergency room suffering from understaffing and lack of resources. There is plenty of blood and lots of grisly injuries, but not much we have not seen on network medical shows. The biggest shift I noticed in this series airing on Max is the profanity, which is not overused but enhances the events’ realism.
What works in The Pitt outweighs what does not. Because of the focus being on the medical emergencies, none of which are as crazy as some of the stunt events seen on Grey’s Anatomy or Chicago Med, when a case comes into the emergency room, the doctors spout technobabble which sounds realistic but is likely beyond vetting by anyone who did not go to medical school. When the series shifts to the interactions between the doctors, we get hints of the melodrama that boosted ER and Chicago Hope. There are complaints from the nurses about the lack of support for frontline workers and discussions about the financial challenges coming from the top down. While COVID is referenced as a key event for many doctors, it is not as in your face as it could have been. Yes, there are a couple of blunt moments involving the vaccine debate, with the writers’ beliefs coming through loudly and clearly. Noah Wyle navigates most of these moments with aplomb from his prior medical show experience, and the rest of the cast is also solid.
Created by R. Scott Gemmill, a veteran of series including JAG, ER, and NCIS: Los Angeles, the fifteen episodes of The Pitt include entries written by Joe Sachs, Simran Baidwan, Cynthia Adarkwa, Valerie Chu, and star Noah Wyle, amongst others. Directing duties on the premiere fell to John Wells with Damien Marcaro, John Cameron, Silver Tree, and others, with Amanda Marsalis helming four episodes. The series has minimal music accompaniment, with non-stop action and movement, an impressive balance of handheld cinematography, and guerilla editing. Some of the heavier-handed elements did not work either for me, including the theft of an ambulance from outside the ER doors and how much screentime that takes up. There is also an ongoing narrative involving a doctor suspecting another, a pregnancy mystery, and a patient who may be a potential school shooter. Because of the real-time element of The Pitt, I get why these stories keep coming up episode after episode, but where some plots wrap up well, others linger too long.
A medical drama with significantly less soap opera tendencies and an increase in the gritty, medical focus of the story has been missing from television for a long time. The intensity of this series will likely give a new generation of future doctors and nurses the boost they will need to take care of those in need. If you like fast-paced drama without the frills of a standard formula procedural, The Pitt will be right up your alley. I found myself binging episode after episode without losing interest a single bit. This is a solid reinvention of the medical drama series and one I hope continues for future seasons. Noah Wyle may not deviate far from his tried-and-true experience on ER, and his return to the genre is a welcome one. I would have loved it if this series had been a true sequel to ER, but I will take this as the next best thing. I am writing you all a prescription for fifteen episodes of The Pitt to be taken stat.
The Pitt premieres on January 9th on Max.
The post The Pitt TV Review: Noah Wyle returns to the ER in this intense real-time medical series appeared first on JoBlo.
PLOT: A realistic examination of the challenges facing healthcare workers in today’s America as seen through the lens of the frontline heroes working in a modern-day hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Each episode follows an hour of Dr. Michael “Robby” Rabinavitch’s 15-hour shift as the chief attendant in Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital’s emergency room.
REVIEW: Back in the 1990s, two competing medical dramas debuted on network television the same year. CBS series Chicago Hope hailed from David E. Kelley and lasted for six seasons, while NBC’s ER, from creator and medical doctor Michael Crichton, stayed on for fifteen years. ER launched the careers of Juliana Marguiles, George Clooney, and newcomer Noah Wyle. Fifteen years after its series finale, ER veteran Noah Wyle is back in scrubs in a similar yet unique medical drama. The Pitt, from ER showrunner John Wells. Shifting away from the relationship melodrama to focus on the actual emergency room cases faced by the frontline heroes at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital, The Pitt is told in an almost real-time format, with each hour-long episode set in a single hour of a fifteen-hour shift in the emergency room nicknamed “The Pitt.” With minimal forays into the personal lives of doctors and nurses, The Pitt is a harrowing and powerfully realistic look into the frontlines of emergency medicine in the post-COVID-19 world.
The first episode of The Pitt begins at seven in the morning on an average day at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital. As Dr. Michael “Robby” Rabinavitch (Noah Wyle) arrives for the start of his shift, the waiting room of the ER is packed with dozens waiting to be seen. As the supervising doctor for the emergency room, Dr. Robby is still reeling from PTSD surrounding the death of his mentor, Dr. Aaronson, to COVID four years ago this day. As the shift begins, the team of doctors and nurses at The Pitt take on patients handled by the previous medical experts and take on incoming emergencies along with those in the waiting room. Unlike ER and similar medical shows, which focus on patients within an hour, The Pitt has some patients seen and addressed within an hour. In contrast, others span multiple episodes due to the severity and complexity of their diagnoses. The first episode introduces the viewer to the staff of The Pitt, namely, Dr. Collins (Tracy Ifeachor), who is handling her unannounced pregnancy, Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball), a cocky and experienced doctor, as well as second and third-year residents Dr. McKay (Chucky’s Fiona Dourif), Dr. Santos (Star Trek Picard‘s Isa Briones) and Dr. Mohan (Supriya Ganesh), recent transfer Dr. King (Taylor Dearden), and brand new residents Dr. Whitaker (Gerran Howell) and Dr. Javad (Shabana Azeez).
While we get moments that provide character development for each supporting character, the insights are quick and peppered between cases. On ER, each episode would see one or two main patients with a handful of minor ones but there was still plenty of time for romantic entanglements, hospital politics, and conflict between doctors. The Pitt still has elements of those subplots, but the focus is on realistic medical situations that never stop coming. Over the ten episodes made available for this review, the doctors of The Pitt treat dozens of patients, with the total nearing a hundred, with some successfully handled and others ending in tragedy and loss. There are recognizable faces in the patients and their next of kin, including actors Joana Going (House of Cards), Drew Powell (Gotham), and Samatha Sloyan (Midnight Mass). Most of these characters are organically woven into the heightened tension and anxiety of an overloaded emergency room suffering from understaffing and lack of resources. There is plenty of blood and lots of grisly injuries, but not much we have not seen on network medical shows. The biggest shift I noticed in this series airing on Max is the profanity, which is not overused but enhances the events’ realism.
What works in The Pitt outweighs what does not. Because of the focus being on the medical emergencies, none of which are as crazy as some of the stunt events seen on Grey’s Anatomy or Chicago Med, when a case comes into the emergency room, the doctors spout technobabble which sounds realistic but is likely beyond vetting by anyone who did not go to medical school. When the series shifts to the interactions between the doctors, we get hints of the melodrama that boosted ER and Chicago Hope. There are complaints from the nurses about the lack of support for frontline workers and discussions about the financial challenges coming from the top down. While COVID is referenced as a key event for many doctors, it is not as in your face as it could have been. Yes, there are a couple of blunt moments involving the vaccine debate, with the writers’ beliefs coming through loudly and clearly. Noah Wyle navigates most of these moments with aplomb from his prior medical show experience, and the rest of the cast is also solid.
Created by R. Scott Gemmill, a veteran of series including JAG, ER, and NCIS: Los Angeles, the fifteen episodes of The Pitt include entries written by Joe Sachs, Simran Baidwan, Cynthia Adarkwa, Valerie Chu, and star Noah Wyle, amongst others. Directing duties on the premiere fell to John Wells with Damien Marcaro, John Cameron, Silver Tree, and others, with Amanda Marsalis helming four episodes. The series has minimal music accompaniment, with non-stop action and movement, an impressive balance of handheld cinematography, and guerilla editing. Some of the heavier-handed elements did not work either for me, including the theft of an ambulance from outside the ER doors and how much screentime that takes up. There is also an ongoing narrative involving a doctor suspecting another, a pregnancy mystery, and a patient who may be a potential school shooter. Because of the real-time element of The Pitt, I get why these stories keep coming up episode after episode, but where some plots wrap up well, others linger too long.
A medical drama with significantly less soap opera tendencies and an increase in the gritty, medical focus of the story has been missing from television for a long time. The intensity of this series will likely give a new generation of future doctors and nurses the boost they will need to take care of those in need. If you like fast-paced drama without the frills of a standard formula procedural, The Pitt will be right up your alley. I found myself binging episode after episode without losing interest a single bit. This is a solid reinvention of the medical drama series and one I hope continues for future seasons. Noah Wyle may not deviate far from his tried-and-true experience on ER, and his return to the genre is a welcome one. I would have loved it if this series had been a true sequel to ER, but I will take this as the next best thing. I am writing you all a prescription for fifteen episodes of The Pitt to be taken stat.
The Pitt premieres on January 9th on Max.
The post The Pitt TV Review: Noah Wyle returns to the ER in this intense real-time medical series appeared first on JoBlo.
Last Updated on January 6, 2025
In 2018, audiences discovered an action movie treat. That flick was Den of Thieves, and it starred the still charming as hell. Gerard Butler and the terrific O’Shea Jackson Jr. were an instant win for both audiences and critics alike. So it’s not surprising that the feature would get the sequel treatment. And much like the first, Den of Thieves 2: Pantera reunites Butler and Jackson. The bigger sequel continues to be in the capable hands of filmmaker Christian Gudegast, who also wrote the screenplay.
While most movies plan their opening with interviews, the folks behind Den of Thieves had something a bit more adventurous in mind. I mean, we’re talkin’ speeding cars racing past 100 mph. And considering a certain car, make and model enjoys a certain amount of screentime. Mixing that with a bunch of journalists and influencers may sound crazy, but it was more than a whole lot of fun. A few weeks back, JoBlo was invited to return to the Porsche Driving Experience at the Porsche Experience Center Los Angeles. And it is beyond just a cool experience.
After checking in, each of us in attendance was assigned a driving coach. After that, we spent about thirty minutes on the course. If you’ve ever driven a Porsche, you know. These things handle the road so freaking beautifully that you almost forget just how fast you are actually going. However, I handled the course pretty damn well, if I do say so myself. And yes, I’m finding myself addicted to these cars.
For our first round of interviews, I had the pleasure of speaking to Christian Gudagast and Tucker Tooley. The two talked about bringing his team back for a second and the challenges of finally getting the sequel to theatres. It was fantastic chatting with these two, and we have more to bring you next week for interviews with Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr! It was a blast! Check out Den of Thieves 2: Pantera opening on January 10, 2025!
The post Den of Thieves 2: Pantera – We race Porsches and interview director Christian Gudegast appeared first on JoBlo.
In 2018, audiences discovered an action movie treat. That flick was Den of Thieves, and it starred the still charming as hell. Gerard Butler and the terrific O’Shea Jackson Jr. were an instant win for both audiences and critics alike. So it’s not surprising that the feature would get the sequel treatment. And much like the first, Den of Thieves 2: Pantera reunites Butler and Jackson. The bigger sequel continues to be in the capable hands of filmmaker Christian Gudegast, who also wrote the screenplay.
While most movies plan their opening with interviews, the folks behind Den of Thieves had something a bit more adventurous in mind. I mean, we’re talkin’ speeding cars racing past 100 mph. And considering a certain car, make and model enjoys a certain amount of screentime. Mixing that with a bunch of journalists and influencers may sound crazy, but it was more than a whole lot of fun. A few weeks back, JoBlo was invited to return to the Porsche Driving Experience at the Porsche Experience Center Los Angeles. And it is beyond just a cool experience.
After checking in, each of us in attendance was assigned a driving coach. After that, we spent about thirty minutes on the course. If you’ve ever driven a Porsche, you know. These things handle the road so freaking beautifully that you almost forget just how fast you are actually going. However, I handled the course pretty damn well, if I do say so myself. And yes, I’m finding myself addicted to these cars.
For our first round of interviews, I had the pleasure of speaking to Christian Gudagast and Tucker Tooley. The two talked about bringing his team back for a second and the challenges of finally getting the sequel to theatres. It was fantastic chatting with these two, and we have more to bring you next week for interviews with Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr! It was a blast! Check out Den of Thieves 2: Pantera opening on January 10, 2025!
The post Den of Thieves 2: Pantera – We race Porsches and interview director Christian Gudegast appeared first on JoBlo.
Charles Band’s company Full Moon has been delivering wild, crazy, entertaining films for over thirty-five years now – and last year, they launched a new production label called Pulp Noir, the idea being to focus on “edgier, weirder, darker horror and dark fantasy films.” So far, two Pulp Noir movies have made their way out into the world, Quadrant and Death Streamer, and on the new episode of his YouTube show Full Moon Universe, Band revealed that the third Pulp Noir movie, The Lost Girl’s Private Diary, is set to start filming at the end of February!
The Lost Girl’s Private Diary is a paranormal romance that Band describes as being in the vein of his 1990 movie Meridian. As with Meridian, Band will be directing this one himself, and here’s the official synopsis: Lily is a “Lost Girl”, a term given to those women that have been turned into vampires at a young age. Her youthful look betrays her half-century age and she lives a drug & alcohol fueled life of sexual excess, aligned to neither the living or the undead, all the while chronicling her exploits in her forbidden diary. One night while partying in a club built into an ancient monastery, she meets a mysterious man and, after a sensual night of partying, she accidentally drops her diary as she leaves. The young man finds the book and makes it his quest to find out where she has gone. Through his readings of the book, we live out the Lost Girl’s highly erotic adventures…
The production of this movie brings Band back to Italy, the country he grew up in and has made many movies in over the decades. On Full Moon Universe, Band said, “I’m excited about it because the last few movies we shot in Italy were many years ago. We shot Skull Heads at a castle that I owned at the time, and then Demonic Toys 2, and that’s got to be maybe fifteen years ago. I wanted so bad to go back, now we have a good set-up over there and this show really will be, I think, something unique and special because of the locations that we have access to.“
To help ensure these Pulp Noir productions go smoothly, Full Moon has set up a Patreon account where fans can subscribe and show their support for the company. There are multiple tiers to choose from, and fans who subscribe to the highest tier will receive an executive producer credit on the Pulp Noir movies made during their subscription.
Are you a Full Moon fan, and does The Lost Girl’s Private Diary sound interesting to you? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
The post The Lost Girl’s Private Diary: Full Moon’s paranormal romance starts filming in Italy next month appeared first on JoBlo.