If you know your Quentin Tarantino lore, you’ll know that one of his favourite films of all time is John Flynn’s Rolling Thunder. A gritty revenge flick, the 1977 movie was such an influence on Tarantino that he named his short-lived distribution company, Rolling Thunder Pictures, after it. He explains his love of the film in detail in his epic film book, Cinema Speculation. Now, the film is set to get a 4K special edition courtesy of Shout Factory, which comes packed with extras.

If you’ve never seen it, Rolling Thunder is a pretty incredible film. Paul Schrader originally wrote it, but it was heavily rewritten by Heywood Gould (Cocktail). It follows a NAM P.O.W., Major Charles Rane (William Devane), who returns to his home in San Antonio after seven years in Hanoi. Having long come to terms with the fact that he was unlikely ever to return home, Rane conducts himself with an “I’m already dead” style that’s genuinely unnerving. He initially tries to make things back home work but discovers that his wife has fallen in love with another man, while his son doesn’t know him, and Rane has no idea how to relate to him. Tragedy strikes when a group of thugs invade Rane’s home in the hope of stealing the 2,555 silver dollars he was given by the town (one for each day he served in captivity). Rane, having a death wish, refuses to tell them where the coins are, even after they take his hand off with a garbage disposer, and they wind up killing Rane’s estranged wife and son. 

With whatever was left of his humanity gone, Rane goes on one of the most brutal quests for vengeance ever put to screen. The film’s climax is especially memorable, with Rane recruiting one of the men who served under him, Tommy Lee Jones’ Johnny, to help him waste the entire gang that killed his family. There’s a much-referenced scene near the end when, after Rane reveals to Johnny that he knows where the men who killed his family are, the latter, with hardly any reaction at all save for the line “I’ll just get my gear,” calmly goes to his closet, assembles an arsenal, and ditches his (annoying) family to go help Rane “clean them up.”  It’s chilling stuff, and if you’re so inclined, this 4K set sounds amazing.

Here are the specs from Blu-ray.com:

• NEW 4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE
• NEW Audio Commentary With Screenwriter/Novelist Heywood Gould And Author/Film Historian C. Courtney Joyner
• NEW Audio Commentary With Filmmakers Jackson Stewart And Francis Galluppi
• NEW “Lean And Mean: The Early Films Of John Flynn” – An Interview With Author/Film Historian C. Courtney Joyner
• NEW “Coming Home To War: Scoring Rolling Thunder” – An Interview With Composer Barry De Vorzon
• “The Making Of Rolling Thunder” – Featuring Interviews With Actors William Devane And Tommy Lee Jones And Writers Paul Schrader And Heywood Gould
• Trailers From Hell – Filmmaker Eli Roth On Rolling Thunder
• Theatrical Trailer
• TV Spot
• Radio Spots
• Still Gallery
• Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
• Optional English subtitles for the main feature

Will you be picking up Rolling Thunder? Let us know in the comments!

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Edward Zwick hasn’t released a film since 2018 but he is back in the news for calling out Brad Pitt for “volatile” behavior on the set of 1994’s Legends of the Fall, the movie that helped launch the actor into superstardom. Now, a source close to the production has come forward to try to dispel Zwick’s recollections of the events, even calling the director a publicity hound.

In Zwick’s upcoming book, “Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood”, the director recalled a scenario in which Pitt showed “discomfort” and later the aforementioned “volatile” nature.  “Days before shooting, we held a table read. Given the script’s dependence on narration and visuals, it didn’t play very well in the sterile conference room. I could see Brad’s growing discomfort as it went on. Hours afterward, his agent called the studio to say Brad wanted to quit. It fell to Marshall [Herskovitz, producer] to talk Brad off the ledge. It was never mentioned again, but it was the first augury of the deeper springs of emotion roiling inside Brad. He seems easygoing at first, but he can be volatile when riled, as I was to be reminded more than once as shooting began and we took each other’s measure.”

But as the source told People, “[Zwick and Pitt] had disagreements…But Brad was not volatile.” They added that Zwick was the one whose temperament was on display on set, “It’s sort of sad that [Zwick’s] so desperate for attention that he would talk trash about people like Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt and others, when he’s the one whose behavior, kicking over chairs and throwing things, got so bad that it upset the cast and crew.”

In the book (an excerpt of which was published in Vanity Fair), Zwick noted that their clashes were never personal and always meant to be seen under the lens of professionalism. Still, Zwick did remember Pitt barking back on one specific occasion. “I kept pushing and Brad pushed back. One afternoon I started giving him direction out loud in front of the crew—a stupid, shaming provocation—and Brad came back at me, also out loud, telling me to back off.” That’s actually quite amusing considering Pitt once told his Legends of the Fall co-star Anthony Hopkins he felt “pretty free” making the movie.

Edward Zwick is currently tied to co-write Stephen King adaptation Billy Summers, while Brad Pitt is lined up for Quentin Tarantino’s final film, The Movie Critic.

What do you make of the Legends of the Fall production stories? Whose side are you more likely to take the side of over the claims: Edward Zwick or Brad Pitt?

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If there’s one thing Americans like arguing about, it’s football. But this one isn’t about the Chiefs and the 49ers (or all of the Taylor Swift in between), but rather the Giants and…Top Gun? That’s right, one of the NFL’s most famous quarterbacks and the star of one of the highest-grossing films of the decade have clashed, prompting a brand new debate: Who handles a football better, Eli Manning or Glen Powell? But this one won’t be settled on the gridiron.

Glen Powell and Eli Manning had a humorous exchange soon after it was announced that the actor would be starring in an upcoming Hulu comedy series spawned from Manning’s own fictional undercover football wannabe. In his jab, Manning wrote, “I hope Glen is working on his QB skills, I saw him throw a football in Maverick…he has some work to do!!” Ouch! Powell quickly fired back with, “I saved America and you’re nitpicking me about the long ball. Talk to me when you win a championship lathered in coconut oil…”

This is of course in reference to the scene in Top Gun: Maverick in which a number of the male cast members — including Twisters star Glen Powell — have a shirtless game of beach football, itself a play on the original’s iconic volleyball scene.

As stated, Chad Powers has its origins in Manning, who played the potential Penn State recruit in a piece from his series from ESPN+’s Eli’s Places. For the series, Glen Powell will play Russ Powell, who, having seen his dreams of college ball disappear due to poor behavior, disguises himself as the titular character to play for another team.

On the project, Powell and co-creator Michael Waldron (Loki) said, “We’re both diehard college football fans…When we saw Eli as Chad Powers, we knew that was the way into a big, fun story about this world. We’re excited to be part of this team, and can’t wait to get Chad in the game. Think fast, run fast.”

Since we’ll have to wait to see how Chad Powers translates to a scripted comedy series, we should at least get a modified quarterback challenge between Glen Powell and Eli Manning in the meantime.

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The final weekend box office numbers are in, and Bob Marley: One Love, the crowd-pleasing biopic, continues to do well, with an estimated gross of $13.5 million over the weekend. It dropped a comparatively modest 53% at the box office thanks to strong word-of-mouth (although the hold was less than I thought in my predictions). It’s well on its way to north of $100 million domestically.

However, for holdovers, the picture was much less rosy for Madame Web, which plunged to fourth place with a 61% drop. Now, it should be said that the drop isn’t as severe as the ones faced by The Marvels (78%) and Morbius (74%) in their second weekends, although both movies opened far stronger than Madame Web did. With a $6 million weekend and a $35.4 million total, it seems unlikely this film will gross the $45 million mark, a disaster for a big-budget superhero film.

The Dakota Johnson vehicle was soundly beaten in its second weekend by another Sony film, the anime Demon Slayer: To The Hashira Training, which made $11.575 million this weekend and posted (by far) the best per-screen average, with close to $6k a screen. These anime releases tend to be front-loaded, but even still, that’s a solid number. The faith-based Ordinary Angels did softer numbers than expected, with a three-day haul of $6.5 million, a surprise given the A+ CinemaScore rating. However, this Hilary Swank/ Alan Ritchson movie may have legs and play well all the way through March. It’s a marathon and not a sprint for Christian movies at the box office.

Illumination’s Migration also showed some strong legs at the box office, with $3 million over the weekend. After a soft Christmas opening, which saw it get trounced by Wonka, the film was legged out to north of $120 million domestically. Argylle came in sixth place with a $2.8 million weekend, with it losing over 500 screens, meaning its time in theaters is pretty much over. With a $41 million domestic total, it’s doubtful this will crack $50 million. Expect a quick release to Apple TV+, with the company financing the $200 million spy flick. 

Next weekend sees the release of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two. That film’s star, Timothee Chalamet’s last big hit, Wonka, had another strong showing, earning over $2.5 million, with it now creeping up on a $215 million domestic total – which is terrific for this family gem (it was a lot better than any of us expected, wasn’t it?). 

The weekend’s other big new release, Drive Away Dolls, directed by Ethan Coen of the Coen Bros, totally whiffed at the box office, with a $2.4 million total and a horrible per-screen average of just over $1k. People didn’t seem to care for this star-studded, wannabe midnight movie. Jason Statham’s sleeper hit, The Beekeeper, did $1.9 million, with it likely to pass $65 million domestically by next weekend. Finally, the big-screen release of the Christian TV show, The Chosen, fell to tenth place with a $1.795 million total, which isn’t bad for a movie you can stream for free online.

Did you see anything this weekend? Let us know in the comments! 

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A lot of really fun movies from the eighties and nineties are tough to get decent copies of. While some of the stories have happy endings, other films seem all but doomed to languish until a niche label like Arrow Video, Kino Lorber, or Unearthed Films gives them the TLC they deserve. So, what’s the title we’re worried is Gone Forever here at JoBlo? A cool little thriller (which I previously wrote up for Best Movie You Never Saw) from 1991 called Ricochet has a pretty impressive pedigree. The movie stars Denzel Washington, John Lithgow, Ice-T, Kevin Pollack and The Bionic Woman herself, Lindsay Wagner, while Highlander’s Russell Mulcahy directs it, is produced by Joel Silver, and is written by Die Hard’s Steven E De Souza. In fact, Ricochet takes place in the same universe as Die Hard, with Mary Ellen Trainor reprising her role as snoopy TV reporter Gale Wallens. 

Indeed, Ricochet was an early attempt to mould Denzel Washington into an action hero. He had already nabbed an Oscar for Glory, but he didn’t have any massive box-office hits under his belt. In it, Denzel is perfectly cast as a hotshot LAPD rookie named Nick Styles, who, on a routine patrol, comes face to face with a psychotic hitman named Earl Talbot Blake, played by John Lithgow. Styles manages to diffuse a hostage situation and arrest Blake in an incident that’s videotaped by a bystander who sells it to the news. The young, handsome Styles becomes a celebrity cop night and eventually becomes the Assistant D.A of Los Angeles, with a bright future in politics ahead of him and a lovely family that includes his beautiful wife Alice (played by Victoria Dillard) and two adorable daughters.

But Nick’s got a big problem. Furious at Styles getting the upper hand on him, Blake has spent eight years training and making alliances in prison to escape and wreak havoc on Styles life. You see, he doesn’t want to kill Styles, far from it. He wants to basically “cancel” Styles in the days before cancelling, ruining his life, leaving him a shell of a man, and eventually landing him in jail.

Now, Ricochet is a great little movie – but it’s wild. I can see why critics might not have known what to make of it in 1991, as it’s genuinely unhinged. What’s fascinating about it is that Denzel Washington’s Styles, while the film’s hero, isn’t really the lead. This is more like Cape Fear in that the psycho, played by John Lithgow, has more screen time, and it’s all about his revenge. Lithgow has rarely been better than he is here. While none of us really consider him a tough guy, Lithgow got into shape for the role, changed his look and is utterly convincing as a badass hitman who loses his mind in jail. His odyssey towards revenge is what the director, Russell Mulch and the screenwriter Steven E de Souza focus on. There are some truly gonzo scenes, such as a moment where Lithgow has a prison sword fight, using books as armour, with an Aryan nation tough guy played by Jesse “The Body” Ventura. Mulcahy shoots the sequence like it’s Highlander, complete with sparks as the swords hit each other and an epic score by Alan Silvestri. 

Mulcahy seems to be having a total ball with this film, ramping up the violence to such a degree that it was very clearly cut before it hit theaters as it was apparently so extreme it landed the studio an NC-17. Lithgow’s parole board escape is especially gruesome, while de Souza’s dialogue is an off-kilter blast.

Meanwhile, Denzel grounds the film by being utterly convincing as Style. His million-dollar smile and mega-watt charisma is on full display here, but he’s very believable in the role. You buy that the smart, good-looking Styles would become a celebrity and would make a fantastic DA (indeed, Denzel has famously played many lawyers). You buy him as a family man, and he also looks like a guy who can take care of himself in a fight, even if he gets very little action until the final showdown with Lithogow, which makes it all the more exciting to watch. The supporting cast is fun, too, with Kevin Pollack and Ice-T as D-Wash’s loyal buddies. Pollack plays his cop partner, a true-blue pal who sticks with him during his brutal comedown, with Blake setting up Styles to look like a heroin-addicted pedophile. He even gets him infected with VD in a disturbing sequence. Pollack sticks by him, even if you know he’s probably too pure of a character not to meet a grim end. Pollack even busts out his Shatner impression at one point, which cracks Denzel up in a way that feels legitimate. Meanwhile, Ice-T plays a buddy of Denzel’s from when he was a kid who’s now a gangster, albeit one with a conscience who helps out his pal when push comes to shove. 

In the end, Ricochet wasn’t a particular hit, only making about $21 million domestically. That’s not a terrible number, and the film was a solid cable hit. Still, it was overshadowed by Denzel’s follow-ups, which were somewhat more prestigious, with Philadelphia and The Pelican Brief establishing him more of a sophisticated-type leading man. The funny thing is that Denzel always loved doing action movies and would try again with Virtuosity in 1995 (discovering Russell Crowe in the process). True action stardom would eventually happen for Denzel with Antoine Fuqua’s Training Day (which nabbed him another Oscar) and Tony Scott’s Man on Fire (a movie I consider a masterpiece). Nowadays, he’s one of the giants of modern action (with The Equalizer 3 a notable recent hit). 

For its part, Ricochet is largely obscure, to the point that it only exists on physical media on an old DVD copy of the movie put out by HBO in the 90s, which is non-anamorphic. The best version of the movie out there is a pirated copy ripped from Cinemax in HD, but it’s not in the right aspect ratio. It’s really too bad, as it deserves a full-on re-release, with Denzel at his best and John Lithgow’s performance in particular ripe for rediscovery.

Have you ever seen Ricochet? Let us know in the comments! 

The post Ricochet: Why is this Underrated Denzel Washington Action Flick So Tough To Find? appeared first on JoBlo.

We’re just days away from the launch of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and if you’re still (somehow) on the fence about diving into one of 2024’s most anticipated games, the PS5 demo is a great way to get a taste of what’s in store. We’ve put together several guides on what to do in Rebirth’s Junon region and how to make…

Read more…

We’re just days away from the launch of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and if you’re still (somehow) on the fence about diving into one of 2024’s most anticipated games, the PS5 demo is a great way to get a taste of what’s in store. We’ve put together several guides on what to do in Rebirth’s Junon region and how to make…

Read more…

Thanksgiving is killing it on Netflix—it’s currently ranked among the streamer’s top flicks. When one horror film does well, that’s great news for the genre at large, so if you head to the streamer for John Carver’s merry Massachusetts massacre, why not stick around and feast on these other titles, too?

Read more…

Thanksgiving is killing it on Netflix—it’s currently ranked among the streamer’s top flicks. When one horror film does well, that’s great news for the genre at large, so if you head to the streamer for John Carver’s merry Massachusetts massacre, why not stick around and feast on these other titles, too?

Read more…

Just one week after it was announced that Foundation would resume filming after some issues involving budgetary and production concerns, the Apple TV+ sci-fi series has hit yet another snag, as co-creator David S. Goyer is stepping down from showrunner duties for the third season.

While Goyer will still be “creatively involved”, his position is being relegated to executive producer Bill Bost, although Goyer himself will still receive credit on Foundation. This may reasonably raise concerns for those who have been loyal to Foundation, as such a shakeup may point to even more significant behind-the-scenes problems, especially since it had previously been revealed that Goyer wouldn’t be directing any episodes of the third season, having helmed three episodes of the show’s first 20. One could possibly begin to deduce that these mounting issues may see even less involvement from Goyer, whose screenwriting credits include writing Batman Begins, Man of Steel and Terminator: Dark Fate. Could we possibly see Goyer removing himself entirely from the show?

One of the key problems currently surrounding the third season of Foundation – which will resume production in Prague next month – involves the ever-growing budgets, with The Hollywood Reporter noting, “Sources say Goyer and executives at the show’s production company, Skydance, clashed over the budget for the upcoming season.” Numbers-wise, the first season of Foundation cost around $45 million.

This is all quite a bit unfortunate, since Goyer had expressed so much excitement for the third season, stating, “I’m thrilled Apple has given us the opportunity to continue chronicling Asimov’s pioneering galactic saga…This time, the stakes for Foundation and Empire are even higher as the Mule takes center stage, along with fan-favorites Bayta, Toran, Ebling, and Magnifico Giganticus.”

Foundation has only garnered more attention and praise since debuting in 2021, with its second season holding a 100% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, while the audience score sits at a strong 78%. Both numbers are well above the first season, which sits at 72% and 65%, respectively. While our own critic Alex Maidy gave both seasons a 7/10, he did say the writing for the sophomore outing was a noticeable improvement over the debut.

Are you concerned about David S. Goyer stepping away from showrunner duties on Foundation? How do you expect the third season to compare to the first two? Give us your thoughts below!

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