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tom selleck, alan rickman, quigley down under

As we’ve highlighted in previous videos and articles, those who exclusively purchase films through online services are not truly guaranteed to have it available in their collection when the buyer is at the whim of the service provider. The seemingly iron-clad way to have a movie ready-to-watch is if you can have it at your fingertips. There are thankfully some distribution brands that are releasing movies that have been previously hard to find. Shout Factory is one of those brands, and the company has now released details on the restoration of Quigley Down Under on Blu-ray.com.

Directed by Simon Wincer (Lonesome Dove), Quigley Down Under stars Tom Selleck as sharpshooter Matt Quigley. “Arriving in Australia with nothing more than a saddle and his prized six-foot Sharps rifle, American sharpshooter Matthew Quigley thinks he’s been hired to kill off wild dogs,” reads the description. “But when he realizes that his mission is murder — to eradicate the Aborigines from the property of a wealthy cattle baron — Quigley refuses … and quickly turns from hunter to hunted. Forced to wage a savage war against his former employer, Quigley proves that no one gets the best of a steely-eyed gunfighter — no one, that is, except the mysterious beauty who rides by his side … and captures his heart.” In addition to Tom Selleck, the film also stars Laura San Giacomo and Alan Rickman.

Quigley Down Under, 4K

Special Features and Technical Specs include:

DISC ONE – 4K BLU-RAY

  • NEW 4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE
  • DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
  • Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo
  • Optional English subtitles for the main feature

DISC TWO – BLU-RAY

  • NEW 4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE
  • “Finding Crazy Cora” – Interview with Laura San Giacomo
  • “This One Shoots a Mite Further” – Closer Look at the Sharps Rifle with Master Armorer Mike Tristano
  • “The Rebirth of a Western” Featurette
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • TV Spots
  • Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo
  • Optional English subtitles for the main feature

The post Quigley Down Under: Details and specs for the 4K UHD Blu-ray of the Tom Selleck and Alan Rickman western are released appeared first on JoBlo.

madame web, sj clarkson

Madame Web is now in theaters. The Dakota Johnson-led film seemed to acquire a Morbius-esque reputation building up to the release. Now that the film is out, critics and audiences are able to see if the movie was perhaps a victim of marketing or if it indeed delivered on some of the underwhelming elements that people online would pick up on. The review from our own Chris Bumbray would point out a lot of the baffling flaws the movie showcased, saying, “It has to be said that some of the dialogue here is ROUGH. It’s jam-packed with so much exposition and references to other Spider-Man characters that it becomes cheesy. […] Ultimately, Madame Web could have been a decent little B-side of a superhero film, but the terrible, cornball dialogue and lacklustre pace doom it early on.”

Something noteworthy about Madame Web is the fact that the movie takes place in 2003. That’s right, just one year after Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man became a box office phenomenon after breaking records on top of records. However, there’s a rumor that the film was originally shot to take place in the 90s, only to be changed to 2003 later on. The film’s director, SJ Clarkson would explain to The Hollywood Reporter, “I was sent the script with 2003 in it.” When some of the soundtrack lent itself to the rumor, Clarkson pointed out, “I don’t know, maybe, although some of [soundtrack songs] are on the edge of 2003. So I think it’s about the mix. When you look at making something in a specific year, I always think it’s dangerous to just have all the music, costumes and cars that came out that year.” She would add, “So I was looking to get this timeless quality to the film across the board to where you weren’t sure when it was. For example, Cassie’s jacket. We found that at the last minute, and it was actually based on a vintage 1970s jacket, which felt really cool.”

Our review from Bumbray would also note how there was no post credits scene at his screening, which can sometimes happen to conceal a big secret until the world premiere. However, this time, Madame Web is breaking the Marvel tradition of featuring a little tease when the movie concludes. Clarkson, explains that this is by design. Clarkson stated, “It was about telling a great story. My father always used to say, ‘If you have to say something, stand up, speak up and then shut up.’ So when I got to the end credits, I felt that we’d said everything we needed to say in the film.”

The post Madame Web director addresses rumor that the film originally took place in the 90s and why there’s no post credits scene appeared first on JoBlo.

PLOT:: This emotionally thrilling series reveals the shocking story of how fashion icon Christian Dior and his contemporaries, including Coco Chanel, Pierre Balmain, and Cristóbal Balenciaga navigated the horrors of World War Il and launched modern fashion.

REVIEW: Fashion design has found great success as fodder for reality series and romantic comedies. Films like The Devil Wears Prada, Robert Altman’s Pret-a-Porter, and Ryan Murphy’s limited series Halston have looked at the intricacies of the fashion world, mostly from a contemporary standpoint. The new AppleTV+ series The New Look is designed as the start of an anthology series by looking at the tumultuous period after World War II when French fashion icons Christian Dior and Coco Chanel reinvented what we consider haute couture. With a stellar cast led by Ben Mendelsohn and Juliette Binoche, The New Look should have been an instant frontrunner for series of the year. Instead, The New Look is a ploddingly thin drama that barely scratches the surface of the subject matter at hand, resulting in a ten-episode season that barely registers any interest.

Opening in 1955 with on-screen text claiming that the story to follow is about how the creative spirit reinvigorated the world after the end of the Nazi regime, The New Look begins with Christian Dior (Ben Mendelsohn) being lauded at the Sorbonne as the saviour of fashion. Simultaneously, Coco Chanel (Juliette Binoche) is being interviewed upon her return to Paris after years away. The two icons, one representative of the past and the other of the future, are meant to be rivals. The New Look is focused on creating a rift between the two that the series will chronicle, but it never quite reaches that point. For most of the series, The New Look focuses on the designers and their lives over the preceding decades as they developed to their current point at the start of the first episode. Much of the time is dedicated to Chanel’s tenure during the war, including her close connection to the Nazi party. At the same time, Dior is shown trying to save his sister Catherine (Maisie Williams). With a decade serving as the bulk of this series story, it is shocking how little is explored in the course of The New Look.

Ryan Murphy’s Halston spent a great deal looking at how the designer created the revolutionary clothes that gave him fame and fortune. The New Look forsakes the creative process as anything more than a necessary component in telling the stories of Dior and Chanel. Had more time been spent in the creative process, there likely would have been more energy to this story, which is consistently languishing in sadness and depression. Equally underexplored is the personal life of Christian Dior, a gay man living during one of the most repressive regimes in history. The series only superficially looks at what it meant to be a homosexual during World War II, and it seems a disservice to the life of Dior. Equally, the series skirts a lot of the tumultuous elements in Coco Chanel’s involvement with the Nazis, ignoring claims she was a spy for the Reich. Instead, a lot of attention is paid to her using her connections to the Nazis to reclaim controlling stakes in her empire, and she tries to explain it away with barely a thought. For a series that runs ten, hour-long episodes, there should have been substantial time to give these elements screen time.

The faults of The New Look are not due to the cast, who are all exceptional with the time they are given. Ben Mendelsohn has long been deserving of a showcase like this. The actor has appeared in supporting roles for so many years and shined as the lead in HBO’s The Outsider. Here, Mendelsohn imbues Dior with a simmering fear of failure and exposure but does not get the chance to explore the designer’s genius to a satisfactory level. Juliette Binoche, an acting legend, equally tries to make do with Coco Chanel’s trademark mannerisms and affect, but she ends up playing second fiddle in a story that should be all hers. The supporting cast touted in the trailers are all underused, especially John Malkovich as Dior’s mentor, Lucien Lelong. It should be a rule that if you have Malkovich, you use Malkovich. Maisie Williams is excellent as Catherine Dior, providing a powerful if understated performance. Glenn Close appears in a brief role as Harper’s Bazaar editor Carmel Snow, but I wish we had seen more of her. Claes Bang, Emily Mortimer, and Nuno Lopes all provide solid work but none of them are given enough to work with.

Series creator and showrunner Todd A. Kessler, who created the Netflix series Bloodline and the FX series Damages, wrote or co-wrote most of The New Look and helmed multiple episodes. As a director, Kessler does not elevate the series above television quality, with much of The New Look smacking of small-scale visuals. Because Kessler directs the premiere chapter, the other filmmakers in the series, including Jeremy Podeswa, Helen Shaver, and Cannes Palm d’Or winner Julia Ducournau (Titane) have to follow his lead and keep things in check. With so many World War II-era films and series in recent years, I had higher hopes for the look and feel of this series, but it never can truly come together. Maybe it is because the scripts feel disjointed, as if the writers tried to tell two completely disparate stories and then attempted to weave them together. Neither Dior nor Chanel is given enough weight, and the goal of pitting them opposite each other fizzles very early in the series. I had multiple issues with this series, and almost all of them fall on the written page and behind the camera rather than the actors on screen.

A series about fashion designers and the importance of their creations should at the very least spend a modicum of time on how they realized their designs. The New Look wants so badly to be a relevant tale about perseverance in the face of true evil and yet never gives us anything to root for. Ben Mendelsohn, Juliette Binoche, and the entire ensemble of this series are excellent actors and do their best with material that is far below the quality it should have been. With a second season already greenlit by Apple, I hope they find a more energetic way to deliver their next foray into The New Look. This series, which has a fantastic trailer, feels underwhelming, underdeveloped, and ultimately boring. I would expect that even the most ardent fan of Dior or Chanel will find little of interest in this series that feels twice as long as it actually is and painfully wastes every talent involved.

The New Look premieres on February 14th on AppleTV+.


The New Look

BELOW AVERAGE

5

The post The New Look TV Review appeared first on JoBlo.

Efron Iron Claw

Have you always wanted to take Zac Efron home? Well, A24 is giving you your chance – so long as you don’t mind him as an action figure. The studio has unveiled a new Zac Efron figure in the form of Kevin Von Erich, the real-life pro wrestler he played in last year’s The Iron Claw. The throwback figure is up for pre-order on A24’s site.

Here is A24’s brief description of the Zac Efron von Erich figure, complete with a nod to Rush’s “Tom Sawyer”, a song featured in the movie: Modern-day warrior, mean, mean stride. Deliver a good ol’ fashioned Texas whooping with The Iron Claw Kevin Von Erich Action Figure.” The figure stands 6.5”, comes with a removable jacket and has 23 points of articulation. It is priced at $48 and will ship in August. Unfortunately for many, A24 has skipped on Jeremy Allan White’s Kerry Von Erich…

A24 is the reigning champion of movie merch. Whether it’s a figurine of the bear from Midsommar or a Mid90s fingerboard or hot dog finger gloves from Everything Everywhere All at Once, they have hit on their niche market to provide cool and offbeat collectibles. This Zac Efron one as his The Iron Claw character is no doubt a welcome addition to their shop and is surprisingly their first of its kind. Now come on, where’s our Howard Ratner figure?

The Iron Claw tells “the true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who made history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s. Through tragedy and triumph, under the shadow of their domineering father and coach, the brothers seek larger-than-life immortality on the biggest stage in sports.” The dynasty’s depiction in the movie earned raves from critics, fans and those within the pro wrestling industry; we even named The Iron Claw one of our top 10 films of the year and, honestly, Efron should have been nominated for an Oscar.

Mattel previously put out a Kevin Von Erich action figure as part of WWE’s Legends line, while Kerry has also received numerous treatments in that form. The Iron Claw is currently on VOD.

Will you be picking up Zac Efron’s Kevin Von Erich figure? Which other A24 characters do you want to see given a figure or doll? Give us your choice below!

Efron Iron Claw 2

The post Zac Efron’s Kevin Von Erich gets action figure from A24 appeared first on JoBlo.

Charles Melton, Elizabeth Olsen, Todd Solondz, new movie, Love Child

Elizabeth Olsen (Love & Death) and Charles Melton (May December) are set to star in Love Child, the first new movie from Todd Solondz in eight years.

Love Child follows Misty, a woman stuck in a loveless marriage to a brutish husband. “Junior, her precocious 11-year-old is her only consolation,” reads the description. “When Easy, a handsome vagabond stranger, appears, Junior hatches a plan to get rid of his father so that his mother can marry him instead. But things end up backfiring, so Junior comes up with yet another plan, this one even more devious, and with more disastrous—and unexpected—consequences.” The film has been in the works for some time, with Rachel Weisz and Colin Farrell once attached to the project back in 2021.

Todd Solondz is best known for Welcome to the Dollhouse and Happiness, and his last film, Wiener-Dog, was released in 2016. “I am beyond excited to work with Elizabeth Olsen and Charles Melton on what will be a super fun and playful celebration of Hollywood movies,” Solondz said in a statement.

Elizabeth Olsen added: “I am a long-time fan of Todd’s work and to collaborate with him on this film is a true dream.

Not to be left out, producer Christine Vachon of Killer Films commented: “I’m thrilled to re-team with Todd Solondz on Love Child. We’ve worked together for many years now, starting with Happiness in the late 90s, and more recently with Wiener Dog. Love Child is yet another example of his singularity as a filmmaker – this dark, hilarious movie could only come from him.” In addition to Vachon, the project will also be produced by Cindy Bru of Volition Media, David Hinojosa of 2AM, and Ford Corbett of Gramercy Park Media.

Elizabeth Olsen starred in Love & Death last year, a Max mini-series which told the true story of Candy Montgomery, a housewife accused of murdering her lover’s wife. Charles Melton has received plenty of acclaim for his role in May December, which was loosely inspired by the Mary Kay Letourneau scandal. He even received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

The post Love Child: Elizabeth Olsen & Charles Melton to star in new Todd Solondz movie appeared first on JoBlo.

Cillian Murphy, Red Eye

Just two months after the release of Batman Begins, Cillian Murphy was back in theaters with Red Eye, a psychological thriller directed by Wes Craven. Although the film received decent reviews and was a box-office success, Murphy doesn’t consider it to be one of his best.

Cillian Murphy opened up about Red Eye during GQ‘s recent cover story, saying that he “love[s] Rachel McAdams and we had fun making it, but I don’t think it’s a good movie. It’s a good B movie.

The movie follows a woman who is pulled into a political assassination plot by her initially charming seatmate during a red-eye flight to Miami. Murphy says that it was that duality that originally attracted him to the role. “It’s why I wanted to play it,” Murphy said. “That two thing. The nice guy and the bad guy in one. The only reason it appealed to me is you could do that. That turn, you know?

Rachel McAdams also chimed in to praise her Red Eye co-star. “They say the nicest people sometimes make the best villains,” McAdams said. “We’d listen to music and gab away while doing the crossword puzzle, which he brought every day and would graciously let me chime in on.… I think the number one question I got about Cillian way back then was whether or not he wore contact lenses.

This isn’t the first time that Cillian Murphy has expressed his dislike for Red Eye (albeit in an exceptionally kind way), as he told Uproxx in 2021 that he didn’t like his performance. “When I was a younger actor, I was really, really hard on everything that I was in. I hated watching myself. I hated looking at myself on screen,” Murphy said. “I remember when I saw it was like ‘Oh, that’s kind of a schlocky B movie.’ Rachel McAdams is excellent in it. But I didn’t think I gave a very nuanced performance in it. But, listen, if people love the movie then that’s great. I’m pleased with that. I’m less hard on myself now when I look at stuff. I’m less hypercritical of my work. But that’s probably a hangover from that to be honest.

Although Murphy isn’t the biggest fan of Red Eye, the movie certainly has its fans and even received a 4K Ultra HD release last year. What are your thoughts on the movie?

The post Cillian Murphy on Wes Craven’s Red Eye: “I don’t think it’s a good movie” appeared first on JoBlo.