The world of entertainment lost a true talent last March when The Wire and John Wick actor Lance Reddick passed away. To honor the actor, the Saturn Awards is introducing the Lance Reddick Legacy Award, with its first recipient announced as John Wick co-star Keanu Reeves.
A statement regarding the award said that the honor “symbolizes and celebrates not only a performer’s talent, but their character; someone who’s a true goodwill ambassador in the industry.” As far as why Keanu Reeves was selected as the first recipient of the Lance Reddick Legacy Award: “From Science Fiction (The Matrix trilogy), Fantasy (Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure/Constantine) & Horror (Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula/The Devil’s Advocate), Keanu has done it all — not to mention Speed and Point Break. Keanu is not just a Hollywood icon but also a shining example of humility and gratitude. Throughout his incredible career, he has never forgotten the support of his fans and the filmmakers who’ve supported him all these years. We’re thrilled to celebrate Lance’s memory with a dear friend and a genre icon.”
This is undoubtedly a touching way to honor Lance Reddick, who played The Continental’s concierge Charon across all four John Wick movies and passed away from heart disease at the age of 60. Reeves certainly seems deserving, too, not just for his collaborations with Reddick but due to the nature in which the award was established.
John Wick: Chapter 4 is up for five Saturn Awards, with Reeves himself competing for Best Actor. He was previously nominated for the third John Wick and The Matrix. The 51st Saturn Awards will be held on Sunday, February 4th, with Avatar: The Way of Water leading this year’s nominees.
Lance Reddick’s death between John Wick: Chapter 4’s world premiere and its wide theatrical release put a cloud over the movie, which was the first of far too many posthumous releases for the actor. The Los Angeles premiere, however, paid tribute to Reddick in classy fashion. This year’s Ballerina will see his final portrayal of Charon.
What are some of your favorite Lance Reddick performances? Share your picks with us in the comments section below.
Marvel had a rough year in 2023. Many of its properties underperformed, and they lost their big villain due to Jonathan Majors being fired. Looking forward to their upcoming slate, comic fans have been excited about some of the studio’s projects over the next few years. Will these films help Marvel regain control? The upcoming Thunderbolts film has been one that fanboys have been hoping to see since the MCU started. With some recent news about the property coming up, it seems like the right time to break down what we know about the production.
Who Are The Thunderbolts?
The team first appeared in Marvel Comics in 1997 in an issue of The Incredible Hulk. They seemed to be a new group of superheroes that had arrived on the scene and gained acclaim very quickly. The reader was informed that the group was actually a group of supervillains led by Baron Zemo. They were posing as new heroes to gain the trust of other hero teams and S.H.I.E.L.D. to gain access to all their secrets. This would allow them to sell them to the highest bidder. Eventually, some team members felt they should try to become heroes, and the group would fall apart.
Other versions of the team would appear throughout the years, but the version that the MCU seems to be leaning toward was a government-funded strike team. It would be filled with reformed supervillains looking to reduce their imprisonment sentence or redeem themselves for their past crimes. This is comparable to DC’s Suicide Squad. In the past, it has been led by characters such as Norman Osborne, Black Widow, and Hawkeye.
MCU Team Members
For the MCU version of the team, we have seen Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ character, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, appearing in multiple projects to recruit team members. She first appeared in Falcon And The Winter Soldier to ask disgraced Captain America replacement John Walker to join her team.
We would then see her show up in a post-credits scene in Black Widow to put Yelena Belova on Hawkeye’s trail, saying he was responsible for her sister’s death. Then, in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, she is revealed as the new head of the CIA. This puts her in the perfect position to run the team in the future. Thaddeus Ross, previously played by William Hurt, is supposed to be in the new film. With Harrison Ford taking over the character, speculation is we could finally see him turn into the Red Hulk who has been part of the team in the comics.
So, who will we see on the team? As mentioned, John Walker and Yelena Belova have already been recruited to the team. Some other familiar faces will be joining them. Red Guardian and Task Master from the Black Widow film will be showing up alongside Yelena. I’m sure she has some issues with her fake father that she would like to work out.
Then, Ghost from Ant-Man And The Wasp will be joining the group. With her phasing abilities, it should add some fun to the team. In a team leader role, we may see Bucky Barnes, The Winter Soldier. The team dynamics should be interesting. The talk is that the Thunderbolts will be brought together to take on the powerful character The Sentry.
Who Is The Sentry?
Back in 2000, then publisher for Marvel Joe Quesada announced that they had discovered a long-lost Marvel character that the company had completely forgotten about. He pre-dated Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. Stan Lee was interviewed and said he remembered the character being created by a couple of writers, but they never did anything with the character.
Marvel said they were bringing him back into their current continuity and pushed him almost as Marvel’s version of Superman. He could fly, had super strength, and had a giant S on his belt. When his first miniseries concluded, fans discovered the whole thing had been a lie. Part of the character’s story was that this hero had disappeared, and no one in Marvel continuity remembered him. This whole thing had been a marketing ploy to introduce this new character.
On the surface, he seemed like a wholesome character like Superman, but it was revealed he was mentally unstable and threatened to destroy the entire Marvel Universe. The story was well received, and the character was believed to have a short shelf life. However, he was brought back for numerous Avengers storylines and became a compelling character in Marvel comics.
In the upcoming film, Steven Yeun was cast as the character. He had been very vocal about how excited he was to play the character and has been a fan of the MCU since it started. When the strikes happened over the summer of 2023, it was revealed that film production would have to be pushed back until they were over. Once those ended, it was put back on the schedule, which now caused issues with Yeun’s schedule. He had to drop out but hopes to return as another character at some point in the MCU. The role has not been officially recast, with Lewis Pullman being linked with the part.
When Can We See It?
Well, we will be waiting a while before we get to see the team in action. Principle photography hasn’t started yet. Cameras are set to roll this spring. With some characters showing up in the film Captain America: Brave New World, it looks like there will be some setup in that film. Harrison Ford and Sebastian Stan are both in it. Hopefully, it will lay the groundwork for how they end up in Thunderbolts.
The official release date has been set for July 25, 2025. Marvel only has one film set for release in 2024 with Deadpool 3. After that film is released, expect to learn more about this film. Until then, we’ll have to see what the MCU has to offer in its Disney+ series. Four shows are set to be released before the end of the year. The WandaVision spinoff Agatha: Darkhold Diaries, Eyes Of Wakanda, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and Marvel Zombies are all scheduled to hit the streaming service before year’s end.
Will this hold fans over? The break on the films may help Marvel refigure its film strategy after the lackluster response of 2023. Most of the series won’t factor much into the current direction of the MCU. Fans should be able to skip over anything they don’t find interesting. The question will be if they will be back in 2025 to continue on the theatrical side of things. Fans have wanted a Thunderbolts film for a long time. Hopefully, they haven’t jumped ship just as they are getting what they hoped for.
Are you excited for Thunderbolts? What do you think of the direction of the MCU? Let us know in the comments.
Movie theaters love themselves some tie-in popcorn buckets but AMC may have outdone themselves and their competitors with this one. The popcorn bucket for Dune: Part Two has been unveiled and the internet has noticed that it is clearly a sandworm and nothing else…nothing else at all. What? We don’t see anythi – oohhhhhh…
Yes, before you enter the theater for Denis Villeneuve’s highly anticipated follow-up to his Oscar-winning Dune, you can go to concessions and order the popcorn bucket in question. And if you can do it with a straight face and without coming off like a weirdo, you’re definitely a better man than some of us. That’s because the item in question doesn’t only resemble one of Arrakis’s sandworms but a certain part of the female anatomy (you know the one)…For those who want to see what they can’t unsee, you can check out the Dune popcorn bucket below:
We do have to give credit to the Dune 2 popcorn bucket designers for doing a pretty good job at presenting a unique version of the gimmick, but surely this had to pass a number of approvals before it hits the market. Nobody looked at this and said what we’re all thinking?
another day working at the multiplex. everyone keeps asking me if they can fuck the Dune 2 popcorn bucket. buddy, this is an AMC, of course you can fuck the popcorn bucket. https://t.co/VMDrBlhKns
Themed buckets definitely have a following and AMC has been on a roll as of late, releasing a Barbie-themed convertible and a Mean Girls-themed Burn Book (which is totally not a place to store your weed). But this popcorn container for Dune: Part Two may outdo them all, hitting not just a familiar aspect of the movie but capturing the imagination – and we hope just the imagination – of the internet.
Dune: Part Two “will explore the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a warpath of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, he endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.” The sequel comes to theaters on March 1st.
Are you planning on seeing Dune: Part Two in theaters? Do you hope to snag the popcorn bucket along with a ticket? Let us know below!
Having just attended the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, I can testify that none of the movies I saw here received the overwhelming emotional reaction that Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story did. You can read my review here but suffice to say the legendary actor-turned-advocate was done right by this crowdpleaser. As such, it’s about to set a record for the highest price ever paid for a documentary at the festival. Indeed, Warner Bros is set to acquire the film for a record $15 million.
To be sure, this acquisition makes perfect sense. Warner Bros is the studio behind all of Christopher Reeve’s Superman films, and with that series figuring so heavily into the doc, it’s no wonder the studio would be eager to pick it up. With James Gunn’s Superman movie on the way, the older DC library is ripe for reexamination, and this documentary gives younger viewers, who may not be aware of the actor’s tragic legacy, some much-needed context. Reeve, of course, played Superman in four films (of gradually declining quality) before a tragic accident in 1994 left him a quadriplegic.
Never one to give up, Reeve became a tireless advocate for spinal injury research, never giving up on his dream of one day walking again. The film not only shines a spotlight on his life pre-and-post injury but also serves as a tribute to his late wife, Dana Reeve, whose heroic efforts were often overlooked – unfairly – as she did a lot for the community. The film also zeroes in on Reeve’s complex relationship with his kids, with Will Reeve the spitting image of his father. Unlike other documentaries, the movie serves as more than hagiography, examining Reeve’s ups and downs before and after the accident, but overall proves that he was a hero both on and off-screen. It also serves as a touching tribute to Reeve’s friends, including the late Robin Williams and his Superman director, Richard Donner, who died in 2021.
There has not been any news on whether WB will open this film theatrically or make it a streaming debut.
Truth be told, I had little to no interest in seeing The Beekeeper. While I love action films, I felt burnt out by Jason Statham’s most recent run of movies, including The Meg 2, Operation Fortune, and Expend4bles. My chief complaint about Statham was that he always played characters that were too perfectly tailored to his persona and that his fight scenes had become predictable, with him rarely facing off with an opponent that seemed like a credible threat. Thus, I had no qualms about assigning the review to one of our other critics, Tyler Nichols, who did a great job with his (positive) write-up. To be clear, don’t consider this a “review”. It’s more an an editorial.
So why did I bother seeing The Beekeeper if I thought I’d hate it and had no intention of reviewing it? Simple – I was bored on Saturday afternoon. With nothing to do, I decided to check out a matinee, primarily because I read a rave review of Kurt Wimmer’s script a little while ago, which promised the film was far from routine. Yet, as much as I like Equilibrium, Wimmer’s name isn’t always a sign of quality to me, with him one of the guys behind Expend4bles. My preconceived notions about the film were wrong – The Beekeeper is one of Jason Statham’s best movies.
If you’ve only seen the trailers, you might not get what’s so special about this movie. By necessity, the trailers don’t reveal the various twists and turns that make this a quasi-classic. There’s a reason Amazon/MGM did sneak previews last weekend and why it’s set to make more on its first weekend than Expend4bles did in its entire North American run. People are loving this movie.
Kurt Wimmer’s script could have been easy to screw up, but this movie has the perfect combo both behind and in front of the camera. David Ayer’s direction is impeccable, with him clearly understanding the assignment. In many ways, this is a loving homage to Cannon Pictures and their run-of-action movies from the eighties. Those movies had incredibly high concepts (such as the Soviets trying to start WW3 in Invasion USA), and the fact that they never quite had the budget to back up their ambitions was part of their charm. But, Ayer’s got the skill and funding to follow The Beekeeper’s wildly ambitious premise to its gonzo, off-the-wall conclusion, with this initially routine revenge movie eventually having nearly apocalyptic, country-destabilizing stakes in the finale.
In some ways, it might help to think of The Beekeeper as a slasher film, with Statham’s Adam Clay an unstoppable behemoth in the vein of Jason or Freddy Krueger. You would almost feel bad for the villains were they not such a thoroughly despicable group, with Josh Hutcherson delivering a legitimately excellent performance as the tech bro from hell. He plays the head of a data mining company that cleans out the bank accounts of the elderly, only for them to target a sweet old lady (played by the universally beloved Phylicia Rashad) who, unfortunately for the bad guys, happens to have been kind to Statham’s lonely beekeeper. These guys are so bad that not only do they clean out her bank accounts, but they also wipe out a children’s charity she runs, leaving her so distraught that she commits suicide. So right there, you want to see the bad guys pay – and boy do they.
But, where The Beekeeper’s true genius lies in how every action sequence builds on the last, with the stakes getting higher and higher, to the point that the FBI, the Secret Service, and the CIA are all trying to stop Clay. Why is he so skilled? He belongs to an ultra-secret network called The Beekeepers, who exist to keep the powers that be in check – via whatever means necessary. No one is above answering to the Beekeepers. If you think you know where this movie is going, you’d be wrong, with the last twenty minutes working as both pure carnage and a quasi-satire of modern action movies, with the mythology of The Beekeepers so “out there” that it feels like a winking send-up of The High Table from John Wick.
Through it all, Ayer keeps the pace propulsive, with a mic drop ending that had the audience I saw this with cheering. DP Gabriel Beristain gorgeously shoots it, and the cast is excellent, with Jeremy Irons playing against type as perhaps one of the most frightened (rather than frightening) movie bad guys of all time. Through it all, Statham is perfectly deadpan, and for once, his invincible side seems appropriate for the character, whose skills are portrayed as otherworldly. The film also contains one of Statham’s best fight sequences, where he finally meets his match in a mercenary (played by Taylor James in a hilariously “out there” performance) who once managed to kill a beekeeper (but lost a limb in the process). He even takes a bit of a beating towards the end, teasing a sequel where he could – potentially – go up against an equally skilled Beekeeper (someone like Scott Adkins would be great). Statham is legitimately terrific in it, finally getting an awesome, memorable hero to play for perhaps the first time since he stopped playing The Transporter. This could be his Rambo.
Granted, The Beekeeper may not be for everyone. It’s so over-the-top and unapologetic that it may not be for you if you prefer action movies grounded and straight-faced. The B-plot, where Rashad’s FBI agent daughter (played by Emmy Raver-Lampman) tries to stop Clay also never really works, as it’s hard to understand why she’d be hunting the man trying to avenge her mother’s death. Nevertheless, The Beekeeper is a gem that keeps building up steam and throws in everything but the kitchen sink. If you think you have it pegged, do yourself a favor and see it. The stakes are higher than you think, and it’s a non-stop, adrenaline-packed blast. Is it a B (or “bee) movie? Hell yes it is, but it’s been designed to be one of the best B-movies ever made. In someways it reminded me of Godzilla Minus Zero, in that it’s probably the best possible version of what they were trying to make with Minus Zero aiming to be the best ever Godzilla movie (mission accomplished). The aim here was the make the best damn Jason Statham B-action movie ever, and I think they just about pulled it off.
On Thursday, we predicted that this weekend would look the same as the previous two weekends with the only shake up coming by way of the fourth and fifth spot (Migration and Anyone But You) switching positions. Well, there may be another position switch as currently Mean Girls and The Beekeeper are locked in an epic battle of wills where each film is currently looking at first place with around $6.4 million in projected weekend grosses.
That would be quite the feat for the Jason Statham/ David Ayer pairing. In a world where R rated action films not named John Wick tend to underperform before fading to obscurity, The Beekeeper has the opportunity to take first place in its third week of release. The film actually has tasted that victory before as just this past week it landed on the top of the charts for several days. It is for that reason that I still believe Mean Girls will eek out the victory this weekend as Beekeeper will likely suffer a worst decline on Sunday when most of that films audience is watching the NFL playoffs while the teenaged audience for Mean Girls may not care as much.
While those two duke it out for first, the holiday sensation that is Wonka will likely land in third place with around $5.8 million in receipts. What’s even more impressive is that in the seven weeks since this films release, it has not had a weekend finish below third place. This prequel, and yes it is a prequel! Even if it is the origin story of Willy Wonka from the original novel, that would still make this film a prequel story to the novel! But I digress, this prequel is about a week away from hitting the magical $200 million domestic mark while its international numbers are nearly $600 million. Quite the accomplishment for a film that started with just around $39 million. You can check out Chris Bumbray’s 7/10 review for Wonka here.
Fourth and fifth place will be another fight between the R rated romantic comedy Anyone But You and the PG rated animated birds of Migration. Currently the Kumail Nanjiani/ Elizabeth Banks/ Danny DeVito/ Keegan-Michael Key voiced film has the edge with what is projected to be a $4.9 million weekend while Anyone But You looks at fifth place with around $4.8 million as that film looks to surpass the domestic total of 2022’s Ticket To Paradise ($68.2 million). Who would have thought that the teaming of Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell would be more of a box office draw than Julia Roberts and George Clooney?! You can check out Chris Bumbray’s 5/10 review for Anyone But You hear.
With no new wide theatrical releases this weekend, due mainly to the strikes that affected the industry last year, this weekend has the potential to be the lowest grossing weekend at the box office since January 2022. Are you still planning on hitting theaters this weekend or are you waiting until next week when Argylle hits? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to check back tomorrow when we have a full rundown on this weekend’s box office numbers.
Austin Butler could have had an even more successful 2022 than he already did, that year nabbing numerous accolades and an Oscar nomination for playing Elvis Presley for Baz Luhrmann. As it turns out, he could have had a role in one of that year’s highest-grossing movies, Top Gun: Maverick…if Austin Butler didn’t bail on it to meet with one of Hollywood’s top directors, Quentin Tarantino.
Austin Butler revealed his dilemma on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, saying, “I ended up having to choose between going to the screen test for Top Gun: Maverick or saying yes to Quentin Tarantino.” But Butler’s decision to side with QT wasn’t a slight against the Tom Cruise movie, saying it came down to having already met with Tarantino prior to lining up the potential Maverick gig.
Tarantino would cast Austin Butler as Manson Family member Tex Watson in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which began filming not long after Top Gun: Maverick in 2018. Hollywood would hit theaters in the summer of the following year while it took another three years for Maverick to make it to the big screen, with delays primarily due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But the wait was apparently worth it, as the sequel took in $1.5 billion worldwide, thus making it one of the biggest hits of the decade so far. Hollywood, meanwhile, would be one of Tarantino’s highest earners. (Elvis wasn’t exactly treated cruelly, either, with a worldwide haul of $280 million.)
Austin Butler has spoken about his pre-production process with Quentin Tarantino before, recalling a 12-hour audition where he didn’t even know he was being considered to play one of the most notorious criminals of the 1960s. He also had about as much fun as you can on a Tarantino set, saying they are like no other in the business.
Personally, I’d say Austin Butler made the right choice between the two, not just out of loyalty to Tarantino but that it gave him a chewy role to help launch his career. Had he focused on Top Gun: Maverick instead, he may have gotten lost in the celebration of Tom Cruise.
While he may not land a role in Tarantino’s 10th and final film and he didn’t go to the danger zone with Tom Cruise, Austin Butler has taken to the skies in Apple TV+’s Masters of the Air, which premiered on January 26th and will run through mid-March.
Do you think Austin Butler made the right decision in choosing Tarantino over Cruise? What do you hope to see from the actor in the future?
Months ago, we here at JoBlo started writing about an issue near and dear to the hearts of film fanatics everywhere – the resurgence of physical media. After being shocked by how difficult it was to find the Ron Howard movie Cocoon, I decided to make a list of 10 movies that were difficult to find, but the comments on the article clued me into the fact that the issue of out-of-print classics is far more widespread than I assumed. Last week, I did an article about how movies like The Cannonball Run and Dogma are missing, and in that vein, here are five more cult classics that are surprisingly tough to find.
Ricochet:
This 1992 action film was an early attempt to turn Denzel Washington into an action star. Despite stylish direction by Russell Mulcahy and an unforgettable turn by John Lithgow as the movie’s villain, it was only a modest success. Still, you’d think Ricochet would have a decent release, but it only exists on a poor-quality DVD from the 90s. There’s an HD rip of it floating around out there, taken off of Cinemax, but it’s in the wrong aspect ratio.
Freaked:
This cult hit was a passion project for Bill & Ted star Alex Winter. It barely got released by 20th Century Fox, but it built up enough notoriety that it came out on DVD and Blu-ray via Anchor Bay, only to go out of print in recent years. It’s also not streaming.
PCU:
This college comedy has a unique leading man, with it an early role for Jeremy Piven as the head of a frat house who takes on the politically correct culture at his university. Sound ahead of its time? Perhaps the subject matter and the fact that Piven’s struggled to come back in recent years following sexual misconduct accusation (which he always denied) are one of the reasons why it’s unavailable anywhere – except on DVD.
Blood In Blood Out:
Taylor Hackford’s Chicano epic was a massive flop in 1993 but became a major cult classic once it hit VHS, which makes its absence from Blu-ray and streaming puzzling, as it could easily make a ton of money. But the fact that Disney owns it means it’s probably way down their list of priorities. It would be cool if a company like Kino Lorber could upgrade this Blu-ray.
28 Days Later:
Here is a shocking one. Danny Boyle’s classic 28 Days Later is currently out of print on Blu-ray and isn’t available streaming either. Of any movie on this list, this is arguably the easiest to find as you can get marketplace Blu-rays, but why isn’t it in print? One can only assume Disney has enormous plans for it in the future. The sequel, 28 Weeks Later, is widely available.
There’s more to do in Palworld than just capturing adorable not-Pokémon and forcing them into conscripted labor. You can also force them to mate! From Pal breeding to the best loadouts and attachments for the latest Warzoneweaponry, these are the week’s essential tips and guides.
There’s more to do in Palworld than just capturing adorable not-Pokémon and forcing them into conscripted labor. You can also force them to mate! From Pal breeding to the best loadouts and attachments for the latest Warzoneweaponry, these are the week’s essential tips and guides.
