With Transformers One earning the best review in the franchise’s history, we want to know how you think it ranks in the pantheon of Transformers films. Is it better than the very best of the Michael Bay films? Does it outrank the critically acclaimed Bumblebee? Is it even better than the animated classic, Transformers: The Movie? Let us know by taking the poll below!
Macaulay Culkin was one of the biggest child stars ever. But his time in Hollywood – especially at a young age – was plagued with all sorts of issues. Whether it had to do with who would control the money he earned as a minor or the constant media attention he was given, Culkin had far from the ordinary childhood. But if there’s one positive that came of it, it’s that his Home Alone director learned how to approach the impending stardom with the child actors on Harry Potter.
Chris Columbus recently revealed he “felt a tremendous responsibility” in how he worked with the Hogwarts students because of how he saw Macaulay Culkin being treated. “[I] knew what they were getting into. That’s the rest of your life as a child star…That’s gonna be your legacy, and you have to learn how to live with that.” Thankfully, by and large, the Harry Potter cast has kept level heads and proven to have continued success in the industry, whether on stage or screen (something we hope for the young cast of the upcoming series). Culkin would dip much further out of the limelight, taking some much-needed time off beginning in the mid-’90s, only turning up a decade later for various movies, TV appearances and, yes, pizza-themed parody bands.
Columbus offered another comparison to Macaulay Culkin and the Harry Potter team while noting the level of immediate pressure he faced during the casting process. “We went from shooting Home Alone 1 [where] nobody cared, but in the course of a year, Macaulay Culkin became a huge star, and that was unexpected. It’s not like Harry Potter, where you know that it may be extraordinarily successful…I had to put blinders on because that’s all I was hearing everywhere. You go on the street, you go into a pub, you go anywhere, and people are saying, ‘Who are you gonna cast? Who’s gonna be Harry Potter, who’s gonna be Harry Potter?’ And that, you take that information and you bring it back to the actor and the actor’s parents: ‘This is gonna get pretty intense.’”
While the sheer superstardom of Macaulay Culkin was a lot for people and Hollywood to handle, it is cool to see Chris Columbus learning from those days as he took on the monumental task of casting and working with the likes of Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. That’s just the sort of care that an adolescent cast would need, so good on Columbus!
Macaulay Culkin was one of the biggest child stars ever. But his time in Hollywood – especially at a young age – was plagued with all sorts of issues. Whether it had to do with who would control the money he earned as a minor or the constant media attention he was given, Culkin had far from the ordinary childhood. But if there’s one positive that came of it, it’s that his Home Alone director learned how to approach the impending stardom with the child actors on Harry Potter.
Chris Columbus recently revealed he “felt a tremendous responsibility” in how he worked with the Hogwarts students because of how he saw Macaulay Culkin being treated. “[I] knew what they were getting into. That’s the rest of your life as a child star…That’s gonna be your legacy, and you have to learn how to live with that.” Thankfully, by and large, the Harry Potter cast has kept level heads and proven to have continued success in the industry, whether on stage or screen (something we hope for the young cast of the upcoming series). Culkin would dip much further out of the limelight, taking some much-needed time off beginning in the mid-’90s, only turning up a decade later for various movies, TV appearances and, yes, pizza-themed parody bands.
Columbus offered another comparison to Macaulay Culkin and the Harry Potter team while noting the level of immediate pressure he faced during the casting process. “We went from shooting Home Alone 1 [where] nobody cared, but in the course of a year, Macaulay Culkin became a huge star, and that was unexpected. It’s not like Harry Potter, where you know that it may be extraordinarily successful…I had to put blinders on because that’s all I was hearing everywhere. You go on the street, you go into a pub, you go anywhere, and people are saying, ‘Who are you gonna cast? Who’s gonna be Harry Potter, who’s gonna be Harry Potter?’ And that, you take that information and you bring it back to the actor and the actor’s parents: ‘This is gonna get pretty intense.’”
While the sheer superstardom of Macaulay Culkin was a lot for people and Hollywood to handle, it is cool to see Chris Columbus learning from those days as he took on the monumental task of casting and working with the likes of Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. That’s just the sort of care that an adolescent cast would need, so good on Columbus!
As smash sitcom Friends nears its 30th anniversary, it will be impossible not to look back with some sadness, as Matthew Perry – who of course played fan favorite Chandler Bing – won’t be part of any of the festivities. But fans and those who worked on Friends will undoubtedly be paying tribute to the actor, who died last October.
Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman noted exactly this, saying the lack of Matthew Perry does put a cloud over the occasion. “It’s a huge loss, and it does make the 30th a little fraught.” Producer Kevin S. Bright, like all of us, was shocked by the news of Matthew Perry’s death, especially since he had seemed to be on the right track just a few years ago when making Friends: The Reunion. “He’d been fighting the good fight for so long, and it really did feel like, from the reunion, that he had finally found some peace.”
Friends remains one of the most beloved sitcoms ever, hitting nearly 250 episodes over the course of 10 seasons, accumulating a loyal fanbase that has only grown now that it’s streaming on Max. That, too, was the home of the 2021 Friends reunion special, which sadly ended up being Matthew Perry’s last credit. Although it will be difficult for Friends fans to ever watch the show the same way after Matthew Perry’s death, they no doubt continue to share the same sentiment as Bright: “He made us laugh every day.”
While there have been developments in the story surrounding Perry’s death, we can fully expect more details to emerge, especially since those leading the case anticipate more arrests. As of now, two doctors, Perry’s live-in assistant, the individual who distributed the ketamine, and a woman dubbed the “Ketamine Queen” have been arrested.
Friends officially marks its 30th anniversary on September 22nd, the day the pilot – also known as “The One Where Gets a Roommate” – aired in 1994. The show concluded on May 6th, 2004.
What was your favorite Matthew Perry moment on Friends? Share your pick – and another top Perry performance – in the comments section below.
It’s not often that Quentin Tarantino comments on new films, more or less for the reason that he doesn’t want to slam someone who is actively creating art. If he disses one, that could spell the end of that movie – and its director – before it had a chance. So when he does talk about a new release, it’s usually only positive. And that’s just what happened with Alexandre Aja’s killer alligator movie Crawl, which he didn’t just love but named one of his favorite movies of 2019.
That Tarantino loved Crawl was just the sort of boost Aja needed. As he told The Hollywood Reporter, “It was such a nice surprise. I was really, really excited. I’ve met with Quentin a few times, and one of the times, we had dinner together in Paris right before I was going to make Piranha 3D. So I was pitching him all the scenes, and he was pitching me other things that he was thinking about, so I knew how much he loved these types of movies. My friend Eli Roth called me to say, ‘Hey, Quentin watched [Crawl] and really loved it.’ And then I saw the announcement online, so the fact that he really enjoyed the movie was the nicest thing ever. Sometimes, you do movies and you never know [how they’re going to be received]. But when you find an audience that also includes the critics and your peers that you admire the most, that’s why you keep trying to tell stories.”
And Aja will apparently carry that through with his upcoming sequel to Crawl, which he says is an idea he has been developing ever since the first one. “I would say that I never really stopped working on Crawl…After we were done, I kept thinking about all the other great setups that we could create, and it was really an exciting movie to make. So I wanted to really be involved in doing a sequel, and after a few troubled years with Covid and everything, I feel like we are now in a position that, hopefully next year, it might happen. So I’m excited. I’m ready to go. I’ve been lining up so many scenes and stuff, so it’s there. We just have to do it now and get back in the water.”
That doesn’t give us too much to work off of, but Alexandre Aja will apparently move the action from New Orleans to New York City (hey, Chicago was already taken!). Whatever the plot and wherever the setting, it’s definitely near the top of our most anticipated horror sequels.
Are you a fan of Alexandre Aja’s Crawl? What do you hope for the sequel?
Despite excellent reviews and good word-of-mouth from fans, Transformers One is having a bad time at the box office this weekend. Deadline states the highly anticipated animated prequel is only on track for a $26 million weekend. That’s just a little less than the $30 million we predicted – which was way more than industry projections, which saw the film opening with $40 million (wishful thinking).
There’s a good chance Transformers One will be beaten at the box office by Beetlejuice Beetlejuice in its third weekend, with that movie on track for a terrific $25 million. And Transformers One isn’t the only good movie struggling to find an audience this weekend. The Substance, one of the best body horror movies since The Fly, only looks like it will make in the $2.5-3 million range. It’s being distributed by the streamer MUBI, who’ve opted to capitalize on the buzz and give it a big 2000-screen release, but those numbers are fairly anemic, which is a shame as it’s a great movie.
Meanwhile, Lionsgate continues its seemingly cursed run at the box office with Never Let Go, a Halle Berry-led horror flick that will only open in the $4 million range. The movie also earned a poor C+ CinemaScore rating. Next weekend won’t be any better for them, with Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis on track for another disastrous opening.
One of the strangest things about this weekend isn’t what’s opening in theaters but rather what’s not opening, with Apple opting to only give the George Clooney/ Brad Pitt action comedy Wolfs a 50-screen limited release. Had it gone wide, it would have likely performed decently, but after a bad run of movies in theatres, Apple is changing its release strategy in a big way.
What are you seeing in theatres this weekend? Let us know in the comments – and if Wolfs is playing near you, check it out!
What’s the driving force behind getting you to leave your house and go to the cinema? Is it the stars or director? What about the story? Maybe it’s the buzz surrounding something you were on the fence about. No? None of these? Then it must be zip lining! In a new initiative, the biggest movie theater chains in the country could be shifting to ventures that make their cinemas more akin to – well, anything other than the cinema.
NATO (National Association of Theatre Owners) announced they are going to invest more than $2 billion into movie theaters. While some of this will include adding the most advanced of projection and sound technology – an absolute draw for those who might otherwise rather stay home – you can also expect a hell of a lot more that has nothing to do with going to the theater. As for which chains are game, you can expect revamps in the likes of AMC, Cinemark, Regal, Cinemark, and more, all of which fall under NATO.
In a statement, NATO President & CEO Michael O’Leary said, “There is no question that movie fans of all ages love heading to the local theatre to see great movies on the big screen. But the competition for consumers’ hard-earned dollars is fiercer than ever. Going to the theatre is an unparalleled entertainment experience, and exhibitors are dedicated to making every visit to their theatres memorable. This investment reflects that commitment in a tangible way that every moviegoer will see and enjoy.” As Variety reported, this could end including additional entertainment such as zip lining, pickleball and bowling alleys (assuming you think bowling qualifies as entertaining).
Bob Bagby, the CEO of B&B Theatres (also part of NATO), stated, “Today’s consumers rightly demand the best possible experience when they visit our theatres. Operating a theatre today is a capital-intensive operation. This investment of resources is the next step in our industry’s ongoing commitment to ensuring that going to the theatre remains a unique and special experience for generations to come.” Notably, some B&B Theaters already offer pickleball.
A lot of us are children of the cinema, with a key batch of us coming up at a time when it was common to see arcade games in the lobby. But this is so far beyond a pre-movie Dance Dance Revolution throwdown. Maybe it’s the purist in me, but none of the proposed ideas – outside of new tech inside of the movie theater, of course – seem like a draw. That NATO is declaring this the “cinematic experience” is also a bit of an insult, as anything you can do on a cruise ship should probably stay out to sea.
What do you think of NATO’s initiative to get people out to movie theaters? Will it work or will it be a bust? Share your thoughts below.
PLOT: Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story chronicles the case of the real-life brothers convicted in 1996 for the murders of their parents, José and Kitty Menéndez. While the prosecution argued they were seeking to inherit their family fortune, the brothers claimed – and remain adamant to this day, as they serve life sentences without the possibility of parole – that their actions stemmed out of fear from a lifetime of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse
REVIEW: The ever-expanding anthology series credited to super-producer Ryan Murphy continues to expand. Earlier this week, we shared our review for the newest American Story series, American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez. While that series did not have Murphy directly involved as a writer or director, he does boast direct credits alongside longtime collaborator Ian Brennan on the second entry of Monster; this time focused on the tantalizing crimes of Lyle and Erik Menendez. One of several cases dubbed the Trial of the Century, the story of the Menendez siblings and the heinous murder of their parents has been adapted many times across multiple formats. Murphy and Brennan know the public may be familiar with the sordid details. Still, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story aims to outline the events for a new generation and shed multiple angles on the conflicting theories as to what really happened.
Told over nine episodes, Monsters is very similar to the Dahmer entry in the anthology but completely different simultaneously. Both series look at the inner psyche of people who committed atrocious acts of murder, but Dahmer felt almost nihilistic and brutally dark. Monsters paints Lyle and Erik Menendez in a comical light, giving this season a tone that is almost campy. There are multiple scenes in Monsters that I chuckled at. I immediately felt guilty laughing at a crime that is among the most disgusting in modern history. The bizarre series of events that led to the murders in Monsters are too strange to be true, and yet here we are watching a tale that is somehow weirder than Jeffrey Dahmer eating people. Nevertheless, had the Menendez brothers been fictional, they would have been right at home on American Horror Story. Since they actually exist, Monsters works as a forum to chronicle every seedy and odd aspect of the siblings’ crimes in a way that goes beyond the boundaries of the similarly-themed American Crime Story.
Taking the story from Lyle (Nicholas Alexander Chavez) and Erik (Cooper Koch) planning the shotgun deaths of Jose Menendez (Javier Bardem) and Kitty (Chloe Sevigny) to executing their parents through their failed first trial and subsequent second trial that led to life in prison, Monsters posits the claim that the two brothers committed their crimes because their father was sexually abusing them. Rather than claiming the truth of the accusation, Monsters shows us the various holes in the Menendez brother’s claims while allowing both Javier Bardem and Chloe Sevigny to play Jose and Kitty in various styles. In one claim, Bardem is over-the-top evil as an abusive and overbearing father, while Kitty is useless in a drug and alcohol-induced stupor. In other alibis, there are tweaks and changes to how Jose and Kitty actually were in public versus private situations, each altered by testimony from family and friends that assert and deny Lyle and Erik’s claims. Both Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch play their roles as pathological and sociological, leaving the audience unsure of whether they are telling the truth or not.
Spanning 1989 through 1996, the majority of Monsters is presented in a linear fashion with flashbacks, some true and some lies, that illustrate the calculating nature of Lyle and Erik. While the brothers command the screen the majority of the time with solid supporting performances from Bardem and Sevigny, there are also key roles for Nathan Lane as journalist Dominick Dunne, who chronicled the brothers for a Vanity Fair article, as well as Ari Graynor as defense attorney Leslie Abramson. Dallas Roberts and Leslie Grossman have key roles as Dr. Jerome Oziel and Judalon Smyth, along with several minor ensemble players from prior Murphy productions. The 1990s are encapsulated perfectly through pop culture cues like songs from Milli Vanilli and the parallel occurrence of the O.J. Simpson trial. As a look at a specific period in the late twentieth century, Monsters boasts better production values than it does engaging and consistent writing.
Monsters features eight writing credits from Ian Brennan and two from Ryan Murphy. Brennan has been a professional partner with Murphy, dating to Glee in 2009, followed by Scream Queens, The Politician, Hollywood, Ratched, Halston, and The Watcher. While Brennan scripted nine of the ten episodes of Dahmer (four with Murphy and four with David McMillan), his heavier presence on season two without Murphy seems to indicate the tonal shift this season. Brennan also directed an episode this season alongside returning helmers from Dahmer, including Paris Barclay and Carl Franklin, with new helmers Michael Uppenahl and Max Winkler. The writing and directing team this season are very focused on showcasing the different angles on the true events of how and why Lyle and Erik murdered their parents. Still, it wavers between a steadfast approach to telling the truth and the fabricated and overindulgent excess that comes across as blatantly trying to dramatize an already dramatic story for no reason other than sensationalism. Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan have always been good at using sensationalism to drive a more layered story, but that does not work with the Monsters anthology as it does with American Crime Story.
With exceptional performances from Javier Bardem and Chloe Sevigny alongside decent lead turns by Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is a mixed bag of true crime and untrue crime, with the blurred line separating them hard to distinguish. Like Dahmer before it, Monsters feels overlong and overindulgent, and it should have been more focused on insights we did not already know. For a generation unfamiliar with the Menendez Murders, this series may be a shockingly new story. Still, for those who witnessed the media circus in the Nineties, it does not bring much new to the table. Like the brutal and graphic recreation of the murders themselves, Monsters succumbs to being too callous with the horrible crimes it is warning us about.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is now streaming on Netflix.
Some cliche somewhere said that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ This has proven to be the case for me and especially when it comes to fan art. I have always sought out great fan art and have wanted to share it with as many people as possible. “Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net” is the outlet for that passion. In this column, I will showcase the kick-ass artwork of some great artists, with the hopes that these artists get the attention they deserve. That’s the aim. If you have any questions or comments, or even suggestions of art or other great artists, feel free to contact me at any time at theodorebond@joblo.com.
The much-anticipated Terrifier 3 had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest today, and during a Q&A following the movie, director Damien Leone was asked what’s next for the franchise. “I love that you’re still thinking about the next one after [watching all] that,” Leone said. “So — yes, there will be a Terrifier 4.“
Leone wouldn’t spill any details on what’s to come in Terrifier 4, but it’s a good bet that audiences will be in store for more over-the-top gruesome kills. As for Terrifier 3, the sequel takes place five years after the events of the last movie during the Christmas season. Many classic Christmas horror movies serve as inspiration, including Tales from the Crypt installment All Through the House and Black Christmas. “That’s one of my favorite subgenres of horror — Christmas horror,” Leone said. “I just love that tone. It’s the perfect marriage of horror and Christmas. So that was a big inspiration. And then obviously there’s a lot of Black Christmas homages in this movie. Just that combination of being terrified and cozy at the same time — I mean, there’s nothing cozier than Christmas […] And then [you] just [take as much advantage of] that as possible, and add as much sacrilege.“
“After surviving Art the Clown’s Halloween massacre, Sienna and her brother are struggling to rebuild their shattered lives,” reads the description for Terrifier 3. “As the holiday season approaches, they try to embrace the Christmas spirit and leave the horrors of the past behind. But just when they think they’re safe, Art the Clown returns, determined to turn their holiday cheer into a new nightmare. The festive season quickly unravels as Art unleashes his twisted brand of terror, proving that no holiday is safe.“
The film features David Howard Thornton reprising the role of Art the Clown alongside Lauren LaVera as Sienna, Elliot Fullam as Jonathan, Samantha Scaffidi as Victoria, Chris Jericho as Burke, and Daniel Roebuck as Santa. Tom Savini, Jason Patric, Antonella Rose, Krsy Fox, Jon Abrahams, and Clint Howard are also set to appear in the film. Terrifier 3 will debut in theaters on October 11th.
