For many around the world, there’s one name at the top of the action totem pole: Jackie Chan, and today marks his 70th birthday.

If you only know him as a goofy martial arts comedian from the Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon series, then consider this a wake up call. Because when Jackie did things HIS way on his home turf, he churned out some of the best action movies you’ll ever see.

Many would point to Drunken Master II as Jackie’s magnum opus. Fair enough, that is an all-timer, but for an example of his best modern day martial arts action, mixed in with some crime drama and his signature comedy, one of his absolute best outings is 1985’s Police Story.

In the 1970s, Jackie Chan soared to fame internationally once he was finally able to break out of the shadow of Bruce Lee. When Chan had started getting starring roles at the beginning of his career, martial arts cinema was in the middle of a Bruceploitation phase, where imitators were used and promoted to be Bruce Lee in a shameless copycat manner. Unfortunately, for Jackie, he was forced into the same kind of roles. Even casting him in a sequel to Lee’s Fist of Fury, titled New Fist of Fury, where played the brother to Lee’s character. It was an obvious misstep. When Jackie was finally able to do his own style, mixing in his biggest influences like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, he took the world by storm and, well, the rest is history.

When Police Story came around, it would not be his first non-period martial arts film, but it would be the first one that felt contemporary in 1985 Hong Kong cinema. Jackie would play a character named Chan Ka-Kui in the original Chinese version, but in international versions, he’s named Kevin Chan. Casual fans might know this character from Supercop released in the 90s by Dimension Films, but this movie is where it all originated since Supercop is actually Police Story III: Supercop.

Chan is a Hong Kong cop who is part of an elite task force that is assigned to fight organized crime. Right off the bat, as the opening credits end, we’re thrust right into the case. All the Police Story films, interestingly, start right in the midst of the plot and seemingly end just as abruptly without traditional character exposition or conclusion. The big sting operation introduces us to the key characters. The boss, Chu has many business ventures but is bleeding money, so he’s turned to drug dealing and always has his nephew Danny handling the dirty work. He also has a newly appointed secretary, Selina Fong, played by Brigitte Lin (famous in Hong Kong cinema circles for The Bride With White Hair and Swordsman 2).

The undercover sting is immaculately planned and many officers have a detailed role in a shanty town village where a big deal is about to go down. It all goes to sh*t and the police find themselves in a gun fight in the middle of the village. Chan takes the initiative to go after the fleeing suspects. And what follows is one of the most iconic chases ever put to celluloid. What first transpires is a car chase through the shanty town village. And when I say “through,” I mean STRAIGHT THROUGH. Each car cuts through buildings demolishing everything down the hill. Chan eventually loses his car and chases the bus down on foot as he steals a citizen’s umbrella. The second iconic part of this sequence is when Chan catches up and hooks himself onto the bus. He hangs on for dear life as he tries to avoid cars and ward of attackers. Chan gets kicked away and the third iconic part happens when he takes a short cut around a hill, cuts the bus off down the road and plays chicken with the driver. It all culminates in one of the most dangerous stunts as the bus stops just before Chan and hurls the criminals out of the front windows. Mind you – THIS WAS ALL DONE FOR REAL!

As Chan finally apprehends Chu and his cohorts, his superiors decide to release his secretary Selina in an attempt to get a solid case out of her. They assign Chan to protect her from any attempts on her life from Chu to keep her silent. However, Selina keeps refusing Chan’s security at every turn. In a hilarious sequence of classic Jackie humor, Chan has one of his fellow officers pose as a killer trying to off Selina while he fakes an attempt to rescue her. It more or less goes smoothly, but it works as Selina now sticks by Chan’s side seeking his protection. And not a moment too soon, when they get ambushed for real as Chu sends a gang of goons to kill both Chan and Selina.

As Selina goes into protective custody with Chan, we’re introduced into another staple of the franchise where Chan’s work always conflicts with his relationship with his girlfriend, May, played by Maggie Cheung, who American audiences also got to see in Jet Li’s Hero when it was released in the states (and of course, she’s still one of Wong Kar Wai’s favorite actresses). Poor May always seems to catch Chan in the most inopportune times as she sees him with Selina still sporting her sexy negligee. Chan gets a birthday cake to the face and in a bit of gratuitous posturing, Chan shows off his bare ass when getting cleaned up. Although, if you’re an action star in the 80s, it’s just in your contract to show off your finely tuned butt.

Chu eventually gets released and with all the trouble the police had put him through, he puts Hong Kong’s supercop through the ringer and destroy his name and reputation by framing him for murder. The last act of the movie has Jackie playing things rather seriously. He’s not making any jokes and his character is out for justice with a side of vengeance.

This sets up one of the greatest finales of Chan’s entire career. Selina goes on the run with a briefcase full of evidence of Chu’s dealings. When she seeks refuge at a mall, Chu, his nephew Danny, and his many henchmen chase her down. Chan catches up and fights with all of them in one of the most brutal finales in action movie history. So much glass is broken with all the fighting, Jackie said the crew started calling the movie, “Glass Story” during filming. And the whole scene gets capped off with one of Jackie’s most dangerous stunts where slides down a four-story pole lit up with decorative lights and falls into a children’s playhouse. This scene alone is what made me a fan of his. It’s pure, unadulterated fighting at its best. It’s also a best example of how Jackie stands apart from other action heroes who fight multiple enemies at once. In most movies, and especially martial arts films, the attackers usually come at the hero one at a time while the others seem to wait, here Chan gets attacked from every direction at once and can barely keep up fending off every attacker. That is, until he activates beast mode.

Police Story was spawned when Jackie made his second attempt at breaking through to the American market. His first attempt was the 1980 film, Battle Creek Brawl which co-starred Mako as his uncle. Jackie clashed with the director of that film, Robert Clouse, director of Enter the Dragon and Reel Action classic, China O’Brien. He hated how they specifically brought him over to the states based on his Hong Kong film work, but never let him control his action sequences. The same would happen with his second attempt, the 1985 film, The Protector, which co-starred Danny Aiello. In The Protector, Jackie has said they tried to make him more like Clint Eastwood and gave him tough guy lines as a gruff New York cop. This falls into the lower echelon of 80s action movies. He was again not in control of his action scenes and felt like the way the American action was shot left no room for his creativity and were rather dull. Before Jackie even premiered The Protector in Hong Kong, he actually reshot the fights to his own satisfaction and filmed an entire subplot not present in the American version.

The only thing Jackie gives The Protector credit for is giving him the inspiration for Police Story. Whereas Jackie had played cops before, Police Story was the best of both worlds. There would be a gritty crime story that involved political red tape of the Hong Kong police force along with a more grounded villain, mixed with some of the humorous situations that Jackie likes to weave into his movies. There’s even a bit in Chu’s trial where his lawyer uses the specific details of the opening chase scene as an argument for the defense. It’s an extremely nice touch that is rare in action movies where the action design is actually used as relevant information for the story to take a new turn.

Not only did Police Story change the face of Hong Kong action cinema, but its influence is evident in Hollywood films. In 1989’s Tango & Cash, Stallone gives a shoutout to Jackie with a sequence in the beginning that’s nearly a shot-for-shot recreation of the bus chase ending, complete with the criminals getting launched through the wind shield. Then, in 1992’s Rapid Fire, Brandon Lee was a professed fan of Jackie’s and used a stunt where he rams a guy with a motorcycle right through multiple panes of glass as well as incorporating a clothes rack into a fight scene. Then, in 2003, Michael Bay used the entire shanty town hill sequence in Bad Boys II.

Jackie would follow up Police Story with 1988’s Police Story 2. It’s a worthy follow up that ultimately doesn’t surpass the first, but it has some stellar action as well. Half of the movie is a continuation with Chu’s business partner torturing Chan’s personal life, then the second half introduces new villains with a trio of mad bombers. Then, 1992 saw Chan team up with Michelle Yeoh for Police Story 3: Supercop. Chan goes undercover with Yeoh to bring down a drug and weapons dealer. This film would veer more towards Rambo-like gunplay and explosions than Chan’s usual fighting, but the stunts are outrageous as ever as Jackie hangs from a helicopter and Michelle Yeoh matches the insanity with her own stunts. In the last entry of the first era of Police Story movies, we get Police Story 4: First Strike. Chan is working as a spy in sort of a James Bond-type adventure. This installment is pretty far removed from the rest and might as well have been its own movie – which New Line released it as – titled Jackie Chan’s First Strike in 1996.

Jackie would eventually come back to the brand name two more times with a standalone reboot called New Police Story (a sequel to this movie was announced this week). In this, Jackie got rid of the comedy entirely and wanted to show off his dramatic skills as he played a tortured cop who got his team killed by X-Game, rich kid criminals lead by Daniel Wu of Into the Badlands. Chan would do another reboot with Police Story: 2013. It would again be a more dramatic film for Jackie, and unfortunately the film gets severely bogged down by epileptic editing with nauseating shaky cam. The less said, the better.

As it is, Jackie Chan’s Police Story stands as one of the all-time greatest action flicks, and if you happen to have a Criterion Channel subscription, you can watch the three first Police Story movies right now. Check them out. They’re so much fun.

Do you want us to dig into more Jackie Chan movies? Let us know in the comments! In the meantime, check out a video we did on Dragons Forever right here!

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Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire easily took the top spot this weekend at the box office, posting a much stronger-than-expected $31.7 million second weekend. We predicted about $25 million, so this is a significantly more extensive haul than expected for the MonsterVerse sequel, with it falling about 60% in week 2. That’s decent for a tentpole blockbuster like this. Everyone assumed the movie would be front-loaded, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, with it now on its way to at least a $200 million domestic haul – maybe more. 

However, Godzilla and Kong’s good fortune at the multiplex spelled doom for two new genre titles – Monkey Man and The First Omen, both of which were gunning for some of that movie’s audience. Of the two, Monkey Man’s $10.1 million haul isn’t half bad if you consider that Universal picked it up for only about $10 million after Netflix opted to dump it. The film ended up getting a theatrical makeover courtesy of new exec producer Jordan Peele, and I’ve got to say, I liked Dev Patel’s debut as an action auteur and star. This flick should make a nice profit for Universal, and it will likely play very well on streaming and home video, where it could become a cult fave.

But, The First Omen really underperformed, with the Disney/ 20th Century Studios would-be restart for the Omen franchise whiffing with an $8.36 million opening. It was open on 300 more screens than Monkey Man and had the full might of Disney’s marketing muscle behind it. What happened? Despite good reviews (including ours) it could be that horror audiences found the movie looked too similar to the recently released Immaculate, or are maybe burned-out by unnecessary prequels. Whatever the case, I think it’s well worth watching.

Notably, it was beaten this weekend at the box office by Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, which, in its third week, is starting to show signs of life at the box office. While it can’t be denied that the film has underperformed for Sony and may have doomed the franchise, at least now, it will likely finish over $100 million domestically. Whether or not that’s enough for Sony to kick the can again with another entry remains to be seen, but if the franchise continues, it will likely be on streaming.

Kung Fu Panda 4 and Dune: Part Two also continued to hold up well in fifth and sixth place, respectively, with both earning over $7 million. Panda’s domestic total is at $166 million now (it’s already the second-highest-grossing film in the franchise), while Dune 2 is at an impressive $264 million, on its way to potentially $300 million.

In seventh place is a specialty title, Someone Like You, a faith-based film by Fathom. It managed to make $3 million despite not having any recognizable stars. In contrast, the arthouse comedy Wicked Little Letters, with Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley, made about $1.56 million in a semi-wide release (just over 1000 screens). 

Rounding out the chart is Mark Wahlberg’s family movie, Arthur the King, which has struggled to find an audience and is on the verge of ending its run with $1.54 million for the weekend and a $22 million total. Finally, Neon’s horror flick Immaculate made $1.4 million for $14.1 million. It’s actually Neon’s fourth highest-grossing movie ever and has become a modest arthouse hit, even if it never entirely capitalized on star Sydney Sweeney’s mainstream appeal.

Next weekend sees the release of Alex Garland’s controversial (but excellent) Civil War, which is booting Godzilla x Kong from its IMAX run. Do you think it will be able to take first place? Let us know in the comments!

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Universal has a long history with vampire films, going back to the 1930s. Their latest, Abigail, offers a reboot of 1936’s Dracula’s Daughter, a hypnotizing work that still stands as one of the best follow-ups to 1931’s Dracula. Now, fresh from its premiere at the Overlook Film Festival, it looks like Universal has marked a successful return to their vampire lineup.

Many reactions from Abigail’s premiere praise the movie for being nearly endlessly entertaining, bringing something fresh to the genre while also giving off the vibe of some of our favorite vampire flicks from decades past:

And yes, there is plenty of blood to go around in Abigail, something that is a given for the genre but it’s pretty awesome to see it be taken to the R-rated levels that it deserves:

Hype has been strong for Abigail, especially since Radio Silence has been working to help ensure the horror genre is back in the mainstream. But with our man Michael Conway’s recent set visit – coupled with these initial reactions – Abigail has easily bumped up the list of most anticipated horror films of the year. Fortunately, we won’t have to wait much longer, as Abigail is set for release on April 19th.

Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (the most recent Scream movies), Abigail has the following plot: “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”

The titular Abigail is portrayed by Alisha Weir, the teenage actress who led 2022’s Matilda: The Musical. But she has by all accounts transformed entirely, something she credits to the material and costumes/makeup, saying, “I like to transform myself so I’m not Alisha anymore. It definitely helped being on the set, being covered in blood, and the tutu outfit helped me get into the character. And when I put the teeth in, that was definitely the end.”

Are you more excited for Abigail now that the first reactions have arrived? Where do you think it will rank in the top horror movies of the year?

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THE STORY: A covert army unit goes to war with Cash Bailey (Powers Boothe), a well-connected drug dealer, who also happens to be the childhood best friend of an honest Texas Ranger (Nick Nolte) who’s caught in the middle of what’s turning into a bloody drug war.

THE PLAYERS: Starring: Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe, Michael Ironside, Clancy Brown, William Forsythe, María Conchita Alonso, and Rip Torn. Music by Jerry Goldsmith. Directed by Walter Hill.

THE HISTORY: Let me take a moment here to pay tribute to an actor who never gets his due anymore: the late Powers Boothe. While never a household name, he was well-known as a character actor in a career that spanned four decades. He appeared in a lot of great movies, including Southern Comfort, The Emerald Forest, Sin City, heck – even The Avengers! But, one of the best roles he ever had was in Walter Hill’s almost completely obscure eighties action flick, Extreme Prejudice.

Extreme Prejudice is the last of the Mohicans. I don’t think we’ll ever see a film made like that again. It’s Walter Hill’s homage to Sam Peckinpah, and it’s just a gathering of some really amazing actors, heavyweights. Just to make a piece like that, something that just had this feeling of something long gone by… we’ll never see it again. But it was just a blast creating Buck Atwater, and then you had all these guys who are really nice, who are just one tick off-course in the world, so their causes are no longer clear. It was amazingly great working with all those actors. But it ended up being the only film I did with Walter Hill, and, to be honest, I thought I’d end up making a slew of movies with him. I loved working with him, and we got along great. Who knows? Maybe we’ll still get to work together again. – William Forsythe – Random Roles – AV Club

Sadly unknown to many filmgoers, it was a flop upon release in 1987, even though it reteamed Hill with one of the stars of his 1982 blockbuster, 48 HRS, Nick Nolte. It’s been called Hill’s homage to his mentor Sam Peckinpah, and sure enough, it does feel like a kinda-sorta remake of The Wild Bunch. Nolte stars in a rare, straightforward good guy part as a Gary Cooper-ish Texas Ranger who’s determined to stop the flow of drugs over the border but finds himself in a tight spot when the drugs lead him to a former friend, Boothe’s Cash Bailey, who’s become a drug baron on the other side of the border. What’s worse is that the two share the same love interest – played by María Conchita Alonso – and if that wasn’t bad enough, a crew of soldiers, called the “Zombie Squad” because they’ve all faked their deaths to do off-the-books work, is also after Bailey.

It’s a heavy-duty, blood-soaked actioner but also a complicated, morally ambiguous one, something that wasn’t an easy sell in 1987 when the studio Carolco (responsible for many action classics of the era) tried to sell it as another Rambo, which it definitely was not. It was cut down at the eleventh hour (and the footage has never seen the light of day), but all to no avail. It only eked out $11 million at the box office and remains obscure to this day, with only a horrible pan and scan DVD in circulation – a nasty fate for such a cool movie.

That was another one that got cut. That was Walter Hill. Andy Robinson and I play CIA agents, we’re trying to do this whole covert op, and my character was the go-between between the military side of the story, the police side of the story, and the government side of the story. But when they put it all together, Walter said to me, “It looks like it’s starring Michael Ironside, with Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe, and Rip Torn supporting him, so we’re gonna cut the whole Andy Robinson side of the film out.” [Laughs.]… They cut something like 45 minutes out of it! – Michael Ironside – Random Roles – AV Club

WHY IT’S GREAT: Walter Hill’s a guy who never gets his due. While he’s had a couple of stinkers, he doesn’t get enough credit for his top-flight filmography, which includes The Warriors, The Driver, 48 Hrs, Streets of Fire (a Best Movie You Never Saw fave), and time directing Deadwood as well as his contributions to Alien (he co-wrote, produced and made Ripley a woman). Too many of his movies are unacknowledged gems, like Johnny Handsome, Southern Comfort, The Long Riders, and this week’s entry, Extreme Prejudice.

This actually should have been a hit, as Nolte was on a career-high at the time, and eighties-era audiences loved gory R-rated, extreme action. Maybe it was the political subtext or the fact that the hero and the villain had such a complicated relationship, or the admittedly jagged construction (you really miss that excised footage) that kept it from getting major critical recognition. Thirty years later, it’s a real, lost classic.

There’s tons to love about the movie – with Nolte the closest he ever came to an old-school Hollywood hero in this rare action lead. But, the show is stolen by the supporting cast. Boothe is especially slick as the white-suited baddie, Cash, who’s got a death wish and half hopes his old buddy will come along and put him out of his misery – making the case the being the king in hell ain’t so hot. The “Zombie Squad” guys are also really cool, with Michael Ironside as their ice-cold leader (seemingly doing a dry run for Richter in Total Recall – which would come three years later). William Forsythe and Clancy Brown are my favorites of the gang, with Forsythe initially comes off as a maniac, only to gradually reveal a more heroic side, with Brown being the second in command who knows his C.O. is up to no good. It all comes together in a major, grand guignol shootout that must have set a squib record back then (only for Hill to be outdone by Paul Verhoeven a few years later). It’s a damn cool movie.

SEE IT: Up until a few years ago, this was a really difficult movie to find. In the DVD era, it was put out my Artisan Home Video is a shockingly poor transfer, which was basically just a rip of the old pan and scan VHS. Luckily, Lionsgate has since done well with the film, reissuing it in an extras-packed Blu-ray, which you can buy here.

PARTING SHOT: Extreme Prejudice really is the kind of movie that just doesn’t exist anymore. Sure, guys like Taylor Sheridan, Peter Berg, and David Ayer are giving it a go, but none of them have the latitude Hill did to totally go balls to the wall. It’s an imperfect film, but it’s a damn slick one.

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PLOT: Residents of a rundown French apartment building battle against an army of deadly, rapidly reproducing spiders.

REVIEW: It’s been a long time since we were blessed with some good spider horror and right now, we’re fortunate to have multiple hitting the scene. Sting (which I highly recommend checking out Cody’s review) takes a more comedic approach, while Infested goes right for the throat. And they both have a place in our wonderful genre of horror. Because if there’s one thing that’s been missing, it’s those creepy crawlers we know as spiders.

Infested follows Kaleb and his sister as they’re trying to keep their lives together after the death of their mother. Kaleb is fascinated with bugs, and when he brings home an exotic spider, he makes the mistake of not properly caging it. What he unleashes onto his apartment complex is an unimaginable horror of deadly spiders that will not stop breeding and getting bigger and bigger. When I tell you that these spiders don’t play around, I mean that. Get ready to develop a slight case of arachnophobia.

Director Sébastien Vanicek was thrust into headlines earlier this year when it was announced he would be directing the next Evil Dead film. All the more intriguing is that he won the job because of his work on Infested. And it sure is earned. There’s a meanness present here that cannot be denied, with a wonderful blend of practical and digital effects. But his control of the camera made me really excited at all of the possibilities. The camera work here is top-notch, with some tricks being utilized to give the film more production value.

Infested is extremely intense, making full use of its creepy crawly villains. Not since Arachnophobia have spiders been utilized so well in horror films. But don’t be fooled into thinking this has the same lighthearted humor as the Frank Marshall classic. This film is mean and never cracks a joke. The kills are brutal in their intensity while still staying within the lanes of realism. A great bit involves a timed light, which gets multiple payoffs. Hell, every setup has a great payoff.

One of the only real issues I had with the film was the main character, Kaleb (Théo Christine). Remember the guy from the Evil Dead remake who reads the book and unleashes bloody fury amongst his friends? That’s Kaleb. He’s one of those protagonists who constantly does ignorant things that result in chaos. He claims to be a big expert yet constantly makes mistakes with the bugs. He often comes across as a petulant child, which can be frustrating.

Despite being a spider movie, there’s still plenty of focus on the humanity of it all, though not all of it is pretty. Infested does a great job of highlighting how much the world doesn’t really care about singular events. So long as it doesn’t affect them, most would rather turn a blind eye. This furthers the trope of police doing more harm than good, giving the characters even less hope for salvation. The only people they can rely on are themselves.

I’ll be honest: I was rooting for every character’s demise by the film’s end. A man can only take so many dumb decisions and incessant screaming. But I’d argue it doesn’t really harm the story a ton, as most are watching for the spiders and that element is spectacular. This is simply a conduit of fear and with how rampant the fear of spiders is, I can imagine this affecting many. Because Infested managed to make my skin crawl in a way that I haven’t felt since I was a wee lad. And for that, I’ll be forever grateful.

INFESTED IS PLAYING THE OVERLOOK FILM FESTIVAL RIGHT NOW AND IS STREAMING ON SHUDDER ON APRIL 26TH, 2024.

Sébastien Vaniček

AMAZING

9

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When Twin Peaks returned, it was everything and more that fans of the original series could have dreamed — or had nightmares about. A massive success, talk of a fourth season (whatever it may be called) was inevitable. But now that another seven years have passed since we last encountered the goings-on of that strange little Washington town — it had been more than 25 since the season two finale — some might wonder if the cast would be too old. Perhaps…And so what about revisiting the show with a younger lineup? Well, Twin Peaks star Kyle MacLachlan is pretty much in line with what we would assume to be everybody else: that’s a terrible idea.

MacLachlan recently said that Twin Peaks should be left alone this time around, pointing to speculation that a younger generation could continue the story. “I don’t think I’d want to see that and I don’t think anyone should attempt it…You are like, ‘Don’t touch that,’ but they do, they can’t help but put their hand on the stove again. That is the problem.” Fortunately, it seems that that stove will remain untouched and pretty much all word for a fourth season of Twin Peaks has itself cooled, even though David Lynch initially had a “never say never” approach.

On the reception and following of the first airing of the series, MacLachlan added, “[The cast] all recognized how weird Twin Peaks was. We didn’t think it would get past ‘one and done’ and thought it might become a movie of the week but said that we had to be part of it because it is David Lynch.”

Twin Peaks: The Return would soon go on to be heralded as a masterpiece of television — and even film. While sitting somewhere between a third season and a full-blown miniseries, many have categorized it as a film, primarily going off of its nearly 17-hour runtime and story arc. The British Film Institute’s 2022 Sight & Sound poll even named it one of the greatest films ever, quite the endorsement from one of the most highly regarded organizations in the field. They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They? also placed it in their of the 1,000 greatest films ever, with it just outside of the top 500, although they have been more open about adding miniseries.

Do you agree with Kyle MacLachlan’s take that another return to Twin Peaks is unnecessary? Share your thoughts below!

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With The First Omen playing in theaters and earning solid reviews, and our own Omen Movie Rankings list having been posted yesterday. it’s your turn to weigh in on what you think is the best movie in this unholy franchise. Let us know by voting below, and let us know what you think of The First Omen in the comments!

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Plot: An insider account of how the women of “Newsnight” secured Prince Andrew’s infamous 2019 interview about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Review: Sometimes, pursuing a news story is as fascinating as the story itself. From All The President’s Men to Spotlight, countless films have looked at the reporters and journalists who have investigated the most significant revelations of all time and have garnered awards for the recreation of the tireless journey. The distance between the event and the dramatization often reminds audiences of the stakes at play, but Scoop chronicles a news story that occurred just six years ago. Led by Billie Piper as the producer who secured the shocking interview alongside Gillian Anderson, Romola Garai, Keeley Hawes, and Rufus Sewell as Prince Andrew, Scoop has some exciting stories from an insider’s point of view. Still, it fails to generate anything we did not already get from the broadcast itself. Scoop is well-made but does not seem to be as relevant as it thinks it is.

Starting with photographs taken in 2010 linking Prince Andrew (Rufus Sewell) to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Scoop spends the majority of its running time in 2019 in the weeks leading up to the now infamous Newsnight interview between journalist Emily Maitlis (Gillian Anderson) and the Duke of York. At the time, the BBC was making significant budget cuts and installing new leadership to restore the ship. With Esme Wren (Romola Garai) now overseeing Newsnight, interview producer Sam McAlister (Billie Piper) uses her skills to contact Prince Andrew’s private secretary Amanda Thirsk (Keeley Hawes) to arrange an interview with the Duke. Thirsk, a longtime employee of the Royal Family, is convinced that if given the right platform the charm of Prince Andrew could convince the public of his innocence. The Duke seems oblivious to his actions’ stakes for the Royal Family, and they agree to the interview.

The first hour of Scoop is spent showing us the pursuit of the interview and giving us some background on McAlister. A single mother supporting her teenage son with the help of her mother, McAlister is brash and outspoken. Billie Piper plays McAlister as a British version of Erin Brockovich. Decked out in a Chanel coat with wavy hair and lots of makeup, McAlister is loud and proud in private, which belies an intuitive way of negotiating with people. Her demeanor builds barriers between McAlister and her boss, Esme Wren, and the acclaimed Emily Maitlis. Still, the three women connect over the knowledge that securing Prince Andrew for the interview is vital in the public interest. Everyone seems aware of the stakes of what this interview could reveal. Everyone that is except Prince Andrew. As the evidence continues to mount, the Prince focuses more on his day-to-day. The film presents him as somewhat clueless, with scenes focused on the weird organization of his stuffed animals and his repeated reference to Queen Elizabeth as “Mummy.”

While this is, first and foremost, a story about Sam McAlister’s role in securing the interview, Scoop does feature a lot of solid work from Gillian Anderson and Rufus Sewell. In some individual moments, both actors get to do what they do best, with Anderson great in a scene set in the park before her interview while Sewell, restrained by imitating Prince Andrew rather than playing a character, has a sad nude scene towards the end of the movie that speaks volumes. Most of the film’s last half hour is an exacting recreation of the interview featuring Anderson and Sewell replicating the broadcast verbatim but accentuated by the camera panning to the various behind-the-scenes reactions as it takes place. There is some interest in these moments, but Scoop never mines them for more than brief glimpses. So much focus is placed on the interview itself that after the movie wraps, it feels like the movie has been more about the actual sit-down rather than what it represents.

Scoop looks really good, directed by veteran television helmer Philip Martin and written by Peter Moffat. The recreations of Buckingham Palace and the interiors of the Newsnight offices at the BBC are where the movie spends the bulk of its running time, but seeing Sam McAlister taking the bus to and from work through the streets of London evokes the workmanlike and not glamorous work behind the scenes of a news program. While the interactions between the actors are good, especially between Gillian Anderson and Billie Piper, the movie does not do anything with the heavy material. So much of Scoop is spent building up the interview’s significance, but it never feels like it will not happen. There is little interference from the Queen or the Royal Family and no major roadblocks getting it to the public, so why are we meant to care? Philip Martin, who directed seven episodes of The Crown, treats this movie as a supplemental chapter in that series rather than anything that truly stands on its own.

Scoop is not a bad movie but it is something of a pointless one. Advertised as the story of the key women who brought this story to the public, it is never positioned as a story of feminism or women facing challenges in a male-dominated industry. Even if the angle had been a female-led cast in a story about women getting the upper hand against a man who sexually predated underage girls, the movie could have been something more energetic. Instead, this is a rote retelling of events without any gravitas behind it. It is a shame because all of the performances in Scoop were worthy of stronger material. Scoop feels like an hour-long dramatization stretched to a feature-length running time. It isn’t boring enough to be bad but not special enough to be good.

Scoop

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The post Scoop Review appeared first on JoBlo.

For most performers, building up a resume of over 150 projects is something that takes an entire lifetime to achieve, but for James Franco that is a feat he has accomplished at just 45 years old. This Freaky Geek was catapulted to fame in one of biggest comic book franchises of all time before settling in to his role as a performer who can take on any genre and any film no matter how big or small. But with a tremendous rise at such a young age, sometimes you don’t make the best decisions. For Franco, those bad decisions would come to light on the very night of his greatest professional achievement and begin a downfall that is sadly all too common in today’s world. At one point putting out up to 12 projects a year, Franco has taken a backseat as allegations against him began to pile up. It is time we examine the career and find out just WTF Happened to James Franco!

Freaks and Geeks

But as always, we must begin at the beginning, and the beginning started on April 19, 1978, in Palo Alto, California. When most people get into acting, they go in head first and start auditioning immediately. But Franco knew he wanted to study the craft before making a serious run at it, so he spent a year and a half training and taking acting classes before he began auditioning. Luckily, his first gig came quickly when he was cast in a Pizza Hut commercial before landing guest spots on shows like Pacific Blue and Profiler. But it would be 1999 when Franco, and several other prominent stars of today, had his actual break-out role… in a series that was cancelled after airing just 12 episodes. After having a supporting role in the Drew Barrymore film Never Been Kissed (1999), Franco would be cast as the bad boy in the short-lived yet cult classic television series Freaks and Geeks. The show premiered on September 25, 1999, and received solid critical acclaim yet only garnered around 7 million viewers, which in today’s world would be a genuine hit, but in 1999, it was seen as not very good. Despite the show’s cancellation, Franco and his cast mates would be nominated for Best Performance in a TV Series- Young Ensemble at the Young Artists Awards.

But even with a failed TV series on his resume, Franco was on the verge of something big. We don’t often associate TNT with made-for-TV movie career makers, but for James Franco, playing another actor named James would be the big break he was looking for when he was cast as James Dean in the film of the same name. When cast, Franco took the job seriously; having never smoked before, he became a two-pack-a-day kind of guy, as James Dean was, while also learning to ride a motorcycle and play several instruments. He even isolated himself from his family and friends, saying that Dean had this pervasive loneliness to him that he wanted to feel. That work paid off when Franco was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild award and an Emmy Award while winning Best Actor in a Motion Picture Made for TV at the 2002 Golden Globe Awards and Critics Choice Awards.

Spider-Man and Stardom

In 2000, Franco graduated to the world of blockbuster films when he went in to audition for the role of Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, in a new film directed by Sam Raimi. Although he didn’t land that job, Raimi felt he would be perfect to portray Parker’s best friend who ultimately becomes his mortal enemy: Harry Osborn. Although there had been comic book films prior to this, Spider-Man can directly be attributed to the genre becoming what it has become. Not only was it the first film to ever open above $100 million at the domestic box office ultimately taking in $825 million worldwide. But that wasn’t the only film you could see James Franco in 2002; he also had roles in Deuces Wild, City by the Sea and a lead role in Nicolas Cage’s directorial debut, Sonny. After appearing in the 2003 film The Company, Franco would return to the world of blockbusters for the 2004 follow-up Spider-Man 2, the rare sequel that is widely regarded as superior to the original. In this one, Franco could really show the transition in his character. Whereas in the first movie, Peter Parker has the character ark of who he was to who he is, for Franco’s Harry Osborn, he was able to perform that ark over the course of three films, with this movie being the one that does a lot of the heavy lifting as he grapples with the fact that Spider-man killed his father, finding out that his best friend is Spider-Man and ultimately realizing what he has to do to avenge his father. In a big summer blockbuster film, Franco delivers an independent film’s level character performance.

With the mainstream success of the Spider-Man films, Franco would land leading roles in films such as The Great Raid (2005), Tristan & Isolde (2006), Annapolis (2006) and Flyboys (2006), the problem was none of these films really hit at the box office, pulling in just a combined $73.6 million worldwide. Franco would also pop up in smaller roles in films such as The Wicker Man and The Dead Girl. The Holiday, An American Crime as well as reuniting with his pals Judd Apatow and Seth Rogan for a cameo in Knocked Up. However, Franco’s biggest success, although the numbers and reviews may not support that claim, was when he decided to step behind the camera and make his directorial debut with the 2005 film The Ape. Granted, Variety did call it “Self-indulgent,” and it never received a theatrical release; it did start Franco down the path of directing, which some would say he certainly got better at as time went on.

Back on the big screen, Franco would finally get to go full villain in Spider-Man 3 when the ark of his character was complete, and he was able to fill in the mantle of his father and become the New Green Goblin. As a series, Franco was kind of the true star as we witnessed a true transformation from the best friend to the mortal enemy. But for Franco, I think he wasn’t super comfortable in those big blockbusters. He is more of an indie kind of guy, and so he would step back behind the camera for 2007’s Good Time Max, although audiences didn’t seem to enjoy that one giving it just a 49% audience score. He would finish out 2007 starring opposite Tommy Lee Jones in the under-rated In The Valley of Elah that was a timely film about the Iraq war and post-traumatic stress disorder when it was released in 2007. By this time, Franco was a pretty big star, so it was a bit of a shock when he decided to head back to TV, but not just any TV… Daytime Soap Opera TV when he appeared in over 30 episodes of the long-running General Hospital , playing a character named Franco.

James Franco and Seth Rogen

In 2008, after appearing in the romantic comedy Camille, Franco would re-team with Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen for the film Pineapple Express, where he played a stoner drug dealer. The R-rated film would be a much-needed success for Franco, who needed one outside of the superhero genre, pulling in over $100 million off a mid $20 million budget with Franco being awarded the High Times Stoner of the Year award as well as being nominated for a Golden Globe Award. He would finish out 2008 with an uncredited cameo in the Richard Gere/ Diane Lane film Nights in Rodanthe before appearing in the critically acclaimed film Milk where he played the much younger lover to San Francisco politician Harvey Milk. Franco said it was a dream fulfilled to be in a Gus Van Sant movie, saying he used to watch Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho obsessively.

Of course, you never know what you will get with James Franco. He would kick off 2010 by starring as Allen Ginsberg in the independent film Howl, which would see Franco nominated for several awards. He would follow that up with a comical turn in the Tina Fey/ Steve Carell starring Date Night before starring in the little-seen Shadows and Lies and a part in the Julia Roberts starring Eat Pray Love and directing the documentary Saturday Night, about the production process of Saturday Night Live. That was also when Franco was seen in the true story 127 Hours (2010) as a hiker who is forced to do something unfathomable to survive. Franco would be heralded for his performance in the Danny Boyle-directed film. He would receive several Nominations for his solo performance, including an Academy Award Nomination for Best Lead Actor. Although he didn’t win the Oscar, Franco would actually step foot on the stage at the Dolby Theater, as he and Anne Hathaway were the hosts for the evening. Sadly, that year, a year in which Franco gave one of his best performances ever, it wouldn’t be the film people were talking about the next day, but the pretty horrible job he did hosting the show.

Theatrically speaking, this is what James Franco does; he mixes up his output from independent character studies that go under the radar to films that grab the attention of critics to blockbuster films aimed at the popcorn-eating crowd with some solid comedies thrown in for good measure. And it isn’t even his name above the title that keeps him going; he is happy to just show up iniend’s a cameo in a fr project without receiving credit. Since 2011, he has had no less than 2 films released each year, with some years seeing up to 12 projects featuring the actor. Whether he has a small cameo in his pal Seth Rogen’s Green Hornet or appears in the comedy Your Highness while also launching the very lucrative franchise reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Then the next year, he shows up alongside Michael Shannon in The Iceman, playing an arms dealer who takes some unsuspecting young ladies under his tutelage in Spring Breakers, appearing on a Nick at Nite telenovela Hollywood Heights and appearing alongside Winona Ryder in The Letter to playing Hugh Hefner in Lovelace followed by reuniting with Sam Raimi and playing the man behind the curtain in Oz: The Great and Powerful to stepping back behind the camera for As I Lay Dying before starring in what is for my money one of the all-time funniest movies ever made This is the End. It shows that despite Franco many times being featured in very intense dramas and the calibreerformer he is, the guy is also a genius comedic talent of a dramatic p.

Nonstop work

He would finish out 2013 by directing three more films, Palo Alto, Child of God and the documentary Interior. Leather Bar while also appearing in Third Person and Homefront and, of course, getting the dubious honour of being roasted by those closest to him in the Comedy Central Roast of James Franco and receiving the prestigious star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 2014 would see him take a bit of a break by appearing on an episode of Naked and Afraid before playing himself in the Veronica Mars movie, followed by starring in Good People while directing and starring in The Sound of Fury before almost bringing the United States to war with North Korea with the film The Interview. That’s right, a James Franco/ Seth Rogan film almost created an international conflict. Who says movies don’t have the power to change the world?

2015 would be his big year; 12 movies featuring the actor were released. Granted, most were independent or direct-to-video releases, but all showcased the range Franco has as a performer. Whether in the adaptation of Don Quixote to playing a man suspected of killing his wife and 3 children in True Story alongside titles such as Yosemite, I Am Michael, Queen of the Desert, Everything Will be Fine, Wild Horses, They Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards, The Adderall Diaries, Memoria while voicing The Fox in The Little Prince and having a hilarious cameo as himself in one of the best R rated Christmas movies ever made The Night Before while also appearing as Johnny Penis in the Hulu series Deadbeat.

Franco is a performer who just never seems to slow down; between 2016 and 2019, he appeared in no less than 28 projects, including Sausage Party and the comedy Why Him?, the Giancarlo Esposito directed The Show, Kin, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and the TV series Angie Tribeca while also appearing in and directing episodes of his hit mini-series 11.22.63 and The Duece while also directing the films In Dubious Battle, The Institute, Future World, The Pretenders and Zeroville. Of course, his biggest success in that time came when he directed a film about the making of a film that many deem to be the worst movie ever made: The Disaster Artist would bring Franco the respect he had longed for as a director since he began directing. It would be a film that was heralded for not just the direction but also the pitch-perfect portrayal of The Room star Tommy Wiseau.

#MeToo and the end of Franco

On January 7, 2018, Franco took the stage at the Beverly Hilton where the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards were being held to accept his award for Best Actor in a Comedy; that night, he was sporting a pin on his lapel in solidarity with the fight against sexual misconduct. When he took the stage, Franco was experiencing the biggest high of his entire career. What he didn’t know was at that exact moment, a former costar of his, Ally Sheedy, whom Franco directed and appeared in the 2014 off-broadway play The Long Shrift, tweeted that “James Franco just won. Please never ask me why I left the film/TV business.” That tweet, ominous as it was, set off the internet where the 2014 incident where Franco admitted to texting and trying to meet up with a 17-year-old girl. Franco blamed the incident on “the trickyness of social media” while saying he exercised bad judgment. Franco would appear on  The Late Show with Stephen Colbert just 3 days later, where Colbert asked the actor about these allegations and his wearing the pin in the face of the allegations. Franco said he had no idea what he did to Ally Sheedy and that other allegations against him were inaccurate.

Of course, those allegations were just the beginning. A month after winning the award, The Los Angeles Times published a report where five women accused Franco of exploiting his power to coerce these women into unwanted sexual encounters while he was a teacher at the Playhouse West acting school and his own Stage 4 School in Los Angeles with the woman saying that Franco took advantage of their desires to be part of the industry. Other women alleged that Franco would coerce this young woman into performing sexual acts in his films with the thought that it would help their careers. In 2019 two of these women sued Franco for Sexualizing his power as a teacher and employer by dangling potential roles in his projects. Although Franco maintained his innocence, he would reach a $2.2 million settlement in 2021 and admit that he did abuse his power by engaging in consensual sexual encounters with his students. He said that he started the school with the intention of helping students fulfill their dreams of being in show business and not as some sort of sick plan to sleep with woman, but he figured that if the sexual relationships were consensual, then it was okay, not recognizing the power dynamic between an award-winning professional actor and those who are still making their way in the industry.

And those bad decisions made by Franco have taken a toll on his career. As you can tell, Franco was the very definition of a working actor. Every year since his first project in 1997, Franco had something on TV or in theatres; sometimes, he had double-digit projects in a single year. This was a person who genuinely loved working in the entertainment industry and would give it 100%, whether it was a big-budget summer blockbuster or a role on a soap opera. Since winning the Golden Globe and the allegations against him, he has appeared on several podcasts where he talks about his addiction issues, both with alcohol and sex addiction. Franco does have a few films in the pipeline, including a film where he plays Fidel Castro, but the question is: Will James Franco ever get back to where he once was? It seems even Franco’s closest friends had not stuck by him when Seth Rogen said he has no plans to ever work with Franco again. His first movie in many years, The Price of Money: A Largo Winch Adventure, is set to come out in France on August 15th, but seems unlikely to have much of a US release planned, with the first two films in the franchise (which stars Tomer Sisley, who was recently outed for stealing material in his stand-up comedy specials) more or less when DTV in North America. Overall, it seems like a low-key comeback for an actor who was once one of the biggest stars in town. Alas, in a world where people like Louis CK continue to sell out their live performances, it seems like talented people can have resurrections, and as Franco seems to have shown genuine remorse for his actions and has proven he has immense talent, it is not unfathomable that we will see James Franco return to the limelight soon… just as long as he doesn’t ever host the Oscars again! And that is WTF Happened to James Franco.

The post What Happened to James Franco? appeared first on JoBlo.

One of the most anticipated movies of this season is one we never really expected: Dev Patel’s directorial debut, Monkey Man. But it could have slipped completely under the radar. And as it was originally set to be released exclusively on Netflix, the director and star knows that it took a lot of faith on the part of none other than Jordan Peele to get it to the big screen.

Speaking at Monkey Man’s Los Angeles premiere – after debuting at last month’s SXSW – Dev Patel said that Jordan Peele “took us from this thing that was brushed under the carpet to putting us on top of the mantel piece,” apparently referring to the reports that Netflix found the film too “gritty” for the service. “He saw the film; Jordan saw me as a filmmaker, someone broken out, like what he did with his amazing comedy show and became this filmmaker…He understood the strength of using genre to talk about more interesting motif things, societal issues, using it as a trojan horse.”

Jordan Peele has of course been a trojan horse himself with films like Get Out, giving minorities a voice in genre films – for him, horror – that they haven’t had to this degree. With Monkey Man, hopefully that will do something similar, especially considering the movie has been described as “John Wick in Mumbai.”

After Netflix essentially folded on the idea of Monkey Man, Universal picked it up for $10 million, giving it the theatrical release that all buzz points to being earned.

Here is the official synopsis of the movie: “Inspired by the legend of Hanuman, an icon embodying strength and courage, Monkey Man stars Patel as Kid, an anonymous young man who ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash.. After years of suppressed rage, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him.”

Will you be checking out Dev Patel’s Monkey Man in theaters this weekend? Are you surprised at the strong response for the movie?

The post Dev Patel credits Jordan Peele for Monkey Man breaking from Netflix’s cage appeared first on JoBlo.