I’m the one who doesn’t complain about the job of a lifetime; Mark Wahlberg must be the other guy. Despite landing an Oscar nomination and fulfilling so many actors’ goal of working with Martin Scorsese, Wahlberg was “a little pissed” about a few things while making The Departed, chiefly his hair.

Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast earlier this month, Mark Wahlberg said the main issue that arose while filming The Departed actually had to do with that same year’s Invincible, in which he played Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Vince Papale. “I was going into Invincible after. I was trying to grow my hair out, which is why I had that weird hair…But I completely understand where Marty was coming from. He had to deal with Jack [Nicholson], he had to deal with Matt [Damon] and Leo [DiCaprio] and Alec [Baldwin] and everything, the studio and everybody else who was in the cast. And then I was supposed to be in and out in five weeks. And so I went off to shoot Invincible, got my hair extensions, came back and they’re like, ‘Oh, you gotta take out the extensions.’” This prompted Wahlberg to become a little irritated by the situation, apparently leading to some turmoil between himself and the director, the actor evidently oblivious to the fact that appearing in a Martin Scorsese film is a blessing in the industry.

The performance marked Wahlberg’s only Oscar nomination in an acting category, which I maintain wasn’t deserved at all and should have gone to Jack Nicholson if anyone, who did a heck of a lot more than throwing out salty one-liners and farts at his co-stars.

Wahlberg unveiled some other details about his time on The Departed, saying, “Originally, I was supposed to get paid,” referring to him being in the running for a more prominent role. “And then even when we kind of agreed that I would play Dignam and I saw the advantages of playing that part and how I would approach the situation with everybody else playing opposite me, I then had another movie after.” OK, on this point, I don’t really think Wahlberg has the acting chops to have played either one of the lead roles in The Departed, which would of course be those eventually played by DiCaprio and Damon. He did just fine in the Best Picture winner for what he had to do but Costigan and Sullivan are complex characters that I’m not sure Wahlberg could handle.

Even still, Wahlberg does apparently have enough connection to Dignam, having once been interested in launching a sequel to The Departed. After all, he is one of the few characters who survives…

What do you think of Mark Wahlberg’s comments about his time filming The Departed? How does he come off in the interview? Give us your take below.

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Buried deep within Variety’s weekend box office report is a rather eye-brow-raising stat. Late Night With the Devil, which is proving to be one of the biggest breakout indie hits in recent memory, is reportedly on track to gross an estimated $666,666 at the box office today. The final numbers aren’t in, but what a ghoulish, perhaps even unholy, surprise this is. It’s the kind of publicity you can’t buy, and to be fair, Variety’s report might be off a bit. When I put together our own box office report here on JoBlo, I tend to follow the numbers put out by Paul Dergarabedian at Comscore, and so far, he hasn’t listed Late Night With the Devil’s daily gross. It’s an indie flick, and the reporting from IFC might be delayed, given their more limited resources. Usually, box office analysts can crunch numbers on Sunday in a pretty accurate way, so it’s possible, if the numbers have some good math behind them, the movie may indeed make $666k, even if the $666,666 number cited by Variety seems a bit tough to swallow.

One thing to note is that Late Night With the Devil’s per-screen average beat out the bigger-budget Immaculate this weekend, which is very impressive for a film that’s only benefitting from a quick stopover in theatres before it hits Shudder on April 19th. It will likely be their biggest streaming debut to date, with it posting distributor IFC Films’ biggest opening ever. Our critic, Tyler Nichols, thought that it was outstanding, and the film has earned raves from such horror notables as Stephen King, Kevin Smith and Paul Schrader. This weekend, Schrader (who often makes his contempt of new movies fairly obvious) wrote the following on his Facebook page: 

LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL.  A razor-sharp satire of 70s late-night television–so sharp at times it’s indistinguishable from the thing it satirizes–which evolves into a parody of possession and poltergeist movies. Can’t quite land the ending (that might not even be possible) but worth a trip to the cinema. Even on a rainy New York City afternoon.

Did you go see Late Night With the Devil this weekend? Let us know in the comments, and check out our interview with star David Dastmalchian tomorrow!

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Superhero movie backlash seems to be at a new height, the pendulum having swung after the likes of Marvel hit their peak with films like Avengers: Endgame (we’re still waiting on that DC masterpiece…). But it’s more than just the so-called “superhero fatigue”; it’s that audiences fully notice that quality certainly doesn’t equate to quantity. Now, Gwyneth Paltrow – who played Pepper Potts in 2008’s Iron Man, which jump started the whole superhero craze – has some thoughts on the matter.

Appearing on Hot Ones (via Deadline), Paltrow stated, “If I look at the industry as a whole, this big push into superhero movies…you can only make so many good ones that feel truly original, and yet they’re still always trying to reach as many people as possible, which sometimes hinders quality or specificity or real point of view.” Paul Dano, who dabbled in the superhero game for DC, also had similar sentiments of the quantity over quality debate.

Of course, there are still good superhero movies – which are certainly no easy feat to make – out there, but the high mark may have passed. In 2021, Eternals became the first entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to receive a “rotten” score on Rotten Tomatoes, followed by last year’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. While audience scores should be taken into account as well – after all, we’re the ones buying the tickets – certainly the dip in quality is there. Even if both had “fresh” audience ratings (which they do), are these movies really quality and enhancing the genre? Both tried to take on the responsibility of moving the MCU into new directions but were overpowered by their ambitions and overall weak storytelling.

Gwyneth Paltrow also reacted to American Fiction writer Cord Jefferson’s Oscar speech, in which he urged Hollywood to disperse the funds that might go to a $200 million project into several other films instead. “I absolutely understand where he’s coming from…You want the best chance to have a strong ROI [return on investment]. People put a lot of money into these things and they want them to be profitable…You get more diversity of art when there is less at stake and people can express their true voice and make a film the way they want to make it. Those are generally the more resonant ones.”

So are we out of “good ones” in the comic book world like Paltrow suggests? Is there an upswing on the horizon or are we truly looking at the “endgame” of the genre? Share your thoughts on the matter below.

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When the Road House remake was announced, we all wanted to know who would be taking the lead role, one that helped solidify Patrick Swayze as a marquee star of ‘80s cinema. At one point Rhonda Rousey was attached to a remake, which would have been one hell of a showdown in a fantasy match against Swayze. So, who would win in a Road House fight between Swayze and Jake Gyllenhaal, who stars in Doug Liman’s movie as Elwood Dalton (as opposed to Swayze’s James Dalton)? The victor may be Jake…at least according to Gyllenhaal.

When asked by Collider who would come out on top between the two Daltons of the two Road Houses, Jake Gyllenhaal says he thinks he gets a certain advantage, although Swayze would get the edge if the time was right. “Well, we all know that size doesn’t matter right from that movie, right? That is a line from the movie, the original movie…You remember that line, right?…Well, he’d certainly dance the shit out of it, so I couldn’t win there. I think, due to technology and the advancements in technology, I’m going to say that I think that my Dalton would win. But if we were face-to-face in the ‘80s, I’d give it to Patrick…It depends on the decade, and I would just say no one ever wins a fight…” Ironically, them there is some fightin’ words!

Gyllenhaal may get an edge overall, though, as he may do something that Swayze never got a chance to do: lead a Road House sequel, which Gyllenhaal is definitely on board for if it makes it to the table, saying, “I would love to. I love the role, I love the character. I love his humor. I love where he could go. The first thing I ever read in the script was the scene where he asked about insurance, if they have insurance, asked if their bikes are outside, and the essence of that character is there, and there’s so much more to explore in that space. So, yeah.”

The Jake Gyllenhaal Road House has been doing quite well with its target audience, so much so that there was a major call for the movie to be released in theaters as opposed to VOD, a decision that stirred up a lot of debate between not just fans but those directly involved with the movie.

Who would win in a Road House showdown: Jake Gyllenhaal or Patrick Swayze? What gives them the edge? Place your bet in the comments section below!

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So maybe Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire hasn’t exactly been a worthwhile installment in the ongoing franchise (then again, what has since the ‘80s?). But it has at least given fans another slice of nostalgia, bringing back the surviving core Ghostbusters, not to mention Janine and that dickless Walter Peck. But there are still a few familiar faces that are sorely missing. So, where were Dana and Louis? Well, it turns out they weren’t really even considered for returns.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Frozen Empire director Gil Kenan partly dodged why both Rick Moranis’ Louis Tully— the one-time possessed neighbor of Sigourney Weaver’s Dana Barrett, was absent. “That would be a Jason Reitman question. That was more of an Afterlife story. We never wrote a role for Louis Tully in Frozen Empire. We’ve got enough characters in this story. I love Tully by the way. I’m a huge Rick Moranis fan. Louis Tully was an indelible element of Ghostbusters.” Notably, Moranis has been on a hiatus from acting, although was in talks to return for a sequel to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. In fact, he hasn’t appeared in-person in a movie since 1997’s Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves.

And so what about Weaver’s character, who we actually got a cameo from in 2021’s Afterlife? As Kenan tells it, “Dana Barrett is also one of my favorite characters in these films, but there was no story for Dana Barrett in Frozen Empire. But if we’re lucky enough to make more of these films, I would love for Dana to have more to do in these stories.” Certainly she is deserving of it, playing love interest-turned-wife to Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire may not have worked out as most of us had hoped but we all know that even the inclusion of characters such as Louis and Dana — or even Vigo the Carpathian — couldn’t have saved it from being an unbalanced follow-up to Afterlife. Even still, seeing a number of the original cast members does keep fans going and hoping for more should the series continue.

What do you think? Would more original Ghostbusters cast members have helped Frozen Empire? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.

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After posting Friday numbers that had the industry thinking that Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire would fall short of Afterlife’s $44 million opening, the sequel rallied to a so-so $45.2 million 3-day opening. While that’s certainly good news as far as bragging rights go (and above the $40 million we had it pegged at), for a movie that cost upwards of $100 million to make (and God knows how much more to market), this opening can’t be considered more than a middling success. When you consider inflation and the fact that Afterlife opened during the pandemic, it can’t be denied that the Frozen Empire audience has shrunk. The B CinemaScore cited by Deadline is problematic, as it doesn’t bode well for the film having much in the way of legs, especially with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire opening next (Easter) weekend. Hopefully, the holiday will help it grow its audience a bit, or I’m afraid this could be the Ghostbusters last big-screen adventure for a while.

Meanwhile, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two managed to eclipse Kung Fu Panda 4 for an impressive $17.6 million finish, only 38% off from last weekend. The movie currently has a total of $233 million domestic ($574 million global), with a $300 million domestic finish still being a strong possibility. Kung Fu Panda 4 comes in third with $16.8 million and a $130 million domestic total, making a finish north of $200 million unlikely unless it has tremendous legs at the box office over the next few weeks.

In fourth place is Neon’s Sydney Sweeney-led horror flick, Immaculate, with $5.3 million. While that sounds bad, it’s actually Neon’s biggest opening to date and not a bad finish for a very divisive movie. Mark Wahlberg’s Arthur the King finished fifth with $4.36 million. It seems like this family movie might have been better off going direct-to-streaming, an area Wahlberg has excelled at in recent years with movies like Spencer Underground and The Family Plan.

Probably the weekend’s biggest (and most unlikely) success story is Late Night With the Devil. This well-reviewed horror flick cleaned-up with $2.83 million, which is the distributor, IFC Films, biggest opening ever. Look for our interview with star David Dastmalchian tomorrow! Holdovers dominated the rest of the top ten, with Blumhouse’s Imaginary making $2.8 million for a $23 million domestic total. That’s not terrible for a movie that was widely disliked by the horror community. 

A24’s Love Lies Bleeding seems to be having trouble connecting with a mainstream, non-arthouse audience, making only $1.58 million this weekend. It looks likely to finish with a sub-$10 million domestic finish. Angel Studios’s Cabrini made $1.37 million for a ninth-place finish. Its domestic total stands at $16.1 million, but I’m expecting the movie to get a nice bump next weekend, as it’s Easter, and the faith-based audience may make it their holiday movie of choice. Bob Marley: One Love rounded out the top 10, finishing just over $1.1 million. Its current domestic total is just a few million short of $100 million, so it’ll be interesting to see if the upcoming holiday weekend propels it past the century mark.

What do you think of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’s opening? Do you think the Ghostbusters franchise has had its day as far as the big screen is concerned? Let us know in the comments! 

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Arnold Schwarzenegger made a whole slew of classic 80s action movies. Still, one remains totally obscure despite being released smack dab in the middle of his amazing The Terminator to Predator run of movies from 1984-87. That film in 1986’s Raw Deal. A formulaic 80s action flick, it’s the most modestly mounted Schwarzenegger action epic of the era, with Arnie coerced into starring in it to complete a long-standing contract he had with producer Dino De Laurentiis following Conan The Barbarian. 

In it, Schwarzenegger is somewhat unconvincingly cast as a small-town sheriff named Kaminski, who used to be an FBI agent but was forced out of the bureau after roughing up a suspect. He’s recruited by his old mentor (The Night Stalker’s legendary Darren McGavin) whose son was killed by the Chicago mob. He wants Kaminski to go undercover in the mob and tear them apart from the inside. 

Again, Arnie is cast in a role that doesn’t suit him at all. For one thing, it’s hard to swallow him ever being smooth enough to go undercover in the mob. Stallone might have been able to pull it off, but Schwarzenegger? Yet, the film is surprisingly entertaining. It’s well-directed by journeyman director John Irvin (The Dogs of War and Hamburger Hill), and the supporting cast is top-shelf. The warring heads of the Chicago mob are played by the formerly blacklisted Sam Wanamaker and Law & Order’s Steven Hill, while the great Robert Davi plays Arnie’s mob nemesis. Darren McGavin is also terrific as Arnie’s mentor, while Murphy Brown star Joe Regalbuto is solid as a snivelling, crooked lawyer. The sexy Kathryn Harrold, from Albert Brooks’ Modern Romance, is good as Arnie’s quasi-love interest, while the movie, which is curiously short of action for most of its running time, ends with a classic shootout.

Alas, it was a big box office flop when it came out but it became a popular VHS rental. In this video by our resident Arnold Schwarzenegger expert Adam Walton, we dig into this obscure entry into Arnie’s filmography and determine whether it deserves a little more love. 

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Yesterday, I posted my Ghostbusters movies ranked list, and I was intrigued by some of the comments regarding what folks thought of the sequels and follow-ups. Interestingly, the 2016 Ghostbusters was getting a warmer reception than I thought, which got me thinking: what is the Ghostbusters movie, besides the original, that people like the most? Obviously, if I were to ask what Ghostbusters movie people like the most, they would choose the original, which is why I’m not including it here. But let’s see which follow-up people like the most. I’m very curious to see what the results are. 

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Of all the current action stars, there’s likely no current draw with the expertise in fight scenes that Scott Adkins does. Not only has he starred in dozens of low-budget actioners (including the great Undisputed films), in addition to his roles in bigger films like John Wick: Chapter 4, but he also hosts an amazing YouTube show called The Art of Action, where he deconstructs fight scenes in classic movies alongside their original stars. This weekend, like many folks, Adkins decided to watch Prime Video’s Road House remake, and while he had high praise for the movie, he also criticized the use of CGI in the fight scenes. 

As posted on X, “I really enjoyed Road House. Doug Liman – great job subverting genre & Gyllenhaal in amazing shape, respect! What a debut from @TheNotoriousMMA happy when a movie like this does well as it’s my bread & butter but c’mon, what’s with the CGI fight scenes?! Swayze didn’t need it.”

Indeed, if you watch the film, several of the fights seem to have been sweetened with CGI, with the opening fight sequence with Post Malone an especially unconvincing (and unfortunate) way to kick off a film with such good action. In a follow-up tweet, Adkins elaborated on CGI use in fights, saying that it can be very effective when used sparingly (to demonstrate impact). To illustrate this, he linked to a video interview he did with Vietnamese-American actor/ choreographer Johnny Trí Nguyễn, who openly used some CGI in his excellent martial arts film, The Rebel, but in a limited, creative way. Adkins says the result blew him away when he realized what had been done. Clearly, this was more convincing to him than the fights in Road House.

Did you notice any CGI cheats in the Road House fight scenes? Let us know in the comments what you think. 

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The debate, considerations and fear over whether or not artificial intelligence will ultimately have a positive or negative impact within the entertainment industry presses on. Now, a new poll points to just how those in Hollywood think AI will affect their careers.

A new poll by the National Research Group (via IndieWire) found that 42% within the film and television industry believe that artificial intelligence will ultimately be harmful to their profession, while 32% believe it will benefit people within the field. Meanwhile, the remaining quarter of those polled either didn’t know, weren’t sure of an impact or were pre-programmed to be apathetic…

It should be noted that the overall poll was not exclusively limited to those within Hollywood but also those with “high degrees of creativity and autonomy.” So, how do these numbers stack up against other creative fields? Those within the entertainment industry are, predictably, on the higher end of those concerned about their professions, up there with photography (41%), graphic design/illustration (42%), the music industry (45%), journalism (48%), and literature/creative writing (49%). As such, they are within the lower range of professions that think artificial intelligence will be beneficial. The groups that have the most confidence that AI will be a perk are software development, web design and the gaming industry.

While some industries are split over just how artificial intelligence will have an impact going forward, there is a general consensus that intellectual property ownership is at the forefront of the conversation, as 85% of those polled across the target professions said there will need to be laws and regulations over IP and copyright protections, a major sticking point during last year’s Hollywood strikes.

There is also the matter of disclosing when artificial intelligence is actually being used. The most recent example of this stems from horror film Late Night with the Devil, whose filmmakers used a small selection of AI images, which they did not tell audiences about ahead of the release, instead essentially being outed by social media. (While humans did touch up these AI-generated pics, fans are still in an uproar.) On the matter, more than 75% of those polled say it should be disclosed whenever a piece of material has AI origins.

Where do you stand on the matter? Which industries do you see being most impacted by artificial intelligence use over the next few years?

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