Plot:  After a devastating loss, Esteban “La Máquina” Osuna is at a low point in his boxing career. Lucky for him, his manager and best friend Andy Lujan is determined to get him back on top. But when a nefarious organization rears its head, the stakes of this rematch become life or death. While struggling to mount a comeback, Esteban must also juggle his own personal demons and protect his family, including his ex-wife Irasema, a journalist who finds herself on a collision course with the dark side of the boxing world.

Review: While many boxing films and series have focused on the sports aspect, La Maquina skews towards the fallout and repercussions of being a successful athlete. Lifelong friends Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal have starred in four films together and produced countless more, but La Maquina is their first television project. Coming twenty-three years since they co-starred in the classic Y Tu Mama Tambien, Luna and Bernal have experienced success together and apart, with each having been involved in the worlds of Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, respectively. Told across six episodes, La Maquina is a powerful drama that showcases what Luna, Bernal, and Eiza Gonzalez are capable of in a narrative that originally treads familiar territory before differentiating itself as the plot unfolds. As Hulu’s first original Spanish language effort, this impressive production blends sports, drama, and humor for a unique series event.

La Maquina follows the lifelong friendship between boxer Esteban “La Maquina” Osuna (Gael Garcia Bernal) and his manager Andy (Diego Luna). Esteban is at the tail end of his successful career as a fighter and is poised for a championship match when he loses spectacularly. Desperately needing a financial windfall dependent on Esteban, Andy orchestrates a quick rematch and does whatever it takes to ensure it goes off in their favor. All the while, Esteban contemplates his life after boxing, including his relationship with his two sons and his ex-wife, Irasema (Eiza Gonzalez). Esteban also must face the fallout of a career of getting punched as he begins experiencing hallucinations, which may be a sign of a more serious medical diagnosis. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that more than just athletics is at play as a sinister force returns to collect what they are owed.

Both Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna are immeasurably talented performers and have distinct characters in La Maquina. Esteban is the more grounded character whose challenges romantically and emotionally are subtly played on screen as Bernal carries a full range of emotion in his eyes alone. We learn so much about his life, especially his difficult childhood, through flashbacks that Bernal must encapsulate all of that through facial expressions. Conversely, Diego Luna is almost unrecognizable as Andy, with a wig, lip fillers, make-up, and more cosmetic enhancements that do little to hide Andy’s massive inferiority complex, which is accentuated by a creepy relationship he shares with his mother, Josefina (Lucia Mendez). As their friendship begins to crack under the immense stress of their business relationship and familial bonds, Bernal and Luna portray Esteban and Andy as fictional shadows of their real-life friendship, much like how their chemistry came to the screen in Y Tu Mama Tambien, Luna and Bernal manage to imbue these characters with a similar bond decades after that classic Alfonso Cuaron film.

As good as Bernal and Luna are here, Eiza Gonzalez is phenomenal. Despite being over a decade younger than her co-stars, Gonzalez holds her own as the veteran journalist and ex-wife of Esteban. There is definitely a love shared between these three characters that runs deep, and Irasema serves as a voice of reason, as well as the one who calls Esteban and Andy on their lies and excuses. Gonzalez has shown a prowess for strong leading characters, which she carries into this supporting role. Because La Maquina is fully in Spanish, all three actors show that they and the supporting cast can bring as much intensity to roles regardless of the language of the project. Set in various locations ranging from multiple in Mexico to Las Vegas and beyond, La Maquina often straddles the line between genres but never feels like a foreign production but rather a global one.

Based on an original story developed by Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna, Julian Herbert, and Monika Revilla, La Maquina is directed by Gabriel Ripstein and has scripts by Marco Ramirez, Andres Fischer-Centeno, and others. The six-episode series starts out dramatically with a long take that shifts into some elements of humor before completely shifting into drama again. There is a surreal nature to some of the story, which begins to take on more complex elements involving drugs, murder, crime, abuse, and some other reveals, which I will not spoil here. By the penultimate episode, La Maquina reaches a precipice that risks alienating the audience with a bold plot twist that surely pays off in the finale. Because the series is the brainchild of the two lead actors, La Maquina carries an additional heft thanks to the personal investment from both Luna and Bernal.

La Maquina is more focused on the fallout and tangential impact of boxing rather than being a sports story. Sport is key to who Esteban Osuna is and how Andy reaches the level of success that he does, but unlike the short-lived FX series Lights Out or the Rocky and Creed franchises, La Maquina uses boxing as an entry into the lives of these characters while exploring the depths that Esteban and Andy must go to as they try to reconcile their personal demons with their public success. Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna are phenomenal actors in everything they do, but they reach a different level when they work together. La Maquina is a wonderful companion piece to their previous collaborations and deserves to be seen by fans of the actors and those who love solid dramatic stories.

La Maquina premieres all six episodes on October 9th on Hulu.

La Máquina

GREAT

8

The post La Maquina TV Review: Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal are punch drunk in this boxing drama appeared first on JoBlo.

We sometimes too often think of directors as straight-faced stiffs, their only passion in life being celluloid. But with all of the pressures that go into making a major motion picture, of course they want to unwind, too. And quite a few do it with video games, with some of its biggest fans found in the likes of Guillermo del Toro, John Carpenter and even Steven Spielberg. Just don’t give Steve a controller!

Max Spielberg recently said of his father, “He loves gaming, he’s the one that got me into it. He plays games, he’s a big PC gamer and so that’s kind of our bonding point as well. He’s like, ‘Hey what’s good, what new Call of Duty should I be playing, send me a list of the top five shooters, I’ll get ‘em downloaded and we can play ‘em together when you come over to the house.’” OK, we all have to admit that the 77-year-old wanting to bond with his nearly 40-year-old son is cool, but that he wants to do it over video games is immensely so.

Max Spielberg added, “It’s always a Call of Duty. He loves Call of Duty, he enjoys the campaign. He’s big into story games and I’m always trying to get him to play Uncharted, y’know ‘It’s Indiana Jones, you’d appreciate this’, and he’s always, ‘I can’t do controllers, I only do keyboard and mouse.’” Steven Spielberg might have his worlds collide soon enough, as the upcoming Indy game Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will be available on PC. But will he play it…?

But it’s not just the PC that Steven Spielberg huddles behind, it’s his phone – damn kids… “He also plays a lot of mobile games, he’s big into Golf Clash and stuff like that, anything he can play on the side. ‘Is your game coming to mobile?’”

Steven Spielberg is, of course, no stranger to the world of video games and has a lengthy history with them, contributing extensively to Electronic Arts and Lucasfilm Games, formerly known as LucasArts. Spielberg’s own Saving Private Ryan has also been credited for helping launch the Call of Duty series, with a number of entries – including the very first – being set during World War II. And who can forget all of the great video games more directly adapted from his movies, like Atari’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial? Oh… Outside of those, here’s an oft-forgotten one: computer game Steven Spielberg’s Director’s Chair, which, while promising sounding, stands more as an oddball piece of media than anything. Where else can you get a collaboration between Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino and Penn & Teller?

If you could recommend one video game to Steven Spielberg, what would it be? Drop your pick below!

The post Steven Spielberg loves playing Call of Duty and mindless mobile games appeared first on JoBlo.

Joker: Folie a Deux is proving to be an all-out disaster for Warner Bros/ DC. The original film was an Oscar-winner for star Joaquin Phoenix and grossed a mighty billion dollars worldwide, but the sequel is having the most disastrous comic book movie opening since The Marvels, and with a D CinemaScore, it’s the kind of sequel which can’t help but tarnish the original to some degree.

All this got us thinking—what were other REALLY bad sequels? Sure, a lot of sequels are disappointing (think Iron Man 2 or Thor: The Dark World), but which have been all-out franchise-killing disasters? We’ve compiled a bunch of them into our poll below, so let us know—and if we’ve missed any, make sure to chime in via the comments!

The post POLL: What are the worst sequels of all-time? appeared first on JoBlo.

The name’s Mendes, Sam Mendes. The Bond franchise has been ongoing for more than 60 years and 25 films, so it’s no surprise that there have been many repeat directors. But Sam Mendes was the first to helm multiple Bond films since the ‘80s (an era ruled by John Glen), guiding Daniel Craig through the 2010s. After Skyfall and Spectre, the torch was passed to Cary Joji Fukunaga. So will Sam Mendes go the Terence Young route, sitting one installment out and returning with thunder? Never say never…but probably not.

Speaking with Inverse, Sam Mendes credited the Bond films with coming at a crucial time in his career but doesn’t see it as a guarantee for his future. “Never say never, to quote the man, but I would doubt it. It was very good for me at that moment in my life. I felt like it shot me out of some old habits. It made me think on a bigger scale. It made me use different parts of my brain. You have to have a lot of energy.”

With that, the 59-year-old Sam Mendes thinks directing a Bond film is a young man’s game. “They want slightly more malleable people who are earlier in their career…who perhaps are going to use it as a stepping stone, and who are more controllable by the studio.”

Who the next Bond director will be is anybody’s guess. All Quiet on the Western Front director Edward Berger has already dismissed supposed talks, while Christopher Nolan rumors have also been debunked. So, will the Bond team go for someone mainstream American audiences are more familiar with or someone off of their radar?

The James Bond franchise will obviously press on but, in addition to the giant question mark surrounding the director, there is still so much in the air, with the future of the character himself — or maybe even herself — undetermined. Who will play 007 and what direction will the studio go? Three years removed from No Time to Die and with no clear path, we’re possibly looking at at least three more before we see it on the big screen.

Do you think Sam Mendes should return for another James Bond film? Who else do you think should step into the job?

The post Sam Mendes doubts he’ll do more Bond movies, says it’s for young filmmakers appeared first on JoBlo.

THE STORY: Frank Murphy (Roy Scheider), a helicopter pilot working for the LAPD, is selected to test pilot an experimental government helicopter called “Blue Thunder.” Highly sophisticated, and heavily armed, Murphy discovers the helicopter is being designed for urban use by a group within the government, headed by his old Vietnam nemesis, F.E Cochrane (Malcolm McDowell). Thought to be insane by his LAPD bosses thanks to his troubled history of war-related PTSD, Murphy steals ”Blue Thunder” in an attempt to reveal the murderous conspiracy behind its creation, culminating in a series of spectacular dogfights in skies above downtown Los Angeles.

THE PLAYERS: Director: John Badham (Saturday Night Fever, WarGames, Bird on a Wire, Stakeout). Writers: Dan O’Bannon (Alien, Total Recall), Don Jakoby (The Philadelphia Experiment, Vampires). Starring: Roy Scheider, Malcolm McDowell, Candy Clark, Daniel Stern, & Warren Oates. Score by Arthur B. Rubinstein.

THE HISTORY: During the early eighties, the comic book-style techno-thriller was in-vogue. Usually, these thrillers revolved around lone-wolf cops or military men given access to highly sophisticated weaponized vehicles they used to do battle with the forces of evil (or – in the case of many eighties action movies – communism). On TV, there was Knight Rider, on the big screen, there was the infamous flop MegaForce. Super-helicopters/planes were especially popular, with Clint Eastwood’s bizarre spy/sci-fi thriller Firefox featuring him stealing a Russian Jet run by telepathy (???), while on TV there was “Airwolf”. Many believe the latter was actually a rip-off of this week’s subject, Blue Thunder.

Unlike many movies featured in this column, Blue Thunder was a sizable hit, raking up $42 million in 1983 dollars (equal to $104 million today). That’s not bad considering that two weeks after it opened, a little movie called Return of the Jedi hit theaters. Blue Thunder was so well-received that, in the days before sequels became commonplace, it spawned a rip-off TV show, which was rushed on-to the air only seven months after this hit theaters (around the time it made it to home video) and lasted a whopping eleven episodes. The movie became a modest cult hit on video/cable, and director John Badham went on to hit-after-hit for the rest of the decade, including the same year’s WarGames, Short Circuit and Stakeout, before turning to TV in the mid-nineties after a few flops (including the decent Nick of Time starring a young Johnny Depp and Christopher Walken).

Nevertheless, Blue Thunder has sunk into a modest kind of obscurity. It’s well-known enough that Sony has reissued it a few times on DVD/Blu-ray, but it’s rarely talked about alongside other popular action movies of the era, maybe due to the lack of a marquee star in the lead. There’s also been some talk of remaking it with drones (not a bad idea as far as these things go), but nothing has come to fruition yet.

WHY IT’S GREAT: Blue Thunder is both typical and atypical of its era. In addition to the sleek, high-tech vehicle, the hero’s also a PTSD-afflicted Vietnam vet, something that was so common in movies back then that the similarly themed Firefox had a hero (Clint Eastwood) with the exact same issue. Yet, while many Reagan-era actioners had a somewhat conservative, rah-rah America bent, Blue Thunder was anti-authoritarian. Here, the government is seen as a sinister force, with the main conflict being that if the Blue Thunder is mass-produced, citizens may find themselves unwittingly under surveillance, something which – thirty-three years later – has indeed happened although the new watchers don’t need anything as clunky as helicopters. 

“The story supposes that some right thing or conservative group in the government decides that it will be a great idea for crowd control in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, to use these helicopters for surveillance, and to arm them, which is a pretty frightening idea…

Unfortunately, the other equipment they want to put aboard is equipment that can look through into your house, see anything that’s alive and be able to record any conversation from five, six, hundred feet up in the air.  The ship then becomes a representation of total invasion of privacy, a flying big brother…

In the film, the character I play, Murphy, a Los Angeles helicopter pilot, knows that this is a very evil and unnecessary thing.  So he does something about it.” – Roy Scheider – Blue Thunder Online

As Murphy, Roy Scheider plays one of the last of the 80’s everyman heroes, with he-men like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone taking over action flicks within a year or two. Scheider is more of a seventies-style lead, in that he uses his brains and wit rather than brawn and doesn’t trust “the man.” Scheider was the king of this type of hero during this time, with this not too far from his part as Chief Brody in Jaws & Jaws 2. Already in his fifties, Scheider brought a rugged, world-weariness to the part that really made Frank Murphy an interesting guy, with a terrific introduction showing him using his high-tech (for the time) digital watch to count backwards as he tries to calm himself enough to climb into the pilot’s seat of his helicopter. For much of the running time, you’re never really sure if Murphy’s up to the task of taking on the government plot behind Blue Thunder, and by the time the credits roll he’s just about eked-out a victory, but at a heavy cost.

Similarly, the villain is atypical of the time, with Malcolm McDowell fairly low-key as Murphy’s rival, F.E Cochran, a government agent who tries to frame Murphy for murder once he starts asking too many questions and later faces off with him in a spectacular dog-fight in the L.A skies. McDowell’s lower-key performance may have to do with the fact that he’s terrified of flying, with his grimaces during the final battle being real, as he was so freaked out about being in a helicopter.

“I was terrified. We started out filming it on the gimbel thing (a rig designed for the purpose) with the crew moving it around. Then, it was easy to look macho and all that, but it’s all very different when you’re really up there in the air! They had to retake my stuff several times because I was so scared. It gave them a good laugh.” “Going under those bridges in the helicopter was simply terrifying. I didn’t think we were going to make it. I asked the pilot, ‘We are not going to go under it, are we? We don’t have enough room under the bridge. I don’t know how wide this thing is, and there is just not enough – oh my god! He scraped the paint!’ I still get the old pollywoggles in my stomach when I watch that scene. In fact, I’ll tell you, I still can’t even look at some parts of this movie.” Malcolm McDowell – Blue Thunder Online

The supporting cast is good too, with Daniel Stern as JAFO (“Just Another F**king Observer”) Lymangoode, the young, family man partner who – if you know your eighties action movies – won’t be around long past the second act. Candy Clark makes for a spunky love interest for Scheider (it’s interesting that when the movie starts they’re already in a relationship rather than falling in love as it goes on), while Warren Oates owns every scene as the typical pissed-off Police Captain, although he’s more sympathetic than usual given the trope.

Given the era, the FX are pretty nifty, with lots of real helicopters used, in addition to model work and rear projection. The action scenes are top-notch, although one of the movie’s dumber aspects is that Murphy engages the villains’ right over downtown L.A., with missiles flying into buildings and a (presumably) astronomical body count on the ground. I guess Badham and company thought an air battle over an urban setting would be more exciting – maybe they’re onto something. Apparently, Scheider thought this was moronic and fought hard to move the battle out to a less populated area, as that’s what he thought Murphy would do (ever the method actor).

“I would get rid of that Arco Tower scene,” he notes. “It seems out of character for Murphy to draw missile fire to it. To my way of thinking, they should have picked a place which was obviously abandoned, where innocent people wouldn’t be endangered. – Roy Scheider – Blue Thunder Online

That aside, Blue Thunder is pretty damn exciting, with Scheider’s performance grounding the film in a big way, and Badham’s straightforward (some might say workmanlike) direction a far-cry from today’s action directors, who bombard you with carnage. I also really like the super-synthy electronic score by Arthur B. Rubinstein, with Murphy having a cool heroic theme that I’m humming to myself as I write this.

SEE IT: Blue Thunder is widely available on DVD/Blu-ray, iTunes, Amazon and Netflix depending on your region. No 4K yet though, which is a shame.

PARTING SHOT: Having been born in ’81, I probably should have seen Blue Thunder as a child, but oddly enough I only caught it as a teenager when it showed on an “oldies” cable channel. Over the years I’ve returned to this one quite a bit, and it remains one of my favorite Scheider vehicles. It’s too bad that despite its box office success, it was his last big theatrical hit, with him following it up with two underrated movies, Peter Hyams’s 2010 (a modest success at the box office) and John Frankenheimer’s 52 Pick-Up (a huge flop – but a great movie). Check this one out!

The post Blue Thunder: The Best 80s Action Flick You Never Saw! appeared first on JoBlo.

Zombies Ate My Neighbors might be the greatest horror video game ever. It’s not scary in the traditional sense but no other game better played off of our favorite horror tropes and characters – all without getting slapped with an insane amount of lawsuits. Those evil dolls? Yeah, they’re Chucky. That chainsaw-wielding dude in the hockey mask? Yup, that’s Jason, even though Mrs. Voorhees’ baby boy never used one. From there, we’ve got vampires, werewolves, reptilian men, aliens, giant creatures, pod people, blobs, and more running around neighborhoods, shopping malls, factories, pyramids, castles, and anywhere else you’ve already seen in classic horror flicks. But one figure that pops up at random isn’t exactly known for horror flicks – and that’s George Lucas, whose LucasArts developed the game.

A lot of people don’t know this, but George Lucas actually has a cameo in Zombies Ate My Neighbors, appearing in the level “Monsters Among Us”, categorized as a “credit level” as it’s revealed only after you defeat the game’s final boss, Dr. Tongue. But there he is, as this level is set in the offices of LucasArts, the company that developed Zombies Ate My Neighbors. So why don’t more people know about this cameo? Well, because the game is insanely hard! Heck, I’ve played the game off and on since Konami released it back in 1993 and still haven’t conquered it without codes (damn you, Snakeoids!). While I did come across the level through roms and discovered the cameo years ago, we have to give credit to Laser Time for giving us proof.

Unfortunately for some, you can’t use your water pistol, weed-whacker or magical crucifix against Lucas, as he is just part of the scenery and – as in real life, probably – unkillable. So what is he up to? After you save the tourists snapping pictures of him, he tells the characters, “Welcome to LucasArts Games and now get back to work.”

Getting back to work not only entails saving your neighbors but also taking time to scope out everything and everybody within the walls, which are covered in cobwebs. Taking a walk around, we see assistant animators, musicians (Joe McDermott and George Sanger), artists (key LucasArts figure and later Pixar employee Steve Purcell), and even the head of LucasArts Kelly Flock – no, literally, it’s his giant floating head watching over the studio! One employee even has his own head on the body of a dog, a little nod to 1978’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers. With all of that going on — especially in a level that most people will never play — you have to appreciate the (dr.) tongue-in-cheek devotion.

Did you play Zombies Ate My Neighbors? How far did you make it?

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Before Burt Reynolds was doing voice roles for a quick buck later in his career, he had a true passion for the art…or maybe just acting like a dog. His first foray into voice work was as Charlie 1989’s All Dogs Go to Heaven. While the character was written with Reynolds in mind, he brought a little something extra to the part, which resulted in none other than Dom DeLuise (who voiced Itchy) being recruited to help.

In a recent social media post, All Dogs Go to Heaven director and animation legend Don Bluth remembered Burt Reynolds going full German Shepherd. “When he first came to the microphone he made up what he called, ‘My wonderful dog voice.’ He was very proud of it, but it was awful.” As such, Bluth asked DeLuise (a longtime pal of Reynolds’) to help out, which he did…for a price. “Then I called Dom DeLuise to see if he could suggest how to get Burt not to use his dog voice. Dom laughed and said, ‘Put me in the movie, call me Itchy. I can fix this.’ In the recording studio Dom and Burt sat side by side and when Burt started to use his dog voice, Dom looked at him and said, ‘What the hell is that, you’re embarrassing me. Just be Burt, the audience loves Burt.’ And that is the reason Itchy, Charlie’s wonderful friend is in the movie.”

Unfortunately, this so-called “dog voice” has been lost, so we’ll never get to hear exactly what Burt Reynolds would actually sound like as a German Shepherd. We do, however, need to hear what Dom DeLuise’s weiner dog voice sounds like.

Outside of Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise, All Dogs Go to Heaven also features the distinct talents of Judith Barsi, who tragically died in 1988 before both that and her other signature film, The Land Before Time, were released. There, too, is Charles Nelson Reilly, Reynolds’ then-wife Loni Anderson, Vic Tayback, and Ken Page, who died this past week.

What was your favorite Don Bluth movie growing up? Share your pick with us in the comments section below!

The post All Dogs Go to Heaven: Don Bluth remembers Burt Reynolds’ dog voice & Dom DeLuise saving the movie appeared first on JoBlo.

The numbers are coming in for Joker: Folie a Deux and aren’t pretty. It is one of the year’s most anticipated films, but terrible reviews and extremely poor word of mouth from fans are killing this musical sequel’s box office. Deadline reports that the opening weekend box office outlook for the film is in the $47 million-ish range, a deadly result for a $200 million budgeted would-be tentpole movie. That’s even less than the cautious $60 million we predicted earlier this week.

So how did we get here? Simple – fans REALLY don’t like director Todd Phillips’s sequel, and word of mouth is tanking the movie in a big way. The CinemaScore rating for this film is particularly dire, with it being the first ever comic book movie to earn a D rating. That’s a horrifically low rating, with even Francis Ford Coppola’s largely disliked bomb, Megalopolis, earning a D Plus. 

One definitely has to wonder what possessed WB to green-light a musical sequel to Joker. I suppose the idea of pairing Lady Gaga with Joaquin Phoenix proved too enticing a prospect to turn down, but it can’t be denied that the idea has backfired. That said, Phillips is in good company here, with Martin Scorsese having his own musical flop with New York, New York back in 1977, and Coppola having One from the Heart in 1982. Musical flops seem to be a right of passage for big-time directors, don’t they?

Meanwhile, The Wild Robot will likely finish second this weekend with about $20 million. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, despite coming out on digital this Tuesday, had another strong weekend, with it on track for about $11.4 million and a third-place finish. It also looks like Lionsgate had another bomb on their hands, with White Bird (a prequel to Wonder) opening outside the top five with about $1.5-2 million. 

How has audience turnout for Joker: Folie a Deux been at your screenings? Let us know in the comments!

The post Box Office Update: Is Joker 2 bombing? appeared first on JoBlo.

For years, Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net has been about two things only – awesome art and the artists that create it. With that in mind, we thought why not take the first week of the month to showcase these awesome artists even more? Welcome to “Awesome Artist We’ve Found Around The Net.” In this column, we are focusing on one artist and the awesome art that they create, whether they be amateur, up and coming, or well established. The goal is to uncover these artists so even more people become familiar with them. We ask these artists a few questions to see their origins, influences, and more. If you are an awesome artist or know someone that should be featured, feel free to contact me at any time at theodorebond@joblo.com.This month we are very pleased to bring you the awesome art of…

Adam Young

Adam Young is a Canadian artist best known for his whimsical and colourful depictions of Eastern Canada, specifically Newfoundland. He was born in Halifax, NS, raised in Moncton, NB and has been living on Fogo Island, off the northeast coast of Newfoundland since 2008.

Inspiration for Adam’s work comes from the stark beauty of the landscape, architecture and the warmth of the people who live in Newfoundland. His mediums of choice are acrylics and inks and focuses on the elements of light, repetition, movement and colour. The fishing stage and/or saltbox house is a common theme within most of Adam’s paintings which takes the place as the absent figure. The little colourful shacks embody a playful feeling of curiosity and wonder as they balance on the rocky and sometimes harsh coastline of the North Atlantic. Adam lives on Fogo Island with his wife Jennifer, their daughters Bella and Scout and dog Willie.

JOBLO: I’m so happy to see that you have chosen Adam Young as an artist to watch for! I have been following him for years on Instagram and most recently purchased one of his original paintings (called “Crooked Chimneys”) and it’s purposely resting above my bed these days.

I love the colors in the painting and how it makes me feel when I walk into my room, ready to hit the sheets and get some shuteye. I also purchased his book a couple of years ago and love flipping through that as well. And on top of all that, he’s a nice guy and fellow Canadian so glad to see him featured here!

JOBLO: What got you started as an artist?
ADAM: My older sister Toni is a great artist and I think just being around her and always drawing and colouring is where I first began to love art. I also had a great art teacher in high school who really encouraged me to pursue it further.

Who were some of your favourite artists growing up?
Of course Group of Seven, Van Gogh, Maud Lewis, Klimt and a big Dali fan.

Who do you really dig these days, follow on Instagram?
I’ve really tried to limit my time scrolling on social media these past few years so I’m not really up on what’s happening in the social media art world. I do enjoy Gordon Wilson and Jeremy Mann.

What advice would you have for budding artists today?
Be yourself. Follow your own path. I think find what inspires you, what story you want to tell, and if you can’t sleep because you are so excited to get back to the work then you’re on the right path. Art lovers can tell when your work comes from something real. Be you.

What should we be looking out for from you in the future?
I think just continuing to be inspired by my surroundings. I hope to so some more abstract pieces in the future. Try to travel Canada a little more and do some pop up shows and see some different landscapes.

Being a fansite, we have to ask you… What are some of your favorite movies/TV shows of all time?
Oh I am a huge movie/tv lover! Of course I love Games of thrones, The Office. I am a huge fan of scary movies so anything horror. Lord of the Rings, the Alien franchise, I love it all!

Scroll down to check out some of our favorite art pieces from Adam as we continue to follow his journey across his Website and social media hubs: Instagram / Facebook / Store / Book

Dreamer

Facing The Moon

Fish Plant

Glowing

Good Neighbour

Harbour Moon

Hockey Night

The Keeper

The Late Practice

Leaving

Long Ago And Far Away

Moonlight Over Fogo

Noisy Dawn

On The Line

Porch Light

Quidi Vidi

Quilted Sea

Ripples In The Sky

The Skipper

Spring Thaw

Squished

St. John’s Night

Three Sheets

Twilingate

Weathering The Storm

Yellow Brick Road

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Imaginary. Borderlands. The Crow. Megalopolis. 2024 has been a colossally bad year for Lionsgate Films. Whether it’s critical ratings or box office take, there’s not a lot to be optimistic about if you’re a fan or shareholder. This is too bad as Lionsgate has always been the studio I’ve always rooted for. As distributors of the Saw, John Wick, and Rambo they’ve always had an edge to them, giving smaller films a chance to reach larger audiences. And franchises like Twilight (purchased from Summit), Divergent, and Hunger Games showed their ability to make/acquire broadly appealing films. Then they’ve even gotten into the Oscar space with releases like La La Land, Knives Out, and Sicario. But it’s getting to the point where I groan every time the Lionsgate logo comes up as it’s no longer a sign of quality or fun.

It’s hard not to blame Lionsgate at least a little bit for this. Borderlands, The Crow, and Megalopolis were largely considered to be bad ideas from the start. Another adaptation of the graphic novel which hasn’t had a good film since the original? A film based on a video game completely miscast and coming from a horror director? And finally, a passion project from a once great filmmaker who hasn’t made a good movie in 32 years? Each of these was a clear failure and largely made fun of when announced. So the fact that they threw so much cash at them is baffling. The Crow was always going to be a tough sell, and to be sure, Lionsgate is only the distributor, not the producer (same with Megalopolis). But it still begs the question as to why they would acquire film with such a low upside.

While Lionsgate is not a major studio, they are still considered a mini-major where they mostly focus on foreign and independent films. Much like the Saw franchise which was made for cheap but made a boatload of cash for the studio, Lionsgate was able to make massive profit off of it. Yet even their low-budget fare has been uninspiring. Damaged, Miller’s Girl, Arthur the King, and The Duel prove we’re far removed from the days of high-quality acquisitions. Hell, the one time they had a great indie horror film in Cobweb, they decided to release it to damn near zero promotion on the same day as Barbenheimer.

We also need to discuss their strange release strategy. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Arthur the King, and The Killer’s Game only came out in the United States (skipping Canada entirely) and resulted in a tepid box office. While I enjoyed Ungentlemanly Warfare, releasing in this way says to audiences that the films aren’t worth an entire release/marketing strategy. Sure, it costs a lot of money to market a film, but why even make/acquire the film in the first place if you’re not even going to give it a chance to fully optimize its chances to profit?

I know I’m pretty much the only person on the planet who enjoyed the ridiculousness of The Strangers: Chapter 1 but it’s clear based on others’ reactions, that its sequels have a tough hill to climb. While the first film did well, that could likely be attributed to fans of the original wanting to check it out. But after the terrible word of mouth, it’s going to be a lot more difficult to get people in seats. This is likely why we haven’t seen anything from Chapter 2 despite Chapter 1 releasing back in May. Not even a trailer. And with the trilogy filming back to back, you have to figure the sequels are near completion, editing-wise. So will the trilogy complete its story in theaters, or will it be relegated to streaming services for the rest of its run? The more Lionsgate needs a win, it seems the less likely it is to happen.

As far as big releases to save the year, Lionsgate doesn’t have much of anything left. With a small Cillian Murphy drama and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, the chances of recovering their losses don’t seem great. But 2025 should be a little better with the return of the Saw franchise with XI, the John Wick spinoff Ballerina, and the popular magic series Now You See Me 3. But then again, they are producing a Dirty Dancing sequel so I’m not sure if they’ve learned their lesson yet. Especially with the rumors that much of Ballerina had to be reshot, as the original cut was such a mess. Whatever happens, Lionsgate is in need of some major changes going forward as the studio has become a shell of its former self. Hopefully, they take inspiration from other mini-majors like A24 and start focusing on quality and creativity. But who knows, maybe some Lionsgate exec just got a great idea for The Crow 2. *shudders*

What do you think? Will Lionsgate ever recover? What is the solution? Let us know in the comments below!

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