“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is hanging on to No. 1 in its sophomore outing at the box office, despite a disappointing weekend two result and competition from Dave Franco, Detective Frank Drebin Jr. and “The Bad Guys” crew.

“Fantastic Four” grossed $11.7 million domestically in its second Friday on the big screen, making for a devastating 80% drop from its debut. With that disappointing result, the film will most likely fall short of its initial weekend two estimates of $45 to $52 million by Sunday. Its domestic grand total currently sits at $129.7 million and could reach as high as $170 million by the end of the weekend. Marvel shelled out more than $200 million to produce “Fantastic Four.”

The comic book tentpole, headlined by Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn, was shaping up to be the MCU’s first post-pandemic success at bringing a new super team to cinemas after missing the mark with “Thunderbolts*” in May,...

Shhhh.

John Krasinski is returning as the director, writer and producer of “A Quiet Place Part III.”

The cast is not confirmed at this time, so it’s unclear if Emily Blunt, Noah Jupe and Millicent Simmonds, who co-starred with Krasinski in the first film, will return. If you don’t know what happens to Krasinski’s character, we won’t spoil it, but don’t expect a family reunion.

Plot details of the sequel are being kept under wraps, but we’re going out on a limb to guess that they involve alien creatures with very sharp hearing, and human beings who have to evade them on tiptoe while using their inside voices.

Paramount Pictures will release “A Quiet Place Part III” in theaters on July 9, 2027. Krasinski and Allyson Seeger’s Sunday Night Productions, which has a first-look deal with the studio, is producing along with Platinum Dunes.

Krasinski...

Paramount’s “The Naked Gun” reboot, one of the year’s funniest movies, has made $1.6 million at the box office so far after Thursday previews.

It’s on track to make between $15 million and $17 million, which is a respectable start considering theatrical comedies rarely get released anymore and the film only cost $42 million to produce. It stars Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr., the son of original “Naked Gun” comedy icon Leslie Nielsen. He’s an incompetent police detective tasked to solve a twisty murder case in Los Angeles. The cast also includes Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, Danny Huston, Kevin Durand, Liza Koshy and more. It’s directed by Akiva Schaffer of Lonely Island and “Saturday Night Live” fame.

None of this weekend’s new releases will be able to dethrone Marvel’s “Fantastic Four: First Steps” from atop the box office. The superhero adventure is expected to make...

Three years after "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" was released in theaters, franchise co-creator George Lucas developed the ABC TV series, "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles." The '92 series went on for two seasons and four TV movies; it was considered a success and is still generally well-regarded by the hardcore "Indiana Jones" fans. The episodic format allowed young Indy to go through dozens of smaller adventures, constantly interacting with historical figures like Leo Tolstoy and John Ford.

One episode idea Lucas had for the show will sound familiar to modern fans: "One of the scripts we were working on was about a crystal skull. I became fascinated with it there," Lucas said in a 2007 interview. Although he was captivated by an Indiana Jones story where Jones looks for a crystal skull, the concept ultimately never made it into the series. On the bright side for Lucas, he was...

The notion that sex and violence are primarily what sells has been a long-standing axiom in numerous industries, but particularly in entertainment. Human beings are inexorably drawn to the darker side of life and wish to have experiences that safely allow them to indulge in these concepts and feelings. Yet censorship has always existed in the arts for a variety of reasons, which are too complex and culturally varied to go into here. Suffice it to say that artists have always found clever ways of subverting and getting around such restrictions. This is why, when watching a film that was made in America during the Hays Production Code, you can often find moments and themes that are incredibly clever in how they handle risqué elements, the better to fool the censors but not the audience.

Eventually, of course, the Hays Code fell apart, ushering in the era of the Motion...

The respective worlds of Marvel Comics and DC Comics aren't always associated with magic and sorcery. Some of the biggest characters from either franchise run the gamut from otherworldly aliens (Marvel's Captain Marvel and DC's Superman), technologically-capable geniuses (Marvel's Iron Man and DC's Mister Terrific), and even just straight-up powerless vigilantes (Marvel's Daredevil and DC's Batman). However, both comic book giants also have plenty of characters whose powers are less super and more archaic.

These powerful individuals from both franchises include some of the strongest superheroes to ever grace the pages of a comic book, and cover a wide variety of magic types. There's those who are given their powers by a god or deity, those who master the ways of sorcery and witchcraft, and those who are just simply born with the latent ability to manipulate matter and bend the universe to their will. These are the 12 best magic-based...

Very few of Terry Gilliam's films have been produced without some kind of grievous production problem. Gilliam appears to be cursed, with his films victimized by studio tinkering, bad filming conditions, or the health of his actors. The saga of his "Brazil" is well known to cineastes, and his more recent "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" had to be made twice, after the first version of the film fell through. In 2009, Gilliam released "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," a melancholy nightmare about a mystical closet that travels around in the possession of the titular doctor (Christopher Plummer). Inside the closet is a mystical pocket dimension where surreal dreams are manifested. Dr. Parnassus heads a theater troupe and is immortal, having been tricked by Satan (Tom Waits). Into his company comes the handsome young Tony (Heath Ledger), who may offer salvation. At the very least, Tony offers to spruce...

"Stargate Sg-1" hosted an impressive array of guest stars over the course of its 10-season run. The show focused on a team of universe-traversing soldiers and scientists, which threw up several problems. The biggest challenge faced by the "Sg-1" VFX team was trying to find new locations to stand in for the various alien planets in the series. But the show also needed a lot of guest actors to portray the extra-terrestrial races that inhabit the multitude of distant planets explored by the Sg-1 team. Often, the show and its spin-offs got around that particular challenge by casting the same actors in different roles. One of the most prolific "Stargate Sg-1" guest stars, for example, actually played nine different characters, though thanks to the prosthetics and makeup you'd never know it was the same guy.

But there were also multiple guest stars who only showed up a handful of episodes.

He may be ignored by most of the "Star Wars" fandom, but Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) was one of the coolest parts of "The Phantom Menace," the first (or fourth) episode in the "Star Wars" saga. In a movie that's often characterized as being way too talky and meandering, Qui-Gon kept things to the point. He was direct and stoic, wise and gentle. He had a wholesome relationship with young Anakin (Jake Lloyd), and there was never any doubt that he was a good mentor to young Obi-Wan. 

Despite this, Liam Neeson wasn't particularly happy with how Qui-Gon went out. Near the end of "The Phantom Menace," in perhaps the movie's only scene with some genuine emotional pathos to it, Qui-Gon is slain by that dastardly Darth Maul. Maul stabs him through the stomach with his dual-bladed lightsaber, and leaves him dying on the floor. It's a tragic end and,...

Paramount has been in the news a fair bit recently, for good reasons and, mostly, bad (for nerds who like boring stuff like free speech and political independence or whatever). But uh ... they did put a lot of Showtime content on Paramount+. That kinda makes up for it all, right?

The concerning and confounding decisions of the network's parent company aside, Showtime has long been the under-sung hero of prestige TV and the golden age of television at large. Would there be any shows with psychopathic, murderous protagonists without the success of "Dexter?" Would the political thriller subgenre be complete without "Homeland?" And is there a family drama so perfectly and relatably balanced between humor and heartbreak as "Shameless?" Unfortunately, you can't watch everything Showtime has produced on Paramount+ as of writing -- that said, of the shows available, these are the 15 most deserving of a rewatch.

Read more: The...

"Thunderbolts*," with its stylish fight scenes and commentary on mental health, was a breath of fresh air for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. /Film's own Bj Colangelo praised the film as "the type of movie the MCU needs right now." It's kind of a minor miracle it works as well as it does since the central team is made up of C-listers, like Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) and Red Guardian (David Harbour), reprising their characters from 2021's "Black Widow." Seeing as how important that film is to Marvel's "Thunderbolts*," it's kind of surprising Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz), Yelena's makeshift mother, is nowhere to be seen. 

She hasn't been completely absent from the MCU since 2021. She shows up in a season 2 episode of "What If...?" titled "What If... Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper?" The animated installment picks up from the season 1 episode where Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) receives the super...

Lindsay Lohan is sharing her frustrations about how growing up in the public eye pigeonholed her from playing more sophisticated roles.

“Yeah, I do [think I was pigeonholed],” she said in an interview with The Times U.K.. “I was so thrilled to work on ‘A Prairie Home Companion’ and yet even today I have to fight for stuff that is like that, which is frustrating. Because, well, you know me as this — but you also know I can do that. So let me! Give me the chance. I have to break that cycle and open doors to something else, leaving people no choice. And in due time, if Martin Scorsese reaches out, I’m not going to say no.”

Lohan began acting at an early age and had her first breakout role in 1998’s “The Parent Trap.” She became a household name after appearing in several 2000s films, including “Mean Girls,” “Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen...

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This post contains spoilers for "Three Days of the Condor" and its remake.

Sydney Pollack's "Three Days of the Condor" is a natural by-product of post-Watergate America. The looming shadow of this political scandal haunts and defines the 1975 film, fleshing out everything from its overtly cynical impulses to the paranoia-inducing events that guide this effective spy thriller. Based on James Grady's eponymous novel, formerly known as "Six Days of the Condor," the film dives right into the distrust embedded in American society, viewed through the lens of a bookish CIA agent marked for death by shadowy agents who are impossible to track down.

The CIA agent in question is Joe Turner, codenamed Condor (Robert Redford), who is seen working covertly at a so-called literary society, marking encrypted books that might or might not contain hidden messages. After Condor leaves for lunch and returns,...

The second official teaser trailer for the upcoming HBO series "It: Welcome to Derry," a prequel to the events of the 2017 and 2019 "It" films, looks as creepy as we could've hoped for. It not only features the return of Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, but also marks the return of Andy Muschietti, director of those recent "It" films. The show seems to be going for all the same vibes as the more popular first movie, with the added benefit of a TV show that has more time to delve into the characters. 2017's "It" felt like a speedrun through the book; "It: Welcome to Derry" may have a more natural pace.

For a lot of Stephen King fans, the most intriguing moment from that teaser is a brief shot of a couple of convicts in a bus labeled "Shawshank State Prison." That's the same prison featured in the 1994 film "The Shawshank Redemption,...

One of the biggest comedic geniuses to come out of Hollywood in the 20th century was Richard Pryor, a prolific actor, stand-up comic, and screenwriter. Starting out doing stand-up in the late '60s, Pryor became a television staple, both performing his comic bits on talk shows and writing for popular sitcoms. By the '70s, Pryor's sense of humor became more daring than the conventional norms of the time, with his co-written comedy "Blazing Saddles" still having bite over 50 years later. These bolder sensibilities would inform Pryor's other work, both in continuing stand-up comedy and a growing number of major film appearances.

Groundbreaking and enormously influential, the legendary comedian left an indelible mark on the entertainment industry that has endured since his passing in 2005. Just as effective as a lead actor as he was as a memorable supporting character, Pryor always commanded full attention whenever he was on-screen. And...

A washed up action star, a drug-addicted comedian, a sell-out rapper, and a pompous self-important method actor walk into the jungle. That's either the beginning of a very tasteless joke or the premise of Ben Stiller's Hollywood satire "Tropic Thunder." This audacious comedy goes further and lower than just about any other movie dares to go, lampooning every layer of Hollywood from the obnoxious foul-mouthed studio bigwigs to the lowly production assistants they disrespect and demean for sport.

The go-for-broke satire in "Tropic Thunder" still causes controversies to this day, with Stiller insisting that he makes "no apologies" for the storyline involving Robert Downey Jr. 's Oscar-winning method actor recoloring his skin so that he can "authentically" play the part of a Black army sergeant. You may have asked yourself where Stiller may have gotten the inspiration for this lightning rod of a film, and the answer comes from...

Given its monumental status as one of the greatest films ever made, it is perhaps surprising that there aren't more movies about the circumstances surrounding the making of "Citizen Kane." After all, beyond the technical dazzle of Orson Welles' magnum opus, it is also the story of a clash between two towering egos at opposite ends of their careers: In one corner Welles, the prodigiously talented upstart from New York who was handed the keys to Hollywood for his first motion picture; in the other, William Randolph Hearst, the fearsome magnate who dominated the largest and most influential media empire in the United States. It is also the tale of two sprawling estates that became monuments to their builders; Hearst Castle, an opulent testament to Heart's immense wealth, and Xanadu, Welles' gloomy fictionalized version of the former that would loom large over the rest of his career. Yet, to date,...

Quentin Tarantino is remembering Michael Madsen, who died on July 3 in his Malibu home. He was 67.

According to TMZ, Tarantino held a closed memorial for Madsen on Friday at his Vista Theatre, during which he recalled a needed moment of support from his frequent collaborator while filming “Reservoir Dogs.”

“It was the last hour of the last day of the first week of shooting. So, I had never directed a movie before,” Tarantino said on stage. “And Lawrence Tierney was a fucking nightmare. He was completely insane. He was so crazy, and I’d never directed before, so I’m dealing with a crazy man Monday through Saturday.”

He continued, “All the other actors and the crew can’t stand him. And all of a sudden, he yells at me or something, does something disrespectful. The other times, he was being disrespectful, but he didn’t quite mean it. This time,...

Jonathan Bailey recently entered the world of "Jurassic Park" via the franchise's latest legacy sequel, "Jurassic World Rebirth." Appearing alongside Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali, Bailey stars as paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis. The movie sees Bailey's Loomis and Johansson's Zora Bennett tasked with retrieving genetic samples from dinosaurs at an abandoned research facility in order to develop a new treatment for heart disease. Building on the previous "Jurassic World" movies, all of which have focused on InGen creating its own dinosaur species and using its cloning technology in unprecedented (and often dubious) ways, "Rebirth" introduced new dinosaurs like the giant six-limbed Distortus rex, as well as the flying raptor-like Mutadons.

However, "Rebirth" isn't the first time Bailey has encountered a strange, fantastical creature on screen. The first time around, though, the creature in question was far more amicable and much less terrifying than a giant mutant dinosaur. We're referring, of course,...

Black Gold: It made the Clampett family rich and took them from the Ozarks to Beverly Hills in "The Beverly Hillbillies," and it's still making people billionaires today. Oil was first extracted for use in China well over 2,000 years ago, but it boomed in the 20th century thanks to the arrival of the automobile, electric lighting, and increasing demand for consumer goods made from plastic. Despite concerns about climate change and innovations in clean and renewable energy, oil and gas production is still one of the biggest industries in the world, with the United States producing around 13 million barrels of crude oil per day. Yet, despite being a driving factor behind today's society, there are still relatively few movies and TV shows about it. One of the most recent to explore this vast topic is Taylor Sheridan's acclaimed "Landman," the absorbing new show that explores the politics and...

In marriage, like in horror movies, rituals are important.

Dave Franco and Alison Brie, partners in work and life, have been on the road for months preparing for this weekend’s release of their co-dependent body horror flick “Together.” The highest seller at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the project has made waves for its terrifying advance marketing – all merging flesh, crushed bones and other invisible forces proving that Franco and Brie’s fictional couple have bigger problems than who did or did not lower the toilet seat.

Off-screen, their own rituals have been sweeter. Variety asked the pair to reflect on their 2017 Los Angeles wedding, an intimate affair gleefully devoid of the horrors of “Together” (unless you count an uninvited guest showing up). Here, they discuss a confusing but endearing proposal, a simple (non-occult) ceremony and a party that still nets them compliments 8 years later.

Dave, what do...

In the long history of video game movie adaptations, "Uncharted" is a fairly inoffensive example. Sure, it only has a 41% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes, but it also has an 89% audience score. Dedicated fans of the "Uncharted" games (guilty) may have some issues with how certain characters are written and presented, but the film was clearly a crowd-pleaser with more casual fans or moviegoers who haven't played the games.

"Uncharted" was also a financial success, grossing over $400 million worldwide on a fairly modest production budget for a blockbuster action-adventure movie of just $120 million. And that was all in the near wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, mind you.

All of those points pretty directly to a sequel, but for a couple of years after the first film came out, there was little word on a follow-up. Then, in 2024, Sony Pictures announced that it was officially developing "Uncharted 2." However, while the movie is in development,...

In 1997, Austrian provocateur Michael Haneke made "Funny Games," one of the scariest and most confrontational films of its decade. "Funny Games" follows the plight of a placid, upper-class family of three as they trek to their lakeside cabin for a miniature vacation. As they are settling in, they receive a visit from two creepy young men in tennis whites and gloves, asking to borrow some eggs. The young men are Paul (Arno Firsch) and Peter (Frank Giering), and they clearly have a dark agenda.

As soon as matriarch Anna asks them to leave, Peter and Paul snatch a golf club and begin inflicting injuries. They reveal they have already killed the family dog, and that the remaining family members are not allowed to leave. Peter and Paul tie them up and announce they are going to play some games. These funny games involve torture, mockery, and death. At one point,...

Liam Neeson wasn’t a fan of his death in “Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace.”

On a recent episode of GQ’s “Most Iconic Characters,” Neeson, who plays Qui-Gon Jinn in the “Star Wars” prequel, joked that his death in the film was “a bit namby-pamby” and that he thought a Jedi master would fare better in a battle with a Sith lord.

“I thought my death was a bit namby-pamby,” he said. “I’m supposed to be a master Jedi. My character fell for the ‘Oh, I’m going for your face! No, I’m not, I’m going for your stomach.’ ‘Oh, you got me!’ Please, hardly a master Jedi.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Neeson said that on set, “Star Wars” mastermind George Lucas felt a bit awkward directing actors, and that he preferred to shape the film in the editing bay.

“George doesn’t like directing.

Just under two months ago, Hollywood mainstay Julianne Nicholson received her IndieWire Performance Honor, another mark in a year that is finally shining the spotlight on the journeyman actress. Sure, we’ve always been aware of her talent — she even earned some awards recognition as part of the ensembles for “August: Osage County” and “I, Tonya,” as well as a Supporting Actress Emmy nomination for “Mare of Eastown.” But it’s 2025 now, and Julianne Nicholson is a full-fledged television star.

First came “Paradise,” in which she got to portray the villainess Samantha “Sinatra” Redmond. Then came her recurring stint on “Hacks,” where she stretched her comedic muscle as a dancing mom TikTok influencer, appropriately named Dance Mom. Last month, Nicholson scored both her second and third Emmy noms for the projects, in the Supporting Actress in a Drama Series and Guest Actress in a Comedy Series categories, respectively.

“I know it’s greedy,...

Picture two films in front of you. One is a three-hour drama, an epic about an important issue acclaimed by critics, a piece of cinematic homework you have to see lest a Letterboxd gatekeeper sneers at you. The other is maybe 90 minutes and is really, really funny, critical consensus be damned. I know which one I'm picking.

Like many others, I am a huge fan of comedy movies. It's the art of finding visceral, uncontrollable catharsis through this maddening existence we call "being alive." It requires all the facets of dramatic storytelling with the added task of poking fun at the "normal" elements of dramatic storytelling. It's so hard, and when it's pulled off well, there's nothing like it. And there are many great comedy films to check out on streaming services, including, but not limited to Hulu.

So the next time you're scrolling through Hulu looking for a flick to watch,...

Long before Vanessa Kirby was playing Sue Storm, arguably the main character in the new "Fantastic Four" film, she was starring in a low-key 2015 crime thriller called "Bone in the Throat." The movie was about an ambitious chef who starts a new job at his uncle's restaurant, only to find out that the London mob's decided to use the restaurant to commit murder. Don't you just hate when that happens?

Kirby doesn't play the main chef, but she does star as Sophie, the main character's love interest who is very concerned about that whole mob situation going on. It was a compelling role that Kirby handled well, but the movie was never a big hit. Most people today, even some of Vanessa Kirby's biggest fans, don't even know the movie exists. It's hard to tell if this was a case of bad marketing or if audiences genuinely didn't like the movie,...

In the "Seinfeld" episode "The Limo", Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) arrives back in New York after a trip to Chicago, and George (Jason Alexander) has agreed to pick him up. Sadly, George's car has broken down on the way to the airport, leaving the pair stranded. They see a limo waiting nearby, however, and they concoct a scheme. Jerry happens to know that the limo is waiting for someone stranded in Chicago (he overheard the passenger in question on his flight), a man named O'Brien, so George claims to be O'Brien to claim a free limo ride. No harm, no victim, right? 

And their scheme comes with an added bonus. Not only are they sniping O'Brien's ride, but they are handed O'Brien's "passes" for an event at Madison Square Garden. Are they for the expensive Knicks/Bulls game? Jerry and George have no compunction about stealing the tickets for themselves, knowing...

Who could forget the opening scene of "Lost" — in J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof's masterpiece of a pilot episode — where our hero, Jack (Matthew Fox), awakens in a jungle on a seemingly uninhabited island to find the wreckage of his Oceanic flight and its survivors screaming and wandering about in shock? It's one of the most effective, mysterious, and captivating cold opens ever made. But what's a "cold open" exactly?

In television, a cold open is the very first scene of an episode that always appears before the title card (or opening credits) of any given series. It's one of the greatest storytelling tools TV writers have. It can come in many different forms and shapes, taking up usually five to ten minutes to immediately capture the viewer's attention as potently as possible.

Essentially, they serve as teasers, attempting to establish the show's tone, atmosphere, and vibe before we...

While rumors persist on whether or not Tom Holland will be the next actor to take on James Bond, he’s returning to the role that made his a household name — revealing the full, more-traditional-looking costume for next year’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” in an August 2 teaser video posted to his Instagram.

In the clip, large elephant doors open up in a bare sound stage, revealing the silhouette of Holland, who jogs toward the camera, stopping as the light hits him in his Spidey suit — one which resembles that of the original Marvel comic books. He says, seemingly to the movie’s not-pictured crew, “We ready?” Then he dashes out of frame.

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A post shared by Tom Holland (@tomholland2013)

The post also lists the release date, July 31, 2026 (announced in March) — which will place it hitting theaters nearly five years after the fourth Holland-led Spider-Man...

K-pop fans of all ages are flocking to the Los Angeles Convention Center this weekend for Kcon, the annual three-day festival celebrating Korean music and culture.

The festival consists of all-day activities, including a vendor market of various Korean beauty and food brands, multiple stages showcasing rookie acts and meet and greet sessions. Fans then migrate over to the Crypto.com arena each evening for the M Countdown, the main concert event in which multiple K-pop artists and groups perform.

Kcon, which is run by Korean media giant Cj Enm, is held in several countries, with the Los Angeles edition serving as the flagship event. The convention, presented by Cj’s Korean beauty products brand Olive Young, continues through Sunday.

On Friday, fans sported white, pink and green Olive Young totes from a large pop-up space promoting the beauty retailer’s upcoming U.S. storefront and some of the top brands it carries.

From a certain perspective, "Star Trek: Voyager" was the purest of the "Star Trek" shows. The premise saw the show's title ship, the U.S.S. Voyager, magically whisked across the entire galaxy by a godlike alien and deposited in the Delta Quadrant, 70 years away from Earth. The series was about how the Voyager and its crew traverse unknown space in an effort to return home. The Delta Quadrant was so far from Earth that all the aliens the Voyager encountered hadn't ever heard of the Federation, Starfleet, or any of the usual trappings of "Star Trek." The U.S.S. Voyager was on its own, truly alone, unable to call for backup, and unable to demonstrate that the crew had allies. 

"Voyager" was pure in that the characters had to rely on their principles. It's easy to be confident about Starfleet ideals when there are a thousand ships from...

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Stop me if you've heard this one before. A drifter or outlaw is on a perilous journey with a young partner, who is either his literal or spiritual son/daughter. It's a common formula not tied to any specific genre. You can see it in gangster movies ("Road to Perdition"), Westerns ("True Grit"), science-fiction, superhero stories ("Logan") and more.

The best version of it isn't an action story but a road trip black comedy: Peter Bogdanovich's "Paper Moon," about con artist Moze Pray and his maybe daughter Addie (Ryan and Tatum O'Neal) driving through Great Depression-era Kansas. The legacy of "Paper Moon" lives on to this day. It has inspired recent stories including a key episode of "Andor," and the new Neo-Western crime thriller, "She Rides Shotgun."

Based on Jordan Harper's page-turning, bite-sized novel, "She Rides Shotgun" begins...

This article contains spoilers for "Eyes of Wakanda."

Everyone knows that Achilles is gay. It's 2025. I don't care what Brad Pitt told you back in 2004, but we live in a different world now — a world where, when you see Achilles in a thing, you should know to immediately start looking for the queer rep. So that's exactly what I did when I saw the famous Greek hero pop up in episode two of Marvel's new "Eyes of Wakanda" animated series.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Achilles and queer storylines go hand in hand. But the MCU? Sort of the opposite. Yes, we all loved "Agatha All Along," which is probably the most explicit, canonical, interesting queer representation in the franchise to date. But other than that, Joe Russo's cringy cameo in "Avengers: Endgame," and a few pride pins that you have to squint to see? It's slim pickings.

Some fifteen years ago, when I was but a freshly minted college graduate, I interned at Turner Classic Movies in Atlanta. It was the dream for an avid Old Hollywood fan. Even at 21, I could throw down facts about Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart like someone 70 years my senior. I once had a conversation with TCM patron saint Robert Osborne about Myrna Loy — whom most of you should Google because she was simply sublime. But that’s beside the point.

One of my tasks was to help reorganize their vast library of informational packets on various movies, ready to pull anytime they needed research for the intros/outros on the primetime lineup. Every manilla envelope, stuffed to the brim with photo copies, was meticulously alphabetized. When I got to the “S” section, however, I noticed a curious omission: “The Sound of Music.” I was perplexed. Not only was it a personal fave,...

It's no surprise that "Reacher" season 3 broke a Prime Video viewing record. The Alan Ritchson-led series proved hugely popular when it debuted in 2022, and while season 2 was somewhat of a rocky patch for the show, the third "Reacher" outing was based on the very best book in Lee Child's original series, "Persuader." That means we got Ritchson's ex-military man skulking around a mansion trying to solve the disappearance of an informant and uncover the secret behind Zachary Beck's (Anthony Michael Hall) shady rug business. The whole thing was made even better by the fact Jack Reacher faced off against his most formidable foe yet in the form of Olivier Richters' gigantic bodyguard Paulie.

All of that added up to arguably the best season of the series yet, which poses a problem for the show's writers going forward. Once you've adapted the best Jack Reacher novel, where do you go next?...

Andy Cohen became the latest big name to cameo on “And Just Like That” — which will wrap its third and final season on August 14 — appearing as an employee at Bergdorf Goodman named Daniel. Cohen joins many, many other celebrities that have appeared on the “Sex and the City” sequel series, including Patti LuPone, Rosie O’Donnell, Jenifer Lewis, Sam Smith, Drew Barrymore, Billy Dee Williams, Gloria Steinem, Tony Danza, Candice Bergen… the list goes on.

But fictional TV, Cohen explained on his podcast (via EW), isn’t his natural habitat. It took a while to get his take, which involved him assisting Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) with shoe shopping. “I think the line in the script was just like, ‘Oh hey, Carrie, I’ll be with you in a sec,'” he explained. As simple as that line may sound, for Cohen, “Shooting these shows… is very difficult.”

“You have to literally walk four steps,...

Rockne S. O'Bannon's sci-fi series "seaQuest Dsv" was immensely popular for its all-too-brief, three-season run, airing from September 1993 through early June of 1996. Set in the far-off future of 2018, "seaQuest" followed the crew of a high-tech super-submarine called a Deep-Submergence Vehicle. The crew worked for an international research enclave called the United Earth Oceans Organization, at a time when earthbound resources were dwindling, and humanity could only survive by salvaging food and fuel from the ocean floors. The series frequently centered on biodiversity and ecological themes. It was slick and well-thought-out. It starred Roy Scheider as Captain Nathan Bridger, and Jonathan Brandis as hotshot teen Lucas. Frank Welker voiced the talking dolphin Darwin (able to speak via a high-tech translator). 

The show became more fantastical in its second season, featuring fire-breathing worm monsters, time travel plots, and an ancient alien ship. The series didn't suffer in quality, but it certainly became sillier.

This article contains spoilers for "The Naked Gun."

This month's reboot of "The Naked Gun" may be a parody of the action film in general, but that doesn't mean its satiric targets are all that broad. The movie recognizably spoofs at least a handful of films, though not in a fashion that would allow the film to become quickly dated, something that /Film's Ethan Anderton observes in his review. In other words, there's nothing like the moment from "Hot Shots: Part Deux," in which Saddam Hussein is shot to pieces and then reforms a la the T-1000 in "Terminator 2," happening here. Instead, "The Naked Gun," as directed by co-writer (and "The Lonely Island" member) Akiva Schaffer, is more concerned with stuffing its brief runtime with jokes-a-plenty. In a similar fashion to Schaffer's prior comedy movies like "Hot Rod" and "Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping," "The Naked Gun" is all about the yuks.

Anthony Mackie is opening up about how he almost lost his role in “The Hurt Locker” because of another director’s unreleased film.

During a recent episode of Variety‘s “Know Their Lines,” Mackie shared the backstory behind being cast in the 2009 Oscar-winner.

“‘Hurt Locker’ is probably one of the most important acting experiences I had,” he began. “We shot that in 2007, and I remember I was doing a movie in North Carolina with quite possibly the worst director to ever direct. Ironically, because of that the movie never came out.”

He continued, “Because of that, the movie went over and I had to pull out of ‘Hurt Locker.’ They offered it to somebody else, and he said no because it wasn’t enough money.”

Despite Mackie being tied up with the other film, the production offered him the role again and was willing to wait until he wrapped the unreleased project.

When Tim Kring's superhero series "Heroes" debuted in 2006, it took the world by storm and became popular instantly. The show's first season explored a brand-new, wholly original universe where random citizens began to develop supernatural abilities. At the center of the drama was Claire (Hayden Panettiere), a high school cheerleader who found that she could heal from any injury. Meanwhile, in Japan, a fella named Hiro (Masi Oka) realized he could teleport across the planet and even shift through time. Similarly, a woman named Niki (Ali Larter) discovered she had superhuman strength, while Milo Ventimiglia played Peter, a retirement home nurse who could replicate the superpowers of others.

On the opposing side, there was Sylar (Zachary Quinto), a dangerous villain who could absorb other people's powers after killing them. (It's heavily implied he would eat their brains.) Elsewhere, Jack Coleman co-starred as a character referred to only as Horn-Rimmed Glasses,...

Conan O’Brien — long before he himself became one of America’s favorite hosts — was on staff for three years as a “Saturday Night Live” writer, which he describes as one of the 50-year-old series’ most intense periods.

“I was in that state of mind, and I think [Robert] Smigel and [Bob] Odenkirk and Greg Daniels were like, ‘It’s life or death,'” O’Brien related on his podcast “Conan Needs a Friend” (via Entertainment Weekly). “And it feels like that’s kind of how everyone feels.”

Odenkirk expressed similar feelings in an interview with EW last month. “I was too hard on the show,” he said. “I had a lot of attitude when I got hired there, like, ‘This show could be better, this show could be ‘Monty Python,’ this should be more cutting edge, this should be more dangerous.’ And I was frustrated by it not representing purely my point of view.

This article contains spoilers for "The Naked Gun."

Theatrically released studio comedies (and especially spoof movies) have become somewhat of a dying art in the 2020s, with most of them either being relegated to die on a streaming service, being released by independent distributors, or flopping at the box office. It's a bummer because anyone who's seen a great comedy in a movie theater knows the power of laughing with an audience. It's the only kind of communal experience in which people making sounds is a good sign. You have to wonder if there's any movie that could get the genre out of its slump. As of this week, there is! I can't tell you how good it feels to have a new "Naked Gun" movie where everyone can laugh at the universal truths of a snowman threesome, a shotgun being pulled out of Pamela Anderon's hair, and the best...

The year was 2004. A horror-slasher helmed by a first-time director premiered at Sundance, offering a simple, yet anxiety-inducing premise. What if two strangers found themselves chained inside an empty, dilapidated bathroom, with two contradicting tape recordings to guide their possible survival? After the film scrapped its original straight-to-video plan to opt for a limited theatrical release instead, it went on to gross an unexpected $104 million worldwide, becoming one of the most profitable horror flicks at the time. 

This was James Wan's feature debut, "Saw" (as Wan's actual debut feature is considered lost media), which bloomed into an iconic media franchise, finding a way to adapt to the shifting expectations that came with the genre. This impressive franchise journey, however, would've been impossible without Tobin Bell, who has embodied the twisted, diabolical Jigsaw ever since the first "Saw" unnerved us with his menacing presence.

Bell's contribution to "Saw" as a franchise is foundational,...

Long before making the 2025 “The Naked Gun” reboot, writer/director Akiva Schaffer was a student of the original spoof films, “Airplane!” (1980), “Top Secret”(1984), and “The Naked Gun” (1988). There were rules to those Zaz films, one of which was casting classically trained dramatic actors — but acting wasn’t the only thing they played straight.

“This whole thing that they invented with ‘Airplane’ — I might be wrong, maybe someone did it before them — but what Zaz was doing that was so special was all dramatic actors and the dramatic story, and then treating everything – wardrobe, lighting, sets — as the dramatic version,” said Schaffer. “That’s the part I was definitely taking with me into this one.”

When Schaffer was on this week’s episode of the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, he explained how leaning into the gravitas (and persona) of Liam Neeson, seemingly unaware of the absurdity of what he was saying or doing,...

Ilya Khrzhanovskiy, director of the controversial Dau immersive art project and films, will be a special guest at the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival.

The festival will screen a retrospective of his films as part of the ‘Tribute to’ programme.

Russia-born filmmaker Khrzhanovskiy is artistic director of the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center in Kyiv, the largest Holocaust research and memorial centre in Eastern Europe.

His long-gestating Dau project was made from 700 hours of footage, from which came 14 feature films, three TV series, video performances and scientific films were created.

The films included Dau. Natasha and Dau. Degeneration, both of which...

(Welcome to Tales from the Box Office, our column that examines box office miracles, disasters, and everything in between, as well as what we can learn from them.)

"There was a couple years, though, where it was not a big punchline, but where if it came up, you had to disavow it." Those are the words of director Akiva Schaffer, one third of the comedy group The Lonely Island, talking about their 2007 comedy "Hot Rod" on "The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast" in 2024. "Even on talk shows, you'd have to, like, really make sure you made fun of it before they did."

Time has been kind to "Hot Rod," with the film achieving cult status over the years. In its day though, the comedy was a flat out flop. Despite Schaffer's success alongside his partners Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone on "Saturday Night Live," this pattern of flop-turned-cult-classic would...

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is hanging on to No. 1 in its sophomore outing at the box office, despite a disappointing weekend two result and competition from Dave Franco, Detective Frank Drebin Jr. and “The Bad Guys” crew.

“Fantastic Four” grossed $11.7 million domestically in its second Friday on the big screen, marking a devastating 80% drop from its debut. If the poor turnout continues, the film will most likely fall short of its initial weekend two estimates of $45 to $52 million by Sunday. Its domestic grand total currently sits at $170 million and could reach as high as $198 million by the end of the weekend. Marvel shelled out more than $200 million to produce “Fantastic Four.”

The comic book tentpole, headlined by Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn, was shaping up to be the MCU’s first post-pandemic success at bringing a new super team to cinemas after missing the mark with “Thunderbolts*” in May,...

Hollywood is hung up on Madonna, but a biopic remains a frozen secret. Regardless, the legendary singer’s life is going to make it to screen eventually — although whether it gets to the small or big screen first is yet to be determined. This week, “Weapons” star Julia Garner — who was announced to star in a Madonna movie way back in 2022 — confirmed on the podcast “Smartless” that, in spite of reports to the contrary, the project “Like a Virgin” is still very much in gestation.

“That’s supposed to still happen,” she said (via Variety). Garner was set to star alongside Julia Fox, who would play Madonna Bff and frequent music video co-star Debi Mazar. Fox spoke with IndieWire in 2024 about the movie’s reported shelving by Universal, seeming similarly ambiguous.

“I know it was gonna be either tour or movie and then she went on tour,” Fox said. “So...

If you want to prove that "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" is one of the most consistently strong sitcoms ever made, you can point to how its best-rated episode came as far into its run as season 10. "Charlie Work," directed by the same guy behind the new "Fantastic Four" movie, is rated a 9.8 out of 10 on IMDb. This is the same rating as the beloved episode "Blink" from "Doctor Who," and a point above "The Suitcase" from "Mad Men." 

Those latter two episodes, the best of their respective shows, notably take place in season 3 and 5, not too far into their series' run. Most shows don't even make it to season 10, and they're definitely not churning out all-time best episodes by the time they're there. The only exception is probably "South Park" or "Saturday Night Live," and neither of them are quite in the same genre as "Always Sunny."

So, what...