Film
Joe Pesci Sustained “Serious Burns” While Filming the Stunts in Home Alone 2
The best part of the Home Alone films is watching a young Macaulay Culkin inflict serious pain on Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, but the movies’ absurd slapstick comedy actually caused real consequences for Pesci. Looking back on the 30th anniversary of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York for People, Pesci recalled sustaining “serious burns” while filming a certain scene in the beloved sequel. “In addition to the expected bumps, bruises, and general pains that you would associate with that particular type of physical humor, I did sustain serious burns to the top of my head during the scene where Harry’s hat is set on fire,” Pesci said. While the actor noted that “I was fortunate enough to have professional stuntmen do the real heavy stunts,” it was really him getting blowt...
Ang Lee to Direct Son Mason Lee in Bruce Lee Biopic
They’re in a Lee-gue of their own: Ang Lee has cast his own son Mason Lee in an upcoming biopic of legendary martial artist and actor Bruce Lee. Ang Lee is both a master of fighting spectacles (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and a helmer of deep character studies (Brokeback Mountain), so he would seem to be uniquely suited to the task. As Variety reports, the film is produced by Sony and 3000 Pictures while Dan Futterman (Capote, Foxcatcher) is adapting the screenplay from earlier versions of a script by Jean Castelli, Alex Law and Mabel Cheung, and Wells Tower. “Accepted as neither fully American nor fully Chinese, Bruce Lee was a bridge between East and West who introduced Chinese Gung Fu to the world, a scientist of combat and an iconic performing artist who re...
Top Gun: Maverick to Make Even More Money with Theatrical Re-Release
The era of crewed fighter aircraft will continue for at least a little longer, as Paramount Pictures has announced a theatrical re-release of Top Gun: Maverick. The sequel to the 1986 original earned positive reviews among critics and audiences alike, becoming 60-year-old star Tom Cruise’s highest-grossing film ever, and his first to cross the $1 billion mark. The current tally stands at $716 million domestically and over $1.48 billion worldwide. Now, it has a chance to make even more money. Top Gun: Maverick will return to theaters December 2nd and wrap up this latest mission on December 15th. And if things go well, who knows? Maybe it’ll be called out of retirement one more time. Advertisement Related Video “Top Gun: Maverick truly epitomizes the magic of the moviegoing experience, ...
Samuel L. Jackson Rejects Quentin Tarantino’s Claim That Marvel Has No “Movie Stars”
The Avengers star Samuel L. Jackson responded to his Pulp Fiction director Quentin Tarantino’s recent comments about the the “Marvel-ization of Hollywood” during an appearance on the November 29th episode of The View. Per EW, Jackson challenged his longtime collaborator’s claim that Marvel actors are not movie stars by pointing to the late Chadwick Boseman. “It takes an actor to be those particular characters, and the sign of movie stardom has always been, what, asses in seats? What are we talking about?” said Jackson, who has been a lynchpin in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the role of Nick Fury since 2008. “That’s not a big controversy for me to know that apparently these actors are movie stars. Chadwick Boseman is Black Panther. You can’t refute that, and he’s a movie star.” Jac...
Easy Rider Reboot Eyeing Modern “Countercultures and Challenges”
An Easy Rider reboot is in the works from producer Maurice Fadida (The Trial of the Chicago 7), Variety reports. Fadida’s Kodiak Pictures, Defiant Studios’ Eric B. Fleischman, and the Jean Boulle Group have rights to the film, which originally premiered in 1969 via Columbia Pictures. Written by Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, and Terry Southern, the original Easy Rider starred Hopper and Fonda as two bikers who travel the Southwest on the money from a cocaine deal. Known as a landmark document of 1960s American counterculture, the film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for a young Jack Nicholson. According to Variety, the producers behind the new Easy Rider are looking for writers and directors cap...
The Rock Buys Out All the Snickers From His Local 7-11 to Make Up for Past Stealing: Watch
Here’s a feel-good video for your Tuesday: The Rock visited the 7-11 he used to frequent in his days growing up in Hawaii and bought out all of their Snickers bars to make up for all of the times he stole from the convenience store in his youth — and he made sure to pay for all the other visitors’ goods as well. Watch the sweet clip below. As he explained in the Instagram caption, Dwayne Johnson was “broke as hell” in his youth, “so I used to steal a king sized @snickers EVERY DAY from 7-11 for almost a year when I was 14yrs old, on my way to the gym.” Added Johnson, “The same clerk was there every day and always just turned her head and never busted me.” Johnson’s family was evicted from their Hawaiian home in 1987, and ever since then, his past theft has been weighing on his conscience. ...
Mario Gets Beat Up by Donkey Kong in New Trailer for Super Mario Bros. Movie: Watch
Now that we’ve established Chris Pratt’s portrayal of Mario in the animated Super Mario Bros. movie sounds more like Pratt himself rather than an exaggerated Italian stereotype, we can focus on the second trailer, which features the heroic plumber getting his ass kicked by Seth Rogen’s Donkey Kong. Besides that, we get a first look at Anya Taylor-Joy’s ever-wise Mushroom Kingdom ruler Princess Peach, who rallies a troop of familiar faces against Mario’s archnemesis Bowser (played by a scene-stealing Jack Black). “I’m not sure you know who I am, but I’m about to rule the world,” Bowser tells Mario’s twin brother and sidekick Luigi, voiced by Charlie Day. It sure sounds like Black channeled the mindset he teased for the character in an interview with Consequence: “Hey Pratt-Pr...
Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard Star in Trailer for Jesse Eisenberg’s When You Finish Saving the World: Watch
Jesse Eisenberg has written and directed his first feature film, When You Finish Saving the World. The coming-of-age comedy-drama stars Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard as a mother and son caught up in complicated times, and a trailer for the project is out now. In When You Finish Saving the World, Evelyn (Moore) is the do-gooder mom to Ziggy (Wolfhard), a fuckboy more interested in Internet fame than solving the world’s problems. The trailer, however, shows the characters shift toward each other’s interests — particularly when Evelyn meets a sensitive teenage boy at her job and Ziggy develops a crush on a “brilliant and politically conscious young woman at his high school,” as a press release puts it. “When you were a little boy, you were my little ally,” Moore says in the ...
Will Smith Calls Oscars Slap a “Rage That Had Been Bottled for a Really Long Time”: Watch
Will Smith appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and reflected on the “horrific night” he slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards, citing a “rage that had been bottled for a really long time.” During the ceremony, Rock joked that Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith looked like “G.I. Jane 2,” an apparent reference to her shaved head. Afterwards Smith took the stage and struck Rock across the face. “Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth!” he hollered. Moments later he won the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in King Richard. “That was a horrific night, as you can imagine,” Smith recounted to Noah. “There’s many nuances and complexities to it, you know. But at the end of the day, I just – I lost it, you know. And I guess what I would say, you just never know wh...
Kevin Spacey Books First Movie Since Winning Anthony Rapp Lawsuit
Despite being accused of sexual misconduct by several men, Kevin Spacey has booked a role in a new movie. The news comes after he was found not liable for damages brought forth in a contentious lawsuit from Anthony Rapp, whose accusations against Spacey were the first made public knowledge. As Variety reports, Spacey has booked a voice role in Control, a thriller from the British indie production company Cupsogue Pictures. Written and directed by Gene Fallaize, the movie follows Stella Simmons (Lauren Metcalfe), a British government minister who is having an affair with the Prime Minister (Mark Hampton). Spacey plays a hijacker who knows her secret and takes over her self-driving car, taking a trapped Simmons on a rampage through London. According to Variety, Space...
Irene Cara, Oscar-Winning Singer of “Flashdance” and “Fame” Theme Songs, Dead at 63
Irene Cara, who sang two of the most iconic theme songs in movie history, has passed away at the age of 63. The Oscar-winning singer-actress died in her Florida home on Friday (November 25th), according to her representative, with no cause of death disclosed. “It is with profound sadness that on behalf of her family I announce the passing of Irene Cara,” publicist Judith A. Moose shared on the singer’s social media pages. “The Academy Award winning actress, singer, songwriter and producer passed away in her Florida home. Her cause of death is currently unknown and will be released when information is available…. She was a beautifully gifted soul whose legacy will live forever through her music and films.” Cara is best known for singing the theme songs to the movies Fame (1980) and Flashdan...
The Menu, Glass Onion, and the Limits of the Eat-the-Rich Satire
Over these past few years, the phrase “eat the rich” has been accumulating quite a bit of popularity in our cultural lexicon. Originally an anticapitalist slogan coined by political philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “eat the rich” has become more applicable than ever, used by the masses as a response to a growing dissatisfaction toward billionaires and other beneficiaries of the 1%. It’s also been thematized heavily in contemporary pop culture, gaining traction starting in 2019 with the advent of films like the riveting Best Picture winner Parasite, the cat-and-mouse thriller Ready or Not, the star-studded whodunnit Knives Out, and the stripper crime comedy Hustlers. Each of these stories attempted to critique the systems and ideologies that drive and preserve the ever-widening wealth gap...
