Tag: Movies

Why the Wicked movie only covers Act 1 of Broadway show

Here’s why the highly-anticipated Wicked movie is set to cover just the first half of the story.

Broadway fans have been clamoring for years for a film adaptation of the extremely popular musical Wicked and finally, that dream is set to become a reality on Friday.

Wicked, staring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, tells the story behind The Wizard of Oz before Dorothy Gale’s arrival on the scene. The show, and soon to be movie, follows Elphaba before she becomes the Wicked Witch of the West and her friendship with Glinda the Good Witch during their time at school.

While Wicked the movie may clock in at over two hours and 40 minutes — approximately the same run time as the musical — fans will have to wait until next year for the second part of the story, as the 2024 film will cover just Act 1 of the show. The decision is a controversial one, but was seemingly made so nothing major was cut from the final product.

Plus, according to director Jon M. Chu, trying to follow up the climactic showstopper “Defying Gravity” that ends Act 1 was an exercise in futility.

“The truth is we tried for some time to make it one movie, even if it had to be one very long movie. But we kept running into two problems. The first is that even as a very long single movie, it required us cutting or omitting things that we wanted to include and that we think fans of the show and the story will appreciate.

Secondly, we found it very difficult to get past ‘Defying Gravity’ without a break. That song is written specifically to bring a curtain down, and whatever scene to follow it without a break just seemed hugely anti-climactic. So, for these two reasons, plus the excitement of doing something that’s never been done before with a musical, we have decided to do two movies.

Of course, when it’s all done, if it doesn’t work that way, we’ll have to figure something out. But we strongly believe that this is what’s best for our story, our show, and our fans.”

So, now you know!

Why Paul Mescal sees doubt about Gladiator 2 as only a good thing

The Gladiator II star knows that expectations can be a good thing.

Ridley Scott’s 2000 epic Gladiator is widely regarded as a nearly perfect film. Russell Crowe’s turn as Maximus was a career defining moment, and Joaquin Phoenix was phenomenal as the utterly unhinged and ambitious Commodus.

Twenty-four years later, Scott is ready for the movie’s sequel to hit theaters. Gladiator II releases on Friday, November 22, bringing the audience back into the world of ancient Rome, the Colosseum, and emperors. Paul Mescal takes over in the lead role, and the charismatic actor knows that viewers might have reservations about touching the franchise again.

“I weirdly see the reservations as a positive thing, because it means that the film has a legacy,” Mescal said in a recent interview with For The Win. “I’m biased, but I think from what we’ve experienced from the first kind of reviews is that people who did go in with a kind of reservation, a lot of those people were brave enough to say, ‘Hey, I went in with these reservations,’ but the film has has really, really worked on them.”

With a “Certified Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it appears as though the sequel is connecting with fans. With high-octane action and outstanding performances from Denzel Washington and Pedro Pascal, it’s easy to see why. Still, Mescal wants fans to still keep the skepticism going into the movie.

“So anybody who has reservations, hold on to them, do whatever, but I can hopefully assure you that within the first three or four minutes of the film that you’ll be put at ease.”

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Why the gloriously stupid Brothers is the hidden comedic gem of 2024

Brothers is a gloriously stupid hidden gem. It’s on Amazon Prime Video now.

Twenty years ago, a movie like Brothers would open on a blustery October Friday, make about $15 million on opening weekend, play for about a month as a modest word-of-mouth success and eventually hit Blockbuster shelves for high schoolers to sneak-rent for a howler of a weekend evening with friends.

Far more Farrelly Brothers than Coen Brothers, Brothers is the kind of stupid crime comedy we used to get in bulk, back in the days film studios realized that people enjoyed watching funny movies in theaters with other people.

The cruel irony and/or sign of the times for Brothers is that it opened to little fanfare on Amazon Prime Video last month and has skipped out of the public consciousness as yet another movie skipped over on the routine streaming search. May it not be so, not with the perfect Thanksgiving movie ready to fire up with the adult members of your family you love but can’t always stand to be around.

Brothers is gloriously stupid, a movie so cartoonish and buffoonish that it hides in some pretty relatable themes about how you can’t choose your family, but sometimes, it’d be nice if they chose you for once.

Comedies like this have always been unfairly dinged for their lack of sophistication, as if aiming for the low-hanging fruit to make you belly laugh is some sort of genre crime. Brothers functions perfectly as both a silly farce and an excellent showcase for normally stoic actors to flex their funny bones.

Josh Brolin, Peter Dinklage and Glenn Close aren’t typically the people you see in Happy Madison-y movies, but getting them in a comedy directed by Palm Springs‘ Max Barbakow and written by I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore‘s Macon Blair should’ve been heralded as a grand arrival.

Brolin and Dinklage are irresistible together, as the former plays dorky dad far better than you’d expect and the latter in a refreshingly low-life mode we don’t normally get to see him in. Marisa Tomei shows up for a wacky few scenes, and this is one of the last times we’ll get to see the late, great M. Emmet Walsh show up in the kind of supporting role where he always thrived.

Some NSFW language to follow. 

However, the film belongs to recent Oscar winner Brendan Fraser. Fraser has always been a genius at finding his groove in any comedic setting. He’s perfectly capable of playing the smartest and dumbest person in the room, often in the same scene. Here, he gives what just might be the most hysterical performance of his career, one so wild and free in a way we haven’t seen Fraser in so, so long.

Combining the drool-mean menace of Rugrats‘ “Big Boy” Pickles and the foolish tenacity of a yippy puppy that can’t control its bladder, Fraser transforms himself into a Looney Tunes failson goon for the ages. Quite literally every single one of his scenes is funny, throwing in off-kilter line deliveries and gleefully reckless physical comedy to create a go-for-broke performance that is so special.

It’s one of the great recent post-Oscar performances, one so free of any ego and so in love with its own idiocy. Fraser is having unreal amounts of fun again in a good comedy, a wonderful sign nature really is healing.

If you want to turn your brain off for just a bit and enjoy a studio comedy with good actors and wily creative minds behind the camera, Brothers is an oasis in the desert. We need more stupid, mid-budget comedies like this, ones that aren’t doing anything new to make you laugh but still get the giggles in spades.

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Ariana Grande and Jimmy Fallon hilariously re-enacted an infamous The Wizard of Oz meme

“She came down in a bubble, Doug!”

Wicked hits theaters next week, and anticipation is wildly high for Jon M. Chu’s film adaptation of the popular (see what we did there?) musical. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo lead a star-studded cast that includes the likes of Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum.

Grande joined late night host Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show on Thursday night, and the duo decided to recreate an absolutely iconic Wizard of Oz related meme before the show for social media.

In the clip, Grande and Fallon brought the 2018 argument to life, flawlessly delivering lines like “You’re going to look at me and tell me that I’m wrong?” and “She wore a crown, and she came down in a bubble, Doug!”

Absolute perfection.

Glen Powell addressed the Mission Impossible rumors with a funny quote about his mom

Honestly, mom might be right on this one.

The newest trailer for the upcoming eighth Mission: Impossible movie dropped on Monday, ramping up excitement for Ethan Hunt and The Final Reckoning. Tom Cruise once again returns as the lead, looking to somehow outdo his hanging off a dangling train car or jumping off a cliff on a motorcycle stunts.

A report from Hollywood writer Jeff Sneider (@theinsneider) on Tuesday floated the idea that Cruise had his Hunt-in-waiting lined up in Top Gun: Maverick co-star Glen Powell. ESPN’s Pat McAfee wasted no time trying to get to the bottom of the rumor, calling the Twisters actor during Tuesday’s Pat McAfee Show.

When asked about the rumor, Powell had the perfect retort in denial. “My mom would never let me do that.”

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The Mission: Impossible Final Reckoning trailer has Tom Cruise hanging off planes again

Final Reckoning somehow seems to takes the action up a notch further.

We’re back, everybody. There is finally a trailer for what is potentially the Tom Cruise’s final Mission: Impossible movie, and it’s unsurprisingly full of mind-blowing stunts and action. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning comes out on May 23, 2025, and it’s the sequel to 2023’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning.

Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt, and he will attempt to take down The Entity and Gabriel (Esai Morales) and avenge the death of Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) as he once again saves the world. Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames and Hayley Atwell all return to reprise their roles from part one as well.

MORE: Every Mission: Impossible movie, ranked

The sequel will once again feature Cruise hanging off the side of at least one plane, plus aerial battles, underwater sequences, hand-to-hand combat and so much running.

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The creepy, smiling, movie-promoting MLB fans are back behind home plate for Dodgers-Mets

Those creepy fans who promoted “Smile” during MLB games? Yeah, they’re back promoting the sequel.

If you happened to look at the stands behind home plate during Friday afternoon’s broadcast of Game 2 of the NLCS between the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers, you were treated to an unsettling sight.

A pair of fans donning neon yellow shirts were spotted facing the camera while holding creepy smiles, and fans were concerned. But is this something straight out of a horror movie? As it turns out, sort of!

The smiling “fans” were actually at the game to promote the upcoming horror film “Smile 2,” a sequel to 2022’s “Smile.” And this isn’t the first time the movie’s promoters have taken advantage of this tactic.

Ahead of the release of the original, they did the same thing during MLB games, prompting mass concern and confusion among fans before it became apparent that it was a publicity stunt.

I’ve got to say, it’s a good way to get word of mouth out there about the movie. After all, they got me to write this article. But there are probably less unnerving ways to go about it.

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Caleb Williams refutes Paul Atreides comparisons, which is exactly what Paul Atreides would do

Caleb Williams is too humble to admit the Bears’ prophecy!

A great Chicago Bears quarterback is genuinely the last frontier there is in the NFL. It is not a happening most people could say they have witnessed in 2024. But the more time passes, the more it certainly seems like Caleb Williams — already an owner of a Bears rookie record — might be The One.

Or he might even be the Bears’ … Lisan al Gaib.

Just don’t expect Williams to admit that.

In a snippet from a new interview with NFL Network’s Kyle Brandt, Williams seemingly does everything in his power to refute comparisons to Paul Atreides from the fiction series Dune, a.k.a. the Bears’ “Lisan al Gaib,” a.k.a. the Bears’ “messiah.”

(Ahem) That’s even more reason to believe he is! Because that’s exactly what Paul Atreides would do!

Caleb Williams isn’t slick. Bears fans see and hear him, and I have a hard time thinking this interview won’t just reinforce their faith.

Christopher Nolan’s next movie is reportedly set for July 2026 with Matt Damon in talks to star

Christopher Nolan’s next movie is reportedly set for July 2026.

Fresh off his Best Picture and Best Director Oscar wins for Oppenheimer, filmmaker Christopher Nolan is reportedly set to make his next movie at Universal.

Nolan’s next project has reportedly been dated for July 17, 2026, with fellow Oscar winner Matt Damon in talks to star and reunite with the director for a third time, per Deadline’s Justin Kroll.

As is typical with Nolan films, this next project will reportedly feature an IMAX release, per Deadline.

Kroll added that an early 2025 shoot for the new movie is expected, which means further casting will start to filter in in the months to come.

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Vikings safeties broke out the best Parent Trap celebration after intercepting Aaron Rodgers in London

Well played, Minnesota. Well played.

The Vikings and Jets squared off early on Sunday morning as the two NFL squads took the show to London. It turned out to be an exciting, back-and-forth affair between Minnesota and New York, with the Vikings coming away with a 23-17 victory after Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers ended the comeback bid with his third interception of the day.

Vikings defensive back Camryn Bynum notched the first interception of the game with 1:30 remaining in the first quarter. After the pick, fellow safety and teammate Josh Metellus joined him for an epic — and location appropriate — celebration.

The duo broke out the handshake from The Parent Trap shared between Lindsay Lohan’s Annie, the twin raised in London, and her caretaker Martin.

It’s even better when you see them side-by-side.

Perfect celebration. No notes.

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