Pam Grier opted for Quentin Tarantino over John Carpenter when it came to which director she had more in common with.
Last Updated on April 30, 2024
Foxy Brown may be the meanest chick in town and Coffy the baddest one-chick hit squad that ever hit it, but Pam Grier is one of the most down-to-earth actresses on the planet. Still going 50 years into her career, Grier has worked with some premiere directors, most of whom wanted to collaborate because they were fans of her iconic work in the ‘70s. Take John Carpenter and Quentin Tarantino, for example, who directed Grier in 1996’s Escape from L.A. and the next year’s Jackie Brown, respectively. But who does Pam Grier prefer when it comes to these genre-loving filmmakers? Oh, she knows what’s goin’ down!
Comparing both John Carpenter and Quentin Tarantino, Pam Grier said, “Quentin is more reality, John is fantasy. Because he got me to play Hershe Las Palmas, where I was a female actor playing a man who becomes a woman,” referring to her character in Escape from L.A., although we shouldn’t neglect that she appeared in 2001’s Ghosts of Mars as well. “So they’re both unique in so many ways, and I was honored to work with both of them.”
Still, for Grier, it’s Tarantino that takes it. While she did respect that John Carpenter is a musician, she just clicks with Quentin Tarantino. “Quentin watched all my videos, and he and I can talk movies for three days, five days. Just style, black and white. Everything that he taught me to be a filmmaker as I’m going to direct and produce. But the fact that there’s things that we missed, and he does not. Quentin can find the smallest essence of a word, dialogue, a bell bottom, a shoe…and when he [referenced] me in Reservoir Dogs – c’mon now. How’s he going to bring Foxy Brown in Reservoir Dogs, a show full of men and named after colors…?”
We all know that Tarantino is a massive Grier fan, but did you know that he even opened up a coffee joint next to his Vista Theater called, appropriately enough, Pam’s Coffy? Grier, too, has had nothing but positives about her director, recognizing his ability to take an actor to somewhere they’ve never been and channel a part of themselves that they have yet to put on the big screen.
But Carpenter and Tarantino aren’t the only great directors that Grier has worked with. How can you forget the likes of Jack Hill, Jack Clayton, Tim Burton, and so many more?
Who is your favorite director that Pam Grier has worked with? Who got the most memorable performance out of her? Drop your pick below.
So many of the biggest movies from the last decade or so aren’t available on physical media, with streaming services refusing to issue them.
It used to be said that every movie, no matter how badly it did at the box office or critically, went to heaven. Heaven, of course, meant physical media. First, it was VHS, then it was Laserdisc, then DVD, Blu-ray, and now 4K Blu-rays; every movie would get some kind of physical media release. After all, rentals and sales were important to a film’s profitability. In fact, some movies that tanked theatrically did so well on DVD that they became perennials, such as Donnie Darko or The Transporter, with the DVD sales of that movie directly influencing the studio to greenlight a sequel and give Jason Statham a legit career as an action star. Yet, despite physical media making a comeback, it’s worth noting that some of the most popular movies in recent memory have never gotten a physical media release. And we’re not only talking about movies that all but disappeared when they hit streaming. Oscar winners aren’t getting released on physical media. In fact, the only streaming movies that reliably hit Blu-ray are the ones Netflix lets Criterion put out. Still, unless your name is Martin Scorsese or Noah Baumbach, so many HUGE movies haven’t gotten physical media releases, so let’s take a look at ten that REALLY need some kind of physical release.
Road House
One of the most contentious streaming movies of all time also ended up being one of the most successful, with something like 50 million people watching this in its first week on Prime Video. While I had issues with the movie, I also think it would be a no-brainer to put out on a slick-looking 4K Blu-ray that could really showcase what star Jake Gyllenhaal and director Doug Liman were trying to pull off with this. 4K streaming is good, but it’ll never be AS GOOD as 4K physical media.
Outlaw King:
It’s worth noting that the version of this movie I saw at TIFF in 2018 isn’t the version that hit streaming, with 20 minutes being excised from the film before its general release. Given that it’s a quasi-sequel to Braveheart and the fact that its stars, Chris Pine, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Florence Pugh, are even bigger now than they were back then, this seems like a movie that’s ripe for the re-appraisal a Blu-ray release could give it.
The King:
The same thing goes for this superb historical drama, which – quite honestly – was the movie that sold me on Timothee Chalamet. This David Michod movie is loosely based on Shakespeare’s Henry V, and Chalamet is so good that a lot of us think the action-driven drama might have played a big hand in his Dune casting. Again, Chalamet is much bigger now than he was in 2019, so why not polish it off with a new release? Joel Edgerton has rarely been better than he is in this as Falstaff, and it has an incredible score by Nicholas Britell.
Glass Onion:
Again, this seems like a no-brainer, given how popular Knives Out was on physical media. You’d think Rian Johnson would push for this one to get an extras-packed release, but no dice so far from Netflix. You have to think that the people who bought the first film would love to have it in their collection, with a Rian Johnson commentary track.
Dolemite is My Name:
Now, this one is really inexplicable. Dolemite is My Name is begging for a Criterion release with a ribald Eddie Murphy commentary track and some deleted scenes. The original Dolemite isn’t streaming on Netflix either, making a Blu-ray set that included it a must for collectors.
6 Underground:
I’m surprised Michael Bay hasn’t pushed for a physical release for his would-be franchise starter, which Netflix apparently considered a misfire. Given the fact that it’s a Ryan Reynolds action flick, this would certainly sell well, especially for home theater enthusiasts.
The Gray Man:
Another misfired franchise starter; given how Ryan Gosling is riding a new wave of popularity following Barbie, one assumes this high-profile action flick would sell a bunch of 4k discs. I suppose Netflix hopes more people will check it out on the streaming service, but it feels like a missed opportunity for disc.
The same thing goes for the Extraction films. This has proven to be a solid franchise for the streamer, but action fans are collectors. Both of these movies would certainly make a mint on 4K Blu-ray. Give these flicks to Arrow Video, and let them do a special-feature loaded double bill. It would SELL.
Triple Frontier:
J.C. Chandor’s star-studded heist flick has gotten some renewed attention, with star Charlie Hunnam hyping a potential sequel. Again, some of the actors in this, notably Oscar Isaac and Pedro Pascal, are way more popular now than they were a few years ago. It’s a great movie, and frankly, this is one I’d actually like to add to my own personal collection.
Coda:
Apple’s Coda is the only Best Picture winner at the Oscars that you can’t get on physical media. I know from posts on X that this drives collectors crazy, so this charming film would certainly sell well, especially given that far fewer people subscribe to Apple TV Plus than Netflix. This would be a sharp way to make a little extra bread.
Barbarian:
This one boggles the mind. Barbarian was a solid box office hit and a pop culture phenom once it hit Hulu. Horror fans love physical media, and a loaded-up Blu-ray of this movie would sell like hotcakes. That said, of every film on this list, I think this has the best chance of maybe eventually coming to physical media, with Disney putting out Prey not too long ago.
What other streaming movies do you think should be out on physical media? Let us know in the comments!
Stanley Kubrick once sat James Cameron down to find out exactly how he pulled off 1994’s True Lies a few years before making his final film.
Last Updated on April 30, 2024
Stanley Kubrick was a peculiar man and so it’s really no wonder that his list of favorite films is so diverse. There are works by Welles and Chaplin and Bergman, but he also dug White Men Can’t Jump and The Jerk. Kubrick, too, apparently took to True Lies – so much so that he sat director James Cameron down and asked just how he pulled it off.
Back in the ‘90s, James Cameron decided to give himself a special 40th birthday present: the chance to meet Stanley Kubrick. And so after he gave him a call, he finally did so, encountering the legendary director between Full Metal Jacket and what would be his final film a few years later, Eyes Wide Shut. But Cameron was in for a surprise, as Kubrick was less interested in expounding on the depths of 2001: A Space Odyssey or playing chess but rather discussing Cameron’s most recent movie. As Cameron recalled, “So I went to see this reclusive guy knocking around this big house and he just totally wanted to know how True Lies was made. He had a print of it on his KEM down in his basement, and made me sit there and tell him how I had done all the effects shots. So I spent the whole time talking about my movie with Stanley Kubrick, which was not where I thought the day was going to go.” But Cameron found a lesson in his sitdown with Kubrick, adding, “But I want to be like Stanley, I want to be that guy. When I’m 80, I want to still be the guy trying to figure it all out.”
Kubrick may have been such a huge fan of James Cameron’s True Lies that one moment in Eyes Wide Shut is nearly identical to the 1994 action flick, with one character intimately asking another, “Do you like the period?” to which their partner responds, “I adore it.”
If he was blown away by True Lies (Cameron’s best, in my opinion), one can only wonder what Stanley Kubrick would have thought of the Avatar movies and what they did for sci-fi cinema and special effects.
Stanley Kubrick was always an immensely – and intensely – curious guy, not above calling younger filmmakers to learn their secrets. Another example found him giving Ridley Scott a ring to find out how he pulled off the famous chestburster scene in Alien, a moment that gave Kubrick one of his biggest scares at the movies.
It must be humbling and bizarre to have one of cinema’s masters grilling you for behind-the-scenes revelations. But that Kubrick stayed curious enough despite having helmed some of the finest examples of film’s key genres is pretty incredible and surely a moment that James Cameron could never forget.
Boy Kills World is a gory, action packed blast and a superb showcase for Bill Skarsgård’s action chops.
PLOT: A deaf and mute warrior (Bill Skarsgård) raised by a mysterious shaman (The Raid’s Yayan Ruhian) attempts to topple a repressive regime.
REVIEW: Last year, Bill Skarsgård played a suave villain in Keanu Reeves’ John Wick: Chapter 4, but notably stayed out of the action scenes. Had the movie been released after Boy Kills World, I think the part would have been radically reimagined, with the actor putting himself through the kind of physical transformation that changes careers. Watching the hulking, 6’3 actor blast his way through opponents in Boy Kills World, it’s hard to believe that the same guy, just a few years ago, was best known as Pennywise the Clown. Indeed, Boy Kills World is the perfect launchpad for Bill Skarsgård to become a major action hero (it bodes well for his next film – the remake of The Crow).
The movie itself is a pretty wild, dystopian action epic with heavy doses of black comedy and outrageousness mixed in. While Skarsgård’s character is mute, he narrates the film via his inner monologue, affecting the last voice he heard, being a voiceover track from an old-school arcade game. Originally, when I saw the film at TIFF in the fall, Skarsgård did the voice. In the version being released, the voiceover has been done by Archer‘s H. Jon Benjamin, which does sound more arcade-like. This mostly affects the first half-hour of the film, with it affecting a more (intentionally) comic vibe. I can’t be 100% sure, but I believe that as the movie gets more serious in the second half, there’s a lot less voiceover, which is a solid creative choice. While I was originally dead-set against the change, the finished product played relatively well. The character is also shown to be a master lip-reader, something which is used for comedy when he encounters Isaiah Mustafa (It: Chapter 2) as a particularly mumbly ally.
The action in this movie kicks off early, with the premise being that the titular “boy” is an orphan after his family was killed by the minions of his city’s evil ruler, Hilda van der Koy (Famke Janssen). Every year, the van der Koy’s have a ritualistic “culling” where they murder civilians live on TV. The Boy has himself taken so that he can kill his way to Hilda, with him facing off with Hilda’s son Gideon (Brett Gelman) and her two daughters, Melanie (Michelle Dockery) and June 27 (Jessica Rothe). The latter is an LED-helmet-wearing badass, whose skills rival Boy’s (as does her physique, with Rothe wearing a midriff-bearing jumpsuit that shows off her shredded abs).
The movie is absolutely jam-packed with action, with it being a mix of hand-to-hand and gunplay, most of which seems to be done by Skarsgård himself. Some of the gore has sprinklings of producer Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead worked in (perhaps). One of the most notably disgusting bits involves Boy using a box grater in a gory scrap, and another highlight is a hand-to-hand fight where his opponent keeps losing parts of his body.
Of course, the action is way over the top, with it a hard-R rated actioner by design. The cast is unique in that neither Skarsgård nor Rothe are action veterans, making them feel like fresh choices to lead a movie like this. Andrew Koji is also cast against type in a mostly non-fighting role as a motormouthed resistance member who teams up with Boy, while Sharlto Copley also shows up to chew some scenery. Everyone seems to be relishing their chance to amp up the madness, especially Dockery in a role far removed from her iconic turn on Downton Abbey. She looks like she’s having a blast. Yayan Ruhian from The Raid movies has his most prominent role in a North American movie to date as Boy’s mentor, with him participating in the film’s best fight sequence – which seems a given.
Overall, I had a total blast with this demented actioner. Director Moritz Mohr makes an impressive debut, and the film includes enough world-building that it could easily spawn a franchise (check out the short that got him the job here). Hopefully this finds a theatrical audience, as it really is a great time on the big screen. I had a blast.
Just a week after it was scrapped, a new report sheds light on The Movie Critic, including a possible role for a young Quentin Tarantino.
We were all a little shocked when it was reported last week that Quentin Tarantino would be scrapping The Movie Critic, which was supposed to be his tenth and final film. It remains to be seen what will take the place of The Movie Critic, but THR has a few plot details on what could have been, including a meta-twist which would have seen a young Tarantino making an appearance.
We never really knew all that much about The Movie Critic, only that it would be set in California in 1977 and would be “based on a guy who really lived, but was never really famous, and he used to write movie reviews for a porno rag.” THR’s report states that Tarantino was considering using the project as a way to bid goodbye to his previous movies, which would have existed in the same era as The Movie Critic. “That way, Tarantino could bring back some of the stars of his earlier work to reprise their iconic characters in ‘movie within a movie’ moments,” reads the report, “or to play fictional versions of themselves as the actors who played those characters.” Another idea included some of the characters interacting with a 16-year-old Tarantino, who once worked as an usher at an adult theater.
The film was set to star Brad Pitt, with some saying that the actor would be reprising his role as stuntman Cliff Booth from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. As far as the other roles, casting hadn’t gotten too far ahead, but the report states that Paul Walter Hauser, who was reportedly offered a role last year, was “never involved” in the project. Other actors who were being eyed include David Krumholtz and Olivia Wilde, with Wilde actually meeting with Tarantino in person sometime last year.
There had also been rumours that Tom Cruise might make an appearance in The Movie Critic after being forced to turn down a role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but according to sources, it wasn’t going to happen as Cruise hadn’t even met Tarantino.
As for why Tarantino scrapped The Movie Critic, we don’t know, but those close to the director said that he “had grown more excited by other ideas.”
The recent claim of Johnson’s behavior does not seem to be attached to just one production. Ryan Reynolds was also allegedly infuriated with his tardiness on Red Notice.
With Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny solidified as a major box office disappointment, we try to figure out how the franchise ended with such a whimper.
We rank all of Zack Snyder’s movies, from the worst to the best, all the way from Dawn of the Dead to Rebel Moon.
Last Updated on April 30, 2024
Is there any current director who is more controversial than Zack Snyder? It’s wild how divisive a figure he is, with his fans nearly cult-like in their devotion, while his detractors are just as fervent. Here at JoBlo, we’ve always been ardent supporters, even if we haven’t unquestioningly praised all of his films. Thus, we thought it would be interesting to do an all-around ranking of his films (although we’ve left the animated Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole off the list). So, without further ado, here’s our ranking from worst to best.
Sucker Punch (2011)
I’ll admit to not knowing precisely what Snyder was trying to pull off when I saw this movie in 2011. It remains the most obscure of his live-action films. It is a tough nut to crack, being that it’s a fantastical, hyper-surrealistic fantasy centred around a woman’s flight into fantasy as she’s committed to a mental asylum. It has many classic Zack Snyder hallmarks, and I’m sure some of his most devoted fans consider it underrated. He has teased doing a Snyder cut that would emphasize the musical elements toned down by the studio, so it’s possible that cut might be an improvement. But, for me, this is his least successful film.
Army of the Dead (2021)
I’m not sure any zombie movie needs to be 150 minutes, but Snyder wanted to make an epic for his first Netflix flick, and he did. While it was (predictably) slammed by his detractors, the action in the film is intense, and Dave Bautista is a great lead. It’s worth noting that Fallout star Ella Purnell got her start fighting zombies in this one, and it did manage to spawn a pretty fun heist film follow-up, Army of Thieves.
Rebel Moon (2023 / 2024)
This one comes with a caveat, as I think the two “Snyder Cuts” coming this summer will make this a much better sci-fi epic than the PG-13 version we got. I’m counting this as one movie, although I must admit that I found the first installment, Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire, much more compelling than Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver, which I wasn’t crazy about. Hopefully, the “Snyder Cut” makes a significant difference, so when it comes out we’ll revisit this list.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)
To some, this comic book movie remains director Zack Snyder’s ultimate achievement, as it was infamously taken out of his hands and largely reshot by the now cancelled Joss Whedon, which has since gone down as one of the worst decisions in modern studio history. “Restore the Snyder Cut” became a movement, especially during the early days of the pandemic when, let’s face it, none of us had anything better to do. While I liked the Snyder Cut, I would be curious to see what he would have delivered had he not been removed from the project initially, as there’s no way he intended to give Warner Bros a four-hour movie. I can’t help but think a slightly punchier version would be an improvement, although it’s a million times better than the horrible Whedon version.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Interestingly, last week, we published a poll asking readers what their favourite movie of his was, and it was one of our most popular polls in a while. Shockingly, the winner (by a landslide) was this, a movie whose reception was so controversial that, in many ways, it cost Snyder his place in the DC Extended Universe. It’s cool to see a film go from being universally loathed to loved, but likely the fact that the three-hour “Snyder Cut” is so much better played a role in its enhanced reputation among fans. We all agree on two things: the score is incredible, and Ben Affleck is one heck of a good Batman, no matter what anyone says.
Man of Steel (2013)
Speaking of good casting, Henry Cavill’s treatment by WB has to go down as one of the most inexplicable studio decisions on record, as he was a great Superman (easily the best since Christopher Reeve). Many fans didn’t like Snyder’s darker treatment of the character, which ended with an infamously violent climax that saw the Man of Steel kill Michael Shannon’s General Zod. Still, I maintain that the people wanting a happy-go-lucky Superman in the vein of Richard Donner are misguided. Bryan Singer tried this with Superman Returns, and audiences stayed away. Maybe James Gunn will have better luck as he scraps the DCEU and builds his own universe, but in my opinion, Snyder is the only director (so far) to nail a modern Superman movie.
Watchmen (2009)
Fans eagerly anticipated Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Alan Moore’s iconic graphic novel, but its box office (and critical) reception was underwhelming. Time has been kind to Snyder’s well-cast adaption, with Jackie Earle Haley a standout as Rorschach. My only issue is that Snyder uses too many needle drops, with Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” during the Nite Owl/ Silk Spectre II love scene being particularly silly. Nevertheless, it’s about as good of a big-screen adaptation of Moore’s work as we ever could have expected.
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Like many, I was dead set against a remake of George A. Romero’s classic zombie flick, but Snyder (working from a screenplay by James Gunn) made himself a director of note when he nailed the adaptation, which was his feature film debut. It’s incredibly well-cast and possibly his most propulsive movie to date, with it holding up as one of the better modern zombie flicks, with the highly nihilistic ending being one that will stick with you for a while after.
300 (2007)
What else could it be? While some believe 300 hasn’t aged particularly well, with the then cutting-edge technology seeming quaint seventeen years later, it was massive when this came out in 2007. It made Gerard Butler a star, put Michael Fassbender on the map, and turned a whole new generation onto the work of Frank Miller. It also proved there was a massive audience for R-rated fantasy epics, paving the way for HBO’s Game of Thrones.
What do you think of our rankings? Let us know in the comments!
While E.T. is definetely Henry Thomas’s most remembered 80s movie, he made another great flick in 1984 called Cloak and Dagger.
Last Updated on April 30, 2024
If you were a kid growing up in the ’80s, one thing was true. Video games were the spawn of Satan. Okay, we know that isn’t true. But our parents? Adults were terrified of your Atari and your Nintendo, and filmmakers made all sorts of movies that painted games in a negative light. In WarGames a nuclear war was damn near started! While there were plenty of films that understood the imagination and the creative spirit that video games could foster, such as Tron and The Last Starfighter for examples, there’s also a film such as Cloak & Dagger, which goes to some really dark territory to teach a lesson to kids that, honestly, everyone could stand to learn.
Cloak and Dagger starred Henry Thomas. Y’know, the E.T. kid (who we recently profiled on WTF Happened to this Celeb), who grew up to become the Suicide Kings dude and the Midnight Mass guy. He plays 11-year-old Davey, a lonely kid who retreats from his troubled life into an espionage video game called Cloak & Dagger. His father Hal is a military man who is gone for long stretches, and his mom is dead. So Davey is all alone most of the time. A true latchkey kid, his only real friend is his imaginary pal Jack Flack, an American spy who, like Davey’s father, is played by the great comedian Dabney Coleman.
The decision to have Coleman pull double-duty on Cloak & Dagger was genius, for reasons that become clear later. The unkillable, unflappable Jack Flack manifests in the real world, which is convenient timing. Helping out a local video game dude, and look at this dude and what a stereotypical dork he resembles, Davey and his nosey neighbor friend Kim witness and FBI agent’s murder. But before the guy dies, he hands them a Cloak & Dagger game with a secret microchip in it that others are willing to kill for. And kill they do, because people die all over the place in this grim grim adventure for kids. Starting with that poor video game dude, who was never given the chance to evolve past his stereotypical looks.
But others die, too. And that’s sorta the point, because it’s Jack, supposed hero, who drags Davey into being just as violent as he is. Cloak & Dagger has all of the trappings of a fanciful spy movie for kids, but it’s actually a lot smarter than that. Jack tries to get Davey to be just as violent as he is. But Davey’s a good kid. His gun is a water pistol and he uses a baseball as a grenade, for Pete’s sake. But after Jack tricks him into killing one bad guy, it begins to dawn on the kid that hey, this violence stuff kinda sucks! He begins to understand that all of the make-believe violence of his video games is actually quite horrific in real life. And that part of being an adult is learning to find other solutions to problems. Crucial to Davey’s understanding is who the real heroes are. Jack Flack is admittedly dashing and funny and every kid’s dream idea of a hero, but it’s his father, a hard-working military guy who works hard to take care of his family, is what a true hero looks like.
Awwwwwww. I know, right? But let’s be honest, there are some adults out there who could stand to learn these lessons even now. Still, this is a really clever script from writer Tom Holland, who Joblo fans might recognize as the writer and director of other classics, Fright Night just a year later, and Child’s Play in 1988. This guy made one Hell of a mark on a lot of kids in the ’80s, and I personally don’t think he gets enough credit. “Leave when they stop believing”, Jack Flack always says, and it’s genuinely sad to watch the imaginary agent fading away as he realizes Davey doesn’t need him anymore. Holland doesn’t save this crucial learning moment for the end of the movie. The mission is still on, and suddenly Davey is all alone to rescue Kim, keep the cartridge safe, and save the world. Honestly, this is when the movie actually does start to feel like a movie for kids, as Davey uses more playful subterfuge. It’s still deadly dangerous, but the tone is definitely less dark at this point.
The film was directed by the late Richard Franklin, and I won’t pretend he does anything particularly novel here. His direction was pretty basic, with Holland’s screenplay doing most of the heavy lifting. But Franklin is another director who had his moment and made a mark with films such as F/X2, Psycho II, and the bizarre ape horror Link. A devotee and scholar of Alfred Hitchcock, Franklin has appeared in multiple documentaries on the legendary director and like him, steered his style towards psychological thrillers and tense character studies, of which Cloak & Dagger is both.
Franklin does prove pretty good at capturing chase sequences, though, and there’s a good one with multiple facets to it later in the movie. Set in San Antonio, there’s a tense chase set at the busy River Walk, where Davey eludes capture, hopping on and hopping off of boats, befriending a dubious elderly couple, while the bad guys are in hot pursuit and shooting to kill.
I used to look at Henry Thomas as the Elijah Wood of his day. He seemed to be more mature than other child actors, and I’m unsure that anyone else could’ve handled such a complicated film as Cloak & Dagger. His Davey is really put through the wringer, and gets taught some harsh lessons with his life on the line. But the real star of the show is Dabney Coleman. Yes, he was in WarGames, too, but the future Slap Maxwell was one of the most brilliant comedic actors around, and he had the chance to show what he could do as a James Bond-level superspy. He had the tough task of playing the flashier version of a regular guy, which also meant having two very different kinds of interaction with Henry Thomas. The two are wonderful together, and it’s interesting to watch their chemistry remain intact as Davey pulls away from Jack Flack, and begins to listen more to the teachings of his father.
As for the video game at the heart of this deadly spy plot? Well, it’s a real thing. However, the Cloak & Dagger video game was only in the arcades at the time, so they basically faked it so it looked as if Davey was playing it at home. A home version was eventually released in 2022, nearly 40 years later, in the Atari 50 compilation.
Cloak and Dagger was released in 1984 during the summer Olympics, with Universal figuring that kids would skip the Games and go to the movies, instead. That plan didn’t really work out as the film only made $9.7M at the box office. It became a bigger hit later on VHS and on cable television, although it’s a tough one to find now. I recently hosted a special screening of the film at Alamo Drafthouse here in DC, trying to introduce it to a new generations of fans. You should check it out, too. Cloak & Dagger is a really special coming-of-age movie that combines childish wish fulfilment, deadly action, pathos, and emotional growth into a nifty spy movie. It’s still shocking to me that there hasn’t been a remake yet, but that makes seeing the original even more meaningful.
Challengers scored an easy victory this weekend while Boy Kills World fell prey to a 45-year-old xenomorph
Last Updated on April 30, 2024
As expected, Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers scored an easy win this weekend, with a $15 million weekend, just a touch softer than we predicted earlier this week. The tennis-cantered love triangle was no doubt boosted by Zendaya’s star power, with her hotter than ever in the wake of Dune: Part Two’s blockbuster showing this winter. IMAX screens were dominated by Zendaya in one form or another, with both Challengers and Dune 2 playing in the format this weekend thanks to the latter’s re-release.
Notably, the film posted Guadagnino’s best box office opening to date, with the weekend total more than doubling the total take of his previous biggest opener, Bones and All. It’ll be interesting to see if Challengers can hold up in the coming weeks, with The Fall Guy opening next weekend and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes opening the weekend after. With the summer movie season kicking off, one wonders whether the Euphoria star’s fans will come out to see Challengers on the big screen, with it an Amazon-MGM production that will eventually run on Prime Video. Some folks may opt to wait out its streaming release, where it will no doubt become much-memed in the way their last really racy movie, Saltburn, did when it hit the streaming service over the Christmas holidays.
In second place, the Christian music biopic Unsung Hero had a mild $7.7 million opening. But, the film also posted an A+ CinemaScore, so it’s possible the targeted Christian audience may turn this into a word-of-mouth hit, similar to the recent Jesus Revolution. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire also held up quite well in its fifth week of release, making $7.2 million, declining a mere 25% from last weekend. With a running North American total of $181 million, this will easily crack the $200 million mark (maybe more). A24’s Civil War dropped to fourth place with just over $7 million, losing its IMAX screens to Challengers. It now has a North American total of $56 million, making it A24’s second-biggest grosser of all time behind Everything Everywhere All At Once. It seems unlikely that this film will beat that total of $77.2 million, but nevertheless, this is a great showing for Alex Garland’s speculative war flick.
Radio Silence’s Abigail came in fifth with a $5.2 million weekend. The good news is that it only dropped 49% from last weekend, but the bad news is that the opening was widely considered a huge disappointment. With a total of $18 million, it seems unlikely this will end with much over $25 million domestically, making it a film that will likely find more of an audience when it hits Peacock several weeks from now.
Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare also had a hard time holding on to its audience this weekend, making a modest $3.8 million for a total of just over $15 million. As I noted last week, this movie has an oddball release, with it not playing theatrically in Canada or the UK, where Prime Video has the rights (the film hasn’t been dated yet), thus limiting its chance at making a dent at the box office.
Seventh, eighth, and ninth place went to holdovers, with Kung Fu Panda 4 and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire battling it out for the family audience and posting weekends in the $3 million-plus range. Against all odds, Frozen Empire held up better than anyone expected at the box office. However, it will undoubtedly finish quite a bit shy of Ghostbusters: Afterlife’s $129 million domestic result. Dune: Part Two got a bit of a boost this weekend thanks to an IMAX re-release, although it also hit digital recently, so the $1.9 million total is a touch soft. It’s a bit shy of grossing $280 million at the box office. While it will fall short of a $300 million finish, the movie is still considered a pretty major blockbuster.
However, the outlook was much less rosy for Boy Kills World, which imploded at the box office. ComScore has this movie opening in 10th place with a $1.6 million opening. However, Deadline has the film in 11th place, with them stating that the re-release of Ridley Scott’s Alien (celebrating its 45th anniversary) actually outgrossed it with a $1.8 million weekend. Whatever this case, this is a bad result for the would-be franchise starter, which will undoubtedly make a bigger dent on streaming. Notably, the film went through some post-production drama following its TIFF Midnight Madness debut in the fall, so it’ll be interesting to see if any alternate cuts ever see the light of day in the wake of its poor box office showing.
Did you see anything in theaters this weekend? Let us know in the comments!
The version of Boy Kills World that hit theaters this weekend was different than the version that played TIFF Midnight Madness in the fall.
It’s happened before, and it will happen again. Sometimes, a movie plays a film fest, gets picked up by a studio, and is changed. That’s exactly what happened to Boy Kills World, a movie I saw (and enjoyed) at TIFF’s Midnight Madness. The film had a pretty dire opening at the box office this weekend, barely cracking the top 10. But the cut folks saw (or didn’t) this weekend was not the same as what I saw originally at TIFF back in September.
So what’s different? If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll know that the entire film is narrated by Bill Skarsgard’s “Boy” character (who is deaf and mute) via his interior monologue. However, Skarsgard himself doesn’t provide the voice-over, which H. Jon Benjamin of Archer fame does. The conceit is that the narration is the last voice “Boy” heard before going deaf, being the voice of an over-the-top 80s-style arcade game. In the version that I saw originally, this idea was dropped, with Skarsgard narrating the whole film himself in an unaffected voice. I believe there’s yet another cut out there where Skarsgard himself does the video game voice, which was teased in a promo trailer that leaked months before the movie played TIFF.
So, how does the change affect the finished film?
For one thing, the first act of the film now plays a lot more comedically, although having seen the new cut, I did notice that as the film goes on there’s a lot less narration than there was originally. This makes the more dramatic second half of the film land a bit differently.
To be fair, I enjoyed both versions of Boy Kills World. I was originally dead-set against the idea of Benjamin doing a silly narration job, as it felt like a slight against Skarsgard’s terrific performance. Still, it works decently well in the film itself, so this isn’t a case where the original cut is some masterpiece and this a hack job. Both versions of the film are good. With the film opening so modestly at the box office, it’ll be interesting to see if any original cuts ever surface. Maybe somewhere down the line, a cult company like Arrow will give this a 4K release with some of the original cuts included.
