Jeremey Renner has taken to Instagram once again to show off his latest rehab and share a montage of his recovery.

If you were of the mind that Jeremy Renner had peaked in his recovery, you’d be far from a bullseye. Jeremy Renner took to Instagram over the weekend to show that he was still in active recovery, posting two videos that show his latest moves and how far he has come since his January 1st accident.

In the first Instagram video, Jeremy Renner is seen completing rehabilitative exercises, citing the titanium that has been put in his body following numerous surgeries. It should be noted that titanium is much stronger than iron–so take that, Robert Downey Jr.! “UPDATE: I’ve decided to push through the pain of progress(this damn shattered tibia) and take the new parts for a tiny test drive. The body is miraculous…. Even though I feel like the Tin Man, needing oil for all my new joints (hips, knees, ankles, tibia etc ) . Encouraged after this warm up to press on ( don’t tell my PT).” It was accompanied by a cry-laugh emoji.

The other Instagram post, from Saturday, featured Jeremy Renner progressing through the literal steps he has taken in learning to walk again, with clips of the actor using a walker, in his anti-gravity machine and, finally, without any assistance whatsoever. The caption reads, “My PT made this for reference and to remember, you cannot walk unless you take one step at a time!” 

These Instagram videos are just the latest instances of Jeremy Renner keeping fans in the loop regarding his accident and recovery. His first post came just two days after the accident, which left him with 30+ broken bones, sending words of gratitude to his fans and followers: “Thank you all for your kind words…Im too messed up now to type. But I send love to you all.” From there, Renner has constantly provided updates, including praise for his hospital staff, news on his Disney+ series Rennervations and more. He has gone on to make several major appearances, including turning up for the premiere of his show and sitting for interviews with the likes of Diane Sawyer and Jimmy Kimmel.

What do you want to see from Jeremy Renner in the rest of 2023? Are you ready to see him back on the big screen?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqzw98sxFcc

Chris Pratt is absolutely certain that Peter Quill would have loved Star Wars, especially beloved smartass Han Solo.

The force is strong with this one…Peter Quill may be best known for his mixtapes, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t have time for movies. Sure, we know the leader of the Guardians loves Footloose (and Earth’s “great hero” Kevin Bacon), but it’s probably less surprising to know he really digs Star Wars and Han Solo.

Asked by a fan whether or not Guardian’s Peter Quill would be a Star Wars fan, Pratt replied, “Of course he would have been…His entire life is based on emulating his pop culture icons and, of course, he would have been a huge fan of Star Wars. And I think Han Solo in particular would have been a large influence on who he ends up being. So yes, there’s certainly a lot of Han Solo in the character of Star-Lord.” Now there’s the crossover we need!

Gwyneth Paltrow gave undoubtedly one of the worst speeches in Oscar history after her Shakespeare in Love win.

A lot of Academy Award winners get weepy, sentimental and downright ugly in their speeches. One such Oscar winner is Gwyneth Paltrow, who gave an over-the-top speech that began humbly enough before it quickly turned into a sobfest that is often cited as one of the cringiest acceptance speeches ever.

On the Call Her Daddy podcast, Gwyneth Paltrow discussed both the origins of her emotions and the backlash she faced after winning Best Actress for Shakespeare in Love. “I cried and people were so mean about it and I just thought, ‘Wow there’s this big energy shift that’s happening. I think I’m going to have to learn to be less openhearted and much more protective of myself and filter people out better.’…I remember I was working in England…and I remember the British press being so horrible to me because I cried. And they didn’t necessarily know that my father was dying of cancer.” Perhaps they were pulling for Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth I? Heck, even Glenn Close was rooting against her!

Gwyneth Paltrow also mentioned the much-feared question of, So I’ve won the Academy Award–now what? “Once I won the Oscar, it put me into a bit of an identity crisis, because if you win the biggest prize, like what are you supposed to do? And where are you supposed to go? It was hard the amount of attention that you receive on a night like that and the weeks following, it’s so disorienting. And frankly, really unhealthy.” Fortunately, she didn’t exactly go the way of Cuba Gooding Jr. or Roberto Benigni or Mira Sorvino, who are also in the class of people who undeservedly won their statues…Really, Gwyneth Paltrow didn’t have that bad of a slump after her Oscar victory. Sure, there’s Duets and Bounce, but there was also The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Royal Tenenbaums and Shallow Hal, which has a bit of a following. That’s without mentioning later successes, like her role in the MCU (which is definitively over, so sorry, Pepper Potts fans) and whatever the hell she’s trying to pull with Goop, which, while a snake oil empire, is still worth $250 million.

What did you think of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Oscar acceptance speech? Does it rank as one of the worst ever? Let us know where it ranks!

Poor Things images show Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe in director Yorgos Lanthimos’ female Frankenstein story

Remember when we shared the news that Emma Stone (Cruella) had signed on to star in the “female Frankenstein” story Poor Things? It’s understandable if you don’t, since more than two years have passed since that announcement was made – but now Fox Searchlight has Poor Things set for a September 8th theatrical release, and they’ve gotten the marketing machine started by unveiling a trio of images from the film. These images, which feature Stone and co-star Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man: No Way Home), can be seen at the bottom of this article.

Stone earned an Oscar nomination for her role in director Yorgos Lanthimos’s film The Favourite, and Poor Things brings them back together. Lanthimos has directed the film from a screenplay by Tony McNamara, based on a novel by Alasdair Gray (pick up a copy HERE).

The film is described as being the incredible tale and fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Dafoe). Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.

Stone, Dafoe, and Ruffalo are joined in the cast by Ramy Youssef, Jerrod Carmichael, and Christopher Abbott.

When we first heard about Poor Things, all we knew about the story was that it was called a “female Frankenstein” story because after drowning herself to escape her abusive husband, Bella’s brain is replaced by that of her unborn child. We learned more by looking up the description of Gray’s novel, and that description goes along with the full synopsis the film has now.

I haven’t read the source material, but reader reviews indicate that Gray’s novel is incredibly weird – which makes Lanthimos the perfect filmmaker to bring it to the screen, because he has worked with some incredibly weird subject matter before. In addition to The Favourite, Lanthimos’ directing credits include Dogtooth, Alps, The Lobster, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer.

Stone and Lanthimos produced Poor Things with Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe.

Are you interested in Poor Things? Let us know by leaving a comment below. Here are the first-look images:

The legendary Shigeru Miyamoto says negativity going into the release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie only helped it.

Shigeru Miyamoto, aka Mario’s father, is obviously powered up over the box office success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, but it seems even sweeter that since its numbers worked to silence many doubters.

Speaking with Nintendo Dream Web (courteously translated by Video Game Chronicle), Shigeru Miyamoto said that negativity surrounding The Super Mario Bros. Movie from critics and audience naysayers only backfired–like running over your own banana peel. “You need some luck to achieve this level of success for a film…While many foreign critics have given the movie relatively low ratings, I think that also contributed to the movie’s notoriety and buzz.” Shigeru Miyamoto refers to foreign markets outside Japan, mainly the U.S., where there was plenty of backlash over the casting.

Much of the bad buzz stemmed from the casting of Chris Pratt as Mario–not because he’s Chris Pratt, but because he wasn’t using the “It’s-a-me, Mario!”-style voice, which has become iconic despite Mario barely even talking in the video games. There, too, have been a lot of vocal objections from John Leguizamo, blasting the producers for not including people of color in the roles, saying the casting has gone “backwards.”

Still, Shigeru Miyamoto remained positive after the release of Illumination’s Mario movie. “I did have a level of expectations that this movie would also do well…but I was very surprised that it went beyond what I could have imagined when it finally came out.” That “beyond” includes nearing $1 billion worldwide, making it the first movie of 2023 to do so. As of now, it’s looking to have one more week in the top spot at the box office before it’s thrown a blue shell in the form of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Looking outside of those charts, as it stands, critics have it at 59% on Rotten Tomatoes, while the audience score is an astounding 96%. So, as it turns out, it’s actually quite an enjoyable movie. Sure, there are some issues and plenty of fan-favorite elements missing, but that’s what sequels–which The Super Mario Bros. Movie will inevitably get–are for.

Do you think Shigeru Miyamoto has a point that the “notoriety and buzz” helped make The Super Mario Bros. Movie a box office powerhouse? Why do you think the movie has done so well? Let us know below!

The Free Movie of the Day on the JoBlo Movies YouTube channel today is the sci-fi action film Riot Girls, directed by Jovanka Vuckovic

On the JoBlo Movies YouTube channel, we will be posting one full movie every other day throughout the week, giving viewers the chance to watch them entirely free of charge. The Free Movie of the Day we have for you today is the sci-fi action movie Riot Girls. You can watch it over on the YouTube channel linked above, or you can just watch it in the embed at the top of this article.

Directed by Jovanka Vuckovic from a screenplay written by Katherine Collins, Riot Girls has the following synopsis: In an alternate 1995, a mysterious disease has wiped out all of the adults. In this new age, two gangs are pitted against each other in a brutal war for territory, resources and survival.

The film stars Madison Iseman, Jenny Raven, Paloma Kwiatkowski, Munro Chambers, Atticus Mitchell, Carson MacCormac, Evan Marsh, Jordana Blake, Ajay Friese, Chris Mark, Robyn Alomar, Jake Sim, Stefani Kimber, Callan Potter, Vinson Tran, Alexandre Bourgeois, Darren Eisnor, Keanu Lee Nunes, Kaleb Horn, Nicolas Aqui, Darnell Bartholomew, Keyon Harrell, Aimee Lenihan, Kylie Lenihan, Mason Moon Moorhouse, Gus McClure, and Joseph Curto.

Vuckovic was editor of the horror publication Rue Morgue Magazine for six and a half years and appeared as a zombie in both George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead and Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake. She got her directing career started with a short film that was executive produced by Guillermo del Toro, then made her feature debut with Riot Girls after contributing a segment to the horror anthology XX. She has also directed episodes of Helstrom and The Imperfects.

So take a look at Riot Girls – it’s free! – then let us know what you thought of it by leaving a comment below or on the YouTube page. 

The movies that have previously been featured as the Free Movies of the Day can be found at THIS LINK, and also on the JoBlo Movies YouTube channel.

A full Free Movie of the Day is posted on the JoBlo Horror Movies YouTube channel every other day during the week – but on Fridays things get even freakier and a little more fun. Get your weekend started the right way by indulging in Friday Fright Nights! Every Friday, we’ll be taking a look at another genre movie you can watch in its entirety, free of charge, either on the YouTube channel linked above or in the video embed here.

This week’s Friday Fright Nights feature is basically a slasher movie, since it’s about someone knocking people off one-by-one in a place called Oldtown – which is also known as Hell Town. But directors Elizabeth Spear and Steve Balderson (who also wrote the screenplay with Michael Page and Chris Pudlo) took a very unique approach to making this slasher. Hell Town is presented as if it originated as three episodes of a TV series where most of the episodes were lost in a studio fire. What has been unearthed and assembled for this movie are episodes 7, 8, and 9 of season 2. And these episodes make it clear that Hell Town was one hell of a goofy show, an over-the-top soap opera.

Spear, Balderson, and their collaborators had a lot of fun playing with the tone and clichés of soap operas for this satire, complete with melodrama, mid-season recasting, ridiculous dialogue, and exaggerated performances. They also put these “lost episodes” together in an interesting way, having incredibly prolific genre actress Debbie Rochon (who is closing in on 300 screen credits as of this writing) host the episodes – with the trailer for another Rochon project and a fake coffee commercial showing up between episodes in a way that’s reminiscent of the faux trailers showing up between movies in the Grindhouse double feature.

Hell Town has the following synopsis, which just reiterates information I’ve already given here: Scream Queen Debbie Rochon presents the melodramatic whodunnit horror romp Hell Town for a special feature-length presentation of Twisted Classic Television.

In addition to Rochon, the film stars Jennifer Grace, Pleasant Gehman, Amanda Deibert, Matt Weight, Casey Chapman, Chris Pudlo, Dané Shobe, Owen Lawless, Cara Hillstock, Krysten Day, Blake Cordell, BeckiJo Neill, Ben Windholz, Betti O, Kyle Eno, and Sarah Napier.

This is the only movie Spear and Balderson have directed together, but they both have multiple directing credits on their own. Balderson directed eight features and several documentaries before working on Hell Town, and this was the sixth feature for Spear. Hell Town marked Spear’s horror genre debut, but Balderson had made two horror movies before this one: Pep Squad and Watch Out.

If you’re a slasher fan with a taste for camp and a familiarity with soap operas, you’ll probably get some enjoyment out of watching this movie. So take a look at Hell Town – it’s free! – then let us know what you thought of it by leaving a comment below or on the YouTube page.

The movies that have previously been featured as the Free Movies of the Day can be found at THIS LINK, and also on the JoBlo Movies YouTube channel.

A Vampire Survivors animated series based on the mega-popular “reverse bullet hell” video game is in the works.

The video game community’s latest time-suck and bathroom companion, Vampire Survivors, is getting an animated series adaptation. Story Kitchen is teaming up with the game’s developer, Luca Galante, to adapt the gothic horror game into a top-tier episodic adventure! Sharpen your stakes, put on your garlic necklace, and get ready to run from Death for a new way to enjoy the “reverse bullet hell” experience.

Anyone can play Vampire Survivors. The game revolves around simple mechanics where the player controls a hero character while avoiding armies of enemies. You don’t have to press any buttons (except what controls your character’s movement), as all your attacks are auto-triggered. As enemies close in, your character uses projectiles, spells, familiars, and power-ups to survive the oncoming hordes. I’ve lost countless hours to Vampire Survivors since its Steam release last year before moving onto the mobile and Xbox Series X versions.

The game takes place in rural Italy. “There lived an evil person named Bisconte Draculó, whose many evil magics created a bad world filled with famine and suffering. It’s now up to the members of the Belpaese Family to end his reign of terror and return good food to the table,” reads the official description.

“There’s no place to hide -all you can do is try to survive a cursed night and get as much gold as possible for the next survivor- before Death inevitably puts an end to your struggles. Mow down thousands of night creatures and survive until dawn! This is a gothic horror action game, where your choices can allow you to quickly snowball against the hundreds of monsters thrown at you.” 

The search for a writer is ongoing, with plans to sell the animated series project to TV network buyers.

“The most important thing in Vampire Survivors is the story, so it’s a dream come true to see what started as a little indie game I made on my weekends come to life as an animated TV show!,” says Galante, founder of the video game company poncle. “It’s also great to be partnering up with such experienced and talented people to make the show. I do wonder if they’ve realized that there isn’t a single vampire in Vampire Survivors, though.“

Story Kitchen co-founder Dmitri M. Johnson said: “When our Head of Creative, Dan Jevons, flagged Vampire Survivors for us last year upon its initial release, we were prepared to dismiss it as just another vampire game. Hundreds of hours played later, we were all hooked, and we just could not get enough!! Needless to say, we’re truly honored to partner with this incredible team and to continue the Vampire Survivors story!”

Story Kitchen’s Dan Jevons says, “Despite being responsible for countless hours of lost productivity at Story Kitchen, we are both thrilled, and honored to partner with poncle to bring the bombastic gothic world of Vampire Survivors to life in linear media.”

Are you a Vampire Survivors fan? What do you think about the game getting an animated series adaptation? Let us know in the comments.

A teaser trailer for the Twisted Metal TV series, coming to Peacock this summer, features Anthony Mackie and Sweet Tooth

Based on the popular video game franchise, the live-action Twisted Metal series is set to premiere on the Peacock streaming service on July 27th – and with just a few months to go until we reach that date, a teaser trailer for the show has arrived online! You can check it out in the embed above.

There’s not much to see in this short teaser, but we do get introduced to the lead character played by Anthony Mackie (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), and there’s a quick appearance by the most famous character from the video games, the maniacal clown known as Sweet Tooth.

Based on an original take by Deadpool and Zombieland screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, this adaptation of the Twisted Metal video game franchise will center on a motor-mouthed outsider who is offered a chance at a better life, but only if he can successfully deliver a mysterious package across a post-apocalyptic wasteland. With the help of a trigger-happy car thief, he’ll face savage marauders driving vehicles of destruction and other dangers of the open road, including a deranged clown who drives an all too familiar ice cream truck.

Anthony Mackie stars in the series as John Doe, “a smart-ass milkman who talks as fast as he drives. With no memory of his past, John gets a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make his wish of finding community come true, but only if he can survive an onslaught of savage vehicular combat.” Also in the cast are Neve Campbell (Scream) as a character named Raven; Thomas Haden Church (Wings) as Agent Stone, “a cold and unyielding post-apocalyptic highway patrolman who rules the roads with a silver tongue and a twisted iron fist, prosecuting even the smallest crimes with the harshest of judgements. Agent Stone will stop at nothing to bring law and order back to the Divided States of America, and will kill anyone in his path who defies his power”; Stephanie Beatriz (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) as Quiet, “a ferocious, badass car thief who acts purely on instinct – you couldn’t stop her any more than a manhole could stop a volcano. Coming from a community that oppressed her into silence, Quiet’s wish is to find her place in this dark, chaotic world. But when she becomes clouded by her need for revenge, Quiet forms an unlikely, antagonistic bond with John Doe”; Mike Mitchell (The Tomorrow War) and Tahj Vaughans (P-Valley) as buddies Stu and Mike, “the Rosencrantz & Guildenstern of this world, and together often find themselves to be more followers than fighters”; Lou Beatty Jr. (A Million Little Things) as Tommy, “a grizzled and weathered cartographer who knows the dangers of the Wild Midwest”; and Richard Cabral (Mayans M.C.) as Quiet’s overprotective brother Loud.

AEW wrestler Joe Seanoa, a.k.a Samoa Joe, is playing iconic video game character Sweet Tooth, with Will Arnett (Arrested Development) providing the character’s voice.

Cobra Kai writer Michael Jonathan Smith is the showrunner. Reese and Wernick executive produce the Twisted Metal series alongside director Kitao Sakurai, Smith, Mackie, Arnett, and Marc Forman of Electric Avenue, Jason Spire of Inspire Entertainment, Peter Principato of Artists First, Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan from PlayStation Productions, and Hermen Hulst, Head of PlayStation Studios. The series is co-produced by Sony Pictures Television, Playstation Productions, and Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.

What did you think of the Twisted Metal teaser trailer? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Here’s a poster for the show, courtesy of IGN: