John Stamos says he listened to Bob Saget’s audiobook every night for some time after the comedian’s death.

Last Updated on July 24, 2024

It has been more than two years since the untimely death of Full House star and comedian Bob Saget. That Saget was both a beloved sitcom star to a generation and one of the more revered vets on the stand-up circuit made the loss all the more impactful in the world of entertainment. As is the case with losing any close friend, those that knew and worked with him had to find a way to cope with the sudden loss. For John Stamos, it was in the comfort of his voice.

John Stamos revealed on the Full House Rewind podcast – hosted by Dave Coulier – that he found himself turning to listening to the audiobook version of Bob Saget’s 2014 memoir, Dirty Daddy: The Chronicles of a Family Man Turned Filthy Comedian. “Do you remember when his book came out? It was very dirty and weird. And so and for whatever reason, the night [Saget] died, I put on his audio tape and it gave me such comfort. I don’t know why. I listened to it every night when I went to sleep.”

That’s a sweet gesture from Stamos – who was actually inspired to write his own memoir after Saget’s death – but it also found him hearing some eerie foreshadowing. “One morning I woke up and I was like, ‘Did he say, in his book, did he say he hit his head and that’s how he died?’ And I’m like, ‘Nah, that couldn’t be.’ And I went back to it and he talks, as a joke, about, ‘I would hit my head and call TMZ and [say] I’m dying.’” Saget, as you may remember, died from blunt head trauma, with most indications saying he likely hit his head and went to bed soon after.

Such stories of perceived premonition made the rounds not long after Bob Saget’s death, with the most famous being from a 2021 episode of his Here for You podcast, in which he said – also as a joke – “So, I don’t have long to live…I’m going to be found dead in bed.” (This was in reaction to his wife listing films like Goodfellas and Casino as her favorites.)

What was your favorite movie, show or stand-up bit from Bob Saget? Drop your pick and tell us why it stood out.

M. Night Shyamalan says Bruce Willis gave him an extra boost of confidence on The Sixth Sense, his breakout 1999 film.

Last Updated on July 24, 2024

Before he became Hollywood’s latest wunderkind with The Sixth Sense, M. Night Shyamalan had a lot to prove. Remember, prior to breaking out with that 1999 film, he was making indies and clashing with Harvey Weinstein, the now-disgraced mega-producer only releasing Wide Awake (shot in 1995) after the spec script for The Sixth Sense sold for a reported $3 million. Fortunately, he had Bruce Willis by his side, the actor finding Shyamalan to be one of the most promising talents he had ever seen.

M. Night Shyamalan recounted one story of confidence he received from Bruce Willis while making The Sixth Sense, likening him to another recent up-and-comer. As the story goes, one day Willis summoned him to his trailer. “I go up, and I knock on the door, and the door opens. I go, ‘Hey, did you want to say something?’ and he goes, ‘I’ve only felt this once before. I felt it on Pulp Fiction, and I just felt it now.’ And then he goes, ‘You’ve got it, kid.’ So I said, ‘Oh, thanks!’ He closed the door, and I literally skipped down the sidewalk. But that’s who he was. He would test you, and basically say, ‘Do you believe in yourself? Because I don’t think you do.’ And if it works, it works. If it doesn’t work, you’re dead. And it worked!”

Nabbing Bruce Willis for The Sixth Sense was obviously a huge get for Shyamalan. But this only came about because of a movie called Broadway Brawler, which you’ve probably never heard of because it remains unfinished. Such a tumultuous shoot it was that Disney shut it down and threatened to sue Willis. Instead, a contract was worked out that would force him into a three-picture deal with the studio; hence, The Sixth Sense. And yes, this is also why he got dragged into The Kid.

Even still, he was Bruce Willis, which can be an intimidating thing, whether for a young director or a seasoned vet. But Shyamalan still had a job to do: direct. And so he did, moving forward even knowing Willis’ sometimes tough reputation. “There was a slightly tense moment in the last thing we were shooting on that Friday where [Bruce] did a line and I had a note. You never know when that moment happens, when you make or break your career, when you become who you’re going to become. I was like, 26 or 27. He gave me the ice look: ‘I think we got it.’ And I went over to him. He was ice. And I whispered in his ear the note. I said, ‘I want you to der-der-der-der’. He kind of looked at me, and I quickly go, ‘Alright, roll sound. Here we go!’ I didn’t even give him a conversation.”

The Sixth Sense would go on to nab an appropriate six Oscar nominations, including Best Director for Shyamalan, making him one of the youngest for the category. Haley Joel Osment would also be one of the youngest nominees in his category, Best Supporting Actor.

The latest film from The Witch, The Lighthouse, and The Northman writer/director Robert Eggers‘ is a remake of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent classic Nosferatu (watch it HERE), and Focus Features will be giving the film “a prime holiday season release” when they bring it to theatres on Wednesday, December 25th. Anticipation levels are high for this one, so we have decided to put together a list of Everything We Know about this version of Nosferatu:

PLOT

Nosferatu tells a familiar story. An unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the original Nosferatu has the following synopsis: In this highly influential silent horror film, the mysterious Count Orlok (Max Schreck) summons Thomas Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim) to his remote Transylvanian castle in the mountains. The eerie Orlok seeks to buy a house near Hutter and his wife, Ellen (Greta Schroeder). After Orlok reveals his vampire nature, Hutter struggles to escape the castle, knowing that Ellen is in grave danger. Meanwhile Orlok’s servant, Knock (Alexander Granach), prepares for his master to arrive at his new home.

Stoker’s heirs sued Murnau over the film and a court ordered that all copies of Nosferatu were to be destroyed, but thankfully some survived, so we still have Murnau’s movie to watch and enjoy. Werner Herzog directed a remake in 1979, and the movies Shadow of the Vampire and Mimesis Nosferatu both dealt with the making of Nosferatu movies.

Eggers’ take on the concept is described as being a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman in 19th century Germany and the ancient Transylvanian vampire who stalks her, bringing untold horror with him.

LONG IN THE WORKS

Eggers’ remake was first announced soon after The Witch premiered at Sundance in 2015. This is a passion project that he has been wanting to make for decades, as his first viewing of the film was a pivotal moment in his life. He even co-directed a stage production of the movie when he was in high school. He told IndieWire that watching Nosferatu was “when I realized this is what I want to be doing. Nosferatu has a very close, magical connection for me. Though if I were to make the movie 17-year-old Rob was going to make of Nosferatu it would have been something between like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Sin City, whereas this is going to be the same approach as The Witch, where 1830s Biedermeier Baltic Germany needs to be articulated in a way that seems real.” Eggers felt that it was “ugly and blasphemous and egomaniacal and disgusting” for him to be doing a Nosferatu remake as his second feature film, but that’s how it looked like things were going to play out. This wasn’t as easy to get into production as expected, though, so it turned out that Nosferatu will be his fourth film.

Eggers envisioned his The Witch star Anya Taylor-Joy as the female lead, and her involvement with the project was confirmed in August of 2017. But Taylor-Joy’s career took off in a major way after The Witch, so they found it difficult to find room in her schedule to make Nosferatu. At one point, the project was moving forward with Taylor-Joy as Ellen Hutter and Bill Skarsgard of the It films as her husband Thomas Hutter. But it fell apart. Then it was on track again in 2021, with filming expected to take place in Prague that fall. Taylor-Joy was still on board to play Ellen, with singer Harry Styles as Thomas. But, at the last minute, Styles dropped out due to scheduling concerns and everything fell apart again.

It began to look like Nosferatu was cursed. Speaking with IndieWire again, Eggers said, “It’s fallen apart twice. … I’ve been trying so hard. And I just wonder if Murnau’s ghost is telling me, like, you should stop.” Thankfully, it didn’t take him long to put the pieces back together again.

CAST

Once Eggers managed to get Nosferatu on track for the third time, Taylor-Joy was too busy to fit the movie back into her schedule. So the role of Ellen Hutter went to Lily-Rose Depp of The Idol. Nicholas Hoult (Renfield) was cast as her husband Thomas, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Bullet Train) as Thomas’s friend, German ship merchant Friedrich Harding, and Emma Corrin (The Crown) as Friedrich’s wife Anna. The role of a crazy vampire hunter named Von Franz went to Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man: No Way Home). Ralph Ineson (The Witch) was cast as Von Franz’s cohort Dr. Wilhelm Sievers, and Simon McBurney (The Conjuring 2) landed an unspecified role.

Bill Skarsgard had been wanting to work with Eggers for years. As previously mentioned, he was cast as Thomas Hutter in a version of Nosferatu that fell apart. They were going to work together on The Northman, which starred Skarsgard’s brother Alexander Skarsgard, but then the younger Skarsgard ran into scheduling issues. As he watched Nosferatu come back together again, he was desperate to get involved. But then Hoult was cast as Thomas Hutter, so he couldn’t step back into that role. He had also read for the role of Friedrich Harding in the past, but that role went to Taylor-Johnson. Things weren’t looking promising for Skarsgard… until Eggers offered him the chance to read for the vampire Count Orlok. Skarsgard is just in his early thirties, and Eggers had been looking for an actor in their forties to play the Count… but Skarsgard not only won the job, it has been said that he disappeared into the role once he reported to set.

Speaking with Empire, Eggers said, “I’ll say that Bill has so transformed, I’m fearful that he might not get the credit that he deserves because he’s just…he’s not there… In my opinion he looks like a dead Transylvanian nobleman, and in a way that we’ve never actually seen what an actual dead Transylvanian nobleman would look like and be dressed like.” He explained to Coming Soon, “There are things that are Schreck-like but I felt we had to do something else. Basically I was like, ‘What would a dead Transylvanian nobleman actually look like for real?’ Bill lost a tremendous amount of weight. He’s so transformed in every aspect that I don’t know if people will give him the credit. You can see Bill [as Pennywise] in the It make-up; you can’t detect any Bill here. He worked with an opera coach to lower his voice an octave. I think people are going to think we treated it digitally, but that’s his performance.“

During an interview with Esquire, Skarsgard revealed that he had to spend three to six hours every day getting the makeup and prosthetics put on so he could become Count Orlok. He mostly stayed away from his co-stars and worked with an opera singer to bring his voice down to its lowest possible pitch. He said, “It took its toll. It was like conjuring pure evil. It took a while for me to shake off the demon that had been conjured inside of me. … I do not think people are gonna recognize me in it.” When asked if the vampire is sexy, he replied, “He’s gross. But it is very sexualized. It’s playing with a sexual fetish about the power of the monster and what that appeal has to you. Hopefully you’ll get a little bit attracted by it and disgusted by your attraction at the same time.“

Eggers was also asked how into character Skarsgard got. He said, “I remember early on, him trying to talk to me about what it meant to be a dead sorcerer—and I’m into some pretty heavy occult shit, but he was on a different level. I was like, ‘This sounds accurate, but I don’t know how to converse about this with any fluidity.’“

EGGERS PUSHED HIMSELF

Eggers, who is also producing the remake with Jeff Robinson, John Graham, Chris Columbus, and Eleanor Columbus, was so intent on making his dream project something special, he tried to push himself beyond what he felt he was previously capable of. In the middle of production, he told Empire, “As always, it was a difficult shoot. Last night we were doing a scene on a ship with a lot of rain and waves, and the rain deflector, which tries to blow rain out of the lens, was breaking down and fogging. I spent the past several days working only with Russian sailors on a boat. I’m so happy to have made The Northman first and to have learned what I learned. When I think about the production plan of Nosferatu that we had the first time around, I’m sure I would have somehow pulled it out of my butt, but it’s hard not to imagine it being a failure.“

It sounds like this version of the film has turned out to be a success. It certainly impressed Dafoe, who had worked with Eggers on The Lighthouse. He told IndieWire, “(Eggers) gets better and better and better, gets more articulate, more on top of it. He’s so clear when he works. It opens in December of next year, which is a long time away. Trying to be an optimist, I think the studio must feel very strong about it, because that’s quite a tough slot, so I’m excited about that. I saw some footage when we were shooting, and I can honestly say, visually, it was like unlike anything I have seen. … The look of it and how it was shot was extraordinary.” He added that the look is very beautiful, and that his co-stars look like they stepped out of 19th century paintings in their wardrobe.

TEASER TRAILER

A teaser trailer for Nosferatu was released in June of 2024, and can be seen right here:

And that’s everything we know about Nosferatu… for now.

Marvel head Kevin Feige says the studio has to keep engaging and entertaining its audiences in order to get them out of their house.

Last Updated on July 24, 2024

Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine is one of the most anticipated movies of the year. But that’s not just because it’s part of the MCU (we all know not every one of its entries is a fan fav); it’s because it looks like quality filmmaking and genuine entertainment. With that, you better believe it’s going to be one of the biggest box office hits of the summer. And that’s just the goal that Marvel head Kevin Feige continues to have for the studio.

Speaking with Deadline, Kevin Feige said that Marvel’s number one goal is putting butts in seats by “making engaging, entertaining films that have to be experienced in a theater with a crowd and is worth people getting into their cars and making the trip. Of the many forms of entertainment that people can get scrolling on their screen in their pocket, we as a Hollywood industry need to make product that stands above all of that and that represents a destination entertainment that you can’t get anywhere else.”

Feige in particular cited Pixar’s Inside Out 2, which opened in June and has raked in $1.35 billion worldwide, with a $154 million domestic haul on opening weekend. Notably, Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine has been pegged to bring in upwards of $165 million.

While it has become increasingly easy to just stay home instead of hitting the cinema – especially with some shrinking theater-to-VOD windows – Feige is holding strong on his morals, championing the moviegoing experience in a way that feels refreshing, even though it shouldn’t. “That’s our job at Marvel, that’s our job as the 100-year old Hollywood industry — to remind people that we have the best storytellers and can provide the best entertainment in the world. As we keep doing that in ways that engage, excite and grab onto the imagination and the psyche of the audience, that’s all we ever wanted to do, that’s all we tried to do. I think we have to keep evolving and expanding the ways we do that.”

Whether you agree with Feige that Marvel is proving that they are “evolving” and “expanding” might be besides the point here. Really, it’s all about hitting the theater and showing that you care about that experience, that you need to see these movies on a giant screen and not on your phone.

How often do you go to the movie theater compared to a few years ago? Has your habit increased or dropped? Let us know below!

Anna Faris, who starred in the first four Scary Movie entries, would return for the announced sixth if the pay was right.

We all celebrated when it was announced that Neve Campbell would finally be getting her due salary for another Scream movie. That may take care of Sidney Prescott, what about Cindy Campbell, her spoof counterpart? As it turns out, Anna Faris – who played the central character in the Scary Movie franchise – is also down for reprising her character…and for the same reason, no less.

When People asked Anna Faris what it would take to get her to sign on for another Scary Movie entry, the actress was straight up in her response: “Well, money!” Cindy Campbell served as the primary protagonist of the first four Scary Movie installments, outsmarting (OK, maybe smart isn’t the right phrase) any Ghostface that came her way. But Faris sat out Scary Movie 5, which came out in 2013, seven years after the fourth movie.

Anna Faris’ words come after it was announced that a sixth Scary Movie is headed to theaters next year. No plot details or cast have been announced, but no doubt you can expect the exact style that was found in the first five. While the series has passed around between the Wayans Brothers and spoof hall of famer David Zucker (Airplane!, The Naked Gun), the format has remained the same: a loose plot based around spoofing whatever movies – mostly horror – are hot at the time. So no doubt we’ll see someone with literal long legs…

Anna Faris said she could also be coaxed into another Scary Movie if a certain co-star returned. Faris also revealed, “I would love to work with Regina [Hall] again. I just love her so much. We would make each other giggle all day long. Regina Hall would be my answer. And money. But mostly all Regina!” Hall, like Faris, appeared in the first four Scary Movies, playing best friend Regina Meeks.

Anna Faris is well aware that the Scary Movie franchise made her a star and helped her hone her comedic chops. “I love that franchise. It was like my bootcamp, my beginnings…If there is a high school comparison for my growth experience, those four movies played an important role in my life in terms of teaching me how to use props, teaching me how to fall, how to get hit in the head — how to hold Chiclets in my mouth and then spit them out with blood at a convenient time for the camera.”

Across five movies, the Scary Movie franchise has grossed $830 million worldwide, with the original nabbing $157 million domestically and becoming one of the highest-grossing movies of 2000.

Are you down for another Scary Movie if Anna Faris signs on?

Natalie Portman and Moses Ingram lead parallel lives in this thriller about race and gender in 1960s Baltimore.

Plot: When the disappearance of a young girl grips the city of Baltimore on Thanksgiving 1966, the lives of two women converge on a fatal collision course. Maddie Schwartz, a Jewish housewife seeking to shed a secret past and reinvent herself as an investigative journalist, and Cleo Johnson, a mother navigating the political underbelly of Black Baltimore while struggling to provide for her family. Their disparate lives seem parallel at first, but when Maddie becomes fixated on Cleo’s mystifying death, a chasm opens that puts everyone around them in danger.

Review: Cultural divides and parallels have always been fascinating material for dramatic series. The similarities between Jewish and Black communities are far more than many realize, as both groups have been subjugated over the years. By contrasting two very different journeys for the main characters in Lady in the Lake, Natalie Portman and Moses Ingram chronicle the countless similarities the two protagonists face within and outside their societal borders. Based on the best-selling novel of the same name, Lady in the Lake is a slow burn that is less mysterious and more commentary on the burgeoning rights of women and minorities during the Powderkeg era of the 1960s. While not always as interesting as it thinks it is, this series boasts strong performances from Portman and Ingram that more than make up for the inconsistent pacing.

Based on the novel by Laura Lippman, Lady in the Lake opens with the kidnapping and murder of a young Jewish girl in Baltimore. The child becomes a focus for housewife Maddie Schwartz (Natalie Portman), a former journalist who feels stuck in a listless marriage of convenience. As Maddie contends with her daily malaise in the affluent suburb of Pikesville, Cleo Johnson (Moses Ingram) strives to make a life for her children while working as a department store window model by day and accountant for criminal Shell Gordon (Wood Harris) by night. While Maddie and Cleo unknowingly cross paths, it is when Cleo’s dead body is discovered and becomes known as the Lady in the Lake that Maddie’s interest in the woman deepens. The overlap between the two women’s lives converges and deviates in ways that blend the child murder and the death of Cleo in a way that forces Maddie to reflect on her own decisions and life choices.

Told over seven episodes, Lady in the Lake is fascinating and frustrating. As much as it delves into the Black culture of the 1960s, the series is heavily focused on the Jewish community in the Maryland suburb. Much of Maddie’s life led as an affluent Jewish college student turned wife is analyzed through her marriage to Milton (Brett Gelman), her relationship with her son Seth (Noah Jupe), and her former romance with Allan Durst (David Corenswet), the father of the murdered child. Maddie also develops a friendship with police officer Ferdie Platt (Y’lan Noel) and reporter Bob Bauer (Pruitt Taylor Vince), which push Maddie’s journalistic instincts towards both Cleo’s case and the accused child murderer Stephan Zawadzkie (Dyland Arnold) and his mother (Masha Mashkova). With Natalie Portman in the role, I expected more from the Oscar-winning actress, but Portman seems to be floating through this series carried by the narrative’s momentum rather than a driving force in the story.

The real star of this series is Moses Ingram. After a breakout role in The Queen’s Gambit and a high-profile turn in Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ingram steals every scene she is in of Lady in the Lake. Ingram has a presence and energy that propels this story, including Natalie Portman’s Maddie, as she lives vicariously through Cleo’s tale. Moses Ingram holds her own opposite the Oscar-winning Portman. He works exceptionally well with co-stars Byron Bowers, who plays Cleo’s husband, Slappy Johnson, Wood Harris as Shell Gordon, and Tyrik Johnson as her son Teddy. Ingram shares some emotionally gut-wrenching scenes with Jennifer Mogbock as Dora Carter and Josiah Cross as Reggie Robinson. The subplot involving Dora and Reggie and how it connects to Cleo is mesmerizing, but it feels forced to fit alongside Maddie’s character arc. It is easy to see how author Laura Lippman drew parallels between Maddie and Cleo. Still, Cleo is the far more interesting personality on screen, and her story feels muddled by including Maddie’s arc.

All seven episodes of Lady in the Lake are directed by Alma Har’el, who is also credited as a writer of three episodes. Har’el’s ex-husband, writer/director Boaz Yakin (Remember the Titans, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time), wrote two episodes with Briana Belser, Nambi E. Kelley, and Sheila Wilson on the remaining chapters. The novel, which spanned three hundred and fifty pages, feels watered down to fit a seven-episode limited series. Breakout actress Mikey Madison has a character who fits into Maddie’s arc and seems unnecessary in service of the overall narrative of the series. With the two storylines unfolding alongside each other, there is competition for priority in the stories, forcing the final two chapters of the series to feel rushed and underwhelming. There is something missing in this series’s structure that cannot be made up for by the performances and fantastic soundtrack.

It is a shame to say that what negatively impacts Lady in the Lake is Natalie Portman, but Maddie’s storyline is the less interesting of the two threads in this series. As good as Portman always is, she is as underwhelming and, at times, annoying as Maddie Schwartz. On the other hand, Moses Ingram is absolutely fantastic as Cleo, and if these stories had been told in two distinct series, Cleo’s tale would have been the clear winner of the two. There are a lot of interesting stories mixed together in Lady of the Lake. Still, the finished product feels like it is trying too hard to cater to different types of series, neither of which is given the priority it deserves, resulting in a good but not great show.

Lady in the Lake premieres with two episodes on July 19th on AppleTV+.

Long before Kevin Costner ever set foot onto the Yellowstone Ranch or danced with wolves, he became a rising star with Lawrence Kasdan’s Silverado!

THE STORY: Fresh off a five year stint in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, Emmett (Scott Glenn), a cowboy, heads to a small town called Silverado to pick up his kind-hearted but deadly younger brother, Jake (Kevin Costner), picking up a gambler, Paden (Kevin Kline) and a black cowboy named Mal (Danny Glover) along the way. Once in Silverado, they realize the town is being ruled by Emmett’s old nemesis, who’s in-league with a former friend of Paden’s – the town sheriff – Cobb (Brian Dennehy). Eager to settle down, all four men find themselves challenged by the ruthless factions that run the town, and will have to unite to save the day.

THE PLAYERS: Starring: Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn, Kevin Costner, Danny Glover, John Cleese, Jeff Goldblum, Jeff Fahey, Rosanna Arquette, Linda Hunt & Brian Dennehy. Music by Bruce Broughton. Written by Lawrence Kasdan & Mark Kasdan. Directed by Lawrence Kasdan.

THE HISTORY: The spaghetti western movement of the late sixties was, arguably, the genre on its last legs. Throughout the seventies, unless it starred Clint Eastwood, westerns sank like a stone at the box office, but that didn’t mean Hollywood didn’t try to revive the genre. The Missouri Breaks enlisted Jack Nicholson and Marlon Brando, but the results were disastrous, and the SAME STUDIO made an even bigger western bomb a few years later, Heaven’s Gate, which almost killed the genre for good. Even Eastwood stopped making westerns.

“Westerns were very much out of style at that time and generally have had a very spotty commerical record since, with a few exceptions. But we wanted to remind people of the pleasures that we had had from westerns growing up…it’s a post-modern western in that its very much aware of it’s antecedents and tries to use them in ways that are fun and interesting.” – Lawrence Kasdan – “The Making of SILVERADO

Yet, in 1985, a mini-revival of sorts took place. Eastwood returned to the genre with his Pale Rider, while writer-director Lawrence Kasdan, riding high off the success of Body Heat and The Big Chill (not to mention his work on the screenplays for The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and Raiders of the Lost Ark), made his own western epic. Very much in the mold of golden age, John Ford-era westerns, Silverado took the fun-loving, high adventure vibe Kasdan brought to his Lucasfilm classics, and adapted it to the genre, making a throughly entertaining oater that should have been a hit. Instead, it did very modest business, grossing $32 million on a $23 million budget – not a disaster, but not a hit either – unfortunately opening the same weekend as Back to the Future. Nowadays, it’s best remembered as Kevin Costner’s first big role.
WHY IT’S GREAT: Silverado is so much fun that it’s insane to think that the movie never spawned a western franchise that would have sustained a whole series of films. Kasdan should still be making Silverado adventures thirty years later. For one thing, this was Kasdan in his prime, so the writing and craftsmanship is right-on, right from the opening, which finds Scott Glenn’s Emmett descended upon by a gang of hired killers, who he makes short work of. After dispatching them, he opens the door to display the grandeur of John Bailey’s scope cinematography, leading us on an adventure that doesn’t let up for over two hours.

“That was written for me. I was doing a movie in Germany at the time that was… not my favorite. [Laughs.] And Larry Kasdan sent that script and said, “I hope you do this film. I wrote the part of Emmett for you.” And I literally led out a “yee-ha!” when I finished it. And I called up my agent, and I said, “Do not fuck this one up. I’m doing this. This is like… I mean, what a gift!” And the whole experience of working on that film was just phenomenal. It really was a great adventure.” – Scott Glenn – Random Roles– AV Club

Beautifully cast, Scott Glenn makes a case for himself as one of the great screen cowboys, playing the Henry Fonda-like Emmett, a moral, upstanding hero (a stark contrast to the Spaghetti Western anti-heroes that were more in-vogue) who can always be relied upon to do what’s right. He’s ably supported by an atypically cast Kevin Kline, as the smart-mouthed gambling man who’s constantly at war with his own good nature, making him the one with the real hero’s quest. Kline rarely did action, but he looked cool as a cowboy, and, like Glenn, seemed born for the role he wound up playing. Ditto Kevin Costner, who was actually cast in this by Kasdan as a way of making up for excising his role from The Big Chill (he’s the corpse being dressed in the first scene). What a favor he did for him, as you couldn’t pick a better star-making part than this, with Jake the live-wire young hero, with more energy than brains, but also a kindly nature that makes him easy to root for (he also gets the coolest antagonist – Jeff Fahey’s Tyree) It’s no wonder Silverado led to him being cast in The Untouchables, which instantly established him as a megastar. The western genre has been good to Kevin Costner, with him currently riding high on Yellowstone. Well, for now anyway.
The heroic foursome is rounded out by Danny Glover as a black cowboy (still a rare figure in American films) who winds up being the deadliest of them all, with him having a grudge against Jeff Goldblum’s diabolical card-sharp, leading to a cool moment of vengeance that, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised, must have paved the way for his eventual casting in Lethal Weapon. The supporting cast is just as strong, with Brian Dennehy an oddly likable villain (he kills a young(ish) Richard Jenkins early in the film), John Cleese, atypically cast as an old-west sheriff (and not half-bad), the always cool James Gammon, and more. Of the cast, only the female roles get short-shifted a bit, with it seeming like Rosanna Arquette’s role wound-up on the cutting room floor. Oh well.

“We developed a script for a sequel, but I gotta tell you, my heart was never in it. Despite having written THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and RETURN OF THE JEDI, I’m not the world’s greatest believer in sequels. I think you outta just make one good movie and move on.” – Lawrence Kasdan – “The Making of SILVERADO

One also needs to single out the amazing score by Bruce Broughton, with it helping make him the defacto western composer of his day (with Tombstone being another of his great western scores). Kasdan would eventually get a chance to return to the genre with star Kevin Costner in Wyatt Earp, but despite some good moments, it doesn’t hold a candle to the great Silverado.

SEE IT: Silverado is available to rent/buy on most digital services, and on Blu-ray/DVD with some good special features. If you’ve never seen this one but like the cast or genre, this is worthy of a blind buy.

PARTING SHOT: While it never spawned a franchise, Silverado remains a western classic just aching to be rediscovered, and hopefully those of you who haven’t seen it will give it a watch. It’s a real gem, and especially worth watching if you’re a newcomer to the charms of Yellowstone now that CBS is airing the first and second season in primetime.

Twisters posted the year’s third-biggest opening, far exceeding even the most optimistic box office predictions.

Down at the Universal Studios offices, the staff are undoubtedly doing The Twist in celebration of Twisters much higher than expected opening weekend. Indeed, they have reason to celebrate, with even the most optimistic box office predictions estimating the film would only open in the $50 million-ish range (including ours). To everyone’s surprise, the movie rallied to an incredible $80.5 million opening, which makes it the third biggest opening of the year behind Inside Out 2 and Dune: Part Two. 

This is a major win for Universal, with the film posting Oppenheimer-level numbers and a rock-solid A-minus CinemaScore. If word of mouth is good, this could leg out to a North American total in the $200 million plus range, although it will face steep competition next weekend from Deadpool & Wolverine. It’s also a major win for Glen Powell as a leading man, with Hollywood hyped on his potential for stardom following Top Gun: Maverick and Anyone But You. This marks his third major box office hit.

In second place, Gru and his Minions held up pretty well, with the Illumination sequel Despicable Me 4 grossing $23.8 million, with a North American total of $259.5 million. It should end its run in the $340 million-ish range. While a huge hit, it’s nowhere near as big as Pixar’s gargantuan hit, Inside Out 2, which added another $12.8 million to its coffers with a $600 million domestic take. WOW. 

Neon’s breakout horror hit from last week, Longlegs, ended up posting a much better hold than anyone anticipated. It earned $11.7 million this weekend, meaning it only declined 48% week-to-week, which is almost unheard of for a horror title. It’s grossed $44.7 million so far against a budget in the mid-teens. However, the outlook wasn’t quite so rosy for Apple and Sony’s Fly Me to the Moon, which posted a shocking 65% drop to earn only $3.3 million. Expect this to hit streaming within a matter of weeks. It was easily beaten by Paramount’s horror hit, A Quiet Place: Day One, which grossed $6.1 million for a $127 million domestic total. 

Bad Boys: Ride or Die came in seventh place, with $2.6 million and a $189.3 million total. Will Sony keep it in theaters until it surpasses the $200 million mark? In eighth place was Bad Newz, another Bollywood hit earning just over a million dollars.

A24’s MaXXXine posted another big decline this weekend, dropping 60% to an $819k weekend, with the grand total only $13 million. While it will still be the highest-grosser of the Maxine Minx trilogy, I’m sure A24 is disappointed this didn’t break out in the same way as some of their other word-of-mouth hits. It seems too niche for mainstream horror fans.

Finally, in a shocking return to the charts, is one of my favourite movies of the year, The Bikeriders, which saw its business increase by 75% this weekend despite losing over 400 screens. It made $700k for a $21 million domestic total. Now that it’s on VOD, hopefully people will discover Jeff Nichols’s magnificent film.

With Deadpool & Wolverine opening next weekend, does Twisters have a chance of an under 50% decline at the box office? Let us know in the comments! 

James Cameron’s The Terminator returns to theaters this week but some are rightfully concerned it will be another 4K disaster.

He wasn’t kidding when he said he’ll be back. To mark the sci-fi classic’s 40th anniversary, The Terminator will be returning to theaters this summer courtesy of Park Circus, complete with a 4K restoration. And while any theatrical release of a fan favorite is certainly something to get excited for, those who have been following James Cameron’s other 4K releases might have reason to be cautious…

As we have reported on throughout the various releases of some of James Cameron’s best films, there has been quite a bit of controversy over the transfers of said movies. The main problem here is the use of AI to clean up the images, doing so to such an extreme degree that the films not only lose grain structure but authenticity. When viewing these films on their 4K home video releases, it’s so obvious that the image has been touched up to the point that they’re hard to enjoy. Sure, the action and storytelling isn’t changed but the distracting touch-ups throughout can easily pull you out of the experience. So, yes, it’s reasonable to be concerned about the upcoming 4K of The Terminator, which was approved by Cameron himself.

James Cameron certainly sees the benefits of AI, once saying, “As you go down levels of magnitude you see more and more patterns, and you realise that greater pattern, the grand pattern, is made up of all these kinds of fractal details that need to be there. And this is where I think AI can be helpful because it can fill in some of the some of those detail levels and allow us as artists to stay at a higher level.” But that right there is a perfect demonstration of just how AI can be misused when it comes to transfers, as relying on it for these minute details can easily serve as a shortcut that gets out of hand. And that’s how you end up with the horrendous transfers of great films like True Lies and Aliens, giving us pause on getting too excited for The Terminator.

But others have defended all of these. Film preservationist Robert Harris was kind enough to reach out to JoBlo about these issues, writing, in part: “There should be no problems with the original elements. The work performed was a re-visualization. An entirely new digital product, which (to varying degrees of success) appears to have achieved Mr. Cameron’s goals. If these were attempts at restoration, they would fail in all regards.” You can read his entire thorough defense here.

The Terminator returns to theaters on July 25th.

Are you concerned about this upcoming release of The Terminator? Do you think James Cameron has gone too far with his transfers? Chime in below.