Netflix’s new rom-com Love Is In the Air dropped earlier this week, with singer and former soap star Delta Goodrem playing Dana, a private pilot whose tiny business is due to be shut down by a young executive (Joshua Sasse) trying to prove himself to his businessman father.
The film certainly seems to be gaining traction for Goodrem’s likable performance, as well as Sasse’s acting chops as William – a gentlemanly, ever so slightly awkward Hugh Grant-esque character – and Aboriginal comedian Steph Tisdell in only her second film role as Dana’s best friend Nikki, who thinks nothing of egging Dana on when it comes to William.
Of equal importance, though, is the gorgeous setting. Love Is In The Air may be a fairly standard will-they-won’t-they romantic movie, but it gets an extra kick from the paradisaical beaches and rangy island landscapes that fill the frame. So where exactly was it filmed?
A part of Down Under to die for
The answer is the Whitsunday Islands, an archipelago about 600 miles north of Brisbane on Australia’s east coast. Situated on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef, the islands have in recent times become a popular tourist destination for sailors and snorkelers alike. Although the main island has a population of around 1350 people, most of the other 70 or so islands in the group are uninhabited, making the seaplane Goodrem flies in the film a natural choice for island-hoppers. The movie was partly funded by the state organization for fostering the film industry, Screen Queensland.
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Well, that didn’t last long. You’d think the news that Marvel Studios is finally making baby-steps on its long-awaited X-Men reboot would keep MCU fans on cloud nine for a while there, but actually it seems the Multiverse Saga’s many mishaps has left folks so cynical that they’re already making clear Marvel knows they have some demands that need to be met. Meanwhile, as one door opens another closes, as Sony appears to have finally flushed a long-gestating Spider-Man spin-off down the drain.
The excitement for the X-Men reboot couldn’t last 24 hours before a line was drawn in the sand
Image via 20th Century Fox
Yes, as you may have heard by now, Marvel is in the process of finding a writer to pen the script for its first ever X-Men movie, but instead of celebrating the good news, MCU cynics are already anxious over who the studio could hire for the job. Given his work as showrunner of Loki, the most-viewed Marvel Disney Plus series ever, you’d think Michael Waldron would be a safe pair of hands for the X-Men reboot, but fans are fearing such an appointment after his work on Doctor Strange 2, which memorably featured the first appearance of Professor X in the MCU — and basically ruined Scarlet Witch’s arc. And yet people are still excited for Loki season 2. The mind of the Marvel fan is a hard thing to understand.
Sony is definitely not moving forward with a Spider-Man spin-off movie that’s cursed throughout the multiverse
Image via Marvel Comics
For a movie to fail to be launched as part of one franchise is bad luck, but to get the boot from two separate cinematic universes is practically a curse. Hey, they do say Black Cats are unlucky. Felicia Hardy fans, prepare for some bad news as screenwriter Lindsey Anderson Beer — who was working on Sony’s Silver & Black movie — has confirmed the Silver Sable and Black Cat team-up from director Gina Prince Blythewood is “not currently developing” at the studio. Considering this one has been cooking in some form since The Amazing Spider-Man 2, it’s unfortunate that it won’t be coming as part of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe after all.
Werewolf by Night would get a third Disney Plus release if Michael Giacchino had his way
Image via Marvel Studios
When Werewolf by Night released in black-and-white last year, Marvel fans bowed down before it. When Werewolf by Night was announced to be getting a re-release this October, but in color, Marvel fans were more skeptical. But if Werewolf by Night gets released a third time, I’m pretty sure the good will might finally run out. Nevertheless, director Michael Giacchino is personally hoping to get the Halloween special another new lick of paint, this time giving it a 3-D upgrade. You have to admire his enthusiasm, but maybe Giacchino putting his energies into a whole new adventure for the titular lycanthrope would be a more fruitful use of his time… and ours.
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As hungry consumers rushed from their homes to take in live performances from stars like Beyoncé in the post-quarantine years, a simple but crucial question came to light: How can we keep experiencing concerts, but in a way that minimizes the number of people we need to smell while doing it?
The answer, it seems, is concert movies — theatergoing experiences that combine the decibel levels of a live music event with the everyman-friendly ticket prices of an Expendables sequel. Thanks to the jaw-dropping presale success of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour movie (helpfully titled Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour), the floodgates have opened. It seems like they’ll let anyone with hundreds of millions of followers and a pile of awards taller than they are have a concert movie these days.
By way of example: Variety reports that former Destiny’s Child member Beyoncé Knowles—who enjoys a fair bit of celebrity—is headed to cinemas as soon as December 1 of this year. Current scuttlebutt indicates that the beloved megastar’s Renaissance World Tour is being developed into a moviegoing experience exclusively for AMC Theaters, and will feature “elements of her top-grossing 2023 live shows, parts of the long-gestating visual album Renaissance and a documentary-style account of making the record and building out the tour.”
Will Beyonce and Taylor Swift upend the studio system?
Concert movies are nothing new, but the fevered interest in them following Swift’s latest project has turned them into a shockingly viable financial opportunity for studios. Variety reports that Beyoncé’s Renaissance film is projected to bring in over half a billion at the box office. With Deadline predicting a roughly $100 million opening weekend for the Eras Tour movie, Hollywood executives are undoubtedly beginning to wonder why they poured all that cash into CGI Spider-Men over the years when they could’ve just pointed their iPhones at a Reel Big Fish house show and let the money make itself.
Concerns have been voiced over the effects that these projects could have on the studio system, circumventing traditional distribution conventions like they do and passing straight from the artist to the theater chains, farm to multimillion-dollar table. Eras and Renaissance are primed to take a substantial cut of the 2023 box office away from already-struggling studios. Could Beyoncé and Swift’s monopoly on the theater seats be what finally topples a hundred years of Hollywood tradition?
Hard to say. Probably not, though. And for what it’s worth, the studios are doing a fine job of shooting themselves in the foot thanks to unsustainable streaming models and cutthroat project cancelations without the help of the star of Austin Powers 3. It’ll be fun to hear “Church Girl” in surround sound, though.
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It’s a common misconception that the main character in the long-running BBC science fiction series Doctor Who is named “Doctor Who.” In reality, their name is “Doctor Whom,” and the real fans know that.
And there have been dozens of performers considered for the role of Doctor Whom over the show’s 60-year history, ranging from the also-ran footnote character actors of the 1960s and ‘70s, to genuine, A-list stars in more recent years. Here’s a look at some of the more recognizable faces that nearly took over the TARDIS controls before thinking better of the opportunity, passing it up, or royally wetting the bed.
Benedict Cumberbatch didn’t make his Doctor’s appointment
Image via BBC One
During a talk show interview in 2011, Benedict Cumberbatch revealed that he was encouraged by rapidly-exiting incumbent Doctor David Tennant to toss his zany red felt fez in the ring for the part of Gallifrey’s wackiest scofflaw. In spite of what would eventually become a lucrative working relationship with the series’ new showrunner, Stephen Moffat, Cumberbatch declined the invitation, going on to state that playing the Doctor means “you are on the flask, you are on the school lunch box, you have to sometimes go on the school bus as Doctor Who on promotional tours. I like to keep the work on the set.”
Incidentally, here’s Benedict Cumberbatch shooting a promo video a few years later, visiting a comic book shop dressed as Doctor Strange.
Brian Blessed made things hawkward
If you don’t know Brian Blessed, then yes, you do. His trumpeting baritone voice and Ghost of Christmas Present physicality have been bringing larger-than-life characters to the screen for over 60 years, including Boss Nass in The Phantom Menace, Prince Vultan in Flash Gordon, and, no kidding 13 years’ worth of Grampy Rabbit on Peppa Pig.
Speaking with The Telegraph in 2014, Blessed recalled being invited into the Doctor Who fold all the way back in the ‘60s. He shot down the opportunity, but fortunately, he wasn’t turned away at the door when he showed up to play King Yrcanos in the Sixth Doctor MIndwarp serial a few decades later.
Bernard Cribbins almost had an even longer Doctor Who history
Image via BBC
If you love Doctor Who, chances are that you love the late Bernard Cribbins, the actor who brought the objectively adorable Wilfred Mott to life across David Tennant’s run on the show, along with a role in the Peter Cushing Doctor Who movie in 1965, if you want to get super obscure. What you might not know is that Cribbins met with the producers of the series back when they were shopping for their fourth Doctor. Speaking with Digital Spy in 2013, he recalled being asked what he would bring to the role, and telling the folks in charge that he’d been a paratrooper and knew how to fight. He was a little ahead of his time, and the Doctor’s tortured war era was still a long way off, narratively speaking. It was a pass.
Alan Cumming had to be going
Image via Peacock
It would have been fun, seeing Alan Cumming running from Daleks in whatever outfit the The Traitors host would have picked for himself – presumably something involving a mesh kilt and a dope bowler hat, but that’s just a guess. He was slated to play the Doctor in a series revival circa 2003, but the plans were scrapped in favor of the Russell T. Davies reboot. Cumming got the last laugh, appearing in the series nearly 20 years later as one of the only watchable aspects of the Chibnall era.
Dame Judi Dench could have been Doctor Judi Dench
Image via Universal Pictures
During the blue sky phase of developing the return of Doctor Who around the turn of the century, many names got thrown around. Among them: Judi Dench, who was reportedly a favorite of series producer and BBC executive Jane Tranter. Would Dench have accepted the role? Hard to say. Your gut tells you “no,” but then you remember she said yes to CATS, so who knows? She’s a wild card.
Alan Rickman didn’t blink, but the studio did
Image via Warner Bros.
Sometimes, you find out that an actor was up for the part of the Doctor and think “Weird, that would’ve been different.” Other times, you think “Wait, how did that not happen?”
Alan Rickman came treacherously close to playing the Doctor back in the ‘90s, when the franchise was, as a whole, deep in the throes of flop sweat. A feature film was set to be made, directed by Leonard Nimoy and featuring Rickman in the lead role, with Caroline Munro as his Gallifreyan companion. Doctor Who: A History reports that the story would have involved Amelia Earhart, kissing, and kissing Amelia Earhart, had the whole thing not blown up in an eruption of litigation and lapsed franchise rights.
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Nostalgia is in and in a big way, especially when it comes to romantic comedies of yesteryear like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. While it feels like we’re on the precipice of a rom-com renaissance with a recent surge of films like Do Revenge and Choose Love trying to capture that feeling for a new generation of viewers, it’s hard to top the rom-coms of the ‘90s and 2000s.
Something about “chick flicks” — and I’m using that here as a term of endearment — of the era just hits differently. Give us a stylish protagonist who’s working in publishing (seriously, why is every rom-com heroine a journalist?) and a love interest she just can’t seem to get out of her head and we’re golden. Here’s 10 movies like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days to watch next time you’re craving a classic rom-com.
13 Going on 30 (2004)
This rom-com also serves as a cautionary tale; who knew getting everything you wanted when you were a teenager could result in really having nothing at all? The comedy comes from newly 13-year-old Jenna waking up in her 30-year-old body after a birthday wish gone awry while the romance comes from Jenna realizing her best friend may have been the one for her all along.
The Proposal (2009)
In reality, this film would be a workplace harassment lawsuit waiting to happen but as a film, it’s a sweet movie about Ryan Reynolds falling in love with his uptight Canadian boss Sandra Bullock as they plan to commit marriage fraud. Not ideal in reality, but fun in fiction!
10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
If you like Shakespeare (or even if you don’t), this movie is for you! Similar to How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, this film follows a romance formed out of a bet and like that film, is a classic rom-com albeit one set in high school. Shakespeare wishes.
Legally Blonde (2001)
If you love seeing ambitious women succeed in their career and their love life, look no further than Legally Blonde. Watch Elle Woods achieve her law school dreams and look great in pink the whole time. “What, like it’s hard?”
The Holiday (2006)
One of my personal favorite comfort films, The Holiday follows two women (Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz) who decide to swap homes during the holiday season to get a break from their respective exes. They not only get a nice vacation out of the deal; they also find love with Jack Black and Jude Law along the way. Watch this if you like a good cozy rom-com.
Bridget Jones Diary (2004)
Many a good romantic comedy reinterprets a literary classic for the modern age and Bridget Jones Diary is one such film. An adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Bridget Jones Diary follows the titular heroine as she starts keeping her eponymous diary and writes of the life she wants to live. Funnily enough, most viewers will want her life after watching Colin Firth and Hugh Grant fight over her in the snow. That’s cinema, baby.
Princess Diaries 2 (2004)
Hear me out: I love the first film as much as anyone does but Chris Pine is in this. Can you blame me?? I love Chris Pine, I love Anne Hathaway, and I also love a great enemies-to-lovers plot; I would also love a third film starring the two but alas, I can’t have everything.
Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011)
Is this film perfect? No. Does it have to be? No. Is Ryan Gosling in it? Yes. Honestly, that would be enough to get me to watch it but Crazy, Stupid, Love. also has an excellent ensemble cast and a lot of silly but cute moments which makes it one great watch.
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
When Harry Met Sally is a quintessential romantic comedy about two college acquaintances who keep turning up in each other’s lives years after graduation. Their relationship is mostly a “will they, won’t they” situation for most of the film, but the resulting romance is worth the wait. Bonus points for all the cozy sweaters in this film; they really don’t make ’em like that anymore.
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
This isn’t really a romantic film (we hate Nate in this household), but The Devil Wears Prada is 100% chick flick through and through. I watch this film when I want to experience a great story with some great fashion and have a few laughs along the way. What more could you ask for in a film?
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In case you missed it, after years of fiddle-faddle, malarkey, and refusal to commit, the MCU has finally started to make strides towards bringing the X-Men into the fold. Can this new take on the Children of the Atom beat Fox’s nigh-on 20 year cinematic epic?
No, no it can’t, and here are three reasons why not.
The thrill is gone
Photo via Disney
The term “superhero fatigue” is overused enough that “superhero fatigue fatigue” might be the new buzz word. Sadly, it’s also a term that exists for a reason.
When Wolverine flew through the windshield of his pickup truck and skidded face-first across the asphalt in the first X-Men movie, it was unlike anything audiences had ever seen. It was an era when technology was finally catching up with fantasy, and the world that superhero fans had only been able to imagine for decades was finally coming to life. We were reliving the moment when 19th century theatergoers freaked out at the train coming at the screen, but this time with an Australian guy in flannel.
A few years later, network TV exercise-in-diminishing-returns Heroes recreated the effect on a nearly weekly basis with Claire Bennett. A few years after that, save for scenes in Deadpool and Guardians of the Galaxy where the process was so over-the-top it bordered on satire or body horror, CGI shots of characters healing super-fast had become so tired that nobody bothered with them anymore.
And that’s the problem that any X-Men reboot is going to have to dodge: that the original films, for all their sins, were iconic. Get big enough and everyone starts to steal from you, until the things you innovated become hacky templates of the genre and a dramatic return just feels like you’re stealing from yourself.
The MCU lacks conviction
Image via Marvel Studios
The MCU is driven by a dark and foreboding mission statement, necessarily striving to convince their audience that they’re not just moving forward, they’re moving forward with purpose. There’s an end goal in mind, a narrative exit ramp at which years of buildup can find their destination. One day, there will be another Avengers, another Endgame, that will make the investment of your time worth it. They might not know what that looks like right now, but they’ll take every precaution necessary to protect their beloved IPs for as long as it takes to get there.
Want to know what the end goal of Fox’s X-Men franchise was? More X-Men franchise, that’s what. It was a perpetual motion machine that made no promises of satisfactory conclusions, narrative detente, or even film-to-film continuity. It was a terrible, uncaring juggernaut of the studio system, where sweeping, stupid choices were made. Xavier could show up, digitally de-aged by a madman with an airbrush, walking around in the ‘80s at the beginning of The Last Stand, then lose the use of his legs in the ‘60s two movies later. Kitty Pryde was played by different performers in three consecutive films. Angel was in his 20s in 2006, then a teenager in the ‘80s. It was like the whole series was being written under the law of the Assassin’s Creed.
And that sort of wild-eyed carelessness gave us some of the worst superhero movies of the last 20 years. It also gave us some of the best. The MCU wouldn’t have given the green light to an R-rated Deadpool threequel if someone at Fox hadn’t said “Fine, do whatever you want” almost a decade prior. In a world where Wolverine was in the Marvel Cinematic Universe all along, we might not have gotten X-Men Origins, but we definitely wouldn’t have had Logan, either. With no threat of lapsing rights looming over their heads, Disney will never give us the panicked, frenetic X-Men adaptations that Fox did – not the cringe ones, and definitely not the ones brave enough to try something new.
The MCU won’t have an increasingly disinterested Jennifer Lawrence putting less and less effort into the gig until she’s barely showing up for work almost a decade later
Image: 20th Century Studios
The X-Men movies got bad. It’s not a secret. By Dark Phoenix, it was clear that the franchise was never going to recover. Of the post-Apocalypse films, very little was watchable, let alone enjoyable.
But do you know what was enjoyable? Watching one of Hollywood’s biggest stars sink deeper and deeper into an ill-advised, multi-picture contract. Seeing the commensurate dissipation of craps she had to give in relation to the number of days when she had to be painted into her costume, all while the writers kept shoehorning more and more of her character into the series despite her having had like, four lines in the last trilogy. Being aware of all of that was like watching a separate movie, constructed just for you.
Also, to be clear, this isn’t a “hating Jennifer Lawrence” thing. It’s funny when anyone has to wear face paint that they hate to work, regardless of whether or not they starred in mother!
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It would’ve been a strange thought to have, say, 10 years ago, but lately, it’s all we can think about: It’s weird that there hasn’t been A Muppet Avengers yet, right? Like, Disney has the rights to both properties. The MCU is in a tailspin, and life has proven, time and again, that the only thing guaranteed to make most pre-established stories better is replacing the majority of the main characters with Muppet stand-ins. Who dropped the ball on this one? Also, why hasn’t there been A Muppet Star Wars? Never mind, we’ll circle back to that one.
For now, let’s focus on the Muppet Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MMCU, and everything that it could be. We’ll start with the first Avengers movie, but know that we’ve got Uncle Deadly as Ultron in our pocket for the follow-up.
Nick Fury: Sam the Eagle
Image via DIsney
The obvious first choice for Sam the Eagle is Captain America, but it’s a little too on the nose/felt beak ridge. Putting him in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t just keep Nick Fury being played by guys named Sam, it also gives the writers a chance to take advantage of Jackson’s intensity, and the inherent goofiness of that intensity when anyone else tries to replicate it. Bonus points if they carry this thing all the way to Secret Invasion, since Sam’s signature assertion that “You’re all weirdos” would make a more satisfying ending than the one that the show got in real life.
Iron Man: Gonzo
Image via Disney
When you think “debonair ladies man with a head for business,” you think Gonzo the Great. It doesn’t hurt that Iron Man is basically just a guy who won’t stop blowing himself up and strapping himself to rockets to see how far he’ll go. Also, we’d get to cast Rizzo as Happy Hogan and Camilla as Pepper Potts, which just works for some reason.
Black Widow: Miss Piggy
Image via Disney
Look, the early-days MCU and the Muppets are two worlds that aren’t exactly double stuffed with female characters. They don’t really lend themselves to clever non-male casting. Luckily, Black Widow and Piggy line up pretty effortlessly, and “Miss Piggy in an expensive outfit, getting in fist fights” isn’t much of a stretch, considering her usual vibe.
Hulk: Beaker
Image via Disney
The secret here is having Doctor Bunsen Honeydew around to interpret for him most of the time. Highlights would include watching Beaker desperately trying to keep his heart rate down while he’s assured that the chemicals he’s being exposed to shouldn’t be harmful, and the line “That’s his secret, Captain. He’s always meemee.”
Captain America: Kermit the Frog
Image via Disney
With the frontman charisma necessary to represent the team and two scoops of old-timey earnestness, Kermit is the best and only choice for Captain America. He’d probably even give notes on Rogers: The Musical. The guy just loves the theater.
Hawkeye: Pepe the Prawn
Image via Disney
Full disclosure: Originally, Gonzo had the Hawkeye spot, on account of how he’d definitely come up with the best trick arrows and how you’d get the Camilla reveal when the team bunks down at his house in Age of Ultron. Two facts made it clear that this needed to change.
One, that Pepe is the only Muppet with the confidence to not only rock that haircut from Endgame, but to make you think “wow, he really thinks that owning a bow and arrow makes him a superhero, huh?”
Two, that you could just let Linda Cardellini reprise the role in Age of Ultron, since it feels like they’d make a great couple.
Thor: the Swedish Chef
Image via Disney
This one’s mostly just profiling based on Scandinavian heritage and the fact that the Swedish Chef usually has a meat tenderizer.
Loki: Fozzie
Image via Disney
Fozzie gets villain duties this time around, thanks to how great Loki’s speeches would be if they had more dad joke punchlines. Additionally, his fedora would look great with a pair of giant gold horns.
Agent Coulson: Clark Gregg
Image via Disney/Marvel Studios
Every Muppet movie needs at least one human character, and it feels like Clark Gregg would be up for this. The cold stoicism would play well against his felt co-stars, especially when he gets all flustered talking to Kermit the Frog and wants to show him his trading cards.
Maria Hill: Sweetums
It’s embarrassing to admit, but there’s no deep reasoning to the idea of having Sweetums play Maria Hill. It would just be fun to see him in a skin tight unitard.
The World Security Council: Statler and Waldorf
Image via Disney
“What an enormous bomb.”
“What, the one we’re dropping on New York?”
“No, this movie!”
“Oh ho ho ho!”
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Since the early 2000s, the Saw franchise has disgusted us, terrified us, and thoroughly entertained us. James Wan released the original Saw in 2004, marking his directorial debut, and the consequential success led to other influential horror films such as The Conjuring and Insidious franchises. Consistently for very year since 2004, a Saw sequel was developed, and the pattern ended with a long hiatus between the seventh and eighth films as Jigsaw released seven years after Saw 3D.
Between 2004 and 2023, there have been ten installments of the Saw franchise released. Before Saw X landed in theaters today, Spiral: From the Book of Saw was the latest addition, attempting to reinvent the torture porn genre and revive an outdated franchise. In April 2021, Saw X, was confirmed to be in development, with the spine-tingling chapter being brought to fruition to kick off this year’s spooky season in a major way.
With ten Saw films spanning over 19 years and the production crews changing all the while, there were some successful stand-outs and some flat-out failures. So, before franchise die-hards flock to megaplexes in droves to witness Jigsaw’s latest outing, here is every Saw film, ranked.
10. Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)
Image via Lionsgate
As previously mentioned, Spiral: From the Book of Saw was the most recent Saw-related release, although not explicitly marketed as a sequel. The producers commented on Spiral’s significance within the universe, claiming that it was more of a standalone. Unfortunately, Spiral ranks the lowest on our list. Chris Rock was a saving grace, but not enough to make up for awful production values and a weak storyline that pales in comparison to its predecessors. Spiral attempts to reinvent the torture porn genre and breathe new life into a bygone franchise, but fails miserably.
All things considered, Spiral can be given praise for its attempt at changing up the franchise formula, but it ultimately falls short of giving the Saw franchise the boost it needs to regain relevance. Spiral was intended to focus on the corruption of law enforcers, but the theme seems hopelessly lost to generic approaches and an annoyingly predictable plot. Long story short, Spiral succeeds in tarnishing Saw’s good reputation for imaginative deaths and inventive plots.
9. Saw 3D (2010)
Image via Lionsgate
Taking a very different approach than any other Saw film, Saw 3D was shot entirely in RealD 3D, using the SI-3D digital camera system rather than filming on a set and later transferring the footage to 3D. Admittedly, the 3D element does add a certain flair to the seventh film, but 3D is often bashed for being unnecessary and distracting. In this case, like many others, the same rules apply.
The plot follows a man who, after falsely claiming to be a survivor of one of the Jigsaw Killer’s games in order to become a local celebrity, finds himself part of a real game where he must save his wife. Rather than John Kramer, the culprit behind the Jigsaw murders is none other than Mark Hoffman, an accomplice to Kramer instructed to continue his work after his inevitable death.
Saw 3D experienced commercial success at the box office, which seems impossible given the shocking reviews. Poorly acted, sloppily filmed, and a downright disgrace to the Saw brand, Saw 3D only ranks above Spiral for its admirable attempt at revolutionizing the franchise using 3D effects to amp up the immersive scare factor. By the seventh film, the Saw narrative began to feel played out, thereby dooming its successors.
8. Jigsaw (2017)
Image via Lionsgate
First there was Saw 3D. Then there was Jigsaw. In the film, the police investigate a new series of murders that fit the modus operandi of the eponymous Jigsaw Killer, who has been dead for almost a decade at this point. Essentially, John Kramer has a doppelgänger mimicking his procedures to continue the Jigsaw legacy. Honestly, ranking Spiral, Saw 3D, and Jigsaw was difficult; none of them deserve anything above last place, but Jigsaw has some redeeming qualities that give it a slight edge over the competition.
At least Jigsaw is relatively revolting, which is one of the main attractions for the franchise as a whole. Honestly, Jigsaw would have never been groundbreaking, nor even made waves in the Saw universe. It never encapsulates the core concept and delivers a half-baked retelling of the original Saw that disappoints rather than paving the way for a new era of horror. Jigsaw is undoubtedly a fun ride despite its flaws, whereas the others were plain awful. Needless to say, Jigsaw leaves much to be desired and its mind-blowing twist doesn’t live up to the expectations set by its predecessors.
7. Saw V (2009)
Image via Lionsgate
Many may disagree, but Saw V was thoroughly interesting. Finally, there came a continuation that focused less on senseless violence and gore and gave the audience a real takeaway message. Primarily focusing on five targeted low-lives, Saw V reminds its victims that survival depends on “acting against your instincts,” which, as we all know, means ignoring the fight-or-flight adrenaline rush and discarding that “survival of the fittest” mindset to work together and live.
As expected, the quintuple participants are in it for themselves from the get-go, and at the final test, when five dwindles down to two, the remaining victims discover that all of them could have survived if only they had set aside their selfish ways. Saw V had inventive torture devices, plentiful gore, and enough stable plot to keep the mindless violence significant as well as a less complicated and more engaging storyline.
6. Saw VI (2008)
Image via Lionsgate
As we ascend the list, it seems painfully obvious that the earlier Saw films far outweigh the newer revivals. Still, Saw VI ranks lower than its siblings due to a clunky, confusing plot and unconvincing acting. At the time of its release, Saw VI was the lowest-grossing Saw film ever made (until the modern additions proved to be even worse). One of its exceptionally gripping moments comes at the very beginning, thereby ruining the tone by the halfway point. Anyone can admit that watching a grown woman chop off her own arm is as grotesque as it sounds.
Consumed almost entirely by backstory, Saw VI is one of those throwaway placeholders in which the flashbacks overtake the actual plot. Sometimes not everything needs to be explained. People want blood and guts and gore, not overly dumbed-down explanations and tie-ins. However, Saw VI is a huge step up from the updated releases in that it stays true to its source material and keeps an air of consistency within its splatter film multiverse. Saw VI is faithful to the franchise and a satisfying filler, even if that’s all it really is.
5. Saw IV (2007)
Image via Lionsgate
What can we say about Saw IV? Wow. The fourth installment has some of the best twists of any entry, which isn’t a bold statement in the slightest. Granted, nothing could ever top Saw VI‘s ending with Hoffman escaping the Reverse Bear Trap, but Saw IV has a more consistent storyline overall. It also fills in a lot of blanks with John’s backstory that give us some insight as to why he was driven to become Jigsaw, his relationship with his ex-wife Jill Tuck, and how Amanda Young fits into all of this.
The first act can be a little slow, we’ll admit it, but the dynamic with Strahm and Hoffman redeems a few minor issues here and there. It also nicely sets up the ending of Saw V when Hoffman eventually kills Strahm. It’s the beginning of a rather perfect conflict between two wonderfully written characters. Rigg isn’t very likeable, so that’s a negative, but there’s so much Hoffman and a fair amount of John, which is all you ever need in a Saw movie.
4. Saw X (2023)
Image via Lionsgate Movies
For a horror franchise that’s now reached a tenth movie, it’s certainly an impressive feat for Saw X to land so high up on this list. Touching back to its original roots and focusing on engineer-turned-torturer John Kramer, the tenth chapter centers around him traveling down to Mexico after being informed about a particular medical program which specializes in curing cases of terminal cancer. In the end, John discovers that the entire operation was merely a ruse, leading him to enlist the help of Amanda Young and Mark Hoffman to capture those who conned him and enact revenge.
The franchise’s tenth outing is undoubtedly a refined touch on a film series which has been seriously lacking quality content over the last few years. For the first time ever, eagle-eyed viewers truly witness a different side to John Kramer which is certainly more vulnerable and weakened. And yet, Tobin Bell’s groundbreaking performance reminds us all why this is his franchise.
3. Saw II (2005)
Image via Lionsgate
Just a year after the immensely successful Saw, its immediate sequel, Saw II, was released. In the film, a group of ex-convicts are trapped by the Jigsaw Killer inside a house and must pass a series of deadly tests to retrieve the antidote for a nerve agent that will kill them in two hours. Among them, Amanda Young, the only known Jigsaw survivor, works undercover for John Kramer.
Much more is explained in Saw II regarding the motives behind the Jigsaw murders. Kramer reveals that he was diagnosed with cancer and gained a newfound appreciation for life that he wished to instil in others using pre-meditated and escapable torture methods that teach a valuable lesson upon survival. Saw II brilliantly references its predecessor and keeps the same momentum throughout that made the original Saw untouchable. Saw II lags behind in appeal, but outshines the first for its fool-proof ending without the cheat codes.
2. Saw III (2006)
Image via Lionsgate
As the highest-grossing Saw film of the series both internationally and overall, Saw III solidifies itself as a worthy successor to the original. Above all else, Saw III brings the gore. After adding in the component of Amanda Young defying John Kramer’s methods and losing belief in his teachings, the traps were made to be inescapable, resulting in multiple deaths. While the gore may be overplayed, its presence feels intended and perfectly executed in light of the plot developments.
One of the biggest problems with Saw III was the script, which overuses flashbacks and loses the plot (which is actually a huge turning point for the remainder of the series) to more senseless deaths. There can be positives and negatives taken from Saw III’s gorier take on the tension-filled original. The acting is refreshingly believable and Saw III is admittedly the most enjoyable, period, of any other Saw film. If willing to overlook the frankly trying attempt at “gorier equals better,” Saw III is a wild and unmissable ride, forever cemented as one of the greats in the Saw legacy.
1. Saw (2004)
Image via Lionsgate
By now, it should have been expected that the original would come out on top. As seen with many other long-standing franchises, the original is — more often than not — the best. Saw is the shot-in-the-dark by James Wan that started it all. It gained a cult following from its commercial and critic success and has been considered one of the most revolutionary horror films of all time. Without it, the others would not have existed.
Saw grips its audiences with lofty ambitions and a deceptively clever plot with memorable scenes that far exceed any expectations. For such a low-budget film, the gory scenes were amazingly evocative and masterfully done given the limited resources. In its climax, Saw presents a satisfying resolution to the ongoing mystery that fits its ghastly undertone. Saw will always be considered an untouchable relic, credited with kickstarting a franchise. Its twisted morality can never be replicated, for Saw truly is the first of its kind.
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Michael Bay is the living, breathing definition of cinematic excess, with almost his entire filmography taking a kitchen sink approach to both its narrative subtlety and explosive action sequences. Despite being in the game for almost 30 years, though, nothing encapsulates his bespoke approach better than Bad Boys II.
At 147 minutes it dramatically overstays its welcome by at least half an hour, there’s a body count so high it beggars belief, enough pyrotechnic set pieces to fill at least three smaller movies, dialogue and banter that’s questionable at the best of times, and the encroaching sense that maybe there’s such a thing as too many shootouts, car chases, and bullet-riddled carnage for a solitary feature.
via Sony
That being said, genre junkies have a very soft spot for Bad Boys II, which is understandable when it ticks far too many boxes in terms of wall-to-wall chaos. It’s the ultimate example of Bayhem that remains the apex of its originator’s distinctive style a full 20 years on from release, even if it did accidentally almost kill the franchise.
Bad Boys II remains ideal “turn off your brain” viewing, to be fair, and that reputation evidently isn’t going anywhere after FlixPatrol named it as one of the most-watched titles on Prime Video, Rakuten, and Starz heading into the weekend.
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Today, Sony is releasing their Wall Street-takedown movie Dumb Money in select theaters. The biographical comedy-drama examines the GameStop stock controversy that erupted in early 2021, when a host of small-time investors tried to beat Wall Street at their own game.
Here’s the background: In the late 2010s, GameStop was a company comprising brick-and-mortar stores that sold video games, and thus was struggling under people’s increasing dependency on online shopping.
GameStop’s stock price declined significantly as more financial firms and hedge funds bet on it failing, but then in mid-2019, a large asset management firm acquired a stake in the company, signaling to investors that maybe there was more value in the stock than the market soothsayers thought.
Enter the investing subreddit /r/WallStreetBets, which was known for occasionally taking on meme stocks and offering its users information on high-risk, high-reward transactions. Many members of the subreddit, led by an investing influencer named Keith Gill, began buying up GameStop stock. This led to what’s called a “short squeeze” — driving a stock’s price up so fast that those betting against the company were forced to sell their shares to cover the losses they were experiencing.
Things got pretty dramatic in Jan. 2021, when the short squeeze resulted in myriad hedge funds and other financial service companies losing billions. While much of the short squeeze was driven by small, personal investors, other funds also got in on the action.
By Jan. 28, 2021, the GameStop stock was valued at $500 per share, roughly thirty times what it was at the beginning of the month. At that point, many brokerages (such as Robinhood and other investing apps) stopped buying the stock, which triggered criticisms of market manipulation.
Congress then began investigating Robinhood and the various hedge funds that were involved. And, well, we won’t spoil the ending.
Why was Dumb Money given an R rating?
In case you were thinking of taking your kids to see a movie about the little guys sticking it to the Wall Street gatekeepers, you might want to put that plan on the back burner. According to IMDb, the film is rated R for “pervasive language, sexual material, and drug use.”
If you want more details about the rating, Kids-In-Mind.com has provided a rather elaborate post-mortem. They note that Dumb Money features:
“…a kissing scene, two fully nude men running on a track (their genital areas are not evident), many scenes of people arguing and feeling anxious about losing money, a scene of a man smoking marijuana and another of someone snorting cocaine, and over 100 F-words, and other strong language.”
The film’s cast includes Paul Dano, Pete Davidson, Nick Offerman, America Ferrera, Seth Rogan, Vincent D’Onofrio, Sebastian Stan, and Shailene Woodley. And if you’re Stateside but not in a major city, don’t worry: The film releases wide on Sept. 29.
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Many Star Wars fans know who he is, but what they may not know is that the entire fate of Star Wars rested in his capable hands — literally.
Episode 2 of the Disney Plus series Light & Magic reveals just how much conceptual designer and illustrator Ralph McQuarrie meant to Lucas’ story ever being told.
“I am not the greatest writer in the world,” George Lucas admits on-camera, acknowledging that if Star Wars was going to see the light of day, he’s need some talented collaborators.
His writerly shortfalls became evident to Lucas when his pitches to multiple studios were rejected. “I’d taken a proposal to a couple of studios,” he explained, “and they turned it down. They were confused by it.”
To make matters worse, Lucas explained, studios were not exactly jumping at the opportunity to make a science fiction movie. Lucas points out that in the early 1970s, sci-fi generally did not do well at the box office.
“I didn’t think I was ever going to get the picture off the ground and I was rewriting it. I took it to every studio in town, and everybody turned it down. I was getting pretty desperate but once I decide I’m going to do something, I just don’t let anything stop me.”
Bound by his determination and unwilling to give up, the budding director needed a new direction. His film American Graffiti was doing well both critically and financially, but that didn’t seem to change the minds of those who heard his space opera pitch. The fact that he had a proven track record but couldn’t get traction surely caused more frustration for him.
Luckily, Lucas recognized that while he intended the film be a visual as well as a storytelling delight, he wasn’t much of an artist either. His drawings were very amateurish and simple; good for getting a point across, but they weren’t going to impress anybody. Put it this way; he had a killer stick figure game, but his movie pitches were obviously in need of some seriously eye-popping accompanying artwork to convey his vision.
That’s when he reminded himself that “a picture is worth a thousand words,” and realized he needed to collaborate with a visual artist. After all, studioes were not intrigued listening to Lucas talk about “robots and wookies” and not knowing what they looked like. This realization led to the single most important moment in Lucas’ vision coming to life, and suddenly changed the fate of Star Wars from a good idea doomed to never see the light of day, to a dream made a reality.
As Lucas puts it, “I hired an illustrator, Ralph McQuarrie, to draw the characters that I had done.” Even more crucial to the process, Lucas was so inspired by McQuarrie’s illustrations and paintings, he says, that seeing the finished works actually inspired him to keep working on the story.
McQuarrie claims that after Lucas came over with the script, he wasted no time embarking on some concept paintings. “I started on it the same day. I really got into it right away.”
The success of American Graffiti earned Lucas a pitch with Fox Studio exec Alan Ladd, Jr. During that pitch, Lucas claims that once Ladd saw McQuarrie’s drawings, he was hooked. Ladd loved the visuals, and believed in Lucas’ passion for the story. That’s all he needed to sign Lucas to a deal.
And, thus, Star Wars could be made. The challenges in actually making it certainly created some doubt as to whether it would live up to George’s vision and, for that matter, McQuarrie’s visuals. Funny enough, McQuarrie himself didn’t actually think the movie would ever get made. In the least, he thought if it did, then it still wouldn’t look quite like his paintings, because he couldn’t fathom a studio being able to afford pulling off such a major project.
McQuarrie was happy to be wrong, however. He has since gone on to be one of the most revered people associated with Star Wars, and his seemingly countless paintings later inspired other Star Wars projects and continued to be the visual basis of future films in the saga.
McQuarrie passed away in 2012, at the age of 82.
Without McQuarrie, we’re likely denied the tale of Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Han Solo, and the greatest galactic war of all time.
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Henry Cavill has had quite the past 10 years. Since becoming Superman in 2013’s Man of Steel, the British actor has headed up numerous other high-profile projects, including various DC sequels and a bevy of reboots and sequels. Unfortunately, Cavill’s success rate at the box office is not all that great. For every Mission: Impossible – Fallout, there’s a The Man from U.N.C.L.E. And for every Batman v Superman, there’s a Black Adam. Cavill will likely be keen to buck this troubling trend with his new spy thriller, Argylle.
Unfortunately, in the process, Cavill might’ve made the perfect MCU role for him obsolete. Throughout its production, director Matthew Vaughn had kept a lid on what the big hook of his latest movie was, with the cat finally being let out of the bag (very literally, in this case) with the new trailer. You see, Cavill’s titular secret agent Argylle is actually a fictional character, created by Bryce Dallas Howard’s novelist. The trailer promises Argylle will be a fun, fresh spin on a well-worn genre. If only it didn’t mean Cavill can’t be the Sentry now.
Henry Cavill’s Argylle and Marvel’s Sentry have something in common
Images via Marvel Comics/Netflix
For years, comic book fans have wanted Cavill to play one of Marvel’s many Superman analogues in the MCU, with the Sentry being a popular suggestion — probably in part thanks to the Sentry’s long blonde hair resembling Geralt of Rivia’s white wig. Sentry is an interesting character as he was introduced as a middle-aged, overweight man named Robert Reynolds who discovers his whole life is a fiction and he’s really the superhero Sentry, who has had previously had his mind wiped.
Going by the Argylle trailer, the story is bound to go in a very self-aware direction, with it even being teased that Argylle is a real person, not just a fictional character. Hey, it’s possible Howard’s Ellie Conway is the real Argylle and her mind has been wiped of her past, much like Sentry. With Vaughn’s film set to touch on many of the same themes as the superhero’s story, then, it seems unlikely Cavill would be drawn to retreading old ground in the MCU. So maybe cross this one off your fan-cast lists, guys.
Of course, rumors have it that Steven Yeun could be playing a reimagined Sentry in Thunderbolts anyways, so it might all work out for the best as it is. Cavill’s career has taught us that he’s keen to constantly try new things, so he’s probably not all that interested in simply playing a Superman-alike in the MCU to start with.
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