Jacob Hall
SNL Makes Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren an ‘Undercover Boss’ on Starkiller Base
With Star Wars: The Force Awakens star Adam Driver hosting 2016’s first episode of SNL, a Kylo Ren sketch of some kind was inevitable. After all, you don't get the actor who plays the villain in one of the biggest movies of all time to appear on your comedy variety show and not have him reprise that character. And we'll give the show this much: we never would have predicted a faux episode of Undercover Boss set on Starkiller Base, with the angry, murderous Kylo Ren going undercover amongst his troops as a radar technician named Matt.
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘The Perfect Guy’ and ‘The Visit’ Come Out Swinging
After September opened with a whimper, we were prepared for a dull couple of weeks. It looks like we shouldn’t have been so quick to judge. The one-two punch of The Perfect Guy and The Visit have suddenly made the least interesting month of the year interesting, opening big and opening close enough to one another to make for an interesting race. In the slower movie months, weekends like these are rare treats.
Tom Cruise is Talking About ‘Edge of Tomorrow 2’ and All is Right With the World
Edge of Tomorrow — the best summer blockbuster of 2014 — may have underwhelmed at the domestic box office, but it’s difficult to find anyone who actually watched it who didn’t have a great time with it. So when Tom Cruise starts teasing a potential sequel that will reunite him and Emily Blunt for another round of time-traveling, alien-shooting, heavy-armor-wearing, yoga-posing awesomeness, our ears perk up. Yes please, we would like an Edge of Tomorrow 2.
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Pixels’ Can’t Catch ‘Ant-Man’
At the time of this writing, early estimates for the weekend box office have Ant-Man edging out Pixels for the top spot in this week’s top 10. That could change. With less than $1 million separating the films, Pixels may very well slide into first place tomorrow, winning one very close competition. But even if it does claim ultimate victory, it doesn’t change the fact that Pixels’ opening weekend is a massive disappointment and another nail in the coffin of Adam Sandler’s career.
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Minions’ Takes Over the World
Universal was already bathing in its Furious 7 and Jurassic World money Scrooge McDuck-style before Minions opened this week. Now the studio is looking at its third truly massive hit of the year, a run that feels nearly unprecedented. Universal already released two of the biggest movies of all time within the past four months, and now it’s looking like it may have three.
‘The Good Dinosaur’ Trailer: Pixar Rewrites History With a Charming Adventure
Like all of Pixar’s teaser trailers, the first preview for The Good Dinosaur is all about mood, emphasizing a distinct feeling over characters and plot. But as the title implies, it’s really all about dinosaurs. Colorful, adorable dinosaurs who, thanks to director Peter Sohn and the Pixar braintrust, aren’t wiped out by an apocalyptic asteroid 66 million years ago and live on to have all kinds of adventures. Take that, science!
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘American Sniper’ Continues Its January Onslaught
In most years, January tends to be the most boring month of the year for the box office. This is where Hollywood typically sends the movies in which it has the least faith. This is the dumping ground, the place where movies go to die so the studios can concentrate on their Oscar campaigns. However, thanks to ‘American Sniper,’ this January has bucked every trend. It may technically be a 2014 release, but Clint Eastwood’s war film has made the first chunk of 2015 interesting, shattering expectations and threatening to become the highest grossing film of last year in only a few weeks.
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘American Sniper’ Takes Out ‘Blackhat’
A lot of people are going to act like they didn’t see the enormous success of ‘American Sniper’ coming, but the signs were all there. On top of the promising limited release numbers, there was the awards buzz. On top of that, there were the names of director Clint Eastwood and star Bradley Cooper. On top of that, the subject matter of the film is inherently attractive to the same category of moviegoer that makes Christian-themed films into massive hits. ‘American Sniper’ had one doozy of a weekend, but it’s not that surprising.
Hackers Demand Sony Halts the Release of ‘The Interview’…Or Else
Unlike previous messages, this one actually has demands outside of vague, frightening threats: Sony must delay the release of ‘The Interview,’ “the movie of terrorism,” or face the consequences.
Our Worst Fears Realized; They’re Turning the Universal Monsters Into Superheroes
The likes of Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolf Man have no business aping the Marvel “shared universe” structure in the first place. They're monsters! Let them monster! Any of our well-intentioned blogging-into-the-wind was too little, too late because the head of Universal has pretty much come and out said that they're taking the horror out of their horror icons.
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Gone Girl’ Vanquishes the Competition
'Gone Girl' may have barely won its first weekend at the box office over 'Annabelle,' but in its second week of release, it emerged as the real victor. Fighting off tons of new competition, David Fincher's thriller held onto the number one spot and made it look easy.
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘The Maze Runner’ Outpaces Liam Neeson’s ‘A Walk Among the Tombstones’
Young adult movies are big business. 'The Maze Runner' took over the box office this weekend, proving that the audience for films were young people in science fiction dystopias are forced into violent and terrible predicaments extends beyond the 'Hunger Games' franchise.