Chris

Patrick Swayze was one of a kind. He’s the only actor I can think of who was as comfortable cutting a rug on the dance floor as demolishing a room full of bad guys with his fists of fury. When he passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2009, we lost an icon who was never really recognized as the legend he is in his time. In the years since many Patrick Swayze movies have become cult favourites, and with a Road House remake recently a hit, we decided now would be a good time to pick the five best Patrick Swayze movies. 

Red Dawn (1984) 

John Millius’s cold war “what if” thriller goes down in the history books as the first-ever PG-13 movie. It was also Patrick Swayze’s first major leading role, with him best known up to this point for a supporting role in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders. Here, he plays the young leader of a rag-tag group of local teens – including Charlie Sheen, The Outsiders co-star C. Thomas Howell, and future Dirty Dancing co-star Jennifer Grey – who become a deadly militia when the Soviets opt to kick off World War III in their small town. It sounds much sillier than it is, with this a pretty grim (but still butt-kicking) depiction of young people forced to become old before their time to defend their homes. The remake of this was God-awful.

Dirty Dancing (1987)

Of all the Patrick Swayze movies on this list, Dirty Dancing was the one that made him one of the biggest stars of the eighties. While he’s about fifteen years too old to be playing the young Johnny Castle, the bad boy dance instructor at the Catskills resort visited by our heroine, “Baby” (Jennifer Grey), the energy and charisma he brings to the role makes us forget all that. This movie not only made him a movie star but also a pop star, with his song off the soundtrack, “She’s Like The Wind,” rocketing up the charts.

Road House (1989)

While Swayze could have just stuck to romantic movies, he opted to branch out into action, and did so brilliantly with Road House. While it’s a cult sensation now, the truth of the matter was that this movie wasn’t a box office hit in 1989 and was widely mocked. Oh, how the times have changed. I stand by including this on my recent list of the 25 Greatest Action Movies Ever.

Ghost (1990)

While one of his biggest box office hits, of all of Patrick Swayze’s movies on this list, I daresay this is the most underrated. People have forgotten what a powerful romantic thriller this is, with some really nifty genre elements, worked into this story of a ghost (Swayze) trying to solve his own murder. Demi Moore is gorgeous as his true love, while Whoopi Goldberg steals the show as the con-artist psychic helping him. It’s crazy that this came from one of the directors of The Naked Gun (Jerry Zucker), with the climactic scenes of the bad guys being dragged to hell, kicking and screaming pretty gnarly.

Point Break (1991)

Without a doubt, Point Break is the best Patrick Swayze movie on this list. Like Road House, it’s one of the greatest action movies of all time, and Swayze is cast against type as the movie’s bad guy, a surfing zen master bank robber named Bodhi. One of the reasons this movie works as well as it does is that even though you know Bodhi is the guy Keanu Reeves’ FBI agent Johnny Utah is after, you don’t want to believe it’s true. He’s so likable that you are actually rooting against Utah, to a point, and to me, their chemistry is a huge part of the movie’s appeal. 

Of course, those aren’t the only great Patrick Swayze movies, with Steel Dawn (1987), Next of Kin (1989), City of Joy (1992), To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995), Black Dog (1998), Donnie Darko (2001), One Last Dance (2003) – which was directed by his wife Lisa Niemi – and many others all being well worth checking out. Do you agree with our picks? Let us know in the comments what you think are the best Patrick Swayze movies!

The post The Best Patrick Swayze Movies: Five of Our Favorites appeared first on JoBlo.

Christmas movies are numerous and greatly vary in quality and entertainment value, to put it mildly. For every great one, there are dozens, if not hundreds of disposable, Hallmark-style movies. But, there are no shortage of great holidays picks to entertain you and your family during a holiday season movie marathon, so here are some of our own personal Christmas classics!

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) 

Originally, this film wasn’t exactly beloved. Critics were unimpressed, and audiences responded with little enthusiasm. Over time, however, it has become a family holiday favorite, revisited year after year. What began as a modest release has evolved into a cult classic, ultimately circling back to become a major success for Jim Henson Studios (and Disney, which now owns it). Much of what makes the film so special is its blend of whimsy and sincerity, anchored by Michael Caine’s classic performance. He plays his role with complete seriousness and conviction, despite being surrounded by Muppets. That contrast, his grounded intensity set against the playful puppetry, creates a kind of magic that could only exist in the Muppets universe. The music has become a staple of many people’s holiday soundtracks, and the imagery remains enchanting. There’s something deeply comforting about having a “whatever” and a rat, or Gonzo and Rizzo, narrate the story of Scrooge while bickering about food.

Elf (2003) 

This is the film that arguably made Will Ferrell the biggest comedy star of the 2000s. While proclaiming your love for it may feel cliché now, it’s genuinely great. Beneath all the silliness and chaos, somewhere between Will Ferrell as North Pole resident in yellow tights and a department store that looks suspiciously like Macy’s, there’s a story rooted in love, hope, and Christmas cheer. The movie is unapologetically over-the-top, but that excess is exactly what makes it work. Its comedy is layered with wordplay, absurdity, and physical gags, offering something for everyone. Is it a bit much? Not at all! It’s a whole lot of “much,” and it’s perfect that way. David Berenbaum’s writing and Jon Favreau’s direction reveal a clear understanding that Christmas doesn’t look the same for everyone, yet it always centers on hope and connection. Ultimately, the film is a joyful celebration of family, classic holiday spirit, Santa, and pure, silly nonsense, guaranteed to leave viewers happier than when they started. It’s the ideal movie to kick off the season, or to watch first thing on Christmas morning with hot cocoa by the fire.

Batman Returns (1992) 

Released the same year as The Muppet Christmas Carol, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and several other holiday staples, this film stands apart as a darker classic, one that still inspires devotion more than 30 years later. Its appeal lies in that unusual blend of holiday atmosphere and shadowy tone. It isn’t a horror film, but it is a comic book movie filtered through Tim Burton’s unmistakable style, complete with Danny Elfman’s now-iconic score. It’s the perfect choice for those moments when the cheer and carols become overwhelming, when you want to step outside tradition without giving up nostalgia or quality filmmaking. The story itself is familiar: Batman faces two of his most iconic adversaries, Catwoman and the Penguin. Set against a Christmas backdrop, however, the film becomes something altogether stranger: dark, gothic, and deliberately uncheerful. There’s little warmth or hope here, and that’s exactly the point. The result is a perfect anti–Christmas Christmas movie, offering a moody alternative to the season’s usual sentimentality.

Go (1999) 

A Best Movie You Never Saw pick, this is one you can throw on and party like it’s 1999. Go is a film that often flies under the radar, yet it’s a fantastic holiday-adjacent party movie set during Christmas. One of its biggest draws is the cast, which alone is enough to bring viewers back, or to convince them to watch it for the first time. The ensemble includes Sarah Polley, Katie Holmes, Timothy Olyphant, Taye Diggs, James Duval, Jay Mohr, Scott Wolf, and plenty of other familiar faces. The film weaves together three interconnected storylines, which can feel a bit chaotic at first, but everything clicks together by the end, turning the experience into an exhilarating, highly enjoyable ride. It’s packed with everything from Christmas music to a Vegas trip, a drug deal gone wrong, raves, a hit-and-run, and even an MLM scheme. There’s so much happening that it rewards repeat viewings. The cast is uniformly excellent, and their performances are a big part of what makes the film so fun to watch. As a drug-fueled ensemble movie set around the holidays, Go is especially appealing for anyone not in the mood for traditional Christmas fare; you get a wild, energetic film with just enough seasonal flavor to ease you into the holidays without beating you over the head with them.

Die Hard (1988) 

“It’s not Christmas until I see Hans Gruber falling off Nakatomi Plaza” has become a familiar refrain online over the past few years… and honestly, it’s hard to argue with. Die Hard is now inseparable from the holiday season, as synonymous with Christmas as it is with corporate holiday parties. It’s one of those films that feels just right as an annual watch, and there’s something especially satisfying about seeing the villain get his comeuppance this time of year. The movie blends high-octane action with Christmas music in a way that treats the holiday less as the point and more as the backdrop; a festive setting for a hostage crisis and a reluctant hero’s rise. Few films pull off that balance as well as Die Hard. Bruce Willis is at his best here, delivering the gruff, weary hero performance that would become his trademark. He’s terrific, and the film remains endlessly entertaining whether it’s your first viewing or your hundredth. At this point, it’s a bona fide classic, perfect for cutting through the nonstop loop of “Last Christmas” and “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Some people still insist Die Hard isn’t a Christmas movie. They’re wrong.

A few runners-up here are The Long Kiss Goodnight, Scrooged, 3615 Code Père Noël, Treevenge, The Brentwood Strangler, and Shazam! Which are your Christmas classics, your must-watch movies this time of year? 

The post 5 Great Christmas Movies to Watch This Weekend appeared first on JoBlo.

‘Tis the season to watch holiday horror, so we here at Arrow in the Head have decided to compile a list of the Best Christmas Horror Movies! All of the films below are, at the very least, set around Christmastime, and some of them take the connection to the holidays further than that. Here are the top 12 horror movies (you know, because of the whole “12 Days of Christmas” thing) that we recommend checking out over the next week:

I COME IN PEACE (1990)

It’s easy to forget that I Come in Peace (a.k.a. Dark Angel) is set around the Christmas holiday, because Christmas is mostly just represented by some set decorations – and you’re distracted from those decorations by all the awesome stuff going on around them. Dolph Lundgren stars as Jack Caine, a Houston detective who doesn’t play by the rules. He’s stuck working with stuffy, suit-wearing FBI agent Larry Smith (Brian Benben), and these two have to put their differences aside to take down a hulking alien (played by Matthias Hues) who tosses razor sharp discs and extracts endorphins from human brains to synthesize a drug he’ll be selling on his home planet. The movie may not be Christmasy enough to watch on December 25th, but it’s definitely December viewing material.

DIAL CODE SANTA CLAUS (1989)

First screened in 1989, director Rene Manzor’s French horror film Dial Code Santa Claus didn’t reach North America until 2018 – at which time genre fans found out that a strange gem of a movie had been kept from them for nearly thirty years. Patrick Floersheim plays a store Santa who’s fired for slapping a child, so he decides to break into his former boss’s home. Unfortunately for him, the boss’s young son Thomas (Alain Lalanne) happens to be a little badass who idolizes Stallone and Schwarzenegger, and the home is a palace with booby-traps and hidden passageways. Although the kid believes the intruder is the real Santa, he doesn’t hold back when trying to protect himself and his elderly grandfather.

ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE (2017)

A “Christmas zombie outbreak musical” doesn’t sound very appealing, as you might expect it to be packed with terrible comedy and songs that are just as bad, but somehow director John McPhail took the concept and made an excellent movie. Anna and the Apocalypse is a great zombie horror comedy (with some scenes involving the zombies that are legitimately emotionally devastating) that also happens to be packed with awesome songs… a few of which you might even end up listening to between viewings of the movie. This was based on a short by Ryan McHenry, the person behind the “Ryan Gosling Won’t Eat His Cereal” meme. Sadly, McHenry passed away at a much too young age before Anna and the Apocalypse went into production.

GREMLINS (1984)

One of the most popular movies of the 1980s happens to be a horror movie with a Christmas setting. Director Joe Dante clearly had a lot of fun setting loose an army of little creatures (brought to life with some incredible special effects) in the small, snowbound town of Kingston Falls. These maniacal monsters were accidentally spawned from one of the most adorable fictional creatures ever put on screen, a furry fellow named Gizmo, who helps his buddy Billy (Zach Galligan) try to rid Kingston Falls of his gremlin offspring before they ruin Christmas for everybody. Gremlins is a lot of fun and the special effects are still impressive to this day, nearly forty years later. Even when they’re not fully convincing, they’re still charming.

P2 (2007)

Produced and co-written by genre regular Alexandre Aja, director Franck Khalfoun’s P2 was a box office failure when it was released in 2007 (that bland title surely didn’t do it any favors) and it still feels like not enough horror fans have seen this one. Wes Bentley and Rachel Nichols turn in great performances in the lead roles, with Bentley playing a parking garage security guard who takes Nichols’ character captive on Christmas Eve, imagining he’ll be spending a romantic night with her. Instead it turns out to be quite an intense night, full of thrills, violence, and bloodshed. If you’ve liked Aja’s other works (Haute Tension, Crawl, etc.), it’s highly recommended that you check out P2 this holiday season.

KRAMPUS (2015)

After delivering an instant genre classic with his Halloween anthology Trick ‘r Treat, director Michael Dougherty set his sights on making a Christmas horror movie. The result was Krampus, which doesn’t seemed to be quite as popular as Trick ‘r Treat but does have its own solid fanbase. The story is about a family that has lost the Christmas spirit being tormented by the demon Krampus and its minions – including masked elves, living gingerbread cookies, a ravenous jack-in-the-box, and violent toys. The movie draws complaints about pacing issues and an unsatisfying ending, but there are a lot of fun ideas in it, and Dougherty assembled an impressive cast that includes Toni Collette, Adam Scott, David Koechner, Allison Tolman, and Conchata Ferrell.

SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (1984)

Silent Night, Deadly Night stirred up a lot of controversy when it was first released, and protests by parents who were appalled to see a movie about a killer Santa Claus were successful in getting the film pulled from theatres. They couldn’t stop it from achieving cult classic status, though. An out-of-character film for director Charles E. Sellier Jr., the creator of Grizzly Adams, this disturbing slasher is full of bloodshed, bare breasts, and awful people. When young Billy (Robert Brian Wilson) puts on a Santa costume and embarks on a killing spree, you fully understand why this is happening, because we’ve seen him being pushed to the breaking point by one terrible thing after another.

CHRISTMAS EVIL (1980)

It’s odd that people were so shocked and appalled by the idea of Silent Night, Deadly Night when you take into account that it wasn’t the first movie with a killer Santa Claus (or the second). In fact, just four years earlier director Lewis Jackson had brought us a killer Santa movie called Christmas Evil, about a Santa-obsessed man named Harry (Brandon Maggart, father of Fiona Apple) who comes to believe that he is Santa. On Christmas Eve, he drives around delivering gifts to the deserving children, delivering dirt to naughty kids, and murdering adults that have wronged him. This movie may put off some viewers with its slow burn style, but others absolutely love it: John Waters has called Christmas Evil the greatest Christmas movie ever made.

INSIDE (2007)

Silent Night, Deadly Night may be the most controversial movie on this list, but Inside (or À l’intérieur) is the most brutal. The debut feature from the French filmmaking duo of Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury, Inside is about a mysterious woman (Béatrice Dalle) invading the home of a pregnant widow (Alysson Paradis) on Christmas Eve – and a deeply disturbing bloodbath ensues. Bustillo and Maury don’t show their characters or the viewer any mercy, and there are things in this movie that even massive fans of the horror genre might find off-putting. It’s a great Christmas horror movie, but Inside isn’t exactly a fun one to sit through. Bustillo and Maury got their feature filmmaking career off to a hell of a start.

BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974)

Director Bob Clark gifted the world with two Christmas classics over the course of his career, and they couldn’t be more different from each other. One is the family-friendly A Christmas Story from 1983, and the other is 1974’s Black Christmas, a very dark and intensely creepy film about an insane stalker targeting the residents of a sorority house. He torments them with obscene phone calls, and between calls commits murders. There are some laughs to be had while watching Black Christmas, but overall it’s quite grim and Clark brought the story (partially inspired by an urban legend involving a babysitter – you know the one) to the screen in a masterful way. This one of the best horror movies ever made, and it’s worth watching every holiday season. There were remakes in 2006 and 2019, but ’74 remains the best.

A CHRISTMAS HORROR STORY (2015)

Fans of the Halloween-set werewolf film Ginger Snaps are encouraged to check out A Christmas Horror Story because this anthology happens to be set in Bailey Downs, the same small town where Ginger Snaps took place. Directors Brett Sullivan, Grant Harvey, and Steve Hoban were also all involved with the Ginger Snaps trilogy: Sullivan edited the first and directed the second, Harvey was second unit director on the first and directed the third, and Hoban produced all three. With A Christmas Horror Story, they bring us tales of a haunted school, a changeling, Krampus, and zombie elves. In the midst of all this, we also have William Shatner as an alcoholic radio DJ. This may not work as well as Ginger Snaps, but it’s still a good time.

BETTER WATCH OUT (2016)

The less you know about director Chris Peckover’s Better Watch Out before you watch it, the more you’ll get out of it. The film stars Levi Miller as 12-year-old Luke, who has a major crush on his 17-year-old babysitter Ashley (Olivia DeJonge). Ashley is watching Levi one night around Christmas when a masked person toting a shotgun busts in to ruin their night… And things get really crazy from there. This movie has some great, unexpected twists and turns as the story plays out, and every member of the cast (which also includes Ed Oxenbould, Aleks Mikic, Dacre Montgomery, Patrick Warburton, and Virginia Madsen) turns in a terrific performance. Better Watch Out is a pleasantly surprising film that very much deserves Christmastime viewings.

Are these some of the best Christmas horror movies out there? If there’s any you think we missed, like Santa’s Slay or Rare Exports, sound off below!

The post The Best Christmas Horror Movies: From Gremlins to Black Christmas! appeared first on JoBlo.

If you’re one of the many folks who have watched Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3, you no doubt wiped away a tear or ten when you watched Rocket Raccoon’s tragic backstory play out. But, is his origin the most tragic MCU Original of them all? Indeed, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has dominated cinema for the past decade and a half and has given audiences some of the most memorable on-screen moments in history. Fans have developed close personal relationships with the heroes and characters to the point that they feel as if they’re real people existing in the real world. While that may not be true, it’s still a testament to how emotionally powerful the MCU has become that it allows audiences to empathize and care about completely fictional beings. In that light, part of being a hero (and part of what we love and empathize the most with them) is that it inherently comes with sacrifice, and because of this some heroes end up having rougher upbringings than others. That reality especially holds true for the heroes of the Marvel movies as the majority of them have all suffered through hardships in order to become the heroes that fans love. So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at which of our beloved Marvel Comics-inspired heroes have had the hardest journeys right from the very beginning.

Honorable Mentions

As mentioned, the vast majority of MCU heroes all have some sort of tragic origin story – again, being a hero inherently comes with sacrifice. Remarkably, nearly all of these tragic origin stories can be broken down into four specific categories – captured/kidnapped, tortured/experimented on, loved ones dead/killed, and mind-controlled. Because of this system, we’ll be breaking down the worst scenarios of these categories that have happened to MCU heroes rather than covering every last one of them.

Spider-Man – everyone’s favorite web-slinger may be the epitome of “being a hero requires sacrifice” due to his being an orphan and the inevitable death of Uncle Ben, and it absolutely is a tragic origin story. But the reality of the MCU is that there are several other characters who have for more tragic beginnings than Peter Parker, a child genius who was given access to Stark tech at age 15.

America Chavez – the multiverse jumper could have also potentially made the list, but unfortunately we still don’t know a whole lot about her origins – all we know is that she got stung by a bee and it scared her so much that she blasted her parents through a multiverse-portal. However, if her parents turn out to be alive and well, her origins become far less tragic.

Eternals – super-powered beings that were created for the sole purpose of protecting planets that were ultimately doomed in order for more Celestials to be born. Say what you will, but being created and forced to live for thousands upon thousands of years, making countless relationships with people you protect on a daily basis, all for the sake of that planet being destroyed because of your efforts, is indeed tragic.

Tony Stark – to be fair, Tony could have easily made this list. He was captured and tortured and forced to build the very first Iron Man suit from a box of scraps while he watched Yinsen die while aiding his escape. That being said, he was also a playboy genius who was born into a well-off family and sold weapons that made it into the hands of terrorists and was initially only motivated by atoning for said mistake so…

Silvie – the Loki variant who is arguably the most responsible for the multiverse being completely out of whack is somehow almost justified. Sylvie may have plunged her dagger into He Who Remains’ chest, but she was also kidnapped as a child by the TVA with absolutely no explanation as to why, followed by her entire timeline (and everyone she knew and loved) getting pruned. Screwing up the entire multiverse may have been taking her revenge a step too far, but again, we get it.

Natasha & Yelena – anybody who knows anything about the Red Room and the Black Widow Program knows exactly how horrific and tragic Natasha and Yelena’s origins truly are. Add the bonus of Natasha and Yelena living the first several years of their lives acting like a happy family before being thrust into the program, and the only silver lining is that the two became the most bad-ass assassins in MCU history.

Peter Quill – the most tragic honorable mention undoubtedly goes to Star-Lord who honestly could make the official list. He watched his mother die from cancer as a child, only to be immediately kidnapped by Yondu and the Ravagers. The worst part is that Quill’s story has only gotten more tragic as he had to kill his father for killing his mother, followed by watching Yondu and Gamora die. At least Qull is finally trying to spend some family time with his Grandpa.

Scarlet Witch

The true first on our list of the most tragic origin stories shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone. Wanda Maximoff a.k.a. the Scarlet Witch has been a fan-favorite character in the MCU since her very first appearance. Unfortunately, one of the reasons she became an instant fan-favorite was because audiences could empathize with the pain and suffering that she had already endured at such a young age. She and her twin brother, Pietro, were forced to watch their parents die in a firebombing that ultimately almost cost them their own lives.

Of course the tragedy doesn’t end there as Wanda and Pietro then sacrificed themselves to become weapons of HYDRA in order to stop Tony Stark and the Avengers (the ones they held responsible for their parents deaths). They were tortured and experimented on using the Mind Stone, and while they did ultimately obtain super powers, it eventually came at the cost of Pietro’s life when they chose to ally with the Avengers and stop Ultron. Wanda’s story has only gotten harder since her earliest days, but it’s easy to to understand how her origin story is one of the most tragic in the world of Marvel Entertainment.

Bucky/The Winter Soldier

A list of MCU tragedies couldn’t exist without including the Winter Soldier. Bucky Barnes was Steve Rogers best friend and second-in-command during World War II, and seemingly met his end during their missions together when he plummeted to his death in a frozen tundra. Miraculously, Bucky survived the fall, but sadly fell into the hands of HYDRA and was tortured/experimented on by Arnim Zola. These experiments did conclude with Bucky becoming a super soldier in his own right, equipped with a nearly indestructible metal arm, but came at a hefty price.

Still held captive by HYDRA, Bucky was turned into the world’s greatest ghost-assassin, responsible for countless murders since the 1940s and obtaining the alias as The Winter Soldier in the process. In order for this process to continue, Bucky routinely had his brain turned into mush so that he would be easier to control and manipulate. Horrifically this went on all the way until Bucky was finally cured from the mind-control thanks to Shuri and the Wakandans, finally allowing Bucky to shed his murderous past. While The Winter Soldier may arguably have the greatest redemption arc in the MCU, it’s unquestionable that his origin story is a tragic one.

Nebula & Gamora

Picture Natasha and Yelena, and then make it way worse. While the Black Widow sisters were close to making this list, the daughters of Thanos completely blow them out of the water when it comes to tragic backstories. Most of Nebula’s origin story hasn’t been officially shown on the big screen, but audiences got to see exactly what Gamora went through during a flashback scene in Infinity War. In essence, Thanos was carrying out his plan of wiping out half of existing life when he came across Gamora’s home planet – he took her away from her parents, made her his adoptive daughter, and then proceeded to slaughter half the population (most likely including Gamora’s parents). Unfortunately, Gamora’s origins only become worse when she ultimately is killed by Thanos for the Soul Stone, simply because she was the only thing he ever loved. Kidnapped, turned into a weapon, then killed for it – that’s tragic.

Nebula’s origins may not have appeared on screen yet, but that doesn’t mean that fans haven’t been told how graphic and horrific her upbringing was. Just like Gamora, Nebula was taken by Thanos and became his adoptive daughter. Unfortunately, Nebula didn’t make Thanos as proud as Gamora did and he eventually replaced her entire organic body with machinery to try and make her a more deadly weapon. Technically it worked, as Nebula is an incredibly formidable foe, but that doesn’t make the origin story of being kidnapped and turned into a machine any less tragic.

Rocket Raccoon

The Guardians of the Galaxy can’t catch a break when it comes to how they became heroes. By far the most tragic origin story of the MCU (and arguably any other movie in history) is that of Rocket Raccoon. Beginning life as a defenseless fury creature on Earth, Rocket was captured by the High Evolutionary, along with a surplus of other creatures, and had torturous experiments done on him repeatedly. The process evolved Rocket from a simple raccoon into one of the smartest beings in the entire universe, but obviously came at the price of being torn apart and put back together over and over again.

Not only were these procedures graphic and inhumane, but salt was just added to the wound when Rocket became friends with the other creatures the High Evolutionary was experimenting on and learned that all of them were marked for death. In an attempt to escape, Rocket nearly freed himself and his friends (Lyla, Teefs and Floor), only to watch them all die at the hands of their creator. Again, all of these MCU heroes have had rough roads to travel and their origins are all far from happy, but there’s just something about capturing, experimenting on, and torturing a poor defenseless animal that makes Rocket’s origins story the most tragic in the entire MCU.

The post MCU: Which Heroes Have the Most Tragic Origin Stories? appeared first on JoBlo.

Chris

What are the greatest action movies of all time? It’s a controversial question, isn’t it? Any time any publication or site puts out a new list of what they consider the best action movies of all time, it can’t help but generate a ton of controversy. Nevertheless, we here at JoBlo have decided to throw our hats into the ring with a list we really hope generates some nostalgia among our viewers but also encourages them to seek out the movies on this list that they may not have seen. But first, some may wonder where superhero movies are on this list. Given how broad that genre is, we decided to stick to old-school action, so we have left them off the list, as they deserve their own ranking. There are also a few absences from the list, notably some Jackie Chan Hong Kong films (like Police Story), with those to follow in another planned list, so stay tuned! With that out of the way, here’s our Top 25 Greatest Action Movies Ever Made!

25. Hard Target (1993)

Jean-Claude Van Damme is one of the biggest action stars of all time, and Hard Target is his best action movie. Beautifully directed by John Woo in his American film debut, it’s not only gloriously violent and lovingly photographed, but it has one of the most memorable villains of all time, Lance Henriksen’s Emil Fouchon. It’s a take on the classic Most Dangerous Game formula, but it gives the heroes and villains equal screen time as they play out a game of cat and mouse, making it highly unique as an action film. One note – to fully appreciate this movie, you must see the uncensored, unrated version, which Kino recently reissued on Blu-ray.

24. Leon: The Professional (1994)

Luc Besson’s 1994 hitman drama ranks as one of the most stylish action movies ever made. Sporting a lush score by Eric Serra, and an iconic performance by Jean Reno as the titular “cleaner”, this one inspired many knockoffs. It also introduced the world to Natalie Portman, who plays Leon’s pseudo-daughter figure, Mathilda, who he helps avenge her family’s murder (Portman seems curiously mixed on the film now, though). Plus, Gary Oldman delivers the greatest villain performance of his career as cinema’s most iconically evil corrupt cop. 

23. Casino Royale (2006)

You can’t seriously do a list like this without including at least one James Bond movie. While I’d wager On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and maybe Goldfinger are better James Bond movies in terms of action, I think Martin Campbell made the best overall action film of the franchise with Casino Royale. It re-invented James Bond for the 21st century, and it is an excellent showcase for Daniel Craig. Once people saw him doing parkour, all doubts about his ability to carry the franchise were immediately put to rest.

22. Commando (1985)

Arnold Schwarzenegger became a star in Conan the Barbarian and The Terminator, but Commando changed his image from a killing machine to a more personable, loving variation. Sure, he still sends 137 souls to meet their maker, but he also establishes a loose persona as a caring dad that really changed the way people see him. Plus, Commando has some of the most creative carnage of all time packed into the insane climax. The woodshed scene alone is glorious.

21. Rambo: First Blood Part 2 (1985)

The Vietnam War was a psychic wound on America of this era, and I’m not sure contemporary audiences are aware of the cultural importance of Rambo: First Blood Part 2 in the United States throughout the eighties. Along with Commando, this was one of the first “one-man-army” movies and was endlessly imitated. It was also the second highest-grossing movie of 1985 and boosted Stallone into the stratosphere. It was also name-checked by the sitting president – Ronald Reagan – and, in some ways, paved the way for more serious examinations of the Vietnam War, such as Platoon. It’s also worth noting that the MIA issue was widely debated at the time, so of all the films on this list, it could be argued that this might be one of the most culturally significant ones. 

20. Top Gun (1986)

Tom Cruise’s Maverick is one of the most iconic movie characters ever. Rumour has it enlistment into the US Navy skyrocketed after this Tony Scott-directed masterpiece, which stars Cruise as the famously cocky pilot. From a stylistic standpoint, this might actually be the most influential film on the list – the only reason it’s this far down is that the action is mainly contained to aerial dogfights. You could also make a good case for the sequel, Top Gun: Maverick being one of the best action movies ever, too.

19. Road House (1989)

While some may chuckle at Road House’s inclusion on this list, it belongs here for several essential reasons. For one, it upends the era’s idea of an action hero. Many of the era’s biggest stars were monosyllabic types, but Patrick Swayze was different. His character, Dalton, is intelligent, stylish and cerebral, with a degree in philosophy and a low-key vibe that invites people to underestimate him – to their doom. But, the main reason Road House makes this list is that the fights in this movie feel real, with them the perfect antidote to the over-choreographed bouts that followed in its wake. In this one, people whack each other with tree trunks, and by the time it’s over, Swayze’s Dalton can barely stand. It’s a masterpiece of its kind (and we’re excited about the well-received remake, even if it will never replace the original in our hearts).

18. Beverly Hills Cop (1984)

Being an action hero isn’t all about brawn. Attitude has a lot to do with it, and there’s arguably never been a hero with more attitude than Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley. He’s not a muscle man, but he’s young and street-smart. What’s also great about this movie is how director Martin Brest allows the film to be hilarious but takes the action very seriously, especially towards the end. I also always liked that Axel becomes pals by the end with the real Beverly Hills Cops that initially antagonize him. I’m cautiously optimistic about the upcoming fourth film.

17. The John Wick Franchise (2014 -)

Granted, we’re cheating a bit with this one, but it’s pretty amazing how what started as a movie that nearly went to VOD became one of the biggest action franchises of the century. At the time this was made, Keanu Reeves was on the verge of becoming a DTV star, but this reinvented him for a new generation and gave him one of his most iconic characters to play – with him becoming the most iconic movie hitman since Chow Yun Fat ditched his guns. Chad Stahelski’s take on action choreography has been tremendously influential, with every action flick that comes out nowadays owing the franchise a sizeable debt. 

16. Kill Bill Volume 1 & 2 (2003, 2004)

Quentin Tarantino has made some incredible films, but in terms of action, none was more influential than his ode to Kung-Fu cinema, Kill Bill. The first volume alone has some of the most stylish and memorable action sequences of the last quarter century, including the iconic “Showdown at the House of Blue Leaves”. Each volume is half of a bigger whole, but in terms of action, performance, direction and music, I think a case that Kill Bill is one of the greatest action movies of all time can easily be made.

15. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Not every movie is a walk in the park, and it figures that sometimes, to get excellent results on the big screen, you need a little behind-the-scenes chaos. Indeed, Fury Road was a madhouse of a shoot, with the two stars, Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy, famously feuding. In the making of book, Blood, Sweat and Chrome, both look back at the complex making of the film with regret, with it seeming like no one ever knew exactly how much of a classic it would become, with Hardy especially noting how his head he was. The result on screen was arguably worth it. George Miller took decades to get a new Mad Max movie underway finally, and the result was widely considered one of the greatest movies of its kind ever made.

14. Point Break (1991)

In 1991, Point Break was considered another quite solid action movie. Still, like another movie starring Patrick Swayze on this list, its legacy grew over time, with it being one of the most quotable and rewatchable movies of all time. It helped make Keanu Reeves an action star, and it’s one of the best-directed studio films of the nineties, with Kathryn Bigelow’s movie ripped off over and over in the years to follow- most notably by The Fast and The Furious. There. We said it. Vin Diesel doesn’t have anything on Crazy Swayze. 

13. Predator (1987)

Fact: there has never been a more macho movie made than Predator. Think about it – you have Arnold Schwarzenegger, the late Carl Weathers, Jesse “The Body” Ventura, Bill Duke, crazy Sonny Landham, and the Predator! Even before the alien shows up, this would be up there with the greatest “men on a mission” movies ever made, but when suddenly the team starts getting picked off, and Arnold has to go mano-a-mano with his otherworldly foe, you know you’re watching a classic. Also, Predator pulls off a neat trick – it makes Schwarzenegger an underdog. This won’t be the last John McTiernan movie on this list.

12. First Blood (1982)

While Rambo 2 is maybe more impressive from a pure carnage standpoint, First Blood is devastating and arguably Sylvester Stallone’s best-ever movie after the original Rocky. John Rambo is a tragic character here, and the action, while lower-key than in the next film, will blow you away, such as his fantastic cliff-dive. There’s an incredible score by Jerry Goldsmith and Stallone’s astonishing action in the shattering climax. 

11. The Matrix (1999)

The only bad thing about The Wachowskis The Matrix is that it was so good a whole slew of movies tried to copy it, only for no one to do it quite as well. Even the Wachowskis were never quite able to nail a follow-up, with none of the sequels particularly good, even if they have their fans. The first is one of the best sci-fi action movies ever, with Keanu Reeves reinventing himself as Neo, one of the millennium-defining heroes.

10. The Raid (2011)

Audiences who saw Gareth Evans’ The Raid at its original TIFF Midnight Madness screening walked out of this one feeling like they’d just been hit by a freight train. The martial arts action movie was re-invented by this, and it’s an equally impressive sequel, with Iko Uwais showing off moves as we’d never really seen on the big screen before. The sequel, The Raid 2, is arguably just as good. We’re pretty excited to see Evans’ long-delayed Havoc, starring Tom Hardy, which should hit Netflix this year.

9. Lethal Weapon (1987)

While it’s not the first buddy-cop movie, this is the one that made it a genre unto itself. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover are perfectly cast as the iconic pals Riggs and Murtagh. Richard Donner’s lean and mean direction gives the movie a pulse. The (admittedly excellent) follow-ups come close to matching, but not quite. Gibson’s Riggs, in particular, feels like one of the few truly dangerous action heroes.

8. Robocop (1987)

Paul Verhoeven’s hyper-kinetic, ultra-violent future cop movie will never be equaled, so of course it has to be on a list of the greatest action movies. Peter Weller is iconic as the tragic Alex Murphy-turned-Robocop, and it’s one of the few movies on this list that no one could ever accuse of being dated. Everything about it is cutting edge, from the novel use of miniatures to the social commentary and the excellent score by Basil Poledouris.

7. Aliens (1986)

This is unique because it’s an action movie sequel to a tight horror flick. Everyone has their own opinion about whether James Cameron’s space actioner matches Ridley Scott’s original. Still, it remains one of the best sci-fi actioners ever made, with Sigourney Weaver our choice for the greatest heroine ever. Plus, the movie also has Michael Biehn in one of his best roles (Corporal Hicks), Bill Paxton, an amazing score by James Horner and more.

6. The Road Warrior (1981)

Some will say George Miller’s Fury Road is better, but for my money, nothing matches the intensity of The Road Warrior, which is shot without the benefit of CGI and any other bells and whistles. The vehicular carnage is fantastic, and Mel Gibson, like it or not, is the definitive Mad Max. It’s a rollercoaster ride of a movie. While one could argue that the first Mad Max film was more influential, Miller always considered it a rough draft of what he wanted to do with the franchise… and clearly what he wanted to do was to make some of the greatest action movies the audience had ever seen.

5. Enter the Dragon (1973)

Very few movies on this list are as influential as the final film made by the great Bruce Lee; this movie would have broken him through to a North American audience. Granted, his dying does add to the mystique, but boy, is this ever one of the best martial arts action movies ever made? With Enter the Dragon, I wonder if English-language martial arts action stars like JCVD or Steven Seagal would have ever happened. Simply put, Enter the Dragon gave North American audiences the appetite for martial arts mayhem.

4. Hard Boiled (1992)

John Woo was at the peak of his filmmaking abilities when he made this buddy cop action flick in Hong Kong, pairing Chow Yun-Fat’s rebellious cop, Tequila, with an undercover operative played by Tony Leung. The last forty minutes of this film have never been matched from a shoot-out standpoint. Someone once told Quentin Tarantino that “John Woo sure can direct an action sequence”, to which he replied, “yeah, and Michelangelo sure can paint a ceiling.” Watch Hard Boiled and see what he’s talking about.

3. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Steven Spielberg and George Lucas’s Ode to Adventure is the most iconic film of its kind, introducing us to the great Indiana Jones, played by Harrison Ford. What else can be said about the adventure masterpiece that hasn’t been said already? If you’ve never seen this movie in a theater, I urge you to go check it out if it ever plays near you. There’s something different about watching this movie with an audience in a theater, especially during the last hour, where it just goes from set-piece to setpiece. Also, has any action star ever thrown a better punch than Harrison Ford as Indy?

2. Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)

The best sequel of all time remains the last of its kind, being a huge budget action flick done in the old ways, with real explosions and real heart, with Schwarzenegger giving his most affecting performance as the cyborg who slowly learns the bittersweet truth about being human. Plus, Linda Hamilton as a newly musclebound Sarah Connor is one of the greatest action heroines. So many movies, including Terminator films, have tried to recapture the magic of this one, but have failed. It’s one of a kind, and definitely one of the greatest action movies.

1. Die Hard (1988)

What else could it be? Bruce Willis’s John McClane is the definitive action star, as he is a regular guy forced into action and wants to get home to his family for Christmas. Willis, Alan Rickman, the score, and everything else about this movie are iconic, but what makes it so great is that Willis isn’t a superhero but a man. Yes, it’s the best Christmas movie of all time, but it’s also – in our opinion (and that of many others) that it’s the greatest action film ever made.  

So, those are our picks for the twenty-five greatest action movies, but I’m sure there are titles we left off the list that you think belong on here with the others. Would you have included the Chow Yun Fat / Michelle Yeoh classic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)? Should the Jet Li / Maggie Cheung / Tony Leung film Hero (2002) have made the cut, or the Al Pacino and Robert De Niro pairing in Heat (1995)? Let’s discuss it in the comments!

The post What Are The 25 Greatest Action Movies of All Time? appeared first on JoBlo.

A while back, we posted a list of five forgotten actors we’d like to see make a comeback, and the reaction was so strong, we decided to post a bunch more! There’s a ton of forgotten actors from the 80s and 90s we’d love to have back on our screen, so let’s take a look at another group of them today. 

Kelly Jo Minter 

Let’s start with a horror favorite and a regular presence on the convention circuit: Kelly Jo Minter. Most folks will remember her from A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, The People Under the Stairs, and a slew of television appearances, plus the ’80s cult classic Summer School. She was everywhere for a while in the 1980s and 1990s, but over time her projects became fewer and farther between, with nothing released between 2008 and 2019, and nothing since. This actress is beloved by many, and she deserves a new role, or several of them. Minter has always been a talented performer with a screen presence that draws the eye; she stands out in everything she’s appeared in for all the right reasons, making her perfect for a return. Perhaps a return to horror, where so many genre stars have made comebacks in recent years, would be exactly what’s needed to bring her back for good.

Kerri Green 

From The Goonies, Kerri Green seems to be the only member of the main cast who is no longer active, and that’s a real shame. Sean Astin was recently seen alongside Winona Ryder in Stranger Things; Josh Brolin has had multiple roles in the MCU and remains incredibly busy; Martha Plimpton seems to be on television constantly; Ke Huy Quan is now an Oscar winner; Corey Feldman is doing his own thing; and Jeff Cohen is now an attorney (though we’d happily welcome him back, too). That leaves Kerri as the one who still needs a comeback. The fact that we haven’t seen her in anything since 2012, when she appears to have retired from acting, and that there was nearly a decade between that role and her previous one suggests she’s been largely forgotten by some, which feels almost criminal. In the 1990s, she appeared in several television series and one feature film. In the 1980s, she appeared in a handful of movies, beginning with the box-office hit The Goonies. Every little girl who watched that film wanted to be Andy, or at least be friends with her. She was the coolest.

Sasha Mitchell 

Most ’90s kids remember him as Cousin Cody on Step by Step, the guy living in a van behind the Lamberts’ house. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, he proved he could fight, launching a solid run as a lead in B-level action films. Sasha Mitchell’s best-known role is David Sloan in the Kickboxer series, where he worked with the late Albert Pyun. That franchise has since been rebooted and has had an uneven run over the years. His career has seen some notable highs, such as modeling for Herb Ritts, as well as some lows. He was quite active throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, with occasional film work since then, though very little in recent years. He has appeared in small roles in the feature films Assassin X and Drunk Parents, and according to IMDB, he does have another project on the way. With so many martial arts and action actors finding renewed success or better roles thanks to the steady stream of action films being produced each year, why not bring Sasha Mitchell back? He could even thrive in an action comedy, or perhaps an action romantic comedy. Truly a forgotten ’90s actor who deserves to be remembered.

Karyn Parsons 

Karyn Parsons became a star in the 1990s by playing Hilary Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The character even crossed over for appearances on Blossom and Out All Night. Prior to that breakout role, Parsons had already appeared in two films and two television series. Her career went on to include roles in Class Act, Major Payne, and The Ladies Man. More recently, she appeared in the short film On Monday of Last Week in 2018 and in the feature film Sweet Thing in 2020, as well as in the HBO Max Fresh Prince reunion special. However, that’s largely been it; nothing consistent between 2002 and now, nothing upcoming, nada. Parsons is charismatic, equally capable in comedy and drama, endlessly watchable, and undeniably talented, so why isn’t she constantly on our screens? If stepping away was a personal choice, that should of course be respected. But if it wasn’t, it’s long past time to fix that and bring her back. Parsons has a screen presence that fans deeply miss and one that would be warmly welcomed in today’s television landscape, comedy or otherwise, as well as in film. She made an indelible impression on Fresh Prince, and there’s no telling what kind of impact this forgotten ’90s actor could make with a proper big-screen comeback.

Ashley Bank 

Ashley Bank, who played Phoebe in The Monster Squad, was recently seen in Wolfman’s Got Nards, discussing her history with the film, its impact on fans, and the fans’ impact on the cast. In The Monster Squad, the child star played the little sister foisted on the group by her and Sean’s parents. She was adorable, full of goodness, and ultimately helped save the world. Quite a role for a girl her age. Bank was no newcomer, however. She had been acting since 1984, when she appeared on Cagney & Lacey, and she also appeared in A Smoky Mountain Christmas alongside Dolly Parton, all before becoming a favorite among horror fans as Phoebe. Since then, she has appeared in 13 television series, six films, and one documentary. Still, aside from Wolfman’s Got Nards and one film released in 2022, her output has been sparse between 2012 and now. She has always been talented and full of charm, and her recent appearances at The Monster Squad screenings show that she’s fantastic with crowds and genuinely kind. With both André Gower and Ryan Lambert remaining active, it’s time to see another movie starring Ashley Bank as well.

These are our additions to Actors We’d Love to See Make a Comeback. Who are yours? Keep in mind that we are talking about people who have been gone for a long time, and are due a major comeback. Someone like Bridget Fonda from Single White Female and Jackie Brown, or Jonathan Taylor Thomas from Home Improvement. Who does everyone seem to forget and you’d love to see back on your screen? Let us know in the comments!

The post Forgotten 90s Actors We’d Love to See Make a Comeback  appeared first on JoBlo.

Everyone loves a good shark movie. Ever since Jaws hit theaters and broke box office records in 1975, it’s been a reliable horror movie genre. Case in point: fifty years later, Jaws is still able to draw in a huge crowd, with it recently dominating the box office over star-studded, newer fare. But, in the wake of Spielberg’s movie, cinemas (and home video) were flooded with Jaws knockoffs, which continue to this day. Here are the best ones:

Z​ombie (1979)

O​k. Already I’m cheating, but I mean . . . come on. This has one of the best shark scenes in cinematic history. During an early scene of the movie, a woman decides to go for a swim in the lovely Caribbean waters when a tiger shark appears. As she hides among some of the terrain on the ocean floor, she quickly finds she is not alone. A zombie has found his way into the depths. As she swims away, the zombie turns its attention to the shark. What ensues is one of the greatest shark fights on film, and it involves a real shark.

M​ako: Jaws Of Death (1976)

T​his movie has a little bit of everything. Vietnam war veterans, evil strip club owners, and telepathic connections to sharks. What more do you need? Sonny is in Vietnam and is saved by a mako shark as he is being stalked by the enemy. He decides he loves sharks and is given a magic medallion by a shaman that lets him telepathically communicate with his beloved creatures. When he moves to Florida, he runs afoul of the owner of a local aquarium and a strip club owner who wants to use sharks in one of his acts. They try to convince Sonny to use his powers to help them, but instead, he declares war on those that try to hurt them. Ironically, for a movie that’s pro-shark, many of the tactics used off screen during filming were cruel, with sharks having had their teeth removed prior to filming.

Great White aka The Last Shark (1981):

This Italian-made Jaws-rip-off was a smash hit. It made $18 million and probably would have made a lot more, were it not for the fact that Universal Studios actually sued the American distributor to have it pulled from theaters. For the longest time, this was unavailable in the U.S, but now you can see the Italian release version, The Last Shark, online. While some may wonder, after seeing it, why Universal sued, part of the reason is the original score the American distributor commissioned for the film. It was very, very closely patterned on what John Williams wrote for Jaws, and isn’t available on any currently existing version of the film.

S​harknado (2013)

The cheesy shark film that started a phenomenon! This low-budget horror film seemed destined to follow the other such films that end up on the SyFy Channel, but this one caught on with audiences who fell in love. There ended up being six of these films made over five years. You don’t need to be in deep water for there to be a shark attack, but in this movie you don’t even need to be in the water at all. A freak weather accident causes a hurricane off the coast of Los Angeles and picks up a load of deadly great white sharks. It drops them on the unsuspecting public as the city is drenched. Finley has to fight his way to Beverly Hills to make sure his family is safe. The cultural impact of this movie immediately made it one of the best shark movies.

Deep Blue Sea (1999)

Another tale that proves that humans should not genetically meddle with ultimate killing machines in research facilities. Scientists in an underwater laboratory begin altering the DNA of a group of mako sharks. Now they are larger and way more intelligent than they should be. The group funding the project show up to question if it should move forward, but they all end up trapped in the base as a tropical storm rages above. The sharks get loose and begin wreaking havoc upon anyone they lay their eyes on. A fun movie that will have you pumping your fist in the air.

B​ait 3D (2012)

M​ade during the post-Avatar 3D craze, this film tries to make the best use of it by sticking you in a supermarket with sharks. A tsunami hits the coast of Australia, trapping a group of people in a quickly flooding grocery store. Among them is former lifeguard Josh who found a new profession after a shark attack. As they begin to wonder when the storm will let up, they realize that the flooded store has a twelve-foot-long killer shark patrolling its aisles. Now they must figure out how to survive and not become a cleanup in aisle five. This one also had a nice role for the late Julian McMahon in one of his few big screen contributions to the genre.

The Reef (2010)

P​roving that you should never go sailing with your friends. A group sets out for a fun day of sailing when the boat hits a rock. This opens up the bottom of the ship, and the group has to decide what to do. One of them recommends they try and swim to a nearby island as the overturned boat is being pulled out to sea. Then a shark fin appears in the water. As they swim, they are being hunted by a great white shark. They are being picked off one by one by the apex predator as they try to make it to land.

4​7 Meters Down (2017)

S​o not only are you being hunted by a man-eating shark, but you’re also trapped on the ocean floor? Sounds like a nightmare. This is precisely what happens to the two sisters as they go on vacation. They decide to do a cage diving excursion in shark-infested waters, but the cable holding onto the cage snaps. As they settle onto the bottom of the ocean, they see that sharks are starting to appear. Now they only have one hour of air left and can’t leave the cage as the sharks try to wait them out. Can you imagine cage diving and seeing a megalodon just show up like in The Meg 2?

The Black Demon (2013)

This was a surprise hit in the spring of 2023. While this Josh Lucas-led shark flick didn’t get much theatrical play via new distributor The Avenue (they had a solid theatrical hit with Land of Bad), this was a huge streaming hit and a sequel is in the works. While it’s lower-key than a lot of other movies on this list, the setting on a Mexican Oil Rig is cool, and Lucas is a better actor than usual for movies like this.

T​he Shallows (2016)

A​ surfer hears about a secluded beach that is supposed to be the ultimate destination to catch some waves. When she heads out, she quickly finds a shark hunting in the area and attacks her. She ends up on a rock only 200 feet from shore but can’t safely make it back without becoming a shark dinner. As she sits trying to figure out what to do, she realizes that high tide is coming soon and the rock she is safe on will be underwater. A great thriller that is tense throughout.

Open Water (2003)

M​aybe the most terrifying thing about this movie is that it’s based on a true story! It will keep anyone out of the ocean. A young couple books a scuba diving trip in the Caribbean. They have such a great time that they are the last to surface in their group. To their dismay, they find that the rest of their group has left them behind after a botched headcount. The couple is left to float out in the ocean and see that sharks could soon be the biggest problem. This one will make your stomach clench the whole time you’re watching it. Beware.

J​aws (1975)

I​t had to be right? This Steven Spielberg film not only changed the summer movie season forever but also terrified people of getting in the water. Sadly it also caused a worldwide problem when people began hunting sharks due to fear of this movie becoming a reality. Sheriff Brody thinks a shark may be patrolling off the coast of his small town and tries to convince the mayor to shut the beaches down. He refuses to do so because the July 4th weekend would be an economic disaster. Of course, then a giant shark shows up and kills a little boy. A team is assembled to hunt the shark down and kill it, but not before it takes out most of the crew and sinks their boat. A classic film that is worth a watch whenever possible. A classic film that is worth a watch whenever possible. Recently, the movie came very close to topping this box office after its 50th anniversary re-release, so Spielberg’s classic is still pulling in a massive audience.

Jaws 2 (1978)

While making a sequel to Jaws was an act of pure commerce, the first one they did isn’t half bad. This time, a great white stalks a bunch of teens, and despite saving Amity just a few years before, no one believes Brody when he warns them that a shark is on the loose. This benefits from Roy Scheider reprising his role and the classy director of Jeannot Szwarc. That said, the next two Jaws movies are REALLY bad.

Under Paris (2024)

A newer entry into the genre, this Xavier Gens-directed thriller was made for Netflix, and sports a better-than-usual lead in The Artist‘s Bérénice Bejo. It became a global smash hit and is currently their second most popular non-English language original film of all time.

Dangerous Animals (2025)

Sean Byrne’s contribution to the shark genre did something different. In it, the sharks themselves aren’t the antagonists. Instead, the bad guy is Jai Courtney’s Tucker, who runs a shark diving operation that serves as a front for his murders, with him using sharks as his weapons. It’s a cool premise stylishly brought to the screen, with Byrne making sure you’ll be on the edge of your seat throughout, rooting for the heroine to escape from the clutches of Courtney’s wonderfully unhinged villain. You can catch this one on Shudder.

W​hat do you think are some of the best shark movies? Where are the Ghost Shark and 2-Headed Shark Attack fans? Let us know in the comments.

The post The Best Shark Movies Ever Made: From Jaws to Deep Blue Sea and Beyond! appeared first on JoBlo.

Saw is the series that just won’t stop. Some horror fans love these movies, others write them off as nothing but torture porn, but movie-goers usually show up to give them healthy box office returns. Not only did the most recent film, Saw X, wind up making over $100 million worldwide, but it also earned the franchise’s best reviews since the original. Now, Blumhouse Productions is gearing up to show us what they can do with the property. But, how does the entire series rank? You can check out our Saw Movies Ranked list below – then let us know how you would rank the movies by leaving a comment!

SAW 3D (2010)

Envisioned as the “Final Chapter”, the seventh Saw movie was released in 3D so it could throw some of the biggest, most over-the-top traps of the franchise right in the viewer’s face. Saw 3D was directed by Saw VI’s Kevin Greutert, who was forced to replace Saw V director David Hackl just two weeks before filming was to begin. A move like that is just asking for a mess, and that’s exactly what the finished film turned out to be. A mess. Bringing Dr. Lawrence Gordon / Cary Elwes from the first movie back for the “last one” was a good idea, but it could have been handled better. The storyline following a guy who lied about being a Jigsaw survivor as he’s put to the test feels irrelevant. The way-too-long saga of Jigsaw’s follower Mark Hoffman is finally brought to an end, but in the most underwhelming way possible. He deserved worse.

JIGSAW (2017)

You might think the Saw franchise would be refreshed and rejuvenated after a seven year rest, with new writers crafting the story and new directors (Michael and Peter Spierig) at the helm. But Jigsaw feels like just another in the previous line of sequels, and even falls into the same traps that dragged down the series the first time around: timeline tricks, flashbacks, forgettable characters going through a bunch of traps, and a secret apprentice. Questions left unanswered at the end of Saw 3D remain unanswered, as Jigsaw goes off in its own direction with a new Jigsaw follower we had never seen or heard of before. The most memorable thing about this movie is the fact that there’s a trap involving lazers at one point.

SAW V (2008)

Now we know that Mark Hoffman is the apprentice carrying on Jigsaw’s work, and FBI agent Peter Strahm is figuring this out as well. While Hoffman and Strahm play cat and mouse through dimly lit scenes, there’s also a group of five people going through a series of tests / traps. But it’s difficult to care what’s going on with them when the real focus of the movie is Strahm’s pursuit of Hoffman and flashbacks to Hoffman being recruited by Jigsaw. Directed by David Hackl (who was production designer and/or second unit director on previous sequels), Saw V has one of the coolest moments in the franchise – Strahm giving himself a tracheotomy with a pen to survive a water trap – but otherwise feels like it’s just trudging through the motions. It’s a dull, tired entry in the franchise. Which isn’t surprising, since they were pumping these sequels out so quickly.

SAW IV (2007)

Saw II and III director Darren Lynn Bousman stuck around for this sequel, but the story came from a new team of writers who had to figure out how to continue the franchise now that Jigsaw and his apprentice Amanda (Shawnee Smith) were dead. One choice was obvious: Jigsaw needed a new apprentice. But some other choices were unexpected, like the fact that they still have Donnie Wahlberg hanging around as Saw II’s Eric Matthews, six months after he appeared to be as good as dead. They also dive deeper into Jigsaw’s back story than ever before, giving him even more reasons for getting into the business of making death traps. Terminal cancer and a car accident / failed suicide attempt weren’t the only things that drove him over the edge, there was also a tragic romance and a lost child. This is when the Saw franchise becomes a convoluted, gory soap opera, which is part of its charm as far as some fans are concerned.

SAW III (2006)

Franchise creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell still receive executive producer credits on every new Saw movie, but their creative involvement with the series really ended with Saw III. And they saved the grossest for last. Even Whannell was reportedly sickened by the sight of the traps in this one, which feels much darker and meaner than its predecessors. And includes a trap that involves rotten pig guts. While the terminally ill Jigsaw and his apprentice Amanda are forcing a surgeon to give him brain surgery, a grieving man played by Angus Macfadyen is made to go through rooms where he has to decide whether or not to save people connected to his son’s death in a drunk driving incident (the driver, the witness who didn’t testify, the judge who gave a lenient sentence). This is a bleak, ugly movie that tells an interesting story, but it’s really not pleasant to sit through.

SAW VI (2009)

Mark Hoffman is not an interesting villain, and it’s really annoying to watch multiple movies of him slipping out of situations you hope will remove him from the franchise. But while we’re still stuck with Hoffman and we’re still being shown a ridiculous amount of flashbacks designed to answer questions we didn’t even know to ask (three movies later, we’re still getting details about what was going on in Saw III), Saw VI does manage to be a step up from a few previous installments. Director Kevin Greutert, who edited the previous films, made a movie that brings an element of fun back into the proceedings, and the screenwriters had the great idea of putting a health insurance executive from Jigsaw’s past at the center of the games being played in this one. Unfortunately, Saw VI was the least successful Saw up to this point because movie-goers were giving up on the franchise.

SPIRAL: FROM THE BOOK OF SAW (2021)

Saw II, III, and IV director Darren Lynn Bousman returned to direct this entry about a Jigsaw copycat. Sort of the Friday the 13th: A New Beginning of Saw movies. Chris Rock stars as a detective trying to figure out who keeps killing cops with elaborate traps, and his performance is at its best when he’s cracking jokes. When Rock tries to be serious and intense, it’s not quite convincing. Samuel L. Jackson plays his dad, who gets stuck in a trap along the way – and it is fun to see an icon like SLJ strung up in a Jigsaw-style device. Other than the traps and references to Jigsaw, Spiral: From the Book of Saw has little to do with other Saw movies… which was kind of refreshing at this point. There’s no reason to worry about continuity, you can just sit back and take it in as a simple, straightforward revenge movie.

SAW X (2023)

I find several of the Saw sequels tough to sit through. Not because of the violence and gore, but because they get bogged down with excessive flashbacks, timeline tricks, and soap opera-esque dramatic elements. I got so tired of that stuff, I even found the generally unpopular “spin-off” Spiral to be a refreshing entry in the franchise because it didn’t attempt to further (or further convolute) the story of John “Jigsaw” Kramer… So it’s surprising to find that Saw X was able to get me interested in another Jigsaw story – and it was able to do so by jumping back in time, being set in between the first and second movies. Before the franchise got so messy. This time Jigsaw himself is the star and we follow him as he falls prey to a medical scam, then gets revenge on the scammers by playing his usual games with them. Not only was this the most enjoyable Saw sequel in quite a while, it was also the first time I had any interest in John Kramer as a character. In the other movies I always found him to be a pompous, hypocritical ass.

SAW II (2005)

Like any self-respecting sequel, director Darren Lynn Bousman’s Saw II takes the concept introduced in the first movie and goes bigger with it. Instead of two people trapped in a room we get seven people trapped in a house, hit with nerve gas and forced to participate in a series of games that have been set up throughout the rooms so they can retrieve vials of antidote. While they’re playing their games, deeply flawed detective Eric Matthews and a SWAT team have stormed a warehouse and caught Jigsaw himself… and yet Jigsaw, who we learn more about this time around, still manages to be in control of the situation. The traps are gruesome and cringe-inducing (the syringe pit is one of the most memorable moments in the series), but there’s still a sense of fun to the sequel. It doesn’t feel as bleak and mean-spirited as future installments in the franchise would.

SAW (2004)

The Saw franchise has become so big and convoluted, you might forget that it all started with a simple little serial killer thriller. Director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell came up with an idea they could bring to the screen for very little money: two men trapped in a room with chains on their ankles and hacksaws at hand. Then they built a fascinating story around those two men. The story of the Jigsaw Killer, who forces victims to play dangerous “games” to decide their fate. Most of them don’t survive. There’s also a mother and daughter being held at gunpoint, an obsessed detective chasing the wrong suspect, and a Jigsaw survivor who is grateful for the experience. And a jaw-dropping twist. Even if no sequels had ever been made, we’d still be talking about Saw as a classic thriller along the lines of Seven.

The post Saw Movies Ranked: From Worst to Best appeared first on JoBlo.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire got off to a slow start at the box office, but ended up making over $100 million domestically, showing the franchise still has signs of life. Some will say this is the fourth Ghostbusters film, but of course, we all know it’s actually the fifth, as you have to count Paul Feig’s reboot to a certain extent. While critics have been cool on Gil Kenan’s addition to the franchise, fans seem to really be enjoying the film, which gives the OG Ghostbusters enhanced roles. All this got me thinking: what are the best Ghostbusters films? So, I had to do it – here’s my Ghostbusters Movies Ranked list. I’m sure this will inspire a little debate, so let me know what you think of this list in the comments below – even if you hate it. Note that this list is from worst to best.

Ghostbusters (2016): 

Let me be clear: I didn’t hate Paul Feig’s female-led reboot as much as a lot of people did. I remember this being one of the most debated films of all time here on JoBlo, and when I gave this a mildly positive review I got angry emails for years! I’m not kidding. Even now, I sometimes get comments on YouTube saying, “We can’t trust this guy because he liked Feig’s Ghostbusters.” That said, it was a bad idea. I don’t know what possessed Sony to attempt to remake the original film with an all-female cast, but it was all but sure to torpedo at the box office as the discourse behind it became so politicized. I actually think this would have done okay had it kept the original Ghostbusters film canon. Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones all do their best here, and Chris Hemsworth is actually funny as their dopey secretary, but it was doomed to fail right from the get-go.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024): 

So, in my review, I gave this a 6/10, but I was maybe “a little” harsh, as some Ghostbusters-fanatic friends of mine dragged me kicking and screaming to it earlier this week, and I actually had fun watching this with a crowd. Do I think it’s a great movie? No, as there’s way too much world-building going on, but Dan Aykroyd’s extended role is touching, and the ending re-teaming the original Ghostbusters put a smile on my face.

Ghostbusters 2 (1989): 

For a long time, the popular sentiment was that this was a bad sequel, but it’s not at all. While it’s nowhere near as good as the original, it has some great moments. The first third of the film is legitimately great, with us seeing the now broke, depressed Ghostbusters trying to eke out a living, with Bill Murray especially good at showing Venkman becoming a hack TV psychic host. I also like Venkman’s believably shitty New York City apartment, with empty beer bottles beside the bed, expertly conveying how depressed he’s been since Sigourney Weaver’s Dana left him (I’ve been there, bro). That said, they made a massive mistake not bringing Elmer Bernstein back to do the score. I think if this had the old Ghostbusters themes, people would have liked it a lot more. I also like the romance angle between Rick Moranis’s Louis and Annie Potts’ Janine. 

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021): 

One of the reasons I liked Afterlife so much was that Jason Reitman hit exactly the right tone, giving us a legit sense of threat, but also a nice American Graffiti meets Ghostbusters vibe that hit the perfect note for me. The ending, which reunites the OG guys with Egon’s ghost, hit me in the feels, and I really think this is an underrated movie. If you want to reboot a series in a way that brings in new characters but also doesn’t piss off the old fans, this is pretty textbook. Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, and Mckenna Grace are great additions to the franchise… and that Olivia Wilde appearance is pretty cool, too.

Ghostbusters: 

Gee, did anyone actually wonder what my pick for the best Ghostbusters movie would be? Fact this, Ghostbusters 1984 is a masterpiece, with it hitting the sweet spot between comedy and horror so perfectly that it inspired many clones that could never pull it off like Ivan Reitman could. The score is great, the soundtrack is phenomenal, and the cast is God-tier. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Rick Moranis, Sigourney Weaver, William Atherton, Annie Potts, they’re all amazing. (And don’t sleep on that performance by the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.) If you’ve never seen this movie theatrically, I highly recommend taking the opportunity to see it with an audience if you get a chance. I’ll never forget seeing this at TIFF a few years back with Bill Murray himself in attendance. It was magical.

So there you go. What would be your rankings for the movies in the Ghostbusters franchise? Let us know in the comments!

The post Ghostbusters Movies Ranked: From the Worst to the Best! appeared first on JoBlo.

Cody

There’s just something inherently creepy about dolls, and filmmakers have had a lot of fun over the decades crafting horror stories around that creepiness. Audiences clearly love to see it, otherwise there wouldn’t be so many creepy / killer doll movies out there. So to celebrate this sub-genre, we decided to put together a list of some of the all-time best killer dolls. Not killer doll movies, but specific dolls. Here is our list of the Top 10 Killer Dolls!

ANNABELLE (THE CONJURING UNIVERSE)

This is a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” list entry if there ever was one. If we don’t include Annabelle – who scared people so badly in the opening scene of The Conjuring, she got her own spinoff franchise – there will be a lot of fans asking, “How could you leave Annabelle off a top 10 doll list?” If we do include her, genre fans will also point out that Annabelle doesn’t actually kill anybody. It’s the demon she hangs out with that’s the problem. But she is so popular, we’re forced to include her anyway. She may not walk around slashing up victims with a knife, but when she’s around, people are still in mortal danger.

DOLLY DEAREST (1991)

Sure, Dolly Dearest is a blatant Child’s Play ripoff… but it has such an an oppressively dark tone and features evil dolls (inhabited by an evil force called the Sanzia devil child) that are so ugly and creepy, that I found Dolly Dearest too unnerving to sit through when I was a kid. Despite the fact that I was already a Chucky fan by the time I tried to watch this one. So this little knife-wielding knockoff earns a place on the list.

DUMMY (TRILOQUIST – 2008)

Coming to us from director Mark Jones, the director of the original Leprechaun (and the less popular Rumpelstiltskin), Triloquist is an awful movie… but it’s one of those movies that is so bad, it can be highly entertaining to watch once or twice, if you’re in the right mindset. The small killer here is Dummy, a wooden ventriloquist dummy who seems to have somehow been imbued with a life of his own… and not only is he homicidal, he’s also quite horny. He hits the road with the trashy, bloodthirsty Angelina and the developmentally disabled Norbert for a cross-country killing spree, and Jones was clearly endeavoring to make the movie as sleazy and appalling as possible, packing it with wildly inappropriate dialogue. Watching Triloquist is quite an experience.

PIN (1988)

Technically, the life-size anatomy dummy Pin is not a killer. He’s just an inanimate object. But that doesn’t keep him from being an intensely creepy presence throughout the film. Terry O’Quinn plays Dr. Linden, who uses ventriloquism to have the dummy interact with young patients and even teach his own son and daughter life lessons. This is a terrible idea, because it convinces the son that Pin is a living being – especially after he witnesses his father’s nurse using the dummy as a sex toy. That also gives him sexual hang-ups, which leads to him taking an unhealthy interest in his sister’s sex life. Before you know it, people are getting killed. Pin himself isn’t the killer, but he’s at the heart of a well-made, twisted psychological thriller.

FATS (MAGIC – 1978)

I’ll put Fats back-to-back with Pin because they’re sort of in the same boat. Based on a novel by legendary screenwriter William Goldman and directed by Sir Richard Attenborough, Magic is a psychological thriller that stars Sir Anthony Hopkins as struggling magician Corky, who has a tumultuous relationship with his ventriloquist dummy Fats. Is Fats the mean, possessed, potentially homicidal little bastard he appears to be, or is Corky insane? Well, check the movie out and see what you think.

M3GAN (2023)

Like Annabelle, M3GAN is a James Wan production – but while the Annabelle doll isn’t actually a killer, there’s no confusion over whether or not the AI-powered robot doll M3GAN is a killer. She’s supposed to be a little girl’s best friend, but she’s not wired quite right, turning her protectiveness into a homicidal rampage. M3GAN can do the latest trendy TikTok dance to entertain the youngsters, then she racks up a body count when she’s not showing off her moves. She proved to be so popular that the filmmakers decided to make her an action comedy heroine in the sequel… but audiences weren’t so thrilled by M3GAN 2.0.

BABY OOPSY (DEMONIC TOYS FRANCHISE)

I haven’t seen Imaginary as of this writing, but I’ve seen images of that teddy bear Chauncey, and I’ve also seen images of Chauncey where he has transformed into a hulking beast. It’s a familiar look, because I’ve seen this exact same thing done before, in the 1992 Full Moon classic Demonic Toys! That film features a teddy bear called Grizzly Teddy, which also turns into a large monster. He’s awesome, but the star of the Demonic Toys franchise – and the only toy that would be referred to as a doll – is Baby Oopsy, who has gone on to cause all sorts of trouble over the course of several movies.

ZUNI DOLL (TRILOGY OF TERROR – 1975)

There are three horror tales packed into the anthology Trilogy of Terror (thus the title), each one directed by Dan Curtis and based on a story by Richard Matheson. You have to wait until the third segment to be introduced to the tiny terror known as He Who Kills… but it’s worth the wait. This little guy is a total maniac who relentlessly pursues a young woman played by Karen Black throughout her apartment. This part of the movie proved to be so popular, the Zuni doll was brought back for a sequel story in Trilogy of Terror II twenty-one years later.

BLADE (PUPPET MASTER FRANCHISE)

There are a whole lot of killer dolls in the Puppet Master franchise, and each one of them has their adoring fans – which is why this is the biggest franchise on this list, currently standing strong at fifteen entries (and a sixteenth in development). But the most popular puppet of the bunch is Blade, who has a knife for one hand and a hook for the other. In some movies he’s a villain, in others he’s a hero, it all depends on who his master is at the time. He has slashed his way through humans (including a number of Nazis), battled tiny demons, and even faced off with the Demonic Toys. He usually has some puppet pals backing him up, but a few years ago, he even got a solo movie.

CHUCKY (CHILD’S PLAY FRANCHISE)

There are other popular killer dolls out there, but it’s not likely that any are ever going to surpass the popularity of Chucky… and, of course, we’re talking about the original Chucky here, although the Child’s Play remake was surprisingly good. A combination of impressive special effects, wild stories concocted by Don Mancini, and incredible vocal performances from Brad Dourif have made Chucky an iconic character we’ve been fascinated to watch through several feature films and now multiple seasons of a TV series as well.

HONORABLE MENTION: CLOWN DOLL (POLTERGEIST – 1982)

We had to include this one as an honorable mention. The Clown Doll doesn’t kill anyone; in fact, no one is killed in Poltergeist… but the Clown Doll certainly made an attempt to kill little Robbie, and it’s been scaring the hell out of viewers for over 40 years now.

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Chris

Usually, when people think of the greatest decade for action movies, the 80s are what they think of. After all, this is the era that gave us Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, the Rambo movies, and so many more. But, the 90s was just as important a decade, giving birth to just as many legends of the genre, and it was the last significant era for R-rated action flicks. But what are the best action films of the decade? It’s tough to say, but here are 10, plus an honourable mention, that we think we deserve a place in the pantheon.

Honourable Mention: Demolition Man:

When this came out in the fall of 1993, it wasn’t considered all that special. It apparently lost money at the box office, but within a few years, this Sylvester Stallone/ Wesley Snipes mashup became a major cult classic, and now it’s one of the most beloved films of the era. Stallone stars as a cryogenically frozen cop who wakes up in an extremely PC utopia that seems more relevant every year. The script, which Heathers scribe Daniel Waters overhauled, has teeth, and it also gave Sandra Bullock her first significant role in a Hollywood film, paving the way for her to become one of the biggest stars of her era. I feel like we’re not far from the movie’s “verbal morality statute,” but let’s skip the three seashells, ok?

10. True Lies:

This was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s last megahit and his last teaming, to date, with James Cameron. This domestic comedy mashup with tentpole action is a little un-PC these days (good!). The action sequences are masterful, and Schwarzenegger has never been so loose or comfortable playing a part. Jamie Lee Curtis is excellent as his wife, and the two should have been able to parlay this into a franchise, but Cameron was too busy ever to take the notion of a True Lies 2 seriously. He did, however, take the time to remaster the film in 4K (to mixed results).

9. The Matrix:

While this may seem a little low on this list, the reason I maybe don’t consider it up there with a lot of the big 90s action movies is because it feels more like a product of the 2000s, as it was so influential it dominated the genre for years. This was a massive comeback for Keanu Reeves, made the Wachowskis iconic and had some of the greatest VFX and action ever put to screen, effortlessly meshing Hong Kong-style action with American tentpole movie making.

8. Total Recall:

Do yourself a favour. Skip the 4K re-release of this movie, as the old-school effects don’t hold up well in high def. Yet, this Paul Verhoeven-directed epic is a masterpiece of action movie-making, and it’s so layered that you can watch it repeatedly. It has it all. Pulse-pounding action, gore, Schwarzenegger at his best, a kick-ass heroine, Michael Ironside getting his arms ripped off, a Jerry Goldsmith score, and an impossibly sexy Sharon Stone.

7. The Rock:

For James Bond fans, this movie is extra special as it’s Sean Connery’s swan song to the spy genre, with him playing a very Bond-like hero. It’s cool to see this sixties legend get plopped down into a modern techno-thriller, and Connery rises to the occasion. It’s Michael Bay’s best film, with a solid musical score, Ed Harris as a sympathetic bad guy and the birth of another action icon, Nicolas Cage, to whom Connery symbolically passes the torch as the movie continues.

6. Fist of Legend:

Lest you think this list will be all American movies, one must acknowledge that some incredible action flicks were being made in Hong Kong. Jet Li teamed with Yuen Woo Ping for this remake of Bruce Lee’s Fist Of Fury, aka The Chinese Connection. The fights in this movie were a massive influence on The Matrix.

5. Drunken Master 2:

Jackie Chan always said he never understood why fans loved his sequel to Drunken Master so much, with his perception of the film marred by his rumoured creative conflicts with director Lar Kar Leung. Artistically and physically, this is Chan at his prime. However, it’s maybe the one movie of his where I’d say the North American re-edit is a bit better, with it changing the schlocky score and eliminating the dumb ending. 

4. Speed:

No one thought this movie would amount to much in 1994. People laughed at Keanu Reeves starring in a Die Hard knockoff action thriller, with many saying it seemed like he was taking on a role meant for a guy like Steven Seagal (it was actually written for The Perfect Weapon star Jeff Speakman). Opening weekend changed everyone’s minds, and I remember convincing my dad to take me to see this instead of Beverly Hills Cop 3. We were both on the edge of our seats, and Reeves and co-star Sandra Bullock emerged from this as legends.

3. Hard Boiled:

John Woo left Hong Kong following the release of this action masterpiece, which teamed two of his favourite leading men, Chow Yun Fat and Tony Leung. This has some of the greatest shootouts ever committed to film, and sadly, would mark the end of Woo’s collaborations with Chow Yun-Fat, although never say never.

2. Point Break:

Kathryn Bigelow brought a female perspective to this ultra-male bromance, which starred Keanu Reeves as an FBI agent trying to nail a team of surfing backrobbers, who turn out to be led by Patrick Swayze’s Bodhi, the zen surfer guru he’s become friends with. This legit masterpiece holds up brilliantly years later – ignore the remake they should have called Point Fake.

1. Terminator 2: Judgment Day:

Is this the greatest sequel ever made? It must be. It’s no coincidence that Schwarzenegger/ Cameron collaborations bookend this list. This movie elevated the genre, with it an emotional rollercoaster that made many of us cry in the 90s. It’s Arnie at his best, with Linda Hamilton also emerging as one of the most incredible action movie heroines ever. Hasta La Vista Baby. 

What do you think of this list of some of the best 90s action movies? Would you have included the John McClane adventure Die Hard with a Vengeance or the “Steven Seagal vs. Tommy Lee Jones” classic Under Siege? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

The post The Best 90s Action Movies appeared first on JoBlo.

Gerard Butler has had a varied career so far, with him playing everything from action leads to rom-com love interests to a singing Phantom of the Opera for Joel Schumacher. But, it has to be said that his most consistently entertaining output falls squarely into the action genre, and as far as Gerard Butler movies go, the action films will always be our favorites… so don’t expect to see The Ugly Truth on this list, but the Jennifer Aniston adventure The Bounty Hunter might scrape by. Or maybe not. Let’s see how it goes:

300 (2006) 

Perhaps THE film that put Gerard Butler on the map for most people, particularly the action and comic book crowds. Butler is in peak physical form here, showing off his bod as the ultimate Spartan warrior and proving that he is indeed quite the leading man. His performance here is commanding, a bit in your face (in the right way), and exactly what the film needed. Considering 300 is still well-remembered by most while its Butler-less sequel seems to have disappeared from the common consciousness says a lot about how he embodies the character of King Leonidas and how viewers connected to him in this Zack Snyder adaptation of the Frank Miller and Lynn Varley graphic novel. The film being shot basically fully on green screen with brand new, at the time, technology created a very particular look for the film and from interviews with the cast and crew, it seems it required some adaptation and readiness to embrace the unusual ways of shooting scenes. Butler’s performance here works great with all the green screen and CGI and shows a good evolution from his previous action-fantasy roles in Beowulf & Grendel, Timeline, and (Best Movie You Never Saw fave) Reign of Fire. Plus it won an MTV Movie Award for Best Fight!

Plane (2023) 

Released right at that time of year (January) when it seems like nothing good gets to theaters, Plane was already working with the odds stacked against it. Beyond its less-than-ideal release date, the film had changed distributors a few times before finally getting released by Lionsgate. The trailer didn’t bode too well either, but it ended up getting some positive reviews that helped lead it to a $52 million box office. It’s even getting a sequel, albeit without Butler as the lead. Here, he plays an airline pilot who has fallen from grace and thus works away from his family with a home base in Asia. On this flight that starts the film, things go awry with the weather, and he is forced to land his few passengers and a felon (the great Mike Colter) being extradited to an unknown island where things go from bad to worse. Butler does quite well here, showing the public that he is still a go-to actor for action thrillers. His big fight scene near the middle of the film works well and he really gets into the character of a man who has lost almost everything but is more than willing to fight for what hs has left. Butler sells the part here and really works with the depressed lead and his issues who finds himself back in a crisis. This is a good Gerard Butler performance, one that works for his fans and for those willing to give this surprising film a chance. 

Olympus Has Fallen (2013) 

The first in a trilogy, Olympus Has Fallen sets up high stakes by making its story about the US President and his security. Gerard Butler comes into this as a secret service agent who must rescue the President who was kidnapped after a terrorist attack. Generally speaking, this one is a bit more generic, but the work by Butler and Morgan Freeman here helps rescue this from being just another late-night cable-bound action film. There’s a bit more here of course and a lot of that “bit more” comes down to Butler’s work and the direction by Antoine Fuqua who is a pro at bringing action films and thrillers to the screen. In the case of Butler in this film, he takes a part seen so many times before, the lone protector who is the only one able to rescue the victim, and turns it into something more interesting. Between his capacities as an actor, his ease in handling action scenes, and his charisma, Butler pulls off the part of Mike Banning very well. So well in fact, that he reprised this role in both sequels London Has Fallen (2016) and Angel Has Fallen (2019). Sadly, another sequel seems unlikely, with Butler initially taking Millenium to court over unpaid profits. While the lawsuit was settled recently, I wonder if Butler will be eager to get back in bed with them anytime soon.

Gamer (2009) 

Written and directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (the Crank guys), this film is a mix of science-fiction, action, and thriller set in a bleak, near-future where gamers play using death row convicts as their avatars, pitting them against impossible odds. Butler plays Kable, a convict whose teenage player is Simon (played by Logan Lerman). Should this team-up survive thirty brutal gaming sessions, Kable will be set free. Of course, much like the recent Death Race films, it’s not going to be that easy. Gerard Butler gets to be the man who has the carrot of survival dangled in front of him, making him a man ready to do almost anything to survive. His work here is on the darker side, playing a killer ready to slay anyone in his way so that he can survive and possibly get back to his family. This leads to a part filled with action sequences, fight scenes, and violence, with a bit of background to make him more human and likable. Butler does well here with a part that could have easily been completely one-dimensional. Ludacris also steals more than a few scenes in this one.

Greenland (2020) 

With it coming fairly close on the heels of Geostorm, many assumed Greenland would terrible. It is yet another weather disaster film with a man, his estranged wife, and their kid in the middle of it all. If it sounds familiar, it’s because it’s been done a ton of times (San Andreas, any random Syfy disaster movie, etc) so it was easy to see the trailer for Greenland and think, “Yeah, no…” And honestly, the presence of Butler in this was probably the only reason some folks saw this movie at first. Thankfully, the film was made for a fairly modest budget considering the subject and how it was released in theaters (like many pandemic-era movies it went straight to streaming in North America). Its $35 million budget means that the box office for it being at $52.3 million was not a complete loss. It was a mild hit and most people who dared to see it first were part of the reason why as it built quite a bit on word of mouth. The movie, to everyone’s surprise, was good, thanks perhaps to the great director at the helm, Ric Roman Waugh (Shot Caller). At this point, more people have seen it and a sequel, Greenland: Migration, is on the way with Butler returning.

Copshop (2021) 

Released during the pandemic post-lockdown, this one was skipped by far too many people. The trailer had some panache and the fact that it’s from director Joe Carnahan, who previously did the loads-of-fun Smokin’ Aces, Narc, The Grey, and a few more films, should have made it more of an attraction for action fans. Yet Copshop only made a measly $6.9 million which basically means the public slept on this one and did not give the film its due. Gerard Butler stars opposite Frank Grillo here in a face-off set in a police station where Butler is after Grillo to kill him due to a con he pulled. This one is a lot of fun and the fact that other killers come into play makes this a dynamic movie where you never really know where it’s going exactly. Butler is having a ball here, playing a man filled with evil and a sort of almost glee about his job. His back and forth with Grillo make this the kind of film that is easy to watch while the runtime flies by.   

Geostorm (2017)

Okay, to be fair, this is NOT a good movie. It’s pretty terrible, actually, and was marred by a never-ending series of delays and reshoots with the credited writer/ producer/ director Dean Devlin having been removed in favor of Jerry Bruckheimer and Judge Dredd director Danny Cannon. In the end, it lost somewhere in the neighborhood of $70 million for Warner Bros and resulted in Butler laying off the big PG-13 four-quadrant movies in order to do more modest actioners. Yet, if you like cheesy, fun movies, it can’t be denied that Geostorm fits the bill pretty well. It’s unintentionally funny (take a shot everyone says “Dutch boy”), but it’s curiously rewatchable.

So there you go, a bunch of suggestions that you can use to assemble your own Gerard Butler film festival.

What are your favorite Gerard Butler movies? Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life? The biopic Machine Gun Preacher? Law Abiding Citizen? His cameo in the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)? The horror adventure Tale of the Mummy? Let us know in the comments.

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March 17, 1951 was a great day in history, because that’s the day Kurt Vogel Russell entered the world. And while he would go on to become one of the biggest icons of the eighties and nineties, many folks don’t know that Russell started as a child star for The Walt Disney Company, even acting opposite his future life partner Goldie Hawn in The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968) – although they wouldn’t get together until Russell ended up in another movie starring Goldie Hawn, Swing Shift (1984). From the sixties into the seventies, he starred in Disney flicks like The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969), but as the studio’s movies started to flop and Russell got older, a change of pace was needed. Arguably, Russell’s career took off when he began working with director John Carpenter, with the first movie being 1979’s TV movie Elvis, but what are Kurt Russell’s best movies? Let’s dig into them here.

Honorable Mention: Captain Ron (1992)

A few weeks ago, I name-checked Captain Ron in an article I was writing about the history of Touchstone Pictures, and folks went nuts in the comments, mentioning how it was a movie they grew up watching. Indeed, it shows Russell’s flair for comedy, with his one-eyed boat captain kind of a fun take-off on Snake Plissken. The great Martin Short ably supports him.

Escape From New York (1981)

This was the movie that made Kurt Russell an icon. As the one-eyed Snake Plissken, Russell was brilliantly cast against type in John Carpenter’s dystopian action flick. This is a pretty iconic film if you can get over the hilarious depiction of New York circa 1997 being a hellish maximum security prison city. Carpenter’s musical score is perfect here. That said, I don’t care for the sequel, Escape from L.A.

The Thing (1982)

John Carpenter’s The Thing is my choice for the greatest remake ever. A massive flop in 1982, it’s now considered one of the greatest horror flicks of all time. The effects by Rob Bottin are great, and Russell is iconic as the heavily bearded MacReady. The score by Ennio Morricone (and let’s face it – John Carpenter) ain’t bad either.

Big Trouble in Little China (1986)

Kurt Russell’s Jack Burton is one of the most iconic action heroes of all time, which is hilarious when you realize that he actually doesn’t do a heck of a lot in the movie. All the heroics come via his “sidekick,” Dennis Dun’s Wang Chi. Carpenter’s score is excellent, the fight choreography is a million times better than anything else happening in American movies at the time, and Kim Cattrall is gorgeous as the love interest. Plus, there’s the great James Hong as Lo Pan!

Tango & Cash (1989)

This was the movie that made Russell a legitimate action star. It has Russell’s mullet at its most featured, and his chemistry with Sylvester Stallone is on point. Plus, there’s a young Teri Hatcher as his love interest. It’s not art, but it’s damn fun.

Unlawful Entry (1992)

This is a favorite of ours here at JoBlo. It’s a top-shelf thriller, with Russell cast against type as a yuppie who becomes stalked by a cop obsessed with his wife, played by Madeleine Stowe. As good as Russell is, though, the late Ray Liotta walks away with this one.

Tombstone (1993)

Everyone assumed Russell’s Wyatt Earp passion project would flop, as it came out just a few months before Kevin Costner’s epic take on the legendary lawman. This one is way better, although once again, Russell has the movie stolen from him by Val Kilmer, who’s cast to perfection as Doc Holliday. Russell has always said he ghost-directed this one.

Stargate (1994)

This probably should have jumpstarted a movie franchise centred around Kurt Russell as the tortured Colonel Jack O’Neil. Sadly, Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin got busy with Independence Day. This one has an iconic score by David Arnold and a fantastic one-liner by Russell: “Give my regards to King Tut a**hole.”

Executive Decision (1996)

The fact that Steven Seagal plays the second banana to Kurt Russell in this slick terrorist flick says it all. Russell’s star was on the rise in 1996, and this is a slick thriller that lets him play an everyman hero who, when the chips are down, can rise to the occasion.

Breakdown (1997)

Russell is back in thriller mode, with him a hapless motorist whose wife (Kathleen Quinlan) is abducted by a charismatic truck driver, played by the late, great J.T. Walsh. This thriller was so tense it directly led to director Jonathan Mostow being given the reins to Terminator: Rise of the Machines.

Bone Tomahawk (2015)

This late-career classic from Russell pairs him with S. Craig Zahler, one of the best new directors, who has been inactive too long (although that might soon change). With horror movie-level violence, a great supporting turn by Richard Jenkins (he plays a great old coot in the Walter Brennan mode), and tons of atmosphere, this one is a real gem. Plus, Patrick Wilson and Matthew Fox are along for the ride!

Other great Kurt Russell flicks include the underrated cop movie Dark Blue (2002), Ron Howard’s Backdraft (1991, although it’s William Baldwin’s movie) and, of course, his work with Quentin Tarantino in Death Proof (2007), The Hateful Eight (2015) and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). However, in those, he’s strictly part of an ensemble, so I left them off the list.

What do you think are Kurt Russell’s best movies? Would you have included Used Cars (1980) or Tequila Sunrise (1988) on the list? Let us know in the comments.

The post What are the best Kurt Russell movies? We pick 10 of our favourites appeared first on JoBlo.

Cody

A new era of the Friday the 13th franchise is about to begin, with Linda Cardellini having been officially cast as Pamela Voorhees in the Peacock streaming series Crystal Lake and the rights holders actively working on a new movie. As we sit in this space between eras, we still have the classic movies to watch over and over again. So let’s take a look at this Friday the 13th Movies Ranked list!

While this list is all in good fun, I have to admit that I found it to be surprisingly difficult to put together. That’s because the Friday the 13th franchise is my favorite of all franchises and I love every one of these films. Ranking them was like trying to rank my major internal organs. Some may work better than others, but I need them all! I struggled to decide which order to put them in, and ended up listing them based on which ones I would most like to watch at any given time. So here they are, listed from “Yes, put that movie on right now!” to “Sure, okay, let’s watch it.” Check it out, then let us know how you would rank the movies by leaving a comment below.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART III (1982)

The Jason everyone knows is born here. This is where he gets his iconic hockey mask, and he wears it while taking out a group of youths vacationing at a cabin on the edge of Crystal Lake. Part 2 director Steve Miner returned for this one and managed to make it creepy while also packing it with gimmicks meant to be seen in 3D on the big screen – and you ever have the chance to see Friday the 13th Part III in 3D, go for it. It’s an awesome experience. Especially when you get to watch the hulking, hockey masked Jason (Richard Brooker) engage the final girl in one of the best chases of the franchise. A 13 minute sequence that goes all over the cabin property.

FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980)

Directed by Sean S. Cunningham, the original Friday the 13th has achieved classic status – and yet somehow it still doesn’t get enough respect or credit for how effectively creepy it is. A low budget but well crafted production, it delivers a dark-yet-fun atmosphere, an unnerving back story, an incredible score, amazing special effects (courtesy of Tom Savini), and an unforgettable performance by Betsy Palmer. Palmer shows up late in the film as a grieving mother out to avenge her young son, who drowned at Camp Crystal Lake more than twenty years earlier because the counselors weren’t paying attention. The new counselors didn’t have anything to do with it, but they pay the price.

FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER (1984)

A family living in a house out in the woods. A group of young people renting the house right across from them. And Jason Voorhees (Ted White this time) lurking nearby, waiting to strike. Director Joseph Zito brought a very dark atmosphere to this film, and yet it’s also a whole lot of fun, featuring some of the best, most likeable young characters in the entire series. (Plus some wild dancing from Crispin Glover.) Tom Savini believed “The Final Chapter” subtitle and returned to supply the bloodshed for Jason’s send-off. The kills are brutal, even the ones that are cut quickly, and the showiest of all is reserved for Jason himself. Jason is legitimately scary in this film, but a clever young boy named Tommy Jarvis figures out how to defeat the monster. For now.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI: JASON LIVES (1986)

Tasked with bringing Jason Voorhees back from the dead, writer/director Tom McLoughlin looked to the Universal Monsters era for inspiration and resurrected Jason Frankenstein-style, with a well-placed lightning bolt. Jason rises from his grave a bit rotten but stronger than ever, just in time for the re-opening of Camp Crystal Lake. As returning adversary Tommy Jarvis tries to stop Jason, McLoughlin treats the viewer to fun characters, humorous lines and situations, cool stunts, great cinematography, and a rock ‘n roll soundtrack. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (which shows the title and subtitle the other way around in the title sequence, so it’s Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI) pushes the comedy further than any of the previous movies, but it works because Jason himself (CJ Graham) is never the butt of the joke. McLoughlin found a way to bring fresh energy to the franchise while still keeping it in the woods.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 (1981)

Friday the 13th Part 2 (not Part II, as they didn’t get fancy with the Roman numerals until later) is so good, it’s easy to overlook the fact that it’s built on a very odd decision: the one to make Jason Voorhees, the drowned child whose mother was out for vengeance in the first movie, the killer this time around. This isn’t the Jason who would become a pop culture icon. This is a backwoods fellow who wears a sack on his head (with Steve Dash being the man under the sack). But he’s also a terrifying killer who slashes his way through a new batch of counselors. Director Steve Miner did a great job of replicating the tone of the first movie, and the film features one of the best heroines in the franchise: child psychologist Ginny Fields, who comes up with a clever way of stopping Jason in his tracks.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD (1988)

When Paramount couldn’t secure a deal with New Line Cinema to make Freddy vs. Jason, they shifted gears and made a sequel that is basically Jason vs. Carrie. You have the same set-up as The Final Chapter, partying youths in a house across from a family home, but this time the family home is occupied by a troubled girl with telekinetic abilities. Like Tommy in Jason Lives, that girl (named Tina) accidentally resurrects Jason, then has to deal with the consequences. And when it comes time for their showdown, Tina uses her telekinesis to dish out quite a beating to the hockey masked slasher. It’s pretty awesome. Kane Hodder made his Jason debut in this film, and director / FX artist John Carl Beuchler gave him a great rotten look.

FRIDAY THE 13TH: A NEW BEGINNING (1985)

After years of psychiatric treatments, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter hero Tommy Jarvis arrives at Pinehurst Halfway House… and soon a killer in a hockey mask starts picking off the staff of the halfway house, the troubled youths staying there, and people in the surrounding area. The identity of the killer is meant to be a mystery, but it’s pretty hard to miss the clues. Directed by Danny Steinmann, A New Beginning has a bad reputation, but it’s still a lot of fun. Jason (Tom Morga and Johnny Hock) may only be present in Tommy’s hallucinations, but we still get a hockey masked killer who acts just like him. The characters are ridiculous, the movie is extremely sleazy, but that’s all just part of its charm.

FREDDY VS. JASON (2003)

After a long trip through development hell, Freddy vs. Jason finally reached theatres in 2003, with director Ronny Yu bringing the concept to the screen with great style. Robert Englund reprises the role of Nightmare on Elm Street franchise dream stalker Freddy Krueger, who uses the image of Mrs. Voorhees to encourage Jason Voorhees (Ken Kirzinger) to rise from Hell and head over to his old haunt of Elm Street to commit murder and stir up fear. Fear that will allow Freddy to return to the dreams of the Elm Street kids. But when Jason overstays his welcome and claims too many victims on Elm Street, the slashers clash. Fights take place in both the dream world and at Camp Crystal Lake, and the climactic battle is a glorious bloodbath.

FRIDAY THE 13TH (2009)

Ideas from the first four Friday the 13th films were mixed together for this reboot, a collaboration between Paramount and New Line Cinema. Derek Mears plays a Jason Voorhees who is faster and more intense than ever before. He’s wearing a sack on his head when we first see him, and later in the film he acquires a hockey mask. The set-up is the same as we’ve seen multiple times: Jason slashes his way through a bunch of youths who are vacationing at a house near Crystal Lake. The movie also draws from the end of Part 2 for its most controversial element: when Jason crosses paths with a young woman who resembles his mother, he locks her up in his mine shaft lair instead of killing her. Some fans think it’s a logical extension of what we saw in Part 2, other fans hate it.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN (1989)

The Paramount era came to an end with Jason Takes Manhattan, which underwhelmed at the box office when movie-goers saw that it didn’t really deliver on the promise of the title. Jason (Kane Hodder) spends most of the film on a cruise ship that’s on its way to Manhattan, knocking off youths who are on board for a senior trip. When they do reach their destination, Manhattan is mostly played by Vancouver alleyways. But there is a great moment where we see Jason standing in the middle of Times Square. Part VIII also disappoints with a spacey heroine who’s always tripping, since director Rob Hedden wanted to work in some Elm Street-esque elements. The movie is fun, but you can see why Paramount gave up.

JASON GOES TO HELL: THE FINAL FRIDAY (1993)

The franchise moved to New Line Cinema with this installment, and director Adam Marcus set out to deliver a film that would be very different from any of its predecessors. He certainly accomplished that. Jason Goes to Hell starts off with Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder) being blasted to pieces by the FBI… then spends the rest of the movie possessing people, starting with the coroner who is compelled to eat his heart. Jason’s spirit moves from body to body as he seeks out family members we never heard of before, because this movie creates its own mythology. “Through a Voorhees was he born, through a Voorhees may he be reborn, and only by the hands of a Voorhees will he die.” How can he die? By being stabbed with a magic dagger that sends him straight to Hell.

JASON X (2002)

While Freddy vs. Jason was making its way through development hell, director James Isaac decided to make another Friday the 13th sequel – one that would be set in the future to avoid causing continuity issues with the Freddy crossover. So a frozen Jason (Kane Hodder) gets blasted into space in the year 2455, and once he thaws out it’s business as usual because the ship he’s on happens to be inhabited by a bunch of youngsters. Plus some Marines, but those aren’t a problem. The cyborg causes him more trouble, but once his body gets blasted apart he just gets a new one, thanks to nanotechnology. Jason is upgraded into Uber Jason! Jason X is extremely goofy, and highly entertaining when you’re in the mood for absurdity.

Obligatory Mention: SWEET REVENGE (2025)

Now that we’ve covered the feature films, we have to mention that writer/director Mike P. Nelson’s short film Sweet Revenge was released in 2025, giving us our first official piece of live-action Friday the 13th content in sixteen years. Building off the traditional “Jason kills people on a trip to the lake” set-up, Nelson drops some wild ideas into his 15 minute short, including a heroine that returns from the dead… for some reason. Please don’t tell me “cursed lake water” is resurrecting people, because I hate that idea and feel that it takes away something special from Jason. Whatever the case, the short has its moments and a cool kill involving a boat motor. Stuntman Schuyler White did a fine job as Jason for the most part, although he doesn’t quite have the right build for the character and former Jason performer Kane Hodder would not appreciate that he’s shown holding his machete in his left hand. The biggest issue is the mask. The rights holders, possibly for copyright reasons, have decided to redesign Jason’s iconic hockey mask, which always had 31 holes before and now only has 13 holes. That could work, but so far, there’s just something off about it. The size, the texture. It doesn’t look right. There are some shots of it that look okay, but there are also shots of it that look horrible. This thing needs some tweaks done to it before we see it again. Sweet Revenge is not the triumphant return fans have been waiting for, but it was a fun way to let people know that Jason Voorhees is making a comeback.

The post Friday the 13th Movies Ranked: Jason at his best (and worst) appeared first on JoBlo.

Chris

It’s time to look at the work of one of the greatest directors of our generation: Christopher Nolan. How big is Nolan these days? Interstellar, a movie which was never among the director’s top grossers, hit IMAX screens last week for its tenth anniversary, and screenings have been selling out constantly. The fact is – Nolan makes movies that belong on the big-screen, and he’s one of the few directors who’s arguably become his own franchise. For proof of that, one need only look at the fact that he’s planning a new movie, and the cast is jampacked with A-listers, because EVERYONE wants to work with Nolan.

A caveat – our Christopher Nolan movies ranked list is just one person’s opinion, and his work is divisive. Everyone has their favourites (and least favourites), so I’m hoping this ranking will open up some discussion in the comments below. We do not include Following in this list, as it’s only 69 minutes and can’t be put on the same level as his other work – although it’s an interesting black and white curio. Also, note that this list ranks all of his movies from worst to best, so if you don’t see your favourite film of his right off the top, don’t panic!

Insomnia (2002)

In my mind, Christopher Nolan has never made a bad movie. So, when I say one of his movies is his “worst,” that doesn’t mean it’s actually bad. Insomnia is based on a tremendous Norwegian film that stars Stellan Skarsgård in the lead, and I think his performance is slightly better than Al Pacino’s here. That said, Robin Williams gives a genuinely unnerving performance as the movie’s antagonist, and it also has gorgeous cinematography by Wally Pfister. It’s just that – at least compared to other films on this list – it’s the one that feels the most like an assignment.

Interstellar (2014)

One of Nolan’s most ambitious efforts, Interstellar is brilliant at times and annoyingly conventional at others. For me, the movie works wonderfully when Nolan is attempting to make his variation on 2001: A Space Odyssey. But I’ve never liked the side plot where Matt Damon is found marooned and becomes an antagonist. A movie like this doesn’t need a “bad guy.” However, Matthew McConaughey is terrific in the lead, and the cinematography by Hoyte van Hoytema is a revelation. Originally, the movie “only” made $197 million, which was considered somewhat disappointing given the hype to the lead-up, but time has been kind to this movie, with the re-release a monster hit.

Tenet (2020)

I found this movie utterly incomprehensible when I saw it in theatres, due mainly to the atrocious sound mix. Throughout his career, Nolan has taken a lot of heat for not having clear dialogue, and he went overboard with the mixing here, as it obscured an already tough-to-decipher plot. It made me quite angry when I saw it the first time, but I enjoyed the movie more when watching it at home – with subtitles. Like all of his films, it’s visually arresting, and the score by Ludwig Göransson is a winner. Nolan has always been inspired by the James Bond franchise, and his two heroes in this one, John David Washington and Robert Pattinson, are likely the closest we’ll ever get to seeing how Nolan would tackle that series (although then again – who knows?). Also worth noting, Nolan must have taken the audio criticism to heart because all of the dialogue in Oppenheimer is clear as a bell. Like other movies on this list, I expect time to be kind to Tenet.

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

I enjoyed Nolan’s divisive end to his Dark Knight trilogy, even if it couldn’t help but pale compared to its predecessors. Tom Hardy’s Bane is a bit of a letdown as a villain, at least compared to Heath Ledger’s Joker, but I still think it serves as a satisfying end to the franchise, with Bruce Wayne earning the retirement he’s spending with Anne Hathaway’s Selina Kyle. It’s also the first movie where Nolan’s sound mixes became problematic, and I’ll never forget how hard it was to figure out what Bane was saying the first time I saw the opening action sequence when it was attached as a teaser to IMAX showings of Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

Memento (2000)

I know this will be a controversial place for the movie that put Nolan on the map. Structurally, it’s brilliant; I just personally don’t think it holds up to repeated viewings as much as other movies on this list. Even still, it’s pretty audacious filmmaking, and one can see that this immediately made him a superstar director.

The Prestige (2006)

This one has always been the most underrated movie in Nolan’s filmography, as Disney’s Touchstone didn’t position it as the event it would have been had it come out just a few years later. Hugh Jackman gives the performance of his life as one of two duelling illusionists who have a rivalry over a teleportation trick that leads to devastating moral consequences for both men. This is one of Nolan’s movies that gets better every time you watch it, with Christian Bale’s performance a bit of a puzzle that only really comes together on its second viewing. This also has one of my favourite bits of Nolan casting ever – David Bowie as Tesla.

Batman Begins (2005)

Nolan started to reinvent the superhero saga with this, and I remember, when I first saw it, thinking it had more in common with epic adventure movies like The Last Samurai or Gladiator than anything else I’d seen. To me, it paid off, and Christian Bale makes for an iconic Caped Crusader (and a great Bruce Wayne), while Michael Caine will always be my favourite Alfred. 

Dunkirk (2017)

This one seems divisive, as some think Nolan’s WW2 movie is too thinly plotted. To me, they’re missing the point, as this is supposed to be a raw experience that puts you in the shoes of the various soldiers participating in the evacuation of Dunkirk. It’s his shortest movie since Following, and it can’t be beaten on a technical level. Tom Hardy has one of his best roles as a heroic RAF fighter pilot, acting almost completely with his eyes until the final shot.

Oppenheimer (2023)

When it was announced that this would be a three-hour biopic of Robert Oppenheimer, people cracked wise on Twitter that it would just be three hours of men talking in rooms. And you know what – it is. But Nolan knows precisely how to make a movie like this, and it’s one of the tightest, most explosive three-hour dramas you’re ever likely to see. This is genuinely epic filmmaking and a masterpiece on every level, featuring perhaps Nolan’s best-ever cast. Cillian Murphy is brilliant as a man who shaped the modern world, for better or worse, while Robert Downey Jr gives his best performance since Iron Man in a critical supporting role. 

Inception (2010)

What else can be said about one of our generation’s best science fiction movies? It’s the movie that proved a dazzling action movie can be just as challenging as an indie and still make hundreds of millions of dollars. It also boasts one of my favourite musical scores of all time, with Hans Zimmer’s work career-defining.

The Dark Knight (2008)

But, as good as Inception is, to me, Nolan’s masterpiece will always be The Dark Knight. It’s still the best superhero movie ever made, and I firmly believe it belongs in any serious conversation about the best movies ever made. It’s thematically rich and features one of the most outstanding modern performances, Heath Ledger’s Joker. Sixteen years later, it’s still the tentpole movie every would-be blockbuster wants to be. 

The post Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked: From Worst to Best appeared first on JoBlo.

Do you like blood? Violence? Freaks of nature? Well, here at Arrow in the Head, we love all of those things – and that has inspired us to put together this list of some of The Goriest, Bloodiest Films Ever Made. Some of the movies are on here due to their historical significance, some are due to the amount of fake blood that was used during the production, and all of them are quite messy. Here we go:

Blood Feast (1963)

This is where it all began. In the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, independent filmmaker Herschell Gordon Lewis and his producing partner David F. Friedman were looking at the major movies of the day to find what they could offer the moviegoing public that the studios weren’t providing. They started out with “nudie cutie” sexploitation movies, meeting the demand for bare flesh. After taking note that violence in movies had always been rather tame and/or relatively bloodless, even in Alfred Hitchcock’s recent proto-slasher hit Psycho, they decided that, with the next stage of their careers, they would bring gore to the movies, in vibrant color. Armed with animal parts collected from butcher shops and a blood mixture with the secret ingredient of Kaopectate, Lewis and Friedman brought the world Blood Feast. It tells the story of caterer Fuad Ramses, a devotee of the ancient Egyptian goddess Ishtar. 5000 years ago, Ishtar’s followers would offer up human sacrifices to their deity, sacrificing female virgins to appease her and then feeding on their flesh and blood. Fuad Ramses believes it’s time to bring back the old ways. After booking a job to cook up an Egyptian feast for an unsuspecting woman, Ramses sets out to collect the ingredients he’ll need to make a traditional feast in the name of Ishtar. He stalks the Miami area, killing nubile girls and hacking off body parts from his victims – a leg from one, the tongue from another, a brain, blood collected from whip wounds, etc. Lewis made several more blood-soaked movies after this one, most notably Two Thousand Maniacs!, earning himself the nickname “the Godfather of Gore” along the way. And every time we’ve seen a slasher make a bloody mess of their victims since 1963, we’ve had H.G. Lewis and Fuad Ramses to thank for it.

Tokyo Gore Police (2008) 

Asian horror films and Japanese horror in particular have a ton of entries where the blood flows freely and impressively. One of the goriest movies to come out of Japan is Tokyo Gore Police, as you might have guessed from its title. Just a quick look at its trailer will be enough to convince anyone who loves to watch insane bloodshed to order it ASAP. The film has some of the most insane set-ups in terms of characters having body modifications and the blood shed by some of them is just beautifully insane in quantity. The film was shot in just two weeks and the total amount of fake blood used is not clear, but it definitely was a whole lot. This film is over-the-top in just about every aspect and it appeals only to a very specific audience, but for those folks, it’s a beauty to behold. Director Yoshihiro Nishimura is better known as a makeup effects artist with films such as Meatball Machine Kodoku, Mutant Girl Squad, and the Tomie series on his filmography. His movies feature some gooey, juicy, and gory stuff, so having his name attached to this can only be a good omen for those who have yet to see the film. 

Braindead, a.k.a. Dead-Alive (1992) 

Whether you call it Braindead or Dead-Alive, this horror comedy from Peter Jackson is a longtime favorite for many horror fans, both for its sense of humor and for the sheer amount of blood, gore, and practical effects seen throughout the film. The moment where an ear falls into a bowl of soup may be the grossest scene in the film, but it’s definitely not the bloodiest. One of the most famous gore sequences in cinema history is the one where lead Lionel, played by Timothy Balme, faces a horde of zombies that just keep on coming, forcing him to use whatever he can to dispatch them as fast as he can. In this moment, he gets his trusty lawnmower and just decimates the horde of zombies with blood and limbs flying in every direction. Three hundred gallons of fake blood are said to have been used in the final scene of the film alone. And to think, everything that happens in this movie was all caused by a little Sumatran Rat Monkey.

Evil Dead (2013) 

If any Evil Dead movie were to show up on this list, you might have expected it to be Sam Raimi’s original, with its messy demon meltdowns, or Evil Dead II, with its blood flood… but it’s actually the 2013 Evil Dead, directed by Fede Alvarez, that holds the unofficial record for the largest amount of fake blood ever used on a movie production. Alvarez has said in interviews that 50,000 gallons of fake blood were used just during the climax of the film, which features blood literally raining from the sky. Other reports have the total amount of fake blood used at 70,000 gallons for the whole film. The original had about 300 gallons used, so the filmmakers really upped their blood game on this one. Adding to that, this Evil Dead was mostly shot in order, so the blood sprayed on the walls, props, and actors could remain and help with continuity, avoiding having to have the crew re-spray the same places later or go back and adjust blood on previously shot scenes. Most of the blood may not come out of human bodies, but when bringing the violence to the screen, Alvarez made sure to include moments that are likely to make pretty much any viewer cringe.

Terrifier 2 (2022) 

This low budget, independent production beat all odds and became a box office success with only a few screens and word of mouth to get tickets sold. Writer/director Damien Leone went into Terrifier 2 wanting to make one of the goriest, bloodiest films of all time. Some absolutely love the result and others just hate it; there seems to be no middle ground when it comes of the adventures of supernatural serial killer Art the Clown. In this sequel, Art had to increase his bloodshed and thus causes all kinds of mayhem and murder, allowing the viewer to see a cat o’ nine tails used on two people, mashed potatoes used in a whole new way, a very particular birth sequence, and more death and mayhem than the first film could ever have dared. The amount of blood and guts here caused the film to earn torture porn accusations and a boundary-pushing NC-17 rating.  

Piranha 3D (2010)

Director Alexandre Aja has never shied away from using blood and gore in his movies. This should be obvious to anyone having seen his entry in the “New French Extreme” genre, High Tension. With his 3rd US remake, after The Hills Have Eyes in 2006 and Mirrors in 2008, he got around to truly letting loose with Piranha 3D in 2010. This film is all about boobs, blood, and kills. The titular fish cause the carnage here, and there is so much they ran out of actors to kill on screen. For example, actress Devanny Pinn played two different victims during the production, making it a bit of a game to find both of her on-screen deaths in this film. So many die in this Spring Break-set film, with so many spectacular deaths and mutilations, some of them are bound to be remembered for a long time (err, Jerry O’Connell). This film uses a ton of blood and mixes it with water, making it look even more impressive, adding to the pantheon of bloody films with just a few truly killer sequences. 

Let us know your goriest film favorites in the comments below!

The post The Goriest, Bloodiest Films Ever Made: some of our favorites appeared first on JoBlo.

After receiving a degree in chemical engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney, Dolph Lundgren started his acting career with a James Bond film (A View to a Kill) in 1985, quickly followed by his iconic performance as Soviet boxer Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, and then a string of action films. With a career spanning five decades, the man has kept busy, playing over 100 parts… and now, we have taken on the task of picking some of his best movies. Here we go:

DON’T KILL IT (2016)

Directed by Mike Mendez, Don’t Kill It combines action, horror, and comedy while dropping Lundgren into the role of badass demon hunter Jebediah Woodley, who seems more interested in finding his next drink than catching demons. His vocation has brought him to Chickory Creek, Mississippi, where Christmas is being ruined by the rampage of a demon that turns people into black-eyed, screeching, bloodthirsty maniacs. Woodley offers his services to the Chickory Creek police force and ends up being teamed with FBI agent Evelyn Pierce (Kristina Klebe) – so we have a buddy cop sort of scenario here. This movie clearly had a small budget, but that didn’t stop Mendez from unleashing some madness now and then, the standout sequence coming when the demon raids a town meeting with a sack full of weapons. The place turns into a bloodbath while the demon moves from one body to another, since not many people take the advice of the title, despite Woodley’s warnings. Don’t Kill It is a really good time, and definitely seems to have drawn some inspiration from the popular TV series Supernatural. The film shows us that Lundgren still has a sense of humor he can use on camera and a bit of a sense of humor about himself. It also shows that the man can pull off horror even in a slightly out there premise, so perhaps he should explore the genre some more.

RED SCORPION (1988)

Dolph Lundgren made his screen debut in the 1985 James Bond movie A View to a Kill – and even though he plays the hero in Red Scorpion, he starts off as the sort of character who would usually only show up in an action film to be thwarted by the likes of James Bond. That’s Spetsnaz soldier Nikolai Radchenko, who has been sent to assassinate the man who’s leading a rebel movement against Russia’s invading forces in Africa. For most of the movie, Radchenko is the bad guy. It isn’t until he fails at his mission, is tortured by his superiors for his failure, and is taken in by a native tribe that he fully becomes a decent character. Thwarted not by Bond but by his own conscience, he joins the rebels for a climactic battle against his countrymen (while wearing shorts). Red Scorpion is an ’80s shoot ’em up action movie that was directed by Joseph Zito, the man who gave us the slasher movies The Prowler and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, features special effects by master of splatter Tom Savini, boasts a soundtrack filled with Little Richard tunes, and lets Lundgren, playing a machine gun-toting killing machine with a heart of gold, share the screen with a foul-mouthed M. Emmet Walsh.

THE EXPENDABLES 2 (2012)

Sylvester Stallone had a really good idea when he made the 2010 film The Expendables, assembling a cast of action stars to set up an ‘80s throwback franchise that would be about a team of mercenaries who travel the world, doing whatever dangerous job they’re getting paid handsomely to do. That idea was able to reach its full potential with the first sequel, which was directed by Simon West (Con Air) and pits our heroes – Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Dolph Lundgren, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, and Nan Yu, with Liam Hemsworth, Jet Li, and Chuck Norris also showing up along the way – against a team of bad guys headed up by Jean-Claude Van Damme, with Scott Adkins as his right hand man. The Expendables 2 is an improvement over its predecessor in every way. It has a better script, was shot more stylishly, and does even more to fulfill the “action stars united” promise of the concept. More sequels followed, but they couldn’t live up to this one.

ROCKY IV (1985) & CREED II (2018)

Some would pick Rocky IV over Creed II without hesitation, but Creed II has a more complex part for Lundgren. Yes, it’s the same character, but in Rocky IV, the role of Ivan Drago was played as a more one-dimensional man, who was trained and conditioned to win fights for his country, no matter the outcome. In Creed II, the imposing Soviet boxer is an aged man who still wants to win, but this time through his son. Throughout the film, the character gets to evolve a bit more than in his first appearance and gives Lundgren more to work with and a chance to play a more dramatic role with no actual fighting involved. His work here shows growth as an actor and how the man who is often seen as tall and able to fight can also act and bring a character closure. Even if that is not as the hero. So the proper answer here seems to be to watch Rocky IV and Creed II back-to-back in a double feature.

THE PUNISHER (1989) 

Sure, this Marvel Comics adaptation, directed by Mark Goldblatt, didn’t have a huge budget to work with, it left out the Punisher character’s iconic skull wardrobe, and it changed his origin story a bit… but this is still a really cool movie. Dolph Lundgren plays Frank Castle, a police officer who has become a vigilante since his wife and children were killed in a mob hit. As the film begins, he has already been operating as The Punisher for five years and has racked up more than 125 kills, doing his best to eradicate the mob families. Then the Japanese Yakuza, led by Lady Tanaka (Kim Miyori), comes into town looking to perform a hostile takeover: to force the mob families to give in to her terms – which include her taking 75% of their profits – Tanaka has their children kidnapped. The Punisher would gladly kill the fathers of every one of these kids without hesitation or remorse, but he can’t condone the harm of children. So he sets out to save the kids, even though it means having to form an alliance with a mobster, while his former partner Jake Berkowitz (Louis Gossett Jr.) works to bring his vengeful killing spree to an end. Lundgren does well in the title well, which just requires him to be brooding, deliver monosyllabic lines in a deep voice, and look cool dispatching enemies, and there’s plenty of action as we watch The Punisher take on not only mafia and Yakuza types, but also ninjas. Ninjas who use swords and Uzis!

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (1987)

The feature directorial debut of Gary Goddard, and to date the only feature film he has directed, Masters of the Universe, a live-action adaptation of the toy and animated series franchise, was the biggest production ever for the B-movie makers Cannon Films… and it was a critical and commercial failure that disappointed a lot of young He-Man fans. But not this one. I was a little kid when this movie reached home video and just accepted it, no questions asked, as another fun He-Man adventure. One that brings our sword-wielding hero (that’s Lundgren, of course) and some of his friends to 1980s Earth for a while, features a “Cosmic Key” that gets mistaken for a synthesizer, and introduces some new characters. All these decades later, it still holds up as a fine fantasy adventure with some cool action sequences and a great villain performance from Frank Langella as the skull-faced Skeletor. It may not have been the ideal adaptation, but it has its merits and has earned a strong cult following.

I COME IN PEACE (1990)

There are some excellent Christmas-set action movies out there. First Blood, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon and other Shane Black projects, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Trancers, etc. One that doesn’t seem to get enough play is the 1990 classic I Come in Peace (a.k.a. Dark Angel) which casts Dolph Lundgren in the role of (apparently very financially well-off) Houston detective Jack Caine, who is trying to bust a blue collar gang called The White Boys while dealing with a rocky love life and the fact that he has been stuck working with stuffy, suit-wearing FBI agent (Brian Benben) now that his undercover partner has been murdered. As if all that weren’t enough, he also comes to learn that there’s a hulking alien making its way around the city, shooting people up with drugs it stole from the White Boys so it can then extract endorphins from their dying brains to synthesize a drug to be sold on his home planet. We’ve got Lundgren fighting an evil alien (played by Matthias Hues) that’s armed with a brain-sucking wrist gauntlet, a high-powered gun, and a razor sharp magnetized disc – and the movie is just as fun as all of that sounds. This one was directed by former stuntman/stunt coordinator Craig R. Baxley, who was also behind the awesome Action Jackson and Stone Cold. Baxley did a fine job bringing the action, humor, and suspense to the screen, and made sure that things blew up real good when pyrotechnics were required.

SHOWDOWN IN LITTLE TOKYO (1991)

Chris Kenner and Johnny Murata are both LAPD cops who can’t keep a partner, so they’ve been assigned to work together. One’s all about Japanese culture and has even built a Japanese-style house on the outskirts of Los Angeles. The other’s a Californian wisecracker who’d rather be working in Malibu. In a twist on expectations, the hulking blonde is actually the one who was born in Japan and loves the culture, the only thing the half-Japanese partner he’s been paired with has gotten from his ancestry are the martial arts he’s been practicing since he was four. These two are able to bond over the shared goal of bringing down criminal mastermind Funekei Yoshida (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), a very bad man who killed Kenner’s parents in front of him when he was a child. Once Kenner and Murata have brought him to justice, then intend to reward themselves by visiting the local club that serves “Sushi in the Raw” – which is sushi served on the body of a nude woman. The standard odd couple buddy cop formula and sparse window dressing of a plot are really just an excuse for Dolph Lundgren and Brandon Lee to kick all sorts of ass to a synth score. The action rarely stops in the 73 minutes between the title sequence and the end credits. The movie, directed by Commando’s Mark L. Lester, is ridiculous, but it’s a highly entertaining watch.

UNIVERSAL SOLDIER (1992)

Jean-Claude Van Damme, Belgian, and Dolph Lundgren, Swedish, both play Americans in this film, which begins with their characters Luc Deveraux and Andrew Scott serving in the Army, deployed in Vietnam in 1969. Scott has gone insane, massacring an entire village of innocent civilians and butchering his own men, accusing them of being traitors. When Deveraux confronts him, the two end up shooting each other to death… but then their corpses are packed in ice. Jump ahead to the early ’90s and Deveraux and Scott are both alive, not having aged a day, serving in a counter-terroism unit called Universal Soldiers. The UniSols are highly capable, with enhanced strength, a high tolerance for pain, and are seemingly unstoppable. They’re also brainwashed zombies. But then elements of Deveraux and Scott’s old personalities begin to emerge, putting them at odds again in modern day America. Van Damme delivers a charming and endearing performance as Deveraux, who brings some laughs as we watch him try to re-adjust to normal life, and Lundgren is captivating as the bugnuts Scott. Director Roland Emmerich made some higher profile, bigger budgeted movies after this, but Universal Soldier is his best.

As of this writing, Lundgren recently won a 9-year battle with cancer, and he seems to be doing very well. We saw him in The Expendables 4 and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom not long ago, and hopefully we can look forward to many more Lundgren action movies in the years to come.

What’s your favorite Dolph Lundgren movie? Would you have included Joshua Tree (1993), Command Performance (2009), Aquaman (2018), or Johnny Mnemonic (1995) on the list? Let us know in the comments!

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Chris

It can’t be denied that as far as martial arts movies go, the best ones come from Asia, particularly Hong Kong during their action heyday, which was arguably the 70s, 80s and first half of the ’90s. It’s tough to compete with the likes of the Shaw Brothers and the drunken master known as Jackie Chan. That said, martial arts movies were also making a foothold in the States decades ago, thanks mainly to Bruce Lee-mania following the release of Enter the Dragon. Before that movie, very few actors in Hollywood seemed like they were credible martial artists, except maybe James Coburn, a student of Lee’s, who pulled off some pretty good-looking moves in the otherwise silly Our Man Flint movies. Steve McQueen also had training but didn’t use martial arts on screen. Up to then, though, the most notable uses of martial arts in movies usually revolved around Judo, with James Cagney showing off some good moves in the film Blood on the Sun, while Spencer Tracy – who was HEAVILY doubled, demolished Ernest Borgnine in the classic thriller Bad Day at Black Rock with only one arm. But, in the seventies, fight sequences started to get better, with the Asian influence especially notable in Blaxploitation movies because many of the stars, including Fred Williamson and Jim Kelly, had legit training. When Chuck Norris came along towards the end of the decade, you also started to see mainstream stars dip their toes into martial arts. Still, sometimes the results weren’t pretty, such as when Richard Burton uses drunk-fu to beat up a racist in the abysmal melodrama The Klansman (check out my choice for the worst fight scene ever right here). 

In the eighties, fights in American movies started to get good. However, the way they were shot often didn’t quite match up to what was happening in Hong Kong, with a great example being the climactic fight between Mel Gibson and Gary Busey in Lethal Weapon. Both actors had been extensively trained in a variation called Jailhouse Rock, which was popular in prisons, but there was too much rain and close cutting to showcase the movies. That said, there were some great American martial arts movies then – and loads of great ones are being made now, so here’s our list of the best American martial arts movies ever made. Note that movies like The Matrix or John Wick, which married martial arts with gunplay, didn’t make the list, with this dedicated more to straight-up martial arts mayhem.

Honorable Mention: The Undisputed sequels:

So, if you know action, our mentioning these sequels probably established us as somewhat legit, as director Isaac Florentine and his leading men, Michael Jai White (who holds seven black belts!) and Scott Adkins, brought something new and fresh to the DTV world. The first two sequels, Undisputed 2 and 3, are arguably more famous than the now obscure Walter Hill movie they’re sequels to. 

10. Kill Bill:

Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill pushed the envelope for martial arts mayhem, but then again, being a student of film, should you expect anything else? Tarantino had Yuen Woo Ping as a choreographer plus, The Street Fighter himself, Sonny Chiba, along with the very proficient David Carradine (who only really shows off his moves in a deleted sequence opposite Michael Jai White), and Uma Thurman. For my money, the best fight sequence in the film is the first one, where Thurman goes at it with Viveca A Fox, but the House of Blue Leaves sequence is also a classic.

9. Big Trouble in Little China:

At the time, this movie was a box office flop, but years later, people finally caught on and started digging the fact that John Carpenter was making a beautiful Hong-style action fantasy movie in the vein of Mr. Vampire and Zu Warriors. The martial arts in this beats anything happening in American action movies at the time, even if much of it is wire-fu in the classic WuXia fashion.

8. Above the Law:

You can’t do a best American Martial Arts movie list and not include Steven Seagal. Granted, he never really made a pure martial arts movie in his heyday, but the ultra-violent aikido style he broke out in Above the Law and those first few movies were highly influential on American action movies of the area. At his best, Seagal was excellent, but it could be argued that the lean and mean Seagal was only ever present in those first five movies, with everything after Under Siege going downhill. Too bad.

7. Revenge of the Ninja:

Cannon Pictures did more to bring Ninja’s into the mainstream than any other movie studio. While their first Ninja movie, Enter the Ninja, is a joke, the sequel, Revenge of the Ninja, which elevated the first movie’s bad guy actor, Sho Kosugi, to a hero, is a slick movie and the best of their loose Ninja Trilogy. The director, Sam Firstenberg, also did a great job with the first two American Ninja movies, thanks to the untrained Michael Dudikoff being a gifted mimic and athlete, who, likely, could have been a JCVD-level star had Cannon put more money into his movies.

6. Best of the Best:

While the notion of casting the late James Earl Jones as the coach of a national martial arts team is almost as silly as the fact that the out of shape Chris Penn plays one of their best fighters, Best of the Best is still one of the most legit martial arts films of the era. It mixes the sports genre with martial arts. It gets the attitude of competition better than a lot of other films of this ilk, with it emphasizing sportsmanship and the surprising bond you establish with your opponent, no matter who wins. Philip Rhee is a terrific lead in this, thanks to the fact that his skills are legit. Still, Eric Roberts, despite no training, also acquits himself very well, thanks to the fact that he took the choreography very seriously and got himself into peak physical shape.

5. The Last Dragon:

Martial Arts movies had a significant cult status in the inner city, and The Last Dragon is Motown’s tribute to the genre, with a young black marital artist named Taimak, our likeable lead, Leroy Green, aka Bruce Leroy. The music is excellent, as are the fights, with the movie stolen by Julius Carry as Sho’nuff, the shogun of Harlem. Carry wasn’t trained, but he proved to be a good mimic, and attitude is everything sometimes.

4. Kickboxer:

While often overshadowed by Bloodsport, Kickboxer helped bring Muay Thai into the mainstream, and the movie features Jean-Claude Van Damme at his best, with terrific training sequences, an incredible final battle between JCVD and Michel Quissi’s Tong Po, and Van Damme shaking his butt in a bar fight. Also, who could forget the opponents wrapping their hands in bandages and dipping them in broken glass, which was sent up brilliantly in Hot Shots Part Deux

3. Bloodsport:

More JCVD, with this the movie that made him a star. We’ve talked about this a lot on JoBlo, but it introduced the term kumite into the mainstream and also showcases a wide variety of different styles of martial arts. This is a movie made by people who genuinely know the genre

2. The Karate Kid:

While I maintain that the fights in these movies were never great, with Ralph Macchio’s fight skills leaving a lot to be desired (he’s better as a martial artist on Cobra Kai – which has AMAZING fights), this movie did more for martial arts as a practice than any other movie on this list. It led to an explosion in Karate schools across North America, and, thanks to the gentle discipline and philosophy of Mr. Miyagi, proved that karate, and martial arts in general, is an art form that can help a lot of people discover an inner strength they never knew they had.

1. Enter the Dragon:

Bruce Lee’s only American movie, it came out posthumously and was such a cultural phenomenon that it led to a kung-fu craze that was so big, within a year, you had Roger Moore’s James Bond kung-fu fighting his way through The Man with the Golden Gun. Lee’s so damn good in this, but John Saxon also acquits himself well in the fight scenes; Jim Kelly, in some ways, is almost as iconic as Bruce is with his massive afro.

So that’s our list – special thanks to EJ Tangonan, who edited this video, for helping brainstorm this list.

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Chris

Jean-Claude Van Damme. The Muscles from Brussels. If you grew up in the early nineties, this handsome Belgian was everywhere. With his unique accent, good looks, and a butt he was all but too happy to show off at least once a film, he was the rare action star that was just as popular with the ladies as the dudes. Changing tastes in the mid-nineties meant that his career as a viable lead in theatrical films started to dry up, which wasn’t helped by some off-screen issues he had with drugs (a Hollywood tale as old as time). But, while his contemporary, Steven Seagal, became something of a parody of himself, JCVD got clean and doubled down on his craft, emerging as a surprisingly potent actor in some DTV movies that are way better than anyone gives them credit for. 

While his days as an A-list lead might be behind him, JCVD remains a guy you can’t help but love, and his legacy has been assured by the fact that he never stopped delivering decent movies (even if the budgets are lower) and has a good sense of humour about himself. And, oh yeah, he’s known to be a pretty nice guy to boot (and is the subject of one of our biggest What Happened to this Celebrity episodes of all time). But what are the best JCVD movies? Here are five (in chronological order).

Bloodsport (1988):

The fact is, you can’t do a Jean-Claude Van Damme best movies list without Bloodsport at the top of said list. The ironic thing is that Cannon Pictures, the film’s distributor, thought it was a disaster and it spent months on the shelf, with it coming very close to going straight to video. What saved the movie was the fact that the company badly overextended itself with a few big-budget duds in 1987, so in 1988, they needed product they could push. Bloodsport is probably the most profitable movie they ever made. Its theatrical gross was modest, but on home video, this cult movie became a monster, and it was an important stepping stone for Van Damme, who plays a real-life (and very controversial) martial artist named Frank Dux, who fights in the deadly underground Kumite. Everything about this movie is iconic at this point, from the power ballad-heavy soundtrack to Bolo Yeung as the villain and the many, many hard-as-nails fight sequences.

Kickboxer (1989):

While I don’t think Kickboxer is quite as slick or as well made as Bloodsport, it’s just as iconic in its way. In this one, JCVD avenges the maiming of his brother at the hands (and feet) of a brutal (and iconic) Muay Thai master, Tong Po. Van Damme has a great fight in this one at the end with Tong Po, where the fighters have to dip their hands in oil and broken glass to make the hand-to-hand fight all the more brutal (I loved in Hot Shots: Part Deux where they made fun of this by having the fighters dip their hands in hot fudge and candy). Plus, this is the one where Van Damme dances. 

Double Impact (1991):

Double the Van Dammage! That was the tagline my friends and I used to scream at each other at recess around when this movie was coming out. The fact that JCVD was playing twins in this one was a BIG deal at the time. My gym teacher was so enamoured with Van Damme that the door to his office prominently displayed this movie’s poster for most of the first half of the nineties. It’s an extremely rewatchable action movie, with Van Damme playing the wimpy ladies man, Chad, and the tough-as-nails anti-hero, Alex. Of course, in the end, Chad, who starts off as a wimp, becomes a total badass, while the hard Alex learns to embrace his softer side. They both learn something! The line readings in this one crack me up, such as the way JCVD says, “Hong Kong? Uncle Frankie – we have a business to run!” or, “I’d never wear silk underwear!” I also love that the producers were so desperate to squeeze a sex scene into this movie that they did it as a fantasy sequence. Then again, Jean Claude and his co-star Alonna Shaw looked good, so why not?

Universal Soldier (1992):

This one is slightly controversial. I considered putting Peter Hyams’s Timecop on the list, but our Director of Operations here at JoBlo, John Fallon, is a JCVD superfan and convinced me that Timecop is nowhere near as good as Universal Soldier. Given his bonafides (check out his pic with JCVD at the bottom of the article), I defer to his wisdom. Universal Soldier is pretty iconic, with JCVD and Dolph Lundgren playing reanimated Vietnam War veterans on a rampage. Lundgren steals this one with his necklace of ears and his whole “the war is out there, man” grocery store monologue. That said, JCVD would have his revenge years later when they both appeared in Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning, which might be the greatest DTV B-action movie ever. Van Damme KILLS in that one.

Hard Target (1993):

For me, Jean-Claude Van Damme’s best all-around movie is still Hard Target (in fact, it ended up on our 25 best action movies of all time list). John Woo is probably the greatest action movie director of all time, and it figures that he would deliver JCVD’s most impeccably assembled flick, with him playing a Cajun sailor named Chance Boudreau sporting one of the most glorious mullets since Patrick Swayze cleaned up the Double Deuce in Road House. However, it can’t be denied that the movie gets stolen by the amazing supporting cast, in particular Lance Henriksen, but also Arnold Vosloo, Yancy Butler, and Wilford Brimley, who, just like Christopher Lloyd many years later in Nobody, proves he was born to do action even if no one gave him the chance before he hit senior citizen status. 

What do you think are the five most essential Van Damme movies? Which ones should we add when we make this one into a top 10? Let us know in the comments!

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Damien Thorn is the Antichrist, and the trilogy that tells his unholy tale remains popular almost fifty years later. Indeed, while putting together this movie ranked list and revisiting the original Omen franchise, we were surprised at how well the old movies held up. Omen fans will be happy that the series has been restarted in a pretty interesting way last year, with The First Omen a surprisingly excellent prequel to the original trilogy (check out our interviews with the director and cast here), even if it takes one large liberty involving Damien’s birth that some fans may have an issue with. So, how do the Omen films rank against each other? Let’s take a look, but remember that the TV series Damien (which lasted for one season in 2016) is not included, as we’re sticking with feature films.

The Omen (2006)

There’s honestly no reason for this movie to exist. It’s a scene-for-scene remake of Richard Donner’s original classic, with it being so faithful that the original screenwriter, David Seltzer, has sole screenplay credit. Despite a decent cast, you can tell the difference between an old pro like Donner and a guy like John Moore, who gets outclassed in his attempt to bring the original film up to date. This remake is without any real merit, with it losing the Jerry Goldsmith score and the slew of great performances delivered in the original. Liev Schreiber and Julia Stiles do their best but are too young to play their parts and lack any sense of gravitas. Overall, this movie is a giant waste of time, which is why it’s at the bottom of this Omen movies ranked list.

Omen IV: The Awakening (1991)

What do you do when you’ve killed off the Antichrist in your franchise about the rise of the Antichrist? Well, of course, you just start the process all over again. Turns out, the late Damien Thorn left behind a daughter who is adopted into a political family and named Delia… and while Delia isn’t the Antichrist herself, she is an evil little tyke who’s paving the way for the new Antichrist who will try to be more successful than Damien was. Faye Grant gives a good performance as the adoptive mother who gradually comes to suspect that her daughter is trouble. Omen IV is essentially a remake of the original movie, following its basic structure and featuring a lot of similar scenes. But it was working with a different script and has different characters, which puts it ahead of the actual Omen remake, and manages to have some creepy moments, despite the made-for-TV atmosphere (the movie made its debut on Fox, since this is a 20th Century Fox, now 20th Century Studios series). Plus you get to see a private investigator played by Michael Lerner get smashed by a wrecking ball.

Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981)

Omen III is probably the silliest of the Damien Thorn movies, but it also boasts an intense performance by Sam Neill as the now-grown Damien. Neill was a rising star at the time, making Zulawski’s classic Possession the same year. Young, charismatic and good-looking, you buy him as the son of the devil. But, it has two problems. One is that adult Damien will never be as scary as child Damien. The other is that they decided this would be the end of the franchise, and they opted to end it on a happy note rather than the foreboding conclusions of its predecessors. It also comes up short in the gore department, with no signature kills like in the other movies.

The First Omen (2024)

Most horror fans were wary of a prequel to The Omen, having been burned by the remake. Yet, despite everything, Arkasha Stevenson’s prequel to Richard Donner’s original film, which is primarily faithful, managed to earn a good number of appreciative fans. The only issue is that they changed an essential detail about Damien’s conception at the end in order to this into a new series. But the change they made is pretty disturbing in its own right, so we can forgive it. Nell Tiger Free gives a great performance in the lead, proving that she is a star on the rise. The box office numbers were a bit soft, which is too bad, as it would be interesting to see this franchise continue.

Damien: Omen II (1978)

No one will ever say that The Omen II lives up to the original, but you must hand it to director Don Taylor. Despite being little more than a journeyman, he made a pretty bold sequel, with a couple of gory kills that almost outdo the original. The guy getting chopped in half in the elevator (Meshach Taylor – who would play Hollywood in Mannequin) is pretty gnarly, and the drowning of Lew Ayres under the ice of a frozen lake is disturbing. The legend is that the movie’s star, William Holden, was the original choice for the first film, but he turned it down and regretted it when the movie became a hit (Gregory Peck also had a percentage of the box office and made a killing). He was a contemporary of Peck’s, but by this point, alcoholism had begun to take its toll, and his decent performance doesn’t compare to Peck’s. Still, it has a young Lance Henriksen in an early role, and Jonathan Scott-Taylor delivers a good performance as a believably conflicted Damien.

The Omen (1976)

If you’re making a list ranking The Omen films, only one could ever top the list. The granddaddy of them all. The story of a potentially evil child in the care of the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom. At the time, the film was critically maligned, with many calling it little more than a rip-off of The Exorcist, but time has proven the naysayers wrong. Richard Donner made a smash hit but adopted a classy, realistic style and cast it perfectly. People nowadays may not realize how provocatively cast Gregory Peck was, as he was perhaps the most beloved actor in Hollywood at the time. After all, he was Atticus Finch! Men of his stature didn’t make horror films, and the film benefits from his fantastic performance. It’s great that he and Lee Remick portray an older couple who are getting their last shot at being parents, making their disbelief at the fact that their presumed son is evil and being all the more potent. Plus, there’s David Warner, Leo McKern, the amazing Billie Whitelaw, and some unique kills. Damien! It’s all for you!

Do you agree with this Omen movies ranked list? Let us know in the comments!

The post The Omen Movies Ranked: From the Worst to the Best appeared first on JoBlo.

Chris

I love me some damn dirty apes, and I’m not alone. Ever since the first Planet of the Apes movie in 1968, it’s been one of Hollywood’s most consistent (on a quality level) franchises. Think about it. Has there ever really been a lousy Planet of the Apes movie? Not really. Yet, it’s often unheralded when we talk about the great franchises. So, let’s look at the series as a whole, with this Planet of the Apes movies ranked list (from worst to best). And don’t worry – you’ll get to have your say tomorrow with a poll I’ll be publishing, so check back for that.

Planet of the Apes (2001)

Tim Burton’s remake of the original 1968 classic is a mixed bag. Mark Wahlberg was a little too green at this point in his career to make a captivating action hero, with him paling compared to Charlton Heston’s powerhouse performance in the original. Nobody can play an astronaut crash landing on a planet of apes like Heston. The film itself is more than a little inconsistent, and I can see why it couldn’t launch a big new franchise for the studio, even if it did pretty well financially ($362 million worldwide). However, the makeup from Rick Baker is incredible, and the fact that it’s the last Apes movie to use the old, practical makeup FX instead of CGI makes it a must-see. Also, it’s one of Paul Giamatti’s favourite roles ever. 

Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1972)

In the sixties and seventies, sequels were made differently. The general consensus was always that a sequel would make less money than its predecessor, so the budgets were lower. As the Planet of the Apes series went on at 20th Century Fox, the studio started pumping less and less money into them, and Battle for the Planet of the Apes had a minuscule budget, resulting in the cheapest-looking Apes film of all time and the worst film in the original series. However, it still has Roddy McDowell acting his ass off in the culmination of the original Caesar trilogy. It also has a very eccentric supporting cast, with director John Huston and singer Paul Williams (The Phantom of the Paradise) turning up as Apes. Williams loved playing the part so much that he was known to turn up on talk shows wearing John Chambers’ makeup. Like all the other Apes movies, it made money for Fox, but rather than make an even cheaper sequel, they opted to spin the series off into a short-lived TV series they managed to get McDowell to return for. 

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)

When Planet of the Apes was a smash hit, 20th Century Fox immediately committed to a sequel. But, as was the general thinking about sequels those days, it was not designed as an “A-feature” in the vein of the first film. That movie’s director, Franklin J. Schaffner, never considered returning, with him making the Oscar-winning Patton for the same studio instead. The budget was only a fraction of the first film’s, partly because the studio had suffered a series of costly flops. The result is a reasonably cheap-looking film, with TV actor James Franciscus taking over for Charlton Heston in the lead. However, they did manage to entice Heston back for an extended cameo, which allows the film to end on a provocatively gloomy note, making the movie worth watching. This is the only classic Apes movie that didn’t have Roddy McDowell in it, with him shooting another film while doing this – and his absence is sorely felt.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)

Wes Ball’s new entry into the Apes saga is half a great movie. It’s terrific when it focuses on Ape culture and the new characters, such as Owen Teague’s Noa. But, when it starts to emphasize the humans and tee up yet another interspecies war, it becomes more of a mixed bag. We already have a pretty good trilogy on that very topic, so it would be nice to see this potential new series heading in another direction.

Escape From the Planet of the Apes (1971)

This one starts on a deceptively light note, with us seeing that Apes Zira (Kim Hunter) and Cornelius (Roddy McDowell) escaped the destruction of the planet of the apes (a future version of Earth) and have gone through a time warp that sends them back in time to 1973. Initially, they become celebrities, with the movie adopting a silly, sitcom-style tone, only to take a HARD left turn towards the finale, when it becomes a tragedy that expertly sets the stage for all the movies to come. 

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

In my review of Kingdom, I mentioned this movie being a mixed bag, and I was surprised at how upset some folks got with me in the comments, as this is almost universally beloved among fans of the series. I remember it getting more of a mixed reaction when it originally came out, and I stand by the idea that it’s a GOOD film, but the sequels are better. James Franco phones in his performance, but it doesn’t matter in the end because the movie wisely focuses on Andy Serkis, delivering the motion capture performance for our new ape hero, Caesar. John Lithgow is excellent in this as Franco’s dementia-affected father, who becomes a surrogate parent to Caesar, leading to a heartbreaking conclusion.

War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

The reboot trilogy ended with this all-out war film depicting how humans lost control of the planet due to their desire to re-establish dominance over the Apes. Some found the film overly self-serious and dark, but it brought the reboot trilogy to an operatic end and gave Serkis a platform to deliver (perhaps) his best mo-cap performance to date. Woody Harrelson also makes one of the most despicable human villains in the series (to date).

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)

For me, this stands as the best entry in the reboot trilogy. It was Matt Reeves’ first time making a super large-scale blockbuster, and he does a better job than most other films in the series of juggling the screen time between humans and aes, with Gary Oldman playing the most sympathetic antagonist the series ever had. 

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)

While Beneath and Escape the Planet of the Apes were hits, Fox continued slashing every subsequent instalment’s budget. Yet, the silver lining was that the movies were able to tackle riskier material, with director J. Lee Thompson and his writer Paul Dehn making the film a metaphor for fraught race relations in the U.S, with this very much informed by the battle for Civil Rights, the rise of the Black Panthers, and more. The film’s theatrical cut was toned down a bit by Fox, but if you watch it on Blu-ray, you’ll see the legit, uncompromised cut, with it standing as one of the more radical sci-fi films of the era.

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Of course, no movie in the series can match Franklin J. Schaffer’s original entry, one of the best science fiction movies ever made. It’s a very influential film, with stunning makeup effects courtesy of John Chambers, a superb musical score by Jerry Goldsmith, and an iconic performance by the great Charlton Heston in the lead. It also has one of the most unhinged, disturbing endings of all time. As good as every other movie in the franchise is, this one is arguably the only true masterpiece of the series. That said, in my opinion, again, there’s never actually been a bad Planet of the Apes movie. 

The post Planet of the Apes Movies Ranked: From Worst to Best! appeared first on JoBlo.

With the passing of Robert Redford, it’s inevitable that people will start revisiting his classics to pay tribute to one of the greatest movie stars of all time. And to be fair, there are a lot of amazing films to choose from. Redford was famously choosy with his projects, and outside of the occasional misfire like Havana (which, to be fair, isn’t that bad), he had very few flops on his résumé.

Over the next few weeks, I imagine people will be watching his two legendary team-ups with Paul Newman—Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting—as well as stone-cold classics like All the President’s Men, The Natural, The Way We Were, Out of Africa (never my favorite, but that score is unforgettable), The Horse Whisperer, Indecent Proposal, and many more.

However, here at JoBlo, we like to do things a little differently. For years, I’ve had a column called The Best Movie You Never Saw (admittedly intermittent in recent years), and just like I did when Gene Hackman passed, I want to share some underrated Robert Redford movies that deserve another look.

The Hot Rock

William Goldman wrote many of Redford’s best films, including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, and The Great Waldo Pepper. One of the most overlooked is The Hot Rock, a crime caper that’s surprisingly hard to find these days (though it pops up on Criterion Channel now and then). Adapted from Donald Westlake’s novel, it features Redford as John Dortmunder, a thief who keeps failing—again and again—to steal the same gem. He’s paired with the late George Segal as his brother-in-law/partner in crime, and the film features some clever twists and a scene-stealing turn by Zero Mostel. Outside of Legal Eagles, this is the closest Redford ever came to making a straight comedy.

Jeremiah Johnson

This Sydney Pollack-directed western is probably most famous these days for the GIF it spawned, but it’s actually a stark, sensitive frontier story with Redford cast way against type as a bearded mountain man. When Jeremiah trespasses on sacred Native land, he’s marked for death by the Crow tribe, who send generation after generation of warriors to kill him—but none can defeat him. While the finale leans into action, most of the film is really a romance, with Jeremiah building a life with the daughter of a Crow leader, only for tragedy to strike. Redford brought a softness to the role that Steve McQueen or Clint Eastwood—both more natural fits—likely would have lacked.

Three Days of the Condor

Redford wasn’t typically known for action, but he made an exception for this paranoid post-Watergate thriller. He plays a CIA analyst who stumbles onto a massive conspiracy and finds himself hunted by his own government. While the setup might sound familiar now, it was groundbreaking at the time. Sydney Pollack staged a handful of excellent suspense sequences, and Redford’s later casting in Captain America: The Winter Soldier was a direct nod to this film.

Brubaker

One of Redford’s grittier dramas, Brubaker casts him as a crusading prison warden determined to clean up a corrupt penal system. Based on a true story, the film has a terrific first act where Brubaker goes undercover as an inmate, with audiences unaware he’s the new warden until well into the story. It pairs nicely with another prison film he made decades later, The Last Castle.

Spy Game

While I was tempted to include Sneakers here (though let’s face it, that’s already a classic), I’ll instead highlight Tony Scott’s Spy Game. This slick techno-thriller paired Redford with Brad Pitt (whom he helped discover with A River Runs Through It). Propulsive editing and Scott’s kinetic style made it unlike anything else in Redford’s filmography.

And there you have it. If you’re looking for even more underrated Redford gems, check out All is Lost, The Old Man and the Gun, The Electric Horseman, and The Candidate.

So—what’s your favorite Robert Redford movie? Let us know in the comments below!

The post The Best Robert Redford Movies You Never Saw appeared first on JoBlo.

Chris

When Tom Cruise accepted his first mission as Ethan Hunt, I bet the star never thought that he’d still be playing the character nearly thirty years later, with the release of what may (or may not) be the last instalment of the series, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. But, as any franchise fan can tell you, not all Mission: Impossible movies are created equal, and we’re going to try to break them down from worst to best in our Mission Impossible movies ranked list!

8- Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025):

This potentially final instalment of the series is divisive, with some calling it an action movie masterpiece, while others (myself included) feel like it’s too crowded with fan service and melodrama. My issue is that by doubling down on the AI villain, “The Entity,” and embracing a kind of quasi sci-fi vibe, they’ve gotten too far away from the spy movie aspect of the franchise that always worked so well. Even still, the bar has been set so high by the franchise that at its worst, it’s still pretty darn good – and the last major action sequence is an all-timer.

7 – Mission: Impossible II (2000):

Here’s the thing – many people hate this movie. I honestly don’t know why. Even if its dated and a little cheesy, there’s still plenty to like about it. Arguably, John Woo was the one who transformed Tom Cruise into an action hero, as we’d never really seen him do big action scenes before this movie. While the first hour is dull (it’s basically an unconvincing riff on Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious), and the film relies way too much on the IMF’s mask tech (always my biggest problem with the franchise), the last hour has some dazzling action. This includes (for my money) the franchise’s best mano-a-mano scrap, between Tom Cruise and Dougray Scott. Plus, Thandie Newton is great, as Hunt’s love interest in this one is great, and Hans Zimmer’s score is excellent.

6 – Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (2023)

This is one of the most perfectly mounted action thrillers ever made, with action sequences so thrilling that, well, if you aren’t having fun, you may not have a pulse. That said, its ranking as far as the series goes has fallen off for me a bit because I didn’t love the payoff we got in The Final Reckoning. Even still, it’s so much fun, with Hayley Atwell a great addition to the franchise.

5 – Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015):

Rogue Nation is certainly one of the most influential films in the franchise, as it was the first time Christopher McQuarrie sat in the director’s chair and introduced us to Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust. My only real issue with the movie is that it blows its load too early, with the motorcycle chase so breathtaking that the movie’s conclusion can’t help but feel slightly anti-climactic. Even still, the action sequences are next level, and to some have never been topped by any of the sequels.

4 – Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011):

While this one has my favourite Tom Cruise stunt of all time (Cruise scaling the Burj Khalifa in Dubai), like Rogue Nation, the ending feels a little anti-climactic, with Cruise’s hand-to-hand opponent (the late Michael Nyqvist) not quite imposing enough. It’s also overstuffed with characters (despite coming up short in the Ving Rhames department), with Simon Pegg, who joined the franchise in the previous film, getting expanded screen time and new additions including fan favorite Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner’s Brant. The reason for this is that, at the time, Cruise’s career was on a downslide, and many thought Renner, who was a rising star, was being poised to take his place as the lead. That said, the second Cruise dangled from the top of the Burj Khalifa; there was never any doubt that the franchise would always be his. Also, director Brad Bird gives the movie a cinematic scope thanks to some well-shot IMAX sequences that cemented the series as a must-see on the big screen. If only Paramount would release the IMAX version of this movie on streaming or Blu-ray!

3 – Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018):

Another massive production that features some staggering action, including a terrific bathroom brawl early on that introduces Henry Cavill as Hunt’s new ally turned antagonist. Unlike many villains in the series, Cavill is a legit physical threat to Cruise, making their climactic helicopter battle a nail-biter. It also gives Hunt a nice full-circle moment with a bittersweet payoff to his relationship with Michelle Monaghan’s Julia. More on her later…

2 – Mission: Impossible (1996):

I like this movie so much because it’s the only one that feels like an episode of the show. The action is lower key, the face masks are realistic, and Hunt isn’t quite the Superman he’d become in later instalments. It also has the best-set piece in any of the films, the vault break-in, superbly mounted by director Brian De Palma. My only issue is that it comes up pretty short as far as action goes, and the plot is pretty complicated. Still, it’s a great introduction to Hunt.

1 – Mission: Impossible III (2006):

This brings me to the third film in the franchise. While this was the worst-performing entry financially, it features Cruise’s best performance as Hunt. What’s great about this movie is that it grounds the action by giving Hunt a legitimately affecting love interest, with Michelle Monaghan’s Julia, the doctor he wants to give up the IMF game for. No other entry has mixed drama, romance and action so well, and it helps that Philip Seymour Hoffman is the best villain the franchise ever had. This movie has it all, including a thrilling bridge shootout that remains one of the series’ best action set pieces. It’s by far the best movie J.J. Abrams ever directed.

What do you think of our rankings? Let us know in the comments!

The post Mission: Impossible Movies Ranked – From Worst to Best appeared first on JoBlo.

Chris

Is there any current director who is more controversial than Zack Snyder? It’s wild how divisive a figure he is, with his fans nearly cult-like in their devotion, while his detractors are just as fervent. Here at JoBlo, we’ve always been ardent supporters, even if we haven’t unquestioningly praised all of his films. Thus, we thought it would be interesting to do an all-around ranking of his films (although we’ve left the animated Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole off the list). So, without further ado, here’s our ranking from worst to best.

Sucker Punch (2011)

I’ll admit to not knowing precisely what Snyder was trying to pull off when I saw this movie in 2011. It remains the most obscure of his live-action films. It is a tough nut to crack, being that it’s a fantastical, hyper-surrealistic fantasy centred around a woman’s flight into fantasy as she’s committed to a mental asylum. It has many classic Zack Snyder hallmarks, and I’m sure some of his most devoted fans consider it underrated. He has teased doing a Snyder cut that would emphasize the musical elements toned down by the studio, so it’s possible that cut might be an improvement. But, for me, this is his least successful film.

Army of the Dead (2021)

I’m not sure any zombie movie needs to be 150 minutes, but Snyder wanted to make an epic for his first Netflix flick, and he did. While it was (predictably) slammed by his detractors, the action in the film is intense, and Dave Bautista is a great lead. It’s worth noting that Fallout star Ella Purnell got her start fighting zombies in this one, and it did manage to spawn a pretty fun heist film follow-up, Army of Thieves. 

Rebel Moon (2023 / 2024)

This one comes with a caveat, as I think the two “Snyder Cuts” coming this summer will make this a much better sci-fi epic than the PG-13 version we got. I’m counting this as one movie, although I must admit that I found the first installment, Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire, much more compelling than Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver, which I wasn’t crazy about. Hopefully, the “Snyder Cut” makes a significant difference, so when it comes out we’ll revisit this list.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)

To some, this comic book movie remains director Zack Snyder’s ultimate achievement, as it was infamously taken out of his hands and largely reshot by the now cancelled Joss Whedon, which has since gone down as one of the worst decisions in modern studio history. “Restore the Snyder Cut” became a movement, especially during the early days of the pandemic when, let’s face it, none of us had anything better to do. While I liked the Snyder Cut, I would be curious to see what he would have delivered had he not been removed from the project initially, as there’s no way he intended to give Warner Bros a four-hour movie. I can’t help but think a slightly punchier version would be an improvement, although it’s a million times better than the horrible Whedon version.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

Interestingly, we published a poll asking readers what their favourite movie of his was, and it was one of our most popular polls in a while. Shockingly, the winner (by a landslide) was this, a movie whose reception was so controversial that, in many ways, it cost Snyder his place in the DC Extended Universe. It’s cool to see this follow-up to 2013’s Man of Steel go from being universally loathed to loved, but likely the fact that the three-hour “Snyder Cut” is so much better played a role in its enhanced reputation among fans. We all agree on two things: the score is incredible, and Ben Affleck is one heck of a good Batman, no matter what anyone says.

Man of Steel (2013)

Speaking of good casting, Henry Cavill’s treatment by WB has to go down as one of the most inexplicable studio decisions on record, as he was a great Superman (easily the best since Christopher Reeve). Many fans didn’t like Snyder’s darker treatment of the character, which ended with an infamously violent climax that saw the Man of Steel kill Michael Shannon’s General Zod. Still, I maintain that the people wanting a happy-go-lucky Superman in the vein of Richard Donner are misguided. Bryan Singer tried this with Superman Returns, and audiences stayed away. Maybe James Gunn will have better luck as he scraps the DCEU and builds his own universe, but in my opinion, Snyder is the only director (so far) to nail a modern Superman movie.

Watchmen (2009)

Fans eagerly anticipated Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Alan Moore’s iconic graphic novel, but its box office (and critical) reception was underwhelming. Time has been kind to Snyder’s well-cast adaption, with Jackie Earle Haley a standout as Rorschach. My only issue is that Snyder uses too many needle drops, with Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” during the Nite Owl/ Silk Spectre II love scene being particularly silly. Nevertheless, it’s about as good of a big-screen adaptation of Moore’s work as we ever could have expected. 

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Like many, I was dead set against a remake of George A. Romero’s classic zombie flick, but Snyder (working from a screenplay by James Gunn) made himself a director of note when he nailed the adaptation, which was his feature film debut. It’s incredibly well-cast and possibly his most propulsive movie to date, with it holding up as one of the better modern zombie flicks, with the highly nihilistic ending being one that will stick with you for a while after.

300 (2007)

What else could it be? While some believe 300 hasn’t aged particularly well, with the then cutting-edge technology seeming quaint seventeen years later, it was massive when this came out in 2007. It made Gerard Butler a star, put Michael Fassbender on the map, and turned a whole new generation onto the work of Frank Miller. It also proved there was a massive audience for R-rated fantasy epics, paving the way for HBO’s Game of Thrones. 

What do you think of our rankings, and where would you add Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole to the list? Let us know in the comments!

The post Zack Snyder Movies Ranked: From Worst to Best appeared first on JoBlo.

Cody

Top of the mornin’ to you! It may not be St. Patrick’s Day, but it’s never a bad time to watch Leprechaun movies, and we here at Arrow in the Head decided to go back over the whole Leprechaun franchise to rank them from worst to first. The Leprechaun Movies Ranked list can be seen below – check it out and let us know how you would rank the movies!

LEPRECHAUN: ORIGINS (2014)

This is appalling. Director Zach Lipovsky, writer Harris Wilkinson, and WWE Studios were given the chance to make a new Leprechaun movie, they cast a professional wrestler (Dylan “Hornswoggle” Postl) as the title character, and then they just churned out a dull monster movie. I don’t know how anyone involved thought this was a good idea (“You know what we should do? Take everything people liked about Leprechaun and remove it!”) or how Leprechaun: Origins made it through production. The story follows Americans backpacking through Ireland and running across a leprechaun, who is just a hideous creature with no personality. It’s not even fun to watch this thing pick people off. There’s nothing interesting to be found in this movie, although there is some curiosity factor in seeing one of the most wrongheaded reboots ever made. Unfortunately, you have to sacrifice some of your time to do so. (Good thing the 90 minute running time is padded out with 12 minutes of end credits.)

LEPRECHAUN IN THE HOOD (2000)

Around 2000, there was a surge of low-budget horror movies set “in the hood”. Full Moon was in on it, and the Leprechaun franchise joined the trend as well. Directed by Rob Spera, who got help from four other writers in crafting the story and script, Leprechaun in the Hood has its charms. You get Ice-T as a record producer who gained success with the help of a flute he stole from the leprechaun. You get the leprechaun smoking weed, rapping, and mesmerizing a trio of “fly girls”. And of course, you get him killing people while trying to get his flute back from the rap group that has stolen it from Ice-T’s character. (Called Mack Daddy O’Nassas because he was a pimp who “owned asses”.) This one ranks lower just because it doesn’t feel as fun as some of the other entries, despite the weed and the rapping.

LEPRECHAUN BACK 2 THA HOOD (2003)

Writer/director Steven Ayromlooi wanted to make a Spring Break Leprechaun movie, but Lionsgate wanted to send the character Back 2 Tha Hood. Well, at least this repetition is more tolerable than going Back 2 Space would be. This sequel has better production value than the previous Hood entry, some cool action moments, and fun elements like bullets laced with clover and a magic battle between the leprechaun and a fortune teller. On the downside, the characters aren’t very interesting, so it bogs down whenever we have to watch them interact. We get the leprechaun hitting a bong, but he doesn’t give us another rap sequence… which I’m sure was disappointing to fans of the first Hood film. This may be the last time we’ll ever see Warwick Davis starring in a Leprechaun movie, which is a shame. He seemed to have a lot more Lep left in him, but they let the franchise go dormant for too long.

LEPRECHAUN 4 (1996)

Leprechaun 3 director Brian Trenchard-Smith returned to direct Leprechaun 4, which is not on the level of his previous contribution to the series. The fact that it’s set in space isn’t the problem, it’s fitting that the Leprechaun movies helped start one of the most amusing franchise trends. The problem is, it feels like Dennis Pratt just wrote it as a generic Aliens knock-off and then replaced the alien with the leprechaun. He lives on a random planet and is referred to as an alien. At least he’s still obsessed with wealth and power. This movie does get incredibly strange as the leprechaun wipes out a bunch of soldiers and the medical staff on a spaceship, so it has that going for it. This seems to be a love it or hate it entry: it gets too ridiculous for some viewers, while others enjoy that it’s packed with jaw-dropping nonsense.

LEPRECHAUN RETURNS (2018)

The leprechaun is a different character in every Leprechaun movie, they all just happened to be played by Warwick Davis. Until Leprechaun Returns, which brings back the leprechaun from the original. Ironically, the first direct sequel is also the first sequel Davis opted not to come back for. So this returning leprechaun is played by Linden Porco, who does a good job, it’s just difficult for anyone to come close to what Davis did. Directed by Steven Kostanski, Leprechaun Returns is an entertaining sequel with an amusing, clever script by Suzanne Keilly – who recently wrote a fun Slumber Party Massacre movie as well. The story finds the leprechaun accidentally being unleashed by a group of sorority girls and proceeding to kill them and their friends one-by-one. Nice and simple. Mark Holton reprises the role of Ozzie from the original film, and the heroine is the daughter of Jennifer Aniston’s character.

LEPRECHAUN (1993)

Some horror franchises start out dead serious and slide into silliness. That’s not the case with Leprechaun. Future entries would definitely be sillier, but this concept was ridiculous from the start. Written and directed by Mark Jones, Leprechaun is about a single father and his daughter moving into a fixer-upper home in North Dakota… and quickly realizing there was a leprechaun trapped in the basement and a pot of gold coins the previous owner brought back from Ireland (after stealing it from the leprechaun) stashed nearby. The leprechaun wants his gold back, and is willing to kill people in nasty ways to retrieve it. Jones tries to make moments genuinely unnerving, but while Warwick Davis turns in a hell of a performance and the leprechaun is hideous, he’s still wearing a funny outfit, tossing out one-liners, and getting distracted because he’s compelled to polish shoes. He’s also up against some goofball characters, including Pee-wee’s Big Adenture‘s Mark Holton as a fellow named Ozzie Jones, who’s unlucky enough to have swallowed one of the gold coins, and a rather annoying heroine played by pre-Friends Jennifer Aniston.

LEPRECHAUN 3 (1995)

The idea behind Leprechaun 3, which was directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith from a script by David DuBos, was a really smart one. You have a horror villain who’s obsessed with collecting riches, so what better setting could there be for one of his sequels than Las Vegas? Of course, the movie only had to budget to film in Vegas for one day (the interiors were shot in Los Angeles), but Trenchard-Smith made the most of it. While the leprechaun causes trouble for people who work at a casino, including a terrible magician and a croupier played by genre regular Caroline Williams, we also learn that leprechaunism is an infectious disease when the lead (played by John Gatins, who would go on to earn an Oscar nomination for writing Flight) starts to turn into a leprechaun himself. This was one of the better, most well-crafted entries in the franchise. And you get to see what a handful of leprechaun poop looks like.

LEPRECHAUN 2 (1994)

Every one thousand years, a leprechaun can claim a human bride, and in Leprechaun 2 an evil leprechaun has his mind set on a young woman named Bridget (Shevonne Durkin). With the help of his drunken uncle Morty (Sandy Baron), Bridget’s boyfriend Cody (Charlie Heath) desperately tries to save his love from life with a leprechaun. Directed by Rodman Flender and written by Turi Meyer and Al Septién, this sequel is a step up from its predecessor. It’s quick and fun, with a good sense of humor and very entertaining performance from Baron. It also brings a welcome new addition to the Leprechaun mythology, saying a captured leprechaun has to grant its captor three wishes. Of course, those wishes don’t always work out for the person making them. Warwick Davis was given better material to work with, including a great sequence in which he and Morty have a drinking contest. This one also earns points for being set on St. Patrick’s Day.

The post Leprechaun Movies Ranked appeared first on JoBlo.

Let’s get ready to rumble! Everybody loves a properly done sports movie which can show epic comeback stories and moments that make audiences cheer as if they’re watching the sport live. No set of movies has done this better than the Rocky Balboa franchise and the continuation into the Creed films starring Michael B. Jordan has been seamless to say the least (and the box office hasn’t been too bad, either). Jordan has taken on the mantle like no other actor could and plans to keep building it even further, with Amazon and MGM recently announcing a “Creed-Verse”. However, Jordan hasn’t given any explicit details about what that future may hold, simply implying that the projects could be bigger and more complex than just a simple Adonis Creed sequel (although Creed IV is in the works). So, keeping that in mind, let’s take a look into what some of those future projects could be.

Anime Series

Believe it or not, this idea may come to fruition much sooner than some might think. Loyal fans of MBJ will know that he is a massive anime fan, even stating in an interview that his directing style for Creed III was largely influenced by anime shows such as Naruto and Drangonball: Z. Not only does Jordan’s love for anime as a fan make this a possibility, but Jordan has had several prominent roles as a voice actor for anime shows/movies, including the series Gen: Lock, as well as voicing Cyborg in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox.

So, what exactly could an anime Rocky/Creed series be about? Well, it could simply be a continuation of the franchise in animated-form, but that seems a little too unnecessary (especially since more theatrical sequels are a large possibility). Instead, the anime series could be something related to the MCU’s What If…? show (which Jordan lent his voice too for his role of Kilmonger) in which each episode could explore a different scenario with characters from the Rocky/Creed franchise. What if Rocky had won the first fight against Apollo? Or what if he had ultimately lost to Clubber Lang again at the end of Rocky III? What if Drago had never killed Apollo? Where would the United States be without the events of Rocky IV? With nine movies worth of material, it’s easy to see how an anime series could explore so many different possibilities.

Live-Action Series

Even if the franchise doesn’t expand into anime, it could still very easily make the transition to the little screen for a live-action series instead. Just like an anime series, the live-action series could potentially just pick right up where Creed III left off and be a proper sequel, but that still seems too easy when future films seem imminent. Instead, a live-action series could take the time to further expand into characters or places that fans already know about, but haven’t quite gotten the limelight that they deserve.

One example could be a series about the Delphi Boxing Academy in Los Angeles, the gym that Donnie runs in Creed III and the home gym of his father, Apollo. Such a series could allow the franchise to still be driven by the boxing element but allow it step away from the Rocky/Creed narrative and give other boxers (actors) the spotlight for a change. It would also give Tony “Little Duke” Evers (played by Wood Harris) the chance to be a main character in the series rather than a secondary one.

Amara Creed Sequel

One of the most popular and logical ways to keep the Creed-Verse franchise going and still allow it to keep the Creed title would be a sequel starring Donnie’s daughter, Amara. In the most recent film, Amara (played by Mila Davis-Kent) is seen as a seven year-old girl who not only isn’t afraid to stand up for herself but also takes a keen interest in her father’s boxing career. By the end of the movie, Donnie notices how interested Amara truly is in the sport and it perfectly sets up how she could be the one to keep the Rocky/Creed dynasty going.

Not only would these be logical from a story point of view, but the addition of Amara’s character being deaf could have a huge cultural impact in terms of representation. It would assuredly make for some incredible POV sequences watching a deaf-fighter in the ring, knowing that she can’t hear the people in her corner in the middle of a round. It would add major hurdles to the character that she would undoubtedly be able to overcome, just like her mother and father.

Drago Spin-Off

While the projects listed above are really just speculation, this particular project is the only one that is said to be in some sort of development. Despite villainous role Viktor Drago (played by Florian Munteanu) had in Creed II, he makes a surprise return in Creed III and has a much bigger role to play than just a minor cameo, aiding Donnie in his journey to taking back the title and getting attacked by one of Damien’s men which results in him losing his own chance at the title. Because of his new role in the most recent film, it has been speculated that the Drago spin-off movie could be some sort of revenge story about Drago getting back at Damien for attacking him… but that’s not likely, considering what has gone on with Damien actor Jonathan Majors lately.

There have been conflicting reports that state that a revenge story probably isn’t in the cards for the Drago spinoff, especially thanks to Viktor’s character development from Creed II to Creed III. Instead, rumors suggest that the Drago spinoff could be a potential prequel series, centered around Viktor (or potentially his father Ivan’s) story and how they came to be the boxers that they were before they ever stepped foot in the ring with Rocky or Donnie.

Sylvester Stallone’s Return

This is the one all hardcore Rocky fans are hoping for, and probably a lot of Creed-Verse fans too. Sylvester Stallone has been outspoken about wanting to get back some rights to the character, and he wasn’t in Creed III. Yet, the character is still alive and back in February Sly did post some notes about a treatment he had for a new Rocky film. Could Jordan smooth things out and bring Sly back into the folks? It would be nice, that’s for sure as everything in the Creed/ Rocky universe comes from Stallone’s original characters and ideas. It is what it is.

Regardless of what the spinoff will ultimately be about, it’s conclusive to say that the Rocky franchise, now the Creedverse, is nowhere near finished and they have laid the groundwork for plenty of future projects. The question isn’t what project will fans get in the future – it’s how many?

The post Creed-Verse: Where Could the Franchise Go From Here? appeared first on JoBlo.

THR made a smart choice in listing the movies alphabetically, therefore foregoing any additional favoritism or having to pick the definitive needle drop as #1. Another rule they implemented was that there could only be one song per filmmaker, although they lifted this for one director specifically – yes, it’s Martin Scorsese.

And this is where we can start the debate. For Scorsese, they went with “Layla” in Goodfellas and Devo’s version of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” in Casino. It’s tough to dispute their Goodfellas choice as the movie’s best needle drop, although there could be a case made for “And Then He Kissed Me.” As for Casino – well, I don’t see it belonging anywhere near the list. Come on, there’s “Janie Jones” in Bringing Out the Dead, “Don’t Worry Baby” in Mean Streets and so many other great choices.

Other directors who became synonymous with the needle drops in their movies include Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino – who get “Sister Christian” from Boogie Nights and “Stuck in the Middle with You” from Reservoir Dogs as their inclusions. Brilliant choices both but just for the sake of debate, I’d go with “God Only Knows” if I were to stick with Boogie Nights since it’s a perfect cap to the family aspect of the film. Instead, the Beach Boys classic was selected for Love Actually, which isn’t a bad choice at all.

Other stellar needle drop choices from movie history that could still be debated include “The End” in Apocalypse Now (alternate choice: “Ride of the Valkyries”), “Hotel California” in The Big Lebowski (alternate choice: “Just Dropped In…”) and “These Days” in The Royal Tenenbaums (alternate choice: “Needle in the Hay”). Inclusions on the list that are simply indisputable are “In Dreams” from Blue Velvet, “Dreams” from Chungking Express, “Fight the Power” from Do the Right Thing, “Where Is My Mind” from Fight Club, and “The Sound of Silence” from The Graduate, the oldest film on the list.

But this has just been one publication and one news editor’s opinion. What we want to know are your favorite needle drops in movie history! What are the all-time greats? Give us your top 5 in the comments section below!

The post Are these the best needle drops in movie history? You tell us! appeared first on JoBlo.

Legendary’s MonsterVerse Godzilla TV series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is set to premiere on Apple TV+ with the first two episodes on Friday, November 17, followed by one episode every Friday through January 12. (You can read our own Alex Maidy’s review of the first batch of episodes HERE.) In anticipation of the show’s premiere, we’re taking a look back at several of Godzilla’s previous adventures to see how they stack up against each other. For the sake of keeping it as lean as possible, we’re focusing on his earliest days, going all the way back to the original Showa era, consisting of his very first outing in 1954, his first clashes with the likes of Mothra, Rodan, King Ghidorah and his cyborg counterpart, Mechagodzilla, before concluding its run in 1975. So don’t look for the likes of Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994), Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995), Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000), or Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991), with its time travel shenanigans. To add more familiarity to the pot, we’re also including his string of American blockbusters, from his 1998 debut to his recent makeover for Legendary. That’s well over a dozen movies ranked from worst to best, with enough kaiju brawling – ranging from epic to grad-A ham – to satiate your appetite if you’re looking for more to watch after Monarch premieres.

19. Godzilla (1998)

As I’ll explore with the rest of the entries on the list, most Godzilla movies range from genuinely fantastic to at-least-okay-for-simple-fun (maybe with the help of some substances). Not Roland Emmerich’s 1998 Godzilla, which easily bottom-outs this ranked list of Godzilla movies. No amount of reflection after 23 years could make this movie seem better in context, nor all the drugs in the world make it seem entertaining. More interesting for Matthew Broderick’s worm obsession than anything Godzilla does, this fiasco with a criminal runtime of 139 minutes has none of the smarts, fun, or welcome weirdness that made the original movies classics – nor any originality to make it its own beast.

18. Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)

The zenith of the “these movies are for children and children only” vibe, Godzilla vs. Megalon feels like it was written by a children’s book writer in their twilight years, has given up, and just wants their check. An underwater civilization called Seatopia hijacking an amateur inventor’s fully functioning flying robot to aid them in taking over the world? For as awesomely odd as that sounds, everything about this one feels listless and routine, as if made with the mindset of “fuck it, they’ll still pay to see it.” It tries to cram new junk in there, like a robot superhero in the (albeit dope) Jet Jaguar, and some Italian Job driving for adults — and yet — none of it is enough to stop it from being the low mark of the series at that point, with Godzilla himself feeling like a tack-on in the final 30 minutes, easily putting it towards the bottom of our ranked Godzilla movies. 

17. All Monsters Attack (1969)

Much like Megalon, All Monsters Attack also feels made with the “hey it’s for kids, who gives a damn!” mindset, but at least director Ishiro Honda tried to play into that angle by giving it themes kids could actually benefit from. A boy travels to MonsterIsland in his dreams and hangs out with a talking Minilla, Godzilla’s son, and together they find their own strength to stand up to bullies. That’s a cute message, but also the movie’s only saving grace. Between the infamous amount of reused footage from past movies to make up the action scenes and a 69-minute runtime, and it seems no one involved cared about making this an actual movie, and instead opted for an after-school special that can’t help but be placed towards the bottome of our Godzilla movies ranked. 

16. Son of Godzilla (1967)

Two Minilla-centric movies in a row, and for good reason. The spawn of Godzilla is only so cute before becoming terrifying, which always goes hand-in-hand with whatever cuteness comes from this father-son tale that is Son of Godzilla. The series in full slapstick mode, there’s some playfulness to come from Big Poppa teaching the little guy how to blast his atomic breath – which comes in handy against some gnarly creatures, namely the big spider Kumonga, which was operated with some impressive wirework. A moronic human-level story about weather-changing tech – and an equally stupefying ending (even the little guy is frozen?) – stop SoG from skating by as harmless fun aimed at kids, so anyone’s appreciation of this one entirely depends on how much baby Godzilla hijinks they can stomach.

15. Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)

With Invasion of Astro-Monster, Godzilla leaped into the campy territory from which there was no return – literally. Godzilla, after repelling Ghidorah on Jupiter, does a leaping dance like a giant, scaly ballerina. That level of goofiness mixed with the schlocky, retro sci-fi effects and storyline can make for a fun night with like-minded friends, but take that away and you have an often dull alien-invasion story that lacks a proper amount of kaiju action, and perhaps is only as good as the viewers’ tolerance for cheap sci-fi filmmaking. 

14. Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)

After coming out of retirement, Ishiro Honda’s Terror of Mechagodzilla (the final Showa era film) is his attempt to get back to the grounded, more doom-laden tone of his first movie, having grown tired of what he felt were sequels aimed only at children. The story is indeed more focused than previous installments, taking on a more dramatic, tragic approach to what the characters are going through. And yet, Honda still had to contend with latent silliness that was pretty much inescapable, meaning his approach can be undermined by unintentionally funny moments. The action is also a bit of a downgrade from the previous entry (see the next slot), even though it continues a solid trend of Godzilla getting his ass kicked before rallying and going gonzo on monster asses. There’s a lot working both for and against Honda’s vision, but it’s a decent entry with a perfect final shot of Godzilla wading into a sunset-covered sea, leaving the Showa era behind him. Not the best, not the worst, but perfectly placed towards the middle of our Godzilla movies ranked.

13. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)

While it may introduce one of Godzilla’s more iconic foes, it’s a shame that Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla itself isn’t a better movie. Sure it’s a step up from Jun Fukuda’s Godzilla vs. Megalon, but that’s because it’s “humans vs. ape-like aliens” story is mildly better than that one’s “humans vs. sea-people” angle. No, if Mechagodzilla is worth remembering it’s for its absolutely banging final act, which pits Godzilla (alongside an ape-lion guardian named King Caeser) against his robotic alter-ego. With perhaps the most explosions and pyrotechnics than any entry before it, the clash finds Mecha unloading rainbow laser beams and finger missiles at the big lizard, giving him a run for his money and making him have a full-on blood geyser spew from his neck. Makes it all worth suffering through one of the dumber, more poorly written stories just to get to. 

12. Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)

There’s not much that Godzilla vs. Gigan does differently than previous entries: Aliens are once again back to conquer the world (a story approach director Fukuda would bring to the next few movies) and once again Godzilla is needed to fight them off. But despite all that feels similar, Gigan manages to walk away as one of the better movies simply because it’s so purely enjoyable. The monster Gigan is designed like an interstellar robot chicken with a buzzsaw in his tummy; King Ghidorah is always a plus; the alien invaders are roaches disguising themselves as dead humans — which is dope and; the action as some weight to it, with Godzilla and Angurius getting their asses handed to them before a big win. Even when it’s failing it’s either kind of adorable or at least entertaining, earning it solid placement as one of Godzilla’s more reliable adventures. 

11. Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

Godzilla Raids Again reminds me a lot of Rocky II in that it’s not quite as good as the first movie, but is still a good movie on its own, and it’s come out the other side as a solid, if almost forgettable, entry in the series. Many of the smarts from the original are there with an increase in action, teasing the first of many kaiju clashes that would define the series. However, nothing about it stands out among the rest of the series. Not as interesting as others, but still smarter than most; not as exciting as others, but sporting some relatively good fights. Solid kaiju moviemaking from top to bottom, which in the case of this series, isn’t too shabby at all.

10. Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)

Of all Godzilla’s early adventures, Godzilla vs. Hedorah is the one to likely split fans down the middle. It’s the outlier of the bunch, with director Yoshimitsu Banno looking at much of what came before and saying, “Nah, not gonna do that.” After the last few entries dialed up the ham, Hedorah gets back to more grounded roots with a villain that reflects anti-pollution themes, and the movie itself feels like a reflection of the changing cultural shifts Japan was going through at the time, making it feel bizarre in ways all its own. Like Godzilla mixed with The Blob and a bit of Creature from the Black Lagoon, there’s even a horror movie vibe to it all as Godzilla fights what is, essentially, a trash monster. Yeah, there are still some issues with the storytelling, and it can’t completely escape the campiness of past movies, but still, Hedorah a fascinating, unique entry in the series that rearns this upper-tier placement of our ranked Godzilla movies.

9. Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966)

After a really rocky start that sets up the ensemble of incredibly thin characters, Ebirah, Horror of the Deep soon establishes itself as one of the most purely enjoyable entries in the series. Taking a cue from colorful spy movies of the era, we’re whisked away to an island featuring a syndicate of villains who are exploiting the native population, and as the crew tries to save the day, Godzilla goes toe-to-toe with a giant monster crab in some of the goofiest, most intricate fights of the series thus far. Plus, it brings back beautiful, winged Mothra to help save the day as a harbinger of peace, while Godzilla gets some added dimension as a being who simply wants to be left alone. Throw in some jammin’ surfer tunes when the monsters throw down, Ebirah is Godzilla at some of his colorful best.

8. Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

For the second entry in this rebooted series, Warner Bros. and Legendary decided to go all out and give folks who felt their thirst for kaiju spectacle went unquenched from the 2014 Godzilla exactly what they want: chaos and lots of it. Godzilla: King of the Monsters brings in classic Toho characters  – Mothra, King Ghidorah and Rodan  – and director Michael Dougherty lets us awe in the catastrophe they wrought (well, not wonderful Mothra. She’s an angel). But more doesn’t equal better, and while the spectacle is truly tremendous and a feast for the eyes, that means well-written characters and a story for them are thrown in the bin. By the end, you could be as easily blown away by the destruction as you could be bored of it, but either way, King of the Monsters provides a level of spectacle befitting of these massive titans.

7. Godzilla (2014)

Modern audiences love dunking on Gareth Edwards’ reboot of Godzilla, calling out the slow pace, lack of kaiju fighting (until the climax), and the killing off of Bryan Cranston’s character far too early. But over the years, I’ve grown a deeper appreciation for what Edwards was trying to do in crafting a story about how utterly at the mercy of nature we humans are. The mad-dash to figure out what’s going on and the uncertainty of it all may come off as a thread-bare story filled with equally thin characters, but it’s all about showing humans having to come to terms with accepting  – via a monster showdown  – that the Earth is not our playground; it’s theirs. Edwards takes the time to let the gravity of it sink in with some stupendous visuals and cinematography, and blending in an excellent Alexandre Desplat score, and some fine performances all-around (even if none can top Cranston), Godzilla demands another look if you haven’t given it one since 2014. 

6. Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

The rematch that was nearly fifty years in the making! Legendary’s version of Godzilla and the version of Kong that they introduced in Kong: Skull Island clash in this neon-soaked monster mash, battling a couple times – almost to the death – and then teaming up to take down another popular Godzilla enemy, Mechagodzilla! The story is… eh, whatever, but there’s a lot of fun in getting to see Godzilla and Kong share the screen again after so many decades, and having Mechagodzilla in the mix just makes it even better. Plus this movie offers viewers the chance to see Kong wield a battle axe made out of one of Godzilla’s dorsal plates. That alone was enough to make sure Godzilla vs. Kong wouldn’t be ranking too far down this list – and it’s awesome that we got a rematch with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.

5. Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)

A key entry in the Showa series, Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster is the film where it all turned around for the big guy, turning him from a villain of immense destruction into a hero of…mass destruction. With a prophesy story building up the arrival of King Ghidorah, director Ishiro Honda does an excellent job establishing the stakes, so that when the three-headed space monster arrives, you’re fully invested in watching Godzilla become the hero and whoop some golden ass. The shift forever changed the perception of Godzilla, but Honda ensured it didn’t feel cheap or random, wrapping it in a story of unity against an incoming threat, and once again proved Mothra will always be the voice of peace and reason.

4. Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Fit with a paper-thin story about invading aliens using mind control to take hold of a bunch of monsters (now all living on MonsterIsland  – like Jurassic Park if we actually just left the dinosaurs alone) and unleash them on Earth until humans submit, Destroy All Monsters is among the best old-school kaiju action you’re likely to see. The plot moves quickly to get to the awesome set pieces, which make unique usage of each monster, giving the movie a sense of scope these movies don’t always have. It also doubles down on the teamwork angle of Three-Headed Monster and finds Ghidorah getting the absolute ass beaten out of him by Godzilla, Rodan and the rest. Pure, colorful, simple (but not totally dumb), Destroy All Monsters is some of the best Showa ever offered.

3. Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)

After getting her own non-Godzilla movie from Toho, the Queen of the Monsters, Mothra, got the chance to give the still-villainous lizard a run for his money. A condemnation of consumerism and the exploitation of nature, Mothra vs. Godzilla, finds director Ishiro Honda still using these movies to explore the state of then-modern Japan, with the effects of the nuclear bombings having an impact on Infant Island, Mothra’s home turf. What sets MvG part is how much reverence and mythos Honda gives these big beasts, building up Mothra as a beautiful, divine presence, which clashes with the stomping, crushing Godzilla. Their battle is superb, with Honda doing great work establishing a pure good vs. evil story. Even though the baby Mothras that eventually take Godzilla down are horrifying to look at by the end, Mothra vs. Godzilla earns its place as one of the very best in the whole series.

2. King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

The third Godzilla movie takes a wild leap from the black-and-white, serious takes of the first two, pitting him against another one of the most popular giant monsters to ever rampage across the big screen. This monster clash is as silly as it can be when it gets the chance. It’s not perfect – for example, Kong looks like a Cabbage Patch doll covered in fur and then thrown in the microwave – but the negatives are outweighed by how entertaining the movie is. It embraces the fun of the concept of pitting these two famous characters against each other. Kids were going to want to see these monsters duke it out, and this movie is playing to the kids (of all ages) in the audience. It was also made to mark the 30th anniversary of Toho, and truly feels like a celebration. The fighting is bonkers, and scenes with humans trying to get Kong from Point A to Point B are just so, and it signaled Godzilla’s path into his future of zaniness.

1. Godzilla (1954)

Was there ever any doubt as you scrolled through the list? Of course not. The 1954 classic, the original Godzilla, stands tall not only because it’s the first, but because as more sequels came out that defined the series as kaiju fights with simplistic stories everything that made this first outing great stands out even more. The storytelling and rich thematic elements are more palpable; the visuals and action, though cheap, have layers of fear and doom that give them more weight. As the series got more colorful, louder and hammier  –  and all about keeping that cash train flowing  –  the original manages to stand out from the pack completely unscathed, and even looks better with age, solidifying it as the true king of them all, topping the list of our Godzilla movies ranked.

The post Godzilla Movies Ranked: The Showa era & American films: worst to best appeared first on JoBlo.

Chris

With Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny having been released to divisive audience reactions and less spectacular than expected box office, we thought now would be the time to do our definitive ranking of the Indiana Jones films. Of course, these rankings are just our opinions, so if you disagree – and many of you probably do – make sure to hit us up in the comments. Time to let ‘er rip!

5 – Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

Some of you reading this probably think I’m crazy. Am I actually saying Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is better than Dial of Destiny? Here’s the thing – some parts of Crystal Skull are worse than anything in Dial of Destiny. There’s nothing horrifically embarrassing in this movie (which saw James Mangold taking the helm) but the thing is, there’s nothing terribly memorable, either. The action is bland, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who’s exceptionally talented (Fleabag is legitimately great), is given nothing to work with. Plus, there’s the kid flying around like Anakin Skywalker and the de-aging, which, to me, never really works. Plus, bland bad guys and, worst of all – CGI-filled action scenes without any real excitement. 

4 – Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

When Crystal Skull is bad, it’s VERY BAD. I wish there had been no aliens and certainly no Shia LaBeouf swinging around on vines through the jungle. But Crystal Skull, even at its worst, is actually fun. It has the lighthearted, high adventure tone that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas perfected, and the ending left Indiana Jones in the right place. He’s one of the greatest heroes in movie history – why not let him have a happy ending? 

3 – Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

Of course, the top three is made up of the original trilogy… but here’s another controversial pick. Most people say that Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is the second-best Indiana Jones film. It’s pretty close, but I prefer the harder edge of the action in Temple of Doom. It also has a better villain, with Julian Glover’s Walter Donovan a bit bland. That said, there’s plenty to love about Last Crusade. Sean Connery is as iconic as Ford is as Indy’s daffy dad, Henry Jones Sr. The chemistry between him and Ford is one in a million. Plus, the excellent prologue (with River Phoenix) sets the stage for Young Indiana Jones and so much more. 

2 – Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

I’m stunned that more people don’t love this movie. People complain that Kate Capshaw’s Willie Scott is too wimpy, but I appreciate them doing something different with the love interest this time. I think people also often overlook that this is a prequel, as it clearly shows Indiana’s journey from being an archeologist for hire that’s willing to sell his wares to the hero we all know and love. Plus, Amrish Puri’s Mola Ram is iconic, especially when yanking hearts from chests, and Ke Huy Quan’s Short Round is the greatest kid sidekick of all time!

1 – Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Not only is this the best Indiana Jones movie, but it’s also the best action-adventure movie ever made. Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones is cemented as the greatest action hero of all time right from the get-go. I’ve been lucky enough to see this movie on 35mm theatrically thanks to revival screenings, and as good as it plays at home, it’s even more of an experience on the big screen. Everything about it is masterful, from the villains to Karen Allen’s Marion, the score by John Williams and the unrelenting final 40 minutes of the film. The film has the rare distinction of having two of the greatest action scenes of all time immediately follow each other, with the brutal airplane hangar fight directly segueing into the incredible truck chase. It simply does not get better than this.

The post Indiana Jones Movies Ranked: From Worst to Best! appeared first on JoBlo.

Chris

George Miller’s epic Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is now playing in theatres. It’s the latest entry into the definitive post-apocalyptic saga of our time and a series that minted Mel Gibson as a global superstar, transformed Charlize Theron into an action heroine, and seems poised to do the same for Anya Taylor-Joy. In my opinion, there’s never been a bad Mad Max film, whether it’s one starring Mel Gibson or not, as they’re all quite different in tone and technique, although we all have our favorite. So, here’s our JoBlo list of Mad Max movies ranked from worst to best!

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985):

The only PG-13 entry in the saga, this movie has scenes that seem shocking for how cheesy they are in the context of the series. The two movies that came before this pushed the boundaries of their R-ratings, so I’m not sure what kind of carrot Warner Bros dangled over Miller’s head to get him to make this a teen-targeted family flick, but I have a bit of a clue. For one thing, the movie came along at the height of MTV, so the movie was heavily tied into the network, with co-star Tina Turner cutting two hugely popular singles, “One of the Living” and “We Don’t Need Another Hero” that gave the movie some big-time cross-promotion to teens. Thus, the suits probably wanted to make sure those teens would be able to see it.

There’s also the fact that Miller’s best friend and close collaborator, Byron Kennedy, died in a helicopter crash before filming. Miller’s grief was so intense that he had to bring on a co-director, George Ogilvie, and the result is a movie that’s tonally out of whack. Some of the action scenes are great, such as the Thunderdome battle. Still, even those sequences have heavy doses of melodrama, such as the reveal of the baddie, “Blaster,” as a mentally disabled boy Max refuses to kill (complete with a corny soundtrack by Maurice Jarre). They really did soften Max up for the movie, too, with him less of an anti-hero this time, as he protects a tribe of lost children.

However, it’s still a pretty decent movie. For one thing, the action sequences are great, and you can see the germ of ideas Miller would explore later on in the saga, with Bartertown a kind of dry run for The Citadel. At the same time, the tribe of children in their Oasis, “Planet Erf,” seems like a prelude to The Green Place in Furiosa. Gibson, as always, is in top form, even if the old age makeup to make him look middle-aged isn’t convincing. Despite not being a trained actress, Tina Turner is memorable as the Aunty Entity, who’s undoubtedly the most sympathetic villain the series ever had. It also has a memorably grim ending with the Tomorrow-Morrow land the kids are seeking, just the bombed-out ruins of Sydney. At the same time, Max ends the movie wandering the Wasteland alone, without even his V-8 Interceptor. 

Mad Max (1979):

Some will undoubtedly take issue with the low ranking of the original entry into the Mad Max franchise, but hear me out. This is still one of the best Ozploitation movies ever made. However, Miller admits that the film was a rough draft for the formula he would perfect with The Road Warrior a few years later. Even still, it’s an essential movie to watch, with Mel Gibson arriving on the screen fully formed as Max Rockatansky. The film gives us the essential backstory on the world we’d later see Miller develop, with this taking place relatively soon after the nuclear war that would lead to the end of civilization, with Australia the last place standing.

In this one, society has only just started to crumble, with Max, the best driver among his Main Force Patrol, trying to keep society in order as it starts to fracture more and more. This is the movie that shows how Max becomes the hard-bitten antihero we know and love, with his family being cut down by the first in a series of memorable villains for the franchise, The Toe-Cutter, played by Hugh Keays-Byrne, who’d return to play Immortan Joe in Fury Road. There are a lot of classic moments here, but I’d wager the movie starts on an incredible note the rest of the film can’t quite measure up to – the iconic Night Rider chase sequence. 

Notably, the original Mad Max was dubbed by AIP for its US release, which pretty much ruined the film. Thankfully, the only version of the movie in circulation now is the Australian cut, which does proper justice to the amazing acting by Gibson, Keays-Byrne, and Steve Bisley, who steals many scenes as Max’s doomed best friend, Goose. 

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024):

Usually, when a movie screens for junketers, the early reviews pump a movie up to nearly ridiculous levels, as the early watchers can’t help but get a bit caught up in the excitement of a junket (I’ve been guilty of this myself). This is the rare case where those early reviews undersold just how good of a post-apocalyptic odyssey this is. You can read my review for more in-depth thoughts, but early viewers seemed shell-shocked because this was a very different kind of movie than Fury Road. I think those of us who saw it later went in knowing this fact and, as such, had a better appreciation for what it is, which is pretty damn awesome.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015):

So here’s where it gets dicey. I’ve said it before, and I’ll repeat it: the Mad Max saga contains two of the most incredible action movies ever. As such, I firmly believe Fury Road is a masterpiece, and even if it only comes in second in my Mad Max movies ranked list, I don’t mean to diminish it in any way. The film has so many iconic images and set pieces that I’d wager it’s probably the best movie of the last ten years (maybe more) and a modern classic. It’s a drag that Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron had such a miserable time with each other, as neither has ever been better than they are here. 

I went into this somewhat resistant to the idea of Hardy replacing Gibson, but he’s so different in the role that he truly defies comparison, which I think was the right approach. And Theron’s Furiosa takes her place as one of the best action heroines ever. Plus, there’s the score by Junkie XL, which, for my money, was the first time any of the movies ever had a soundtrack that could genuinely go toe-to-toe with what was happening on-screen.

The Road Warrior (1981):

All that said, The Road Warrior is better. Considering how low-budget the movie was and the fact that Miller’s resources were so scarce, it truly feels like a miracle. There are sequences in here that defy explanation, and it’s a wonder Miller could put any of this carnage on screen without getting anyone killed. Both The Road Warrior and Fury Road make the case for Miller being one of the most greatest action directors of all time, and he’s matched by his leading man, Mel Gibson. With the first film having set up Max’s grief, Gibson turns him into a stoic, tragic anti-hero that ranks among the best we’ve ever gotten on screen. The final tanker pursuit action scene is one of the best sequences in film history – action or otherwise.

What do you think of my Mad Max movies ranked list? Let me know your rankings in the comments!

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