There aren’t many action franchises like the Expendables movies. Just ask Expend4bles director Scott Waugh. He calls the movies “escapism,” “tongue-in-cheek” fun where the action is tailored around one-liners. They’re loving throwbacks to an era of cheesier action movies, with stars just as capable of delivering a punchline as a...
Robert Rodriguez had to bring video games back for his new Spy Kids
When writer-director Robert Rodriguez set out to make a new Spy Kids movie, he went to bounce ideas around with some very trusted collaborators: his kids. “They had a whole list of things: You have to have a safehouse. [...] And you have to bring a video game element back,”...
The Fall of the House of Usher turns Poe’s classic into Gothic opioid horror
Mike Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher, the writer/director’s latest and final Netflix miniseries (the creator jumped ship for Amazon at the end of last year), is different from the others. In previous works of adaptation, like The Haunting of Hill House, or his original series Midnight Mass,...
Expend4bles has no more wishes to fulfill
The Expendables movies were always a list of names before they were anything else. Stallone. Statham. Li. Snipes. Schwarzenegger. Willis. The pileup of those names is why anyone goes to see these movies. 2010’s The Expendables, and all its sequels, were aggressively marketed as assemblages of once-great titans of action...
Jujutsu Kaisen fans are in an uproar over its latest plot twist
Anyone looking to avoid major spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen should stay away from social media today. Fan translators published leaks for chapter 236 of the manga on Wednesday. The contents of the chapter surprised fans so much that they took to social media to react to the new development. We...
Who are Star Wars’ Witches of Dathomir?
The two-part premiere of Ahsoka, the new Star Wars series streaming on Disney Plus, did something that’s become kind of rare in Star Wars, something that was once integral to the franchise’s appeal: It had a character reference a thing that sounds freaking awesome completely in passing without ever following...
Talk shows walk back plans to scab as negotiations resume in WGA strike
Bill Maher is famous for two things: Being the host of Real Time with Bill Maher, an HBO talk show where the alleged comedian smugly articulates his brand of centrism opposite often-reasonable guests; and crafting a public persona best described as “huge fucking asshole.” Because of these two things, it...
Wheel of Time’s Seanchan act like colonizers — exactly as they’re supposed to
After making several memorable appearances in The Wheel of Time season 2’s first four installments, the Prime Video series’ Seanchan invaders finally take center stage in episode 5, “Damane.” They make the most of it, too, showing off everything from their culture and politics to their fashion over the course...
Foundation season 2’s finale is great in a way streaming shows rarely get to be
The second season of Foundation starts slow. That makes sense: The initial few episodes are forced to pick up the pieces of the first season’s scattered finale, introduce half a dozen new characters, and set the stage for a whole new story set more than a hundred years after the...
Netflix’s One Piece live-action series is coming back for season 2
The Straw Hat crew’s live-action journey is heading to the Grand Line. Netflix is bringing its live-action One Piece series back for a second season. The company announced in collaboration with series creator Eiichiro Oda in a video on Thursday. The announcement came via a video from Oda, in which...