Austin Butler and Michael B. Jordan as Crockett and Tubbs? Eh, not my first choice, but if you’re going with Miami Vice ’85, it’s hard to argue against a cooler duo. We don’t even have to waste our time wondering how they’ll look in the film, because the first look at them in action is here.
The studio dropped our first looks at Austin Butler as Sonny Crockett and Michael B. Jordan as Rico Tubbs in Miami Vice ’85. Shooting has begun on the film directed by Joseph Kosinski, who is red hot following F1: The Movie and Top Gun: Maverick. Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler) wrote the script, which is based on the iconic 1980s cop series.
The cast also includes a remarkable group: Alden Ehrenreich, Walton Goggins, Andre Holland, Whitney Peak, John Leguizamo, Camila Morrone, Danny Ramirez, Edi Gathegi, and Andrew Schulz.
Universal Pictures will open Miami Vice ’85 in theaters on May 19th 2028. It’s a little soon for a trailer, but perhaps more photos will drop soon.
You finally settle in. Snack? Check. Up-to-date? You betcha. New episode of your favorite show? You got it. Live wrestling event? I mean, what else could you want? And then, right as the opening credits start to roll, your streaming service throws you a monkey wrench and challenges you with a CAPTCHA, a verification code, a security email, or, worse yet, forcibly resets your password.
They seem to come out of nowhere, especially when you know you haven’t been up to any suspicious activity. But those painful “Is this really you?” alerts follow a pattern. Entertainment websites and streaming services use these measures to prevent account hacking and, on occasion, to help ensure accounts are used in accordance with the terms of service.
The tricky part is that one prompt can be responded to in many different ways.
A New Device Can Look Suspicious
The simplest is that you’re using a device they haven’t seen yet. You’ve probably upgraded your phone, purchased a new smart TV, reinstalled an application, changed your browser or have this ridiculous urge to start displaying on a screen smaller than your handheld device instead of the regular giant, old TV. To you, it’s a Wednesday. To the platform, it’s a fresh sign-in that takes a touch of reassurance.
Netflix, for instance, states that it ‘mails new sign-in alerts when you sign in from a new device or location’. Per its help center, ‘ traveling or using a new device away from home may also cause a temporary security check’.
If the verification pops up right after you switch devices, it’s pretty clear you’ve hit the snag. For fans who spend most of their evenings jumping between new releases, streaming coverage can be just as important as the shows themselves.
Your Location Suddenly Looks Different
Your geographic location can affect how you appear when you log in. For example, if you usually log in from home and you log in from a hotel, airport, friend’s house, or other city, the service might detect a new profile. But it doesn’t necessarily mean you were hacked. Traveling alone may create a login pattern that doesn’t match your original pattern.
Your location might be determined by your internet connection instead of GPS using your IP address; for example, Netflix states that the location displayed for a sign in is based on the current IP address used and may not correspond to your actual location.
That could be why a security email shows a nearby town, or just seems a little off.
Your IP Address May Be the Odd One Out
And now, this is where it gets a little more technical, but really don’t panic. An IP address is simply an identifying number assigned to your connection to the internet.
Most home internet users have one IP address that streaming sites will frequently check. But VPN users may have a different experience, as a large number of VPN connections are ‘shared’ (i.e., the same address can be used by lots of different users).
This is because it may make your connection appear less recognizable to an entertainment platform. In other words, if many different users have seemingly used the same address to connect to the service, it may view an additional CAPTCHA or authentication as justified.
A dedicated IP might be a good option if you already use a VPN and this keeps happening. Private Internet Access has a dedicated IP option, which gives a fixed address only used by the subscriber.
Will reduce the amount of interruptions caused by shared VPN IP addresses but it is not a free pass. A dedicated IP address won’t make checks from a newly added device or account-sharing rules go away.
Too Many Failed Logins Can Set Off Alarms
Beyond words, another clear trigger is multiple unsuccessful sign-in attempts.
If someone repeatedly tries to log in to another user’s account, or you accidentally misspell your password a dozen times trying to beat the counter down before a live show begins, the service might just become more paranoid.
That’s a feature, not a bug. Security systems commonly flag suspicious login activity, as multiple failed attempts may indicate a password cracker trying to access an account.
If you suddenly see Get Safe Alerts you don’t recognize, don’t ignore them. View your account activity and review it first.
Reused Passwords Can Create Bigger Problems
Reusing passwords is another way an account can suddenly appear vulnerable.
For instance, if you’ve used the same password for your streaming service, your email, and several websites you use for content you enjoy, a breach of any one of those services could compromise the rest.
The fix is easy, albeit time-consuming: use a different password for each high-value account. A password manager can help you by generating a randomized password. CISA says that a unique password and something like MFA can help ward off botnet hijacking. A password manager can make this much easier by creating and storing unique passwords for you.
If a service tells you a login wasn’t you, don’t take it lightly. Change the password and verify the devices that can access your account.
The Five-Minute Streaming Account Cleanup
If verification already seems like a staple at your nightly entertainment buffet, here’s a quick refresh:
Add a new email or phone number: a cause of hacking is recently added account activity. Investigate any unfamiliar activity, like a device, location, or session.
Log out of old devices: get rid of devices that you no longer use, like old mobiles, TVs and hotel-room logins.
Choose a secure password and use a different one from the ones you use on other sites.
Enable “two-factor authentication”: MFA adds an extra security layer on top of your password for applications that support it.
Remain consistent with the devices you’re familiar with: evolve browsers, devices, and the connection too often and you’ll find yourself having to take up a lot more steps to authenticate your device.
Test your link-up: Use a consistent IP while using a VPN.
For example, to solve an account or household verification issue, Netflix recommends checking active devices and signing out of places you don’t recognize.
Your Show Night Checklist
The first piece of advice is to blame the streaming service today, on their dark day. First do:)
New device? Defend it.
New location? You might get an additional security check.
Lost your login? Find out at once.
Reuse a password? Change it.
Shared VPN IP? You might want to try a dedicated IP.
If everything seems to be working correctly but the prompts persist, check the service’s current help page. Since verification and account-sharing policies can change, this is always the most reliable first step.
The best part is that most of these verification tips don’t have anything to do with who you are. Your streaming service isn’t questioning your dedication to bingeing every episode of a series; it’s trying to confirm that the person logged in is actually you. Make a few adjustments to your account and connection, and you’re good to go.
I’m happy to offer five DC area readers the chance to win a pair of tickets to attend a free special screening of Tenzing, Apple’s historical survival drama starring Tom Hiddleston, Willem Dafoe, Genden Phuntsok, and Caitríona Balfe!
SYNOPSIS: Based on true events, TENZING chronicles the little-known story of Tenzing Norgay (Genden Phuntsok), a gifted Himalayan climber who, alongside New Zealand mountaineer Edmund Hillary (Tom Hiddleston), was the first to summit Mount Everest. Encouraged by his wife Dawa (Thinley Lhamo), Tenzing finds an ally in expedition secretary Jill Henderson (Caitríona Balfe). Together, they persuade Colonel John Hunt (Willem Dafoe) that Tenzing belongs on the British climbing team, rather than merely serving it. Where Western climbers see Everest as something to be conquered, Tenzing reveres Chomolungma as the sacred mother goddess. What follows is an ascent defined as much by tensions between backgrounds, classes and competing ambitions as by the perils of the mountain itself. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Jennifer Peedom, TENZING is a story of greatness that refuses to be diminished — and the love that makes it possible.
The screening takes place on Wednesday, October 14th at 7:00pm at Regal Majestic in Silver Spring. If you’d like a chance to attend, email punchdrunktrav@gmail.com with your full name and favorite survival thriller! Winners will be chosen tomorrow, October 15th, and notified by email. Thanks!
Jessica Chastain’s return to horror, Other Mommy, won the weekend with $27.5M, despite poor critical reviews (18%) and audience reactions (47%) on RT and elsewhere. That said, there was a lot of buzz for the film based on those insane trailers that promised an unhinged performance by Chastain. She usually delivers the goods in this genre (Mama, It: Chapter Two) and fans are willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. It added another $17M overseas for a global debut of $45.1M.
2. Verity– $11.4M/$53.8M
The latest Colleen Hoover adaptation, Verity, fell 64% in its second week for just $11M, likely due to the 31% critical and just 71% audience scores it received. However, worldwide it has already cracked the $100M mark so it has to be seen as a modest success at this point.
3. Resident Evil– $8.3M/$138.5M
4. Heart of the Beast– $7.1M/$49.6M
After three weeks, the Brad Pitt/David Ayer survival thriller Heart of the Beast is a larger hit overseas than domestically. In total, $81M of its $131M worldwide total was from international markets.
We speculated on Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Network follow-up, The Social Reckoning, being a flop during a recent podcast episode. Turns out, we were right. The film, led by Mikey Madison, Jeremy Allen White, and Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg, flopped hard with just $5.5M from 2,606 locations. Ouch. There just wasn’t the same interest in Strong’s performance as there was in Jesse Eisenberg’s fourteen years ago, and at this point there’s no curiosity about the impact Facebook has had on the world. We see it every day.
6. Forgotten Island– $4.5M/$30.2M
7. Primetime– $4M/$41.4M
8. Digger– $3.2M/$14.4M
Warner Bros. embarked on an interesting marketing strategy to boost numbers for Digger, one of the year’s biggest box office disasters. It leaned into the negative reviews and encouraged people to “decide for themselves.”, as if folks have money to pay for a movie already seen as a punchline. It didn’t work. Digger fell another 60%, and only has $35M worldwide after two weeks. By some estimates, it stands to lose the studio a whopping $250M overall, which has to have the new Ellison regime slapping itself.
9. Angel and the Badman– $2.06M
Angel Studios released Angel and the Badman, a remake of the 1947 John Wayne western classic. This one stars Zachary Levi, Neal McDonough, and Tommy Lee Jones. Reviews were harsh, with the film sitting at 23% critical on RT.
On this episode of Cinema Royale, I’m joined by my homie Chris Bumbray of Joblo.com as we review Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning, his follow-up showing how much things have changed since The Social Network! Will Mark Zuckerberg be sending Sorkin a Christmas card this year? Or a Cease & Desist letter? And how does Sorkin do on his own without David Fincher behind the camera?
Follows Frances Haugen, a young Facebook engineer, who enlisted the help of Jeff Horwitz, a Wall Street Journal reporter, to blow the whistle on the social network’s most guarded secrets.
You can find Cinema Royale anywhere you get your podcasts, plus on YouTube in video form. Please subscribe to all the feeds if you can.
David Gordon Green’s attempt at a reboot with 2023’s The Exorcist: Believer was both a critical and box office flop, so Universal and Blumhouse Atomic Monster are turning to the steadiest hand in horror since Stephen King. That would be Mike Flanagan, director of Doctor Sleep, Gerald’s Game, The Fall of the House of Usher, and the hit new Carrie series. The Exorcist: Martyrs packs the most star power of the franchise with Scarlett Johansson, and based on the new trailer, it’s going in a completely different direction than your standard movie about demonic possession.
The seventh movie in the Exorcist franchise centers on Johansson’s character, Judith Miller, a single mom and NYPD homicide detective who took down a satanic serial killer years prior. His execution didn’t go as planned, and now years later she’s investigating new killings connected to her past, while her 12-year-old son becomes the target of a new evil.
So, basically, what we’ve got looks a lot like a serial killer movie, The Exorcist meets Se7en, which sounds pretty damned awesome to me.
Also in the cast are Chiwetel Ejiofor, John Leguizamo, Noah Jupe, and Sasha Calle. Also in the cast are Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, and Carla Gugino.
Marvel Television had a busy first day at New York Comic-Con, with a handful of big announcements for fans of the small-screen MCU. First up, Marvel head of television and animation, Brad Winderbaum, announced a new Zodiac live-action spy series. That was followed by the reveal of three new Marvel Zombies specials teasing specific heroes.
Variety reports that Zodiac will begin shooting in London in spring 2027, with the series expected to hit Disney+ in 2028. No details or creatives were announced, but a show logo was released for the live-action spy thriller. Marvel has a pretty good track record with the genre, beginning with Captain America: The Winter Soldier (still my favorite MCU film), the long-running Agents of SHIELD series, and to a lesser extent, Secret Invasion.
While it’s unclear if the two are related, Zodiac in the Marvel Comics is a terrorist organization led by operatives named after astrological signs. I could see this as a means of bringing SHIELD back to prominence in the MCU, after they were basically destroyed from within, Nick Fury was lost, and pretty much vanished after that.
Arriving throug 2029, three new two-part Marvel Zombies specials will hit Disney+. The first in 2027 is The Winter Soldier, suggesting it will center on a zombie Bucky Barnes. The Fist of Khonshu arrives in 2028, centered on Moon Knight. And finally in 2029, The Last Guardian, which may or may not be about a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. I would hesitate to presume it’s about Star-Lord, aka Peter Quill, when other members of the team were just as dedicated, if not more so, to it than him. Also, there are loads of Marvel characters with “Guardian” in their name.
This news follows a series of interesting announcements about the future of Marvel Television. Daredevil: Born Again was recently canceled with its third season, a bit of a surprise. The same goes for the sudden cancellation of Wonder Man despite strong critical reviews for season one. Coming up on October 14th is the premiere of VisionQuest, wrapping up the trilogy of shows that began with WandaVision.
Here’s hoping the checks are in the mail to Akira Kurosawa and Spike Lee, because Ben Affleck’s latest effort behind the camera, Animals, is basically a note-for-note redo of High and Low, or Lee’s underrated remake from last year, Highest 2 Lowest. Affleck, who directs, and stars, and co-writes the screenplay, stars as Los Angeles mayoral candidate Mark Kimball, with Kerry Washington as his wife, Abigail. So the film is centered in the cynical world of populist politics, rather than big business or the record industry. Otherwise, with one key exception, the stories are the same and address the same moral dilemma. When a mysterious stranger claims to have kidnapped their son, Mark and Abigail are willing to move mountains to get him back. However, Mark has to consider the political ramifications of his choices when it turns out the kidnappers actually grabbed the child of his Mexican employee, played by Adriana Paz, and her boyfriend, an undocumented worker played by Luis Gerardo Mendez.
The thing is, this basic premise is always compelling and can play out in a thousand different ways. To the credit of Affleck and co-writers Billy Ray and Connor O. McIntyre, Animals throws in a few interesting wrinkles, including the addition of Gillian Anderson as Dayle Burton, a mysterious fixer who has money and power at her disposal, and she’s willing to put them to the Kimballs’ use for the right price. The problem is that Mark has thrown all of his inherited wealth into the campaign, with only their house left to be used as collateral. Steven Yeun plays Kimball’s top adviser, who also has to keep him aware of the optics of the situation. Mark can’t be seen to be willing to let a Mexican kid die or he’ll lose the Latino vote, crucial if he wants to win a tight campaign.
Animals is about whether the ideals we assert can hold up when the chips are down and everything is on the line. Mark is a good guy, but he doesn’t always live up to the man he claims to be on the campaign trail. Nobody comes away from this clean, with even Abigail harboring a major secret that threatens to destroy everything they’ve built. Affleck’s Justice League co-star, Ray Fisher, who seems relegated only to movies from past DCEU colleagues, has a small role as someone close to Abigail that she’s trying to keep out of the spotlight. Anderson, clad in a tight, all-white suit looking like a supervillain, is one of those enigmatic power players who exist only in the minds of Hollywood screenwriters. It’s a fun role but ultimately too ridiculous to make sense in a relatively grounded film.
It’s wild that a Ben Affleck-directed movie like Animals could be flying under the radar like this. We’re so far removed from the time when Affleck was guiding acclaimed big-screen dramas such as The Town, Argo, and Air. This is a more modest effort clearly built for the streaming audience. It adds in moments of action when there doesn’t need to be, in an effort to keep the Netflix audience from tuning out. It lacks the teeth to make a really tough statement about the current nature of our politics. And I couldn’t escape the feeling that I had just seen this movie, and despite Affleck’s best efforts, Animals doesn’t do enough to set itself apart. Affleck is a consistently reliable filmmaker, willing to take big risks with each project. So I expect that he’ll bounce back from this rare dud.
A Scottish boy who grew up to the sounds of hip-hop in the ’90s and early 2000s, it’s likely that James McAvoy has a soft spot for the unlikely rap duo of Silibil N’ Brains. The best friends from Dundee found that breaking into the rap game was tougher than they thought, and the London music scene was particularly harsh on a couple of Scottish white boys with thick accents. But this was the height of Eminem’s rise to fame, and everyone was looking for the next person to follow in his footsteps. So they pulled off an incredible hoax, posing as a couple of California kids and securing themselves a record deal. This incredible but true story is the basis for McAvoy’s charming, slight directorial debut, California Schemin’.
Samuel Bottomley and Seamus McLean Ross star as best buds Billy Boyd and Gavin Bain, who would become the faux rap duo Silibil N’ Brains. Before that, they were just a couple of struggling kids working a dead-end job at a call center. They have a dream of becoming rappers, but find that it’s basically them against the world. English prejudice against the Scots is a factor, but also their lack of street cred and goofy image. This is made clear in a horrific audition to be the next big signing to a record label run by the prickly Anthony Reid (played by McAvoy). Returning home more disillusioned than ever, the two hatch a scheme to deceive the entire industry into believing they are a couple of streetwise rappers from California. And once they’ve inked a deal and found success, they will reveal the truth and expose the biases within the industry.
So this deception begins with an altruistic, if ultimately misguided, goal in mind and it’s not just to become rich and famous. The thing is, they’re actually pretty good. They can spit bars off the top of the head, they have charisma and stage presence, and they come across as, ironically, real. “Keeping it real” was everything that mattered in rap at the time, and they had all of London convinced. Before you could say “D12”, the boys are superstars on the U.K. hip-hop scene, with all of the money, cool stuff, and women they can handle. Naturally, this blinds them to their original mission, and as for Billy, it also distracts him from his loyal girlfriend Mary (played by the wonderful Blue Jean actress Lucy Halliday) who has been their biggest champion from the start.
The rise-and-fall journey of Silibil N’ Brains is pretty standard, and the truth is there isn’t much to their story we haven’t seen. McAvoy, working from a script by Elaine Gracie and Archie Thompson based on Gavin’s autobiography, leans into the con game, giving the film an exciting heist thriller quality. As Gavin sinks deeper into the fantasy, literally blowing up at anyone who reminds him of his former life, the threat of exposure increases. When they start booking bigger gigs and meeting celebrities, the lies can only get more brazen, and thus easier to be exposed. At the same time, Billy is being pulled back into reality by Mary, which leads to a violent showdown between the two best friends. Dammit Yoko, why is it always a woman who gets in the way of a band’s success???
McAvoy’s strength as a first-time filmmaker is capturing the high-energy of live performance, the rush of adrenaline that comes from rockin’ a crowd that didn’t know what they were in for. The performances could’ve used a bit of guidance, though. Ross is a live wire, but his performance as Gavin is emotionally scattered. At times sympathetically desperate, and other times borderline deranged, Gavin is tough to root for even as the dream he fought for slips away. Speaking of which, the film could’ve used a bit more time to breathe, showing us more of Billy and Gavin’s struggles, and allowing for us to soak in their successes. When the inevitable crash happens, that is brushed on by, as well for the sake of an easy, if satisfying, resolution.
Still, California Schemin’ is a lot like the rap duo at its core. No, it’s not pulling off some big con or anything like that, but it’s a scrappy little film attempting to punch above its weight and finding success at it. McAvoy’s direction is confident and energetic, blastin’ tracks from Golden Age hip-hop legends such as Souls of Mischief and Tha Pharcyde, groups that rose up from nothing based on their impressive skills. And that’s all Billy and Gavin wanted: to be recognized for what they could do, not judged because of where they were from. They might have been fraudsters, but their love of hip-hop was the real deal.
California Schemin’ opens in theaters October 9th.
Love is suddenly complicated for Chloë Grace Moretz in the rom-com Love Language, and talking her way out of it might not be enough. Following the film’s world premiere at SXSW, Vertical has dropped a new trailer featuring Moretz and co-stars Manny Jacinto, Anthony Ramos, and Isabel May. There could be worse things than being in a love rectangle with these four.
SYNOPSIS: Following a failed engagement, aspiring author Louisa “Lou” Klaussner (Chloë Grace Moretz) falls into a side hustle writing wedding vows for other people. Just as the charming serial dater Dash (Anthony Ramos) starts to show interest in Lou, she reconnects with her college best friend and long-time crush Warren (Manny Jacinto). She is shocked to learn that Warren is the fiancé of Olivia (Isabel May), one of Lou’s wedding vow clients… putting Lou in the middle of a complicated love-rectangle.
Also in the cast are Lukas Gage, Billie Lourd, and Chloe Fineman. Seriously, this ensemble was made to be on magazine covers it’s so hot.
The film is written and directed by Joey Power, known for the 2018 dramedy After Everything with Maika Monroe and Jeremy Allen White.
Love Language hits select theaters and digital on October 23rd.
