Be honest, you knew a Timothée Chalamet Willy Wonka was going to be creepy. Maybe not Neverland Ranch creepy like Johnny Depp’s version, but Comic-Con Charles Dickens cosplay stalker creepy. And that’s definitely the vibe Chalamet is giving off at this Wonka set photo, looking hungrily off-camera like he’s just found his next snack.
The film is a musical that follows an early adventure of Roald Dahl’s classic, eccentric candy peddler. Paddington director Paul King is behind the camera, with Keegan-Michael Key, Sally Hawkins, Olivia Colman, Rowan Atkinson, Jim Carter, and more joining Chalamet in the cast.
This one could go either way. It’ll either be amazing or an utter disaster. We’ll find out when Wonka opens March 17th 2023.
The world is not enough, nor can one episode of Cinema Royale barely contain all that we have to say about the latest James Bond flick, No Time to Die! Is this the best of the Daniel Craig era of 007? Where does he rank in the pantheon of James Bonds? And where should the franchise go from here? Who is the next to suit up and make saving the world look good?
All of this and more in a (mostly) 100% James Bond episode! You can subscribe to Cinema Royale wherever you get your podcasts! Follow the Punch Drunk Critics and Cinema Royale!
When it comes to James Bond, the global numbers were always going to be what counted most, which is a good thing for Daniel Craig’s swan song, No Time to Die. The oft-delayed film opened with $56M domestically to top the charts, easily beating the second weekend of Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Even so, the number is below the $90M heights of Skyfall in 2012, and the $70M of Spectre in 2015. But, obviously, the situations are vastly different. Most importantly, the final run as 007 for Craig has hit $313M worldwide, and that’s without having opened in China.
2. Venom: Let There Be Carnage– $32M/$141.6M
Venom 2‘s second weekend drop of 64% was better than expected given the Bond competition. Sony/Marvel’s superhero sequel scored $32M for $141.6M domestic and a global cume of $185M.
3. The Addams Family 2– $10M/$31.1M
4. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings– $4.2M/$212.5M
Marvel’s Shang-Chi punched through the $400M worldwide mark like a pile of bricks.
A24 dropped another dark, atmospheric horror on the masses with Lamb, an unusual film about a most peculiar farm animal. Opening in just 583 sites, it earned $1M which isn’t great. However, I’m not sure it ever could’ve expected to do much better than this given the secrecy surrounding the premise, the lack of star power, and a limited marketing campaign in order to main that shroud of mystery. This one will be discovered by the people it’s meant to.
You can find Jake Gyllenhaal right now holding it down in Antoine Fuqua’s The Guilty, but the actor is making sure nobody will go very long before seeing him again. Gyllenhaal has been a plethora of projects coming up, and now he’s added another that will team him up for the first time with Sherlock Holmes director Guy Ritchie.
Deadline reports Gyllenhaal is in talks for Ritchie’s upcoming film which has been set up at Miramax. Details on the film are scarce, but the report says it will fit with “Ritchie’s visual style that audiences have loved for years.” Considering his last few projects been The Gentlemen, and a pair of Jason Statham flicks in Wrath of Man and next year’s Operation Fortune, we can expect it to be a stylish crime thriller of some sort. Ritchie is also developing WWII film The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.
The list of upcoming projects for Gyllenhaal keeps growing. Earlier this week he boarded an adaptation of Rob Liefeld comic, Prophet, the second film that will find him teaming with Extraction director Sam Hargrave. The other is Medal of Honor drama Combat Control. He also has video game movie The Division alongside Jessica Chastain, survival drama Suddenly, and another pair of graphic novel adaptations in Robert Kirkman’s Oblivion Songand Snow Blind. He’ll be seen next in Michael Bay thriller Ambulance, which opens next February.
Filming on Guy Ritchie’s movie begins later this year, making it next on the list for Gyllenhaal.
Often the follow-up film from a celebrated actor and their signature project is a gage of where the performer is going. In South of Heaven, Jason Sudiekis keeps his Ted Lasso accent and not much else. Co-writer and director Aharon Keshales’ story follows, Jimmy Ray a man released from prison to his dying “lady love,” Annie. Things literally go south from there.
Once Sudeikis is released into the arms of Ant Man’s Evangeline Lilly, the couple’s happy reunion is cut short after his parole officer (Shea Whigham) forces him back into a life of crime for one last gig. On his way back from a drop, Jimmy accidentally kills another driver, also on his way back from a different drop. Mafia Man Price (Mike Colter, Luke Cage) is quickly on his tail, diminishing Jimmy’s chances of living a clean safe life.
South of Heaven’s first twenty minutes is solid. Sudeikis delivers a poignant speech about getting out of prison to the parole board before getting out and making a life with Lilly. For that duration you think you are getting a romantic redemption film about two people refinding each other after years apart.
Once Whigham appears, the tone quickly shifts into a crime film then poorly executed black comedy then back again over and over. Plot points whizz by and turns happen for no reason. The final twist could have been omitted altogether, shaving 20 minutes off the screen time.
Sudeikis tries his best to play a good man pushed too far. He definitely has the heart of gold part down. However, the Saturday Night Live alumfeels lost in this role. Keshales, Kai Marks, and Navot Papushado script does not do him any favors. As the tone constantly changes, it’s no wonder Sudeikis can’t find solid footing to stand on.
The biggest disappointment of this film is the wasted cast. Lilly’s part feels one-dimensional. Shea Whigham is acting for a whole other movie, probably a Coen Brothers one. Acclaimed character actor Jeremy Bob is completely underused as the underwritten Honest Frank. The one consistent bright light is Colter’s Price, who is charming, hilarious, and most importantly of all believable.
With Ted Lasso’s second season coming to a close today, it makes sense that fans of the show will want to get all of Sudeikis they can until the third (and final season) comes out in a year. However South of Heaven is not the way to get it.
You can catch South of Heaven in theaters and on-demand. Watch the trailer below.
‘Welcome to the Blumhouse’ is a film series consisting of theme-related anthological thriller-horror stories that started in the fall of 2020. The series is developed and produced by Blumhouse Productions for Prime Video as Amazon Prime Originals. The first two installments of the 4-movie Halloween 2021 addition kicked off on October 1st. The second two installments , ‘The Manor’ and ‘Madres’ are here and keeping up with the Halloween horror spirit.
The Manor
The Manor is the third installment of Welcome to Blumhouse 2021, directed and written by Axelle Carolyn, and about a gothic tale of terror with a modern twist. When a mild stroke diminishes her ability to care for herself, Judith Albright (Barbara Hershey, Black Swan, The Entity) moves to Golden Sun Manor, an assisted living facility with a sterling reputation. A malevolent force preys upon the residents of a sleepy nursing home and Judith does her best to tell everyone she sees about what she saw. But despite the best efforts of the staff, and a budding friendship with fellow senior Roland (Bruce Davison, We Still Say Grace, Along Came the Devil 2), strange occurrences and nightmarish visions convince Judith that a sinister presence is haunting the massive estate. As residents begin to die mysteriously, Judith’s frantic warnings are dismissed as fantasy. Even her devoted grandson Josh (Nicholas Alexander, Adam, Good Girls) thinks her fears are the result of dementia, not demons. With no one willing to believe her, Judith must either escape the confines of the manor, or fall victim to the evil that dwells within it.
The Manor centers its story around a group of elderly folks being driven mad in the home their families have left them in for care. Although there are some creepy sightings of a tree man/demon that terrorizes guests that are interesting, the movie moves slowly and lacks any gorish-ness. Judith (Hershey) and the other elderly people in The Manor desperately want to hang onto their youthful version of themselves and desire to stick around a while longer. Barbara Hershey is stunning but there are moments of the film that didn’t add up. Living residents are on a scheduled timeline of death but the manor wouldn’t take new patients even though rooms are empty. Overall, the film lacks any real thrill or excitement and is a pass for me.
Madres is the fourth and final installment of the Welcome to the Blumhouse 2021 Halloween edition that is written by Marcella Ochoa and Mario Miscione and directed by Ryan Zaragoza. Beto (Tenoch Huerta) and Diana (Ariana Guerra), a young Mexican-American couple expecting their first child, move from L.A. to a small town in 1970’s California. Beto has been offered a job managing a farm while Diana plans to write a book. Diana is Hispanic however feels isolated from the Spanish speaking small town community. She grew up in a busy American city and was taught not to speak her Spanish native language. She becomes plagued with confusing nightmares and to pass the time, explores the rundown ranch where they reside. Diane finds a grisly talisman and a box that contains belongings to the previous tenants. Over time, her discoveries will lead her to a truth much stranger and more terrifying than she could have possibly imagined.
Madres has more thrill and horrific instances that unfortunately do not take place until the final 15-20ish minutes of the film. The film starts off relatively mellow and slowly builds intensity however, is very sluggish in the meantime. There are weird moments throughout the film that come across as glitchy and too dark to see. The film is centered around real life shitty medical practices that took place in America. Female immigrants were subjected and forced into tragic circumstances that were even recently brought back into practice here in America. The film may not project thrills right away, the true horror reveals itself at the end and should certainly be paid attention. Madres is the best out of the four films presented in this year’s Welcome to Blumhouse edition and is definitely worth a watch.
Symbiotes and gangsta rule in the latest episode of Cinema Royale! Of course, we have to talk Tom Hardy’s odd couple sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage and that whopper of a post-credits! What does it all mean for the future of Marvel/Sony movies? Plus, we return to the good ol’ days of mob rule with The Sopranos spinoff The Many Saints of Newark! All this, and we had to talk about the season finale of Marvel’s What If…? series!
All of this and more! You can subscribe to Cinema Royale wherever you get your podcasts! Follow the Punch Drunk Critics and Cinema Royale!
If there’s anything we’ve learned from Ted Lasso (Did you watch that season finale? Fuck you, Nate!), it’s that there are many ways to build a winning team. And that’s a lesson Michael Shannon will try to impart in Heart of Champions (formerly titled Swing), only the sport isn’t soccer; it’s rowing.
When was the last time we had a good rowing movie? True Blue? Anyway, Shannon plays Army veteran Jack Murphy who takes charge of a college rowing team in disarray after finishing last in the championship.
The cast includes Heels star Alexander Ludwig, Riverdale‘s Charles Melton, plus Alex MacNicoll, Ash Santos, and JAG actor David James Elliott.
Insight into the world of rowing and the military comes from writer Vojin Gjaja, a rower at Columbia University and US Army veteran. Behind the camera is director Michael Mailer.
Heart of Champions opens on October 29th.
After finishing last in the national championship, a college rowing team descends into turmoil and constant infighting between team leaders Alex (Alexander Ludwig), Chris (Charles Melton), and John (Alex MacNicoll). A tough Army veteran, Coach Murphy (Michael Shannon), arrives at the start of the new season to transform the status quo and unlock their true potential. Using his experience and unconventional methods to help them overcome petty rivalries and personal challenges, Coach Murphy must inspire these young men to learn what it takes to be a team before they can be champions.
With Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. ending their long association after the “failure” of Tenet, the sought-after director took his talents to Universal. And they aren’t wasting any time dating his upcoming film, Oppenheimer, setting it to open on July 21st 2023.
And you can bet the house that Oppenheimer will open in theaters, not some streaming/theatrical hybrid release or whatever. It was WB’s decision to do that without talking to filmmakers first, that helped push him out the door.
As part of this news, Cillian Murphy has also been confirmed to star as Robert Oppenheimer, a theoretical physicist crucial to the development of the atom bomb as part of the secret “Manhattan Project.” Oppenheimer’s later opposition to nuclear proliferation and a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union helped lead to his being ostracized.
That’s his real-life, though. Universal hypes up the story to describe Oppenheimer as an “epic thriller that thrusts audiences into the pulse-pounding paradox of the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it.”
So yeah, Nolan gets to play around with a lot of big sounds and gigantic explosions. Sounds about right.
Even the title The Spine of Night sends a shiver up your spine. The adult animated fantasy from Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King is a twisted concoction of Bakshi-inspired visuals Heavy Metal-style fantasy. Only, as you’ll see in this new trailer for the SXSW film, it might be best served on your favorite hallucinogenic.
Lucy Lawless leads the voice cast as Tzod, a warrior mage who is just one of many to try and stop the spread of “The Bloom”, a magical blue flower with incredible powers. When it falls into the wrong hands, ages of suffering are unleashed on the world. The cast also includes Richard E. Grant, Betty Gabriel, Patton Oswalt, and Joe Manganiello.
Gelatt and King spent years developing the rotoscoping animation used in the film. Their experience is vast and includes Netflix’s Love, Death & Robots which is similarly geared towards mature audiences.
I saw The Spine of Night at SXSW and really enjoyed it, commenting that it “is set apart by how its visual beauty works in symphony with the gruesome imagery on display.”
Look for the film to open in theaters, VOD, and digital on October 29th, followed by Shudder in 2022.
In ‘The Spine of Night,’ an ultra-violent fantasy epic, ancient dark magic falls into sinister hands and unleashes ages of suffering onto mankind. A group of heroes from different eras and cultures must band together in order to defeat it at all costs.
