'Washington Black' is the show that could, just like its main character
The 2018 novel by Canadian writer Esi Edugyan caught actor Sterling K. Brown's eye. As he put the wheels in motion, things just started to line up in a most un-Hollywood fashion — so much so that Brown started to believe strongly the project was meant to be.
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Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
🎥 England celebrate EURO 2025 triumph with London bus parade
The EURO 2025 champions are back home and celebrating with their fans. It's been a packed 48 hours for the England squad having touched down on Monday following their win over Spain for a reception at 10 Downing Street. But the party isn't over with the Lionesses now on an open top bus parade down The Mall in central London and heading towards Buckingham Palace. Are some of the best clips from the parade so far ... Early vibes on the bus ... Sunday's goalscorer has her say ... It came home ... Heading down The Mall ... What a way to toast the queens of Europe. 📸 Alex Pantling - 2025 Getty Images
Forbes
11 hours ago
- Forbes
‘Happy Gilmore 2' Review: Adam Sandler Delivers A Surprisingly Funny, Feel-Good Sequel
Happy Gilmore 2 I didn't expect much going into Adam Sandler's newest movie. I suppose I haven't expected a lot out of Sandler in a very long time, though his early films were some of my favorite comedies when I was young. Billy Maddison, Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer. I still get a little teary-eyed when Robbie sings to Julia on the airplane in that last one. Maybe those low expectations made all the difference, or maybe I just allowed myself to enjoy the nostalgia. Whatever the case, I was pleasantly surprised by just how much I enjoyed Happy Gilmore 2, a sequel three decades in the making and one that I assumed would be little more than a Netflix cash grab. It's not as good as the original, and it relies heavily on that film for most of its jokes and plot points, but as far as sequels go this was actually really fun and lighthearted and, dare I say, wholesome. It's a sports movie and a movie about family and friendship and redemption. It's exactly what I needed to watch at the moment, even though 2025 is making 'upbeat optimism' a theme. We've seen that earnestness play out in both James Gunn's Superman and Marvel's The Fantastic Four: First Steps this year. Really, all three MCU films in 2025 touch on the power of goodness and redemption. Captain America: Brave New World's climactic showdown ends with a treacly speech about doing the right thing. Thunderbolts showed us the true power of the group hug to overcome . . . mental illness? For me, none of these superhero films really nailed what they set out to achieve, or at least never quite lined up the story and tone. Superman's optimism was marred by a weird undercurrent of cynicism baked into the film. Clark Kent's real parents (spoilers) were actually diabolical space villains, directing their offspring to conquer Earth and spread his seed. Fantastic Four hammered home the fact that the quartet was 'family' over and over again without ever really feeling like one. And so it is in Happy Gilmore 2, a goofy and largely by-the-books underdog movie, that we find an actually successful attempt at genuine optimism, with a story that earns its feel-good outcome. Maybe the comeback kid sports-movie formula just works better than the superhero formula when it comes to settling on a tone, or maybe I'm just bored to tears with superhero movies these days. Spoilers ahead. The Gilmore Family Three decades have passed in both the real world and the fictional world of Happy Gilmore 2. Our hero made it big after his first golf tournament victory. He married Virginia (Julie Bowen) and they rapidly knocked out five kids, finally getting the daughter they hoped for on the fifth try. (Happy landed a Trojan condoms sponsorship thanks to all this procreation). But just when everything seemed to be going his way, tragedy. A golfing accident kills Virginia, who was really standing in the wrong place at the wrong time, and Happy gives up the game for good. He also gives up paying the bills, earning money and staying sober. Now a single father of five, he hits the bottle hard, wracked with guilt and overcome with grief. He loses his grandma's house, moves the kids to a bad neighborhood and gets a job at a grocery store. When the story picks up, his four boys have all moved out and have various jobs they're mostly terrible at, the apples not having fallen very far from the proverbial tree. Only his daughter, Vienna (Sunny Sandler) remains at home – and golfer, John Daly, who lives in the garage. When Happy learns that Vienna has a real shot at becoming a professional ballet dancer, he discovers that it will come with a price-tag in the tune of several hundred thousand dollars. The only way to come up with that kind of money is to return to the world of pro golf. Of course, he's not only incredibly rusty, he's also a shameless drunk. Happy's first outing at a golf course ends in disaster when he falls asleep at the wheel of his golf cart and crashes it into another cart driven by Margaret Qualley, very nearly killing her. To avoid jail time, he's given a court order to attend a radical sobriety program which, he discovers, is run by none other than the angry orderly, Hal L (Ben Stiller) from the first film. Happy Gilmore 2 (It is a little ironic that Stiller's character has a name plucked right off the Severed floor of Lumen Industries, but this was his character's name in the first film also, though he was not credited for the role). While things aren't all sunshine and roses in the program, the break from booze does improve Happy's golf game. His return to the sport is, at first, a triumphant one. Into this mix comes Benny Safdie's character, Frank Manatee. Safdie directed Sandler in Uncut Gems, so he's a natural pick for this sequel's villain. The halitosis-suffering rich boy has started his own version of golf, which he calls Maxi Golf (an obvious parody of 'innovative' new golf formats like LIV and TGL). He wants Happy to join, but Happy refuses, so Manatee uses his connections to get Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald) released from the mental institution he's been committed to for the past 29 years. But Shooter finds Maxi Golf so repugnant that even a chance at beating Happy when the two leagues compete isn't enticing enough to get him onboard. One thing leads to another. Things go wrong (as they must) and our hero faces a crisis of confidence as his past comes roaring back to haunt him. Old rivals become friends. Various bit parts from the first film resurface here, though not all of those actors are still with us (RIP Carl Weathers et alia). There are so many cameos, from Eminem to Steve Buscemi to golfers like Rory McIlroy and other athletes like Travis Kelce. It's quite the celebrity parade, but for the most part it works. By far the MVP of the entire film, however, is someone I had never heard of before: Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican rapper / singer / actor / producer who absolutely steals every scene he's in. Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, plays Oscar. Fired from his bussing job at the golf club, Happy takes him on as his new caddie. Oscar knows nothing about golf, but quickly rises to the occasion, unleashing a surprising skill-set and loads of charm in the process. Oscar not only tips the scales in Happy's favor in the final showdown, he tips the scales for the movie as a whole, tap-tapping it over the finish line (and yes, I know I'm mixing sports metaphors here). Oscar and Happy I also really enjoyed the focus on Happy's family and his struggle with sobriety. All of that really struck home with me, though I'm admittedly a sucker for this kind of story (please watch Shrinking on Apple TV). I enjoy being able to root for heroes even when they're flawed, especially when I can relate to their shortcomings. There's a scene where Happy sees his kids cheering for him on the sidelines and in Happy's mind they transform from the adults they are now, to the little kids they used to be. I admit, without shame, that this really struck a chord. I may have shed a tear or two. I was a teenager when I first watched Happy Gilmore. Now I'm a middle-aged man with teenagers of my own. My youngest is the age I was when the first movie came out. Happy's 'happy place' used to be Victoria in lingerie holding two pitchers of beer. But now Victoria is gone and he doesn't drink. He needs to replace that happy place with a new one: Watching silly videos on his phone while on the toilet; a pretty nurse with good cholesterol results; medium-sized pants that fit. This is what it's like as you get older. New joys and new priorities. Being proud of your kids as they grow up, but missing the children they once were. Missing your own youth, also, your old loves, long lost passions and ambitions that have fizzled out. A sadder version of this movie would have Johnny Cash singing over it, 'What have I become, my sweetest friend? Everyone I know goes away in the end.' But this is not a sad movie. It's a happy movie. It's right there in the title. And most of the people Happy knew are here still, and more besides. Happy struggles with his drinking problem, his grief, the disappointments life stacks on our shoulders, but he overcomes it all. This is a sports movie, a comeback movie. A movie about a plucky, irreverent underdog who wins everyone over in the end and learns to forgive himself for good measure. It's incredibly stupid at times, almost certainly relies too much on callbacks to the original, and is about as lowbrow as they come. But I don't care. It's still great. A worthy sequel that honors the original. Happy Gilmore 2 is cheesy and silly and fun and hopeful. Better yet, it made me feel something, which is more than I can say for a lot of what Hollywood churns out these days. Here's my video review: What did you think of Happy Gilmore 2?
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
Jason Momoa says 'Aquaman' was 'the biggest gamble of my life.' He cashed in those chips to make 'Chief of War.'
Wearing a malo for nine episodes was no problem for the Hawaiian actor. "I am not a big fan of wearing clothes," he tells Yahoo with a laugh. Jason Momoa hadn't always considered himself a betting man, but in 2014 he went all in on himself. By the time he was cast in the titular role of Aquaman, the superhero film had been in development, in one form or another, since 2004. Many in the industry had written it off. But Momoa knew the risk could be worth it. 'That was probably the biggest gamble of my life,' Momoa tells me over Zoom. The 2018 film shattered expectations and instantly made Momoa one of the most sought-after stars in Hollywood. 'It went for the best,' he says. 'We were taking a character that was the laughingstock of comic books and trying to make something out of it. But after [it was released in theaters], it was the first time kids were coming up to me [in public] saying, 'Aquaman!' It changed everything.' Suddenly, Momoa was catapulted to a level of fame most actors only dream of. 'I put in the hard work,' he tells me. 'I proved myself.' For some stars, reaching superhero status means buying the dream house, the dream car — probably both. But for Momoa, it meant setting his sights on something bigger. After years of playing roles in other people's stories, he is finally telling his own: the story of his ancestors, which is the basis for his new television series, Chief of War. 'If someone were to ask me, 'What would you want to do?' This is it,' he tells me about his passion project, which premieres on AppleTV+ Aug. 1. 'I would like to tell the story of our people.' 'This is me, dumping my soul into this show' Momoa's heritage is a blend of his Hawaiian father's roots from Nanakuli and his mother's Midwestern upbringing in Norwalk, Iowa. But it's his connection to Hawaii, where he was born, in Honolulu, that shapes much of his identity and drives his passion for telling stories that honor his cultural background. Momoa's charm and humor are on full display as we chat for almost 30 minutes on a laid-back Zoom call. It's clear he's not just a hero onscreen but also a storyteller with a heart as big as his larger-than-life persona. Chief of War is his soul laid bare. The series is more than just a career milestone; it's the culmination of 27 years of hard work and passion and a deep commitment to sharing his culture's history with the world. 'Growing up, you see films like The Last of the Mohicans and The Last Samurai — stories that represent warriors, but we've never had that for our people. I wanted to make sure this was something that truly represented who we are," Momoa tells me. Chief of War is a nine-episode historical drama created by Momoa and Thomas Pa'a Sibbett, who share native Hawaiian heritage. It's based on true events and follows warrior Ka'iana (played by Momoa) as he strives to unify the Hawaiian islands before Western colonization in the late 18th century. Told from an Indigenous perspective, it features a predominantly Polynesian cast. As star, writer and executive producer, Momoa knew he had to walk a fine line as he balanced aligning historical significance with his creative vision, as well as creating a television show audiences will stream. After watching the whole season, it's hard not to draw comparisons between Chief of War and Game of Thrones, the Emmy-winning series that gave Momoa a huge career boost in 2011. Both are rooted in complex power struggles and rich cultures and have epic battle scenes. Momoa is quick to note one key difference, though. "[Game of Thrones is] a fantasy world," he says. "Obviously, there are many different things that match, but these are all historical things that happened" in Chief of War. The series features no dragons, but the battle scenes are just as intense. In it fans can see Momoa riding sharks and kicking a lot of ass. When I ask him if physically preparing for this warrior role felt different at age 45 than it did in his 30s when he was on Game of Thrones, he laughs. "Yes, it does," he says, mostly because back then, he did action scenes without stunt doubles. Momoa has been revisiting some of his old projects with his 16-year-old son, Nakoa-Wolf, who's also interested in acting. As he shows the teen some of his past work, he is reminded of how physically demanding those roles were and how much his body paid the price. "We were watching some shit and I realized: You delete the pain," the actor says. "You forget about it, and then I watch all this stuff again, and I'm like, 'Oh, that's why I hurt. That's exactly why I f***ing hurt.'" Momoa says the challenge for Chief of War wasn't getting into physical shape. It was gearing up for the emotional endurance the project required. "You're overseeing the whole vision of everything, you're involved in every department, learning a language that you don't know, being responsible for your culture and making sure you get it all right. I was shitting my pants on many levels," he admits. Onscreen, Momoa is mostly pantsless. Making a show true to its cultural origins means male characters wear a malo, a traditional Hawaiian garment that consists of a simple wrap-around cloth. "It's really comfortable," Momoa says. "I'm not trying to attract any more attention to myself, but I actually don't mind wearing a malo. It gives you a lot of strength, a lot of power and makes you feel like a man. It's a really beautiful thing." When I ask Momoa if he had to mentally prepare for being shirtless for nine episodes, he chuckles. "I am not a big fan of wearing clothes," he says. "I'm fine walking around with a malo; it's just everybody else makes it awkward." During our conversation, Momoa's camera was off. It's then that he flips on his video, showing me he's bare-chested. "I'm in shorts, it's cool," he smiles, flashing his signature grin. "I figured I shouldn't be sitting here naked — we're doing an interview." "Hey, be free!" I reply. "In all honesty, you see more of me on the show than you do on this Zoom," he jokes. (It's true.) Manifesting a legacy Much like his physical presence onscreen, Chief of War allows Momoa to be unapologetically himself — not just in body, but in soul. The series is far more than a career milestone; it's a reflection of his heart. Every aspect of the show, from the casting to the costumes, is infused with his passion for telling an authentic. respectful story. His commitment to his heritage shines through, down to the tattoo on his head. "I had the aumakua put on my head for this role," he says. Momoa's aumakua, a kind of ancestral guardian in Hawaiian tradition, is shark teeth. He has the pattern tattooed on his arm as well. "We weren't even greenlit yet [by AppleTV+], but I put that on, willing it." For Momoa, getting the tattoo on his head — a permanent mark that connects him to his roots — was a powerful act of commitment. He's also dedicated to the roles he plays offscreen, especially dad. The actor's biggest motivation is his kids. Momoa has Nakoa-Wolf and a daughter, Lola, 17, with his now ex-wife, Lisa Bonet. "Right now they get to see their father doing what they love to do. I can't say that was true when they were first born. I was just trying to make it as an actor. But now, [I get to work on] things I've wanted to do my whole life. And I expect that out of them too. For them to live their dreams and fight for it — it's not easy, and they know that.' Like any actor, Momoa took roles early in his career that didn't always fuel his passion. Aquaman afforded him different opportunities. Momoa quickly became one of the most sought-after stars in Hollywood, landing more roles in the DC Universe and other blockbuster franchises like Dune and Fast & Furious. This year, he starred as Garrett 'the Garbage Man' Garrison in A Minecraft Movie, which is close to passing the $1 billion mark at the global box office. He says it's 'pretty cute' how many kids come up to him now about a role other than Aquaman. 'I get 'Garbage Man' now, and it's the f***ing greatest thing in the world,' he says. There's a reason why it holds extra meaning. 'You're the only person I've ever told this to, but my father was a garbage man," he says. Momoa then describes how his dad, Joseph, would begin his route at 4 a.m. After finishing, Joseph would go home to sleep for a few hours, then spend the rest of the day painting. "When I was little, he would paint all night, then he'd do his garbage routine," Momoa says, reflecting on his father's unwavering passion for both his craft as an artist and his job. From a young age, Momoa absorbed the dedication required to pursue one's dreams, no matter the sacrifices. 'I'm like, f*** yeah! I am the garbage man," he says. "My dad was a garbage man. ... So many of these people are doing the job they have to do, to do what they love to do.' As Momoa reflects on his career, it's apparent that his success isn't just about accolades or box office numbers — it's about creating a life he can share with those he loves. 'At the end of the day, I'm doing everything in my power to make an impact, whether it be on- or offscreen,' he says. And with Chief of War, he has finally created something he can proudly call his own, a project that not only honors his past but also shapes the future for his children.
