Latest news with #BandofBrothers
Buzz Feed
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Actor Neal McDonough Breaks No-Sex-Scene Rule
Neal McDonough just broke one of his major acting rules, but the way he went about it might surprise you. There's a reason you've never seen Neal in any intimate scenes on the big and small screen. The 59-year-old actor, who also happens to be a devout Catholic, swore to only kiss the lips of his wife, and he's upheld that commitment throughout his 30+ years working in Hollywood. Neal married South African model, Ruvé Robertson, back in December 2003 after the two met in the United Kingdom while he was filming Band of Brothers. The couple celebrated their 21st wedding anniversary last year, and together they have five children — Morgan, Catherine, London, Clover, and James. 'I won't kiss any other woman because these lips are meant for one woman,' Neal said of his wife. Thankfully, Neal has been able to play some amazing roles despite the restriction, like when he landed a spot on the hit soapy drama Desperate Housewives. 'When [creator] Marc Cherry signed me, I said, 'I'm sure you know, but I won't kiss anybody,'' Neal said. 'He was like, 'But this is Desperate Housewives!' I said, 'I know.' He paused for about five seconds and said, 'All right, I'm just going to have to write better.' And we had a great time.' But not everyone in the business was willing to be so accommodating. Neal recalled getting fired from a show due to his refusal to shoot those scenes. He also felt like he was being blacklisted in the industry for a while because of it. 'I was [surprised], and it was a horrible situation for me,' Neal said of being "fired from Scoundrels" for not filming sex scenes with costar Virginia Madsen. 'After that, I couldn't get a job because everybody thought I was this religious zealot. I am very religious. I put God and family first and me second." "That's what I live by. It was hard for a few years. Then [Band of Brothers producer] Graham Yost called me and said, 'Hey, I want you to be the bad guy on Justified. I knew that was my shot back at the title.' And he's been on a roll ever since, starring in popular projects like Captain America: The First Avenger, Minority Report, Star Trek: First Contact, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Flash, and more. Well, it looks like Neal finally made an exception to his no on-screen kissing there's a twist. He revealed on TikTok that he convinced Ruvé to play the leading lady he'd smooch in his latest film The Last Rodeo, and it worked out perfectly. "Many people out there have asked me what it's like to have your first screen kiss, which I did in The Last Rodeo," Neal said on TikTok. "The reason it's so special to me, as everyone knows, I won't kiss another woman on screen, but now I get to kiss the one, the only, my best friend, and the love of my life — my wife Rose, in The Last Rodeo." He was referring to the name of Ruvé's character in the movie, Rose Wainright. "She was amazing. The film is amazing. But to have my first screen kiss and to actually play the hero, and kiss the girl in the end, is something that I've never done, but something I've always wanted to do my whole career. Now I get to do it. Comments were filled with people applauding him for staying true to his morals: The Last Rodeo is currently available to stream on select platforms. What are your thoughts on this? Let me know in the comments!
Metro
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
All 5 episodes of 'captivating' drama streaming on BBC after agonising wait
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video After a three-month wait, UK viewers can finally watch all five episodes of Jacob Elordi's acclaimed World War Two drama on the BBC. The widely-praised show, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, has secured an impressive 100% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics who have called it a 'powerful' and 'gritty' watch. Based on Richard Flanagan's 2014 Booker Prize-winning novel, the Amazon Prime series follows Australian doctor Dorrigo Evans (portrayed by the Saltburn actor). Our rugged protagonist is haunted by his past affair with his uncle's wife as he reckons with his time as a far East prisoner of wat building the Burma railway. As put by the synopsis on BBC iPlayer: 'From the passion of forbidden love to the pain of life as a prisoner of war – the unforgettable story of one man's reckoning with the echoes of guilt.' This is a story of love, loss and regret that has already been hailed by US and Australian audiences as the 'utterly immersive' masterpiece finalling arrives on UK shores. 'It's gorgeous, ugly, and stirring, with parts that seared themselves into my brain, and it got me to read a really good novel,' a review in Slate reads. 'There's a visceral quality to most scenes as the show teases out the pains and pleasures of the body along with its grander ideas about the mind, the heart, the world, war,' The New York Times echoed. 'You never doubt the show's realism, or the compassion underpinning it. This is less about the theatre of war than the psychological stain it leaves,' The Guardian reflected. Meanwhile, audiences have heartily echoed these glowing words. 'A moving, confronting drama. Like the novel, it jumps about in time, but this mirrors the central character, haunted in old age by the memory of his time on 'the line',' google review elitist20 wrote. 'While I can't speak to the historical accuracy of the show, it was easily one of the most jarring, tragic, and captivating stories I've seen in a long time. It portrays the rawness of life—its profound losses, fleeting moments of love, and the absence of clear redemption or triumph,' Karen Garcia reflected. Tonka truck called it 'beautiful and well acted' while Amanda Orlando said that the 'series just destroyed' them. 'I still cannot think about it without crying. Every moment, and every character, were compelling,' Amanda added in her review. 'Perfection, terrifying and moving to the soul,' Joanne Conrad declared. Band of Brothers: This 10-episode award-winning drama from 2001 is co-produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks and stars Damian Lewis, James McAvoy and Simon Pegg. The series follows the exploits of Easy Company (506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, U.S. Army) across Europe throughout the duration of the war based on real-life testimony. Band of Brothers if available to stream on Now and Sky. All the Light We Cannot See: Based on Anthony Doerr's Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller from 2014, the adaptation is set in the final days of World War Two where the paths of a blind French girl and a German soldier collide. Written by Peaky Blinders' Steven Knight, the show stars newcomer Aria Mia Loberti and Mark Ruffalo. All the Light We Cannot See is available to stream on Netflix Masters of the Air: This star-studded show, based on Donald L. Miller's 2007 non-fiction book, features Ncuti Gatwa, Callum Turner and Barry Keoghan as members of US Army Airforces' 100th Bomb Group. We follow their journey as 'they conduct perilous bombing raids over Nazi Germany from their base in East Anglia.' Masters of the Air is available to stream on Apple TV+. Elordi is joined by Odessa Young, Olivia DeJonge and Ciaran Hinds in this show directed by Justin Kurzel and written by Shaun Grant. There's no doubt the entire production was an intense labour of love. The cast involved in the prisoner of war storyline underwent a gruelling six-week boot camp to replicate the bodies of the emaciated imprisoned soldiers of the era, as Elordi told The Guardian. 'We were all in it together, so there was this great overwhelming amount of love in the whole process. 'It was incredibly challenging but deeply necessary, of course … because nobody wanted to phone that in or make a mockery of it,' the 28-year-old actor told the publication.' More Trending As mentioned, the show flits between different timelines, which is an essential part of the storytelling brought to life from the page. 'Richard always said to me the most important thing to him – even though he gave his permission for me to really own it in some way as a piece of cinema – was the tapestry of different time changes. 'Being deliberately forced into those different moments of memory were really important to him. That was the only feeling I had going into it,' Justin told Hollywood Reporter. View More » The Narrow Road to the Deep North is now available to stream on BBC iPlayer. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Major stars and Hollywood icons who've appeared in Casualty from Tom Hiddleston to Kate Winslet MORE: John Torode returns to TV for first time since MasterChef sacking for 'racist term' MORE: BBC viewers in awe as father-son duo become first ever to win gameshow's jackpot
Boston Globe
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
‘Sinners,' Joey Chestnut's return, plus the best movies and TV shows to watch July Fourth weekend
Michael B. Jordan in 'Sinners.' Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures 'Sinners' Director and writer Ryan Coogler's period horror drama 'Sinners' streams on Max beginning Friday. The film stars Michael B. Jordan in a dual role as twin brothers in 1930s Mississippi, whose return home is plagued by the appearance of vampires. Globe film critic Odie Henderson Available on Max Advertisement 'On Becoming a Guinea Fowl' Another new flick arriving on Max Friday is director and writer Rungano Nyoni's 'On Becoming a Guinea Fowl.' The dark and absurd A24 film stars Susan Chardy as Shula, a woman who finds her uncle dead in the road and must break the news to her family. Henderson Available on Max New TV show now available to stream Joey Chestnut poses for photos in Coney Island's Maimonides Park, July 4, 2021, in Brooklyn. Brittainy Newman/Associated Press Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest July Fourth is a busy day for sports watchers, with the Red Sox taking on the Nationals down at the nation's capital and Wimbledon continuing across the pond. But on New York's Coney Island, there's no better tradition to honor the holiday than the annual Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, broadcasting live at noon on ESPN2 and streaming on ESPN+. Competitive eating powerhouse and 16-time champ Joey Chestnut makes his return to the tournament after missing last year's event. Chestnut set a new all-time record in 2021 by eating 76 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes. Available on ESPN+ Advertisement Binge-worthy weekend TV pick From left: Damian Lewis and Ron Livingston in "Band of Brothers." David James/HBO 'Band of Brothers' Revisit a masterpiece this July Fourth weekend and check out the acclaimed World War II miniseries 'Band of Brothers,' streaming on Max and Netflix. Co-created by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, the 10-episode Emmy-winning drama follows the paratroopers of Easy Company and their heroic efforts amid the horrors of the battlefield. The companion series 'The Pacific' is also streaming on Max and Netflix, while the acclaimed Available on Max and Netflix Movie night picks Tom Cruise in "Top Gun: Maverick." Paramount Pictures/Paramount Pictures/Paramount + July Fourth movie marathon Celebrate America with an action-packed and patriotic-themed movie marathon featuring hits available across different streaming services: 'Born on the Fourth of July' (Netflix); the 'Captain America' movies (Disney+); 'Flags of Our Fathers' (Paramount+); 'Glory' (Paramount+); 'Independence Day' (Hulu); the 'National Treasure' movies (Disney+); the 'Rocky' movies (Prime Video); 'Saving Private Ryan' (Paramount+, Prime Video); 'The Patriot' (Paramount+); and last, but not least, the 'Top Gun' films (Paramount+). Matt Juul is the assistant digital editor for the Living Arts team at the Boston Globe, with over a decade of experience covering arts and entertainment. Matt Juul can be reached at
Irish Daily Mirror
28-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
A crazy afternoon of hurling in Dublin with a message for the Class of 2025
IT'S June 21, the Longest Day in Dublin city. I'm standing on Hill 16 next to our household's newly minted veteran of the Leaving Cert. For him, and his Class of 2025, it is 'D-Day Plus One' in the great campaign that starts once school is out forever. But there is nothing to suggest that in little over an hour, we will both remember this sun splashed Saturday as one of our own 'Day of Days.' We are both watching as Dublin hurling captain Chris Crummey trudges from the Croke Park pitch with red flashing in his eyes. The famous words of D-Day and Band of Brothers legend, Captain Dick Winters, drift into my mind on the Clonliffe Road breeze: 'We're paratroopers we're supposed to be surrounded.' Winters was describing the regular fate of his Easy Company troops as they dug into foxholes in the Belgian town of Bastogne to fight the Battle of The Bulge. They were cut off behind enemy lines with no reinforcements, not enough ammunition and dressed in the wrong clothes for winter in northern Europe. Yet 29 days later they would be christened the 'Battered Bastards of Bastogne' by newspapers after defying impossible odds. Back in Croke Park even those odds look a little mean. The Dubs are down to 14 with an hour to play against Limerick, probably the greatest team the game has ever seen. A familiar tale is unspooling: 'We're Dublin hurlers, we're meant to be surrounded'. And then… There are those that dismiss the joining of dots from sport to the great themes of life as 'mythologised guff' and 'hyperbolised nonsense.' They would have it all reduced to GPS data analytics and performance metrics. If that was still your philosophy around 5.30pm in Croke Park last Saturday, you probably needed to check yourself for a pulse. Because here was a day made from the stuff that you can't use to populate a spreadsheet. The script that logic dictated was ripped apart. And instead we got Miracle on 34th Street meets Mission Impossible. To borrow from Monty Python, we witnessed David taking down Goliath and his big brother – with one hand tied behind his back . Hill 16 became a front row seat to watch the Christians devouring the lions in the coliseum. It was General Custer reversing the result at Little Big Horn, Davy Crocket and a band of rag-ball rovers cowboys emerging victorious at the Alamo. The Titanic taking a direct hit from an iceberg, and continuing on its way to New York while shaking a defiant fist at the starry North Atlantic night, shouting: 'Is that all you've got?' Hell, it might even have been as madly improbable as Mayo winning just once! My first experience in Croke Park was watching a 14-man Dublin team beat Offaly in a famous Leinster final with Jimmy Keaveney on the sideline. They wrote a song about it. In time they will write one about this too. Sean Brennan saving from Aaron Gillane at point blank range – like a condemned man catching the firing squad's bullet between his teeth John Hetherton accomplishing a feat of trigonometry that would have NASA scientists scratching their pointy heads, as he located the near impossible coordinates to orbit a moonshot through the narrowest of angles on its way to dock with the stanchion of the Hill 16 net. Cian O'Sullivan dispatching the killshot down the throat of the ravenous great white 'Jaws' as the stricken Dublin vessel looked surely, finally about to slip beneath the waves into the shark infested water. And a half empty Hill 16 shaking like it was September 18th, 2011, all over. High on the mad improbability of it all. Later, as we exited underneath the old railway end terrace, there came one of those spontaneous thunderbursts of sound that take on a uniquely intense quality when trapped inside the concrete husk of a great sporting arena, one that has just witnessed something the walls themselves can scarcely believe. Rolling deafening peals. 'Come On You Boys in Blue.' So often these are the moments that fuse bonds between strangers. And across the generation divide too. I first got the small ball bug working on a paper in Offaly in a previous life, in the time of Whelehan, Dooley and Pilkington. But it has been following the exploits of that next generation that has deepened a love and appreciation for the old game. As we float together from the ground I'm smiling at the memory of once offering that same Leaving Cert veteran walking beside me a plagiarised nugget of wisdom. It was intended to be used if asked to offer any thoughts in a dressing room meeting when his childhood band of brothers were facing their own small brush with seemingly insurmountable odds. As it turned out it was the exact punchline their coach and mentor had in his mind – himself a man who has done more than most to push this boulder of Dublin hurling up the mountain. The original copyright belongs to that other believer in the improbable, Nelson Mandela: 'It is always impossible. Until it is done.' This week as the Class of 2025 mark their rite of passage from those childish dressing rooms, they couldn't take a better code into the perilous world we have made for them. And they will probably never see it lived so well as on an impossibly crazy afternoon of hurling on the longest day in Dublin city.
The Verge
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Verge
Doom: The Dark Ages is for lovers and slayers
If you've spent any time on the internet, you may have seen the 'what I expected vs. what I got' memes. If I could make one for Doom: The Dark Ages, in my expected column I'd reference the earlier Doom games — Eternal and the 2016 soft reboot of the franchise. But for the 'what I got' column, there'd be an unexpected mix. Those earlier Doom games would still be there, as in most respects The Dark Ages is very much like its predecessors. But I'd also throw in Band of Brothers, Pirates of the Caribbean, Pacific Rim, The Necronomicon, and a collection of the best bodice-ripper romance books literature can provide. For The Dark Ages, id Software takes the story way back to the early days, to a time before the demons invade Mars and Earth. The Doomguy, known as the Slayer, is a supersoldier enhanced by aliens who have styled themselves as humanity's gods. When those gods and their human collaborators are besieged by the legions of Hell, the Slayer gets to doing what he does best: ripping and tearing until it is done. The Slayer has an arsenal of weapons to aid him in his quest. The series' time-honored favorites, like the super shotgun, make an appearance. But in this old-timey prequel of sorts, the Slayer has all new weapons to get medieval on demon asses. I'm actually really surprised at how much I enjoyed using every weapon in this game. Typically for games that give you a varied arsenal of guns, only one or two are worth using, as there's only so many ways a thing you shoot people with is materially different from another thing you shoot people with. But each gun in The Dark Ages was designed with a distinct purpose and enough utility to still get the job done outside that purpose. The accelerator breaks energy shields and with upgrades can paralyze enemies. The impaler works as a semiautomatic pistol to mow down swarms of fodder but can also transition into a sniper rifle that shoots bullets the length of railroad spikes. But though I love every gun equally, it's the Slayer's shield that makes combat so dang entertaining. Using the Slayer's shield is the most fun I've had playing a shooting-focused game because now, instead of shooting bullets, I am the bullet. Using the shield's charge ability, I can shoot across the battlefield ramming into enemies and turning them into paste. When that ability's on cooldown, I can also use the shield to parry attacks, reflecting them back where they came for massive damage. Parrying's useful to break enemy armor and protect yourself and, unlike in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, it doesn't take an advanced degree in theoretical physics to figure out the timing. Between the shield, the Slayer's melee attack, and all the guns, combat in The Dark Ages feels like entering mini flow states. Every action fits together like a ballet of carnage. Shoot the metal armor to weaken it, throw the shield to destroy it, and then, by the time it's returned to my hand, the enemy has unleashed a blast I deflect back to kill it. And because combat is so much more involved than point and shoot, I can bear the fact that there's not a lot of enemy variety or unique boss encounters. Another conflict between the 'what I expected' and the 'what I got' columns is how strangely peaceful and Zen-like playing The Dark Ages is. The levels are large, filled with secrets and collectibles that I enjoy searching for. Completing a level 100 percent doesn't feel like an exercise in tedium but rather a reward for perseverance and clever puzzle solving, especially for someone like me who is very much not a completionist. In addition to the ripping and the tearing, there are other special sections of The Dark Ages in which the Slayer pilots either a big-ass Doomecha fighting enemies Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots style, or a big-ass dragon with flying sections. These moments were a miss for me. Despite the 'rule of cool' novelty of the mecha and the dragon, without the variety of the Slayer's weapons, combat in these sections is boring as — forgive me — hell. All you do in the mecha is walk and punch. All you do with the dragon is fly (poorly) and shoot a cannon (also poorly). They're certainly cool to look at in cutscenes, but mechanically, I'd rather be back on the ground. But my favorite part of this entire game is the story. I know that's not something you're supposed to say about Doom. It's Doom: the story is superfluous to all the demon killing. But thinking about the narrative id laid out, I start giggling and kicking my feet like a blushing schoolgirl, because this Slayer is a lover! Just like in the other games, this man cannot be bargained with and he has no moral ambiguity. If you are a demon, you die. If you enable demons, no matter how 'good' or 'noble' your reasoning is, you die. And he is just so stylish at killing things, inflaming my competency kink. But more than that, despite the fact that in previous games the Slayer doesn't speak outside of pained grunts and his face is covered for most of the game, the way this man emotes belies so much depth. There's a moment in the middle of one of the dragon sections where, just before he hops back on his loyal steed, he takes a beat to place his hand tenderly on the creature's neck. But my favorite Slayer moment comes early in the game. He's being held in stasis by his alien masters as they don't want to deploy him and thereby draw Hell's attention. He's forced to watch as his human allies are overrun, and he is so overcome with rage that he's able to briefly break the chains that bind him. You could be forgiven for believing the Slayer is driven by the desire to vanquish Hell, but that's only partly true. In The Dark Ages, he is just as much a lover as he is a fighter, and the hottest thing a man can do is rip and care. The Dark Ages is so good because it brings out the kid in me. Describing it to other people makes me sound like a child trying to explain something that sounds nothing like what you'd expect from a Doom game as I ramble off events with no regard for shaping a coherent story. 'And then, a big mancubus appeared, and I parried its blast with my shield and then a bolt of lightning came down from the sky and it killed a bunch of demons. And it was awesome.'
