Latest news with #BreckEisner
Forbes
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
2015 Vin Diesel Critical Flop Debuts Big On Netflix's U.S. Top 10 Movies Chart
NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 13: Actor Vin Diesel attends the "The Last Witch Hunter" New York premiere ... More at AMC Loews Lincoln Square on October 13, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Jim Spellman/WireImage) A Vin Diesel action fantasy movie from 10 years ago is finding a new audience on Netflix. Diesel, of course, is known for the Fast & Furious movie saga, which evolved from muscle car-themed movies to include big machines of all shapes and sizes. However, in 2015, Diesel went the fantasy film route The Last Witch Hunter. The logline from Netflix for the film reads, 'When a powerful coven aims to unleash a deadly plague on New York, an immortal witch hunter, a priest and a young witch must thwart the lethal plan.' Diesel stars as the immortal witch hunter Kaulder in The Last Witch Hunter. Directed by Breck Eisner, the film also stars Rose Leslie, Elijah Wood and Michael Caine. The Last Witch Hunter arrived on Netflix on June 16 and according to streamer, the film debuted on the streamer's chart of the Top 10 U.S. Movies for the week of June 16-22. The film arrived on the chart at No. 4, ahead of the streamer's new original documentary Trainwreck: Mayor of Mayhem at No. 5. The Last Witch Hunter debuted behind 2023's Plane, the Netflix Original documentary Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy and the Netflix Original movie Straw, which placed No. 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Unlike Netflix's Top 10 Global Movies chart, the streamer's U.S. Movies chart does not disclose viewership numbers. How Did Audiences And Critics Receive 'The Last Witch Hunter'? The Last Witch Hunter was released in 3,082 North American theaters on Oct. 23, 2015, by Lionsgate. The film went on to earn nearly $27.4 million domestically and $130.4 million internationally for a worldwide box office tally of $130.8 million against an $80 million production budget before prints and advertising, according to The Numbers. The Last Witch Hunter was a critical disaster, however, earning a lowly 18% 'rotten' rating from Rotten Tomatoes critics based on 138 reviews. The RT Critics Consensus for the movie reads, 'Grim, plodding, and an overall ill fit for Vin Diesel's particular charms, The Last Witch Hunter will bore and/or confuse all but the least demanding action-fantasy fans.' RT users weren't nearly as harsh on The Last Witch Hunter, but it still received a 44% 'rotten' score on the site's Popcornmeter based on 25,000-plus verified user ratings. Rated PG-13, Vin Diesel's The Last Witch Hunter is new on Netflix.
New York Times
01-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Case for Telling Total Strangers to Shut Up
I was raised by a movie talker. When I was a child, my dad and I went to our local theater every Wednesday to see whatever was out. If that week's offering was pure schlock, my dad and I would yuk it up. His humor, complemented by an insider's perspective afforded to him by a career as a writer and director, was incisive and perfect to me. Like a sidelined quarterback barking at the television on Super Bowl Sunday, he called out narrative inconsistencies or forced plot turns with ease, or pointed out actors' tics that escaped less practiced eyes. Though I lacked my dad's professional elegance and volume control, I mimicked this chatty habit for years — until my buddies and I went to see 'Sahara,' the 2005 Breck Eisner movie about treasure hunters searching for a Civil War-era ship in the desert. I was 14, and I considered talking through a movie a thrill and a continuation of a storied legacy. I assumed that my fellow audience members would appreciate my inherent hilarity, which was obviously of greater value than Eisner's desert tomfoolery. But halfway into my monologue lampooning the ridiculousness of a purposefully ridiculous movie, a person leaned over and let out a shush, her voice as harsh as the white static from a TV. I burst out laughing. Who was this high and mighty loner seeing 'Sahara' at 2 p.m. on a Saturday? I continued talking, and a few minutes later, she tapped me on the shoulder and said, 'Some of us actually work hard and pay good money to come to the movies.' My brain squelched with embarrassment, and I slumped into quiet. I became aware, for the first time, that not only was I not the funniest person in the theater; I was also downright annoying to everyone around me. Ever since, I've been a shusher, dedicated to telling people, first politely, then with more ardor, to shut the hell up. I'm shameless. Sometimes gleefully so. Once, I asked a group of drunk dads at a distillery playing the song 'Sympathy for the Devil' at impossible decibels on a portable Bose speaker if they could 'keep it down,' though I am still unsure if this was an act of public service or just my personal desire to never hear the Rolling Stones again in my entire life. Shushing was once commonplace, if a little snooty and silly. Now, however, a phone-addicted culture has made us all seemingly oblivious to just how annoying we are in public. Our ways of being annoying have worsened: People take pictures at the cinema, flash on; they watch entire movies on the train without headphones. As selfishness is normalized, calling people out for their bad behavior has become more fraught. There's an early episode of 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' in which the Gang are shushed at a restaurant for their screeching. This leads the rageful Dennis to file an assault charge against the shusher. 'Shushing isn't assault,' a police officer tells Dennis. Yet some shushees often react like Dennis. I have been called a Karen, a snoop, a jerk and, at a recent screening of a three-and-a-half-hour Oscar-winning movie, a pejorative that cannot be issued in print. All for pointing out that, yes, there are other people around, and they can hear your voice, see the light from your phone. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
