Latest news with #FourHorsemen
Tom's Guide
6 days ago
- Business
- Tom's Guide
Netflix just added guilty pleasure heist thriller 'Now You See Me' — and it's already crashed the top 10
Netflix has just added one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies, the 2013 slick heist thriller, "Now You See Me." Released to commercial (but not critical) success, Louis Leterrier's "Now You See Me" throws us in with a band of talented magicians embroiled in a cat-and-mouse chase with the cops as they carry out a series of robberies. It was big enough to spawn a franchise (threequel "Now You See Me, Now You Don't hits theaters this November) and is evidently winning over curious Netflix fans, too. Mere days after being added to the streaming service, it's already claimed the #6 spot on the streamer's most-watched list. Intrigued by this stage magic/heist thriller mash-up? Here's a little more info about the new arrival, and why I think you should stream "Now You See Me" on Netflix now. Louis Leterrier's "Now You See Me" introduces to a talented group of illusionists — street magician and leader, Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), mentalist Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), escapologist Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher) and impressionist, pickpocket and sleight of hand expert, Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) — collectively known as the "Four Horsemen". Brought together by an unknown force, the Horsemen begin using their talents to carry out elaborate, Robin Hood-style heists, robbing the rich and powerful and sharing their wealth with their adoring fans. At the same time, we follow an FBI agent and an Interpol detective as they investigate and attempt to stop the elusive illusionists. In addition to the above stars, "Now You See Me" also features Mark Ruffalo, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Mélanie Laurent. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. It's important to go into "Now You See Me" with the right sort of expectations; this is not an all-time heist caper, but it is a breezy blast of smoke-and-mirrors flashy fun. "Now You See Me" is best approached as a slick, surface-level thriller. It's akin to movie junk food: high-concept, disposable blockbuster fun ("The Prestige" this ain't), mostly buoyed by its sly, self-confident but entertaining characters and their entertaining stunts. Things progressively get more implausible, sure, and the movie's absolutely let down by a weak, left-field ending, but I've always had a soft spot for the "smug magicians carry off elaborate bank heists and dodge the cops" conceit. If you're able to let yourself be swept up in the fast-moving plot and to be fooled by the Horsemen's tricks, I think you'll have a good time. While I'm a fan, "Now You See Me" isn't exactly critically acclaimed. At the time of writing, the movie has a 51% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (from a total of 171 reviews), though the Popcornmeter score is a more respectable 70%. Glancing at the takes from "Top Critics" on the site, you'll see some reviewers were swept up in the magic... and others most certainly weren't. For example, Empire's Olly Richards rated the movie 3/5 stars, praising the elaborate thrills and the sparky cast, concluding: "Magicians as criminals is a marvellous conceit and Louis Leterrier gets a great deal of entertainment out of it, but it can't disguise a weak end with smoke and mirrors." Reviewing at Entertainment Weekly, Owen Gleiberman, similarly, described the movie as a "fast and airy thriller" and "an engagingly preposterous high-wire act," one that's "exceedingly clever [...] when it bothers to make sense." On the flipside, The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw gave it a measly 2-star score, summing "Now You See Me" up succinctly as "overcooked, overcomplicated and underinteresting," adding; "it just gets tangled, wildly implausible and dull, and the quartet's mastery of the ordinary non-magic skills necessary in large-scale theft is entirely unconvincing, and no amount of narrative misdirection can get around this." Ouch. Regardless, I do think there's fun to be had with "Now You See Me." If you're looking for some light thrills to liven up your next movie night, give this mystery thriller a shot. And, if you find you enjoy your time with the Four Horsemen, Netflix has also added the sequel. But if you're really not convinced, we can still help you find your next watch. Check out our round-up of the best movies on Netflix for tons more streaming recommendations perfect for your next movie night.
The Onion
19-05-2025
- The Onion
Jesus Circles Earth Few Times So He Not First To Arrive To Judgment Day
LOW EARTH ORBIT—Dreading a scenario in which He showed up early and was forced to make awkward small talk with mankind, Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, circled the earth a few times so He wouldn't be the first to arrive for Judgment Day, heavenly sources confirmed Tuesday. 'It's still looking pretty quiet down there, so I'm just gonna take a couple laps around the planet until the End Times get into full swing,' the Son of God said as He anxiously hovered high above South America, adding that almost everyone He was looking forward to seeing wouldn't show up until the resurrection of the dead anyway. 'Man, I really should have made plans to head over with the Four Horsemen. It's way less stressful to arrive for the Day of Wrath as part of a group. I could text Abaddon, the king of the locusts, to see when he's getting there, but that guy never checks his phone. If I'd been smarter about it, I'd just be leaving heaven now. Oh well. I'll give it one or two more trumpets, and then I should be good to head down.' After arriving upon the earth in the divine glory of His Second Coming, Christ was reportedly dismayed to find that everyone had already judged the souls of the living and the dead without Him.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Spain's Grid Collapsed in 5 Seconds. The U.S. Could Be Next.
Across Spain and Portugal, more than 50 million people recently experienced the largest blackout in modern European history. Thousands of commuters stood stranded on the concourses of Spain's transit system. In the span of five seconds, 60 percent of the country's electricity supply vanished. This wasn't caused by a storm or a cyberattack—just bad policy and the most underappreciated force in modern engineering giving way: inertia. When a power plant trips offline or demand suddenly spikes, the power grid has no cushion; it must respond instantly or it unravels. That's where inertia comes in. In coal, gas, and nuclear plants, massive turbine rotors spin at thousands of rpm. Even when power is cut, they keep turning, releasing stored energy that slows frequency shifts and buys precious time—seconds to a minute—for backup to kick in. It's not backup power, it's breathing room. Like the flywheel on a Peloton, it keeps things steady even when input falters. Once frequency drops too far, automatic protection kicks in. Plants shut down. Substations isolate. The grid severs its own limbs to survive. If imbalance spreads faster than recovery can respond, the collapse cascades. Entire regions go dark—not for lack of power, but lack of time. Even the right answer, a minute late, is no answer at all. That's what happened in Spain. On April 28, solar energy was generating nearly 18 gigawatts of electricity—more than half of the national demand. Within an hour, more than two-thirds of it disappeared due to what authorities called a "technical fluctuation." Grid frequency plummeted. France tried to send emergency power across the intertie, but the imbalance tripped the connection. In five seconds, the entire Iberian grid collapsed. Experts/government regulators are unsure if solar power alone caused the failure. But a system hell-bent on pushing renewables certainly ensured that the failure was catastrophic. This wasn't bad luck. It was bad policy made manifest—a sequence I've come to call the Four Horsemen of Grid Failure: Subsidized volatility. Between 2018 and 2024, Spain tripled its solar capacity, adding over 20 gigawatts in record time. The boom was fueled by E.U. Green Deal money, domestic tax credits, generous feed-in tariffs, and guaranteed priority access. Renewables didn't compete—they were legally first in line. By midday, solar routinely overwhelmed the grid, forcing other power plants offline. And when it disappeared, as it did that day, there was nothing steady underneath. Penalized reliability. In just two years, Spain shut down 15 coal plants—including Teruel and Compostilla II, which together delivered over 2,200 megawatts (MW) of inertia-rich baseload energy. Gas was throttled by greenhouse gas emissions penalties and pricing rules that made it barely worth running. Nuclear energy, once the quiet anchor of the system, was slated for full retirement by 2035. The plants that made the grid resilient weren't just sidelined. They were financially erased. Neglected backup. Spain bet on constant supply and perfect conditions with no grid-scale batteries, demand response, or new pumped hydroelectric power. When solar power collapsed and wind stalled, there was no fallback. Even the intertie with France failed under the strain. No margin for error. Regulatory arrogance—the fatal assumption that planners could schedule physics. Infrastructure was phased out on ideological timelines, not engineering ones. Models were trusted over operators, warnings were ignored, and the system was made brittle. And all of it added up to the most dangerous thing a grid can carry: an inertia gap. And, when solar drops out en masse—as it did in April—there's nothing left spinning. The machines that used to smooth those shocks had already been shut down, sidelined, or priced out of existence. Across the U.S., we're replaying the same mistakes. Texas, through the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), now gets more than 35 percent of its energy from wind and solar—spiking past 80 percent on the right day. But ERCOT is a grid on an island; it can't import help or borrow stability. In 2023, a sudden frequency dip pushed the system into emergency conditions. Massive grid-scale batteries kicked in just in time, averting disaster. But those batteries are expensive band-aids, not baseload. And as Texas pushes to retire more fossil fuel generation by 2030, the gap between supply and stability will only widen. California often hits 100 percent renewable energy during daylight hours, only to fall off a cliff at sundown. Gas plants have to scramble to catch the drop. To simulate the inertia it tore out, California's now installing massive flywheels to mimic the inertia that coal and nuclear used to provide by default. The rest of the country looks more balanced, on paper at least. But PJM Interconnection—a regional transmission organization that manages the flow of wholesale electricity across 13 states—is set to lose up to 58 gigawatts of firm generation by 2030. With reliability at risk, it's now fast-tracking 11.8 gigawatts of new gas plants just to stay afloat. The Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) isn't far behind. It plans to retire 25 gigawatts of coal and add 10 gigawatts of solar by decade's end. But its own projections show a 4.7 gigawatt shortfall in firm capacity by 2028. And, after shutting down Indian Point, New York is gambling on offshore wind and Canadian hydro to fill its 2,000-megawatt hole. Stable power is retiring faster than its replacements can show up—stuck in queues, lawsuits, or supply chain hell. We've spent a decade subsidizing volatility, penalizing reliability, and crossing our fingers that storage will arrive on time. Meanwhile, the slow, steady, heavy machines that actually hold the grid together are being dismantled. Spain's blackout wasn't just a technical failure. It was a political one. A preview of what happens when the Four Horsemen ride unchecked. Because when the turbines stop spinning, it's not just the lights that go out. It's the whole illusion. The post Spain's Grid Collapsed in 5 Seconds. The U.S. Could Be Next. appeared first on
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Meet the 'Now You See Me: Now You Don't' Cast (and Find Out Where You've Seen Them Before!)
Now You See Me: Now You Don't will feature both new and old magicians. The third installment of the beloved Now You See Me franchise stars original cast members Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco as the witty group of magicians called the Four Horsemen. Meanwhile, three younger magicians — played by Ariana Greenblatt, Justice Smith and Dominic Sessa — will join in on the fun, as well. In the teaser, released April 29, Eisenberg reprises his role as J. Daniel Atlas but needs to enlist the help of the three new magicians because his fellow Four Horsemen are "dead" to him. The younger and resident magicians will join forces and work alongside Morgan Freeman's character, Thaddeus Bradley, as they try to take down a group of criminals run by Rosamund Pike's character. Here's everything to know about the new and returning actors starring in Now You See Me: Now You Don't. Jesse Eisenberg will reprise his role as J. Daniel Atlas, an illusionist and street magician. In the first film, Atlas helped create the Four Horsemen and remained their leader for the second film. However, the group had a falling out, so in Now You See Me: Now You Don't, Atlas decides to forge ahead with three new magicians. Luckily for the new crew, the rest of the three Horsemen end up saving Atlas and his new magicians after they find themselves in trouble while trying to steal the "most valuable jewel in history." Related: Who Is Jesse Eisenberg's Wife? All About Anna Strout Eisenberg hasn't spoken too much about the third film, but he told GamesRader+ in October 2024, "Every day we walk onto set and pinch ourselves because the set pieces, the magic, the ensemble, it's really, truly miraculous." Off-screen, Eisenberg has been with his wife, Anna Strout, since 2001 and the couple share one child. Dave Franco returns to the franchise, once again, as Jack Wilder. He is the youngest member of the Four Horsemen and was a simple street magician and pickpocket before joining the group. Despite having a falling out with Atlas, Wilder surprises him when he suddenly appears in the midst of a theft gone wrong and candidly tells Atlas in the trailer, "[I'm] saving your a--." Related: Dave Franco and Alison Brie's Relationship Timeline When he's not on set, Franco spends time with his wife, actress Alison Brie, whom he married in 2017. Isla Fisher returns to the cast as Henley Reeves, the only female in the Four Horsemen. Reeves, who was once Atlas' assistant and ex, is a clever escape artist and stage magician. Related: Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher's Relationship Timeline Now You See Me: Now You Don't marks Fisher's return to the franchise as she was unable to star in the second film, Now You See Me 2, because she was pregnant at the time. Lizzy Caplan, who played Lula May, was added to the cast as a fill-in for the Four Horsemen. Off-screen, Fisher was married to Sacha Baron Cohen from 2010 to 2024. The former couple share three children. Woody Harrelson reprises his role as Merritt McKinney, a mentalist and hypnotist. Despite being the oldest member of the Four Horsemen, McKinney often enjoys being unhelpful and playing with people's minds any chance he can get. Related: Who Is Woody Harrelson's Wife? All About Laura Louie When he isn't acting, Harrelson spends time with his wife of over 15 years, Laura Louie, and their three children. Mark Ruffalo, who starred as Dylan Rhodes in the first two films, was not shown in the trailer for Now You See Me: Now You Don't, but he has been confirmed as a part of the cast. In April 2025, Variety noted that Ruffalo would be returning to the film in some capacity. His character, Rhodes, is an FBI agent who was trying to capture the Four Horsemen, but changed his motive after his history with magicians was revealed in the second film. Related: Who Is Mark Ruffalo's Wife? All About Sunrise Coigney Off-screen, Ruffalo is married to Sunrise Coigney. The pair married in 2000 and have since welcomed three children. Morgan Freeman is the last returning cast member who is confirmed to appear in Now You See Me: Now You Don't and was shown in the April 2025 trailer. Freeman plays Thaddeus Bradley, a former magician who worked behind-the-scenes to expose magicians' secrets and profit from solving their mysteries. Bradley is often one step ahead of both the Four Horsemen and the authorities. Related: All About Morgan Freeman's Children and Grandchildren "My Horsemen, you were brought together for a reason — to bring down two generations of criminals with a single sleight of hand," he tells the group in the Now You See Me 3 trailer. While he acts as a father figure in a lot of his roles, Freeman also has four children of his own off-screen. Rosamund Pike is in her villain era. Pike will make her Now You See Me debut as the wealthy leader of the Vanderberg crime family. "For decades, the Vanderbergs have been selling diamonds to warlords, arms dealers, traffickers to help launder their money," Atlas tells his fellow magicians in the Now You See Me: Now You Don't trailer. Vanderberg immediately goes to war with the Four Horsemen after they try and steal her beloved "heart jewel" in the upcoming film. She's seen meeting with fellow criminals and loading a gun in the teaser. Related: Who Is Rosamund Pike's Boyfriend? All About Robie Uniacke Off-screen, Pike has been dating Robie Uniacke since around 2009 and the pair share two children. Dominic Sessa stars in the Now You See Me franchise for the first time as Bosco, the leader of the new group of magicians. In the trailer, he pretends to be Atlas in front of an audience and even tells his fellow magicians, "My Atlas was spot on." Sessa became a breakout star when he made his acting debut in the 2023 film The Holdovers. He won a Critics' Choice Movie Award for the role and was nominated for a BAFTA Award. Sessa's acting career seems to just be getting started, as he was also cast as the late chef Anthony Bourdain in the biopic Tony. Ariana Greenblatt will make her Now You See Me debut as June, the only woman in the new group of three magicians. Greenblatt took the new role seriously and told Nylon prior to filming in August 2024 that she had enrolled at the Magic Castle — an academy for magic enthusiasts. 'I've been at the Magic Castle every other day, learning magic,' she told the outlet. 'My magic teacher is so awesome; he is one of the best ones. So I get to know all the magician tea.' Greenblatt got her acting start in the Disney Channel TV show Stuck in the Middle in 2016, but she rose to fame in 2023 when she played America Ferrera's daughter in the blockbuster film Barbie. Greenblatt has also had prominent roles in 65, In The Heights and Ahsoka. Justice Smith rounds out the new group of magicians and plays Charlie. Smith landed his first acting gig in 2014 when he appeared on the Nickelodeon comedy series, The Thundermans. He went on to act in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), Detective Pikachu (2019) and All The Bright Places (2020) alongside Elle Fanning. Read the original article on People
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
WWE and AEW Legends Mourn Death of Former Four Horsemen & NFL Hall of Famer
Steve "Mongo" McMichael has died at the age of 67. After a long bout with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), McMichael passed away in Joliet, IL, in the same state where he starred for the Chicago Bears in the late 1970s and through the 1980s. After McMichael's Hall-of-Fame football career ended, he had a successful career in professional wrestling, first as a broadcaster and then as an in-ring competitor and member of the legendary Four Horsemen faction. Several former professional football players and wrestling legends took to social media to pay their respects to McMichael. Getty Images North America Ric Flair, who has consistently posted updates about Mongo's condition posted a touching tribute to McMichael: WCW legend Sting also posted a tribute to McMichael reflecting on his final conversations with him. All Elite Wrestling posted this classy tribute image and post. WWE Raw General Manager, Adam Pearce paid homage to McMichael with an image and reflection on Mongo's professional accomplishments. WWE legend, Brian Heffron aka The Blue Meanie posted an image and a memory of a conversation he had with McMichael. Wrestling icon, Missy Hyatt also posted about McMichael. McMichael battled the disease since being diagnosed in 2021. Despite his declining health, he remained a source of strength and inspiration for fans of both football and wrestling. His story resonated beyond the ring or the field—it became a message about resilience, loyalty, and legacy. Advertisement McMichael's impact spanned two arenas—football and professional wrestling—each of which felt his presence in different ways. In the NFL, he was one of the anchors of the famed 1985 Chicago Bears defense, a Super Bowl-winning team etched into football history. McMichael was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2024. In wrestling, he was both a surprising and successful crossover, eventually joining one of the sport's most iconic stables. His personality, toughness, and charisma translated in ways few athletes have ever managed when crossing over from one entertainment field to another. As a Chicagoan who was in love with that 1985 Bears team, I am especially sad to cover the news of Mongo's passing. Expect WWE to acknowledge McMichael on Friday's episode of SmackDown as AEW did on Wednesday night for Dynamite. His presence meant enough to professional wrestling to be universally recognized. Advertisement Related: Corey Graves Sends Cold X Message After Gunther Attacks Pat McAfee Related: Former WWE Announcer Samantha Irvin Releases Steamy New Song and Video 'Shawty Wanna'
