Latest news with #Grindhouse
Tom's Guide
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
One of my favorite modern slasher movies is leaving Netflix soon — prepare to never sleep again
Recently, I've gotten in the habit of watching lower-tier 1980s slasher movies as my version of late-night comfort viewing. There's something soothing about the formulaic killing sprees, and the sometimes clumsy performances and special effects are charming when filtered through genuine vintage film grain. I don't find most modern slasher movies nearly as endearing, which makes it all the more enjoyable when a movie like Eli Roth's 'Thanksgiving' gets things right. It's not entirely surprising that Roth can capture the spirit of old-school slashers with 'Thanksgiving,' since it's based on the fake retro trailer he created for the 2007 Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez 'Grindhouse' project, which expertly mimics those 1980s B-level slashers I've enjoyed so much. The feature-length version of 'Thanksgiving,' released in theaters in 2023, is set in the present day, though, so Roth can't rely on those nostalgic signifiers. Instead, he translates the throwback vibe to one of the best slasher movies of the 2020s, which horror fans should catch before it leaves Netflix on August 17. Of course, there are plenty of horror movies set around Halloween, and there's a thriving subgenre of Christmas horror movies, too, but there are almost no horror movies set on Thanksgiving. That might have been part of the joke for Roth's 'Grindhouse' segment, but in the full-length movie, he effectively incorporates familiar elements of the very American holiday into a suspenseful, gore-filled murder mystery. Set in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the site of one of the first American colonies, 'Thanksgiving' opens with a bitingly satirical sequence that exemplifies Roth's sometimes mean-spirited storytelling. A mob of cutthroat shoppers overruns a big-box store on the eve of Black Friday, and multiple people are killed and injured in the melee over discount TVs and free waffle irons. It's a savage and sadistic takedown of consumerism that's so absurd it couldn't possibly carry an entire movie. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. That's just the backstory for a more traditional slasher set-up. One year later, as the town gears up to celebrate Thanksgiving once again, a killer dressed as Plymouth founding father John Carver starts taking out people connected to the Black Friday riot, which, of course, includes a group of horny, photogenic teens. Roth incorporates several ridiculous images and lines from his original 'Grindhouse' trailer, but they never feel forced or hacky. Although Roth made his name with ultra-grim horror movies like 'Cabin Fever' and 'Hostel,' he brings a welcome sense of playfulness to 'Thanksgiving,' while also creating multiple legitimately tense sequences. It's both funny and horrific to see the killer baste and season one of his victims before putting her into a giant oven. As is often the case, the teens in 'Thanksgiving' don't make the smartest decisions, but Roth avoids making them into total idiots, and he keeps enough of them likable so that viewers aren't just rooting for them to get killed. When arrogant jock Evan (Tomaso Sanelli) laments that he needs a new cell phone so that he can text while at the movies, then parks in a handicapped spot, it's clear that he has to go. But protagonist and obvious Final Girl candidate Jessica (Nell Verlaque) is thoughtful and sensitive, admonishing her wealthy dad (Rick Hoffman) for running another Black Friday sale at his store a year after people were maimed and crushed there. Patrick Dempsey draws on associations from his own slasher-movie history in 'Scream 3' to play the helpful — or maybe too helpful? — local sheriff, and nearly everyone makes for a plausible suspect. There's been a bit of a slasher-movie resurgence in the last few years, with the smart, well-crafted new 'Scream' sequels and entertaining horror comedies like 'Heart Eyes' and 'Totally Killer.' This year's sleeper hit, 'Clown in a Cornfield,' even shares some key elements with 'Thanksgiving,' including the small-town parade and the invocation of historical founders. 'Thanksgiving' is a worthy companion to all of those neo-slashers, as well as to fellow 'Grindhouse' trailers turned feature films 'Machete' and 'Hobo With a Shotgun.' Roth doesn't set out to reinvent the genre, merely to celebrate it, and in the process, he creates what might be his best film to date. 'Thanksgiving' is streaming until August 17 on Netflix.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Alabama actor who shared screen with Val Kilmer in ‘Tombstone' calls late actor one of the best of his generation
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Despite sharing the screen with him in one of the most revered Westerns of the last 30 years, Michael Biehn did not know Val Kilmer. They were not friends, they did not go out together and, to hear it from Biehn, there was something uneasy between the two actors. It was nothing personal; only in keeping with the characters they played in the 1993 film 'Tombstone,' where Biehn's character, Johnny Ringo, goes up against Kilmer's Doc Holliday and his group of gunslingers, including Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp, leading up to a historic gunfight at the O.K. Corral. 'There was a tension between us because our characters didn't like one another, so we didn't even interact on the set,' said Biehn, who was born in Anniston and grew up in Arizona before becoming an actor. 'I had a tendency to hang out with (actor) Powers Booth, and he (Kilmer) had a tendency to hang out with Kurt (Russell).' Nonetheless, it was abundantly clear to Biehn that the moment he stepped onto set, Kilmer was working on a different level as an actor. 'When we were doing our first read-through, I said to myself 'Michael, you better step it up here or he's going to walk all over you,' he said of the celebrated actor, who died Tuesday at the age of 65. For one, Biehn said Kilmer brought a deep commitment to his portrayal of Holliday, a dangerous gunslinger suffering a slow death from tuberculosis. In order to do that, Kilmer felt it was necessary to feel the kind of pain Holliday experienced. 'He wanted the feeling of always being in pain and he used this glycerin spray on his face and neck,' Biehn said. 'It was really hurting him, but I was admiring the fact that he used that, because I know it can be really difficult.' In one iconic moment from the movie, Ringo and Holliday have one last standoff, the camera pushing up on them as they get ready to try and kill one another. Biehn said the scene was largely something he and Kilmer had practiced and choreographed themselves to make the audience feel the urgency of the moment, avoiding the well-worn Hollywood trope of a final draw from yards away. 'We didn't want it to be standing still,' Biehn said, adding that he and Kilmer wanted something than,' Biehn said. 'We wanted an intimacy and a movement.' Despite not being an immediate box office success, 'Tombstone' has grown into a cult classic over the years with many critics considering it not just one of the best contemporary Westerns, but one of Kilmer's best performances. For Biehn, who appeared in other movies such as 'The Terminator,' 'Aliens,' 'Grindhouse' and many other films, he ranks Johnny Ringo as the best villain he's ever played. 'When I'm out and about, people want to talk to me about 'Tombstone' as much as anything else I've done,' he said. Biehn said what set Kilmer apart from other actors was not only his intelligence, but the way he was able to access different parts of himself and translate them into the characters he played, inspiring his scene partners to step up their own performances in response. 'He was a true professional and was always fascinating to watch,' Biehn said, calling Kilmer one of the finest actors of his generation. 'You never knew what you were truly going to get, which would make it exciting.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
30-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ed Sheeran Shares Next 5 Album Titles After Completing Math Series and Says Quentin Tarantino Inspired His Vision
The next five Ed Sheeran albums are already titled. In a new interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the English singer-songwriter, 34, revealed the titles of his next five albums — and similarly to his series of projects inspired by mathematics, they're all related to one another. Sheeran announced his next album will be called Play and explained, "When I was like 18, I had an idea for like 10 albums. It's Plus, Multiply, Divide, Subtract, Equals, and then Play, Pause, Fast Forward, Rewind and Stop." Related: Ed Sheeran Says Rihanna Inspired Him to Write 2 of His Biggest Hit Songs: She 'Has the Best Taste' Related: The new slate of projects was inspired by the "Thinking Out Loud" performer's Quentin Tarantino fandom. "I wanted to do 10. I'm kind of a bit obsessed with Tarantino, and I heard he was doing 10 films, and he's got his side projects like Grindhouse and s---," he said. "So, I wanna do my 10 and then every now and then do a side project," added Sheeran, who's released 2019's No. 6 Collaborations Project and 2023's Autumn Variations in addition to his mathematic series. The Grammy winner also opened up about the album he's creating to be released posthumously, which he first spoke about with Rolling Stone in 2023. Related: Ed Sheeran Speaks Out After Police in India Abruptly Break Up His Surprise Street Concert Sheeran told Fallon, "I kind of want to make an album for the whole of my life where you put different songs on and then it's in your will that it comes out the day you die, and it's called Eject." "Imagine if when [Paul] McCartney passes away and there's a record that he's made that has a song from he's 16, there's a song from when he's 20, there's a song from when he's 30," detailed the "Shivers" artist. "It'd be fascinating." He then quipped, "There'll be lots of people who are like, 'Still, from the grave he's f---ing with us.'" Sheeran has been teasing an upcoming single called "Azizam" from Play. He also spoke to Fallon, 50, about another song titled "Old Phone," inspired by an element of his experience getting sued for alleged copyright infringement over his 2014 single 'Thinking Out Loud.' [He won the lawsuit.] The "Perfect" musician noted he ditched his phone in 2015 in favor of a tablet just for email, but he was required to open his former device and 'go through all the Voice Notes and the pictures and all that stuff for the lawyers.' 'I switched it on, and it was like going into a time machine. The first text was my friend that had passed away the year before, the second text was an argument with an ex-girlfriend, the third text was a family member I hadn't spoken to in 10 years, the fourth text was another mate that died," said Sheeran. "It really, really spun me out." Read the original article on People
See - Sada Elbalad
29-03-2025
- Entertainment
- See - Sada Elbalad
Ed Sheeran Shares Next 5 Album Titles and Reveals Plans to Retire After 10th
Yara Sameh The next five Ed Sheeran albums are already have a title. In a new interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon , the English singer-songwriter revealed the titles of his next five albums — and similarly to his series of projects inspired by mathematics— they're all related to one another. Sheeran announced his next album will be called "Play" and explained, "When I was like 18, I had an idea for like 10 albums. It's Plus, Multiply, Divide, Subtract, Equals, and then Play, Pause, Fast Forward, Rewind and Stop." The new slate of projects was inspired by the "Thinking Out Loud" performer's Quentin Tarantino fandom. "I wanted to do 10. I'm kind of a bit obsessed with Tarantino, and I heard he was doing 10 films, and he's got his side projects like Grindhouse and s---," he added. "So, I wanna do my 10 and then every now and then do a side project," Sheeran continued, who's released 2019's No. 6 Collaborations Project and 2023's Autumn Variations in addition to his mathematic series. The Grammy winner also opened up about the album he's creating to be released posthumously, which he first spoke about with Rolling Stone in 2023. Sheeran told Fallon, "I kind of want to make an album for the whole of my life where you put different songs on and then it's in your will that it comes out the day you die, and it's called Eject." "Imagine if when [Paul] McCartney passes away and there's a record that he's made that has a song from he's 16, there's a song from when he's 20, there's a song from when he's 30," detailed the "Shivers" artist. "It'd be fascinating." He noted, "There'll be lots of people who are like, 'Still, from the grave he's f---ing with us.'" Sheeran has been teasing an upcoming single called "Azizam" from "Play". He also spoke about another song titled "Old Phone," inspired by an element of his experience getting sued for alleged copyright infringement over his 2014 single 'Thinking Out Loud.' [He won the lawsuit.] The "Perfect" musician noted he ditched his phone in 2015 in favor of a tablet just for email, but he was required to open the device and 'go through all the Voice Notes and the pictures and all that stuff for the lawyers.' 'I switched it on, and it was like going into a time machine. The first text was my friend that had passed away the year before, the second text was an argument with an ex-girlfriend, the third text was a family member I hadn't spoken to in 10 years, the fourth text was another mate that died," Sheeran said. "It really, really spun me out." read more New Tourism Route To Launch in Old Cairo Ahmed El Sakka-Led Play 'Sayidati Al Jamila' to Be Staged in KSA on Dec. 6 Mandy Moore Joins Season 2 of "Dr. Death" Anthology Series Don't Miss These Movies at 44th Cairo Int'l Film Festival Today Amr Diab to Headline KSA's MDLBEAST Soundstorm 2022 Festival Arts & Culture Mai Omar Stuns in Latest Instagram Photos Arts & Culture "The Flash" to End with Season 9 Arts & Culture Ministry of Culture Organizes four day Children's Film Festival Arts & Culture Canadian PM wishes Muslims Eid-al-Adha News Egypt confirms denial of airspace access to US B-52 bombers News Ayat Khaddoura's Final Video Captures Bombardment of Beit Lahia News Australia Fines Telegram $600,000 Over Terrorism, Child Abuse Content Lifestyle Pistachio and Raspberry Cheesecake Domes Recipe Arts & Culture Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's $4.7M LA Home Burglarized Videos & Features Bouchra Dahlab Crowned Miss Arab World 2025 .. Reem Ganzoury Wins Miss Arab Africa Title (VIDEO) News Israeli PM Diagnosed with Stage 3 Prostate Cancer Lifestyle Maguy Farah Reveals 2025 Expectations for Pisces News Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly Inaugurates Two Indian Companies Sports Neymar Announced for Brazil's Preliminary List for 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers
