Latest news with #KevinCostner
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Waterworld' turns 30: Hollywood flop to cult classic — and its forgotten Oscar nomination
Waterworld, the famously soggy epic starring Kevin Costner and directed by Kevin Reynolds, turns 30 today. Released on July 28, 1995, the film remains one of the most notorious Hollywood productions of its era, making waves for its astronomical budget and behind-the-scenes turmoil. Dubbed "Kevin's Gate" by the press, it faced a storm of negative attention long before audiences ever set sail. But in the three decades since its debut, Waterworld has gone from box-office cautionary tale to cult classic, with a devoted fan base, a legacy in live entertainment, and even a surprising brush with Oscar gold. Set in a post-apocalyptic future where the polar ice caps have melted and Earth is submerged in water, Waterworld follows a mysterious drifter known as the Mariner (Costner), a gill-sporting loner navigating a flooded wasteland of floating cities, pirates, and mythical dry land. The film was one of the most expensive movies ever made at the time, with a bloated budget of $175 million — an astronomical figure in the mid-'90s — and plagued by production issues ranging from storms that destroyed sets to on-set tension and endless rewrites. Critics were lukewarm at best, and audiences were initially cool to the film's dark tone and unconventional premise. Opening to a $21 million weekend at the box office, Waterworld was quickly labeled a flop. Although it eventually earned back its budget through strong international sales and home video revenues, the damage to its reputation had already been done. Today, Waterworld is viewed with fresh eyes — part environmental warning, part ambitious sci-fi Western, part misunderstood gem. What was once mocked for its bloated budget and outlandish premise is now appreciated for its practical effects, world-building, and relentless creativity. The film's stunt work and set design, once buried under headlines about delays and dollar signs, are now cited as examples of bold, big-swing filmmaking that would be nearly impossible in today's CGI-heavy studio landscape. What many people have forgotten — or never knew — is that Waterworld was nominated for an Academy Award. At the 68th Oscars in 1996, it earned a nomination for Best Sound, alongside Apollo 13, Batman Forever, Braveheart, and Crimson Tide. It didn't win — Apollo 13 took the statue — but the nomination was a nod to the film's impressive audio design, which brought the crashing waves, roaring jet skis, and chaotic seafaring battles to immersive life. Even more enduring than its Oscar nod is Waterworld 's presence at Universal Studios. The Waterworld: A Live Sea War Spectacular stunt show, launched the same year as the film, has outlasted many of Universal's most beloved attractions. With explosions, jet-ski stunts, and death-defying leaps, the live show has become a fan favorite and a testament to the film's lasting entertainment value. It continues to draw massive crowds in Hollywood, Japan, and Singapore, proving that while the film may have floundered financially, its spectacle has stood the test of time. On its 30th anniversary, Waterworld lives on as more than just "the movie that cost too much." It's a case study in Hollywood ambition, a cult favorite revered for its practical ingenuity, and a cheeky punchline-turned-point-of-pride that stands as a reminder of what happens when filmmakers swing for the fences. Looking back, perhaps Waterworld was never a disaster — it was simply ahead of its time.
South China Morning Post
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
What went wrong with Waterworld, Kevin Costner's big-budget flop, released 30 years ago?
This is the latest instalment in our From the Vault feature series, in which we reflect on culturally significant movies celebrating notable anniversaries. It was supposed to be a modest B-movie. The elevator pitch: 'Mad Max – on water'. But somewhere along the line, Waterworld – which turns 30 this month – morphed into the most expensive blockbuster of its era, and one of Hollywood's most legendary flops. Fresh from the 1991 smash hit Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, star Kevin Costner and director Kevin Reynolds had the world at their feet. But the project they chose next, a 1980s script by Peter Rader, rewritten by David Twohy (The Fugitive), was much riskier. So risky, in fact, that Jaws director Steven Spielberg urged caution. As Rader recalled: 'Spielberg was unequivocal: 'Do not shoot on water!'' Play In the year 2500, with most of Earth flooded, The Mariner (Costner) sails the world in a souped-up trimaran, trading dirt with fellow survivors and drinking his own urine.
Digital Trends
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
Kevin Costner's ambitious Western is underrated — watch it now on HBO Max (July 25-27)
Several of Warner Bros.' biggest releases of 2025 are streaming on HBO Max. A Minecraft Movie, the third-highest-grossing movie of 2025, and Sinners, Ryan Coogler's critically acclaimed vampiric horror, are occupying the first two spots in the top 10. Beyond the top 10, there are a plethora of underrated movies worthy of your time. Kevin Costner's Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is much better than the mixed reviews it received at the time of its release. This weekend, give Horizon and these two underrated movies a shot. Recommended Videos We also have guides to the best new movies to stream, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on HBO Max, and the best movies on Disney+. Music Box: Yacht Rock: A Documentary (2024) Christopher Cross. Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins. Steely Dan. Toto. These five musicians and bands helped pioneer a genre of music that became known as yacht rock. Developed in the late '70s and early '80s, yacht rock is a West Coast sound that infused soulful vocals with easy-listening lyrics. Yacht rock is a combination of soft pop, jazz, R&B, and funk. Yacht rock's popularity exploded in the mid-1980s, but by the end of the decade, it began to lose its stranglehold on pop culture. That's when an unlikely ally — hip hop artists — began sampling yacht rock beats in their songs, which led to a resurgence in the genre. Yacht Rock: A Documentary is an informative exploration into a genre that deserves much more credit for its significant impact on the music industry. Stream Music Box: Yacht Rock: A Documentary on HBO Max. Blue Beetle (2023) Blue Beetle was one of DC's casualties in 2023. James Gunn and Peter Safran, the new heads of DC Studios, clearly wanted the 2023 slate — Shazam 2, The Flash, Blue Beetle, and Aquaman 2 — to disappear and make way for the new DC Universe. That being said, Blue Beetle displayed the most potential, which is probably why an animated series was greenlit. Cobra Kai's Xolo Maridueña as Jamie Reyes, a recent college graduate who becomes the Blue Beetle after fusing with the Scarab. The Scarab encases Jamie in an armored exoskeleton with superpowers, including flight, strength, and agility. Despite his initial hesitation, Jamie comes to accept his newfound abilities and embraces his new calling. On its surface, Blue Beetle is a superhero adventure, but the movie works best as a grounded family drama thanks to its terrific cast. Stream Blue Beetle on HBO Max. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 (2024) Kevin Costner has become the butt of a lot of jokes for Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1. Costner personally funded $38 million of the $100 million budget shared by the first two films. His ambition may have gotten the better of him, considering Chapter 1 flopped at the box office, and Warner Bros. removed Chapter 2 from its release calendar. All that being said, I'm glad Horizon exists because there are moments in this film — including the Apache raid and Hayes' confrontation with Caleb — that are pure cinematic magic. A Western about life on the American frontier is in Costner's wheelhouse. Mr. Costner, please sell the rights to Netflix to release the next three chapters. Stream Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 on HBO Max.
Washington Post
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
The secret to a great golf movie
In the opening moments of 'Tin Cup,' Rene Russo's Dr. Molly Griswold takes a lesson from driving range pro Roy McAvoy. After yet another duff, she snorts, 'This is without a doubt the stupidest, silliest, most idiotic grotesquerie masquerading as a game that has ever been invented.' 'Yes, ma'am,' McAvoy, played by Kevin Costner, replies. 'That's why I love it!' Griswold and McAvoy provided an accidental synopsis of the golf movie: The stupider and sillier these films are, the more we love them. The forthcoming release of 'Happy Gilmore 2,' debuting Friday on Netflix, adds to the relatively slight canon of the golf movie, a subgenre whose scorecard shows birdies and bogeys alike. Scripted treatment of golf is having a moment on screens big and small right now, including the successful launch of Apple TV's 'Stick,' which stars Owen Wilson as a washed-out, squandered-potential pro. The current moment might not equal 1996, when both 'Happy Gilmore' and 'Tin Cup' debuted in theaters. But since 2025 also marks the 45th anniversary of the release of 'Caddyshack,' this year is high on the leader board. The appeal of the golf movie is obvious. The game presents decision points fit for a hero. Lay up or risk it all? It inherently parallels life: You must play the ball as it lies, the only shot that matters is the next one, etc. It is the ultimate insider sport, which makes it a ripe template for an underdog narrative — the Cinderella story, out of nowhere, as a certain gopher-hunting greenskeeper might say. The pitfalls are just as clear. The expanse of a golf course can be difficult to capture on film. The aesthetics of the game are not dynamic, particularly to a broad audience. Any attempt to mirror the game's lessons and plumb for deeper meaning can quickly bleed into clichéd corniness. What separates a great golf movie from a bad one? The safest play is to make a comedy. A good golf movie can revere the game. The best ones lampoon it. Golf takes itself too seriously, which makes it ideal for sending up. 'Caddyshack' contains almost no story, and yet it is a classic for how it uses golf as a template for memorable lines and constant jokes. The silliness of golf is inherent; it takes an outsider to see it. 'If I dressed like that,' Adam Sandler's Happy Gilmore says upon turning up at his first golf tournament, pointing to a spectator in plaid pants, 'I'd have to kick my own ass.' Golf movies of all kinds are united by underdog protagonists. It is the ultimate insider's game, and so it makes sense that in golf movies the heroes are uniformly outsiders. Rannulph Junuh (Matt Damon) of 'The Legend of Bagger Vance' is a broken man, Happy Gilmore is a wannabe hockey player with no prospects, and 'Caddyshack's' Al Czervik (Rodney Dangerfield) just wants to party. Women in golf movies are rarely allowed inside the ropes, existing as inspirational love interests cheering from the sidelines, often shirking the ethical imperatives of their nonplaying jobs to support their player. A PGA public relations executive falls for tour member Gilmore. McAvoy sleeps with his therapist. That may be art's way of imitating a real-life golf culture that has routinely presented women an appallingly obstructive barrier for entry. Nothing, though, can be as perfect as McAvoy's well-struck golf shot. Here's a hole-by-hole breakdown of golf's most significant movies, divots and all. Shelton's romantic comedy shows how much authenticity matters. The right details allow the audience — particularly a golf-savvy audience — to forgive the most unrealistic plot twists. As Costner's Roy McAvoy snaps clubs over his knees to prove a self-destructive point to caddie/best friend Romeo (Cheech Marin), his recollected bad shots are 'shanked,' 'hooked,' 'skulled' and 'chili-dipped.' He tells Romeo, 'you're the Mexican Mac O'Grady,' an if-you-know-you-know nod to the golf-famous swing guru. At the U.S. Open driving range they happen upon Lee Janzen and Billy Mayfair, two perfectly indiscriminate mid-1990s Tour denizens. When Roy takes the bet to smack a ball through a bar window, he decides he must hit a 'hooded' 4-iron. The screenplay (by Shelton and John Norville) talks the talk better than any golf movie, if not sports movie. All those details allow the final scene to land, no matter how preposterous. No golfer is going to smack two sleeves of balls into a pond on the final hole of the U.S. Open. But the golf details are so grounded that it delivers. There are some well-done golf nuggets. Actor Joel Gretsch nails the languid arc of Bobby Jones's swing. Bagger Vance (Will Smith) gives a well-informed soliloquy about grain on putting greens. The impressive golf parts, though, are undermined by almost everything else. The movie wallows in tedious, overdone Southern affectation without the slightest attempt to reckon with the racism of 1920s Georgia. The movie dawdles on its way to the golf match, and once it arrives the golf scenes are slow and dull. The golf never feels like it really matters. Aside from a few facile aphorisms ('I always felt a man's grip on this club was just like a man's grip on this world'), golf is used only as a means to the self-discovery of broken war veteran Rannulph Junuh (Damon). The movie never explores what made him great at golf, why it mattered to him or why it uniquely can save him. Rannulph could have been a fly fisherman or a painter and the movie wouldn't be all that different. The movie gains interest when seen through a lens the filmmakers may or may not have intended: Bagger Vance isn't real, not even as an angel or ghost or some other form of apparition. He exists only in Rannulph's head, a blend of his former self, inner self and conscience. Bagger shows up only when Rannulph starts hitting balls again. He says Rannulph's shoes are 'just about my size.' The only people who interact with Bagger knew him before the war, except Hardy Greaves (J. Michael Moncrief), who idolizes and knows everything about him. After Rannulph finds his ball in the woods during his final-round collapse, Bagger reminds him, 'I'm right here with you. I've been here all along.' When Rannulph's ball moves in front of the group and he prepares to call a penalty on himself, Hardy tells him, 'Only you and me seen it.' But Rannulph takes the penalty anyway and that's when Bagger quits — the moment we know that Rannulph has shed his former self. But, anyway, this is not a good golf movie. If it's possible to say this as a compliment, 'The Greatest Game Ever Played' is sepia-toned sports movie schmaltz. The story of local amateur Francis Ouimet (Shia LaBeouf) and English professional Harry Vardon (Stephen Dillane) at the 1913 U.S. Open delivers exactly what you would expect even it hadn't been based on a true story. Like a mishit drive into the second cut, it's not gonna hurt ya. When done right, as it is here, the drama of golf translates to film. Tension builds before every shot, gets released with each swing and then builds again. There are no surprises, but the final match really delivers what the title promises. The plot of Mark Frost's screenplay (adapting his 2002 book) mildly subverts insider-vs.-outsider convention. Vardon is an infiltrator, too, evicted from his childhood stone hut on the Isle of Jersey by businessmen who want the land for a golf course. The 'gentlemen' in top hats haunt him into the present day and feed self-doubt that causes his hands to shake on the greens. The villain instead is the wealthy newspaper owner who thinks he can ride Vardon's victory to a place in England's cabinet. There's no reason 'Caddyshack' should succeed. There is no plot to speak of. The characters don't develop. Each chunk of dialogue seems to belong to a different movie. And yet it is a classic, quoted daily on every driving range and practice range in America. 'Caddyshack' proves the utility of golf as a canvas for comedy. The outlandishness of Dangerfield's Al Czervik, bemusement of Ty Webb (Chevy Chase) and absurdity of Carl Spackler (Bill Murray) somehow work together because they all are contrasted against the same thing. The movie, written by Ramis, Brian Doyle-Murray and Douglas Kenney, uses Bushwood Country Club as a sandbox for oddballs and outcasts to play in, with Judge Smails (Ted Knight) the perfect embodiment of deluded refinement. The undercurrent of rebellion comes through because of what golf represents, and it ties all the loose ends together. And good lord is 'Caddyshack' still funny 45 years later. 'Happy Gilmore' is the best golf movie ever made. It is sweet and screwball and delivers the climactic triumph any sports movie promises. The pacing is perfect: Fifteen minutes in, the title character has broken up with his girlfriend, learned his grandma has had her house seized and met his guru Chubbs (Carl Weathers), and Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald) is rolling into the Waterbury Open asking Virginia Venit (Julie Bowen) for a Pepsi. ('Oh, and Miss? Diet.') Happy's complete ignorance of golf's customs allows the movie to mine them all for jokes. He shows up in a Bruins jersey and tackles his caddie when he thinks he's stealing his clubs. His homeless caddie picks up the quarter another player used as a ball marker. He collects oversize winner's checks for down-the-board finishes. He constantly engages in what Verne Lundquist would call 'amazingly bizarre behavior.' 'Happy Gilmore' manages to break the rules that 'Tin Cup' follows so well. The 18th hole of the Tour Championship is a par 3? Come on. But the movie pulls it off and surpasses even 'Caddyshack' for quotability. 'Now your back's gonna hurt, because you just pulled landscaping duty.' 'Yeah, how'd he finish again? Dead last? Yeah, he had a good day though.' 'Quite large and economically diverse crowd here at the Michelob Invitational.' There's reason to worry about 'Happy Gilmore 2.' The trailers are overstuffed with cameos and physical comedy. They didn't release screeners for critics. Then again, it's hard to see Sandler back in that Bruins jersey and not think of the words of Gary Potter, Kevin Nealon's spacey tour pro in the original: 'I feel a lot of solid energy coming out of you. Good positive aura. Great. Great. It's all great.'
CNN
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
Taylor Sheridan shows like ‘Landman' and ‘Yellowstone' are popular with everyone but the Emmys
Actor, writer and director Taylor Sheridan is one of the most successful people in the TV industry, except by one measurement. The creator of shows, including the 'Yellowstone' franchise, 'Landman' and 'Tulsa King,' among others, has featured A-list talent such as Kevin Costner, Helen Mirren, Harrison Ford, Billy Bob Thornton, Demi Moore and Sylvester Stallone. One thing has eluded Sheridan, however: Emmy Awards. While 'Tulsa King' and 'Lioness' were nominated for best stunts and '1923' scored nods for production design and costumes, his six eligible dramas were shut out of Emmy nominations in major categories this year. Despite the incredible popularity of his many shows that have been an audience bonanza for Paramount+, Television Academy voters have not shown Sheridan the same love. The shows he has created, 'Yellowstone,' '1883,' '1923,' 'Tulsa King,' 'Lioness,' 'Mayor of Kingstown' and 'Landman' have made Sheridan much more famous than his former acting roles - or his Oscar nomination for original screenplay for 'Hell or High Water' - ever did. Sheridan is not exactly a Hollywood insider, however. Not only does he live the cowboy dreams his shows often portray at his enormous ranch in Texas, he's become the man most synonymous with 'rural America' in the TV industry, thanks to his salt of the earth characters. During an appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast last year, he explained why he thinks his TV work has not received critical acclaim in alignment with how prolific he's been. 'It's not surprising that critics hate it because it's designed for them to hate,' Sheridan told Rogan. They have 'no plot, really,' according to Sheridan. 'In that, I have a lot of opportunities to poke fun, but also kind of point out different points of view and kind of really study a way of life and a world,' he said. 'There's a lot of defiance in the way I do it.' He also displayed that he's given some thought to the differing ideologies between liberalism and conservatism, noting a passage from a book which discuses why the opposing ideologies are so polorizing. 'Essentially, it's stated that the liberal point of view was that crime and all these social ills is a social construct and that if you could find a way to level the playing field for everybody, crime would be eliminated, all these issues would go away, poverty would go away, all of the social ills that we have would disappear if everyone had the same opportunities and the same stuff,' Sheridan said. 'The flipside of that is the conservative view which is, 'There's evil in the world, there's good in the world, we're gonna try and manage the evil as best we can and create an opportunity for people to succeed, or they can f**k up and best of luck.' 'One side seems naive, one side seems extremely harsh, but those are the beliefs and that side can never compromise with this side and vise-versa because you're abandoning your own ideology,' he added. Sheridan will give the Emmy voters even more material to potentially ignore as he has another 'Yellowstone' spinoff, 'The Madison,' in the works as well as 'Nola King,' a 'Tulsa King' spinoff reportedly set to star another acclaimed actor most associated with movies - Samuel L. Jackson.
