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‘Darkness Of Man’ Trailer: Jean-Claude Van Damme Is Caught In The Middle Of A Deadly Turf War

Darkness of Man

While fans of Jean-Claude Van Damme anxiously await the arrival (???) of Kickboxer: Armageddon, the Muscles from Brussels is out there kicking ass and taking names in another flick. Darkness of Man finds JCVD as a former Interpol agent caught in the middle of a deadly turf war that endangers the life of a dead informant’s son that he’s sworn to protect.

The film is directed by James Cullen Bressack, who has worked with other action stars such as Steven Seagal, Bruce Willis, and Mel Gibson on a variety of flicks. Basically, Van Damme is in the right director’s hands, as he knows how to give an actor like him the proper spotlight.

At 63 years of age, nobody is expecting Van Damme to be doing the epic splits like he used to, and Darkness of Man is perhaps a grittier film than we’re used to seeing him in. But it looks like a solid role for him, and fans will want to keep an eye out when it hits digital on May 21st.

Van Damme is joined by an impressive cast that includes former Terminator herself Kristanna Loken, a former Blade in Kirk “Sticky Fingaz” Franklin, a Mallrat in Shannen Doherty, plus Spencer Breslin and Emerson Min.

Synopsis: Russell Hatch (Jean Claude Van Damme) is a washed up, former Interpol operative who vowed to protect the son of an informant killed years earlier in a raid gone wrong. When merciless street gangs start an all-out turf war and the kid is caught in the middle, Hatch will stop at nothing to keep him safe and fight anyone who gets in his way.

Review: ‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’

Titans Team-Up For Big Dumb Fun In The Monsterverse's Latest Smash 'em Up Sequel

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Legendary’s Monsterverse is only five movies deep, and yet it feels like it has been a dozen movies over twenty years. That’s not a good thing. With each passing movie, the Titan lore grows thicker, the presence of humans in each CGI slugfest becomes increasingly pointless, and the cool factor of watching kaiju clash for the sake of the planet becomes weaker. But Legendary and director Adam Wingard have come up with something of a solution. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire still has all of the problems I just laid out, but unlike the previous films this one goes ham on the dumb fun like never before.

I’m convinced that Wingard and a host of screenwriters know they’re making a really stupid movie with Godzilla x Kong. And so they embrace every ridiculous aspect, from the deadly dry exposition by the most boring character in the movie, to Dan Stevens acting like the hybrid son of Sam Neill in Jurassic Park and Fool’s Gold-era Matthew McConaughey, to a Planet of the Apes-esque sequence where I swear one ape is ruling like the Hollow Earth version of Scarface. This is a movie that gives Kong a damn Power Glove to punch things with. All of it is silly, over-the-top, and pretty damn awesome, too.

Of course, we have to wade through the slog of silly human emotions and shit. Jia (the returning Kaylee Hottle), the Skull Island girl who can sense and communicate with Kong, isn’t fitting in at school…which just happens to be some kind of institution run by Monarch, the Titan tracking group that recently had its own show on Apple TV+. She picks up on a distress signal coming from Hollow Earth, an area that has yet to be explored. The signal is causing Godzilla to go on a rampage, destroying poor Rome (the Colosseum is like his pullout couch now) as he challenges other Titans to calamitous battles.

Fortunately, after surviving a furious chase by a pack of hyena-monsters looking to eat his furry flesh, Kong is on Earth in need of a dental appointment. Literally swinging in to the rescue is Stevens as Trapper, and he’s, get this, a veterinarian who specializes in treating Titans. We know he’s a wild man because he cranks the 70’s pop tunes up real high as he performs his dangerous work, and because Monarch scientist Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall, said boring character) informs him/us that she thought being a vet would be too dull for him.  Oh, and naturally the two are former college flames, not that there’s ANY romantic chemistry between them at all.

But then, there really isn’t time for there to be any steaming hot passion by the puny humans. After recruiting Bernie (Brian Tyree Henry), the conspiracist who became a hero in the last movie, Ilene, Trapper, Jia, and some doomed a-hole head down to Hollow Earth to see what’s up. In short: Kong, who they keep telling us is in search of a family, finds a hidden race of apes just like him. That includes the annoyingly whiny Baby Kong (or Diddy Kong, like I call him) who becomes his makeshift sidekick. However, there’s also the cruel Skar King, who enslaves his kind and houses a monster with the power to turn the entire world into a ball of ice.

A major problem is that Godzilla doesn’t really fit into any of this. It was a problem in Godzilla vs Kong, but it’s an even greater issue now. Godzilla, who is more popular than ever right now after Godzilla Minus One, is kept out of the story for a huge chunk of the movie, so fans who show up for him will be disappointed. But the thing that viewers really want to see is Godzilla and Kong together, so this approach is counterproductive. Kong is purely the hero here, and he looks the part. They are clearly painting him as the centerpiece of the Monsterverse, with Godzilla as the clean-up hitter. I don’t know how that works in the long run. They will continue to run into problems trying to come up with reasons for these two to interact, and to make us give a damn about the human characters. The best solution could be to quit with the crossovers and go back to solo movies for a while.

Fortunately,  Godzilla x Kong is mostly aware of all of the stuff that doesn’t work. Hall delivers utterly monotonous info dumps that don’t make a lick of sense, but her character has never felt more meaningless. Stevens is just enjoying the ride for what it is, and the same goes for Henry. Hottle pretty much has only one thing to do which is look worried for Kong, and since she doesn’t actually speak, it’s okay that she was out-acted by a bunch of CGI primates, a giant lizard, and…well, I’ll leave the rest a secret.

Wingard has been given the freedom to go nuts with Godzilla x Kong, and it shows. The film looks great as Kong and Godzilla clash, pink atomic flames and giant robot fists engulfing the entire screen. It’s surprising they didn’t wait a few months to release this, because it feels like it belongs as a summer popcorn spectacle. If you’re going to see Godzilla x Kong this weekend, do yourself a favor and take it as seriously as the filmmakers clearly did, which is not at all. Just have fun with it.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire opens in theaters on March 29th.

 

‘War Machine’: Alan Ritchson To Lead Sci-Fi Action Film From ‘Hitman’s Bodyguard’ Director

Alan Ritchson

Alan Ritchson is carrying a lot on those incredibly broad shoulders right now. The Reacher star has a number of high-profile projects coming up, and now you can add one more. Deadline reports Ritchson will star in sci-fi action film War Machine, from writer/director Patrick Hughes, who is known best for The Expendables 3 and the Hitman’s Bodyguard movies.

Written by Hughes and James Beaufort (Machine), War Machine follows a team of Army Rangers who encounter an unimaginable threat in the final 24 Hours of the world’s toughest selection process.

It sounds like Ritchson will be facing aliens or killer robots or something, which could be very cool.

The project is set up at Lionsgate, but will be released on Netflix. Lionsgate is making serious moves into streaming, with A Simple Favor 2 announced for Prime Video this week.

As for Ritchson, he’s coming off the success of faith-based drama Ordinary Angels. He’ll be seen next month in Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare. He’s currently shooting Playdate, then has season 3 of Reacher, Fast & Furious 11, and The Man with the Bag, a holiday heist film with Arnold Schwarzenegger. By the end of this, we’re going to know for sure what Ritchson’s potential as a superstar actor really is.

 

‘Unfrosted’ Trailer: Jerry Seinfeld’s Directorial Debut Is A Star-Studded Pop-Tarts Movie For Netflix

Unfrosted

Whoever decided to turn on the Wayback Machine and start making movies about the origin of some of our most iconic products has started an entire subgenre. With films such as Blackberry, Flamin’ Hot, Air, and even Tetris, theaters have been littered with them. And now Netflix and Jerry Seinfeld have gotten into the game with Unfrosted, a movie about the greatest breakfast treat of all time favored by stoners everywhere, Pop-Tarts.

Seinfeld made his feature directorial debut on Unfrosted, and also wrote the script and led the cast. The story centers on the war between breakfast industry giants, Kellogg’s and Post, as they race to create the ultimate breakfast pastry.

The cast is tremendous and full of Seinfeld’s comedian buddies, such as Melissa McCarthy, Sarah Cooper, Jim Gaffigan, and Hugh Grant, along with Amy Schumer, Max Greenfield, Christian Slater, Bill Burr, Daniel Levy, James Marsden, Jack McBrayer, Thomas Lennon, Bobby Moynihan, Adrian Martinez, and Fred Armisen.

Here’s the synopsis: Battle Creek, Michigan, 1963. Kellogg’s and Post, sworn cereal rivals, race to create a pastry that will change the face of breakfast forever. A wildly imaginative tale of ambition, betrayal, and menacing milkmen – sweetened with artificial ingredients – UNFROSTED stars Jerry Seinfeld in his directorial film debut. It features a supporting cast of comedy greats, including Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Hugh Grant, Amy Schumer, Max Greenfield, Christian Slater, Sarah Cooper, Bill Burr, and many more.

Netflix will debut Unfrosted on May 3rd.

Review: ‘Dogman’

Caleb Landry Jones Compels In Luc Besson's Crazy Tale Of Vengeance, Crossdressing, And Canine Criminals

Caleb Landry Jones in DOGMAN

Ignoring the various scandals that have plagued French director Luc Besson in recent years, one can never look at his new projects without mentioning his career highpoints: Films such as La Femme Nikita and The Professional set an impossibly high bar for the assassin thriller genre, while he can at least boast that Lucy was a huge box office smash. Dogman is sortof a mix of all three. It is an absolutely wild revenge fantasy that is at times grim, hyper-violent, and surreal to the point of lunacy. To be honest, I’m not sure it’s actually any good, but it’s watchable for the performance of Caleb Landry Jones and an army of canine pals.

Dogman doesn’t follow the typical rhythms of a revenge movie, but then, very little about it is typical at all. The film is largely told in flashback as Doug (Jones), a crossdressing loner who loves dogs more than people, recounts to troubled psychiatrist Evelyn (Jojo T. Gibbs) a past full of inhuman abuses from his father, brother, and the world. As such, Doug’s quest for vengeance isn’t necessarily against a single person, it is against a world that has molded him through cruelty into the person he is now.

And that person is one who has retreated from reality into a world of isolated fantasy. It all began when he was kept captive in a dog kennel by his father, who took out his anger on Doug to such an extent that it left him permanently crippled. That leads to an eye-opening stretch at a children’s shelter, where he learns Shakespeare from a pretty girl, who ends up leaving him alone to pursue her own dreams. Doug learns disappointment and heartbreak when he finally catches up with her. But the experience also leads him on a path of discovery, finding friendship with the drag artists and doing regular performances as Edith Piaf that inexplicably earn raucous rounds of applause.

But it’s also, while working at a tragic dog kennel, that Doug discovers the true extent of his connection to dogs. And I mean, he’s basically like Ant-Man controlling bugs with his mind. He can ask them to retrieve a bag of sugar and they’ll do it like they all speak the same language. Their connection is uncanny, and Doug uses it to bankroll a certain small-time level of criminality, but also to help others who are being abused by the powerful. It doesn’t make him a lot of friends, who come looking for some bloody payback against the wheelchair-bound Doug and his four-legged accomplices.

There’s a very delicate balance of gritty realism and insane fantasy that Besson is trying to walk here. I like to think that at the height of his powers he could’ve found the right note. He certainly has done so before on a film such as The Fifth Element, while failing miserably to do so with the bloated Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Dogman just feels off. I think I would’ve wanted it to go totally off the hook and further into Doug’s obvious psychosis. But Besson also wants this to be a “serious” movie like his greatest critical successes. Jones certainly plays it that way, and is endlessly compelling and impossible to look away from. He’s at his best in roles that stray far from the norm, and Dogman offers the opportunity for him to craft a unique misfit character with depths of pain that reveal themselves in strange ways.

It’s likely that my expectations for Dogman were too high. I am, admittedly, a Luc Besson superfan and have been wanting him to have another great movie for a long time. While Dogman isn’t great, I can guarantee you won’t see another movie like it again this year, possibly ever. And when it’s over you won’t regret having watched it, and that counts for something.

Dogman opens in theaters on March 29th.

‘Mission: Impossible 8’ Recruits ‘Love Lies Bleeding’ Breakout Katy O’Brian

Katy O'Brian

Katy O’Brian has been recruited to join Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible 8. Deadline reports the Love Lies Bleeding breakout will join Cruise in the follow-up to Mission: Impossible-Dead Reckoning, which is expected to be a direct continuation of that story.

This is the next big move for O’Brian, who has already had roles in Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania and The Mandalorian. But it was her turn as the muscular lover to Kristen Stewart in Rose Glass’s crime flick Love Lies Bleeding that has made her a star.

Now O’Brian gets to work alongside Cruise in a role that already some are pegging as the villain. Now that would be something if she gets to go toe-to-toe with Cruise! I would’ve paid good money to see O’Brian and Rebecca Ferguson square off, but alas…

Christopher McQuarrie is back to direct Mission: Impossible 8, which could be the last chapter in the long-running franchise. Ving Rhames, Henry Czerny, Simon Pegg, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Hayley Atwell, Shea Whigham, and Pom Klementieff are all expected back.Holt McCallany, Nick Offerman, Janet McTeer and Hannah Waddingham are all new additions.

Delays have pushed the film to a May 23rd 2025 release date.

‘Caught Stealing’: Darren Aronofsky To Direct Austin Butler In ’90s-NYC Crime Film

Darren Aronofsky’s last film The Whale took Brendan Fraser all the way from obscurity to a Best Actor win at the Oscars. Could Aronofsky do it again on his next film, with a red-hot young star who has already earned one Oscar nomination?

THR reports Elvis and Dune: Part Two‘s Austin Butler will star in Caught Stealing, a crime thriller based on the new book by Charlie Huston. Aronofsky will direct the film set in  Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the ’90s.

Here’s the book synopsis: It’s three thousand miles from the green fields of glory, where Henry “call me Hank” Thompson once played California baseball, to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where the tenements are old, the rents are high, and the drunks are dirty. But now Hank is here, working as a bartender and taking care of a cat named Bud, who will surely get him killed. It begins when Hank’s neighbor, Russ, has to leave town in a rush and hands over Bud in a carrier. But it isn’t until two Russians in tracksuits drag Hank over the bar at the joint where he works and beat him to a pulp that he starts to get the idea: Someone wants something from him. He just doesn’t know what it is, where it is, or how to make them understand he doesn’t have it. Within twenty-four hours, Hank is running over rooftops, swinging his old aluminum bat for the sweet spot of a guy’s head, playing hide and seek with the NYPD, riding the subway with a dead man at his side, and counting a whole lot of cash on a concrete floor.

Coming up for Butler is Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders, alongside Tom Hardy, Jodie Comer, and Michael Shannon. That film opens this summer. He’s currently shooting Ari Aster’s next film, a Western titled Eddington.

‘Force Of Nature: The Dry 2’ Trailer: Eric Bana Investigates A Missing Whistleblower In The Australian Mountains

Force of Nature: The Dry 2

Eric Bana is back on the case as Detective Aaron Falk. The Dry was a big hit in Australia back in 2020 before its release here the following year. An adaptation of Jane Harper’s mystery novel, a sequel based on her follow-up book Force of Nature was quickly set into motion and released in Australia last month, before its arrival in the States this May.

Once again written and directed by Robert Connolly, Force of Nature: The Dry 2 follows Falk as he investigates the disappearance of a woman on a corporate hiking retreat deep in the Victorian mountains. Falk is joined in the case by his partner, Carmen Cooper, and the two discover a potential conspiracy involving corporate corruption, as the missing woman is a whistleblower and police informant.

Bana is surrounded by a cast that includes Jacqueline McKenzie, Anna Torv, Richard Roxburgh,Deborra-Lee Furness, and Robin McLeavy.

Here’s the synopsis: After receiving a distressing call from an informant, Federal Agents Aaron Falk and Carmen Cooper head deep into the Giralang Ranges to investigate the whereabouts of their corporate whistle-blower Alice after she mysteriously disappears on a company hiking retreat. The four women who were recovered from the bush each seem to be hiding something about their traumatic experience. As Falk and Cooper close in on the case, they uncover worrying details about the connections between these women and begin to fear for the safety of their missing informant as a storm threatens to halt the search.

Force of Nature: The Dry 2 opens in theaters and VOD on May 10th.

‘Star Trek 4’ Lands New Writer For Reboot Cast’s Final Chapter

Zachary Quinto, Chris Pine in STAR TREK

Fans of Star Trek have been experiencing a boom period over on Paramount+, where numerous shows have found success. But as for the movies, there hasn’t actually been one on the big screen since 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, which underperformed greatly. After multiple rewrites, directors, and delays, the long-awaited Star Trek 4 might actually be happening.

Temper your expectations, though, because we’ve been down this road before. Variety reports Paramount has hired The Flight Attendant creator Steve Yockey to pen Star Trek 4. We have no idea what the plot might be, but the film is intended to reunite the cast of JJ Abrams’ movies, including Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, Zachary Quinto, and more. It’s also expected to be the final journey for this Enterprise crew.

Previous drafts of the script have been written by Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet, but none got very far. Matt Shakman (Fantastic Four) and SJ Clarkson (Madame Web) were attached to direct at different points, but both exited before long. Currently, Star Trek 4 has no director attached but having a writer at this stage helps.

Paramount has been trying to keep costs down, and that has led to contract disputes and miscommunication. At one point, Paramount set a release date without actually consulting anybody about it. Competing visions have also been a problem. Remember when Quentin Tarantino was briefly circling an R-rated movie he’d direct himself?

 

 

Luca Guadagnino Sets Julia Roberts For Thriller ‘After The Hunt’, Josh O’Connor For ‘Separate Rooms’

Luca Guadagnino sets new films with Julia Roberts and Josh O'Connor.

Times are about to get very busy for Luca Guadagnino. With his tennis/throuple film Challengers coming up next month, and possibly the Daniel Craig-led adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ Queer later in the year, Guadagnino has added two more projects in the span of a day.

First, Guadagnino will reunite with Challengers star Josh O’Connor for Separate Rooms. Variety says O’Connor is in talks to join the film based on the eponymous novel by Italian writer Pier Vittorio Tondelli. O’Connor is learning Italian to play the role of Leo, a writer mourning the loss of his boyfriend, and enters a passionate romance with the shy German musician Thomas, which is marked by different forms of separation.

The script is by Francesca Manieri, and will be shot “soon” according to Guadagnino.

Next up, Deadline reports that Guadagnino will direct Julia Roberts in After the Hunt, a thriller set up at Amazon MGM Studios. Marking the first screenplay by writer/director/actress Nora Garrett, the story is “an intense dramatic thriller about a college professor (Roberts) who finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when a star pupil levels an accusation against one of her colleagues and a dark secret from her own past threatens to come to light.”

Roberts was last seen in the Sam Esmail thriller Leave the World Behind, which caused quite a stir with Netflix viewers. Landing one of the biggest and most popular actresses in the world is quite a coup for Guadagnino, but at this point it’s no problem for him to land top talent. Roberts is only working with the best these days, and has slowed down her output considerably.