Jacob Hall
‘Fast & Furious 8’ Will Be Set in New York City, Says Vin Diesel
Vin Diesel, he of the bulging biceps, shiny scalp and low vocal register, has been making the press rounds for Furious 7 over the past few weeks. Considering just how crazy his new movie is, he sure has a lot to talk about. But even the unlimited number of potential conversation topics to mined from the insanity of the seventh film in the Fast and Furious saga couldn’t stop him from teasing the eighth film in the franchise, which may be set in New York City.
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Furious 7’ Smashes April Records
The early estimates for the opening weekend gross of Furious 7 are all over the place and we probably won’t have a definitive number until tomorrow, when the dust finally settles and everyone gets a chance to breathe. However, this one thing we know for sure: the seventh film in the Fast and Furious series didn’t just shatter in-franchise records, it shattered records for any April release.
SNL Pulls a ‘Going Clear’ and Goes After Scientology
With the HBO documentary Going Clear currently making waves with its brutal expose on Scientology’s founders and members, it only makes sense that SNL would take a few shots at the world’s most controversial religion while it’s down. The show’s method of commenting on a pretty harrowing and horrifying case is genuinely brilliant: the show’s cast has assembled for a 25 year old music video extolling the virtues of a religion called “Neurotology,” which has been updated with annotations on the current situations of the many participants.
Weekend Box Office Report: The Box Office Goes ‘Home’
In one of the strongest box office weekends of 2015 so far, both Home and Get Hard opened strong while Insurgent and Cinderella continued to perform well. This was the rare weekend that literally offered something for everyone, with R-rated comedies and animated family fare exceeding expectations.
‘SNL’: Dwayne Johnson Returns as President “The Rock” Obama
There are few impersonations on SNL we enjoy as much as Jay Pharoah’s President Barack Obama, the chief subject of the latest episode’s cold open. But in a nice twist, the leader of the free world soon finds himself transforming into a monster of a man. Did you really think SNL would get Dwayne Johnson to guest host and not bring back The Rock Obama?
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Insurgent’ Can’t Beat ‘Divergent’ Opening
What does a movie studio want out of its sequels? Is a sequel a failure if it simply matches its predecessor or does it need to make more money? That’s the big question that’s swirling around Insurgent, which made almost exactly as much as Divergent did one year ago. Seriously: there’s only a $500,000 difference in their opening weekends. So is Insurgent a success or a disappointment?
‘Mission: Impossible 5’ Trailer: Tom Cruise Battles a Rogue Nation
The first Mission: Impossible 5 trailer has arrived and it contains all of the high-flying derring-do you’ve come to expect from this series. It also reveals the actual title of the movie: Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation, which is almost as good as Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol in the “awesomely silly spy title” category.
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘The Woman in Black’ Can’t Stop ‘The Hobbit’
After the jam-packed month of December, with its huge family-friendly blockbusters and awards season Oscar bait, we have arrived in the month of January. Formerly a dumping ground for mediocre films, the month has taken on a new identity in the past few years as a testing ground for unique genre films (think ‘Cloverfield’) and a solid place to release a horror movie, which seems to do quite well right around New Year’s for whatever reason. This year, we have ‘The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death,’ which had a fairly solid opening. Not solid enough to topple the Christmas Week champions, but no one is complaining too much.
Hackers Demand Sony Halts the Release of ‘The Interview’…Or Else
Unlike previous messages, this one actually has demands outside of vague, frightening threats: Sony must delay the release of ‘The Interview,’ “the movie of terrorism,” or face the consequences.
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Mockingjay’ Crushes Thanksgiving Weekend
Appropriately, the Thanksgiving holiday box office was all about the leftovers. While two high profile new releases struggled to open, films from the past few weeks continued to do solid business. In fact, this was one of the most varied weekends at the box office in quite some time, with YA adaptations, animated family movies, epic blockbusters, and small independent films all performing better than expected.