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Tonight, we’ve got the latest on everything – the bonus puzzle, all answers and contestants – that you need to know about tonight’s episode of Wheel of Fortune!

The post is updated as soon as it airs, so stay on TV Regular for all the latest on Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy! and all the latest TV news and previews.

Wheel of Fortune Contestants & Winner – Thursday, 28 August 2025 WinnerOther Contestants Danny HarrisonSteven Koller, Shirley King Wheel of Fortune Prize Puzzle & All Solutions – Thursday, 28 August 2025 $1,000 Toss Up: Talking Trash (What Are You Doing?)

$2,000 Toss Up: The Bad News Bears (Movie Title)

Round 1: My Favorite Playlist (Thing)

Round 2: Asteroid Field Of Dreams...

Thanks to gaseous pioneers such as Mel Brooks, these days it’s not uncommon for characters in comedic movies and TV shows to fart — from South Park’s Terrance and Phillip, to Ed from Shaun of the Dead, to every single interview with Leslie Nielsen (Rip).

But prestige TV dramas, on the other hand, rarely feature fart scenes. Think about it: Don Draper never cut the cheese between pitch meetings in Mad Men, there was absolutely no flatulence in The Wire and, as far as we remember, nobody in Breaking Bad ever broke wind.

But at least one acclaimed streaming series features a surprising number of farts: Slow Horses.

For...

In his latest podcast/interview, host and screenwriter Stuart Wright talks with horror filmmakers Toby Poser and John Adams about “3 Films That Have Impacted Everything In Your Adult Life,” which includes:

Toby’s Picks:

A Song of Two Humans (1927) A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) The Portrait Of A Lady On Fire’s (2019)

John’s Picks:

The Bad News Bears (1976) Phantasm (1979) The Wizard of Oz (1939)

3 Films That Have Impacted Everything In Your Adult Life is a podcast that explores the transformative power of cinema. From emotional masterpieces to thought-provoking classics, each episode delves into the films that have had a profound impact on our personal growth and perspective. Through engaging storytelling,...

Sports bring people together, whether it be the players on the field or the viewers in the stands (or on their couch at home), and sports movies do the same thing. The beautiful thing about the latter is that even those of us who really don't care about watching sports can still enjoy them in the form of narrative tales exploring the highs and lows experienced by athletes at all levels. That's because, ultimately, sports movies are human stories. Even better? Most of them are underdog tales too.

We love a good underdog film, and sports movies offer ample opportunities for scrappy amateurs and down on their luck pros alike...

Seeing the footage from One Battle After Another, nobody would have bothered to compare it to the works of George Lucas or James Cameron. But that’s what star Leonardo DiCaprio has done, saying Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest shares themes with both.

DiCaprio is the current subject of an extensive interview in Esquire conducted by PTA. As DiCaprio — who recently revealed turning down Boogie Nights was his biggest career regret — put it, “There are themes of Star Wars and Terminator 2 in this. It’s interesting to see how you merged your vision of the zeitgeist—of what everyone’s talking about today politically—but with these very relatable themes for a larger audience.” DiCaprio even noted that there were Ellen’s of Walter Matthau’s character from The Bad News Bears!

While PTA didn’t entirely buy into those sci-fi vibes, he did add on to what DiCaprio...

One of the best sports comedies ever made has landed a new streaming home. David Mickey Evans' teen comedy The Sandlotis being added to Hulu's library this month, and subscribers will be able to stream the beloved '90s comedy starting July 1.

In The Sandlot, Scottie Smalls is a young teenager who moves with his mother and his stepfather to the San Fernando Valley right as the summer of 1962 begins. Smalls isn't exactly an extrovert, and he prefers to keep to himself at home. His mother encourages him to head to the local ballpark and make some friends. Initially, Scottie struggles to fit in, but luckily, the captain of the team believes there's potential in the new arrival and helps him make the team. Per the Rotten Tomatoes synopsis of the film:

When Scottie Smalls (Thomas Guiry) moves to a new neighborhood, he manages to make friends with a...

It's great news that Rick Moranis will be returning to acting for a "Spaceballs" theatrical sequel. Even if the material turns out to be stale, Moranis won't be, as he's been semi-retired from acting since 2008 to spend more time rainsing his kids as a single dad. The "Ghostbusters" franchise may not have been able to bring him back, but those movies are getting pretty crowded, anyway, and the lure of the Schwartz is strong. We're mostly used to Moranis playing likable, relatable characters, but it's his most famous villain role of Dark Helmet that we have to thank for what may (and should) be a full-on Moranissance.

Considering how beloved the comedic actor is, readers might be surprised to know that his filmography is relatively short. Eliminate the occasional outright dud, and there are barely a dozen great movies left. Naturally, we're ranking them. Here is our countdown of the 12 best Rick Moranis movies.

The next developmental reading of The Bad News Bears, A Musical will take place Thursday, June 5 and Friday, June 6 at Open Jar Studios in NYC. Based on the beloved, 1976 hit Paramount Pictures film, the new musical adaptation is written by multi-award winner Brian Feinstein (Mimi Le Duck) and Eric Garcia and directed by Sherri Eden Barber (Hamilton – Resident Director And Peggy tour). This team still sucks -- but now they sing! Based on the classic film with a screenplay by Bill Lancaster, The Bad News Bears follows a washed-up baseball player who takes a job coaching a ragtag team of Little League misfits, including his ex-stepdaughter, and winds up finding victory...

Tonight, we’ve got the latest on everything – the bonus puzzle, all answers and contestants – that you need to know about tonight’s episode of Wheel of Fortune!

The post is updated as soon as it airs, so stay on TV Regular for all the latest on Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy! and all the latest TV news and previews.

Wheel of Fortune Contestants & Winner – Thursday, 15 May 2025 WinnerOther Contestants Danny HarrisonSteven Koller, Shirley King Wheel of Fortune Prize Puzzle & All Solutions – Thursday, 15 May 2025 $1,000 Toss Up: Talking Trash (What Are You Doing?)

$2,000 Toss Up: The Bad News Bears (Movie Title)

Round 1: My Favorite Playlist (Thing)

Round 2: Asteroid Field Of Dreams (Before & After)

Round 3 (Prize): The Emerald Isle (Colorful Language)

Triple Toss Up 1: Dodgeball (Fun & Games)

Triple Toss Up 2: Softball (Fun & Games)

Triple Toss Up 3: Moneyball (Fun & Games)

Round 4: When The Dust Settles (Phrase) Wheel of Fortune Bonus Puzzle,...

Stanley R. Jaffe, the Oscar-winning producer and studio executive known for films such as “Kramer vs. Kramer” and “Fatal Attraction,” has died at his home in Rancho Mirage at the age of 84. His daughter, Betsy Jaffe, confirmed his passing.

Born in New Rochelle, New York, Jaffe was the son of Columbia Pictures chairman Leo Jaffe, who received the Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1979. He pursued a career in the entertainment industry, earning an economics degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1962 before starting at Seven Arts as an assistant to co-founder Eliot Hyman.

Jaffe’s early success as a producer came with “Goodbye, Columbus” (1969), based on Philip Roth’s novella. The film, directed by Larry Peerce and starring Richard Benjamin and Ali MacGraw, became a hit for Paramount and led Gulf & Western president Charles Bluhdorn to offer Jaffe a leadership role at the studio.

At...

Stanley R. Jaffe, the veteran producer and studio executive who won the Best Picture Oscar for “Kramer vs. Kramer,” has died at his Rancho Mirage home at the age of 84, according to his daughter, Betsy.

Born in New Rochelle, New York, Jaffe was the son of Columbia Pictures chairman Leo Jaffe, who received the Film Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian award in 1978. The younger Jaffe decided from an early age to follow his father in showbiz and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1962 before getting his start at Seven Arts as an assistant to studio co-founder Eliot Hyman.

Jaffe’s first film as a producer was the 1969 romantic drama “Goodbye, Columbus,” which stars Richard Benjamin and Ali MacGraw as an army vet who ends up in a turbulent relationship with the daughter of an entrepreneur who struck it rich.

Directed by Larry Peerce and based on the 1959 novella by Philip Roth,...

Stanley R. Jaffe, who won an Oscar as producer of “Kramer vs. Kramer” in 1980 and served in top positions at several studios, died Monday in Rancho Mirage. He was 84.

Jaffe, the son of Columbia Pictures executive Leo Jaffe, also shepherded notable films including “Fatal Attraction,” “The Accused,” “Goodbye, Columbus” and “The Bad News Bears.”

While partnered with Sherry Lansing at Jaffe-Lansing Productions, he received an Oscar nomination for 1987’s “Fatal Attraction.”

Born in New York, Jaffe started out in the business at Seven Arts Associates, then joined CBS. He produced the audacious 1969 Philip Roth adaptation “Goodbye, Columbus” for Paramount, then joined the studio as executive VP and chief operations officer. He was soon named president of Paramount, staying for just a year before leaving to become an independent producer. His company Jaffilms made “The Bad News Bears” and “Bad Company” before he joined Columbia Pictures as executive VP of worldwide productions.

Stanley R. Jaffe, a former Paramount Pictures president who became the youngest studio chief in history and later won a Best Picture Oscar for producing Kramer vs. Kramer and was nominated for Fatal Attraction, died today. He was 84.

CAA, which repped Jaffe, confirmed his death to Deadline.

Jaffe was a decade into his career when he produced Kramer vs. Kramer, the riveting 1979 child-custody drama starring Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep, both winning lead acting Oscars — Streep’s first of three. It also scored Best Director and Adapted Screenplay Oscars for director Robert Benton.

He followed that by producing Taps, about a mutiny at a soon-to-close military academy, starred Timothy Hutton and launched the careers of such future stars as Tom Cruise, Sean Penn and Giancarlo Esposito.

Those films came after Jaffe produced the 1969 Richard Benjamin-Ali MacGraw drama Goodbye, Columbus; I Start Counting (1970); the Jeff Bridges Civil War-era Bad Company (1972); and...

Stanley R. Jaffe, the producer and studio executive who won an Oscar in 1980 for Kramer vs. Kramer and shepherded other acclaimed films like Fatal Attraction, Goodbye, Columbus and The Bad News Bears, died Monday. He was 84.

Jaffe died peacefully at his home in Rancho Mirage, his daughter Betsy Jaffe announced.

A son of Leo Jaffe, an executive who spent more than a half-century at Columbia Pictures, Jaffe also received an Academy Award nomination for Fatal Attraction (1987), which he produced alongside Sherry Lansing during their fruitful eight-year partnership at Jaffe-Lansing Productions.

At age 29, Jaffe was named executive vp and COO of Paramount Pictures in October 1969, becoming the youngest head of a major studio in Hollywood history. Before he departed as president in August 1971 to return to independent producing, he greenlighted such films as Love Story (1970) and The Godfather (1972), projects also championed by chief of production Robert Evans.

Jaffe returned to the...

Tatum O’Neal is reflecting on the role that could have been.

The iconic actress, who made history at age 10 by winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for 1974’s “Paper Moon,” told Variety that her father — fellow actor and “Paper Moon” co-star Ryan O’Neal — forbid her from auditioning for “Taxi Driver.” Tatum was asked to audition for the Martin Scorsese feature after her Academy Award win; the film was released in 1976 with a 13-year-old Jodie Foster instead in the Oscar-nominated role of a child prostitute.

“My father said, ‘No, you can’t,'” Tatum said of Ryan restricting her budding career as a child star. She added that Ryan thought the part was “a little too naked.” Tatum continued, “And I never really recovered from that.”

After Tatum became the youngest person to ever win an Academy Award (a record she still holds to this day), she explained that her father...

Quick LinksWhat is The Bad News Bears (1976) About?What Went Wrong With Bad News Bears (2005)?Bad News Bears Was a Critical and Financial Failure

The most common complaint that movie fans direct towards Hollywood is that remakes, reboots, and sequels are far too dominant, and the stats reflect this. 17 of the top 20 highest-grossing films of 2024 were not the first films in their series, with the only exceptions being It Ends With Us, The Wild Robot, and Wicked. While this is a harrowing trend that could bode poorly for Hollywood going forward, the continuous overflow of sequels isn't as bad as some fans may have you believe. Audiences absolutely loved legacy sequels like Gladiator II and Alien: Romulus; children and grown-ups alike flocked to the theater to see Inside Out 2 and Moana 2, and Dune: Part Two is currently nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The pure idea...

When David S. Ward's "Major League" slid into multiplexes on April 7, 1989, a lot of people wrote it off as a pro baseball clone of the minor-league-set "Bull Durham." A wise veteran catcher (Tom Berenger) with bad knees looking down the barrel of a forced retirement? Check. A screwy rookie pitcher (Charlie Sheen) with a flamethrower for an arm and no semblance of control? Check. A superstitious slugger (Dennis Haysbert) who demands to sacrifice a live chicken to get him out of a hitting slump? Check.

The very existence of these familiar elements was enough for many of the nation's critics to dismiss "Major League" as a meatheaded comedy. Moviegoers did not concur. The film grossed $50 million in the U.S. on an $11 million budget, and earned an A- CinemaScore before turning into a home video/pay cable sensation. By the time the next baseball season rolled around, "Major League" was considered a full-fledged,...

Billy Bob Thornton’s dark Christmas comedy franchise is making the holidays a little more twisted, as it climbs up the streaming charts. The multi-talented performer broke through in 1996 with the disturbing drama Sling Blade, earning an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, and winning the award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Thornton in 1998 picked up another nomination for playing a tortured character in a decidedly dark movie, getting a Best Supporting Actor nod for Sam Raimi’s thriller A Simple Plan.

Thornton’s most noteworthy early roles indeed placed him on a darkly dramatic path. The star soon veered into the comedy realm, however, with roles that showed his inherently edgy and brooding qualities being adapted to funny material. Thornton went for offbeat chuckles in the black comedy Pushing Tin, the dramedy Bandits and the Coen Brothers’ romantic farce Intolerable Cruelty. He also went for somewhat more broadly-appealing guffaws in the...

“Nutcrackers” is here.

David Gordon Green’s latest stars Ben Stiller as Mike Maxwell, a workaholic who has a career in real estate. His life is turned upside down by the death of his sister (and her husband) in a car accident. This is the “Halloween” and “The Exorcist: Believer” director’s first non-horror movie since 2017 and Stiller’s first starring role since the same year. (In the years since Stiller has focused on directing on projects like Apple TV+’s incredible “Severance.”)

The movie premiered as the opening night film at the Toronto International Film Festival. A few days later it was picked up, in a lucrative deal, by Disney for a holiday premiere on the studio’s direct-to-consumer streaming platform Hulu.

But how can you watch Stiller’s latest? Read on to find out.

When does “Nutcrackers” come out?

“Nutcrackers” premieres on Hulu on Nov. 29.

Is “Nutcrackers” streaming or in theaters?...

Ben Stiller stars as the strait-laced, workaholic uncle and temporary guardian to four rowdy kids in the upcoming Christmas comedy Nutcrackers, slated to release Nov. 29.

In the David Gordon Green-directed comedy, which will be available to stream on Hulu, Christmas is less than three weeks away and Mike, played by Stiller, attempts to ready the kiddos for a new foster home. In the meantime, the kids wreak havoc: they hot wire a carnival ride, drive a golf cart into a swimming pool, and harvest the family chicken Elisabeth for a farm-fresh meal.

Luca Guadagnino and Lionsgate announced that the “Call Me by Your Name” and “Queer” director is in final discussions to film a new version of Bret Eason Ellis’ dark horror novel “American Psycho,” nearly 25 years after the same company released Mary Harron’s satirical adaptation. In a key role that elevated his career, the 2000 film starred Christian Bale as yuppie investment banker-turned-serial killer Patrick Bateman.

It’s the kind of announcement destined to raise eyebrows. Guadagnino is in a career sweet spot after “Challengers” and “Queer” this year (and “After the Hunt” in post); he already has many projects in the works, including “Separate Rooms” with Josh O’Connor and a Thomas Mann adaptation in early development. So why is he choosing a remake — and for a film that doesn’t seem that long ago?

New versions of older films are not unusual. Even the word “remake” is tricky here — does that apply with adaptations?...

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In 1993, David Mickey Evans' "The Sandlot" hit theaters as the kinder, gentler "The Bad News Bears" for nostalgic Baby Boomers and baseball-loving Millennials. Combining elements of Michael Ritchie's little league classic and Richard Donner's "The Goonies," the film recalls the magical summer when 11-year-old Scott Smalls (Tom Guiry) learned to play America's pastime in order to hang out with the neighborhood kids. The adventure element centers on the boys' attempts to retrieve the Babe Ruth-autographed baseball Scott unwisely "borrowed" from his step-father for use in a game, but the film is largely an anecdotal tale of early adolescents messing around all day long sans parental supervision.

The innocent freedom of "The Sandlot" is apparently forever (/Film called it one of the 20 best sports films of all time). Millennials are now sharing the film with their children, who...

Hollywood, like the rest of the world, wasn't feeling so hot about the United States in the 1970s. Faced with the relentless cruelty of the Vietnam War and the overt racism of President Richard M. Nixon's "law and order" dictates (plus his wanton abuse of power via the cover-up of the Watergate scandal), the most excitingly talented filmmakers of that era offered up "The Godfather," "Serpico," and "Nashville." Even a rollicking mainstream comedy like "The Bad News Bears" carried an anti-establishment charge.

All of this was juxtaposed against the realization that John Wayne was dying. The quintessential American movie star who, alongside his frequent collaborator John Ford, transformed the Western into manifest-destiny mythmaking, was grasping for relevance in hoary oaters and toothless cop flicks while losing his second battle with cancer. Moviegoers were alternately hostile to and unsettled by this; the man they either dearly wanted or steadfastly did...

You used to hear the refrain from horror film fanatics with a lot more frequency – the original was so much scarier.

And while this is still true to some degree (the films of John Carpenter have been remade with an oddly uniform lousiness), there are still plenty of horror films that have been remade well. Sometimes the remakes are just as good as the original. In rare cases, it even surpasses the original.

Here is our definitive list of the very best horror remakes ever.

(United Artists) “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1978)

Don Siegel’s 1956 classic “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” is based on Jack Finney’s story “The Body Snatchers,” which was serialized in Collier’s in 1954 and published as a novel shortly after, has been remade several times over the years. But the very best iteration is still the 1978 version, the first since Siegel’s, from director Philip Kaufman and writer W.D. Richter.

One of the buzziest titles premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival this year is “Nutcrackers,” and for good reason. Not only is “Nutcrackers” Ben Stiller’s first starring role in a movie since 2017’s “The Meyerowitz Stories,” but it is also director David Gordon Green’s first non-horror movie since 2017’s underrated “Stronger.”

But from where did “Nutcrackers,” the story of a workaholic (Stiller) who has to travel to rural Ohio to look after his recently orphaned nephews after his sister dies in a car accident, originally stem?

From real life, actually.

At TheWrap’s 2024 TIFF Studio sponsored by Moët & Chandon and Boss Design, Green told TheWrap editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman that he visited his friend Carrie, who is the real-life mother of the four boys in the movie, on their farm and had the idea to make a movie about her family. “And maybe a year ago, we...

Ben Stiller takes on a new kind of role in Nutcrackers—one requiring heart, humor, and humanity rather than his usual neurotic city dweller. Director David Gordon Green, known for insightful indies and contemporary retellings of horror classics, takes us to rural Ohio. There, Stiller’s real estate executive Michael reluctantly cares for his late sister’s four boys on their quirky farm after tragedy strikes.

Michael seems ill-suited for farm life with the boisterous brothers playing by their own rules since mom passed. Their bond remains, yet grief goes unspoken. As an outsider, Michael troubles finding the balance between laughter and loss exploring this family. Through it all, the young actors shine in their first feature, portraying siblings simply as siblings—loving, lively, and learning together through it all.

Green acknowledges classics like The Bad News Bears, giving a new generation adventures free from cynicism. In Nutcrackers, he rediscovers...

You may have noticed that Ben Stiller hasn’t been acting all that much lately, seemingly because he’s been too busy directing Severance, the acclaimed Apple TV+ series that boldly asks the question: What if The Office was set in a workplace even more existentially horrifying than Dunder Mifflin?

But now Stiller is back in front of the camera, starring in David Gordon Green’s new family comedy Nutcrackers, which is set during Christmastime, and presumably features at least one scene in which somebody gets whacked in the junk.

Apparently the movie is about a “city slicker” who’s “forced to look after a quartet of mischievous rural orphans” and was reportedly inspired by movies like The Bad News Bears and Uncle Buck.

Nutcrackers just opened the Toronto International Film Festival, at a red carpet gala premiere that featured celebrity guests such as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. But despite the swank surroundings,...

In what seems almost like a cleansing ritual after wrestling with studio horror franchises, David Gordon Green’s Nutcrackers sees the director return closer to his indie roots, observing characters that sprout organically from their rural or small-town environments. This cute fish-out-of-water comedy about the unexpected rewards of a found family tries to approximate the naturalism, lyricism and raw emotion of Green’s early works George Washington and All the Real Girls, but it’s too predictably sentimental to have a comparable effect.

The idea came from Green meeting the four spirited young sons of an old friend, and Leland Douglas’ screenplay appears to allow latitude for semi-improvisation from those boys, playing versions of themselves. That gives the film a disarming sincerity that dovetails with Ben Stiller’s sensitive, understated performance as an uptight Chicagoan thrust into the inconvenient role of parent. But the abundance of montages and exuberant slo-mo...

No doubt, the Janson brothers — Homer, Ulysses, Atlas and Arlo — are lovely, well-behaved kids in real life. Few would say the same about the undisciplined orphans these four boys play in director David Gordon Green’s odd-choice Toronto Film Festival opener, “Nutcrackers”: a near-feral wolfpack who depend on their uptight uncle, Michael Maxwell (Ben Stiller), to spare them the indignity of an orphanage after their parents die in a car accident.

A big-city, fancy-shoes sort of guy, Michael shows up at his late sister’s farmhouse driving a yellow Porsche and promptly steps in a fresh pile of dung. Christmas is right around the corner, and Michael has committed a few days to sorting out the estate — a task that includes trying to get the Kicklighter boys adopted. Then it’s back to Chicago, where a career-defining real estate deal is about to close.

“When I wake up tomorrow,...

Ben Stiller just got his comedy mojo back in the most unexpected of places.

Nutcrackers, the official opening-night film of the 2024 Toronto Film Festival, is not the kind of movie you expect to see at serious film festivals, which tend to go for darker or less obviously commercial fare. So it is a bit of a surprise to see TIFF launching with a purely entertaining and heartwarming family holiday movie that will make you laugh, cry and walk out feeling good. Nothing wrong with that.

This is the kind of movie Hollywood used to deliver all the time but has clearly forgotten how to make — until now. Among the inspirations for director David Gordon Green were The Bad News Bears, Six Pack, Uncle Buck and Overboard. You might expect John Hughes was back from the dead, along with this genre. I would go back even further to the ’50s and ’60s,...

“I’ve never worked with a hog before,” Ben Stiller says. “So when they started making crazy sounds, I’m like, ‘Wait a minute! Am I safe?’” At this, Stiller squeals and snorts like an irate pig, mimicking the scene-stealing sows from his new comedy “Nutcrackers.”

Stiller had to be ready for anything when it came to making the low-budget indie about a workaholic real estate developer who becomes a guardian to his unruly nephews after their parents die. That openness started with his co-stars, Homer, Ulysses, Arlo and Atlas Janson, four brothers who range in age from 5 to 13, who’d never been on a film set. Instead of a Hollywood soundstage, the movie was shot on their family’s Ohio farm, a rural homestead filled with chickens, goats and, yes, hogs. Clearly, Stiller wouldn’t be spending time relaxing in a trailer or enjoying other movie star perks.

“When I called Ben,...

In 2006, director Richard Linklater made his first foray into science fiction with a film adaptation of "A Scanner Darkly," the 1977 novel by Philip K. Dick. Dick's original story delved deeply -- and with first-hand knowledge -- into the bleak world of drug addicts. Dick has spoken frankly about his drug use, and one can see his paranoia caused by psychedelic drug experiences influencing his work, specifically in novels like "Valis" and "The Transmigration of Timothy Archer," but they are most explicit in "A Scanner Darkly." In the future of the novel, the protagonist is addicted to a hallucinogen called Substance D, and there seems to be no workable social system in place that is capable of solving widespread drug use in America.

Linklater's film version of "A Scanner Darkly" was made 29 years after Dick's story was published, but the themes remained depressingly relevant. The film takes place in the future...

Following the success of Sylvester Stallone's Rocky, one of the biggest trends of the 1980s became underdog sports stories, with one of the more iconic being The Karate Kid. Helmed by original Rocky director John G. Avildsen, the 1984 teen drama not only became one of the biggest hits of its year, but also spawned a franchise that is still going to this day, including two direct sequels and the Netflix TV show Cobra Kai, which has served as a legacy sequel to the original movies.

The Karate Kid

Director John G. AvildsenRelease Date June 22, 1984Studio(s) Delphi II ProductionsDistributor(s) Columbia PicturesWriters Robert Mark KamenCast Yuji Okumoto, William Zabka, Ralph Macchio, Elisabeth Shue, Pat Morita, Martin KoveRating PGRuntime 126 minutesGenres Family, Drama, Action, SportFranchise(s) The Karate KidSequel(s) The Karate Kid Part III, The Karate Kid Part IIBudget $8 million

The Karate Kid starred Ralph Macchio as Daniel Larusso, a...

The 1970s were a significantly influential period within the history of cinema that saw the emergence of many genres that would become more widely incorporated into the mainstream in the subsequent decades. There were certainly sports films that existed in the years prior, but classics like Breaking Away, Rocky, The Bad News Bears, and Slap Shot proved that the genre was far more flexible than one may have imagined. Even non-sports fans could find something to enjoy about these inspiring films. Theres perhaps no better example of this than Robert Aldrichs 1974 classic The Longest Yard. While it is ostensibly a football movie, The Longest Yard is an incendiary condemnation of Americas prison system, and the rare type of sports story that can make its audience laugh and cry in equal measure.

Dodgeball's success was a surprise, beating out a Spielberg film at the box office. The film's humor and unique spirit helped it overcome obstacles during production. Dodgeball's blend of satire and heart make it a lasting comedy classic.

2004's Dodgeball remains a classic of early 21st-century comedy, thanks to a strong concept and a great ensemble cast. It parodies sports underdog movies and mines big laughs simply by putting grown adults in the middle of a sport largely associated with children. It follows another group of scruffy underdogs who enter the national dodgeball championship in an effort to save their beloved gym with the prize money. The film made a big splash with critics and grossed a hefty profit on a comparatively small budget. A Dodgeball sequel was announced in 2023, though there is no further word on its status as of this writing.

That's all the more impressive...

Netflix is back with a new star-studded action movie — this time led by Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry — with “The Union.” Wahlberg stars as Mike, a Jersey construction worker who finds his average life turned upside down when his high school sweetheart Roxanne (Berry) shows up and he gets tangled up in a continent-skipping international intelligence adventure.

But Berry and Wahlberg aren’t the only familiar faces in the Netflix romp. Here’s a handy guide to “The Union” cast and the characters they play.

Halle Berry in “The Union” (Laura Radford/Netflix)

Halle Berry as Roxanne Hall — Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry stars as The Union operative Roxanne Hall, an ass-kicking, world-traveling adventurer who never misses her shot. Berry is best known for her superhero roles, playing Storm in the “X-Men” films and Catwoman in “Catwoman,” as well as her Best Actress-winning performance in “Monster’s Ball.” Her well-known titles also include “John Wick 3,...

Gillian Taylor is an essential character in Star Trek IV, helping Kirk and Spock navigate through the 1980s in a fish-out-of-water comedy. Catherine Hicks' portrayal of Dr. Gillian Taylor has a lasting legacy, influencing the creation of a descendant whale character in Star Trek: Prodigy. Dr. Gillian Taylor's expertise in humpback whales in Star Trek IV leads to the development of Starfleet's Cetacean Operations program in the future.

In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, directed by Leonard Nimoy, Catherine Hicks plays Dr. Gillian Taylor, a 20th-century marine biologist with expertise in humpback whales. To save 23rd-century Earth from a probe demanding to speak with whales, Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner), Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and the crew of the USS Enterprise must take their stolen Klingon Bird-of-Prey (dubbed the Hms Bounty) back to 1986, when humpback whales were not yet extinct. In 20th century San Francisco, Dr. Gillian Taylor,...

After a one-week theatrical window, Doug Liman’s recent reteaming with “Bourne Identity” collaborator Matt Damon, “The Instigators,” which was also co-written by and co-stars Casey Affleck, is set to debut on Apple TV+ this Friday, August 9. In addition to Damon and Affleck, the film also features performances from Hong Chau, Michael Stuhlbarg, Alfred Molina, Ving Rhames, Jack Harlow, Ron Perlman, Toby Jones, and Paul Walter Hauser, a cast that will no doubt earn at least a few streams despite middling to negative reviews, including IndieWire’s, which calls the film, “Flimsy in most respects but fun enough in its fumbling.”

No matter what you think of “The Instigators,” it is obvious the intention behind the film is to tell a heist story more focused on human flaw than it is on claiming any riches. Simply put, if you’re coming in expecting “Heat” or “Ocean’s 11,” expect to be disappointed.

"Friday the 13th" might be the best example of a flagrant copycat birthing a franchise whose place in cinema history is almost as significant as the thing it knocked off. Sidestepping the debate over what does and does not qualify as the first full-on slasher, it's generally agreed that 1978's "Halloween" set the mold for the horror sub-genre as it exists today. Blood-thirsty killing machines with penchants for pointy weaponry; horny teenagers and early 20-somethings with little to no sense of self-preservation; the unusual young woman who emerges as the "final" survivor in the battle with said monster — they're all present and accounted for in director John Carpenter and co-writer Debra Hill's spooky classic.

They can also be found in director Sean S. Cunningham and writer Victor Miller's 1980 hit "Friday the 13th," but with some major asterisks. For starters, the film that paved the way for Jason Vorhees...

Five years have passed since The Young and the Restless star Kristoff Sr. John died. While his fans and friends still miss him to this day, a new documentary will shine a light on his troubled life. This includes a look at his childhood trauma and how that shaped him as an adult.

Here is a look at what you can expect in the upcoming documentary movie Kristoff.

New Documentary Coming Based On Kristoff St. John

Most fans know Kristoff St. John from his time on The Young and the Restless. He played Neil Winters on the soap opera from 1991 until his death in 2019, a total of 28 years. During his time on the popular soap opera, he won two Daytime Emmy Awards and received 11 nominations.

Kristoff St. John – Credit: YouTube

However, there was much more to the actor’s life than his soap opera character. The documentary Kristoff will take...

Peter Bogdanovich's "Paper Moon" is a rip-roaring road movie with a lot of hijinks and heart, anchored by the incredible performances from real-life father and daughter Ryan and Tatum O'Neal. They play Moses Pray, a two-bit con artist who hoodwinks widows into purchasing Bibles, and Addie Loggins, a precocious nine-year-old with a permanent scowl who claims to be his daughter. With their streetwise charm, they unite to drive across the dusty Midwest, gradually increasing the stakes of their swindles. The sharp, black-and-white cinematography by László Kovács perfectly captures the sparse, unsentimental Depression-era America. But there's also a sweetness to "Paper Moon," especially in the development of Moses and Addie's complex and tenuous father-daughter bond. The film has a certain magic that can only come from the O'Neals' actual relationship, and it's something that makes "Paper Moon" such a joy to watch. Here are the main cast members still with us.

Directors are lining up left and right each month to share their favorite films from the TCM lineup, and the latest is Jason Reitman. He follows Steven Spielberg going deep on “Meet Me in St. Louis,” Martin Scorsese praising “Madonna of the Seven Moons,” Guillermo del Toro making the case why overlooked “Suspicion” is top-tier Hitchcock, and so many more.

IndieWire simply loves directors sharing their favorite films and paying tribute to the directors and screenwriters behind them. And that enthusiasm comes across loud and clear in “SNL 1975” director Reitman’s picks. First up, Reitman, whose always had an ear for dialogue himself, talks about what’s so great about the patter in Barry Levinson’s “Diner.”

“[‘Diner’] is probably one of the best first movies for a filmmaker of all time,” Reitman said. “And the dialogue is delicious. You can’t look at a Quentin Tarantino movie and...

A movie marathon with our favorite auteurs? Where do we sign up?

Turner Classic Movies’ latest limited series “Two for One” features curated double features coupled with commentary from select guest programmers like Martin Scorsese, Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, and more. The upcoming TCM series is hosted by Ben Mankiewicz, who will interview each director about why they chose to highlight their two chosen films.

“Two for One” will feature 12 nights of double features, beginning April 6. With the logline “two films, one filmmaker, countless perspectives,” the series is set to span all of cinematic history. Directors will offer commentary on the double feature’s cultural significance, its influence on other films, behind-the-scenes stories, and their own personal reflections.

Martin Scorsese kicks off the show with a conversation comparing “Blood on the Moon” and “One Touch of Venus.” The following week, actress/director Olivia Wilde picks “Auntie Mame” and 1976 documentary “Grey Gardens.

Turner Classic Movies have announced a new limited series, Two for One, that will feature 12 nights of double features curated by some of the most celebrated filmmakers in Hollywood beginning April 6. TCM Primetime Host Ben Mankiewicz will be joined by each director, including Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Todd Haynes, Spike Lee, Nicole Holofcener, and Rian Johnson, to introduce the two films they chose. They will offer commentary on the double feature’s cultural significance, its influence on other films, behind-the-scenes stories, and their own personal reflections.

“This was such an eclectic group of filmmakers to sit down with, which was invigorating, from Martin Scorsese talking about a Robert Mitchum western, to Spike Lee discussing Elia Kazan, to Olivia Wilde’s breakdown of Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame,” said Ben Mankiewicz. “In these double features, these 12 directors lead us on an insider’s journey through cinematic history.”

See...

The Underdoggs is an R-rated children's sports comedy starring Snoop Dogg as a former NFL player coaching a losing youth football team. The movie combines R-rated humor with twists on the kids sports formula to create a crowd-pleasing film. Director Charles Stone III was drawn to the project because of its portrayal of a Southern California blue-collar Little League and the transformative power of children's actions.

The world of children's sports comedies is getting an R-rated twist with The Underdoggs. The movie centers on Two Js Jennings, a washed-up NFL player who finds himself in hot water after driving recklessly in the streets of LA. Being sentenced to over 300 hours of community service in his hometown of Long Beach, he thinks he finds a way around it by coaching a losing youth football team, and a way to restore his career, only to realize he has a hard road ahead of him.

(L to R) Snoop Dogg as Jaycen “Two Js” Jennings in director Charles Stone III’s The Underdoggs.

An Amazon MGM Studios film

Photo credit: Jacob Kemp

© 2024 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved. You might be tempted to compare The Underdoggs to another movie with an animal-inspired name, The Bad News Bears. In the movie, Snoop Dogg’s character is an ex-NFL player who takes a job coaching a ragtag group of players in a youth league. But the films are separated by five decades, and Snoop Dogg said that the comedy in his film is definitely more cutting-edge. (Click on the media bar below to hear Snoop Dogg) https://www.hollywoodoutbreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Snoop_Dogg_Comedy_In_The_-Underdoggs_.mp3 The Underdoggs is currently streaming on Prime Video.

The post How Snoop Dogg Approached The ‘Underdoggs’ Humor appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.

The Underdoggs is a sports comedy featuring Snoop Dogg in a feel-good football movie with a cast of hilarious comedic actors. Snoop Dogg's involvement in The Underdoggs highlights his talent and range as he focuses more on appearing in streaming service movies. The movie delivers a balance of laughs and heartfelt moments, showcasing a thoughtful and heartwarming story.

The Underdoggs is a sports comedy featuring rapper and occasional actor Calvin "Snoop Dogg" Broadus in a feel-good football movie that sees him acting alongside some of Hollywood's most prolific and hilarious comedic actors. Described by critics as part The Bad News Bears and Friday, The Underdoggs sees Snoop as Jaycen "JJ" Jennings, a former NFL star sentenced to serving community service after crashing his supercar into a bus. Although the situation sets JJ back financially, he uses the opportunity to coach a Pop Warner football team, thus redeeming himself and his public image.

If you have any doubt about exactly what you are in for with Snoop Dogg’s first-ever starring role in a mainstream movie, The Underdoggs, you won’t after seeing the disclaimer that pops up on screen at the start of the film.

The Following Movie Is Rated-r For Strong Language That May Not Be Suitable For Children.

But F**K All That.

You Know As Well As I Do That The Kids Who Aren’T Supposed To Be Watching This Sh*T Curse More Than The Rest Of US Motherf**Kers.

So Stop Worrying, Kick Back, Relax And Enjoy The Motherf**King Show…

Any questions? The Underdoggs is a descendant of foul-mouthed R-rated comedies like Bad Santa merged with kid-driven sports movies like The Mighty Ducks (which it references in one scene) and especially The Bad News Bears, which was about a ragtag Little League team who cussed a...

The puckish appeal of Charles Stone III’s The Underdoggs, a new spin on The Bad News Bears, is apparent from its opening title card, which offers a warning that its R rating was well earned, that no child should watch it, and that, well, the kids you really have to worry about are the ones whose parents don’t allow them to watch R-rated films.

Snoop Dogg stars as Jaycen “Two Js” Jennings, a former high school football star whose clutch, single-handed catch during his senior-year championship game set him up for a career as a young NFL hotshot who, predictably, flamed out in a blaze of ignominy, hubris, and sativa. (His puff-don’t-pass signature end-zone dance makes it clear that the “two Js” of his nickname aren’t derived from his first and last names.) Much like Bernie Mac’s character in Stone’s Mr. 3000, Jaycen seems...

Plot: Jaycen “Two Js” Jennings is a washed-up ex-professional football star who has hit rock bottom. When Jaycen is sentenced to community service coaching the Underdoggs, an unruly pee-wee football team in his hometown of Long Beach, California, he sees it as an opportunity to rebuild his public image and turn his life around. As Jaycen works to transform the foul-mouthed Underdoggs into top-notch champions, he reconnects with his past, including an old flame and a few of his ex-teammates, and rediscovers his love of the game.

Review: Underdog stories have always been popular fodder for movies. Redemption stories about athletes and tales of scrappy kids needing a mentor are equally popular. From The Bad News Bears to Little Giants and The Mighty Ducks, sports comedies have always found success. With The Underdoggs, that appeal is tested by taking the formula that made those aforementioned films successful and injecting them...