Month: March 2024

This Oscars are happening this weekend, so you know what that means: It’s also time for the Razzies. On Saturday the annual Golden Raspberry Awards dropped their winners, and the big winner wasn’t Oppenheimer or Killers of the Flower Moon. It was a little attention-getting movie called Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.

The R-rated take on A.A. Milne’s critter characters took home five trophies. They were: Worst Picture, Worst Screen Couple (for Pooh and Piglet as “Blood-Thirsty Slasher/Killers(!)”), Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel, Worst Director for Rhys Frake-Waterfield, and Worst Screenplay.

Back in 2021, the rights to Pooh and gang — owned by Disney since 1961 — lapsed, meaning they were now in the public domain. (As of this year, the same thing happened to the original iteration of Mickey Mouse.) It didn’t take long for exploitation filmmakers to, well, exploit that. Winning five Razzies likely won’t deter the Blood and Honey filmmakers; a sequel is already forthcoming.

Alas, Blood and Honey won zero awards for its actors. Two of those trophies went to the same person: Megan Fox, who won Worst Actress for Johnny & Clyde — a movie everyone has definitely heard of — and Worst Supporting Actress for Expend4bles. Fox has been on a comeback of late, making the Razzie wins something of a curiosity. Why gang up on her, as though this was still 2007? Who can ever understand the mind of a Razzie voter?

Worst Actor, meanwhile, went to Jon Voight for a movie called Mercy — another movie that left a major cultural footprint — while Sylvester Stallone collected yet another Razzie for Expend4bles, which will definitely keep him up at night.

On an up-note, Fran Drescher won the Razzie Redeemer Award for kicking butt during the SAG-AFTRA strikes as the union’s president, even if it’s a back-handed compliment. The actress was nominated for a Razzie for 1997’s The Beautician and the Beast.

You can see the full list of winners (and nominees) below:

WORST PICTURE
The Exorcist: Believer
Expend4bles
Meg 2: The Trench
Shazam! Fury of the Gods
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey (Wait, shouldn’t that be spelled “Hunny”?) – WINNER

WORST ACTOR
Russell Crowe / The Pope’s Exorcist
Vin Diesel / Fast X
Chris Evans / Ghosted
Jason Statham / Meg 2: The Trench
Jon Voight / Mercy – WINNER

WORST ACTRESS
Ana de Armas / Ghosted
Megan Fox / Johnny & Clyde – WINNER
Salma Hayek / Magic Mike’s Last Dance
Jennifer Lopez / The Mother
Dame Helen Mirren / Shazam! Fury of the Gods

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Kim Cattrall / About My Father
Megan Fox / Expend4bles – WINNER
Bai Ling / Johnny & Clyde
Lucy Liu / Shazam! Fury of the Gods
Mary Stuart Masterson / Five Nights at Freddy’s

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Michael Douglas / Ant Man & The Wasp: Quantumania
Mel Gibson / Confidential Informant
Bill Murray / Ant Man & The Wasp: Quantumania
Franco Nero (as “The Pope”) / The Pope’s Exorcist
Sylvester Stallone / Expend4ables – WINNER

WORST SCREEN COUPLE
Any 2 “Merciless Mercenaries” / Expend4bles
Any 2 Money-Grubbing Investors Who Donated to the $400 Million for Remake Rights to The Exorcist
Ana de Armas & Chris Evans (who flunked Screen Chemistry) / Ghosted
Salma Hayek & Channing Tatum / Magic Mike’s Last Dance
Pooh & Piglet as Blood-Thirsty Slasher/Killers(!) / Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey – WINNER

WORST PREQUEL, REMAKE, RIP-OFF or SEQUEL
Ant Man & The Wasp: Quantumania
The Exorcist: Believer
Expend4bles
Indiana Jones and The Dial of … Still Beating a Dead Horse
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey – WINNER

WORST DIRECTOR
Rhys Frake-Waterfield / Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey – WINNER
David Gordon Green / The Exorcist: Believer
Peyton Reed / Ant Man & the Wasp: Quantumania
Scott Waugh / Expend4bles
Ben Wheatley / Meg 2: The Trench

WORST SCREENPLAY
The Exorcist: Believer
Expend4bles
Indiana Jones and the Dial of … Can I go home now?
Shazam! Fury of the Gods
Winnie the Pooh: Blood & Honey – WINNER

RAZZIE REDEEMER AWARD: SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

When Donald Trump first ran for president, Robert De Niro was, to put it mildly, not a fan. The month before he won the 2016 election, the legendary actor took part in a video in which he absolutely unloaded on him. He even said he’d like to “punch him in the face.” Has he warmed up to him in the last eight years? Judging from his appearance on Friday’s Real Time with Bill Maher, the answer is: nope.

Per Mediaite, De Niro had a one-on-one sit-down with Maher, during which they discussed his disturbingly strong showings in the polls. He said he doesn’t want to “feel the way I did” after he won in 2016. Then he went off:

The guy is a total monster. And, anybody. I don’t understand it. Yeah, I guess they get behind that kind of logic. They want to f*ck with people, screw them because they’re unhappy about some. He’s such a mean, nasty, hateful person.

De Niro has played some despicable characters in his time. He’s even Oscar-nominated this year for his most heinous role, in Killers of the Flower Moon. But would he take on the 45th president of the United States?

“I’d never play him as an actor because he’s…I can’t see any good in him,” he said. “Nothing. Nothing at all. Nothing redeemable in him.”

De Niro then got gloomy about what will happen to Trump critics, like himself, should he win a second time:

And we have to. And whoever the people are who want to vote for him and–. Look like intelligent people around this, I mean, for some reason, it can’t be. It can not be! If he is, he wins the election. He. You won’t be on this show anymore. He’ll come looking for me. You know, there’ll be. There’ll be things that happen that none of us can imagine. That’s what happens in that kind of a dictatorship, which is what he says. Let’s believe and take him at his word.

De Niro ended by calling Trump a “sociopathic, psychopathic, malignant narcissist.”

So, yes, the guy who played Al Capone — another guy who didn’t like paying his taxes — would draw the line at the dictator magnets guy.

(Via Mediaite)

It’s popping off down in Austin this week as 2024’s SXSW rolls on and UPROXX is going to be there — with drinks! This year for our PaulSellsTX x Just Blaze x UPROXX Takeover at the Summit Roof Top Lounge, we’ll be featuring whiskeys and cocktails from Louisville’s coolest distiller, Rabbit Hole. Let’s whet your appetite with a little sneak peek of one of the great cocktails that Rabbit Hole is bringing to the shows (along with some amazing whiskey pours) — the Honey Hop.

The Honey Hop is a honey and grapefruit refresher with a hint of fizz. The drink is a play on the iconic Brown Derby with a touch of sparkling water to add that extra bite and x-factor every good cocktail needs. It’s also just freaking delicious.

Below, I’m going to show you how to make one in case you can’t make it next week to the amazing shows we’re hosting at SXSW. But come on, look at that lineup below! You know you’ll want to be there with this cocktail in your hand!

• The Bourbon Smash Is Our Official Labor Day Weekend Cocktail — Here’s The Recipe
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• The Black Rose Is The Perfect Bourbon Cocktail For The Weekend — Here’s Our Recipe
• The Rusty Nail Is The Only Cocktail Recipe You Need This Thanksgiving
• Old Fashioned Vs. Manhattan: What’s The Difference Between These Two Iconic Cocktails?

Honey Hop

Ingredients:

• 1.5 oz. Rabbit Hole Cavehill Bourbon
• 0.5 oz. fresh grapefruit juice
• 0.5 oz. honey syrup
• Ice
• Top with club soda

The key ingredient here is Rabbit Hole’s delicious Kentucky bourbon. The bottles are readily available nationwide and clock in just under $50. The rest is easy to source at grocery stores.

A quick tip for the honey syrup: If your liquor store doesn’t have any… find a better store! I kid, I kid. You can make it very easily by stirring one part hot water with two parts honey. It’s really that easy. Don’t use straight honey though, you have to mix it with water first. Otherwise, the ice will harden the honey when you try and shake the cocktail and not mix in.

What You’ll Need:

• Rocks glass
• Cocktail shaker
• Cocktail strainer
• Jigger
• Paring knife
• Juicer

Method:

• Add the bourbon, grapefruit juice, and honey syrup to the cocktail shaker, add a large handful of ice, and then affix the lid. Shake vigorously for 10-15 seconds.
• Strain the cocktail over fresh ice into the waiting rocks glass. Top with less than an ounce of sparkling water. Garnish with a grapefruit peel and serve.

Bottom Line:

I’m sipping this right now and it’s delightful. It’s fresh and fizzy, kind of like a honeyed grapefruit lemonade vibe. The bourbon cuts through nicely with a dash of baking spice and woody vanilla, which balances the citrus and honey very nicely. You’ll definitely want more than one of these if you’re hanging with us down in Texas!

Tickets for the Open House and Soul In The Horn takeover are on sale now, with proceeds for the event going directly to charity.

Kevin Costner is back in the director’s saddle again, and hopefully, the end product will be received more like Dances With Wolves and less like The Postman and Waterworld. This would also be the creative diversion that pulled Costner out of the Yellowstone grind and partially kicked off the drama-infused era of that Paramount series’ final (and still-interrupted) season.

Will Costner return to Yellowstone for the final episodes? Unless a miracle happens, that answer would be “no.” However, The Bodyguard star now has an even more built-in audience than his previous movie star days for his two-to-four part Western project, Horizon: An American Saga. Let’s get down to cowboy business about what is coming to theaters this year.

Plot

Costner knows his target audience with this project, and he never (for better or worse) does anything halfway. For Horizon: An American Saga, he promised a slightly different Western experience than audiences usually see because this won’t be based around an already established settlement. Further, he told Variety that he wants theatergoers to “in a sense, feel themselves in this movie.” That could be a loaded expectation, but this story will go back further in U.S. history than any Yellowstone prequel.

The director is also sort of pulling a James Cameron in Avatar move here because not only did he decide to film two parts, but “When no one wanted to make the first one, I got the bright idea to make four,” he previously bragged. Additionally, he has labelled this massive project as “by far the biggest struggle” within his storied career. That’s saying a lot, given that Costner’s already been the brunt of scorn after big-budget flops, but this time around, he appears to be sticking with the fare that his current devotees love most, so their reception will be telling and probably pave the way for whether he will sink or swim in his future directorial efforts.

If there was any doubt that John Dutton fans would eat this movie up, then this synopsis should fully convince prospective viewers:

Horizon: An American Saga explores the lure of the Old West and how it was won — and lost — through the blood, sweat and tears of many. Spanning the four years of the Civil War, from 1861 to 1865, Costner’s ambitious cinematic adventure will take audiences on an emotional journey across a country at war with itself, experienced through the lens of families, friends and foes all attempting to discover what it truly means to be the United States of America.

Cast

The cast not only includes Costner but also Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone, Jamie Campbell Bower, Abbey Lee, Michael Rooker, Danny Huston, Luke Wilson, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jeff Fahey, Will Patton, Tatanka Means, Owen Crow Shoe, and Ella Hunt.

Release Date

Horizon: An American Saga arrives in two theatrical editions (with more to come, perhaps) on June 28 and August 16.

Trailer

Rudy Gobert saw his Friday night come to a premature end. During the waning moments of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Gobert got called for a technical foul after he made a money gesture towards a referee — it was his sixth foul of the game. This let Cleveland get the one point it needed to force overtime, and in the extra period, the Cavs rolled en route to a 113-104 win.

It was a tough loss for the Timberwolves, which really need Gobert as it is navigating a stretch without the services of Karl-Anthony Towns. And after the game, Gobert spoke to the media about his ejection, and even though he conceded it was “bad” and “immature” of him to react the way he did, he also touched on something that he believes is “hurting our game”: the influence of sports betting.

Via The Athletic:

Asked to clarify what he believes, Gobert said: “I made some mistakes. I airballed a dunk. Mistakes happen. Referees make mistakes, too. But sometimes I think it’s more than mistakes. I think everyone that’s in this league knows. I think it’s got to get better.”
…
“I know the betting and all that is becoming bigger and bigger, but it shouldn’t feel that way,” Gobert said.

Gobert should probably expect a pretty hefty fine here, as the NBA is not going to like a player saying that we have another Tim Donaghy situation going on. We’ll see if he dives into this stuff any further the next time someone puts a microphone in front of him, because it’s a pretty safe bet that if Gobert gets asked again, he’ll happily answer.

4Batz made waves when he started seeing success with his “Act II: Date @ 8” song back in December, which eventually made its way up to No. 59 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Now, the R&B performer returned with a new remix of the rising hit that features Drake — which is, of course, going to give it some extra traction.

“Nowadays, R&B is quote-unquote toxic,” 4Batz shared with Billboard recently about the song. “It’s a lot of fake toxicity going on. I don’t know about that toxicity. My momma raised me in a way like, ‘You love a girl, you do this. You open the door for her.’ I’m big on that so that one was specifically for the females.”

Considering the support from Drake, some just now discovering might be wondering whether 4Batz signed with the Toronto rapper. Here’s what to know.

Is 4batz Signed To Drake’s OVO Label?

According to the publication, they cited “two executives familiar with the deal” who alleged that 4Batz signed with Drake’s OVO record label for one EP as part of a “short-term license.” Although Drake and OVO could not be reached for comment, 4Batz’s lawyer Matt Buser did share a bit more insight into their collaboration on the song. (He could not share anything about the deal, at least for now.)

“The positive energy and overall support from Team Drake/OVO was a driving factor in getting this song released,” Buser shared. “We are grateful for their involvement and are excited to see what the future holds as a result of this epic creative and business move.”

The Rock and Roman Reigns will officially challenge Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins on Night 1 of WrestleMania 40.

Rhodes and Rollins showed up on SmackDown to acknowledge Reigns and Rock’s challenge. Rhodes questioned if Rock even had the authority to make any stipulations for their WrestleMania match after the Great One acknowledged Reigns as his Tribal Chief. Rollins and Rhodes then accepted their challenge, then the American Nightmare smacked Rock across the face to close the show.

The journey here has been a wild one, with the expected twists and turns that typically come with building WrestleMania. First it was Rollins’ knee injury, then CM Punk’s Royal Rumble injury threw a wrench in what appeared to be solid WrestleMania plans against the World Heavyweight Champion.

After winning the Royal Rumble, Rhodes pointed to the box seats where Reigns was sitting and appeared on track to finish his story against the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. On the following SmackDown, Rhodes said he wouldn’t face Reigns at WrestleMania before Rock returned and tossed us yet another swerve. Fans revolted in the days that followed, Rock turned heel, and Rhodes changed his path, officially challenging Reigns for the belt at ‘Mania.

With the Rock officially back in the fold, the Great One joined the Bloodline and then challenged Rhodes and Rollins to a tag team match at WrestleMania, with the condition being if the Bloodline wins, it’s Bloodline rules and anything goes. If the Bloodline loses, they’ll be barred from Night 2 at WrestleMania where Rhodes will challenge Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. That all came to a head on Friday night, when the match became official dispute the chaos of the last month.

The NBA’s top-2 defenses went toe-to-toe in Cleveland on Friday night. The Minnesota Timberwolves made their way to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse to take on the Cavaliers, and while both teams were dealing with some pretty major injuries, they still managed to put forth a basketball game that came down to the very end.

Things ended up going to overtime, in large part because Rudy Gobert got himself tossed with less than 30 seconds left. On Minnesota’s penultimate possession of regulation, Gobert got called for a foul while trying to corral an Anthony Edwards miss. He wasn’t happy about it in the slightest, which led to him getting a technical foul. The main feed didn’t quite show what happened, but alternate feeds showed that Gobert made a money sign to Scott Foster, which is about as close to a guaranteed technical foul as anything in the sport.

Gobert fouled out because of this, and even worse for Minnesota, the technical free throw that Darius Garland took evened things up at 97. Fortunately for the Timberwolves, they were able to avoid losing in regulation, as Naz Reid (who had a monster night as a scorer) was able to swat Garland’s attempt at a game-winning three.

Kid Cudi’s tweet about his love for Oppenheimer actually wound up making its way to the film’s star Cillian Murphy. In a new video for People Magazine, the cast of last summer’s blockbuster, including Murphy, Emily Blunt, and Robert Downey Jr., reacted to posts people were making about it.

“Vision Pro is [fire emojis] gotta watch Oppenheimer on this baby,” Kid Cudi originally tweeted, which was among the ones included by the publication.

However, Murphy didn’t fully grasp that it was Cudi himself who posted it. He also was a little confused about what a Vision Pro was until Downey Jr. explained more about it. Blunt also couldn’t tell whether these were fire or crown emojis at first.

“It’s fire, fire, fire, fire,” Murphy read out loud with each added emoji, while Downey Jr. is bent over and dying of laughter.

Kid Cudi eventually saw Murphy’s recent reaction video with the cast, when a Murphy fan account tagged him, and truly thought it was the best. “Hell naw hahahaha this is so dope,” he reacted on social media. “We love Cillian over here all day!!”

“The funny thing is i saw that video earlier and didnt even notice my name in the tweet or that I even said that,” he added. “I was just thinkin ‘yea that would be cool to watch that movie on the vision pro’ haha.”

Check out Kid Cudi’s tweets about Cillian Murphy reacting to his method of watching Oppenheimer, along with the original video, above.

Let’s start this off with a story about Lady Gaga and Sam Elliott. Back in 2018 at the Toronto International Film Festival, I found myself at a mid-day mixer of some sort in support of A Star is Born. (If I recall correctly, I was hungry and there was a promise of complimentary snacks.) As I’m eating some sort of cheese and cracker combination, a publicist asks me if I want to meet Lady Gaga. Now, this is not as exciting as it sounds. Because “meeting” means being brought over to Lady Gaga, who is already surrounded by, my count, about 20 people hanging on her every word. Now, at the time I had no real opinion on Lady Gaga one way or another (in early 2020 I did see her in concert Super Bowl weekend in Miami and, yes, she does put on a terrific show, but I had not experienced that yet at the time), but being added to this already large group surrounding her seemed unappealing. I decided I’d be happier alone with my cheese snack.

I was then asked, “Well, do you want to meet Sam Elliott?” I looked over and Sam Elliott was talking to nobody. Hell yes I want to talk to Sam Elliott.

After some chitchat about A Star is Born (he really is great in that movie, and that is what he was there to promote), I can hear myself saying these words as my brain is yelling, “Wait, what are you doing? Why are you saying this?!?!” (If anyone has ever wanted any insight into how I approach interviews, that last sentence kind of sums it up.) “Hey, so, I have to ask. In Road House, have you ever thought about how the Double Deuce is so fun, people get murdered there on a regular basis, yet it’s always crowded?” Sam Elliott started smiling. I took this as a signal to continue, “No, seriously, how much fun did the Double Deuce have to be? Every time the good people of Jasper, Missouri had a night out at that place they literally were risking death.” It’s at this point I realized Sam Elliott was smiling at me like I was a crazy person. The publicist who brought me over kindly said, “Soooo … I think we’re going to let Sam talk to some other people.”

Anyway, I think about Road House a lot. Now there’s a new version … and it’s awesome.

A lot has been made about whether the new Road House should be in theaters or not (it won’t be). I saw it in a mid-size screening room with a grand total of four other people and I had the time of my life. Yes, show Road House in theaters. Show it at school auditoriums. Show it on bathroom stalls. Road House should be perpetually playing at all times everywhere.

In this re-imagining of the aforementioned 1989 film, we now meet Dalton (Jake Gyllenhaal) cleaning up at some sort of underground fighting league. In fact, other tough guy fighters simply refuse to fight Dalton. Dalton takes their money anyway. It’s here we learn Dalton is a man with a past. Frankie (Jessica Williams) needs a tough guy to clean up her bar in the Florida Keys (I have never been to the Florida Keys but Road House makes it look like the Wild West, which kind of makes me want to visit). This time the bar is just called Road House and it doesn’t take long for some tough customers to cause trouble and it takes an equally short amount of time for Dalton to dispense with them. Dalton does such an effective job, medical treatment is now needed for these saps, which results in Dalton driving them to the hospital. This is where he meets Ellie (Daniela Melchior), who, at first, is not a fan of Dalton’s macho brand.

You see, Dalton is a famous former UFC fighter. After a match goes terribly wrong – Dalton is haunted by this! – he leaves the UFC to, instead, kind of mope around and every now and then fight people. In the original film, people seemed to know Dalton because of his reputation as a bouncer. Which, sure, okay. In this Road House, everyone knows Dalton because he’s a legitimate famous fighter. This aspect is interesting because Dalton is the best fighter and most of these fights are way too easy for him and Gyllenhaal plays all of this with sly glee.

See … this is a great idea for a movie. What more does anyone need? I’ll tell you what you need. You need Billy Magnussen as Ben Brandt, the local head of organized crime and real estate. And Billy Magnussen understands exactly what movie he’s in. You see, Ben Brandt needs the property that the Road House resides on to connect two large properties he already owns. He’s been sending tough customers to Road House to cause problems, but now Dalton is ruining the plan. So to counter Dalton, Ben Brandt calls in a psychopath named Knox (Conor McGregor, who you might be surprised to learn does not give an understated performance here) to kill Dalton. Look, do I even need to say more? From that description alone this is obviously the greatest movie ever made.

Seriously though, I had the best time watching this movie. And I think Doug Liman is correct that it would have killed in theaters. There are soooooo many applause moments. But, alas, that applause will have to be in the confines of your own home now.

Look, I was skeptical of a new Road House movie. This new version certainly isn’t trying to replace the first. But it’s a worthy edition to the Road House family and captures the spirit of what a movie like this should be. I hope they make ten more Road House movies and they are all just called Road House. And I hope, someday, I am once again at an event with Sam Elliott. And I can ask him if he’s seen the new Road House. When he says, “Of course I haven’t,” I can then tell him all about it. Or at least as much as I can before he’s once again whisked away.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.