JoBlo Originals

As Marvel Studios continues trying to reinvent their franchise after a lacklustre year at the box office and on Disney+, Kevin Feige and his team kick-off 2024 early with many firsts. Echo is the first MCU series to debut simultaneously on Disney+ and Hulu, the first to drop the full season on the same day, the first spin-off of another Disney+ series, the first project under the new Marvel Spotlight banner, the first series featuring an indigenous actress in the lead role (not to mention the first Deaf lead and first lead with a prosthetic limb), and the first MCU series with a TV-MA rating. Echo, starring Alaqua Cox in the title role, is a grittier and more violent take on Marvel Comics than we have seen in the MCU but not quite as brutal as the Netflix series with whom it shares some characters. A five-episode event series, Echo boasts some intriguing mythology centered on Native American fables and a cast full of great actors but does not do much to earn the mature rating that has become a major marketing point for this series.

Riggs and Murtagh. Tango and Cash. Starsky and Hutch. John McClane. Frank Bullitt. Dirty Harry Callahan. While those are all tough movie cops, none of them are as hard as nails was perhaps the toughest, most dangerous movie cop of all time…Frank Drebin, as played by the legendary Leslie Nielsen, in the iconic The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad, which we still think is one of the funniest films of the eight, and we revisit in this video!

Some have called them the worst band of the nineties, but the fact remains that Creed has sold over 53 million albums worldwide and had a great run as one of the most popular bands of the 90s and 2000s. Led by Scott Stapp, many mocked the band, but people kept buying their albums and seeing their concerts. Yet, over time, substance abuse and addictions took their toll on Stapp and the rest of the band, but with them reuniting for an upcoming nostalgia tour, it’s time to look back at one of the most divisive bands of their era - CREED!

And so, another year is in the books, with 2023, the year of Barbenheimer now ending. It was a dramatic one for entertainment, with shelved movies, surprising hits and misses and dual strikes that brought the industry to a standstill for months. Nevertheless, there were plenty of great films, so here’s JoBlo’s official top 10 for the year. Before we start, there are a few honourable mentions to get out of the way. Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One was a surprising box office disappointment, to the extent that the next film is set to drop Dead Reckoning from the title, but it was still an expertly assembled action film with some of the best stuntwork and style of the year. I also thoroughly enjoyed Creed III and Gerwig’s Barbie, with both just falling a tad short of making my top 10. At the same time, other films like Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, American Fiction and many others are also worth checking out this holiday season. But without further ado, here’s the top 10

2023 was supposed to be an excellent year for movies. Now that people were no longer reluctant to return to the theatres due to COVID, the year was expected to be peppered with blockbusters, making this one of the highest-grossing years in memory. After all, there were Marvel movies, DC movies, new stars, and a pipeline of film that didn’t seem like it would dry up soon. Of course, things ended up a little different, with Hollywood brought to a standstill by strikes. At the same time, once influential franchises started to wane when pitted against an incredibly weary public hungry for something new. Indeed, it was a pretty dramatic year overall, so here at JoBlo Originals, we’re counting down some of the biggest pop culture stories of the year.

For most performers, building up a resume of over 150 projects is something that takes an entire lifetime to achieve, but for James Franco that is a feat he has accomplished at just 45 years old. This Freaky Geek was catapulted to fame in one of biggest comic book franchises of all time before settling in to his role as a performer who can take on any genre and any film no matter how big or small. But with a tremendous rise at such a young age, sometimes you don’t make the best decisions. For Franco, those bad decisions would come to light on the very night of his greatest professional achievement and begin a downfall that is sadly all to common in today’s world. At one point putting out up to 12 projects a year, Franco has taken a backseat as allegations against him began to pile up. It is time we examine the career and find out just WTF Happened to James Franco! For more MOVIE NEWS, visit: http://www.joblo.com SUBSCRIBE for more of all the LATEST JoBlo Videos here: https://goo.gl/R9U81J #JamesFranco #wtfhappenedtothiscelebrity #sethrogan

Take Star Wars, a liberal amount of Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven and Battle Beyond the Stars, and mix it in with a heavy helping of Heavy Metal (both the magazine and the film), and you end up with Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon. While a bit overstuffed (Snyder maybe made it a little too lean at just over two hours), it's nonetheless a deliriously entertaining sci-fi epic that one could easily call the Best Star Wars Movie Never Made. It's not a stretch to say that Rebel Moon is more fun than anything that has come out of a Galaxy Far, Far Away in quite some time.

The boys of Bon Jovi did something amazing. They made Heavy Metal fun again. This resulted in some rocking pop hits or some popping rock hits, as well as power ballads galore, that will make you fall in love and break your heart but in the most entertaining of ways. As we all know, the music world is a vicious beast that often feeds off of nothing: hairspray, spandex, motorcycles, leather jackets and even more hair spray. Even though Jon Bon Jovi dismisses the “hair band” label.... even though he is in a band and has a lot of hair... And yes, that hair is a little grayer now, but their music career is still growing strong, right? I’m not sure actually... so let’s find out. What Happened to...JON BON JOVI

In many ways, Chris Columbus and John Hughes made the most successful Christmas movie of all time with Home Alone. Sure, there are other movies that might rank high in the pantheon for some, but in terms of box office alone, this was a juggernaut, grossing $476 million in 1990, which, adjusted for inflation, is about $1.1 BILLION in 2023. No other Christmas movie comes close to that number, and that’s not even counting how much money it made on home video, where it was one of the biggest-selling titles of all time, plus all its plays on cable, streaming and more. Yet, it’s also a movie that would never be made now, with the film climaxing with Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin McCallister laying a series of traps for Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern’s Harry and Marv that would likely put real men in their graves. Crazy as it sounds, Home Alone would likely get an R-rating now, given how sensitive audiences have become. Don’t believe me? Did anyone try to watch Disney Plus’s lukewarm Home Sweet Home Alone, with its lukewarm traps (no maimings?) and sympathetic, misunderstood burglars? It’s a PC nightmare (with our own Jesse Shade eviscerated on Awfully Good) that shows you how tepid family fare nowadays can be when it falls under the domain of a monolithic studio like Disney. Thankfully, Home Alone, in all its slapstick glory, still exists (along with its sequel) and is a movie we can still return to holiday after holiday. In this episode of Scene Breakdown, our host, Kier Gomes, takes a look at the movie’s slapstick climax, breaking down the surprisingly deadly traps and explaining what makes this such an irreplaceable Christmas classic. And hey - if you like it next year, we’ll come back and do Home Alone 2 (we’ll skip the others, though).

It’s that time of year again…the giving season. As families everywhere come together to celebrate the holidays, bundle up by the fire, and indulge in a parade of sappy Christmas movies, the real adults in the room are going to need something with a bit more kick. Think about it, the all-time best Christmas movies - It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Story, Home Alone, you name it - all revolve around sentimental family-friendly stories for children and adults to enjoy equally. But f*ck all that, Jack, this year we’re all about honoring a bona fide Christmas classic expressly aimed at adult audiences. While Die Hard and Violent Night are worthy action-packed contenders, it’s time to dish out the edible cookies and spiked eggnog for Bad Santa - easily the most politically incorrect and controversially transgressive Christmas comedy on record. Honestly, do you even think it’s possible for a movie like Bad Santa to be made in Hollywood today? Well, as Bad Santa celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, it’s only right to unwrap the classic cinematic gift that keeps on giving and discover what went into the production, including the major studios who passed on the project, the Coen Brothers’ story conception and uncredited script work, the casting process, principal photography, Billy Bob Thronton’s drunken on-set antics, Todd Phillips’ uncredited reshoots, and a whole lot more. Sound good? Merry Christmas motherf*ckers, it’s time to unstuff the stockings and find out WTF Happened to Bad Santa! For more MOVIE NEWS, visit: http://www.joblo.com SUBSCRIBE for more of all the LATEST JoBlo Videos here: https://goo.gl/R9U81J #BadSanta #wtfhappenedtothismovie #christmasmovies

Realizing they needed a voice over actor to provide the narration for a new show in development called Arrested Development, producer Ron Howard looked around the empty recording studio, finding no voice over actor in sight. So this Oscar winning former child star stepped in to provide a temporary voice track, you know just as a filler until they could find a better voice, of course. But a better voice never came because Ron Howard’s comforting and gentle tone mixed with a dry yet kinda goofy speech pattern was the perfect fit for the sense of humor of this show. But this was not the only time Ron Howard stepped up and became an unexpected perfect fit, he’s been doing that all his life - from being in front of the camera in classic TV shows and behind the camera for a hefty handful of wonderful motion pictures… and more! But nowadays is his career in arrested development? Whenever I watch a Ron Howard picture, I always play a little game. I like to call this game Spot the Clint Howard! As Ronnie Boy has given cameo appearances to his troubled yet beloved brother Clint in nearly every film he has made. Can you spot the Clint Howard? His films always use his brother and he always changes up the genre. Bouncing around from historical epics to light hearted comedies to heart breaking dramas and he excels in them all. A true professional who proved to Hollywood he was meant for more than just sitcoms. But is he still producing works of art that live up to his days as a Oscar winning box office champ? Or are those happy days of exciting cinematic achievements behind him? Do we need to throw old man Opie in a pool full of Cocoon fountain of youth magic? Is he caught in some sort of arrested development? Ron Howard had been called nicest fella in Hollywood–a living, breathing embodiment of “Aw, shucks!” but have those “aw, shucks” turned to to “ah what the f*cks”? Let’s find out: WTF Happened to… RON HOWARD?

2023 may have been a great year for movies, but not even Oppenheimer could have made a bigger bomb this year than the long-delayed fourth adventure for Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham’s action superteam: The Expendables 4 (aka EXPEND4BLES)! It’s been nine long years since Expendables 3 let action fans down with its toned down PG-13 rating, but Stallone promised to make it worth the wait with his final R-rated turn at age 77 as Barney Ross, handing over the guns and grenades for most of the film to Statham’s Lee Christmas as he and the new team stop a villainous mercenary and the rogue CIA agent he’s working for (who may or may not be a visibly bored Andy Garcia) from kicking off World War III. Unfortunately, the cast lineup they have to work with exchanges actual action stars like Bruce and Arnold for the youth friendly likes of Megan Fox and 50 Cent, and with Stallone not even bothering to write the script this time, the corny action hero quips won’t be the only thing that has audiences groaning. From its abysmal CGI that somehow looks worse than any Marvel movie this year, to its wasting of actual action movie stars like Iko Uwais as one of our villains and Tony Jaa as one of our new Expendables, it’s a new low for a franchise that has never had much of a high to start with. Without any of the charming aspects of the 80s action movies it hopes to emulate, this fourth entry should be a wake-up call to Stallone in his later years that it’s okay to let some things die already, while Statham goes back to less ridiculous movies where he drives cars in mid-air and fights prehistoric sharks. Rocky and Rambo, you will be missed… Barney Ross, not so much.

As fans of movies and TV, we have seen thousands of guest stars grace our screens only to disappear forever after their purpose has been served. But once in a while a performer gives life to a character that can not be contained to just one or two episodes. Once in a while a performer brings to life a character that doesn’t just perform in a show, but comes to define it. Thus is the story of Steve Urkel, the lovable nerd from next door that was only meant for a single episode but in the hands of the talented Jaleel White became one of the most iconic characters in television history. But sometimes when you craft a character so beloved, it is hard to shake them, as audiences, and casting directors, only see that character in you. Sometimes you work so hard to shake that character from audiences minds that eventually you grow to fully embrace it. It’s time we find out just WTF Happened to Jaleel White.... the dude who played Urkel!

Ron Howard's Cocoon was one of the biggest hits of the eighties, won an Oscar for star Don Ameche and spawned a sequel. Yet, for something like 10 years its been all but impossible to find. It was issued on DVD over 20 years ago, but only surfaced on Blu-ray in Region 2. In North America, the old DVD, if you can find it, is the only way to see this movie. It's not streaming, but oddly, the sequel Cocoon: The Return is easy to find. In this video, we discuss why it vanished and why it's so important to keep collecting Blu-rays (and physical media in general) and never to throw out your old DVDs, as movies still just go away - and often for inexplicable reasons.

Sometimes your entire world can change in a single moment. For a young Tia Carrere’s world became more excellent one trip a local grocery store where the parents of a man who was producing a movie saw her and told her about this movie their son was shooting. This would lead Tia Carrere to land a role in the film Aloha Summer. She says she was super nervous because she had never acted before and hadn’t even thought of it as an option in her life but she did it! Ms Carrere grew up wanting to be a singer.... and she did that too! After rocking everyone’s world in the Wayne’s World cinematic universe film franchise and the James Cameron classic True Lies, Tia Carrere became a household name in the early nineties while also standing toe to toe with some of the biggest names in the business. But after a few bad turns at the box office it seemed she was destined for the direct to video bins that would lead her into a steady career of TV appearances that never seemed to match the immense talent she displayed when she first started. With two Grammy wins to her name and a Disney live action remake that might not be horrible in the pipeline, its time we ask that ever important question: WTF Happened to Tia Carrere.

Silent Night marks John Woo's first American movie since 2003's Paycheck, and proves to be a solid, scrappy comeback for one of the greatest action directors of all time. Joel Kinnaman stars as a grieving father on a Christmastime mission on vengeance. For more MOVIE NEWS, visit: http://www.joblo.com SUBSCRIBE for more of all the LATEST JoBlo Videos here: https://goo.gl/R9U81J #silentnight #johnwoo #JoelKinnaman

If you had to name the most original filmmaker of the last half-century, what’s the first name that comes to mind? David Cronenberg? Wes Anderson? Maybe Werner Herzog or the Coen brothers? While all of them are certainly worthy contenders, it’s hard to argue against the lasting merits of David Lynch, the truly unique cinematic surrealist who has been tormenting audiences with nightmarishly vexing material since his feature film debut Eraserhead in 1977. Indeed, few filmmakers have become name brands unto themselves in the way Lynch’s name evokes a particular type of psychological moviegoing experience. And while he’s worked in many different genres in his career with varying results, no one explores the nature of dreams and the human subconscious like Lynch has repeatedly done throughout his filmography. Moreover, as seen in his tour-de-force 1986 neo-noir mystery Blue Velvet, Lynch has an uncanny knack for digging beneath the idyllic facade of small-town America and exposing the seedy underbelly that often lies beneath. It’s through that lens that we’ll fondly look back and discover what inspired the movie, how it was developed, what went into the casting, what memorable accidents and anecdotes occurred during production, how the film was shaped in the editing process, and what was left on the cutting room floor. In fact, we’ve got a lot more in store when we crack a Heineken…scratch that…a Pabst Blue Ribbon and find out What The F*** Happened to Blue Velvet! For more MOVIE NEWS, visit: http://www.joblo.com SUBSCRIBE for more of all the LATEST JoBlo Videos here: https://goo.gl/R9U81J #DavidLynch #BlueVelvet #wtfhappenedtothismovie

In this special edition of WTF Happened to this Celebrity, we take a look at three of the hottest stars of the 90s: Denise Richards, Freddie Prinze Jr, and Heather Graham. Denise Richards: After Starship Troopers and Wild Things, Denise Richards became one of the hottest stars of the decade. Yet, a controversial role in an unloved 007 film, The World is Not Enough, seemed to kill her momentum. What Happened? Freddie Prinze Jr: The son of the legendary Freddie Prinze, this actor was one of the hottest young leading men of his era, but never broke out from youth-oriented teen films. We discuss how he took a step back to focus on his family and relationship with long-time wife Sarah Michelle Gellar. Heather Graham: Roles in Boogie Nights and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me pigeonholed Heather Graham as a sexy dream girl, but in recent years she's had a lot of success playing against type. We dig into her comeback. For more MOVIE NEWS, visit: http://www.joblo.com SUBSCRIBE for more of all the LATEST JoBlo Videos here: https://goo.gl/R9U81J #DeniseRichards #freddieprinzejr #heathergraham

Every once in a while you will find a show that will become your obsession. You know what I'm talking about, it’s the show that you can't stop thinking about. The water cooler shows as they say. Game of Thrones, The Wire, and of course, Breaking Bad are the prime examples. But some shows that are equally as good, sometimes just fly under the radar. TV shows that are just as good if not better than the Breaking Bad's of the world. One of those shows is called The Shield, starring Michael Chiklis as corrupt cop Vic Mackey. This show is something special. To say that The Shield pushes the envelope is an understatement. The series showed the ugly side of crime and law enforcement. Corruption, murder, racism, political machinations, serial killers, and other dark stuff that you would probably would not like to hear about. This is one of those TV shows that I had to take a break from because it just got too intense. But, the complex and fascinating characters just brought me back for more. So is the Shield a forgotten brilliant piece of TV or am I just exaggerating? Let's find out in this episode of Gone But, Not Forgotten. For more MOVIE NEWS, visit: http://www.joblo.com SUBSCRIBE for more of all the LATEST JoBlo Videos here: https://goo.gl/R9U81J #TheShield #gonebutnotforgotten

Napoleon has proven a formidable adversary for filmmakers to topple. No less than Stanley Kubrick tried and failed to mount a lavish Napoleon biopic, but other than the contained and costly Russian flop Waterloo and the silent Abel Gance movie, the infamous military commander has never gotten the big-budget epic he deserved. Leave it to Ridley Scott, at 85, to finally do what Kubrick couldn't - make the definitive Napoleon movie. For more MOVIE NEWS, visit: http://www.joblo.com SUBSCRIBE for more of all the LATEST JoBlo Videos here: https://goo.gl/R9U81J #napoleon #ridleyscott #joaquinphoenix

If you followed indie film in the 90s, Vince Vaughn was at the center of a legendary tale. As the story goes, in order to get permission to used the theme from Jaws in the film Swingers, Doug LIman screened the film for Steven Spielberg’s approval. Not only did Stevie Boy allow them to use the scary shark tune but the legendary director knew he had to work with whoever was playing Trent Walker. And, he did just that when he cast Vince Vaughn in his Jurassic Park sequel, The Lost World. Spielberg instantly knew that Vince Vaughn was superstar material and he was correctomundo. Over the last nearly 30 years, he has given us some of the best comedic performance mixed in with some bone chilling anti-heroes. But it seems in the past few years Vaughn has slowed down his output to focus on smaller roles in more meaningful projects. Is that a good thing? Or a bad thing? Or just a thing? It is time we take a look at just WTF happened to Vince Vaughn, who we still think is pretty money.

If we’re talking about the holy trinity of Vietnam War movies, there’s no doubt about which ones reign supreme. Indeed, Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, Oliver Stone’s Platoon, and Stanely Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket will forever be regarded as the most viscerally harrowing glimpses into the physical and psychological toll that the Vietnam War had on a generation of young American men. Yet, despite the popularity of Full Metal Jacket, one can’t help but wonder how much more successful the movie would have been if weren’t released in the shadow of Platoon’s smashing success. Remember, not only did Platoon win four Oscars in 1987, including Best Picture, but it was released in theaters just five months before Full Metal Jacket. As a result, Kubrick’s undeniable classic sort of got lost in the shuffle and never received the contemporaneous accolades and attention it deserved. Of course, always ahead of the curve and far beyond his time, Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket has only gained appreciation and popularity over the years, with many even asserting that it’s the absolute best Vietnam War movie of all time. The truth is, Kubrick began working on Full Metal Jacket long before Platoon was in production and has more in common with Apocalypse Now than Oliver Stone’s Oscar-winning classic. We’ll explain exactly how in this video, along with the film’s development, casting process, principal photography, on-set anecdotes, injuries, and accidents, and of course, Kubrick’s painstaking process that arguably made him the greatest living filmmaker of all time. We're about to find out What Happened to Full Metal Jacket! For more MOVIE NEWS, visit: http://www.joblo.com SUBSCRIBE for more of all the LATEST JoBlo Videos here: https://goo.gl/R9U81J #FullMetalJacket #StanleyKubrick

Aint love grand! Well, maybe not if you're Johnny Depp or Amber Heard. But, it's usually a beautiful thing when two people meet and fall in love. For many of us, we meet these people at work and try to keep it hidden from the watchful eye of human resources, but in Hollywood, there is more than HR watching your every move. Paparazzi stalk you, shooting 100 pictures a minute to sell the juiciest one to the tabloids for the rest of the world to eat up with their morning coffee. The bigger the star you are, the more attention any picture of you gets. Johnny Depp was no stranger to having his love life plastered on every tabloid magazine and hack TV show, so when he started dating a girl 23 years his junior, Amber Heard, his beautiful co-star in The Rum Diaries, it was bound to get some headlines, but I’m not sure they were the headlines the Pirates of the Caribbean star wanted. They say that most marriages end in divorce, but how many end up in a courtroom with the world watching? It’s time we take a deeper look at the controversial marriage now known as: Depp v Heard. For more MOVIE NEWS, visit: http://www.joblo.com SUBSCRIBE for more of all the LATEST JoBlo Videos here: https://goo.gl/R9U81J #JohnnyDepp #amberheard

In 2019, Captain Marvel became the first female-led superhero movie to cross a billion dollars at the box office and garnered a decent critical response while simultaneously getting review bombed on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes. The Marvels has just not built the buzz that the studio was hoping for. Having seen the film, I can say that it is one of the most strangely structured MCU movies to date. Clocking in well under two hours, The Marvels never quite comes together satisfactorily and instead relies on some significant teases at the end to justify audiences checking it out on the big screen. For more MOVIE NEWS, visit: http://www.joblo.com SUBSCRIBE for more of all the LATEST JoBlo Videos here: https://goo.gl/R9U81J #TheMarvels #brielarson

A new decade began at the end of the 80s. The television landscape was beginning to change somewhat. The big three were nervous about a new network called Fox that, with an animated show of all things called The Simpsons, would manage to beat them in the ratings. ABC decided to gamble on something completely different in comparison to anything else on the television landscape at that time with David Lynch's Twin Peaks. This was the first glimpse that viewers would have into the misty and surreal town of Twin Peaks, a dream world created by David Lynch and Mark Frost which would become an obsession to viewers and would continue to be over the years to come. Twin Peaks didn't follow any conventional rule of how a TV series acted and David Lynch, a man known for the strange in his film work, would not tame it down for a small screen at all. So grab your damn fine coffee and get that slice of pie to go. We're about to arrive in the picturesque town of Twin Peaks…where nothing is what it seems. In this episode of Gone But Not Forgotten For more MOVIE NEWS, visit: http://www.joblo.com SUBSCRIBE for more of all the LATEST JoBlo Videos here: https://goo.gl/R9U81J #TwinPeaks #DavidLynch #GoneButNotForgotten