Dwayne Johnson Shares Jumanji 3 Set Photo With Karen Gillan

Dwayne Johnson Shares Jumanji 3 Set Photo With Karen Gillan

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was a massive hit that ended up giving Star Wars: The Last Jedi more of a run for its money at the box office than anybody ever expected. Jumanji and Star Wars are now getting ready to go head-to-head once again as Jumanji 3 is set to go up against Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Dwayne Johnson recently shared a new photo of himself and co-star Karen Gillan which shows the pair in a brand new setting, a desert.

If you didn't actually see Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, then the title is still a pretty big give away that the last movie took place entirely within a jungle setting. Since we don't know what the plot of the new film is, it's been unclear how it would plan to differentiate itself from the last movie, and it seems that at least part of the reason is that the story will unfold outside of the jungle setting that Jumanji has been so closely related to .

Dwayne Johnson's Instagram post shows sand as far as the eye can see. Other images that we've seen from production show the main cast in different outfits, including clothing that's clearly meant to keep them warm, which would imply they also end up somewhere very cold. I assumed we'd see them in the snow, though it's possible they could just end up at the desert at night.

Beyond that, the only changes come in the form of additions to the cast. Danny Devito, Awfwafina, and Danny Glover have been confirmed to be in the film, but their roles have not been revealed, so whether they're real world characters, in-game characters, or any two of them combine to make up a single character inside and outside the game, is anybody's guess.

Beyond the backdrop, the image doesn't tell us much. It's just two of our favorite characters from Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle looking sufficiently badass, but really that's good enough.

Karen Gillan herself responded to Dwayne Johnson's post with some great comments. She says "Awkward teenage love and crime" is the name of her autobiography. Gillan also gets a very positive response from her current on-screen dad, Josh Brolin.

The only real question right now about the project is that the film began production only this past February, and with a December release date, the movie isn't going to have a lot of time for post-production compared to your average blockbuster. While there weren't necessarily a lot of digital effects in the last film, there were some, and it looks like the post production team may end up with a tighter than usual window for getting that work done.

Overall Jumanji 3, or whatever it ends up being called, is looking to be a lot more of the same fun that made Welcome to the Jungle a hit with audiences.The next Jumanji is set for release December 13.

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Seth Rogen Has A Hard Time Doing Press For Bad Movies

Seth Rogen Has A Hard Time Doing Press For Bad Movies

No matter how accomplished an actor is, not every one of their projects is going to strike a chord in audiences the same way as the one’s their most famous for. Seth Rogen may have had built a name for himself during his over 20 years starring and making movies, but it’s an especially tough road when one doesn’t turn out how he’d wished it would. Here’s why per his words:

When I like it and am proud of it, I am definitely more relaxed. It's awkward to promote a movie that you yourself would not be that excited to go see. I remember You, Me and Dupree was the first time I had to do that, and that movie's fine, I just didn't love it. It honestly was not a movie I would have gone out to go see.

Yikes! The actor brings up an understandable point. Few industries require those involved to go out and promote all their work ,and it can be unpleasant to gush about a movie if you are not happy with. While most actors might find it easy to simply fake their enthusiasm about a bad movie (maybe pretend they’re doing a character who liked the movie?), Rogen told GQ it really takes a toll on him. He continued with these words:

I actually remember standing in my fucking closet in my apartment on Hayworth, doing a radio interview, being like, ‘Yeah, go see it, it's great,’ and being like, Ugh. Never again do I want to have to tell people to go see a movie that I myself actually wouldn't see. It's hard enough to promote a movie. When you're also morally corrupting yourself, it's a real bummer.

Ultimately, it looks like something positive came out of Rogen’s discomfort doing press for the movies he’s made. Namely, it made him only want to do projects he could be proud of. You, Me and Dupree may have been a bummer for the actor (which was directed by the Russo Brothers… you know those guys behind a little indie movie called Avengers: Endgame) but it pushed him to be more involved in his projects.

One year after that film, Seth Rogen made it big with his breakout hit Knocked Up, which he also was an executive producer on. That movie is still his biggest success, and was the start of Rogen being a regular producer on his movies (some of which he wrote as well) including Pineapple Express, 50/50, This is the End, Neighbors, The Interview and The Night Before.

Seth Rogen clearly loves being a part of the development process of a film, and having a say in the way it’s marketed. With the exception of a few movies, Rogen told GQ he gets uncomfortable about being in movies he is solely the actor in. This year he starred and produced in Long Shot, is producer on upcoming comedy Good Boys and is voicing the role of Pumbaa in The Lion King.

Way to pave your own success in the business. Seth Rogen may be high all the time (he said it, not me) but he can look back on a majority of his career feeling proud of what he’s accomplished and walk into press tours relaxed because of these experiences.

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Fantastic Four’s Box Office Bomb Contributed To Gambit’s Delays

Fantastic Four’s Box Office Bomb Contributed To Gambit’s Delays

Before superhero movies were everywhere, 20th Century Fox and Bryan Singer brought X-Men to theaters back in the year 2000. That franchise is still going strong today, with Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants set to arrive in theaters, despite Fox's upcoming merger with Disney. But Fox has had some missteps along the way, including Josh Trank's already infamous Fantastic Four movie. The comic book adaptation was a critical and financial flop, barely recouping its budget while being panned by audiences and critics alike.

While Fox has let the Deadpool franchise flourish and continued the main X-Men franchise, there is a certain flick that has sat in development hell for years: Channing Tatum's Gambit movie. The fan favorite character's solo movie has been pushed back a number of times, and the Fox/Disney merger makes its fate all the more precarious. Rupert Wyatt was poised to direct the project at one point, but he recently revealed that the failure of The Fantastic Four negatively affected the film's potential budget. As he put it:

I was very close with Channing Tatum and his producing partner Reid Carolin, and I was on the script with him and Josh Zetumer as a writer. We were close, I believe 10 weeks away. It simply came down to budget. There was not enough. You know all too well about the politics of the business. Fantastic Four had been released by Fox a month before and had not gone well for them, so our budget was slashed quite considerably.

Superhero movies may be the most profitable genre in the film world, but they also require the biggest budgets. As such, each new release is a major gamble. Fantastic Four failed to perform at the box office, so it seems Fox kept its purse strings a bit tighter, and didn't want to give Gambit the same type of cash money. Poor Remy Lebeau.

Rupert Wyatt's comments to Comics Beat help to illuminate the myriad delays that have hit Gambit since the potential blockbuster was announced. Channing Tatum has been signed to the project since May of 2014, so moviegoers have been waiting quite a bit of time for the fan favorite X-Man to reappear on the silver screen. Wyatt isn't the only director who has been attached to the project, as Doug Liman also left due to script concerns. The script was presumably being worked on, before the project's development was put officially on hold.

It's unclear if Disney has any interest in bringing Gambit into the MCU, with the House of Mouse expected to acquire the rival studio in a matter of weeks. This puts the fate of Gambit up in the air, as well as where/when exactly The New Mutants will be completed and released. This is a series of events the public has grown accustomed to, although The Fantastic Four's affect on Gambit's budget is an interesting development in the potential film's story.

Gambit has been delayed for years, with three different directors brought on, before eventually departing the ill-fated blockbuster. In addition to Rupert Wyatt and Doug Liman, The Ring director Gore Verbinski was the most recent addition to the trio. Verbinski was set to direct Channing Tatum when Gambit was going to get a December 14th, 2019 release date. The project would be somewhat romantic comedy inspired, and the casting process had even began before Verbinski departed Gambit due to scheduling and creative differences.

From there, Gambit's fate remained unclear. The project got pushed back a number of times since then, although Channing Tatum seemed determined to play the New Orleans mutant one way or another. Most recently, reports indicated Tatum had interest in both directing and starring in the project. Unfortunately, the news stopped there, as Fox's potential projects were put on hold due to the company's impending merger with Disney.

Gambit might never make it to theaters, which will no doubt be a point of contention with the rabid comic book fandom. Gambit became a household name due to the X-Men animated series, and his generations of fans are eager to see the card thrower on the big screen.

Of course, Gambit did appear in live-action once before, although it's a memory the fandom is likely trying to forget. Taylor Kitsch played Remy LeBeau in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the first spinoff in the X-Men franchise. While playing a supporting role and aligning with Hugh Jackman's Logan, the character (and movie) wasn't received well by the fans. As such, Channing Tatum's possible movie offers a welcomed alternative to that characterization. If it ever makes it to theaters, that is.

Overall, it's unclear exactly what Disney is planning to do with Fox's X-Men franchise, once the merger is finalized at last. While the House of Mouse will likely let Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool franchise operate independently, the rest of the mutants likely won't fare the same. Comic fans are eager to see the X-Men finally appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, although it seems unlikely that the same cast will be brought onto the payroll. Dark Phoenix has the potential to be the final installment in the long-running franchise, so potential projects like Gambit are probably the least of the studio's concerns at the moment.

Still, a superhero movie starring Channing Tatum as a fan favorite hero seems like money in the bank, who Disney might end up getting yet another director and moving forward with Gambit. Focusing on one X-Man at a time may help ease them into the MCU, rather than bringing an entire team of characters to an already crowded shared universe. At this point, it's anyone's guess.

Comic book fans are also hoping the Fantastic Four will get their own reboot within the MCU, as that's another team that has been noticeably missing from the larger shared universe. But considering how recently Josh Trank's version was in theaters, it may take moviegoers more time to get the taste of that flop out of their mouths.

The next installment in Fox's X-Men franchise will be Dark Phoenix on June 7th, and Gambit's release date was last set on March 13th, 2020. Be sure to check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

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Avatar's Box Office Record Is Even More Impressive After Avengers: Endgame

Avatar's Box Office Record Is Even More Impressive After Avengers: Endgame

There has not been a movie event in our lifetimes quite like Avengers: Endgame. No amount of pie-in-the-sky box office forecasting or broken pre-sales records could have prepared the industry or us for the opening weekend of Marvel’s culmination film. By the time all the money was counted on Monday morning, Avengers: Endgame had obliterated the domestic opening weekend box office record by nearly $100 million and left a sea of exhausted movie theater employees in its wake.

Avengers: Endgame shot off like a rocket and the domestic opening weekend record was just the first major victim to fall to Marvel’s decade-in-the-making achievement. One by one, the Russo Brothers film climbed the box office charts, breaking records and felling many other massive movies, including those of the MCU, on its way to the top. Records are made to be broken, and like a blow from Stormbreaker, Endgame has done plenty of breaking.

But there is one record in particular left to break. One record that cements a movie as the biggest ever and the all-time box office champ. One film that stands alone. That record is for the worldwide box office gross, and it belongs to James Cameron’s Avatar.

After an opening weekend that got it over 40% of the way there, and after it sunk James Cameron’s other box office stalwart Titanic, it seemed to many like it was a matter of ‘if’, not ‘when’ Avengers: Endgame would break Avatar’s record. That inevitability might have been premature though.

Avengers: Endgame currently sits at $2.713 billion worldwide, but Forbes’ Scott Mendelsohn does not see it having enough juice to make it to the $2.788 billion and beyond needed to match Avatar and claim the worldwide box office crown. Instead, he predicts that it will top out at a staggering, but still second-place, total $2.766 billion.

It is still a monumental achievement and no one involved has anything to hang their heads over if the film has to ‘settle’ for being 2nd to James Cameron’s 2009 film. Yet, regardless of whether the MCU film ultimately claims the top spot on the worldwide charts or comes up just short, Avatar’s box office record is even more impressive after Avengers: Endgame.

I think we sometimes hand wave Avatar’s record and take it for granted because it has become a constant in our minds. We all know that Avatar is the biggest movie of all time, but the abstract nature of that fact has made it seem at times less like something that the film achieved and more like something that just is. That detracts from how impressive its run really was.

First, it must be addressed how long Avatar’s record has lasted. Avatar was released in December of 2009 and since it ended Titanic’s reign at the top, it has never once been so much as threatened until Avengers: Endgame. That’s nearly a decade of dominance where the biggest films Hollywood could muster all failed to even sniff Avatar’s record.

The Na’vi held off the reboot of the Jurassic Park franchise, a franchise whose original 1993 film once held the worldwide record before Titanic. The end of Harry Potter, the animated phenomenon Frozen and the MCU’s finest and biggest films all fell short. Even the return of Star Wars, an incredible cultural and cinematic moment, with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, wasn’t enough.

Hollywood may have become more myopically focused on tentpole blockbusters since 2009, but in that time it still couldn’t craft one that could to bring down Toruk Makto. And if Avengers: Endgame too falls short, Avatar’s long reign will continue on.

Domestically, Avengers: Endgame beat Avatar and currently sits at $815.7 million according to Box Office Mojo. That makes it the second film, after Star Wars: The Force Awakens (which made $936.7 million domestically, a record Endgame definitely won’t be beating) to best Avatar’s $760.5 million take.

Consider this though: Avatar got to $760.5 million domestically and that current Number 3 spot with a max domestic theater count of 3,461. At the height of its run Avengers: Endgame enjoyed a theater count of 4,662. That’s over 1,200 more theaters than Avatar had to achieve what it did. And according to the National Association of Theater Owners, the average U.S. ticket price was $7.50 in 2009 versus $9.11 last year.

Inflation means that movie tickets were less in 2009, which would be to Avatar’s benefit, but James Cameron’s movie was also the first, and arguably last, 3D event, and thus demanded premium ticket prices from audiences wanting the full experience. So to be fair, that issue gets a bit financially muddled. And domestically, when adjusted for inflation, the movie that sold the most tickets and remains and will forever remain the GOAT is Gone With the Wind.

Also, while Endgame started out with a massive bang at the box office that got it a lot of its haul very quickly, it also burned out faster. Whereas Avatar was a slow burn at the box office, with small percentage drops week to week that saw it methodically build its total. Avatar did also have a special edition re-release in the summer of 2010 that added $10.74 million domestically to its final tally.

Endgame debuted with a stunning $357.1 million and held on to the top spot on the domestic charts for 3 weeks. Avatar didn’t even crack $100 million opening weekend, making $77 million. That puts it in 97th place for opening weekends. But it stayed in first place for seven straight weeks and didn’t leave the top 10 until week 15. That’s crazy, and internationally Avatar’s accomplishments are just as impressive.

Avengers: Endgame has opened to a record $866.5 million overseas and to date has made $1.897 billion. Compare that with Avatar, which opened to a meager $164.5 million and went on to make $2.029 billion. And although blockbusters often make a huge chunk of their gross internationally, the foreign box office of 2009 wasn’t what it is today.

We often cite the ever-growing importance of the China market for Hollywood films, but Avatar only made $204.1 million there. That’s because back then China only had less than 5,000 movie theater screens. Today the Middle Kingdom has around 60,000 according to The Washington Post. That incredible market growth has given blockbusters like Avengers: Endgame greater opportunity to make money. Endgame did just that, with $614.3 million in China so far, triple what Avatar did.

More screens equals more money, and because it played on fewer screens worldwide, Avatar had to do more with less, which makes the fact that it is still Number 1, whether it stays that way or not, all the more impressive.

Those are all just quantitative measures though and when you consider the qualitative factors of Avengers: Endgame and Avatar, the latter’s worldwide record is even more admirable.

While we sing the praises of Avatar’s record, it must be said that for all the factors like inflation and theater count, James Cameron’s film did have some distinct advantages that Avengers: Endgame did not enjoy. The most obvious of those is that Avatar released in December of 2009, years before studios decided on a year-round blockbuster season. That’s something Avatar arguably started, Disney continued with Star Wars and will soon alternate holiday seasons between Star Wars movies and the Avatar sequels.

In the weeks and months that followed Avatar’s release, Sherlock Holmes, The Book of Eli, The Wolfman, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief and Dear John were released. It wasn’t really until March of 2010 when a true blockbuster arrived in the form of Alice in Wonderland. Endgame was given no such quarter, with Detective Pikachu, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, Aladdin and Godzilla: King of the Monsters all following in the month or so after its release.

Nevertheless, despite its advantageous release month, Avatar still had more work to do than Endgame to reach the heights it did. Avatar was an original movie, from the filmmaker who made Titanic sure, but it had no real star power beyond James Cameron and Sigourney Weaver in a supporting role. We’ve seen other original sci-fi blockbusters from name filmmakers and some with even more star power fail to launch, and Avatar could have easily gone the way of Jupiter Ascending.

It had to succeed by selling audiences through its marketing and in the theater, and it did so with fantastic word of mouth and repeat viewings from audiences that fell in love with the spectacle of the film and wanted to live in Pandora.

Conversely, Avengers: Endgame was always guaranteed to be huge. Before we saw the first trailer, I’d say it had a good chance to snag the opening weekend record. That’s because it was the culmination of a franchise and characters audiences have invested in for over a decade. Everyone had already made up their minds to see it a long time ago.

It has the powerful Marvel branding and is the biggest film in the MCU, which is the biggest franchise in movie history. Those factors made Avengers: Endgame a true monoculture event that everyone wanted to be a part of, and the frenzy opening weekend is testament to that.

So the fact that it had all that going for it and it still might not surpass Avatar, and if it does it will be close, throws into stark relief just how impressive what Avatar did was. That’s not to take anything away from Avengers: Endgame, which has been a monumental achievement and no matter what film holds the top spot, Disney is the winner in all of this with Fox’s Avatar now under its umbrella.

That Avatar has finally been challenged though shows just how much it takes to beat it and looks to be a truly herculean and perhaps Sisyphean task. The question then becomes, if something like Marvel’s biggest film can’t beat it, can anything?

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Mark Hamill Is Totally Into The First Joker Trailer

Mark Hamill Is Totally Into The First Joker Trailer

A lot of opinions are flying around out there pertaining to just what to think of the new Joker film that’s set to debut this fall. While fans of the character are certainly one of the most of the most vocal bodies of response out there, someone quite close to the character has just thrown down their two cents. And as you’ll see in the tweet below, Mark Hamill himself is very much on the accepting side of this new film.

If anyone were to pass on the torch of playing this iconic prince of crime, Hamill would certainly qualify as one such party. Portraying the character on and off through voice-over work between 1992 and the present era, Mark Hamill is synonymous with the role of The Joker, as his work on Batman: The Animated Series only further entrenched the already popular character into the pop culture consciousness. So knowing how connected he is to the role, it’s particularly exciting to see him approve of this bold move forward for the character.

Seeing Mark Hamill approve of Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker, via this post in his personal Twitter, is kind of like when Tom Holland, the director of Child’s Play, piped up with his approval of Hamill taking over the role of Chucky for the MGM branded reboot. Though a closer analogue would be if actor Brad Dourif happened to chime in with blessing, that’s the closest example we have to how cool this seal of approval really is. And it is indeed, pretty damned cool.

With Joker’s new incarnation of the character, the proceedings look like they’re going to get grittier and possibly more disturbing than we’ve ever seen before. Or at the very least, the disturbing stuff is going to hit closer to home, as the iconic world of Gotham and its most infamous villain look as grounded as when Christopher Nolan unveiled his version of the character, played by the late Heath Ledger, in his Dark Knight Trilogy.

As history has taught us, this doesn’t always go over well with folks who are as associated with a character as Mark Hamill is. But, in true Hamill fashion, you could picture the man smiling in his chair, waiting to get a load of what Joaquin Phoenix and Todd Phillips will bring to the lexicon of lunacy that Arthur Fleck is about to enter.

Joker smiles for the camera on October 4th, with Child’s Play hitting June 21st. But if you want to get some villainy or heroism into your life a lot sooner than that, you should visit our 2019 release calendar to find it.

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Doc Ock Might Be The Main Villain Of The Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse Franchise

Doc Ock Might Be The Main Villain Of The Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse Franchise

One of the things that was readily apparent in last year’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was that this property is perfectly suited to be a franchise with its own cinematic universe. Fortunately, Sony seems to agree, and a spinoff and sequel are now in development. Although the Spider-Verse franchise is just beginning, it seems that it may already have a big bad in the form of Olivia Octavius, a.k.a. Doctor Octopus.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse co-director Rodney Rothman hinted at the character’s future in the franchise, saying:

In the end, we found the movie played fine without us tagging every single possible thing. But we definitely think of Liv as someone who is not gone from the story, and who in many ways, is our most powerful bad guy. She's manipulating a lot of things to achieve her own grand ambitions.

Based on his comments to Total Film (via Screen Rant), it seems that Rodney Rothman and the filmmakers of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse didn’t want to reference too much or do too much setting up for the future, but it is clear that Doc Ock is not gone and she may have a significant place in that future. The way he describes her as the most powerful bad guy implies that he sees her as a villain with serious potential in this franchise.

This is quite the turnaround considering that co-director Peter Ramsey previously said that there was a worry at one point (before Kathryn Hahn stepped into the recording booth) that Spider-Verse’s Doc Ock was going to be too goofy and quirky to seem like a real deadly threat that Miles and audiences should be concerned about.

Rodney Rothman’s comments about Liv evoke Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Although Miles Morales has already battled with her, the idea that she is still manipulating things behind the scenes, and pulling strings with her mechanical appendages to her own nefarious ends, is very reminiscent of the role Josh Brolin’s character played in The Infinity Saga. Over time we found out Thanos’ ambitions and what he was after, and finding out Liv’s will be something to watch for as this franchise continues.

In Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Kingpin was the main villain, but the gender-swapped Doc Ock was perhaps the scariest foe Miles Morales encountered. Kathryn Hahn’s deliciously diabolical villain had a positively killer introduction where she went full mad scientist and wanted to watch Peter Parker disintegrate from being in the wrong dimension like Game of Thrones’ Qyburn wanting to keep a decapitated head for research.

Doc Ock is a formidable physical opponent in her own right, but it is her unhinged brilliance and mental game that will likely elevate her above the fray to become the franchise’s big bad. In Spider-Verse, she was the CEO and head scientist of Alchemax, and if she is really manipulating events, I could see that company playing a major role in future films.

We’ll keep you updated as Sony’s animated Spider-Verse develops, and check out our 2019 Release Schedule to see all the biggest movies heading your way in a jam-packed summer season.

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15 Best Movies To Watch On Amazon Prime Right Now

15 Best Movies To Watch On Amazon Prime Right Now

Having a streaming subscription is only as good as knowing how to use it, and in order to get the most out of a service like Amazon Prime, you need a good starting point. That’s easier said than done, as the library of films and TV options is so voluminous that you could spend a whole day just browsing.

But that’s not what you should be doing. You should be watching things, otherwise you’re just paying for a really cool slide show.

To that effect, we’re going to show you 15 of the best launchpads into the world of Amazon Prime’s moving offerings. Now these titles are subject to change, so you may want to check on the availability of these titles yourself. But at this moment, these are the 15 best movies included with an Amazon Prime membership that are totally worth the time.

A Quiet Place

Writer/director John Krasinski’s big debut behind the camera, A Quiet Place, was an unquestionable success at the box office upon its release. Taking the world by storm, this tale of an apocalypse where the slightest sound may be your last is a thrilling exercise in tension and horror. But even more impressive is how Krasinski and his actual wife, Emily Blunt, use their own real life connection to not only tie their characters together in a realistic manner, but also to include their on screen children in a similarly effective manner. It just makes this already thrilling horror blockbuster all the more believable.

Cold War

One of the best films to come out in 2018, Cold War, also happens to be an Amazon Studios original film. Its big entry into the Best Foreign Language Race of this past Oscar race, the film tells the story of a complicated romance between a music teacher and his young pupil. That love story alone is intriguing, but seeing it weave in and out of the rise of Communism in Poland between the end of World War II and the sociopolitical era it’s named after is something that only enhances the conflict between these characters in Pawel Pawlikowski’s lush directorial follow up to Ida.

The Shawshank Redemption

Just because a movie like Frank Darabont’s classic adaptation of The Shawshank Redemption has been talked up to the high heavens doesn’t mean everyone’s seen it. To that effect, it’s important that streaming services like Amazon Prime make it available, as this classic tale of hope in a time of imprisonment is always a good bet for entertainment. Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman are the two faces mostly associated with this film, but an incredible supporting roster that includes Clancy Brown, Bob Gunton, William Sadler and James Whitmore Jr. are all present to lend powerful assists in bringing Stephen King’s cherished novella to life.

The Blues Brothers

Sometimes a musical is just a musical, and sometimes it’s a car-chasing, soul singing, blues-fueled adventure like The Blues Brothers. Born out of a recurring musical act/gag featured on Saturday Night Live, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd star as Jake and Elwood, two orphaned brothers with a taste for mayhem. The story is technically about the boys trying to raise enough money to keep their childhood orphanage open, but don’t let that fool you. Director John Landis’ film is just as much about keeping the songs and celebrity cameos coming as it is about saving the day.

Eighth Grade

It’s an odd bit of symmetry knowing that writer/director Bo Burnham made a film about a young girl trying to become YouTube famous in her last days of middle school. Eighth Grade tells us that story through the eyes of Kayla, actor Elsie Fisher’s lead character in Burnham’s film. But knowing that Burnham became a sensation through the platform only lends more credence to his story about a young person trying to strike the very same sort of success, and why maybe it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. No matter what age you are or what era you grew up in, this movie hits home hard.

The King of Comedy

As the new Joker film seems to be pulling a lot of influence -- and possibly even lifting whole plot points -- directly from Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy, it’s a good time to experience one of the legendary director’s lesser-known films. With even Robert DeNiro himself stating that this film feeds pretty heavily into the DNA of Joker, this film will set you up for what could be one of DC’s most experimental films ever. But even without the connection to that new film in the DC Comics line of cinematic storytelling, it’s a damned treat to watch DeNiro’s Rupert Pupkin go from mere daydreaming to full-blown psychosis, under the trusted hand of one of his most trusted collaborators.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a rather interesting title to discuss, as it’s an intersection between two subjects we’ll discuss in this rundown. Much like The King of Comedy, it has ties to a more modern version, thanks to The Hustle being a remake of this very film. On top of that fact, director Frank Oz’s ‘80s comedy classic is a remake itself of the David Niven/Marlon Brando comedy romp Bedtime Stories. So substitute Niven for Michael Caine, Brando for Steve Martin, and unleash this combination on the French Rivera, in the name of racing to a $50k swindle that proves who runs the show and who’s got to go. That’s Dirty Rotten Scoundrels on paper, but the execution is so beautiful to behold on screen.

The Big Sick

Real life can be funny, but it can also be pretty sad. Both are pretty powerful emotions and they’re difficult to nail when taking a true story like The Big Sick and bringing it to the big screen. Based on the real life courtship of writers Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, and how a mystery illness brought them closer together, this particular story understands the balance between those emotions perfectly. The funny and the sad radiate throughout this film with beautiful clarity, creating a film that truly understands the humanity in its source, while still being quite entertaining.

Kick-Ass

Without Kick-Ass’s success, we probably would have never gotten X-Men: First Class or either of the Kingsman films to feast our eyes on. That’s because director Matthew Vaughn honed his comic adapting skills on this indie book, showcasing a normal high school kid’s rise into a street-level vigilante. Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Chloe Grace Moretz made a pretty big splash as the high school kid who gives the film its name, and the young Hit-Girl who becomes a friend and sidekick to Kick-Ass’s crime fighting crusade. But if you’re a Nicolas Cage fan, you’ll want to partake in this particular film, as it has one of his best performances to date.

Hereditary

Horror movies live and breathe on word of mouth, quite possibly more than any other genre out there. While we all want that occasional good scare, we also want to know if said scare is going to be within our comfort zone before taking the trip. As such, when a film like Hereditary is talked about to the extent that it did during last summer’s box office heatwave, that sort of hype can be scary in and of itself. But you shouldn’t fear Ari Aster’s slow burning film, as it ramps up to the truly terrifying stuff in such a way that you’re freaked out, but you’re only jumping out of your seat every so often. Think less of a jump scare parade and more of an atmospheric dimming of the lights of safety, and you can begin to understand what Hereditary has in store for you.

The Thomas Crown Affair

Good luck creating a remake as awesome as The Thomas Crown Affair. Two years before Oceans’ Eleven would take another piece of ‘60s pop culture and turn it into a sharp and witty ride for the new millennium, director John McTiernan got the jump on the game and made a caper as sexy as it is funny. Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo anchor the tale of a millionaire who steals things for the fun of it, and the investigator who wants to make him pay in the name of the hunt. Though with all of those elements acknowledged, Michael B. Jordan’s proposed remake of this very same film does have a good chance of bringing this particular property back into the pop culture fold in similar style.

The Birdcage

It’s not easy to adapt a stage play into a film, much less remake that adaptation into something equally as funny as it source. And yet, La Cage Aux Folles not only translated perfectly into its initial French film offering in the ‘70s, it also made the comedic genius that was The Birdcage. When your cast consists of a comedic battle royale that includes Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest, it’s up to the creative team to screw things up. Not only did the legendary team of director Mike Nichols and writer Elaine May deliver the perfect playground for all of these legends to play ball in, they dropped Hank Azaria in for an extra dose of spice.

Child’s Play

Yes, that Child’s Play remake is happening this year, and if it does well, we’ll have another variant of Chucky to run and hide from in pop culture. As the prospect of Mark Hamill being the newer, more digital Chucky is pretty damned exciting, it’s still going to be hard not to think back to the original film. That’s not a knock to the Child’s Play for the modern era, but Brad Dourif’s original incarnation is still pretty iconic, and always worth a revisit; especially in the pre-comedic state that this very first film embodies so perfectly.

Cloverfield

While it was released a little over a decade ago, Cloverfield still has a pretty strong following of fans and theorists that dig into its humble origins for clues to the future. What started as a clever viral marketing sensation became yet another franchise that has spurred on a fresh round of detective work with each passing film. And no matter how many sequels are made, it all seems to lead back to this modern legend.

Arrival

The 2016 sci-fi hit Arrival made a huge name for itself as a contender for Best Picture in its Academy Awards class, but the film seems to be settling into a newer, bigger role since its upsetting loss. Director Denis Villeneuve’s tale of linguistics in a first contact scenario seems to be on the track to becoming a classic, as the beauty of its story is only outdone by the perfect performances from Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and a supporting cast of notables. Just be prepared to cry more than a little while watching this one.

Amazon Prime has a ton of options for anyone looking to entertain themselves through the medium of the movies. So when you’ve exhausted your best options on this list, don’t forget to venture deeper into the waters the company provides. You might just find a new, lesser-known favorite that’s dying to get its moment in the sun.

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