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HBO original series “The Righteous Gemstones,” Max original Spanish-language series “When No One Sees Us,” reality series “Paul American,” original film “The Parenting,” HBO original documentary series “Celtics City,” A24 films “Heretic,” “Sing Sing,” and “Queer,” 2025 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship are all coming to Max this March.

Here’s a list of every movie, series, and sports event coming to the platform next month.

March 1

A Lost Lady (1934)

A Woman’s Face (1941)

Aew Special Events, 2020A (2020)

Aew Special Events, 2021A (2021)

Aew Special Events, 2022A (2022)

Aew Special Events, 2023A (2023)

Aew Special Events, 2024A (2024)

Along the Great Divide (1951)

Arrow in the Dust (1954)

Assassin’s Creed (2016)

Away We Go (2009)

Big Eyes (2014)

Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951)

Carrie (1976)

Carrie (2013)

Child’s Play (1988)

Child’s Play (2019)

Executive Suite (1954)

Ghostbusters (1984)

Ghostbusters II (1989)

Goodbye, My Fancy (1951)

GoodFellas (1990)

Jeopardy (1953)

Ladies They Talk About (1933)

Maggie (2015)

Massacre River (1949)

Men in Black (1997)

Men in Black II (2002)

Men in Black III (2012)

My Reputation (1946)

Night Nurse...

Max has revealed the full list of featured programming coming to the streaming service in March 2025. Among the highlights are the arrival of a trio of A24 films: Heretic, the psychological horror film in which Hugh Grant terrorizes two missionaries who knock on his door; Sing Sing, the acclaimed drama about a group of incarcerated men who put on their own theatrical production; and Queer, Luca Guadagnino’s adaption of the William S. Burroughs’ novella of the same name.

This month will also see the premiere of the final season of The Righteous Gemstones, a new documentary on the Boston Celtics, titled, Celtics City, and the premiere of Paul American, a new reality series starring Jake and Logan Paul.

Find what other movies and shows are streaming on Max beginning in March 2025 below.

Titles Coming To Max In March:

*This list may not be comprehensive and is subject to change...

Exclusive: Liam Neeson action chase film The Mongoose is underway in Australia with Oscar winner Marisa Tomei, Mission Impossible star Ving Rhames, and Emmy winner Michael Chiklis (The Shield) joining the cast.

Oscar nominee Neeson (Schindler’s List) will star as Ryan “Fang” Flanagan, a war hero who, accused of a crime he didn’t commit and with nothing to lose, leads police on an epic televised cross-country car chase.

Tomei will play Tara, Fang’s ex-wife, who asks Fang for help when she finds herself in trouble. Rhames will play Tanker, Fang’s loyal right hand who was the second-in-command of Fang’s Special Forces squad when they were captured in Afghanistan. Chiklis will play Pope, the violent and reckless head of the Texas Highway Patrol who is convinced of Fang’s guilt.

Pic will be directed by Mark Vanselow, whose career as an action sequence director, action designer,...

Several prominent figures in the entertainment industry have connections to Scientology. Many well-known actors and celebrities are members of the religious organization. Founded in the 1950s by sci-fi author L. Ron Hubbard, the religion has always inspired intrigue and skepticism in people. As per the church’s official website, Scientology addresses the spirit. The church has maintained a significant presence in Hollywood through its Celebrity Centres.

A lot of controversy and allegations surround the celebrities who align themselves with the faith, leading to many not being open about their association with the church.

However, some have no qualms in revealing themselves as Scientology parishioners. They have even tried to proselytize people by using their popularity. Here’s a list of celebrities who have been open about their links with Scientology.

1. Tom Cruise Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible 7 | Credits: Paramount Pictures

Tom Cruise is considered the poster boy of Scientology in Hollywood.

Peacock has announced the lineup of movies, TV shows, and live sports that will be available on the streaming service in September. The Peacock September 2024 schedule includes Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist, which tells the infamous story of how an armed robbery on the night of Muhammad Ali’s historic 1970 comeback fight transformed Atlanta into the “Black Mecca”).

Celebrate the 50th anniversary of Little House on the Prairie on September 11 (all nine seasons are currently streaming on Peacock). Plus, get a double dose of housewife realness with the two-part reunion of The Real Housewives of Dubai Season 2 uncensored on September 11 and 18, and the season five premiere of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City on September 19.

Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist

September also brings the spooks! Peacock’s “Face Your Fears” horror collection starts to roll out on the 1st, with more than 75+ Halloween titles arriving in September alone,...

Exclusive: Nashville and Heroes star Hayden Panettiere has signed with APA.

The two-time Golden Globe nominee recently finished filming on Scream 6 in which she reprises her role as Kirby Reed.

Panettiere’s breakout role came as Claire Bennet in NBC’s Heroes and she went on to get the starring role of Juliette Barnes in ABC’s hit Nashville. She also starred in the final season of David E. Kelly’s Ally McBeal for Fox.

The actress’s other film credits include The Forger opposite Josh Hutcherson, Remember the Titans with Denzel Washington, Custody with Viola Davis, Chris Columbus’s I Love You Beth Cooper, and Bring It On: All Or Nothing.

Scream 6 marks Panettiere’s first movie in six years. She hasn’t acted in TV since Nashville ended in 2018. Last month, the actress opened up to People magazine about a long struggle with alcohol and substance...

Even though Samantha Stark didn’t get to interview Britney Spears personally for “Controlling Britney Spears,” she does find herself in awe of the strength that she’s displayed throughout her career. “One thing that surprised me is that people told me that she had been in control and huge contributor to her art as a teenager. When she first became big, people thought she was a puppet, but I heard from so many people that she wasn’t,” she tells Gold Derby during our Meet the Experts: TV Documentary panel (watch the exclusive video interview above). That strength became even more admirable as the details of Spears’s conservatorship were found out. “The question of consent comes up for me a lot, because if Britney Spears couldn’t consent to who she saw and who her friends were, how could she consent to working and signing?”

See More than...

Sales agency Beta Cinema has revealed the casting of further lead roles for action thriller “The Climb”: Hero Fiennes Tiffin, star of the global box office franchise series “After,” as well as the upcoming Sony/Tristar feature “The Woman King,” and IMDb break-out star Hannah John-Kamen, best known for her performances in “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp” and “Black Mirror,” will star alongside Cara Delevingne, who was announced earlier this year.

After Signature Entertainment picked up the project ahead of the Marché du Film in Cannes for U.K. and Ireland, Beta Cinema has closed further deals for Germany, Austria and Italy (Koch Films), Switzerland (Ascot Elite), Spain (Youplanet Pictures) and Middle East (Front Row). Further major territories are being negotiated.

Based on the true-life 2013 Greenpeace protest on top of London’s iconic skyscraper The Shard, and directed by experienced visual effects art director Hayley Easton-Street,...

Hayden Panettiere Is Back As Kirby Reed In Spyglass Media And Paramount Pictures’ Next Installment Of Scream: "Hayden Panettiere will make her return to the big screen as “Kirby Reed,” reprising her role from “Scream 4” (2011), it was announced today by Spyglass Media and Paramount Pictures. Panettiere joins previously announced returning cast members Melissa Barrera Jasmin Savoy Brown Mason Gooding and Jenna Ortega (“Tara”). Principal photography is slated to start this summer.

Panettiere is well-known for her roles on the hit television series “Heroes” (NBC) and “Nashville” (ABC) and starring in such films as “Custody” alongside Viola Davis, “The Forger,” with Josh Hutcherson and “Remember the Titans” opposite Denzel Washington. Panettiere’s other major film credits include “I Love You Beth Cooper,” “Bring It On: All or Nothing,” and “Ice Princess.”

The ”Scream” saga continues with the four survivors of the Ghostface killings as they leave Woodsboro behind and start a fresh chapter.

Hayden Panettiere will reprise her Scream 4 role of Kirby Reed for the next installment in the franchise from Spyglass Media and Paramount Pictures. She’s set to star alongside Melissa Barrera, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding and Jenna Ortega, who toplined the recent reboot of the franchise from directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (aka Radio Silence).

The next Scream film will pick up with Sam (Barrera), Mindy (Brown), Chad (Gooding) and Tara (Ortega)—four survivors of the most recent batch of Ghostface killings—as they leave Woodsboro behind and start a fresh chapter. Panettiere’s Kirby, you might recall, is the former Woodsboro resident who was the lone teenage survivor of the Second Woodsboro Murders in the fourth Scream film. Principal photography on the sequel, also to be helmed by Radio Silence, will kick off this summer.

James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick are co-writing the screenplay, with Project X Entertainment’s Vanderbilt,...

Patrick Lussier, whose credits include Drive Angry, My Bloody Valentine and Dracula 2000, directs.

Voltage Pictures will commence sales in Cannes on the morgue-set thriller Play Dead co-written by genre aces Adam Mason and Simon Boyes and starring Bailee Madison, the fast-rising talent whose credits include Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin and The Strangers: Prey At Night.

Patrick Lussier, whose credits include Drive Angry, My Bloody Valentine and Dracula 2000, directs from the screenplay by Mason and Boye, the writers behind Blood River, Song Bird and Hangman.

Play Dead is currently in post-production and centres on criminology student Chloe (Madison), who...

Forest Whitaker also produced Cannes’s title ’For The Sake Of Peace’ which will premiere in Special Screenings.

Academy-award winning US actor, director and producer Forest Whitaker will receive the honorary Palme d’Or at the opening ceremony of the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival (May 17-28).

Whitaker first attended Cannes in 1988 as the star of Clint Eastwood’s Bird where he won the best actor prize. He has since returned to the festival for Bill Duke’s A Rage in Harlem, Abel Ferrara’s Body Snatchers, and Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai.

Kino Lorber is planning a theatrical release in North America for late 2022.

German sales powerhouse Beta Cinema has announced multiple deals on its Second World War drama The Forger, which will be screening in the Cannes Marché following its Berlinale premiere last February.

The film has sold to North America (Kino Lorber), Australia and New Zealand (Palace Films), China (Huanxi Media Group), Hong Kong (Edko), Taiwan (Moviecloud), Spain (Vercine), Former Yugoslavia (Discovery) and Scandinavia (Future Film).

Kino Lorber is planning a theatrical release for late 2022, followed by a digital rollout on all platforms including Kino Now.

The Forger is written and directed by Maggie Peren,...

Comedy “How to Please a Woman,” starring “Veep” and “Bridget Jones Diary” actor Sally Phillips, has generated brisk business for Beta Cinema. Brainstorm Media has taken all rights for the U.S. and will release the film theatrically on July 22, and pay TV operator Sky has secured all rights for the U.K.

Beta Cinema also sold all rights for Canada (Mongrel Media), Poland (Monolith Films), former Yugoslavia (Discovery), Czech Republic (Bohemia Motion Pictures) and Hungary (Ads).

Madmen will put the film out in Australia and New Zealand on a wide release on May 19 and May 26, respectively.

Phillips stars as 50-year-old Gina, who feels she has become “invisible to everyone.” Establishing a house-cleaning service, staffed by good-looking male cleaners who provide cleaning with benefits, the film follows her as she learns how to ask for what she wants and encourages other women to do the same.

“We fell in love...

Exclusive: Hayden Panettiere has signed with Mainstay Entertainment for management.

Actress, model and singer Panettiere has been acting since age four. She is best known for her role as Claire Bennet on the NBC series Heroes and subsequently starred in the ABC hit series Nashville, which earned her two Golden Globe nominations.

On the feature side, she played the lead in the film Custody alongside Viola Davis and prior to that starred in The Forger opposite Josh Hutcherson. She was appeared in horror Scream 4.

Other film credits include I Love You Beth Cooper and Remember The Titans.

Panettiere first appeared on-screen in a commercial in 1990 at only 11 months old. However, her full-time acting career began in 1994 on the long-running ABC soap One Life To Live.

LA-based Mainstay’s clients include Katherine Heigl, Lupita Nyong’o, Kim Coates, Peter Facinelli and Franka Potente.

When last we saw Daveed Diggs's Andre Layton on Snowpiercer Season 3 Episode 6, he had succumbed to the head injuries he'd sustained in his battle to the death with Pike.

TV Fanatic is excited to bring you a sneak peek at where Layton's mind goes when his brain is just trying to survive.

In this exclusive clip, a familiar yet different Bess Till leads Layton through a familiar yet different corridor, giving him some cryptic (and painful) directions on how to get home.

The relationship between Mickey Sumner's Bess Till and Daveed Diggs's Andre Layton on TNT's Snowpiercer has always been a cornerstone of the series.

While she may have started out as his guard in on Snowpiercer Season 1 Episode 1 when he was first brought up from the Tail to investigate the Third Class murder, she soon discovered she had a lot to learn from him.

Meanwhile, Layton...

As well as providing a showcase for international films, the Berlinale is also a platform for German cinema. There are more than 130 German films and co-productions screening across the festival and the European Film Market.

Pre-pandemic, in 2019, 237 German films were produced a year, but only 10 to 20 a year perform well internationally, according to Simone Baumann, managing director of German Films, which promotes Teutonic movies abroad. Of the total worldwide admissions for European films in 2019, 6% were German films, compared with 18% for French films, according to the European Audiovisual Observatory.

To up the performance of local films, German Films is seeking to begin its promotional work earlier in the life of a project, such as at works-in-progress sessions at festivals like Les Arcs. The objective is to catch the eye of festival programmers, distributors and sales agents at an early stage.

Thorsten Ritter, executive VP acquisitions, sales and marketing at Beta Cinema,...

Are international distributors in a buying mood?

The Berlinale’s European Film Market (EFM) kicks off its 2022 edition this Thursday (February 10), running virtually for a second year after a surge in Omicron-related Covid cases in Germany in early January forced it online amid fresh restrictions.

The EFM’s official February 10-17 dates are tied to the world premiere calendar of its parent festival’s compact physical edition. Most sales agents, however, began cranking up Zoom calls to buyers last week with meetings expected to swing into top gear on Monday (February 7).

The news in mid-January that the EFM would be...

Louis Hofmann is set as the male lead opposite Aria Mia Loberti in Netflix’s All The Light We Cannot See, a four-part limited series adaptation of Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller, from Shawn Levy and Steven Knight. Also cast in the series Lars Eidinger and newcomer Nell Sutton.

Loberti, who is blind, plays Marie-Laure, the blind teenager at the heart of the story, whose path collides with Werner (Hofmann), a German soldier, as they both try to survive the devastation of World War II in occupied France.

Hofmann’s Werner is a quietly pensive, handsome young German soldier who gets swept up in the brutality of war. Soulful, poetic and honorable with leading man looks, he has a strong moral compass in a complicated world.

Eidinger plays Sergeant Major Reinhold von Rumpel, a cruel, terminally ill Nazi officer who spends...

"Don't go looking at anybody but me." A festival promo trailer has been revealed for this German film The Forger, premiering at the 2022 Berlin Film Festival in just a few weeks playing in the Special Gala section. Based on a true story, German filmmaker Maggie Peren's new film centers on 21-year-old Cioma Schönhaus, a Jewish person living in Berlin in the 1940s. His very existence is threatened by the Nazis, but he won't let anyone take away his zest for life, especially not the Nazis. So he decides to "hide in plain sight" using the identity of a marine officer he creates, throwing himself into the city's nightlife. By day he makes fake IDs to save the lives of others, but it gets riskier and riskier. The filmmaker says this is "the story of a person who rebels against stigmatization. The regime of terror is present, but we do...

The complete lineup for the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival, taking place February 10-20, 2022, has been unveiled and it’s a major collection of some of our most-anticipated films of the year. As teased yesterday, Claire Denis’ Fire (which now has the title Avec amour et acharnement (aka Both Sides of the Blade)) will premiere in competition, alongside Hong Sangsoo’s The Novelist’s Film, Carla Simón’s Summer 1993 follow-up Alcarràs, Ulrich Seidl’s Rimini, Rithy Panh’s Everything Will Be Ok, and more.

Elsewhere in the festival is Bertrand Bonello’s Coma, Dario Argento’s Dark Glasses, Andrew Dominik’s Nick Cave & Warren Ellis doc This Much I Know To Be True, Peter Strickland’s Flux Gourmet, Gastón Solnicki’s A Little Love Package, Quentin Dupieux’s Incredible But True, plus new shorts by Lucrecia Martel, Hlynur Pálmason, and more. Also recently announced was the Panorama section, which will open...

Films by auteurs Claire Denis, Hong Sangsoo and Rithy Panh are part of the lineup in competition at the 72nd Berlin Film Festival.

Berlin’s 2022 selection spans 18 movies, seven directed by women, which will compete for the Golden and Silver Bears. The films originate from 15 countries, with 17 serving as world premieres. Two of the films are first features, both from women.

Artistic director Carlo Chatrian discussed the thematic throughline of “human and emotional bonds” across the selection, with the family unit serving as a key focal point in a number of movies. More than half are set in the present time, and two are within the pandemic era.

The festival hosts 12 returning filmmakers, eight of whom are in competition and five of whom already hold a Bear from Berlin.

The festival will go ahead as an in-person event, albeit with seating capacity in movie theaters reduced to 50% and without any parties or receptions.

PoetBerlinale have announced the first 62 titles selected for the 72nd edition of their festival, set to take place physically from February 10 — 20.FORUMAfterwater (Dane Komljen)Poet (Darezhan Omirbayev)The Middle AgesEurope (Philip Scheffner)A Flower in the Mouth (Éric Baudelaire)Memoryland (Kim Quy Bui)My Two Voices (Lina Rodriguez)Nuclear Family (Erin Wilkerson, Travis Wilkerson)Super Natural (Jorge Jácome)The United States of America (James Benning)Forum EXPANDEDDragon Tooth (Rafael Castanheira Parrode)Home When You Return (Carl Elsaesser)Jail Bird in a Peacock Chair (James Gregory Atkinson)Sol in the Dark (Mawena Yehouessi)vs (Lydia Nsiah)PANORAMATalking About the Weather (Annika Pinske)The Apartment with Two Women (Kim Se-in)Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power (Nina Menkes)Swing Ride (Chiara Bellosi)Dreaming WallsKlondike (Maryna Er Gorbach)A Love Song (Max Walker-Silverman)Myanmar Diaries (The Myanmar Film Collective)Into My Name (Nicolò Bassetti)Nelly & Nadine (Magnus Gertten)We, Students! (Rafiki Fariala)Until Tomorrow (Ali Asgari...

The 2022 Berlin International Film Festival has revealed its first titles, including seven films that have been invited to the Berlinale Special program. You can see the full list of confirmed films below.

Those seven include Peter Flinth’s Against The Ice, starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Joe Cole, Heida Reed and Charles Dance, and Laurent Larivière’s About Joan, starring Isabelle Huppert, which both play as Berlinale Special Galas.

The Panorama program has unveiled 13 titles, with Generation confirming eight features, and further films set for Forum and Forum Expanded.

The Panorama strand includes Myanmar Diaries, a doc/feature hybrid from the Myanmar Film Collective that highlights violence suffered by Burmese citizens.

“The pandemic has created distances – not only between people but also the way we see the world. Amongst the 2022 selection are films shot during the pandemic, reflecting on how it feels to be disconnected from others. It is with this first...

Kate Siegel, Jason O’Mara and Dulé Hill have been set to star in “Hypnotic,” an upcoming horror film at Netflix.

The thriller centers on a young woman seeking self-improvement, who enlists the help of a renowned hypnotist. But after a handful of intense sessions, she soon discovers unexpected and deadly consequences.

Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote, who previously teamed on the Netflix horror film “The Open House,” will direct “Hypnotic.” Richard D’Ovidio is penning the script with Angel and Coote.

It is unclear when “Hypnotic” will be released on the streaming service.

The Netflix project has no relation to another film that is titled “Hypnotic,” which is currently in development with actor Ben Affleck and director Robert Rodriguez. That movie, an action thriller, has been backed by Solstice Studios and Studio 8.

Siegel most recently appeared in “The Haunting of Bly Manor” and “The Haunting of Hill House.” A horror maven of sorts,...

John Travolta’s comeback in the 1990s is one of the more famous in American stardom. In the 1970s, Travolta became one of the biggest draws around thanks to “Grease” and “Saturday Night Fever,” but spent much of the 1980s in a series of disappointments, culminating in the “Look Who’s Talking” franchise.But then, Quentin Tarantino came knocking with “Pulp Fiction,” and Travolta became an even bigger star than before, with a run of terrific movies including “Get Shorty,” “Face/Off,” “The Thin Red Line” and “Primary Colors.”

If that was a peak, recent years have been something of a trough: Travolta’s recent films have mostly, like similar actors of his vintage, been cheap VOD jobs with titles you’ve not heard of like “The Forger,” “Life On The Line,” “Criminal Activities” and “I Am Wrath” (with Ti West’s underrated, underseen “In A Valley Of Violence” a...

Take a look at the totally killer party in the first trailer for Drew Marvick's Pool Party Massacre. Also in today's Highlights: production details for WWE Studios' and Saban Films' Armed Response, a cool Q&A with Stefanie Estes from Bethany, and details on Jenna Coleman's upcoming attendance at Wizard World Minneapolis 2017.

Check Out the Trailer for Pool Party Massacre: Press Release: "Los Angeles, CA - Floating Eye Films has released the first trailer and stills for the old school splatterfest Pool Party Massacre. The debut feature from horror fanatic Drew Marvick, Pool Party Massacre is an ultra low-budget 80's-inspired slasher that cuts to the flesh and bone of a group of young friends. With a pounding synth score and a heavy metal soundtrack, Marvick has crafted a loving homage to the body count of 80s B-movies.

Blair Winthorpe, a high-maintenance young socialite, is having...

Plot: A crew of linemen, in the midst of replacing an outdated electrical grid, are hit by a deadly storm. Review: I have a theory about John Travolta VOD movies. After watching a few of them, I.m starting to think he only takes the roles based on what kind of wig he can wear, or how elaborate his facial hair can be. In The Forger, it was an unruly mop, with an off-center soul patch (that was photo... Read More...

To celebrate the upcoming release of John Travolta’s I Am Wrath on July 26th, We Are Movie Geeks would like to offer a John Travolta Blu-ray bundle as a giveaway for our readers! (check out our coverage of I Am Wrath Here)

You can win all of these John Travolta Blu-rays:

I am Wrath From Paris With Love Pulp Fiction The Punisher The Forger She’s So Lovely (Digital copy)

All you have to do is leave a comment below answering this question: What is your favorite movie starring John Travolta? (mine is Saturday Night Fever). It’s so easy. We’ll be picking the winners next week. Good Luck!

1. You must have a U.S. mailing address.

2. No purchase necessary.

Brace yourself for a thrilling experience with the intense action-revenge thriller, I Am Wrath, arriving on Blu-ray (plus Digital HD), DVD (plus Digital) and On Demand onJuly 26 from Lionsgate.

Brace yourself for a thrilling experience with the intense action-revenge thriller, I Am Wrath, arriving on Blu-ray (plus Digital HD), DVD (plus Digital) and On Demand on July 26 from Lionsgate. John Travolta (From Paris with Love) stars as a man who takes action after realizing a group of corrupt police officers will never solve his wife’s murder. From the director of The Scorpion King, I Am Wrath is currently available On Demand and will be available on Blu-ray and DVD for the suggested retail price of $24.99 and $19.98, respectively.

Unemployed engineer Stanley Hill (John Travolta) witnesses the murder of his wife Vivian (Rebecca De Mornay), who was attacked by thugs in a parking garage. Wracked with guilt, Stanley is haunted by the image of Vivian dying in his arms. When Detective Gibson (Sam Trammell) and other corrupt police officers are unable to bring the killers to justice, Stanley turns to...

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We check out the John Travolta films that have been bypassing cinemas over the past few years...

In the days leading up to writing this article, which will cover a recent period in which he’s made a bunch of films that have quickly drifted to DVD or VOD, I had to stop and ask myself a genuine question: how do I actually feel about John Travolta?

The answer that rose from the depths of my coal-black, hell-bound soul was weirdly surprising. Brushing aside his personal life – which is not worth getting into here – I found I had nothing but good feelings surrounding his work as an actor.

I grew up with Carrie, Grease, Look Who’s Talking and perhaps his best film, Brian De Palma’s Blow Out. I also grew up with some of his clunkers, like the Look Who’s Talking sequels and 80s concept comedy The Experts. He’s been acting since before I was born, so he’s always been in the background of my pop culture landscape – working solidly for more than 40 years.

Over those decades, his catalogue has defied explanation. He seems to unapologetically pick whatever he feels moved to be a part of regardless of criticism and, goddamn it, there’s something inherently admirable about that. Unlike, say, Bruce Willis, he doesn’t seem happy with doing just a couple of days work on a shoot in a smaller part; more often he will choose to be the star, or at least have equal-ish screen time – even if the project isn’t boasting a huge budget or a big name director. When Pulp Fiction thrust him back into the mainstream, he was still picking up stuff like Phenomenon and Michael in the following years.

I can confidently say that I’ve never seen the man actively 'phone in' a performance and even when he’s overcooked it, there’s usually a decent reason. I mean, if you find yourself on the set of Face/Off going up against The Cage, you’re gonna need to fight fire with fire. Even in Battlefield Earth, he was at least trying.

But in the last half decade we’ve found ourselves in a deeper Travolta trough than we’ve ever been in before. His films aren’t quite cutting the mustard in the industry like they used to and, after a run of flops that have seen him drift back into television with an impressive turn as Robert Shapiro in The People V. O.J. Simpson, I find myself wondering 'will Travolta ever be big business again?'

So, I took a look at four of the films that Travolta’s worked on in the last few years - each of which has effectively gone straight to DVD (save for a few days in a cinema) - to see if anything’s slipped under our radar that needs a boost…

The Forger (2014)

Rotten Tomatoes Score – 7% IMDb Rating – 5.7/10

In The Forger, John Travolta is a man serving a prison sentence who makes a call to get out of it early so he can spend more time with his dying son. In exchange for help with bribing the judge to release him early, John’s expected to help forge a Monet for his erstwhile crime boss, played by Hell On Wheels’ Anson Mount.

As the film casually flits between the forge/heist story and the bonding relationship between John and his son, it’s a testament to director Philip Martin - who comes from a TV background where he’s learnt his trade by helping to bring Prime Suspect and Wallander crime stories to life – that it isn’t a complete disaster. In someone else’s hands, it very well could have been.

Instead, The Forger has a delicate touch and a lot of the shots are interesting and unexpected without being jarring. It flows very smoothly and there’s an undercurrent of genuine love stemming from Travolta’s performance. After losing his own son, making a film about losing a son might have been cathartic and definitely quite close to the bone. I don’t want to read too much into Travolta’s choices, because that way madness lies, but it does really come across as though he cared about this one.

The Forger’s family scenes - with Travolta’s son Tye Sheridan and father Christopher Plummer - play really well, and while the tone of these scenes doesn’t gel with the heist elements of the plot, there’s good stuff here.

Overall, there’s not quite enough substance to sail the whole thing smoothly down the river, but it’s not bad by any stretch and the reviews have been a little harsh on what is actually a perfectly average film. No, you won’t watch it again, but neither will you probably regret watching it in the first place.

Criminal Activities (2015)

Rotten Tomatoes Score – 47% IMDb Rating – 5.8/10

Hoo boy, that title. That’s the worst title. I can’t imagine anyone involved could have wanted it. It’s maybe the most generic title I’ve ever seen. It’s so bad that even when I picked up the DVD, looked at the cover and saw that Michael Pitt (Hannibal, Boardwalk Empire) and Dan Stevens (The Guest, The Guest, The Guest) were Travolta’s co-stars in this, I still felt like I was drowning in the beigeness of it.

The film itself - Jackie Earle Haley's directorial debut - is an unfortunate mess. The plot, such as it is, involves Michael, Dan and the rest of the lads from their childhood gang borrowing money from a mob boss (Travolta) to invest in some sure-fire stocks that immediately collapse, leaving them out of pocket and in John’s. To pay off the debt, he wants them to kidnap a guy, because that guy’s friend kidnapped someone else. It’s convoluted and makes little sense, due to the fact that there’s a big twist coming at the end which will clarify most, if not all of it.

The actors are doing wayyy too much in the film - directed by an actor who clearly wants the actors to have room to act - and therein lies the fundamental problem. Apart from a great turn by Edi Gathegi (Gone Baby Gone, X-Men: First Class, Crank) it’s impossible to point a finger at anyone else in the cast and say 'yep, you, good job' because there’s just too much going on.

The twist is actually decent, but everything leading up to it is a headache. Working on a low budget, most of the scenes are dialogue-heavy, arduous and reliant on excessive coverage – so what you end up with is a film where a load of dudes sit in a room together and shout and swear at each other a lot. I wanted to take that final twist aside, buy it a drink, hug it, and reassure it that it deserved better.

I’m afraid to say there’s not much here to recommend, which is ironic given that it’s had the most positive reviews of the bunch.

I Am Wrath (2016)

Rotten Tomatoes Score – 13% IMDb Rating – 5.2/10

I Am Wrath is the worst film of these four by a long chalk.

Here, John stars as a man who decides payback is needed when his wife (Rebecca de Mornay) is killed before his eyes. That’s really all there is, plot-wise. See, it turns out he’s a man with a very particular set of skills and yada yada yada off he goes.

The script - written by Paul 'nope, nothing you’ve heard of' Sloan - is so very, very bad. I am going to tell you how bad it is, so you don’t think I’m just whistlin’ Dixie here:

During his wife’s funeral, John tells the priest that he’s an atheist after the priest gives him a bible in his time of need. Later, Travolta flings this bible across the room angrily. He then stops, pulls a full Joey Tribbiani 'smell-the-fart', slowly approaches the discarded bible, picks it up and reads a line about wrath with the dumbest revelatory expression on his face as the music builds. He sees this as a sign that he should become wrath, despite his earlier insistence that he thinks religion is total garbage.

Later, when asked who he is, Travolta looks determinedly into a mirror and says “I am wrath” – he said the name of the movie you guys! Holy shit. Honestly, I could not believe how hackneyed the whole thing was, not to mention bizarre - the film regularly abandons its serious 'violence begets violence' tone whenever John’s Bff Christopher Meloni turns up, suddenly becoming a jokey buddy comedy.

This was hard to get through. Please avoid it at all costs, for there is nothing here to keep you warm at night.

Killing Season (2013)

Rotten Tomatoes Score – 11% IMDb Rating – 5.4/10

De Niro and Travolta – together at last?

Well, the opening sequence gives us a bit of background on the reason we’re all here. Something bad happened during the Bosnian War that will bring our two main dudes together for some serious vengeance. The sequence is sepia, because past, and ohhhhh god, here comes the present…

It’s at this point that we discover that John is going to attempt an Eastern European accent. It is Not Good. It is not John Malkovich in Rounders, but it is Not Good and we are stuck with it for the duration.

His facial hair during this first scene is also completely ridiculous. I can’t adequately describe how bonkers it is, but try to imagine a werewolf that can only grow stubble carefully shaving a circle into its face. It’s a relief to find that they decided to tone this down for the rest of the film - he looks more like he’s wearing a black chinstrap from then on.

Despite the accent and the questionable chin beard, it’s a lot easier to buy Travolta as a man on a mission of vengeance during Killing Season than it was during I Am Wrath. He’s obviously jazzed to be working with De Niro and he’s knuckled down to bounce off him, keeping it low-key and making an effort not to overdo it.

As a result of this equilibrium, we also get a glimpse of a pre-Meet The Parents De Niro - which is very much welcomed, sweet lord - and the two men head into the second act ready to take each other on, hunt each other down and resolve those Bosnian sins of the past in the most violent way possible.

The script - by proposed Tomb Raider reboot scribe Evan Daugherty - occasionally stumbles, but is solid enough. The direction is fine. It’s fine. It’s probably Mark Steven Johnson’s best film (but when his other major films are Daredevil and Ghost Rider, that’s not exactly a gush) and as the two leads hunt and trap each other, a lot of Predator love oozes out of the frame. Unfortunately, this is not Predator, but you could do worse on an evening than to sit through this instead (if you don’t own Predator).

…Oh my god you guys. We should totally watch Predator right now.

Until next time, and until the next rebirth of Mr Travolta, I bid you adieu.

Next time: the straight to DVD movies of John Cusack

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Saban Films is acquiring North American distribution rights to horror thriller 31, the latest film from visionary mastermind Rob Zombie (House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects Halloween and Lords of Salem). The film stars Sheri Moon Zombie, Golden Globe Nominee Malcolm McDowell, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Ginger Lynn Allen, Elizabeth Daily and Meg Foster. Rob Zombie wrote and directed the film, which made its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and will have a September 16th release.

31 follows five carnival workers who are kidnapped and held hostage in an abandoned, Hell-like compound where they are forced to participate in a violent game, the goal of which is to survive twelve hours against a gang of sadistic clowns. Said Saban Films President Bill Bromiley.

"31 is a treat not just to horror fans, but fans of true auteur filmmaking. The film is executed in true stylistic Zombie fashion. Rob is an unrivaled talent,...

A couple years back, an actor who doesn't always get much respect popped up in what looked like a low-rent thriller, only to have that movie turn out to be awesome. The star was Keanu Reeves, and the action vehicle was "John Wick." Can "I Am Wrath" do the same for John Travolta? Judging by this first trailer, it's not likely. Read More: Review: 'The Forger' Starring John Travolta Is A Tiresomely Average Thriller Directed by Chuck Russell ("The Mask," "Eraser," "The Scorpion King"), and co-starring Christopher Meloni, Sam Trammell, Amanda Schull, Asante Jones, Luis Da Silva Jr., Paul Sloan, Patrick St. Esprit and Rebecca De Mornay, the story follows an ordinary man who goes on the warpath after his wife is brutally murdered and the system fails to bring the culprits to justice. Here's the synopsis:  Unemployed engineer Stanley Hill (Travolta) witnesses the brutal murder of his wife Vivian (Rebecca De Mornay,...

With the female lead (Olivia Cooke) and villain (Ben Mendelsohn) already set, Warner Bros. and director Steven Spielberg have finally found their young protagonist for the highly-anticipated Ready Player One. Deadline reports that 19-year-old rising star Tye Sheridan has come aboard to play the lead role of Wade Watts. We reported last month that Ben Mendelsohn was in talks to star, but this new report reveals that he is on board, playing the villainous Nolan Sorrento.

Ready Player One centers on a teenager named Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan), who becomes obsessed with a virtual reality world known as Oasis, that allows players to live out their fantasies. After the game's creator suddenly dies, an elaborate treasure hunt is held within the Oasis world, with the winner emerging to take control of the entire company. Along with gamers from around the world, Wade joins the adventure, and quickly finds himself pitted...

Though producer Roger Corman’s contributions to independent cinema are arguably unparalleled, the enduring quality of his directorial efforts is another story. By the end of the 1950s, Corman had directed about two dozen of his own films in roughly five years, many of these derivative genre efforts rivaling the quality of Ed Wood. But 1959 found Corman trying to switch things up a bit, and he delivered two of his more flavorful works. Besides unleashing the Susan Cabot headliner The Wasp Woman (which remains a fun, eccentric commentary on feminine standards of beauty), Corman would skewer the pretentiousness of self-important artists and the hypocrisy of what defines art in A Bucket of Blood, a much more salacious title than the material warrants. Written by Charles B. Griffith, (who would go uncredited next to Corman on his The Little Shop of Horrors a year later), the film is an early lead...

Saban Films has acquired the North American distribution rights to Mi-5 starring Kit Harington (“Game of Thrones,”, Testament Of Youth), Academy Award nominee Peter Firth (“Spooks”), Jennifer Ehle (Fifty Shades Of Gray, Zero Dark Thirty), Tuppence Middleton (“Sense 8”, Jupiter Ascending), and Elyes Gabel (“Scorpion”, A Most Violent Year). Mi-5 (known outside the Us as Spooks: The Greater Good) is based on the original BAFTA Award® winning BBC television series.

Series director Bharat Nalluri (Tsunami: The Aftermath, Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day) has also directed the screen adaption, which was written by the series writers Jonathan Brackley and Sam Vincent (“Humans”).

The thriller is currently scheduled to open theatrically at the end of the year.

When a terrorist escapes custody during a routine handover, Will Holloway (Harrington) must team with disgraced MI5 Intelligence Chief Harry Pearce (Firth) to track him down before an imminent terrorist attack on London.

“Mi-5 is...

The Man With The Iron Fists didn't quite kick off Rza's directing career in the way he might have hoped (a single Dtv sequel directed by Death Race 2's Roel Reine is all we've seen so far of the intended massive franchise) but it also has harmed him in the long run. He's just finished behind the cameras with the hip-hop drama Coco, and he'll now move straight on to action thriller Breakout.Rza made Coco for Iron Fists studio Lionsgate, but Breakout is for Amasia, with whom he's also just worked as an actor on Mr Right. Breakout involves a photographer wrongfully imprisoned in Bangladesh for drug trafficking, whose father ropes in two old friends to find the truth and secure his release by any means necessary.Richard D'Ovidio (The Forger, The Call) wrote the screenplay, in cahoots with his regular collaborator (and wife) Nicole D'Ovidio. Shooting...

Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment is pleased to announce the UK release of The Forger, available digitally 31st August and on DVD and Blu-ray from 7th September 2015; to celebrate its release we have 3 x DVDs to give away! The world’s best art forger (John Travolta – Pulp Fiction, Face/Off) makes a deal with a crime

The post Win The Forger starring John Travolta on DVD appeared first on HeyUGuys.

Stars: John Travolta, Abigail Spencer, Christopher Plummer, Jennifer Ehle, Tye Sheridan, Anson Mount, Marcus Thomas, Travis Aaron Wade | Written by Richard D’Ovidio | Directed by Philip Martin

The Forger is the latest star vehicle for John Travolta, a man whose career has had more ups and downs than a yoyo and – judging by this flick – looks set to be forever destined for the direct to DVD market alongside his Face/Off co-star Nicolas Cage (oh the irony). Of course this Isn’T the worst film Travolta has in his ouevre, that’s left to the likes of Battlefield Earth and Chains of Gold, but it’s certainly nothing to shout about.

Travolta stars as the worlds best art forger, banged up in jail with only 10 months to serve, who makes a deal with crime boss Keegan (Anson Mount), to get an early release from prison but in return he must pull of an impossible heist.

Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment

To celebrate the UK release of The Forger, available digitally 31st August and on DVD and Blu-ray from 7th September 2015 we have 3 x DVDs to give away courtesy of Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment.

The world’s best art forger (John Travolta – Pulp Fiction, Face/Off) makes a deal with a crime syndicate to get an early release from prison, but in return he must pull of an impossible heist – he must forge a painting by Claude Monet, steal the original from a museum and replace it with a replica so perfect that no one will notice.

He enlists the help of his father (Christopher Plummer – A Beautiful Mind, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) and son (Tye Sheridan – Mud, The Tree of Life) and together they plan the heist of their lives!

Also starring Abigail Spencer (Oz the Great and Powerful, Cowboys & Aliens) as Agent Paisley.

To be...

Gone Baby Gone star Sean Malone has died at the age of 54.

The actor passed away surrounded by his family at Boston Medical Centre on Wednesday (July 29), ten days after almost drowning at a beach.

He swam too far out and had to be rescued by an off-duty firefighter, who managed to get him back to land with the help of a group of teens in a nearby speedboat.

Despite receiving CPR, Malone was left in a critical condition and was hospitalised in a coma.

Confirming his death, the Boston Fire Department tweeted: "Sean Malone succumbed to his injuries this evening surrounded by his son Sean, parents and siblings at Boston Medical Centre."

The actor also appeared in The Fighter and The Forger, but is best remembered for playing Skinny Ray Likanski in Gone Baby Gone in 2007.

For the fourth straight weekend, the newest entry in the Fast & Furious franchise, James Wan’s Furious 7, took the top spot at the box office, adding another $18.3 million to its total earnings so far to bring its total domestic earnings to over $320 million, over 1.5 times that of 2015’s second highest domestic earner to date, Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella. The film was joined in the top three by a repeat performer and a new entry, as the Kevin James-starring Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 remained steady in second place with a total of $15.5 million. Rounding out the top three, however, was the Blake Lively-Ellen Burstyn starring The Age of Adaline, which garnered the third spot with $13.4 million in its opening weekend.

Among the rest of the box office, the horror feature Unfriended saw the biggest revenue decrease, dropping over 60% from its opening weekend gross to land in fifth place with $6.2 million.

A new distributor owned by one of America.s richest men has bought Us rights to writer-director Michael Petroni.s Backtrack after its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. Saban Films put up a seven-figure guarantee for the psychological thriller which stars Adrien Brody, Sam Neill, Robin McLeavy and Bruce Spence . "We're thrilled at the sale to Saban; they made an aggressive offer which is testament to their strong belief in the film,. said See Pictures. Jamie Hilton, who produced with Antonia Barnard and Petroni. .A deal this size coming out of Tribeca is a great result and we'll go to Cannes with confidence as we screen the film for the first time to European and other international buyers." Brody plays Peter, a troubled psychotherapist who suffers from nightmares and eerie visions, which prompt him to revisit his remote hometown where he becomes obsessed with the need to solve a decades-old mystery.

If you're in the mood for a heist flick, then you'll want to keep your eye out for "The Forger." The film brings together the cast of John Travolta, Tye Sheridan and Christopher Plummer for a rough-and-tumble tale of art and theft. And today, we have an exclusive clip from the film. Directed by Philip Martin, the story follows an art forger who is tasked with a seemingly impossible job: create a replica of a painting by Claude Monet, and steal the original from a museum and replace it with his replica. To help him out, he gets his father and son on board, but as you'll see in the scene below, this is a tricky business that will also have some fists flying. "The Forger" opens today on VOD and in limited release. Watch below.

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to take John Travolta seriously. He became a viral punch line after the last Academy Awards, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to admit that he hasn’t been featured in a genuinely substantial film in what seems like forever. He took the “Adele Dazeem” stuff on the chin, at least, but what can explain his consistently questionable career choices year in and year out? Needless to say, if anyone is expecting the beginnings of a “Travoltassance” with his latest leading role in Philip Martin’s “The Forger,” they will walk away sorely disappointed. The film will instead be added to his growing list of washouts, since it plays out like the spliced scraps swiped from the editing room of a more efficient but still tiresomely average thriller. Read More: John Travolta, Christopher Plummer, & Tye Sheridan Pull An Art Heist In 'The Forger...

John Travolta's Raymond Cutter doesn't forge anything during the first 40 minutes of The Forger, unless we can count his unconvincing, age-inappropriate mane of hair. Cutter, a mopey master forger, is out of prison on early release because his teenage son Will (Tye Sheridan) has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. A pair of officers from the Exposition Police Bureau pop in occasionally to relate his history and speculate about his criminal intentions. Cutter spends his time driving Will to chemo, grimacing, and punching out the minions of the small-time gangster who ratted him out four years earlier. The film is mostly about his attempts to reconcile with his son, who was abandoned early by his drug-addicted mother, and mend fences with his cranky dad (a miscast ...

Our resident VOD expert tells you what's new to rent and/or own this week via various Digital HD providers such as cable Movies On Demand, Amazon, iTunes, Vudu and, of course, Netflix. Cable Movies On Demand: Same-day-as-disc releases, older titles and pretheatrical exclusives for rent, priced from $3-$10, in 24- or 48-hour periods Adult Beginners (comedy about man who becomes nanny for his estranged sister; Rose Byrne, Nick Kroll, Bobby Cannavale; premieres 4/24 on cable Mod and in theaters; rated R) The Forger (thriller about a man and his father that work together to forge a Monet and steal the original; John Travolta, Tye Sheridan, Abigail Spencer, Christopher Plummer; premieres 4/24 on cable Mod and in theaters; rated R)   Streaming/Digital Download...

Read More...

John Travolta's son Benjamin made his debut appearance on The Late Show With David Letterman, and it's safe to say he may be a teensy bit camera shy. The actor, who is currently promoting his upcoming flick The Forger, told the late-night show host that his youngest now knows how famous his father is and even told him he wants to work onscreen with him one day. "He loves trucks. For the first time in my life, I bought a red Dodge Ram pick-up truck, a big one, and he loves it—Ella loves it. I take him for rides," the proud papa dished. "I took him to Toys 'R Us recently, and he said to me when we got out of the truck and in the cart, 'Why are all these people wanting my...

The distributor has pounced following the April 19 world premiere of the rom-com starring Lake Bell and Simon Pegg.

Ben Palmer directed from a screenplay by Tess Morris about a woman who is mistaken for a blind date and goes along with it. Rory Kinnear and Olivia Williams round out the key cast.

StudioCanal handles world sales and co-produced alongside Big Talk Pictures’ Nira Park, James Biddle and Rachael Prior.

Matthew Justice, Pegg, Dan Cheesbrough, Jenny Borgars, Danny Perkins, Christine Langan and Joe Oppenheimer are executive producers. StudioCanal co-financed with BBC Films.

Saban launched a year ago and released The Homesman last November. The maiden slate includes How To Make Love Like An Englishman starring Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek and Jessica Alba; The Forger starring John Travolta; American Heist with Hayden Christensen, Adrien Brody and Jordana Brewster; Tracers starring Taylor Lautner; and The Trust with Nicolas Cage.

John Travolta, who figures prominently in HBO’s documentary on Scientology, Going Clear, has spoken out in defense of his religion once again. John Travolta Defends Scientology Travolta is currently making the press rounds for his new movie The Forger, and has, unsurprisingly, also been asked about his ties to the controversial Church of Scientology. “Forty […]

The post John Travolta Defends Scientology Again, Calls It ‘Beautiful’ appeared first on uInterview.