Movies

The movie Blackhat didn’t perform well in theaters when it came out in January 2015, and several things likely contributed to its failure. The trailers made it look like a typical action film, focusing on Chris Hemsworth’s popularity from the Marvel movies, but the film itself was more of a complex techno-thriller. Universal Pictures also didn’t do a great job promoting it, so many people didn’t even know it existed. To make matters worse, it was released around the same time as American Sniper, which was a huge hit. Some viewers also felt Chris Hemsworth wasn’t a convincing choice to play a skilled hacker, despite the potential of casting an actor against their usual type.

Jon M. Chu directed the movie adaptation of the popular Broadway musical Wicked, which was released in two parts, beginning in November 2024. Since the end of Wicked: For Good, fans have wondered if there will be more movies, and the show’s composer, Stephen Schwartz, and writer, Winnie Holzman, have hinted that sequels are possible.

A new four-part crime thriller is receiving rave reviews and topping streaming charts globally. Netflix has seen a lot of success with crime thrillers recently, including the action movie State of Fear and the intense miniseries Salvador. Throughout February, the streaming service has consistently delivered fast-paced, exciting thrillers.

The new Spider-Man movie, officially titled Spider-Man: Brand New Day (and sometimes referred to as Spider-Man 4), is coming to US theaters this summer. Destin Daniel Cretton, who directed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, is directing, and Tom Holland will be back as Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Man.

Mike Weiss, the creator of the show CIA, says it will stand out from typical crime dramas. The series centers on Bill Goodman (Nick Gehlfuss), a by-the-book FBI agent, who joins a special task force with the CIA. He’s paired with Agent Colin Glass (Tom Ellis), who prefers to bend the rules, and together they investigate different cases each week.

Two potential sequels generating buzz are The Adventures of Cliff Booth, a continuation of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood focusing on Brad Pitt’s character, and The Social Reckoning, a follow-up to David Fincher’s The Social Network.

We often remember him as the character who always showed up at Joey’s window, but Van Der Beek was a talented actor with a lot of other great roles in film and television too.

The TV show Rings of Power illustrates this point well. It wasn’t necessarily a bad show, but its extremely high production cost meant it needed a large audience to be successful. Before season one even premiered, Prime Video heavily emphasized the show’s massive budget, hoping the spectacle alone would attract viewers. However, the series quickly faced considerable criticism.

Forbidden Fruits tells the story of Apple, a worker at the Free Eden store, who leads a secret, all-female cult in the mall basement after closing. She’s joined by her friends Cherry and Fig. Their carefully constructed sisterhood is threatened when a new employee, Pumpkin, arrives and forces them to confront their hidden flaws, or risk facing a dangerous outcome.

Following his work on Lost, Lindelof created The Leftovers and then Watchmen, both highly original series that stand in a class of their own. His most recent show, Mrs. Davis, is his strangest and perhaps most overlooked, so it’s worth watching if you haven’t seen it.