How will Netflix open up its loaded calendar year of releases in 2023? From the looks of things, with a color-coded bang. “Kaleidoscope,” an all-new crime anthology series, hits the streamer on New Year’s Day, and it’s one of the most experimental things Netflix has ever cooked up.  

READ MORE: ‘The Gentlemen’: Giancarlo Esposito, Kaya Scodelario, Vinnie Jones & More Join Guy Ritchie’s Upcoming Netflix Series

So, how’s the upcoming show so experimental, and what’s the color coding about?

Continue reading ‘Kaleidoscope’ First Look & BTS Sneak Peek: Netflix Opens 2023 With A Non-Linear Heist Series at The Playlist.

Prime Video has developed a sizable portion of its programming that could be called “Dad TV.” Without trying to stigmatize or stereotype their viewers in the slightest, the truth is that shows like “Bosch,” “Jack Ryan,” and “Reacher” all appeal to a relatively similar audience. They’re all based on hit series of books with male protagonists who generally subscribe to an old-fashioned code while also trying to adapt to a changing world.

Continue reading ‘The Terminal List’ Review: Chris Pratt Stars In A Lethally Dull Thriller From Prime Video at The Playlist.

It’s a busy 2022 ahead for Chris Pratt. Alongside the release of “Jurassic World: Dominion,” Pratt reprises his role as Peter Quill in “Thor: Love And Thunder” in July. There’s also the “Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special” on the way and the new “Mario” movie next year. Also coming: “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.

Continue reading ‘The Terminal List’ Trailer: Chris Pratt Stars In New Navy Seal Series On Amazon Prime This July at The Playlist.

The conventional wisdom these days is movie stars don’t matter, franchises and brands do. And with all apologies to Marvel, etc., that’s not exactly true. Look at original programming on premium cable channels, Netflix, Apple TV+, and every streaming service there is. If you don’t have a recognizable brand to work with, the next best thing you have to get audiences to subscribe to your streaming service is stars and talent.

Continue reading ‘Black Site’ Review: Michelle Monaghan, Jai Courtney & Jason Clarke Star In A Painfully Generic CIA Thriller at The Playlist.

With so many outlets for content and so many companies thirsting for eyeballs and audience attention, what most up-and-coming streaming services and companies like Apple TV+, Topic, etc., are that original content is the way to lure viewers. That often means spending upfront to score A-list talent to star in your projects, which is exactly what Redbox Entertainment is doing with a new action-thriller called “Black Site” that stars Jason Clarke, Michelle Monaghan, and Jai Courtney.

Continue reading ‘Black Site’ Trailer: Michelle Monaghan, Jason Clarke & Jai Courtney Star In New Action Thriller For Redbox at The Playlist.

“Jolt,” a Kate Beckinsale-fronted actioner helmed by “Buffaloed” director Tanya Wexler, is a film that knows what it is and owns its sense of innate disposability. There is always plenty of fun to be had with a rock-solid piece of disposable mainstream entertainment (it is still summer movie season, after all), and while it’s also undeniably fun to see Beckinsale, normally cast in more purportedly “respectable” roles, kicking all sorts of ass in her very own “John Wick,” it’s also not hard to wish that “Jolt” itself didn’t crackle with more lived-in electricity of its own.

Continue reading ‘Jolt’: Hard To Dislike, But Not The Terrific Action Vehicle That Kate Beckinsale Deserves [Review] at The Playlist.

How do you make a superhero film for a multi-billion-dollar corporation feel like a personal endeavor? (please refrain from laughing at least until the very end) For filmmaker James Gunn that’s leaning into the two, sometimes contradictory elements of your personality, excavating the tension from that juxtaposition and letting it all bleed into your story. Gunn’s two sides—the vulgar and the empathetic—are perhaps best evinced in the 2018 Twitter scandal that saw the director fired from Marvel’s “Guardians Of The Galaxy” franchise (and then rehired a year later): a crass, disgusting pedophile joke from years ago (exploited on social media for political gain), and the inclusive, compassionate person Gunn had become on Twitter, mature and wise enough to accept the fate of his then-firing.

Continue reading ‘The Suicide Squad’: James Gunn Inspires The DC Universe With Gnarly Irreverence, Superhero Subversion & A Big Beating Heart [Review] at The Playlist.

British actress Kate Beckinsale has been synonymous with action flicks most of her career and likely first became aware to American audiences thanks to her leading role in the Michael Bay WWII film “Pearl Harbor” opposite Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett. She then led the successful R-rated “Underworld” franchise as the heroic vampiress badass Selene, coming slightly after the era of “Blade” and “The Matrix.” Other various projects included the Hugh Jackman monster hunter film “Van Helsing” and Len Wiseman-directed “Total Recall” remake starring Colin Farrell. 

READ MORE: Kate Beckinsale Originally Thought Michael Bay’s ‘Pearl Harbor’ Was Going To Be A “Period Piece”

Beckinsale is now back with her latest action flick, “Jolt,” directed by Tanya Wexler (“Hysteria“), and Amazon Prime Video has released a trailer as it’s set to be released next month. 

Continue reading ‘Jolt’ Trailer: Kate Beckinsale Returns To R-Rated Action With A Revenge Thriller Coming To Amazon On July 23 at The Playlist.

James Gunn is no stranger to superhero success. The director’s two “Guardians of the Galaxy” films for Marvel Studios are among the most commercially successful in the MCU catalog. Now, Warner Bros. hopes some of Gunn’s magic will rub off on one of their DC Films properties that’s right up the director’s alley: cinemagoers’ favorite group of villainous oddballs, “The Suicide Squad.”  

READ MORE: ‘The Suicide Squad’ First Look: James Gunn Reveals New Characters and Behind-the-Scenes Footage

The Squad’s first foray in the DC Extended Universe, David Ayer‘s “Suicide Squad” from 2016, wasn’t exactly met with the enthusiasm Warner Bros.

Continue reading ‘The Suicide Squad’ Trailer: James Gunn’s Take on DC’s Expendable Goon Squad at The Playlist.

Whenever you hear that producers from the “John Wick” franchise are teaming up for a new film, you automatically have a vision for what that film might look like. Thankfully, those producers are working together on a film called “Black Site,” and they’ve landed a pretty great cast to bring the new action thriller to life.

READ MORE: ‘Blood’: Michelle Monaghan To Star In Brad Anderson’s Latest Thriller

According to Deadline, “Black Site” is set to star Jason Clarke, Michelle Monaghan, and Jai Courtney.

Continue reading Jason Clarke, Michelle Monaghan & Jai Courtney Join ‘Black Site’ Thriller From Director Sophia Banks at The Playlist.

Thrillers are the grimmest genre as far as new releases are concerned, a graveyard where signs of life are few and far between. So it’s a good thing we can count on Liam Neeson to periodically save the genre from extinction.

Starting with “Taken” a decade ago, Neeson has transformed himself into an action hero who will go to any and all lengths to write wrongs and kick ass.

Continue reading ‘Honest Thief’: Liam Neeson’s Particular Set Of Skills Are On Display, Yet Again, In This Routine Thriller [Review] at The Playlist.

Warner Bros. and DC Films have had a lot of false starts. Take “Suicide Squad,” from director David Ayer. That film was so poorly received that WB decided to reboot the entire franchise. It came at a fortuitous time for the studio: James Gunn had just been temporarily fired from “Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 3” and in a big coup, Warner’s was able to get him to switch teams.

Continue reading ‘The Suicide Squad’ First Look: James Gunn Reveals New Characters And Behind-The-Scenes Footage at The Playlist.

After declaring he was done with action movies back in 2017, they are pulling Liam Neeson back into putting his particular set of skills (punching people in the face) to good use again. This time it’s for the upcoming action thriller “Honest Thief,” where Neeson plays a former thief with the ridiculous name of the “In and Out Bandit,” who is forced to return to doing what he does best (sounds familiar).

Continue reading ‘Honest Thief’ Trailer: Liam Neeson Is Putting His Particular Set Of Skills To Use Once Again at The Playlist.

For ten months in 2004 and 2005, an Australian citizen named Cornelia Rau was detained at the Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre and then at a place called the Baxter Detention Centre, a lonely place in the outback that is typically occupied by immigrants awaiting confirmation of their status or deportation back to their home country. Mentally ill and possibly traumatized after time in a cult, Rau was suffering a severe mental breakdown, and a reporter broke the story that an Australian national was being unlawfully detained.

Continue reading ‘Stateless’: Cate Blanchett’s Powerful Series Showcases A Tragically Common Immigration Story [Review] at The Playlist.

This year has already seen Cate Blanchett star in one high-profile TV project, with FX’s recent release, “Mrs. America.” But this summer the actress is set to make her Netflix debut in a new drama series titled “Stateless.”

READ MORE: Robert De Niro, Oscar Isaac, Anne Hathaway & More Join James Gray’s New Film, ‘Armageddon Time’

As seen in the trailer for the series, “Stateless” doesn’t feature Blanchett in a starring role.

Continue reading ‘Stateless’ Trailer: Cate Blanchett Co-Created & Stars In New Netflix Drama Series About Immigration at The Playlist.

Jai Courtney has had an eclectic career in Hollywood over the past decade. He’s done everything from failed reboots (“A Good Day to Die Hard”) to failed YA dystopian sci-fi (“Divergent”) to failed sci-fi reboots (“Terminator Genisys”) to failed monster movie remakes (“I, Frankenstein”).

READ MORE: Dignified Military Drama ‘Semper Fi’ Presents Jai Courtney’s Best Performance To Date [Review]

Okay, so maybe he’s attached himself to some stinkers in his time, but not everything he’s been in has ended badly.

Continue reading Jai Courtney Describes ‘The Suicide Squad’ As An Action-Comedy With “A Different Flavor” Than The Original at The Playlist.

We all have our cultural blind spots. Some of us have never seen “Citizen Kane,” while others just learned who Lil Nas X is. And some of us do not understand the comedic minutiae of life in Buffalo, New York. Buffalo native Brian Sacca is not a member of the latter group, something he makes immediately and abundantly apparent on every page of his first feature-length screenplay, “Buffaloed.” The result, directed by Tanya Wexler, is amusing.

Continue reading ‘Buffaloed’: Zoey Deutch’s Charm Only Goes So Far In This Boring Comedy [Review] at The Playlist.

It’s not that Jai Courtney is a bad actor, but his latest film, “Semper Fi,” just shows how many times he hasn’t been able to tap into what makes him such an engaging on-screen presence. Excluding his delightfully-scrappy turn as Captain Boomerang in “Suicide Squad” (your mileage may vary on the rest of that one), Courtney really hasn’t had an opportunity to really prove his worth with only a handful of franchise nonstarters and supporting turns to build on.

Continue reading Dignified Military Drama ‘Semper Fi’ Presents Jai Courtney’s Best Performance To Date [Review] at The Playlist.

Action star Jai Courtney has begun to see more opportunities, in recent years, to flex his dramatic chops along with his muscles, utilizing his Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) theater education. Known for projects such as “Spartacus,” “A Good Day to Die Hard,” “Terminator Genisys,” and “Suicide Squad,” Courtney has recently expanded both genres as well as the depth in his choice of roles with “Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later,” “Storm Boy,” “Buffaloed,” and “Semper Fi,” his latest film directed by Henry Alex Rubin (“Murderball“).

Continue reading Jai Courtney On ‘Semper Fi,’ ‘The Suicide Squad,’ Being “Pumped” About The New ‘Terminator’ & More [Interview] at The Playlist.

Love, loyalty, and testosterone run rampant in the new “Semper Fi” trailer.

Jai Courtney leads the cast as Callahan, a straight-laced cop and a member of the Marine Corps Reserve. His world is turned upside down when his wild-child younger brother Oyster (Nat Wolff) is sent to jail after accidentally killing a guy in a bar fight. Oyster is dealt an unfair sentence, so Callahan decides to go against his nature and attempt to break his little brother out of prison.

Continue reading ‘Semper Fi’ Trailer: Jai Cortney & Nat Wolff Plan A Prison Escape In New Thriller at The Playlist.

Cate Blanchett has pretty much conquered film, at this point. She’s been nominated for six Oscars, winning two, and has earned the admiration from just about every film fan on the planet. So, with that in mind, it appears that Blanchett is ready to take on TV with her newest project, “Stateless.”

The Wrap is reporting that Blanchett has signed on to produce and star in the upcoming Australian limited series “Stateless.” The show will follow the story of four strangers that are being detained in an Australian immigration center in the desert.

Continue reading Cate Blanchett Will Be Joined By A Great Cast In New Immigration Drama Series ‘Stateless’ at The Playlist.

If it’s not clear already, and at the risk of repeating ourselves, Warner Bros. is resetting itself. Ben Affleck is gone as Batman, Henry Cavill is gone as Superman (at least for now), and James Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad” is said to be a reboot that will include only a few of the original members and actors. Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) is returning), Will Smith decided to opt out, and he’s been replaced with Idris Elba, and one more original member from the cast is returning: Jai Courtney’s Captain Boomerang character.

Continue reading Jai Courtney Will Boomerang Back Into James Gunn’s ‘Suicide Squad’ Reboot at The Playlist.

Just when you thought you had caught up on your Peak TV viewing, here comes “Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later.” The follow-up to ‘First Day Of Camp’ drops viewers into the wild world of the 1990s, and it looks like fans are gonna have a blast.

The absolutely massive returning cast — A.D. Miles, Amy Poehler, Beth Dover, Chris Meloni, Chris Pine, David Hyde Pierce, David Wain, Elizabeth Banks, Eric Nenninger, H.

Continue reading First Trailer For ‘Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later’ Jumps Into The 1990s at The Playlist.

If the career of Sam Worthington — bland and boring in leading man roles, much more interesting when he gets to play character parts in indies like “Somersault” or “The Keeping Room” — was anything to go by, people maybe shouldn’t have been so quick to dismiss his fellow Australian Jai Courtney. Yes, Courtney was a bit of a charisma vacuum in films like “Terminator: Genisys,” but he was a lot more fun when he got to ugly-up in “Suicide Squad” — indeed, he was probably the best thing in the movie.

Continue reading Jai Courtney Is A Nazi In First Trailer For A24’s ‘The Exception’ With Lily James & Christopher Plummer at The Playlist.

The reshoot heavy, panic button pushing, over-managed road to “Suicide Squad” wasn’t the smoothest ride for all involved, and the unease really showed in the final product. Sure, the film may have earned $745 million worldwide at the box office, but it did little to convince anybody —especially following the “Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice” debacle— that Warner Bros. has any idea what to do with the DC Extended Universe.

Continue reading Honest Trailer For ‘Suicide Squad,’ A Movie About Superheroes Who Are Low On Relevant Superhero Skills at The Playlist.