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Looking ahead to 2025, here are the 45 films of all genres – from horror to comedy to drama and more – we reckon you really shouldn’t miss.

Special mentions:

Firstly, the movies you won’t be seeing, but want to namecheck. Our rules were that we didn’t want to include films that had screened, but not made it to the UK yet (with the exception of British films). Hence – sorry Kevin – the next Horizon film isn’t on the list. There’s stuff we’re watching for release dates too: Above The Below, Mother’s Pride, All Of You, and such like. We acknowledge too that there’s a Michael Jackson biopic that you won’t find below. Plus superhero films that don’t really need our help, so we limited ourselves to one or two of those.

Instead, here’s the 45 films firmly on our radar for 2025…

45. Avatar: Fire And...

Larry Cohen isn’t really a horror guy, at least not in the same vein as his contemporary filmmakers like Wes Craven, John Carpenter, or Tobe Hooper. Cohen wasn’t even really the same type of director as he wrote almost 3 times as many projects as he directed. What he lacked in quantity for horror movies though, he more than made up for in quality. This quality started with 1974’s It’s Alive and moved through very different types of horror like God Told Me To, The Stuff, and Q the Winged Serpent. The only series of movies he was involved in was his trilogy of It’s Alive movies. While the first two were heavy hitters in terms of themes that were hidden under the guise of creature features, the third one had far less to say but is unfairly seen as less fun. 1987 was a weird year for the man,...

The French action film “Ad Vitam” came out of nowhere to become the biggest movie on Netflix at the start of 2025.

“Ad Vitam” beat out a number of film classics and nostalgic movies to climb to the top of Netflix’s Top 10 ranking since it’s debut on Jan. 10. The film is certain to scratch the itch for action movie lovers – particularly those who adored Liam Neeson’s “Taken” franchise.

Here is what you need to know about “Ad Vitam” before you check it out for yourself.

What is ‘Ad Vitam’ about?

“Ad Vitam” follows a counterterrorism agent for the French national police called Gign who has fallen from grace right as he’s embroiled in a mission involving the kidnapping of his pregnant wife. Here’s the official synopsis of the film:

“After escaping an attempted murder, Franck Lazareff must find his wife Leo, who has been kidnapped by...

“The Substance” (Mubi) and “Flow” (Janus/Sideshow), two very independent specialized releases, add to their theatrical and awards successes with strong interest on home viewing.

“Wicked” (Universal), expecting even greater recognition repeats as #1 at both iTunes (ranking by transactions) and Fandango (by revenue) in its second week out. The studio, which like others rarely announces home video returns, said its first week out had $70 million in rentals and sales. They get 80 percent of this after a small carriage fee deduction, a much higher return than in theaters. This buttresses the claim of how vital PVOD is, even if its often early streaming release seems to intrude on theatrical play.

Netflix, meanwhile, underwent a wholesale turnover this week, with only three films listed last week still on their top 10. “Ad Vitam,” an original French thriller in the Liam Neeson-mold that follows a lone avenger saving a family member in danger,...

It seems Pamela Anderson has a new fan. After seeing her performance in Gia Coppola’s “The Last Showgirl,” writer/director Aaron Sorkin took to Variety to write a column in praise and support of her cinematic reinvention.

“We were distracted,” Sorkin wrote. “For most of her life, Pamela Anderson was being upstaged by ‘Pamela Anderson.’ Then Gia Coppola sent her a screenplay by Kate Gersten, and now Ms. Anderson, having given one of the finest performances of this or any year, has won awards from film festivals around the world and is in the middle of Academy Award conversations.”

Though she didn’t end up going home a winner, Anderson was nominated at last week’s Golden Globe Awards for Best Performance by a Female Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. She was once again honored this week with a nomination from the Screen Actors Guild Awards in the...

After taking on the dramatic role of an aging Las Vegas dancer in Gia Coppola‘s “The Last Showgirl,” Pamela Anderson was ready for a change of pace. For her next project, she decided to lean into her sillier side, co-starring opposite Liam Neeson in Paramount’s reboot of the 1980s and ’90s cop comedy franchise “The Naked Gun.” Directed by Lonely Island’s Akiva Schaffer and produced by Seth MacFarlane, the project was another dream role for Anderson, who’s riding high after receiving nominations from the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards for her performance in “The Last Showgirl.”

“It was so fun. I mean, it’s so different than this film. It’s a high comedy. I’m literally running into walls, which I’ve always wanted to do,” said Anderson in a recent interview on “Late Night with Seth Meyers.” “And Liam is such a gentleman.

Colm Meaney, the Irish actor perhaps best known for playing Miles O’Brien across all seven seasons of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” but with a wealth of other major film and TV credits to his name, is set to be honored with the Irish Academy Award for lifetime achievement.

Presented at the Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) awards on Feb. 14, the honor will celebrate a career spanning five decades that has seen Meaney work with some of the world’s most renowned filmmakers and actors.

“To say I was surprised when I got the news that IFTA wanted to give me this award, would be an understatement. I was truly shocked,” said Meaney. “To be asked to join this long list of very illustrious previous recipients is a huge honour, and I’m thrilled and looking forward to a good night in Dublin.”

Film credits on Meaney’s resume include...

Julia Roberts was once best known as a rom-com actress. She is known for her roles in romantic films and has made a career off of them. It seems that the industry particularly likes seeing her in films like those, as her films outside of this genre haven’t gotten her the same amount of attention.

Julia Roberts in Notting Hill | Credit: Universal Pictures

With this in mind, many of her fans would be surprised to know that the actress played a very crucial role in a film that gained great controversy. In 1996, Roberts starred in Neil Jordan’s biopic on Michael Collins, starring Liam Neeson and Alan Rickman. The film did make many historians critical because of its inaccuracies but stands tall as one of her most acclaimed works to date.

The director once revealed that despite the excellent cast that he had in the film, he would not...

Pamela Anderson appeared on Radio Andy’s “Andy Cohen Live” on January 9 and reflected on how the Hulu series “Pam & Tommy” was made without her permission, discussed going makeup-free at last weekend’s Golden Globe Awards, talked about starring alongside Liam Neeson in the upcoming “Naked Gun” reboot, and more.

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During the interview, Andy Cohen asked Pamela about “Pam & Tommy” – the 2022 biographical drama starring Lily James and Sebastian Stan – and whether it’s legal to create an unauthorized scripted show about someone.

“I think ethically it’s illegal,” she said. “But I mean it’s kind of fair game. I remember people telling me a long time ago that you are basically public property and you have no right to privacy.”

Pamela then told Andy that her recent success in the acclaimed movie “The Last Showgirl” is “the best payback.

James Gunn’s Dcu is officially underway and it is high time a few casting choices are made for some key characters in the universe. The filmmaker and co-chief of DC Studios has maintained that no greenlight will be given for a project unless it has a solid script and seems to be giving time to set up solo films. However, all of them need to lead up to a huge villain.

Josh Brolin, who played Thanos in the MCU, recently shared a fanart of himself in the design of Darkseid. This fueled the rumors that Brolin was still in talks with Gunn after he refused the offer to play Hal Jordan a.k.a Green Lantern in the Dcu. While casting Brolin as Darkseid, who is basically DC’s Thanos is not a good choice, there are other actors who fit the bill.

1. Javier Bardem Javier Bardem in Dune:...

Schwarzenegger. Stallone. Van Damme. Gibson. Snipes. Ford. When you make a list of the most popular action heroes of all time, there’s another name that needs to be added to that list – Liam Neeson. Over the last sixteen years, he’s headlined a neverending series of action thrillers that have propelled him to a much higher echelon of fame than he’d ever been on before, with him only ever becoming an action star once he was fifty-six. Ultimately, it was all due to a low-budget, European-financed action flick, which came very close to going direct-to-video and reached theatres in Europe a full year before it opened in North America. That movie is Taken, and we’re going to tell you how it revitalized the career of a man who – at the time – was generally considered a top-tier character actor with limited box office appeal. That’s right – it...

One of the most successful soap opera series of all time, Shameless is an incredibly gritty portrayal of a dysfunctional Gallagher family navigating life on Chicago’s South side. Containing an ensemble cast, the series propelled several actors to success, yet it was Emmy Rossum who stood out the most as Fiona Gallagher. The eldest daughter of the Gallagher family, she was the heart and soul of the show.

Emmy Rossum | Credit: The Crowded Room / Apple TV+

Throughout the series, Rossum was the lead and one of the central characters of the show, and thus, it was a shock when the actress decided to leave the series after season 9. Her departure marked a significant turning point for Shameless, sending shockwaves through the fanbase and prompting speculation about the reasons behind her exit. Even though she had come far from where she left and it had been years since her exit,...

A holiday staple, Love Actually (2003) is a delightful flick that reminds us that love sure does come in all shapes and sizes. From grand gestures of love to unrequited feelings, the film is all you need to feel all kinds of emotions in a little over 2 hours. Starring actors like Keira Knightley, Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, and more, Love Actually is everything you could ask from a rom-com wrapped into one elegant piece.

Chiwetel Ejiofor and Keira Knightley in Love Actually (2003) | Credits: Universal Pictures

The film tells 10 separate stories side-by-side, many of which are interlinked in one way or another. However, there is one story we would like to single out—the story of Juliet, Peter, and Mark. As it turns out, the leading woman of the story, Keira Knightley, was creeped out by one iconic scene in the film.

Keira Knightley recalls the scene with Andrew Lincoln Andrew Lincoln...

Once upon a time, in the years before 2009 when "Taken" somehow took cinemas by storm, Liam Neeson used to act in all different kinds of movies. Before "Taken" and its many sequels, Neeson starred in movies ranging from the ultra-saccharine Christmas romantic comedy "Love Actually" to genre fare like "The Haunting" remake and "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace." He played Jean Valjean in the 1998 adaptation of "Les Misérables" and brought numerous historical figures to life, including Irish Republican Army founder Michael Collins, 18th-century Scottish highlander Rob Roy, and German industrialist and humanitarian Oskar Schindler. 

Unfortunately, since "Taken," Neeson pretty much only stars in action thrillers, like his absolutely abysmal 2022 movie "Blacklight," which is currently the prolific actor's lowest Rotten Tomatoes score. He starred in plenty of great films before that, however, including one of director Steven Spielberg's best movies: the multiple Academy Award-winning "Schindler's List." It should...

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This January, Netflix is bringing you a lot of entertainment, from the highly anticipated second season of The Night Agent to an action comedy film titled Back in Action. However, for the purposes of this article, we are only including the films that are coming to Netflix this month and have a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score. So, check out the seven best films that are coming to Netflix in January 2025 with a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

Apollo 13 (January 1) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96% Credit – Universal Pictures

Apollo 13 is a docudrama film directed by Ron Howard from a screenplay co-written by William Broyles Jr. and Al Reinert. Based on the 1995 non-fiction book Lost Moon by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kruger, the 1995 film follows astronauts Lovell, Haise, and Swigert as they find themselves stranded on the moon after...

These child actors starred in iconic films – here's what they're up to now.Iniversal Studios, 20th Century Fox;new Line CinemaDaniel Tay – 'Elf'Daniel Tay starred in 2003's 'Elf' alongside Will Ferrell.Warner Bros. Entertainment; Mega

Daniel Tay was 11 when he acted opposite Will Ferrell in 2003's Elf as Buddy's half-brother, Michael Hobbs. But after making American Splendor (2003) and Doogal (2006), he quit acting to take a drastically different path.

He graduated from Yale in 2014 with a degree in economics and became an Sat tutor and bilingual editor. Now 32, Tay volunteers at a New York hospital and still has an agent in case he's called on to make a comeback.

Eric Lloyd – 'The Santa Clause'Eric Lloyd portrayed Charlie Calvin's role in the 1994 hit 'The Santa Claus' and its two sequels.Youtube;Mega

From age eight to 20, Eric Lloyd played Charlie Calvin in 1994's The Santa Clause and its two sequels.

“This is a business where the buyer gets nothing for his money but a memory,” MGM founder Louis B. Mayer (Arliss Howard) says in Mank. “What he bought still belongs to the man who sold it. That’s the real magic of the movies, and don’t let anybody tell you different.

Rewatching the Richard Curtis directorial Love Actually has become a Christmas-time tradition. The romance comedy stars an ensemble cast headlined by Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Liam Neeson, Hugh Grant, Keira Knightley, and more. The film has gained a cult following despite mixed reviews upon initial release.

Though loved by millions around the world, the film was reportedly not that monetarily beneficial for many of the actors. However, one person walked out with an amazing payday for only a minute of screentime. Supermodel Claudia Schiffer, who appears as Thomas Brodie-Sangster’s classmate’s mother, reportedly earned $350,000 for her appearance.

Claudia Schiffer earned a $350,000 salary for her 60-second appearance in Love Actually A still from Love Actually | Credits: Universal Pictures

Love Actually is a mosaic of romantic stories set in the lead-up to Christmas time. From a best friend who expresses his love for his friend’s fiance, to a widower trying...

This post contains spoilers for "Skeleton Crew episode 5."

In "Skeleton Crew," the coordinates for At Attin are harder to come by than pirate's treasure. After being directed to the nearly identical "Fallout"-coded planet of At Achrann and coming close to being torn limb from limb, the titular crew decides to override Sm-33's memory drive. Episode 4 revealed that the droid's former captain had erased his memory of At Attin's coordinates, so the crew's latest mission is to retrieve the hidden coordinates from a physical location. This leads Jod (Jude Law) and co. to the pleasure planet of Lanupa, which used to be a dangerous pirate base that has now been modeled into a spa.

The intensely "Indiana Jones" coded adventures that unravel here warrant separate discussion, as there's a lot to unpack here, including the "Star Wars" version of a popular Lovecraftian (!) entity. However, most of the emotional gravitas...

The below was part of a previously published interview with “Love Actually” writer/director Richard Curtis.

“Love Actually” may be all around, but according to filmmaker Richard Curtis, the beloved holiday rom-com staple was a “catastrophe” to make.

Curtis told IndieWire while promoting his animated film debut “That Christmas” that “Love Actually” was a pain to edit due to the anthology stories intersecting. The 2003 film starred Keira Knightley, Andrew Lincoln, Laura Linney, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, and more.

“The strange thing about ‘Love Actually’ is, when we finished the movie, it was a catastrophe,” Curtis said. “It took six months to re-edit it and learn all these lessons about how to do a multi-thread story.”

Curtis continued, “When I wrote ‘Love Actually,’ and we had the read-through, and it sounded great, I thought you would probably do A, B, C, D, E, F, G. But actually when you’re doing multi-story,...

Take a look at these Christmas cuties and their lives now.Movieclips/YouTube; Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers/YouTubeDaniel Tay – 'Elf'Warner Bros. Entertainment/YouTube; Mega

Daniel Tay was 11 when he acted opposite Will Ferrell in 2003's Elf as Buddy's half-brother, Michael Hobbs. But after making American Splendor (2003) and Doogal (2006), he quit acting to take a drastically different path.

He graduated from Yale in 2014 with a degree in economics and became an Sat tutor and bilingual editor. Now 32, Tay volunteers at a New York hospital and still has an agent in case he's called on to make a comeback!

Eric Lloyd – 'The Santa Clause'Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers/YouTube; Mega

From age 8 to 20, Eric Lloyd played Charlie Calvin in 1994's The Santa Clause and its two sequels.

Since then, the 38-year-old has added comedian, musician and producer to his résumé, and starred in the 2018 movie The Onyx of Wall Street. He partnered with...

In a twist straight out of a movie script, Guy Pearce was nearly cast in Christopher Nolan’s Batman films, but something dark and blood-curdling kept him out. Nolan, known for his precision in casting, had a strange reason for not bringing Pearce on board. It wasn’t about talent or timing – it was something far more sinister.

Guy Pearce in a still from Memento | Credits: Summit Entertainment

Pearce’s vibe just didn’t mesh with the dark and gritty world Nolan had built. You’d think this was just another Hollywood near-miss, but it’s a tale that’s bound to give you chills and leave you questioning what could have been.

Warner Bros. exec blocked Guy Pearce from Nolan’s films, but he’s ready for round two Guy Pearce in a still from Memento | Credits: Summit Entertainment

“I’m never going to employ Guy Pearce.” Those chilling...

Late Night with Seth Meyers is done ... for now. The late-night TV show behind "A Closer Look" has closed up shop for the year.

And what a year it was for Late Night with Seth Meyers. An election year is a long year for the entire country, and things were no different for Seth Meyers and his team.

So even if it weren't the holidays, we'd expect Meyers and everyone else at Late Night to take a break. The show wrapped up its 2024 last week and now looks to recharge.

NBC will air rerun episodes starting Monday, December 23, during Late Night's normal timeslot. The first one up is a repeat of the October 8 show featuring Nathan Lane, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Amelia Dimoldenberg.

Appearances by the Meyers family, Liam Neeson, Jenny Slate, Tim O'Brien, Jim Gaffigan, and Allison Tolman are also on the schedule this week. The network also plans...

Remakes are pretty common in the horror genre, but not necessarily popular and not always good. Studios that own classic intellectual properties like "A Nightmare on Elm Street" or "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" obviously want to monetize them, but longtime fans have a hard time getting past anyone besides Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger or Gunnar Hansen as Leatherface. It's a problem at least as old as Universal's classics -- Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff were not the only actors to play Dracula and Frankenstein's monster, respectively, but they are the names and faces that everyone remembers and loves from the Universal Monsters movies.

So why remake the hits? Why not remake flops instead? Sure, some of those flops may have intense fan bases, but imagine how many more people would love them if the concept were done better the second time around? A clever notion that...

In the early days, before movies became talkies, it was easy to show foreign films in the USA. Just insert new title cards in English, and film fans in St. Louis could watch and understand the latest offering from France or Germany. But then sound came and changed everything.

Of course, distributors in the United States could add subtitles or dub in new voices, but if they really wanted to sell the movie to an American audience, they could also just go ahead and make a new, English-language version.

Whether it is repurposing the Japanese classic Rashomon as The Outrage or taking Spain’s Abre los ojos and turning it into Vanilla Sky, producers in the USA are constantly scouring the globe for some hot property to acquire, rewrite, recast, and in so doing, capture a whole new audience.

Netflix viewers are running out of time to check out Cold Pursuit

Usually,...

Liam Neeson was almost cast as James Bond? (Photo Credit – Facebook)

Liam Neeson revealed the unexpected twist on The Late Late Show with James Corden, saying, “I know they were looking at various actors, and I apparently was among them. However, my dear, departed wife did say to me… ‘Darling, if you’re offered James Bond and you’re going to play it, you’re not going to marry me.’ Let that sink in. Natasha wasn’t just saying she didn’t want him playing 007—she was saying, straight-up, if Bond was on the table, so was a dealbreaker in their relationship. Love, after all, wins.

This stuff goes back to the early ’90s, around the time GoldenEye was about to become the new Bond sensation. Producers were scouting actors to take on the role after Sean Connery and Roger Moore’s reigns. Neeson was in the mix—but Natasha wasn’t having it.

Let’s talk about something we all know and love – those special movies that never seem to lose their magic, no matter how many times we’ve watched them. You know the ones I’m talking about: the films that you can quote word for word, yet still find yourself completely engrossed in whenever they pop up on your screen. It’s like catching up with an old friend who always has something new to share.

A still from the movie Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) | Credits: Toei Company, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

These aren’t just movies; they’re comfort food for the soul, reliable mood-lifters, and constant companions through different phases of our lives. What makes these films so special? It’s a combination of brilliant storytelling, unforgettable characters, and that inexplicable quality that keeps drawing us back for more.

So, grab your favorite snack, settle into your comfy spot,...

In a comic run that was published in the mid and late 2010s, writer Matthew Rosenberg and artist Stefano Landini took the character of Frank Castle, aka The Punisher, away from his crime roots and put him deep into the Marvel Universe on a mission of revenge.

Revenge is still on the Rosenberg and Landini’s mind, but in a very non-Marvel way, as the duo reunite for a creator-owned comic titled We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us. The all-new, six issue miniseries will kick off in March 2025 from Image Comics with an extra-length first issue.

The story follows a 13-year-old girl named Annalise who’s left all alone in the world after her mad-scientist father is killed by the world’s greatest spy. Now, alongside her dead dad’s robot bodyguard, Annalise has a choice: try to lead a normal life for the first time ever or seek...

When you're in "Star Wars," you don't always need that many lines or that much screen time to become a fan favorite. Just ask Ray Park, who quickly shot to fame within the fandom after playing Darth Maul in 1999's "The Phantom Menace." Park doesn't utter a single word as the character, as Maul's few lines were dubbed over by Peter Serafinowicz. When the character was resurrected for "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" and "Star Wars Rebels," he was voiced by veteran voice actor Sam Witwer instead. But Park's version of Maul has remained near and dear to fans' hearts due to his unforgettable physical presence and martial arts ability. And yet, he likely would have never been cast if not for a truly terrible movie.

In 1995, "Mortal Kombat" gave us one of the best video game movies we'd seen in decades. It's goofy and campy, sure, but it's also fun,...

Did you know there’s a 17-minute long sequel to Love Actually, and it’s available to stream on the Internet for free!?

The short film was recorded for the fundraising event Red Nose Day back in 2017…and we have the stream for you here! It’s titled Red Nose Day Actually.

Head inside for more…

The reunion features a lot of the same cast, including Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Andrew Lincoln, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Keira Knightley, Martine McCutcheon, Bill Nighy, Thomas Brodie Sangster, and Rowan Atkinson, among others.

The short film is set 13 years after the events in Love Actually, and gives an update on quite a few of the characters throughout the film.

Find out why Emma Thompson decided to never rewatch the original film. Hugh Grant also once revealed which Love Actually scene he found excruciating to film.

Hit play on the embed below to watch...

The stories of Harvey Weinstein don’t seem to end. With the amount of influence he had in the industry and just how infamous his reputation was, it is not surprising that the world was stunned at the true extent of his nefariousness. Before he became a convicted s*x offender for some very serious charges, he was simply known as the bully of the industry.

Harvey Weinstein | Credit: CNN

However, more and more people seemed to be having perspectives to add to the kind of person he was when the cameras were turned off. One such person happens to be Lili Taylor. Although she has starred in classic films like Julia Roberts’ Mystic Pizza, James Wan’s The Conjuring, and even Liam Neeson’s The Haunting, she has never worked with Weinstein.

It would seem that this was a very intentional professional decision on both their sides, and Taylor...

Exclusive: Plane and The Bricklayer actor Oliver Trevena has signed with Untitled Entertainment for management.

Trevena has most recently acted in Hotel Tehran (in post) with Liam Neeson and Zachary Levi, TIFF movie The Cut with Orlando Bloom, Mermaid with Mel Gibson, and Ice Fall, with Joel Kinnaman, for which he also served as executive producer.

Trevena was recently honored by the Rome Film festival with a Breakout Actor award from his Plane co-star Gerard Butler at the premiere of Trevena’s action-thriller The Paradox Effect in which he stars opposite Harvey Keitel and Olga Kurylenko. He also stars with the latter in Misdirection, which he also produced.

On the entrepreneurial side, Trevena launched tbe Caliwater beverage brand with business partner Vanessa Hudgens. The Brit actor and producer continues to be repped by Independent Talent Group and law firm Rosenfeld, Meyer & Susman.

Spanish-American filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra returns to his genre roots with Carry-On (2024), an airport thriller set on Christmas Eve that evokes the tension of Die Hard with a touch of Phone Booth’s claustrophobic suspense—departing from his usual collaborations with Liam Neeson in Hitchcock-inspired, mid-budget action fare, Collet-Serra teams up with Taron Egerton in a high-stakes thriller that follows Tsa agent Ethan Kopek, who is coerced by a mysterious figure to allow a dangerous package onto a Christmas Eve flight. Although it’s not right to expect something deeper out of Serra’s movies, the film explores themes of morality, manipulation, and the weight of responsibility under pressure. As Ethan navigates a tense game of survival, the narrative delves into ethical dilemmas, personal redemption, and the impact of split-second decisions in life-or-death scenarios. If you found Netflix’s Carry-on riveting in any form, here are 7 other movies that you...

Christopher Nolan is known for sticking with actors he likes, with folks like Michael Caine, Cillian Murphy, and Tom Hardy all appearing in multiple outings for the director across decades. Which makes it a little confusing that the star of Nolan's first big breakout flick has never worked with him...

I recently saw a friend in a play about Robin Hood. They performed on a small outdoor stage in the middle of a park, acting with minimal sets and costumes. Still, it was an engaging, funny play, and it even made me a little verklempt to think about the fact that humans have been dressing up in parks to tell each other stories of Robin Hood for hundreds of years. We like to entertain each other, and I think that's neat.

The same goes for Greek mythology. These stories have circulated for millennia, used as moral lessons or to simply pass the time. There's a vast amount of mythology to dive into, but at least in the world of cinema, we tend to tell each other the same few stories over and over again, dressing up in costumes to act out the adventures of Hercules, the trials of Odysseus, or...

Christopher Nolan has gained a reputation for being a creature of habit. He is a man of many talents and can visualize and create a scene just as well as he can shoot it with a camera. On top of his stellar capabilities, he has also become known for casting the same actors in different roles throughout his films.

Christopher Nolan | Credits: HellaCinema, Cc By-sa 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Be it Christian Bale, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, or even Anne Hathaway, he seems to love working with people who know his style and way of working. Despite this, there is one actor that Nolan has not worked with twice, even though they made their careers together: Guy Pearce.

During an interview, Pearce revealed the reason why this was the case, and the answer is quite disheartening.

The dynamic duo

Christopher Nolan first laid the foundations of his career on the second film he ever made,...

Spanish-American filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra returns to his genre roots with “Carry-On” (2024), essentially creating an airport thriller set around Christmas Eve in the vein of “Die Hard 2,” with shades of “Phone Booth” thrown in for good measure. Unlike his usual collaborations with Liam Neeson in these moderately-budgeted action films with Hitchcockian bents, Serra chooses Taron Egerton as the lead here, and in the process re-introduces Egerton to the zeitgeist of the Netflix Original Movies, albeit with better filmmaking prowess.

Carry-On (2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis Who is Ethan Kopek?

Serving as the cold open for the movie, the opening sequence shows a man in shadows, wearing a cap and a black jacket, accepting the delivery of a mysterious package, before killing both the Russian dealer and his nephew for asking double the amount agreed upon. The mysterious introduction of the antagonist counters the much subtle introduction to our protagonist, Ethan Kopek...

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Carry-On is an action thriller film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra from a screenplay by T.J. Fixman. The must-watch Netflix film follows Ethan Kopek, a young Tsa agent who a mysterious passenger blackmails into letting an unchecked package slip onto a flight on Christmas Eve. If he doesn’t follow his orders, his blackmailer will kill his pregnant girlfriend. Carry-On stars Taron Egerton, Jason Bateman, Sofia Carson, Danielle Deadwyler, Logan Marshall-Green, and Theo Rossi. So, if you love the thrilling story, nail-biting drama, and compelling characters in Carry-On, here are some similar movies you should check out next.

Die Hard 2 Credit – 20th Century Studios

Die Hard 2 is an action thriller film directed by Renny Harlin from a screenplay co-written by Steven E. de Souza and Doug Richardson. Based on the 1987 novel 58 Minutes by author Walter Wager,...

Despite the critical and commercial success of their sole collaboration, Guy Pearce was blocked from working with Christopher Nolan for 20 years.

The 2x Golden Globe nominee recently claimed he was denied roles in multiple Nolan films after a Warner Bros. exec took issue with him following their 2x Oscar-nominated movie Memento (2000).

“He spoke to me about roles a few times over the years. The first Batman and The Prestige,” he told Vanity Fair. “But there was an executive at Warner Bros. who quite openly said to my agent, ‘I don’t get Guy Pearce. I’m never going to get Guy Pearce. I’m never going to employ Guy Pearce.’ So, in a way, that’s good to know. I mean, fair enough; there are some actors I don’t get. But it meant I could never work with Chris.”

Pearce speculated, “I think he just didn’t believe in me as an actor.

Guy Pearce starred in Christopher Nolan’s Memento, the neo-noir that put the director on the map and set him up for The Dark Knight trilogy, The Prestige, Interstellar, Oppenheimer, and more. So why haven’t the pair ever worked together again? In a conversation with Vanity Fair, Pearce explained that he did come close to reuniting with Nolan several times, but a Warner Bros. executive seemingly had it out for him.

“[Nolan] spoke to me about roles a few times over the years. The first Batman and The Prestige,” Pearce said. “But there was an executive at Warner Bros. who quite openly said to my agent, ‘I don’t get Guy Pearce. I’m never going to get Guy Pearce. I’m never going to employ Guy Pearce.’ So, in a way, that’s good to know. I mean, fair enough; there are some actors I don’t get. But...

Guy Pearce opened up about wanting to work with Christopher Nolan again after Memento but not being able to because a Warner Bros. executive didn’t like his acting.

In a conversation with Vanity Fair ahead of the release of his new film, The Brutalist, the actor admitted he hasn’t really been in touch with the Oscar-winning director since they worked together on the 2000 film.

“He spoke to me about roles a few times over the years. The first Batman and The Prestige,” he recalled. “But there was an executive at Warner Bros. who quite openly said to my agent, ‘I don’t get Guy Pearce. I’m never going to get Guy Pearce. I’m never going to employ Guy Pearce.’ So, in a way, that’s good to know. I mean, fair enough. There are some actors I don’t get. But it meant I could never work with Chris.

Guy Pearce was not the “guy” for Warner Bros. in the 2000s, apparently.

The actor recalled the brutal feedback his agent received from an unnamed executive at the studio after his lead performance in 2000 film “Memento,” which was directed by Christopher Nolan. Due to the WB executive’s lack of enthusiasm for “The Brutalist” actor, he was essentially blacklisted from working at both the studio and with Nolan. IndieWire has reached out to WB for comment.

Director Nolan began exclusively making films for WB starting with his 2002 psychological thriller “Insomnia.” He parted ways with the studio after the 2020 streaming release of “Tenet”; Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” was a Universal Pictures film, and he is teaming up again with Universal for his new, currently untitled feature.

“He spoke to me about roles a few times over the years,” Pearce said about working with Nolan again. “[It was about] the first ‘Batman’ and ‘The Prestige.’ But...

You can’t swing a Christmas tree at the moment without crashing into one of the many dubious seasonal offerings festooned across the Netflix front page like so much cheap tinsel. Between sexy snowmen (Hot Frosty), Christmas strippers (The Merry Gentlemen), a ticket tout romance (Meet Me Next Christmas) and the latest evolution of the Lohanaissance (Our Little Secret), there’s enough shoddy yuletide fare to make even the holly jolliest of Christmas lovers want to garrotte an elf with some fairy lights.

However, amidst all the saccharine schmaltz and candy cane cliche, the streamer has also slipped a surprise treat into our stockings in the form of this unexpectedly watchable airport thriller. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who pioneered an entire sub-genre in which Liam Neeson murders people on assorted modes of public transport, Carry-On sets out its stall on a busy Christmas Eve at Lax. Bored Tsa agent Ethan...

Guy Pearce starred in Christopher Nolan‘s 2000 movie Memento, but he hasn’t been in any of them since then and there’s an explanation.

The 57-year-old Australian actor says that he was banned from appearing in any of Nolan‘s other movies, despite the director wanting to work with him again.

So, what happened?

Keep reading to find out more…

An executive at Warner Bros. wasn’t a fan of Guy‘s acting and wouldn’t allow him to appear in their films. Nolan signed a first-look deal with Warner Bros., which ended after the release of 2020′s Tenet. The director now is releasing films with Universal Pictures.

“He spoke to me about roles a few times over the years,” Guy told Vanity Fair about his relationship with Christopher. “The first Batman and The Prestige. But there was an executive at Warner Bros. who quite openly said to my agent,...

Guy Pearce revealed in a new interview with Vanity Fair that he was blocked from starring in Christopher Nolan movies after 2000’s “Memento” because a Warner Bros. executive just didn’t like his acting. The director’s relationship with the Hollywood studio started right after “Memento” with the 2002 psychological thriller “Insomnia.” Nolan and Warner Bros. then worked together for 18 years through the 2020 release of “Tenet.” The director’s tenure at the studio included blockbusters like “Inception” and “The Dark Knight” trilogy.

“He spoke to me about roles a few times over the years,” Pearce said when asked about his relationship with Nolan after the breakout success of “Memento.” “The first ‘Batman’ and ‘The Prestige.’ But there was an executive at Warner Bros. who quite openly said to my agent, ‘I don’t get Guy Pearce. I’m never going to get Guy Pearce. I’m never going to employ Guy Pearce.

Guy Pearce has nothing but good things to say about his Memento director Christopher Nolan, whom he calls a "towering intellect." And yet despite the star of the film that solidified Nolan's reputation as a leading filmmaker of the 21st century, the pair haven't worked together since. According to Pearce...

For a minute there, it almost felt like we lost Jaume Collet-Serra. The Spanish-American filmmaker spent the better part of a decade establishing himself as a bonafide auteur of better than they have any right to be suspense thrillers about decent people — usually Liam Neeson — trapped in compromising positions, but it was always going to be a matter of time before Hollywood took notice of the ecstatic competency he displayed in mid-budget movies like “Non-Stop” and “Run All Night” and swooped him up into the big leagues. He didn’t belong there. “Jungle Cruise” and “Black Adam” were both the kind of misfires that people only talk about in the past tense; the kind that could’ve been directed by anybody, and ultimately felt like they weren’t.

Altogether, they represented the kind of setback that typically forces a director to slum it on a streamer until they rediscover their mojo.

In an attempt to most obviously appeal to fans of Die Hard (and who isn’t?), director Jaume Collet-Serra has come up with something designed for them, especially for those who like Christmas movies that will freak you out.

Of course Die Hard was a hard-core action thriller set in a office tower in Century City at Christmas, but many are hard-pressed to call it a “Christmas movie” — even though it always turns up near the top of Yuletide favorites. Collet-Serra, in setting a thriller on Christmas Eve during the most crowded time imaginable for travelers, put his film Carry-On at Lax, one of the world’s busiest airports, and that becomes the perfect setting if you want a heart-racing action flick with a holiday chaser.

Of course a film like this is unquestionably derivative with elements of any number in the genre from Speed to Phone Booth, and other...

Jaume Collet-Serra has finally crawled out from under The Rock. Truth be told, he wasn’t actually in hiding that long; compared to the near-decade he spent setting and perfecting the template for the post-Taken Liam Neeson vehicle, Collet-Serra taking a few years to make effects-heavy Dwayne Johnson movies should...

All the excessively saccharine Christmas movies that come out during this time had me yearning for films like Die Hard, Home Alone, and Krampus; you know, stories that take the festive mood and turn it into something universally entertaining whilst spreading the word of the Lord and whatnot. Surprisingly enough, Dear Santa of all movies sort of scratched that itch. For starters, instead of having Santa Claus, it brought in a spawn of Satan because a kid misspelled Santa, which is totally relatable. It had some exceptionally great performances from the cast, and while the overall filmmaking left me unsatisfied, the message about being nice in this cynical world kinda got to me. Now, I had made peace with the fact that that’s the best Christmas movie that I was going to get this year. However, right when my sense of hope was about to flicker and die, Jaume Collet-Serra delivered Carry-On,...