PD STREAM CLUB NEWS TODAY

  It’s officially the most wonderful time of year. That means it's time for movie fans to snuggle up next to an open fire to watch all their favorite Christmas classics. There have been so many amazing Christmas movies over the decades, but few films have had the lasting cultural impact of Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, and Elf. These iconic festive treats have seen their fair share of merchandise over the years. This includes Funko which has been preserving these holiday classics in vinyl plastic. Now the famous toy company is releasing a new Walmart Exclusive Movie Moment Pop figure for each of the three films that will fill fans with endless Christmas Cheer. The first new figure, a part of Funko’s premiere line, recreates the classic moment of Clark Griswold struggling to turn on the Christmas lights that he hilariously almost killed himself 10 times over trying to put up. The Griswold’s lit up house is in the background while the main family of Clark, Ellen, Audrey, and Russ a

 Animation fans young and old will recall the familiar tune and look of the Moon Child for DreamWorks, and the animation studio has now revealed a new opener for their films. Keeping the framework of the iconic score, the new intro features some of DreamWorks' most familiar faces, from Shrek's titular character, Fiona, and Donkey to Kung Fu Panda's Po. This new intro helps to harken in the latest era for the veteran animation studio, and will play before the studio's newest film next month, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. Running for 32 seconds, the intro opens with the group from DreamWorks' latest feature, The Bad Guys. Toothless, the iconic dragon from the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, then swoops in, followed by Po from Kung Fu Panda, the titular character from The Boss Baby films, and Princess Poppy from the Trolls franchise. The intro is concluded with the trio of Shrek, Princess Fiona, and Donkey from the Shrek films. Veteran animators at DreamWorks colla

Disney and Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has topped the half-billion mark at the global box office in just over a week of release. With $288 million domestically and another $258 million from international territories, Wakanda Forever’s global haul stands at an excellent $546 million. The film made an estimated $67.3 million in its second weekend domestically, and added around $69 million from 50 international markets this weekend. Wakanda Forever is currently the seventh-biggest movie of the year worldwide, and is expected to eventually top both previous Marvel Cinematic Universe releases of the year — Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($955 million) and Thor: Love and Thunder ($760 million). The film's top-performing international territories are the UK ($27.1 million), Mexico ($22.8 million), France ($21.6 million), Brazil ($14.2 million) and Korea ($14 million). In the context of the MCU — the biggest movie franchise in the world — Wakanda Forever has alread

  Some of the best comedies are the ones that feature genuinely horrible people. Think how It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia centers on a cast of characters that create chaos and absurdity through their own despicable nature. While certainly less committed and creative by comparison, the surprisingly solid comedy The Estate operates in a similar vein in telling a story of various members of a family willing to do anything to secure the inheritance of a terminally ill aunt. Even as it is often overstretched and carries on for too long, it still provides more than enough laughs in a cinema landscape that has been missing out on mid-budget comedies. Written and directed by Dean Craig, most known for his Death at a Funeral films, it begins with an animated introduction to the members of the family we’ll come to know. The two at the center, Toni Collette's Macey and Anna Faris' Savanna, have fallen on hard times that now threaten the family café they run. When Savanna proposes that

  When we first meet Lynsey (Jennifer Lawrence), she can barely take care of herself. She struggles to get a toothbrush in her mouth, spouts at things that she doesn’t mean to say, and needs help learning how to do the everyday things she used to take for granted—all thanks to a brain injury she suffered while serving in Afghanistan. As soon as she starts to feel some semblance of normalcy, Lynsey starts trying to figure out how to reenlist, an idea that everyone but herself believes to be a terrible idea. Ever since she has returned home in New Orleans, Lynsey feels the need to escape this place she already made it out of once before. Causeway, from Maid director Lila Neugebauer, has its moments where it seems like a story we’ve seen all too often before, as a person who has left the service attempts to return to this dangerous line of work. Causeway shows the nightmares that come out of nowhere, the moments where the past hits the lead character, and just looking at Lawrence as she r

 The American West is a dangerous place for a woman, but so is England and the façade of safety that it offers women—even for wealthy, privileged women like Cornelia Locke (Emily Blunt). The English doesn’t shy away from the horrors of the 1890s, but it also carefully avoids turning its portrayal of period-typical violence, racism, and sexism into voyeuristic fodder. Across the six-episode limited series, writer-director Hugo Blick delivers a very even-keeled, but rarely glossy Western that interweaves Locke’s thirst for revenge with Eli Whipp’s (Chaske Spencer) own journey, as they come together to brave the bloody and cruel plains. Their first encounter is one of sheer chance. Shortly after her arrival in Wyoming, Locke happens upon Whipp, near death and left out to hang, and they forge a wholly unexpected friendship (with tinges of something more). They both have more emotional baggage than could easily fill their saddlebags, with Locke’s entire journey centering around her desire f

 Rambo is an interesting character. Initially conceived as a scathing criticism of America’s treatment of veterans (specifically veterans of the Vietnam War), Rambo became an avatar of muscle-bound jingoism, the prototypical American hero who spawned an entire genre of action films in the 1980s. The downtrodden forgotten soldier with crippling PTSD and no friends or family left to turn to was even adopted by the Reagan administration to sell its blatantly pro-corporate policies to working-class Americans inflicted with soaring economic and public health crises as a direct result of those same policies. (Reagan literally used a quote from Rambo: First Blood Part Two to push Reaganomics as some kind of victory of individualism and the American spirit instead of the cynical tax shelter for the super-rich it actually was.) The point is, Rambo is as iconic as he is deeply misunderstood, and Lionsgate’s lavish Rambo: The Complete SteelBook Collection box finally gives the character his due w

  Thinking back on Marvel Studios' Infinity Saga—the 23-film cycle that makes up the first big overarching story in the MCU—it's amazing how well producer Kevin Feige and his team were able to thread an ongoing narrative through the whole thing that culminated in such rousing fashion with Avengers: Endgame. Sure, they made up a lot of it as they went along (uh, that gem in Loki's scepter is now an Infinity Stone!), but Feige, working with a constantly evolving team of writers and directors, was largely able to keep the big-picture story on the tracks so that each movie fed smartly into the next before the saga arrived at an immensely satisfying conclusion. And then came the question of what's next? Well, the next step in the MCU has been the Multiverse—a loosely connected batch of stories that are built around the theme of infinite possible realities. In the Disney+ series Loki, the trickster god gets to meet various versions of himself from different timelines. With Sp

 Jake Gyllenhaal doesn’t need a performance vehicle to prove he’s one of the best actors of his generation, but that’s exactly what he gets in The Guilty, a dramatic thriller from director Antoine Fuqua that’s being distributed by Netflix. At only 40 years of age, Gyllenhaal has more than proven his range, avoiding being pigeonholed by taking on roles that are challenging in different ways. Brokeback Mountain, Zodiac, and Nightcrawler all reveal different facets of Gyllenhaal’s abilities as a performer, so it’s no surprise that when given the opportunity to command the entirety of the screentime himself in The Guilty, he delivers a turn that is compellingly complex, taking the audience on an emotional roller coaster that results in one of his best performances yet. The Guilty is a remake of the 2018 Danish film of the same name, and it features the same basic premise. Gyllenhaal (who also produces the film) plays Sergeant Bill Miller, a Los Angeles police officer who has been assigned

It's Halloween season, and everyone is looking for an excuse to get a little spooked. Some paranormal movies will be talked about for generations because at the time of their release, they were cutting-edge and absolutely terrifying. They all make sure audiences will reach the end credits thinking something is watching them all night. Horror films will outlast generations and paranormal films will see that the genre lasts even longer. With special effects and suspenseful storytelling, there's more than just a jump scare that will make these films stand out. 'The Exorcist' (1973) When young Regan (Linda Blair) becomes possessed by Pazuzu, her family calls for an exorcism to get the demon out. As Regan's condition worsens, she wreaks havoc on everyone in her household. Both Regan and the demon fight for power as the rest of her family reckons with the fact that she could kill them. Effects like projectile vomiting and a 360-degree rotation of the head have become trad

Found footage is the one sub-genre of horror that always seems to divide fans. With low-budget production and shaky-camera-style cinematography, it's difficult to pull off. However, when done right it can make for an unforgettable movie. From The Blair Witch Project and its viral marketing campaign in the 90s, to modern favorites such as Paranormal Activity (which has since evolved into a popular franchise) and As Above, So Below, found footage has been holding its own in the horror genre for decades. There's something about the style that rings truer than any polished Hollywood movie, and the stories often linger in the back of your mind long after the credits roll. The Outwaters is an upcoming found footage horror/sci-fi film, and is already pinging the radars of eager fans. Read on to find out everything we know so far about the movie. What Is The Outwaters About? The Outwaters follows four young musicians and filmmakers as they adventure to the remote Mojave Desert in searc