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 s...

 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 desi...

 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 d...

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...

 “I believe that my life has had more than a few wonderful, indescribable turns,” the legendary Sidney Poitier states at the beginning of Reginald Hudlin’s documentary on his life, career, and accomplishments, Sidney. For anyone who knows of Poitier’s work, this seems like an understatement, and a fact that one probably knows if they’re familiar with Poitier. For such a groundbreaking actor, Sidney is a fairly by the book documentary, exploring Poitier’s history chronologically, hitting on every major landmark that any good Poitier documentary should explore. Yet despite this straightforward structure, Sidney succeeds simply because Poitier has such a captivating history—especially when his story is directly told from the late actor. Poitier begins his own story by explaining that he wasn’t supposed to live, that he was born two months premature, and his father was planning on burying his son soon after he came into the world. While Poitier never directly says this, Sidney shows a ...

 If you’re looking for an excellent movie to watch right this very second, might I recommend the 2018 horror movie, Cam? It features a phenomenal performance from Madeline Brewer as Alice, a cam girl on the rise who’s itching to become top-ranked. One morning she wakes up to discover someone else using her account — an exact replica of herself. After the release of Cam I was mighty eager to claim director Daniel Goldhaber for the horror genre, but at the Toronto International Film Festival this year he threw a curveball. I’d love to see more horror from Goldhaber one day, but it’s even more exciting to see him deliver a wildly different sophomore film that shows off a wide-ranging skillset suggesting he’s capable of tapping into any genre, presenting complex narratives, and tackling productions of any scale and scope. Goldhaber’s second film, How to Blow Up a Pipeline, couldn’t be more different from Cam, and it’s just as impressive. Inspired by Andreas Malm’s book of the same name...

 With writer-director Jordan Peele’s Nope now playing in theaters, I recently had the chance to talk with Daniel Kaluuya about making the film. During the interview, he talked about the difference between the way Peele worked on Get Out and Nope, what it was like filming with IMAX cameras and cinematographer Hoyt Van Hoytema, the way he prepares for a big scene, deleted scenes, and what people might be surprised to learn about the making of Nope. While I know a lot of you love to learn everything you can about a movie before you see it, I’d recommend watching Nope knowing as little as you can. But for those that need to know something… Nope is about a few residents in California who bear witness to an uncanny and chilling discovery. The film also stars Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Brandon Perea, Barbie Ferreira, and Keith David. Finally, I strongly recommend seeing Nope in an IMAX theater. Peele shot the movie using IMAX cameras and the best way to experience the film is in an IMAX th...

 Over the years, I have often heard praise launched at Steven Spielberg's Jaws. And while I knew, on some level, that the praise was warranted, I never really found myself compelled to watch it, especially after watching a few classic films and ultimately feeling disappointed by them. Did I have the heart to tell people, after finally watching Jaws, that their favorite movie was mediocre? With this in mind, I went into Jaws with a neutral perspective. I understood that Spielberg is prolific and responsible for a lot of our favorite movies, but I was going to try and not let that color my opinion of Jaws, for better or for worse. And with the re-release of Jaws this week in IMAX, I thought now was the perfect time to finally dive into the waters of Amity Island. Based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name, the story is one we're all familiar with at this point. A man-eating great white shark is terrorizing a small beach town on the East Coast of America at the height of...

 Netflix’s recent release Look Both Ways is a pleasant, fluffy rom-com about life’s limitless possibilities and those pivotal forks in the road that make you wonder “what if…?” Audiences that are young enough to be especially interested in this film may be too young to recall a similar flick from 1998: Peter Howitt's Sliding Doors. This film uses the same innovative narrative tricks to explore more than one story for its main character, the trajectory of her life split into two timelines by one fateful circumstance. Look Both Ways follows a young college graduate, Natalie, played by Lili Reinhart (Riverdale) whose world is turned upside down on the night she suspects she might be pregnant following a one-night stand with her friend, Gabe (Danny Ramirez). The moment Natalie reads the results of her pregnancy test, two simultaneous storylines open up. In one, a childless Natalie moves to Los Angeles with her best friend, Cara (Aisha Dee), to pursue her dream career in animation. In t...

 Are you new to the world of anime, thinking of giving it a chance, but you don't know where to start? Below is a list of 13 anime movies that are equally great to get your start in the world of Japanese animation. The goal of this list is to shine some light on a wide variety of genres and tones that will also give you a good base for how to choose what kind of anime you want to explore more of in the future. If you watch all of these movies and maybe check out some other works by these directors then you will have a pretty solid grasp on the world of anime movies. Spirited Away (2001) During their move to the countryside, Chihiro (Rumi Hiiragi) and her parents, Akio (Takashi Naito) and Yuko (Yasuko Sawaguchi) get lost and find themselves at an abandoned amusement park. As the family makes their way through the park, they find enough food for a feast and since no one is around, the parents decide to dig in against Chirio's protests. While eating the food both of her parents tu...