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‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’ Digital Release Interview
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Available on premium digital from Lionsgate December 16th is the box office hit ‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’, which is the third film in the popular franchise and was directed by Ruben Fleischer (‘Venom’).
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The movie stars returning cast members Jesse Eisenberg (‘Zombieland’), Woody Harrelson (‘Zombieland: Double Tap’), Dave Franco (‘Together’), Isla Fisher (‘Rango’), Lizzy Caplan (‘Cloverfield’), and Morgan Freeman (‘The Dark Knight’), as well as new cast members Justice Smith (‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’), Dominic Sessa (‘The Holdovers’), Ariana Greenblatt (‘Barbie’), and Rosamund Pike (‘Saltburn’).

(L to R) Dave Franco as Jack Wilder, Jesse Eisenberg as Daniel Atlas, and Isla Fisher as Henley Reeves in ‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’. Photo: Katalin Vermes.

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with director Ruben Fleischer about his work on ‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’, joining the franchise, reuniting with his ‘Zombieland’ actors Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson, Rosamund Pike’s hilarious performance, the new cast members, creating the illusions on screen, and if he would return to helm a fourth movie.

You can read our full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews.

Related Article: Movie Review: ‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’

‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’ director Ruben Fleischer.

Moviefone: To begin with, as a filmmaker, can you talk about the challenges of joining a successful series to direct the third installment of a franchise?

Ruben Fleisher: I approach this movie as a fan of the franchise. I love the first two movies. So, for me, the pressure of trying to make it as good as the previous two was so much self-imposed because I didn’t want to disappoint my fellow fans of the franchise. So, I did everything in my power to carry on the spirit of the original and clean up some of the things that happened in the past. For example, Henley (Isla Fisher) was in the first movie and then was replaced by Lulu (Lizzy Caplan) without much explanation. So, it was important to me that both be in the film, just because as a fan, I wanted to see those two women together, because they’re both so great. So, just carrying forward all the magic, all the fun, the banter, the relationships and everything else. So, the big challenge was just feeling the pressure not to disappoint fans.

(L to R) Justice Smith as Charlie, Jesse Eisenberg as Daniel Atlas, and Woody Harrelson as Merrit McKinney in ‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’. Photo Credit: Katalin Vermes.

MF: Did it help that you already had a good working relationship with Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson from making the ‘Zombieland’ movies?

RF: I was lucky because I had a pre-existing relationship with Woody and Jesse, so I had a familiarity and a comfort level and that’s what drew me to the project in the first place. I was lucky to have the help of two longtime collaborators to make sure that we did our best work. This was my fourth movie with each of them. We all did the two ‘Zombieland’ movies together and then Jesse and I did ‘30 minutes or Less’ and Woody was in the tease at the end of ‘Venom’. But I love working with those two guys, and I also knew that they loved working with the rest of the cast. I was a huge fan of Dave Franco, Isla Fisher and Lizzie Caplan. So, for me, it was just an opportunity to work with more actors that I really love, but I had also heard from Jesse and Woody about what a great dynamic everybody had on set and how they felt like a family among themselves. So, I was just happy to join the family.

Rosamund Pike as Veronika in ‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’. Photo Credit: Katalin Vermes.

MF: Actress Rosmund Pike gives a fantastic performance in the movie. Can you talk about casting and working with her?

RF: I have been a fan of hers for a long time. I mean, she’s so good going back to ‘Die Another Day’ or ‘Gone Girl’, but it was really seeing her recently in ‘Saltburn’, where I felt like she just stole every scene that she was in, and she was so funny. In addition to being a challenging character, I think movies to a degree are only as good as the villains. You need someone formidable, and especially when you have such a strong ensemble as we have, with such incredible actors, you need someone who feels equally weighted in terms of screen presence, threat, charisma and everything that makes a great movie character. So, Rosamund’s somebody who, beyond her dramatic ability, beyond her obvious beauty, she just tends to make her characters delicious and more than what’s expected. So, it was exciting for me to. She brought so much to it. She has an incredible, natural aptitude for accents, and the South African accent is very specific and challenging. I’m so proud of the fact that when South Africans have watched the movie, and I’ve talked to them about it, they have told me they’ve never heard a non-South African have such a perfect accent as that. So that was really gratifying to learn. But she’s just got this inherent intelligence. She seems like she’s from this lofted heiress status, and she seems smart and like she could be dangerous or somebody not to mess with. So, it was a great experience from beginning to end working with her.

(L to R) Dominic Sessa as Bosco, Justice Smith as Charlie, and Ariana Greenblatt as June in ‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’. Photo: Courtesy of Lionsgate.

MF: Can you talk about bringing in new cast members like Justice Smith, Dominic Sessa and Ariana Greenblatt and having them mix it up with the returning cast?

RF: That was also a great challenge just because when you have such beloved, established actors, and you got to find, younger, less established actors who you expect to be as compelling and charismatic, so they just don’t get completely blown away by these movie stars. It’s challenging, but for all three of them, I had been fans of their work. With Dominic, ‘The Holdovers’ was his first movie, but he was so compelling in it. I think it was an incredible launch for his career. But I was proud to have cast him in his first ever studio movie, and I think he more than performed at a level we needed in terms of just being funny and he turned out to be good with both the magic and the action. He’s just got this cool kind of swag. Justice is somebody who we’ve all seen whether it’s ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ or the ‘Jurassic World’ movies, but also super cool indies as well. He’s always interesting and so I’ve been a fan, and it was exciting to get to cast him. Then Ariana was just a force of nature. She was 16 when she first came to Budapest and celebrated her 17th birthday while we were there. So, she was literally a child relative to these adults, and she’s just so wise beyond her years, so capable physically, obviously a great actress and just really brought so much cool to June that she just inherently has as a person. Casting’s one of my favorite parts of the process and I think if you look at the original ‘Zombieland’ or other movies I made, casting seems to be a signature of the films just discovering people who have gone on to great things. Not to say I discovered these people, but just giving them maybe perhaps a bigger platform. I think they all have exceeded beyond my wildest hopes and dreams, and I think they’re just so compelling as a triad.

(L to R) Dominic Sessa as Bosco, Jesse Eisenberg as Daniel Atlas, Isla Fisher as Henley Reeves, and Justice Smith as Charlie in ‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’. Photo Credit: Katalin Vermes.

MF: Can you talk about designing the illusions for the film and how you wanted them to look on screen?

RF: The first two movies are terrific, and I love them, but there were moments as a fan where I felt like they relied perhaps a little too heavily on VFX or CGI. So, it was very important to me for our movie that we do everything as practical as possible and do everything as much in cameras as possible. One of the things I’m most proud of is that all those illusion rooms that take place in the château are all physical sets that we built. So, whether it was the upside-down room where we literally spun a room upside down, which is a Hollywood convention going back to Fred Astaire dancing on the ceiling. Or it’s the Ames room, which we probably all seen versions of in various museums of Illusion throughout the world, where one person’s very big and one person’s very small on the other side of frame. We built that, and that was all in camera and practical, and that was just so cool to experience when you walk to that room. It really did look like a normal room and then as soon as you walk in, the proportions shift. So, that was just neat and to be able to create something like that with that level of detail. The infinity staircase, which is what we call the room that Woody was in with all the mirrors going in a million different directions. I talked to the production designer about trying to figure out how we could do a practical version of M.C. Escher’s painting, where the stairs are going in all different directions and you’re not quite sure what’s up and down or anything else. So, through a trial and error, we arrived at the design for that room, which kind of does provide that feeling of you don’t know which way is up or down and you don’t know which reflections are real and which is Woody. Then there was a hall of mirrors, which we’ve seen in movies before, but that was all in camera. Truthfully, the only VFX effects in any of these environments was just when there were mirrors. We had to paint out the camera because he inherently shot his own reflection, but we put him in a skintight form fitting blue screen suit. So, it was easy to find him in all the reflections, and then we could just erase him. But I’m proud of how we committed to this concept of it having to be as practical as we could make it, and then holding true to it, and not ultimately bailing or relying on VFX, which is always a possibility.

(L to R) Woody Harrelson as Merrit McKinney, Jesse Eisenberg as Daniel Atlas, Dominic Sessa as Bosco, Dave Franco as Jack Wilder, Justice Smith as Charlie, Isla Fisher as Henley Reeves, and Ariana Greenblatt as June in ‘Now You See Me, Now You Don’t’. Photo Credit: Katalin Vermes.

MF: Finally, the ending of the film hints at more adventures for the main characters, is returning for a ‘’Now You See Me 4’ something you would be interested in doing?

RF: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that’s why we left it off on that ellipsis of more potential adventures to go on. I’m thrilled with the reaction that the audience has had to the film, and I’d be absolutely thrilled to go back into this world with these actors and devise a new magical adventure for them to go on. So, fingers crossed.

(L to R) Justice Smith as Charlie, Ariana Greenblatt as June, Dominic Sessa as Bosco, Jesse Eisenberg as Daniel Atlas, Isla Fisher as Henley Reeves, and Dave Franco as Jack Wilder in ‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’. Photo Credit: Katalin Vermes.

What is the plot of ‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’?

The original Four Horsemen (Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco) reunite with a new generation of illusionists to take on powerful diamond heiress Veronika Vanderberg (Rosamund Pike), who leads a criminal empire built on money laundering and trafficking. The new and old magicians must overcome their differences to work together on their most ambitious heist yet.

Who is in the cast of ‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’?
- Jesse Eisenberg as J. Daniel Atlas
- Woody Harrelson as Merritt McKinney
- Dave Franco as Jack Wilder
- Isla Fisher as Henley Reeves
- Justice Smith as Charlie Vanderberg
- Dominic Sessa as Bosco LeRoy
- Ariana Greenblatt as June Rouclere
- Lizzy Caplan as Lula May
- Rosamund Pike as Veronika Vanderberg
- Morgan Freeman as Thaddeus Bradley
- Mark Ruffalo as Dylan Shrike
‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’ opens in theaters on November 14th.

List of Movies in the ‘Now You See Me’ Franchise:
- ‘Now You See Me‘ (2013)
- ‘Now You See Me 2‘ (2016)
- ‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t‘ (2025)
Buy Tickets: ‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t‘ Movie Showtimes

Buy ‘Now You See Me’ Movies On Amazon
December 25, 2025
Movie Review: ‘Fear Street: Prom Queen’
(L-R) India Fowler as Lori Granger and Fina Strazza as Tiffany Falconer in ‘Fear Street: Prom Queen.’ Photo: Alan Markfield/Netflix © 2025.

‘Fear Street: Prom Queen’ receives 5.5 out of 10 stars.

On Netflix May 23rd is ‘Fear Street: Prom Queen,’ co-written and directed by Matt Palmer, who adapts R.L. Stine’s novel ‘The Prom Queen,’ published in 1992.

The new movie stars India Fowler (‘The Agency: Central Intelligence’), Suzanna Son (‘Red Rocket’), Fina Strazza (‘Paper Girls’), Chris Klein (‘American Pie’), Ariana Greenblatt (‘Barbie’) and Lili Taylor (‘The Nun’).

Related Article: Author R.L. Stine Says That Netflix has Three New ‘Fear Street’ Movies in Development

Initial Thoughts

(L-R) Fina Strazza as Tiffany Falconer and David Iacono as Tyler Torres in ‘Fear Street: Prom Queen.’ Photo: Alan Markfield/Netflix © 2025.

Released across three weekends back in 2021, Netflix scored itself a success with the ‘Fear Street’ trilogy, which brought a trio of terrifying tales drawn from R.L. Stine’s work to bloody, effective life.

Yet this new standalone entry, even though it is set in the same divided town as those previous entries, has a lot of pressure riding on it to keep the kills sharp and the characters memorable. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really achieve either aim.

Script and Direction

(L-R) Director Matt Palmer, Ella Rubin as Melissa and Fina Strazza as Tiffany Falconer on the set of ‘Fear Street: Prom Queen.’ Photo: Alan Markfield/Netflix © 2025.

Director Matt Palmer worked with co-writer Donald McLeary (‘Calibre’) on the screenplay for the new movie, but the results are disappointing.

While the other ‘Fear Street’ movies were full of inventive moments, gnarly kills and compelling characters, ‘Prom Queen’ kicks off with a seen-it-all-before exposition dump opening narration which briskly outlines who’s who and why they’re competing.

Unfortunately, it’s all surface level stuff, barely rising beyond the most basic slasher movie cliches –– how many high school tales have we already seen with mean girls, outsiders and the rest. And honestly, this new offering is so first-draft that we really only get those two types.

Everyone else is also barely sketched out –– the imperious educator who is trying to turn the reputation of the Shadyside High School around, the driven parents of the primary Prom Queen candidate, and one or two others.

Nothing here truly stands out, from stock characters to dull kills that come across as carbon copies of other, better moments from other movies, including the other ‘Fear Street’ entries.

And McLeary’s direction is also sadly fairly inert, offering little in the way of invention or interest. While there is one extra sting in the tale once the chaos is seemingly over, it’s not enough to save what has gone before.

Cast and Performances

(L-R) Ella Rubin as Melissa, Chris Klein as Dan Falconer, Ariana Greenblatt as Christy Renault and Ryan Rosery as Chad in ‘Fear Street: Prom Queen.’ Photo: Netflix © 2025.

Without a really chewy script to draw from, the cast never really comes alive.

India Fowler does what she can as Lori Granger, the outsider-with-a-dark past who is swimming against the current of public opinion about her by trying to win the Prom Queen title. Fowler’s got some spirit to her, but Lori is really just another stock heroine.

Slightly more interesting is Suzanna Son as Lori’s best –– and pretty much only –– friend Megan Rogers, a creative outsider herself who specializes in horror pranks. She also has a few more moments of heart that even Lori is allowed.

Fina Strazza as queen bee Tiffany Falconer falls into several expected mean girl pitfalls, saddled with a character who is so annoyingly perky/plotting that you can’t really see as a human being.

(L-R) Suzanna Son as Megan Rogers and India Fowler as Lori Granger in ‘Fear Street: Prom Queen.’ Photo: Alan Markfield/Netflix © 2025.

Ariana Greenblatt, playing Christy Renault is barely in the film, so any attempts to make her character interesting are wasted.

On the adult side of things, Katherine Waterston is at least having some fun playing Tiffany’s alpha mother Nancy, who channels her own frustrated legacy through demands on her daughter. She’s well matched by Chris Klein as her husband, who expects a lot from both his students (he’s also a teacher at the school) and his family.

Lili Taylor, playing the no-nonsense Vice Principal Dolores Brekenridge (the real power behind the throne, pulling the strings of Principal Wayland, played by Darrin Baker), mostly just gets to scowl and shout.

Final Thoughts

Ella Rubin as Melissa in ‘Fear Street: Prom Queen.’ Photo: Alan Markfield/Netflix © 2025.

‘Fear Street: Prom Queen’ would seem like a misfiring, less-than-satisfying stalk ‘n’ slash effort even take on its own hardly stellar merits.

But matched up against the impressive previous ‘Fear Street’ outings, it’s that much more disappointing, filled with shallow characterizations and vapid stabs at horror.

If it’s looking for high school horror glory, it’s not worthy of your support.
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What’s the plot of ‘Fear Street: Prom Queen’?

Welcome back to Shadyside. In this next installment of the blood-soaked ‘Fear Street’ franchise, prom season at Shadyside High is underway and the school’s wolfpack of It Girls is busy with its usual sweet and vicious campaigns for the crown.

But when a gutsy outsider puts herself in the running, and the other girls start mysteriously disappearing, the class of ’88 is suddenly in for one hell of a prom night.

Who is in the cast of ‘Fear Street: Prom Queen’?
- India Fowler as Lori Granger
- Suzanna Son as Megan Rogers
- Fina Strazza as Tiffany Falconer
- Chris Klein as Dan Falconer
- David Iacono as Tyler Torres
- Ella Rubin as Melissa
- Ariana Greenblatt as Christy Renault
- Lili Taylor as VP Dolores Brekenridge
- Katherine Waterston as Nancy Falconer
The Killer in ‘Fear Street: Prom Queen.’ Photo: Alan Markfield/Netflix © 2025.

List of Movies in the ‘Fear Street’ Franchise:
- ‘Fear Street: 1994‘ (2021)
- ‘Fear Street: 1978‘ (2021)
- ‘Fear Street: 1666‘ (2021)
- ‘Fear Street: Prom Queen‘ (2025)
Buy Horror Movies On Amazon
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May 24, 2025
‘Borderlands’ Exclusive Interview: Director Eli Roth
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Opening in theaters on August 9th is the new action-comedy ‘Borderlands’, which is based on the popular video game of the same name and was written and directed by Eli Roth (‘Thanksgiving’).

The film Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett (‘Blue Jasmine’), Kevin Hart (‘Ride Along’), Jack Black (‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’), Édgar Ramírez (‘Point Break’), Ariana Greenblatt (‘Barbie’), Gina Gershon (‘Emily the Criminal’), and Oscar-winner Jamie Lee Curtis (‘Everything, Everywhere, All at Once’).

Director Eli Roth talks ‘Borderlands’.

Related Article: Movie Review: ‘Borderlands’

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with writer and director Eli Roth about his work on ‘Borderlands,’ the challenges of adapting a video game, cracking the story, the all-star cast, and making movies outside of the horror genre.

You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch the interview.

Eli Roth on the set of ‘Borderlands’. Photo Credit: Katalin Vermes. Copyright: ©2021 Lionsgate.

Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about the challenges of adapting a video game and cracking the story for ‘Borderlands’?

Eli Roth: Well, the story, that was producer Ari Arad and Randy Pitchford, who spent a long time with different writers trying different permutations until they settled on this story, and then that’s when they came to me. So, one of the things we talked about was how do we change stuff and adapt it from a video game to a movie, but I had the game creator Randy with me there the whole time. There are certain things that you obviously want to be faithful to, like the costumes, the design, the guns, the tech. There are certain things that are beloved in the game, and we could fill the movie with Easter eggs, but obviously in casting the movie, you’re going to cast people in real life that look different than the characters in the game. So that’s the first thing. It’s a very, very violent game, but to render the universe at this scale, the studio wants to make a PG-13 movie, and I wanted to make something for the nine-year-old boy in me that if this is a movie, if you’ve never played the game before and you take kids to go see at 10 or 11-years old, they’re going to laugh their ass off and have a great time. I wanted something that was just totally bonkers, a movie that was unhinged and fun. You can just turn off your brain, grab a bucket of popcorn and have a good time.

(L to R) Cate Blanchett as Lilith, Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina, Florian Munteanu as Krieg, and Kevin Hart as Roland in ‘Borderlands’. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate. Copyright: ©2021 Lionsgate.

Moviefone: Did you play the game for research, and what did you like most about the source material?

ER: It’s so fun. Yes, I did play the game. I’m terrible at games, so I had to have Christy Pitchford take me through the game co-playing with her. But I love it. I love the sense of humor. Randy Pitchford and I are of the same age and have the same influences, whether it was ‘Mad Max’ or ‘Escape from New York’ or ‘Star Wars’. I love the creatures. I love the sense of insanity. I love the world. I love the detritus of the world. They’re trying to make something beautiful out of it and the trashed planet, and it made me think of ‘The Fifth Element’ and what I saw in that movie, and just the colors of that film and the Gaultier costumes that just blew my mind. So, to get to render something at that scale, I want it to feel like you took all your fluorescent pink neon clothes, put them in the dryer, sprinkled in some glitter, and then it just exploded everywhere and caught fire at the same time. So that was the idea of rendering something that didn’t look like any other movie you had seen before.

(L to R) Cate Blanchett as Lilith, Kevin Hart as Roland, Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina, Florian Munteanu as Krieg and Jamie Lee Curtis as Tannis in ‘Borderlands’. Photo Credit: Katalin Vermes. Copyright: ©2021 Lionsgate.

MF: Can you talk about putting together this terrific cast of actors?

ER: I had an amazing experience working with Cate and Jack on ‘The House with a Clock in Its Walls’, the kid’s movie I did with Amblin, and Cate was the first one I called. I said, “I’m making this insane kind of spaghetti western space opera, fun sci-fi video game adaptation, and I need someone to be a total badass, like Clint Eastwood in ‘The Man with No Name’ or Snake Plissken in ‘Escape from New York’,” and she’s like, “I’m in. Let’s do it.” So, Cate learned to twirl guns. She wanted to shoot, she wanted to do her own stunts. We put her in a harness, she was 100 feet in the air on wires. Then I said, “All right, what if you grab a flamethrower and you light these guys on fire?” So, Cate, she learned to do it. She’s really shooting a flamethrower in that scene. So, it was incredible. Once you have Cate, she’s actor bait. Everybody wants to act with Cate. So, I called Jack right away, said, “She’s going to be a pissed off bounty hunter, and you’re the annoying robot,” and he’s a big ‘Borderlands’ player, so he knew Claptrap, he was all in. Then Jamie Lee said she wanted to play Tannis, which was my first choice and she said yes. he’s like, “You had me at Cate Blanchett.” So, it’s great to be able to unite those screen icons in a movie, and the two of them became close friends. Everyone bonded on this movie. We were shooting in the pandemic, so there was a curfew in Budapest. We weren’t allowed out after 8:00pm, and the world of ‘Borderlands’ became our reality. So, everybody got close. We made lifelong friends on that movie, and you can feel that bond with the characters on screen.

(L to R) Cate Blanchett as Lilith, Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina, Kevin Hart as Roland, Florian Munteanu as Krieg and Jamie Lee Curtis as Tannis in ‘Borderlands’. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate. Copyright: ©2021 Lionsgate.

MF: Finally, you are probably best known for making horror movies. But do you also enjoy working in other genres?

ER: I do. I love it. I’ve noticed, if I do too many horror films in a row, I start to get burnout. So, whether I switch and made my documentary ‘Fin’ about saving sharks or ‘Death Wish’, which is completely different, it’s good for me to switch it up and challenge myself creatively and learn new skills. You learn something every time, every day on set. Every shot, you’re learning something new. So, it’s great. I shot ‘Thanksgiving’ after ‘Borderlands’, so I learned how long the post-production is on ‘Borderlands’. So, it’s good for me to go back and forth, but obviously horror movies are my passion and my love. But if you do too many in a row… I never want to get tired of doing it.
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What is the plot of ‘Borderlands’?

Bounty hunter Lilith (Cate Blanchett) is hired by interstellar business mogul Atlas (Edgar Ramírez) to find his missing daughter and the soldier-for-hire, Roland (Kevin Hart), who was sent to rescue her. The mission takes Lilith back to her ruined home planet, Pandora, where she reluctantly teams with Roland, a muscleman named Krieg (Florian Munteanu), a loopy scientist named Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis), a wisecracking robot (Jack Black), and the girl herself, Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), to battle monsters and vicious marauders while searching for a secret that could unleash unimaginable power.

Who is in the cast of ‘Borderlands’?
- Cate Blanchett as Lilith
- Kevin Hart as Roland
- Jack Black as the voice of Claptrap
- Edgar Ramírez as Atlas
- Jamie Lee Curtis as Tannis
- Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina
- Florian Munteanu as Krieg
- Gina Gershon as Mad Moxxi
(L to R) Florian Munteanu as Krieg, Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina, Jamie Lee Curtis as Tannis, Cate Blanchett as Lilith, Kevin Hart as Roland and Claptrap voiced by Jack Black in ‘Borderlands’. Photo Credit: Katalin Vermes. Copyright: ©2021 Lionsgate.

Other Movies and TV Shows based on video games:
- ‘Super Mario Bros.’ (1993)
- ‘Resident Evil‘ (2002)
- ‘Doom‘ (2005)
- ‘Need for Speed‘ (2014)
- ‘Pokémon Detective Pikachu‘ (2019)
- ‘Sonic the Hedgehog‘ (2020)
- ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 2‘ (2022)
- ‘Halo‘ (2022 – 2024)
- ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves‘ (2023)
- ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie‘ (2023)
- ‘Tetris‘ (2023)
- ‘Gran Turismo‘ (2023)
- ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s‘ (2023)
- ‘The Last of Us‘ (2023)
- ‘Twisted Metal‘ (2023)
- ‘Fallout‘ (2024)
Buy Tickets: ‘Borderlands’ Movie Showtimes

Buy Eli Roth Movies on Amazon
August 12, 2024
Movie Review: ‘Borderlands’
(L to R) Cate Blanchett as Lilith, Kevin Hart as Roland, Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina, Florian Munteanu as Krieg and Jamie Lee Curtis as Tannis in ‘Borderlands’. Photo Credit: Katalin Vermes. Copyright: ©2021 Lionsgate.

Opening in theaters on August 9th is ‘Borderlands,’ directed by Eli Roth and starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis, Edgar Ramirez, Jack Black, and Ariana Greenblatt.

Related Article: Director Eli Roth Talks ‘Thanksgiving’ Blu-ray and the Upcoming Sequel

Initial Thoughts

Cate Blanchett as Lilith in ‘Borderlands’. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate. Copyright: © 2024 Lionsgate.

A loud, clattering, off-brand mash-up of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ ‘Mad Max: Fury Road,’ and other recent tentpoles, ‘Borderlands’ is based on the hugely successful first-person shooter video game franchise launched in 2009 by Gearbox Software. Fans of the game can assess how faithful the movie, mostly directed by horror auteur Eli Roth (‘Thanksgiving’), is to the game, but as a film this fails on a number of levels.

‘Borderlands’ is simply dull, thanks to a bland script and setting, cheap-looking production values, and a cast that seems terrific on paper but veers between performances that are either bored or overwrought. Filmed more than three years ago in the spring and summer of 2021, ‘Borderlands’ collected dust until Tim Miller (‘Deadpool’) came on to direct reshoots in early 2023 when Roth proved unavailable. Either way, with recent video game adaptations like ‘Fallout’ and ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ earning praise for their approach to translating their games to the screen, ‘Borderlands’ is a disappointing throwback, a film that looks and plays like it came out of the 1990s, right down to the crappy CG and the pounding heavy metal needle drops.

Story and Direction

Eli Roth on the set of ‘Borderlands’. Photo Credit: Katalin Vermes. Copyright: ©2021 Lionsgate.

As Cate Blanchett’s expository voice-over tells us at the beginning, a long-extinct alien race named the Eridians used to rule the galaxy, leaving behind some powerful artifacts hidden in secret “Vaults” throughout the cosmos that ruthless corporations like Atlas and Dahl, along with independent “Vault Hunters,” are interested in obtaining. Blanchett herself plays Lilith, a bounty hunter who is hired by Atlas himself (Edgar Ramirez) to ostensibly find his kidnapped daughter, Tina (Ariana Greenblatt). She’s gone missing on the planet Pandora (yes, same name as the planet in the ‘Avatar’ movies) along with the soldier sent to retrieve her, Roland (Kevin Hart).

Pandora also happens to be Lilith’s home world, and when she arrives there she finds it to be devastated by corporate mining and colonization efforts, with gangs of former prison laborers known as Psychos now roaming the land. She also finds Tina in short order, along with Roland, but the girl does not want to be rescued and shows her resistance by hurling explosive stuffed bunnies in Lilith’s direction. Nevertheless, Lilith, Tina, and Roland eventually team up – along with Tina’s self-styled bodyguard and former Psycho Krieg (Florian Munteanu), an eccentric scientist named Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis), and a motormouth robot named Claptrap (voiced by Jack Black) – to block Atlas’s real agenda, which is to find a Vault hidden on Pandora and unlock the unimaginable power stored within.

The problem with ‘Borderlands,’ as with many video game adaptations, is that the movie must do a lot of world-building in a short period of time, leading to things like that voice-over narration and reams of expository dialogue. ‘Borderlands’ falls victim to this early on, mixing and matching characters from various editions of the game in a stop-and-start narrative that either comes to a crashing halt to explain its convoluted mythology or races from one frenetic action scene to another without balancing the two effectively. This leaves no room for any real character development, and while a pro like Blanchett tries hard, the cast falls into the ‘lovable band of rogues and misfits’ trope without doing anything to make it unique.

(L to R) Cate Blanchett as Lilith, Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina, Florian Munteanu as Krieg, and Kevin Hart as Roland in ‘Borderlands’. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate. Copyright: ©2021 Lionsgate.

The movie is also hampered by its production values, which look cheap, constricted, and derivative despite a reported $120 million budget. Set on a world devastated by indifferent corporate colonizing, the movie looks like it was shot in perhaps two quarries made to look like junkyards (one character even asks at one point if there’s a way to escape that doesn’t involve schlepping through garbage). The post-apocalyptic wasteland has been done to death, and the fact that the Psychos resemble extras from the recent ‘Mad Max’ movies doesn’t help.

If Roth (or Miller) isn’t shooting in one of the film’s two junkyards, then they’re staging sequences in murky underground corridors and hallways that cinematographer Rogier Stoffers can’t solve. The result is an especially drab film all around. Adding to the problems, ‘Borderlands’ is rated PG-13, so Roth isn’t able to indulge his proclivities for copious amounts of blood and gore; the choppy editing suggests that much of this is being held back for a future ‘uncut’ release.

A finale laden with mediocre CGI only exacerbates the sense that this is a production where things went south pretty quickly, and the movie rapidly descends into a kind of numbing, generic rhythm that is thankfully only ameliorated by its relatively brief 100-minute runtime.

The Cast

(L to R) Kevin Hart as Roland, Jamie Lee Curtis as Tannis, Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina, Florian Munteanu as Krieg, and Cate Blanchett as Lilith in ‘Borderlands’. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate. Copyright: ©2021 Lionsgate.

We’re not exactly sure how Cate Blanchett got roped into this, although she and Jack Black both starred in Roth’s slapdash 2018 Y/A fantasy, ‘The House with a Clock in Its Walls.’ Whatever her reasons, we’re not going to place this among the Australian actor’s finest performances. She’s good, never less than professional, but at times she doesn’t seem to know how seriously she should be taking any of it, and her CG-infused arc near the end of the film just ends up looking silly.

Jack Black has no such problems: for one thing, he’s never onscreen since he’s the voice of the R2-D2/BB-8 hybrid robot known as Claptrap, and as such gets the film’s best and funniest lines. Claptrap acts as a commentator on the action, edging close to a ‘Deadpool’-like breaking of the fourth wall (although it never happens) and offering up a stream of patter that alternates between sarcastic quips and ill-time bursts of into. But even Black’s energetic routine gets wearisome after 100 minutes or so of listening to Claptrap babble on.

We’re not sure what Jamie Lee Curtis is doing as the usually reliable actor plays Tannis as a weird combination of loopy and wearily cynical, with the two sides of her admittedly thin personality never meshing well. Kevin Hart is curiously low-energy, although he does pull off a few decent action moves, and while we dislike giving the thumbs-down to a young actor, Ariana Greenblatt (‘Barbie’) delivers an incredibly annoying, tic-laden performance as Tiny Tina, a character so poorly developed and inconsistently written that her central role in the story makes her faulty work even more grating.

Final Thoughts

(L to R) Cate Blanchett as Lilith, Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina, Kevin Hart as Roland, Florian Munteanu as Krieg and Jamie Lee Curtis as Tannis in ‘Borderlands’. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate. Copyright: ©2021 Lionsgate.

We should have known we were in trouble the minute we saw Avi Arad listed as a producer on ‘Borderlands.’ While Arad was instrumental in the creation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he was long gone by the time it became a cultural phenomenon. He’s instead continued to plunder his stake in the Sony Spider-Man Universe with lackluster misfires like the ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ and ‘Venom’ films, along with 2002’s equally forgettable adaptation of the ‘Uncharted’ video game.

‘Borderlands’ fits neatly into that filmography as a generic, soulless sci-fi actioner that really lacks any sort of distinctive personality or creative spark (a quick online search reveals that fans of the game are also disgruntled with what they’ve seen of the movie via trailers and clips). And while Eli Roth is no one’s idea of a great filmmaker, he’s out of his element here and unable to deploy the deliberately sleazy horror/exploitation tropes that at least make films like ‘Hostel’ and ‘The Green Inferno’ identifiable as his. ‘Borderlands’ is simply product, manufactured to cash in on a successful property without any understanding of what makes that property popular or why it should appeal to non-gamers.

‘Borderlands’ receives 2.5 out of 10 stars.
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What is the plot of ‘Borderlands’?

Bounty hunter Lilith (Cate Blanchett) is hired by interstellar business mogul Atlas (Edgar Ramírez) to find his missing daughter and the soldier-for-hire, Roland (Kevin Hart), who was sent to rescue her. The mission takes Lilith back to her ruined home planet, Pandora, where she reluctantly teams with Roland, a muscleman named Krieg (Florian Munteanu), a loopy scientist named Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis), a wisecracking robot (Jack Black), and the girl herself, Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), to battle monsters and vicious marauders while searching for a secret that could unleash unimaginable power.

Who is in the cast of ‘Borderlands’?
- Cate Blanchett as Lilith
- Kevin Hart as Roland
- Jack Black as the voice of Claptrap
- Edgar Ramírez as Atlas
- Jamie Lee Curtis as Tannis
- Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina
- Florian Munteanu as Krieg
- Gina Gershon as Mad Moxxi
(L to R) Florian Munteanu as Krieg, Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina, Jamie Lee Curtis as Tannis, Cate Blanchett as Lilith, Kevin Hart as Roland and Claptrap voiced by Jack Black in ‘Borderlands’. Photo Credit: Katalin Vermes. Copyright: ©2021 Lionsgate.

Other Movies and TV Shows based on video games:
- ‘Super Mario Bros.’ (1993)
- ‘Resident Evil‘ (2002)
- ‘Doom‘ (2005)
- ‘Need for Speed‘ (2014)
- ‘Pokémon Detective Pikachu‘ (2019)
- ‘Sonic the Hedgehog‘ (2020)
- ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 2‘ (2022)
- ‘Halo‘ (2022 – 2024)
- ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves‘ (2023)
- ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie‘ (2023)
- ‘Tetris‘ (2023)
- ‘Gran Turismo‘ (2023)
- ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s‘ (2023)
- ‘The Last of Us‘ (2023)
- ‘Twisted Metal‘ (2023)
- ‘Fallout‘ (2024)
Buy Tickets: ‘Borderlands’ Movie Showtimes

Buy Cate Blanchett Movies on Amazon
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August 10, 2024
Rosamund Pike Joins the Cast of ‘Now You See Me 3’
Rosamund Pike as Lady Elsbeth Catton in ‘Saltburn.’ Photo: Amazon MGM Studios. Amazon MGM Studios.

Preview:
- Rosamund Pike is joining the third ‘Now You See Me’ movie.
- She’ll appear alongside franchise veterans Jessie Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco and Isla Fisher
- ‘Zombieland’s Ruben Fleischer is in the director’s chair.
We learned last month that Ariana Greenblatt, Justice Smith and Dominic Sessa are all aboard for the third outing of illusion-based thriller movie series ‘Now You See Me’.

Another new recruit –– albeit someone who has enjoyed a longer career than anyone –– is also joining the cast. Rosamund Pike, most recently seen in ‘Saltburn’, has landed a mysterious role in the new movie, according to Lionsgate.
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What’s the story of the ‘Now You See Me’ movies?

(L to R) Isla Fisher, Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson and Dave Franco in 2013’s ‘Now You See Me.’ Photo: Lionsgate.

The original ‘Now You See Me’ in 2013 introduced us to magician team The Four Horsemen –– played by Jessie Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco and Isla Fisher, who specialize in dazzling big acts of trickery either in theaters or on the street, with an added extra –– they tend to steal from the rich to help the poor.

In that film, they’re being hunted by the authorities, including Mark Ruffalo’s FBI agent Dylan Rhodes, but he –– spoiler if you’ve never seen the movie –– turns out to be a magician himself, and introduces them to a secret society.

Three of the four (with Lizzy Caplan as a new recruit) returned for 2016’s ‘Now You See Me 2’ which sees the team recruited –– with threats –– by Daniel Radcliffe’s tech guru to pull off a heist.

As for the third movie? That is being kept in a special locked chest for now, with a script that has been through the hands of Eric Warren Singer, Seth Graham Smith and Mike Lesslie.

This is Lionsgate’s brief logline:

“The new film returns audiences to the thieving illusionists known as the Four Horseman while introducing audiences to a new generation of magicians.”

Ruben Fleischer –– who, of course directed Eisenberg and Harrelson in the ‘Zombieland’ movies –– will be calling the shots for this one.

Who else will be in ‘Now You See Me 3’?

(L to R) Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson, and Dave Franco in 2013’s ‘Now You See Me.’

Eisenberg, Harrelson, Fisher, Franco and fellow franchise stalwart Morgan Freeman (who played a magician hired to debunk the Horsemen will be back in their There has also been chatter about Mark Ruffalo, though his name doesn’t appear in the studio’s press release. Perhaps it’s all part of a complex bluff of a sort that the Horsemen would enjoy making work.

Related Article: ‘Now You See Me 3’ Adds Ariana Greenblatt, Justice Smith and Dominic Sessa

When will ‘Now You See Me 3’ be in theaters?

Lionsgate has yet to announce a release date for the new movie.

(L to R) Jesse Eisenberg, Dave Franco, Isla Fisher and Woody Harrelson in 2013’s ‘Now You See Me.’ Photo: Lionsgate.

Other Movies in the ‘Now You See Me’ Franchise:
- ‘Now You See Me‘ (2013)
- ‘Now You See Me 2‘ (2016)
Buy ‘Now You See Me’ Movies On Amazon
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May 10, 2024
Ariana Greenblatt and Justice Smith Join ‘Now You See Me 3’
(Left) Ariana Greenblatt in Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Barbie,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved. (Center) Justice Smith talks ‘The American Society of Magical Negroes.’ (Right) Dominic Sessa stars as Angus Tully in director Alexander Payne’s ‘The Holdovers,’a Focus Features release. Credit: Seacia Pavao / © 2023 FOCUS FEATURES LLC.

Preview:
- ‘Now You See Me 3’ is moving forward.
- Ariana Greenblatt, Justice Smith and Dominic Sessa are the new additions.
- Ruben Fleischer is directing.
At its CinemaCon presentation this year, Lionsgate dropped word that, after years in development limbo, a third ‘Now You See Me’ movie is finally, actually moving forward, with ‘Zombieland’s Ruben Fleisher in the director’s chair (Louis Leterrier and Jon M. Chu handled the previous entries).

And now we know who will be starring in the movie, as ‘Barbie’s Ariana Greenblatt, ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ Justice Smith and ‘The Holdovers’ breakout Dominic Sessa have all been announced as new recruits.
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What’s the story of the ‘Now You See Me’ movies?

(L to R) Isla Fisher, Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson and Dave Franco in 2013’s ‘Now You See Me.’ Photo: Lionsgate.

The original ‘Now You See Me’ in 2013 introduced us to magician team The Four Horsemen –– played by Jessie Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco and Isla Fisher, who specialize in dazzling big acts of trickery either in theaters or on the street, with an added extra –– they tend to steal from the rich to help the poor.

In that film, they’re being hunted by the authorities, including Mark Ruffalo’s FBI agent Dylan Rhodes, but he –– spoiler if you’ve never seen the movie –– turns out to be a magician himself, and introduces them to a secret society.

Three of the four (with Lizzy Caplan as a new recruit) returned for 2016’s ‘Now You See Me 2’ which sees the team recruited –– with threats –– by Daniel Radcliffe’s tech guru to pull off a heist.

As for the third movie? That is being kept in a special locked chest for now, with a script that has been through the hands of Eric Warren Singer, Seth Graham Smith and Mike Lesslie.

This is Lionsgate’s brief logline:

“The new film returns audiences to the thieving illusionists known as the Four Horseman while introducing audiences to a new generation of magicians.”

Who else will be in ‘Now You See Me 3’?

(L to R) Jesse Eisenberg, Dave Franco, Isla Fisher and Woody Harrelson in 2013’s ‘Now You See Me.’ Photo: Lionsgate.

Deadline was first out of the gate with news on this one, reporting that Greenblatt (who will be seen this year in ‘Borderlands’ had joined the movie.

The Hollywood Reporter, meanwhile, brought word of Smith and Sessa.

Both trade sites (and the studio itself) mention that Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco will be back in their roles, while Deadline adds Mark Ruffalo, though his name doesn’t appear elsewhere. Perhaps it’s all part of a complex bluff of a sort that the Horsemen would enjoy making work.

Related Article: ‘The Crow’, ‘Borderlands’ Showcased at Lionsgate’s CinemaCon Presentation

When will ‘Now You See Me 3’ be in theaters?

Lionsgate has yet to announce a release date for the new movie.

(L to R) Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson, and Dave Franco in 2013’s ‘Now You See Me.’

Other Movies in the ‘Now You See Me’ Franchise:
- ‘Now You See Me‘ (2013)
- ‘Now You See Me 2‘ (2016)
Buy ‘Now You See Me’ Movies On Amazon
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April 24, 2024
Where To Watch Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’ Movie
(L to R) Ryan Gosling as Ken and Margot Robbie as Barbie in Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Barbie,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’ took the box office by storm, and as the audience showed up at the movie theaters all dolled up in pink, ‘Barbie’ quickly became this summer’s movie phenomenon.
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Based on the iconic doll, ‘Barbie’ takes us into Barbie Land, where we meet Margot Robbie’s Sterotypical Barbie as she begins to experience things out of her normal routine – cold showers, sour milk, thoughts of mortality, and the worst of all, flat feet. With Ken (Ryan Gosling) tagging along, Barbie sets off to seek out the answers by traveling to the real world. She soon realizes things in the real world are quite the opposite of everything she knows.

Directed by Greta Gerwig and co-written by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, the clever story and incredible visuals made ‘Barbie’ the talk of the town. The movie is certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, with an 88% critics score and 83% audience score. Due to it sharing an opening date with Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’, movie fans took the opportunity and turned the dual release into a double-feature event, therefore kicking off the endless waves of “Barbenheimer” memes.

The official synopsis for ‘’Barbie” is below:

“To live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Or you have a full-on existential crisis. Unless you’re a Ken.”

Who Is In The Cast of ‘Barbie’?

(L to R) Margot Robbie as Barbie,Alexandra Shipp as Barbie, Michael Cera as Allan, Ariana Greenblatt as Sasha and America Ferrera FERRERA as Gloria in Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Barbie,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- Margot Robbie (‘Babylon‘)
- Ryan Gosling (‘The Gray Man‘)
- America Ferrera (‘End of Watch‘)
- Rhea Perlman (‘Poms‘)
- Will Ferrell (‘The Lego Movie‘)
- Kate McKinnon (‘Bombshell‘)
- Issa Rae (‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse‘)
- Hari Nef (‘Meet Cute‘)
- Alexandra Shipp (‘X-Men: Apocalypse‘)
- Emma Mackey (‘Death on the Nile‘)
- Sharon Rooney (‘Dumbo‘)
- Dua Lipa, Nicola Coughlan (‘Bridgerton’)
- Ana Cruz Kayne (‘Little Women‘)
- Ritu Arya (‘Polite Society‘)
- Kingsley Ben-Adir (‘Secret Invasion‘)
- Simu Liu (‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings‘)
- Scott Evans (‘Almost Love‘)
- Ncuti Gatwa (‘The Last Letter from Your Lover‘)
- John Cena (‘Fast X‘)
- Helen Mirren (‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods‘)
- Emerald Fennell (‘The Danish Girl‘)
- Michael Cera (‘Superbad‘)
- Ariana Greenblatt (‘65‘)
Box Office For ‘Barbie’

(L to R) Kinsley Ben-Adir, Ryan Gosling as Ken, and Ncuti Gatwa in Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Barbie,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.

‘Barbie’ is officially the highest grossing film of 2023, having just crossed $1.3 billion globally. Opening to $162 million, the Margot Robbie-led film has earned $612 million domestically. Already an icon for many, ‘Barbie’ quickly became a social media sensation, with fans posting everything from their movie-going outfits to their Barbie collections. The film is filled with references to many Barbies and Ken dolls from various decades, sending audiences down nostalgia lane.

On the surface, ‘Barbie’ may seem like a fun adventure, much like ‘The Lego Movie’. However, the film has a deeper message and touches on the pressure of expectations, insecurities, and most importantly, what it means to be human.

Related Article: ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ Debuts At Record-Setting Box Office Numbers

Where Can I Watch ‘Barbie’?

(L to R) Ana Cruz Kayne as Barbie, Sharon Rooney as Barbie, Alexandra Shipp as Barbie, Margot Robbie as Barbie, Hari Nef as Barbie and Emma Mackey as Barbie in Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Barbie,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

‘Barbie’ premiere on July 9, 2023 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. It was released domestically on July 21, 2023. Currently, it is still playing in some theaters, but as the movie has been in theaters for around 45 days, its theatrical window will soon come to an end. If you want to experience ‘Barbie’ on the big screen, be sure to do it soon.

Buy Tickets: ‘Barbie’ Movie Showtimes

The movie arrived on digital September 5 for purchase on platforms such as Prime Video, Google Play, Apple TV, Vudu, YouTube, and more for $29.99.
‘Barbie’ has a total runtime of 1 hour and 56 minutes.

Buy ‘Barbie’ on Amazon

Watch the official trailers for ‘Barbie’ below:
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Although ‘Barbie’ is leaving the theaters, Warner Bros Pictures has teamed up with IMAX to give fans a limited one-week run of ‘Barbie’ starting September 22nd. As a special treat for the IMAX audience, a special greeting from director Greta Gerwig will play ahead of the film. There will also be exclusive post-credit footage playing after the film, specially selected by Gerwig herself.

Greta Gerwig attends the ‘Barbie’ Press Tour, Sydney Australia 2023. Photography by Caroline McCredie for Warner Bros/NBC Universal. Contact: jade.perry@nbcuni.com.

In regards to the special IMAX release, Jeff Goldstein, President of Domestic Distribution, and Andrew Cripps, President of International Distribution, said:

“We really wanted to super-serve all the fans out there who made this the Summer of ‘Barbie’ in every way imaginable, and we couldn’t think of a better way than to serve up the biggest film of 2023 and the biggest Warner Bros. film of all time on the biggest, most experiential screens around. Thanks to our terrific partners at IMAX and our incredible director, Greta Gerwig, we went a step further and are offering audiences an added incentive with this special post-credits footage. We encourage moviegoers everywhere, whether they’ve seen ‘Barbie’ or not, to see it in IMAX for a can’t-miss moment in film history.”

No word yet when ‘Barbie’ will make its way to streaming, but when it does, it is likely to end up on Max as the film is distributed by Warner Bros/Discovery.

Where to Watch: ‘Barbie’ Online

(Center) Margot Robbie as Barbie in Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Barbie,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.

Other Movies Similar to ‘Barbie:’
- ‘Clue‘ (1985)
- ‘Transformers‘ (2007)
- ‘Kit Kittredge: An American Girl‘ (2008)
- ‘G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra‘ (2009)
- ‘The Lego Movie‘ (2014)
- ‘Trolls‘ (2016)
- ‘The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part‘ (2019)
- ‘Lady Bird‘ (2017)
- ‘Little Women‘ (2019)
- ‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts‘ (2023)
- ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie‘ (2023)
- ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves‘ (2023)
Please click on the video player below to watch Moviefone‘s exclusive interview with ‘Barbie’ director Greta Gerwig.
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September 21, 2023
Movie Review: ‘Barbie’
Margot Robbie as Barbie in Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Barbie,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

‘Barbie,’ which is based on the famous Mattel doll and was co-written by Oscar nominees Greta Gerwig (‘Lady Bird’) and Noah Baumbach (‘Marriage Story’), and directed by Gerwig, opens in theaters on July 21st.

What is the plot of ‘Barbie’?

After being expelled from the utopian Barbie Land for being less-than-perfect dolls, Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) go on a journey of self-discovery to the real world.
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Who is in the cast of ‘Barbie’?
- Margot Robbie (‘Babylon‘)
- Ryan Gosling (‘The Gray Man‘)
- America Ferrera (‘End of Watch‘)
- Rhea Perlman (‘Poms‘)
- Will Ferrell (‘The Lego Movie‘)
- Kate McKinnon (‘Bombshell‘)
- Issa Rae (‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse‘)
- Hari Nef (‘Meet Cute‘)
- Alexandra Shipp (‘X-Men: Apocalypse‘)
- Emma Mackey (‘Death on the Nile‘)
- Sharon Rooney (‘Dumbo‘)
- Dua Lipa, Nicola Coughlan (‘Bridgerton’)
- Ana Cruz Kayne (‘Little Women‘)
- Ritu Arya (‘Polite Society‘)
- Kingsley Ben-Adir (‘Secret Invasion‘)
- Simu Liu (‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings‘)
- Scott Evans (‘Almost Love‘)
- Ncuti Gatwa (‘The Last Letter from Your Lover‘)
- John Cena (‘Fast X‘)
- Helen Mirren (‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods‘)
- Emerald Fennell (‘The Danish Girl‘)
- Michael Cera (‘Superbad‘)
- Ariana Greenblatt (‘65‘)
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Initial Thoughts

‘Barbie’ is a surprisingly subversive, entertaining, and hilarious movie that was beautifully shot by director Greta Gerwig. The filmmaker sets a strong tone and Barbie Land is a fully formed universe, however the movie loses a little magic when the characters briefly travel to the “Real World.” Margot Robbie delivers a funny and very emotional performance as Barbie, but it is Ryan Gosling that steals the movie as Ken, delivering a hilarious and also musical over-the-top performance.

Story and Direction

Director/Writer Greta Gerwig attends the ‘Barbie’ Press Junket Photo Call at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA. Photo by Eric Charbonneau.

The story is fairly simple and begins by introducing us to the colorful and delightful Barbie Land and all of the Barbies and Kens that live within it. We soon meet “Stereotypical Barbie,” (that’s actually what she is referred to in the movie), played by Margot Robbie. Barbie lives a perfect life among the other Barbies, which include President Barbie (Issa Rae), Physicist Barbie (Emma Mackey), Journalist Barbie (Ritu Arya), and even Mermaid Barbie (Dua Lipa), until one day she realizes her life is not as perfect as she thinks. This begins an existential crisis for the character that leads her to Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), who explains that she must travel to the “Real World,” to find the human who is “playing with her.”

As Barbie journeys to the real world, she discovers that Ken (Ryan Gosling) has tagged along as his world revolves around Barbie and he would not know what to do without her. But once they arrive, Ken discovers the antiquated idea that men are superior to women. No longer wanting to live in Barbie’s shadow, Ken quickly returns to Barbie Land, suppresses the other Barbies and leads the other Kens to a misogynistic revolution.

Meanwhile, Barbie discovers her owner, a teenager named Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt) who has lost interest in dolls and no longer believes in Barbie’s ideals. Her mother, Gloria (America Ferrera), just happens to work for the CEO of Mattel (Will Ferrell), who is fully aware that something is wrong in Barbie Land as it is causing sales of the toys to go down. Now, it is up to Barbie, Gloria and Sasha to return to Barbie Land, liberate the other Barbies, and put an end to Ken’s evil reign.

(L to R) Ryan Gosling as Ken and Margot Robbie as Barbie in Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Barbie,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The screenplay by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach is quite clever and sets the right tone for a fun summer movie that also tackles a lot of important subjects like female empowerment and toxic masculinity with grace and humor. The film is also not afraid of making fun of itself and the absurdity of a ‘Barbie’ movie, while also taking on the criticisms that Mattel and the doll line have faced over the years and making the case of why Barbie is a good role model for girls. Kudos to Mattel for having the smarts to hire Gerwig and Baumbach (two excellent filmmakers) in the first place and then having the guts to let them make the movie they wanted to make.

Gerwig began her career as an actress in films like ‘Greenberg,’ ‘The House of the Devil’ and ‘Arthur’ but wrote 2012’s ‘Frances Ha,’ which she also starred in. She made her directorial with ‘Lady Bird,’ which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Director, and followed it with ‘Little Women,’ which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. ‘Barbie’ is a big leap for her from Academy Award nominated movies to summer blockbusters, but the director does it with ease, crafting a completely enjoyable popcorn film, that also makes you think. Gerwig’s independent film background also serves her well as she fills the movies with odd inspirations, from a reference to ‘The Red Shoes’ to the choice of using a particular Indigo Girls song ad nauseum.

Related Article: Director Greta Gerwig Talks ‘Barbie’

Margot Robbie as Barbie

Margot Robbie as Barbie in Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Barbie,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Jaap Buitendijk. Copyright: © 2022 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved.

It has long been rumored that comedian Amy Schumer was originally tapped to play the title role in ‘Barbie,’ and while I understand what they would have been going for with a “Not Perfect Barbie,” I actually think that message gets across better by casting Margot Robbie in the lead role. Aesthetically she looks perfect, which is why she is called “Stereotypical Barbie,” but Robbie is also an incredible actress, which allows her to chip away at the character’s perfectness and show you who she really is, which is strong and vulnerable at the same time, her greatest strength. Robbie’s performance gets to the heart of the character, and the theme of the movie, which is that every women can be whatever she wants and is in charge of her own destiny. ‘Barbie’ gives Robbie her first chance at leading a blockbuster movie without playing Harley Quinn, and the actress proves that she has a lot of range and is now a big time movie star in her own right too.

Ryan Gosling as Ken

(L to R) Ryan Gosling as Ken and Margot Robbie as Barbie in Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Barbie,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

While Robbie’s Barbie is definitely the focal point of the film and carries the movie well, she also allows her co-star Ryan Gosling to steal every scene he’s in. Best known for his cool-as-ice public persona and appearing in action dramas like ‘Drive’ or ‘The Gray Man,’ Gosling really gets to use his comedic chops in this film and takes advantage of every opportunity he has to poke fun at the character, while never becoming a cliché. Though his actions are misguided, Gosling reveals his characters’ vulnerability and low self-esteem, which allows the audience to sympathize with the character. Make no mistakes, Ken is the villain of the movie, which is delightful in itself, but Gosling is still likable as the character despite his despicable actions.

It should also be noted that ‘Barbie’ is partially a musical, and with his dancing background in films like ‘La La Land,’ and of course his history with the ‘Mickey Mouse Club,’ the actor knocks it out of the park in his dance scenes and especially his MTV video like sequence where he sings the opus “Just Ken.” Once Ken “goes bad,” Gosling’s transformation from an innocent lovesick puppy dog to a misogynistic 90’s boyband reject was absolutely brilliant and brings some of the movie’s best laughs. Gosling and Robbie are great together on screen, and clearly understood the tone Gerwig was going for.

Other Characters

(L to R) Margot Robbie as Barbie and Kate McKinnon as Barbie in Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Barbie,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

There are so many well-known actors and actress playing different versions of Barbie and Ken that I can’t mention them all, but Issa Rae certainly stood out as President Barbie, as did Kate McKinnon playing Weird Barbie, the doll your older brother got a hold of and put through a woodchipper. Emma Mackey, who is often confused with Robbie in real life, was cleverly cast as Physicist Barbie, and musician Dula Lipa also stands out in a cameo as Mermaid Barbie opposite John Cena’s Mermaid Ken. Two MCU alumni, ‘Secret Invasion’s Kingsley Ben-Adir and ‘Shang-Chi’s Simu Liu also play Kens, but neither are given anything significant to do. While many may not remember, the Mattel line of dolls did introduce two other less popular characters, Allan and Midge, who are played well comedically by Michael Cera and Emerald Fennell, respectively.

Outside of the Barbie Land characters, America Ferrera and Ariana Greenblatt are both great as Gloria and Sasha, respectively, and their mother/daughter relationship really helps to bring home the message of the movie. Helen Mirren plays the narrator and I can’t think of an actress with more gravitas to voice the role. The script also allows her to add her own funny commentary, including mentioning that Barbie’s eloquent monologue about the pressures of being beautiful would have more weight if not delivered by an actress as aesthetically pleasing as Robbie.

(L to R) Issa Rae as Barbie, Scott Evans as Ken, Simu Liu as Ken, Emma Mackey as Barbie and Ncuti Gatwa as Ken in Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Barbie,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

However, there were a few “real world” characters that didn’t quite work. Look, it’s always nice to see legendary ‘Cheers’ actress Rhea Pearlman on screen, but she plays the ghost of Barbie creator Ruth Handler, who unexplainably lives on the 7th floor of Mattel’s corporate headquarters. While the actress gives a nice monologue that ties the themes of the movie together at the conclusion, it didn’t seem entirely necessary. The film already asks us to except the idea that Barbie Land and the dolls are real, so trying to also except that ghosts and the afterlife exist seemed a step too far for me.

I also have to question the casting of Will Ferrell as the CEO of Mattel, as it is basically the same character he played in ‘The Lego Movie,’ which uses a similar storytelling device with the idea that the toys are real and what they do in their world affects ours. Maybe Gerwig was going for a meta-joke with his casting, or perhaps she just wanted to work with Ferrell, who is perfectly fine in the role, but I couldn’t help thinking of the comparisons to ‘The Lego Movie’ and Ferrell’s inclusion took me out of the movie in some moments.

The Real World is No Fun

Margot Robbie as Barbie in Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Barbie,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Which leads to my next point, the “real world” scenes are definitely the low point of the film. Once Barbie and Ken journey to the real world, which is about 30 minutes into the movie, I was worried that the rest of the film would take place there and it would become a “fish out of water” story with Barbie not understanding human concepts like money, or being sexually objectified by men. Unfortunately, those stale jokes are used, but luckily the characters do not stay in the real world for long and the third act takes place back in Barbie Land. I do understand why the characters needed to go to the “real world,” plot wise Ken needed to discover misogyny in order to bring it back to Barbie Land, and while some scenes work, like Ken’s altercation with a female doctor, it’s not the high point of the film and you are grateful when they do return to Barbie Land.

Barbie Land

Margot Robbie as Barbie in Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Barbie,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

The major set piece of the movie is Barbie Land and it comes to life beautifully with eye-popping color and a magical tone. Set designer Sarah Greenwood and decorator Katie Spencer did marvelous work creating a realistic yet magical world and I wouldn’t be surprised if they are rewarded for their work come awards season. Their design for Ken’s Barbie Land is also unique and fabulous, with stallions and heavy metal featured throughout. Costume designer Jacqueline Durran will also likely be on a shortlist come Oscar time with stunning costumes that represent many of Barbie’s iconic looks. But again, the fun is when Ken transforms and his costumes look like a cross between Sylvester Stallone in the 80s and ‘N Sync.

Is ‘Barbie’ a Kid’s Movie?

Margot Robbie as Barbie in Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Barbie,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release.
Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.

No, is the short answer. With a PG-13 rating, some material may be inappropriate for pre-teenagers, and while they might enjoy the humor, musical numbers, and colorful characters and sets, some of the film’s political and pop culture messages will get lost on a young audience, but its message of love and equality will shine through, even if it is subliminally.

Final Thoughts

Director Greta Gerwig has done the impossible … delivered a ‘Barbie’ movie that is an entertaining summer blockbuster, while also being socially important and containing thoughtful, emotional and funny performances. Margot Robbie earns her movie star status producing and starring in this well-made summer tentpole, while Ryan Gosling proves he’s just as funny as he is cool with his hilarious over-the-top performance.

‘Barbie’ receives 9 out of 10 stars.

(L to R) Kingsley Ben-Adir as Ken, Ryan Gosling as Ken, Margot Robbie as Barbie, Simu Liu as Ken, Ncuti Gatwa as Ken and Scott Evans as Ken in Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Barbie,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Other Movies Similar to ‘Barbie:’
- ‘Clue‘ (1985)
- ‘Transformers‘ (2007)
- ‘Kit Kittredge: An American Girl‘ (2008)
- ‘G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra‘ (2009)
- ‘The Lego Movie‘ (2014)
- ‘Trolls‘ (2016)
- ‘The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part‘ (2019)
- ‘Lady Bird‘ (2017)
- ‘Little Women‘ (2019)
- ‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts‘ (2023)
- ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie‘ (2023)
- ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves‘ (2023)
Buy Tickets: ‘Barbie’ Movie Showtimes

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‘Barbie’ is produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, Heyday Films, LuckyChap Entertainment, and Mattel Films. It is set to release in theaters on July 21st.
July 18, 2023
Director Eli Roth Hands Over ‘Borderlands’ Re-Shoots

Lionsgate’s ‘Borderlands.’

There has been some disturbed chatter in the last couple of days about video game adaptation ‘Borderlands’, which ‘Hostel’ and ‘Cabin Fever’ director Eli Roth shot way back in 2021 (it was long enough ago that star Cate Blanchett has had time to shoot ‘Tár’, which has just hit theaters).

But with word that Roth has stepped away from the film ahead of some re-shoots, there was naturally concern that it’s all gone a little wrong and that the director has somehow been fired.

Lionsgate is stepping up to do a little damage control and now comes word via Deadline that it’s more to do with a schedule clash.

Roth, you see, is finally ready to make the full-length movie ‘Thanksgiving’, spawned from a fake trailer he made to contribute to Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’ ‘Grindhouse’.

It was popular enough that there was talk of a full movie based on the trailer, but while Roth has sometimes mentioned it, he’s finally ready to make it a reality.

‘Thanksgiving’––in fake trailer form at least––features a slasher who makes his own carving board out of the inhabitants of a Massachusetts town during the annual turkey day. One of the pivotal scenes involved Roth himself, separated from his head while in the throes of passion with a date in a convertible.

(L to R) Director and actor Eli Roth and Brad Pitt in ‘Inglourious Basterds.’

Now, of course, there could be more to it than anyone is willing to admit––given the long post-production process of ‘Borderlands’, surely there has been time for Roth to schedule making ‘Thanksgiving’ so that it doesn’t clash with ‘Borderlands’. But movie shooting schedules can be tough to figure out with so much that needs to happen, so perhaps it really is just timing.

Still, the addition of Tim Miller––who last made ‘Terminator: Dark Fate’––is an interesting one. He’s got plenty of experience with the sort of effects load that might be involved in even re-shoots of something along the lines of the game adaptation.

‘Borderlands’ adapts the popular game title and stars Blanchett as Lilith, an infamous outlaw with a mysterious past, reluctantly returns to her home planet of Pandora to find the missing daughter of the universe’s most powerful man Atlas (Edgar Ramirez).

Lilith forms an alliance with an unexpected team – Roland (Kevin Hart), a former elite mercenary, now desperate for redemption; Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), a feral pre-teen demolitionist; Krieg (Florian Munteanu), Tina’s musclebound, rhetorically challenged protector; Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis), the scientist with a tenuous grip on sanity; and Claptrap (Jack Black), a persistently wiseass robot.

These unlikely heroes must battle alien monsters and dangerous bandits to find and protect the missing girl, who may hold the key to unimaginable power. The fate of the universe could be in their hands – but they’ll be fighting for something more: each other.

Naturally, ‘Borderlands’ has yet to announce a release date, but it’ll certainly need to impress to keep up with the current trend of successful movies and shows based on games.

Cate Blanchett as treasure hunter Lilith in Lionsgate’s ‘Borderlands.’
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January 9, 2023