(L to R) Michael Peña, Sam Rockwell, and Zazie Beetz star in ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’. Photo: Briarcliff Entertainment.
Having not made a movie for nearly a decade, Gore Verbinski has certainly found the right project with which to burst back on the scene. You can’t exactly imagine that Sarah Connor would have responded quite so well had she been confronted by someone as manic and shady as Sam Rockwell’s Man from the Future in ‘The Terminator’, but the new comedy certainly channels some of that movie’s concerns about the future.
Rockwell brings his typically nervy energy to the role, but it’s not a one-man show.
Script and Direction
‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’ director Gore Verbinski. Photo: Briarcliff Entertainment.
Written by ‘Love and Monsters’Matthew Robinson, ‘Good Luck’ harkens back to wild time-travel movies such as ‘Twelve Monkeys’ in particular, but has its own weird sensibility. While it doesn’t completely hold up towards the end –– several disparate storylines have to be knotted together, and it’s not always the cleanest fit –– the whole is happily more than the sum of its parts.
Verbinski, meanwhile, is clearly relishing the chance to cut loose once more, freed from studio restraints and letting a smaller budget be the mother of invention. There are various standout moments, and the movie is satisfying by the time the credits roll.
Cast and Performances
(L to R) Asim Chaudhry, Juno Temple, Michael Peña, Sam Rockwell, Zazie Beetz and Haley Lu Richardson star in ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’. Photo: Briarcliff Entertainment.
Rockwell is the central figure here, driving the narrative and spilling exposition in a way that it remains interesting and (usually) easy to follow. He’s also a compelling, crazed and, as his full story is revealed, emotional figure.
The rest of the cast are more of a mixed bag in terms of how much they have to do, but Richardson and Temple in particular are great in this.
Final Thoughts
(L to R) Juno Temple, Zazie Beetz, Michael Peña, Sam Rockwell, and Haley Lu Richardson star in ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’. Photo: Briarcliff Entertainment.
It might not hit every beat it takes aim at, but ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’ proudly finds its own groove, and once you’re on its wavelength, it’s hard not to have fun taking the wild ride.
‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’ receives 80 out of 100.
Sam Rockwell stars in ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’. Photo: Briarcliff Entertainment.
What is the plot of ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’?
A man (Sam Rockwell) from the future travels to the past and recruits the patrons of a Los Angeles diner he arrives in to help combat a rogue artificial intelligence.
Who is in the cast of ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’?
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with director Gore Verbinski, Zazie Beetz, Michael Peña, and Haley Lu Richardson about their work on ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’, why Verbinski wanted to make the movie and his choice to use a chapter structure, Beetz, Peña, and Richardson’s first reactions to the script, Beetz and Richardson’s experience working with Verbinski on set, and what it was like for Richardson to work with the rest of the ensemble cast.
(L to R) Zazie Beetz, Michael Peña and director Gore Verbinski discuss ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews.
‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’ director Gore Verbinski. Photo: Briarcliff Entertainment.
Moviefone: To begin with, Gore, can you talk about your first reaction to the screenplay and why you wanted to make it?
Gore Verbinski: I thought Matthew’s opening monologue scared me, but also was brilliant. Matthew Robinson, our writer. I think you normally don’t start a movie with an 11-page monologue. I was nervous, but then I was also aware of the fact that the audience is like the patrons of norms. If we pull this off, they’re coming for the ride. So, breaking that down, dissecting that and knowing immediately I wanted Sam. I don’t think there’s anybody else who could do it. Sam Rockwell just has that ability to underpin all of that with a sense of some deep pain. There’s something honest underneath all of it. It’s not just exposition. So that was probably what first initially drew me to the project. Then we did a lot of work. Matthew’s draft was written in 2017, so AI was still something on the horizon back then. I think I was like, “Well, it’s here.” So, we needed to change all of that. The antagonist of the movie I think had to be more relevant to what we’re experiencing in our daily lives.
MF: Zazie, what was your first reaction to the screenplay and the dystopian future it predicts?
Zazie Beetz: I get sent a bunch of different scripts all the time, which is wonderful, and most are fine. The gift really is, I feel like once a year or once even every two years, you read a script where you’re like, “Oh my God. Hell yes.” I talk a lot about if something isn’t a “Hell yes” then it’s a “Hell no” when you’re choosing projects. But usually, it’s gray. There’s a lot of things you must muddle through and figure out what really is the right fit or not. It’s rarely ever just yes. I felt that way the first 10 pages of this script, reading the diner scene, which is the first 10 minutes of the movie and picturing Sam doing this and with Gore at the helm. I was like, “This is just sparkling for me.” I also just resonated so much with the message, and I thought audiences would too. I just was like, “I need to be a part of this project.”
(L to R) Michael Peña, Sam Rockwell, and Zazie Beetz star in ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’. Photo: Briarcliff Entertainment.
MF: Michael, did you feel the same way about your character and the project when you first read the script?
Michael Peña: Yeah, absolutely. I know that there’s some people that don’t read everything they’re offered or anything that they’re being considered for. I tend to do that. I love reading scripts from The Black List. They’re good, and I’ve done a couple of those movies, which I think is awesome, and I recommend any actor or producer, read everything off The Black List because it’s the best of the best. But I love reading scripts and I love story in general. Like Zazie said, there’s a couple of times where you read a script and you’re like, “I love it”, when you don’t exactly know why you want to do a movie. It’s just like a vibe. There are some feels attached to it. I was like, “Wow, I can’t sleep.” I’ve had that with ‘Crash’, I had that with ‘End of Watch’, and I had that with this. I’m like, “I just want to be a part of it. I don’t know why.” A lot of times when they’re not huge budgets, you’re not being compensated crazy, but the passion I think shows up.
MF: Haley, what was your first reaction to the screenplay and what it says about the world we live in and our possible future?
Haley Lu Richardson: Well, it says a lot, and my reactions were a lot. I keep saying that this was the funniest script I’ve ever read, but also the most unsettling. It’s a crazy movie. Gore’s been describing it from day one as his psychotic opera, which it very much is. It’s psychotic and ridiculous, but in a way that’s what makes it unsettling is that it’s not unrealistic. The themes in the movie are direct reflections of our reality. The things we have experienced already in our existence and the things we’re imminently up for, I don’t necessarily think when we were filming it was a potential future, but now it kind of feels like this is literally what’s happening, and that’s a lot to process.
Haley Lu Richardson stars in ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’.
MF: Gore, can you talk about the unique chapter structure of the film and getting a chance to tell each character’s story in a specific way?
GV: I think there are films like ‘Pulp Fiction’, I suppose. There are films that do that, that go back. You don’t really have a three-act structure when you do that. Sometimes you have, particularly in our case, we have five narrative threads that are all pulling themselves together. It’s tricky because I think when I first started out in this business, they would say, “You can’t mix genres. You can never mix a genre.” But that’s all we do now. There are romantic comedies with vampires. All we do is mix genres now. Then they’re like, “Well, you can’t mix tone.” But can you? Can you mix tone? We have a lot of tonalities in this movie. I think that’s what keeps you guessing. There used to be a thing where, tone was the thing that had to be consistent because otherwise you’ll break something. But I think if you take five stories with slightly different tones, you can weave them together. They’re all relative to our third act. They’re all drawing us towards this sense of inevitable. So, it was challenging, and it was fun to play with that because I think we have a lot of humor, we have a lot of social commentary, and we have a lot of taboos that we’re dealing with. So, holding that all together, there was not going to be one sort of tonal package that was going to make that work.
MF: Haley, what was your experience like working with Gore on set and watching the specific way he makes movies?
HLR: Well, I was pleasantly surprised by Gore’s boyish inner child and excitement. His passion is so giddy and childlike, in a beautiful way. We called him “Night Shoot Gore” because he would come out and have a cigar and be rabid with his monitor on top of a roof, which was probably unsafe because he wasn’t harnessed in or anything. He’d just be standing on a roof with his cigar and his monitor watching a scene of us fighting off teenage zombies and he’d be saying all the lines to himself and shaking. He’s manic and he’s so excited. When you’re working with someone that’s the leader, that’s excited and cares, he just keeps the energy up. He was as protective of Ingrid as I was of Ingrid, which is also new for me. Sometimes I feel like I must actively stand up and fight for protecting a character and things that they need, artistically or emotionally in moments. But Gore was actively protective of these characters in this movie. In the trailer, it says, “From Unhinged Gore Verbinski.” I’m like, yeah, that’s accurate in the best way.
(L to R) Asim Chaudhry, Juno Temple, Michael Peña, Sam Rockwell, Zazie Beetz and Haley Lu Richardson star in ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’. Photo: Briarcliff Entertainment.
MF: Zazie, what was your experience like working with Gore on this project?
ZB: Gore, I would say is truly the captain of his ship. He has a very clear vision, and I think that’s also very important for a movie like this where there’s a lot of heightened energy, a lot of hectic and chaotic energy where I feel like the flow could get lost if there isn’t someone who’s very clear about how he wants this structured. So, it was great to have him to lean on if I had questions about tonal elements or about where my character was at. He had thought this movie through. You could really lean on him for that if you felt like, “Wait, where am I at?” Mike and I, we did a lot of work together, but he was this rock-solid board you could be like, “Okay, you’re telling me to do what?” So that was good.
MF: Finally, Haley, what was it like for you working with Sam Rockwell, Juno Temple, Zazie, Michael, and the rest of the ensemble cast?
HLR: Honestly, I literally couldn’t have been with a better group of humans. Truly, we had so much fun. I felt a similar thing on ‘The White Lotus’ when it’s like, we’re all so different. We’re all different ages. We all have different life experience, but somehow you put us all together and we have a night out drinking and dancing and it works. It’s the best time. We had so many night shoots on this movie. It was just a blast. I just really love those guys. We had fun together and I also felt safe with them. I love them all for different reasons and think they’re amazing in the movie.
(L to R) Juno Temple, Zazie Beetz, Michael Peña, Sam Rockwell, and Haley Lu Richardson star in ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’. Photo: Briarcliff Entertainment.
What is the plot of ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’?
A man (Sam Rockwell) from the future travels to the past and recruits the patrons of a Los Angeles diner he arrives in to help combat a rogue artificial intelligence.
Who is in the cast of ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’?
Ford and Wayne. Scorsese and De Niro. Burton and Depp. Ayer and Statham. Well, okay, that last one doesn’t quite fit with the others, but there’s no question that director David Ayer and action star Jason Statham – working together for the second movie in a row after 2024’s surprise hit ‘The Beekeeper’ – have an intense creative connection, at least when it comes to making numbing, sadistically violent thrillers that fully embrace Ayer’s retrograde macho tendencies and Statham’s stoic, limited-range acting and admirably intense physicality.
In fact, with a few tweaks to the screenplay (co-written by Ayer and, of all people, Sylvester Stallone, from the novel ‘Levon’s Trade’ by Chuck Dixon), ‘A Working Man’ could almost be ‘The Beekeeper 2.’ But it’s not: while ‘The Beekeeper’ was smart enough amid its overall dopiness to deploy a unique villain – those phishing robocallers who bilk unsuspecting grandmas and grandpas out of their life savings – that genuinely touched a nerve with viewers, ‘A Working Man’ falls back on two of the most overused action movie tropes of recent years: Russian gangsters and human trafficking, with a light seasoning of ‘John Wick’-style weirdness to make you think it’s more interesting than it looks. But guess what: it’s not.
Story and Direction
‘A Working Man’ director and co-writer David Ayer.
That’s not to say we weren’t entertained by ‘A Working Man’; like ‘The Beekeeper,’ there’s something about the simplistic nature of its plot and protagonist – at least at first – that sucks us in, helped enormously by Statham’s oddball charisma and the sense that he’s playing the straight man inside his own cinematic joke. This time out, he’s former Royal Marines commando Levon Cade, whose origin story is sketched out under the opening credits: he’s done a lot of tough, sometimes bad stuff in all the world’s hot spots.
After 22 years of service, Levon now works as a foreman for a family-owned Chicago construction company, where the owners treat him like a member of their clan. But Levon can’t quite get the rest of his life together: he’s living in his car and fighting his ex-father-in-law – who views him as dangerous — for custody of his daughter (Isla Gie), following the suicide of his wife.
It’s because he’s trying to put that part of his life behind him that Levon is initially hesitant when his devastated boss Joe (Michael Peña) informs him that Joe’s teen daughter Jenny (Arianna Rivas) has been kidnapped during a night out with her friends and begs Levon to find her.
Levon’s reluctance lasts about three minutes, however: after a quick check-in with his former commando buddy, Gunny (David Harbour), who’s blind and now lives out in the woods with a convenient closetful of arms (“I am your weapons sommelier,” Harbour cracks), Levon gets to work. He quickly learns that Jenny has been snatched by members of a Russian crime cartel who plan to traffic her to high-paying customers with perverted tastes.
The rest of the movie follows a now well-worn formula as Levon blitzes his way through the Russian mob, from its foot soldiers to its captains to the boss’s sons. Also facing Levon’s wrath are a biker gang that deals drugs, a handful of rogue cops, and some genuine freaks brought in by the Russians to put Levon down (Ayer may have failed with his one superhero movie, ‘Suicide Squad,’ but his villains are getting more and more comic-booky).
As is standard, every single bullet fired at Levon misses, while he cuts the opposition down with ruthless machine-like efficiency and barely gets roughed up or scratched. Even one sequence when he finds himself at the mercy of two foppish Russians who wear matching outfits in different colors (“It’s our brand,” one explains) lasts only for a few moments. Levon frees himself and turns them into pulp in one of the film’s best sequences, an exciting brawl in the narrow confines of a careening van that pays tribute to the classic train fight from the James Bond film ‘From Russia with Love.’
But the deeper Levon wades into the world of ‘A Working Man,’ the less interesting it becomes. As we said earlier, the Russian villains and trafficking scheme are overused already, and Ayer’s attempts to make it weirder – such as the main Russian gangster being an almost Dracula-like figure, or the final battle taking place at a hidden casino/brothel where the oligarchal clientele dresses in finery and capes – are more head-scratching than anything else, just like the absurdly large, cartoonish moon that hovers over the film’s closing scenes.
Still, if you’re here to just see Statham kicking butt for the better part of two hours, ‘A Working Man’ remains your jam. Despite the more generic nature of the enemy, the repetitive structure of the screenplay, and the almost callous glee Ayer seems to take in having Statham execute people in some horrible ways (the rationale, we presume, is just how gross these folks are to begin with), this is the kind of mind-free crowd-pleaser that the star has cornered the market on. When you can see it, that is: Shawn White’s cinematographer is often dark and murky, especially during the climactic battles, while the editing tends to get a little spasmodic as well during the action set pieces.
Sure, there’s a cast here and it even includes some name players, but Jason Statham is front and center as always – even if Levon, for all his problems, has no discernible character arc. Like Adam Clay from ‘The Beekeeper,’ he’s outraged by injustice and loyal to a fault, but once he’s committed to his mission, there are no longer any doubts or conflicts and he more or less finishes the film in the same place he started it.
Statham is a little more stone-faced here than he was in ‘The Beekeeper,’ although we do actually get to see him smile once or twice, particularly in the scenes with Levon’s daughter. About that, though: while Statham can kick the crap out of people convincingly all day long, he just doesn’t have the bandwidth to generate true fatherly warmth, as hard as he tries.
As for everyone else, the reliably quirky David Harbour and Michael Peña are wasted in too-brief appearances, with the latter disappearing after the first act and only showing up again briefly at the end (there’s also something vaguely racist with Ayer’s portrayal of Peña’s extended Latino family, who all seem to live in the same house together).
A potentially fun reunion between Statham and his ‘Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels’ mate Jason Flemyng is also woefully cut short, as Statham has many more members of the Russian crime world to plow through. Arianna Rivas’ Jenny explains in some helpful early exposition that her uncle taught her how to fight, so at least she does get to refreshingly push back against her captors. As for those captors, and the armies of Russian mafia soldiers that seem to endlessly crawl out of the woodwork, they range from “over-the-top” to “automaton,” with all of them having the personalities of characters in a first-person shooter.
In a way, ‘A Working Man’ is the cinematic equivalent of a first-person shooter, except you can see your avatar and it looks just like Jason Statham. And while the game can be fun while you’re playing it, you forget all about it as soon as you turn the machine off.
‘A Working Man’ (and other Statham movies) are just like that: a cathartic way to watch hordes of bad guys get killed, only with a slight seasoning of vague social commentary and the notion that Levon Cade or Adam Clay or whatever Statham is called this time has righteousness on his side. In David Ayer, he’s found the perfect partner to get the job done.
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What is the plot of ‘A Working Man’?
Levon Cade (Jason Statham), an ex-Royal Marines commando, leads a peaceful life as a construction worker in Chicago. However, Levon is forced to use his old set of skills to find his boss’s teenaged daughter Jenny (Arianna Rivas), who had been kidnapped by human traffickers, and soon uncovers a conspiracy of corruption and government agents’ involvement in human trafficking.
‘A Working Man’ director and co-writer David Ayer.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with director and co-writer David Ayer about his work on ‘A Working Man’, writing with Sylvester Stallone, adapting Chuck Dixon’s novel, why he likes working with Jason Statham, and his philosophy behind shooting action sequences.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview.
Moviefone: To begin with, talk about the development of this screenplay and how did the writing process work between you and Sylvester Stallone?
David Ayer: It is funny how life has these circles. As a kid I saw ‘Rocky’ and it made me want to work out and learn to box. But as a young writer, once I heard the story of how he had written the script and been so protective of it and ultimately got the film made the way he wanted on his terms, that inspired me to do the same thing with ‘Training Day’, which came together like a dream for me. Then when the opportunity came up to work with him, when I got this script with his name on it, it just made a lot of sense. I mean, here’s this ’80s action icon, this legend who really understands action. So, the script had a great starting point for me. Then to bring Jason Statham into that, who is really the inheritor of that action tradition from the ’80s and ’90s. I mean, you just don’t have icons like that in the action space like Jason. So, it just felt like a great team up.
MF: Were you a fan of the ‘Levon’s Trade’ before joining this project, and did you read any of the other novels in the series to get a feel the character?
DA: I did. Chuck’s one of those old school, two-fisted writers. He writes action. He writes hard characters. So, it just makes a lot of sense to take his work and bring it into the action cinema space.
MF: Can you talk about the challenges of adapting the book and what were some of the elements you wanted to make sure you included, and what were some of the things that you wanted to avoid?
DA: Well, the idea of this veteran, this highly capable military guy who, like anybody, has now changed his life and he’s working in construction and works for this family and is forced by circumstances to go back and do the thing he’s left. This life he’s left behind, he must turn to it again. So those elements were solidly in the book. Then for me it was just really making sure that the family he was helping was really defined and we love them. When we see Jason smile it just lights up the screen. I wanted to give him a grounded family life that the audience could connect with and really root for when it comes time for him to go to war.
MF: Obviously you worked with Jason Statham on ‘The Beekeeper’, so what do you enjoy about directing him?
DA: Jason shows up to work and he’s really demanding, and he pushes me and I push him. Now that I know him and know what he’s capable of, I mean doing the fight choreography, we’re really connected on that. He does his own stunts, which means I don’t have to cut away to a stunt guy for things. You get to design and build the shots around him and what he’s actually doing. So that’s a treat. You don’t normally get that. I mean, that’s absolutely exceptional. Then, I learned on ‘Beekeeper’ that he has a really big heart and when he brings that heart to a scene, there’s nothing like it. I feel like he hasn’t had that opportunity as much as he should. So again, to just see him in this family environment and see him smile and laugh, and to see him be a dad and to see him struggle with the things we struggle in our daily lives, there’s something so grounding about that that then makes the action play even better.
MF: Finally, as a director, can you talk a little bit about your philosophy behind action, your style, and how you specifically wanted to execute the action sequences in this movie?
DA: I think my action style just simply comes down to telling a story with the action and telling a character-based story. So, I think of it as character-based action. How would this character fight? How does he react? How does he move? How does he use the objects around him? How does he use weapons and what’s he after? When he is on the back foot, how does he react? That’s where good action comes from, is making us care about the character inside of the action.
AH8UNExeQ4wECtFJgDgmT4
What is the plot of ‘A Working Man’?
Levon Cade (Jason Statham), an ex-Royal Marines commando, leads a peaceful life as a construction worker in Chicago. However, Levon is forced to use his old set of skills to find his boss’s teenaged daughter Jenny (Arianna Rivas), who had been kidnapped by human traffickers, and soon uncovers a conspiracy of corruption and government agents’ involvement in human trafficking.
Jharrel Jerome (Anthony Robles) in ‘Unstoppable’. Photo Credit: Ana Carballosa/Prime Video.
‘Unstoppable’ receives 5.5 out of 10 stars.
Opening in theaters on December 6th before arriving on Prime Video January 16th, ‘Unstoppable’ is just the latest challenger to enter the ring of sports biopics that take inspirational stories of overcoming big challenges with a charismatic real-life figure at their heart.
Unfortunately in this case, the movie also comes burdened with the sort of factory-tooled reverence and seen-them-all-before beats, never quite overcoming that baseline feel.
Jharrel Jerome (Anthony Robles) in ‘Unstoppable’. Photo Credit: Ana Carballosa/Prime Video.
Anthony Robles’ story is certainly one worthy of the biopic treatment –– a young sportsman who already overcame the challenges of being born with just one leg, who applies himself with determination and grace to a difficult sporting arena.
And his is also one of personal struggles, facing a difficult step-father and a family forever in financial poor straights barely kept together by their passionate mother. Trouble is, it’s a story we’ve seen and heard many times before and to stand out from the crowd, it has to receive truly special, thoughtful treatment.
In ‘Unstoppables’ case it feels more like the filmmakers took the very basic formula, slapped on the standard reverent music and homilies from characters around Anthony, and said, “will that do?”
It does at least boast two big advantages in the committed performances from stars Jharrel Jerome and Jennifer Lopez.
Script and Direction
(L to R) William Goldenberg (Director) and Jennifer Lopez (Judy Robles) in ‘Unstoppable’. Photo Credit: Ana Carballosa/Prime Video.
It took three screenwriters –– Eric Champnella, Alex Harris and John Hindman to adapt Robles’ book ‘Unstoppable: From Underdog To Undefeated: How I Became A Champion,’ written with Austin Murphy. It’s perhaps not surprising that the movie has been through a couple of different variations, but you’d somehow hope that with different people working on it, there might have been some more invention handed down during that process.
Which is not to say ‘Unstoppable’ has a bad screenplay, it’s simply a painfully straightforward one. Though we’re not expecting the wild invention of, say, ‘Better Man’ (in which British musician Robbie Williams’ life is brought to life via a CG chimp), ‘Unstoppable’ is simply a very pedestrian telling of the tale.
And despite an impactful central story, it feels the need to invent extra drama, such as a shutdown of the Arizona State wrestling program that in reality lasted for a much shorter time than the months shown here.
Director William Goldenberg has mostly worked as an editor on movies such as ‘Argo’ and ‘Heat,’ but his helming debut carries little of the energy of the films he has contributed to in the past. Again, it’s not a badly made film, just a very average one.
‘Unstoppable’: Performances
Jharrel Jerome and Jennifer Lopez are the shining stars of this one, largely carrying the film, though a talented supporting cast does what they can with basic roles.
Jharrel Jerome as Anthony Robles
Anthony Robles (Jharrel Jerome) in ‘Unstoppable’. Photo Credit: Ana Carballosa/Prime Video.
Jerome is excellent here as Anthony, bringing the full force of the real-life athlete’s drive to the screen. He’s got real power, both in the wrestling ring (those scenes are certainly helped by the actual Robles standing in during most of those scenes to make sure the sport comes across accurately) and he also shines in the domestic scenes.
Jennifer Lopez as Judy Robles
(L to R) Anthony Robles (Jharrel Jerome) and Jennifer Lopez (Judy Robles) in ‘Unstoppable’. Photo Credit: Ana Carballosa/Prime Video.
Robles’ caring dedicated and spirited mother is the other key role in the movie, and Lopez gives it her all, whether dealing with her mercurial, unstable husband or fighting back against the predatory banks who control her home’s mortgage. Lopez is better here than in some other recent movies, handed more to chew on.
(L to R) Jharrel Jerome (Anthony Robles) and Bobby Cannavale (Rick Robles) in ‘Unstoppable’. Photo Credit: Ana Carballosa/Prime Video.
Rick, Anthony’s stepfather (who in one particularly passive-aggressively cruel moment reminds the young Anthony of that fact that he’s not his real dad) is a boorish prison warden, who is as unreliable as he is outspoken.
Cannavale does what he can with the part, but there’s not much meat on that bonehead.
Don Cheadle (Coach Shawn Charles) in ‘Unstoppable’. Photo Credit: Ana Carballosa/Prime Video.
As the coach at Arizona State, Cheadle’s character is mostly a collection of encouraging catchphrase and wise lessons about life. While this isn’t The Coach Charles Story, you do wish the film could have found one other layer to offer, though it does give him a solid moment when he admits the wrestling program has been ditched, the rest of his scenes you could probably write having not seen the movie.
Michael Peña in ‘Unstoppable’. Photo Credit: Ana Carballosa/Prime Video.
Peña, if anything, has even less to do than Cheadle, with just a few scenes in which to make an impact.
Final Thoughts
Jennifer Lopez (Judy Robles) in ‘Unstoppable’. Photo Credit: Ana Carballosa/Prime Video.
‘Unstoppable’ is a perfectly meritorious film with a superb real-life story at its core. It’s just that while the movie wouldn’t exist without Robles’ impactful story, it still comes across looking like 20 other sports biopics.
Between this and ‘The Fire Inside’ it might be time for inspirational sports dramas to hit the benches for now.
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What is the plot of ‘Unstoppable’?
With the unwavering love and support of his devoted mother Judy (Jennifer Lopez) and the encouragement of his coaches, Anthony Robles (Jharrel Jerome) fights through adversity to earn a spot on the Arizona State Wrestling team. But it will demand everything he has, physically and mentally, to achieve his ultimate quest to become an NCAA Champion.
Opening in theaters on December 6th before premiering on Prime Video January 16th is the new sports drama ‘Unstoppable’, which is based on the true story of 2011 NCAA Wrestling Champion Anthony Robles.
(L to R) Jharrel Jerome and Anthony Robles talk ‘Unstoppable’.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Jharrel Jerome and Anthony Robles about their work on ‘Unstoppable’, what it means to Jerome personally to tell Robles incredible true story, working with the accomplished cast of actors, and Robles’ experience having a movie made about his life.
You can watch the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews.
Jharrel Jerome (Anthony Robles) in ‘Unstoppable’. Photo Credit: Ana Carballosa/Prime Video.
Moviefone: To begin with, Jharrel, what has it meant to you personally to have the opportunity to meet Anthony and tell his story on screen and as an actor, what was the most challenging aspect of this project for you?
Jharrel Jerome: I mean, this project I think is the most important thing I’ve done up until now in my life, especially because I’ve been involved with this for five years now. I met Anthony back in 2019. I just turned 22, I’m 27 now. So, this has become larger than life. This has become larger than my career, and this isn’t just a role I approached. This was a life-changing experience for me, all the way down to my physicality, which in turn leads to my mental health and my self-care, how I communicate, and how I speak. That all just comes from observing Anthony, I promise you, you can’t be in a room with this guy for 10 minutes and not want to go lift some weights or go try something new in life. That’s just the power he holds. It’s not often you get to do a role that truly changes you the way this did. So, I’m grateful, very grateful.
(L to R) Director William Goldenberg, Anthony Robles and Jharrel Jerome (Anthony Robles) in Unstoppable’. Photo Credit: Ana Carballosa/Prime Video.
MF: Anthony, what is it like having a movie made about your own life and did you have any advice for Jharrel about playing you when starting this project?
Anthony Robles: The experiences, it was just exciting and terrifying going through it because your whole story’s being told, not just the happy moments, it’s the painful moments as well that are going to be shared. So, finding that balance of everything and just finding a group of people that would respect my family and the struggles that we went through and portray it in the way to where we could say, “Yeah, we’re okay. We’re proud of sharing this because this is our story.” So, to see the finished product now, I’m very excited. I’m very proud of it and happy with how it turned out because I can honestly say that is our story up there. As far as giving Jharrel advice, honestly, I really didn’t have to give him advice. As he mentioned, we met back in 2019, so we just developed this friendship and this brotherhood. For him, he was just focused on those little details about me. I didn’t even realize that. I’m just living my life. I’m just hanging out. I’m just having fun with my friends, and he’s observing these things as we’re going throughout the process. So, it was neat for me to be able to sit back on set and just really know and trust that Jharrel, he was going to take care of business out there. He made me proud, and I just trusted him 100% with my story and sharing from my perspective.
(L to R) Anthony Robles (Jharrel Jerome) and Jennifer Lopez (Judy Robles) in ‘Unstoppable’. Photo Credit: Ana Carballosa/Prime Video.
MF: Finally, Jharrel, you are surrounded by an excellent cast that includes Jennifer Lopez, Don Cheadle, Michael Peña and Bobby Cannavale, just to name a few. What was it like for you to get to work with them and what did you learn from watching the way they work?
JJ: I mean, it’s a dream come true. When I got the call, I had mixed feelings. Half of me was very excited and thinking this is going to be an honor. But the other half was, I was terrified, especially when I heard about Don. This is somebody I hold to a very high standard as an actor and hope to emulate his path as an actor. So, it kind of made me up my ante. It kind of gave me an aggressive edge and a push that I needed. As for what I learned from them, it wasn’t specific. The way Don can live in the character as if he’s lived in his whole life, it’s so impressive to me. Then the way Jen can shut off the mega stardom and the world and just zone in and focus. Michael and Bobby’s approach to taking a one-dimensional sort of character and putting elements to it, it’s just incredible. It makes you just want to continue to work with top-tier actors and it just ups your game.
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What is the plot of ‘Unstoppable’?
With the unwavering love and support of his devoted mother Judy (Jennifer Lopez) and the encouragement of his coaches, Anthony Robles (Jharrel Jerome) fights through adversity to earn a spot on the Arizona State Wrestling team. But it will demand everything he has, physically and mentally, to achieve his ultimate quest to become an NCAA Champion.
Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris in season 1, episode 2 of ‘Landman’ streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+.
Preview:
The first pictures of new Paramount+ series ‘Landman’ are online.
Billy Bob Thornton, Jon Hamm and Demi Moore are among the cast.
It’s the latest show from ‘Yellowstone’ creator Taylor Sheridan.
While ‘Yellowstone’ might be coming to an end, series creator Taylor Sheridan is certainly keeping himself busy. He has a variety of other shows either on streaming services or in the works, and the first images from one of the newcomers, ‘Landman’ are now online.
Starring Billy Bob Thornton (who first came into Sheridan’s orbit when he took a role on ‘Yellowstone’ prequel ‘1883’), the series is set in the high-pressure (in several senses of the word) world of oilrigs in Texas.
And around Thornton, he’s recruited a typically starry cast.
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What’s the story of ‘Landman’?
Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris in season 1, episode 3 of ‘Landman’ streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+.
Set in the proverbial boomtowns of West Texas, ‘Landman’ is a modern-day tale of fortune seeking in the world of oil rigs. Based on the 11-part podcast ‘Boomtown’ from Imperative Entertainment and Texas Monthly, the series is an upstairs/downstairs story of roughnecks and wildcat billionaires fueling a boom so big, it’s reshaping our climate, our economy and our geopolitics.
Who else is in ‘Landman’?
(L to R) Jon Hamm as Monty Miller and Demi Moore as Cami Miller in season 1 of ‘Landman’ streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: James Minchin/Paramount+.
(L to R) Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris and Demi Moore as Cami Miller in season 1, episode 10 of ‘Landman’ streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+.
“I’m a fixer and a foreman. Even though I work with the head guy, I also work very closely with the people out in the field. I check the wells every day, get the information to give him, I deal with the landowners, and if something happens on that land, if there’s an accident on the rig, I’ve got to solve that problem and go deal with the lawyers. There aren’t really a lot of scenes where my character comes home and says, ‘My God, was my day amazing!’ I slink into the house every day like somebody just beat the hell out of me.”
Moore discussed working with Sheridan on the show:
“He thinks way ahead. He’s thinking through not just one season. He’s thinking through an epic story. He writes incredible, complex, dynamic and delicious women who are powerful, vulnerable, flawed.”
When will ‘Landman’ be on screens?
Paramount+ will launch the 10-episode first season with its initial two episodes on Sunday, November 17th, with the rest following weekly.
A scene from season 1, episode 1 of ‘Landman’ streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+.(L to R) Jacob Lofland as Cooper Norris, Mustafa Speaks as Boss and Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris in season 1, episode 4 of ‘Landman’ streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+.(L to R) Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris and Jon Hamm as Monty Miller in season 1, episode 6 of ‘Landman’ streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+.(L to R) Demi Moore as Cami Miller, Dani Raen as Grace Miller, Jon Hamm as Monty Miller, and Rylie Rodriguez as Monty’s daughter in season 1, episode 2 of ‘Landman’ streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+.(L to R) Demi Moore as Cami Miller and Rylie Rodriguez as Monty’s daughter in season 1, episode 2 of ‘Landman’ streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+.(L to R) Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris and Ali Larter as Angela Norris in Landman streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: James Minchin/Paramount+.(L to R) Michelle Randolph as Ainsley Norris and Ali Larter as Angela Norris in season 1, episode 3 of ‘Landman’ streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+.Michael Peña as Armando in season 1, episode 1 of ‘Landman’ streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+.Jacob Lofland as Cooper Norris in season 1, episode 2 of ‘Landman’ streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+.James Jordan as Dale in season 1, episode 5 of ‘Landman’ streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+.Mark Collie as Sheriff Walt Joeberg in season 1, episode 2 of ‘Landman’ streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+.(L to R) Colm Feore as Nathan, Kayla Wallace as Rebecca Savage, and Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris in season 1, episode 4 of ‘Landman’ streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+.(L to R) Kayla Wallace as Rebecca Savage, Paulina Chavez as Ariana, and Colm Feore as Nathan in season 1, episode 6 of ‘Landman’ streaming on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+.A slate is pictured from the first day of production of ‘Landman’, streaming on Paramount+, 2024. Photo Credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+.
Opening in select theaters on September 8th before premiering on Prime Video on September 15th, ‘A Million Miles Away’ chronicles the fascinating, ambitious true story of José M. Hernández, who went from picking crops with his family as a migrant worker to blasting off on the Space Shuttle.
Michael Peña plays Hernández, with Rosa Salazar as his equally ambitious and talented wife Adela, and the story is one to inspire anyone who dreams of making it to orbit.
‘A Million Miles Away’ follows Hernández and his devoted family of proud migrant farm workers on a decades-long journey, from a rural village in Michoacán, Mexico, to the fields of the San Joaquin Valley, to more than 200 miles above the Earth in the International Space Station.
With the unwavering support of his hard-working parents, relatives and teachers, José’s unrelenting drive & determination culminates in the opportunity to achieve his seemingly impossible goal.
It’s been quite the year for inspirational Latino stories, between ‘Flamin’ Hot’ and now ‘A Million Miles Away’. And if you thought breaking into the world of corporate America’s snack business was hard, try going from picking crops to riding on the Space Shuttle!
Director Alejandra Márquez José, working with co-writers Bettina Gilois and Hernán Jiménez, here adapts Hernández’ book, ‘Reaching for the Stars: The Inspiring Story of a Migrant Farmworker Turned Astronaut’, written with Monica Rojas Rubin.
The raw true story is one that has plenty of fuel for a movie, and Abella brings it to the screen with verve, energy and power. Hernández’ journey to NASA was far from an easy one; a bright child with a talent for math, he was nevertheless forced to move schools a lot at a young age as his family followed where the farm work was to be found. Yet, supported by his parents, he still managed to become and engineer and then, yes, an astronaut, helping to complete construction of the International Space Station.
Peña, who has long stolen scenes in much bigger movies (and has onscreen astronaut experience thanks to ‘The Martian’), here makes for an ideal leading man, his natural exuberance matching well with Hernández’ own.
Around him, the director has cast some great performers, with his family standing out –– not the least of which is Rosa Salazar as his dedicated wife. She’s vibrant and, unlike some biopics where the wife is reduced to standing by their husband or popping out kids at the expense of their own dreams. Adela managed to combine both.
By the time Hernández made it into the Astronaut Candidate program, the couple had five children and Adela was ready to turn her well-honed cooking abilities into running a Mexican restaurant near the Johnson Space Center.
The story is, of course, focused on José, but it doesn’t neglect Adela, charting her own complicated, funny clan, their early dating life and how they coped with challenges (such as José’s string of rejections from NASA –– it took him 12 years just to get into the program).
NASA enthusiasts will enjoy the latest peek at astronaut training procedures, but the story doesn’t simply take off –– pun entirely intended –– when José realizes his dream; it is compelling and entertaining long before he’s glimpsed in the trademark blue jumpsuit.
Adella has crafted a film that makes you root for everyone involved, not just its central figure, and you’d have to have a heart frozen in the depths of space not to have a lump in your throat during certain moments. Watching a real-life story of determination and drive is as emotional as it is rousing.
‘A Million Miles Away’ might not break much new ground when it comes to biopics, but it’s a story worth telling, and it tells it well.
This movie largely sidesteps some common biopic issues –– after all, Hernández’ story is not as well-known as some others.
Still, there are a few issues. Given everything that happens in Hernández’ life, there is a lot to cram into the story between his family life and his career. It can sometimes feel as though you’re watching the movie on fast-forward, as events speed up and we cross several years.
It is, of course, largely unavoidable, given even a generous near two-hour running time, but it’s still jarring at times.
And while the story is a fascinating one (and some moments you might think were added for dramatic emphasis, such as his inspirational elementary school teacher Ms. Young, who ends up attending his launch on Discovery, are completely real), the script does occasionally flirt with cliché, people (who, we can assume were invented for the movie) spouting things that sound like a screenwriter made them up rather than an actual human.
Another noticeable concern is the make-up at different times of the story. We’re supposed to believe that Peña, 47, is Hernández through the use of some make-up and a filter. Some other scenes of the younger Hernández don’t completely convince either, and the same can be said for Salazar when portraying the older Adela Hernández.
Despite any small issues, ‘A Million Miles Away’ is most definitely worth a watch, especially for anyone of any age who is harboring a dream that people are trying to convince them is impossible. Hernández’ drive and grit pulse through the movie, and it certainly finds some fun ways to bring the story to life. And for anyone who might think, ‘well, an inspirational biopic of a real hero isn’t rocket science…’ this time, it actually is.
‘A Million Miles Away’ receives 8 out of 10 stars.
Opening in select theaters on September 8th before premiering on Prime Video on September 15th is the new biopic ‘A Million Miles Away,’ which is based on the book “Reaching for the Stars: The Inspiring Story of a Migrant Farmworker Turned Astronaut” by José Hernández and was directed by Alejandra Márquez Abella (‘The Good Girls’).
What is the plot of ‘A Million Miles Away’?
Inspired by the real-life story of NASA flight engineer José Hernández, ‘A Million Miles Away’ follows him and his devoted family of proud migrant farm workers on a decades-long journey, from a rural village in Michoacán, Mexico, to the fields of the San Joaquin Valley, to more than 200 miles above the Earth in the International Space Station. With the unwavering support of his hard-working parents, relatives and teachers, José’s (Michael Peña) unrelenting drive & determination culminates in the opportunity to achieve his seemingly impossible goal.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with director Alejandra Márquez Abella about her work on ‘A Million Miles Away,’ why she wanted to tell José Hernández’s story, meeting Hernández and his family, working with Michael Peña, casting Rosa Salazar as José’s wife, and making the NASA scenes as authentic as possible.
‘A Million Miles Away’ director Alejandra Márquez Abella.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview.
Moviefone: To begin with, what intrigued you about Jose’s Hernández’s real life story, and what were some of the themes that you wanted to explore with this movie?
Alejandra Márquez Abella: Well, the fact that he was a migrant farm worker and astronaut was enough. The apparent contradiction in that sentence was fascinating for me. I wanted to explore not only having such an admirable character because I’ve done more of a despicable character sort of thing before, and I really wanted to explore having a nice guy to portray in front of me. That was a challenge in a way, and I wanted to elevate his story. I wanted everyone to see that you can achieve anything almost.
MF: What kind of research did you do for this project? Did you have a chance to meet Jose, his family, and his friends and colleagues?
AMA: I visited him and his family in Stockton, California. I spent some days with them. I met his kids and his parents. We talked a lot. I saw the Mazda. Then, Michael and I got to visit NASA, so that was a very fun part of the researching stage.
MF: Why was Michael Peña the right actor to bring Jose’s story to the big screen and what was it like for you collaborating with him on this movie?
AMA: Michael is the Mexican American superstar of all times. I think he is other than that, the most amazing, hardworking actor there is. He was such an incredible nerd about this role. He was all into it, and I was impressed how he used to come two weeks before he had a scene and discuss it with me, and he was open to hear whatever I had in mind. So I think we both enjoyed the collaboration a lot. It was a nice time.
MF: Can you talk about Rosa Salazar’s performance as Adela Hernández, and how she really supported José following his dreams?
AMA: When I met the real life Adela, I was shocked. I was impressed because she is a force you can’t imagine. Adela is, I like to say she’s the boosters on Jose. Jose got to leave this planet and go so far because she was behind or by his side making things happen. She had some opinions on the story we were about to tell. So when I was invited to her home, she cooked this really spicy dish and she was letting me know her opinions. So I always remember this anecdote because it was like a mafia kind of, “I’m going to do whatever, Adela. You’re going to be okay in the film, I promise.” Then Rosa, Rosa is like light. When Rosa comes, everything lights up, and I think that happens in the film as well. When she comes into the film, everything is like a hurricane, a revolution, and I just love her sensibility, and her creativity. I think she’s just amazing.
MF: Finally, can you talk about making the NASA sequences as authentic as possible?
AMA: Well, I think the days that we spent in NASA where pivotal. I think we don’t get to see these kind of scenes in astronaut films that much. It’s never about the training, and so we thought it would be interesting to have the new buoyancy lab and the mock-up training building and everything that’s not common in this sort of film and just have it explode in the screen.
The fourth and final season of the popular Prime Video series ‘Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan,’ starring Krasinski, is set to premiere on June 30th.
In honor of the final season of the series, which introduces Michael Peña as Domingo “Ding” Chavez, who could receive a spin-off of his own in the future, Moviefone is counting down the best Jack Ryan movies of all time.
When the president of Russia suddenly dies, a man whose politics are virtually unknown succeeds him. The change in political leaders sparks paranoia among American CIA officials, so CIA director Bill Cabot (Morgan Freeman) recruits a young analyst (Ben Affleck) to supply insight and advice on the situation. Then the unthinkable happens: a nuclear bomb explodes in a U.S. city, and America is quick to blame the Russians.
When a squad of Russian soldiers kills his family in retaliation for his role in a top-secret op, Sr. Chief John Kelly (Michael B. Jordan) pursues the assassins at all costs. Joining forces with a fellow SEAL (Jodie Turner-Smith) and a shadowy CIA agent (Jamie Bell), Kelly’s mission unwittingly exposes a covert plot that threatens to engulf the U.S. and Russia in an all-out war. Torn between personal honor and loyalty to his country, Kelly must fight his enemies without remorse if he hopes to avert disaster and reveal the powerful figures behind the conspiracy.
A new technologically-superior Soviet nuclear sub, the Red October, is heading for the U.S. coast under the command of Captain Marko Ramius (Sean Connery). The American government thinks Ramius is planning to attack. A lone CIA analyst (Alec Baldwin) has a different idea: he thinks Ramius is planning to defect, but he has only a few hours to find him and prove it – because the entire Russian naval and air commands are trying to find him, too. The hunt is on!
