Bring Me the Rakes

Contunuing the sometimes-successful trend of late of movies made from books getting now stretched out to multi-episode prestige miniseries' length -- think Dead Ringers, Presumed Innocent, Ripley et cetera -- we now have a third filmed version of John D. MacDonald's 1957 novel The Executioners coming our way... which we all know better by its adapted title of Cape Fear. Previously there's been the 1962 movie with Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum, and then of course there is Martin Scorsese's 1992 remake with Nick Nolte and Robert De Niro -- and now, landing on June 5th, we have Patrick Wilson and Javier Bardem tackling the roles of the good family man lawyer and the evil criminal who comes back to torment him. Plot twist, though -- in 2026 it's not just one but two prosecutors in the family, and so the wife character (previously played by Polly Bergen and Jessica Lange) is now co-responsible for the bad dude's imprisonment. All the better to give Amy Adams something to do in the role. Here, just watch the trailer:

The excellent news about this series is it's coming to us -- well yes it was executive produced by both Scorsese and one Steven Spielberg. That's sort of a big deal. But the actual person running this show is Nick Antosca, and we LOVE Nick Antosca thanks to a couple of series he ran several years back -- specifically the horror anthology Channel Zero as well as the too-too-short-lived series Brand New Cherry Flavor on Netflix. Channel Zero in particular is my beloved, and cemented Antosca as a person I will follow forever. That said -- hypocrisy alert -- I still haven't gotten around to watching his last project A Friend of the Family starring Jake Lacy. I kept forgetting it existed -- repeat with me my favorite refrain, "There are too many damn shows." 

Anyway. I'm a really over-the-top fan of Scorsese's film Cape Fear -- it's for real a Top 5 Scorsese movie for me, even while he himself isn't really a fan of it. It barely figured into his recent career-retrospective documentary, which irritated me. I adore how operatic and purple it goes -- I find it riveting, with Lange fluttering her hands in every direction madly and De Niro literally chomping chunks out of the scenery. This 2026 version seems to be aping a lot of that film visually -- there are shots taken straight from it in this trailer. I guess we'll see. I know I'll be watching. And I have to say I wouldn't be angry if Bardem's terrifying flirtations landed on Patrick Wilson this time. Just a thought!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Close Enounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Roy Neary: Just close your eyes

and hold your breath

and everything will turn real pretty.

A very happy 79th birthday to the one the only Steven "Stevie" Spielberg! 79's not exactly the world's most interesting number -- although given how exhausting a single year feels these days making it through seven-nine of these bitches is an accomplishment, I'll give him that -- so why am I picking him among the list of celebrity birthdays today to celebrate in particular? Because it gives me an excuse to post the teaser trailer for Disclosure Day, his next movie -- yes this dropped two days ago and surely if you've wanted to watch it by now but since it stars Josh O'Connor AND Colman Domingo I feel as if it needs to have its spot here at MNPP. 

What do we think? I think for one I want to see absolute nothing else about this -- I want to maintain all the rest of the mystery; I wanna go in with all the questions that two minutes of footage posits. I will say that if I had to guess this is a "good" alien movie a la Close Enocounters and E.T. though -- a forceful reclamation of optimism in the face of so much not-optimism in the world right now feels very Spielberg to me, and this movie is based on an "original idea" from Spielberg himself. Thoughts?

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Sandor: You know why women used to get married, don't you?

Alice: Why don't you tell me?

Sandor: It was the only way they could lose their virginity 

and be free to do what they wanted with other men. 

The ones they really wanted.

Alice: Fascinating.

Stanley Kubrick's final masterpiece Eyes Wide Shut (and yes I do consider this Kubrick's own film even if it was finished post-mortem -- on that tip there's a great new interview with the film's editor right here that address this subject) has landed on 4K today thanks to Criterion -- you can grab a copy right here. I've had a copy for a couple of weeks but it doesn't feel right to watch this movie before the holidays so I've been saving it. I think I might actually watch it right on Christmas, or Christmas Eve anyway. I should time it so Nicole Kidman says "Fuck." just at the strike of Midnight! What are y'all's thoughts on this movie? I've been a big fan since Day One personally, but I know it's a controversial one!

Everybody Do the Dinosaur

What, you thought I'd link to my review of the new Jurassic movie with a picture from the movie itself? Hell no! I'm reposting a photo of actor Jonathan Bailey -- see the rest of the shoot here -- because I know what the people want. As cute as he looks in his now branded "slutty little glasses" there's no denying those arms of his. (See also yesterday morning.) And it's kinda sad that the PR campaign for this movie is about to end with it hitting theaters today so let's enjoy this while we got it. Anyway... oh right, my review! Click here to read my Pajiba review of Jurassic World: Rebirth, which is all things considered totally fun. Yes it's a wee bit too cluttered, yes it's too long, and yes its characters do a lot of dumb things to keep the plot moving. I don't care. It's not Jurassic World: Dominion, which was so bad I considered it an assault on me personally, so I left the theater this time around pretty happy and satisfied. Director Gareth Edwards crushes a couple of action scenes, and... did I mention Jonathan Bailey? I really should. Just once. 

Oh come on

[image or embed]

— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) July 1, 2025 at 11:32 AM

Big Things For Our Boy

God's Own Country and Challengers actor Josh O'Connor is set to star in Steven Spielberg's next movie! I had to google it to make sure he wasn't in War Hose because doesn't it feel like he could've been in War Horse? (Full disclosure - I have never seen War Horse. It's one of I think three Spielberg movies I haven't seen.) Anyway this will be Josh's first movie with the biggest man in Hollywood history -- we don't know much about this movie yet except it's a science-fiction "event film" so this will be Spielberg in blockbuster mode. Four other people also joined the cast -- Emily Blunt, Eve Hewson (aka Bono's daughter who co-starred in The Knick!), Colin Firth, and Colman f'ing Domingo! Yes Colman too! Save Colman this is a very British cast though so I am assuming this will be a British-set science0-fiction picture. Wouldn't it be kind of cool if he made a new Day of the Triffids? I love Day of the Triffids. Those killer plants freak me the fuck out. And it's a timely ecological angle. If it gets announced that this is a Day of the Triffids movie I want my flowers dammit cuz I called it!

Come Out Come Out Where Ever You Are

I am one of those weirdos who think that Martin Scorsese's 1991 Cape Fear remake is one of his best movies -- it's so purple and overheated and operatic and Jessica Lange is fluttering her hands all around and Juliette Lewis is biting her braces and I love it, I love it, I just love it. Nevertheless I am excited about today's news that Javier Bardem is going to star in a 10-episode series remake that has been greenlit of the property -- it doesn't hurt that Scorsese himself (with a little nobody named Steven Spielberg) are the producers behind it. But Bardem is a great choice -- assuming he's playing the maniac Max Cady character. I think he'd be wasted as the Nick Nolte in this situation. Not that they shouldn't make that character interesting too. It's just we haven't gotten Javier playing a big villain in awhile, I feel like, at least not that I've seen, and he's so very good at it. No other casting has been announced but the actual show-runner has been and it's also terrific news -- Nick Antosca, the pervert behind the Channel Zero horror anthology series (as well as Brand New Cherry Flavor, also good), will be doing the actual work. I am a huge Channel Zero head. Pretzel Jack! Ahhh just saying his name makes me shudder. One of the great under-sung horror villains of our times. If Antosca can tap into some of this chaotic energy...

Today's Fanboy Delusion

 Today I'd rather be...

... Harrison Ford's whipping boy.

Coincidentally just after I posted this it was announced that Harrison is receiving the Career Achievement Award at this weekend's Critics Choice Awards -- I'm now a voting member of the CCA so I must announce such things! Obviously the man has earned all the honors, and not just for how he commands that whip -- I'm even sadder I won't be there at the awards this weekend now! But as I stated previously I had to choose between that and Sundance and this year it was Sundance. (Speaking of I suppose this is a good changce for me to point out I'll be in Utah starting a week from Thursday so you should expect it to be quiet in here for about a week or so then.) Anyway hit the jump for the CCA press release on Mr. Ford...

13 Bunnies of Halloween #13

While I'm slightly ashamed to give any fresh attention to the movie where John Landis killed three people through an excess of arrogance and negligence, the final two portions of Twilight Zone: The Movie -- the one called "It's a Good Life" directed by Joe Dante which will be the subject of our post today, as well as the fourth and final segment where Mad Max and Babe genius George Miller reworked the infamous "Nightmare at 20,000" feet story -- are too good to live unloved in the world, and are worthy of seeking out.

Dante's in particular brings me great joy -- the man who made the Gremlins movies unleashed on the story of a tyrannical boy with the ability to wish anything into existence with a cast that includes Kathleen Quinlin, Dick Miller, Nancy Cartwright, and the fellow on display in these gifs, the great "best friend of Monty Clift" Kevin McCarthy??? Yes please. Forced to do "a trick" for the boy's captive audience all seems alright at first until...

... all is very much not alright. (Sidenote: I deeply love the smooth arm movement McCarthy does in the above shot -- what a goddamned professional.)  It should be noted that the monster effects in this segment were created by the legend Rob Bottin, who did the monsters in John Carpenter's The Thing -- you can very much see the bridge between those abominations and the Looney Tunes cartoons Dante is referencing throughout this segment -- that rabbit in the hat looks exactly like what would have happened if Bugs Bunny had been taken over by the defrosted alien parasite.

I have heard a lot of people my age had nightmares about this segment and the monster rabbit in particular, but I don't remember seeing this as a kid and if I did I apparently wasn't bothered by it. Man what a hard ass I was. Anyway this thirteenth bunny rabbit is my gift to you, here on Halloween! Check out all the "13 Bunnies of Halloween" right here -- now back into the hat with them until whatever nonsense I decide to count down in 2024...

Back To Boyd

Lots of Boyd Holbrook popping up this week unexpectedly -- I re-watched both Gone Girl and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny over the past two nights (I'd totally forgotten he was in Gone Girl at all) -- and along with the fact that it's his birthday tomorrow, well why not let him have tops-of-the-blog honors before I head off for a long weekend? And somehow these two vintage photos of Boyd from his pre-acting modeling days didn't make it into the enormous gratuitous post I did of him back in 2015. (I go back to that post so often -- it soothes me.) Anyway yup, it's a four day weekend. I am off until Tuesday and there are zero movies out this weekend worth talking about so I got nothing to recommend. I'm going to spend it catching up on the quite terrifyingly large piles of blu-rays I have been buying, and going to see a couple of movies at the "Bigger & Louder" series at the Paris here in NYC, which just revamped their system. I am seeing Playtime in 70mm tomorrow, holy shit! Anyway this weekend is just the quiet before the storm of fall movie releases -- NYFF will be swallowing me up by the end of September -- so I'm going to enjoy this breath whilst I can take it. Y'all have a good one and see you in September! (And as always if you see something good, say something in the comments.)

Upper West Side Story

I am admittedly going into Bradley Cooper's Leonard Bernstein bio-pic Maestro with a chip on my shoulder due to my annoyance that Cooper bolted out in front and ruined our chance of getting to see a Leonard Bernstein bio-pic directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Jake Gyllenhaal -- actual Jews making a movie about a famous Jew, imagine that. (That big fake nose that Cooper is rocking remains A LOT to expect us to deal with.) That said the teaser trailer released today certainly makes the film look beautiful, and my feelings about Carey Mulligan -- playing Bernstein's wife, who had to put up with his gay infidelities -- reach to the Moon and back, so... I dunno. We'll see at Thanksgiving when the movie's out. You watch...



... and you tell me what you think in the comments. If it's good there's probably no way Cooper doesn't finally win that Oscar he's been pleading for for years (and no, I don't think he's overdue, as his Star is Born movie was and remains trash.) The fact that he might beat a openly gay man playing a gay man (Colman Domingo for the Bayard Rustin biopic) by playing a gay man while he is presumably straight? Don't get me started. 

So What's Your Destiny

Let it be known that I went into Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny with exceedingly low expectations -- the second that James Mangold was announced as director all my hopes melted away like that one Nazi's face at the end of Raiders. I found Logan vastly overrated and was nearly bored to literal death by Ford v Ferrari, and so I figured this was gonna be a disaster. And yet here we are -- I actually thought Dial of Destiny was pretty fun! Click here to read my review at Pajiba where I get into it. It's got some issues but it's better than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull -- Ford is wonderful (of course he was) and I love love loved Phoebe Waller-Bridge in it. I also loved the go-for-broke ending, and there's a really weird scene where Antonio Banderas shows up with a boat full of shirtless muscle-bound sailor-men that is totally gratuitous aka made for me. And made for any of you reading this, I'd wager! PS in related news if you missed it earlier today I ranked Harrison Ford's hotness at Mashable, which you might also appreciate. 

The Hottest Harrison Ford of All

This is a subject I have broached here at MNPP before, but with the new Indiana Jones movie out in theaters this weekend (more on that soon) I was gifted the chance to take this mighty important conversation onto a larger platform -- click over to Mashable to read my investigation on "What was Harrison Ford his hottest?" Very important stuff y'all!

We Named the Dog Indiana

Okay baby -- tonight's Indy 5 night! Spin that dastardly Dial of Destiny because this is really happening. Whatever the hell a "dial of destiny" is. I guess I will know tonight. And I'm not sure if I am excited, terrified, indifferent -- we'll see what the movie delivers and decide then. Which is the way it should be, I suppose -- I just wish I could go in anticipating more. I tried to re-watch Kingdom of the Crystal Skull a few weeks ago and, uhh, didn't make it too far. I think I have tried to re-watch that movie like four times since its release and I never make it all the way through? I definitely haven't seen the ending with the spinning alien nonsense since the first watch, even though that shit's burned into my brain. And not in a good way. Anyway stay tuned for my opinion next week, I will be reviewing this one. I'll be off for the rest of the week for Tribeca stuff -- more reviews will be appearing soon enough! Until then have a good weekend...

The Gang Goes Gobble Gobble

There is very nearly too much out this week for me to even keep a handle on, but lemme try real quick, before I take off for the evening. I always say before a holiday that I might pop back on here to update things and then never do -- of course now that I have said I never do I probably will because there's nothing I love better than proving myself foolish. Well that's not entirely true -- I also really love being lazy. So it's a battle between those two to see which wins out!

Anyway -- lotsa movies is my point! Many of which I have already reviewed or will have reviews going up for sometime this week. But let's start with a movie that falls into neither of those categories -- Rian Johnson's Knives Out sequel Glass Onion, which I saw last night (see down at the bottom of this post for some video of Johnson and a choice friend introducing the movie) but which I have no plans to review. It's hitting some theaters this week and y'all should go, it's fun. I'm not these movies most enthusiastic fan but they're fun enough. I thought the endless cameos in this one were a little much, but I am after all joyless and dead inside so your mileage will probably vary.

Seeing Jack O’Connell’s cock at this point is like having an old friend pop by for a spot of tea

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) October 29, 2022

Oh and another movie out this week that I have seen but don't plan on reviewing is the new Lady Chatterly's Lover with Jack O'Connell -- even though I'm not writing about it doesn't mean it's bad, though. I liked it well enough. And not just because what I tweeted above. Although, you know, that never hurts. Literally never.

As for movies that I have already reviewed that are hitting theaters this week -- most importantly there is Luca Guadagnino's cannibal romance Bones and All, obviously. Here is my review of that. I think it's awesomely good and think you should see it. It got some Indie Spirit nominations today which surprised me -- I really think the film will be too weird for awards. But good for the Spirits. (Also I might have a piece coming on this exact subject hitting some time soon as well.) And then also out this week -- although only here in NYC, I think -- is Noah Baumbach's White Noise, which I reviewed right here. It's also terrific! Greta Gerwig, baby! They dropped a trailer today, too:



As for movies that I have reviews posting later this week -- keep your eyes trained on Pajiba for my takes on the films Devotion with Jonathan Majors and Glen Powell, as well as Steven Spielberg's autobiographical fable called The Fabelmans. Maybe I will pop back in here and share those links this week when the links arrive... maybe not. It's the most exciting thing that will happen all week, this guessing game! Make sure you hold your breath! Even when you're eating mashed potatoes. Especially when eating your mashed potatoes. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! (And don't forget to use MNPP's Amazon link to do your holiday shopping with!)

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Which is Hotter?

Although they're still withholding the title of the film from us (boo!) Empire magazine has the first information on the fifth Indiana Jones movie -- the first that wasn't directed by Steven Spielberg it should be noted, which gives me pause, especially since I'm no fan of director James Mangold. But I suppose there's plenty of time before it's out next June, and the movie does have an absolutely stacked and killer cast -- Antonio Banderas, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Toby Jones, Thomas Kretschmann, and the villainous two-some of Mads Mikkelsen and Boyd Holbrook, the latter of whom describes his character as, "a lapdog to Mads, and a crazy one at that." Now raise your hand if you wanna see Mads and Boyd dom-sub it up hardcore! Which brings me to my main question...

online polls

13 Toilets of Halloween #4

Does anyone else think of Michael Myers when the T-Rex

does that little head-tilt in the first Jurassic Park movie? 

I always do, but then I'm weird. So I feel as if I should ask. Anyway I wouldn't put it past the animators and technicians who brought the T-Rex to life to have done that on purpose -- that movie is filled with so much character when it comes to all of the animals (the impatient claw-tapping velociraptor!) that they all feel all the realer. 

Of course now, much like Michael Myers' head-tilt, they feel the need to do the same damned things every time -- they had one of the raptors tapping its toe in the latest Jurassic World abortion and all I could do is groan. We don't need you to copy things, we need you to make new interesting choices dammit! I digress -- we're here to talk about that lawyer getting eaten by that Tyrannosaur on that toilet!

But then because of course I have I have already done this scene as one of my "Ways Not To Die" posts (and I did it like fourteen years ago -- good grief I have been blogging this site for-literal-ever) so maybe you should check that out. I do find it crazy how on the eve of this film's 30th anniversary the special-effects still look perfect though -- everything having to do with the T-Rex in the first film looks better than literally anything that came after it in any of the other Jurassic movies. It's astonishing. In related news there's a massive new book about Phil Tippett, the special-effects legend behind the Jurassic dinos and the Starship Trooper bugs and the Robocops and the Star Wars, that's coming out in November -- I have already pre-ordered my copy! You should too! Or else...

And click here for all of the "Toilets of Halloween" so far!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Synecdoche New York (2008)

Claire: Knowing that you don't know is the first

and most essential step to knowing, you know?

(This movie is getting a 4K release in November, whoo!)
A very happy 42 to the great Michelle Williams today!

I ask this question knowing very few people have seen

the movie yet (it screens this weekend at TIFF)
but do we think she might finally win an Oscar for
her role as "Sorta Spielberg's Mom" in The Fabelmans?

Speaking of here's the poster they just dropped this week:

Chomp Goes The Bronto

(pic via) So as detailed briefly on Monday (and several hundred other times over these many years) I fancy myself a Jurassic Park nerd from way back. Saw the original several gajillion times, et cetera et cetera. That said I've been exceptionally depressed and defeated by the most recently trilogy of World movies, and I am sad to report that that remains the case with the new movie, original trio of actors be darned -- click on over to Pajiba to read my exceptionally unhappy thoughts about Jurassic World Dominion, which hits theaters tomorrow. Oh well! We'll always have the first movie. And I suppose it could have been worse -- I could have been literally murdered by a Tyrannosaur Rex! There is that.

Mamoudou Athie Three Times

My review of the new Jurassic World movie will be up at Pajiba in a little bit and I will link to it then, but before that hits do take a moment to appreciate these photos (via) of one of the cast's new additions, actor Mamoudou Athie, who I hope people will be walking out of the film with a crush on -- dude is so frigging adorable. I'm not sure when he first registered for me -- maybe in his role opposite Kristen Stewart in the criminally underrated horror flick Underwater? I never watched The Get Down, the Netflix show he was on, but he had definitely registered by the time of his other Netflix series Archive 81 -- RIP Archive 81! -- because I posted photos of him during the time I was bingeing that series. Anyway he looks super cute in the new Jurassic movie and I hope we continue seeing much more of Mr. Athie!

The Birthday Beggar-saurus

Yes that is a photo of a fifteen-year-old me (and my cousin) in the year 1993 at Universal Studios Orlando being happily terrorized by Jurassic Park's Tyrannosaur Rex -- I hadn't even seen the movie yet at that point but it was all I cared about, and once it came out a few weeks later I went and saw it ten times in the theater that summer (which remained my personal record until Call Me By Your Name came out). Anyway I post it because that hibernating dino-nerd woke up in my belly something hard this morning when I realized I am seeing the new Jurassic movie tonight -- Jurassic World: Dominion hits theaters this weekend and you can watch the trailer here and you can expect my review in a couple of days. Until this morning I had low expectations, but that dino-nerd in my belly is making me super excited anyway! If nothing else...

... it'll be a treat seeing Laura Dern and Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum all reunited for the first time since the original movie. I'm really hoping that Dern side-eyes Chris Pratt right off a cliff, I am! 

But wait! Jurassic Park nonsense is not the only reason I'm posting right now -- speaking of looking backwards in the rearview mirror that says "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear" or whatever, I realized over the weekend that I forgot to mark MNPP's birthday last week! I started blogging this site on June 2nd 2005, meaning we just turned seventeen! We're like that Janis Ian song now! Weird to think I have been blogging here longer than I had been alive in that top photo? Ergh best not fall down that wormhole. Anyway thanks to everybody for reading! And as I do every blog birthday I'll now put on my lil' beggar's cap and say -- hey, if you enjoy what I do here, why not toss us a penny or two? 

You can donate right here. Or in

the right-hand column there is a link too.

Thanks y'all!