Steve Pond's Blog, page 51

Dan Tana, Owner of Celebrated LA Restaurant, Dies at 90

Dan Tana, the actor who opened the iconic Dan Tana restaurant in 1964, has died. He was 90.

The news was announced by the restaurant’s social media team on Facebook.

“The great Dan Tana has passed on. We all know that he created a very magical place. Our beloved little yellow house will forever feel his presence,” a statement shared on the platform began.

“Dan started out working for La Scala and The Villa Capri in the 1950s. It was working for those classic eateries that encouraged him to open his own! And he did just that. He was always proud of where he came from and what he accomplished, a former soccer star from Yugoslavia.”

“Dan had wonderful stories about Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio, James Dean, Frank Sinatra, and Sammy Davis. In fact Robert Urich’s character was named after Dan Tana on the classic TV show, ‘Vega$.'”

“Today Dan Tana’s is owned by his dear friend Sonja Perencevic who’s kept it exactly the same since 1964,” the statement concluded. “This man is a legend, and as you know a legend never dies.”

Tana’s cinematic career kicked off with 1957’s “The Enemy Below.” He also had roles in “The Untouchables,” “Rin Tin Tin” and “Peter Gunn.”

Tana was born Dobrivoje Tanasijević in Čibutkovica, Danube Banovina, then a province of the Kingdom of Yugoslaviaon, on May 26, 1935. He initially pursued athletics and even played professional soccer in Canada before moving to Hollywood, where he began taking acting lessons.

Tana changed his name to make it more palatable to American audiences and landed the role in “The Enemy Below.” He began working in restaurants, first as a dishwasher at Patsy D’Amore’s Villa Capri in Hollywood, to supplement his income.

He took over a hamburger stand in 1964 and refashioned it into an Italian restaurant. The Los Angeles Times reviewed the restaurant and helped put it on the map; by the ’80s, the Times wrote the establishment was “the restaurant of choice” for anyone who wanted to be “seen in All The Right Places.”

Tana never lost his interest in soccer, and simultaneously became manager of the Los Angeles Toros in the 1960s, chaired an English team, and operated several soccer clubs throughout Belgrade.

He sold the restaurant to Sonja Perenčević in 2009 and moved to Serbia. In 2014 he told the Hollywood Reporter Perenčević had made good on her pledge to keep the restaurant exactly the same, and perhaps most importantly, “We are still serving my original customers — and their children and grandchildren.”

The post Dan Tana, Owner of Celebrated LA Restaurant, Dies at 90 appeared first on TheWrap.

Gal Gadot Says She Left ‘Entourage’ Set Because Someone Behaved Inappropriately, ‘Hated’ the Experience

Gal Gadot appeared on one episode of “Entourage” during the show’s first season — and she doesn’t look back on the experience fondly. While speaking to a group of amateur reporters this week, Gadot said she “hated” being on the show.

“What I hated and didn’t enjoy at all was being on ‘Entourage,’ an American series,” she explained. “Someone there behaved inappropriately, it got to the point where I left the set and stopped working with them.”

She did not elaborate on the experience, or about whom she was talking specifically. Gadot was later asked about her own acting skills, which she described as “OK.” As she put it, “If you cast me, you cast me well. My greatest strength is that I’m not afraid to work and I don’t let things stop me.”

Though her role in the series was short-lived, director Doug Ellin told Entertainment Weekly in 2018 that it was apparent Gadot would have a successful career.

“I remember when Gal came in, it was a small little role but everyone said, ‘This girl is gonna be something big,’ so it is cool to see,” he said.

Elsewhere in the conversation, Gadot admitted navigating the controversies that surrounded the release of “Snow White” this year was challenging. Her costar Rachel Zegler came under fire in 2024 after posting the words “and always remember, free palestine” on X after thanking her fans for their support for the “Snow White” trailer. Gadot served in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) from 2004-2009.

Though both Gadot and Zegler put their best foot forward ahead of the film’s release, the movie’s box office performance was impacted.

“You can always explain and try to give people in the world a context about what’s happening [in Israel] and what the reality is here, but in the end people decide for themselves,” Gadot said. “I was disappointed that the movie was greatly affected by that and didn’t do well at the box office.”

The post Gal Gadot Says She Left ‘Entourage’ Set Because Someone Behaved Inappropriately, ‘Hated’ the Experience appeared first on TheWrap.

David Geffen Responds to Ex-Husband’s ‘Ludicrous and Contrived’ Lawsuit: ‘Petty Gossip and Salacious Lies’

David Geffen fired back at his ex-husband’s breach-of-contract lawsuit, calling Donovan Michaels’ claims a “work of fiction” designed to embarrass him and extract a payout he neither needs nor deserves.

The 82-year-old entertainment mogul filed his response Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, where Michaels – aka David Armstrong – sued last month. The two married in 2023 and Geffen filed for divorce earlier this year.

The 32-year-old Michaels alleged that his much-older ex ensnared him in a years-long web of exploitation after shopping for a “vulnerable” partner online, then “masquerading as a white knight while hiding behind wealth, philanthropy and fame.” The couple reportedly did not have a prenuptial agreement.

Also filed in Superior Court, Michaels’ lawsuit says he was a “young vulnerable black man, orphaned as a toddler” who wound up in foster care at 18 months old. It says the couple met via the website Seekingarrangements.com, where Geffen “learned of Michaels’ troubled past — his history of neglect, poverty, instability and legal entanglements,” and leveraged that to make him “an object of exploitation … whose trauma could be weaponized for Geffen’s personal gratification and public image.”

In their response, Geffen’s attorneys at Glaser Weil described Armstrong’s complaint as “ludicrous and contrived,” accusing him of attempting to wage a public relations campaign while seeking a large settlement.

“Plaintiff cannot embarrass Geffen and extort a settlement with petty gossip and salacious lies,” according to the filing obtained Saturday by TheWrap.

Armstrong, a former model and adult film actor, alleges Geffen promised him lifelong financial support and shared ownership of assets during their time together. Geffen denies making any such promises, noting that his estate plan and financial records contain no evidence of agreements to provide Armstrong with property or ongoing support.

The defense paints Armstrong as a reckless spender who abused Geffen’s generosity during their two-year marriage. According to the filing, Armstrong used assistants to charge hundreds of thousands of dollars to Geffen’s accounts for luxury clothing, elective cosmetic procedures and extravagant gifts for friends. In the final months of the marriage, Geffen claims Armstrong also spent heavily on OnlyFans subscriptions and male escorts.

Geffen’s lawyers argue Armstrong misrepresented his behavior throughout their relationship, hiding extensive drug use and multiple extramarital affairs. The filing contends that while Geffen helped pay for Armstrong’s rehab and counseling, Armstrong’s drug use — including cocaine and ketamine — persisted.

“Geffen loved Plaintiff and treated him with nothing but kindness, respect, and generosity throughout their relationship,” the filing reads. Staff and friends, it adds, described Geffen as treating Armstrong “like a king.”

The defense also highlights that Armstrong continues to live rent-free in one of Geffen’s New York apartments and receives voluntary monthly payments, contradicting allegations that Geffen abandoned him and left him homeless and destitute.

The filing requests that Armstrong’s complaint be dismissed with prejudice and that Geffen be awarded legal fees. It also includes a demand for a jury trial, no date for which has been set.

The post David Geffen Responds to Ex-Husband’s ‘Ludicrous and Contrived’ Lawsuit: ‘Petty Gossip and Salacious Lies’ appeared first on TheWrap.

Catherine Zeta-Jones Says Husband Michael Douglas’ So-Called Retirement Is ‘Flexible’: ‘Never Say Never’

Michael Douglas might have announced his retirement earlier this year, but his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones isn’t so sure. As she put it in an interview with The Times published Saturday, “‘retirement’ is a flexible concept.”

Zeta-Jones elaborated, “Michael has definitely earned the chance to slow down. But I never say never. He’s his father’s son and loves to work.”

While speaking to attendees at the Karlovy Vary Intentional Film Festival in July, Douglas said, “I have no real intention of going back. I say I’m not retired, because [if] something special came up, I’d go back. But otherwise, I’m quite happy to watch my wife work.”

Zeta-Jones is certainly working. The actress is currently starring in the second season of “Wednesday” alongside Jenna Ortega.

“When we first met I didn’t know who she was. It took me one moment on set to work out who she was going to be. It was very clear that she was a phenomenon,” she said of her young costar. “I mean, forget the show, just her as a young woman, as an actress, the way she is. She has a smart head on her shoulders.”

The opportunity to engage with a story about the Addams family under the wing of Tim Burton was too good to pass up, she added.

“Tim really wanted to incorporate the family into the show,” Zeta-Jones said. “I got to bend into the comedy and the emotion, the vulnerability. Morticia is like all of us. We’re strong, but we’re vulnerable.”

Read the interview with Catherine Zeta-Jones at The Times.

The post Catherine Zeta-Jones Says Husband Michael Douglas’ So-Called Retirement Is ‘Flexible’: ‘Never Say Never’ appeared first on TheWrap.

State Department Papers Found on Alaska Hotel Printer Include Sensitive Details of Trump’s Summit With Putin

Papers detailing President Donald Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, including meeting rooms, seating arrangements and the menu for a lunch that was canceled were discovered on the printer at a hotel in Anchorage where the two leaders met, according to several Saturday media reports.

The eight pages, prepared by U.S. staff and left behind in the business center at Hotel Captain Cook, bore U.S. State Department markings and were later found by three guests who declined to be identified, NPR reported.

The papers included precise meeting times and locations for the Friday summit inside Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, as well as phone numbers for American government employees, according to the reports. Three hotel guests found the documents around 9 a.m. and took photos later reviewed by NPR.

The first page outlined the sequence of meetings, including the specific rooms where they were to take place, and noted Trump’s plan to present Putin with an “American Bald Eagle Desk Statue.”

White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly on Saturday dismissed the documents as a “multi-page lunch menu” and said their discovery did not constitute a security breach. The State Department declined to comment.

Other pages contained the names and phone numbers of three U.S. staff members, as well as 13 U.S. and Russian officials, along with phonetic guides for Russian names.

The documents also described a luncheon “in honor of his excellency Vladimir Putin,” thought he lunch was ultimately canceled. The papers included a seating chart that placed Putin across from Trump, who was to be flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles on one side; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Special Envoy for Peace Missions Steve Witkoff were seated on the other.

Putin was to sit alongside Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov. The menu called for a green salad, filet mignon and halibut olympia, with crème brûlée for dessert.

Jon Michaels, a UCLA law professor who specializes in national security, told NPR the discovery illustrated a lapse in judgment by administration officials.

“It strikes me as further evidence of the sloppiness and incompetence of the administration,” Michaels said. “You just don’t leave things in printers. It’s that simple.”

Earlier in the week, a law enforcement group chat that included members of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement mistakenly added a random participant to a discussion of an ongoing manhunt. In March, national security officials inadvertently included a journalist in a group chat about pending military strikes in Yemen.

The post State Department Papers Found on Alaska Hotel Printer Include Sensitive Details of Trump’s Summit With Putin appeared first on TheWrap.

Ronnie Rondell Jr., Hollywood Stuntman Set Ablaze for Pink Floyd’s ‘Wish You Were Here’ Album Cover, Dies at 88

Ronald “Ronnie” Rondell Jr., the Hollywood stuntman who was set on fire while shaking hands for the cover of Pink Floyd’s 1975 album “Wish You Were Here,” died Tuesday, August 12. He was 88.

Rondell’s death was announced by his family.

Rondell grew up in Hollywood, and his father worked as an extra and then an assistant director on “The Jack Benny Show” and “Around the World in 80 Days.” Rondell’s own career also included performing stunts in “The Matrix Reloaded” and “Twister.”

He’d been “doing a lot of fire work” when he was hired for the cover shoot, Rondell said in the 2012 documentary “Pink Floyd: The Story of Wish You Were Here,” and he “had the special suits and all this stuff for fully enveloped fire.”

The shoot itself was straightforward, he added. “But a partial is basically pretty safe, pretty easy one to do, in most cases.”

Having said that, Rondell, who wore a fire-retardant layer underneath his business suit, ended up losing half his mustache. “There’s a funny thing about fire,” he said. “When it gets in your face, you’re going to move.”

Ultimately, the shoot was just another day in the life of a stunt performer.

“It was pretty easy to do, not too life threatening, and paid well,” Rondell concluded.

He spent several years working as a stuntman and also as a stunt coordinator and a director before starting his own company, Stunts Unlimited, in 1970.

“Our hearts are heavy with the loss of the last of Stunts Unlimited’s 3 esteemed founding fathers, Ronnie Rondell,” the company wrote in a message shared on Facebook.

“In a class all his own, Ronnie was a generous mentor whose talents set the bar for every aspiring stunt person. He was deeply respected, admired and loved. Ronnie was not just a legend, he was legendary and will be deeply missed.”

“The family requests that we all respect their privacy at this time and hold off on phone calls or posts until they are able to share details for honoring his life and legacy. – RA Rondell and Family,” the message concluded.

He is survived by his wife Mary Rondell, his son R.A. Rondell; his grandchildren Brandon Rondell, Rachel Rondell, and Dalton Rondell, his great-grandchild Rocco Rondell, and his brother Ric Rondell.

The post Ronnie Rondell Jr., Hollywood Stuntman Set Ablaze for Pink Floyd’s ‘Wish You Were Here’ Album Cover, Dies at 88 appeared first on TheWrap.

7 Creepy, Kooky Shows Like ‘Wednesday’ to Watch While You Wait for Part 2

“Wednesday” has a very specific vibe, but there are a handful of shows that could scratch the same itch while waiting for the second half of Season 2 to drop.

“The Addams Family” spinoff series blends the classic teen coming-of-age tale with supernatural madness, murder and a bit of oddball humor. That can be a hard combination to duplicate but a pair of shows from horror maestro Mike Flanagan, an adaptation from a comic by Stephen King’s son, and the original teen supernatural coming-of-age series can get the job done.

Below are the shows to check out to pass the time while waiting for “Wednesday” Season 2 Part 2.

Carla Gugino in “The Haunting of Hill House” (Netflix)The Haunting of Hill House

Mike Flanagan’s first horror series for Netflix also shot him into a new level of recognition. “The Haunting of Hill House” – adapting Shirley Jackson’s novel – tells the bleak story of a family ruined by their short time in a new home they moved into.

The story serves as a puzzle with it taking place across two time periods – in the past when the family moved to the house, and in the present with everyone scattered to the wind and picking up the pieces years after living through what happened – and asked viewers to figure out what was true among a variety of unreliable narrators. “Hill House’s” exploration into grief and how different individuals process their trauma differently hits much harder than it had any right to.

“The Midnight Club” (Netflix)The Midnight Club

Mike Flanagan has become a near-household name in the horror genre and his first foray into teen horror may scratch the “Wednesday” itch if his series “The Haunting of Hill House” is a bit too intense. The series takes place at a mysterious manor that serves as a hospice home for terminally ill kids. The titular club consists of eight kids who meet each night to tell horror stories and grapple with their mortality.

“The Umbrella Academy” Season 4 (Credit: Christos Kalohoridis/Netflix)The Umbrella Academy

Few Netflix shows have nailed the misfits banding together to save the world trope better than “The Umbrella Academy.” The series follows a group of has-been heroes that grew up fighting crime with an assortment of powers, only to become estranged until a death in their found family brings them back together. What follows is four seasons of bats–t storytelling that works more often than it doesn’t.

Sarah Michelle Gellar on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (CREDIT: UPN)Buffy the Vampire Slayer

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” stars Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy – the next in a long line of Slayers tasked with protecting humanity from all manner of supernatural entities, be they vampires or others. Juggling that, she also has to deal with high school (and later, adult) woes. The show was ahead of the curve in many of the topics and themes it explored, and it changed how TV stories were told with its masterful blend of episodic and serialized storytelling. With a new revamp around the corner, there is no better time to check out the original.

Harvey Guillén as Guillermo, Mark Proksch as Colin Robinson, Natasia Demetriou as Nadja, Matt Berry as Laszlo, Kayvan Novak as Nandor in “What We Do in the Shadows” cast in Season 6 (Photo Credit: Russ Martin/FX)What We Do In The Shadows

Go all in on outcast and misfit humor with FX’s hit “What We Do In The Shadows.” The show chronicles the misadventures of a handful of vampires just trying to get through their day living in the modern world. The series hails from Taika Waititi so expect his brand of humor when you settle in and enjoy one of the funniest shows to drop in the last decade.

Kiernan Shipka and Chance Perdomo in “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.” (Diyah Pera/Netflix)The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Like “Wednesday,” “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” is a dark coming-of- age story that follows Archie Comics character Sabrina the Teenage Witch as she comes to terms with being both part witch and part mortal. The theme of outcasts is strong in “Wednesday” and Sabrina and her friends would likely fit right in at Nevermore Academy.

Locke and Key

Another teen coming-of-age story with a supernatural twist, “Locke and Key” adapts a graphic novel by Joe Hill – the oldest son of Stephen King. After their father dies, a mother and three children move to his family home, which is much more than meets the eye. Magical and reality-bending keys liter the property and start finding their way into each of their hands. What follows is classic good vs. evil as the family fights to keep the keys from forces that would use them for the wrong reasons.

The post 7 Creepy, Kooky Shows Like ‘Wednesday’ to Watch While You Wait for Part 2 appeared first on TheWrap.

Wendell Pierce Shuts Down Idea of Remaking ‘The Wire’

Despite the pleas from some fans, “The Wire” doesn’t need to be remade or rebooted, star Wendell Pierce told Collider at the premiere of “Superman” in July. As he put it, “‘The Wire’ is something that is classic.”

Pierce continued, “What makes it classic [is] it speaks to, it spoke to the audience then, it speaks to us now, it will speak to audiences long after it’s over.”

The series, which debuted on HBO in June 2002, was great because of “the cautionary tale that it was, the fact that it lets people know there’s an ugly side of human nature,” he added.

Those themes remain relevant today, Pierce added. “We’re seeing that demonstrated today. I mean, as we stand here on wonderful beautiful Hollywood Boulevard, they have American secret police who raided MacArthur Park today with guns drawn on citizens for no reason.”

The series was especially “poignant,” he added, because it prompted viewers to grapple with a key question: “What kind of society do we want to be part of?”

Pierce’s words echoed those of Michael B. Jordan, who appeared in all 12 episodes of the show’s first season in 2002. While promoting “Sinners” this year, Jordan said of the series, “I would love to see that just remain, you know, without a reboot, without a recast, any of that stuff. Just leave it. Leave it where it is. I mean, maybe I’m biased because I’m a part of it, you know what I’m saying. I don’t want to see ‘The Wire’ rebooted at all.”

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‘Gutfeld!’ Laughs Off GOP Rep.’s ‘Interdimensional Beings’ Claim on Joe Rogan: ‘Unconvincing’ | Video

The “Gutfeld!” gang had a good laugh at Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s claims on a recent episode of Joe Rogan’s podcast that she’s seen evidence of “energy things,” or aliens, or UFOs, or “interdimensional beings.” Whatever we’re calling them these days, the Fox News late-night show still isn’t buying it.

Luna brought up the topic on Wednesday’s “The Joe Rogan Experience,” a clip from which “Gutfeld!” played Friday night:

“They call them interdimensional beings,” Luna said. “Very credible people have reported that there have been a movement outside time and space. Have I seen a portal? No. Have I seen a spaceship personally? No. Have I seen evidence of this? Yes. Have I seen photo documentation of aircraft that I believe were not made by mankind? Yes.”

Namesake host Greg Gutfeld took the first swing.

“Finally!,” he said. “There you have it! Proof. Proof that maybe somebody was told something from somebody who saw something that might be something from another dimension or something!”

Judging by the audience laughter, they weren’t convinced, either.

“We do have an expert here, Harland [Williams, the comedian who starred in the 1997 film “Rocket Man”], you were an astronaut in the film where you went to Mars … Harland, do you get the feeling they have nothing they just like teasing us?”

Williams noted that we’re told extraterrestrial beings are “way more smart, more intelligent than us,” but still come to Earth and do … crop circles.

“It’s like, we’re smarter than everybody, let’s go to Earth and do donuts in the corn,” Williams joked.

Fellow panelist Michele Tafoya noted that she’s watched “Ancient Aliens” on the History Channel – which can make you think, “maybe.”

“And are we really the only intelligent life out there?,” she said. “I don’t know. But Anna Paulina Luna is not the representative who makes me convinced.”

Williams joked that he’s witnessed “this time and space kind of thing” when he flies on American Airlines: “I get to the terminal and my flight it seems to shift about five hours.”

Gutfeld made the analogy that the UFO issue which “is like a bad boyfriend who strings you a long and offers you nothing forever. But when he called you for a booty call you always answer. Like the issue he is always there but never follows through,” calling them “recreational beliefs.”

For her part, regular panelist Kat Timpf said that full disclosure should be offered to anyone on their deathbed.

“When you are about to die they should let you see whatever documents you want to see,” she said. “You know how there is like last rites? There should be some sort of portal you can log into at the hospital, were pretty much everybody dies, and you can login and see what you want to see.”

Watch the entire exchange in the video above.

The post ‘Gutfeld!’ Laughs Off GOP Rep.’s ‘Interdimensional Beings’ Claim on Joe Rogan: ‘Unconvincing’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

The 7 Best New Movies on Hulu Right Now

Whether you’re looking for a teen comedy, action epic or bloody horror fest, Hulu has something for everyone in August. The streaming service added a number of hit movies and series to its library this month, including an all-time classic rom com and one of 2025’s best horror movies.

Here are the seven best new movies on Hulu in August.

Disney“10 Things I Hate About You”

only Adapting William Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” in a 1990s schoolyard setting, the Julia Stiles/Heath Ledger-starring “10 Things I Hate About You” is a gold standard for teenage rom coms. Only four years in the wake of “Clueless” — a megahit modern-day update of Jane Austen’s “Emma” — it would be easy for a movie like this to feel like derivative old news.

Yet the film carries an infectious energy from moment one, mixing bursts of Shakespeare-like language with more modern parlance (“The mewling, rampalian wretch herself. Stay cool, bro” comes to mind). From director Gil Junger and writers Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, “10 Things I Hate About You” holds up 26 years later as a thoroughly enjoyable and well-crafted teen movie that frequently feels like lightning in a bottle.

“District 9”

“District 9” being a feature directorial debut feels impossible. Former VFX artist Neill Blomkamp smashed onto the scene in 2009 with his science fiction phenomenon, a much longer adaptation of his own six-minute short film “Alive in Joburg.” Blomkamp expands upon the already interesting ideas presented in this short, fleshing them out into a full-length feature unencumbered by the same temporal or monetary limitations. The documentary techniques and cinema verite style employed by Blomkamp and cinematographer Trent Opaloch further immerses viewers in the world of “District 9,” one that feels fully realized wherever the extraterrestrial Prawns are concerned.

Lionsgate“John Wick: Chapter 4”

Every movie in the “John Wick” series (sans “Ballerina”) joined Hulu on Aug. 15, allowing fans to stream one of the defining action stories of the 21st century. Each of the films, starring Keanu Reeves as the titular Boogeyman-like assassin, carry their weight, showing a franchise evolution from a nearly straight-to-DVD revenge story to a sprawling, set piece-heavy epic of a finale (for now). You won’t make a mistake by queuing up any of these movies.

But “John Wick: Chapter 4” stands far ahead of the rest of the pack. The film boasts some of the finest action sequences of all time, playing up the physical comedy found across the franchise (the last act in particular plays like a bloody, hour-long dance). Chad Stahelski fine tunes every already admirable aspect of the series to create a stunning conclusion, one where Reeves delivers his best performance as the character to date. A brief scene involving John Wick in a church is one of the actor’s finest moments.

“John Wick: Chapter 4” widens the aperture in an already sprawling underworld, introducing a new cast of characters that feels both enormous and focused. One of the film’s strongest aspects is the introduction of Donnie Yen as Caine, a blind assassin and friend of Wick’s who is sent to kill his former ally. Caine provides a strong foil to Wick, someone who has yet to escape the underworld and struggles to avoid the death of a loved one — essentially, he’s playing a version of John from before the franchise started. In this dichotomy, Stahelski and writers Shay Hatten and Michael Finch find a way to layer a compelling narrative about friendship and loyalty without sacrificing a beat in their massive action epic.

“The Monkey” (Neon)“The Monkey”

Less than a year after the release of “Longlegs,” Osgood Perkins followed his dark and dreary serial killer film with a horror movie with a strikingly more comic tone. “The Monkey” adapts Stephen King’s short story of the same name about a wind-up primate whose cymbals clash as a warning of impending doom (in Perkins’ movie, copyright issues caused the monkey to become a drummer instead). Perkins and star actor Theo James, who plays twin brothers in the film, steer hard into the silliness and absurdity of the story while playing it entirely straight.

What results is an uproarious horror flick both handsomely directed and frequently hilarious. With each progressive death, the gimmick of the monkey only gets funnier, with James’ dual characters treating the wind-up simian as death incarnate. It’s a film both gory and goofy, boasting the same craft as “Longlegs” while seeing Perkins operate in a different register. 2025 is packed with King adaptations, and “The Monkey” started them off on the right paw.

“Pretty Woman”

In August, Hulu added Garry Marshall’s romantic comedy “Pretty Woman,” starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts. Roberts received a much-deserved Oscar nomination for the role, delivering a performance that wholly elevates the material. Her chemistry with Gere is off the charts, making them an iconic pair in the ’90s rom-com landscape. These two hold the film afloat with unimpeachable performances that help elevate “Pretty Woman” into one of the most recognizable entries in the genre.

“Raising Arizona”

In the Coen brothers’ second feature, Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter play an odd couple. H.I. McDunnough is a former criminal (they’ve got a name for people like him, a parole board chairman tells Hi, and that name is called “recidivism”). His wife, Ed, is a former police officer. The pair falls in love through a series of meet cute bookings and endeavors to have a child; however, they soon learn that Ed can’t have children, and Hi’s criminal past makes adoption an uphill battle (Ed’s police service, it turns out, does not overrule Hi’s offenses). When the couple learns of wealthy furniture magnate Nathan Arizona’s surprise quintuplets, they decide to do his family a favor by taking a baby off their hands.

If “Raising Arizona” aspired only to be a broad comedy, it would likely work fine, fueled by cartoony set pieces and beyond over-the-top accents. Yet the Coen brothers inject the film with the same patience and cinematic artistry as can be found in any of their character-driven dramas. The central conflict between Hi and Ed is a compelling one, depicting two people who want desperately to be parents and do the right thing, but who are not fully prepared for either. They want to do “everything decent and normal from here on out.”

But Hi, a recidivist in Reagan’s America, can’t quite figure out how to make that happen. He wants to be a father without passing too much of himself onto his son. “I fear that if I stay, I would only bring bad trouble on the heads of you and Nathan Jr.” he writes to Ed late in the film. “I feel the thunder gathering even now. If I leave, hopefully it will leave with me.” It’s both an emotional and a hilarious performance from Cage, building to a gut punch of a final scene.

“Ready or Not” (Credit: Fox/Searchlight Pictures)“Ready or Not”

“Ready or Not” is one of the surprise horror films of the 2010s, making a meal out of what sounds like a truly forgettable premise: what if there was a horror movie about hide and seek? Radio Silence filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (the team behind 2022’s “Scream” and “Scream VI”) somehow find gold in this premise, delivering a hilarious thrill ride about a new bride (Samara Weaving) trying to survive a children’s game with her cultish in-laws on her wedding night. Weaving makes a meal out of this intensely physical performance, immediately crowning herself as a scream queen for a new generation — literally. Her guttural, vibrato-heavy yell in the film’s final act needs to be heard to be believed.

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