Pedro Pascal has a Rachel Zegler problem, and he doesn’t even know it.
The ubiquitous actor (he’s in four movies and a TV show this year alone) is set to play Reed Richards in “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” on July 25. The Marvel Comics supergroup previously hit theaters in several lackluster films, most recently the 2015 dud starring Miles Teller.
Rob Reiner’s reign as the ultimate Trump derangement victim may be over.
So plenty is riding on this reboot of a reboot. Enter Pascal, who can’t stop making incendiary comments to alienate potential ticket buyers. Remember how he compared Trump voters to Nazis?
See the Zegler connection?
Pascal recently attacked J.K. Rowling for the crime of defending women against trans women in sports. Does he regret his profanity-laced rant against the author?
Nope. Per Variety:
"The one thing that I would say I agonized over a little bit was just, 'Am I helping? Am I f**king helping?'" Pascal told [Vanity Fair]. "It’s a situation that deserves the utmost elegance so that something can actually happen, and people will actually be protected. Listen, I want to protect the people I love. But it goes beyond that. Bullies make me f**king sick."
If “The Fantastic Four” underwhelms at the box office, Pascal may find his opportunities to offer such "help" rapidly disappearing.
Actor Ezra Miller resurfaced this week, announcing plans to co-write and star in a vampire movie co-created by filmmaker Lynne Ramsay. The actor, who switched to they/them pronouns mid-career, made all the worst headlines in recent years.
Miller’s rap sheet would make Alec Baldwin blush.
The star’s breakout film, 2023’s “The Flash,” flopped. That gave Hollywood permission to quietly cancel the nonbinary star.
Miller is penning a comeback story. Here’s betting audiences won’t care no matter how Miller refers to himself/themself ...
Rob Reiner’s reign as the ultimate Trump derangement victim may be over. The once-mighty director behind “Misery,” “The Princess Bride,” and “This Is Spinal Tap” admitted he sought therapy following President Donald Trump’s 2024 victory.
Enter the new TDS queen, Rosie O’Donnell.
Not only did “The Flintstones” star flee America for Ireland following November 5, she can’t get her longtime nemesis out of her head. She recently suggested a recount to make extra sure Trump won in November.
Now, she’s admitting Trump’s revival had other effects on her.
“I was very, very depressed. I was overeating. I was overdrinking,” O’Donnell told Cuomo. “It hurt my heart that America believed the lies about him. And then it broke my heart to be in a business that creates and sells those lies for profit.”
Your move, Reiner ...
Seth Meyers is all in on socialism.
If that wasn’t clear by his past monologues, the former “Saturday Night Live” player made it clear via his love for New York’s Zohran Mamdani — the avowed socialist whose surprise primary victory over Andrew Cuomo Tuesday gives him a great shot at being New York City's next mayor.
See, fellow Democrats. You don’t have to shift to the center. Go the full Mamdani! And if that means diminishing October 7 or embracing the kind of "wealth redistribution" that always leads to breadlines, all the better!
“The point is, Bernie's right. Bernie’s right," gushed Meyers. "All we have is each other."
"And to the liberals who are always saying we need a liberal Joe Rogan: Are you seeing this?" the desk-chair revolutionary continued. "It turns out all you need to do is be more like Bernie Sanders. There's no secret trick. You just need to be genuine. You need to run on ideas that will improve people's lives.”
Just ask the fine folks of Chicago, currently wilting under another socialist regime. Let’s see how long before Mayor Mamdani’s poll numbers reach 14% like Chicago’s own Brandon Johnson ...
Poor Marc Maron.
The far-left comedian had a meltdown on his “WTF Podcast” this week, bemoaning how anti-woke comedians had won the culture war.
He’s right. Mostly.
Need proof? Bert Kreischer just snagged a Netflix sitcom and Shane Gillis will host the upcoming ESPYS telecast.
That leaves Maron, who recently announced the end of his long-running podcast, bemoaning that cancel culture no longer silences stand-up.
Comedians against comedy. Good riddance, Marc ...
Oh, and “Dune” director Denis Villeneuve will direct the next James Bond film. That’s the first good 007 news in so long we forget the last item.
The new “Karate Kid” movie has a surprising twist: older men teaching younger men to work hard, honor tradition, and develop a virtuous character. “Karate Kid: Legends” is exactly what you think it’s going to be — and thank God for that.
If, like me, you grew up trying to perfect the crane kick in the living room after watching the original “Karate Kid,” then this movie will hit all the right beats. It follows the classic formula: an underdog with raw talent, a wise mentor with quiet gravitas, a villain who cheats, and the enduring truth that virtue matters more than victory.
You might ask, “So ... it’s not a great movie?” No. It is just what you expect, and that’s what makes it great. It doesn’t pretend to be something else. It’s not trying to be edgy, subversive, or “reimagine the genre.” It isn’t the millionth movie in the “Sixth-Sense-twist-at-the-end” series of hackneyed films we’re all bored with. It’s just a good old-fashioned “Karate Kid” movie. And in an age when every studio seems bent on turning childhood memories into political lectures, this is a welcome roundhouse to the face.
The tradition here is simple and good: older men teaching younger men how to face suffering with courage and to live lives of virtue.
No woke sermon, no rainbow flag cameo character delivering predictable lines about systemic injustice, no Marxist backstory about how dojo hierarchies are tools of capitalist oppression — this isn’t a Disney film, and you can tell.
Instead, it asks a dangerous question, one so controversial it might get you fired from an English department faculty meeting: Do hard work, discipline, tradition, and honor still matter?
In the woke world, of course, the answer is no. Disney movies now teach that tradition is oppressive, virtue is repressive, and hard work is a tool of colonialist mind control. Your feelings are your truth — and your truth is sacred. If you feel like turning your back on your family to pursue LGBTQ+ sex, then you’re the greatest hero in human history. But “Karate Kid: Legends” doesn’t go there. It doesn’t need to.
It’s not a message movie. But it has a message. And it’s one even a child can understand: Be honorable. Do the right thing. Grievance and self-pity don’t lead to victory. And if they do, it’s a hollow one.
The film also manages to affirm tradition without being heavy-handed about mystical Eastern spiritualism or ancestral ghost sequences. Disney spews New Age spirituality in cartoons for kids at every opportunity.
The “tradition” here is simple and good: older men teaching younger men how to face suffering with courage and to live lives of virtue. That includes working through loss — deep loss, the kind that could break a person. But instead of turning to rage or self-indulgence, our young hero learns to endure, to persevere, to get back up — and maybe, just maybe, deliver that final clean kick.
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Of course, there’s a villain who cheats. You’ve got to have that. And yes, he’s detestable. That’s kind of the point. As the smug leftist professor at your local state university might say, “So it’s about childish morality?” Yes, professor — it’s about what even a child can know: Doing the right thing and building character matters. Wallowing in the self-pity of grievance culture will never get you there.
Somehow, this simple truth has become controversial. In a world where adults cry on TikTok about microaggressions and activist professors turn every syllabus into a therapy session about their own victimhood, it’s refreshing to see a film that reminds us that life is hard. But that doesn’t mean we give up. It means we get better. Stronger. Kinder. More honorable.
And that’s what “Legends” delivers — without apology, without postmodern irony, and without the cultural sludge we’ve come to expect from Hollywood.
It’s clean. It’s earnest. It’s nostalgic without being desperate. And it shows us a vision of manhood and mentorship we desperately need: older men guiding the next generation, not with snark or shame, but with honor, wisdom, and love.
So if you want a movie that will entertain your kids without corrupting them — and hopefully inspire them to build a virtuous character — go see “Karate Kid: Legends.” It may not win an Oscar (which already tells you it’s good), but it might just help restore your faith in simple, straightforward storytelling. And that’s worth more than a golden statue.
Forty years ago this month — June 5, 1985, to be exact — a high school senior named Ferris Bueller decided not to go to school.
Instead, he took his girlfriend, Sloane, his best friend, Cameron, and a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder (“borrowed” from Cameron’s dad) on an adventure-packed odyssey through Chicago, during which they lunched at a hoity-toity French restaurant, took in a Cubs game, and participated in the Von Steuben Day parade, all while engaging in an epic race against time, parents, and Vice Principal Edward R. Rooney.
Ironically, it’s Ferris who exhibits the very leadership qualities Vice Principal Rooney lacks.
Spoiler alert: He gets away with it.
"Ferris Bueller’s Day Off" is a teenage rebellion fantasy, but of a very different sort from the type Hollywood cranks out today.
For conservative pundit and former Nixon speechwriter Ben Stein, who had a small but indelible role as a droning economics teacher, the movie is a glorious product of the Reagan era. Noting that Hughes “was an ardent Republican” who “believed Reagan could transform all of us into Ferris Buellers,” Stein celebrates Ferris as “an unregulated high school kid in an unregulated world.”
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But Ferris is no libertarian. "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" celebrates loyalty, courage, and even justice. It encourages us to love our families, to stand up for our friends, and to be grateful for the time we’re given on Earth.
Yes, Ferris breaks the rules, but his mischief — unlike that of the 1960s radicals who came before him (or, for that matter, the leftists currently wreaking havoc on our streets) — is creative rather than destructive.
In fact, take a closer look at his itinerary, and you see that Ferris follows a strict moral code of his own.
Ferris’ name may be in the title, but this is Cameron’s story. Ferris is the same carefree, popular guy at the end of the movie as he is at the beginning.
Cameron complains about being roped into his best friend’s “stupid crap,” but eventually we understand that all of Ferris’ elaborate planning — not to mention the risk he assumes — is for Cameron’s benefit. It’s Cameron, not Ferris, who really needs this day off. As a true friend, Ferris realizes that the only way to break Cameron out of his shell is to make him face his deepest fears — even if Cameron ends up hating him for it.
Ferris lies to his parents, but there’s no contempt beneath his deception. He truly loves them as much as they love him.
Cameron is not so fortunate. His strict home life — ruled by an emotionally absent, domineering father — has paralyzed him with anxiety and fear. When Cameron finally confronts this truth, he resolves not to reject his dad so he can heal his “trauma” (as he might be encouraged to do today) but to stand up to him — a healthy sign that the father-son relationship is worth saving.
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Even Ferris and his seething, judgmental sister Jeanie repair their rift by the end of the film. Jeanie lets go of her resentment and helps her brother when he needs it most, while Ferris learns the humbling lesson that even he can’t always go it alone.
Vice Principal Rooney embodies overreaching authority — petty, ineffective, and consumed by the need for control. In the end, Rooney’s childish obsession with “beating” Ferris undoes him as much as any stunt his quarry pulls. Ironically, it’s Ferris who exhibits the leadership qualities Rooney lacks. With his natural charisma and willingness to take calculated, strategic, and effective action for himself and for others, Ferris can’t help but draw people to him.
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Ferris’ deceptively simple motto expresses deep, timeless wisdom.
All that he and friends gain by hoodwinking the adults are a few precious hours to appreciate the city of Chicago and each other’s company. And that's enough.
They don’t waste their time while playing hooky; instead they spend it truly alive to the joy of existence. And while church isn’t one of their stops, the reverent gratitude they display brings to mind Psalm 118:24: "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."
Less grievance. More gratitude.
That was the motto guiding film scholar and talk show host Michael Medved as he wrote “The American Miracle," his 2016 tome exploring the providential moments that helped create the freest country in human history. The subject proved so vast that the author penned a companion book, “God's Hand on America: Divine Providence in the Modern Era.”
'One of the very few things they agreed on completely … was divine providence, the invisible hand. Washington used that phrase in the first inaugural address.'
Almost a decade later, we're drowning in grievance, while gratitude remains in short supply. A perfect time for Medved's book to reach the big screen.
“The American Miracle” hits theaters June 9-11, courtesy of Fathom Entertainment. The docudrama features recognizable names like Kevin Sorbo and Pat Boone, but the true stars are Washington, Lincoln, and Franklin.
The movie, subtitled, “Our Nation Is No Accident,” argues that God’s hand worked in mysterious ways to boost the country’s creation.
“I’ve been living with this idea of divine providence,” Medved tells Align, recalling pre-recorded history segments on his long-running radio program. “The most popular episode, ‘God’s Hand on America,’ gave rise to the book.”
Years later, it seemed like the right moment to bring its message to theaters nationwide.
The movie shares amazing stories tied to the country’s birth, including the many near-death experiences George Washington survived before becoming the nation’s first president.
Early in Washington’s life, he fought alongside the British and was the only horseback officer to survive a harrowing battle. “His hat was shot through with bullets, and two horses were shot out from under him. He was unscathed,” Medved shared.
The film doesn’t sugarcoat the Founding Fathers but puts them in spiritual context.
“At no point do we suggest the people you meet in the film are perfect human beings. … They were a remarkable group of human beings,” he says. “One of the very few things they agreed on completely … was divine providence, the invisible hand. Washington used that phrase in the first inaugural address.”
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Medved recalls a sermon from Presbyterian Minister Samuel Davies that echoed that sentiment.
“I cannot but hope Providence has hitherto preserved [him] in so signal a manner for some important service to his country.”
“The American Miracle” blends re-enactments with historical experts to buttress Medved’s arguments.
“Some of the leading historians in the country take the idea of divine providence very seriously,” he says.
Medved’s conservative thinking is part of his brand, along with an extensive career as a film critic. He worked alongside fellow critic Jeffrey Lyons on the 1980s PBS show “Sneak Previews,” taking over for original hosts Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert.
His personal politics aside, Medved still didn’t want “The American Miracle” to embrace a partisan ethos. The film’s array of experts, including Robert P. George, Joseph Ellis, and Jana Novak, offer some ideological diversity. That includes contributions from Oscar winner Richard Dreyfuss.
The Hollywood icon is no rock-ribbed conservative. He’s left-leaning but a patriot who promotes a better understanding of the country’s founding principles via his Dreyfuss Civics Initiative.
“We tried to avoid some of the polarization that has been poisoning our politics,” Medved says of the film. “[Dreyfuss] has been a friend of mine for many years, since high school. He has made a passionate cause of civics and teaching civics.”
Part of “The American Miracle” explores the role black soldiers played in the American Revolution, fighting on behalf of the patriots. It’s hardly the kind of material one expects in a 21st-century film. Hollywood narratives wouldn’t allow it, but the historical facts remain.
Medved called their contributions “indispensable."
Medved’s decades-long media career allowed him to watch the pop-culture transformation up close. He hails the new wave of choice in media circles, be it podcasts or new media platforms offering something different from what legacy media outlets provide.
“Today, depending on what your own obsession or interest is, there’s something there for you. Generally, we all spend too much time on mass media,” he says. “However, the advantage today is that there is a great deal of choice.”
That also holds for the pop-culture realm. Medved brings up the crush of stories tied to the American Civil War, from feature films to the celebrated “Civil War” docuseries from PBS mainstay Ken Burns.
What’s missing? More cinematic takes on the country’s Revolutionary War and astounding origins. That’s where “The American Miracle” comes in.
“It hasn’t gotten the same kind of attention. There’s no equivalent of ‘Birth of a Nation’ or ‘Gone with the Wind’ or ‘Glory,’” he says.
A Pixar artist admitted that the studio’s latest box-office disappointment Elio had no substance besides pushing an agenda about LGBT identity, telling The Hollywood Reporter this week that the movie was “totally nothing” without its original gay agenda. “Suddenly, you remove this big, key piece, which is all about identity, and Elio just becomes about totally nothing,” the artist […]
Are film studios finally getting the message that audiences aren’t interested in having radical gender ideology shoved in their kids’ faces? It’s a question worth asking following the Monday release of a Hollywood Reporter exposé on Pixar’s latest feature, Elio. In the article, author Ryan Gajewski pulls back the curtain on the contentious filmmaking process […]
Audiences are tired of obnoxious girlbosses -- rightly so -- but this film doesn't deserve to suffer for the missteps of previous productions.
Pixar’s reliance on sequels, prequels, old animation, and repeated storylines is self-destructing the once beloved film production company.
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