A film has to be really flawed to sport a measly 3.7 on IMDb, and it is worth noting that “Minotaur” is Tom Hardy’s lowest-rated flick on the platform (his “LD 50 Lethal Dose” is a close second!). The film opens in the Minoan Bronze Age, which is a genuinely dark time, as youths are frequently sacrificed to the Minotaur in exchange for some vague sense of protection. Our Theseus stand-in here is Theo (Hardy), the son of the village chief, who is haunted by the sacrifice of his beloved.
After a prophetess tells Theo that his lover is still alive inside the labyrinth, he offers himself in the next round of sacrifices alongside bestie Danu (Jonathan Readwin) and several allies. You can see where this is going, as Theo is meant to evoke Theseus without fully taking on the weight of his myth, which, in theory, should lead to more freedom in this classic monster tale. Alas, this is not the case with “Minotaur” due to various reasons.
For starters, none of the characters make a lasting impression except for Tony Todd’s King Deucalion, who ramps up the melodrama with his elaborate bull-motif costume and a deliciously complex personality. Deucalion is the one mandating these horrific sacrifices, so it’s safe to say that he has no love in his heart for his people, but this brand of evil is played up by Todd in pitch-perfect ways. Sadly, the rest is so drab that even a lengthy labyrinth sequence with our morally upright heroes isn’t enough to heighten the stakes. Hardy’s Theo is your cookie-cutter heroic figure: he is loyal to his friends, he is tender-hearted, he wants to protect his beloved, and he’s brave enough to want to slay a mythical monster. If this sounds boring, that’s because it is.
Apart from a handful of well-crafted CGI, most of “Minotaur” relies on good old practical effects, which is a genuinely competent aspect of a film that fails to impress on every other front. But good practical effects cannot mask bad dialogue or questionable performances, especially when the story itself has nothing going for it. The half-hearted attempts to engage in philosophical themes, such as the question of whether the Minotaur is a mere beast or a divine presence, are never pursued with sincere curiosity.
“Minotaur” isn’t the best example of an early-career Tom Hardy performance, but you can stream the movie on Prime Video, Roku, or Plex if you’re feeling adventurous. In case you want to see the actor in a marginally better flick that released the same year, you can try the BBC remake of “A for Andromeda” instead.
In surprising celebrity news, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have called it quits after nearly two decades of marriage. The separation sparked a wave of speculation about what led to their split. After 20 years together and two teenage daughters, fans naturally have questions—but according to insiders, the star of The Hours is handling the heartbreak with calm and grace, but had one major dread.
The Best Actress Oscar winner filed for divorce in Nashville on September 30, one day after reports surfaced that she and Urban had separated earlier in the summer. The Big Little Lies star was reportedly “stressed” about the impending media attention surrounding her marriage’s end, and an unnamed source told People that Kidman had been bracing for the moment the news broke. The insider alleges:
She’s been stressed because she knew the separation would eventually become public and she was dreading it.
Tom Cruise, which began on the set of a film they starred in together, was a 1990s dominating headline, and she has since spoken about how that experience shaped her perspective on love and resilience. Now, that same sense of openness seems to be guiding her once more. Though her split from Keith Urban marks the end of a long-running Hollywood marriage, the actress is reportedly focused on the future and her family.
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(Image credit: Keith Urban YouTube/Netflix)
Tension between the couple may have surfaced earlier in the year. During a summer radio interview, Urban was asked directly about his wife’s on-screen intimacy with younger co-stars, specifically Zac Efron, her co-star in A Family Affair. Before the host could finish the question, the Zoom call with the singer abruptly disconnected. Around the same time, when Nicole Kidman was asked in a separate interview about the idea of working on a TV project with her husband, she quipped, “No… our life is a show.” It wasn’t exactly the response of someone eager to blur the lines between work and marriage—and, in hindsight, may have hinted at the strain behind the scenes.
Professionally, the actress remains as busy as ever. The Others star recently wrapped filming on Practical Magic 2, and she is expected to return for Lioness Season 3 (available to stream with a Paramount+ subscription). Meanwhile, Urban has kept his own career rolling, continuing his current tour on the country music circuit.
Critics were a bit mixed on the movie, but audiences have, generally speaking, loved what Sparke is selling with “Primitive War.” Its audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is higher than every single “Jurassic” movie save for the original “Jurassic Park.” The good news is that Pettus has more novels to adapt, meaning a sequel is a distinct possibility. As always, though, it’s going to come down to the financials. For an independently produced movie, that can be a steep hill.
“To me, it’s going to be how it goes on VOD,” Sparke said of what it will take to make a “Primitive War” sequel happen. “I definitely want to continue.” The team has also been selling shirts, posters, and other merchandise on eBay tied to the movie. For physical media fans out there, the filmmaker also confirmed that a Blu-ray release is being planned.
“There’s going to be a Blu-ray, and if that goes well or if it goes on VOD steelbook as well,” Sparke said. “I’ve done an audio commentary, and there’s behind the scenes and there’s a whole bunch of extra stuff.” Come what may, the movie’s mere existence is something of a victory lap for Sparke. His movie was originally rejected by a number of film festivals, but they did get a big panel at this past summer’s San Diego Comic-Con, which made it all real, both for him and the world at large. As he explained:
“Film festivals, high film festivals, I won’t say which ones, but once they saw us go to Comic-Con and once they saw the crowd and once they saw the trailers and once they saw the release, they reached back out to me going, oh look, we should have taken it. We would’ve loved to take it. If you do anything else, let me know.”
“Even up until the release, there was still this, you can’t do this,” Sparke concluded. “Luckily, the fans and everyone else like yourself have really jumped on board and made a bit of an online noise about it, which, for a filmmaker, is the best thing. I make ’em for the audience. I don’t make ’em for the critics.”
Dancing With the Stars Season 34 has been airing on the 2025 TV schedule, and it’s been as entertaining as ever. The DWTS contestants have been bringing their A-game, and only three weeks in, it’s getting intense. Following Fifth Harmony member Lauren Jauregui’s shocking elimination, the remaining pros and contestants comforted her and pro partner Brandon Armstrong. Then, a moment between Whitney Leavitt and Danielle Fishel has since gone viral, as it looked like Fishel was putting Leavitt in her place as she tried to celebrate the evening. Now the Boy Meets World star is clarifying what really happened.
As credits rolled on Tuesday’s episode, the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star tried to celebrate with Fishel for making it through another week. However, the actress quickly stopped the celebrations to be there for Jauregui and Armstrong. While some fans saw it as Fishel shading Leavitt and being annoyed by her, the actress set the record straight after being stopped by TMZ and asked if what Leavitt did was “tone deaf”:
No. I think it’s a rollercoaster of emotions. We can be happy for ourselves and our friends that were safe and also sad that somebody is gone, so I definitely did not put her in her place, but I just went to go comfort my friend.
how fast she said “Yes” to DWTSafter refusing for so many years. She previously opened up about agreeing to do the show following her cancer diagnosis last year, so the farther she gets, the more it proves she was right to give in. But as she said, she can still be happy about making it through and be sad for those who did not.
Meanwhile, it is definitely exciting to see who is making it to Disney Night, despite the disappointment of Jauregui’s elimination. The couples have been keeping fans hyped by sharing TikToks from rehearsals, including Andy Richter and Emma Slater, who have stolen fans’ hearts.
Now, the competition is only going to get stiffer on Dancing With the Stars, and at this point, there’s no telling who will be the next recipient of the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy. What is clear is that fans are not only factoring in dance moves when it comes to choosing favorites, as many had a change of heart following Fishel and Leavitt’s viral moment. However, the actress herself cleared that whole situation up.
Now, make sure to tune in to Dancing with the Stars on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC or with a Disney+ subscription, because your favorites will need all the votes they can get.
“Strange New Worlds” concludes with season 5? One pitch could throw the franchise even further into the past to the late 22nd century, the earliest years of the United Federation of Planets.
The idea comes from actor Scott Bakula, former star of “Star Trek: Enterprise,” and “Enterprise” writer/producer Mike Sussman. “Enterprise” was a prequel set in the 2150s, a decade before the Federation was founded. Bakula played Jonathan Archer, captain of the first starship Enterprise. Unfortunately, “Enterprise” ran only four seasons — a true shame, since the show spent seasons 3 and 4 spreading its wings after a rough start.
“Enterprise” revealed that Archer would eventually serve as President of the Federation from 2184 to 2192 as a background detail. Bakula and Sussman have made that the crux of their pitch, “Star Trek: United,” which (if picked up) will follow Archer during his presidential tenure. In comments to TrekMovie (who first broke the news of the pitch), Sussman said he thinks “United” could be not just “The West Wing” in space, but also the “Star Trek” answer to “Andor,” i.e. a more political and grounded series.
Sussman revealed some further details about the pitch, including what he envisions as the series’ opening scene: Archer and his crew fighting in the Earth-Romulan War. Or, as Sussman puts it, a scene from the “Enterprise” season 7 that never was:
“Something that has become clear to me from feedback since we first started talking about this, is fans saying they never got to see the Romulan War. We were waiting for it, and you guys just kind of skipped over it [in the ‘Enterprise’ series finale]. And I share their frustration. So I would want to show [some of] that, and a particular pivotal moment that’s not just pure fan service. The scene would actually introduce a very important character for the show moving forward.”
The Romulan War remains Star Trek’s best story never told
Paramount
The Romulans are some of the oldest “Star Trek” villains there are, debuting back in the original “Star Trek” series during the episode “Balance of Terror.” That episode revealed that, 100 years prior, Starfleet and the Romulans fought an interplanetary that ended with them declaring a Neutral Zone between their territories.
“Enterprise” season 4 had started to build up to the Romulan War, with plans for the war to become the focus of the show if it had gotten a fifth season and beyond. The episode “Kir’Shara” established that the Romulans had infiltrated Vulcan society, all part of the long-game to “reunify” with (read: conquer) their long-lost cousins.
A three-part “Enterprise” arc (“Babel One,” “United,” and “The Aenar”) then tied the founding of the Federation to Romulan expansion. Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites form an alliance against Romulan attacks, the first step that the four species take to merging as the Federation. The Romulan War turns that into a permanent alliance.
Due to the series’ cancellation, “Enterprise” fans had to settle for novels (“Beneath The Raptor’s Wing” and “To Brave the Storm” by Michael A. Martin) chronicling the war. To this day, the conflict has never been depicted onscreen in a “Star Trek” production.
“Balance of Terror” established that humans had never seen the Romulans during the war, which was fought with “primitive” atomic weapons and ships. Those details don’t really match up with the tech in “Enterprise.” The series was diligent about the main characters never seeing the Romulans, though, and Sussman sees those cloaks and daggers as an opportunity.
“It almost seems like the Federation, or the people of Earth as well as the Romulans, don’t want the Vulcans to know who they are. And why would that be? I think that’s a very intriguing question. I’ve certainly got my ideas.”
Which Enterprise characters would return alongside President Archer?
Paramount
While “United” presumably can’t depict the whole Romulan War, Sussman inferred that the Romulans could still feature as more subtle villains. He mentioned one “Enterprise” character he’d like to bring back is Talok (Todd Stashwick) from “Kir’Shara,” a Romulan spy who was posing as a Vulcan. Stashwick has since played Captain Shaw on “Star Trek: Picard.” Perhaps he could pull double duty and reprise both roles on different “Trek” shows.
What about other characters, like Jeffrey Combs as Archer’s Andorian frenemy turned just plain friend, Shran? Sussman answered that any cameos would have to be worth it.
“The issue with returning cast is, you can’t have Jeff Combs [as Shran] just show up at a meeting and say, ‘Right on Mr. President,’ and then disappear. They have to be integral to the story. That said, I’d love to get everybody back one way or another.”
Jolene Blalock, who played Archer’s Vulcan first officer T’Pol on “Enterprise,” is mostly retired, but she recently made a voiceover cameo as T’Pol on “Star Trek: Lower Decks.” However, Sussman stressed there’d be a lot of focus on new characters, i.e. Archer’s (adult) children, who are serving in different roles across the Federation themselves.
“Archer would be in a place in his life where Scott kind of is right now, where Scott is a family man. He’s got four adult kids. And so I gave Archer four adult kids, and the story is as much about them as it is about him.”
On that note: the “Enterprise” series finale “These Are The Voyages…” jumped ahead to 2161, concluding with the Federation’s founding ceremony. “United” would thus pick up 23 years later. In the real world, it’s been 20 years since “Enterprise” went off air, so the timing is right for Archer to take another shot.
