by admin | Apr 10, 2025 | Articles, Cinemablend Articles
Director Christopher Landon has made a name for himself in the last few years with genre-bending takes on the classic slasher story – specifically the time looping antics of the fantastic Happy Death Day films and body swapping fun in Freaky – but his latest, Drop, is a different kind of cinematic exercise. Foregoing the whole “mashing” angle, 2025 feature could be featured in the dictionary next to “high concept thriller.”
Drop
Release Date: April 11, 2025
Directed By: Christopher Landon
Written By: Jillian Jacobs & Christopher Roach
Starring: Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar, Violett Beane, Reed Diamond, Jacob Robinson, and Jeffery Self
Rating: PG-13 for strong violent content, suicide, some strong language and sexual references
Runtime: 100 minutes
It’s not particularly complex or in any way post-modern, but it’s not equipped or expected to be. What it lacks in any standout angle is made up for in its promises as a slick, Hitchcockian thriller, and it’s within that box that it’s ultimately successful. It sets its stakes, establishes likable characters, and it builds well, culminating in an engaging and entertaining 100 minutes.
Meghann Fahy stars as Violet – a widowed survivor of domestic abuse who, after years of solitude, decides to be bold and leave her bubble of single motherhood for a night to go on a date. She meets Henry (Brandon Sklenar), a photographer with whom she’s been messaging for months, at a restaurant overlooking the city of Chicago, and things start out awkward due to Violet’s faded dating skills… but then quickly get far worse.
The protagonist starts getting mysterious AirDrop messages on her phone with playful but urgent memes, and while she ignores them at first, she recognizes that she isn’t being simply pranked when she is told to check her home’s security cameras: there is a masked man in the house with her son (Jacob Robinson) and her sister Jen (Violett Beane), who is babysitting. She is told that the only way to save the lives of her family is to follow explicit instruction, eventually discovering that the end goal of the demands is the murder of her date.
Drop has a clever mystery that never gets too big as to disappoint.
Drop isn’t the most advanced mystery that audiences will see on the big screen this year, as I would bet that somewhere in between 33-40 percent of people will be able to suss out the big secret before the movie is ready to reveal that information, but the story successfully circumvents that issue with a narrative that moves smoothly and logically; there are certain cinematic tells that I won’t identify in this venue, but they don’t undermine Violet’s actions.
The script by Jillian Jacobs and Christopher Roach is smart in its deployment of exposition and road blocks that inform the mystery and present interesting conflicts for the protagonist to work around (and I’ll note that it doesn’t cheat by giving the villain eyes and ears everywhere via some kind of super hacker either). Violet acts intelligently under duress, devises realistic and smart methods to try and get help, and works surreptitiously to suss out who within 50 feet is sending the drops– and it’s effectively disheartening when things don’t work out as hoped.
All of the weird behavior does outwardly make Violet a pretty terrible first date, as it is demanded that Henry not be aware of what she is doing, but even that ends up being well-addressed.
Meghann Fahy is truly the lynchpin of Drop.
It’s a film where it is vital that the audience fully connect with the protagonist, and that’s well done both through the character’s emotional backstory and thanks to a wonderful turn by Meghann Fahy. It’s a role that requires an equal balance of fear and fortitude, and the White Lotus star proves perfectly up for the task. The actress presents a terrific nervous energy from the jump, as she worries about leaving her young son at home for the first time, and that demonstrated love ends up feeding into the stakes as you question just what she will be willing to do to protect him. Fahy also projects a resilience that comes from the character’s history with an abusive partner and a fierce desire to never be controlled like that again.
Henry is the less demanding role, but Brandon Sklenar pumps the character with an ideal nice guy energy that proves vital for the story. Not dissimilar to a movie keeping a family bolting from a clearly haunted house, the potential design flaw in Drop is Henry not just throwing his hands up and telling Violet that her suspect behavior is freaking him out – but Sklenar has a gentle charm that makes his staying at the table realistic and a natural result of Henry’s personality.
In discussion of the cast, one actor who deserves a special shout-out is Jeffery Self. Playing an overly enthusiastic waiter who is thrilled to be serving a couple on their first date during his first shift at the restaurant, Self shoulders the weight of being the movie’s principal comedic relief, and emerges as a scene-stealer with a great “that guy” energy and a fun mirror for the audience as an outside party observing Violet and Henry.
For being set in a limited space, Drop delivers splashes of thrilling style.
Without time loops or body swaps this time around, the big creative challenge for Christopher Landon with Drop is its contained focus and simple setting, but he uses it well and gives the movie aesthetic character. Cinematography presents a smart geographical awareness of the limited space that has hero and villain confined together, the director keeping the camera moving, and tight angles are used to deliver feelings of tension, paranoia and claustrophobia (Fahy’s turn regularly providing the other half of the equation). The inelegance of sinister text on screen is never totally surmounted, but it’s paved over with the star’s performance.
Overall, it’s not a movie to obsess over and infinitely rewatch (too much thinking will lead you to recognize that AirDrop is more effective for creating a snappy title for the feature than as a plot device), but it’s a film made for Friday night fun at the movie theater. It doesn’t bit off more than it can chew and satisfies as a result – though while also never exactly making you feel full.
by admin | Apr 10, 2025 | Articles, Cinemablend Articles
After very unexpected and prolonged delays, movie fans are actually nearing the opening of what is sure to be a mega-blockbuster on the 2025 movie schedule, and that is the upcoming Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. With Ethan Hunt and his team hoping to finally complete their mission after 2023’s Dead Reckoning ending, M:I 8 may very well be the last we see of the team, at least as it’s been for decades now. Before everything (probably) wraps up, Simon Pegg wants to be absolutely clear about one thing when it comes to star Tom Cruise.
What Did Simon Pegg Say About Tom Cruise And His Work In The Mission: Impossible Movies?
Even if you’ve never seen any of the Mission: Impossible movies, you are likely to know at least two things about them: Tom Cruise is the star, and he goes balls to the wall when it comes to making sure that one of the premiere action film franchises in the world is filled to the brim with death-defying stunts. Simon Pegg, who’s portrayed tech expert Benji Dunn since M:I 3 (which came out a whopping 19 years ago) has been around for most of them.
The Boys actor recently spoke to Collider about the new movie, and when asked if Benji was going to get in on the action more this time around, he decided to respond by letting everyone know exactly what Cruise does for his franchise:
Well, there you go. If anyone was wondering whether or not all of the intensely fast running, motorcycle off a cliff-jumping, wild broken-foot mountain climbing, and all the other great M:I action sequences were truly just Cruise doing amazing things in real life, Pegg can confirm that it totally is. Hell, the superstar has even admitted to passing out while hanging out of a plane at 10,000 feet. Pegg continued:
Like director Christopher McQuarrie’s noted previously, while most action movie directors have to concern themselves with concealing the fact that the stars are not the ones doing things like jumping between a speeding train and a helicopter (which Cruise did for the original M:I movie), he has to make sure that every camera picks up the fact that his star is actually doing everything we see Ethan do. And, no one can claim that this truth has done anything other than made the Mission: Impossible movies even more amazing to watch.
by admin | Apr 10, 2025 | Articles, Cinemablend Articles
Without a doubt, the late Val Kilmer, who died last week at 65, is a first-ballot acting Hall of Famer based on the first 11 years of his career alone. Top Secret!, Real Genius, Top Gun, Willow, Heat, and his turn as the Caped Crusader in Batman Forever lock that up. There are two movies in that run that are not only stone-cold classics but feature knockout performances by Kilmer that sadly didn’t even receive an Oscar nomination, much less earn a win, which would have been more than justified. Those two movies are Tombstone and The Doors.
Tombstone Was Completely Overlooked
Today, Tombstone is considered one of the best Westerns of all time, but it was underappreciated by critics and audiences alike when it was released on Christmas Day 1993. The film, starring Kilmer in a supporting role as the legendary Doc Holliday, is such a fun movie, but it was only a minor success at the box office and didn’t really find its audience until it was released on VHS a few months later.
performance for the ages. It’s a performance you can catch at least until the end of the month with a Hulu subscription.
Unfortunately, the movie didn’t garner any attention during the Awards Season in early 1994. Tombstone didn’t even sniff an Oscar or Golden Globe nomination. While it’s understandable that it wouldn’t compete with the eventual Best Picture winner, Schindler’s List, it’s really too bad that Kilmer didn’t get recognition for his role. Still, that snub isn’t as egregious as the one Kilmer received three years earlier.
Oliver Stone. I think it’s one of the best — if not the best — rock and roll biopics ever made. I loved Timothée Chalamet in A Complete Unknown, and I want to see more of him as Dylan, but it doesn’t come close to The Doors and Kilmer.
Kilmer completely disappears into the role of the self-proclaimed “lizard king,” and it’s hard to know where Kilmer ends and the tragic rock star begins in the film. When I first saw the movie as a teenager (when I was a fan of The Doors), I confused the real Morrison for Kilmer’s on-screen version. I really believed I watching the real guy, even though he’d been dead for decades. That’s how good he is. Kilmer is more Morrison than Morrison was at times.
Starring in a music biopic is a sure-fire way to secure an Oscar nod these days. Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury, Chalamet as Dylan, Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles, and Austin Butler as Elvis Presley have all been nominated for or won Oscars in recent years. But at the 1992 Academy Awards, Kilmer got no love in the Best Actor category, and frankly, as amazing as all those guys are in their roles, Kilmer was better as Morrison.
There are other performances throughout Val Kilmer’s career that I could point to, even later in his career when things came off the rails a little, like his underrated turn as adult film star John Holmes in 2003’s Wonderland, for example. Those two, though — Doc Holliday and Jim Morrison — stand out above the rest, and in addition to Iceman in Top Gun, they will certainly be the roles Val Kilmer is best remembered for.
by admin | Apr 10, 2025 | Articles, Cinemablend Articles
The internet is no stranger to regularly seeing celebs with their dogs in many adorable and sweet ways. However, when two A-listers like Demi Moore and Glen Powell get their furry friends together for a meet-cute, it’s all the more precious. So, yeah, learning the details of Powell’s terrier poodle mix Brisket and Moore’s micro chihuahua Pilaf meeting was the surprise highlight of April.
Both Glen Powell and Demi Moore (and their dogs) have been out and about lately. Moore has just come off a massive award show run with The Substance. Meanwhile, Powell is ramping up for a busy run on the 2025 movie schedule – thanks to a remake of the Running Man and the film Huntington – and the 2025 TV schedule with Chad Powers. He’s also promoting his new brand, Smash Kitchen, and during a conversation with People about that, he was asked about his dog meeting Moore’s pup. He responded by saying:
The Top Gun: Maverick actor didn’t specify when this meeting happened. However, Running Man was filmed in London, and Moore was there during awards season for the BAFTAs. So, I’d assume the meet-cute happened earlier this year.
Bruce Willis’s birthday and Moore getting cheated at the Oscars–I’m glad they were able to have some fun with Pilaf and Brisket.
I can see the two adopted furpals having a ball with the two stars in full montage-style effect. Somehow, it all feels like it could be made into a Hallmark movie that people would love to see (or at least I would). I’m sure the internet would love it, too, considering the many viral moments both Pilaf and Brisket have had over the last year.
Personally, now that I know the Pilaf Moore and Brisket Powell meet-cute went down, it’ll continue to make the rest of my day. Now, it’s time to cross our fingers and hope that the image from this day becomes available to the public at some point because I need to see it.
by admin | Apr 10, 2025 | Articles, Cinemablend Articles
Meghann Fahy has been turning heads lately with her roles on comedically dark shows like The White Lotus and The Perfect Couple, and her latest project on the 2025 movie calendar isn’t too far away from that mark. The upcoming thriller Drop centers around a widowed mother who is being tormented by an unknown person in the restaurant where she’s on a first date. Critics have seen the movie ahead of its April 11 release, and they pretty much agree it’s a fun time if you don’t take it too seriously.
First reactions from Drop’s SXSW premiere were overwhelmingly positive, and Jeannette Catsoulis of the New York Times agrees with the movie’s success, despite the “utterly bonkers” finale and only minimal suspense. The critic calls it “pleasantly silly,” saying:
Iana Murray of Empire also notes that its premise stretches to “absurd” heights, but it is still “ridiculously fun,” thanks to a grounded performance from Meghann Fahy. Murray gives it 4 out of 5 stars and encourages moviegoers to check their phone’s security settings. The critic writes:
Jake Coyle of the AP says Drop doesn’t really reinvent the wheel as far as thrillers go, but it’s still silly and suspenseful. Coyle rates the film 2.5 out of 4 stars, saying:
Not every critic thinks the fun outweighs the flaws, as Matt Schimkowitz of AV Club gives the movie a C+. Like an overpopulated group chat, the critic says, Drop can get pretty overwhelming, but still shows flashes of promise. Schimkowitz continues:
Robbie Collin of The Telegraph gives Drop 2 out of 5 stars, writing that it feels like “an off-brand Black Mirror episode masterminded by ChatGPT.” It botches its plot, according to Collin, and looks “nastily composited,” but even this critic admits it’s “not un-fun.” From the review:
The critics mostly agree that Drop isn’t a perfect film, but there seem to be too many adjectives like “fun” and “silly” to think this won’t be 90 minutes well-spent in the movie theater. In fact, the Christopher Landon film holds an 89% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. If this sounds like something that’s a must-see on the big screen, check it out in theaters starting Friday, April 11.
by admin | Apr 10, 2025 | Articles, Cinemablend Articles
Last week, I had the chance to marvel at the incredible year this is for Stephen King fans around the world. Following the arrival of Osgood Perkins’ bloody and brilliant adaptation of The Monkey back in February, three more King movies are on their way to the big screen before the end of 2025 (Mike Flanagan’s The Life Of Chuck, Francis Lawrence’s The Long Walk and Edgar Wright’s The Running Man), and I had a chance to preview all of them while on the ground covering CinemaCon 2025. I was entranced by everything I saw and heard about the three extremely different films, as I not only got to watch impressive footage but also hear some great behind-the-scenes stories.
One of these great stories – specifically one told by Josh Brolin – leads this week’s edition of The King Beat, but it’s but one of three headlines in this week’s column digging into the latest news from the world of Stephen King. There’s a whole lot to discuss, so let’s dig in!
CinemaCon last week where the actor participated in a Q&A panel with writer/director Edgar Wright and Running Man co-stars Glen Powell and Colman Domingo. He spoke about his time playing the villainous Killian in the upcoming Stephen King movie, and he specifically referenced a time on set when he was unnerved by a setup on set that required him to act directly into the camera. Said Brolin,
In The Running Man, Josh Brolin plays the film’s central antagonist: the lead producer of the Games Network, which is the state-run media channel that broadcast’s the film’s titular reality show. Some of the character’s key scenes in the book are intense one-on-one interactions with Ben Richards (including an early sequence where the protagonist is recruited to be on The Running Man), and Edgar Wright’s approach for at least one of these moments apparently puts us directly in Ben’s point of view.
Acting directly into a camera is hard not only because it forces a performer to recognize the existence of the lens, but also because it means that there is nobody opposite them to play off of emotionally. But Wright is an immensely talented filmmaker who works with other very talented people, and Brolin explained that the crew was able to devise an awesome workaround for this issue that ultimately made him more comfortable on set. He continued,
Cool, right?
The discussion of this special kind of invention behind-the-scenes of The Running Man has made me all the more fascinated by the film and excited for what Edgar Wright has in store… but it wasn’t just the discussion of the upcoming 2025 movie that amped my curiosity about the film.
Edgar Wright’s remake of The Running Man was getting made, I wrote a feature explaining that I felt two aspects of the source material would probably be better off getting changed – despite the whole initiative of the project being the creation of a more faithful adaptation than the 1987 movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. My first note was that protagonist Ben Richards should be cast with a Black actor (allowing the film to highlight systemic racial issues in our modern justice system)… but that notion admittedly went out the window as soon as it was announced that Glen Powell was playing the lead.
My second point was that it would probably be best if the remake didn’t directly adapt the dark, potentially controversial ending from Stephen King’s book… but based on the footage that was showcased at CinemaCon 2025 last week, the project might be ignoring that suggestion as well.
To rewind a bit, the reason why I felt the ending should be changed for the new movie is simple: the actions by the hero of the story are disturbingly reminiscent of the events that occurred on September 11, 2001. At the end of Stephen King’s book (which was first published in 1982), the protagonist is horrified to discover that the sinister Games Network not only doesn’t plan to deliver his earned prize money to his family after his participation as a contestant on The Running Man, but they have been straight-up killed. Emotionally devastated, Ben’s response to the news is to hijack a plane and fly it into the state-run media’s skyscraper headquarters.
I don’t think I need to explain beyond that recounting of events why that may not be the best direction for Edgar Wright’s upcoming film – but that’s why I was so surprised to catch a couple of standout moments in the Running Man CinemaCon footage. While that material has not yet made its way officially online, I was surprised to notice that there were shots of a fight aboard a mid-flight airplane and a pilot being killed. There wasn’t any specific context presented for these clips in the edit, but seeing them, my brain immediately clicked back to the extremely dark conclusion of the novel.
Overall, the first look at The Running Man suggested that the Edgar Wright film is going to be much more “fun” than the source material (as evidenced by a shot where Glen Powell lies on a bed and slaps his own tighty-whities-clad ass and Michael Cera kills a bunch of soldiers with a super soaker and an electrified floor), and I would be stunned if the blockbuster presented a faithful adaptation of the ending… but there is now enough evidence that makes me question that assumption. Frankly, though, that only makes me more excited to see the movie when it arrives in theaters later this year – specifically on November 7.
Mike Flanagan at Amazon MGM. On the one hand, Flanagan has an impeccable record when it comes to adapting the works of Stephen King – with Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep and The Life Of Chuck all ranking among the best King movies of all time – but this is also a book we’ve already seen adapted for the screen three previous times. What could the show possibly add to the massive legacy?
Going by new details that arrived online this week, one detail may be revelations about Carrie White’s father.
This week, Variety reported the news that actress Summer H. Howell is nearing the signing of a deal that will see her play the titular role in Carrie, and beyond the casting, the trade report also includes an official logline for the project. It reads:
Most of that information – from the domineering mother to bullying to telekinetic powers – is very familiar to anyone even remotely familiar with the story of Carrie… but the “father’s sudden and untimely death” part is new and intriguing. The paternal side of the eponymous protagonist’s genetic code is not something that has ever gotten any focus in previous adaptations of the Stephen King novel, and I wonder how significant a hook it will be in Mike Flanagan’s vision.
In the book, Carrie’s father is Ralph White, a fundamentalist Christian and construction worker who dies in an accident prior to his daughter’s birth – but it seems that the show will be going in a different direction with the character. Instead of Carrie being raised by Margaret as a single mother, it seems her dad will be around into her teenage years and potentially home schooling her before his “untimely death.” If this is the case, I have three standout questions: 1) Will investigation into his demise be a plot point on the show? 2) What will having Ralph around mean for the characterization of Margaret? 3) Will the paternal presence reveal more about the origins of Carrie’s psychic abilities?
Mike Flanagan has promised that there is an answer to the question of “Why remake Carrie again?” and I wonder if this detail about the developing project may be significant insight. The show hasn’t gotten an official series pickup yet, but that news is expected imminently, and when that news comes, we’ll hopefully get to learn more about the plans for the adaptation.
That brings us to the end of this week’s edition of The King Beat, but as always, I’ll be back next Thursday here on CinemaBlend with a brand new column digging into all of the latest news from the world of Stephen King.
