Incredibly, this year marks the 50th anniversary of Robert Downey Jr.'s first screen appearance in his father's comedy Pound, and over the last half a century it would be fair to say the actor has experienced his fair share of ups and downs.
When it comes to Zack Snyder and comic book adaptations, you can guarantee that almost every frame is going to be dripping in visual effects. After all, this is the filmmaker who delivered 300, Watchmen, Man of Steel and Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, all four of which utilized no shortage of green screen, and even some airbrushed abs in the case of that first one.
For some reason, every year without fail, people debate whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie even though it ticks all of the requisite boxes that constitute a festive favorite. After all, the story is about a family wanting to be together during the holidays, and there just happens to be a pretty sizeable roadblock thrown in the way by Hans Gruber and his band of terrorists taking over Nakatomi Plaza.
Every weekend a slew of new titles arrive across the various streaming services to satiate the millions of subscribers around the world who can't seem to decide on what to watch, but things are a little different this week with Christmas Day falling on a Friday. That means a lot of food and alcohol-related hangovers and a general sense of laziness and malaise, so comfort eating and viewing will be the go-to options for a lot of folks over the next three days.
Christmas Day is finally upon us, and while a lot of people are going to spend their evening watching Wonder Woman 1984 now that it's debuted on HBO Max, Netflix's extensive roster of holiday titles will prove just as popular. Then again, let's face it, there'll likely be many folks falling asleep in front of the TV later on today, so it doesn't really matter what's playing in the background.
Once everyone exchanges gifts, spends some quality time with their loved ones and eats far too much food, the next step on Christmas Day is usually to gather around the TV and see what's on the schedule. Today, the choice looks to be a pretty clear one between HBO Max's Wonder Woman 1984 and Disney Plus' Soul, both of which would have no doubt ranked among the biggest box office hits of the year had 2020 gone according to plan.
Anyone that's ever seen a movie where Shane Black is credited knows that the writer and director is a huge fan of Christmas, dating back to his very first script. Lethal Weapon is held up alongside Die Hard and Batman Returns as an alternative festive favorite, although he abandoned the majority of the holiday iconography for his last effort The Predator.
When fans think of Catwoman in live-action, they'll instantly picture Michelle Pfeiffer's legendary performance in Batman Returns, which remains the definitive big screen interpretation of the character. Since then, we've seen multiple new versions of the comic book favorite, ranging from passable to positively awful, but three decades later, nobody's even come close to matching Pfeiffer's Selina Kyle.
The Terminator franchise became so obsessed with rebooting itself over and over again until it stumbled on a movie successful enough to launch a new trilogy that Jonathan Mostow's Rise of the Machines has arguably become the most overlooked entry in the entire series. It obviously can't hold a candle to James Cameron's classic originals, but as a straightforward blockbuster action movie, it ticks all the right boxes.
Robert Rodriguez and Disney hardly seemed like an obvious partnership, with the filmmaker's fierce independence completely at odds with the Mouse House's desire to assimilate every aspect of pop culture. Rodriguez made his name directing stylish and violent action movies, and while he eventually segued into family-friendly territory with increasing regularity, his Troublemaker Studios gave him complete creative control over all of his projects from conception right through to post-production.