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  • 11 Big Bang Theory Castmates: Where Are They Now?

    11 Big Bang Theory Castmates: Where Are They Now?


    The Big Bang Theory ran for 12 seasons and 279 episodes on CBS, earning big ratings and minting some new TV stars.

    Now that the show has been off the air for five years, what is the cast up to now?

    But First

    CBS – Credit: C/O

    CBS had no complaints about The Big Bang Theory. It had a ton of fans, as the ratings indicated. For a while, reruns on TBS were that network’s highest-rated airings as well. It also won Emmys, People’s Choice Awards, and more. However, critical assessments were mixed, and The Big Bang Theory was culturally relevant enough that it also had a lot of detractors who griped that the characters were broadly drawn.

    But the show’s very talented cast helped lend The Big Bang Theory more substance, especially as the show went on. Here’s what the Big Bang Theory cast is up to now.

    Jim Parsons

    CBS – Credit: C/O

    Parsons, a relative unknown when The Big Bang Theory began, was not supposed to be the star. Sheldon Cooper was an eccentric secondary character. He proved the breakthrough star, though, and yielded a spinoff, Young Sheldon, that has itself yielded a spinoff. Parsons also won a whopping four Emmys for playing Sheldon.

    In addition to narrating Young Sheldon, Parsons has kept busy producing and occasionally acting. He acted on stage in a version of The Boys in the Band, and then starred in a 2020 film adaptation of that play. Parsons also co-starred in Hollywood, a limited series wherein he played closeted gay Hollywood agent Henry Willson, and the 2022 drama Spoiler Alert.

    Oh, and bazinga, of course.

    Kaley Cuoco

    CBS – Credit: C/O

    Cuoco was one of the most recognizable stars of The Big Bang Theory when it debuted. As a kid, she had been on the sitcom 8 Simple Rules. Cuoco’s Penny was the “hot chick” (quotation marks not a comment on Cuoco’s looks but to indicate this was the archetype she was playing) who the “nerds” could not comprehend at first, though of course eventually she and Leonard would get together.

    There’s a good chance you have seen Cuoco all over your television in recent years. In addition to the litany of advertisements you can see her in, Cuoco starred in The Flight Attendant and Based on a True Story.

    She’s also loaned her voice to the cultishly adored Harley Quinn cartoon. That’s not one to watch with your family.

    Johnny Galecki

    CBS – Credit: C/O

    Galecki, who played Leonard, was the ostensible ”star” of The Big Bang Theory when it debuted, and to be fair he and Cuoco always remain at the center, even if others joined him. As a younger man, Galecki had been on Roseanne.

    Starring in The Big Bang Theory made Galecki, and others in the cast, very rich. That is to say, Galecki never needs to work again. He’s popped up in a few episodes of The Connors, and also the movie A Dog’s Journey, but both of those instances occurred in 2019.

    He is generationally wealthy, got somewhat recently married, more recently had a kid, and has a child from a previous relationship. If he doesn’t want to work, he’s got plenty else to do.

    Simon Helberg

    CBS – Credit: C/O

    Helberg is, in our opinion, the best actor from the main cast of The Big Bang Theory, though he didn’t get to show it a ton on the show. Howard was arguably the most broadly-drawn character, and early on, even if you liked the show, Howard may have been a bit much. Check him out in something like A Serious Man, though, and you can see his skills.

    On occasion Helberg has flashed those skills post-Big Bang as well. He’s done a couple movies, most notably the weirdo indie masterpiece Annette.

    On television, in addition to a smidge of voiceover work, Helberg played a tertiary, but important, role in Poker Face, the excellent Peacock series starring Natasha Lyonne. Check that one out for sure.

    Kunal Nayyar

    CBS – Credit: C/O

    If you’re American, there’s a good chance you haven’t seen Nayyar, who played Raj, much recently. Maybe you have heard him, as he’s voiced Guy Diamond in three Trolls movies (and two Trolls TV specials), but that’s more or less it on the American side of the pond.

    Nayyar was actually born in London, though, and while he mostly grew up in India before moving to the United States for college, he’s been back working in the United Kingdom since the end of The Big Bang Theory. He co-starred in British thriller series Suspicion, and he was also in an episode of Criminal: UK.

    For the latter, Nayyar was actually nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the British equivalent of the Emmys.

    Mayim Bialik

    CBS – Credit: C/O

    To try and create new dynamics in the universe of The Big Bang Theory, and also to add a bit more female presence on the regular as well, Bialik debuted as Amy Farrah Fowler in a guest role in the third season before joining the main cast starting in Season 4. It was a sensible casting. Not only was Bialik well-versed in sitcoms, having starred in Blossom, she has a PhD in neuroscience.

    There has been a lot of Bialik on TV since The Big Bang Theory ended. She starred in the FOX sitcom Call Me Kat for a couple seasons. Also, notably, she was in the running to host Jeopardy!.

    Awkwardly, it was decided that she and Ken Jennings would share the role of host, but the Jeopardy! diehards, a raucous bunch, loudly preferred the game show icon to the interloping actress. Thus, Bialik’s time as host has come to a conclusion.

    Melissa Rauch

    CBS – Credit: C/O

    Rauch, who joined the show midstream to play Bernadette, eventual wife of Howard, has something going that no other Big Bang Theory cast member does at the moment: an extant sitcom. Rauch stars in the reboot of Night Court on NBC. She plays Abby Stone, daughter of Harry T. Stone, Harry Anderson’s character from the original run.

    That’s basically it, though, as Rauch hasn’t done a ton else since Big Bang Theory ended. Not that we’re knocking her! She’s the star (and executive producer) of a network sitcom! There just isn’t much else to say, so we will point out something odd and interesting.

    In 2017, Rauch did voiceover work in a direct-to-video Batman movie. It’s called Batman and Harley Quinn, and she voiced Harley Quinn. That means two Big Bang Theory cast members have played Quinn in an animated project.

    Kevin Sussman

    CBS – Credit: C/O

    Sussman played Stuart, the owner of the comic book shop the guys frequent. In the first few seasons he was in a recurring role, but eventually, as often happens, a tertiary character had his role expanded. Sussman was considered a member of the main cast for seasons eight through 12, which meant a major uptick in salary, we’re sure.

    In total, Sussman was in 85 episodes of The Big Bang Theory, and he’s stayed quite busy in the interim. He doesn’t have that Galecki money, after all. Sussman popped up in a couple episodes of Bialik’s Call Me Kat, and also a couple episodes of AMC’s prestigious, beloved Better Call Saul.

    He was quite good in the excellent Hulu limited series The Dropout, about Elizabeth Holmes, and has been seen occasionally in Lessons in Chemistry as well.

    Sara Gilbert

    CBS – Credit: C/O

    Gilbert was recurring in Season 1 and a guest in seasons three and nine, but for the second season of The Big Bang Theory, she was contractually in a starring role. While the show moved well past the era of Leslie Winkle, she should be included. Especially since, you know, she’s been up to a lot of stuff and was already famous.

    When Gilbert was brought in, it was a bit of stunt casting. She played Darlene on Roseanne, after all, and Galecki played her character’s boyfriend. The same time that The Big Bang Theory was ending, Gilbert’s View-style show The Talk ended as well.

    Also, Gilbert and her wife Linda Perry divorced. Tough year for Gilbert! She bounced back, though. Gilbert has been back playing Darlene on The Connors since it debuted, giving her a regular network sitcom role once again.

    Laura Spencer

    CBS – Credit: C/O

    Raj finally got himself a long-term thing on The Big Bang Theory, though without the success of the other relationships among the main cast. Emily, the morbid dermatologist, was in the main cast in Season 9, and was in a recurring role in seasons seven, eight, and 10. At the same time, Spencer also had a recurring role on Bones.

    Since then, she was in a somewhat obscure tornado disaster movie called 13 Minutes and appeared in one episode of Reservation Dogs.

    John Ross Bowie

    CBS – Credit: C/O

    Barry Kripke was not one of the main characters on The Big Bang Theory. Bowie was credited in a recurring role in most seasons of his run, and a guest role in a couple of them. However, we decided to include him because the dude works.

    Bowie popped up in Jumanji: The Next Level, and he’s been all over television. During the end of the run of The Big Bang Theory, Bowie was one of the leads of the sitcom Speechless. Since then, he’s popped up in recurring roles and one-off spots all over television.

    In 2022 alone you could see him in four different TV shows. Bowie is a character actor, and to that end, he had a podcast called Household Faces for a bit where he interviewed other character actors. It’s a good listen.

    Thanks for Reading The Big Bang Theory Cast: Where Are They Now

    CBS – Credit: C/O

    You might also like this list of the 12 Best Seinfeld Episodes, Ranked or this list of 10 Gen X Film Stars Gone Too Soon.

    Main image: The Big Bang Theory cast. All photos from CBS.



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  • 12 Excellent Movies Where Not Much Happens

    12 Excellent Movies Where Not Much Happens


    Here are 12 excellent movies where not much happens. Or does it?

    There aren’t a lot of car chases, murders, sex scenes, or explosions, but lives are quietly changed.

    Lost in Translation (2003)

    Seductive Movies
    Focus Features – Credit: C/O

    Newlywed Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) and burned-out married actor Bob (Bill Murray) meet at a Tokyo hotel, talk, and sing some karaoke. Everything is melancholy and luminously beautiful.

    We keep thinking maybe they’ll leave their spouses — and yet we’re somehow grateful when they don’t. Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation is a celebration of small, intense interactions we’ll never recapture, and maybe shouldn’t.

    At the end, Bob finds Charlotte in a crowd. They look in each other’s eyes, embrace, and he whispers something we can’t hear. They kiss in a way that feels not at all sexual. They’re friends.

    The Power of the Dog (2021)

    Netflix

    Jane Campion’s drama looked like a likely Best Picture winner in 2022 before CODA scored the honor in an unusual, Covid-tainted year.

    It is, on its surface, a slow, ponderous story about a widow (Kirsten Dunst), her kindly suitor and eventual husband (Jesse Plemons), her effeminate, intellectual son, (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and her brutal brother-in-law (Benedict Cumberbatch).

    For most of the movie, we think we’re watching a sensitive Western, perhaps with a revisionist take on the very 2020s theme of “toxic masculinity.” But by the end, we realize it’s been a different kind of movie all along — and a more ruthless one than we realized. It makes a hard, shrewd shift in genre, and we respect it.

    Dazed and Confused (1993)

    Gramercy Pictures – Credit: C/O

    The ultimate hangout movie, Dazed and Confused follows a group of high schoolers on graduation night as they cruise around and make plans to go to a party at the Moontower. There’s some fighting and bullying and flirting, and some mailboxes get battered. Football star Randall “Pink” Floyd (Jason London) has to decide whether to sign a pledge. not to do drugs.

    And that’s it. No one dies, nothing explodes, no one pulls off the heist of the century. And yet it’s a pure joy, helped launch the careers of Ben Affleck, Parker Posey, and Matthew McConaughey, and is the best hangout movie ever. Quentin Tarantino has called his favorite movie of the 90s.

    Dazed and Confused is one of several deceptively simple Richard Linklater movies, where very normal days and nights turn out to be the most memorable of our lives.

    And, since we mentioned Tarantino…

    Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

    Sony Pictures Releasing

    A slice of life story about real-life actress Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), her burnout actor neighbor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), and Dalton’s pal-stuntman-assistant Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt).

    The film takes us on a pleasant meander through three days of their lives — at one point we join Sharon on a solo trip to the movies — but writer-director Quentin Tarantino knows he doesn’t need to do much to move the plot along…

    … Because we’re on the edge of our seats the entire time, thinking about the hellish thing we know happened to the real Sharon Tate. Waiting for it to happen onscreen. Horrified.

    There are little smatterings of violence before the big finale as Cliff fights both Bruce Lee (Mike Moh) and Tex Watson (Austin Butler).

    And when the grim ending comes… it turns out to be not what we expected.

    Perfect Days (2023)

    Koji Yakusho and Arisa Nakano in Perfect Days. DCM

    The newest film on our list, Perfect Days follows a Tokyo bathroom custodian named Hirayama (Kōji Yakusho) as he goes about his simple days, fueled by mix tapes, good books, and his love of photography.

    It’s a curious, transfixing film about making the most of a seemingly simple existence. People enter his life who seem poised to change it dramatically, but he takes comfort in his routines.

    Its excellent movie credentials include premiering at the the 76th Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d’Or and won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the Best Actor Award for Yakusho. It was also nominated for the Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards,.

    Before Sunset (2004)

    Movies Where Not Much Happens
    Warner Independent Pictures

    Another Linklater movie, and the sequel to his lovely Before Sunrise, which could also be on this list. Jesse and Celine (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, who co-write the movie with Linklater and Kim Krizan) reunite in Paris, nearly a decade after the night they spent together in Vienna in Before Sunrise.

    Jesse has written a book about that night, and he and Celina reminisce about what could have been and what can never be. Or can it?

    The biggest event in Before Sunset comes at the very end, when instead of doing something, Jesse doesn’t do something — and it changes his and Celine’s lives. It also sets up the third film in the series, the beguiling Before Midnight.

    Last Days of Disco (1999)

    Gramercy Pictures

    Writer-director Whit Stillman has said that during the tough days of filming his 1994 Barcelona, a rare moment of joy came while shooting a disco scene. He wondered why he couldn’t just make a whole movie of young women loving the nightlife and dancing. So he made Last Days of Disco.

    Chloe Sevigny and Kate Beckinsale star as aspiring book editors who eke out small salaries while looking for love or connection or something on dance floors and the sexy banquettes at their edges. At least one character considers them overprivileged and insipid, and the big climax is a debate about Lady and the Tramp.

    But there’s a lot happening in the subtext, including a richly detailed, nearly invisible subplot about tax fraud. And — much more importantly, from the movie’s perspective — people find real meaning in the most seemingly superficial of settings. This might be your humble correspondent’s favorite movie — and it’s one of the most seductive movies we’ve ever seen.

    The Brutalist (2024)

    Brutalist Judy Becker
    A24

    The newest film on this list, and a leading Oscar contender, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist moves as a patient, often hypnotic pace, inviting you to enjoy and appreciate its anthemic score, nuanced performances, and the brutally beautiful architecture of protagonist László Tóth (Adrien Brody).

    It unfolds over 3 hours and 35 minutes that do not fly by: One of its leads, Felicity Jones as Erzsébet Tóth — doesn’t really show up until after the midpoint intermission. Strikingly, for a movie with plenty of time, The Brutalist never over-explains, often waiting until years after events in the film to have occurred before the characters discuss them at any length.

    Arguably the most devastating moment in the film — it occurs between László and his benefactor/antagonist Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr. (Guy Pearce) — unfolds with such understatement that you may not immediately understand the trauma unfolding unless you catch the sound of an unbuckling belt.

    Contempt (1963)

    Marceau-Cocinor 

    French writer Paul (Michel Piccoli) is enlisted to work with Fritz Lang (played by the real Fritz Lang) on an adaptation of The Iliad.

    When Paul and his wife Camille (Brigitte Bardot) are invited to the home of cocky American producer Jeremy Proko (Jack Palance), Proko’s car only has room for one passenger. And so begins a period of intense agony for Paul.

    It’s all very slow — yet you wish it were even slower. Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt is one of the most gorgeous movies ever made. The visuals are sumptuous, including of Casa Malaparte, the seaside home on Capri, Italy where key scenes occur. And “Camille’s Theme,” by Georges Delerue, is so stirring that Martin Scorsese borrowed it for Casino.

    Contempt has two very violent deaths, but they’re almost an afterthought. The emotional carnage comes first.

    La Piscine (1969)

    Société Nouvelle de Cinématographie

    TimeOut perfectly describes this one as “a deliciously languid, slinkily unsettling affair.”

    Director Jacques Deray spends lots of time on the uncluttered elegance of la piscine of the title (la piscine is French for “the swimming pool”) and the magnetism of its four central inhabitants, played by Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Maurice Ronet, and Jane Birkin.

    There’s lust and jealousy, sure, though we’re never sure how seriously to take it all until, about midway through the film, someone commits a rompishly casual murder. When it happens, you’re almost sad to see the movie take a break from shots of people just lying around.

    The Father (2020)

    UCG Distribution

    The setup for Florian Zeller’s magnificent debut is so simple it barely seems sufficient for a movie: A daughter (Olivia Colman) is trying to move her dementia-struck father (Anthony Hopkins) from his flat and into a nursing home.

    But the scenes that result are both aching and mesmerizing. Zeller designed the film, he told MovieMaker, “to make the audience feel as if they were going through a labyrinth.” He envelops the audience in Anthony’s confusion by moving the proportions of the apartment, changing the locations of items, and even changing the colors of a wall.

    We see and feel a man losing his mind, and the film makes us share in his alternating peace and terror. Zeller was so certain that Hopkins was the only actor for the job that he named his main character Anthony and wrote the script for the Silence of the Lambs Oscar winner without ever having met him.

    All worked out: Hopkins won his second Best Actor Oscar for The Father, one of the most excellent movies of recent years.

    Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)

    Olympic Films

    The gold standard of movies where not much happens, Jeanne Dielman follows a widowed housewife (Delphine Seyrig) as she goes about her domestic routines over three days: cooking, cleaning, taking care of her son, and having sex with a different client each afternoon.

    Yes, she has sex three times, and there is one pointed act of violence, which may sound like a lot is happening. But consider that the movie is three hours and twenty minutes long. At one point it devotes four minutes to a static shot of Jeanne making veal cutlets.

    Released when writer-director Chantal Akerman was just 25, Jeanne Dielman initially drew a mixed response, but steadily gained respect. In 2020, the Sight + Sound poll named it the greatest movie ever made. It replaced Vertigo at the top of the list.

    Liked This Gallery of 12 Excellent Movies Where Not Much Happens?

    Sony Pictures Classics

    You might also enjoy this list of 10 Great Documentaries About Making Movies That You Can Stream Now.

    Main image: Brigitte Bardot in Contempt. Marceau-Cocinor 



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  • The 12 Coolest Time Travel Movies of All Times

    The 12 Coolest Time Travel Movies of All Times


    Here are the 12 coolest time travel movies of all time — and all times.

    Cinema’s obsession with time travel makes perfect sense, given that movies may be the closest most of us will ever get to it: The filmmakers of the past told stories for the audiences of the future. As the gap between creation and audience grows, so does every film’s value as an artifact of its time.

    As people and places disappear, films can become our best ways to remember them, and experience something like immersion in times we may remember only faintly, if at all.

    So in a way, all movies are time travel movies. But the following films are explicitly about people starting in one time, and traveling to another.

    It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

    Donna Reed, Jimmy Stewart and Karolyn Grimes in It’s a Wonderful Life. RKO Radio Pictures

    If you think It’s a Wonderful Life isn’t a time travel movie, we would ask: How is it not? The dark Christmas classic from Frank Capra follows George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart at his best) revisiting his past — or rather an alternate version of his life in which he was never born.

    Rather than going back and changing the past, George has to endure the present — and in doing so, shape the future. Just like all of us do every day.

    As popular as the multiverse concept is today, it’s notable that It’s a Wonderful Life hit on it long, long ago. Credit goes to Capra and co-writers Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, as well as Philip Van Doren Stern, who wrote the story upon which It’s a Wonderful Life was based.

    The Time Machine (1960)

    When Morlocks attack: Yvette Mimieaux as Weena in The Time Machine. MGM

    No discussion of time travel is complete without bowing to H.G. Wells’ 1895 novel The Time Machine, one of the most influential stories of all.

    George Pal’s adaptation of the novel presents a two-caste future in which humans have evolved into Eloi and Morlocks. The passive, vegetarian Eloi seem to have it good: They live a pleasant, idyllic existence — above ground, no less.

    It all seems very nice until we realize the Eloi (including Yvette Mimieaux as Weena, above) are basically veal for the Morlocks, the scrappy, resentful subterraneans who emerge occasionally from their caves to feed on their pampered cousins.

    The Time Machine is a great time travel movie, and inspired many others on this list., sometimes quite overtly. But it’s also a provocative, still-relevant piece of social commentary.

    La Jetée (1962)

    Hélène Châtelain in La Jetée. Argos Films.

    Chris Marker’s La Jetée explains to audiences that it is “the story of a man marked by an image of his childhood” — a violent image he witnessed “sometime before the outbreak of World War III.”

    He comes to understand it only by experiencing it again and again, in a time loop that the short film illustrates almost entirely illustrated in still photos. His link to the past is a memory of a woman (played by Hélène Châtelain, above) he once encountered on the observation platform, or jetty, of Paris’ Orly Airport.

    Between its deliberate repetition, black-and-white photography and unsettling setting — we are watching the past’s vision of our own possible future, which feels simultaneously dated and far beyond us — La Jetée is hypnotic.

    Time After Time (1979)

    Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen in Time After Time. Warner Bros.

    Nicholas Meyers’ Time After Time has one of the best setups of any film. Pointedly inspired by The Time Machine, it begins in Victorian London, where Jack the Ripper (aka Dr. John Leslie Stevenson, played by David Warner) has just struck again.

    He joins a gathering at the home of his friend H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell), who unveils a time machine he’s a bit apprehensive about using.

    When the police close in, Stevenson flees to the future in the time machine — and H.G. follows him. They end up in 1979 San Francisco, where fish-out-of-water Stevenson adapts swimmingly to the violence of the (then) modern age, while gentle H.G. tries to stop him from killing again.

    He’s aided by bank employee Amy (Mary Steenburgen), who becomes Jack’s target. Things build to kind of a disappointing climax, but there’s so much thoughtfulness and delight along the way that it’s silly to linger on it.

    And in a sweet behind-the-scenes ending, Steenburgen and McDowell fell in love and were married for a decade.

    The Terminator (1984)

    Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn in The Terminator. Orion Pictures. – Credit: C/O

    When the low-budget Terminator emerged in 1984, some people dismissed it as a dumb, violent shoot-’em-up about a killer robot.

    While it’s undeniably one of the best killer robot movies ever made, it also offers one of the coolest takes on how time travel works.

    In the world of The Terminator, time travel is like an inevitable loop that transgresses calendar years: Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) is sent back in time to save Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) so she can give birth to her son John, the savior of humankind in a dark, robot-infested future. But he also ends up fathering John — who, in turn, is the one who sends him back in time.

    Brilliant.

    Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

    Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. TriStar Pictures – Credit: C/O

    Yes, we’re going with two Terminator movies, because the inevitable-loop concept ramps up to another level when we learn in T2 that the arrival of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 in the first Terminator was the cause of the Judgment Day that sparks the A.I. takeover.

    In short, the last remaining piece of technology from the T-800’s final battle against Sarah and John becomes crucial to Cyberdyne, the company that creates SkyNet, which quickly makes things very tough for humanity.

    The past creates the future which creates the past which creates the future. At least, that’s how it goes in The Terminator.

    The next time travel movie on our list has a different theory about it all works.

    Back to the Future (1985)

    Back to the Future
    Crispin Glover, Lea Thompson and Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future. Universal Pictures.

    One of the most flat-out entertaining movies ever, Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future embraces the geekiness of time travel and makes it as goofily cool as possible — while grounding everything in a very human story.

    1980s teen Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) travels back to the 1950s thanks to a time traveling DeLorean built by his mentor, Doc Brown (Christopher LLoyd). But upon arrival, Marty prevents a crucial meeting of his young parents (Crispin Glover and Lea Thompson).

    Worse, his mom develops a crush on him — which is a huge problem for many reasons. But it’s arguably most troubling because in the Back to the Future school of time travel, nothing is inevitable, even Marty’s existence. If he can’t get his parents together, he and his siblings will never be born.

    Things get more complicated (and occasionally even more fun) in Back to the Future 2, in which Marty is propelled into the future, and back to the past — and has to avoid running into himself. And Back to the Future 3 goes for pure Western thrills.

    Diehard fans of time travel movies will note that in the latter, Mary Steenbergen plays a character in a similar situation to the one her character faced in the aforementioned Time After Time.

    Groundhog Day (1993)

    Andie McDowell and Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. Columbia Pictures – Credit: C/O

    Harold Ramis’ masterpiece stars his Ghostbusters castmate Bill Murray as a weatherman cursed to repeat the same holiday again and again. It enlivened the time travel movie genre and popularized the time-loop format. It’s also another of the best movies ever made.

    Screenwriter Danny Rubin, who was steeped in Anne Rice’s vampire novels, became interested in the idea of immortality, and of repeating the same day over and over again. He and Ramis turned his original script into a meditation on life itself, and how all of us have the choice, each time the alarm goes off, to make each day a grinding re-enactment of the one before, or to take it in an entirely new direction.

    Assemble enough of those decisions together, and you’ve completed a lifetime.

    Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)

    Michael York as Basil Exposition in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. New Line Cinema

    In the first Austin Powers film, 1997’s Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Mike Myers’ swinging ’60s spy is frozen in 1967 and thawed out in the ’90s.

    In the sequel, Austin must travel back — this time to 1969 — to match wits with Dr. Evil (also Myers) who has stolen Austin’s mojo. The ramifications of crossing paths with his (frozen) past self causes Austin to go cross-eyed — but the wise Basil Exposition gives him some advice.

    “I suggest you don’t worry about this sort of thing and just enjoy yourself,” he says.

    Then he and Myers turn smilingly to the audience, as Basil adds, “That goes for you all, too.”

    Thus freed from thinking about the space-time continuum, we’re able to just enjoy Austin returning to the past to dance and fight alongside Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham.)

    Midnight in Paris (2011)

    Midnight in Paris. Sony Pictures Classics

    Woody Allen’s beguiling Midnight in Paris skips any concern about how time travel works in favor of charm. Owen Wilson’s character, who is having trouble with his fiancée (Rachel McAdams), travels back in time simply by stepping inside a 1920s car each night at midnight.

    It transports him to glorious 1920s Paris, where he mingles with the likes of Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll), F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston), Zelda Fitzgerald (Alison Pill), Salvador Dali (Adrien Brody) and Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates). He also becomes captivated by Adriana, Picasso’s mistress, played by Marion Cotillard.

    Instead of a new take on how time travel works, Midnight in Paris lays out a universal truth: Some people will always prefer to live in the past.

    Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

    Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt in Edge of Tomorrow. Warner Bros.

    This Tom Cruise-Emily Blunt gem takes the Groundhog Day concept into the realm of action and sci-fi. But it’s also funny, in a different way than Groundhog Day.

    Cruise plays against type as a man who, like Murray in Groundhog Day, must re-live the same day again and again. But Cruise, known for playing ultra-competent heroes like Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible films and Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in Top Gun, goes against type by portraying a bit of a bumbler.

    He’s a PR man who dies in a series of darkly amusing ways under the tutelage of Blunt’s experienced super soldier, Sergeant Rita Vrataski.

    The film was a box office disappointment, but has gained much respect since its initial release. Based on the Hiroshi Sakurazaka novel All You Need Is Kill, it was almost given director Doug Liman’s preferred title, Live Die Repeat, which became the film’s tagline.

    Spoiler Warning: The next and final film on this list isn’t obviously a time travel movie until its incredible ending.

    Planet of the Apes (1968)

    Charlton Heston and Linda Harrison in Planet of the Apes. 20th Century Fox.

    Like we said, the presence of this film on this list is a spoiler — we’re sorry. Then again, the original Planet of the Apes has been out for 57 years, so you’ve had time to see it.

    What’s coolest about Planet of the Apes is that for almost its entire running time, you don’t realize you’re watching a time travel movie. It just seems like a nightmarish sci-fi film in which a trio of astronauts led by Charlton Heston’s George Taylor crash-land on a planet ruled by apes. They treat humans — including Nova (Linda Harrison) — like animals.

    Then we get to one of the greatest movie twist endings of all time, and realize the astronauts never left the planet earth.

    Liked This List of the Coolest Time Travel Movies of All Time?

    Linda Harrison in Planet of the Apes. 20th Century Fox.

    Thank you for giving us a few minutes of your time.

    You might like this list of the 13 Best Post-Apocalyptic Movies We’ve Ever Seen, featuring, once again, Planet of the Apes.

    If these time travel movies have taught us nothing, it’s that it’s much easier to prevent an apocalypse now than to try to build a time machine and go back to prevent one later. Good luck, everyone.

    Main image: Yvette Mimieaux, as the Eloi Weena and Rod Taylor as H. George Wells in The Time Machine. MGM

    Editor’s note: Corrects error in Time After Time item. Jack the Ripper flees into the future, not the past.



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  • Thunderbolts* review – the best Marvel film in a while

    Thunderbolts* review – the best Marvel film in a while




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  • The quiet intensity of Lee Kang Sheng’s gaze

    The quiet intensity of Lee Kang Sheng’s gaze




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  • 13 Shameless Comedies That Just Don’t Care If You’re Offended

    13 Shameless Comedies That Just Don’t Care If You’re Offended


    These shameless comedies don’t care if you’re offended — they only care about making you laugh.

    Not Another Teen Movie (2000)

    Credit: C/O

    A brutal but affectionate takedown of teen movies from Lucas to She’s All That to Fast Times at Ridgemont High to The Breakfast Club, Not Another Teen Movie is a blitzkrieg of offense filled with sex, bathroom jokes, insane violence and surprisingly acute social commentary.

    Where else can you see Chris Evans misusing a banana, white kids who pretend to be Asian, and football players split in half?

    Not Another Teen Movie could cut every offensive joke and still be very funny, but it gets extra points for the sheer audacity of keeping them in.

    White Chicks (2004)

    Credit: Columbia

    Marlon and Shawn Wayans play Black FBI agents who impersonate rich white socialites to infiltrate a pompous Hamptons social scene — and break up a conspiracy. Along the way they learn how white people act when they think no one of other races are around, but also start to see the world from a woman’s perspective.

    If you’re not offended by something in White Chicks, you aren’t paying attention. The Wayans take down privileged white people, but also everyone else, and make points about our weird racial and sexual hangups along the way. White Chicks always keeps you guessing about how far it will go, and it goes pretty far.

    Airplane (1980)

    Credit: C/O

    June Cleaver speaking jive is deeply inappropriate — and one of the funniest things that has ever happened in a movie.

    God bless Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker for coming up with the idea of Barbara Billingsley delivering the line, “Oh stewardess? I speak jive.” And also for the 7,000 other great jokes in Airplane, one of the all-time greatest comedies.

    You can question its taste if you want to, but you’d be better off just going with the laughs. There are a lot of them.

    Team America: World Police (2004)

    Credit: Paramount

    It’s impossible to take any self-righteous actor seriously after watching this puppet-movie spy thriller that despises Kim Jong-Il, but hates Sean Penn even more.

    Puppet love scenes, projectile vomiting that goes on much too long, unapologetic jingoism — Team America, from the creators of South Park, is a mockery of gung-ho nationalism, but also a compelling defense of American foreign policy at its best.

    There’s also a fantastic metaphor involving three different body parts that we think about way more than we should.

    Borat (2006)

    Credit: 20th Century Fox

    Sacha Baron Cohen impersonates a sexist, anti-Semitic, generally clueless Kazakh journalist who makes Americans feel free to say things they wouldn’t ordinarily say. He’s gloriously ignorant, but his guilelessness brings out the worst in people who should know better. (And also, very occasionally, the best.)

    Borat’s behavior is wildly offensive, but he’s so demented that you can’t help but feel sorry for him, and Baron Cohen and his team manage to strike a perfect mix of revulsion and vulnerability. What’s most impressive is how much of it Baron Cohen had to improvise on the fly, in tense and often dangerous positions.

    The 2020 sequel, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, is also terrific.

    The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977)

    Comedies That Don't Care If You're Offended
    Credit: C/O

    With wall-to-wall gratuitous flesh and racial humor, The Kentucky Fried Movie is the modern-day definition of problematic, but it’s also a perfect time capsule of the freewheeling 1970s: It spots and skewers genres from kung-fu to Blaxploitation to women-in-prison movies in quick-hit, take-it-or-leave it sketches that are perfect sendups of a whole slew of grindhouse classics.

    It’s also an important movie, believe it or not — it was the breakthrough for its director, John Landis, and for its writers, the comedic team of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker, who would soon go on to make Airplane.

    Kentucky Fried Movie is one of those comedies that Gen X kids spoke of in whispers because so many of their parents banned them from seeing it. It has a well-earned reputation for what we used to call a dirty movie. It really is, in a way that still feels subversive, wrong, and thrilling.

    Also Read: The 12 Best Movie Plot Twists, Ranked

    Coming to America (1988)

    Credit: Paramount

    Are you Black, white, Jewish, Christian, African, American, young or old?

    There’s something to offend you in the cartoonish grotesquerie of Coming to America, in which Eddie Murphy plays people fitting into almost all of the demographics we just listed, mercilessly mocking them all.

    Coming to America takes shots at royalty, the nouveau riche, and the scrappy underclass, but is most focused on gender dynamics. It’s such a sharp judge of human behavior that the only appropriate reaction is awe.

    Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)

    Credit: C/O

    Monty Python takes on the ultimate sacred cow: the story of Jesus. It looks as magnificent as Hollywood’s biggest Biblical epics, which makes its takedown of pomposity all the more subversive and hysterical.

    A great many great bits and routines darkly culminate in the deranged cheeriness of the final musical number, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.”

    It’s all quite sacrilegious, and that’s the whole point.

    Tropic Thunder (2008)

    Credit: Paramount

    Tropic Thunder always walks a thin line, but especially with Ben Stiller’s Simple Jack character and Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of Kirk Lazarus, an Australian actor who really, really commits to playing a Black character.

    The film mocks actors desperate for awards, and it’s uncomfortable — but also funny. Stiller has admirably stuck to his guns, standing by his movie.

    “I make no apologies for Tropic Thunder,” Stiller tweeted last year when someone erroneously said he had apologized for the film. “Don’t know who told you that. It’s always been a controversial movie since when we opened. Proud of it and the work everyone did on it.”

    The Jerk (1979)

    Credit: Universal Pictures

    “I was born a poor Black child,” Steve Martin’s Navin Johnson explains at the start of this absurdist masterpiece, and it all builds up into a righteous kung-fu takedown at his hideously tacky mansion that features maybe the only time in history it’s been totally OK for a white guy to scream the most offensive of all racial slurs.

    No one else could have pulled of the balancing act except for Steve Martin, whose special purpose is to make us all laugh.

    We won’t pretend to be objective here: This is maybe our favorite movie out of all comedies, ever.

    South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999)

    Credit: Comedy Central

    South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut seeks out sympathy for the devil: We’re supposed to root for Satan himself as he tries to escape an abusive relationship with Saddam Hussein.

    There’s also lots of violence against kids and flagrant anti-Canadian propaganda.

    But of course, Canadians were too nice to get offended.

    Blazing Saddles (1974)

    Credit: Warner Bros.

    Blazing Saddles is filled with gags big and small, some of which will work for you and some of which won’t. It has quite a few race-based jokes, but the film is very much on the side of Sheriff Bart (Cleavon Little), a Black sheriff trying to bring progress to the Wild West.

    The American Film Institute ranks Blazing Saddles as the sixth-funniest movie of all time, but director and co-writer Mel Brooks disagrees: “I love Some Like It Hot, but we have the funniest movie ever made,” Brooks told Vanity Fair in 2016, not caring if you’re offended.

    The five films that landed ahead of Blazing Saddles on AFI’s list were, from first to fifth, Some Like It Hot, Tootsie, Dr. Strangelove, Annie Hall, and Duck Soup.

    Bottoms (2023)

    Ayo Edebiri stars as Josie and Rachel Sennott as PJ in Bottoms, an Orion Pictures Release. – Credit: C/O

    We’re happily including Bottoms for everyone who thinks today’s comedies are afraid to be funny. In fact, it’s on our spinoff list from this one — 15 Shameless New Comedies That Just Don’t Care If You’re Offended.

    Bottoms is about “teen girls who start a fight club so they can try to impress and hook up with cheerleaders,” explains writer-director Emma Seligman. It breaks a lot of rules about what kind of violence it’s considered decent to present onscreen — the girls really do fight, and don’t always win — and resists recent play-it-safe rules that dictate that LGBTQ+ characters have to be saintly or victimized or both.

    “I think every human deserves to see a relatable, complicated, nuanced version of themselves on screen. And I don’t think that I’ve seen it enough for me to feel recognized,” says Seligman.

    Liked Our List of Shameless Comedies That Just Don’t Care If You’re Offended?

    Inspiring Movies Glory uplifting movies
    Glory, Tri-Star Pictures.

    You might also like this list of “Based on a True Story” Movies That Are Actually Pretty True or this list of 12 Rad ’80s Movies Only Cool Kids Remember.

    Main image: The Kentucky Fried Movie.

    Editor’s Note: Corrects main image.



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  • Watch 2-Hour Unlisted Video for Zach Cregger Horror Film

    Watch 2-Hour Unlisted Video for Zach Cregger Horror Film


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlFuKPjc1E0

    Warner Bros. is going the creepy viral route to promote Weapons, the new child horror film from Barbarian writer-director Zack Cregger: A new two-hour, unlisted video features two hours of supposed surveillance video, mostly of children running through the night.

    The innocuously jarring title is simply “2025_░_░_06:17AM.mov.”

    It’s a wonderful bit of mystery, sure to raise interest in what’s already one of the most-anticipated horror films of the summer. The new poster for the film explains its concept: “Last night at 2:17 am, every child from Mrs. Gandy’s class woke up, got out of bed, went downstairs, opened the front door, walked into the dark… and never came back.”

    That summary raises a lot of questions: Does every single kid in Mrs, Gandy’s house have at least a two-story house? But we guess the more important question, which we hope the film will answer, is where all those children went. Also: What or who are the weapons in Weapons?

    Spend a while watching the Weapons video — sorry, we mean “2025_░_░_06:17AM.mov” — and you start to notice some extremely jarring things (or cool things, if you love horror.) Among them is the fact that one of the monitors we’re seeing appears to feature the reflected, emotionless face of a middle-aged man. Who is he? Why is he watching? What does he want?

    Weapons stars Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, June Diane Raphael, Toby Huss, and Benedict Wong, among others. We don’t think any of them appear in “2025_░_░_06:17AM.mov,” but who knows? (The middle aged man just might be Huss.)

    Also Read: The 11 Most Nightmare Inducing Horror Villains

    Additional marketing materials for the film note that 17 children run away in all. And while the poster says it happens at 2:17 am — and time stamps on some of the assembled surveillance footage say 2:17 — the title of the video includes the time stamp 6:17 am. So maybe something is happening with the number 17?

    We already love this movie.

    Zack Cregger and the Campaigns for Weapons and Barbarian

    The Weapons unlisted video continues a long run of cool viral Warner Bros. immersive marketing campaigns: 2008’s Christopher Nolan Batman film The Dark Knight, for example, fascinated fans with an interactive website, not clearly identified as promotional, to drop hints about Heath Ledger’s bold take on The Joker. Such campaigns have since become a frequent part of the rollout for hotly anticipated films.

    Cregger’s Barbarian, released in 2022 by 20th Century Fox, benefitted from a similarly jolting campaign. A trailer for the film promoted it pleasantly as “Justin Long’s New Movie,” and featured Long’s character driving along Pacific Coast Highway in a convertible, as cheery music plays.

    “From the Producers of the Lego Movie,” the trailer brightly misdirects, before adding more bona fides: “The studio that brought you Alvin and the Chipmunks.”

    But around the one-minute mark, things take a dark turn. Long’s character realizes one of his Michigan properties has an unwanted visitor. There’s a thud. The cheery music drops out. And the trailer drops a hammer: “From the Producer of It.”

    With Weapons, the scares are right up front: two hours of creepy images, accompanied by static-y, disorienting sound. What’s discombobulating this time is the medium: As with The Dark Knight campaign, we don’t even know what we’re seeing has anything to do with a movie. If you missed the name Warner Bros., you might think you were just seeing some very alarming footage, from Ring cameras, dash cams, and whatever else is surveilling the suburban streets.

    Barbarian went on to be one of the most unexpected breakthroughs of 2022, earning more than $45 million against a low production budget of just $4.5 million. Hopes are even higher for Weapons.

    Weapons arrives in theaters on August 8, from Warner Bros. Pictures.

    Main image: Children running in the night in 2025_░_░_06:17AM.mov to promote Weapons. Courtesy of Warner Bros.



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  • Battlefield Earth 25 years on

    Battlefield Earth 25 years on




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  • All 6 Joker Actors Ranked Worst to Best

    All 6 Joker Actors Ranked Worst to Best


    Here are all 6 Joker actors ranked, from worst to best.

    Also, we’re only counting film Jokers, and not animated ones.

    Disagree? Great, that’s what the comments are for. Here we go.

    Joaquin Phoenix

    12 Phrases That Make You Sound Out of Touch
    Joaquin Phoenix in Joker. Warner Bros. – Credit: Joaquin Phoenix in Joker, Warner Bros.

    The emperor has no clothes. We know: Joaquin Phoenix’s take on The Joker in Joker was a spectacular success, bringing in a billion dollars and winning Phoenix an Oscar for Best Actor.

    Well, everyone was wrong. It was painful to watch Phoenix’s Joker ham it up through some nonsensical psychological condition cobbled together from superior movies like Taxi Driver and Fight Club.

    Phoenix’s Joker was cool visually — his emaciated body was more resonant than any of his dialogue — but his knockoff Travis Bickle felt so disconnected from any real human being that he and his movie had no stakes. He was the last thing the Joker should be: boring.

    Jared Leto

    Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and Jared Leto as The Joker in Suicide Squad. Warner Bros.

    What if The Joker were hot? That seems to be the odd approach to Jared Leto’s Joker of Suicide Squad, Birds of Prey, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League. He came off like one of those sexy influencers constantly insisting that they’re “deep” and “complex.” Not one for subtlety — he’s The Joker — he even had the word “Damaged” tattooed on his forehead.

    This is a matter of personal taste, but we prefer the idea of The Joker as a miscreant who could never survive in polite society, no matter how hard he might try, who turns to The Joker persona out of desperation. Leto’s Joker could have just quit crime to go into modeling.

    There were some cool things about Jared Leto’s Joker, for sure. He had the best clothes of any Joker, and we liked how he took fashion and tattoo inspiration from East L.A. gangsters. But maybe he should have just been a new character, not The Joker.

    Barry Keoghan

    Barry Keoghan as The Joker in The Batman. Warner Bros.

    2022’s The Batman went in the opposite direction from Jared Leto’s sexy Joker, portraying The Joker as having some kind of complicated skin condition that looks like a cross between burns and syphilis, in addition to his demented grin.

    We think Barry Keoghan is one of the best actors around, but we can’t abide by the decision to give him glorified cameo status as an fellow Arkham resident who cheerleads Paul Dano’s (terrific) Riddler. Keoghan gets more to do in a deleted scene that really should have been in the movie.

    Many versions of The Joker seems to use a pretense of comedy to mask profound despair and depression, but Keoghan’s seems to be just depressed and low energy. He doesn’t have the undeniable presence of the best Jokers.

    He’ll reportedly return in the next Batman film, and will hopefully have more to do.

    Jack Nicholson

    Kim Basinger as Vicki Vale and Jack Nicholson as The Joker in Batman. Warner Bros.

    It was great to see Jack Nicholson pop up at the Saturday Night Live 50th Anniversary show on Sunday, reminding everyone of what a cool screen presence he’s always had.

    Speaking of cool: He seemed a little above Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman — he didn’t phone it in, exactly, but he also avoided exploring any real pain or messiness in his version of the Clown Prince of Crime. He just seemed like he was having fun.

    One thing we especially like about Nicholson’s Joker is that unlike all the others, he really did have pale skin and green hair, a consequence of a long dip in a huge vat at Axis Chemicals. We weren’t as sold on his interest in art, which seemed like too many things, or the notion that he killed Bruce’s parents, which felt a little on the nose.

    Cesar Romero

    Cesar Romero as The Joker and Phyllis Douglas as Josie Miller in Batman. ABC

    Some people would deduct points for Cesar Romero’s refusal to shave his mustache to play The Joker in the 1966 Batman film and the 1966-68 TV series. But we love it: It’s the most Joker thing he could possibly do. It’s a completely anarchic, middle-finger-to-the-world level of commitment — or refusal to commit — that is as Joker as you can get.

    We also find Romero’s Joker effortlessly creepy in a way no other Joker is. He’s kind of suave and dashing, which makes him somehow even more grotesque. His voice, alternately sinewy and gravelly, is compelling. And his laugh is the best of any Joker’s. He also had the best hair, especially when it bounced as he shook with rage.

    You got the sense that he thought his whole ensemble — the purple suit, the green hair — looked good. Rather than seeming ashamed of his appearance, he seemed vain, which gave him an unnerving element of narcissism. You can say his Joker was too broad, but come on: He’s a criminal who dresses like a clown to play to the cheap seats. He set the standard for all future Jokers.

    Heath Ledger

    Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight
    Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight. Warner Bros – Credit: Warner Bros.

    Only one actor has gotten The Joker exactly right, honoring the comic-book legacy of The Joker while grounding him completely in reality. In Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger delivered a Gen X Joker, pragmatic and detached — so detached that he seems meta.

    He refuses to disclose an origin story, instead offering several — one of many ways he maintains a jittery sense of perpetual menace. But the real pleasure of The Dark Knight is realizing that despite his disheveled appearance and chaotic appearance, the war-painted misanthrope is the most meticulous planner in Gotham, whether robbing a bank of staging a moral showdown between ferry passengers.

    “His Joker was deeply, deeply warped and damaged, though you never find out exactly why, or what he’s really looking for,” Ledger’s Dark Knight co-star, Michael Caine, observes in his recent memoir. “Looking back, I think Heath’s excellence made all of us raise our game. The psychological battle between The Joker and Batman is completely riveting. Are they in any way the same? What nudges one man to do good, and the other to do evil? The Joker wants to torment Bruce by convincing him that they’re two of a kind.”

    Ledger earned a posthumous Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the film. Sadly, he died before its release.

    Liked This List of All 6 Joker Actors, Ranked?

    Michael Keaton as Batman and Jack Nicholson as The Joker in Batman. Warner Bros. – Credit: Warner Bros.

    You might also like this list of all 7 Batman actors ranked worst to best.

    Main image: Kim Basinger as Vicky Vale and Jack Nicholson as The Joker in Batman. Warner Bros.



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  • 13 Pathetic Horror Movie Villains Who Really Aren’t That Scary

    13 Pathetic Horror Movie Villains Who Really Aren’t That Scary


    These horror movie villains don’t pack much of a punch. Honestly, we’re surprised they can even hurt a fly, let alone people. Here are the 13 weakest, most pathetic horror movie villains we can think of. Spoilers follow.

    The Snowman in Jack Frost (1997)

    Weakest, Most Pathetic Horror Movie Villains
    A still from Jack Frost, A-Pix Entertainment – Credit: C/O

    In this 1997 straight-to-video slasher comedy, a serial killer on the way to his execution is exposed to chemicals that cause him to disintegrate and fuse with snow, turning him into a killer snowman.

    Although Jack Frost commits very brutal killings — like shoving an axe down one guy’s throat — his looks make him one of the least scary villains ever. Basically, the only difference between him and the beloved children’s character Frosty the Snowman are his arched eyebrows made of sticks and the fact that he’s missing a top hat.

    Plus, how easy would it be to kill Jack Frost? All you’d need is a hair dryer or something else hot to melt him away. He’s mostly able to pull off his crimes because he has the element of surprise, since people assume he’s a regular snowman and don’t suspect that he’ll kill them while their back is turned.

    The Old Woman in Devil (2010)

    Jenny O’Hara in Devil, Universal Pictures – Credit: C/O

    This 2010 horror movie was based on a story by M. Night Shyamalan. Directed by John Erick Dowdle, it revolves around everyone’s worst nightmare: getting stuck in an elevator. But it has a sickening twist — one of the elevator’s passengers is secretly the devil.

    Spoiler alert! The devil turns out to be the one you’d least expected: an old lady played by Jenny O’Hara.

    However, even though her voice gets super deep and demonic and her eyes turn black, there isn’t much really scary about her appearance. All of her heinous killings are done in the dark. And she’s ultimately foiled because her main target — the guy whose soul she wants to claim — confesses his sins, rendering her powerless. She vanishes, just like that.

    It’s obvious to point out, but something else worth noting here is that it would be super easy to overtake this character, known only as Old Woman. Her only power is the element of surprise and the fact that she’s possessed by the devil himself. Otherwise, she’s pretty toothless, and she’s not very scary looking at all. This is not the type of devil that would give anyone nightmares, making her a rather pathetic horror movie villain.

    Chucky in Child’s Play (1988)

    Chucky in Child’s Play, United Artists – Credit: C/O

    While the idea of a children’s doll possessed by the soul of a serial killer is pretty unsettling, there’s an argument to be made that Chucky himself is not that scary. He’s arguably one of the more pathetic horror movie villains.

    He’s just a doll. And honestly, in the decades since the original Child’s Play was released in 1988, horror movie dolls have gotten a lot scarier (just look at Annabelle from The Conjuring universe). The scariest thing about Chucky is his piercing blue eyes that are frozen in a permanent stare.

    But although it takes multiple gun shots to finally take him down in the original film, it doesn’t seem that hard to subdue a little doll the size of a toddler. Just disarm him by taking his knife away and throw him in an incinerator or something. He doesn’t have any crazy abilities other than bleeding like a real human, which makes him relatively easy to kill.

    In the grand scheme of horror villains, Chucky is pretty gentle.

    Pearl and Howard in X (2022)

    Mia Goth as Pearl in X, A24 – Credit: C/O

    Nevermind that you could knock them both over with a feather — Pearl and Howard are both more creepy than they are actually scary in X, the first installment in Ti West’s trilogy starring Mia Goth.

    Sure, Pearl is deranged. She’s a vengeful old woman hell-bent on killing the porn actors who are renting out she and her husband Howard’s cabin. But she could easily be overpowered by anyone with an ounce of muscle. Same goes for Howard. He’s pretty much just Pearl’s minion anyway. Pearl obviously wears the pants in that relationship.

    Although Pearl is pretty dastardly and we wouldn’t want to encounter her in a dimly lit barn, the odds are good that most people could take her in a fight.

    The Rabbits in Night of the Lepus (1972)

    A still from Night of the Lepus, MGM – Credit: C/O

    They’re literally just rabbits. No special effects to be seen here — the terrifying creatures that taunt a small town and kill people are just actual bunny rabbits.

    This film is infamous for its failure to make these little guys seem scary. To shoot scenes like the one pictured above, they just let some bunnies lose on a miniature set to make them look giant. But even with the perspective, it’s pretty obvious that they’re just regular bunnies.

    For attack scenes, they had actors dress up in bunny costumes, which makes the whole thing even funnier. You can watch one bunny attack scene here — in the shots of the real bunnies, they’re actually really cute, even when their little bunny faces are smeared with blood.

    The Cookie in The GingerDead Man (2005)

    A still from The GingerDead Man, Full Moon Entertainment – Credit: C/O

    This one requires little explanation as to why the GingerDead Man is a pretty pathetic horror movie villain. He’s just a cookie! He would literally crumble in a glass of milk.

    Look at his face in the picture above. Sure, it’s a face only a mother could love. But is it particularly scary? Not really.

    The weakness of this cookie villain is similar to the aforementioned Jack Frost above. It’s hard to believe why the protagonists of the film didn’t figure out a way to kill him faster. This particular cookie is, like Jack Frost, possessed by the spirit of a serial killer — but this time it’s because his ashes were mixed in with blood and cookie ingredients. A witch’s curse allows him to come back to life. But does he really have that much strength or power? We doubt it.

    The scariest thing about him is that the serial killer who the cookie embodies is played by Gary Busey.

    Karen in Honeydew (2020)

    Barbara Kingsley in Honeydew, Dark Star Pictures – Credit: C/O

    We won’t try to argue that the plot of this 2020 horror film is one of the most messed up and psychologically disturbing ones we’ve witnessed in a while. But we will argue that the main villain, an old woman named Karen (Barbra Kingsley), shouldn’t be so hard to conquer.

    With the help of an old man named Eulis, Karen lures a young couple into her home through deception. From there, she tricks them into eating her food and later drugs them in various ways, including with gas masks. From there, she lobotomizes her victims and eats their flesh, cannibal style… yeah.

    But Karen herself is arguably physically weak and could be overcome if everyone teamed up on her.

    The problem is that Karen does her work while her victims are knocked out, which is ultimately how she overcomes otherwise healthy adversaries like the protagonists Sam and Rylie. But if they had taken her out when they had a chance, before she drugged them, they could have easily gotten away. Fun fact, this movie also features Lena Dunham!

    Brahms in The Boy (2016)

    Brahms in The Boy, STX Entertainment – Credit: C/O

    In 2016’s The Boy, the villain is a porcelain doll named Brahms. His creepy parents are convinced that the doll is actually their late son. At first, he seems inanimate, but then it’s revealed that he’s actually alive, possessed by the spirit of their murderous little boy.

    But honestly, Brahms isn’t that scary. He somehow has the ability to overpower a grown man, but then when he tries to overpower his nanny, Greta (Lauren Cohan), she uses his own trick against him — invoking the rules by which he lives.

    So if Brahms can be subdued that easily, couldn’t Greta just smash him with a hammer or something? He’s just a little doll, much like Chucky. He doesn’t seem like he would realistically be that hard to kill.

    The Goblins in Troll 2 (1990)

    A still from Troll 2, Epic Productions – Credit: C/O

    In this hilariously bad movie, Troll 2, the villains are a pack of vegetarian goblins who turn people into vegetables so they can eat them.

    That premise is already pretty goofy. Why not have the goblins be carnivores? That would be scarier. Nope — these goblins eat vegetables only, please. But instead of eating veggies and calling it a day, they decide to trick people into drinking a potion that dissolves them into vegetables.

    Although they look pretty unsavory, their masks are so misshapen that they look like something you’d find for your hard in Spirit Halloween. They’re also tiny. And, again, they survive on vegetables. How hard could it be to kill them? Case in point (and spoiler ahead): simply eating a bologna sandwich renders a person’s body poisonous to the goblins. The fact that the goblins win out in the end is honestly so disappointing.

    The Clowns in Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988)

    A still from Killer Klowns From Outer Space, Trans World Entertainment – Credit: C/O

    The clowns from this 1988 B-movie cult-classic are more funny looking than they are scary.

    True, one punch from an extraterrestrial clown’s boxing glove can knock a man’s head clean off. But still, these strange little alien men look more like demented fun house animatronics than horror villains.

    We must admire the artistry that went into the practical effects — the details of their lifelike, weird little clown faces are something to be admired. But these aren’t the kind of horror movie characters that inspire nightmares, unless you’re six years old. But to be fair, horror movie characters have gotten a LOT more sinister and disturbing since 1988, so maybe in their day, these clowns were a bit scarier in context.

    The Leprechaun in Leprechaun (1993)

    A still from Leprechaun, Trimark Pictures – Credit: C/O

    Jennifer Aniston looks plenty scared in the 1993 horror film about an evil leprechaun who hunts down a family he believes has stolen his pot of gold. But in reality, this little Irish man has very few scares in him.

    We’d argue that the titular leprechaun is actually a pretty pathetic horror movie villain. Again, we admire the artistry of the practical effects — it’s actually a real actor in this little leprechaun suit, played by Warwick Davis. But he doesn’t really send shivers down our spine. Also, his Irish accent is not very Irish sounding.

    If you want a real scare, listen to some stories about the culturally-authentic supernatural folk of Ireland — the fairies. Leprechauns are mostly an American concept. In Ireland, the superstition around faeries, also called “the good people,” is no joke.

    The Bunnyman in Bunnyman (2011)

    Bunnyman still, Osiris Entertainment – Credit: C/O

    This 2011 horror film is based on Virginia’s urban legend of the Bunny Man — a man in a bunny suit who threatens people with an axe. In the movie, the Bunnyman in question wields a chainsaw instead.

    But really, he’s just a guy in a bunny suit. And the suit itself isn’t scary at all. It’s just a regular bunny costume not unlike one you might find at the mall when little kids take pictures with the Easter bunny.

    We’d actually argue that the bunny suit in Donnie Darko is much scarier in appearance. However, this Bunnyman eats people’s flesh after murdering and dismembering them, so that is pretty scary. He just doesn’t look like much.

    Macaulay Culkin in The Good Son (1993)

    Macaulay Culkin in The Good Son, 20th Century Studios – Credit: C/O

    In this 1993 horror movie, Macaulay Culkin plays a sort of real-life version of Brahms from The Boy. He’s a nasty little boy who likes to hurt people on purpose.

    But he doesn’t have any supernatural abilities. He’s just a sociopathic, or perhaps psychopathic, little kid. He could easily be stopped if someone put him in a time-out — they just might have to keep an eye on him, because he’s really good at outsmarting adults who underestimate him.

    Overall, he’s got to be one of the all-time least intimidating horror movie characters. He’s basically just a little guy who really needs therapy.

    Like This List of 13 Pathetic Horror Movie Villains Who Really Aren’t That Scary?

    Michael Imperioli
    Michael Imperioli as Christopher Moltisanti in The Sopranos, HBO – Credit: C/O

    You might also like this list of 7 Horror Remakes No One Really Needed — which featured unexpected movie deaths galore — or this list of 12 TV Characters Who Deserved to Die.



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