Review: Yippee ki‐yay, Rebel Wilson is a one-woman killing machine in ‘Bride Hard'
In a directing career going back almost 30 years, Simon West has never even tried to make a good movie. His filmography is a catalog of intentional mediocrity — 'Con Air,' ' The General's Daughter,' ' Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,' ' The Mechanic.'
Yet it takes a certain discipline to stick to what you're sort of good at and never make an audience suffer through your deepest feelings about life and existence. Like his latest effort, 'Bride Hard,' West's movies are never exactly good, but they're almost never boring — and boring is the only unforgivable sin.
His latest movie's title, 'Bride Hard,' says it all. It has become a cliche of the Hollywood pitch meeting for would-be filmmakers to describe their proposed projects in terms of two previous box office hits: 'It's like 'Dracula' meets 'The Avengers'!' 'Bride Hard' doesn't try to hide the fact that it's a mashup of ' Bridesmaids ' and ' Die Hard.' So, even though it's a cynical effort, with no aspiration behind it, there's something playful about it too. Everybody's in on the fact that they're doing something silly.
Like 'Bridesmaids,' 'Bride Hard' focuses mainly on the maid of honor, Sam (Rebel Wilson), who finds herself in a competition for the approval of her best friend (Anna Camp), who is getting married. Sam keeps falling down on her maid-of-honor duties, and one of the bridesmaids, the wealthy Virginia (Anna Chlumsky), keeps showing her up.
But what Sam's friends don't know is that Sam isn't being negligent. She's trying to balance the imperatives of a social life with a career as a world-class secret agent, a one-woman killing machine.
The first 20 minutes, which almost amount to a 'Bridesmaids' parody, are a little slow. The bridal party is in Paris, and Sam keeps having to ditch her friends every few minutes to do spy work. But the movie picks up when it moves to an estate in Georgia, where the wedding is to take place. At that point, the 'Die Hard' aspect of the story kicks in.
In place of the late Alan Rickman, who played the villain Hans Gruber in the 1988 action flick, we get Stephen Dorff and a team of mercenaries bursting into a wedding ceremony with machine guns. They take everyone hostage, except for — guess who? — Sam, who just happens to be apart from the wedding party at that particular moment.
So you have a situation in which a really bad guy is looking for money and probably intends to kill all the hostages. And you have one talented but unarmed person, Sam, who has to figure out how to rescue them.
Sometimes even a humble, not-so-good movie can teach us lessons about filmmaking, and this is the lesson of 'Bride Hard.' You know that whole 'Die Hard' formula, in which it's one person, facing long odds, trying to rescue everybody? That formula is indestructible.
In the case of 'Bride Hard,' we barely believe in the characters or their relationships. Wilson — the hilarious Fat Amy of the 'Pitch Perfect' franchise — isn't convincing as an action star, and the movie's light tone all but guarantees that nothing truly bad will happen. And yet, when Sam goes on the attack, we're right there with her. Somehow, we end up caring.
Wilson is fun, as always, and she's nicely supported by Chlumsky as the passive-aggressive Virginia, and Camp who, as the bride, walks a nice line between sincerity and comic absurdity.
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CNET
2 hours ago
- CNET
Death Stranding 2 Ending Explained: What Happened to Lou, Neil Vana and BB-28?
Death Stranding 2's release date was Thursday but some players who bought a special edition of the game have already been playing it for two days. As it takes 30 to 40 hours to finish the game, some will see the ending and wonder what in the world they just experienced. Death Stranding 2 comes from the mind of Hideo Kojima and he can be a little eccentric with his video games. This game is peak creativity from the legendary game developer but it's not easy to follow what happened, even when you've finished his game. Spoiler warning: If you haven't beaten Death Stranding 2 yet, don't read any further. If you've finished the game and are still scratching your head, keep on reading. Now Playing: Unboxing the Death Stranding 2 PS5 Controller 00:45 What happened with Lou? Early in the game, Fragile is holding Lou when Higgs shoots at her. When she comes to, she tells Sam that Lou is gone. We see a month later that Sam is searching for Lou and finds her, yet this is clearly not Lou -- it's a dream. Sam continues to carry around Lou's BB pod as if Lou is still a baby with him. He'll hear Lou cry, he can comfort her and all the other actions he was able to do in the first game. Toward the end, we learn a couple of things. First, Lou was Sam's daughter with Lucy, Sam's therapist, who is briefly shown in the first game. Second, the Lou that Sam has been carrying appears to be just a delusion of his that the Magallan crew has seemingly just gone along with. All those abilities that BBs can do, such as scanning for BTs, were done by Dollman. Lastly, Tomorrow is Sam's daughter, in other words, Lou. So, in the final battle with Higgs, instead of ending the world, Tomorrow, aka Lou, ends up helping take out Higgs in the most adorable way. She is brought over from the other side and it looks like she might be the star of her own Death Stranding game or maybe some DLC as a new porter. Who was Neil Vana? Neil Vana was a smuggler who worked similarly to Sam's, but instead of a package of whatever, he delivered brain-dead pregnant women whose babies would be sacrificed to the Bridges project and become BBs. His sections of Death Stranding 2 act similarly to the scenes featuring Cliff from the first game, in that they are segments that provide some background to the story while also just letting players stop thinking about packages and just do some shooting. During these sections, Neil wears an outfit similar to Solid Snake from the Metal Gear series, one of many references to Kojima's famous series found throughout the sequel. Each segment featuring Neil represents a particular strong memory that Sam experiences, unlike the quick glimpses of the past Sam gets whenever he plugs himself into Lou's BB pod. When Neil was a child, the Mexican town he was in was being inundated with BTs, causing havoc. He had met a young girl who helped him, but when she was trapped, he tried to help her, leaving a scar on his and her hands. Years later, when he sought a therapist to help him deal with his troubling work, he met Lucy Strand. Lucy is the sister of Bridget Strand, the President of the United Cities of America, and she was also Sam's therapist. Lucy and Sam fell in love, and she was pregnant with his child. In the first Death Stranding, the story given to Sam was that Lucy committed suicide. That appears not to be the case. It seems that Lucy was approached to give up her baby to Bridges, likely because of Sam being the father. She sought the help of Neil to smuggle her into Mexico. Neil thought Lucy was having his baby but she did make it clear that the baby wasn't his. Nevertheless, he was not going to abandon her this time around, so he made arrangements to sneak her out of the country. Those efforts became futile as Neil and Lucy were shot by the Bridges guards. Lou was taken out of Lucy to be used as a BB, with her body left on a medical table waiting for Sam to show up. While Neil did die, he didn't cross over, thus becoming a BT. The doctors who were seemingly going to examine his body mentioned the need for corpse disposal as Neil's soul, his ka, had left the body. While a BT would normally go to whatever person is near, Neil instead floats to Lucy's dead body. Here's when we see Sam show up and break down with his love dead and his child seemingly gone. Neil follows Sam, and whether it was done on purpose or was just the nature of being a BT, Neil makes contact with Sam, causing a voidout and destroying the city. This event caused Sam to retire from Bridges and develop his aphenphosmphobia, the fear of being touched. Neil's final fight with Sam was enough to finally let his soul be at peace. Kojima Productions/Screenshot by CNET What's the mystery of BB-28? At the start of his mission in the first Death Stranding, Sam comes across a BB that was supposed to be destroyed. For some reason, he decides against it and takes on BB-28 as his own. He formed a bond with the BB, and after a successful mission, he left for Mexico to raise the baby as Lou. Throughout Death Stranding 2, there's a mystery regarding the origins of BB-28. What eventually comes out is that BB-28 wasn't the 28th baby to be used by Bridges. It was actually the first, BB-00. However, there had been some secretive moves to seemingly erase Lou from the system. This resulted in Lou being in storage for 11 years and given the BB-28 designation. The most likely reason for this was to hide the details about where the baby came from and who the mother was. It's also likely that the person who brought Lou out of storage to be used again was the President, who knew Lou was Sam's daughter, and to possibly unite them when he came out of retirement. Who is The President? 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APAS 4000 views this as reclaiming the world before there was a Death Stranding, but it would ultimately kill all humans. Higgs is back. Kojima Productions/Screenshot by CNET What is Higgs up to? Higgs continues to want to see the world destroyed. He said he has been alone for tens of thousands of years on the Beach after being given the choice to stay by Fragile at the end of the first game. Then APAS 4000 brought him back from the Beach to have him compel Sam to work with Draw Bridges and connect Australia. They even provided him with a Ghost Mech army. Higgs, however, had plans of his own. His ultimate plan was to do the Last Stranding, an event where everyone would die and humans would go extinct. This is what Sam prevented in the first Death Stranding game, but with Tomorrow, Higgs could try again because she is an extinction entity, which is a being that will bring out an extinction event. He ultimately failed at his plan and was killed when Lou, in a giant baby form, ate him. 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Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Yahoo
This Unexpected Wedding Movie Was Just Named One of the Best Films of the 21st Century
This week, the New York Times released their list of the top 100 movies of the 21st century, as selected by notable directors, actors, and Hollywood insiders. Bridesmaids, the hit 2011 wedding film starring Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, and Melissa McCarthy, was ranked as number 32. The film beat out other beloved wedding movies released since January 1, 2000, like Wedding Crashers, 27 Dresses, and Bride far as classic wedding films go, movies like Father of the Bride, My Best Friend's Wedding, and Four Weddings and a Funeral are generally consider to be some of the very best. What do these flicks all have in common—beyond a wedding serving as significant part of the plot, that is? They were all released in the 20th century. There have been more contemporary wedding hits, though, like Wedding Crashers, The Wedding Singer, The Wedding Planner, and 27 Dresses, which were all released in the last 25 years. But the modern wedding movie that officially reigns supreme is none other than the 2011 cult-classic Bridesmaids. That's not just our opinion—the movie was just named one of the top 100 best movies of the 21st century by the New York Times. The list, which was released in full today, June 27, highlights the top 100 movies from the last 25 years. To compile their winners, the New York Times asked 500 "influential directors, actors, and other notable names in Hollywood and around the world" to cast ballots for their favorite films released after January 1, 2000. Voters included names like Sofia Coppola, Barry Jenkins, and Julianne Moore. Related: Julia Roberts Wants to Do a 'My Best Friend's Wedding' Sequel One standout winner spotted by the editors at BRIDES was the 2011 cult-classic wedding film Bridesmaids, which was ranked at number 32. Starring Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, and Melissa McCarthy, the hilarious movie follows a group of women as they prepare to support their pal, Lillian (played by Rudolph) as she prepares to walk down the aisle. Wiig stars as Annie, Lillian's longtime best friend and maid of honor, who instantly feels competitive with the bride's newest girlfriend, Helen (played by Byrne). The movie follows the group doing everything from the engagement party and choosing bridesmaids' dresses (an unforgettable scene for those in the know) to planning pre-nuptial events and trying (and failing) to head to Las Vegas for a bachelorette party. "What surprises is how deeply felt this Paul Feig film is: Annie is sad and jealous, unable to get out of her own way," The New York Times writes of why the film made their list of the top 100 of the century. "We've all been there, though perhaps not with explosive diarrhea." The movie is the only one on the list centered around a wedding, beating out other contemporary favorites people might expect like My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Bride Wars. Up Next: The 30 Best Movie and TV Wedding Vows to Inspire Your Own Read the original article on Brides
USA Today
3 days ago
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From 'Countdown' to 'The Boys,' Jensen Ackles loves being a throwback tough guy
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And now I feel like I'm getting to play some of those guys.' Ackles stars in 'Countdown' as LAPD cop Mark Meachum, who's recruited for a secret task force of undercover operatives from various branches of law enforcement. Their mission: to uncover a terrorist plot and save the city. And like Ackles' best characters, Meachum's rough around the edges – which rankles his teammates, especially DEA agent Amber Oliveras (Jessica Camacho) – though there's a good reason behind his reckless nature. The 47-year-old actor next reprises his role as throwback antagonist Soldier Boy and in the upcoming fifth and final season of Amazon's 'The Boys' as well as prequel spinoff 'Vought Rising,' which begins production in August. Ackles chats with USA TODAY about 'Countdown,' some old-school inspirations and his upcoming 'Supernatural' reunion. Question: There's a ticking-clock aspect involved with Meachum as an action hero. How did you approach him? Jensen Ackles: The everyday man who is put to the test and rises above, I know this guy. But there was the caveat of, well, this guy's actually diagnosed with a terminal illness and he doesn't have much time left. How does that change things? He's going to want to take out as many bad guys as he can. Almost a kamikaze kind of a run. I liked that uncertainty, because it also plays into the other characters going, "Can we trust this guy? He's a loose cannon." But the audience knows. Even the doctor says, "Just go lay on a beach somewhere." He's like, "Nah, I'm going down in flames." That makes him a little unpredictable, and maybe even a little scary at times. Meachum has quite the relationship with Oliveras. He needles her, she can't stand him, but they settle into an intriguing dynamic. After being paired mainly with dudes in TV roles, was that a fun switchup for you? I do work mostly with guys. I'm used to finding that buddy-cop kind of a situation where it just lends itself to a lot more comedy or friction with two alphas trying to be like, "Hey, I got this." "No, I got this." "No, no, no. Sit down." What Jess brought to the table, I couldn't have wished for a better bag of tricks. She came in and effectively played it like a tough guy. And she's a badass, in real life and onscreen. It was an easy transition for me. She brought the heat. So if Dean and Meachum were inspired by 1980s influences, who was your inspiration for Soldier Boy? Soldier Boy, I had to dig a little deeper. I had to dig into my dad's (childhood). It was a lot of Lee Marvin and some Sean Connery in there. I wouldn't just go back and watch some of their old movies. I would go back and watch their old interviews – how they handled themselves as men in that time kind of gave me a bit of a North Star for Soldier Boy. If you took Lee Marvin from the 1960s and you transported him to 2025, what would he be like? Soldier Boy had a surprise appearance in the after-credits scene of 'The Boys' Season 4 finale. Will he be a chaos agent in Season 5, or something we haven't seen before? It's something you haven't seen before, and it's probably a teamup that you're going to be like, "Oh no. This is not good." For him, he's like, "I don't give a (expletive). Whatever gets me from point A to point B." It definitely causes problems for a lot of people involved. Your 'Supernatural' buds Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins also join you in this final 'Boys' season. What's the best thing about getting the band back together? Probably the ease (of us working together). But also you've got to be careful not to let the reins too loose on us. Then we can fall into our old shtick. All of a sudden, now everybody's clowning around and no work is getting done. We were able to do 15 seasons on ("Supernatural") because we had a lot of fun doing it. We were coming in like, 'Alright, we got a ping-pong tournament at lunch, who's in?' When we needed to get serious, we got serious. But for the most part, it was the inmates running the prison, and we had a blast. There might've been a little fear getting three of us back onto a set that is a big monster show. I did sit down and have a little talk with them. I was like, "This is something I tell myself every time I step on that set, and it's something that I think you should tell yourself as well: I'm a guest in somebody else's house. Be respectful, read the room, be polite. Don't be a nuisance. Show up. Know your stuff. Hit your mark. Respect everybody. And that'll leave a great impression." And that's what they did.
