The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills executive producer Alex Baskin shut down rumors of a cast overhaul for season 16.

On Friday, May 23, rumors circulated that Dorit Kemsley was being put on pause for next season after clashing with longtime friends Kyle Richards and Erika Jayne in the season 15 reunion.

Per a blind item, Kyle, 57, 54, Erika, Sutton Stracke, Bozoma Saint John and Rachel Zoe were all “locked in” for season 16, with Jennifer Tilly returning as “friend of the Housewives.” Plus, the blind item alleged that Bravo offered controversial newbie Amanda Frances a new contract and that RHOBH alum Crystal Kung Minkoff was “back in the mix.”

Alex, 45, quickly denied there was any validity to these latest rumors, dismissing them as “not true” via his Instagram Story on Friday.

Dorit, 49, is currently in the middle of a messy divorce with husband PK Kemsley, with the couple battling this month over allegations that she spent more than $1 million — calculated to be 80 percent of her available funds — on luxury items over the past year.

Dorit reacted to PK’s allegations during an Extra interview on Thursday, May 21, promising that she would “have a response to it” in court soon.

“When you’re in litigation, you have to sort of follow the legal process,” she explained. “I think there will be answers to everything. When you hear one version or one narrative, there’s always another side.”

Dorit added, “Do I love fashion? Yes. Do I spend a lot of money on clothes, expensive clothes, designer clothes? Yes. It is my choice. It is also my money. It’s my money that I earn, that I work for. Not his money. However, once PK and I can finish and have an agreement, what I choose to spend my money on and what he chooses to spend his money on, it’s our own choice.”

“I think, right now because we’re sort of intertwined, there’s a sort of feeling like you can have a say about what the other is spending,” she concluded.

Dorit’s extravagant spending was a major point of contention during RHOBH season 15, as Kyle openly questioned whether her frenemy was acting out because of her marital issues. Kyle warned at the recent reunion that it was “a lot of money [Dorit] is spending” during shopping sprees on RHOBH.

Thank You!

You have successfully subscribed.

“Being judged by you [hurts], having you go and speak to the girls about, ‘That’s a lot of money she’s spending.’ Kyle, especially from you of all people,” Dorit vented.

Kyle clapped back: “By the way, I’m not in the same financial position as you, I’m sorry.”

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs on Bravo and streams via Peacock.

Romantic movies get forgotten for reasons that honestly make me a little bitter. There are films like The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, etc. that almost everybody watches religiously growing up. Then there is this whole other shelf of romance, stranger, softer, funnier, bruisier, more intimate, where movies understood longing in very human ways and somehow still slipped out of the conversation. Not because they failed. Because romance is one of the first genres people condescend to when memory gets lazy.

That is a shame. But no more. I’m bringing up all the movies that mattered now. The 10 films in this list know chemistry is not enough. Timing matters. Class matters. Grief matters. Baggage matters. Shyness matters. The version of yourself you become around one person versus another person matters. All of them deserve better than being treated like secret treasures when they should just be treasures.

10

‘Only You’ (1994)

Image Via TriStar Pictures

What I love about Only You is how recklessly it believes in romantic destiny without becoming stupid about it. Faith in “the one” can get unbearable fast in movies if it is written as some smug cosmic guarantee. Here it works because Faith Corvatch (Marisa Tomei) does not come off like a manic fantasy machine. When she hears the name Damon Bradley and bolts toward Italy, the movie understands that what looks absurd from the outside can feel emotionally necessary from the inside. That is the whole charm.

And then the film gives you Peter Wright (Robert Downey Jr.) at exactly the right frequency, mischievous, improvisational, a little dangerous in that charming way people in romantic films used to be allowed to be. The Italian setting helps, obviously, but not because it is postcard-pretty. It helps because the movie knows travel can loosen a person’s grip on their old self. Only You is really about what happens when fantasy collides with a living, breathing, inconvenient person and turns out to be better because it is messier. That is real romantic intelligence. It is not mocking idealism. It is testing whether idealism can survive contact with chemistry.

9

‘Return to Me’ (2000)

Image via MGM Distribution Co.

This movie could have been unbearable. That premise, widower unknowingly falls for the woman who received his late wife’s heart, could have gone wrong in about seventeen manipulative ways. But Return to Me works because it never treats the concept like a cheap twist. It treats it like an emotional problem that human beings are trying, with great difficulty, not to mishandle. Bob Rueland (David Duchovny) is not just sad in a polished rom-com way. He is genuinely hollowed out, moving through life like the shape of routine remained after the feeling got burned away. Grace Briggs (Minnie Driver), meanwhile, has this warmth and fragility that the movie is wise enough not to oversell.

What makes the film special is its decency. Not softness. Decency. It understands that both people are carrying something sacred and awkward and potentially disastrous into the relationship, and it lets the sweetness of their connection grow before the premise’s moral complication fully crashes down on them. The supporting ensemble helps too. In a nutshell — Return to Me is romantic because it believes love can arrive through grief without disrespecting grief, and that is a very hard balance to strike.

8

‘Untamed Heart’ (1993)

Image via Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

I have a real weakness for movies like this, films that are almost too vulnerable for their own good. Untamed Heart is not sophisticated in the cool, lacquered sense. It is emotionally naked. Adam (Christian Slater) is shy, wounded, inward, the kind of romantic figure modern movies are often too embarrassed to take seriously because sincerity now gets treated like something that needs defense mechanisms around it.

Caroline (Marisa Tomei) has more noise in her life, more chaos, more visible confusion, and the movie is smart enough to understand what would make these two people pull toward each other. Not just attraction. Recognition. The feeling of meeting someone whose loneliness rhymes with yours in a different key. And yes, the movie has that famous romantic-symbolism angle that some people find too much. I do not care. It works because the film’s emotional world is already pitched toward fable. What matters is that Untamed Heart knows love sometimes enters through protectiveness, through quietness, through being looked at by somebody who does not seem to want to consume you or perform around you. Tenderness feels erotic in this film and real ones know that hits different on a low-dopamine day.

7

‘One Fine Day’ (1996)

Image via 20th Century Studios

One Fine Day is two stressed single parents having a chaotic day in New York and falling for each other, and sure, that is the skeleton. But the reason it works is that Melanie Parker (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Jack Taylor (George Clooney) understand speed. They understand how adults under pressure flirt while pretending they do not have time to flirt. The movie is built on scheduling panic, childcare panic, work panic, urban panic, and that is exactly why the romantic current feels so satisfying. It has to sneak in through irritation.

And that grown-up quality is what makes the film more than just a pleasant studio romance. These people are not drifting around waiting for a meet-cute to reorganize their souls. They are busy, frustrated, overextended, carrying the low-level fatigue of people whose lives are already spoken for. So when chemistry starts happening, it feels earned in a very adult way. It feels like relief mixed with surprise. And New York helps enormously, as a city where timing, inconvenience, and momentum constantly shove people into each other’s orbit. One Fine Day gets the texture of that kind of accidental intimacy exactly right.

6

‘Crossing Delancey’ (1988)

Image via Warner Bros.

This is one of the greatest romantic films about a woman mistaking self-image for self-knowledge. Crossing Delancey follows Isabelle Grossman (Amy Irving) who is smart, cultured, ambitious, a little vain in the totally human sense, and deeply attached to the version of herself that belongs to one social world rather than another. That is what makes the movie so good. It is not just “career woman learns to appreciate nice guys.” It is about class taste, embarrassment, intellectual vanity, Jewish family expectation, urban loneliness, and the way romance often reveals where a person’s self-myth has started working against them.

And Sam (Peter Riegert) is such a wonderful romantic hero because the movie never turns his steadiness into blandness. Riegert gives him this dry, grounded, slightly wounded presence that makes him feel like a man who has already done the work of becoming a whole person and is now standing in front of someone still trapped by performance. The pickle man setup could have gone sitcom-broad in lesser hands. Instead the film lets the social and emotional awkwardness breathe. That is why Crossing Delancey feels so rich. It is not just about choosing between two men. It is about choosing between two versions of adulthood, one curated and impressive, one more ordinary and maybe more real.

5

‘The Truth About Cats & Dogs’ (1996)

Image via 20th Century Studios

This movie is so much smarter than people give it credit for. The premise already sounds like a romantic comedy pressure cooker, a radio host with low self-esteem uses her glamorous friend as a physical stand-in for a man she connected with over the phone, but what makes it work is how cruelly and accurately it understands comparison. And instead of abstract insecurity, it’s about comparison. The constant, exhausting way people build a second self out of what they imagine others would prefer.

Abby Barnes (Janeane Garofalo) is shy, funny, intelligent, competent, and still unable to believe those things can fully compete with visible beauty inside the romantic marketplace. That is why the movie hits. It knows the central deception is not only plot. It is psychological truth externalized. Noelle Slusarsky (Uma Thurman) is perfect for this too because the film never makes her just the pretty obstacle. She has her own loneliness, her own softness, her own sense of being read superficially by the world. So the triangle never becomes morally easy. And Brian (Ben Chaplin) works because the movie lets him feel genuinely drawn to both the mind he has met and the body he thinks belongs to it. That complication is the whole movie’s pulse. The Truth About Cats & Dogs is romantic, yes, but it is also painfully alert to how desirability scrambles identity.

4

‘The Baxter’ (2005)

Image via IFC Films

I will always go to bat for The Baxter because it understands one of the saddest truths in romantic comedy history: some people are structurally written to lose the girl in other people’s movies. That is such a funny, weird, secretly heartbreaking idea, and Michael Showalter milks it beautifully. Elliot Sherman (Michael Showalter) is the safety choice male lead. The nice guy who seems right on paper. The fiancé who exists in the final act so the heroine can realize she is meant for somebody else.

Most movies do not care what that person’s interior life feels like. The Baxter cares, and that is what makes it special. It is a meta-romantic comedy, yes, but it is never only clever about genre. It is emotionally invested in what repeated almost-love does to a person’s sense of worth. Elliot is so desperate to perform stability and likability that the performance itself becomes part of his sadness. Then along comes Michelle Williams in exactly the kind of role that can make a movie feel lighter just by entering the frame, and suddenly the film becomes about whether someone like Elliot can stop auditioning to be chosen and actually become emotionally present enough to choose. That is lovely.

3

‘Truly, Madly, Deeply’ (1990)

Image via The Samuel Goldwyn Company

Truly, Madly, Deeply is one of the rare ghost romances that genuinely understands the cruelty of recovery. This is one of the most emotionally devastating romantic films ever made because it understands that grief is possessive. Nina (Juliet Stevenson) is not just mourning Jamie. She is living in the afterlife of their relationship so completely that ordinary life has started feeling like betrayal. Then he comes back, and the movie turns it into a confrontation with mourning itself. What did she lose? What did she idealize? What did she freeze in amber because the person was gone and could no longer complicate the memory? That is the genius of the film.

The ghost is there to destabilize grief’s version of love. And because Jamie (Alan Rickman) brings so much warmth and wit and quiet exasperating humanity, the movie gets even sadder. He is lovable enough to justify her attachment and ordinary enough to make that attachment impossible to sustain as pure fantasy. That is what lifts Truly, Madly, Deeply into greatness.

2

‘Love Jones’ (1997)

Image via New Line Cinema

This is one of the most alive romantic films of the 1990s and it should be spoken about with far more reverence than it usually is. Love Jones gets something right that most romances either overpolish or completely miss: attraction between two intelligent, stylish, emotionally unfinished adults can be thrilling, frustrating, seductive, immature, generous, selfish, poetic, and badly timed all at once. The film follows Darius Lovehall (Larenz Tate) and Nina Mosley (Nia Long) and they’re two very specific people who want each other and still keep getting snagged on who they are when desire is not enough to solve the rest.

And the film’s texture is such a huge part of its greatness. The nightlife, the poetry, the music, the circles of friends, the flirtation as performance and sincerity interwoven, it all gives the romance an environment rather than just a sequence of scenes. That environment matters because the movie is really about emotional rhythm, how two people can be on the same wavelength in one moment and entirely out of phase in the next. Tate and Long are incredible partly because neither of them tries to smooth that out. They let attraction stay messy. They let pride and confusion and bad timing keep interrupting what could otherwise become some polished movie-love fantasy. That mess is exactly what makes Love Jones feel so true and so sexy.

1

‘The Lunchbox’ (2013)

Image via Sony Pictures Classics

This is number one because it understands something profound and almost unbearably tender about romance: sometimes love begins not with spectacle, not with chemistry in a room, not even with faces meeting, but with attention. Real attention. A wrong lunchbox gets delivered, notes start passing between two strangers, and suddenly the movie is inside one of the most delicate emotional premises imaginable. Ila (Nimrat Kaur) and Saajan (late Irrfan Khan) are not exactly young but inside lives shaped by disappointment, routine, grief, domestic invisibility, and the quiet ways a person can stop feeling seen while still technically remaining present in every room they are expected to occupy.

That is why the movie hurts so beautifully. Every letter becomes more intimate because it is crossing into spaces where speech had already failed. Food, routine, train schedules, office fatigue, apartment loneliness, all these ordinary structures become channels for emotional revelation. Khan was extraordinary. Kaur did something just as difficult, she lets hope emerge in a person who knows enough about life to fear hope’s cost. The film never cheapens what grows between them by forcing it into easy rom-com release. It understands that longing itself can be transformative, that being known by one person, even briefly, even imperfectly, can change the emotional contour of a life. That is romance in its purest form to me. That is why it is number one.

Brad Pitt has reportedly been completely turned off from marriage and is said to have no intention to even have kids again.

Despite his current romance with jewelry designer Ines de Ramon waxing stronger, insiders claim the actor’s bitter divorce from his ex-wife, Angelina Jolie, has made him averse to the thought of getting married.

Brad Pitt is also struggling with the emotional strain of being estranged from six of his children, whom he shares with Jolie, as most of them have opted to drop his last name.

Sources who spoke with the Daily Mail revealed that the chances of Pitt ever tying the knot again are extremely low due to the emotional and financial fallout from his previous relationship with movie star Angelina Jolie.

Besides his never-ending legal drama with the actress, Pitt also has to deal with the consistently widening rift between him and his six kids, who are primarily under Jolie’s care.

The four older children, Maddox, 24, Pax, 22, Zahara, 21, and Shiloh, 19, have distanced themselves from the actor, with Shiloh in particular, legally dropping Pitt from her name.

The twins, Vivienne and Knox, 17, are also now estranged from Pitt, as previous reports confirmed that he hardly gets to see them despite having court-mandated visits.

Insiders close to Pitt seem to blame the strained relationship on their mother, with a friend telling the news outlet that “there has been a campaign of alienation [by Jolie] which has been successful.”

“The antagonism is huge,” they added. “He has been alienated from the kids completely. It is devastating to him.”

These challenges have seemingly left Pitt with a bad taste in his mouth when it comes to the idea of marrying for a third time or having more kids.

The Actor Doesn’t Have Marriage On The Cards Despite His ‘Happy’ Relationship With Ines de Ramon

Pitt and de Ramon have been dating since 2022 and have even reportedly moved in together. The couple is said to be “very happy,” with the actor enjoying the “peace” and “support” of his “easygoing” partner.

Pitt is also enjoying a career resurgence after starring in the critically acclaimed “F1,” with three more movies in the can.

However, despite the positive state of his love life and career, sources noted that when it comes to the question of a third marriage, the answer is a firm “no” for the 61-year-old actor.

Friends of Pitt noted that at this point, they can no longer see him tying the knot again or even having more children.

“He has a great partner whom he appreciates, but there is no rush in that direction,” a source said, per the Daily Mail.

Brad Pitt’s Rift With His Kids Linked To Alleged 2016 Private Jet Incident

The rift between Pitt and his kids can be traced back to an unfortunate incident that took place in September 2016 on a private jet.

It was alleged that at the time, Pitt, in a drunken moment, poured alcohol on his family, told the kids their mother was “crazy,” and got physical with one of the children after shoving Jolie.

While the actor has consistently denied being a domestic abuser, the allegations have lingered to this day and seem to be at the heart of his estrangement from his kids.

Both Maddox and Pax have since dropped Pitt’s last name, opting to use only Jolie in the credits of films they have worked on.

Zahara, like her brothers, also began using just Jolie when she began college. Fourth child, Shiloh, dropped the name legally right after turning 18, while Vivienne notably opted not to be identified with her dad’s name in the credits of a musical adaptation she worked on in 2025.

More recently, the actor was noticeably absent from Zahara’s graduation from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.

Sources told TMZ that Pitt did not “reach out” ahead of the graduation, adding that “nothing prevented him from showing up for her. Or ever visiting her.”

These remarks have since alarmed people in Pitt’s circle, as they accuse Jolie of being “manipulative” and “evil.”

The Actor Still Has Hope For Reconciliation With His Six Children

Regarding Pitt’s absence from Zahara’s graduation, a source told the Daily Mail that the actor was simply faced with a hard situation due to the estrangement from his children.

They noted, “You can’t have it both ways – to promote a complete estrangement and then criticize someone for not going to an event when you’ve made sure that they would not be welcome.”

“That’s not a situation which he created,” the source added.

Despite how bitter things have become, a friend said that Pitt is still hopeful for a reunion with all six of his children, citing the past feud between Alec Baldwin and his daughter, Ireland, who have now become close in recent years.

“He continues to hope that one day a reconciliation is possible,” the insider noted. “There’s a hope that in time they will all find each other.”

Brad Pitt Is ‘Happier Than Ever’ With Ines de Ramon

While marriage may not be on the cards for Pitt and de Ramon, the couple is reportedly content with how things are right now and very serious about each other.

Last October, a source told People Magazine that Pitt and de Ramon are now fully living together, noting that the actor always makes sure to include the jewelry designer in his plans as she makes him happy.

“Brad is really including Ines in all his travel plans, and when they are home, they just relax together,” the insider said. “They are really making their home into a home.”

Another source specified that Pitt, in particular, is “so happy and in love” as he and de Ramon make future plans as a couple.

Earlier this year, Academy Award winner Cillian Murphy said goodbye to his most beloved franchise, as he donned his flat cap once more as Tommy Shelby in the Netflix feature Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man. Scoring 25.3 million views in its first three days of release, the movie was a huge hit on the streamer and proved so popular that the plans for it to end the Peaky saga were scrapped, with creator and writer Steven Knight continuing the story with two 6-episode seasons.

Before Peaky Blinders returns, albeit without the genius Murphy, one of the Irish actor’s most underrated movies is heading to a new streamer. The film in question is Red Eye, a 2005 thriller starring Murphy alongside Rachel McAdams (Send Help) and Succession‘s Brian Cox. The movie follows hotel manager Lisa Reisert (McAdams) as she bumps into the charming Jackson Rippner (Murphy) whilst attempting to fly home. Thinking she has struck luck when they are seated next to one another, it quickly becomes clear that this was no accident, with Jackson hiding a dark secret.

At the 2005 box office, the movie was a quiet success, earning just shy of $100 million against a reported budget of $26 million. This success was no doubt helped by the pedigree of the movie’s director: horror icon and all-round Hollywood legend Wes Craven. Critics were fond of the film too, with Red Eye “certified fresh” at 80% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with critics calling the film “slick fun,” “electric,” and “a simple, straightforward, surprisingly effective thriller with a minimum of gimmickry.” Over two decades on, and you can officially catch this underrated Murphy effort on Starz, starting June 1, 2026.

What Is Cillian Murphy Doing Next?

Alongside an as-yet-untitled Damien Chazelle movie, Murphy’s next project is as part of the ensemble in one of the most exciting returning horror movies. No, it’s not the next installment in the 28 Years Later trilogy; it’s A Quiet Place Part III, which features Murphy alongside the returning Emily Blunt and Jason Clarke. John Krasinski will be back behind the camera for the threequel, which recently kicked off production, as announced via a first-look image on The Office star’s social media.

Cillian Murphy’s Red Eye officially joins Starz this June 1. Make sure to stay tuned to Collider for more updates on the latest streaming news.

Advertisement

Release Date

Advertisement

2024 – 2026-00-00

Network

ITV1

Advertisement

Directors

Kieron Hawkes

Advertisement

Advertisement

• 
• 
• 

  Lesley Sharp

  Madeline Delaney

• 

Advertisement

Advertisement

While not every martial arts movie is about revenge, a good many of them are, which is okay, because revenge works as something to drive the sort of conflict you want to see play out in such an action movie. Martial arts films foreground hand-to-hand combat, be it with or without weapons used at a close range, and that’s probably why revenge works well with such films. Seeing a character get direct and physical revenge with an intimate fighting style tends to be both more intense and ultimately satisfying, both for the person seeking vengeance and the viewer.

There are some action movies that feature revenge while almost feeling like martial arts movies (see The Crow and Oldboy), but it feels like a little bit of a stretch to call them genuine martial arts films. They’re great action movies about revenge with some hand-to-hand fighting, though, and were worthy of honorable mentions here, just without appearing in the ranking below, since this ranking’s focused on genuinely great martial arts revenge movies that are sufficiently martial arts-focused.

10

‘The Avenging Eagle’ (1978)

Image via Shaw Brothers Studio

Though The Avenging Eagle doesn’t often get the appreciation it deserves, if you’re talking about all-time classic martial arts movies, it really should. There’s nothing here it really does wrong, in terms of delivering a good deal of exciting action within a no-nonsense narrative, here mostly just “complicated” by the fact that there’s one person who wants revenge against a particular clan for personal reasons, and another person who wants to fight back against that clan as a former member.

Both have been wronged by the same people, essentially, and so they form a duo to go about fighting a bunch of bad guys. The Avenging Eagle clocks in at just 90 minutes, and has a generous amount of well-choreographed fight scenes for a film of such a brief length (it also helps that there are quite a few different weapons used throughout, which keeps the action scenes sufficiently varied).

9

‘John Wick’ (2014)

Image via Summit Entertainment

While the sequels to John Wick get a bit wilder and perhaps even convoluted (not necessarily in a terrible way, since all the criminal underworld stuff proves quite entertaining), the first one is stunningly simple. The titular character is a man who’s lost pretty much everything by the time of the film’s start, except a puppy he was gifted by his wife before she passed away.

Some rather foolish criminals kill that dog and steal John’s car, so he sets off getting violent vengeance for them taking what little he had left, and since he’s got nothing left to lose, he doesn’t mind using the skills he used to have in his previous life as a hitman to get that revenge. Also, John Wick does admittedly have more by way of shootouts than all the other martial arts movies mentioned here, yet many of the fights here are kind of “gun fu,” combining some aspects of hand-to-hand combat with firearms, and that approach is one of the things that helps much of the action stand out.

8

‘Vengeance!’ (1970)

Image via Shaw Brothers

The exclamation mark in the title Vengeance! is well-earned, since this whole movie goes pretty big, loud, broad, and bloody. And not just bloody by the standards of the early 1970s, since this one still feels visceral today. It would’ve probably been a shock to the system back in 1970, though, doing for martial arts movies what The Wild Bunch kind of did for Westerns (and yes, that’s an entirely different movie, but it came to mind just now because that one was also graphic for its time, and still holds up as pretty darn violent to this day).

As for the plot of Vengeance!… well, it’s all in the title. There is a young man who’s murdered, and then his brother sets out to kill the people who killed him. And he goes very far in achieving such a goal, to the point where he begins to feel less and less heroic, more or less going from sympathetic, to an anti-hero, and then to someone similarly vicious as the violent people who got the whole blood-drenched mess started in the first place.

7

‘Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance’ (1972)

Image via Toho

There’s a distinction between martial arts cinema and kung fu movies, because kung fu movies are a sub-genre of the martial arts genre (or a sub-sub genre to a sub-genre, if you want to count martial arts movies as an action sub-genre). So, there will be samurai movies worth mentioning here, even if they’ve obviously got a focus on combat with swords over literal hand-to-hand stuff, with the first of note, for present purposes, being Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance.

You’ve got “Sword” in the title, obviously, and it’s also near the word “Vengeance,” so go figure. This is the first of the Lone Wolf and Cub movies, which are, broadly, all about an ex-executioner being betrayed by the clan he once worked for, and seeking revenge against anyone who still belongs to said clan. He and his son get up to some other things throughout the series, and the six main films are all pretty great, but the first one’s being singled out here just because that sets up why the central character wants to become the vengeful one-man army he is for the rest of the series.

6

‘The 36th Chamber of Shaolin’ (1978)

Image via Shaw Brothers Studio

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin is wonderfully straightforward, even by the standards of martial arts movies that involve revenge. Evaluated cynically, you could call it the most basic and no-nonsense of perhaps the quintessential martial arts movie premise (in that there’s a person who’s wronged, then that person trains, then finally, that person gets revenge), but less cynically, you could also say it’s the movie that does that straightforward premise the most seamlessly.

There’s catharsis here, and maybe that’s the main thing. The 36th Chamber of Shaolin spends what feels like the bulk of its runtime on the training, and that extended process proves surprisingly compelling to watch, as there are so many challenges – both physical and mental – for the protagonist to overcome. So, once he does master everything, he blasts through those who wronged him… and all that’s quite entertaining to watch, too.

5

‘Lady Snowblood’ (1973)

Image via Toho

Another samurai movie, and one of the all-time great ones, Lady Snowblood is about a young woman who, from a young age, was basically brought up just to get revenge. It’s almost all she knows, given her mother lost almost everything, and then wished for her to be brought up as someone who could avenge all the deaths in the family that occurred before her birth.

In that sense, it’s quite a desolate and despairing movie, because the core story here is incredibly sad, even if there’s also some level of spectacle here (owing to the visuals), not to mention a good bit of excitement when there’s action (the fights here are rather bloody). Lady Snowblood does have a sequel, but it’s not the kind of thing where you really need to see that movie… not the case for a two-part film that Lady Snowblood famously inspired, but more on that duology in a bit.

4

‘The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter’ (1984)

Image via Shaw Brothers Studio

Since both The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter starred Gordon Liu, were directed by Lau Kar-Leung, and produced by Shaw Brothers Studio, they’d make for a pretty solid double feature. Also, they kind of have the same premise, but The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter ends up being a little more about the struggle to get revenge, as it sees its protagonist failing quite a bit more during his training.

The focus, as such, is a little shifted, and it also leads to the action in the final act being messier and arguably more thrilling. It’s an approach to that previously mentioned well-worn formula that ends up working quite well, and even if it’s a bit more chaotic overall (things had to be altered when one of the film’s stars, Alexander Fu, died suddenly during production), it’s still ultimately a great martial arts movie that’s (largely) about revenge.

3

‘Harakiri’ (1962)

Image via Shochiku

Again, it’s a samurai movie, and one that doesn’t really emphasize action, for the most part, but Harakiri still feels very much worth mentioning because it’s eventually a pretty impactful revenge movie. Elaborating on the details or even mentioning revenge is a part of it could be ruining things, yet there’s also something to be said about the execution here, and that’s something you can only fully appreciate from watching the film.

Harakiri is largely a drama, and centers on a man who tells a samurai clan why he feels compelled to end his life via the titular ritual (sometimes called seppuku). The reason the movie’s light on action is that Harakiri wants to build tension and focus on a heavy-going narrative before, all so that you do feel the intensity of the fighting far stronger when it does eventually begin. The approach ends up working remarkably well, to say the least.

2

‘Kill Bill: Vol. 1’ (2003)

Kill Bill: Vol. 1 has more action than the second volume, yet that one’s heavily indebted to the martial arts genre in slightly different ways, even if it’s narratively a direct continuation. So, the first movie is getting mentioned first, and gets to take its own place here. It’s largely a homage to martial arts movies, with a particular focus on swordplay, and you get a ton of action in the final act.

This first volume of an overall epic moves at a wildly fast pace throughout, as in, if it were any faster, you’d probably feel overwhelmed and might struggle to keep up. The motivation of the main character, The Bride, is incredibly straightforward at this point in the story, and Kill Bill: Vol. 1, overall, is like, “Yeah, the nuance can wait; it comes later.” This one’s mostly about action, and the action is undeniably exciting.

1

‘Kill Bill: Vol. 2’ (2004)

Image via Miramax Films

Advertisement

So, if Vol. 1 has all the action, and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 is a technically talkier affair, why does it take the #1 spot over the first half of the story? It’s a fair question, and it’s first worth mentioning that there is still some action in Vol. 2, and what you do get is largely satisfying and well-choreographed. But there are more interesting places it goes as an exploration of revenge, and the dramatic highs and lows that come with actually getting vengeance.

Also, Kill Bill: Vol. 2 has a great training sequence that plays out as a flashback in Vol. 2, with the flashbacks also making The Bride (who’s even given a name in this half of the story) a more fleshed-out and compelling character. Bill’s also a proper character in this one, as opposed to the almost voice-only appearance he has in the first, and that helps, because he’s also a great character. Vol. 1 pays homage to martial arts action, while Vol. 2 pays homage to the comparatively “slower” scenes you get in most classic martial arts movies, and somehow, it all works, and adds up to an immensely satisfying whole.

When you think of Elijah Wood, what first comes to mind is probably characters who embody innocence or heroism. From his career as a child actor to his performance in the record-breaking Lord of the Rings trilogy, to family films like Happy Feet, he has found great success portraying people who exemplify what is good in the world. However, one role lurks in the shadows of his filmography: Kevin, the sadistic cannibal killer in Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller’s 2005 film Sin City.In a movie full of tough guy actors such as Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, and Benicio del Toro, it’s Wood that stands out as the most intimidating, as he uses a unique approach to make the audience squirm in their seat.

Elijah Wood’s Kevin Is the Most Disturbing Character in ‘Sin City’

The character serves as the villain of the film’s third story, “The Hard Goodbye,” which follows Marv (Rourke), a hardened criminal who finds momentary happiness with a woman named Goldie (Jaime King). After spending the night with her, he wakes up to find her murdered next to him, and is framed for her killing. He embarks on an investigation to avenge Goldie, which leads him all the way to the top of Basin City’s church establishment, and its cardinal, played by Rutger Hauer. It emerges that Goldie’s murderer is Kevin, a serial killer who has been weaponized by the cardinal to carry out murders under the pretense of some divine experience.

Of all the dark and bloody deeds done in the movie, Kevin is set apart as something altogether more sinister. A figure trained to kill like an animal — accompanied by wolves who are taught the same thing — the combination of his deadly appetites and the unsettling realization that something as sacred as the Church could be protecting him takes this beyond the usual corruption to something no one watching can understand. Whatever Marv’s past misdeeds, few (if any) would begrudge him his revenge in these circumstances.

Elijah Wood Will Terrify You Without Saying a Single Word

Advertisement

So much of the impact of the character comes from Wood’s performance, which is the definition of the phrase “less is more.” He says nothing in the movie, only appearing in the shadows wearing a sensible sweater and round glasses, while sporting a detached, unmoving smile. When he moves, he moves like the wolves that accompany him, but with no explanation or backstory beyond how he met the cardinal, he remains frighteningly ambiguous, and therefore, unpredictable.

Part of the effect is also what the audience associates with the actor. For most, he is Frodo Baggins from Lord of the Rings, the brave Hobbit that saves the world because it’s the right thing to do, a character a million miles from the evil deeds of Kevin. Any movie fan will find it odd to see him be the instrument of such heinous crimes, let alone watch him simply smile in the aftermath. Like Robin Williams in One Hour Photo, or Hugh Grant in Heretic, there’s an extra dimension in seeing an actor outside what is expected of them.

Elijah Wood’s Career Is Way More Than Just Lord of the Rings

For Elijah Wood, taking chances on more outlandish roles has proven a consistent success for him, even if those movies do not have the same global impact as The Lord of the Rings. He has worked on unusual films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Toxic Avenger, tense dramas such as Grand Piano, and even returned to Middle-earth with a small role in The Hobbit films. These independent films might not have the same reach, but offer the creative diversity that can show a different side to the actor.

Over two decades on, Sin City remains a true individual in the history of comic book adaptations. With black and white visuals ripped from the pages of Miller’s original graphic novel, few characters were realized more vividly on film than Kevin. If you haven’t seen the film in a while, it’s time to revisit the dark and ruthless streets of Basin City again. Just beware of two unblinking eyes watching you, with an emotionless smile.

Advertisement

Release Date

Advertisement

April 1, 2005

Runtime

124 minutes

Advertisement

Writers

Frank Miller

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Lizzo has tried all she can to shake the feud rumors, and now she is facing it head-on!

The singer has once again corrected the notion that she spends her free time talking ill about her peers in the industry, especially when it comes to Taylor Swift.

Lizzo has definitely name-dropped the billionaire once or twice in the past, often declaring her admiration for the pop star and reiterating that she is not in a competition with the musician.

The day began with a post from an X user attempting to compare streaming numbers from some of their projects, stating: “The Life Of A Showgirl + MY FACE HURTS FROM SMILING — 4.005M. ICEMAN + MAID OF HONOUR + HABIBTI — 683k.”

Lizzo reacted to the post, asking for clarification on what the X subscriber meant, to which a fan responded that all that sh-t talking has finally caught up to her and impacted her record’s position on the chart. 

The musician quickly tackled the commenter, reiterating that she has never talked sh-t about Swift for any reason. Lizzo continued, “Also, while we’re on the subject, I’ve never talked sh-t about any artist. Just because I mention an artist by name does not mean I’m talking sh-t — grow tf up pls.”

Internet users did not waste time rushing down to Lizzo’s comment section with lots of opinions about her past behavior and new claims. According to them, Lizzo is getting those allegations now because she had indeed thrown shade at Swift at some point in the past.

This commenter declared: “YES YOU HAVE TALKED SH-T ABOUT TAYLOR STOP GASLIGHTING US ?? You literally sided with KANYE WEST in 2016, let’s not.”

Some X subscribers praised Lizzo for shutting down these reports, thereby laying unnecessary fan wars to rest for good. Others also praised her for always showing love to female artists instead of descending into mindless dramas.

“Please don’t respond to trolls on social media.  Get off social media and just do your job/art, be happy, and live your life.  Take a clue from some of the biggest artists that are your friends and acquaintances and how they handle SM,” this user stated.

Lizzo Publicly Shouted Out The ‘Shake It Off’ Singer In 2023

As shared by Seventeen, Lizzo got talking with a fan during one of her performances in Perth when she addressed a fan who held up the “I chose you over Taylor” sign. The singer responded by first thanking the fans for attending the show, joking that she would even get them tickets to attend a Swift show.

Lizzo continued that Swift is an amazing artist, and the fan should not have to choose between herself and the billionaire because she also adores her as an artist. Lizzo also extended a request to the fan holding the “I chose you over Taylor” sign if she could put her autograph on the sign.

Although the singer realized midway into her performance that Swift was not scheduled to sing at the venue, she reminded the audience that she “heart Tay Tay too,” stressing that there was no competition between them.

The ‘Juice’ Hitmaker Previously Called Herself A ‘Black Taylor Swift‘

In 2022, Bustle noted that Lizzo openly compared herself to the pop superstar during an interview about songwriting and relationships. While promoting her album “Special” on “The Breakfast Club,” the singer shared that her real-life experiences and romances inspire a lot of her songs. 

When asked whether the people she dates should expect to end up in her music, she jokingly replied that she is the “Black Taylor Swift,” admitting she writes candidly about her love life. Lizzo referred to her track “Break Up Twice” as an example, revealing her relationship inspired it with boyfriend Myke Wright during a period when they rekindled their romance. 

The singer recalled one of her protective friends threatening Wright at a barbecue if he hurt her again, a moment that later made its way into the track. The singer also humorously noted that she and Wright had only done a “soft launch” of their relationship online at the time, teasing that things would only become truly official once they appeared on a red carpet together.  

Like Swift, the musician emphasized that she often channels personal experiences into her songwriting while still keeping some details private. She also revealed that she wrote more than 170 songs for “Special,” hinting that many unreleased tracks could eventually end up on streaming platforms.

Fans Are Not The Only Ones Catching Words From Lizzo

A few days ago, the singer spoke about the rollout for her upcoming fifth studio album, “B-TCH,” claiming her label, Atlantic Records, has not properly promoted the project ahead of its release.

As reported by The Blast, Lizzo took to her TikTok to urge her fans to support the album and place their pre-order before it gets released in a few weeks.

Lizzo responded to a fan who asked why there had been little promo for her album, such as absent billboards and advertisements. According to the singer, the promotional plans have been decided upon during marketing meetings.

However, despite her signing off on the billboard campaigns and ads for the album rollout, work is yet to take off in that department, leaving the singer frustrated over the lack of support.