By Robert Scucci
| Published 44 seconds ago

Here’s a little bit of life advice that I’ll give you for free. If the last person to see your wife alive is a disgraced filmmaker who’s presently working on a snuff film, he’s probably the person responsible for her death. Furthermore, if you become the primary suspect in her murder, the filmmaker posts your bail after talking to the police and asks you to help him finish the film he started when your wife was still alive, you should probably try working directly with the authorities instead of the person who seems to know a little too much about the case after bringing one of the officers on to consult on the storyboard. This is the plot to 1984’s Special Effects, a movie within a movie that is one of the most out-there psychological thrillers I’ve seen in a minute.

It’s one of those movies where you know who the killer is because you see it happen early on, and you think he’s going to get away with it. He just might, too. The tension comes from watching everybody else, not knowing what you know, try to piece everything together even though they only have their suspicions and the kind of circumstantial evidence that wouldn’t hold up in court anyway.

Everybody, aside from the antagonist, is so comically clueless in Special Effects that it’s charming. It’s equally frustrating, though, because he’s the last guy you want to root for.

The Movie Within The Movie

Special Effects has a simple setup that extrapolates into absurdity, but almost always wears a straight face. We’re introduced to Andrea Wilcox (Zoe Lund), a struggling actress trying to make it big in New York City. She earns her living shooting nudie photos, which upsets her estranged husband, Keefe (Brad Rijn), prompting him to travel to New York and try to convince her to come back home to Dallas, where he and their toddler live. They have a fight, and Andrea storms out, finding herself near the residence of disgraced filmmaker Christopher Neville (Eric Bogosian).

Christopher is looking for his big comeback after becoming so reliant on special effects that he was blacklisted from Hollywood following a number of big-budget failures. While attempting to make love to Andrea, Christopher becomes enraged and strangles her to death. The entire exchange is recorded on a hidden camera in his bedroom, and he thinks it might be his big score.

When Keefe becomes the primary suspect in Andrea’s murder, he’s arrested by Det. Lt. Phillip Delroy (Kevin O’Connor). Christopher pays for a lawyer, and Keefe makes bail, meaning he’s now indebted to the filmmaker, who has plans for the murder footage. He explains his intention to make a movie about his and Andrea’s life, offering Keefe the position of technical advisor. Detective Phillip is put at ease when he’s offered a consulting job on the project, meaning he’ll hand over any files related to Andrea’s murder because he thinks he’ll get a writing credit out of it.

Knowing that he’s only out of jail thanks to Christopher’s generosity, Keefe buys into the project and even finds a woman named Elaine (also portrayed by Zoe Lund), who just so happens to be a dead ringer for Andrea. Christopher, in so many words, intends to make a snuff film using the actual footage of Andrea’s murder hidden inside the finished movie, with Elaine serving as her stand-in up to that point. Keefe, who knows Christopher is up to something but can’t quite put his finger on what, plays along, hoping the filmmaker will slip and show his true colors. Time is running out, though, because Christopher only becomes more unhinged as the film progresses.

Quite The Ride Despite Its Destination

As much as I wanted to give Special Effects a perfect score, it’s not without problems. Not a single person in this movie is believably human, which takes away from the story it’s trying to tell. Christopher Neville is so comically evil that the only thing he’s missing is a mustache to twirl and a top hat to go along with it. The detectives are completely incompetent, which never really makes you feel worried about Keefe, who was essentially framed for murder. This dynamic undermines the kind of tension a thriller like this needs, but the story itself is fun despite how underwhelming I found the execution.

Watching a disgraced filmmaker try to incorporate the murder he committed into his next outing because he’s going back to his roots and using practical effects (read: an actual dead body) is a great way to explore the insane lengths creatives will go in the name of “authenticity.” The irony that he’s the most disingenuous person in the room isn’t lost on me, either. But without any real outside pressure from the characters who are supposed to provide it, the whole thing kind of falls apart in the third act.

Special Effects, as a concept, is a really fun film. While I’m not 100 percent thrilled with its characterization and execution, it remains a solid watch, especially before Christopher goes fully off the rails. If you’re looking for a thriller that isn’t afraid to go all in on its own insanity, you can stream Special Effects for free on Tubi as of this writing.

By Robert Scucci
| Published 4 seconds ago

Every so often, which is about once a week for me, I watch something on Tubi that’s so absolutely insane that I need to tell you all about it. I just scroll past a title like 1989’s Over-Sexed Rugsuckers From Mars, notice that it clocks in at under 90 minutes, and decide to take one for the team. And why wouldn’t I? The entire film is about an alien race of vacuum cleaners trying to aggressively reproduce with their human counterparts in an effort to take over the planet. The aliens themselves, who barely get any screen time, are stop-motion puppets, and the vacuum cleaners they use as their instruments of mass destruction are the kind you could buy at any store.

There are no special effects in Over-Sexed Rugsuckers from Mars, and I think I prefer it that way. There’s no need to “not show the monster” because the monster is simply a Eureka ESP Bagged Upright. In this case, you don’t need to worry about the zipper on the back of the beast because that’s just how you change the bag.

Oh Boy, Where Do I Start?

Over-Sexed Rugsuckers from Mars barely has a coherent plot, but I’ll do my best to do it justice. Though it’s never explicitly stated, which required me to do some research just to get the cast names straight, here’s what I picked up on: an alien race implied to have created humanity millennia ago is disappointed with the progress of their project, so they decide to create a new hybrid race that’s half vacuum cleaner and half human.

They attempt this through a homeless man named Vernon (Richard Monda), who unknowingly drinks alien pee from his flask, which is some form of extraterrestrial aphrodisiac, or something. They do the deed, and Vernon names his new lover Dusty. 

Once Dusty’s sexual appetite is primed, it goes on a rampage, trying to reproduce with as many human subjects as possible. Things completely go off the rails when Tom (Billybob Rhoads) spots Dusty in a storefront and buys the device for his wife, who is then murdered, among other things, by the vacuum, implicating Tom in the crime.

This prompts Lt. Kane (Ralston Young), Detective Madder (Ken Sweet), and a SWAT officer to follow every lead they can in order to uncover the identity of the real killer. While all of this is happening, Dusty claims another victim, Rena (Jean Stewart), who survives the attack but becomes impregnated by the appliance and, understandably, traumatized by the entire experience.

From this point forward, in this movie about a rogue vacuum cleaner that sexes people to death, it’s nothing but gag after gag. If you’re the kind of person who’s built specifically to enjoy this sort of thing, Over-Sexed Rugsuckers from Mars spends most of its time following noir beats in which detectives show up at vacuum cleaner stores and even have witnesses identify different makes and models through a one-way mirror in a police-lineup-style setup.

Meanwhile, Dusty is still on the loose, and Vernon spends much of the movie running through town looking for his beloved rugsucker like it was the Craigslist missed connection of a lifetime.

Has No Right Being This Funny

If you’re looking for a sci-fi schlockfest that’s not afraid to fully explore the limites of its $4,000 budget, Over-Sexed Rugsuckers from Mars should be your next Tubi watch. The only reason I clicked on the title is because it’s so ridiculous, and I’ll always admire the audacity of filmmakers who seemingly don’t care about their reputations at all.

It’s a freakin’ vacuum cleaner on strings trying to thrust its victims into submission, and for the most part, it succeeds. It’s rude, crude, grainy, and technically a sci-fi flick, but it leans hard into its neo-noir, bumbling-detective vibe, making the whole thing feel like a rejected I Think You Should Leave sketch that was somehow adapted into a feature-length film.

OVER-SEXED RUGSUCKERS FROM MARS SCORE

You’re either going to love or hate this movie, but if you’re down for about 87 minutes of total insanity where nothing makes sense but everybody acts like it does, you can stream Over-Sexed Rugsuckers from Mars for free on Tubi, the only streamer brave enough to carry this kind of stuff, as of this writing

General Hospital has Carly Spencer (Laura Wright) and Valentin Cassadine (James Patrick Stuart) getting frisky all the time, but it also looks like they are legit falling for each other. Plus, they’re building up quite a fan following.

So, I think James Patrick Stuart is going to stick around. And I suspect Carly and Valentin are endgame and they are going to be a big official super couple. So, we’re going to talk about what might be next for Carly and Valentin and what has to happen so that they can actually build a future together.

Carly And Valentin’s Undeniable Chemistry on General Hospital

So, I will say off the cuff, I haven’t enjoyed many of Carly’s pairings in the past. Some I have, some I haven’t. And Valentin has had some messy love stories, but I did like him with Anna Devane (Finola Hughes). But ever since Carly spun into Valentin’s orbit, I think it’s been magic. Once Carly went in disguise to visit Valentin at Steinmauer to recruit him to help her take down Jack Brennan (Chris McKenna), it was on.

Then things got even more fun once Carly tricked Jack into transferring Valentin back to the US because then that set the stage for him to take down the WSB guards on the transport plane and he stole a parachute, dove out of the plane right to his freedom. And once he showed up and Carly stashed him in her attic, that’s when things really started sizzling.

Gor me, Valentin and Carly’s chemistry is off the charts. I know a lot of fans share that opinion. Their banter is hilarious and they are clearly catching feelings for each other and a whole pile of GH fans have caught feelings for them as a pair. There’s a big Carly and Valentin fan base as they call it. But for Valentin and Carly to be endgame, certain things are going to have to change.

Getting The WSB Off Valentin’s Back on GH

So, first of all, they got to get the WSB off of Valentin’s back so that he’s not a fugitive anymore. Nothing can move forward for them really until Valentin is in the clear legally. I think he and Carly may help take down Jenz Sidwell (Carlo Rota) and Ross Cullum (Andrew Hawkes). Then that’ll likely score Valentin some points with Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) because he is determined to take Sidwell down also.

And it’ll also score some points with Brennan since Cullum is, you know, low-key still considering killing Jack and he’s in Turning Woods trapped and pretending to be locked-in. So, this is bad. Once Sidwell and Cullum are exposed and hopefully dead or in Steinmauer prison or even Pentonville, the WSB should finally get off Valentin’s case and he should be free and clear and can be Carly’s man out in public and not just in her bedroom and in her attic.

Making Peace with Jack

So, once that’s all taken care of, the next thing they need to do is make peace with Jack so he is also off of Valentin’s back. And of course, right now, Jack is still on fire and he’s furious that Carly was cheating with Valentin. So, right now, Jack absolutely hates Valentin and he’s not a big fan of Carly’s at this point either.

So, Jack’s stuck in Turning Woods faking Locked-in Syndrome and simmering with rage over Carly. And this week, Jack told Nina Reeves (Cynthia Watros) she needs to go over and talk to Valentin because they need to work with him. So, the good news is that Jack is setting his jealousy aside to save his butt.

Now, obviously, Valentin and Jack have a more dangerous common enemy, too, actually, Sidwell and Cullum. So, that should help them get past hating and trying to kill each other. But, if Valentin helps save Jack from Cullum and helps get rid of the big WSB boss villain, obviously that would be a huge moment. It’d be a game changer.

General Hospital: Valentin & Jack Bury the Hatchet?

If you remember, Valentin and Jack were once best friends. So, we know that they can work together. They also ran Pikeman together. And you know, at this point, I don’t think Valentin and Jack will ever be bowling buddies again, but they might get back to a good place. Especially if Jack realizes Valentin didn’t break him and Carly up.

It was the fact that Jack recruited Josslyn Jacks (Eden McCoy) into the WSB and repeatedly lied right in Carly’s face. That’s what made her stop loving him. So, I could eventually see Jack not necessarily giving Valentin and Carly his blessing, but accepting their relationship and just moving on.

Getting Family Acceptance on GH

And the next thing is once Josslyn is back home safe and sound, Carly’s going to need to get all the people that she cares about to accept her relationship with Valentin. So, Carly’s going to want Sonny and Lucas Jones (Van Hansis) and Josslyn and Michael Corinthos (Rory Gibson) all on board with her seeing Valentin.

Honestly, I think it’ll be easier for Carly to get them to accept Valentin than it was to get them to accept Franco Baldwin (Roger Howarth). Just for instance, I mean, Valentin can be ruthless, but Franco was a serial killer who was presumed to have set Michael up to be raped in prison.

Even though Valentin has killed before, it’s generally bad guys. He doesn’t go around killing innocent people. And obviously Charlotte Cassadine (Bluesy Burke) is on board with Valentin dating Carly because she’s ticked off at Nina and feels betrayed by her and Charlotte likes Carly and appreciates her protecting her dad.

Valentin Getting a Job and Reintegrating in Port Charles

Now, the next step once Valentin is not wanted by the WSB and is not a fugitive anymore and Carly’s loved ones accept their relationship, what they need next is to get Valentin reintegrated into the fabric of Port Charles society. He’s obviously going to need a job and some sort of income source.

So, maybe he’ll wind up working for Jack if they make peace on General Hospital. You know, Valentin may land some sort of consulting role for the local WSB office. Or if something happens to Jack, because we’ve heard rumors that he might be killed off, we could see Valentin running the local WSB office. That would be cool.

You know, he’s not exactly the kind of guy who can go land a job selling car insurance or anything, but maybe private security or as a private eye or a consultant to the PCPD. Although we know Dante Falconeri (Dominic Zamprogna) is not exactly a fan and he’s the current commissioner. Or maybe, you know, once Carly’s family accepts Valentin, we might see Michael offer Valentin a job at Aurora Media or ELQ. Obviously, that would be a favor to Carly, but also Michael might do it partly to keep an eye on Valentin. And I’m sure Carly would offer him a job at the Metro Court, but I don’t see Valentin bartending or changing sheets or giving people drinks by the pool.

Carly And Valentin’s Future on General Hospital

So, the final thing I think we could see for Carly and Valentin once all this other stuff is done is for them to make it official with a wedding. We could see her walk down the aisle and become Mrs. Carly Cassadine. That’s a pretty cool name. And I like the sound of it.

I think long run Valentin would put a ring on it if he sticks around. I do think Carly and Valentin are endgame and I hope it works out for them. James Patrick Stuart is an amazing actor. He’s a fan favorite.

And while I did like Valentin with Anna, there’s also a lot of baggage because of their long history and his past obsession with her. And despite the oddball way that they began, I do think Valentin’s relationship with Carly is much healthier than the one he had with Nina.

You know, because that was just whackadoo and based off nothing initially. And also, it’s without the painful history that he had with Anna. So, I’m hoping we get a lot more of Valentin and Carly’s love story, including them falling head over heels in love and making it all official.

Tom Holland is giving fans a fascinating look behind the scenes of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, revealing that Christopher Nolan’s upcoming epic The Odyssey may have played a major role in shaping the next chapter of Peter Parker’s story.

Speaking about the development of the highly anticipated Marvel sequel, Holland explained that Spider-Man: Brand New Day was originally scheduled to film alongside Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey. However, the scheduling conflict forced him to make a difficult choice.

Rather than rushing into production, Holland pushed for Spider-Man: Brand New Day to be delayed, allowing the creative team additional time to refine the script and find the right direction for the project.

According to Holland, the decision ultimately paid off.

“I convinced the studio to delay the movie,” Holland said, explaining that the extra development time gave the filmmakers an opportunity to strengthen the story and fully realize their vision.

The actor also credited his experience working with Christopher Nolan for changing the way he approaches filmmaking. Holland said Nolan’s commitment to preparation, purpose, and storytelling inspired him to push for a higher standard on Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Tom Holland, The Odyssey [credit: Universal Pictures]

“I wanted it to be a real movie,” Holland explained, emphasizing that he wanted the project to focus on storytelling rather than simply becoming another blockbuster production.

The additional development time reportedly allowed Marvel and Sony to bring in director Destin Daniel Cretton and spend several months refining the screenplay before cameras rolled. Holland now believes the result could be the strongest Spider-Man film yet.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day serves as a fresh start for Peter Parker following the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which erased Peter’s identity from the world’s memory. Holland previously described the new film as a “fresh start” and a “rebirth” for the character as he returns to a more street-level version of Spider-Man.

The film is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and stars Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jon Bernthal, and Mark Ruffalo. The movie is scheduled to swing into theaters on July 31, 2026.

Meanwhile, Holland will also appear in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which arrives just one week earlier on July 24, setting up a massive summer for the actor.

Jenny Mollen is facing backlash over a post with her 12-year-old son.

Mollen welcomed her son Sid with ex Jason Biggs in 2014. The pair also share son Lazlo, 8. Us Weekly confirmed in May that Biggs and Mollen had separated after 18 years of marriage.

“They are on great terms and remain focused on raising their two boys,” a rep for the estranged couple told Us at the time.

Before news broke of their split, Mollen reflected on feeling like the “spare” in her marriage to Biggs.

“When I got together with Jason, I always had a chip on my shoulder in the beginning because I felt like suddenly I went from being the oldest daughter and I felt like I had my s*** together and then suddenly, I married this guy who in a lot of ways — career wise — totally eclipsed me,” Mollen shared on a May episode of the “What Matters With Liz” podcast. “Everybody was like, ‘Oh my God, Jason Biggs,’ and I became the guest. And it drove me crazy to always just be, like, brushed to the side.”

“To be the spare and not the heir,” Mollen continued. “It was like, ‘What is happening?’ I was the spare. I was the American Pie spare. I relate to [Prince] Harry. That drove me mad and I always had this feeling.”

Scroll down to learn more about why Mollen faced backlash for her post:

What Did Jenny Mollen Post?

Mollen shared two images via Instagram on May 25, which displayed her laying on top of Sid on a bed. In the pic, she placed her hands around the back of his head and lay next to him. Both of their faces were not visible.

In another image, Mollen lay on top of her son with her hands behind his head. Sid placed his hands in front of Mollen’s face, which covered their faces.

Did Jenny Mollen Remove the Caption?

Mollen has since removed the caption of her post, which still contains the two images, and instead included a period. Her initial caption reportedly read, “Your eldest son will be the most toxic guy you ever date.”

What Have Users Said About the Post?

Mollen’s upload has led to mixed reactions from users in the comments section.

“Saw the original post with the original caption. 😳 Super weird. And I have boys the same age. And yes we hug and cuddle but that caption was creepy AF,” one user wrote, while another added, “Hugging your kids: Healthy and encouraged. Calling your child your boyfriend and posting photos of you lying between their legs on a bed: Not healthy or encouraged. Your child is not your boyfriend. A boyfriend is a romantic partner.”

Others, however, defended Mollen in the comments section.

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“What in the f***? She’s not doing anything wrong. That’s her son. That’s his mom. We already known she a lot and eccentric. I love her ❤️🙌😂😂,” one user wrote, while another added, “Jenny, it’s all good. You go ahead and hug your kids as much as possible!! Before you know it, they’ll be off on their own … and then you’ll have to get a cat 🐈!!”

How Did Jenny Mollen Respond to the Criticism?

Mollen vented about feeling like she was under the microscope amid her breakup.

“It’s like because I’m getting separated, because I’m not protected by the institution of marriage, I’m suddenly like a different kind of target in what I’m posting,” Mollen said in a statement shared via her Instagram Stories on June 1. “Like this is absolutely jaw-dropping. A photo of me hugging my 12-year-old child is getting ridiculed.”

While breaking down his approach to playing Euphoria‘s new fan-favorite character, Darrell Britt-Gibson confirmed he saw Bishop as on the autism spectrum.

“I don’t think Black people get to play that enough,” Britt-Gibson, 39, told Variety on Monday, June 1. “I don’t like the way that people who are on the spectrum are spoken about.”

Britt-Gibson wanted to offer accurate representation, adding, “There are a lot of people in my life and my family who are on the spectrum, and they are the most beautiful, deep, soulful people.”

He continued: “I thought, ‘If I get to do this and play him like that, I want to be able to do it justice and make it thoughtful and layered.’ That was something I inherently thought about. I wanted to give it that care.”

Britt-Gibson, who joined the show in season 3, recalled putting in a lot of thought into the character.

“It wasn’t really described to me in any way, and [that’s] the beauty of it. [Creator] Sam [Levinson] saw an audition of mine for another part, and he wanted to craft Bishop around what I brought to it,” he noted. “Sam is so amazing in that way — he’s a ‘best idea wins’ type of creator. I had this idea of a character who moves more like a samurai in a world of cowboys. Somebody who you can’t really figure out until it’s time to figure him out.”

The actor credited Levinson for wanting to “build the character around what I presented,” saying, “Then he wrote this beautifully intricate, nuanced and layered character. … Sam told me the idea for Bishop’s backstory, which is so incredible, but I don’t even want to say it. I want to let the world make their own opinions.”

After playing Alamo’s (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) fixer throughout the season, Bishop had his hero moment during the Sunday, May 31, episode of the HBO show. The show ended with Ali (Colman Domingo) coming into the Silver Slipper to avenge Rue’s (Zendaya) death. He held Alamo at gunpoint before they agreed to a Western-style showdown.

Alamo’s plan failed because when he drew his gun, it misfired. He realized Bishop secretly unloaded the gun so there wouldn’t be any bullets.

“Bishop didn’t agree with a lot of what Alamo did, but it was a job for him,” Britt-Gibson told Variety. “I think what Alamo did to Rue was the final straw for Bishop.”

Related: Why Did Bishop Betray Alamo in Euphoria’s Finale Before Brutal Death?

Viewers were left confused by why Bishop betrayed Alamo in Euphoria‘s series finale. During the Sunday, May 31, episode of the HBO show, Ali (Colman Domingo) came into the Silver Slipper to avenge Rue’s (Zendaya) death. He held Alamo (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) at gunpoint before they agreed to a Western-style showdown. But when Alamo drew his […]

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Britt-Gibson explained how Rue’s death affected Bishop, adding, “He’s also having that conversation with Maddy in the car. Rue was a bridge too far, and he’s like, ‘I promise I’m not going to let you get to Maddy.’”

Despite some viewers assuming Bishop didn’t care for Rue, Britt-Gibson thought differently.

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“There are a million different ways to look at it, from a character standpoint. It plays like he doesn’t care, but if you look deep enough, there are moments of Bishop being like a big brother who is hard on her,” he explained. “You know those figures in your life who are like, ‘Don’t hang out with those people. Those are not good people. You shouldn’t be here.’ The way Yana Grebenyuk Sam [Levinson] wrote it is up to interpretation. He gives it space for it to be seen however people want to see it.”

He concluded: “He’s been waiting. He’s so calculated. It’s chess. It’s always chess for Bishop.”

Euphoria is currently streaming on HBO Max.

For a man who adores his world-building, James Cameron didn’t have to do much heavy lifting when it came to Aliens. Unlike, say, Pandora, the 1986 sequel to Ridley Scott‘s Alien chooses not to stop every five minutes and show you something that might have lore to it. Yet, despite that, the attention to detail in the Colonial Marines’ gear is one of the finest you’ll see in cinema, and it’s almost as memorable as the Xenomorphs themselves. They aren’t just cool, they feel like the future.

Speaking during a Big Lick Comic Con NOVA panel moderated by Collider’s Maggie Lovitt, Aliens stars Ricco Ross and Jennette Goldstein reflected on some of Cameron’s more forward-thinking ideas in the film. Ross, who played Private Frost, brought up the way Cameron adapted the Steadicam concept for the Marines’ heavy weapons, particularly the massive guns carried by Goldstein’s Vasquez and Mark Rolston’s Drake.

“That’s when they say, what is it? Life imitates art. The Steadicam that Jenette and Mark would use in the film, the idea, the concept of having a Steadicam, so that the camera, even though you’re running and moving, it stays pretty steady on the site, and for James to think, ‘Let’s put a gun, a rifle on that, and then the target, even if you’re running, it will be there as well,’ was such a brilliant idea at the time.”

The steadicam makes the Marines feel like part of a specific military future, one where technology has advanced, but everything is still heavy, dangerous, and terrifyingly physical. Ross said the idea was so striking that he had even heard of outside interest in the concept. “So brilliant that I heard that the military asked him if they could use it,” said Ross, “because he actually made sure that he got the rights for that.”

The U.S. Military Borrowed James Cameron’s Technology

Years on, Cameron still spends half his time inventing tech to achieve his filmmaking visions that go on to have numerous real-world applications. See also: numerous pieces of tech, VFX, and cameras for Avatar: The Way of Water. Goldstein, who played Private Vasquez, also pointed to another idea from the movie that seems almost obvious now because real-life technology eventually caught up with it. She brought up the small cameras used in the film, comparing the concept to what audiences would later know through GoPro-style devices. Goldstein said:

“The camera, the GoPro that everybody used. I mean, there was no such thing as a GoPro. It was this really cool idea he had. He was like, you know, ‘What if there was a little camera, and you know, those big video cameras that you had in the ’80s were there,’ and now we just think, like, ‘Oh yeah, of course, a GoPro.’”

To be honest, that’s a huge part of why Aliens holds up so well, because it doesn’t feel like our future; it’s a dirty and grimy future, and the sort you can never say feels aged. It feels like it was built for soldiers to protect them against aliens. And that’s exactly what it did. Aliens is streaming now on Hulu and Disney+.

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Release Date

July 18, 1986

Runtime

137 minutes

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Director

James Cameron

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Writers

James Cameron

Producers

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Gale Anne Hurd

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“Vanderpump Rules” alum Stassi Schroeder recently walked in a Sports Illustrated fashion show in a bright orange bikini. As she strutted down the runway, onlookers stared in amazement, and netizens on social media praised the reality TV star, complimenting her looks. Now that the show has come and gone, a source is opening up about what Schroeder reportedly went through to become runway ready.

A source told The Daily Mail that Schroeder wanted to look her best for the Sports Illustrated fashion show. So, in order to get into the best shape, the Bravo veteran reportedly stuck to a very strict diet.

“Stassi really wanted to look incredible for the show so went on a massive diet,” the source said, claiming that she “skipped breakfast, had only a salad for lunch and then did not touch a carb after 5 p.m.”

They added, “So she was only having about 600 calories a day.”

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What Was Stassi Schroeder Eating And Drinking To Get Prepared For The Sports Illustrated Fashion Show?

According to the source, Schroeder’s alleged diet was so effective that the mother of two started seeing results almost instantly.

“The weight just melted off her body, but that kind of diet is very hard to do because the cravings are insane,” the source shared. “It’s not easy for her to diet that hardcore, but the results are amazing and she felt great about herself.”

It’s unclear exactly what Schroeder ate while dieting, but in the past, she said her routine consisted of a caffeinated Celsius drink in the morning and, for lunch, a Chinese chicken salad with chicken, lettuce, carrot slices, ginger, and almonds.

Regarding dinner, the “Vanderpump Villa” star would eat a snack to keep her full throughout the night.

Stassi Schroeder Previously Said She Stays Thin By Trying To ‘Starve’ Herself

Schroeder previously raised eyebrows when she confessed to starving herself to stay thin during a 2017 interview.

When asked about her fitness routine, Schroeder claimed, “I’m really lazy. I stay thin by trying to starve myself for the most part, if I’m being totally honest.”

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She went even further, sharing, “When I’m home in LA, it’s like one meal a day, but when I go out of town or on work trips, it’s breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

Despite her limited intake, Schroeder said she enjoys foods such as cheeseburgers, hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, pizza, and Mexican dishes.

Later in that interview, Schroeder got candid about getting work done on her body, saying, “I’ve always been really open. Even when I got a chin implant when I was 18 years old, and anyone who asked me, I would always tell them.”

For Schroeder, being honest was more important than putting “on this facade” that she was perfect. “Then the rest of us look at it and feel badly about ourselves. I’m all about plastic surgery or Botox and fillers, but be open about it, because there’s nothing to be ashamed of,” she said.

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Who Else Walked In The Sports Illustrated Fashion Show In Summer 2026?

Schroeder wasn’t the only public figure to appear in the Sports Illustrated fashion show. According to Page Six, “Truth Hurts” singer Lizzo walked the runway along with Alix Earle, Ilona Maher, Bethenny Frankel, Brooks Nader, Maura Higgins, Jena Sims, and more.

Beyoncé Followed A Strict Plan To Get Prepared For Coachella In 2019

Schroeder isn’t the only celebrity who has followed a structured plan ahead of a major event. Beyoncé has spoken about losing weight after welcoming twins Rumi and Sir Carter in 2019, a process made even more demanding by her approaching Coachella performance.

“Good morning. It’s 5 a.m., and this is day 1 of rehearsals for Coachella,” she says in a video shared on her YouTube. “Every woman’s nightmare…this is my weight,” she said before stepping on the scale. “175. Long way to go. Let’s get it!”

To shed the weight, Beyoncé followed a program called 22 Days Nutrition, founded by her friend, trainer, and exercise physiologist, Marco Borges. In the “Homecoming” documentary, Beyoncé said her diet consisted of “no bread, no carbs, no sugar, no dairy, no meat, no fish, no alcohol.”

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By Joshua Tyler
| Updated 28 seconds ago

The end of World War I was a mess. Soldiers flooded home, without jobs, and with nothing to do. Veterans became angry and disillusioned; protests and social upheaval ensued.

With an even larger military force returning home after World War 2, the United States government sought to avoid repeating this mistake by finding ways to keep its returning soldiers busy. Their answer was the GI Bill, a massive funding system largely designed to keep veterans busy by funneling them into a gigantic college education system that hadn’t even really existed before the war and definitely wasn’t needed by the country as it was constructed back then. 

Before World War 2, fewer than 15% of men and 12% of women ever attended college. After World War 2, that number surged to 32% of men and 24% of women. It was the first time in human history that secondary education became a common fixture, and, out of nowhere, a booming post-High School education industry was willed into existence, born of a need to give traumatized soldiers a bunch of busywork.

As America spent the next few decades getting involved in further overseas wars, the endless funding of newly created college education for Veterans continued. Soon, it also became a way to get out of war, as men rushed to enroll in college to avoid a draft that would have sent them to die in Vietnam. By 1970, more than 50% of all high school graduates were attending college. 

In 1975, the Vietnam War ended, and the forced conscription of young men was over. At the same time, the United States government’s grant program began to drastically reduce spending, and free money for college began to vanish. 

Instead of free money in grants, the government and bankers began offering high-interest loans as a way to attend a University. And obviously, that’s not nearly as attractive. Now college wasn’t free, it wasn’t necessary, and men noticed. College enrollment for men began to dip.

So the powers that be decided to make college horny. This is the story of how Hollywood screenwashed men into living a life of debt slavery, just to get a shot at banging some girl from a sorority. 

It’s Not Just About Promising Hedonism

Right now, you’re probably thinking, ok, this one’s kind of obvious: Hollywood made a bunch of movies portraying college as a place of debauchery, so of course that got young men to go into debt thinking they’d get to party.

However, that’s only the surface level of what these movies are doing. The United States was still a majority Christian country until the late 1990s. Promising endless hedonism to Christian young men wouldn’t have been enough. Given the extreme level of debt slavery that colleges were asking men to sign up for, they needed something more than the possibility of drunken partying.

That something more is an Assimilation Rebellion. Once you see it, you’ll never be fooled by it again. You’ll also understand why, in recent years, young men have begun abandoning college as their way forward into life.

The College Comedy That Started It All

Since most college raunch comedies follow the same pattern, it makes sense to go to the source. The college raunch comedy was born on July 28, 1978, with the release of Animal House. It grew out of the anarchic comedy culture surrounding National Lampoon magazine in the 1970s. That magazine itself was spun off from the Harvard student publication Harvard Lampoon. 

All of this was deeply rooted in college culture, so when writers Harold Ramis, Douglas Kenney, and Chris Miller decided to write a movie script, they did so with a focus on wild fraternity stories Miller liked to tell about his time at Dartmouth. Instead of a polished college comedy, they made something crude, chaotic, and openly hostile to authority.

Everyone hated their Animal House script. No one in Hollywood wanted to make it. They rejected it as vulgar, gross, and ridiculous.

It only exists as a movie because of a man named Ned Tanen. He was the president of Universal Pictures, and he used his clout to push Animal House into production, even though no one else believed in it. 

Tanen made his career out of pushing counterculture propaganda pictures and films designed to change society’s views. Animal House was his biggest, and perhaps most important, persuasion victory.

Animal House’s Assimilation Rebellion

National Lampoon’s Animal House follows the disaster-prone members of Delta House, the worst fraternity on a fictional college campus in 1962. Why set it in 1962? Because by 1978 the world the characters in the movie are rebelling against no longer exists. By 1978, the hippie movement had already destroyed everything, but for Animal House to work, they needed something to rebel against. 

So the movie goes back in time before Vietnam protests, hippie culture, and the full collapse of trust in institutions. Animal House needs something to rebel against because that’s how it’s setting up the audience for an Assimilation Rebellion.

An Assimilation  Rebellion is a persuasion technique in which someone is Screenwashed into conformity by forming a rebellion that appears to reject or fight against an institution, system, or authority, but ultimately encourages people to join, support, or become emotionally attached to that same system. 

Here’s how Animal House and the college raunch comedies it spawned persuade audiences into college debt with assimilation rebellion, step by step. 

• Step One: Show the institution you want your audience to join as boring,  oppressive, or even corrupt.

That’s right: before we can get people to go to college, we have to make it seem like it sucks. Animal House does that with a Dean who’s a hypocrite and a system of straight-laced fraternities that oppose all sorts of fun. 

It’s basic stuff, but the film goes out of its way to make everything about college seem joyless and empty. The fraternities playing by the rules are stiff, formulaic, and they don’t seem to be happy. They’re angry and totally corrupt

Donald Sutherland plays a professor in the movie, and during the only classroom scene shown in it, he confesses he finds what he’s teaching boring and suggests it’s pointless. Even the staff doesn’t seem enthusiastic about this whole college thing and the ones who do, like the Dean, are portrayed as extremely stupid. 

• Step Two: Introduce charismatic rebels inside that institution.

Give the audience characters who break the rules yet remain within the system’s boundaries. Attach pleasure, freedom, status, humor, and belonging to the rebels.

Animal House is built around Delta House, a rebellious frat full of charismatic, drunken louts designed primarily to appeal to the sensibilities of the working class. It’s a template followed by nearly every college raunch comedy that came after, with the only difference being what group the rebel frat is meant to appeal to.

In Revenge of the Nerds, the rebel frat is meant to appeal to, obviously, nerds.

In PCU it’s Gen X slackers

In Old School it’s past-their-prime thirty-somethings.

What kinds of people populate the rebel frat changes depending on what group is being propagandized, but they’re always portrayed as lovable, wild-partying, outside-the-box thinkers.

• Step Three: Reward the internal rebels.

 Let the rebels humiliate authority, win social status, get sex, gain friends, or become legends.

Animal House quickly establishes that being a member of Delta House somehow gives its members total immunity from normal laws, regulations, and morality. When its members steal from a grocery store, a clerk catches them and then just waves them on, because they’re Delta.

When our rebel “heroes” abandon their girlfriends to be “assaulted” by “large men” at a club, the girls don’t even seem that mad about it and just walk home by themselves without complaining about what was done to them. 

Delta is even immune from the ire of its own members. Flounder briefly has a steady girlfriend in the film, and when he introduces her to his frat brothers, they immediately seduce her and sleep with her behind Flounder’s back. 

Flounder doesn’t seem to mind; he doesn’t even complain. Instead, he joins in the various assaults being perpetrated on other women by his frat brothers throughout the rest of the film. If you’re in Delta, you can literally do anything at all. 

If you haven’t seen Animal House, I need to be extremely clear here. This isn’t the normal, boys-will-be-boys partying you might have seen in the college comedies this movie inspired. There’s nothing innocent about anything in Animal House, and that’s on purpose. The movie goes to immoral and illegal extremes to prove to you that by joining a college, you can literally get away with anything.

It’s so extreme that the film’s primary protagonist, a twenty-something-year-old man, knowingly sleeps with the Mayor’s 13-year-old daughter after getting her black-out drunk, and nothing is done about it. Instead, the movie presents this horror as awesome and seems to suggest that the audience should consider trying something similar.

The fact that, in the era of #MeToo, Animal House is not only still available to stream freely but also doesn’t even have one of those annoying warning labels about outdated content in front of it should tell you a lot about how important this movie is to the institutions around it.

It’s worth noting that Revenge of the Nerds is not available to watch on streaming, having been canceled for an only slightly less horrific scene in which an adult woman is lured into intimacy under false pretenses.

Meanwhile, every frame of Animal House is basically frat-house Epstein Island, and everyone in our culture is fine with it. They have to be, because Animal House is the pillar on which the modern college myth was constructed. Pull out that pillar and the whole thing collapses.

• Step Four: Don’t present escape from the system as an option; instead, make rebelling a lifestyle.

In Animal House, as in every college raunch comedy, the hero frat is composed of guys who basically do nothing but sit around partying. They don’t attend college classes, play sports, or hang out in the quad. They just hang out in a group home, getting drunk.

So when these lazy hedonists run afoul of campus regulations, you’d think they’d all just shrug and move the party to a different house, since none of them were really attending college anyway. You can literally party anywhere.

That never happens. It never even occurs to them. Instead, the group fights desperately to stay in the very system they’re against, though there’s no reason for them to be there. 

There are variations on this. For instance, in Old School, people who aren’t already part of the college to begin with fight to get in. But they aren’t fighting to get in and take math classes; they want to hold topless wrestling matches in their basement. Something you don’t need college enrollment to do.

• Step Five: Leave the institution intact.

The system survives, but now it looks cooler because a rebellion happened inside it.

In Animal House, we never explicitly see what happens to the college after Delta House’s rebellion. But the movie ends with a note that tells us what happened to each member, making it clear that they were eventually all let back in, got their degrees despite never attending classes, and that everything worked out fine.

Other movies spend more time on showing the aftermath of the rebellion. The result is always the same. Everyone resumes attending college, only it’s more fun now.

They get all the status and income promised by college, but get it by doing nothing that resembles studying. The classic college raunch comedy’s protagonists do drugs, commit crimes, and bang sorority girls. Then they graduate.

When they’re done, the college is still there, ready for the next class of hedonistic criminals. It’s still there, ready for you.

• Step Six: Transfer the audience’s affection.

With the Assimilation Rebellion arc complete, the audience now falls in love with the idea of college itself. Because none of this could happen without that system, and hedonism without any consequences looks like a lot of fun. 

You don’t really have to conform man, you can go and be an independent free thinker just like all the other independent free thinkers there who just happen to be independently free thinking exactly the same things as everyone else. Conformity becomes liberation. Rebellion becomes assimilation. That’s an Assimilation Rebellion. 

The College Lie Is Collapsing Too Slowly

Luckily, the lie started by Animal House and transmitted by its successors is starting to collapse in on itself. A few people are, finally, starting to realize that allowing kids who can’t legally rent a car, drink alcohol, get a tattoo, or purchase a lottery ticket to take on long-term predatory loans and pause their lives for four years in the hopes of assaulting a minor may not be a good idea.

Yet, it’s not happening fast enough. 55% of men were still attending college after high school in 2024, down from a high of 60% in 2020. Women seem to be going in the opposite direction, with 70% of them attending college, up from 67% in 2020.

There have been recent attempts to tweak the standard college-deserves-all-your-money narrative to account for the fact that people have begun to notice it doesn’t deliver on its promises. Netflix, for instance, recently released an entire series designed to screenwash audiences into believing that college is only good when it’s totally useless. 

I did a full video on this one; you’ll have to see it all to believe it. 

Unfortunately, tactics like this are working to deflect from secondary education criticism. Though there are now a few objectors, for most, college still seems like a foregone conclusion, despite the fact that there’s no longer any real evidence that it helps improve people’s future job prospects or in any way contributes to their long-term happiness. Despite the fact that you’re almost certainly not going to bang a hot sorority girl and will most definitely go to jail if you rob a grocery store. 

Congratulations, future college debt slaves: You’ve been screenwashed.