Comedian Eddie Griffin isn’t holding back when it comes to Drake. During the latest episode of his “NNN” show, the actor roasted the Canadian rapper over his most recent album, “ICEMAN,” and called him too “sensitive.” His critique of the “Degrassi” alum’s album comes after the latter took shots at several celebrities on the project, including NBA champion LeBron James.

Griffin, known for his sitcom “Malcolm & Eddie,” spoke about Drake’s May 15 album on the most recent episode of his YouTube show. As he was speaking about it, Griffin made it clear that he wasn’t a fan of the “One Dance” rapper, calling him too “sensitive.”

In the video, which now has over 114,000 views, Griffin told his listeners that he hadn’t planned on listening to Drake’s latest body of work, saying he “refuses to buy garbage.” During his rant, he also seemed to take issue with some of Drake’s songs, particularly one where he takes a clear shot at Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James.

“… the ice-melting man is said to have a song clowning LeBron James because he took a picture on the sidelines with Kendrick Lamar after taking a picture with Drake,” Griffin said. “He took a picture with your enemy? I didn’t know y’all were dating.”

Griffin didn’t stop there, though. He went even further, saying Drake “sounds like a b-tch to me.” He added, “It’s over. Just take your owl a** and travel in the dark quietly because owls, they move quietly.”

Drake Calls Out LeBron James In ‘1 Am In Albany’

According to a previous report from The Blast, Drake stirred up a bit of chaos on the night of May 14, 2026, when songs from his trio of albums were leaked online. In one song, “1 AM in Albany,” Drake makes it clear that he’s no longer in a good place with his former friend, James.

“I shouldn’t even be shocked to see you in that arena, because you always made your career off of switching teams up,” Drake raps over the beat. “Please stop asking what’s going on with 23 & me, I’m a real n****, and he’s not, it’s in my DNA.”

Drake’s lyrics about the Cleveland Cavaliers alum come over a year after James was spotted singing along to Kendrick Lamar‘s diss track about the “God’s Plan” rapper, “Not Like Us.”

Drake And James Had A Close Relationship With One Another

Prior to their falling out, Drake and James had a well-documented friendship. Not only did the “Hotline Bling” rapper have a portrait of James tattooed on his body, but he also revealed in 2011 that he used to text James before every game.

“I always let him know that it’s his night,” Drake said, according to The Blast. “Let’s get it, let’s go out there with a clear mind and forget all the other stuff going on and just stay focused on the task. That ring. Tonight, I told him it was his night. And it was his night tonight.”

In 2025, James opened up about his strained relationship with Drake in an interview with Speedy Morman, admitting that things between them had soured.

“Always wish him the best. Obviously, um, different places right now, currently. He’s doing his thing, I’m doing mine. But it’s always love, for sure,” the father of three said.

Drizzy Was Saddened By James’ Behavior

Prior to speaking about his issues with James on his album, Drake made it clear that he had issues with those who’d wronged him, releasing a statement during a 2024 speech showing love to his “real friends” who had stood by him.

Continuing, Drake said that he’s had to find the strength to move forward after being hurt by those close to him.

“They might try to move funny with you. They might stab you in the back. They might do a lot of things to you. You’ll come to that realization, wherever you’re at in life. You’ve probably been there and you’ll be there again. That’s how life is. Sometimes it’s you and you alone by yourself,” he said.

The Rapper Stars In A New Commercial With Another NBA Champion

Although Drake’s relationship with James has deteriorated, that hasn’t stopped other NBA icons from teaming up with the “Hold On, We’re Going Home” rapper.

Recently, Drake starred in a new Nike commercial alongside NBA champion Kevin Durant to promote his new sneaker, the KD19.

“Normalize glazing the bros @easymoneysniper 19th sneaker available on nike.com and SNKRs 6.17,” the two stars captioned the Instagram post.

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By TeeJay Small
| Published 1 hour ago

If you’re in the market for a mind-bending psychological thriller, the last person you’re expecting to see is probably Michael Scott. Even still, Hulu’s original mini-series The Patient is the perfect example of Steve Carell’s surprisingly stellar dramatic acting capabilities. The series runs just ten episodes in total, and tells the gripping story of a therapist who is kidnapped and held captive by a crazed serial killer, intent on curbing his own twisted urges. It’s sort of Dexter meets the Melfi scenes in The Sopranos, and it’s the perfect show for a quick weekend binge.

I first became aware of The Patient back when it premiered in 2022, and binge-watched every episode in just two sittings with a friend. From the advertisements I’d seen for the show, I surmised that Steve Carell would be eschewing his usual screwball comedy routine, though I had no idea how strong his performance would ultimately be. I recall seeing other Steve Carell dramas like Foxcatcher in the past, and while I enjoyed seeing him play against type, I wasn’t especially blown away. In The Patient, Carell delivers with enough gravitas to command your attention for all ten episodes, rivaled only by Domhnall Gleeson‘s twisted Sam Fortner.

Early on in The Patient, we’re introduced to Carell’s Dr. Alan Strauss. He’s a therapist who has a tense relationship with his son, currently in the throes of depression after the recent loss of his wife. He’s also suffering a crisis of faith, which further alienates him from his highly devout and religious son. After taking on a new patient by the name of Sam, Alan is knocked unconscious, kidnapped, and chained to a radiator in a cramped basement. Upon waking up, Alan learns that Sam is a serial killer seeking psychiatric help.

At first, Alan attempts to talk his way out of the basement using his superior therapist intellect. He implores Sam to seek help through more traditional means by turning himself in, and highlights that keeping a middle-aged professional hostage will quickly become a logistical nightmare. Even still, Sam presses on, providing Alan with just enough amenities to keep him alive and focused on their unguided sessions. The only upside to Alan’s imprisonment is the food, since Sam is a very picky restaurant inspector with access to all the finest restaurants in town.

The premise may seem a little bare bones, but The Patient winds up delivering some truly gripping material over the course of a single season. The show explores themes of faith and resilience, the relationship between mental health and family, and draws some stark comparisons to the plight of those victimized during the Holocaust. The penultimate episode of the series is even titled “Auschwitz.” I even learned a few interesting things about the Jewish faith over the course of my binge, which brings some seriously unique color to the entire show.

If you’re hoping to see Steve Carell ham it up in an Office-style comedy, you’ll definitely turn this show off after the first episode. But, if you’re open to seeing the comedian grapple with his faith, his career, and his strained relationship with his family while intermittently threatened by a lunatic, this might be the best thing you’ll see all year. It’ll make you laugh, it’ll make you cry, and it will surely make you very hungry for a gourmet meal. The Patient is currently streaming on Hulu.

Although he’s still a popular name, the recent run of movies for Mark Wahlberg has been wince-inducing. 2024’s Arthur the King aside, Wahlberg has not had a performance rank more than 48% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes in eight long years. From his team-up with director Mel Gibson in the action thriller Flight Risk and the disappointing Prime Video original heist thriller Play Dirty, to the action sequel, The Family Plan 2, and the disastrous recent soccer comedy Balls Up, it’s a tough time to be a Wahlberg fan.

It feels like a long time since Wahlberg earned either of his Academy Award nominations or any of his 9 Primetime Emmy nominations, but the former Marky Mark still boasts an impressive filmography. After making a name for himself in gritty, intense movies, Wahlberg’s career took a sharp comedic turn in 2010 when he teamed up with Hollywood’s resident funnyman Will Ferrell in the brilliant buddy cop satire The Other Guys, which earned plenty of praise upon arrival.

Also starring Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson, albeit for less time than you might imagine, The Other Guys couldn’t return a strong box office haul during the second half of 2010. Against a bloated budget of $100 million, the movie only earned $170 million worldwide, split between a domestic haul of $119 million and a further $51 million from overseas markets. 16 years later, and perfect for those looking for a break from disappointing recent Wahlberg comedies, The Other Guys is officially joining a new streamer. Starting June 1, you can watch the hilarious buddy cop comedy on Starz in the U.S.

What Can You See Mark Wahlberg in Next?

After such a poor run of movies, Wahlberg will be hoping to break the trend with his next project, the historical crime thriller By Any Means. “A notorious mafia hitman and a young Black FBI agent team up to investigate the murders of civil rights leaders in Mississippi in 1966,” reads the logline for the film, which stars Wahlberg alongside Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Giancarlo Esposito, Nicole Beharie, David Strathairn, Josh Lucas, and Ethan Embry. As it stands, the Paramount project is scheduled for release in theaters on Labor Day (September 4, 2026).

The Other Guys will be streaming on Starz starting June 1, 2026. Stay tuned to Collider for more streaming stories.

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Release Date

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August 6, 2010

Runtime

107 minutes

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Director

Adam McKay

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By TeeJay Small
| Published 31 seconds ago

I don’t think any actor has ever gotten a bigger career bump from a television finale than Bryan Cranston. Once Breaking Bad wrapped in 2013, Cranston began popping up all over the place in movies, TV shows, television ads, and Broadway plays. While many of his post-Heisenberg roles are excellent, my favorite underrated Cranston performance has to be the leading role in 2016’s The Infiltrator. The movie made a small splash at the box office and ultimately failed to make back its budget, but it stands up really well on a rewatch now that it’s streaming on Hulu.

As a massive Breaking Bad fan, I distinctly recall catching The Infiltrator in theaters and gasping as I discovered the premise. The film is a biographical crime drama based on the true story of the men who went undercover to take down infamous drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. Cranston leads the cast as United States Customs Service Special Agent Robert Mazur, based on the real-life Mazur’s recollection of events. Diane Kruger, John Leguizamo, Yul Vazquez, and The Office‘s Amy Ryan round out the cast.

In case it doesn’t immediately leap out to you, I found this movie hilarious for the mere fact that Cranston was flipping the script on his Breaking Bad persona. On the hit AMC TV show, he portrayed a timid, mild-mannered suburbanite who led a double life as a violent drug lord. In The Infiltrator, Cranston is a rough-around-the-edges badass who weasels his way into Escobar’s crew in order to bust him and take down the entire operation. For fans of the show, this is like Walter White and Hank Schrader merging into a single mustachioed individual.

Even if you’ve never seen Breaking Bad, there’s plenty to enjoy about The Infiltrator. The story is quite gripping, the performances are top-notch, and the cinematography leaves your head spinning. I distinctly recall walking out of the theater back in 2016 thinking it was going to be a hit, so you can imagine my surprise when nobody was talking about it at the water cooler the following week. The Infiltrator currently touts a middling 72 percent critic score on Rotten Tomatoes as well, so I might just have very niche taste.

If I had to guess why The Infiltrator underperformed, I’d say it’s probably because it tells a similar story to the Netflix series Narcos, if a bit more condensed. Narcos is also about taking down Escobar, though the series focuses more on the life of the kingpin and his ultimate demise, giving viewers a much fuller picture of events. The movie, by contrast, concludes when Escobar is caught and arraigned in the late 1980s, as that’s when Robert Mazur’s work concluded. History buffs will note that Escobar ultimately managed to escape from prison during the early 1990s, and live the rest of his life on the run.

If you were one of the lucky few who caught this film in theaters ten years ago, why not give it another spin today? Alternatively, this might be the perfect time for a first-time viewer to sit down and catch The Infiltrator on Hulu.

Yellowstone fans are in for some onscreen surprises when it comes to Rip and Beth’s Dutton Ranch spinoff.

Natalie Alyn Lind exclusively spoke to Us Weekly about what to expect, saying, “What I loved about the original Yellowstone so much is the family dynamics. I think that family relationships can be the absolute messiest because your family can hurt you more than anyone.”

Lind, who plays Oreana, teased what is to come.

“Both families will fight for each other and seeing this integration of the two families come together … it gets messy,” she shared. “It gets really messy. In the best way. It gets so juicy. I’m so excited.”

Related: Meet the Star-Studded Cast of Yellowstone’s Spinoff ‘Dutton Ranch’

Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser have made the move from Yellowstone to their own show — but who else makes up the cast of Dutton Ranch? The Paramount Network show, which premiered in 2018, introduced viewers to the fictional Dutton family. Yellowstone came to an end in 2024, expanding its universe with Luke Grimes‘ CBS […]

Yellowstone, which premiered in 2018, introduced viewers to the fictional Dutton family. The Paramount Network show came to an end in 2024, expanding its universe with Luke Grimes‘ CBS show Marshals and Dutton Ranch, which premiered in May.

“As Beth and Rip fight to build a future together — far from the ghosts of Yellowstone — they collide with brutal new realities and a ruthless rival ranch that will stop at nothing to protect its empire,” the show’s synopsis reads. “In South Texas, blood runs deeper, forgiveness is fleeting, and the cost of survival might just be your soul.”

Dutton Ranch will introduce some new characters played by Annette Bening and Ed Harris. Other newcomers include Jai Courtney, Lind, Marc Menchaca, Juan Pablo Raba and J. R. Villarreal.

“My arc is heading in a direction that I am not going to be specific about but she starts off the season and ends it a completely different person,” Lind told Us. “There’s things that happen that change her life forever.”

Dutton Ranch expands Rip and Beth’s world as they meet many new people — including the powerful Jackson family made up of matriarch Beulah (Bening), who owns the 10 Petal Ranch. She runs her affluent business with sons Joaquin (Raba), a.k.a the fixer in the family and Rob-Will (Courtney), who is the reckless member of the family that sets off a chain reaction in the pilot episode.

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Rob-Will has a daughter — Beulah’s granddaughter — Oreana (Lind) who is destined to inherit the ranch but instead finds herself pushing back against expectation … and finding love with Carter.

“Everybody knows the Duttons so well and there’s this deep history. For the Jacksons coming into this new franchise, we wanted it to feel like it was a family that was deep rooted so when you get to know them, it feels authentic,” Lind shared with Us.

Dutton Ranch airs Fridays on Paramount+.

Chris Brown can officially add “doctor” to his resume. On Saturday, May 23, 2026, the “Gimme That” singer revealed that he received an honorary doctorate degree in Visual & Performing Arts from Harvest Christian University. The father of four posted pictures of the special moment online, boasting about his latest accomplishment. However, some social media users weren’t as ecstatic about the A-lister, as a few have flooded various social forums to blast the 37-year-old.

Brown received an honorary Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Visual & Performing Arts from Harvest Christian University in May 2026.

The singer posted photos of himself in his academic regalia online, captioning the flicks, “I DID A THING!”

Other images gave his followers a closer look at the certificate, which acknowledges that Brown has met the requirements for the honor.

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According to ABS-CBN, Harvest Christian University issues honorary doctoral degrees to those who’ve “made significant impacts in their fields, particularly in music, entertainment, and humanitarian work.”

Per the institution, honorary degrees recognize a person’s accomplishments and “influence beyond the classroom, honoring those whose life’s work embodies the values and mission of the university.”

Chris Brown Has Been In The Game Since The Early 2000s

Brown rose to fame in the early 2000s with his self-titled album, “Chris Brown,” which featured the singles “Run It!,” “Say Goodbye,” and “Poppin.” The project reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and, as of today, has sold over 4 million copies.

In the years that followed, Brown released chart-topping albums, including “FAME” and “Fortune,” and received two Grammys for Best R&B Album in 2012 and 2025. Adding to it, Brown has also become one of the highest-grossing touring artists of all time, with his latest tour grossing nearly $300 million.

While impressive, Brown’s career has also been clouded by controversy since 2009, when Brown pleaded guilty to felony assault after a reported domestic violence dispute between him and his then-girlfriend, Rihanna.

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Additionally, Brown has reportedly been involved in several physical altercations with his peers, including Drake and Frank Ocean, and was arrested in 2013 after punching a man in the face outside of a DC hotel.

While Brown has still experienced success despite his legal woes and other disputes, his personal issues have certainly hung over his head since the mid-2000s. It appears to be one of the reasons why some are furious with Harvest Christian University for honoring the singer with such a prestigious title.

“LOL imagine giving an honorary doctorate to a convicted criminal, images of whose crime – a battered woman – are all over the internet to find,” someone wrote about the moment on Reddit. “Seems very Christ like.”

Another user wrote, “Disgusting,” and a third said, “An abuser and an honorary degree = no one cares.”

On Instagram, the reaction was much of the same, considering one user wrote, “Defund Honorary Degrees!”

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Someone else added, “Good for him, but I’m not calling him Dr. Chris Brown. Much love and respect to our Black scholars who have truly earned their doctorates and are pursuing theirs.”

Brown’s Latest Album Received A Low Score From A Music Review Publication

According to a previous report from The Blast, Brown was recently in the headlines after dragging Pitchfork, a respected music publication, for giving his latest album, “Brown,” a 1.3/10 rating.

The outlet’s review quickly went viral, likely because the senior writer who penned the piece called the 27-track project a “real piece of sh-t.”

Brown fired back, saying, “F-ck that! We kickin’ they a-s, goddamnit. We ain’t lettin’ up. I’mma keep my foot on they neck, and we ain’t stoppin’. You heard me?”

Brown Shaded Another Singer In The Process

In his statement, Brown told critics he wasn’t concerned with their opinions of his music. “If you not my fan, I don’t want you to listen to my sh-t. Go listen to motherf-ckin’ Zara Larsson or somebody.”

Larsson has been vocal about her disdain toward Brown for years, according to The Blast. Earlier this year, she revealed he was one of the artists she had blocked on Spotify.

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“There are so many artists I have blocked on Spotify, and all of them are, like, abusers,” the “Pretty Ugly” singer said. “You certainly wouldn’t find, like, a Chris Brown song.”

There is no bigger spy movie character than James Bond. Based on the novels by Ian Fleming, 007 made his big screen debut in 1962, with Sean Connery donning the tuxedo in Dr. No. Over the last six decades, Bond has also been played by George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig. There have been some great Bond movies, like Goldfinger, GoldenEye, Casino Royale, and Skyfall, but as thrilling as they are, there are six spy movies that are even better.

1

‘North by Northwest’ (1959)

Image via MGM

We’ll start with Alfred Hitchcock‘s North by Northwest. Cary Grant plays Roger Thornhill, an ad exec from New York who is mistaken for a spy and chased across the country by corrupt secret agents, led by Phillip Vandamm (James Mason), out to stop him. Along the way, he meets Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) and falls madly in love with her. Is she a friend or foe?

It’s easy to see that North by Northwest inspired what was to come with James Bond and Mission: Impossible. It takes a lighter tone at times, going for more fun than serious, like the early, playful Bond films. Hitchcock’s action thriller is a masterpiece in suspense, with one twist after another, and truly mesmerizing shots, such as when Thornhill is hanging off the side of Mount Rushmore, or when he’s chased by a crop duster plane through an open field.

2

‘The Manchurian Candidate’ (1962)

Image via United Artists

While the 2004 Denzel Washington-led reboot of The Manchurian Candidate is pretty good, it can’t hold a candle to the 1962 original. Directed by John Frankenheimer and based on Richard Condon‘s 1959 novel, the film stars Laurence Harvey as Sergeant Raymond Shaw, a brainwashed sleeper agent activated to do something diabolical. He’s accompanied by a phenomenal performance by Angela Lansbury as Shaw’s mother, Eleanor, and crooner Frank Sinatra as Major Bennett Marco, the only man who knows the truth and can stop Shaw before it’s too late.

Although filmed in black and white, The Manchurian Candidate is a colorful satire with a lot to say about the features of McCarthyism. Over 60 years later, its message is still so very important. It’s a film that’s more than a warning, though. It’s Shakespeare meets spy thriller, where the enemy is within, and paranoia reigns supreme. In 1962, with the Cuban Missile Crisis leaving everyone on edge, this one was just as much a horror movie as a thrilling spy flick.

3

‘Three Days of the Condor’ (1975)

Image via Paramount Pictures

Robert Redford knew a thing or two about political thrillers with important movies like All the President’s Men. For a spy movie, though, you can’t do any better than Three Days of the Condor. Based on James Grady‘s novel Six Days of the Condor and directed by Sydney Pollack, Redford plays CIA analyst Joe Turner, who goes by the name Condor. When he returns from lunch to find all of his co-workers murdered, Turner must find who is responsible before it’s too late.

Three Days of the Condor is accompanied by top-notch supporting performances. Faye Dunaway is great as Turner’s lover, photographer Kathy Hale, and Max von Sydow is riveting as the assassin Joubert. The conspiracy thriller is led by Pollack’s impeccable directing and Redford’s easy coolness. Joe Turner is low-level in the CIA, but it won’t stop him from uncovering the truth at any cost. This movie didn’t need to depend on an abundance of car chases and gunfights. Words are the real weapons.

4

‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ (2007)

Image via Universal Pictures

Matt Damon became an action hero as Jason Bourne in 2002’s The Bourne Identity. The first sequel, The Bourne Supremacy, is just as good, but the final chapter in the original trilogy, The Bourne Ultimatum, is among the best spy movies ever made. Directed by Paul Greengrass, Bourne, learning more about his mysterious past, continues to be chased by the CIA. This time, when a journalist is killed, Bourne makes it his mission to find out more about Operation Blackbriar, part of the secret Treadstone program that created him.

The Bourne Ultimatum isn’t interested in being overly flashy. It uses handheld cameras to get up close, putting the audience in the action, thus creating a raw realism. It’s a smartly written and well-plotted espionage thriller that never slows down once it gets going. Damon is great as always, playing the cool and calm hero fighting in the chaos. The movie was another huge hit for the franchise, not just at the box office but at the Academy Awards as well, where it picked up Oscars for Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing.

5

‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ (2011)

Image via StudioCanal

Based on John le Carré‘s novel of the same name, and directed by Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy stars Gary Oldman as George Smiley, a retired spy during the 1970s Cold War who returns to track down the mole who has infiltrated the British intelligence agency known as The Circus. As he interviews everyone who could be a part of it, Smiley begins to find out that the real enemies are closer than he could ever know.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a more complicated film that the audience must give their full attention to. George Smiley is not a cool, catchphrase-spouting super spy. This isn’t James Bond, but a highly intelligent man who captures bad guys with his mind. Smiley gathers his information in what could be dull ways, whether it be reading documents or putting together bits of conversation. However, rather than boring, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a mind game built on a non-linear structure and an A-list supporting cast made up of Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, and Benedict Cumberbatch.

6

‘Mission: Impossible — Fallout’ (2018)

Image via Paramount Pictures

The Mission: Impossible film franchise started in 1996 with a series of hits and misses. It reached its peak in 2018 with the sixth film, Mission: Impossible — Fallout. Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, Tom Cruise is back once more as IMF spy agent Ethan Hunt. Here, Hunt and company are tasked with stopping the Apostles, a group of terrorists planning to set off a series of nuclear attacks in Europe.

As per usual, Mission: Impossible — Fallout is filled with stunning visuals and stunts, including Cruise himself participating in a HALO jump and a stomach-dropping scene from a helicopter. At two-and-a-half hours, the movie risks being way too long. Instead, it makes the most of every minute, with a phenomenal action movie mixed with exciting intrigue and plenty of twists. James Bond is the epitome of cool, but he could never pull off what Ethan Hunt is capable of.

Forgotten action movies make me angrier than forgotten prestige dramas, honestly, because action is still treated like disposable adrenaline by people who should know better. A great action film is tempo, body language, camera trust, star presence, stunt design, comic timing, propulsion, and that beautiful old-movie confidence that one hard premise plus the right lead can carry you for two hours if everybody involved actually knows what they are doing.

And when these films fall out of circulation, it is usually not because they failed. It is because the genre conversation got lazy and kept circling the same sacred cows while a whole second canon sat there grinning with broken teeth. That second canon is where the real pleasure lives sometimes. The bruised, nasty, weird, charming, overclocked stuff. These ten are not honorable mentions. They are the kind of action movies you show someone when you want to remind them the genre used to have texture.

10

‘Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins’ (1985)

Image via Orion Pictures

I have such a soft spot for Remo Williams because it feels like the kind of movie Hollywood used to make when it still believed a star vehicle could be built out of pure nerve and oddness. The premise is gloriously pulpy: a dead-on-paper cop gets recruited into a secret government operation and trained into this quasi-superhuman assassin by a master who treats reality like something flexible if your mind and body are disciplined enough. That already rules.

But what really makes the film memorable is its tone. It never completely settles. It is espionage spoof, action adventure, comic-book nonsense, urban paranoia, martial-arts fantasy, all of it pushed together with enough confidence that the seams become part of the fun. And Remo Williams (Fred Ward) is a huge reason it works. Chiun (Joel Grey) is also obviously the thing people remember most, and with good reason. He gives the film its strangest and funniest energy. It is such a specific 1980s action artifact, playful, cocky, odd, a little ramshackle, but fully alive.

9

‘Shoot to Kill’ (1988)

Image via Buena Vista Pictures Distribution

What I love about Shoot to Kill is how cleanly it shifts registers without losing its pulse. It begins like a city thriller, a brutal killer, a witness on the run, federal pursuit mechanics clicking into place, and then it takes that tension into the mountains and turns into something harsher and more physical. Suddenly this is not just a manhunt. It is a survival movie, a wilderness chase, a culture clash between urban law-enforcement force and a guide who understands terrain in a way no badge can fake. That is such a satisfying structural move.

Jonathan Knox (Tom Berenger) and Warren Stantin (Sidney Poitier) are terrific together because they are doing different things and the movie knows it. Knox gives you the loose, mountain-man confidence, all instinct and outdoors precision, while Stantin brings authority, intelligence, and impatience sharpened by the fact that he is chasing evil through terrain that refuses his usual methods. It is one of those thrillers that remembers action gets better when the landscape becomes a real participant instead of a postcard.

8

‘Blue Thunder’ (1983)

Image via Columbia Pictures

This movie absolutely understands that hardware can be erotic in action cinema without swallowing the human story whole. The helicopter in Blue Thunder is not just a cool toy. It is surveillance power made seductive, terrifying, and horribly useful. That is what gives the film its edge. It is a machine built for law-and-order fantasy and civil-liberties nightmare at the same time, and the movie is smart enough to know those two things are often separated by one paranoid official and a weak excuse. That political anxiety gives the action real charge.

Frank Murphy (Roy Scheider) is perfect for this kind of role because he never looks like he trusts the movie’s power fantasies all the way. He looks like a man who has seen enough state violence to know toys like this never stay toys. Then the film gives you the exact kind of action escalation it should: urban aerial pursuit, technical maneuvering, pilot skill becoming drama, city space reorganized by what a machine in the sky can suddenly do. The movie still has that wonderful 1980s mixture of sleekness and grime too. It feels both engineered and nervous. A lot of tech thrillers age into irrelevance. Blue Thunder just keeps feeling more suspicious.

7

‘Extreme Prejudice’ (1987)

Image via Tri-Star Pictures

This movie has one of the greatest “how is this not more famous” vibes in the genre. Walter Hill takes border-war crime material, old western bloodlines, military testosterone, cartel violence, and male rivalry, and he does not sand any of it down into neat studio digestibility. The result is lean, ugly, and weirdly mythic. You can feel the western skeleton under the modern-action flesh the entire time in Extreme Prejudice.

Childhood loyalties curdled into opposite sides of violence. Men who understand each other too well. A landscape that does not forgive sentiment. It is all there. And then the movie starts layering in one of my favorite kinds of action-film insanity: the unofficial military-operations subplot that makes the whole border conflict feel even more poisoned. Jack Benteen (Nick Nolte), Cash Bailey (Powers Boothe), and Major Paul Hackett (Michael Ironside), this cast is full of men who look like they could break the air just by entering a room, and Walter Hill knows how to use that. Nobody is softening their edges. Nobody is apologizing for the movie’s hardness. Extreme Prejudice feels like a film that knows American action can be half-noir, half-western, half-death march if it wants to. Yes, that is three halves. It earns them.

6

‘Rapid Fire’ (1992)

Image via 20th Century Fox

This one matters because Brandon Lee should have had a much longer action legacy than he got, and Rapid Fire is one of the clearest pieces of evidence for that. He had speed, charm, athletic grace, and that great action-star quality of seeming almost too alive for the frame around him. The movie gives him a strong setup too, art student, accidental witness to mob murder, suddenly trapped between law enforcement and organized crime, which lets him play both fish-out-of-water vulnerability and furious physical retaliation. The tension is not just “can he fight?” Of course he can fight. It is watching somebody young and unwilling get dragged into a genre engine that wants to harden him fast.

And the film really moves. Dwight H. Little has helmed it all with the right kind of old-school efficiency, letting the fights breathe and letting Jake Lo (Lee)’s movement do expressive work instead of drowning it in coverage. The chemistry with Mace Ryan (Powers Boothe) helps a lot too, because Ryan brings that sardonic veteran authority that makes the whole cop-crime structure feel less generic. So what I like most is that Rapid Fire still belongs to the era when action could be glossy and dirty at the same time. It has style, but it still looks like bruises hurt. Brandon Lee deserved a dozen movies built around this exact balance.

5

‘Ricochet’ (1991)

Image via Warner Bros.

Ricochet is one of the most entertainingly deranged studio thrillers of the ’90s, and I mean that with love. It starts with Nick Styles (Denzel Washington) as a rising cop and public hero, and then Earl Talbot Blake (John Lithgow), a humanized nervous breakdown with criminal intelligence attached, and the whole movie becomes this sweaty revenge machine where reputation, race, media image, political ascent, and personal violation all get twisted together. It is not subtle. It should not be subtle.

This kind of action-thriller lives or dies on how gleefully it turns somebody’s successful life into a trap, and Ricochet commits. It is one of those thrillers where the villain’s plan is so personally diseased that the whole film feels feverish. That is a compliment

.

4

‘Stone Cold’ (1991)

Image via Columbia Pictures

I will always go to bat for Stone Cold because it is one of the purest specimens of action-movie excess ever smuggled into a studio release with a straight face. Joe Huff (Brian Bosworth) as an undercover cop infiltrating a white-supremacist biker gang led by Chains Cooper (Lance Henriksen) should already tell you the movie understands bigness as a moral principle. But what makes it genuinely great, not just a camp curio, is how fully it commits to its own comic-book brutality. Nobody is hedging. Nobody is trying to make the movie respectable. It is all in on leather, explosives, prison-break theology, biker cult energy, and men staring at each other like America itself might detonate if they blink wrong.

And the thing is, it works. Huff has exactly the right block-of-granite quality for the role. He is not delicate, not psychologically overworked, just a slab of undercover hostility dropped into a gang already vibrating with apocalyptic nonsense. Cooper, meanwhile, is exquisite because he understands villainy here is charisma, ideology, and end-times pageantry fused together. The action scenes are not shy either. Bar fights, bike mayhem, public shootouts, whole chunks of the movie feel like they were designed by someone angrily sketching on the back of a denim vest. That is why Stone Cold rules. It is too much in exactly the way action sometimes needs to be.

3

‘The Long Kiss Goodnight’ (1996)

Image via New Line Cinema

This movie gets better every year — Shane Black’s writing just keeps revealing how much hurt and wit he could fit inside action structure when he was really cooking. Samantha Caine / Charly Baltimore (Geena Davis) beginning as this suburban amnesiac schoolteacher and slowly turning back into Charly Baltimore is already a terrific hook, but the film is doing more than memory-thriller mechanics. It is about identity as buried violence, femininity as both camouflage and explosive force, and the humiliating possibility that the self you lost might be much more dangerous than the self you built to replace it.

That is rich material for an action movie. Geena Davis is astonishing in it. She genuinely makes Samantha and Charly feel like different distributions of the same person’s life force. And then Mitch Henessey (Samuel L. Jackson) shows up and makes the whole thing sing. Together they turn the movie into this incredible mix of Christmas action, conspiracy nonsense, personal rediscovery, and black-comic mayhem. It has one of the best “oh this movie knows exactly how good it is” energies in the genre.

2

‘The Last Boy Scout’ (1991)

Image via Warner Bros.

This movie is pure toxic-brilliant Shane Black alchemy. It feels like an action film written by someone who thinks America is a strip-lit nervous breakdown and jokes are what people say while bleeding out morally. Joe Hallenbeck (Bruce Willis) and Jimmy Dix (Damon Wayans) should not work together as well as they do, and that is exactly why they work. Joe Hallenbeck is already spiritually broken when the movie begins, a washed-up private detective with that wonderful Willis combination of contempt, exhaustion, and just enough stubborn competence to keep the world from entirely swallowing him. Jimmy Dix is flash, grief, ego, and damage from a different social tier. Put them together inside sports corruption, murder, and media sleaze, and the movie becomes a symphony of rotten banter.

What makes it great is the pressure. The script is full of killer lines, obviously, but the lines are not floating free. They come from a movie where everybody seems to have already been spiritually smogged by money, violence, sex, celebrity, and institutional rot. The action scenes hit harder because the world around them already feels corrupt enough to deserve destruction. The Last Boy Scout is ugly in all the right places.

1

‘Drive’ (1997)

Image via Simitar Entertainment

This is number one because it is the one I most want to shove into people’s hands and say, no, seriously, watch this. Steve Wang’s Drive has that magical B-movie-transcendence quality where a mid-budget action setup suddenly starts moving with so much charm, speed, invention, and pure handcrafted pleasure that you stop thinking in terms of budget or status at all. Toby Wong (Mark Dacascos) is phenomenal in it.

The film does something a lot of action movies forget to do: it becomes genuinely fun without getting stupid in the dead way. The buddy dynamic with Malik Brody (Kadeem Hardison) is a huge part of that. Their rhythm gives the movie this loose comic current that keeps the fights from becoming repetitive and keeps the whole experience buoyant even when the plot is just a delivery system for pursuit and combat. But the fights are why it lasts. They are so clear, playful, fast, and physically expressive. You can feel the filmmakers delighting in momentum. Drive is not a forgotten action movie because it lacks quality. It is forgotten because the world is unfair and the genre conversation is lazy. It should be a cult staple at minimum. For me, it is better than that. It is one of the secret pure pleasures of ’90s action cinema.

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Drive

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Release Date

August 6, 1997

Runtime

100 minutes

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Director

Steve Wang

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Writers

Scott Phillips

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  Kadeem Hardison

  Malik Brody

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  Brittany Murphy

  Deliverance Bodine

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  John Pyper-Ferguson

  Vic Madison

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Beartooth lead singer Caleb Shomo recently came out as gay after months of speculation. On social media, his wife, Fleur Shomo, has broken her silence, calling the last several months “a very disorientating and hurtful time to navigate.”

Fleur shared a few pieces of media on her Instagram on May 23, including a video of her and Caleb dancing. In the slides that followed, Fleur broke her silence on Caleb’s revelation that he is a “proudly gay man.”

“Not really sure how to start this cause does anything even need to be said? But I guess I’ll just dive right in,” she wrote. “The past few months have been a very disorientating and hurtful time to navigate. For both of us. But I will always want to love, protect and support Caleb. I have cared more about his well being over the years than anything else in the world.”

Fleur Shomo Acknowledges The Struggle She’s Facing Since Learning Her Husband Is Gay

Continuing, Fleur admitted that she was struggling with feelings of anger and resentment, but at the same time, admitted that she wants to support her “person” to the best of her ability.

“To see the confusion and pain he went through and the highs and lows and wanting to help but not knowing how. You never want anything more for your person than for them to just be ok. You also ask yourself constantly if you’re a bad person for wondering wtf this means for your world & the anger you also feel,” she wrote.

Fleur also acknowledged the “duality of this situation,” noting that while she wants to be there for Caleb, she’s processing her own hurt.

“To support him whilst losing everything has been incredibly hard to figure out. You can love and support your person through the hardest time in their life, whilst also be completely demolished & lose yourself at the same time,” she explained.

Caleb Shomo Says He’s A ‘Proudly Gay Man’ In A New Instagram Post After Speculation About His Sexuality

On Saturday, May 23, Caleb opened up about his sexuality with a lengthy post on Instagram, admitting that he had seen the “speculation” about his personal life.

“I am a proudly gay man,” he wrote. “This is something I’ve been unpacking and reckoning with in my life for quite some time now. It’s been difficult to navigate the feelings surrounding the subject and figure out what to do with this fact.”

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In his post, Caleb seemed to imply that he’s used his music to address some personal issues, but was never fully transparent about how he was feeling.

“As you could gather if you’ve followed the band at all in the earlier years, there are 4 very self deprecating albums about exploring my religious upbringing, depression, self hatred, and hopelessness. I am grateful for all these albums, yet feel embarrassed at times that I wouldn’t allow myself to really dig up the roots for so long,” he said.

Fleur Has Positive Things To Say About Her 14 Years Of Marriage With Caleb

Elsewhere in her post, Fleur called her and Caleb’s “14 years of marriage wonderful and full of so much fun, adventure, and love.”

She explained that while the latest revelation has caused confusion, the two of them will always know the truth about their relationship.

“Nobody will know anything about our marriage like we do. And no one can ever truly know what depths of love exist between two people unless they are those people,” she said. “I already miss it & my husband more than anything. Our story was a good one. And now it’s done.”

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Fleur Asks Beartooth Fans To Continue Supporting Caleb After He’s Spoken Freely About His Sexuality

As she concluded, Fleur offered support to those struggling with their sexuality and asked Beartooth fans to continue supporting her husband and his work.

“I hope anyone in the world going through this finds hope & courage & I hope the fans can continue to support Caleb. For now I’m going to keep focusing on what I can control & continue living my life trying to achieve what I want to achieve. And if I keep saying hi to as many dogs as possible along the way, then I’m sure things will slowly get better, day by day, piece by small piece, bird by bird,” she finished.