Movie Review: Super Troopers 3

All roads lead back to Super Troopers for the Broken Lizard gang. The comedy troupe consisting of Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske owe much of the longevity of their career to people falling in love with this idiotic, prank-loving group of Vermont state troopers back in the early 2000's. 8 years after Super Troopers 2 finally completed its long, bumpy journey to the big screen, Thorny, Farva, Foster, Mac and Rabbit are back for another round of dumb, stoner-adjacent hijinks in Super Troopers 3.

Maturation and evolution are concepts that Broken Lizard flirt with at times during Super Troopers 3 as they're now in their late 50's, but whatever wisdom they've picked up over the years is often put on the back burner as they follow their true of putting as many dick, drug and Canada jokes into the world as possible. To their credit, they're just as enthusiastic about playing as these characters now as they were when they made the first movie 26 years ago and the passion they lead with makes it easy for the new cast members (Hannah Simone, Nat Faxon, Andrew Dismukes, Iqbal Theba, Sakina Jaffrey, Chace Crawford, Jon Rudnitsky, Lisa Gilroy) to come in and play around in the gleefully immature world they've built. Unfortunately, their continued love of these characters and spirited new additions to the ensemble can't gloss over the issues that arise with the material itself. The whiff rate on the jokes is much higher here than it was on either of the previous films and they spend way too much time on yet another drug ring subplot at the expense of its amusing A-plot involving Farva preparing to marry Thorny's sister (Simone). There's still enough joy to be had in watching this group along with the always great Brian Cox embody these lovable idiot characters again and crank out a handful of hilarious gags to make it a fun enough watch, but it's probably time for them to move on and do something that will move the needle more than a fourth Super Troopers movie. 

Grade: B-
 

Movie Review: One Night Only

By taking place in a fascist version of the United States where premarital sex has been outlawed by the government except for one night a year and relying on a plot driver that is catnip for the portion of the viewing audience that demands a thorough explanation for everything they see on screen, One Night Only is destined to alienate some people out there before they even sit down to watch it. The first half of that equation is one that I can understand as having a fascist backdrop adds an ominous layer to what is designed to be a light romcom that can be difficult to overlook. 

For me, One Night Only doesn't seriously engage enough with the political angle of its world to impact the movie in any meaningful way. The whole "The Purge but for sex" premise is almost exclusively used to put its protagonists Ally (Monica Barbaro) and Owen (Callum Turner) in a string of ridiculous situations as they run on sometimes parallel but often unintentionally overlapping tracks around New York City in search of some kind of meaningful connection on this chaotic night. With this narrative framing in mind, I believe that One Night Only works well. Barbaro and Turner have a natural ease to their dynamic that allows them to pull off the jabs they throw at each other along with the longing gazes and heartfelt conversations that fuel their eventual romantic connection, the whirlwind nature of the protagonists' journey around NYC allows for the expert deployment of its sizable supporting cast (Molly Ringwald, LeVar Burton and Charlie Gillespie are the top standouts) to help play up the  situational comedy before they disappear back into the night and Will Gluck pulls off what is arguably the single greatest feat of his career by turning a Maroon 5 needle drop into one of the funniest moments of the entire movie. There are a couple of shaky notes at the very end that get in the way of the sugar high it had been effortlessly coasting on up to that point, but on the whole, I found this to be funnier and anchored by a stronger central romance than Gluck's last movie Anyone But You.

Grade: B 
 

Movie Review: 72 Hours

Streaming platforms have become a safe haven for comedy stars from the 90's and 00's to keep collecting paychecks in a world where box office receipts for comedies have been steadily eroding since the late 2010's. When these movies drop on Netflix or Prime Video every few months, they typically log big numbers out of the gate then quickly fade away as most people view them as vastly inferior products to what these actors were doing back when their movies were playing on the big screen. Kevin Hart has become one of the leaders in this space during the 2020's. Since 2021, Hart has led a whopping four Netflix movies (Fatherhood, The Man from Toronto, Me Time, Lift)-although it does need to be noted that the former two were titles that Sony sold off while COVID was wreaking havoc on the theatrical industry. Hart and Netflix's fifth collaboration of the decade 72 Hours falls so perfectly into the mold of instantly forgettable streaming comedies that you could convince me that it was done by design.

72 Hours is aiming to be a 2026 riff on something like The Hangover or Old School. Hart plays a 40-year-old working in advertising who gets accidently added to a bachelor party group text (Marcello Hernández, Mason Gooding, Ben Marshall, Kam Patterson) and exchanges some playful texts with the group acknowledging the mistake before he carries on with his day. After a failed pitch for a big vodka campaign that he needs to land in order to get the promotion he's long been seeking, he convinces these strangers to allow him to join them on their trip to Miami with the hopes that hanging out with young people will help him figure out how to market this product to people in their age bracket and nail his second chance at the big pitch that will allow him to finally advance up the corporate ladder. Things quickly go haywire as a series of unforeseen incidents turn this celebration into a nightmare that might prevent them from leaving the Sunshine State alive. 

When Hart first broke out as an actor in the 2010's, I really liked what he was doing. No matter the size of the part or what the role called for him to do, he delivered what the movie asked of him every single time. Recently, the returns haven't been particularly strong, and 72 Hours is one of the weakest efforts he's put forth to date. This role sees him playing an affable everyman who is kind of aloof and selfish but also has a wild card streak when he starts partying. Every aspect of this character is comfortably within his wheelhouse and yet, his performance somehow manages to fall pretty flat. He struggles to make this guy who isn't a complete piece of shit but is definitely far more of an oblivious, self-absorbed dickhead than he thinks he is redeemable and doesn't quite go far enough to sell the zanier moments (it was odd to see him struggle with doing so much over-the-top accent work given how great he was at doing a Danny Glover impression in Jumanji: The Next Level). Whether this is a case of him of phoning it in or just simple miscalculation is up for debate, but it's certainly a head-scratching failure that standouts even among his recent misfires.  

The supporting cast doesn't fare much better. Hernández is pretty blah as the immature slacker best man who is afraid that his best friend is going to leave him behind for good once he gets married, Gooding makes for a pretty boring straight man as the kindhearted groom who is much more mature than his idiot friends and Marshall's awkward sad guy schtick just isn't very funny. Ironically, it's Patterson-who is easily the least seasoned actor from the main cast-who leaves the most positive impression. There's a real eagerness to his screen presence that jolts the movie to life whenever it threatens to dip below average and his comedic timing is very solid for a guy who came up doing stand-up. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Hernández and Marshall putting in a good word with Lorne Michaels after this shoot helped him land the Saturday Night Live gig last fall. 

In defense of the cast, the material they had to work with isn't great. For a movie where the comedy is primarily built around the protagonists getting into crazy situations, the chaos that each of these unforeseen calamites provide doesn't really amount to much of anything. There's no real escalation of the stakes or clear desire to stack jokes up on top of each other in order to some build momentum. Instead, the movie operates in a machine-like manner where it plows through the vulgar scenes in a coldly calculated manner in order to get to the inevitable ending where everything works out for all of the characters as quickly as possible. Part of the magic of the movies that 72 Hours hopes to emulate was a willingness to go to great lengths to sell jokes. 72 Hours almost never displays that discipline and dedication to the craft, which is kind of embarrassing since it was made by people in Tim Story, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg who have plenty of experience making movies like this. 

At the end of the day, 72 Hours served its purpose to top the Netflix movie charts for 2+ weeks and the fact that the vast majority of the people that helped make this feat possible feeling it was mediocre or bad really doesn't matter. While I'm not anti-streaming comedy by any means, it's hard to get all that excited about any of them as they're always a decent chance that they'll end up being nothing more than aggressively average time eaters where nobody involved is overly invested in the outcome. C'est la vie in the streaming ecosystem and I wouldn't be willing to wager that this state of affairs changes at any point in the near future. 

Grade: C

Louis Leterrier Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted related superlatives. This week, I'm profiling the work of Louis Leterrier-whose latest project "The Last House" releases on Netflix on Friday. 

Louis Leterrier's Filmography Ranked:

8.Clash of the Titans (C)

7.The Brothers Grimsby (B)

6.Transporter 2 (B)

5.The Incredible Hulk (B) it

4.The Transporter (B)

3.Fast X (B+)

2.Unleashed (B+)

1.Now You See Me (B+)

Top Dog: Now You See Me (2013)

Looking back on it 13 years later, the greatest gift that Now You See Me provided the world was being successful enough to spawn a franchise. The completely earnest, unapologetic ridiculousness that powers this dazzling picture has only grown stronger with time as the sequels have relished the opportunity to add new layers of absurdity to this world where the biggest challenge to the powers that be that are screwing over regular people are a secret society of cocky virtuoso magicians who redistribute wealth via elaborate heists. Fast and Furious is really the only other series that is operating with a similar ethos and if the band gets back together for a fourth installment somewhere down the line, I'm confident that they'll continue to honor the knowingly silly spirit that has allowed this franchise to develop a passionate following.

Bottom Feeder: Clash of the Titans (2010)

Clash of the Titans is a movie that I feel was worthy of being remade. The 1981 version is riddled with horrendously dated visual effects that cast a shadow over what is otherwise a decent but pretty unremarkable sword and sandal fantasy epic. What Leterrier did with the remake didn't really improve upon the flawed but relatively compelling original. While the CGI is mostly excellent (the sole exceptions being the big scorpions in the desert-that look like complete shit) this time around and there are some compelling moments (namely the scenes with Medusa and the Witches) that show off the benefits of telling this story again on the big screen, the choppy action, stiff pacing and not quite campy enough tone prevent this from being the consistently fun watch that it easily could've been. 

Most Underrated: Unleashed (2005)

Out of the many English language titles Jet Li headlined during the 2000's, Unleashed is my favorite by a wide margin. Not only are the fight scenes absolutely spectacular, but it tells the surprisingly emotional story of a man (Li) who was trained from childhood to serve as the human attack dog for a Glasgow mobster (Bob Hoskins) learning about the good side of humanity after he's taken in by a kind blind piano tuner (Morgan Freeman) after being left for dead by his old boss and features some really great performances from all three of the aforementioned actors. 

Most Overrated: None 

This was an inevitability. Leterrier is somebody who has made a career out of making movies that receive average-ish reviews and middling-to-decent receptions from audiences. He's the epitome of a reliable meat-and-potatoes filmmaker and there's seemingly no danger that he's going to evolve or devolve into something else at this point as he's been making movies at the highest levels of global entertainment for 25 years now. 

Movie Review: I Want Your Sex

It's been a whopping 12 years since American indie royalty Gregg Araki has made a feature. The 66-year-old has spent this time away from the big screen in the world of television, both as a hired gun director on a wide variety of series (13 Reasons Why, Riverdale, American Gigolo, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Heathers) and as the showrunner of a Starz series called New Apocalypse that was canceled after 1 season. His return back to his artistic home is one that makes perfect sense as it's a film that's primary goal is to have some fun exploring modern society's attitude towards sex. 

When Araki rose to prominence during the 90's, horny movies were the norm. It was pretty rare to even be able to make it through a movie aimed at kids without running into some innuendo or perverted double entendres. 3 decades later, Hollywood has become borderline puritanical with its depiction of sex on screen and audiences may be even more prudish as every movie that dares to be even a little bit salacious (Poor Things, Saltburn, Anora) becomes a lightning rod for online discourse. With I Want Your Sex, Araki is saying that he's not going allow to horniness on screen die without a fight. 

At the center of Araki's "it's alright to be horny and fuck" opus is a recent college graduate (Cooper Hoffman) working a low-level job who becomes completely smitten with his art gallery owner boss (Olivia Wilde) after she recruits him to enter a BDSM relationship with her. Hoffman's character serves as kind of a stand-in for all of gen-Z as he's a repressed, jittery young man who experiences liberation when he enters this unorthodox domineering relationship with an older woman who opens him up to a world of sexual possibilities he never knew existed. As much as this premise reads like a sex version of "old man yells at clouds", Araki is smart enough to acknowledge the slew of forces (increased societal isolation, rise of online porn, increasing scarcity of third spaces, etc.) that helped gradually build up this latest age of repression and maintains a playful tone that has zero malice behind any of its jokes. Ironically, some of the older Araki-heads out there will probably take issue with how tame the sex scenes are here, but it feels kind of counterproductive to me to go after one of the few people in the industry today that has demonstrated willingness to engage with sex in an honest, open-minded manner. 

The most captivating thing about I Want Your Sex isn't what it says about current attitudes towards sex or how artists are insufferable egotistical menaces who aren't nearly as profound as they think they are, but the actors who Araki enlisted to frolic around in his perverted playground. Wilde continues her post-Don't Worry Darling heater with an exhilarating portrayal of a miserable artist whose career decline hasn't impeded her ability to maintain a sexual muse that she takes great pleasure in toying with while Hoffman further cements his place as one of the most exciting young talents in Hollywood today by playing this complex character with the ideal mix of sweetness, self-destruction and cringey desperation. Their explosive dynamic carries this film through every turn it takes and there were a few scenes that even got to me question whether there was something real underneath all of the humiliation, toxicity and leather. While they stand absolutely zero chance of being nominated, I'd be thrilled if they both landed in the Oscar race come this winter.

The supporting cast is primarily deployed to punch up the comedy in the absurd situations that the plot throws out, and they deliver in a major way. Mason Gooding drops many of the film's best one liners as Hoffman's co-worker/confidant, Chase Sui Wonders continues to show why her stock in the industry is shooting through the roof at the moment with a delightful turn as Hoffman's best friend/roommate who is incredibly jealous of her pal's new freaky arrangement with his boss and Charli xcx (!) demonstrates a real knack for deadpan comedy as Hoffman's perpetually unenthused girlfriend. Araki really struck gold with this ensemble and there's no way this film would've soared to the levels it does without their terrific efforts.

Getting to see Araki return with a pure romp that is so full of laughs, energy and fun is one of my favorite cinematic stories this year. Independent cinema is an increasingly brutal game these days and there's just something really inspiring about watching one of the most important figures in that world make a great movie after being away from the medium for so long. Araki has plenty of creative juice left and hopefully some producers out there will be willing to back his next project so the world doesn't have to wait another 12 years to hear from him. 

Grade: B+

Movie Review: Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Up to this point, MCU Peter Parker/Spider-Man has been portrayed as a very young man. This choice has paid dividends as childlike wonder, wide-eyed optimism and lacking a fully developed prefrontal cortex are huge parts of why Tom Holland's iteration of the character has struck such a chord with the audience. When the last film No Way Home concluded with Parker having Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) cast a spell that made the whole world forget about him, this version of the character was gone for good. Making such a life-altering sacrifice to save the world is a heavy burden to deal with, especially when you don't have anyone left to turn to. Fortunately, Holland, Kevin Feige and the other creatives behind this universe decided to make a movie that focused on the fallout of Parker's choice in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Brand New Day isn't just some phony lip service title. The entire film is a reflection of the transformation Parker has gone through after the events of No Way Home and how he continues to evolve as he's handed a new set of obstacles including figuring who is responsible for a mysterious string of attacks on various facilities around NYC that are owned by a company called Damage Control where the perpetrators are unknowingly carrying out these attacks and reuniting with MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) after they moved back to New York following their graduation from MIT. Parker has clearly been hurting from all of the isolation he's experienced over the past 5 years and his only coping mechanism is throwing himself even harder into being Spider-Man. His efforts to completely bury himself in work were working well enough until he sees MJ and Ned again and then, the pain of his loneliness begins to overwhelm him to the point where it's impacting his ability to be the hero that his community has relied on for so long.

Veteran director Daniel Destin Cretton was the perfect person to lead Spider-Man into this more mature era as he has this really innate understanding of human emotions from all of the time he's spent making character-driven dramas (Just Mercy, The Glass Castle, Short Term 12). Parker's emotional arc is one that is packed with vulnerability and doesn't contain a single false note as he puts in the work to get back to a place where has the courage to try and connect with people without being consumed by the fear that he could eventually lose them. It's a real blessing that Holland and Cretton took the assignment of exploring Parker's emotional state post-No Way Home so seriously as it's not exactly difficult to envision a scenario where there was far less care put into Parker's journey of putting the pieces of his life back together and we ended up with something that didn't have much in the way of real emotional resonance. It was time for Parker to evolve, and his metamorphosis really couldn't have been more graceful than what is portrayed here.  

The bonus side effect of having Parker go on a weightier emotional journey here is that it presented the opportunity to make better use of the acting gifts of Holland and Zendaya. Holland does a tremendous job of embodying someone who's burdened by the weight of loss and being alone in this cruel world trying to find their way again. As great as he in the rest of the film, his performance peaks when he's sharing scenes with Zendaya. The emotional conflict of the movie really kicks into high gear when Parker and MJ reunite, and Parker has to face the fact that he's now a stranger to MJ. Their understanding of the characters and each other as performers is second to none and that familiarity and knowledge makes for some really powerful moments that deserve to go down as some of the most impactful in the entire history of the MCU. Casting these two was one of the best decisions Feige has ever made and Brand New Day is an occasion that is worthy of another victory lap for this monumental triumph.  

When you go beyond the emotional journey of Parker, the success rate of Brand New Day is a little more mixed. On the plus side, the action proficiency that Cretton showed on Shang-Chi carries over here as it contains easily the most exciting, clearly legible fight scenes of the MCU Spider-Man entries thus far while Jon Bernthal's cold, gruff antihero Frank Castle makes for the ideal foil for Holland's morally consistent, good-natured hero. On the downside, Sadie Sink-who is pretty good in her "secret" role-is incorporated into this storyline in a pretty clunky fashion and the emotional catharsis that's supposed to be attached to her arc makes only a small fraction of the impact that Parker's does. Still, Brand New Day presents an exciting path forward for the character and I'd be pretty surprised if this didn't end up surpassing Homecoming as my new favorite Holland-era Spider-Man movie in time.

Grade: B+

Tom Holland Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted related superlatives. This week, I'm profiling the work of Tom Holland-whose latest project "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" opens in theaters today. 

Tom Holland's Filmography Ranked:

15.Chaos Walking (D)

14.Onward (C)

13.Uncharted (B-)

12.In the Heart of the Sea (B)

11.Spider-Man: Far from Home (B)

10.Spies in Disguise (B)

9.Captain America: Civil War (B)

8.Locke (B)

7.The Devil All the Time (B)

6.Spider-Man: No Way Home (B)

5.Spider-Man: Homecoming (B+)

4.The Impossible (B+)

3.The Odyssey (B+)

2.Avengers: Endgame (A-)

1.Avengers: Infinity War (A)

Top Dog: Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

The most obvious challenge surrounding Avengers: Doomsday is trying to figure out how to fit dozens of characters from Marvel's cinematic past, present and future into a coherent storyline. For my money, the most daunting one is trying to make something that handles a powerful threat to the typically indestructible heroes of the MCU as well as Infinity War did. From the moment that Thanos appears on screen, there's a sense that this collection of heroes is overmatched and that lingering feeling of dread made this film an exhilarating ride that is unlike anything else Marvel has done to this point. The Russo Brothers, Kevin Feige and co. are going to have dig really deep to replicate this feeling and if they don't, this latest two-part Avengers epic could be destined to permanently live in the shadow of the previous one.

Bottom Feeder: Chaos Walking (2021)

About the only positive impact that COVID had on the movie industry is that there was a window of time between August 2020 and April 2021 where they could dump titles they weren't happy with into theaters without having to warry about the blowback they would have otherwise gotten from bad word of mouth and losing boatloads of money. Lionsgate's dystopian sci-fi thriller Chaos Walking was one of the lucky titles released during this window. Originally set to release in the spring of 2019, Chaos Walking got delayed as Lionsgate commissioned heavy reshoots led by a different director (Fede Álvarez took over for Doug Liman, who received sole directorial credit on the final cut) with the hopes of salvaging the project. As you could probably guess by the first couple of sentences and the strong likelihood that this is a movie most people reading this haven't even heard of, let alone seen, they didn't succeed. Personally, I was kind taken of back by how aimless and meandering this project was given the amount of talent that was involved (beyond the pair of solid directors who worked on it, the ensemble cast included Holland, Daisy Ridley, Mads Mikkelsen, Cynthia Erivo and Demián Bichir). I had it ranked as the worst movie I watched in 2021 and there's probably only about 5-8 movies from the entire decade that I would rate lower than it at this point.

Most Underrated: The Devil All the Time (2020)

Speaking of COVID-era projects, The Devil All the Time was part of Netflix's big fall awards hopeful slate in 2020. As Mank, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and The Trial of the Chicago 7 emerged as the focal points of their campaigning efforts, The Devil All the Time quickly became just another piece of content rotting away in the vast emptiness of the Netflix library. It's a shame that it met this fate as Antonio Campos cooked up a pretty bleak, intoxicating Southern Gothic thriller here that features a handful of really great performances from its loaded cast (Holland, Riley Keough, Sebastian Stan, Robert Pattinson, Eliza Scanlen) and some beautiful hazy cinematography from future Oscar winner Lol Crawley. 

Most Overrated: Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Captain America: Civil War is a film with plenty of highs (the introductions to Black Panther and Spider-Man, the action sequences, weightier material that allowed all of the gifted actors on the MCU payroll more chances to show off their talent). Those highs just happen to be somewhat undercut by its boring villain (Daniel Brühl's Zemo), uneven pacing and refusal to really dig into the moral disputes that cause the titular divide between the typically united MCU heroes.  

Movie Review: Her Private Hell

Picture Tokyo in an unspecified cyperpunk-y future. A strange mist has completely engulfed the city and within that candy-colored haze, lies an unholy masked entity with diamond-encrusted gloves known as "Leatherman" who goes around the city kidnapping and/or killing women. Unbeknownst to them, three American actors (Sophie Thatcher, Havana Rose Liu, Kristine Forseth) who are in town to shoot a sci-fi movie are about to be the become next targets of Leatherman. Meanwhile in the criminal underworld, an American solider (Charles Melton) is slicing his way through Yakuza shot callers with the intention of getting information that will help him track down Leatherman-who took his daughter years earlier. Will Leatherman claim some more souls before the mist fades or can he finally be thwarted? The answer for those who are curious to crack this supernatural crime spree, lies within the 110 minutes of this summer most uh, unique movie entitled Her Private Hell.

Her Private Hell marks the return of Nicolas Winding Refn to the world of movies after stepping away from the medium for a decade to make a pair of streaming miniseries (2019's Too Old to Die Young, 2023's Copenhagen Cowboy). If anybody that didn't watch his television shows was concerned that the Danish auteur who is loathed by most and revered by a vocal few had changed since The Neon Demon crashed into theaters in the summer of 2016, rest assured that this is the same NFR. Words like "plot", "writing", or "character development" are of little use here as Refn frantically cycles through a pretty sizable hodgepodge of genre aesthetics (noir, giallo, vigilante, surrealism, cyberpunk, psychosexual thriller, supernatural horror, family drama) with the hope that he'll be able to cast a hypnotic spell that can make up for how little is actually transpiring on screen. For the first 2/3's of the movie, it doesn't succeed in the slightest as the pacing is too meandering to build an atmosphere that's worth getting lost in. Then, out of nowhere at the top of the third act, all of the sex, violence and sleaziness the movie had been teasing with no tangible results finally coalesces into something that's completely fucking mesmerizing. It was like Refn suddenly realized that he should use the beautiful neon lighting and elaborate spaceman sets that he had at his disposal to engage in some psychedelic hedonism spiked with graphic violence for the final 30 minutes. While this incredible groove Refn settles into comes far too late into the movie to fully redeem Her Private Hell, it provided enough of a sugar rush to elevate it out of the gutter and into semi-respectable territory. Considering how little of I thought of it for the opening 70-75 minutes, this is a remarkable late game rally that assures that I will watch whatever silly surrealist bullshit Refn cooks up next. 

Grade: C
 

Movie Review: The Odyssey

It's not a coincidence that Christopher Nolan used the blank check from Universal he earned after Oppenheimer made $983 million at the global box office and won a zillion Oscars 3 years ago to make The Odyssey. Not only has Nolan been working his whole career towards making a sprawling epic, but Homer's text makes for the perfect thematic complement to Oppenheimer as both films focus on a man who was the driving force behind winning a war coming to terms with the price of "victory". In the case of Odysseus (Matt Damon), he has to consider if slaughtering the people of Troy, getting so many of his own men killed and being away from his family (Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland) for decades was a worthwhile trade-off for being lauded as a hero by the people who cheered for the victory without ever bearing witness to all of the death and destruction that followed him. He comes to realize as his memory slowly returns after spending a decade stuck on an island with the nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron)-who has fallen in love with him as she nursed him back to health after his unconscious body washed up on her shores-that being victorious in war doesn't help spare you from the burden of inflicting so much suffering onto others. 

Electing to really focus on the true cost of Odysseus' actions during and following the Trojan War is an inspired framing for the latest adaptation of one of the oldest stories in the world. For the first time in a long time, Nolan finds a real narrative reason to trot out his signature cutesy non-linear storytelling device to show Odysseus' fragmented memories returning to him that details the life he left behind, how the war was won and the series of horrific events that led to him washing up on Calypso's island alone. Having all of the choices he made that led him to that beach gradually play out on screen challenges the real mythmaking in The Odyssey-Odysseus as a hero. Being so far removed from all the despair, suffering and death his actions when his memories return forced him to really sit with the weight of his actions and subsequently reframe his own legacy.

Once Odysseus finally gets on the path that brings him home to Ithaca and in turn, something that at least resembles redemption for all of the hurt that he's brought into the world by reuniting with his wife and the son he's never known, the film largely pivots to a more traditional narrative style that highlights the difficulties Odysseus faces as he sets to reuniting with his family and plots one final violent siege to rid his home of the suitors (Robert Pattinson, Corey Hawkins, several others that have little-to-no dialogue) and traitors (Logan Marshall-Green, Mia Goth) that aim to bring harm to the people he loves. In this final chapter, Nolan manages to do something really remarkable by delivering a really powerful emotional crescendo to Odysseus' story (Damon and Hathaway are on fire during their big "reunion" scene) and in the final moments, issuing a chilling statement that the world will forever be doomed to repeat Odysseus' mistakes by forgetting how war brings nothing but needless suffering for all parties involved. As somebody who has always felt that Nolan has struggled in the areas of filmmaking that don't involve spectacle and technical wizardry, I was in a borderline state of disbelief watching him make something that achieved so much success with its dramatic, emotionally charged storytelling.

Since the story of Odysseus is also paved with massive battles and constant peril, Nolan has the luxury of getting to have his cake and eat it too. Every penny of the reported $250 million budget can be felt on the screen as Nolan gives the viewer a front row seat to Odysseus' harrowing journey. There isn't another director working today that would be able to secure the money or have the audacity to do things like shoot extensively on the open ocean, enlist hundreds of extras to reenact the Battle of Troy or depict Odysseus' troops famous encounter with Circe (Samantha Morton) through prosthetics, makeup, etc. instead of CGI. Deep down, Nolan is probably aware of this, and he didn't take this golden opportunity to make something that's uniquely immersive for granted at all. It's a miracle that this movie was made in such a tactile manner and my hat goes off to the remarkably hard work that the thousands of artists who worked on this project put in to make it possible.

The Odyssey marks the first time since The Dark Knight Rises that I walked away from a Nolan movie very impressed. That's not to say that I don't have issues with it (the big action sequences are let down by consistently choppy editing, the dedication to elaborate location shooting really backfired in the cyclops sequence as it's incredibly difficult to make out what is happening in the cave due to how little light can physically get in there and most of the scenes where Odysseus is sidelined ahead of the third act are considerably less compelling than the rest of the movie) or that I was truly floored was by it like so many people out there have been, but I had plenty of doubts about his ability to pull off a great adaptation of this story and it felt good to be proven wrong. Where Nolan goes from here will be fascinating as the possibilities are pretty much endless now it's guaranteed that the film is going to clear $1 billion worldwide with ease. My guess right now is that he's going to go in the complete opposite direction of The Odyssey and make something considerably smaller in scope to give himself a bit of a reprieve after working on a project that he's repeatedly referred to as the biggest challenge of his career during this press tour. Until the day somewhere in the near (?) future when the mystery of what Nolan's next move gets solved, we'll just have to settle for continuing to discuss how the most prolific director on the planet today somehow managed to further elevate his already comically rich legacy with his 13th feature.

Grade: B+

Movie Review: They Fight

It's been a minute since I've seen a movie that feels as incomplete as They Fight. This fact-based sports drama about a recently paroled boxing coach (André Holland) in Washington DC who slowly rediscovers his passion for the sport that defined his life before drugs took him down a dark path after he crosses paths with a community center manager (Wendell Pierce) who introduces him to a couple of kids from the neighborhood (Anthony B. Jenkins, Toissant Francois Battiste) who show real potential as fighters progresses in such an awkward manner that it feels like you're watching a scratched DVD that is skipping multiple chapters between scenes. Characters who appear to be pivotal players in the story during the early going just disappear without explanation. Arcs for both the adult and child characters are assembled with so little detail that it's pretty much impossible to have any emotional reaction besides confusion or indifference. Even the boxing elements kind of feel like an afterthought as only about a third of the far too short 95-minute runtime is actually dedicated to the sweet science. While They Fight isn't aspiring to be some epic boxing movie a la the Rocky sequels, it also shouldn't feel like the filmmakers ran out of money after they shot 60-65% of the script and had to frantically assemble a final cut from the footage they were able to get.

The clumsy, rushed nature of They Fight became more shocking when the end credits sequence arrived and I discovered that the co-writer of the film Andrew Renzi directed a documentary about the people depicted in it! How the hell could somebody that got to know the real people who these characters are based on do such a terrible job of translating a story he's already told on screen into a dramatized narrative? The raw skeleton of this story is a compelling one that could easily become an effective sports biopic and yet, Renzi and co-writer/director Sheldon Candis managed to turn that solid seed of an idea into something that's sloppy to the point where it borders on being amateurish. There's absolutely no excuse for turning in a poor effort that leaves your solid cast who all turn in earnest performances out to dry because you couldn't be bothered to tell this story in a manner that wasn't fragmented, soulless and dull. As rude as this is to say, I believe that They Fight deserves its fate of being buried in the depths of a streaming library and I fully expect it to go down as one of the weakest movies I watch this year.

Grade: D+
 

Ben Foster Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted related superlatives. This week, I'm profiling the work of Ben Foster-whose latest project "Motor City" releases in theaters on Thursday. 

Ben Foster's Filmography Ranked:

20.The Finest Hours (D)

19.The Contractor (D)

18.King Ivory (C-)

17.Big Trouble (C)

16.Phone Booth (C)

15.Leave No Trace (C)

14.X-Men: The Last Stand (B-)

13.Sharp Corner (B-)

12.30 Days of Night (B)

11.Christy (B)

10.The Punisher (B)

9.Hostage (B)

8.Contraband (B)

7.The Mechanic (B)

6.Hostiles (B)

5.Lone Survivor (B)

4.Hustle (B)

3.Alpha Dog (B+)

2.3:10 to Yuma (B+)

1.Hell or High Water (B+)

Top Dog: Hell or High Water (2016)

Prior to Yellowstone becoming a phenomenon that completely transformed his career, Taylor Sheridan was a struggling journeyman television actor (he was best known for his role as Deputy David Hale on the first 21 episodes of Sons of Anarchy) who had hit a home run with his screenwriting debut Sicario. His writing stock continued to skyrocket with his terrific second screenplay Hell or High Water. Like Sicario, Sheridan lets his vivid characters and the tense direction from a veteran filmmaker in David Mackenize lead the charge on what is at its heart a very simple story about two brothers (Chris Pine, Foster) being pursued by some wily Texas Rangers (Jeff Bridges, Gil Birmingham) as they commit a string of small scale bank robberies (i.e. only taking the cash that's in the drawers in the front of the bank) in rural towns with the intention of paying off of the reverse mortgage on their family ranch. Sheridan is just starting to dip his toes back into the waters of cinema after exclusively focusing on his television empire since the release of his second feature directorial effort Those Who Wish Me Dead in May 2021-penning the script for the upcoming Brandon Sklenar-led action thriller F.A.S.T that's currently slated for release in April 2027. Fingers crossed that he can somehow return to the excellent form he showed here.  

Bottom Feeder: The Finest Hours (2016)

Somebody's father or grandfather was definitely floored by the sentimental, old school survival drama schtick of The Finest Hours. I, on the other hand, considered bashing my head off the floor to wake myself up after sitting through this remarkably dry, corny soap opera dressed up as a dramatic retelling of the daring rescue of a Coast Guard vessel off the coast of Cape Cod in February 1952. As much as I can't stand The Finest Hour, I do get kind of bummed out whenever I remember that this marked the last time that Disney ever put out a piece of boomer cry porn like this in theaters. 

Most Underrated: Alpha Dog (2007)

Nick Cassavetes following up The Notebook with such an alternately scuzzy and tragic crime drama is the kind of hard pivot that I can't help but respect. While I can't discard there's a nostalgia element at play here as I saw it when I was 15, I can confidently declare that Alpha Dog features a number of excellent performances (Foster, Emile Hirsch, Justin Timberlake, the late great Anton Yelchin) and handles its several huge tonal shifts pretty well. 

Most Overrated: Leave No Trace (2018)

Fun fact: Leave No Trace has the highest number of reviews (248) of any film that boasts a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. If I were a professional critic, I'd have ruined its perfect score. There's nothing egregiously wrong with Debra Granik's understated family drama about a teenage girl (Thomasin McKenzie) who lives in the woods outside of Portland, Oregon with her veteran father (Foster) whose battling severe PTSD, I just found it to be a pretty meandering movie with emotional beats that didn't really land.

Matt Damon Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted related superlatives. This week, I'm profiling the work of Matt Damon-whose latest project "The Odyssey" releases in theaters today. 

Matt Damon's Filmography Ranked:

39.The Legend of Bagger Vance (D)

38.Ocean's Twelve (D)

37.Stuck on You (D)

36.Interstellar (D+)

35.The Monuments Men (C)

34.Invictus (C) 

33.Titan A.E. (C)

32.Jason Bourne (C)

31.The Bourne Supremacy (C) 

30.Suburbicon (C)

29.Green Zone (C+)

28.The Informant! (C+)

27.The Great Wall (C+)

26.No Sudden Move (B-)

25.The Bourne Ultimatum (B-)

24.Stillwater (B-)

23.School Ties (B)

22.We Bought a Zoo (B)

21.Oppenheimer (B)

20.The Adjustment Bureau (B)

19.Elysium (B)

18.The Bourne Identity (B)

17.The Rip (B)

16.Drive-Away Dolls (B)

15.Chasing Amy (B)

14.Contagion (B)

13.IF (B+)

12.The Martian (B+)

11.Ocean's Thirteen (B+)

10.Ford v. Ferrari (B+)

9.Air (B+)

8.Dogma (B+)

7.The Last Duel (B+)

6.Rounders (A-)

5.True Grit (A)

4.Saving Private Ryan (A)

3.Ocean's Eleven (A)

2.Good Will Hunting (A)

1.The Departed (A+)

Top Dog: The Departed (2006)

The Departed will always and forever be my favorite Martin Scorsese movie. Is that because I was 14 when it was released, is set in Boston and was the first movie of his that I ever watched? Perhaps, but I also just happen to think that it's really special. Scorsese had been making crime movies for 30+ years when The Departed entered production, and all that experience is on display as he concocts this engrossing look at the blurred lines between cops and criminals. The twists and turns that transpire as green undercover cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) infiltrates the inner circle of Irish mob boss (Jack Nicholson, in what is arguably his last great performance before retiring from acting following 2010's How Do You Know) are incredible and the last 30 minutes never fail to leave my jaw on the floor.

Bottom Feeder: The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000)

Robert Redford assembled one of the most illustrious careers of any person to ever work in Hollywood. The Legend of Bagger Vance was not among his highlights. My choice to watch this movie stemmed entirely from a years-long running bit that I had with a couple of friends, and it took about 20-25 minutes for me to regret sitting down to watch it. Unapologetic cheese tends to at least have some theatrics behind it, but this project is so fucking lethargic that it can't even be bothered to play up the overwhelming sentimentality that's baked into its cornball sports drama narrative. Part of me hopes that Damon and Charlize Theron shared a laugh about this movie when they were on set together for The Odyssey.     

Most Underrated: The Last Duel (2021):

Ridley Scott is at the top of the list of directors that I feel are complete wild cards in terms of the quality of the films they deliver. While his erraticism has absolutely gotten worse with age, he's never been able to string together multiple undeniable triumphs at any point in his career. During his very busy 2020's so far (next month's The Dog Stars will be the 5th movie he's released!), he's produced a sole slice of greatness in The Last Duel. The care put into its multi-perspective narrative along with a stunning lead performance from Jodie Comer made this a really compelling, powerful drama about the great lengths' society and the preparators of sexual assaults go to discredit the women who have been violated at the hands of predators.  

Most Overrated: Interstellar (2014):

Speaking of cornball movies starring Damon, the time has arrived for me to talk about how much I hate Interstellar. Not liking Interstellar has never been a popular take, but in recent years as it has seemingly become every person on the fucking planet's favorite Christopher Nolan movie, saying that you think this movie sucks shit is a surefire way to make a whole lot of people disgusted, confused and/or infuriated. My reasoning for thinking Interstellar is a turd is simple: Adding schmaltzy family drama to Nolan's signature convoluted exposition dumps acts as a brutal kiss of death that made this movie a groanworthy slog to sit through. The library scene is at the end is the worst thing Nolan has ever committed to film, and I'll never forget the tidal wave of disgust that overtook me as it was playing out on the big screen. I would rather go through a dozen wormholes than sit through this nauseatingly melodramatic snoozefest again. 

Movie Review: Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass

As comedy has become such a low priority in Hollywood over the past 7-8 years, David Wain's output has slowed down considerably. Since his last film A Futile and Stupid Gesture released on Netflix in January 2018, the 56-year-old that's best known for being one of the leaders of the sketch comedy troupe The State and helping birth Wet Hot American Summer with his State cohort Michael Showwalter has only worked as a hired gun director on a couple of television series (Mr. Throwback, Miracle Workers). Wain's return to making his own stuff is a fitting one as he teamed up with another old friend of his from The State in Ken Marino to write an indie comedy entitled Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass that harkened back to their absurdist roots. Returning to the lane that put him on the map pays dividends for Wain as Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is the best thing he's done in nearly 20 years. 

To add a few additional details to the title that nicely defines the plot, Gail Daughry (Zoey Deutch) is a hairdresser in Kansas whose upcoming nuptials to her high school sweetheart (Michael Cassidy) suddenly get complicated when he unexpectedly uses his "celebrity free pass". To try to even the score before the wedding, Gail joins her co-worker/best friend Otto (Miles Gutierrez-Riley) on a trip to a hairdressing convention in Los Angeles with the intention of having sex with her celebrity pass Jon Hamm during her few days in the City of Angels. What ensues is a pretty warped, Wizard of Oz-esque adventure where Daughtry crosses paths with an aspiring talent agent (Ben Wang), former paparazzo (Marino) whose career was derailed by his inability to get a photo of Hamm, Hamm's Mad Men co-star John Slattey and a vicious crime boss (Sabrina Impacciatore) whose briefcase full of important contraband inadvertently ends up in Daughtry's possession after her goons (Joe Lo Trugilo, Mather Zickel) set it down in the waiting area of LAX to take a photo with Henry Winkler. 

Having Daughtry and her (mostly) new pals run around Los Angeles looking for Hamm and dodging criminals that are trying to kill them is a great recipe for Wain to do near non-stop bits. While the hit rate is nowhere near as high as Wet Hot American Summer (to be fair, not many comedies are operating on that level), it's considerably higher than his last absurdist comedy They Came Together and the best bits-which most notably include an over-the-top fight scene on an abandoned western movie set, a lengthy interaction with Hamm's bodyguard (Tobie Windham, who gives the funniest performance in the movie despite only being on screen for 10-12 minutes) outside of his hotel room at the Chateau Marmont and a cameo from Richard Kind as a cab driver who gives Gail unsolicited advice about pursuing acting-are jam-packed with idiotic comedy excellence. Wain is one of the best around at delivering deadpan, joyfully dumb comedy and it was cool to see him get so much out of an ensemble cast that largely didn't have prior experience with this type of humor. His fastball might not be what it was 25 years ago, but there's still a place for Wain's comedic sensibilities today and hopefully, it won't be another 8 years before we see his next project.

Grade: B
 

Movie Review: Evil Dead Burn

Of all the horror franchises that have been rebooted during the 2000's, Evil Dead has fared the best in terms of audience reception. Personally, I believe this can be attributed to franchise creator-turned-producer Sam Raimi's ability to identify talented young directors (Fede Álvarez, Lee Cronin) and allowing them to put their own stamp on the IP without being worried how it ties into his original trilogy. French filmmaker Sébastien Vanicek (Infested) is the latest person that Raimi entrusted with carrying on the Evil Dead legacy and once again, the horror legend made the right call as Evil Dead Burn is an absolute fucking ripper of a movie.

Outside of the slapstick-heavy Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness, the DNA of Evil Dead has been very brutal in nature. Once we meet the souls that get an unexpected visit from the bloodthirsty Deadites, it becomes clear that the path Burn is going down is going to be quite extreme even by Evil Dead standards. The protagonist here is Alice (Souhelia Yacoub)-a widower who is invited to spend the weekend with her late husband's family (Tandi Wright, Hunter Doohan, Luciane Buchanan, Errol Shand, Maude Davey) at their family's secluded lakehouse to honor the life of the deceased. A lot of resentment exists between both parties as Alice was verbally and physically abused by her husband (Geroge Pullar) and the family-who has never liked Alice-blames her for not stopping him from getting behind the wheel on the night he died in a car accident. These tensions manage to get considerably worse when some Deadites show up to look for an ancient dagger that is capable of sending them back to Hell that is hidden somewhere in the house (the long-deceased father of Wright's character abandoned the family to join a cult that dedicated their lives to containing Deadite threats that were awakened by any person who was naive or dumb enough to read from the Necronomicon). As this horrible dynamic grows worse with the slow turning of each family member, it's up to Alice to find the dagger and fight back against the forces both natural and supernatural that have been threatening her safety for far too long. 

With such a bleak setup, Vanicek knows he has that opportunity to go balls out and takes full advantage of it. The relentlessness of the carnage and nastiness of its spirit is kind of stunning to witness as it is an American studio horror film that was widely released in theaters with an R-rating at the end of the day. While its non-stop sadism will certainly exhaust and/or disgust some viewers, I found it to be an inspired take on Evil Dead that matched the spirit of its characters perfectly. Alice's former family have been masquerading as this loving family for far too long and when this supernatural evil force invades their home, that facade washes away in no time at all to reveal the cowardice, malice and contempt that has always lied underneath their carefully curated exterior. It's pretty much the ideal antithesis to Cronin's Evil Dead Rise where a family that has grown estranged over time is able to overcome their differences to band together to fight for their survival when the Deadites arrived on their doorstep. Going in that "softer" direction just wouldn't have felt right for a group of people that are varying degrees of irredeemable (Buchanan-who plays the girlfriend of Doohan's character-is the only likeable character besides Alice) from the jump and I applaud Vanicek for being completely unafraid to lean into the inherent darkness of this story. 

In addition to his impressive dedication to brutality and unpleasantness, Vanicek shows off a ton of technical skill as a director. The parade of gory setpieces are composed with some really dynamic camerawork and beautifully timed smash cuts that help give the film a playful streak underneath all of the horrific carnage. Honestly, there were a handful of times where I was on the verge of standing up and cheering in the theater at a creative choice he made that helped make the scene cooler, grosser, etc.. This type of confident, energetic filmmaking is imperative to keeping the horror genre lively and if this is any indication of what Vanicek is capable of behind the camera, he's going to be delivering excitement for many years to come.

When it comes to the non-Raimi Evil Dead movies, I can now safely say that Burn is my favorite of the bunch. Despite being the longest entry of the franchise by far at 109 minutes, it absolutely flies by thanks to its dedication to being a furiously nasty piece of work that never takes it foot off the gas once it gets going. Major props to Vanicek for coming in and executing his gleefully sadistic vision without being intimidated by the weight of the Evil Dead mantle. Now, all eyes turn to Francis Galluppi (The Last Stop in Yuma County)-who took on the ambitious undertaking of being the first person since Raimi to try their hand at a period Evil Dead movie with his 70's-set prequel to the 1981 original entitled Evil Dead Wrath, which is currently set to release on April 7, 2028. While I certainly don't envy the pressure that's on him to keep up the franchise's current 1.000 batting average, there's absolutely zero reason for me to sit here today and expect that he'll do anything but deliver the goods. 

Grade: B+
 

2026 NFL Position Rankings: Full Series Recap

Quarterback:

25.Kyler Murray (Vikings)

24.Kirk Cousins (Raiders)

23.Jacoby Brissett (Cardinals)

22.Bryce Young (Panthers)

21.Aaron Rodgers (Steelers)

20.Daniel Jones (Colts)

19.C.J. Stroud (Texans)

18.Bo Nix (Broncos)

17.Jayden Daniels (Commanders)

16.Baker Mayfield (Buccaneers)

15.Caleb Williams (Bears)

14.Trevor Lawrence (Jaguars)

13.Jared Goff (Lions)

12.Brock Purdy (49ers)

11.Jordan Love (Packers)

10.Drake Maye (Patriots)

9.Jalen Hurts (Eagles)

8.Dak Prescott (Cowboys)

7.Justin Herbert (Chargers)

6.Sam Darnold (Seahawks)

5.Lamar Jackson (Ravens)

4.Joe Burrow (Bengals)

3.Patrick Mahomes (Chiefs)

2.Matthew Stafford (Rams)

1.Josh Allen (Bills)

Running Back:

50.Ray Davis (Bills)

49.Justice Hill (Ravens)

48.Samjae Perine (Bengals)

47.Sean Tucker (Buccaneers)

46.Nick Chubb (Free Agent)

45.Chuba Hubbard (Panthers)

44.Brian Robinson Jr. (Falcons)

43.Chris Rodriguez Jr. (Jaguars)

42.Alvin Kamara (Saints)

41.Woody Marks (Texans)

40.R.J. Harvey (Broncos)

39.Aaron Jones (Vikings)

38.Quinshon Judkins (Browns)

37.Ashton Jeanty (Raiders)

36.Kyle Monangai (Bears)

35.Jacory Croskey-Merritt (Commanders)

34.Kimani Vidal (Chargers)

33.Tyler Allgeier (Cardinals)

32.Tyrone Tracy Jr. (Giants)

31.Omarion Hampton (Chargers)

30.Cam Skattebo (Giants)

29.Rhamondre Stevenson (Patriots)

28.Jordan Mason (Vikings)

27.Kenneth Gainwell (Buccaneers)

26.Rico Dowdle (Steelers)

25.Bucky Irving (Buccaneers)

24.Tony Pollard (Titans)

23.Rachaad White (Commanders)

22.TreVeyon Henderson (Patriots)

21.J.K. Dobbins (Broncos)

20.Blake Corum (Rams)

19.David Montgomery (Texans)

18.Zach Charbonnet (Seahawks)

17.Jaylen Warren (Steelers)

16.Travis Etienne (Saints)

15.Chase Brown (Bengals)

14.Javonte Williams (Cowboys)

13.Breece Hall (Jets)

12.D'Andre Swift (Bears)

11.Saquon Barkley (Eagles)

10.Josh Jacobs (Packers)

9.Kyren Williams (Rams)

8.Kenneth Walker III (Chiefs)

7.Jonathan Taylor (Colts)

6.James Cook (Bills)

5.Christian McCaffery (49ers)

4.De'Von Achane (Dolphins)

3.Jahmyr Gibbs (Lions)

2.Derrick Henry (Ravens)

1.Bijan Robinson (Falcons)

Wide Receiver: 

50.Quentin Johnston (Chargers)

49.Kayshon Boutte (Patriots)

48.Rashid Shaheed (Seahawks)

47.Luther Burden III (Bears)

46.Josh Downs (Colts)

45.Brian Thomas Jr. (Jaguars)

44.Emeka Egbuka (Buccaneers)

43.Ricky Pearsall (49ers)

42.Christian Watson (Packers)

41.Deebo Samuel (Free Agent)

40.Keenan Allen (Free Agent)

39.Chris Godwin (Buccaneers)

38.Jauan Jennings (Vikings)

37.Khalil Shakir (Bills)

36.Rome Odunze (Bears)

35.Parker Washington (Jaguars)

34.Ladd McConkey (Chargers)

33.Wan'Dale Robinson (Titans)

32.D.J. Moore (Bills)

31.Romeo Doubs (Patriots)

30.Michael Pittman Jr. (Steelers)

29.Jakobi Meyers (Jaguars)

28.Rashee Rice (Chiefs)

27.D.K. Metcalf (Steelers)

26.Michael Wilson (Cardinals)

25.Tetairoa McMillan (Panthers)

24.Mike Evans (49ers)

23.Jameson Williams (Lions)

22.Alec Pierce (Colts)

21.Stefon Diggs (Free Agent)

20.Davante Adams (Rams)

19.DeVonta Smith (Eagles)

18.Courtland Sutton (Broncos)

17.Malik Nabers (Giants)

16.Garrett Wilson (Jets)

15.Jaylen Waddle (Broncos)

14.Terry McLaurin (Commanders)

13.Tee Higgins (Bengals)

12.Chris Olave (Saints)

11.Zay Flowers (Ravens)

10.George Pickens (Cowboys)

9.Drake London (Falcons)

8.A.J. Brown (Patriots)

7.Nico Collins (Texans)

6.CeeDee Lamb (Cowboys)

5.Amon-Ra St.Brown (Lions)

4.Jaxson Smith-Njigba (Seahawks)

3.Justin Jefferson (Vikings)

2.Puka Nacua (Rams)

1.Ja'Marr Chase (Bengals)

Tight End:

25.Isaiah Likely (Giants)

24.Mike Gesicki (Bengals)

23.Pat Freiermuth (Steelers)

22.Mark Andrews (Ravens)

21.Oronde Gasden II (Chargers)

20.Harold Fannin Jr. (Browns)

19.Jake Ferguson (Cowboys)

18.T.J. Hockenson (Vikings)

17.Dallas Goedert (Eagles)

16.Brenton Strange (Jaguars)

15.A.J. Barner (Seahawks)

14.Colby Parkinson (Rams)

13.Tyler Warren (Colts)

12.Juwan Johnson (Saints)

11.Dalton Schultz (Texans)

10.Travis Kelce (Chiefs)

9.Colston Loveland (Bears)

8.Tucker Kraft (Packers)

7.Dalton Kincaid (Bills)

6.Hunter Henry (Patriots)

5.Kyle Pitts (Falcons)

4.Brock Bowers (Raiders)

3.Sam LaPorta (Lions)

2.George Kittle (49ers)

1.Trey McBride (Cardinals)

Tackle:

30.Kelvin Banks Jr. (Saints)

29.Joe Alt (Chargers)

28.Roger Rosengarten (Ravens)

27.Abraham Lucas (Seahawks)

26.Luke Goedeke (Buccaneers)

25.Spencer Brown (Bills)

24.Kolton Miller (Raiders)

23.Ronnie Stanley (Ravens)

22.Dion Dawkins (Bills)

21.Charles Cross (Seahawks)

20.Paris Johnson Jr. (Cardinals)

19.Mike McGlinchey (Broncos)

18.Rashawn Slater (Chargers)

17.Colton McKivitz (49ers)

16.Darnell Wright (Bears)

15.Christian Darrisaw (Vikings)

14.Jake Matthews (Falcons)

13.Taylor Moton (Panthers)

12.Alaric Jackson (Rams)

11.Bernhard Raimann (Colts)

10.Lane Johnson (Eagles)

9.Laremy Tunsil (Commanders)

8.Brian O'Neill (Vikings)

7.Zach Tom (Packers)

6.Andrew Thomas (Giants)

5.Garett Bolles (Broncos)

4.Jordan Mailata (Eagles)

3.Tristan Wirfs (Buccaneers)

2.Trent Williams (49ers)

1.Penei Sewell (Lions)

Guard:

30.Austin Corbett (Bills)

29.Teven Jenkins (Browns)

28.Alijah Vera-Tucker (Patriots)

27.Robert Hunt (Panthers)

26.Ezra Cleveland (Jaguars)

25.Tate Ratledge (Lions)

24.Tyler Steen (Eagles)

23.Mason McCormick (Steelers)

22.Tyler Booker (Cowboys)

21.Matthew Bergeron (Falcons)

20.Dalton Risner (Bengals)

19.Kevin Zeitler (Free Agent)

18.Ed Ingram (Texans)

17.David Edwards (Saints)

16.Dominick Puni (49ers)

15.Jonah Jackson (Bears)

14.Landon Dickerson (Eagles)

13.Steve Avila (Rams)

12.Tyler Smith (Cowboys)

11.Damien Lewis (Panthers)

10.Peter Skoronski (Titans)

9.Sam Cosmi (Commanders)

8.Trey Smith (Chiefs)

7.Isaac Seumalo (Cardinals)

6.Mike Onwenu (Patriots)

5.Kevin Dotson (Rams)

4.Joe Thuney (Bears)

3.Quenton Nelson (Colts)

2.Quinn Meinerz (Broncos)

1.Chris Lindstrom (Falcons)

Center:

20.Jalen Sundell (Seahawks)

19.Cade Mays (Lions)

18.Ted Karras (Bengals)

17.Robert Hainsey (Jaguars)

16.Elgton Jenkins (Browns)

15.Cam Jurgens (Eagles)

14.Cooper Beebe (Cowboys)

13.Luke Wattenberg (Broncos)

12.Coleman Shelton (Rams)

11.Connor McGovern (Bills)

10.Hjalte Froholdt (Cardinals)

9.Tyler Biadasz (Chargers)

8.Erik McCoy (Saints)

7.Jake Brendel (49ers)

6.Ryan Neuzil (Falcons)

5.Tanor Bortolini (Colts)

4.Zach Frazier (Steelers)

3.Aaron Brewer (Dolphins)

2.Tyler Linderbaum (Raiders)

1.Creed Humphrey (Chiefs)

Edge Rusher:

50.Nic Scourton (Panthers)

49.Zaven Collins (Cardinals)

48.Kwity Paye (Raiders)

47.Dorance Armstrong (Commanders)

46.Donovan Ezeiruaku (Cowboys)

45.Jalyx Hunt (Eagles)

44.Dallas Turner (Vikings)

43.Abdul Carter (Giants)

42.Al-Quadin Muhammad (Buccaneers)

41.John Franklin-Myers (Titans)

40.Bradley Chubb (Bills)

39.Uchena Nwosu (Seahawks)

38.Dre'Mont Jones (Patriots)

37.Travon Walker (Jaguars)

36.Yaya Diaby (Buccaneers)

35.Carl Granderson (Saints)

34.Andrew Van Ginkel (Vikings)

33.Rashan Gary (Cowboys)

32.Harold Landry (Patriots)

31.Jonathon Cooper (Broncos)

30.Tuli Tuipulotu (Chargers)

29.Chase Young (Saints)

28.Alex Wright (Browns)

27.Khalil Mack (Chargers)

26.Boye Mafe (Bengals)

25.Jaelan Phillips (Panthers)

24.Montez Sweat (Bears)

23.DeMarcus Lawrence (Seahawks)

22.Odafe Oweh (Commanders)

21.Jonathan Greenard (Eagles)

20.Josh Sweat (Cardinals)

19.George Karlaftis (Chiefs)

18.Nick Herbig (Steelers)

17.Brian Burns (Giants)

16.Laiatu Latu (Colts)

15.Alex Highsmith (Steelers)

14.Byron Young (Rams)

13.Nik Bonitto (Broncos)

12.Jared Verse (Browns)

11.Trey Hendrickson (Ravens)

10.Maxx Crosby (Raiders)

9.Greg Rousseau (Bills)

8.Nick Bosa (49ers)

7.T.J. Watt (Steelers)

6.Josh Hines-Allen (Jaguars)

5.Danielle Hunter (Texans)

4.Will Anderson Jr. (Texans)

3.Aidan Hutchinson (Lions)

2.Micah Parsons (Packers)

1.Myles Garrett (Rams)

Defensive Tackle:

50.Khyris Tonga (Chiefs)

49.Tim Settle (Commanders)

48.Keeanu Benton (Steelers)

47.Jonathan Allen (Bengals)

46.Arik Armstead (Jaguars)

45.Nathan Shepherd (Saints)

44.Jarran Reed (Seahawks)

43.Calias Campbell (Ravens)

42.Roy Lopez (Cardinals)

41.Maliek Collins (Browns)

40.Osa Odighizuwa (49ers)

39.A'Shawn Robinson (Buccaneers)

38.Grover Stewart (Colts)

37.Gervon Dexter (Bears)

36.B.J. Hill (Bengals)

35.Mason Graham (Browns)

34.Jalen Redmond (Vikings)

33.Alim McNeill (Lions)

32.Christian Barmore (Patriots)

31.Javon Hargrave (Packers)

30.Teair Tart (Chargers)

29.Kenny Clark (Cowboys)

28.Moro Ojomo (Eagles)

27.Sheldon Rankins (Texans)

26.Milton Williams (Patriots)

25.D.J. Jones (Broncos)

24.Jordan Davis (Eagles)

23.T'Vondre Sweat (Jets)

22.Byron Murphy II (Seahawks)

21.D.J. Reader (Giants)

20.Jalen Carter (Eagles)

19.Zach Allen (Broncos)

18.Tommy Togiai (Texans)

17.Harrison Phillips (Jets)

16.Zach Sieler (Dolphins)

15.DeForest Buckner (Colts)

14.Nnamdi Madubike (Ravens)

13.David Onyemata (Jets)

12.Ed Oliver (Bills)

11.Vita Vea (Buccaneers)

10.Derrick Brown (Panthers)

9.Leonard Williams (Seahawks)

8.Poona Ford (Rams)

7.Travis Jones (Ravens)

6.Kobie Turner (Rams)

5.Chris Jones (Chiefs)

4.Dexter Lawrence (Bengals)

3.Quinnen Williams (Cowboys)

2.Jeffrey Simmons (Titans)

1.Cameron Heyward (Steelers)

Inside Linebacker:

40.D'Marco Jackson (Bears)

39.Nakobe Dean (Raiders)

38.Justin Strnad (Broncos)

37.Dre Greenlaw (49ers)

36.Ernest Jones (Seahawks)

35.Pete Werner (Saints)

34.Tyrel Dodson (Dolphins)

33.Dee Winters (Cowboys)

32.Eric Wilson (Vikings)

31.Henry To'oTo'o (Texans)

30.Omar Speights (Rams)

29.Leo Chenal (Commanders)

28.Alex Anzalone (Buccaneers)

27.Blake Cashman (Vikings)

26.Tremaine Edmunds (Giants)

25.Jamien Sherwood (Jets)

24.Alex Singleton (Broncos)

23.Divine Deablo (Falcons)

22.Nate Landman (Rams)

21.Drake Thomas (Seahawks)

20.Jihaad Campbell (Eagles)

19.Carson Schwesinger (Browns)

18.Cedric Gray (Titans)

17.T.J. Edwards (Bears)

16.Kaden Elliss (Saints)

15.Azeez Al-Shaair (Texans)

14.Robert Spillane (Patriots)

13.Foyesade Oluokun (Jaguars)

12.Devin Bush (Bears)

11.Bobby Wagner (Free Agent)

10.Drue Tranquill (Chiefs)

9.Edgerrin Cooper (Packers)

8.Roquan Smith (Ravens)

7.Jordyn Brooks (Dolphins)

6.Nick Bolton (Chiefs)

5.DeMario Davis (Jets)

4.Devin Lloyd (Panthers)

3.Zack Baun (Eagles)

2.Jack Campbell (Lions)

1.Fred Warner (49ers)

Cornerback:

50.Alontae Taylor (Titans)

49.Carrington Valentine (Packers)

48.Cor'Dale Flott (Titans)

47.Riley Moss (Broncos)

46.Andru Phillips (Giants)

45.Zyon McCollum (Buccaneers)

44.Joey Porter Jr. (Steelers)

43.A.J. Terrell (Falcons)

42.Deommodore Lenoir (49ers)

41.Nate Wiggins (Ravens)

40.Jourdan Lewis (Jaguars)

39.Keisean Nixon (Packers)

38.Jacob Parrish (Buccaneers)

37.Kool-Aid McKinstry (Saints)

36.Kenny Moore (Free Agent)

35.Cobie Durant (Cowboys)

34.Brandon Stephens (Jets)

33.Marcus Jones (Patriots)

32.Tyson Campbell (Browns)

31.Chidobe Awuzie (Ravens)

30.Isaiah Rodgers (Vikings)

29.Eric Stokes (Raiders)

28.Nahshon Wright (Jets)

27.D.J. Turner II (Bengals)

26.Montaric Brown (Jaguars)

25.Ja'Quan McMillan (Broncos)

24.Jaylon Johnson (Bears)

23.Byron Murphy Jr. (Vikings)

22.Denzel Ward (Browns)

21.Marlon Humphrey (Ravens)

20.Jaycee Horn (Panthers)

19.D.J. Reed (Lions)

18.DaRon Bland (Cowboys)

17.Carlton Davis (Patriots)

16.Tarheeb Still (Chargers)

15.Charvarius Ward (Colts)

14.Jaylen Watson (Rams)

13.Mike Jackson (Panthers)

12.Kamari Lassiter (Texans)

11.Jalen Ramsey (Steelers)

10.Christian Gonzalez (Patriots)

9.Christian Benford (Bills)

8.Quinyon Mitchell (Eagles)

7.Jamel Dean (Steelers)

6.Derek Stingley Jr. (Texans)

5.Sauce Gardner (Colts)

4.Cooper DeJean (Eagles)

3.Trent McDuffie (Rams)

2.Devon Witherspoon (Seahawks)

1.Patrick Surtain II (Broncos)

Safety:

50.Ji'Ayir Brown (49ers)

49.Xavier Woods (Free Agent)

48.Julian Blackmon (Saints)

47.Malik Mustapha (49ers)

46.Craig Woodson (Patriots)

45.Harrison Smith (Free Agent)

44.Malaki Starks (Ravens)

43.Nick Scott (Panthers)

42.Jordan Battle (Bengals)

41.Reed Blankenship (Texans)

40.Budda Baker (Cardinals)

39.Amani Hooker (Titans)

38.Jevon Holland (Giants)

37.Brandon Jones (Broncos)

36.Tykee Smith (Buccaneers)

35.Grant Delpit (Browns)

34.Tre'Von Moehrig (Panthers)

33.DeShon Elliott (Steelers)

32.Tony Jefferson (Chargers)

31.Nick Emmanwori (Seahawks)

30.Justin Reid (Saints)

29.Jeremy Chinn (Raiders)

28.Coby Bryant (Bears)

27.Evan Williams (Packers)

26.Cole Bishop (Bills)

25.Ronnie Hickman (Browns)

24.Ty Okada (Seahawks)

23.Kerby Joseph (Lions)

22.Alohi Gilman (Chiefs)

21.Talanoa Hufanga (Broncos)

20.Kamren Kinchens (Rams)

19.Calen Bullock (Texans)

18.Jalen Thompson (Cowboys)

17.Camryn Bynum (Colts)

16.Quentin Lake (Rams)

15.Xavier Watts (Falcons)

14.Jaylinn Hawkins (Ravens)

13.Antonio Johnson (Jaguars)

12.Julian Love (Seahawks)

11.Bryan Cook (Bengals)

10.Kamren Curl (Rams)

9.Jessie Bates III (Falcons)

8.Brian Branch (Lions)

7.Antoine Winfield Jr. (Buccaneers)

6.Kevin Byard (Patriots)

5.Jalen Pitre (Texans)

4.Minkah Fitzpatrick (Jets)

3.Derwin James (Chargers)

2.Xavier McKinney (Packers)

1.Kyle Hamilton (Ravens)

Kicker:

20.Ryan Fitzgerald (Panthers)

19.Joey Slye (Titans)

18.Andres Borregales (Patriots)

17.Tyler Loop (Ravens)

16.Harrison Butker (Chiefs)

15.Eddy Pineiro (49ers)

14.Cairo Santos (Bears)

13.Andre Smyzt (Browns)

12.Evan McPherson (Bengals)

11.Riley Patterson (Dolphins)

10.Nick Folk (Falcons)

9.Chase McLaughlin (Buccaneers)

8.Will Reichard (Vikings)

7.Chris Boswell (Steelers)

6.Wil Lutz (Broncos)

5.Jason Myers (Seahawks)

4.Brandon Aubrey (Cowboys)

3.Cam Little (Jaguars)

2.Kai'ami Fairbairn (Texans)

1.Cameron Dicker (Chargers)

Punter:

20.Bryce Baringer (Patriots)

19.Jeremy Crenshaw (Broncos)

18.Matt Araiza (Chiefs)

17.J.K. Scott (Chargers)

16.Austin McNamara (Jets)

15.Jack Fox (Lions)

14.Tommy Townsend (Titans)

13.Tress Way (Commanders)

12.Jake Bailey (Dolphins)

11.Bryan Anger (Cowboys)

10.A.J. Cole (Raiders)

9.Ryan Wright (Saints)

8.Daniel Whelan (Packers)

7.Jordan Stout (Giants)

6.Logan Cooke (Jaguars)

5.Braden Mann (Eagles)

4.Ryan Rekhow (Bengals)

3.Rigoberto Sanchez (Colts)

2.Blake Gillikin (Cardinals)

1.Michael Dickson (Seahawks)

Top 10 Appearances by Team: 
Los Angeles Rams-9 (Kamren Curl, Kevin Dotson, Poona Ford, Myles Garrett, Trent McDuffie, Puka Nacua, Matthew Stafford, Kobie Turner, Kyren Williams)

Kansas City Chiefs-8 (Nick Bolton, Creed Humphrey, Chris Jones, Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes, Trey Smith, Drue Tranquill, Kenneth Walker III)

Atlanta Falcons-7 (Jessie Bates III, Nick Folk, Chris Lindstrom, Drake London, Ryan Neuzil, Kyle Pitts, Bijan Robinson)

Detroit Lions-7 (Brian Branch, Jack Campbell, Jahmyr Gibbs, Aidan Hutchinson, Sam LaPorta, Penei Sewell, Amon-Ra St. Brown)

Green Bay Packers-7 (Edgerrin Cooper, Josh Jacobs, Tucker Kraft, Xavier McKinney, Micah Parsons, Zach Tom, Daniel Whelan)

Philadelphia Eagles-7 (Zack Baun, Cooper DeJean, Jalen Hurts, Lane Johnson, Jordan Mailata, Braden Mann, Quinyon Mitchell)

Houston Texans-6 (Will Anderson Jr., Nico Collins, Kai'ami Fairbairn, Danielle Hunter, Jalen Pitre, Derek Stingley Jr.)

New England Patriots-6 (A.J. Brown, Kevin Byard, Christian Gonzalez, Hunter Henry, Drake Maye, Mike Onwenu)

San Francisco 49ers-6 (Nick Bosa, Jake Brendel, George Kittle, Christian McCaffery, Fred Warner, Trent Williams)

Seattle Seahawks-6 (Sam Darnold, Michael Dickson, Jason Myers, Jaxson Smith-Njigba, Leonard Williams, Devon Witherspoon)

Baltimore Ravens-5 (Kyle Hamilton, Derrick Henry, Lamar Jackson, Travis Jones, Roquan Smith)

Buffalo Bills-5 (Josh Allen, Christian Benford, James Cook, Dalton Kincaid, Greg Rousseau)

Dallas Cowboys -5(Brandon Aubrey, CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens, Dak Prescott, Quinnen Williams)

Indianapolis Colts-5 (Tanor Bortolini, Sauce Gardner, Quenton Nelson, Rigoberto Sanchez, Jonathan Taylor)

Pittsburgh Steelers-5 (Chris Boswell, Jamel Dean, Zach Frazier, Cameron Heyward, T.J. Watt)

Arizona Cardinals-4 (Hjalte Froholdt, Blake Gillikin,Trey McBride, Isaac Seumalo)

Cincinnati Bengals-4 (Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase, Dexter Lawrence, Ryan Rekhow)

Denver Broncos-4 (Garett Bolles, Wil Lutz, Quinn Meinerz, Patrick Surtain II)

Las Vegas Raiders-4 (Brock Bowers, A.J. Cole, Maxx Crosby, Tyler Linderbaum)

Los Angeles Chargers-4 (Tyler Biadasz, Cameron Dicker, Justin Herbert, Derwin James)

Jacksonville Jaguars-3 (Logan Cooke, Josh Hines-Allen, Cam Little)

Miami Dolphins-3 (De'Von Achane, Aaron Brewer, Jordyn Brooks)

Minnesota Vikings-3 (Justin Jefferson, Brian O'Neill, Will Reichard)

Tampa Bay Buccaneers-3 (Chase McLaughlin, Antoine Winfield Jr. Tristan Wirfs)

Carolina Panthers-2 (Derrick Brown, Devin Lloyd)

Chicago Bears-2 (Colston Loveland, Joe Thuney)

New Orleans Saints-2 (Erik McCoy, Ryan Wright)

New York Giants-2 (Jordan Stout, Andrew Thomas)

New York Jets-2 (DeMario Davis, Minkah Fitzpatrick)

Tennessee Titans-2 (Jeffrey Simmons, Peter Skoronski)

Washington Commanders-2 (Sam Cosmi, Laremy Tunsil)

Cleveland Browns-0