Jack Quaid Archives – CULTURE MIX

Review: ‘Neighborhood Watch’ (2025), starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jack Quaid, Cecile Cubiló, Jack Klock and Malin Akerman

April 25, 2025

by Carla Hay

Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Jack Quaid in “Neighborhood Watch” (Photo courtesy of RLJE Films)

“Neighborhood Watch” (2025)

Directed by Duncan Skiles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Alabama, the dramatic film “Neighborhood Watch” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A mentally ill man witnesses a young woman being kidnapped and teams up with a grouchy neighbor to solve the mystery of the kidnapping.

Culture Audience: “Neighborhood Watch” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Jack Quaid, but this limp and unrealistic movie will disappoint fans of crime-solving stories.

The slow-moving drama “Neighborhood Watch” is tainted with unfunny jokes and a tacky portrayal of mental illness. It’s a wretched and uninspired story of two mismatched neighbors who team up to solve a kidnapping mystery. None of it looks believable.

Directed by Duncan Skiles and written by Sean Farley, “Neighborhood Watch” (formerly titled “Nowhere Men”) takes place in various cities in and near Birmingham, Alabama. And even though “Neighborhood Watch” was filmed on location in Alabama, almost no one in the movie sounds like they’re from Alabama. That’s not the only phony-looking thing about “Neighborhood Watch,” which is filled with too many nonsense scenes that insult viewers’ intelligence. It’s really a shame because the movie has some well-known cast members who are capable of doing much better work.

“Neighborhood Watch” begins by showing a man in his early 30s named Simon McNally (played by Jack Quaid) going to interview for a server job at Flapjack’s Diner of Birmingham. Simon (who lives in the suburban city of Homewood) has a mental illness that is not named in the movie. However, he seems to have schizophrenia because he hears voices in his head that insult and berate him. He also hallucinates seeing a disheveled and shirtless elderly man (played by Jonathan Fuller and voiced by William Reyes), who appears when Simon gets nervous or afraid.

The interview is a disaster. The manager (played by Melanie Jeffcoat) who is interviewing Simon looks at his job application and asks Simon why he hasn’t been employed for the past 10 years. Simon is honest and tells her that he has medical problems and was in a hospital. He then nervously hides one of his wrists, which has cutting scars. The manager notices the scars anyway.

Simon can sense that he’s not making a good impression. But things get worse. During the interview, the voices in his head begin again, and he hallucinates seeing the old man. Simon then shouts, “The color of this lady is do not sleep tonight!” The manager asks if Simon is okay, even though he’s clearly not okay.

Simon denies that anything is wrong, but it’s too late. Based on the manager’s reaction, Simon knows he’s not getting the job. It’s later revealed that when Simon gets very anxious, he blurts out “word salad” sentences that make no sense. He later says his brain feels scrambled when these “word salad” episodes happen. Simon is usually passive but he has a nasty, violent and unpredictable temper that comes out in random moments.

Simon lives in a house with his older sister DeeDee McNally (played by Malin Akerman), a third-year nursing student who works part-time at a beauty salon. DeeDee is having financial problems (she’s avoiding phone calls that she gets from a mortgage company), but she hides details of these problems from Simon. DeeDee will only tell Simon that he needs to get a job because they need the money. Much later in the movie, DeeDee mentions that she gets only $200 a month in state disability payments for being Simon’s guardian.

Meanwhile, Ed Deerman (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is an unemployed grouch who lives next door to Simon and DeeDee. Ed, who lives alone, has an addiction to online gambling that has left him almost financially broke. He also has health issues: He has a prescription for Rampiril that he refuses to take, and he has an enlarged prostate, but he ignores advice to get medical help.

One day, Ed shows up unannounced at his former job at Kenzer Community College, where Ed worked as senior director of security and surveillance operations. Ed has been replaced by a pompous egomaniac named Jeremy (played by Jack Klock), who is as problematic as Ed, but for different reasons that are revealed later in the movie. It’s soon shown why aggressive and stubborn Ed has the type of personality that got him fired.

Ed is at a school cafeteria when he sees a male student (played by Will Deusner) stealing some muffins and bagels in a salad-bar serving area. Ed maces the student, hauls him into the security office, tells Jeremy that he caught the student stealing food from the school cafeteria, and demands that Jeremy call the police to have the student arrested. Jeremy refuses because Ed overreacted by illegally macing the student, who is let go with a warning.

Ed then berates Jeremy for not doing a good job and complains about the low quality of locks on campus. Jeremy responds by giving Ed this blistering comment: “There are two types of failures in this world: has-beens and never-wases. And you are a never-was. I think it would be best for everyone if you don’t come around here for a while.”

“Neighborhood Watch” juxtaposes these two introductory scenes of Simon and Ed to make it obvious that even though meek Simon and domineering Ed seem to be complete opposites, they are both sad sacks who are “misunderstood” and rejected by people around them. It’s all so formulaic because you know “Neighborhood Watch” is going to be the type of movie that has stereotypes of two clashing personalities who end up spending time with each other and have to find a way to work together for a common goal. And in movies about two people trying to solve a crime together, it’s become quite the cliché to have one of the people as an older cynic, while the other person is naïve and less-experienced.

One day, while a dejected Simon is walking down a street near his house, he sees a young prostitute (played by Chatham Kennedy), whose name is later revealed to Anya, getting pushed around in an alley by her pimp (played by Billy Culbertson), whose name is later revealed to be Walsh. Simon then sees Anya getting shoved into the back of the van against her will. Simon hears voices in his head taunting him about being too wimpy to do anything about this crime. He decides to prove the voices in his head wrong by running after the van. The van drives away, but Simon memorizes the license plate number.

Simon doesn’t have a car and apparently doesn’t have a cell phone because he’s never seen using a cell phone in the movie. Instead of going to the police right away, Simon goes to Ed’s house to ask for a car ride to try to find the kidnapped woman. It’s in this scene that it’s revealed why Simon is a pariah in the neighborhood.

Ed rudely refuses to help Simon because Ed says he still remembers when Simon punched two police officers in the middle of the road, and there were reporters in the neighborhood for two days straight after that incident. Ed angrily asks Simon, “Do you have any idea what that kind of publicity does to neighborhood property values?”

Simon then goes to the Homewood Police Department to report the crime. The official who takes the report is Detective Glover (played by Cecile Cubiló), who looks very uninterested. Simon gives vague descriptions of the kidnapper and the kidnapping victim and admits he didn’t get a good look at the kidnapper’s face. However, Simon remembers the license plate number of the van. Detective Glover takes all the information and asks Simon for his date of birth.

After he leaves, Detective Glover does a background check on Simon and finds out that he has an arrest record for disorderly conduct and he was sentenced to a psychiatric facility. Detective Glover assumes that Simon’s mental illness lowers his credibility and thinks he could be lying about witnessing a kidnapping. Later, when Simon calls Detective Glover to ask if there’s an update on the case, she tells him that the license plate number that he gave to her was registered to a vehicle that was pulled over that morning in a place that was 300 miles away. She makes it clear that she doesn’t believe Simon.

Simon then goes back to Ed and begs for help again because Simon remembers that Ed worked in security or law enforcement. Simon tells Ed that the police won’t help because the police don’t believe Simon. Ed is a wannabe police detective, so he agrees to help Simon only find out who owns the kidnapper van, based on the license plate information that Simon has.

Vehicle ownership based on a license plate number is restricted information that is protected by certain privacy laws and can only be accessed by certain agencies and not by the general public. Ed warns Simon that the license plate information that Simon remembers could be faulty, such as the number five could be the letter “s,” or the number one could be the letter “i,” or any other variables, such as the license plate could have been stolen.

And this is when “Neighborhood Watch” really starts to get idiotic. A mild spoiler alert for anyone who wants to waste time watching this mind-numbing film: It takes literally half of this 92-minute movie for Simon and Ed to investigate the license plate number. They do many stupid things to drag out this bungled search, including going to the local Department of Motor Vehicles, where Ed thinks he can get this information from a DMV clerk, just by pretending to still be a security officer from Kenzer Community College.

Ed constantly acts like he’s extremely knowledgeable about detective work. And yet, Ed constantly leads Simon to commit crimes as part of their “sleuthing,” where they make all types of moronic mistakes, such as break into places where they leave their fingerprints and DNA everywhere. There’s a running “joke” in the movie that Ed thinks he can identify when someone is lying if they blink too much or don’t blink at all when they’re talking.

As for the characters of Simon and Ed: Quaid and Morgan have done these types of characters many times before—Quaid tends to play insecure and neurotic characters, Morgan tends to play gruff and bossy characters—so “Neighborhood Watch” is just more typecasting for Quaid and Morgan. By sheer coincidence, Quaid is in another 2025 movie where he also depicts a man with medical issues who’s turns into a vigilante while looking for a kidnapped woman: “Novocaine,” which is a far superior film to the sluggish “Neighborhood Watch.”

Almost nothing is revealed about Ed’s personal life. There’s a “blink and you’ll miss it” moment that is a very tiny clue. Shortly after Ed agrees to help Simon, there’s a scene in Ed’s home where Ed shows Simon that he uses a clock as a hiding place. One of the things hidden in the clock is a Kenzer Community College photo ID for a middle-aged woman named Kathy Deerman, whose job title is listed as director of dining services. It might explain why Ed was hanging out at a Kenzer cafeteria, but whoever Kathy is remains an unanswered question. It would be easy to assume that Kathy is Ed’s former wife.

Akerman’s DeeDee character is treated like a bookend: She’s only in the first part and last part of “Neighborhood Watch,” a cinematic dud that gets increasingly ridiculous—and not in an enjoyable way. There’s nothing special about the acting performances, while the movie’s screenplay and direction wallow in ineptitude. Simon’s mental illness is used as a story gimmick. Ultimately, this dreadful and boring movie is just a tired parade of predictability and nonsense.

RLJE Films released “Neighborhood Watch” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on April 25, 2025.

Review: ‘Novocaine” (2025), starring Jack Quaid, Amber Midthunder, Ray Nicholson, Betty Gabriel, Matt Walsh, Lou Beatty Jr., Van Hengst, Conrad Kemp and Jacob Batalon

March 8, 2025

by Carla Hay

Jack Quaid in “Novocaine” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

“Novocaine” (2025)

Directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen

Culture Representation: Taking place in San Diego, the action film “Novocaine” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans and Asians and one Native American) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: An assistant bank manager, who has a rare medical condition where he cannot feel pain, turns into a vigilante who goes on a dangerous mission to rescue his co-worker/love interest, who was kidnapped by bank robbers.

Culture Audience: “Novocaine” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and action movies where a “common man” turns into a brave vigilante.

Jack Quaid and Amber Midthunder in “Novocaine” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

The likable action comedy “Novocaine” is anything but numbing. Jack Quaid delivers a knockout performance as a mild-mannered man, who can’t feel pain and who turns into a vigilante to save a kidnapped love interest. The movie’s breezy comedy is adeptly blended with its cartoonish violence.

Directed by Darn Berk and Robert Olsen and written by Lars Jacobson, “Novocaine” excels because of its talented cast, adrenaline-packed stunts and an uncomplicated story that doesn’t take itself too seriously. As ridiculous as many of the fight scenarios are, the characters in the movie remain believable, thanks to skilled acting from the “Novocaine” cast members.

In “Novocaine,” Quaid plays 30-year-old Nathan “Nate” Caine, a socially awkward nerd who works as an assistant manager at San Diego Trust Credit Union, a bank in San Diego. (“Novocaine” was actually filmed in Cape Town, South Africa.) It’s later revealed in the movie that when he was a student, people at Nate’s school gave Nate the unflattering nickname Novocaine because he was born with a rare medical condition that makes him immune to pain, much like the drug novocaine is used as a way to numb pain. Nate also can’t feel changes in temperature.

Because of this medical condition, Nate’s overprotective parents (who are now deceased) raised him to be a very sheltered child. For years, Nate was told that he couldn’t eat solid food, in order to prevent him from accidentally biting his tongue off while eating. He was also taught to stay indoors as much as possible, which has caused Nate to be a loner as an adult.

At home, Jacob spends most of his free time playing online video games. His closest “friend” is someone he hasn’t met in person yet: another avid online video gamer named Roscoe (played by Jacob Batalon), who is as confident as Nate is insecure. Nate also has a friendly acquaintance (in person) with a local hardware store owner named Earl (played by Lou Beatty Jr.), an elderly man who gets help from Nate when Earl’s store is close to getting out of business.

Most of the story takes place during the late December holiday season. Nate is feeling lonely because he has no family members or friends to be with for the holidays. Because of his extremely sheltered upbringing, Nate is inexperienced in dating. Fairly early on in the movie, it becomes obvious that Nate is a virgin who’s never had a steady girlfriend.

That doesn’t mean that Nate is asexual. He’s attracted to a co-worker named Sherry (played by Amber Midthunder), who works as a bank teller at San Diego Trust Credit Union. Sherry, who is an aspiring painter artist, knows that Nate has a crush on her, so she’s the one who approaches him and asks him out on a date.

Nate and Sherry’s first date is at local diner, where Nate tells Sherry about his medical condition. Sherry convinces Nate to eat some of the pie that she has ordered. Nate overcomes his fear of eating solid food, eats some of the pie, and finds out to his delight that the pie tastes great, and nothing bad happened to him when he ate the pie.

This pie experience is the icebreaker that brings Sherry and Nate closer together on this date. Sherry (who is originally from Tucson, Arizona) opens up to Nate about her troubled past: She spent much of her childhood in foster homes until she was adopted into an abusive home. Amber tells Nate up front that she’s in therapy. It’s later revealed that Amber is in recovery for being a self-harming cutter.

Nate and Sherry continue their date at a local bar, where an unnamed bully (played by Tristan de Beer) from Nate’s past approaches Nate and teases him about being nicknamed Novocaine. Nate is embarrassed but tries not to let it show to Sherry. When the bully starts to flirt with Sherry, something happens that proves Sherry is not interested in this jerk. Sherry assertively tells Nate that she wants to spend the night with Nate.

The day after their sleepover date is Christmas Eve. Sherry and Nate (who has already fallen hard for Sherry) both have to work that day, which turns into a nightmare. Three armed bank robbers, who are all disguised as Santa Claus, storm into the bank. They don’t just want the cash that’s in the registers were the bank tellers are. The robbers want whatever is in the bank vault that’s locked in the back.

The leader of the robbers is Simon (played by Ray Nicholson), a sadistic psychopath who doesn’t hesitate to shoot and kill. Simon’s accomplices are two brothers: Andre (played by Conrad Kemp) and Ben (played by Evan Hengst), who is the younger brother. Ben is the lookout and getaway driver.

Things go horribly wrong during the robbery. Bank manager Nigel (played by Craig Jackson) sees what Simon’s face looks like without the disguise. And you can easily guess what happens to Nigel. Nate is then forced to open the bank vault because he’s the only other person in the bank who knows how to unlock the vault.

Police arrive, and there’s a massive shootout that leaves several people wounded and a few people dead. Before the robbers make their getaway, they take Sherry as a hostage. Nate impulsively takes the gun and police car of a wounded cop (played by Keeno Lee Hector), so that Nate can chase after the kidnappers/robbers because he wants to rescue Sherry. Nate thinks that the police won’t act fast enough.

The two police detectives in charge of the investigation are Barbara Mincy (played by Betty Gabriel) and her cop partner Detective Coltraine (played by Matt Walsh), who soon arrive at this crime scene. Barbara immediately suspects that Nate is in cahoots with the kidnappers/robbers. Detective Coltraine is a little more willing to give Nate the benefit of the doubt.

The rest of “Novocaine” is about Nate haphazard rescue attempt, as Nate is being hunted by police. The movie gets repetitive in showing how many painful injuries that Nate sustains, but the scenes have so much playfully intense energy, these scenes don’t really drag. Each injury sems to make Nate emotionally stronger, if not more confident, as he shows an unrelenting determination to save the person he believes could be the love of his life.

“Novocaine” has above-average stunt work and makeup design (for the fight injuries) that give some realistic-looking aspects of an intentionally absurd film. Much of the comedy comes from Nate getting himself in situations where he has no idea what he’s doing, but he has to make quick-thinking decisions along the way. Some of these decisions turn out to be mistakes, so Nate has to find a way to get out of any mess that he created.

The appeal of “Novocaine” is centered mainly on Quaid’s dynamic performance as Nate, who evolves from being timid to being courageous, while still remaining a “nice guy.” “Novocaine” has a lot of brutal violence, but the heart of the movie is really mushy sentimentality about the extremes that people will go to for love. Somehow, that mushiness works well because it’s wrapped up in a movie that expertly mixes engaging action with charismatic comedy.

Paramount Pictures will release “Novocaine” in U.S. cinemas on March 14, 2025, with sneak previews on March 3 and March 8, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on April 8, 2025. “Novocaine” will be released on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on June 24, 2025.

Review: ‘Companion’ (2025), starring Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Lukas Gage, Megan Suri, Harvey Guillén and Rupert Friend

January 31, 2025

by Carla Hay

Jack Quaid and Sophie Thatcher in “Companion” (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)

“Companion” (2025)

Directed by Drew Hancock

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the horror film “Companion” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with one Latino, one African American and one Asian) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A female robot companion fights for independence from the man who wants to control her.

Culture Audience: “Companion” will appeal mainly to people who are interested in watching twist-filled horror movies that have a lot to say about power dynamics between males and females.

Lukas Gage, Harvey Guillén and Jack Quaid in “Companion” (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)

“Companion” is a twist-filled sci-fi horror film that offers a darkly comedic depiction of conflicts over gender roles and how much a human-looking robot powered by artificial intelligence should have free-thinking independence from its owner. There’s a lot of bloody gore in “Companion,” which also has many overt messages about the type of toxic masculinity that deliberately exploits females. The movie’s ending is predictable, but “Companion” is still a fairly wild and suspenseful ride to get there.

Written and directed by Drew Hancock, “Companion” is his feature-film directorial debut. “Companion” producers Roy Lee and J.D. Lifshitz previously collaborated on the 2022 horror film “Barbarian.” “Companion” takes place in an unnamed U.S. city. (“Companion” was actually filmed in New York state.) Although “Companion” has plenty of horror clichés—such as the main characters being in a remote area with a killer on the loose—there’s still enough originality in the movie to make up for the formulaic plot points.

In “Companion,” an unmarried couple named Josh Beeman (played by Jack Quaid) and Iris (played by Sophie Thatcher) take a car trip to a remote lake house for what is supposed to be a relaxing getaway trip. Josh and Iris have been together for an unspecified period of time. They have been invited to the house by Josh’s materialistic friend Kat (played by Megan Suri), who is dating the house’s sleazy owner Sergey (played by Rupert Friend), who is a wealthy Russian-immigrant businessman.

Two other guests at the house are another couple: Eli (played by Harvey Guillén) and Patrick (played by Lukas Gage), who uses cooking skills to be the chef for everyone in the house. Eli and Patrick—just like Josh and Iris—seem to be blissfully in love and in a happy relationship. Observant viewers will notice that Josh and Eli are the dominant partners in their respective relationships.

As already revealed in the trailer for “Companion,” Iris is really a companion robot controlled by Josh. A flashback in the movie shows that when Josh received Iris (Josh rented her from a company called Empathix), he was told by the Empathix delivery people that Iris can be programmed by Josh to do many things, but she cannot lie, and she cannot kill people and animals. Josh controls Iris’ levels of intelligence and emotions. He also gets to choose Iris’ memories, such as their “meet cute”/”love synch” moment at a grocery store, where Josh accidentally tipped over a container of oranges in front of Iris.

Without revealing too much of the movie’s plot, it’s enough to say that Sergey ends up dead after he sexually harassed Iris when they were alone together. A lot of chaos ensues when Iris tries to escape. And not everyone else makes it out alive. If Iris ends up killing anyone, the movie has an explanation for it. “Companion” has some “inside joke” pop culture references, such as a scene where the Goo Goo Dolls’ 1998 hit “Iris” is played; the song’s lyrics apply to the situation at hand.

“Companion” is the type of movie that does a lot with a small number of people in the cast and the limited number of locations. (Almost the entire movie takes place in the lake house and within a few miles from the lake house.) Thatcher gives a standout and convincing performance as a robot who discovers her humanity and fights for her independence. The other cast members also do well in their roles, but some of the supporting characters are intentionally shallow.

Although some of the technology shown in “Companion” did not exist at the time the movie was released in 2025, companion robots are most definitely a reality and have existed for years. The majority of these companion robots are females that are used by men as sex toys. This “Companion” movie invites viewers to look beyond the “slasher flick” aspect of the story and think about how this type of technology can be used and abused in real life. In many ways, the potential real-life consequences are much more horrific than what’s portrayed in this fictional film.

Warner Bros. Pictures released “Companion” in U.S. cinemas on January 31, 2025.

Review: ‘Oppenheimer’ (2023), starring Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek and Kenneth Branagh

July 19, 2023

by Carla Hay

Benny Safdie and Cillian Murphy in “Oppenheimer” (Photo by Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures)

“Oppenheimer” (2023)

Directed by Christopher Nolan

Culture Representation: Taking place in the United States and in Europe, from the late 1920s to the late 1960s, the dramatic film “Oppenheimer” (based on the non-fiction book “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer”) features a nearly all-white cast of characters (with a few Latinos) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer invents the atomic bomb, which is used in Japan toward the end of World War II, but he struggles with the moral consequences of this invention.

Culture Audience: “Oppenheimer” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of filmmaker Christopher Nolan, the star headliners and history-based movies with a top-notch principal cast.

Emily Blunt and Cillian Murphy in “Oppenheimer” (Photo by Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures)

“Oppenheimer” has the words “awards bait” written all over it. This epic drama about atomic bomb inventor J. Robert Oppenheimer is crammed with showy performances from an all-star cast. The last third of the movie is the best and most meaningful section.

Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, “Oppenheimer” is based on Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s 2005 non-fiction book “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.” Oppenheimer was born in 1904 and died in 1967. This three-hour movie has a story that spans from the late 1920s to the late 1960s, with most of the story taking place in the 1940s and 1950s. It’s a very ambitious film that at times seems more interested in showing off how many famous cast members can be stuffed into quick-cutting scenes. The middle part of the movie tends to drag with some repetition, but the movie’s last hour is absolutely riveting.

J. Robert Oppenheimer, also known as Robert (played by Cillian Murphy, giving an award-worthy performance), is an intense and quietly brooding American theoretical physicist who is originally from New York, but he did his most significant work in remote areas of Los Alamos, New Mexico, where the atomic bomb was tested. The top-secret research into making the atomic bomb was called the Manhattan Project. The movie shows that Robert had mixed feelings about this invention, even before it was actually built. He also worried about how this bomb could possibly start a competition among other countries (specifically, Russia, then known as the Soviet Union) to make an even more destructive bomb.

The first hour of “Oppenheimer” cuts in and out of scenes so quickly, it does a disservice to the story by preventing viewers from getting to know the main characters better. After a while, the movie’s first hour just becomes a parade of big-name actors portraying scientists and government officials who have various debates about the merits and morality of the atomic bomb. It all becomes a bit long-winded, although the visuals in the movie are often stunning. Also noteworthy is composer Ludwig Göransson’s stirring “Oppenheimer” musical score.

There are repetitive mentions of Robert always feeling like the white Anglos who dominate the U.S. government will never truly accept him because he’s Jewish. There’s some antisemitism depicted in the movie, but the biggest prejudices in “Oppenheimer” have to do with political alliances. The movie’s story is steeped in people’s obsession with finding out who’s a Communist (or Communist ally) and who is not. This “Red Scare” would eventually be the undoing of more than one person in the story.

The other real-life people portrayed in “Oppenheimer” include Leslie Groves Jr. (played by Matt Damon), the politically conservative officer of the U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers and director of the Manhattan Project; Lewis Strauss (played by Robert Downey Jr.), the founding commissioner of the Atomic Energy Commission); and physicist Ernest Lawrence (played by Josh Hartnett), the extroverted inventor of the cyclotron, who befriends the more introverted Robert. Other real-life historical figures portrayed in “Oppenheimer” include Danish physicist Niels Bohr (played by Kenneth Branagh), a mutual admirer of Robert; hydrogen bomb inventor Edward Teller (played by Benny Safdie), an uneasy subordinate of Robert; and physicist Frank Oppenheimer (played by Dylan Arnold), Robert’s younger brother, who was recruited by Robert to work on the Manhattan Project.

And there’s more: Hans Bethe (played by Gustaf Skarsgård), the leader of the Manhattan Project’s theorist department; physicist/chemist Isidor Rabi (played by David Krumholtz), Robert’s longtime friend/advisor; Vannevar Bush (played by Matthew Modine), the leader of the Office of Scientific Research and Development; William Borden (played by David Dastmalchian), executive director of the U.S. Congress Joint Committee on Atomic Energy; and world-renowned scientist Albert Einstein (played by Tom Conti), who has a few contrived-looking scenes where he has private conversations with Robert.

And there’s even more: Jason Clarke as Roger Robb, special counsel to the Atomic Energy Commission; Macon Blair as Lloyd Garrison, Robert’s attorney; Rami Malek as physicist David Hill; Alden Ehrenreich as an unnamed U.S. Senate aide who works with Lewis Strauss; Casey Affleck as U.S. Army military intelligence officer Boris Pash; Dane DeHaan as civil engineer Kenneth Nichols. Also in the “Oppenheimer” cast are Tony Goldwyn as national security/defense government official Gordon Gray; Jack Quaid as physicist Richard Geynman; Josh Peck as physicist Kenneth Bainbridge; Alex Wolff as physicist Luiz Alvarez; and James Remar as U.S. government official Henry Stimson. Even with a cast packed with well-known actors, most of the supporting actors who are in the movie for less than 10 minutes each don’t have much to do but say their lines while sitting or standing in offices.

One of the best scenes in the movie is when Robert has a tension-filled meeting in 1945, with U.S. president Harry Truman (played Gary Oldman), who dismisses Robert’s concerns about the atomic bomb being a trigger for other countries, such as the Soviet Union, to get into an arms race to build an even more destructive bomb. The scene is less than 15 minutes long, but Oldman absolutely stands out as tough-talking President Truman, who has no regrets about deciding to drop the atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that year. President Truman scolds Robert by saying: “Do you think Hiroshima and Nagasaki care who invented the bomb? They care about who dropped it. I did!”

The only two women with prominent speaking roles in the movie are mainly there as love interests to the male protagonist, even though these women have their own careers. Florence Pugh plays a commitment-phobic, Stanford-educated psychiatrist named Jean Tatlock, who has a fling with Robert around the same time that he meets his future wife Katherine, nicknamed Kitty (played by Emily Blunt), who is an outspoken botanist/biologist. Robert was Kitty’s fourth husband.

Both women are portrayed as being “difficult” for Robert, who’s depicted as the “long-suffering” person who has to deal with these strong-willed and opinionated women. Robert is portrayed as a “romantic” who just can’t help falling for women who might be wrong for him. “Oppenheimer” absolutely excuses his affairs with married women, including Kitty, whom he got pregnant when she was married to her third husband. Robert’s responsibility in this homewrecking infidelity is glossed over in the movie with a “wink, wink, nudge nudge/boys will be boys” attitude, while Kitty gets the most of the shaming.

As was the case with many wives in the 1940s and 1950s, Kitty (who came from an affluent family) had to make her career take a back seat to her husband’s career while she was the primary caretaker of their two children: son Peter and daughter Toni. Kitty is very unhappy in New Mexico. Her mental health starts to deteriorate, and she has some addiction issues.

Despite her personal challenges, Kitty maintains a defiant nature. Kitty encourages Robert to stand up for himself when he becomes the target of a smear campaign by former ally Lewis Strauss, who spreads lies that Robert is a secret Communist who might have been a spy for the Russian government. Blunt gives a compelling performance that has a little more depth than the typical “loyal wife of the main character.” Downey has his moments to shine as the sneaky and duplicitous Lewis, but Downey performs in “Oppenheimer” like he’s trying too hard to win an Oscar.

“Oppenheimer” is a very “male gaze” movie that wallows in showing a lot of men in ego rivalries and power struggles, while all the women react to whatever the men do. Pugh being topless in her sex scene with Murphy is a very “male gaze” decision, since she didn’t need to be shown with her naked breasts exposed in this movie. Meanwhile, her male co-star had absolutely no “private parts” nudity in this sex scene. Directors really need to stop this blatant double standard about nudity in sex scenes, where women have to show some kind of nudity, while men do not have to show any nudity. It’s a very outdated double standard that’s a turnoff to many viewers who aren’t stuck in this type of backwards and sexist mindset.

The lead-up to the making of the atomic bomb isn’t nearly as interesting in “Oppenheimer” as what happens in the aftermath, when Robert struggles with the consequences of his invention. He becomes famous and lauded as a war hero in America, but with that fame come scrutiny and jealousy from some of the people he had trusted as colleagues. People who know what happened in real life to Oppenheimer can debate if what is shown in the movie is entirely accurate. The “Oppenheimer” movie obviously makes him look like a sympathetic person.

One of the ways that “Oppenheimer” depicts Robert’s guilt is when he hallucinates visions of people in front of him dying from the bomb, with their faces melting or their bodies being ripped apart. Curiously, he only envisions white people suffering from this catastrophe, not the thousands of Japanese people who were actually killed by the bomb he invented. It might be a tone-deaf part of the movie, or it might be writer/director Nolan’s way of showing that even “liberal” Robert Oppenheimer couldn’t see past his own insular world that has no racial diversity.

“Oppenheimer” is not the masterpiece that some people might hail it to be. As a history-based drama, it’s got a very narrow point of view. However, the performances by Murphy, Blunt and Oldman elevate this very long movie, even if much of the dialogue is basic and perfunctory. During the course of the story, Robert Oppenheimer goes from being an underdog to a hero to an embattled public figure. It’s this most difficult phase of his life that brings out his true character and the best that “Oppenheimer” has to offer.

Universal Pictures will release “Oppenheimer” in U.S. cinemas on July 21, 2023.

Review: ‘Scream’ (2022), starring Melissa Barrera, Jack Quaid, Jenna Ortega, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette and Marley Shelton

January 14, 2022

by Carla Hay

Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox in “Scream” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

“Scream” (2022)

Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett

Culture Representation: Taking place mainly in the fictional California city of Woodsboro, the horror film “Scream” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some African Americans and Latinos) representing the middle-class and working-class.

Culture Clash: Ghostface Killer murders start again in Woodsboro, with new characters and familiar franchise characters in a race against time to find out who’s responsible for this killing spree.

Culture Audience: Aside from fans of the “Scream” horror series, “Scream” will appeal mainly to people who like horror movies that combine graphic gore with sarcastic comedy.

Dylan Minnette, Jack Quaid, Melissa Barrera and David Arquette in “Scream” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

The 2022 version of “Scream” proves that the series is running out of fresh new ideas, but the movie’s self-aware snarkiness and effective nods to “Scream” franchise nostalgia make the film mostly watchable. Viewers don’t have to see the previous “Scream” movies to understand or be entertained by 2022’s “Scream,” which is the fifth movie in the series. Because it shares the same title as 1996’s “Scream” (the first movie in the series) the 2022 “Scream” movie’s title does it a disservice because it’s more of a sequel than a reboot.

Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the 2022 version of “Scream” is the first “Scream” movie that wasn’t directed by Wes Craven, the horror filmmaking master who died of a brain tumor in 2015, at the age of 76. The 2022 version of “Scream” also has screenwriters who are new to the “Scream” franchise: James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick. Kevin Williamson—who wrote 1996’s “Scream,” 1997’s “Scream 2” and 2011’s “Scream 4” movies—is an executive producer of 2022’s “Scream.”

The 2022 version of “Scream” follows almost the exact same formula as certain parts of previous “Scream” movies. A group of people in their late teens and early 20s are targeted and gruesomely murdered, one by one, by a serial killer dressed in a black robe, wearing a creepy ghost mask, and usually killing with a large knife. This murderer is named the Ghostface Killer. The end of each “Scream” movie reveals who’s been responsible for the murders.

Unlike most other horror movie series that keep the same villain for each movie in the series, the “Scream” movie series has a different culprit dressed up as the Ghostface Killer in each “Scream” movie. The first “Scream” movie is constantly referred to in the sequels because the Ghostface Killer murder sprees in the sequels are copycat crimes of the original Ghostface Killer murder spree, which took place in the fictional city of Woodsboro, California. The 2000 movie “Scream 3” added a movie-within-a-movie storyline, by creating a fictional horror movie series called “Stab,” which was inspired by what happened in the first “Scream” movie.

Those are some of the basic things that might be helpful to people who watch 2022’s “Scream” without knowing anything about the previous “Scream” films. The people who will enjoy this movie the most are those who’ve seen all of the previous “Scream” movies, although the 1996 “Scream” movie and “Scream 3” are the two most essential previous “Scream” films to watch to understand all of the jokes in 2022’s “Scream.”

The 2022 version of “Scream” begins with the same type of scene that began 1996’s “Scream”: A teenage girl from Woodsboro High School is home alone in Woodsboro when she gets a mysterious call from the Ghostface Killer, who breaks in the home and attacks her. Drew Barrymore’s Casey Becker character famously got killed in that opening scene in the 1996 “Scream” movie.

The outcome is different for the opening scene in 2022’s “Scream.” Tara Carpenter (played by Jenna Ortega), the teenager attacked in the opening scene, survives this attempted murder. Tara, who’s about 16 or 17, lives with her single mother Christine Carpenter, who is never seen in the movie. Tara’s father abandoned the family when Tara was 8 years old. If you consider some of the family secrets that are revealed, Christine’s absence is the “Scream” filmmakers’ lazily convenient way to not have Christine around, because she would have a lot of explaining to do.

The movie gives a vague explanation that Christine has mental-health issues where she frequently goes away for long stretches of time. When the Ghostface Killer calls Tara, he asks for Christine and says that he knows her from group therapy. Tara says that Christine isn’t home and begins to question how well the caller knows Christine. And that’s when the Ghostface Killer starts to taunt Tara by doing things such has force her answer trivia questions about the “Stab” movies.

Christine’s absence still doesn’t explain why the police or hospital officials don’t seem too concerned about finding Christine when her underage child is in a hospital after an attempted murder. It’s one of the sloppy aspects of this movie, which puts a lot more emphasis on making references to previous “Scream” films than filling any plot holes in the 2022 “Scream” story. There are some other preposterous aspects of the movie, but the absence of Christine is the one that’s the least adequately explained.

More characters eventually populate the movie until most of them are killed off by the end. Tara’s circle of friends consists entirely of other Woodsboro High School students. Because so many characters are murdered, it becomes a very easy process of elimination to find out who’s responsible for this killing spree.

And there’s a part of the movie where someone literally lists all the formulaic rules for “Scream”/”Stab” movies, so major clues are purposely dropped in the film. Therefore, this “Scream” movie, although it has plenty of jump scares, isn’t as suspenseful as previous “Scream’ movies when it comes to the solving the mystery of who’s responsible for the killings.

The other characters in the movie include:

Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera), Tara’s older sister, who lives in Modesto and goes to Woodsboro when she finds out about the attempted murder of Tara.
Richie Kirsch (played by Jack Quaid), Sam’s new boyfriend who works with her at a retail store. Sam and Richie, who have known each other for about six months, go to Woodsboro together during this family crisis.
Amber Freeman (played by Mikey Madison), Tara’s best friend who made plans to party with Tara at Tara’s house on the night that Tara was attacked.
Mindy Meeks-Martin (played by Jasmin Savoy Brown), a member of Tara’s social circle who’s a “Stab” trivia fanatic. Mindy is also the niece of original “Scream” character Randy Meeks (played by Jamie Kennedy), whose fate is shown in “Scream 2.”
Chad Meeks-Martin (played by Mason Gooding), Mindy’s twin brother, who is a popular athlete at school.
Liv McKenzie (played by Sonia Ammar), Chad’s girlfriend who’s a bit of a wild child. She had a fling with a creep in his 30s named Vince Schneider (played by Kyle Gallner), who later stalks her.
Wes Hicks (played by Dylan Minnette), a nice guy who’s often teased by his friends because his mother works in law enforcement.
Deputy Judy Hicks (played by Marley Shelton), Wes’ mother who is one of the lead investigators in the murder spree. Deputy Judy Hicks was also a character in “Scream 4.”

In addition to these characters, the 2022 “Scream” features the return of these original “Scream” franchise characters, who’ve been in other “Scream” movies:

Sidney Prescott (played by Neve Campbell), the Ghostface Killer’s original target who has appeared in every “Scream” movie leading up this one.
Gale Weathers-Riley (played by Courteney Cox), an extremely ambitious TV reporter/book author, whose brash and pushy attitude rubs a lot of people the wrong way.
Dewey Riley (played by David Arquette), the goofy and easygoing cop who originally clashed with Gale, but then they fell in love and got married.

Sidney, Gale and Dewey all live far away from Woodsboro, but they are lured back to town when they hear that Ghostface Killer murders are happening again. Sidney, who was a Woodsboro High School student in the first “Scream” movie, is now married to someone named Mark (who’s never seen in the movie) and is the mother of infant twin daughters, who are also never seen in the movie.

Gale and Dewey are now divorced. According to conversations in the movie, their marriage fell apart soon after Gale took a prominent newscasting job in New York City. Dewey didn’t like living in New York, so he left Gale. It’s art somewhat imitating life, because in real life, Cox and Arquette met because of the “Scream” movie, they fell in love, got married, and eventually divorced.

While Gale’s career has been thriving, Dewey’s life and career have been on a downward spiral. When certain characters seek out Dewey to enlist his help in catching the Ghostface Killer, they find him living as an emotionally damaged recluse in a run-down trailer. Once a police sheriff, he eventually confesses that he was asked to leave the police department under circumstance he doesn’t full explain. Dewey has become a drunk, although it’s unclear if his drinking problem began before or after he lost his job.

Dewey is also heartbroken over his divorce from Gale. Meanwhile, Gale shows she has a heart because she’s been devastated by the divorce too. Dewey has a personal reason for investigating Ghostface Killer murders: His younger sister, Tatum Riley (played by Rose McGowan), who was Sidney’s best friend in high school, was killed in the original Ghostface Killer murder spree chronicled in the first “Scream” movie.

The 2022 “Scream” movie balances out a lot of the explicitly violent and bloody murder scenes with self-effacing jokes. There are many references to what sequels, reboots or “requels” (movies that are hybrids of reboots and sequels) should or should not do to please die-hard fans. At one point in the movie, when “Stab” trivia buff Mindy marvels at what has happened to Sam so far and how “Stab” fans would react, Sam asks Mindy sarcastically, “Are you telling me I’m part of fan fucking fiction?”

Mindy, just like her uncle Randy, is the self-appointed authority on clues and patterns in these serial killings. She lists three rules of finding out who’s the serial killer:

Never trust the love interest.
The killer’s motive is always connected to the past.
The main victim has a friend group that’s also targeted by the killer.

Because “Scream” spends so much time pointing out “rules” and “clichés” of horror movie franchises, it takes a little bit of the fun out of trying to guess who’s responsible for the serial killings in this movie. The movie literally tells the audience who the killer is, but even if it didn’t, enough people get killed in this relatively small cast of characters to figure out who’s behind the murder spree long before it’s officially revealed.

“Scream” should please fans who want a movie that’s heavy on nostalgia for beloved franchise characters, but something happens to one of these characters that might get very mixed reactions from fans. Because slasher flicks like “Scream” rely heavily on characters in their teens and 20s getting murdered, this “Scream” movie doesn’t do much with character development for the young characters who aren’t Sam and Tara. The two sisters were estranged for a number of years, for reasons that are explained in the movie. Predictably, Tara and Sam set aside their family friction to join forces to get the Ghostface Killer.

Except for one shocking death in “Scream,” the movie really does stick to the formula that it constantly lampoons. At times, this constant ironic self-referencing wears a little thin and comes across as a little too smug. Some of the violence might be a turnoff for people who are extremely sensitive, very squeamish or easily offended by scenes in movies where knife slashes and blood gushing are depicted to full gory effect. This “Scream” movie has no intention of being as original as the first “Scream” movie, but for horror fans, there’s enough in the 2022 “Scream” to be entertained by classic horror tropes, with the ending inevitably leaving open the probability of a sequel.

Paramount Pictures released “Scream” in U.S. cinemas on January 14, 2022.

2019 Tribeca Film Festival movie review: ‘Plus One’

May 5, 2019

by Carla Hay

“Plus One”

Directed by Jeff Chan and Andrew Rhymer

World premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on April 28, 2019.

Traditional romantic comedies whose two central characters are a man and a woman typically follow this formula: “Boy meets girl. Boy and girl hook up/fall in love. Boy loses girl because of an argument, misunderstanding and/or fear of commitment—take your pick. Boy and girl make up and reunite in the end.” The couple in the story either can’t stand each other when they first meet, or they’re longtime friends who discover they have romantic feelings for one another.

Taking all of these clichés into account, “Plus One” is as predictable as they come for romantic-comedy plots. However, the entertaining dialogue and winning performances of the movie’s cast make the film an enjoyable and breezy ride. It’s also rare to see an American rom-com with an interracial storyline between a white man and an Asian woman. Their racial differences are mentioned for a few jokes in the movie, but it’s not a source of tension in the story, since all the main characters in this movie are accepting of people from different cultures.

In “Plus One”—the first feature film from writers/directors Jeff Chan and Andrew Rhymer—Jack Quaid is Ben King and Maya Erskine is Alice Mori, two friends who have known each other since their college days. Ben and Alice are in an age range (late 20s to early 30s), when many of their peers are getting married, but Ben and Alice are still struggling with finding their life partner. Ben is fairly choosy about what he wants, and most of his relationships end because his partner has a flaw that he can no longer tolerate. Alice is less judgmental about the people she dates, but she might be a borderline alcoholic, and her raunchy, no-filter personality screams “hot mess,” thereby driving away a lot of potential partners. She’s also still hurting from a recent breakup from ex-boyfriend Nate (played by Tim Chiou), who dumped her.

So what are two lovelorn singles to do when they’re invited to several weddings in one summer? They agree to be each other’s date (or “plus one”) to all of the weddings. One of the weddings happens to be that of Ben’s twice-divorced father Chuck (played by Ed Begley Jr.), who’s marrying a woman young enough to be his daughter, much to Ben’s disapproval. To make things even more awkward for Ben, his father asks Ben to be his best man.

The weddings take place in different parts of the world, so it’s unclear how Ben and Alice (who are working professionals) have been able to take all that time off from work to globetrot to all of these weddings. But those are the kind of details that romantic comedies such as “Plus One” aren’t really concerned about explaining. The main concern that these kinds of movies have is to get audiences to root for what we all know is going to happen.

The movie opens with Ben rehearsing his speech as a groom’s best man, so that Alice can critique the speech. Awkward wedding speeches are used as comedic devices throughout the entire film. At this particular wedding, Alice does what she does at pretty much all of the weddings in this movie: She gets drunk.

Since Alice has decided she’s going to be Ben’s “wing woman,” she tries to play matchmaker for him at the wedding receptions. However, Alice’s idea of introducing Ben to a woman is to shove him hard enough to fall down near the woman.

Ben is literally the straight man to wacky Alice, who’s a foul-mouthed, crude partier with immaturity issues. But there are hints that she’s attracted to him. When they have to share a hotel bed, due to a series of events that force them to take the only hotel room available to them, she wants to cuddle with Ben and tickle-scratch him, but he refuses.

Perhaps stung by the rejection, sharp-tongued Alice tries to convince others (and maybe herself) that Ben isn’t a suitable love partner. Some of the zingers that she puts out there include, “Ben doesn’t date people. He dates ideas.” Later, she tells Ben, “Someone as grotesquely tall and skinny as you doesn’t have the right to be picky.” Even with the sarcastic put-downs, Alice shows a vulnerable side to Ben, when she confesses that her long-married parents are miserable together, thus revealing her own issues with commitment.

When Ben finally meets Alice parents, we see a familiar pattern: Alice’s mother Angela (played by Rosalind Chao) is the tactless motormouth who pries into other people’s love lives (just like Alice), while Alice’s father Mitch (played by Tom Yi) is the calmer, more polite partner (just like Ben). People who know the rom-com formula can figure out what happens with Ben and Alice. Are Ben and Alice the type of people you would want to be friends with in real life? Alice’s drunken antics and rants would be embarrassing to any sane adult, but spending less than two hours with her and Ben on screen is amusing enough for some laughs and some sighs of relief that most wedding guests never act like Alice.

RLJE Films will release “Plus One” in select U.S. theaters on June 14, 2019.

2019 Tribeca Film Festival pilot episode review: ‘The Boys’

May 1, 2019

by Carla Hay

“The Boys”

Pilot episode/Season 1, Episode 1

World premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 29, 2019.

Prime Video’s “The Boys” series couldn’t have come at a better time, when superhero movies have been dominating the box office, and the lead characters in the movies have legions of devoted fans around the world. “The Boys,” based on the graphic-novel series of the same name, explores what it would be like to live in a world where over-worshipped superheroes abuse their fame and power. Based on the pilot episode of “The Boys” that had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, Prime Video could have its first big superhero-themed hit.

The main protagonists of “The Boys” aren’t even superheroes. They’re mere mortals who want to expose the corrupt superheroes because of personal vendettas they have against them. Hughie Campbell (played by Jack Quaid) is a mild-mannered employee of an independent electronics store in New York City. It’s the type of store that’s rapidly disappearing in a retail economy that’s killed Radio Shack. Hughie seems to have a safe and predictable life. He and his girlfriend Robin (played by Jess Salgueiro) are very much in love, and although Hughie’s job doesn’t pay too well, it’s enough for him to get by comfortably, even if he still has to live with his single father (played by Simon Pegg).

Hughie’s world turns into a nightmare when his girlfriend is killed right in front of him in a freak accident. It’s because a lightning-speed superhero named A-Train (played by Jessie T. Usher) literally runs right through her while chasing a robber, and that leads to Robin’s gruesome death. A-Train runs so fast (just like DC Comics’ The Flash) that he didn’t even notice that he killed someone until he sees the bloody aftermath, and he makes a quick excuse that he has to leave in order to keep chasing after the robber.

A devastated Hughie tries to get justice from Vought International, the mega-corporation that manages and secretly covers up for the world’s top superheroes, including an elite group called The Seven. (The Seven is written as an obvious satire of DC Comics’ supergroup Justice League.) Vought is run by Madelyn Stillwell (played by Elizabeth Shue), a ruthless executive who puts on a façade of doing what’s best for the world, while hiding superheroes’ dirty secrets. Vought offers Hughie a $45,000 settlement to not sue over Robin’s death, but he refuses. A-Train gives a half-hearted public apology, but Hughie is not convinced the apology is sincere. Hughie isn’t so mild-mannered anymore. He’s heartbroken, bitter, and out for revenge. He just doesn’t know what to do about it yet.

Meanwhile, in Des Moines, Iowa, a naïve young woman named Annie January (played by Erin Moriarty) is training to become a superhero, much like a girl would train for an event that’s a combination of an athletic competition and a beauty pageant. She’s hoping she’ll be the chosen one to replace Lamplighter, one of the superheroes who is retiring from The Seven. What happens to this young superhero will set in motion much of the action for the rest of the series. She joins The Seven under the new identity Starlight, a character clearly inspired by Supergirl.

Not long after Starlight joins The Seven, Hughie unexpectedly meets Billy Butcher (played by Karl Urban), a no-nonsense badass who crashes into Hughie’s store. Billy says that he’s part of a secret vigilante group called The Boys, whose goal is to hold law-breaking superheroes accountable for their misdeeds. Hughie wants in on the action, but Billy wants Hughie to prove himself first.

Billy tells Hughie that all of the superheroes are corrupt except Homelander (played by Antony Starr), the leader of The Seven, an alpha-male, patriotic type who has the superhero ability to fly, just like Superman. But is Homelander really a good guy or has Billy been fooled into thinking he is?

Other characters from The Seven that are introduced in this pilot episode include The Deep (played by Chace Crawford), an Aquaman-type heartthrob who’s secretly a creep abusing his power through sexual harassment; Black Noir (played by Nathan Mitchell), a mysterious silent type; Translucent (played by Alex Hassell), who can make himself invisible, similar to the DC Comics character Negative Man, and uses this ability to be a perverted Peeping Tom; and Queen Maeve (played by Dominique McElligott), a tough-but-tender alpha female, similar to Wonder Woman, who shows signs that she’s not as committed to The Seven’s corrupt ways as the rest of the group.

Translucent is not in “The Boys” comic books, so his storyline in the TV series is the least-easiest to predict. Advance teaser footage of “The Boys” shows Translucent imprisoned in a cage. The Prime Video series also has some other differences from “The Boys” comic books (which were created by writer Garth Ennis and illustrator Darick Robertson), but that spoiler information won’t be included here.

Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, James Weaver, Ori Marmur, Ken F. Levin and Jason Netter are among the executive producers of “The Boys.” They previously adapted a popular graphic-novel series to television with AMC’s “Preacher.” Other executive producers of “The Boys” are Eric Kripke (“Supernatural”), Neal H. Moritz (“The Fast and the Furious” franchise) and Pavun Shetty (CBS’s “S.W.A.T.”).

Based on the pilot episode of “The Boys,” this series is going full-throttle with sex, drugs, adult language and violence. Now that Prime Video has canceled the superhero comedy series “The Tick” (which didn’t really click with audiences, after two seasons), “The Boys” can step in and fill that superhero series void with a rip-roaring abandon that’s a satirical kick in the face to superheroes who are too popular for their own good.

Prime Video will premiere the first season of “The Boys” on July 26, 2019.