The MadHouse

Due to the release of Season 4, we covered season 3 of Vice’s hit series. The series was released in 2 separate parts in 2021, 7 episodes per part. We’ve already covered the first part. We apologize for the delay but this episode covers part 2 of season 3. Here, we cover the “Steroid Trials of 1994”, “XPW”, the life and career of Chris Kanyon, Luna Vachon & the infamous “Plane Ride from Hell”.

Today’s episode is simply tribute to 2 of professional wrestling’s biggest names. Yesterday, we leaned that Hall of Famer and wrestling legend, Terry Funk, passed away at the age of 79 and then a mere 24 hours later, we then learned that Windham Rotunda, better known as “Bray Wyatt”, has also passed away at the age of 36. Funk was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009 making him the only wrestler in history to be inducted into 4 different Hall of Fames. Bray Wyatt is a 3 time WWE World Champion and won CBS Sport’s Comeback Wrestler of the Year in 2019.

A24’s newest psychological thriller was released in 2022 at the Adelaide Film Festival but made its American premiere in July of 2023. The film is directed by Danny & Michael Philippou, who were best known for the YouTube content, in their directorial debut. The film centers around a group of friends who play a game with an embalmed hand and allows entities to enter their bodies. This “game” proves more that they can handle after one of them is possessed by an evil spirit. After the film’s success overseas, it made its North American debut at the Sundance Film Festival & South By SouthWest before its theatrical release in the July of 2023.

This Netflix original film hit the streaming service this past weekend. The film is directed by Tom Harper and stars Gal Gadot, Jamie Dornan, Alia Bhatt, BD Wong & Glenn Close. In this film, a secret agent, posing as an MI6 tech specialist, must stop a cyberattack on the world after her agency’s cyber security weapon is compromised and turned against them. This is Netflix’s second original film to star Gal Gadot after 2021’s “Red Notice”.

This raunchy R rated comedy was co written and directed by Gene Stupnitsky and stars Jennifer Lawrence, Andrew Feldman, Natalie Morales & Matthew Broderick. In this film, a 32 year old woman accepts an offer from a rich family to date their shy 19 year old son before he leaves for college in order to boost his confidence and make him more outgoing. This film was also produced by Lawrence after Sony Pictures won a bidding war for the rights to the film. The film had a summer theatrical release and was then dropped on streaming services earlier this month.

This Netflix sport documentary gives us a deep dive in to one of the NFL’s most controversial players of the past decade. Johnny Manziel was a kid from a small town in Texas who rose to fame in his freshman year at Texas A&M University. But his newfound fame would be his biggest downfall going into the 2014 NFL Draft where he would be drafted 22 overall by the Cleveland Browns. This documentary covers his early years in football all the way to his controversial end in the NFL.

Based on the 1997 novel, “Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror” by Steve Altan, this film was directed by Jon Turtletaub and stars Jason Statham, Cliff Curtis, Li Bingbing, Page Kennedy, Ruby Rose, Rainn Wilson & Winston Chao. After a deep water expedition of the Mariana Trench goes very wrong, a group of scientists are horrified to learn that a 75 foot “Megalodon” shark has escaped the trench and is headed for populated waters in the Pacific Ocean. The film rights were originally bought by Disney shorty after the novel was published but after years of development hell, the rights were then acquired by Warner Bros. and plans for a feature film were announced in 2013.

A sequel to the 2018 surprise hit and based on the 1999 novel, “The Trench”, by Steve Alten. This film was directed by Ben Wheatley and sees Jason Statham return along with Cliff Curtis, Page Kennedy & Sophia Cai from the previous film with newcomers Wu Jing, Sienna Guillory, Skylar Sammuels, Melissanthi Mahut & Sergio Peris - Menchanta. The film takes place 5 years after the event of the previous film, Jonas Taylor has been help with environmental problems at sea as well as help with new to explore the Mariana Trench. Despite their good intentions, Jonas and his team uncover a nefarious plot to use and exploit the Trench for its natural resources for a profit. Things go from bad to worse when a trio of Megalodon sharks escape the trench and head for sea. Now, Jonas and his team must stop this rogue operation as well as the sharks from getting to the local beaches of Asian islands. This film hit theaters, August 4, 2023 and had been receiving positive feedback as well a decent box office run.

The newest film in the “Turtles” franchise is the 7th film overall but the first one under the “Nickelodeon” banner. This computer animated film was directed by Jeff Rowe, co written by Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg and has a stacked voice over cast which include Maya Rudolph, John Cena, Jackie Chan, Post Malone, Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Rose Byrne, Hannibal Buress & Ice Cube. In this film, a super secret crime syndicate have been stealing specific technology for a mysterious crime boss known only as “SuperFly” and its up to the Ninja Turtles to find out anything and everything about this new technology and SuperFly himself. After the 2017’s “Out of the Shadows” failed to deliver a blockbuster, Nickelodeon would take over the franchise and begin a reboot of the series and go the animation route. This film has already been green lite for a sequel as well as a tie in series set to debut on Paramount+.

After the previous animation studio went out of business, Michael Bay’s production company announced their intention of a “Ninja Turtles” reboot but a live action version with the titular characters using motion capture technology. The first film was released in 2014 followed by its 2016 sequel. The main recurring roles were Megan Fox as “April O’Neil” and Will Arnett while Alan Ritchson & Noel Fisher voiced and played “Raphael” & “MichaelAngleo”