There's something quite remarkable about a well-done alien invasion movie, because it speaks to all of our deepest fears of the unknown. What do they want? Are they here to hurt us? How will we survive? But what happens if they come here to help us, and we have no idea how to decipher that? How would we handle it? That's the topic of one of the finest science fiction movies ever made, and now, you can watch it without paying a single, solitary penny.
Casual mention elicits enthusiastic response from commonly overlooked tourist destination.
Japan has become one of the world’s top tourist destinations, welcoming a record-breaking 42.7 million international visitors in 2025, a 15.8-percent increase from 2024, and on track to break the record this year. While this is great news for big cities like Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, where tourists tend to spend most of their time and money, there are 44 other prefectures in Japan that are crying out for international visitors, and one of the most in need is Tottori Prefecture.
▼ No hoardes of tourists here.
Home to roughly 530,000-540,000 people, Tottori is the least populous prefecture in Japan. Compared to Tokyo’s roughly 14 million residents, Tottori has about 4 percent of Tokyo’s population, and given its distance from major urban centres, it ranks in the bottom tier for international tourist numbers.
▼ The trip to Tottori takes over five hours by train from Tokyo, using the fastest Shinkansen on the initial leg of the journey.
▼ Alternatively, it’s about three hours by train from Kyoto Station.
Despite the lack of tourists, Tottori has a wealth of tourist attractions, and one person who knows about its charms is Hollywood actress Anne Hathaway. On a recent trip to Japan to promote her new film, The Devil Wears Prada 2, released here on 1 May, Hathaway appeared on the popular weekend morning television program King’s Brunch, where she was asked where in Japan she would like to visit. She replied by saying she would like to visit Tottori, mentioning that she likes the sea, the beaches and the sand dunes.
▼ These are three things Tottori is famous for.
After the show aired on 6 May, it didn’t take long for news of Hathaway’s comments to reach Tottori. Within days, official Tottori-based government sites jumped on the PR opportunity, posting photos, videos and messages on social media.
On 9 May, the governor of Tottori, Shinji Hirai, extended an official invitation for Hathaway to visit, promising that a sand dune sculpture would be made in her likeness if she were to take them up on the offer.
If there was an Academy Award for Best Social Media Post, it would go to Yonago City, who went all out with its invitation, creating a clever skit inspired by The Devil Wears Prada franchise, complete with lookalike characters.
While Hathaway is yet to respond to the invitations, we have our fingers crossed that she’ll make the journey to Tottori sometime in the near future. If she needs advice on how to get there, she could always call on former U.S. late-night talk show host Conan O’Brien, who put Tottori on the map back in 2018, when he visited Conan Town to collect 3 trillion yen from the mayor.
It hasn’t exactly been an ideal start to the year so far for Gerard Butler, who starred in one of the biggest box office bombs of the last few years. Butler re-teamed with Morena Baccarin (Deadpool) for Greenland 2: Migration, the sequel to their moderately successful disaster thriller that was released in 2020. Unfortunately, Greenland 2 struggled at the box office under the weight of its $90 million budget, failing to even gross $50 million by the end of its run. Butler fans were treated to some good news not long after the premiere of Greenland 2 when it was reported that Netflix had acquired the rights to his hit crime thriller, In the Hand of Dante, which also stars Oscar Isaac and Jason Momoa. Netflix has already released the first trailer for the film, which is coming to streaming later this year.
The domestic box office is looking at another phenomenal weekend after the record-breaking success of Backrooms and Obsession. Both horror movies are expected to deliver massive returns this time around as well. It's entirely possible that the industry saw The Mandalorian and Grogu holding fort this weekend, but the Star Wars movie had a cataclysmic second-weekend drop, and is no longer a factor. Instead, Backrooms and Obsession are taking on a couple of major new releases — Paramount's Scary Movie reboot and Amazon MGM's Masters of the Universe. With franchise architects the Wayans brothers back in charge after decades, Scary Movie exceeded expectations with a $24 million opening-day haul and is now projected to gross around $55 million for the weekend.
After a solid opening weekend at the domestic box office, during which it outperformed last year's Nuremberg, the new World War II drama-thriller film Pressurehas passed the lifetime haul of another beloved WWII movie. The appetite for a good historical war movie seems to vary depending on when it's released — for instance, these movies typically did better at the box office a couple of decades ago. But, in recent years, the audience for WWII content seems to have moved almost entirely to streaming. This past week was a major one for the genre, beginning with the History Channel documentary series World War II with Tom Hanks and ending with Pressure, which grossed more than $5.5 million in its first weekend.
Let's be honest, a movie called The Odyssey with Christopher Nolan as its director was never going to be a 90-minute jaunt with some laughs, a frothy plot and a happy ending. This is the biggest director in the world adapting the biggest story ever written, in IMAX, with gods and monsters (not those kind, James Gunn) and the longest road home ever taken. So when Nolan said that the movie would be shorter than Oppenheimer, that still left quite a bit of wiggle room. Now, we finally know exactly how long this thing is going to be.
The road goes ever on, as a return to Middle-earth is fast approaching. After years of different attempts to expand The Lord of the Rings beyond Peter Jackson’s original trilogy, this newest project has one big advantage. It's a story we already know, and we want to know more, precious. But what exactly is the new Gollum-set prequel about? Well, we might know already.
It wasn't too long ago when Edward Berger broke out as one of the most in-demand directors in Hollywood thanks to his highly decorated remake of the greatest anti-war stories ever told, All Quiet on the Western Front. Berger's movie was based on a novel of the same name, which has been adapted into several popular films dating back nearly a century. The latest version, which was released by Netflix in 2022, went on to win four Oscars and seven BAFTAs. It came only a few years after Sam Mendes' highly acclaimed 1917, which also owed a creative debt to All Quiet on the Western Front. However, another equally influential anti-war movie was released nearly seven decades ago, and it has since cemented itself as perhaps the greatest anti-war movie of all time.
As Johnny Depp mounts a return to the mainstream following a decade spent on the sidelines because of personal legal issues, one of his last real hits is coming to Prime Video. The movie can ease the audience back into Depp's corner, provided that they're interested in being there. The crime drama was released at a time when Depp was experiencing something of a purple patch at the box office. In a few years, his commercial pull would take a major hit. This was one of the many reasons why studios severed ties with him when his legal troubles overshadowed every other aspect of his career.
It’s safe to say 2025 was one of the most successful years of Brad Pitt’s career. He starred in F1, which went on to become the highest-grossing movie of his career with over $600 million at the global box office. Following a successful run in theaters, F1 has gone on to become the most-watched movie on Apple TV by a mile, even outlasting newer arrivals like Eternity (starring Elizabeth Olsen). Pitt is also back in the spotlight in 2026 with the release of his new action-adventure movie, Heart of the Beast, which comes from director David Ayer. The film was recently set for release in theaters on September 25, and if it’s any indication about how good the cast and crew feel about it, David Ayer chose to work on Heart of the Beast over reuniting with Jason Statham for The Beekeeper 2.
Netflix is the biggest streaming service in the world by overall subscriber count, so it should come as no surprise that the streamer has pumped out dozens of popular projects so far this year. The first feature film that comes to mind is War Machine, the big-budget sci-fi epic headlined by Reacher star Alan Ritchson. The film racked up over 125 million views during its first month on streaming, and after whispers that a sequel was being discussed surfaced online, Netflix confirmed earlier this week that War Machine 2 is officially in development with Ritchson and director Patrick Hughes expected to return. For fans of content a little more family-friendly, Netflix is still riding high off the success of Swapped, the animated comedy starring Michael B. Jordan (Sinners) and Juno Temple (Ted Lasso).
There's no way to describe this two-parter, because it is utterly deranged. It is the absolute best and worst of cinema at the same time, and it gave one of the finest action stars of his generation the chance to let loose and show just how weird and demented he could actually be. The result was two immensely entertaining movies that saw one man have a very bad day and do his best to stay alive despite the most hilariously overwhelming odds.
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