Killer Heat

2024 Amazon MGM Studios

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 36min

Crime ~ Drama ~ Mystery ~ Thriller

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, and Richard Madden.

Jealousy can drive anyone to the edge.

Killer Heat is based on the short story The Jealousy Man by Jo Nesbø. It is from the 2021 book The Jealousy Man and Other Short Stories.

FROM JO NESBØ’S WEBSITE (www.jonesbo.com):

Jo Nesbo is the consummate mystery writer, and his talent for hair-raising suspense and shocking twists are on full display in this inventive and harrowing collection of stories.

A detective with a nose for jealousy is on the trail of a man suspected of murdering his twin; a woman finally overcomes her intimacy issues through a dark encounter with her Peeping Tom neighbor; a fugitive on the run in a remote corner of Norway is lured by a friendly local to what seems to be a wedding ceremony–only to find a much more macabre event.

Contained in this collection are stories of insatiable avarice, unscrupulous lovers, and heartrending fate. With Nesbo’s gift for outstanding atmosphere and complex characters, this is a veritable crime lover’s delight.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Private Detective Nick Bali. He is a former NYPD Detective who has relocated to his father’s empty apartment in Greece following the demise of his marriage. Haunted by the memory of events that led to his failed marriage, and of his daughter, he drinks heavily to block it out. “There’s a calculus to drinking. And if I get the math right, I’ll land in the perfect blackout. No Memories.” Intense jealousy on Nick’s part led to his wife’s cheating and the end of their marriage. It also helped him be a better private Investigator when it came to investigating marital issues between a couple. Through a friend who recommends him, he is contacted by……..

Penelope Vardakis (Shailene Woodley) to investigate the death of her brother-in-law’s identical twin brother Leo Vardakis. Leo and Penelope’s husband Elias were avid rock climbers, having been climbing since childhood. Growing up on the island of Crete with all it’s cliffs was an ideal playground for the two boys. Leo had been rock climbing a cliff Free Solo, which is ascending without any ropes or equipment, relying only on his hands covered in climbing chalk and climbing shoes. He was found at the bottom of the cliff after apparently having lost his footing and dropping 30 meters (100 feet).

Nick flies to Crete where he is met by Penelope who explains that she believes her brother-in-law’s death was no accident. And given the family’s wealth and stature on the island, she has hired him to secretly investigate the murder. Penelope has arranged for him to stay anonymously at a Monastery where she is good friends with the Monks who live there. He settles in and heads to town to start investigating and immediately runs into the Vardakis Family’s influence everywhere he turns. Being a highly successful Billionaire family with generational roots in Crete, they own or have their fingers in everything including the police, the government and the politicians.

This is a Contemporary Noir Thriller complete with voice-over narration by Nick the private eye every step of the way. It feels like those old black and white private eye movies from the past. It is well shot on location in Crete, Greece and is very picturesque. It is not what my dad would call a “Bang Bang shoot ’em up”. It is more of a slow burn as Nick narrates his investigation and findings, and as the plot unfolds. It is based upon the book The Jealousy Man by Norwegian Mystery Thriller Author Jo Nesbø.

I liked Joseph and Shailene in this, I thought it was a good mystery thriller with just enough twists and turns to keep you guessing. It is a slow burn but it kept me intrigued as it went along. I have come to like Jo Nesbo and his books, I would definitely recommend them. After all, he is a New York Times Bestselling Author. I personally think he is a good writer and really have enjoyed his books, he is now one of my favorite authors. I am also a fan of this Neo-noir Slow Burn Thriller and a huge fan of Shailene Woodley, and I think you should read Jo Nesbø and watch this movie!

New Movie The Phoenician Scheme Streaming On Prime Friday December 5, 2025

The Phoenician Scheme stars Benicio Del Toro as wealthy businessman Zsa-zsa Korda who appoints his only daughter, a nun, as sole heir to his estate. As Korda embarks on a new enterprise, they soon become the target of scheming tycoons, foreign terrorists, and determined assassins. The Movie also stars:

Mia Threapleton
Michael Cera
Riz Ahmed
Tom Hanks
Bryan Cranston
Mathieu Amalric
Richard Ayoade
Jeffrey Wright
Richard Ayoade
Scarlett Johansson
Benedict Cumberbatch
Rupert Friend
Hope Davis

The Phoenician Scheme was produced, written and directed by Wes Anderson from a story he conceived with Roman Coppola. The Phoenician Scheme had its world premiere in the main competition of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2025 and was released theatrically in the United States by Focus Features on Friday May 30, and in Germany by Universal Pictures on June 29, 2025.

From The BBC Article by Emma Jones May 21, 2025:

One of the trademarks of a Wes Anderson film is the guaranteed tranche of famous faces that always appear. But the charismatic actor set to be the biggest talking point in Anderson’s latest feature, The Phoenician Scheme, is practically unknown. Twenty-four-year-old Mia Threapleton, whose mother is the actor Kate Winslet, has been described by critics as “sensational” in her first leading role, following the film’s world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this week.

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Threapleton plays Liesl, a red-lipped, pipe-smoking, alcohol-drinking noviciate nun, whose withering put-downs turn her father Zsa Zsa Korda, a wealthy tycoon embarking on a questionable multi-national infrastructure project (aka “The Phoenician Scheme”), into putty. She is ordered out of her convent to go on a trip with him, as he tries to groom her, comedy Don Corleone-style, for the family business.

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An exploration of a family dynamic is hardly a departure for this director, but Anderson says that he and Coppola had been planning something quite different for the story. They were, he says, intending on writing something “very dark” about an industrialist who “is not really concerned with how the big decisions he has empowered himself to make for the world, are affecting populations of workforces and landscapes.”

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“Originally what I thought we would make was about a guy who refuses to be killed, who refuses to die even when he does die, and that he’s gathering people, resources, minerals, great possessions and money and none of it is having any effect on him,” Anderson tells the BBC. “It was going to be about someone who learns a lot and changes zero. But that wasn’t what we ended up writing at all.” By the end of the first scene, he adds, they’d gone into “a vision, a biblical motif” which gives the film a black-and-white subplot of Korda’s judgement in heaven, presided over by Bill Murray as God. But the heart of the film became the father-daughter love story Threapleton and del Toro enact.

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“I think if I didn’t have a nine-year-old daughter, this character Korda probably wouldn’t have a daughter,” Anderson confesses. “There’s also an inspiration for the character from my father-in-law (the late Lebanese construction entrepreneur Fouad Mikhael Malouf) and I observed the relationship between him and my wife. So parts of my life went into this one. Roman Coppola has a daughter, Benicio has a daughter. It’s something that connected all of us and I think that’s how it got into the centre of the film.”

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The Phoenician Scheme was made in Babelsberg Studios in Germany; the cast and crew stayed together and shared mealtimes, which is standard practice on an Anderson set. Threapleton describes the experience as “the best summer camp ever”.

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“The idea of the circus, or the travelling acting troupe, that’s what I am drawn to and I like stories with that kind of atmosphere,” Anderson says. “There is an itinerant feel about the way I make films; we tend to make these stories in different countries, in different settings, and we bring our group to those places, and it’s always a big reunion when we start a new movie. Ultimately, I think the only true reason why we work this way is because I think it’s more fun and I like it more.”

(L to R) Benicio Del Toro as Zsa-Zsa Korda and Mia Threapleton as Liesl in director Wes Anderson’s THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, a Focus Features release.
Credit: Courtesy of TPS Productions/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.

Benicio Del Toro stars as Zsa-Zsa Korda in director Wes Anderson’s THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, a Focus Features release.
Credit: Courtesy of TPS Productions/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.

Mia Threapleton stars as Liesl in director Wes Anderson’s THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, a Focus Features release.
Credit: Courtesy of TPS Productions/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

1989 Warner Brothers Pictures

Rated: PG-13

Length: 1 hr 37min

Christmas ~ Comedy

Directed by: Jeremiah S. Chechik

Starring: Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Juliette Lewis, Johnny Galecki, John Randolph, Diane Ladd, E. G. Marshall, Doris Roberts, Randy Quaid, Miriam Flynn, Cody Burger, Ellen Hamilton Latzen, William Hickey, Mae Questel, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Nicholas Guest, and Brian Doyle-Murray.

YULE CRACK UP!

Christmas just wouldn’t be the same without a trip to Chicago, hanging with The Griswold’s. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation was the third installment in the Vacation franchise. When it was first released, it did marginally well but didn’t reach mass critical success until long after it hit reruns on TV and was released to the growing DVD market. And, as we all know, is now one of the most searched for and watched Christmas Movies of all time.

Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) sets out to create the perfect Christmas at home in Chicago with his wife Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo) and their kids, Audrey (Juliette Lewis) and Rusty (Johnny Galecki). Eager for Christmas tradition, Clark drives the family to the countryside to chop down the biggest tree they can find, but without tools, they uproot it, damaging their station wagon and irritating yuppie neighbors Todd (Nicholas Guest) and Margo Chester (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) when they return home. The next day Clark obsessively strings thousands of Christmas lights across the house, causing a neighborhood blackout when they finally illuminate.

As relatives arrive unannounced, chaos multiplies in the cramped Griswold home. Ellen’s cousin Catherine (Miriam Flynn) and her husband Eddie (Randy Quaid), a boisterous, financially strapped redneck, pull up in their RV with kids Rocky (Cody Burger) and Ruby Sue (Ellen Hamilton Latzen), with their slobbery dog Snots. Clark’s parents, Clark Sr. (John Randolph) and Nora (Diane Ladd), join Ellen’s folks Art (E. G. Marshall) and Frances (Doris Roberts), sparking bickering, while eccentric Aunt Bethany (Mae Questel) brings a frozen jello mold topped with cat food and Uncle Lewis (William Hickey) adds his cigar-smoking grumpiness to the mix.

Holiday mishaps escalate: a loose squirrel terrorizes the house, the overcooked turkey ruins dinner, Bethany’s cat gets electrocuted in the tree lights, and Lewis’s cigar torches the tree. Amidst the Christmas chaos Clark has been anxiously awaiting his Christmas bonus from his boss Frank Shirley (Brian Doyle-Murray) to fund a backyard swimming pool he’s already ordered and can’t afford without it. After opening the last minute Christmas Bonus envelope from the late mailman, Clark snaps in a profane tirade. Instead of the huge check he always gets, he has received a subscription to a “Jelly Of The Month Club”.

“Hey. If any of you are looking for any last-minute gift ideas for me, I have one. I’d like Frank Shirley, my boss, right here tonight. And I want him brought from his happy holiday slumber over there on Melody Lane with all the other rich people and I want him brought right here…with a big ribbon on his head! And I want to look him straight in the eye, and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-assed, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed, sack of monkey shit he is! Hallelujah! Holy shit! Where’s the Tylenol?”

It truly is a timeless Christmas Classic full of Slapstick Holiday Humor and endless one-liners. I have been watching this movie for decades, every year at Christmas time. It just wouldn’t be the season without a trip to the Griswold’s for some Humorous Holiday antics!

Start The Season Right!

Turn off the lights and devices,

Make some popcorn,

Grab a beverage,

and Stream This Movie

on HBO Max!

New Movie OH. WHAT. FUN. Debuts On Prime Wednesday December 3, 2025

Claire Clauster (Michelle Pfeiffer) is the glue that holds her chaotic, lovable family together every holiday season. From perfectly frosted cookies to meticulously wrapped gifts, no one decks the halls quite like Claire. But this year, after planning a special outing for her family, they make a crucial mistake and leave her home alone. Fed up and feeling under appreciated, she sets off on an impromptu adventure of her own. As her family scrambles to find her, Claire discovers the unexpected magic of a Christmas gone off-script.

With a dazzling ensemble cast including Felicity Jones, Chloë Grace Moretz, Denis Leary, Dominic Sessa, Danielle Brooks, Devery Jacobs, Havana Rose Liu, Maude Apatow, Jason Schwartzman, Eva Longoria and Joan Chen, and directed by Michael Showalter, Oh. What. Fun. is a spirited holiday comedy that honors and celebrates every overworked holiday host.

Photo by Alisha Wetherill
© Amazon Content Services LLC

New Movie My Secret Santa Debuts On Netflix Wednesday December 3, 2025

A determined single mom in need of a job to send her daughter to snowboarding camp disguises herself as a man in order to get hired as a seasonal Santa — like Mrs. Doubtfire in the reverse. But when she starts to fall for her boss at a luxury ski resort, complications arise that could cut this busy holiday season short.

When her daughter is accepted to an elite snowboarding camp at Sun Peaks ski resort, Taylor (Breckenridge) is desperate to make ends meet. Enlisting the help of her friends, she designs prosthetics to transform her into a rosy-faced man of a certain age. Why? So she can land a seasonal job as the resort’s Santa. When she gets the gig, everything seems to be coming up Taylor — until she meets a charming man at the resort named Matthew (Eggold), who, it turns out, manages Sun Peaks. Though she initially rebuffs him, there’s clearly chemistry between the two. But will her Santa-suited deception keep her from truly connecting with Matthew?

Starring Virgin River’s Alexandra Breckenridge and Ryan Eggold (New Amsterdam), My Secret Santa is the latest piece of holiday cheer from The Princess Switch franchise director Mike Rohl. The movie also stars Tia Mowry of Sister, Sister fame and was co-written by Carley Smale and Ron Oliver, who ushered in Lindsay Lohan’s return to acting with 2022’s Falling for Christmas.

My Secret Santa debuts on Netflix Wednesday December 3, 2025.