Entertainment News

‘Lee Cronin’s The Mummy’ Review: Jack Reynor and Laia Costa Grapple With Ancient Evil and Grand Guignol Gore in Visceral Family Nightmare - The Hollywood Reporter

Author: David Rooney

Published At: 2026-04-16T20:31:34Z

Description: The latest reinvention of the Egyptian funerary legend slaps the embalming bandages on an abducted American girl whose return home to Albuquerque is no blissful reunion.

Content: Irish director Lee Cronin showed a lip-smacking eagerness to exploit parental fears in The Hole in the Ground and Evil Dead Rise. He doubles down on that thematic horror staple in his vigorous reimagining of The Mummy, a bonkers freakout about a family naively convinced that the reassuring comforts of home can fix the violently catatonic daughter lost to them for eight years. At least until all hell breaks loose in a kinetic movie that revels in its unrelenting nastiness. Think The Exorcist meets Hereditary and you’re on the right track. Does Cronin’s film have the sharp narrative lines or control of those predecessors? Not even close, but it has enough style and scares, breathless energy and even fiendish humor almost to justify the grandiose inclusion of the director’s name in the title. In truth that was a marketing decision to distinguish the film from the Universal Classic Monsters canon as well as the focus on adventure, action and romance in the recent reboots. Besides, a little branding on a rising-star horror auteur is no bad thing, especially one who has been welcomed into the fold of producers James Wan and Jason Blum. A prologue in Arabic deftly situates a secondary family in the story’s foundations on the outskirts of Cairo. A cheerful dad and his three kids raucously sing along with the car radio when the witchy mother (Hayat Kamille) at the wheel, who later identifies herself as “a magician,” abruptly switches it off and tells them they’re giving her a headache. Her mood sours further when they arrive home to their nectarine farm near an oasis and find the pet canary half-dead in a pool of inky blood. This prompts the parents to check on the ancient basalt sarcophagus in the archeological warren under the house.  The hold that the artifact has over the family and the duties they must perform to keep its evil spirit quiet are explained much later, long after the magician has sparked up a secret friendship with 8-year-old American Katie Cannon (Emily Mitchell) while she’s playing in a hidden corner of her garden. Katie’s father, Charlie (Jack Reynor), is a TV news correspondent; by the time he steps outside to check on her, Katie is gone. Police, including English-speaking junior detective Dalia Zaki (May Calamawy), come up with nothing. Cut to eight years later, when the American family — including Katie’s mother Larissa (Laia Costa), her younger brother Sebastian (Shylo Molina) and the sister not even born at the time of the abduction, Maud (Billie Roy) — have left Egypt and returned to Albuquerque to live with Larissa’s Mexican American mother Carmen (Veronica Falcón).  Even early on, before the gruesomeness starts spiraling out of control, Stephen McKeon’s stabbing, head-scrambling score and Peter Albrechtsen’s gut-churning soundscape work overtime to jangle our nerves. Restraint is not a quality that comes to mind with Cronin. A plot detour observes a small plane going down in Egypt and a cyclist wandering through the wreckage to find both crew members dead and seriously mangled. (That tree branch through the eye, ouch.) But standing intact is a familiar sarcophagus, which should never have been moved.  Egyptian authorities contact Charlie and Larissa to inform them that their daughter has been found. Unwrapped from goopy bandages covered in Hieratic script dating back centuries, Katie (played at 16 with diabolical weirdness by Natalie Grace) looks more dead than alive. But her vitals are strong and there’s startling force in her unpredictable convulsions and bone-chilling noises. With gnarled hands and feet, a sickly skin color, a withered face and a wonky eye, she’s the supreme adolescent freak. Her headbutting precision is a concussion hazard. When the Cannons put their unresponsive daughter in a wheelchair and get her back to New Mexico — a desert-bound setting not unlike the Egyptian farmhouse from the beginning; exterior locations were filmed in Almería, Spain, Once Upon a Time in the West country — she’s quiet for a minute until Grandma makes the mistake of praying over her. (Never hurts to stir a little Catholicism into the mix, but careful with those rosary beads, Abuelita.) Larissa’s attempt at a pedicure goes no better. Maud is curious but cautious about the big sister she’s never met, while Seb keeps a repulsed distance. There are nods to Linda Blair’s Regan in the sludgy projectile vomit that pours out of Katie, as well as the animalistic scampering, bodily contortions and levitation. She starts getting into the crawl space in the old house’s walls, her thumping movements echoing through the rooms and terrifying the kids. After watching her ingest a live scorpion, Charlie is the first to suggest they might need to move her to someplace better equipped to take care of her. But Larissa, a nurse always at the ready with syringe full of sedatives, is inflexible about Katie remaining at home. Consultation with an archeology scholar (Mark Mitchinson, giving good Donald Pleasence) reveals the existence of a malignant spirit called the Nazmaranian, a shadow that moved among the living, known as “the destroyer of family” and thought to have been contained long ago. Not that we really needed to put a name to it when Katie is messing with the household’s heads, turning them into demonic accomplices. She also seems to have help from four snarling gray wolves at the gates, hungry for blood and guts.  Meanwhile, back in Egypt, Det. Zaki comes across some illuminating evidence which she flies to the U.S. to share with the Cannons. That makes one more person to be brutalized after they learn the hard way never to take a mummy to a wake. Cronin’s threshold for disgusting developments will challenge audiences who are easily shocked, but his skill at whipping up a crescendo of horrors helps distract from a plot with too little connective thread between the big showstoppers. The vicious climax in the house, involving the ultimate parental sacrifice, segues to a coda back in Egypt, where all the threads are satisfyingly tied together.   The collaboration with DP Dave Garbett that brought rich, grungy textures, frantic movement, uneasy angles and disorienting split diopter shots to Evil Dead Rises pays off with similar visual intensity here. Even if it’s overlong — repeatedly careening over the top and favoring crazed body-horror thrills and unbridled gore over character involvement or storytelling clarity — this is remarkably sustained lurid entertainment that offers a fresh take on the mummy myth.

April 20, 2026 Observer Newsletter: WWE WrestleMania 42 preview & Mania week news, AEW Dynasty review & ratings - F4W/WON

Author: F4W Staff

Published At: 2026-04-16T15:45:59Z

Description: Dave Meltzer has returned with an early edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave previews this weekend’s WWE WrestleMania 42 and covers all the news surrounding the week including all the…

Content: Dave Meltzer has returned with an early edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave previews this weekend’s WWE WrestleMania 42 and covers all the news surrounding the week including all the talk about ticket sales. He also recaps this past weekend’s AEW Dynasty, complete with match ratings, which featured a World title match between MJF and Kenny Omega, Will Ospreay vs. Jon Moxley, and more. Dave also reviews TNA Rebellion, and reviews all the big news and stories from around the wrestling world leading into WrestleMania weekend. Click here to read (sub needed)

Beef Season 2’s Rotten Tomatoes Score Shows Maybe Lighting Can’t Strike Twice - Forbes

Author: Paul Tassi

Published At: 2026-04-16T13:48:06Z

Description: Beef season 2 has arrived on Netflix, but it is not going to get the near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes scores of the first season, that's clear.

Content: Beef could be considered one of Netflixs biggest successes ever, at least on the critical front, where the series won 8 out of its 13 Emmy nominations in 2024, including best limited series and both best actor and actress for Steven Yeun and Ali Wong. But a limited series it did not remain. Beef was such a hit that Netflix wanted more, and now the series has become an anthology with new characters and a new heated conflict. This time, its not blowing critics away to quite the same degree. We are up to two dozen reviews for Beef season 2, which premieres today, and the show has landed an 83% Rotten Tomatoes score. Positive? Sure. Pretty good? Yeah. But this is a far cry from the near-perfection of season 1, which had a 98% Rotten Tomatoes score from 125 critics. That many reviews producing that high a score practically never happens across the entire streaming industry. The concept this time around is that its two couples going to war against each other, Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan versus Charles Melton and Cailee Spaeny, a generational battle this time around. Its a new cast but the same showrunner, Lee Sun Jin. Heres the synopsisL Season 2 of BEEF is set up as a showdown between two couples in different phases of life: Ashley and Austin, the young go-getters trying to establish themselves, and Lindsay and Josh, the millennial married couple trying to keep what theyve already built from crumbling entirely. After Ashley and Austin happen to catch (and film) Josh and Lindsay in a screaming match involving broken glass, cutting accusations, and a brandished golf club, the angst between the two sets of partners begins to ramp up. Beef season 2 seeing review score declines is not unusual for shows meant to be limited series that ended up living past that lifespan. Im reminded of HBOs Big Little Lies, which dropped season over season. The Monster serial killer series never reviewed great, but each subsequent season has been lower. Sometimes it works out just fine, however, as weve seen with The White Lotus, maintaining its status as an HBO megahit (season 2 is the best-reviewed). That also happened with FXs Fargo, which went from a limited series to five seasons, up and down in its scores, but all of them good. Now, well see what happens with Adolescence season 2 and Shogun seasons 2 and 3. Im not saying Beef season 2 isnt worth watching. These are still good reviews. But if its trying to repeat the success of the first season flawlessly, it seems pretty clear that has not happened. Follow me on Twitter and YouTube . Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy .

We want more from Prince’s vault. Here’s why we can’t have it. - Star Tribune

Author: Jon Bream, Jon Bream

Published At: 2026-04-16T11:08:15Z

Description: Ten years after his death, volumes of the Minnesota megastar’s musical output are still caught up in red tape related to his estate.

Content: Lack of activities and lack of communication have turned off Stacy Morgan, a regular at Paisley Park since she moved to Minneapolis from New York in 2020 because shes a Prince fan. I havent been motivated, said Morgan, who appreciates Prince Night at the Twins and Timberwolves games. I love going to Paisley Park even if its parts Ive seen a million times. But right now, whats even happening out there? After years of Princes six heirs fighting in probate court, the management of the estate changed in 2021. Thats when Princes three eldest surviving siblings transferred their half of the estate to McMillans Prince Legacy LLC, and the other surviving siblings sold their interests to Primary Wave Music, a New York management and publishing firm that has worked with the estates of Whitney Houston and Bob Marley. For the first three years after Prince died, Paisley Park was run by Graceland Holdings LLC. That organization did a commendable job establishing it as a museum and staging Celebration, a multiday fan convention with live performances, panel discussions and listening/viewing parties of material from the vault. Following the expiration of Gracelands contract, Paisley Park was operated by an executive staff, hired by a court-appointed administrator. That group notably organized 2021s striking display The Beautiful Collection of 300 pairs of Princes bespoke shoes, the best exhibit and thing to happen at Paisley Park since it opened as a museum. McMillan, who has overseen Paisley for four years, seems as concerned with protecting Princes legacy as promoting it. For example, he recently sought to stop Apollonia, Princes co-star in the 1984 film Purple Rain, from trademarking her stage name because McMillan felt that Prince, who coined the moniker, had proprietary interest for marketing Apollonia in the Purple Rain musical. Last week, Rolling Stone reported that Apollonia and McMillan had reached a confidential out-of-court settlement.

TV’s Best New Show Deserves Its Near-Perfect Rotten Tomatoes Score - Forbes

Author: Paul Tassi

Published At: 2026-04-15T16:36:14Z

Description: TV has a best new show, not one that's back for another season, but a brand new offering. It deserves its amazing Rotten Tomatoes score.

Content: Margot's Got Money Troubles Apple TV TV has its best new show, and truly new, not just a returning entry of a series people already like (Invincible, The Boys, One Piece, etc). And after watching its three-episode premiere, I have to say that it deserves its near-perfect scores. The show is Margots Got Money Troubles, starring recent Oscar nominee and former Emmy nominee Elle Fanning. The show follows a single mother attempting to raise a baby with no support at all, which leads her to try to earn cash on OnlyFans, a true work from home situation. Apple TV has aired the first three episodes of Margots Got Money Troubles as of last night, and yes, I do believe it deserves this very high 96% Rotten Tomatoes score, which was 100% a few days ago (only one negative review in so far). The series will run for eight episodes, and its based on a book from 2024 by Rufi Thorpe, so a second season may not be in the cards, especially for the constantly busy Elle Fanning, who will also appear in a blockbuster this year as young Effie Trinket for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, and another project, The Nightingale, with her sister Dakota after that. However, Fanning did stick around her last show, The Great, for three seasons, earning herself an Emmy nomination across from Nicholas Hoult, last seen as Lex Luthor in the DCU. Even in these first three episodes, its easy to see how Fanning will probably land another Emmy nomination for the part. The show plays like a more comedic version of Maid with Margaret Qualley. Plenty of despair, but rather than toiling endlessly as a maid, turning to OnlyFans, a much different form of income, and one that can increase very rapidly, very quickly. In real life, weve seen many women make full-time careers out of the site, with some earning tens of millions. That may not be in store for Margot, but well see. OnlyFans is now running parallel tracks between this show and Euphoria, where Sydney Sweeneys Cassie will now turn to the site to pay for flowers for her wedding. Margot's Got Money Troubles Apple TV Fannings Margot alternates from wistful dreamer to panicking mother jarringly, but in a good way, as such a transformation should unfold. Its unlike anything weve seen her in, and looks like it very well may be one of her defining roles, as she will have more to do than even in her Oscar-nominated supporting role for Sentimental Value. Its easy to see how this could become another classic like The Great in short order, and the two have close to identical reviews. Its not a one-woman show, however, and Fanning is bookend by her Im a bad grandma mother, played by Michelle Pfeiffer, failing to offer meaningful help at every turn, and also Nick Offerman as her estranged father, coming off a rehab stint after his career as a somewhat famous pro wrestler, now attempting to reconnect with his daughter in her darkest hour. Its easy for these first three episodes to have you both simultaneously stressed out and hooked, and over the course of five more weeks, well see how this all turns out for Margot. Also, for Fanning and her potential award prospects. Follow me on Twitter , YouTube , Bluesky and Instagram .

"Ronnie James Dio is in the Hall Of Fame and so am I." Former Iron Maiden singer Blaze Bayley shares his feelings on being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame - Louder

Author: Rich Hobson

Published At: 2026-04-15T11:56:33Z

Description: Maiden's 90s vocalist admits it's a "real privilege" to be included with artists like Billy Idol, Joy Division and Oasis in this year's nomination

Content: No Content