If you’re looking for something new to play on Xbox One–and you have an Xbox Live Gold subscription–then you’re in luck. As part of its next Free Play Days promotion, Microsoft is giving Gold members a chance to try out three titles at no charge this weekend.
From now through January 20, Gold subscribers can download and play Override: Mech City Brawl, Metro 2033 Redux, and Metro: Last Light Redux for free. You’ll have full access to each throughout the trial period, and you can keep your Gamerscore and any achievements you earn if you decide to pick the titles up after the free weekend ends.
To jump into the games, simply download them from the Gold member area on your Xbox One’s dashboard. Each is also discounted as part of this week’s Xbox One game sale, so you can pick them up for cheap if you’re interested in continuing your adventures. The sale prices will be available through January 21.
Microsoft regularly offers free weekends for select games through its Free Play Days promotion. Last weekend, Xbox Live Gold members could download and play Halo 5: Guardians at no charge. Subscriptions cost $10 for one month, $25 for three months, and $60 for one year.
The free play weekend is a good opportunity to revisit Metro 2033 and Last Light, as the next installment in the series, Metro Exodus, is set to launch on February 15–a week earlier than originally scheduled. Unlike its predecessors, Exodus features some large, sandbox-like environments, although we thought the game feels best when it sticks to its roots.
M. Night Shyamalan’s new movie Glass is in theaters now, bringing together the stories of his films Unbreakable and Split. Mike and Chris give their spoiler filled review of the new film starring Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, James McAvoy and Sarah Paulson.
Star Trek: Discovery is back for season 2! Greg and Chastity review the season premiere, “Brother”, and list the best Star Trek Easter eggs from the episode!
Talking to THR, Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairman Toby Emmerich has said that the studio has “turned a corner” when it comes to the DC shared universe thanks to Aquaman’s success.
“We all feel like we’ve turned a corner now. We’re playing by the DC playbook, which is very different than the Marvel playbook. We are far less focused on a shared universe. We take it one movie at a time.” He added that each film is “its own equation and own creative entity.”
Most of the time (not all of the time), audiences and critics can spot crap at movie theaters easily. To paraphrase Potter Stewart: a bad movie may be hard to define, but you know it when you see it. And that initial verdict has a tendency to stick. Wooden dialogue, a poor actor, or an incompetent director will not, with the passage of time, become magically better. Of course, there are some bad movies become ironically beloved, or fall into that self-aware “so bad it’s good” territory.
However, there’s a smaller group of movies that are too ahead of their time—too radical, groundbreaking, and weird—and are panned at the time of their release. They have since been critically rehabilitated and rediscovered, as public tastes have matured and changed.
Here are 7 great movies that were originally misunderstood, but were later rediscovered and rehabilitated. If you like this gallery, check out our look at Samuel L. Jackson’s greatest performances, as well as our ranking of M. Night Shyamalan’s twists. Shyamalan’s newest movie, Glass, is out now in theaters.
7. Fantasia (1940)
Fantasia was Walt Disney’s pet project. He envisioned it as an ongoing, ever-changing experience, where classical music would be matched to animated sequences; as time went on, the best sequences would be retained, and new ones would be added. But the project never got off the ground, because the first film flopped so terribly. In the ’60s it was rediscovered as a mind-expanding art film, when the hippie culture embraced its bright, swirling colors. Another attempt at restarting the Fantasia project took place in in 1999, when the Disney company released Fantasia 2000. It also performed poorly.
6. Psycho (1960)
Psycho is Hitchcock’s most well-known film. At the time of its release, though, it was seen as second-rate, low class and vulgar. The Oedipal overtones between Mrs. Bates and Norman freaked audiences out, and the shower scene, which reads on a more figurative level as a sexual assault, violated critics’ sensibilities. But modern audiences are more desensitized. And the once-derided shower scene is now seen as a master class in filmmaking: 52 cuts were edited together to create the impression of violence, even though the knife’s blade never once touches Janet Leigh’s skin.
5. The Shining (1980)
When Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining came out in 1980, it received mixed reviews. Jack Nicholson, who had previously played an insane person in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, was criticized as typecast. Shelley Duvall, who played his wife, was derided as shrill and unsympathetic. And Stephen King, who wrote the original novel, famously disliked the movie; he felt it was extremely well-made, but lacked any warmth or heart at its core. But popular culture has been kind to The Shining. So many scenes have been paid tribute to and parodied in the years since. The blood spilling out of the elevator. The twins in the hallway. And of course, the indelible image of Jack axing his way through the door, yelling “Heeere’s Johnny!” as he tries to REDRUM his wife.
4. Blade Runner (1982)
Blade Runner was a forerunner of the cyberpunk genre; its moody neon lighting and slow pace has influenced scores of science fiction films that came after it. So it’s hard to believe that at the time of its release, the film didn’t make back its budget and split critics down the middle. Some of this has to do with timing. Lead actor Harrison Ford was fresh off playing Han Solo in Star Wars, and audiences expected something different than what they got. But critical opinion has since changed, and filmmaker Ridley Scott has gone back and recut the film several times to get it closer to his original vision. A sequel, Blade Runner 2049, was released in 2017.
3. Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Unapologetically ultraviolent, cynical, and anarchist, Fight Club is a misunderstood satire. It divided critics who felt that its message was mixed and endorsed the very violence it was parodying. It failed at the box office as well. But years later, it’s seen as a prescient commentary on modern consumerism, and the complexity of embracing one’s masculinity in the modern age.
2. Fight Club (1999)
1. Unbreakable (2000)
Any director is lucky to have a massive, critical darling like The Sixth Sense in his ouveure. But, for M. Night Shyamalan, it has been a critical millstone around his neck; it’s the film that he can never top. Unbreakable had the misfortune of being his follow-up film to the Sixth Sense. It also missed the massive superhero boom by a couple years, and was instead marketed as a dramatic thriller. Time has redeemed Shyamalan; the production and success of Split, and the release of Glass, bear that out.
Alita: Battle Angel won’t be in theaters until February 14. However, some cities are getting a taste of the upcoming manga adaptation early, thanks to a new interactive experience. Alita: Battle Angel – Passport to Iron City opens on January 23 in Los Angeles, with an installation in New York City following on January 25 and Austin on January 29.
Interactive experiences tied to movies are nothing new, whether it’s the opening of Neibolt haunted house to promote the horror movie It or the Ready Player One event that sent visitors into the OASIS. After having the opportunity to try out the LA experience ahead of its opening, though, I can say with confidence that Passport to Iron City is unlike just about anything else.
The experience is a collaboration between iam8bit and TSG Entertainment, along with 20th Century Fox and Lightstorm Entertainment, that transports users from their world to Iron City, the cyberpunk city of the future in which the film is set. And right from the start, as writer and producer James Cameron explains, the entire 12,000 square foot space works hard to immerse you in the world of the film, starting with a stop at the Kansas Bar, which has been meticulously recreated to resemble the actual set used in production.
The bar actually serves wine and beer–including city-specific brews that are exclusive to the experience–for a fee. While the drinks, which include non-alcoholic options, aren’t free, they do help in setting the tone that Kansas is an in-world pub you’re free to hang out in. Like Iron City itself, Kansas is filled with actors playing characters and hints in the decor that could be very useful upon setting foot in Iron City, the proverbial “game board” of the experience, which is filled with elaborate sets and characters that are fun to interact with and filled with useful clues if you get them talking.
Once you’re in Iron City, that’s where the fun begins. Upon arrival, you’re divided into teams that are competing to collect the most credits. The team that stands tall at the end–in the preview, it was my team–walks away with a special coin created for Passport to Iron City, which claims to be worth 1,000 credits.
How do you win credits, though? Great question.
The bulk of Passport to Iron City involves a series of team-based activities and scavenger hunts, each of which is worth a specified number of credits. They range from something as simple as piecing together a puzzle containing propaganda critical of the Factory–the in-world government–to digging through a tech scrapyard to find the highest-value items in an activity that includes some elements of an escape room.
What makes Passport to Iron City work, in this regard, is the challenges are all different enough that they appeal to different strengths. While one of the activities is based on how good your sense of smell is, another finds you tracking criminals on the loose in Iron City with the Factory’s surveillance equipment.
Of course, you could just wander around the experience, admiring what’s been built. Good luck with that, though, as Passport to Iron City has figured out how to turn the entire thing into a very competitive affair. Near the entrance of the experience is a scoreboard, which keeps real-time track of the credits earned by each team. I definitely didn’t expect to find myself rushing around the play area trying to solve riddles and decipher words in other languages. After realizing that my team’s score depended on it, though, it was hard not to get wrapped up in what was happening. Even as the experience came to a close with one final challenge involving all teams, everyone was shouting at and cheering on a game of motorball–Iron City’s favorite pastime–as if we were watching a real sporting event unfold.
That all said, even those with no knowledge of Alita: Battle Angel–the movie or the manga it’s based on–aren’t going to be left out of the action. I know practically nothing about the franchise, but managed to easily figure out enough to operate within the experience. Still, fans of Alita will be able to pick up on small details scattered throughout the experience and may even have a bit of a leg-up in some of the challenges.
It’s simply a fun and engaging experience set that draws you further into the world of the movie. I had very little interest in the film before visiting Passport to Iron City. Now I feel like I know the world a bit better and am curious to see how it unfolds on the big screen, even if I’m still unclear about how all of the cyborgs fit in.
What’s more, I want to see other films take this approach to promotions. Yes, trailers and TV spots are still a useful tactic for many films, but as major blockbusters dive deeper and deeper into their world-building, why not take the audience into that world and let them explore pieces of it on their own?
Alita: Battle Angel – Passport to Iron City opens in Los Angeles on January 23, with New York and Austin locations following soon thereafter, with no announced end date. You can find out far more information and purchase tickets to the experience on the official website.
