THE WEEKEND WARRIOR March 14, 2026
NOVOCAINE, BLACK BAG, THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP, OPUS, THE LAST SUPPER, BORDERLINE
Well, I guess I need to start out with some good news and some bad news, but it’s mainly potentially good news for me and bad for everyone else, so I apologize in advance for what I’m about to say.
No, I’m not going to kill The Weekend Warrior entirely, but trying to do two columns a week, one with box office and one with reviews and repertory stuff, just has gotten to be too much for me, especially since it’s obvious that continuing to do this column is financially unfeasible. I did get a few paid subscribers when I decided to go that route, but it’s not even CLOSE to what I need to be making with this column to make it something I can afford to spend my time writing over anything else. I’ll probably still put a few columns behind the paywall, including next weeks’ Snow White box office analysis. Also, this will probably just be a temporary thing, maybe just for March, but for now, I won’t be covering the repertory stuff and trying to review everything. If you really want to know what I think about a particular movie, you should follow my Letterboxd account since I’ll at least rate and maybe write a few words about any movie I have a chance to watch.
With that out of the way, let’s get to some movies, and in this case, we have another weekend with a lot of new movies, many wide releases, but nothing that might really blow up, and so, this is free to all subscribers again.
NOVOCAINE (Paramount)
A little over a month after playing a key role in the thriller Companion, second-gen actor Jack Quaid stars in this new high-concept action-thriller that is reminiscent of the 2006 Jason Statham movie Crank. It’s directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, the guys behind the 2019 thriller Villains, which I really dug, and Significant Other, which I’ve never seen. Quaid plays Nathan, the assistant manager at a San Diego bank who has a neurological condition where he can’t feel any pain. He’s had a crush on a coworker (played by Amber Midthunder) who is kidnapped when the bank is robbed, so he sets off to get her back, his condition allowing him to face ruthless criminals without getting injured.
At this point, Jack Quaid may be best known as playing Hughie Campbell on the Prime Video series, The Boys, but he’s been acting for over a decade with his first film appearance being The Hunger Games, and its sequel. Besides The Boys, Quaid has also solidified his geek cred by appearing in Star Trek: Lower Decks. He’s joined in this one by Amber Midthunder from Prey and a movie that should have won the Oscar for Best Picture, Liam Neeson’s The Ice Road. (Hi, Tom!), as well as another 2nd-gen actor in Ray Nicholson, who appeared in last year’s Smile 2 and PT Anderson’s Licorice Pizza, but also stars in another action-comedy out this week called Bordeline (see my review below). The movie also stars the popular Jacob Batalon, who has starred in the most recent live action “Spider-Man” movies.
Companion didn’t do nearly as well as many hoped, especially after strong reviews and a solid CinemaScore (B+), and that’s rather disappointing, though it’s sure to be discovered when it eventually ends up on Max, and those who did see it, might be inclined to see Quaid’s new film, even though he’s playing a much nicer character here.
Paramount seems pretty confident about this one, making it the Regal Monday Mystery Movie and then giving it even more previews this past Saturday, and they also showed the movie to critics earlier than they normally might, which has led to pretty solid reviews. Paramount has been able to get this a solid release into over 3,200 theaters at a time when many other movies will start leaving theaters.
Novocaine is the kind of movie that could do decently based on its premise, the marketing and positive reviews, but seeing how movies these days seems to be doing lower numbers in theaters than usual, I’d probably put this somewhere in the $10 to $12 million range for the weekend, enough to be #1 but on par with Mark Wahlberg’s Flight Risk back in January.
BLACK BAG (Focus Features)
Just two months after the release of his horror film Presence, Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Soderbergh is back with his… okay, I’m not going to try to count how many movies he’s made on IMDB, but mind you, it is a LOT! And this is a filmmaker who once seemingly retired, too!
Black Bag is a very different movie for Soderbergh, once again with a screenplay by David Koepp, who wrote Presence and Kimi, and it stars Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett as a married couple who work for the UK’s NCBC (National Cybersecurity Center). Fassbender’s George Woodhouse discovers there may be a traitor in their midst, and it’s his mission to find them, but that traitor could in facb be his wife Kathryn. The film’s ensemble cast includes Regé-Jean Page from Bridgerton; Oscar-nominee Naomie Harris, who has her own spy experience from playing Moneypenny in the last few movies; as well as Marisa Abela from Industry and Tom Burke (Furiosa). Oh, yeah, and it also has a smaller role for Pierce Brosnan, who also has a little bit of spying experience himself.
In the last ten years, Soderbergh has directed ten movies but only four of them have gotten theatrical releases, including his return to direct Magic Mike’s Last Stand with Channing Tatum in 2023. That movie only made $26 million, and then, the aforementioned Presence, a low-budget horror film made for $2 million, tanked with just $6.9 million. That’s only worrying because Black Bag probably cost quite a bit more than that, but it also has fairly well-known stars, which could help it do better.
Fassbender has generally been laying low in the last few years, starring in Taika Waititi’s Next Goal Wins, which didn’t much better than Soderbergh’s last movie, and having a small role in the Irish crime-comedy, Kneecap, last year. Before that, he was mixing things up with genre franchise films like the X-Men movies, where he played Magneto, and two of Ridley Scott’s more recent “Alien” movies: Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. Even Fassbender’s role as Steve Jobs didn’t make huge waves, though it did get Fassbender his second Oscar nomination.
Blanchett has also been making some weird choices, including her role in the video game-based flop, Borderlands, last year, her second movie with Eli Roth after 2018’s The House with a Clock in its Walls, which at least made $68 million. Her role as Hela in Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok was quite significant, that movie making $850 million worldwide, but since then, she’s been starring in artier fare that hasn’t necessarily made box office, films like Richard Linklater’s Where’d You Go Bernadette?, Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley, and Todd Field’s TÁR, the latter giving her an eighth Oscar nomination. (She’s already won two, so that’s no big deal.)
Obviously, the pairing of Fassbender and Blanchett will be more of a draw then anything else, though Page is an Emmy-nominated actor, who has not really had much of a theatrical presence, outside of 2023’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
Aside from a premise that might be tougher to sell, Black Bag is in fact terrific, and the reviews have been great – you can read mine below – which certainly will help convince fans of Soderbergh’s vast filmography, as well as that of their cast, to go out and see this in theaters. That might not lead to a huge opening this weekend, but it should be good for somewhere in the $7 to $9 million range against the higher-concept Novocaine, though this might still have to settle for second place behind Mickey 17 in its second weekend.
THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP: A LOONEY TUNES MOVIE (Ketchup Entertainment)
The first “Looney Tunes” movie to hit theaters since 2021’s Space Jam: A New Legacy is this movie that apparently Warner Bros’ David Zaslav decided neither to release in theaters nor to dump on Max. Oddly, it ended up with indie Ketchup who is giving it a fairly wide release this weekend.
This one stars Porky Pig and Daffy Duck (both voiced by Eric Bauza) as best friends who need to make some money to pay for their house that was hit by a meteor, so they get a job in a gun factory where some alien ooze from same meteor starts turning people into zombies.
It’s going to be interesting to see if Ketchup can give movie the marketing boost that Warner Bros might have, not to mention give it the type of wide theatrical release that can get the movie out there to Looney Tunes fans young and old across the country. Presumably, this one will be targeting the kiddies who haven’t had much in terms of newer fare, since Universal’s Dog Man over a month ago, and even that didn’t do that spectacularly, despite still being in the top five, since basically nothing is doing very well.
The reviews for the movie have been fantastic ever since it premiered last year, and that should be able to combine with the general love for Looney Tunes to get some parents and their kids picking this as their viewing option this weekend. Still, there’s that theater count that’s still unknown, and that would be key on whether this makes $5 or $6 million or much more. Personally, I think this is heading for a fourth place opening, but maybe it can give Black Bag a run for third if Ketchup is able to get the movie into more than 2,000 theaters, which it has.
Mini-Review: I actually tried to watch this last year when it was getting an Oscar consideration run, and I had a hard time getting too far into it, since it seemed to be a flagrantly modernized version of two Looney Tunes characters I’ve loved since I was a kid, and I just wasn’t crazy what they were doing with it.
The Day the Earth Blew Up begins with a fun montage showing Porky and Daffy grow up as childhood friends, but then it gets into their need to make money to help patch up their house, which was hit by a meteor. This is where it started to go a bit sideways for me as we watch Porky and Daffy working as baristas and trying to be influencers, because that would make sense to any Gen-Zers watching this. Eventually, they end up working a gum factory and meeting Petunia Pig (voiced by Candy Milo), and we start getting into the film’s true plot.
Fortunately, this doesn’t do that thing that’s all too common in animation by surrounding the Looney Tunes characters with those voiced by celebrities (although there are voices provided by Wayne Night from Seinfeld and even Larraine Newman). Mostly, it’s just a talented group of voice actors, including Eric Bauza, who voices both Porky Pig AND Daffy Duck (just like Mel Blanc used to do), while Candy Milo is also great Petunia. I particularly enjoyed the romantic interactions between Porky and Petunia.
The movie just gets crazier and crazier as it goes along, and it also gets better as we get the type of zany action that has long worked for “Looney Tunes” but also caters well to younger audiences who enjoy having lots of craziness thrown at them in their animated movies.
Ultimately, The Day the Earth Blew Up ends up being a great addition to the “Looney Tunes” pantheon with enough gags and craziness that it would appeal not just to the kids but also to grownups raised on these hilarious toons.
Rating: 7/10
OPUS (A24)
I hadn’t really heard much about Mark Anthony Green’s thriller, starring Ayo Edebiri and John Malkovich, though it did premiere at Sundance and received mostly bad reviews. It’s opening this weekend in roughly 1,700 theaters, and honestly, I haven’t seen much promotion or marketing for it either. The film stars Edebiri (from The Bear) as a magazine writer who goes to the remote compound of a legendary eccentric pop star Alfredo Moretti (Malkovich), who disappeared three decades prior, but whom has returned with a new album, and is having an exclusive listening party surrounded by his sycophantic followers. The movie also stars Murray Bartlett from “The White Lotus,” Juliette Lewis, and Amber Midthunder, who oddly appears in two movies this week.
This sounds very much like the type of quirky thriller A24 likes to release, but considering how little I even knew about it before writing this column (and eventually seeing the movie), I’m not sure if this will be one of the popular studio’s stronger releases. It doesn’t even as strong as something like last year’s We Live in Time, which had a platform release, expanded wide into 985 theaters, and it did so well, it expanded to 2,964 theaters. A24 is giving Opus a moderately wide release, possibly because they’re not expecting audiences to like it much more than critics, I’d expect, but the A24 brand and the cast might generate curiosity, though I don’t think it will do well enough to warrant an expansion. Because of that as well as strong offering this weekend, I can barely see this opening with more than $3 or $4 million.
Mini-Review: Destination horror is nothing new, nor is horror involving cults. Heck, some of the scariest cult movies are based on true stories ala the Manson family, Jim Jones, Waco, etc. Many youngsters who hear the premise for Opus may be under the false pretense that Ari Aster invented both horror subgenres with Midsommar, but not quite, because plenty of other movies have explored the idea of people who unwittingly end up in the midst of killer cults, most notably the absolute classic The Wicker Man. (
The premise for this one revolves around Alfedo Moretti, a legendary ‘90s pop idol who has mysteriously returned with a new album after 30 years absent. He invites an exclusive group of industry people to travel to his remote compound in Utah, where they will be the first to hear his new album, “Ceasar’s Request.” Ayo Edebiri plays aspiring magazine journo Ariel Ecto, who has not been given the opportunities she wants by her boss (Murray Bartlett), yet it’s a little strange that she also receives an invite to Moretti’s grand return. Once they get to Moretti’s compound (because that’s what it is), along with four other influencers, paparazzi, and the like, Ariel starts noticing a lot of strange activities, including some of the others going missing.
Listen, it’s almost impossible not to review this movie and not make mention of some of the other “travel porn” offerings from recent years, especially with Murray Bartlett from “The White Lotus” right there, but others, like The Menu and Blink Twice did far more interesting things with their premise. Filmmaker Mark Anthony Green comes from the world of magazine editing, having been an editor at GQ, so it makes sense he’d write something set in this world that he clearly knows. He also was able to get some big names like Edebiri and John Malkovich and others, but when you have a movie that follows so closely after other stronger efforts, it’s painfully obvious that this is just an attempt at glomming onto a trend.
Edebiri is just fine, as is most of the cast, but Malkovich gives a rather over-the-top performance as Moretti. Obviously, his character’s meant to be eccentric and flamboyant, but he just takes it a bit far, especially during the album listening session where he’s dancing around maniacally.
Possibly the biggest disappointment is that Moretti’s songs aren’t very good, certainly not good enough for anyone watching this movie to think that Moretti is the genius others are perpetrating him to be. What makes that even more tragic is that those songs were written by the legendary Nile Rogers of Chic, who has written some of the biggest hits from the ‘70s and ‘80s, not to mention all his brilliant production work. Not sure what exactly happened there, but without having credible “hits,” Opus delivers about as poorly and credibly as a weak concept album.
As much as Opus tries its hardest to achieve a level of intensity as Midsommar – which mind you, I’ve always found to be overrated – and some parts might be deemed humorous, it never really achieves very much. Because of that, the genuinely great Edebiri seems to be floundering amidst a premise that never truly delivers.
Rating: 5/10
THE LAST SUPPER (Pinnacle Peak)
I’m not sure what needs to be said about this biblical drama about a certain Christ-like figure named “Jesus,” but we are getting closer to Easter – no wait, that isn’t until April 20! – so it kinda makes sense for this film, written and directed by Mauro Borrelli, to get a release. The only problem is that in just two weeks, the popular streaming series “The Chosen” is returning with three weekly installments subtitled (you guessed it) “The Last Supper,” so maybe this is being released in hope people might go see it out of confusion.
I don’t know much about Pinnacle Peak Pictures, other than the fact that they’ve only released a few movies into theaters, including the 2021 God’s Not Dead: We the People into 565 theaters, and it barely made a mark. This one might be able to get a wider release, but it’s going to struggle to get into the top 10 this weekend. Still, without a theater count or any other information, it’s hard to even include this, and believe me, few other sites will even mention its existence.
BORDERLINE (Magnolia)
Probably not getting as wide a release as the movies above is Jimmy Warden’s dark comedic thriller, starring Samara Weaving, Eric Dane, and Ray Nicholson (his second movie this week!) about a bodyguard protecting a pop superstar and her athlete boyfriend who are being stalked by a psycho (played by Nicholson, of course) in 1990s Los Angeles. Since I’ve already watched this one, you can read my review below.
Mini-Review: I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the directorial debut by Jimmy Warden, the writer of Cocaine Bear, a horror-comedy I enjoyed quite a lot a few years back, but I was immediately intrigued by the cast he put together for it.
Borderline begins with a quirky prologue with Nicholson’s Paul Duerson showing up at the mansion of Weaving’s Sofia. He’s a delusional stalker, who is obsessed with marrying the pop star, but he’s confronted by her bodyguard Billy, played by Eric Dane, who gets promptly stabbed by the deranged visitor. Six months later and Sofia is hanging at home with her basketball player boyfriend (Jimmie Fails) when the recovering Billy learns that Paul has escaped from the mental institution. His goal is to return to Sofia’s mansion and marry her, and this time he has accomplices, including the equally deranged Penny (Alba Baptista). But first, one of Paul’s accomplices has kidnapped Billy’s wife and daughter to have them be witnesses for his nuptials.
Paul is clearly deranged, not just in his idea that Sofia has any interest in marrying him but also because he keeps running into others in the house and thinking they are Sofia, which leads up some of the more amusing bits in the last act.
Even so, the film has some serious tonal issues, because it tries hard to be funny, but that’s amidst all the darker violent moments, and the less-than-smooth transitions between the two often derails things. For instance, there is a funny moment of an L.A. cop who is called to Billy’s home when they see a strange person outside, but he’s more concerned with prepping for an audition, which involves a song and dance number he’s doing rather than doing his job. It’s funny but seems shoehorned into the story.
I’m still having trouble getting into the idea of Nicholson as an actor, and it really has nothing to do with his father or any passing resemblance, as much as it is the over-the-top performances he tends to give. Unfortunately, Weaving’s role is just kind of bland and doesn’t give her nearly as much to do as in other films like Ready or Not and Joe Lynch’s Mayhem. Those were both terrific genre films, while this one never fully commits to being more than a thriller that is trying very hard to be funny. But also, once Dane and Fails are introduced, they’re gone for a good chunk of the movie, as it focuses on Paul, Sofia, Penny, and others dragged into the plan.
The film does have some cool musical choices on its soundtrack, including a neat cover of the Madonna song, from which the movie presumably got its title. There’s also a truly bizarre moment when Weaving and Baptista duet on a Celine Dion tune before getting into a raging cat fight, one of the film’s stronger action moments.
It’s a little strange for Borderline to be released the exact same weekend as Novocaine, not just because Nicholson is in both movies, but also because it’s a film with a similar tone and audience, presumably, but it just doesn’t work as well. (The movie’s trailer also hides the fact that it’s trying to be a comedy, which is odd but has become fairly common this year.)
Warden’s directorial debut certainly has some promising moments, but it suffers from drastic tonal shifts, and it may have done better in the hands of a more experience filmmaker. Some people will probably enjoy it more than others.
Rating: 7/10
Neon will also give The Actor, starring André Holland, a limited release this weekend, and I don’t expect it to make much of a mark.
THE BOX OFFICE CHART 3/14/25
So far this year, the lowest #1 movie was Flight Risk with $11.5 million back in January, and there’s a real danger of this weekend’s #1 movie being even lower, hopefully not, since Novocaine is a much better movie, but for the second week in a row, we also have so many odds and ends barely getting dumped into wide release with little promotion, so a few of those might not get into the top 10 either. But mostly, I think all of them will, except maybe The Last Supper.
1. Novocaine (Paramount) - $10.8 million N/A
2. Mickey 17 (Warner Bros.) - $8.5 million -55%
3. Black Bag (Focus Features) - $8 million N/A
4. The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (Ketchup) - $5.8 million N/A
5. Captain America: Brave New World (Marvel/Disney) - $4.7 million -45%
6. Opus (A24) - $3.4 million N/A
7. Paddington in Peru (Sony) - $2.9 million -25%
8. Dog Man (DreamWorks Animation/Universal) - $2.6 million -26%
9. Last Breath (Focus Features) - $2.3 million -45%
10. The Monkey (Neon) - $2.1 million -45%
– The Last Supper (Pinnacle Peak) - $1.4 million N/A
Next week, Disney releases its new Snow White, and If I’m able to write ANY column next week – I have a lot going on this weekend – that installment will mostly be behind the paywall, so it’s not too late to upgrade to paid!