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Though he made his share of clunkers throughout his career, John Wayne starred in some of his worst films early on. A big part of that was simply down to the way movies were made in the late 1920s and early '30s. Every fan of the Duke knows about his so-called "Poverty Row" era, where he fronted Western movies made for cheap and churned out at a dizzying rate. But when sound in film started to emerge in the late 1920s, Wayne also found himself leading some unique and curious movies that were all based on pictures that had come out less than a decade prior.

For example, Wayne was cast in an early Western remake for the unusual reason that he resembled the star of the original movie. Indeed, Ken Maynard had fronted multiple features for First National Pictures during the '20s, including 1926's "The Unknown Cavalier.

As of this writing, there are 26 James Bond films, and now that Amazon fully controls the 007 franchise, we're probably going to get a heck of a lot more. In fact, the Amazon deal will likely result in a cavalcade of Bond spin-offs, which, depending on how you feel about the company's ability to do Bond justice, is either a good thing or the beginning of the end for the now 63-year-old franchise.

Still, there's no escaping the fact that if we do get an expanded Bond universe, fans likely won't be too pleased. Former Bond producers and longtime custodians of the IP, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, were famously protective of the 007 saga being a movie franchise. As such, fans will almost certainly be dismayed should Amazon start churning out Moneypenny origin stories and the solo adventures of Felix Leiter. But the truth is, those fans have...

Quick LinksSean Connery Is Still the Golden Standard of James BondWho Is Sean Connery in The Rock?Why The Rock Works as Connery's Final Bond Movie

There are a few icons in fiction that have transcended mediums and generations and the most famous would arguably be James Bond, Agent 007. James Bond was created by Ian Fleming in 1953 and since then he has been a mainstay in pop culture with countless books and films. Daniel Craig was the most recent actor who was given a license to kill (onscreen) the first and most famous was certainly Sean Connery. Connery brought James Bond to life for seven movies between 1962 and 1983, yet his greatest Bond movie wasn't even part of the 007 franchise, but a popular theory proves that it belongs among them.

The Rock was a 1996 Michael Bay movie that starred Nic Cage, Ed Harris, and Sean Connery. Nic Cage played a biochemist...

Its incredible how many clever fan theories there are that connect characters from totally separate movies. It could be an actors role in both films that spur viewers to conjure unique and interesting ways to connect their characters, or it could be a thematic connection thats so striking that it unlocks a path to showcase just how the two movies are set in the same universe. While its true that not all fan theories will hold up to intense scrutiny, its still a fun thought experiment to wonder just how two disparate movie characters could be unknowingly connected with one another.

The smartest fan theories add to a viewer's enjoyment of both movies, allowing audiences to rewatch their favorite films with fresh eyes and attempt to spot parallels they may not have otherwise noticed. Some fan theories are so clever that they improve upon the ideas laid out in the...

The Transporter franchise is a cult action series starring Jason Statham that started in 2002, and the sequels followed in 2005 and 2008, but some fans think Collateral is secretly part of the franchise. Jason Statham has a small role in the 2004 film where he plays an unnamed actor who randomly bumps into Vincent, and as both properties are about professional criminals, it has led to tons of speculation.

However, Collateral isn't the only film that may be an unofficial sequel, and many Redditors have theorized and, in some cases, even found proof that movies made by completely different studios are intrinsically connected. Between an action thriller following up Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Soldier following up Blade Runner long before Blade Runner 2049, these are almost irrefutable.

The Rock (1996)

It's the worst-kept secret that The Rock is an unofficial James Bond sequel, or at least that's what is heavily theorized amongst fans.

Hello, everyone! This week, we only have a handful of horror and genre titles headed to Blu-ray and DVD, but several of these releases are sure to get you into the holiday spirit, including Scream Factory’s 4K release of Mike Dougherty’s Krampus: The Naughty Cut. Rlje Films is unleashing Creepshow: Season 2 on both Blu-ray and DVD (with the Creepshow Holiday Special included), and if you’re still looking to enhance your holiday spirit even more, there’s always the indie Christmas-themed anthology 13 Slays Till X-Mas coming to Blu-ray, too.

Other home media releases for December 7th include Werewolves Within (one of this writer’s favorite movies of 2021), Blue Monkey, and Broadcast Signal Intrusion.

13 Slays Till X-Mas

On December 24th, five seemingly random men are invited to a dive bar by a mysterious e-mail. They decide to pass the time by resurrecting the old tradition of telling scary stories on Christmas Eve.

The Who Sell Out was rock’s first perfect package of irony — a wry marriage of highbrow and lowbrow art disguised as a concept album where the only real notion was that the Who wanted cash. They linked the songs together with tongue-in-cheek commercials for deodorant and pimple cream and even hired a real ad agency to pour Heinz beans over Roger Daltrey for the cover art. Without the gimmick, the songs themselves were a glorious hodgepodge. There was one brilliantly chiming anthem “I Can See for Miles,” a South...

It was late 1987 when I first rented Summer Camp Nightmare from the local video store. This film, with it's cover that featured a screaming girl and one of the film's stars Charlie Stratton, seemed like the perfect scary movie for me to watch with the other video cassettes I was renting.

When I put this film into the Vcr, I figured I was getting a Friday the 13th knockoff. What I got instead was a Lord of the Flies-like tale about a camp being taken over by Franklin Reilly (Stratton), who uses the different personalities in the camp to lead a coup against Mr. Warren (Chuck Connors). Watching Summer Camp Nightmare with a 2020 lens, it quickly became clear to me that, in many ways, this films captures the angst and unrest we are seeing in the United States due to Covid-19 and the killing of George Floyd.

Released on...

After seventeen years away from our screens, Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett made their long-awaited return in Bad Boys For Life, which scored widespread critical acclaim and still remains the highest-grossing movie of 2020 after raking in almost $420 million at the box office before the Coronavirus pandemic sent the industry into the shutdown from which it still hasn’t emerged.

Not content with bringing back one dormant action franchise, directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah have set their sights on a series that’s been in hibernation for even longer, with the duo being the latest names tasked with steering Beverly Hills Cop 4 out of development hell. We haven’t seen Eddie Murphy’s Alex Foley since the third installment was released in 1994, but after countless false starts, it seems to be picking up some serious momentum, with Netflix footing the bill and Mission: Impossible writers Andre Nemec and...

Streaming services always raise eyebrows when they edit the movies on their platform, usually because they never inform viewers as to when they’ve done it. The most recent high-profile example was Disney+ censoring Daryl Hannah’s butt in Splash! by putting some extremely fake-looking CGI hair over it. Now, it’s Netflix’s turn to get fans grumbling, as they’ve inexplicably censored a scene in Back to the Future Part II.

The edit comes during the 1955 sequence where Marty McFly believes he’s finally gotten hold of the Sports Almanac. If you’ll recall, he excitedly opens it, only to realize it’s actually a French girlie magazine called Oh LàLà. In the original, he flicks through it, getting increasingly upset and saying “Oh LàLà?” before ending on the cover. In the Netflix version, he briefly flicks through it, though the scene cuts before we see the cover page.