The Hobbiton Movie Set Tour in New Zealand has announced a new option for travellers seeking to have a more Hobbit-like experience visiting the iconic farm set.
Starting December 20, visitors can choose to embark upon the “Second Breakfast Tour.” As its name suggests, this tour of the set begins with a dusk tour of the movie set, a visit to the Green Dragon Inn for a pint, followed by a “hearty breakfast spread” in The Millhouse, the newly added attraction at Hobbiton.
“The breakfast table will be heaped with seasonal fresh fruit, breads, pastries, preserves, and cold meats and, as is the tradition in the Shire, second helpings are encouraged,” reads a line from the description. “A plated hot breakfast will be served featuring an assortment of a Hobbit’s favourite breakfast staples including fluffy scrambled eggs, streaky bacon, potatoes, grilled sausages and rosemary mushrooms.”
Vegetarian options are available, too, while the tour also includes coffee and tea. Below is a rundown of what’s included in the Second Breakfast Tour.
SECOND BREAKFAST TOUR INCLUDES
A fully guided tour of Hobbiton Movie Set
A visit to The Green Dragon Inn with your first Hobbit Southfarthing beverage upon arrival
A second breakfast continental breakfast spread in The Millhouse
A plated hot breakfast (please note any dietary requirements at time of booking)
Coffee and tea served inside The Millhouse during second breakfast
The Second Breakfast Tour doesn’t come cheap, as it costs $140 NZD for adults (17+) and $90 NZD for people aged 9-16.
If Ryan Reynolds isn’t the busiest actor in Hollywood, he’s definitely in the top five. On top of the just-announced Deadpool 3 and the completed-but-unreleased Free Guy, Reynolds has no less than 7 films in some state of production, including a time-travel flick called The Adam Project headed for Netflix. The movie is in early production, and is picking up an impressive cast that includes Mark Ruffalo (Avengers) and Catherine Keener (Being John Malkovich), THR reports.
Reynolds stars as a man who travels back in time to find his younger self, as well as his own father, to save the future, pursued by a woman with powerful technology.
In the above description, Mark Ruffalo plays a physicist, who is the deceased father of Reynolds‘ character. Keener will play the villain in the movie. Ruffalo and Keener join a cast that includes Jennifer Garner and Zoe Saldana.
The film also includes newcomer Walker Scobell, who THR says was discovered in an acting class, as Reynolds‘ younger self, and Alex Mallari, Jr. as Keener’s assistant.
Stranger Things director and producer Shawn Levy will direct the film; he recently worked with Reynolds to direct the video game-adjacent film Free Guy. Production companies Skydance, 21 Laps, and Maximum Effort are producing the movie; the latter two outfits belong to Levy and Reynolds.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
A new blog post focuses on the various upgrades for the presentation package, and one of these is better-looking environments thanks to a new deferred lighting system.
“Everything looks more realistic with the newly crafted next gen lighting model. Players have never looked better and shine even at more challenging scenarios like nighttime, non-clear weather types, and dome stadiums,” EA said. “Pyro VFX casts dynamic shadows which dramatically improve the fidelity on player runout tunnels. Deferred lighting allows for more lighting sources in our NFL environments creating beautifully lit details.”
There will also be “contextual” reactions from players on the field and on the bench, along with crowds depending on what happens on the field. The PS5 and Xbox Series X editions of Madden 21 also feature new pre-game cinematics, while the teammates on the bench will no longer just stand there, but they will react more realistically.
Here is a rundown of some of those improvements specifically:
Players on the sidelines have player likeness, name, body type, and skin type
Players will jump out of the way of a ball out of bounds or move out of the way when a player runs or is pushed out of bounds. Sideline characters are set up to watch and react to the play.
Improved head-tracking and unique interactions for all characters in the player box without twinning
The upgrades also extend to how players look. Every player model in Madden 21 for PS5 and Xbox Series X is “brand-new,” EA said, and designed to accurately represent them in real life.
“The number of vertices and texture resolutions have nearly doubled and have been authored to fully utilize the graphics processor of the next gen consoles,” EA said. “Along with the outer appearance of the player bodies, the next gen consoles have also opened up opportunities to upgrade our render skeleton to better demonstrate secondary body motions and real-life muscle deformations.”
The level of depth and detail extends all the way to how a player’s arms and legs muscles moves on the field depending on the action they are doing.
Location-based audio is also being added for Madden 21 on PS5 and Xbox Series X. “Utilizing crowd placement data that provides one-to-one fidelity of crowd members in the stands, we are able to accurately place cone outputs utilizing spatialization effects and precise orientation,” EA said. This means you will hear the impact of spatialized sound FX, especially in the huddle and when the crowd roars.”
The extra horsepower of the PS5 and Xbox Series X also allow Madden 21’s various weather effects to appear more realistic. In heavy rain, water will pool on the sidelines, while snow will look more realistic. These new weather effects will affect how a player’s jersey looks, depending on the environment.
“We can render 10-times more particles while keeping our game running at 60 FPS,” EA said. “The real-time surface and material shaders have been upgraded to fully utilize the higher processing power of the CPU and GPU to represent surfaces that react to weather. See new rain and snow impacts specifically on helmets and jerseys where it affects the fabrics and sideline floors.”
Madden 21’s PS5 edition will use the DualSense controller’s haptic feedback to make the game feel more lifelike. Examples that EA provided included how the controller will give you a warning through its rumbling when a linebacker is rushing you or the feeling of the ball landing in your hands after a big catch.
“Feedback can be delivered to each hand separately to let you feel what the players feel on the field,” EA said. “With the use of adaptive triggers, users feel resistance on the trigger to give feedback on a player breaking a tackle or running low on stamina.”
Finally, players will be able to leave the field and celebrate in the crowd at 13 of the NFL’s 32 stadiums–you can see the full list here.
Madden NFL 21 launches for PS5 and Xbox Series X on December 4. Everyone who bought the game on PS4 or Xbox One can get a free upgrade on PS5 or Xbox Series X. Alternatively, EA will offer a standalone version of Madden 21 for PS5 and Xbox Series X for $70 USD, which represents EA’s first next-gen game with the $10 price increase.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has an in-universe dice game that many players have been besotted by–so much so, that there are plans underway to make a physical version of it. Dicebreaker has learned that Orlog will be made into a real game in 2021.
In Valhalla, players can encounter Orlog opponents across the map. It’s a dice game where players roll six dice and then choose which ones to re-roll, trying to collect “god favors” from certain die faces to turn the tide of battle.
While Ubisoft did not share any further details with Dicebreaker about their plans, the site is reporting that PureArts is working on the physical version of the game. The company has previously produced numerous Assassin’s Creed collectibles.
Dicebreaker also reveals that Orlog was originally more of a deck builder styled game, but that changed over the course of Valhalla’s development.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is now available on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC. Soon you’ll be able to pick the game up at a discounted price thanks to Black Friday sales. The game earned an 8/10 in GameSpot’s review.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
2020 will mark the first year since 2009 without a Marvel movie in theatres, but fans of the MCU are getting something new in the form of the WandaVision TV show on Disney Plus in January 2021.
Marvel boss Kevin Feige has now shared a few more details on the show, telling Empire that the series was influenced by classic American TV shows, while also incorporating modern elements like talking to the camera as they do on The Office.
“I loved TV, and watched far too much The Dick Van Dyke Show and I Love Lucy and Bewitched and everything,” Feige said. “We go up to the Modern Family and The Office style. The talk-to-the-camera, shaky-camera, documentary style.”
Also in the interview, Feige spoke about Elizabeth Olsen’s character, Wanda Maximoff AKA Scarlet Witch. He said no character from the Infinity saga experienced more pain and trauma than she did, and she’s also extremely powerful, and all of this presents the potential to tell interesting stories on the WandaVision TV show.
“It seemed exploring that would be worthwhile post-Endgame. Who else is aware of that power? Where did it come from? Did the Mind Stone unlock it?” Feige said.
The other main character is Vision, and Paul Bettany is returning to play him once more on the TV show.
WandaVision is coming to Disney Plus on January 15. It is the first of numerous Marvel spinoff TV shows for the streamer; others include The Falcon and the Winter Soldier starring Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan; Loki starring Tom Hiddleston; Hawkeye starring Jeremy Renner; and Ms. Marvel featuring Iman Vellani in the title role.
When Baby Yoda stole the show in the latest episode of The Mandalorian by stealing a packet of fluorescent-blue space macarons, it wasn’t a stretch to imagine those same cookies showing up as a new snack at Galaxy’s Edge, or a licensed product. As predicted, luxury brand Williams Sonoma has now revealed its official “Nevarro Nummies Macarons,” as well as their staggering price tag, as picked up by io9.
If you don’t have the Force to nab yourself some cookies from an unsuspecting classmate, a packet of 12 space macarons will set you back $50. While $4.15 each seems a lot for a cookie, it’s not necessarily a high price for a gourmet French macaron–though even the most dedicated Star Wars fans might still baulk at spending $50 on snacks, especially when you can get an adorable life-sized Baby Yoda for half the price.
“Inspired by a sweet moment when a young Nevarro student debated sharing his treats with the Child,” the Williams Sonoma listing reads, “21st-century artisans in California have created these ethereal French-style almond macarons capturing the essence of this scene with Nevarro Nummies. For authentic galactic flavor, each exquisite treat is artfully hand-piped with a rich, creamy vanilla filling.”
Sadly, they don’t look all that much like Baby Yoda’s version either–while the show’s macarons are a violent shade of blue, and even more vibrant when the Child pukes them back up, Williams Sonoma’s version are a more gentle shade of powder blue. With the listing specifying that they are shipped chilled or frozen, it’s likely these delicate treats aren’t going to come wrapped in a foil packet, either.
The luxury goods company seems like a strange choice for this tie-in, considering Nevarro doesn’t seem like the kind of planet to have a huge fine-dining culture. Still, given the popularity of the Mandalorian–but especially anything involving Baby Yoda–it’s likely these expensive treats will still fly off the shelves.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
I’ve never really been a musician. When I was in middle school, I took the trumpet. In high school, I took guitar lessons. But I was never dedicated enough to the craft and I dropped both after a couple of years. Making music, even just for fun, was a prospect I left behind a long time ago. So I’m surprised by how inspired I was by Fuser, Harmonix’ new musical mash-up making game. While it has a score-based story mode similar to the studio’s past games, Fuser actually empowers you to be creative and make music from parts of songs you may already know. The core mechanic, switching tracks in and out to make music, is easy to use and wonderful to play with. The game Harmonix built on top of that core idea, however, doesn’t always take advantage of it effectively. As a result, Fuser is better at spurring you to be creative than it is at challenging you. That may sound like a daunting, niche experience, but no game’s made it easier to feel good about getting creative.
Fuser rides a vanishing line between music game and music-making toolkit. As a mash-up DJ, you create music by blending (or fusing) parts of songs together to make a new and often dancier version of your own. Each of the 80-plus songs in the base game’s library, plus a growing supplemental library of DLC songs, is broken down into four color-coded instrumental tracks, which you can switch in and out on the fly, changing the song as you go. You can play the drums from “Killing in the Name” by Rage Against The Machine, the guitar from “Jolene” by Dolly Parton, the trumpets from “Bring ‘Em Out” by T.I., and the lyrics of Sean Paul’s “Temperature,” and they’ll all cohere into one brand new sample. Your set is an evolving compilation of combinations.
The music you use spans decades and genres far beyond what you might expect from a game about DJing at a music festival. The tracklist spans pop, rock, country, dance, hip-hop, R&B, and Latin/Caribbe music from the 1960s through 2020. As with Rock Band, there’s a nostalgia that draws you in, but you quickly cultivate a new and surprisingly deep relationship with specific tracks that you may not have had before. I found myself growing to enjoy songs I knew but didn’t really love before, and staying away from some songs I like, but don’t fit in with the songs I like using most. Everybody I know Guitar Hero or Rock Band has a song they know and like from playing those games. The same thing happens here.
The basic act of switching music in and out to create your own feels like magic. By default, Fuser automatically changes keys and tempo of the pieces you select, and generally does whatever’s necessary to create the most melodic version of the tracks you put together. Using segmented timelines to track beats, the game illustrates the best times to swap in specific song components, so you can maximize the impact of a change (and score more points, depending on the mode). When you’re navigating the basic mechanics, swapping samples in and out in time, you can do no wrong. Almost every combination sounds pretty good, even if you randomly pick four different parts of four songs from four different genres. You barely have to lift a finger to make something that feels original and sounds good. And that first time you make something you love? It’s like catching lightning in a bottle.
That’s only the foundation, though. Once you understand when and how to switch things out, there are tons of other ways to change how your mixes sound. You can modify tracks with sound-altering effects, create custom synths that you use to create bespoke samples, adjust the tempo and key of the mix, and more. The entire story mode, which takes around seven hours to finish, is a giant, gamified tutorial that teaches you how to incorporate all of these tools into your music. And, the more you use the advanced skills, the more your creations become your music, rather than one of the many combinations you chose and the game assembled.
It’s a lot. Even with explanations and step-by-step walkthroughs that help you understand how to use them, at some point the systems cross the line from intuitive game mechanics to creative features that you need to understand to use effectively. What begins with swapping different sections of songs in and out rapidly expands into changing keys, manually setting tempos, adding effects that change how tracks sound, and creating your own synth loops. If you’ve got the bug and you want to use Fuser creatively, you develop enough of a foundation from the campaign to experiment and find out how they incorporate into your personal creative process. Even with a strong understanding of the rules, certain functions, like the drum kit that lets you make your own samples and the effects, require navigating through a menu to access them, which takes time and distracts from the music you’re already making. When you just want to play around, which is likely given that this a game and not music-making software, you’ll set most of these options aside.
In the story, where you’re forced to use all the tools, the pressure can become a bit overwhelming. As an up-and-coming DJ at the Fuser music festival, promoters will instruct you on how to improve your DJ skills. Like Rock Band and Dance Central, dropping tracks at the best possible times and obeying their commands quickly will earn you points toward a starred rank. To achieve a five-star rank, you also need to watch for requests from the crowd, who will ask for specific genres, songs from a specific era, or a specific track. You’re constantly moving from changing tracks to adding effects to prepping “risers,” which change multiple tracks smoothly. It’s an effective teacher, a trial by fire, and you internalize the things you learn on the fly. But the demands of these mechanics create complications that detract from the creative aspects of mixing, which are the most interesting parts of the experience.
A sampling of the songs available in Fuser.
The story mode is a preamble, but there’s no good place to take advantage of those skills in a directed way. There’s a competitive multiplayer “battle” mode, where you must put together the most crowd-pleasing set of tracks based on changing criteria, but like the story mode’s final stages, it feels overly busy and detracts from the aspects of Fuser that feel good.
Arguably the best and worst part of Fuser is that it works best when you’re left to your own devices. Freestyle mode, where you get to choose all the settings, has no real goal but is the place where you can most freely and frequently enjoy the game’s ability to enable your creative mind. If you make something you want to keep, you can record a mix, which Fuser converts into a music video with a bumper at the end that lists all the songs you used. To really enjoy Fuser, creativity has to be its own reward because, other than getting five stars in the story levels, there’s no mountain to climb or quantifiable metric to surpass.
To really enjoy Fuser, creativity has to be its own reward.
It is not completely undirected, though. Fuser plants the seeds to fuel a long-term creative community. In its “Social” section, Harmonix plans to host weekly contests, where players make mixes based on a theme–I made one where you could only use songs from the 1990s and 2020–and submit them to the Fuser community. Players can vote for a limited amount of time, and the players who get the most votes–top 50th and 25th percentile, respectively–win new in-game items.
Making mixes and sharing them with the community, either for prizes or just because you want to share, feels like the heart and soul of Fuser. Sharing your mixes and listening to what other players create creates a give and take that makes you want to keep trying new things, making more music of your own. Even after watching just a handful of mixes, it’s clear that there’s already a lot of really cool stuff out there.
Every aspect of Fuser has a strong emphasis on customization and making the game reflect who you are as a creator. No matter what mode you’re in, you always have the ability to change how your character looks, customize the colors and special effects on stage, and compile a “crate” of up to 24 songs, which you use to make mixes. Limiting your song selection is practical–you wouldn’t be able to find any one song quickly if you could select from the entire library–but also forces you to think strategically and cultivate a personal style.
Gallery
At the same time, the emphasis on creation and sharing is problematic for Fuser. The current turmoil in the game streaming community around the use of licensed music has led Harmonix to take certain precautions that undercut Fuser’s viability as a creative wellspring. On Xbox, you can only record clips and screenshots of mixes made in the freestyle and social modes. Even then, you can’t publish them directly to social networks from the console. You can upload videos to OneDrive or a USB drive and post them yourself from another device, so it isn’t impossible–you can also bypass all this security using an external capture device–but it isn’t easy to get your mixes out to a wider audience. While these precautions make sense in light of the recent wave of copyright notices sent to streamers, they do kneecap Fuser’s capacity to foster a lasting community and be a viable music-making platform.
Despite those limitations, I still think everyone should try Fuser. Even people like me, who have long since given up the prospect of learning an instrument or making music as a creative pursuit, can rekindle a little bit of the creative spark they may have had once upon a time. The core mechanics of switching discs in and out, making new composite songs out of the pieces of others, is both compelling and exciting. Even if you play the campaign and find yourself unmotivated to make songs on your own without the score chase, the simple pleasure of having some songs you like come together into your own song is unique in games, and wholly enchanting.
F1 2020 has released a free trial, letting players on PS4 and Xbox One try out the sim before they buy it. The trial shows off a few of the game’s modes and tracks, and lets you test out the game’s splitscreen options.
The trial features a two-player split screen option around the Austrian Red Bull Ring, letting players try out the simulation’s handling on this test track and race against one another. You can also try out the new “casual” handling mode here, which makes for easier steering and fewer penalties for shoddy cornering, or driving on grass. This mode is aimed at novice players who struggle with the simulation aspects of games like this one.
My Team mode is also represented in the trial, with players able to pick a team and teammate, and then race across the opening weekend of the season. This race takes you to Melbourne, Australia, and if you do well you can continue the rest of the season in the full game should you purchase it.
Career mode does not feature in the trial, and you cannot experience online races, either.
The full F1 2020 experience features all 22 circuits from the original F1 2020 schedule–even though many of these races did not happen this year, due to COVID-19 restrictions. It’s like a look into an alternate universe where 2020 looked very different.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
Deathloop, which is coming to PS5 and PC on May 21, 2021, has detailed how it will use the new PlayStation DualSense controller to heighten certain mechanics and the player’s sense of immersion. On the PlayStation Blog, Bethesda senior content manager Anne Lewis has explained how the controller will be used to make the experience special.
Deathloop, which is developed by Arkane (Dishonored), will use the controller to make each weapon feel unique. Lewis describes how the PT-6 Spiker, a silenced nailgun, will let you “feel each nail fall into the magazine,” and will provide some resistance on the trigger when you fire it. Some weapons can be prone to jamming, too, meaning that the trigger won’t let you click all the way in until it’s fixed. “Your trigger button will be blocked halfway, giving you instantaneous feedback even before the animation notifies you,” Lewis writes.
Haptic feedback will also allow you to feel the difference in texture of surfaces you run, slide, or climb over, and if you take a big fall, you’ll feel the thump in your hands.
The controller speaker will also be used to simulate the sounds of bullets whizzing past you, as well as the voices coming from your personal radio. It’ll also play sounds from your own weapons, including the click of an empty chamber.
Despite having been sold to Microsoft, Bethesda still has two PS5 exclusives on the horizon–this and Ghostwire: Tokyo. Whether these will be timed exclusives that eventually make their way to Xbox Series X/S remains to be seen.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
Prepare for turkey day by tucking into 17 movies with memorable dinners.
Ah, Thanksgiving. A holiday devoted to eating absolutely lavish amounts of food with friends or family (or completely by yourself this year, given the current pandemic situation). But while gorging yourself on autumnal favorites sounds like a dream in theory–and don’t get us wrong, sometimes in practice, it really, really is–it can also be an absolute nightmare. From family drama to cooking mishaps, the art of the Thanksgiving feast is a deeply precarious one where the risk sometimes greatly outweighs the reward.
Thanksgiving also happens to be the odd man out in terms of winter holiday pop culture. Between Halloween and Christmas, there are movies aplenty to watch and celebrate with, but Thanksgiving has exactly two real classics: Addams Family Values and Planes Trains and Automobiles. This means you might find yourself hard pressed for entertainment to really set the mood for turkey day. So we broadened the net a little and decided to loosen up our definition of what, exactly, makes for good Thanksgiving entertainment.
The answer is food, of course–and lots of it, for better or for worse.
So with that in mind, we’ve rounded up some of the absolute best (or most horrific, funniest, most wholesome–you name it) feast scenes in film to represent the entire spectrum of possible Thanksgiving emotions. Absolutely dreading spending time with relatives? There’s a movie for that. Really looking to have a fantastic and cheerful time despite it all? There’s a movie for that too. Here are 17 of the best feast scenes around to really get you in the mood to chow down.
]]>
]]>
1. The Avengers
Okay, so this one doesn’t exactly feature a big family dinner in the actual movie itself, but we’d be totally remiss to not include the infamous Shawarma stinger. It remains one of the funniest post-credits scenes the MCU’s ever pulled off and, hey, sometimes a family can be the vaguely antagonistic superheroes you fought off aliens with, right?
]]>
]]>
2. Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Not all dinners are made equal. The infamous, horrific dinner scene is a motif that gets repeated in multiple iterations of the Texas Chainsaw franchise, but the first pulled it off the best–or worst, depending on your definition. Hopefully your real-life Thanksgiving doesn’t feel like this, but, well, if it does? Solidarity.
]]>
]]>
3. Fantastic Mr. Fox
Fantastic Mr. Fox is a movie about a lot of things–funny woodland creatures playing made up sports, real estate, search and rescue parties, weird distant relatives, you name it. But it’s also a movie about food, specifically about stealing it and chowing down with absolute abandon.
]]>
]]>
4. Spirited Away
Studio Ghibli movies are famous for their decadent, otherworldly animation of the most ridiculously tasty looking cartoon food around and Spirited Away might have some of the best examples–just, you know, be careful what you start drooling after. Too much of it might turn you into a very literal pig.
]]>
]]>
5. Beetlejuice
This dinner scene features a three-point combo of perfection: an absolutely iconic soundtrack (Harry Belafonte’s Day-O), insufferable people getting their comeuppance via ghost possession, and extremely creepy looking shrimp-hands. You absolutely cannot beat it. If you’re going to have a bad time this holiday season, we sincerely hope your family time turns out more like this than, say, Texas Chainsaw.
]]>
]]>
6. Pan’s Labyrinth
Alright, this one might be cheating–technically there’s no “family” to be found here (if anything Pan’s Labyrinth is kind of about losing family, if you really think about it) but there’s still a feast. You just might want to be careful about actually eating anything on this particular table.
]]>
]]>
7. Hook
Who doesn’t love a good food fight? If the dinner in Pan’s Labyrinth is imaginary for both tragic and evil purposes, the imaginary dinner in Hook is the exact opposite. The food may be completely made up–but everything in Neverland is. That doesn’t make it any less tangible. And, hey, it may not look the most appetizing but at least it works really, really well as an impromptu weapon.
]]>
]]>
8. Edward Scissorhands
In the pantheon of awkward family dinners, the one in Edward Scissorhands ranks pretty high. There’s nothing quite like the passive aggression of a suburban family trying to maintain appearances with a dinner guest–especially when that guest is a monster with knives for hands. It’s incredibly cute, but will also make you cringe in sympathy as poor Ed (“Edward, dear, he prefers Edward”) struggles to pick up his silverware.
]]>
]]>
9. Goodfellas
Another ’90s classic from the total opposite end of the spectrum, Goodfellas features a totally different type of suburban dinner, care of a very well meaning mother inadvertently interrupting a body dump. If you’re going to be cringing through this one, it won’t be because it’s cute and awkward.
]]>
]]>
10. A Christmas Story
Depending on where you try and hold the line at allowing real Christmas movies to start filtering into your life, Thanksgiving might be a bit too early to start watching something like A Christmas Story–but either way, you have to hand it to a movie full of impeccable dinner scenes. From eating out at a Chinese restaurant (a scene that, for modern audiences, may be tricky to watch thanks to the incredibly blatant racism) to struggling with younger siblings, this one is what we like to call relatable.
]]>
]]>
11. Get Out
Sometimes family dinners can just be deeply uncomfortable affairs for reasons that aren’t cringe-worthy or awkwardly funny. Take this moment in Jordan Peele’s Get Out, for example–chances are you’re just going to end up feeling creeping dread and overwhelming discomfort as this story unfolds.
]]>
]]>
12. Mrs. Doubtfire
Nothing quite brings a family together like Robin Williams in drag violently giving the heimlich maneuver to a choking Pierce Brosnan. Or, if this is less your speed, there’s always Mrs. Doubtfire pulling the classic gambit of ordering a bunch of take out and then pretending to have slaved away in the kitchen preparing it–which, going into the holidays, is probably something most of us have considered trying to do at least once.
]]>
]]>
13. It Chapter 2
Not all dining out experiences have fantastic punchlines–take, for instance, The Losers’ reunion in It Chapter 2. What starts as a hilarious meet-up of long lost friends rapidly turns into a nightmarish, hallucinatory hellscape. Which, again, depending on who you are, could actually be pretty relatable.
]]>
]]>
14. Beauty and the Beast
There’s nothing like a dinner scene that’s also a good musical number. Don’t lie–you’ve got parts of “Be Our Guest”‘ memorized from childhood, and you’ve probably thought about it on more than one fancy dining occasion. It’s fine. If anything, keep this one in your heart when you’re doing the lame part of Thanksgiving–clean up and dishes. At least if you lived in a giant cursed castle, the plates and silverware would all be cleaning themselves.
]]>
]]>
15. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Hopefully no one is serving you Snake Surprise, giant beetles, or soup full of eyeballs at your next family gathering, but if they do you’ll definitely be prepared for it after watching this one. It may be incredibly xenophobic when you look at it from a modern perspective, so be aware of that going in, but if nothing else, the practical effects here still hold up.
]]>
]]>
16. Harold and Kumar go to White Castle
Sometimes the real feast is the comically overblown misadventures you have along the way. We’d be totally remiss to skip over this stoner classic, even if there’s not much actual dinner to be had. Just enjoy the journey.
]]>
]]>
17. Donnie Darko
If Edward Scissor hands features suburban passive aggression at the dinner table, Donnie Darko features suburban aggression. With any luck, your Thanksgiving won’t make for any directly antagonistic exchanges between you and your siblings, but if it does, please try and be as creative in your cursing as Donnie and his sister are here.
]]>
Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company
