On the heels of an Alabama drive-in theater boycotting the release of the live-action remake of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" because it features a gay character, over in Russia, a lawmaker is already pushing for a countrywide ban of the movie.

Russian news outlet Ria Novosti reports that State Duma deputy Vitaly Milon wrote a letter to culture minister Vladimir Medinsky urging that action be taken as the movie is a "blatant, shameless propaganda of sin and perverted sexual relationships," according to Time.

The ban would fall under a 2013 law that prohibits "gay propaganda" among minors.

The ministry has yet to make a ruling on the film.

"Beauty and the Beast" director Bill Condon revealed that Josh Gad's character LeFou, the comic sidekick to antagonist Gaston (Luke Evans), will be Disney's first-ever openly LGBTQ character.

The movie opens in the US on March 17. You can watch the latest trailer below.

SEE ALSO: 20 tips and tricks for conquering the fantastic and surprisingly challenging new "Zelda" game

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The Oscars just had its biggest gaffe in history — here’s what happened

The INSIDER Summary: 

• F-Rated grades movies based on female involvement in production and on screen. 
• IMDb now features those ratings.
• They're hard to find on IMDb's site.
• The logo makes it look like a mark of failure.

In the past couple of years, an organization called F-Rated has been developing a rating system for movies. It gives the rating to "all films which are directed by women and/or written by women and/or have significant women on screen." If a movie has all three, it gets a "Triple F-Rating."

IMDb, the biggest online movie database in the world, introduced the rating system to its site on Sunday. It's an important move. IMDb gets 250 million visitors per month, and it's frequently used by people working in the entertainment industry, who have the power to change the demographics of movie-making.

The rating was first introduced by Holly Tarquini, the director of England's Bath Film Festival. Since she started the movement in 2014, about 40 movie theaters and film festivals in England have started using it to mark their movies, according to the BBC.

It's an important contribution to alarming inequality in the movie and television industries. In 2016, women comprised only 17% of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors, and cinematographers working on the top 250 domestic grossing films, according to San Diego State’s Center for the Study of Women in Film. That's pretty much identical with the situation from 19 years earlier, when the center began compiling statistics.

And only 11 of 2016's 20 top-grossing movies passed the Bechdel Test, which measures whether a movie has at least two named female characters who have a conversation about something other than a man.

The F-Rating, by highlighting movies that fly in the face of that inequality, is useful for consumers who want to reward movies that feature women and for industry professionals who want to understand trends for movies that feature women.

But it has problems. The logo, for one, doesn't exactly inspire confidence:

To my coworkers, the logo evokes not a seal of approval, but a mark of failure. In other words, it looks like the movie is getting a grade of "F."

Furthermore, on IMDb's site, the rating isn't easy to find unless you're looking for it. It's encoded as a plot keyword, and only comes up if you're searching for keywords. On the IMDb page of "Frozen," for example, one of the 21,731 movies tagged with the rating, you'll only see if if you scroll all the way down to "Plot Keywords," then click on "See all," and then scroll past about 90 other keywords until you see the rating tag. It's not very useful if it's so hard to find.

The F-Rated system is a valuable way to standardize the recognition of movies that prioritize — or merely equalize — women. But it could be better. Maybe the system can adopt a "W," instead? Or perhaps the Venus symbol, "♀"?

In any case, it should be adopted by as many movie theaters as possible, and IMDb should display it more prominently. Women are all too invisible in the entertainment industry, and it does no good to hide attempts to make them seen.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Animated map shows the best and worst states to raise your family

One of the great things about Netflix is that it has brought thoughtful, compelling documentaries to a much wider audience — something filmmakers could only dream of a decade ago.

And with binge-worthy titles like "Amanda Knox" or "Metallica: Some Kind of Monster" a click away, you can get a lot of great nonfiction viewing any night of the week. You'll learn a lot more about the world, but don't worry — you'll also be entertained.

Here are 33 documentaries we think you should stream right away on Netflix.

Note: Numerous Netflix titles drop off the streaming service monthly, so the availability of titles below may change.

SEE ALSO: All the 'Avengers' and Marvel fans who nailed their cosplay at Comic-Con

1. "13th"

Director Ava DuVernay looks at the history of the US prison system and how it relates to the nation's history of racial inequality.

2. "Amanda Knox"

The murder trial in Italy of the American exchange student Amanda Knox, who is now free, captivated the world in the early 2000s. This Netflix original looks back at the case and gets the perspective of Knox and others closely involved.

3. "The Battered Bastards of Baseball"

In a fascinating look at one of the more colorful stories in baseball lore, directors Chapman and Maclain Way follow the Portland Mavericks, an independent baseball team owned by the movie star Bing Russell (Kurt Russell's father) who threw out all the conventions of the national pastime to build a regional sensation in the late 1970s.

It may be hard to believe given the chaotic shooting and martial-arts work seen in "John Wick: Chapter 2," but Common says he actually did a lot of his own stunts for his insane action sequences with Keanu Reeves in the movie.

(If you haven't had the chance to see it yet, stop what you're doing and go see it right now and then continue reading. There are minor spoilers ahead.)

"That was 90% me," Common told Business Insider of the stunts in a recent interview, particularly his brutal (and amusing) fight with Reeves' John Wick in Italy, in which they repeatedly stumble down stairs and crash through a hotel window. "Maybe even more. We had to do our own stunts — the world is built on that. The director, Chad Stahelski, comes from the stunt world.

"And I told them I wanted to do them," the Grammy- and Oscar-winning musician added. "Training was incredible — I did it for months."

Common is also grateful that his character's fate was left open-ended, given the inevitable sequel.

"I'm glad they didn't close it," he said. "Hopefully they ask me to come back. But it's totally up to the writers. I would love to come back, it would be an honor. I had friends calling me, telling me how good the movie was. And when my friends call me, I know it's good."

So don't worry: Common knows how much you love the John Wick universe, and he wants to be back in it as much as you want him back.

SEE ALSO: 100 movies on Netflix that everyone needs to watch in their lifetime

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Netflix and Marvel just dropped the first 'Iron Fist' trailer — and it looks incredible

The opinions of professional movie critics don't always match up with popular opinion. But without critics, we'd be lost. Who would have seen "Moonlight" if we didn't have critics to champion it at film festivals? And wouldn't gems like "Margaret" be lost without film critics to protect them?

Metacritic, a database that aggregates movie reviews, exclusively gave INSIDER a list of which movies — released since the year 2000 and with more than 20 reviews — have received much better critical reviews compared to audience reviews. Critical acclaim is calculated through their Metascore, which takes into account how enthusiastically critics like or hate a movie, and the audience score is based on how users rated it on their site.

Some of the movies are beloved by critics but left audiences cold, and others divided critics but were derided by regular moviegoers. You'll notice some trends. Horror movies, for example, got more ambivalent reviews from critics in general. And a surprising number of reviewers embraced the concert film "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never." And just as with our list of 50 movies that critics really hate but normal people love, you'll see a lot of movies that you've completely forgotten about, but may be worth checking out.

Here are 25 movies that critics love but normal moviegoers hate:

SEE ALSO: The 22 most exciting new shows of 2017 you have to see

25. "Zero Dark Thirty" (2012)

Critic score: 95/100

User score: 6.8/10

Plot summary: "For a decade, an elite team of intelligence and military operatives, working in secret across the globe, devoted themselves to a single goal: to find and eliminate Osama bin Laden."

What critics said: "A monumental achievement that documents a coordinated and complicated response to a monumental tragedy."— The Inquirer

24. "The Fits" (2016)

Critic score: 90/100

User score: 6.4/10

Plot summary: "Shortly after Toni joins the [dance] team, the captain faints during practice. By the end of the week, most of the girls on the team suffer from episodes of fainting, swooning, moaning, and shaking in a seemingly uncontrollable catharsis. Soon, however, the girls on the team embrace these mysterious spasms, transforming them into a rite of passage. Toni fears 'the fits' but is equally afraid of losing her place just as she's found her footing. Caught between her need for control and her desire for acceptance, Toni must decide how far she will go to embody her new ideals."

What critics said: "Plenty of films give the viewers far more information and still wind up feeling opaque and distanced from the characters' lives. But 'The Fits' is all about the experience of the moment, and it winds up feeling remarkably immersive and lyrical."— The Verge

23. "Sideways" (2004)

Critic score: 94/100

User score: 6.7/10

Plot summary: "Two old friends set off on a wine-tasting road trip ... only to veer dizzily sideways into a wry, comedic exploration of the crazy vicissitudes of love and friendship, the damnable persistence of loneliness and dreams and the enduring war between Pinot and Cabernet."

What critics said: "Sideways is beautifully written, terrifically acted; it is paced and constructed with such understated mastery that it is a sort of miracle. The observations are pitilessly exact and meshed with impeccably executed sight gags and funny lines, and everything is bathed in the solvent of exquisite sadness."— The Guardian

Some kids going to see Disney's live-action remake of "Beauty and the Beast" next week will get a surprise when they find a playground inside the actual theater where they'll be watching the movie.

On Tuesday, theater chain Cinépolis USA announced it would unveil the country's first dedicated children’s movie-theater auditoriums, called Cinépolis Junior.

Launching on March 16, the day before "Beauty and the Beast" opens in the US, the kid-friendly screens will roll out at Cinépolis Pico Rivera and Cinépolis Vista in Southern California, with more planned to pop up around the country in the near future. (Cinépolis has already opened these kinds of theaters internationally.)

Each auditorium will offer dedicated play areas, comfortable seating alternatives such as beanbags and lounge chairs, and even unique concession choices like popcorn flavors including Cheetos, chili, and caramel.

At a time when many theaters are doing more to limit disruptions, the gimmicks of the kid-friendly theaters horrified some people on social media, though it's hard to imagine a six-year-old disapproving of the setup.

Here's a glimpse at what the kid-friendly theaters with play areas look like:

SEE ALSO: From rich kid to first daughter: The fabulous life of Ivanka Trump

Designed for ages 3-12, the theaters allow kids to show up early with their parents to play before the move begins, and they can play for 15 minutes after the movie. Cinépolis USA is also considering leaving house lights on so kids can play during the movie.

Instagram Embed:
http://instagram.com/p/BRWLwKfgFb7/embed/
Width: 658px

 Source

The Cinépolis Junior theaters will feature a 55-foot-long and 25-foot-high play structure with two slides and two main platforms featuring playground equipment.

All theaters will feature beanbag seats and poolside-style lounge chairs.

The INSIDER Summary

• "The Avengers" is one of the most successful superhero franchises. 

• Chris Hemsworth was a soap opera star in his native Australia. 

• Scarlett Johansson starred in her first film when she was ten years old. 

It seems impossible to think of a time when Marvel wasn’t the biggest franchise property in the world, and when every actor it touched wasn’t catapulted into mega stardom. While some actors might have gotten their big break with Marvel, and others might have gotten a second chance, every one of them can now take their place alongside the Hollywood A-list. With their stars constantly showing up on the Highest Paid Actors lists (looking at you RDJ) it’s hard to remember they were all once struggling actors just trying to get their foot in the door.

Long before the costumes and the caps and the butt-kicking, these gods and superheroes were but mere-mortals. Sometimes mortals make some questionable decisions– like bad ’80s hair and D-grade movie roles. Let’s take a look back at the origin stories of the world’s greatest superhero team, or at least the actors who play them anyway. From the newest Avenger Tom Holland to the OG himself Robert Downey Jr, and everyone in between, here are What 15 Avengers Actors Looked Like Before They Were Famous.

15. CHRIS EVANS

While playing Steve Rogers isn’t the first Marvel related role that Chris Evans has had, having played Johnny Storm in the Fantastic Four movies, it is certainly the one that he’ll be remembered for. After starring in three standalone movies, two Avengers movies and more to come, it’s become harder and harder to tell where Cap ends and Evans begins. Before he was taking long ice naps and starting superhero civil wars, Evans had been on the scene for a while, starting all the way back in 2000 in the movie The Newcomers alongside Kate Bosworth and Paul Dano.

After that he went on to star in Not Another Teen Movie, Cellular, Sunshine Push, The Losers, and Scott Pilgrim vs The World, as well as The Perfect Score and The Nanny Diaries with Marvel co-star Scarlett Johansson. But of course it wasn’t until he was cast as first Avenger Captain America in 2011 that his career truly took off. Since then he’s continued acting outside of the MCU, while also trying his hand at directing.

Hilariously, before acting, Chris did a small stint as a model– even posing as “Tyler the surfer” on the cards for the board game “Mystery Date” when he was 18. Which has been immortalized on the Internet for all time. 

14. TOM HOLLAND

While the newest addition to the Marvel line-up is only 20 years old, he has been acting for almost a decade. When he was just 12 years old, Tom scored the role playing Billy Elliot’s best friend Michael in the West End production of Billy Elliot the Musical, and then in the same year upgraded to playing the lead role. Holland continued in the role for the next 2 years and even got to meet the British Prime Minister because of it.

2012 was a big year for the then-16 year old, when he got a part doing voice work for the English dub of Studio Ghibli’s Arrietty. He then went on to his breakout role as Lucas Bennett in the critically acclaimed The Impossible with Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor. After that he played a supporting role in How I Live Now with Saoirse Ronan, and In the Heart of the Sea, with future Marvel co-star Chris Hemsworth.

Eight years after first appearing on that West End stage, the youngster scored his biggest role to date when he co-starred as Peter Parker in Captain America: Civil War. All grown up now, he’ll be headlining his own Spider-Man movie later this year.

13. CHRIS HEMSWORTH

Well before Chris Hemsworth broke out on the US scene as Thor in his eponymous solo movie in 2011, he was already fairly well known in his home country of Australia. Before he had the flowing golden locks of the God of Thunder, he was instead sporting a questionable 2000s style shag (it got so much worse than the picture above if you can believe it), on the long-running soap opera Home and Away. He played the character Kim Hyde for 185 episodes between 2004 – 2007.

Of course, that wasn’t the only Australian production he was involved in before he became a superhero. Hemsworth also appeared on Neighbours and an episode of The Saddle Club. The first thing he ever starred in was a children’s TV show called Guinevere Jones, about a girl who is the modern day reincarnation of Guinevere from Camelot, and Chris played King Arthur in 2 episodes when he was just 19 years old.

The Aussie heartthrob moved on to greener pastures after that, landing his first ever movie role playing Captain Kirk’s father in the 2009 reboot of Star Trek. He was only on screen for the first few minutes, but thankfully he managed to make a impression on the execs over at Marvel, who cast him in Thor not long after that. We’ll get to see more of him this year once the highly anticipated Thor: Ragnarok hits theatres.

12. JEREMY RENNER

The very first movie Jeremy Renner appeared in was the National Lampoon’s movie Senior Trip in 1995, where he sported the questionable hoop earring seen above. The movie was unfortunately a huge flop and currently sits at a dismal 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. Thankfully though, the failed teen comedy didn’t tank Renner’s career and he has since gone on to receive two Oscar nominations for his work.

After ditching the iffy jewelry choices, he went on to star in a diverse range of movies including critically acclaimed dramas like North Country, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Town, and of course, The Hurt Locker (the latter two garnered him those nominations). He’s also starred in a number of actions films like S.W.A.T, The Bourne Legacy, 28 Weeks Later, and the Mission Impossible franchise.

In 2011, Renner had a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo in Thor as a S.H.I.E.L.D agent sporting a bow and arrow– something that keen fans picked up on straight away. And sure enough Clint Barton, AKA Hawkeye, showed up in The Avengers movie the very next year. 

11. ELIZABETH OLSEN

A few years ago the leading names of the Olsen family were identical twins and prodigy entrepreneurs, Mary-Kate and Ashley. Today, however, they’ve been overshadowed by their once-forgotten little sister Elizabeth, who has taken Hollywood by storm in recent years.

Olsen first appeared in a few of her big sister’s projects, including appearing as herself in The Adventures of Mary-Kate and Ashley (above), and having a cameo as “Girl in Car” in How the West Was Fun TV movie. She took an extended break from acting after that, and didn’t appear in another project until 2011 when she got the lead role in Martha Marcy May Marlene, for which she was praised by critics. Since then she has starred in Silent House, Liberal Arts, Kill Your Darlings, Godzilla and the American remake of Oldboy.

She and her Godzilla co-star Aaron Taylor-Johnson then scored the roles of a lifetime, playing the “miracle” (not that other M word) twins Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, in the 2015 Avengers sequel. She went on to appear in Captain America: Civil War, but unfortunately he did not.

10. MARK RUFFALO

Despite Marvel’s stellar record with all other properties, Bruce Banner and his alter ego have been a bit harder for them to get right. After two standalone movies starring two different actors (Eric Banner and Edward Norton), Mark Ruffalo stepped up to the plate for the first Avengers movie. And finally, finally they had that elusive missing ingredient. Ruffalo was perfect for the role and, along with Joss Whedon’s wonderfully witty dialogue, absolutely nailed the role. No more Hulk curse; this Bruce Banner is here to stay.

But Ruffalo didn’t always get it right, and like most newbie actors, took his fair share of bad movie roles in his youth. The above photo is taken from one of his first movie roles, in the sequels to 1990 horror movie Mirror Mirror. Both sequels are so D-grade they don’t even have their own Wikipedia page. He went on to star in a number of D-movies after that, before he broke into the mainstream with View From the Top, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 13 Going on 30, Just Like Heaven, Zodiac (with Marvel co-star RDJ), and Shutter Island.

Ruffalo will be reprising his role as Bruce Banner in the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok alongside the Asgardian hero.

9. TOM HIDDLESTON

This British heartthrob broke onto the scene in 2011, playing Thor’s devious brother Loki, who set about stealing the throne– and fan’s hearts. Since then he has become somewhat of a fan sensation, gaining a legion of female followers. But before that he was a relatively unknown actor, known mostly for miniseries and TV film work.

He starred in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, The Gathering Storm, Wallander, Miss Austen Regrets, as well as appearing as a main character in satirical black comedy Suburban Shootout, where he sported his natural blond curly hair.

He broke out into the mainstream in 2011 after playing Loki in the Thor movies, and starring in the Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris and Academy Award nominee, War Horse. Since then he’s appeared in Crimson Peak, High-Rise, I Saw the Light, The Night Manager (which he won a Golden Globe for), and the upcoming Kong: Skull Island with Captain Marvel herself, Brie Larson.

8. CHADWICK BOSEMAN

Another new addition to the Marvel cast, Chadwick Boseman joined Captain America: Civil War as T’Challa the Wakandan hero also known as Black Panther. He quickly became a fan favourite, stealing the show along with other newcomer Spider-Man (and that’s no easy feat against the charm of powerhouse Robert Downey Jr.).

But before he was kicking everyones asses at Marvel, actor Chadwick Boseman got his start like so many others– guest starring in an assortment of stock standard procedurals like CSI: NY, Law and Order, Third Watch, Cold Case, and Castle. He also guest starred in ER and All My Children, and found recurring roles in Lincoln Heights and Persons Unknown. Aside from his TV roles, Boseman has also starred alongside Kevin Costner in Draft Day, played baseball legend Jackie Robinson in the biopic 42, and appeared in the much-derided Gods of Egypt.

Up next for Boseman will be the much-anticipated stand-alone Black Panther movie, slated to premiere in 2018.

7. PAUL RUDD

There’s a persistent internet rumor that Paul Rudd is not human, but actually an ageless immortal, and when you look at these two pictures side by side its not hard to see why. One is of a young Rudd from Halloween: The Curse of Michael Meyers from 1995 and the other is from Ant-Man, almost exactly 20 years later. His Marvel co-star Tom Holland wasn’t even born when the first photo was taken, yet somehow (aside from a few forehead creases) Paul Rudd looks like he hasn’t aged a day.

Agelessness aside, it actually has been 20 years between those two photos and what a busy 20 years it’s been. The same year he was in Halloween, a young Rudd also appeared in his breakout role as Josh in Clueless, and had a minor role in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet the next year. Since then he’s been in Wet Hot American Summer, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Role Models, and Perks of Being a Wallflower. He’s even had success on the small screen, joining the cast of Friends, Reno 911!,  Parks and Recreation, and Louie. 

His hilarious version of Scott Lang will return in Ant-Man and the Wasp in 2018.

6. ANTHONY MACKIE

Getting the role of the Falcon must have felt like coming full circle for Anthony Mackie, since he first got his start in acting as an understudy for fellow Avengers sidekick Rhodey, AKA Don Cheadle himself. Mackie was his understudy in the 2002 play Topdog/Underdog. After that, he went on to star in the Eminem movie 8 Mile as his first movie role, playing the rapper’s arch rival Papa Doc.

Don Cheadle wasn’t his only connection to the MCU in his early years, he also starred alongside Jeremy Renner, in the critically acclaimed war movie The Hurt Locker, and appeared alongside: Dominic Cooper (young Howard Stark) in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange) in The Fifth Estate, Josh Brolin (Thanos) in Gangster Squad, Evangeline Lilly (Hope Van Dyne) in Real Steel, and current superhero BFF Chris Evans in What’s Your Number (which also starred Star Lord’s wife). Phew! Marvel really is everywhere.

You might also recognize him from any number of other movies he’s done over the years, including: Million Dollar Baby, Half Nelson, We are Marshall, Eagle Eye, and The Adjustment Bureau. He’ll probably be in the next Avengers film too, since everyone else seems to be.

5. PAUL BETTANY

Paul Bettany had already been in four Marvel movies before ever appearing on screen– he voiced the long suffering J.A.R.V.I.S in Iron Man, its sequels and The Avengers before finally showing up in flesh and blood (metal and circuitry?) as Vision. We hardly need to see Paul in person to recognize that voice– he has been around for quite a while.

His first movie role was in the 1997 movie Bent with Clive Owen, Ian McKellen and Game of Thrones‘ Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. Since then he’s gone on to star in Gangster No.1, A Knights Tale, A Beautiful Mind, Master and Commander, Wimbledon, and The Da Vinci Code. He’s also married to another Marvel star; he married Jennifer Connelly (who played Bruce Banner’s love interest Betty Ross in the non-MCU Hulk film) in 2003 and the couple have three children.

We’ll presumably see him again in the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War, considering Vision has one of those coveted little stones sitting smack-dab in the middle of his forehead. We just hope Thanos doesn’t decide to rip it out when he arrives on the scene.

4. DON CHEADLE

Despite the great Terrance Howard originating the role of long-suffering best friend James “Rhodey” Rhodes, it was the second actor, Don Cheadle, who has really embodied the hero to his full extent. We’re really glad Cheadle decided to stick around for more than one movie. He and Robert Downey Jr. have a real chemistry that wasn’t quite there with Howard — plus nobody has comic timing quite like Don Cheadle.

But before donning a superhero suit of his own, Don Cheadle had to work his way up to it like everyone else, taking numerous thankless jobs in his early career. In fact, in his second movie ever, he had such a small role he didn’t even have a name and is just credited as “Juicy Burger Worker” (Moving Violations). After that, Cheadle appeared in two episodes of the TV series Fame, based on the ’80s movie of the same name, and also appeared in Hamburger Hill and Colors in the years immediately following. He has also appeared in Boogie Nights, Swordfish, Ocean’s Eleven (and Twelve and Thirteen), Crash, and Hotel Rwanda (for which he was nominated for an Oscar).

The above photo, though, is from when he appeared in a episode of Fresh Prince of Bel Air, playing the character of Ice Tray… so ’90s, so very very ’90s.

3. SAMUEL L JACKSON

Nowadays, Samuel L Jackson is so famous and well-known that it’s become sort of a running joke about just how many movies he’s in. It seems he shows up anywhere and everywhere in Hollywood, proving he’s more in demand now than ever. And why wouldn’t you cast him in your film? He’s Samuel L freakin’ Jackson. But believe it or not, even this Hollywood heavyweight was once a little nobody who took whatever role was available to him.

His second role ever, in the 1981 movie Ragtime, was credited as “Gang Member No. 2”, while his role in 1988’s Coming To America (pictured above) is just referred to as “Hold-Up Man.” It wasn’t until 1991 that Hollywood stood up and took notice, when Jackson starred in his big breakout role in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever. After that, there are just too many Samuel L Jackson movies to mention, but you know all the good ones– those cultural touchstones like True Romance, Jurassic Park, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Jackie Brown, Star Wars, and of course the greatest one of all time, Pulp Fiction. 

Is it any wonder Marvel approached this cinema legend to portray their version of the equally legendary Director Nick Fury. We doubt anyone else could have pulled it off half as coolly.

2. SCARLETT JOHANSSON

Scarlett Johansson is so synonymous with her sex symbol persona, it’s easy to forget sometimes that she was also once a child star, appearing in her first movie aged just 10. Said movie was North in 1994, but after that she went on to star in quite a few movies as a young girl, including The Horse Whisperer and Home Alone 3 (pictured above).

Johansson also starred in more movies as a teenager, such as Ghost World, Girl With A Pearl Earring, and her breakout role in Lost in Translation. She was only 20 years old when she first co-starred with frequent collaborator Chris Evans in The Perfect Score— they’ve since gone on to star in four other movies together, including the Avengers movies.

It wasn’t long after her attention-grabbing performance in Lost in Translation that she started becoming a Hollywood leading lady, scoring roles in Match Point, The Island, The Prestige, The Other Boleyn Girl, and Vicky Cristina Barcelona. It was in 2010, 16 years after her first acting gig, that she became the first female Avenger in the line up (with more to come soon), playing the Black Widow in Iron Man 2.

HONORABLE MENTION: STAN LEE

While not technically an actor, Stan Lee has appeared in almost every single movie in the MCU line-up– a line-up that wouldn’t exist without him. Even the most casual of Marvel fans could probably recall the iconic image of this comics giant: an old man with slicked back grey hair, a cheeky smile, and those signature tinted glasses. This is the Stan Lee that everyone knows and loves.

But of course, Stan Lee was once a young man (shocking, we know!) and even went without glasses back in the day. Before the world recognized his talents and made him a household name, Stanley Martin Lieber was once an unknown assistant working at a comic book publisher. In 1939, his thankless job was to get everyone lunch, fill up their inkwells, and do proofreading for the comic artists. He made his comic book debut in 1941, writing the text filler in a Captain America comic, and the rest, as they say, is history…

He’s been with Marvel Comics for 76 years and it’s safe to say all that hard work and dedication has certainly paid off. We had to include him in this list — he’s been in more Marvel movies than everyone else combined!

1. ROBERT DOWNEY JR.

Robert Downey Jr. is a unique addition to this list, since the MCU didn’t give him his big break or launch him into the mainstream– he was already plenty famous (for all the wrong reasons) before taking up the role. RDJ was a teenage star during the ’80s, and had a promising career ahead of him– until he got into trouble with drug and alcohol addiction. He didn’t fully get clean until July 2003, but after that dedicated himself to a career comeback, which came to full fruition when he was cast as Tony Stark in the 2008 Iron Man movie.

But before all that, RDJ had forged quite the career in the ’80s, appearing in movies like Weird Science, Back to School (pictured), The Pick-Up Artist, and Less Than Zero. In the ’90s there was Chances Are, Soapdish, Heart and Souls, Natural Born Killers, and Chaplin — the latter of which earned him an Oscar nomination. And of course in the ’00s there were movies such as, A Scanner Darkly, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Goodnight and Good Luck, and Zodiac. 

Even with all those movies under his belt, it wasn’t until scoring the role of Tony Stark in 2008 that cemented his role in the annals of Hollywood history, and he’ll be forever remembered as the billionaire, playboy philanthropist we all know and love. 

SEE ALSO: Why critics are in love with the spy show 'The Americans' — and you need to watch it

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 'It's a lie': Jake Tapper calls out Trump during a fiery interview with Kellyanne Conway

Warning: Mild spoilers below for "The Last Jedi" if you want to go into it completely ignorant.

We're still impatiently awaiting the arrival of the first trailer for "The Last Jedi," the next movie in the main "Star Wars" saga following "The Force Awakens," but now we likely have an idea of what to expect from the first scene.

That trailer should drop next month at the Star Wars Celebration, but Disney shareholders had the opportunity to see the first public footage from the film on Wednesday. 

According to Daniel N. Miller, a Los Angeles Times reporter who was at the event, Luke Skywalker's first words to Rey are, "Who are you?"

Which is a good question, and an expected one. Because as far as we know, Rey and Luke have never met before (though theories about their relationship abound). And he probably wasn't expecting anyone to find him on that secret island where he's been hiding out.

We already know that "Last Jedi" will pick up right where "Force Awakens" left off.

Miller also shared some more details on Twitter. It looks like "The Last Jedi" will be filled with sweeping imagery shot around the globe.

SEE ALSO: 33 documentaries on Netflix right now that will make you smarter

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's what Johnny Depp reportedly spends $2M a month on

The INSIDER Summary:

• Pepsi decided to more aggressively target product placement in movies, leading to a heavy Pepsi presence in the first "Back to the Future."
  
•  In 1982, Hershey, makers of Reese's Pieces, spent a million dollars on advertising for "E.T." in exchange for a scene of the adorable alien eating the candy.
• In 1983, Ray-Ban partnered with "Risky Business" to single-handedly revive Wayfarers

In the 1980s, Coke got into the movie business. When the soda giant acquired Columbia Pictures for $750 million in 1982, the colorful soft drink was already a mainstay in movies, with a long run of appearances starting with a billboard in The Mystery of the Leaping Fish all the way back in 1916. But by purchasing one of the country's major studios, which had in the previous decade released movies like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Kramer vs. Kramer, Coke helped key a major shift: Products soon made their way into the foreground of art, a place where they've remained ever since.

Prior to the '80s, Coke was far from the only brand playing the product-placement game. Trade journal Harrison's Reports was loudly criticizing the practice all the way back in 1919, and Fritz Lang's M features a shot in which a banner for Wrigley's gum appears onscreen for a good 30 seconds. As one of the most recognizable American brands in the world, Coke's placement was both notable and frequent, as much a product of the drink's ubiquity in the real world as it was any ambitions by the corporation itself. But in the 1960s, that relationship started to become more intentional. Coke set up an office in Los Angeles to manage its involvement with the entertainment industry; meanwhile, its use as a signifier by artists like Jean-Luc Godard (who featured an intertitle in his 1966 film Masculin Féminin that read, "The children of Marx and Coca-Cola"), and Stanley Kubrick (who included a memorable scene with a Coke machine in 1964's Dr. Strangelove), meant that the notion of Coca-Cola appearing onscreen was itself being remarked upon. More noteworthy examples followed: 1978's Superman 2 saw Superman throw General Zod through a Coke billboard, and a Coke bottle fell from the sky in 1980's The Gods Must Be Crazy.

But none of that quite foreshadowed Coca-Cola's ultimate cinematic accomplishment: purchasing a studio. The sale of Columbia to Coke came on the heels of one major development in the company and just before another: Roberto Goizueta had recently become the corporation's chairman and CEO, and Diet Coke was weeks away from its debut. Coke's own website and archivist attributed Goizueta's Hollywood venture to his interest in diversifying profits and shareholder value — and five years later, nobody was quite sure whether he'd been successful in that goal or not. On one hand, Columbia had released hits like The Big Chill, The Karate Kid, and Ghostbusters, as well as a Best Picture winner, Gandhi; on the other, it had Ishtar, a flop so monumental that it made Coca-Cola shareholders nervous enough to want out of movies altogether. By 1989, Columbia was in the hands of Sony, and Coca-Cola had a profit, but no studio.

Coca-Cola's presence in movie making wasn't the product-placement apocalypse — this was more a business investment than an excuse to turn water into Coke. But in many ways, it presaged the open-ended entertainment landscape of today, when any company, be it a DVDs-by-mail operation or the online marketplace where you buy paper towels, can be a purveyor of cinema. And it also, at least indirectly, led to a game-changing piece of product placement, one that would fully represent the potential opportunities of the practice for brands.

In terms of cultural resonance, Coke had been kicking Pepsi's ass since the turn of the century, but the Columbia purchase made very clear how far ahead Coke had pulled. In direct reaction to Coke's move, Pepsi decided to more aggressively target product placement in movies, leading to a heavy Pepsi presence in the first Back to the Future. As Adweek tells it, the executives handling Pepsi's effort used the sequel to double down, creating a brand-new Pepsi, called Pepsi Perfect, that would exist in the future of Back to the Future Part II. Not only was Pepsi a part of a movie, then — Pepsi was a plot point, an essential aspect of the world-building. If Coke was the signpost for America, Pepsi represented the literal future.

Pepsi Perfect is generally regarded as one of the most effective pieces of product placement in the history of movies. More importantly, though, it opened the door for brands to use product placement in movies more creatively. In 1982, Hershey, makers of Reese's Pieces, spent a million dollars on advertising for E.T. in exchange for a scene of the adorable alien eating the candy. And in 1983, Ray-Ban partnered with Risky Business to single-handedly revive Wayfarers, then repeated the trick with Top Gun and aviators; both pairs of sunglasses were so essential to Tom Cruise's unique brand of cool that they became indivisible from the films themselves. By the end of the decade, Mac and Me and The Wizard were essentially feature-length advertisements for McDonald's and Nintendo, respectively. Most of these were phenomenally successful, and clearly show the genes of today's placement strategies, where characters engage with products and brands onscreen. Cruise would go on to hawk Red Stripe beer in The Firm; James Bond drove a BMW Z3 in Goldeneye, a $3 million investment that turned into $240 million worth of sales; and Heineken paid $45 million so that Bond would order one in Skyfall. (Conversely, Sideways managed to dent Merlot sales.)

The boom of the '80s set a precedent that Hollywood wasn’t capable of controlling. It's not uncommon to see scripts today veer wildly off course to celebrate a brand. Recall how Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel took the time to spell out the many features of Apple’s iPad in Sex Tape, or how Modern Family shot one episode entirely through MacBook webcams. Google even wrested some measure of creative control over their extensive depiction in the fish-out-of-water comedy The Internship. Sometimes, as in Transformers, G.I. Joe, or Battleship, the product placement is the script.

The current innovation is to help the bitter elixir of product placement go down with a bit of self-flagellating humor. In last year’s Jurassic World, Bryce Dallas Howard feels sick to her stomach when she reports that Verizon Wireless will officially sponsor one of her park's new attractions. Like similar moments in Wayne's World and 30 Rock, the bit lets creators shill their cake and eat it too: They don't enjoy hawking cell phones, but such are the compromises of modern life. Other writers have found a way of harvesting art from the most arid creative climate of product integration. After all, one of the most highly regarded TV series of all time concluded with its protagonist fantasizing about sharing a Coke with the entire world.

And as always, there are those who proudly and shamelessly take up the mantle of product placement. 2015's Transformers: Age of Extinctionboasted the distinction of repping 55 separate brands, while 2012's Foodfight! turned corporate mascots into animated heroes. The '80s didn't invent this trend, but they did perfect it and normalize it. Today, product placement is so indivisible from pop culture that it's hardly worth remarking upon. Or, as one Reagan-era hero put it: Greed is good.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What happens when you eat too much protein

Samuel L. Jackson has criticized the casting of black British actors in American films during an interview with the New York radio station Hot 97 on Monday.

In the interview, Jackson wonder what it would have been like if a black American man were cast in the lead role of “Get Out,” instead of British actor Daniel Kaluuya. In the film, Kaluuya portrays an African-American man who falls victim to the perils of white liberal racism.

“There are a lot of black British actors in these movies,” Jackson said. “I tend to wonder what that movie ['Get Out'] would have been with an American brother who really feels that.” He continued, “What would a brother from America have made of that role? Some things are universal, but not everything.”

Doubling down on his argument, Jackson also mentioned Ava DuVernay’s historical drama film “Selma,” which cast David Oyelowo in the role of Martin Luther King Jr.

“There are some brothers in America who could have been in that movie who would have had a different idea about how King thinks,” he said.

John Boyega, a black British actor best known for playing Finn in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” took to Twitter to respond to Jackson’s comments. “Black brits vs African American. A stupid a— conflict we don’t have time for,” he wrote.

 Listen to the interview with Samuel L. Jackson below:

SEE ALSO: Why Netflix's 'Iron Fist' is a disappointing failure

DON'T MISS: A Mexican thanked Conan O'Brien for his Mexico special in a heartwarming letter going viral

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: African-American inventors who improved the world

In Louis Theroux's first feature film, "My Scientology Movie" (in theaters Friday), the acclaimed British documentarian travels to Hollywood in the hopes of better understanding the Church of Scientology by investigating its most infamous moments with former members.

But, as it typically goes with a Theroux project, the unknown creates the most compelling footage. And there's nothing more compelling in "My Scientology Movie" than the hilarious and surprising moment when, in the middle of Theroux doing an interview with former Scientology member Marty Rathbun, actress Paz de la Huerta suddenly hijacks the shoot.

Dressed in a bikini and sipping a water, she is seen in the background walking by the windows of the hotel room where Theroux and Rathbun are shooting. She suddenly stops, knocks on the room's window, and walks to the room's door, which Theroux opens.

"You can't film me," de la Huerta says, before stepping into the hotel room and talking to the camera.

We'll let the scene tell the rest of the story:

It's one of the many stranger-than-fiction moments Theroux has in the movie, but at one point Paz de la Huerta was going to be a bigger part of the film.

As she says in the clip, de la Huerta has been in over 45 films. Many will also remember her from the first two seasons of "Boardwalk Empire" as Lucy Danziger, Nucky Thompson's girlfriend. (HBO reportedly did not pick up her contract option for a third season.) She's also become a Hollywood fixture for her sometimes wild behavior and partying.

But she also has a connection to Scientology, though she is not a member of the church.

The day after de la Huerta barged in on the production of "My Scientology Movie," director John Dower interviewed her on camera in her hotel room. She revealed that she had participated in a reenactment of an event Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard used to put on with scientist Jack Parsons after World War II.

"She had taken part in a kind of Magick ritual, a reenactment of a Magick ritual," Theroux told Business Insider when the film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last year, referring to an occult practice.

In the 1940s, before the creation of Scientology, Hubbard and Parsons were part of the California branch of the black-magic cult Ordo Templi Orientis. Parsons used the huge amount of money he got from the Department of Defense for inventing rocket fuel and converted an old mansion in Pasadena into a pagan oasis where strange rituals happened often.

According to Dower and Theroux, de la Huerta said she was the female lead in a reenactment of one of the Magick rituals done in the mansion. It was all part of a performance headed by artist Brian Butler, who is also known as the manager of legendary experimental filmmaker and author Kenneth Anger ("Hollywood Babylon").

Like any good journalist would, Theroux and Dower followed the story, interviewing Butler and Anger as well as going to Pasadena to film the occult mansion. But looking back on it now, they went too far down the rabbit hole.

"Interviewing Kenneth Anger was fun because 'Hollywood Babylon' was kind of a formative book for me back in the day," Theroux said, "but I thought he was going to link it all up — Hubbard's Hollywood years with the current religion — but it turned out to be on odd interview."

Theroux and Dower ended up never using any of the footage in the movie from the de la Huerta lead. But Dower will never forget the last day of shooting de la Huerta.

"She started singing a Charles Manson song," he said. "I realized then we really went too far down the road with all this, but it was good fun."

SEE ALSO: A movie-theater chain is adding playgrounds to theaters, and people are freaking out

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: INSIDE 'JEOPARDY!' — We spent a day on the set with Alex Trebek

The trailer for the raunchy comedy "Rough Night" went online Wednesday night, and we cannot wait to see Scarlett Johansson take a break from big-budget blockbusters and be in this kind of movie.

Starring alongside Zoë Kravitz and comedy heavyweights Kate McKinnon, Ilana Glazer ("Broad City"), and Jillian Bell ("Workaholics"), Johansson and the gang play best friends who press pause on their busy lives to fly to Miami for Johansson's character's bachelorette weekend. But things change when the stripper they hire dies.

Written and directed by the tandem heavily involved in "Broad City," Lucia Aniello and Paul W. Downs, this one looks to be a must-see summer comedy.

Watch the trailer below. The movie opens in theaters June 16.

SEE ALSO: Every HBO show ranked from worst to best, according to critics

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Oscar nominees receive a $100,000+ swag bag — here's what's inside

The INSIDER Summary: 

• Brie Larson didn't clap for Casey Affleck after handing him his Oscar.
• Larson said that her action "spoke for itself."
• Affleck has been accused of sexual harassment.

Brie Larson does not seem like she's happy with Casey Affleck.

At this year's Academy Awards, Larson — who won the best actress Oscar in 2016 for playing the survivor of a brutal sexual assault in "Room"— introduced the award for best actor.

She gave it to Casey Affleck, who won for his performance in "Manchester by the Sea." Most of the Dolby Theater burst into applause for Affleck's win, but Larson held back and just stood there.

Viewers speculated that Larson didn't want to support Affleck because he has been accused of sexual harassment. Two women accused Affleck for the harassment on the set of his 2010 movie "I'm Still Here." Affleck settled out of court and said he and his accusers are prohibited from discussing the case as part of the settlement terms.

Larson told Vanity Fair on Wednesday that she didn't clap on purpose.

"I think that whatever it was that I did onstage kind of spoke for itself,"she said. "I've said all that I need to say about that topic."

Larson has a record of using her celebrity to support women who have been sexually abused and to support other female-centric causes. She also picks roles that deal with feminist themes. In "Kong: Skull Island," her newest movie, she's one of the only female characters — a Vietnam war photographer and dissident. And "Room" opened a discussion about how woman can be abused by men, sight unseen.

The actress told Vanity Fair that she wants her movie to play a role in social change.

"There is a sense of joy and exhaustion that comes with every film, but the hope is that all the exhaustion pays off and you end up getting to share it with the world,"Larson said. "You hope that it reverberates outward and that it changes people's opinions and hopefully for the better."

SEE ALSO: Hollywood stars who rejected their Oscars

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here’s why flights take longer than they did 50 years ago

In the 2015 blockbuster movie "The Martian", a fictional botanist-turned-astronaut gets stranded on Mars, forcing him to "science the s--t" out of his dire situation.

Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon) survives by fertilizing Martian soil with his feces, slicing up potatoes, and planting the cuttings in the soil. This eventually grows him enough food to last hundreds of days.

But farming on Mars may not remain sci-fi fantasy for very long: The NASA-backed "Potatoes on Mars" project just grew tubers in Mars-like conditions, suggesting that Watney's feat might actually be possible.

NASA has eyed a crewed mission to the red planet for decades, and Congress just passed a bill that implores the space agency to reach the red planet by 2033. The agency is also exploring ideas of a Martian colony.

To that end, scientists at NASA and the International Potato Center (CIP) in Lima, Peru, built a tuber-growing experiment that recreates the extreme conditions on the surface of Mars.

Everything happens inside a rocket-launchable box called a CubeSat. The CubeSat is rigged with pumps, water hoses, LED lights, and instruments to emulate Mars-like temperatures, night-and-day light cycles, gases, and air pressure.

In February 2017, researchers dumped practically lifeless soil from Peru's Pampas de la Joya desert inside, planted a tuber in it, sealed up the box, and began filming to see what happened.

"Preliminary results are positive," according to a CIP press release— which is to say a potato plant grew in inhospitable desert soil under Mars-like conditions.

"If the crops can tolerate the extreme conditions that we are exposing them to in our CubeSat, they have a good chance to grow on Mars," Julio Valdivia-Silva, a NASA researcher at the University of Engineering and Technology in Lima, said in the release.

Would this actually work on Mars?

The experiment doesn't provide the ironclad proof a would-be Martian potato farmer needs.

For one, the soil didn't actually come from Mars. Though it was arid and inhospitable, it probably still had microbes that may have helped the potato plant's growth.

The experiment also used potato cuttings instead of seeds. That's an issue because making potatoes last on a months- or years-long journey may require heating under pressure (called thermostabilization) or a blast of radiation. This damages the cells of a potato, "making it hard to grow plants from cuttings," Keith Cowing, the founder of NASAWatch, told Business Insider in a tweet.

However, several other experiments have shown it may be possible to grow food in Martian soil and in even-more-inhospitable moon dust, called regolith.

Bruce Bugbee, a botanist and NASA scientist at Utah State University, told Tech Insider in 2015 that there's no reason why growing potatoes or other food crops in Martian soil wouldn't work. (He did, however, take issue with Watney mixing his feces into the soil, which he said may be "toxic to the plants.")

The CIP, NASA, and other institutions are now looking to see how several varieties of potatoes perform in the Mars-like CubeSat box, including special varieties they've bred to withstand harsh conditions.

"We will do several rounds of experiments to find out which potato varieties do best,"Valdivia-Silva said. "We want to know what the minimum conditions are that a potato needs to survive."

Aside from helping astronaut farmers of the future, the work also stands to benefit humans on Earth.

"The results indicate that our efforts to breed varieties with high potential for strengthening food security in areas that are affected, or will be affected by climate change, are working," Walter Amoros, a potato breeder at CIP, said in the organization's release.

You can watch the experiment's potato sprout in the time-lapse video on YouTube or below.

SEE ALSO: 12 ways Matt Damon uses science to survive in 'The Martian'

DON'T MISS: The truth about growing potatoes on Mars

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How special effects made you believe that Matt Damon was actually stranded on Mars in 'The Martian'

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Queen Elizabeth II should feel pretty flattered: The queen of 65 years has been portrayed as a character in roughly 100 films and TV shows, IMDb records show. 

Here are 15 talented performers who have brought the monarch to life on screen, and how they compare to the real thing:

In Netflix's new series "The Crown," Claire Foy plays Elizabeth in the early days of her reign. She became queen at age 25 when her father died.

Here's how the rest of the cast compares to the real-life royals they portray.

Source: IMDb

"SNL" actor Fred Armisen played a bawdy, foul-mouthed version of the queen in several sketches.

In this 2011 sketch, the Queen and her husband angrily confront newly-married Will and Kate.

Source: NBC

Helen Mirren won an Oscar for her portrayal of Elizabeth in 2006's "The Queen."

Here are 15 reasons why Dame Mirren an absolute boss. 

Source: IMDb

The King Kong story is one of the most durable in Hollywood. Beginning the 1933 film "King Kong," studios have made eight movies starring the building-sized monster.

The newest adventure is "Kong: Skull Island," which does away with the romantic center of the story to focus on visceral action sequences. It's meant to tie into Warner Bros.'s "Godzilla" movie, with "Godzilla vs. Kong" planned for 2020 and more monsters to join the "MonsterVerse" in the future.

It's a perfect time to take a look back at the previous "Kong" movie. Peter Jackson's 2005 take came right after he finished the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. And with lush special effects and a three-hour running time, it was equally magisterial.

In the 12 years since, its stars have gone on to new corners in the movie industry. Here's where they've been.

SEE ALSO: THEN & NOW: The cast of the 2005 'King Kong' movie, 12 years later

Naomi Watts plays a struggling actress.

Watts plays Ann Darrow, who's so desperate for work that she accepts a job traveling to the uncharted Skull Island.

In real life, Watts was coming off a string of critically successful performances. It started with David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive" in 2001, then the box office smash "The Ring." Following that, she picked up roles in "21 Grams" and the cult classic "I Heart Huckabees."

2017 is shaping up to be one of her biggest years yet.

Watts will star in the revival of the television show "Twin Peaks," also directed by David Lynch. She'll also be in "The Glass Castle" and "The Book of Henry," both of which are poised for attention during awards season. Additionally, she'll be in the Netflix drama "Gypsy."

In the past few years, Watts earned an Oscar nomination for her role in the 2012 movie "The Impossible," picked up a role in the "Divergent" series, and had a memorable part in "Birdman."

Jack Black took on a more dramatic role than he was used to.

Black has made his career out of being a music-loving comedic actor with a lot of heart, best known for "High Fidelity" and "School of Rock." His role in King Kong — a self-serious, wild-eyed filmmaker — wasn't as comedic, but showed off his range.

The INSIDER Summary:

• "Get Out" is the most compelling horror movie this year cementing itself as a classic.
• The title of the movie is also a direct reference to "The Amityville Horror."

Who would've ever thought that a comedian could make such a compelling horror film? That is a thought that has gone through the head of just about anybody who has seen Jordan Peele's Get Out, and the woke thriller has already carved out a place for itself as a modern horror classic. Seriously, if you have not seen this movie yet, do yourself a favor and check it out as soon as possible while it is still in theaters.

"The Amityville Horror"

This reference might be the most on the nose of the bunch, but that doesn't make it any less awesome. Although the line "get out" is uttered in Jordan Peele's film of the same name -- specifically during a genuinely tense scene involving Lakeith Stanfield's character -- the title of the movie is also a direct reference to The Amityville Horror. As most horror fans likely remember, the phrase "get out" is an iconic facet of the Amityville lore, as it is the command shouted by the house as the demonic spirits demand that Father Delaney stop helping the Lutz family.

"Halloween"

Some of the scariest horror films take place in the most seemingly idyllic locations, and that's a concept that Halloween nailed when it hit theaters almost 40 years ago. Get Out's first scene honors that tradition by playing out like a slasher sequence ripped straight from John Carpenter's 1978 classic. The neighborhood in which Get Out's opening scene takes place even resembles the fictional town of Haddonfield, Illinois. Halloween broke new ground by bringing its particular brand of terror into a quiet, middle America suburb, and Get Out takes it one step further by adding its own brand of social commentary to the carnage.

"The Shining"

As beautiful as it is on the surface, the secluded nature of the Armitage household in Get Out shares a number of similarities to The Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining -- particularly in the way that Chris' mental state deteriorates the longer he remains isolated at the house. Beyond that, in the opening sequence of the film, Lakeith Stanfield's character makes an offhand comment about "walking in a hedge maze out here." Sound familiar? That is because the climax of The Shining is a terrifying chase sequence that takes place in a hedge maze. Sadly, the "hedge maze" sequence ultimately doesn't end well in Get Out.

This weekend, theatergoers will be entertained by one of cinema's classic monsters, King Kong, in the latest film from Warner Bros.'s MonsterVerse franchise, "Kong: Skull Island."

A departure from the 1933 original and remakes, this one is set in the disruptive Vietnam-era and follows scientists and military as they travel to Skull Island to see what lives on it.

Starring Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Brie Larson, John C. Reilly, and John Goodman, many critics were in favor of this entertaining depiction of Kong, as the movie is currently sporting a 79% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But the movie certainly has its problems (see our review). It's projected to earn between $45 million to $50 million this weekend.

Here we break down what the top critics like and dislike about "Kong: Skull Island":

SEE ALSO: 33 documentaries on Netflix right now that will make you smarter

At its core, the movie is extremely entertaining.

From director Jordan Vogt-Roberts' great sense of comic timing to the insane happenings on Skull Island, the movie is fun and thrilling.

"'Kong: Skull Island' enters with lofty ambitions and style to spare," wrote The Playlist. "Whether or not it completely succeeds is open for subjective debate, but damn if it isn't a hell of a ride."

"...the only thing at this movie’s heart is the (admittedly accurate) belief that when a giant ape punches a giant lizard in the face with a boat motor, it looks totally freaking awesome," wrote ScreenCrush.

Don't worry, there's a lot of Kong screen time.

WB got a lot of heat for not showing a lot of Godzilla in its standalone 2014 movie. They corrected that error for Kong.

"As soon as the Vietnam-era helicopters enter the Skull Island airspace, they are greeted in a very rude manner by Kong, who effortlessly swats them out of the air," wrote Uproxx.

"If you are a monster movie fan that disliked or felt lukewarm to 'Godzilla' then 'Kong: Skull Island' is the attempt to win you back before both monsters eventually square off," wrote Collider.

The monster fight scenes are worth the ticket price.

Yeah, this is pretty much why you should go see this movie.

"People die in creatively graphic ways, and the spectacle of brawling beasts in beautiful, forbidding settings is at times as captivating as it probably was in 1933, when audiences first gaped at Ernest B. Schoedsack and Merian C. Cooper's original 'King Kong,' wrote The Village Voice.

"Fully realistic creatures are now nothing new, but the filmmakers, notably led by visual effects supervisors Stephen Rosenbaum and Jeff White, have engineered scenes of bestial combat that are not only hyper-credible but shot through with unexpected, and often gruesomely funny, moves," wrote The Hollywood Reporter.

After the surprise success of "John Wick," stuntmen-turned-directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch were in high demand, and when it came time for the two to choose between a project they were working on and a John Wick" sequel, the two had to divide and conquer.

So, Stahelski took "John Wick: Chapter 2" and Leitch (also signed on the direct "Deadpool 2") took the Cold War-era spy thriller "Atomic Blonde."

Based on the graphic novel, "The Coldest City," Charlize Theron plays MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton, who travels to Berlin to investigate the murder of a fellow agent.

Also starring John Goodman, Toby Jones, James McAvoy, and Sofia Boutella (Jaylah from "Star Trek Beyond"), the trailer that just went live on Friday teases a movie that has all the makings of being as good as the "John Wick" movies.

And having already wowed us in "Mad Max: Fury Road" and the trailers for "The Fate of the Furious," we are loving Theron's head-first dive into genre movies. "Atomic Blonde" looks to be her most ambitious offering yet.

Watch the NSFW trailer below. "Atomic Blonde" opens in theaters this summer.

SEE ALSO: Critics say 'Kong: Skull Island' has its flaws but is a 'hell of a ride'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Terry Crews explains how intermittent fasting keeps him in shape

Director James Cameron has never been one to rush a project, and the "Avatar" sequels are a perfect example.

"Avatar 2" was originally supposed to be released in 2014, five years after the 2009 original, which went on to become the highest-grossing movie of all time. But that didn't happen, and then the sequel missed a couple other dates over the years, and now the latest projected 2018 release isn't going to happen either, according to Cameron. This is the fifth date set for the sequel's release and the fourth delay.

In a recent interview with the Toronto Star, Cameron broke down the complexities of making not just one sequel, but four:

"Well, 2018 is not happening. We haven’t announced a firm release date. What people have to understand is that this is a cadence of releases. So we’re not making 'Avatar 2.' We’re making 'Avatar 2,' '3,' '4,' and '5.' It’s an epic undertaking. It’s not unlike building the Three Gorges dam. [Laughs] So I know where I’m going to be for the next eight years of my life. It’s not an unreasonable time frame if you think about it. It took us four and a half years to make one movie and now we’re making four. We’re full-tilt boogie right now. This is my day job and pretty soon we’ll be 24-7. We’re pretty well-designed on all our creatures and sets. It’s pretty exciting stuff. I wish I could share with the world. But we have to preserve a certain amount of showmanship and we’re going to draw that curtain when the time is right."

Cameron has been known his whole career for his intense work ethic and attention to detail, so no one should think he's gliding around in his submarine and not working.

But Cameron is also always pushing the technology of cinema, so it shouldn't be a surprise if Cameron's delay is so the tech can catch up to his vision.

So as we patiently wait for our next trip to Pandora, you can head over to the "Avatar" attraction that is coming to Disney World later this year. Check it out below.

20th Century Fox did not immediately response to Business Insider's request for comment.

SEE ALSO: Every HBO show ranked from worst to best, according to critics

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Marvel just dropped the latest trailer for 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2' and it looks incredible