Entertainment
Jason Momoa's New Movie Is A Near Perfect Throwback To A Better Era Of Big Muscles And Bigger Explosions
By Jennifer Asencio
| Published
The Wrecking Crew teams Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista in a brotherly buddy movie whose trailer promises lots of explosions and great one-liners, kind of like the action heroes of 80s and 90s classics. It’s a rare streaming entry that actually delivers on that promise.
Momoa and Bautista play half-brothers James and Johnny, who share a father and a complicated past. Their father is killed in a hit-and-run accident, bringing the prodigal Johnny back to the family fold in Oahu, Hawaii, to at least investigate why the Yakuza visited his Oklahoma home. The brothers don’t see eye to eye, and James isn’t quite convinced their father was murdered, while Johnny is sure the Yakuza were involved.
Johnny is a cop, and James trains Navy SEALs, so both men know how to handle themselves as they begin to uncover a plot that threatens their Hawaiian home. A maze of Hawaiian gangsters, Yakuza hitmen, and elite security stands between them and the truth. As the brothers get closer to finding out about their father’s death and sorting out their own tangled relationship, they leave behind them an ever-increasing trail of destruction that will rock Oahu.
Classic Action Stars In The Modern Era
James and Johnny are classic action stars who recall the mayhem of classics like Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, or Commando. Almost every scene moves things along by leaving more questions than answers and inviting fights, explosions, car chases, and intrigue. As they try to solve the mystery, the brothers struggle to deal with each other, the memory of a dismissive father, and the threat to their families from the events they’ve been drawn into.
These two men are not the passive heroes of modern movies. They are manly men, dripping masculinity in every scene. They deal with their emotions as men (despite James’s wife being a child psychologist), and they solve their problems like action heroes: by beating the crap out of them, including each other.
The Wrecking Crew exhibits its leads as men, dressed in clothing that shows off the muscles of both actors, particularly Momoa. The Hawaiian setting gives them plenty of opportunity to wear things like Hawaiian shirts and tank tops, and no opportunity is wasted to show off the two actors to their best advantage.
However, as macho a movie as it is, the women are not weeping violets. They know who their men are, but they also do their part to help uncover the plot through their own ingenuity and agency. Morena Baccarin co-stars as Johnny’s love interest, whose scene in the movie’s trailer during one of the car chases does not do justice to her actual performance in the full sequence.
Every Trope Of The Genre In One Explosive Car Chase Scene
The Wrecking Crew’s action swings between well-choreographed melee and gun fights and frenetic car chases that raise the stakes every time, highlighted by cinematography that brings us along for the ride. Two skirmishes take place in a windowed hallway that reminded me of the “House of Blue Leaves” fight in Kill Bill Vol. 1. One car chase invokes every single trope of the genre, then amplifies them into an explosive crescendo. Don’t look away, because there are tons of visual cues that connect each scene to the next.
Part of the amazing visuals is the fact that Hawaii itself is made a character through the use of camera angles and imagery. Oahu, where the story takes place, is always present, from scenic drone shots to dramatic beach scenes and major action sequences. In specifically strategic shot, a prominent mountain peak is framed between the two leads, reminding viewers that Hawaii is always over their shoulders.
Maia Kealoha Redeems Herself In A Movie That’s Actually About Ohana
The Wrecking Crew also features True Blood’s Stephen Root and Frankie Adams of The Expanse, as well as Jacob Batalon, known for the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies and pretty much cast to type. Young Maia Kealoha, who played Lilo in Disney’s live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch, steals the show in almost every scene she’s in and hints at a promising career as an actress; at any rate, it’s nice to see Lilo get to be in a movie that is actually about ohana, or families sticking together, after the disappointment of her other major film.
If there is anything wrong with The Wrecking Crew, it’s a short period of investigation in the middle of the film that seems to drag on, especially compared to the intense pace of the rest of the movie. This part only lasts about 15-20 minutes, though, and then we’re thrust right back into adventure and excitement.
An Unapologetically Masculine Film
The Wrecking Crew is unapologetically masculine while exhibiting an emotional depth that doesn’t reduce its leads into weeping sissies. These men of action deal with things in very male ways without shame while never slipping into today’s tropes about “toxic masculinity.” They suffer and are not invulnerable, either physically or emotionally, but ultimately, they are men of honor doing what men do to protect their families.
The Wrecking Crew has found a way to give audiences what they’ve been missing: a compelling story, a cast of characters we can all aspire to be, and an old-fashioned battle between good and evil. Once you’re on this wild ride, you’re not getting off until the credits roll.
The Wrecking Crew is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
Entertainment
Maddies Secret trailer reveals John Early as youve never seen him before
Comedian John Early makes his feature directorial debut with Maddie’s Secret, an offbeat homage to melodrama that he wrote and headlines as its eponymous heroine.
As an aspiring food influencer, Maddie Ralph (Early) is passionate about her cuisine. And at first glance, she’s got a picture-perfect life: a loving husband (Eric Rahill), a devoted best friend (Kate Berlant), and a job at a culinary content studio called Gourmaybe. But as the title suggests, there’s a side to Maddie she can’t stomach sharing with her loved ones. And this secret could kill her.
Out of the movie’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall, I cheered Maddie’s Secret, writing in my review for Mashable, “The film is silly and strange, but even amid campy bits, sincere. So, you’ll laugh at its parody elements, but may well be genuinely moved by Early’s commitment to this strange and splendid film.”
I also said “John Early is a better ingénue than Sydney Sweeney,” comparing Maddie’s Secret to another earnest (but less entertaining) TIFF offering, Christy. And I stand by it.
Maddie’s Secret opens in theaters in New York on June 19, and in Los Angeles on June 26.
Entertainment
Pride is almost here! Check out the best dating apps for LGBTQ women.
We know Pride is all year round, but there is something special about the month of June. We’re not there quite yet, but if you want a main squeeze for all the parades and parties, you gotta start looking now. How about on a dating app?
As a lesbian, you probably know all about them. Lesbian Americans (along with bisexual and gay Americans) are far more likely to have ever used dating apps than straight Americans: 51 percent to 28 percent, according to the Pew Research Center.
There are a few reasons why LGBTQ people might turn to online dating more quickly than straight folks. For one, you might live in an area without a thriving LGBTQ community, and in-person dating may be hard. If you don’t know other lesbians to begin with, how can you meet more IRL to date? (Sometimes, lesbian spaces can also be co-opted by The Straights.) Unfortunately, in-person dating may also be less safe, depending on where you live.
Hookup apps for everyone
AdultFriendFinder
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readers’ pick for casual connections
Tinder
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top pick for finding hookups
Hinge
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popular choice for regular meetups
Thankfully, we live in a time where we can find people like us with a few swipes. Lesbians are welcome on major dating apps, and there are also niche ones specifically for lesbians and other queer women and people. But which one to choose?
How to find the best dating apps for lesbians
Niche lesbian dating apps aren’t your only option for finding love.
Credit: Stacey Zhu / Mashable
In Mashable’s recommendations below, you’ll find both general dating apps and apps specifically for queer people. As the former appeals to the general population, you’ll find more users in these spaces. The caveat, however, is that when you swipe on other women, you might find those coupled with men who are looking for another woman to have a threesome with (aka unicorn hunters). No judgment here, but that’s probably not what you’re looking for. Then again, people of all types are on dating apps like Tinder and Hinge. You never know who you may come across.
Then there are apps specifically for the community, like HER and Lex. If you yearn for a smaller dating scene, head for these apps. While there’s no “Grindr for lesbians” — we go into why in the FAQ section — these apps are more so like stepping into your neighborhood lesbian bar than an app like Bumble.
You can also try multiple dating apps, as each one below has a free version. You can filter by the gender you identify with and are looking for, and sometimes, as with OkCupid, there are many options to choose from.
Diving into the dating pool isn’t easy, but the water’s fine. Check out our guide below for the full rundown of our recommendations and dating app reviews.
Entertainment
OpenAI rolls out ChatGPT 5.5 Instant as the new default model for everyone
Last week, OpenAI managed to stop ChatGPT from talking about goblins all the time. This week, there’s a whole new model for users to play with.
The company announced in a blog post on Tuesday that ChatGPT 5.5 Instant has begun rolling out to all users as the new default model for the popular AI chatbot. The new model is a follow-up to GPT 5.5, which was released in April.
GPT-5.5 Instant replaces 5.3 Instant, which will remain available for the next three months for paid users but will otherwise be sunsetted.
Unlike Claude Opus 4.7 from Anthropic and GPT-5.5, which are only available to paid customers, GPT-5.5 Instant is “available to everyone.” OpenAI says it should produce fewer hallucinations and better overall results for everyday ChatGPT usage.
“This update makes everyday interactions more useful and more enjoyable: stronger and tighter answers across subject areas, a more natural conversational tone, and better use of the context you’ve already shared when personalization can help,” OpenAI’s blog post said.
Mashable Light Speed
According to OpenAI, GPT-5.5 Instant produced 52.5 percent fewer hallucinated claims in internal testing than GPT-5.3 in “high stakes” topics like law, finance, and medicine. In addition, the new model “reduced inaccurate claims by 37.3% on especially challenging conversations users had flagged for factual errors.”
The company also says the new model is better at deciding when to use web search for a prompt and analyzing image uploads than before. The new model is also allegedly more concise in its answers, while also maintaining something of a personality in how it talks to the user. GPT-5.5 Instant should also be better at understanding and referencing context from a connected Gmail account and other integrations to provide quality answers.
And, again, most importantly, it should avoid mentioning goblins unless absolutely necessary.
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Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
Maddies Secret trailer reveals John Early as youve never seen him before
Pride is almost here! Check out the best dating apps for LGBTQ women.
