Entertainment
The Raunchy 2023 Comedy So Offensive, Everyone Involved Was Targeted For Cancellation
By Jennifer Asencio
| Published
There are some critics out there who can’t seem to get over the fact that Daily Wire+ makes its own content. They have gone so out of their way to ignore the recent series The Pendragon Cycle: Rise of the Merlin that there is still, as of this writing, no Rotten Tomatoes score for it from critics. It’s a fact that has been thrown in everyone’s faces to poison the well against this incredible King Arthur epic.
Ignoring all of the other content Daily Wire+ produces, including the magnificent Run Hide Fight and slow-burnWestern thriller Terror on the Prairie, any coverage of Daily Wire+ content focuses on one movie: Lady Ballers. This absurdist comedy was written and directed by Jeremy Boreing and features almost every well-known Daily Wire personality, including Matt Walsh, Brett Cooper (who also played Ganieda in The Pendragon Cycle), Ben Shapiro, Michael Knowles, and the controversial Candace Owens, who has since departed the company and is having a very public feud with both Daily Wire and Boreing. These things are enough for critics to shy away from it, especially in light of the escapades of Owens, but there’s more.
The story is about a failed basketball coach named Rob whose harsh coaching tactics are not as welcome in the era of DEI as they were when he was winning championships in 2008. Down on his luck, he finds himself working at a drag bar, where he is reunited with his former star player, Alex. He and Alex decide to train Alex for a local track and field event, but when Rob tries to register his protégé, he is told the men’s category is full. Alex, just coming off a shift at work, is still dressed in drag, causing the horrified race registrar to profusely apologize and allow Alex into the race… as a transgender woman.
Things get even more complicated when reporter Gwen Wilde enters the picture and convinces Rob and Alex to enter a women’s basketball competition as transgender athletes. Rob’s daughter, Winnie, a savvy eight-year-old who goes to public school and lives with her mother and extremely liberal stepfather, Kris, assists by explaining how gender identity works. The team does well, and the players all embrace their inner women, but their fame and stardom comes with unforeseen complications.
One of the strongest things about this movie is its script, which manages to touch every aspect of its subject matter in ways that highlight the absurdity of some of the arguments made about gender identity. This is probably why so many critics consider it “transphobic,” but what the movie really does is explore these arguments to conclusions that should be extreme but aren’t. Swimmer Reilly Gaines makes a poignant appearance as she is beaten in a race by one of the athletes, so this movie is definitely a direct statement on the inclusion of trans women in women’s sports.
What it surprisingly does not do is judge gender ideology any more harshly than it judges anything else. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Matt Walsh is surprisingly good in this movie as the hippie stepfather to Winnie, repeating every talking point with deadpan earnestness. But Rob is equally earnest in his own ridiculous ideas and equally lampooned in his aggressive attitudes about winning, his complete misunderstanding of gender theory, and his clumsy attempts to deal with his ex-wife, Dharby. In fact, Jeremy Boreing’s script even makes fun of itself more than once, calling out its own events. This is mostly a very intelligent script, even as it revels in its absurdity.
As much as the movie is about Rob and the team, the most important character is Winnie. Rob’s one redeeming quality is that he wants to be a good father to his daughter; meanwhile, she is more knowledgeable about the modern world that has left Rob behind.
Rosie Seraphine Harper will be a name to watch out for, as she portrays Winnie with such incredible comic timing, balanced with heartbreaking dramatic expression when things aren’t going well for her parents. One earnest scene in which she lists everything she thinks boys can do better than girls is deftly edited for heightened emotional impact, further spotlighting this young lady’s acting.
However, the movie does sometimes belabor its points, dragging out some of the sports action longer than it should. Some of the gags are carried a little too far, where they might have been funnier had they been cut down. The movie could have been 20 minutes shorter without hurting it or removing any of its best jokes. The only other thing that might diminish Lady Ballers is that some of the things in this movie that should be ridiculous are happening in real life, as evidenced by the montage that included Reilly Gaines.
I went into this movie thinking I was going to hate it, but there was a lot to like. The jokes land because they are genuinely funny and use the actors’ personalities. Its climax brings Rob’s ludicrous plan to its most obvious conclusion, then takes a heartwarming turn that underscores the movie’s theme. It doesn’t denigrate transgender people but makes the arguments that we’ve long been told we’re not allowed to make. It’s a human comedy that answers its questions with humor rather than derision.
Rotten Tomatoes gave this a 40% fresh rating, which was higher than I expected from the critics, but it turns out that rating is based on only five reviews. Meanwhile, an audience of 5000+ rated it 77%. It’s actually got a lot in common with Mike Judge’s cult classic Idiocracy in that it follows the silliness of its plot all the way to the end. It’s not great comedy, but it’s good comedy, and if the people it lampoons can’t take the joke, it’s simply because they don’t like the conclusions it comes to, not because there is anything wrong with the movie itself.
Audiences are reminded constantly that Daily Wire+ made Lady Ballers, and Candace Owens even used it to detract from Jeremy Boreing in her most recent rants against him. This is mainly to poison the well against the entire channel based on one movie. The trailer for Scary Movie 6 goes much further than Lady Ballers ever approaches, and it’s an entire movie. Using it as a tactic to detract from the streamer’s other content and Jeremy Boreing’s work is an underhanded attack, especially since the movie is better than it’s made out to be.
LADY BALLERS REVIEW SCORE
Lady Ballers is available on Daily Wire+ with a subscription and for rent on Amazon and Apple.
Entertainment
Stephen King's Forgotten R-Rated 80s Hit Led By Star Trek's Most Evil Seductress
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
There’s been a lot of Stephen King adaptations over the years. In the early 90s, King decided to write a story as a screenplay first, and the result was the insane Sleepwalkers, about a mother and son pair of vampiric werecats terrorizing a small town in Indiana.
It’s one of those films that has to be seen to be believed, especially for a pre-Borg Queen performance by Star Trek: First Contact’s Alice Krige as one of the sleepwalkers. The 1992 horror film recently arrived on Netflix, making it even easier to play “spot the famous horror director” from among the many cameos jammed into the brisk, 89-minute runtime.
Don’t Think Too Hard About Sleepwalkers
Stephen King has been very upfront about the copious amounts of drugs he consumed during the 70s and 80s, particularly cocaine, which helps explain Sleepwalkers’ plot. Alice Krige is Mary, the mother of Charles (Charmed’s Brian Krause), and the two happen to be energy-draining werecats who feed off the energy of female virgins. Tanya (Twin Peak’s Madchen Amick) is targeted by the two after Charles fakes his way into the local high school, but the elaborate plan, which consists of make out in a cemetery, is thwarted when Tanya fights back using a corkscrew.
The two sleepwalkers may be powerful night creatures, but they have one weakness, and it just so happens that Tanya’s bonded with one of the beings who can easily kill them in a fight: Clovis the housecat. Sleepwalkers is very simple in its storytelling, and absolutely insane with its bizarre face-morphing CGI (at the time, it was cutting edge), cats flying in off the side of the screen, cars blowing up with a single bullet, and an “interesting” mother-son relationship.
Sleepwalkers Was A Surprise Box Office Hit
Alice Krige manages to again be off-putting, terrifying, and charming at the same time, similar to her later performance as the Borg Queen, the original “hear me out” meme of the 90s. Her performance helped propel the off-kilter feature to top the box office the weekend it debuted on the way to earning $30 million, unadjusted for inflation, that still tops the 2025 box office for horror films Him and The Woman In The Yard.
One of the fun parts of Sleepwalkers comes from director Mick Garris’ mission to include as many horror directors as possible, leading to cameos from Stephen King himself, John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Clive Barker (Hellraiser, Scream), and Joe Dante (Gremlins). Mark Hamill and Ron Perlman also pop in for brief appearances.
Sleepwalkers was savaged by critics and still only has a 29 percent rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an equally low audience rating of 32 percent. Those people clearly don’t know how to have fun. King’s story may have, allegedly, been drug-induced, but it’s so weird and off the wall that the film is a blast. While it’s special effects aged like milk, Krause and Krig managed to create some great scares, and in an era of bloated runtimes, 89 minutes makes it feel like it’s ending as soon as it gets going.
Sleepwalkers is now available to stream on Netflix, and we suggest you sit down with your cat to watch it.
Entertainment
Ben & Jerrys Free Cone Day is back for 2026 — everything you need to know
TL;DR: On April 14, visit your nearest Scoop Shop and grab a free cup or cone of your favorite Ben & Jerry’s flavor.
It’s that special time of year when free ice cream becomes the norm. Hot on the heels of Dairy Queen announcing the date of its Free Cone Day, Ben & Jerry’s has done the same.
Ben & Jerry’s celebrates Free Cone Day around the globe every year, sharing the love with free cups and cones of your favorite flavors. There’s no catch. Simply visit your nearest Scoop Shop and grab a scoop for free. Ben & Jerry’s is giving away free ice cream at a host of locations between 12-8 p.m. on April 14. You can check participating locations here.
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Ben & Jerry’s is aiming to spread more joy than ever before. They served up 1 million scoops in 2023, but they’re targeting more in 2026. And you can help out with that ambitious target, because unlike a lot of these free giveaways, there’s no limit on the number of times you can score a free cone. Can’t decide what flavor to order? Don’t worry — try them all.
Mark your calendars: Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s takes place on April 14.
Entertainment
The Best Show On Streaming Has Been Canceled, End Of An Era
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
The advent of streaming completely changed how we watch television, allowing fans to watch whatever they wanted with the press of a button. This is perfect for avid entertainment lovers always looking for their next fix, but as an aging Millennial, I can’t help but think the prominence of streaming took something special away from the overall experience. Television used to be a communal ritual where we all watched the same things at the same time, excitedly sharing our thoughts on the latest shows with fellow fans; now, everyone is siloed in their own entertaining bubbles, enjoying their favorite programming in the stifling comfort of complete isolation.
However, one streaming show set out to change all that: The Last Drive-In on Shudder featured iconic horror guru Joe Bob Briggs hosting scary movies, offering commentary segments throughout where commercials might have gone way back when. While the Last Drive-In segments are available to stream on demand after a couple of days, they would premiere on Friday nights in a live broadcast that superfans would watch at the same time, all while chattering with each other and with Joe Bob (and his perky co-host, Darcy the Mail Girl) on social media. This made this the best show on streaming, but it’s the end of an era now that Shudder has canceled the show.
The Man, The Myth
Since he is something of a cult figure, you may need a primer on Joe Bob Briggs, especially if you’re a younger horror fiend. Joe Bob (real name, John Bloom) started out as a reporter for The Dallas Herald, and he specialized in a niche no one else cared about: shlocky exploitation films and gruesome horror movies you could only find at the local drive-in theater. To cover these movies, Bloom developed the persona of Joe Bob Briggs, a quippy, quirky redneck whose rants offered great insight into genre films while serving as a parody of the prim and proper reviews from film critics like Siskel and Ebert.
In 1985, Briggs made an unexpected jump from the printed page to the stage with a very successful one-man show, An Evening With Joe Bob Briggs. This raised his profile and proved he could entertain large crowds, and this led to an unexpected opportunity: he guest-hosted Drive-In Theater on The Movie Channel, which led to him getting his own show, the appropriately named Joe Bob’s Drive-In Theater. There, he hosted shlocky movies (typically horror films), complete with a tongue-in-cheek tally of things like how many dead bodies and naked breasts appeared in the film.
When Joe Bob’s Drive-In Theater ended, he took his unique brand of entertainment, hosting MonsterVision on TNT. There, he once again hosted a variety of films, but he offered more commentary than ever: rather than appearing only at the beginning of the film, Joe Bob would also pop up on commercial breaks, offering further insights into each movie. When MonsterVision ended, though, Joe Bob largely dropped out of public life, popping up two decades later in a farewell performance that ended up reigniting his career.
A New Era
In 2018, Joe Bob Briggs hosted a 24-hour marathon of movies for Shudder, all of which were initially broadcast as part of the horror streamer’s live feed. This was meant to be a final performance for Joe Bob, giving this old cowboy one last time on the saddle before he rode off into the sunset. However, the marathon proved to be insanely popular, with Shudder’s servers crashing due to the high number of fans all rushing to watch this genre legend dish dirt on spooky movies.
In response, Shudder ordered more specials from him before greenlighting The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs, a regular series. For the next seven years, Joe Bob hosted one of the most popular series on the streaming platform, and his most ardent fans tuned in to each live broadcast, using social media to connect the entire fandom (affectionately nicknamed “The Mutant Family”). Due to the show’s success, it really looked like Joe Bob would be doing this forever, but just a few days ago, he dropped some devastating news on his fans.
An Emotional Rollercoaster of Announcements
Joe Bob Briggs typically hypes up his upcoming shows on Shudder, offering cryptic hints and funny commentary on platforms like Facebook and X. Ahead of the season finale of The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs, he made a somber-sounding announcement about how important it was for all of the fandom to tune in for this episode. This led to rampant speculation from fans: some thought Joe Bob needed more live views to get his show renewed, and others thought he would be announcing his retirement because, at 73, he’s one of the oldest entertainers in the business and may be dealing with unknown health issues.
When the episode aired, Joe Bob and co-host Darcy the Mail Girl offered fans some good news and some bad news. The good news is that Joe Bob is quite healthy (or, in his words, “spry as f*ck”), but the bad news is that Shudder is canceling The Last Drive-In. The hosts have apparently known this was coming for a while, but they are currently forbidden from saying exactly what went down and why Shudder (which just updated its app in an attempt to gain more subscribers) suddenly decided to kill the only show that countless fans (myself included) subscribe to this streamer to watch.
An Unknown Future
The silver lining in all of this is that Joe Bob Briggs and Darcy the Mail Girl plan to take their show somewhere else, but they have not yet confirmed where this will be. We likely know where they will not go, and that is Tubi. On X, Joe Bob retweeted a post from Damian Maffei that didn’t explicitly name Tubi but accused “that free streaming app with all the ads” of being a streamer that has been known “to edit movies. Cut things down, and zoom in on scenes.”
Many have pointed out that Tubi doesn’t do this and just streams whatever print of the film they can get, but the implication of the retweet is that Joe Bob doesn’t like the free streaming service and is unlikely to take The Last Drive-In over there. Unfortunately, this brings us no closer to knowing where Joe Bob and Darcy will land and when they’ll start hosting movies again. Until they confirm anything, all fans can do is speculate while mourning the loss of the best show on streaming.
The Drive-In Will Never Die
The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs was unlike anything else in the streaming world: it featured eclectic horror classics, insightful commentary, and gonzo humor, all while letting fans share the magic together through live broadcasts. It brought the entire Mutant Family together, allowing us to bond over everything from Joe Bob’s signature rants to the shlockiness of our favorite films. Fortunately, the man himself has confirmed he will be returning and keep gracing us with his unique brand of comedic criticism powered by decades of arcane horror film knowledge.
That announcement fulfills the prophecy of something Joe Bob has been reminding us of at the end of every episode since the new show began. A promise, a mantra, and a fervent hope, all rolled into five little words that the Mutants are clinging to now more than ever: “the drive-in will never die.”
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