Eric Francisco

Patient, sobbing: But Doctor, I AM Pagliacci!
ChatGPT: Apologies. I didn't realise when recommending Pagliacci's epic show to cure your depression that you were the genius himself. I'm impressed! With regards to your initial question, I can recommend seeing the Great Clown Pagliacci.

‘Weapons’ Firmly Establishes Zach Cregger as a Modern Master of Horror One of this year’s best films is an intelligent study on youth not in revolt but as pawns subject to ancient forces. Oh, and it’s scary as hell.

I'm a huge fan of Weapons, a step up from Barbarian by writer/director Zach Cregger. An unnerving supernatural horror concerned with the well-being of children and our inability as adults to truly understand what ails them. My review for Esquire: www.esquire.com/entertainmen...

It's such a great thing that Fortnite is using Ron Wasserman's 2012 re-recording of the Power Rangers theme. Not well-versed in the legalese but it's better it's Wasserman being supported and not the billionaire owners of the original '93 recording, Haim Saban.

Today, IGN Entertainment announced that it would be laying off eight members of the IGN Creators Guild. This is 12% of our bargaining unit, and comes just days after our sister union, the Ziff Davis Creators Guild, underwent similar layoffs impacting 15% of their members. It also comes just months after our multibillion-dollar parent company, Ziff Davis, instituted a company-wide buyout that shrunk our unit numbers, with the express intent of avoiding future layoffs. And it comes just a little over one year after three of our members were laid off almost immediately after our union went public. The company has told us that the reason for this layoff stems from a Ziff Davis-mandate to cut costs despite several quarters in a row of year-over-year revenue increases, to which IGN Entertainment responded by coming for our members' jobs. This is perplexing to us, as we are told again and again that IGN Entertainment has had a tremendously successful year thus far thanks to their hard work. In just the last few months, our members have been absolutely essential to major events and livestreams, including San Diego ComicCon, Summer of Gaming, and IGN Live. Every single person impacted today was involved in and critical to the success of those events. Meanwhile, IGN Entertainment continues to spend money on costly acquisitions, only to turn around and gut those companies in the same way it is cutting away at IGN itself. For instance, last year, it acquired Gamer Network, and almost immediately laid off a number of staff critical to making those sites successful. The company has not responded to the union's questions about whether its budget for future acquisitions is being reconsidered as a cost-saving measure alongside these other apparently necessary personnel cuts. At a time when it is more necessary than ever to support its creators, IGN Entertainment is choosing to eliminate the individuals who ensure IGN remains competitive as generative AI

threatens our reach. We have been told that expert opinion pieces, original interviews, and work that leverages our staff's deep knowledge of gaming, tech, and entertainment are all essential to combating AI summarization and regurgitation of our work. Management has responded by cutting several individuals who do that exact work, as well as others whose job it is to ensure that these written and video pieces are published in a speedy manner — another component of combating AI we're told is critical. This continued cycle of repeated, aggressive cuts to our staff and being asked to do more with less, only for management to continue to spend on new business it isn't interested in sustaining cannot continue. We will enforce our interim agreement that guarantees better severance and other protections to laid off members, as well as demand additional support for those impacted. We will continue to bargain over our first contract with the aim of enshrining even better protections against further layoffs, working conditions continuously degraded by understaffing, and the encroachment of generative AI. And we won't stop fighting to ensure IGN remains the best destination for trustworthy, original, exciting, and creative work covering video games, entertainment, and tech. While IGN Entertainment management may not value us, we value one another and the incredible work we can do together. Behind the articles, videos, social posts, playlists, and maps of IGN are human beings, not just numbers on a spreadsheet to be pushed around when some number at the top isn't big enough. Without us, there is no IGN.

Today, IGN laid off eight extremely valuable members of our union and workforce via directive from our parent company, Ziff Davis. This, after two incredibly successful live events IGN Live and SDCC, and yet another corporate acquisition.

Please take a moment to read and share our full statement:

They took one of the greatest cinematic works of all time and turned it into an Xbox 360 cutscene. Nothing about this looks good. It feels like a movie edited by someone on bath salts.

The thing about new Naked Gun is how little we care about its faults and the dozen jokes that land with a thud. You can get away with so much when you just remember to be funny.

Ashamed to admit how much I pay attention to Fortnite leaks but I desperately need to see what the Power Rangers skins are going to look like

‘WWE: Unreal’ Has Pissed Off Wrestling Purists. But It’s Exactly What the Sport Needs. Netflix's controversial new documentary series lifts the curtain on WWE's twist-turning storylines.

WWE: Unreal is that miraculous thing that appeals to both hardcore wrestling fans and the totally clueless who only know Dave Bautista as an actor. It's Drive to Survive for WWE and just as effective. On the death and resurrection of kayfabe, in my latest on Esquire. www.esquire.com/entertainmen...

That's why it's number one for me! It's still the gold standard. Have there been bigger and better movies? Maybe. But you don't get those other movies without it. And even on its own, still great.

A lot of people are asking me why I made this choice or placed this movie at that number. I don't know how to tell them, "vibes"

Appreciate the openness for honest and fun debate btw. It's really nice. Most of Twitter/X is giving me slurs and that I should be fired.

I was really torn on Hellboy vs Hellboy II, believe me. I think it came down to the joy of watching Hellboy punch Nazis.

yup it was just me, my editors trusted me and told me to go nuts

This seems to be the platonic ideal list tbh, at least one that wouldn't have my mentions on fire

It works on its own but the movie does kiiiiind of assume you know its specific version of Batman. I'm not the best judge for that, I grew up on the show so when I caught up with Mask of the Phantasm as a teenager I knew the vibe already.

It's funny because I'm the opposite. As much as I liked the ending of IW, I knew it wouldn't be for long, which undercut its power. I was working at another website then and we were doing daily coverage of Marvel. We knew there was a sequel. My thing was: How are they gonna land the plane?

IIRC, Mask of the Phantasm wasn't made for cinemas, but when execs saw the quality it was rushed into theaters. IMO it does qualify and should rank, box office and popularity be damned, but it's also weird since it's so intrinsically tied to the animated TV show. Phenomenal movie regardless.

'Avengers: Endgame': The oral history of the biggest movie premiere ever Here are the stories of nearly a hundred fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Infinity War is messy and defined by its cliffhanger. It's shocking, but Endgame is the catharsis we were looking for. *That* movie gives the MCU the victory lap its building toward while (at the time) bidding farewell to the era. I wrote this in 2020: www.inverse.com/entertainmen...

I LOVE Batman Begins. Was in my Letterboxd Top 4 for a long time. But it doesn't have the profile of The Dark Knight. You couldn't escape it.

When The Dark Knight was coming out summer '08 I remember talking to someone my age; when I said the movie was a sequel, they said, "There was a first one?"

Batman Returns might be a better movie. I personally flip-flop on it all the time. But '89 left a bigger imprint that Returns only expanded upon. Returns is an imbalance of Burton's vision winning out over everything else, and it was hard to place it when so many other movies demanded attention.

Between Burton sourcing more directly from the comics (heavily informed by Dark Kight Returns), reshaping Batman's image from the Adam West era into something more gothic and epic (a tone that persists to this very day), while still making a movie that had a Happy Meal campaign, very significant!

For me everything about the list represents the balancing act between cultural impact and artistic vision. It's more art than science, admittedly. But '89 Batman wasn't just a big superhero movie, it was a pop culture event and among the first to write the playbook for the genre for years to come.

I didn't want to overrepresent Nolan.

All right man. So do one.

At his funeral will he be buried as red and yellow Hulk Hogan or black and white Hollywood Hulk Hogan?

Superman is a very tidy example of why it is not automatically good screenwriting for characters to behave in a way their audience thinks is recognizable and intelligent.

They can write “Why would he do that” on the focus group card, but the answer is “That is the entire point of the movie.”

Where did I lose you? Was it Shin Kamen Rider?!

The 25 Best Superhero Movies of All Time From Superman to The Dark Knight, these are the movies that hold true staying power.

For Esquire, I've ranked the 25 greatest superhero movies of all time. I am sure none of my selections are controversial and everyone is in agreement, because I'm right. www.esquire.com/entertainmen...

I’m aware it’s sus for different reasons and Colbert didn’t have the same sharpened teeth he had on Comedy Central but pulling the plug on the Late Show feels bad. More institutions of TV vanishing.