He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal of introducing audiences to a whole new world of cinema.
It seems like streaming is the only venue for high-concept genre movies these days — rom-coms, sci-fi and horror films that blend different styles and don’t rely on existing IP are typically released at home. The ones that received theatrical releases this year have underperformed. For instance, Mercy grossed just $55 million worldwide against a reported $60 million budget, despite featuring Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson. Gore Verbinski’s Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die grossed less than half of its reported $20 million budget. Both movies, however, have done very well for themselves on streaming and PVOD.
They were followed recently by another high-concept sci-fi movie that debuted directly on Hulu, and continues to be one of the streamer’s most-watched titles. The movie was directed by BenDavid Grabinski, and it stars Vince Vaughn, James Marsden, and Eiza González. It follows two gangster friends who are pulled deeper into the world of organized crime, but with a time-travel twist. The film opened to excellent reviews and is now sitting at a “Certified Fresh” 78% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. In his review, Collider’s Ross Bonaime praised Grabinski for having “taken the bones of a gangster movie and added laugh-out-loud humor, wild references, needle drops, and time travel, and blended them into one of the most fun films to come out in 2026.”
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
We’re talking about Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, which debuted on Hulu on March 27 after premiering at the South by Southwest Film Festival. The movie’s Rotten Tomatoes consensus reads, “A daffy crime comedy that uses its sci-fi elements in the service of character, Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice is slick and amusing proof that there’s enough room for two Vince Vaughns.” According to FlixPatrol, the movie has spent more than three weeks on the domestic Hulu chart, and was only recently unseated from the top spot. Crime comedies do well on streaming, as can be seen from the continued success of Guy Ritchie’s movies. González herself has starred in a couple of his streaming hits, and is all set to appear alongside **Henry Cavill **and Jake Gyllenhaal in the filmmaker’s upcoming In the Grey. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice ](/tag/movie/mike-nick-nick-alice/)
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BenDavid Grabinski
BenDavid Grabinski