CNN
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It’s not information that Hollywood has leaned very a lot into the reboot, remake, sequel and prequel development over the previous ten (and even fifteen? twenty?) years, and with that comes a curious alternative to have a good time – and maybe, recreate – previous triumphs with a comparatively low-commitment technique: the cameo.
No, not the unusual new-fangled web site that enables stars of yore (and disgraced public figures) to monetize their lingering recognition. I imply cameos within the purest and most meant sense of the time period – transient appearances by a buzzy character, which may generally be the perfect a part of a film on the entire (if unsure, please go watch “This Is the End” and search for cameo appearances by Rihanna, Michael Cera and Channing Tatum).
Within the case of 2023, high-profile cameos occurred so many occasions, it may make viewers’ heads spin (and in a single case, it virtually did). Behold, a roundup of probably the most notable appearances, with one shock that’s arriving simply in time for Christmas on the backside (don’t scroll all the way in which down until you’re OK with a spoiler for the brand new “The Color Purple” musical film).
Karen Allen in ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Future’
It’s fairly unbelievable that “Raiders of the Misplaced Ark” – the basic film that launched the “Indiana Jones” franchise – got here out virtually 43 years in the past. What’s extra unbelievable is that Indy’s (Harrison Ford) romantic lead from that movie, the beautiful Karen Allen, has appeared in two of the franchise’s later entries, the misbegotten 2008 installment “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Cranium,” in addition to this 12 months’s arguably under-appreciated “Dial of Destiny.” It actually shouldn’t be a lot of a shock, although, since Allen’s spunky character Marion was at all times the perfect to match Indiana’s distinctive aptitude and wit. Her last-minute entry in “Future’s” proceedings serves as a pleasant strategy to cap issues off, because the once-and-current lovers partake in a disarming recreation of “Where doesn’t it hurt?” they first invented on a ship all these years in the past.
Nicolas Cage, Christopher Reeve, George Clooney and others in ‘The Flash’
Whereas “The Flash” (produced by Warner Bros. Footage, owned by CNN’s mother or father firm Warner Bros. Discovery) certainly fell sufferer to encroaching superhero fatigue, amongst different issues, on the field workplace earlier this 12 months, the zany DC comedian flick’s efforts to succeed weren’t for lack of making an attempt. The film as an entire packed over half a dozen cameos in, particularly on the finish, when everybody from present king of the oceans Jason Momoa to unique TV Batman Adam West was seen. Probably the most bonkers look needed to be Nicolas Cage – who famously display examined to play Superman within the ’90s in a since-canned Tim Burton film centering on the Man of Metal – whereas probably the most emotional was seeing the actor who will perpetually be related to that character: the late, nice Christopher Reeve.
One other late-in-the-game cameo look got here on the finish of this Blumhouse take on the classic occult franchise, which was billed as a sequel and famously introduced again Ellen Burstyn in her beforehand Oscar-nominated position of Chris MacNeil from the 1973 unique. From virtually the beginning of the brand new film, all of the followers have been questioning if Chris’s daughter Regan – the famously inexperienced vomit-spewing, head-spinning demonically possessed woman performed by Linda Blair within the first film – would come again as properly. They received their reply in actually the final minute of the movie, when Regan lastly visits her mom. It’s only a disgrace Blair’s return couldn’t save this in any other case bland replace to a horror basic.
Capping off this 12 months of oh-wow cameos is none aside from Goldberg, showing not on the finish of the brand new musical film, however towards the start, as a midwife who delivers the infant of Celie – the character from the 1982 Alice Walker novel that she performed within the 1985 Steven Spielberg film that supercharged her profession. Whereas Oprah Winfrey – whose movie profession was additionally launched by the unique “Purple,” by which she performed Sofia – was a producer on the brand new film, she doesn’t seem on display. Which is all of the extra motive why it’s a thrill to see Goldberg there, passing the torch on to Fantasia Barrino, who as Celie takes it and soars. (“The Shade Purple” additionally hails from Warner Bros. Footage, owned by CNN’s mother or father firm.)