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“Josh Journey: Darkness Totems is all handmade art and frame by frame animation, and is based on the original idea of ​​a short film by brothers Iuri and Guilherme Araújo, founders of Provincia Studio, who decided to turn it into a game after receiving suggestions from various viewers.” Game Vicio Brasil “In this 2D hand-drawn beat'em up (with a very pleasing look style that resembles animated series like Steven's Universe and Adventure Time), we will be called upon to control the protagonist Josh and his friends Farquol, Melina and ZOZ in order to fight against the Darkness Shadow, the evil entity that is threatening the peace of the Province World.” Frequenza Critica “Josh Journey: Darkness Totens is a 2D cooperative beat 'em up with hand drawn animation that refers to Castle Crashers, but with characters with unique visuals and abilities.” IGN Brasil

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About This Game

System Requirements

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• OS: Windows 07
• Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 - 3337U CPU @ 1.8Ghz
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT625M
• DirectX: Version 11
• Storage: 4 GB available space
• Additional Notes: Best played with a controller
• OS: Windows 10
• Processor: Intel(R) Core (TM) i5 -3230M @ 2.6GHz
• Memory: 6 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050

All Rights reserved by Provincia Studio.

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Josh Journey: Darkness Totems Review

Seeing a new developer offer their take on an established genre is always exciting. This is part of the reason why The Callisto Protocol is so interesting. It could be the next big thing, do something unique that might inspire someone in the future, or just offer a traditional journey that is simply fun. This is the type of thought I had going into Josh Journey: Darkness Totems , a title that boasts hand-drawn art and uses iconic titles like Golden Axe as a base. With so much going for it, is this a journey you want to take, or is it best not to travel down the path of darkness?

Josh Journey: Darkness Totems has a relatively simple story that is primarily told at the end of each chapter. The four heroes work together to save the provincial world from a looming evil. Naturally, each hero has a stake in this adventure, as you go between their home area to rid it of the invading darkness and evil totems. There really isn’t much to it, nor is there any voice work, but there is just enough to get a sense of each character’s personality and the world around them. However, getting to see that world is an uphill battle.

The adventure starts with a rather exciting concept. You get to pick each of the four characters and can freely swap between them on missions. Defeated characters can be revived indefinitely, with several healing potions and other resources scattered around each level. Each character also has a specialty, reminding me of Castle Crashers and games inspired by it. The goal is to ultimately figure out how to deal with each threat, obtain resources, level characters, and defeat the bosses. On paper, it sounds great, as we’ve seen similar titles deliver unique experiences, yet Josh Journey: Darkness Totems gets almost every aspect wrong.

In my career writing reviews, I can only think of one game that was as imbalanced as Josh Journey: Darkness Totems , which was the infamous PlayStation Vita title Call of Duty :  Black Ops: Declassified . As a result, this is a challenging game, which I’d put above Elden Ring and on par with Souldiers ‘ highest difficulty (not NG+), with none of the previous titles’ positives.

Even on the first level, the problems are pretty apparent. The first enemies, these black creatures that look like something out of Courage the Cowardly Dog , will do almost everything in their power to get behind you to attack. It’s a common tactic for beat ’em up games, as it prevents players from overwhelming enemies with random attacks. Given their speed and desire, it will happen somewhat often. Initially, players have nothing in terms of defense, making it incredibly easy to lose health or even die to the first couple of enemies. If the first enemy doesn’t kill you, the second just might. This time you have a corrupted rooster person that swings a cleaver. They’re coded to make a mad dash toward players, which isn’t hard to counter, but the overall aggressive nature can be shockingly oppressive. It’s entirely possible for them to wipe your team by simply timing its attacks so you can’t actually avoid them. It feels incredibly cheap, and frustrating and it’s shockingly common in Josh Journey: Darkness Totems .

Dark Josh Punishes Anything Even Resembling a Mistake

Things go to another level when you encounter the first shadow boss. As you might suspect, the four totem bosses use a “dark” version of the character from that respective province. In typical video game fashion, the dark version is multiple times more potent than a maxed-out player character. As a result, players need to instead figure out the shadows, gimmick, defeat adds, and destroy the totem, which is a lot harder than it sounds.

What makes this fight difficult is how quickly things will go south. The only move that is remotely effective against Dark Josh is Melina’s dash. It will avoid his sword slice and can quickly get to him when he is winded. The downside is any mistake carries a massive penalty. For example, one of the most notable mechanics was his recovery. You can juggle Dark Josh, but if he touches the ground for even a moment, he will come at you with a slash that takes away about 50 percent of your health. To be honest, it isn’t too hard to avoid, except the ads will commonly get in your way, break your juggle, and Dark Josh will gladly punish. It isn’t fun, and it only takes one mistake to lose.

Part of what makes every boss battle a slog is how difficult it is to recover. Adds are unrelenting. Every boss summons them, and they’re a permanent part of the fight. Killing them will either result in them respawning almost immediately or you’ll lose all your progress while dodging the boss’s attacks. For many of them, they’re best ignored, and for shadow bosses, it only matters when the shadow is about to die since that opens the totem up for the damage. But it isn’t just the ads; it’s how revives work. It takes a considerable amount of time to restore a character, and unless you do it in the brief window after the totem is immune and the shadow is respawning, there is only one way to do it solo during a boss battle.

One of Melina’s unique skills is the ability to make an ice copy and use that to revive players. It’s a clutch ability that can save a run, but it’s also why Melina is the worst-balanced character in Josh Journey: Darkness Totems . She is hands down the best feeling, followed by Z.O.Z., though she is given a skill that discourages ever using her. It’s simply too easy to die, and she revive is the only reliable way to get a character back up, especially once you get to enemies that can kill you in a single combo.

All it Takes if One Mistake To Lose

Beyond bosses, levels can be extremely frustrating. Hazards can do a surprisingly high amount of damage, have bad mechanics, and are almost too punishing. I included a video above that shows an excellent example of what I mean with the lava teleport section of this stage. The issue is simple if you stand too close to the pad, it teleports, and if you miss the jump, you’ll die. I timed it with my phone’s stopwatch, killing Z.O.Z. with total health in 3.08 seconds. The video probably makes it hard to understand just how bad this problem is. For starters, missing the jump resets the lava stun, which took away about half of my health. This means even if you do it with total health, you only get one chance to recover per character. Now, the tricky thing is jump is the same button as revive. As a result, had any of my characters jumped immediately after the spawn, they would’ve attempted to revive their fallen friend and almost certainly died. This forces players to move, get to a good spot to jump, and make it out without their whole time dying. Now, admittedly I probably should’ve used the south path and Z.O.Z. died because I didn’t expect him to survive, which threw off my thoughts, but I’d be in the same position had a lot of other things not gone my way. In contrast, several other games would’ve just respawned me on one of the rocks (this only seems to happen when the location of death results in the ally being lost for that run).

Oddly enough, in the event you finish Josh Journey: Darkness Totems , there honestly is no reason to ever return. The campaign lacks any kind of score, be it time or points, nor is there seemingly any secrets to find. Even all the trophies/achievements can be obtained in a single run. Beating it also deletes your save, preventing you from redoing the game with a better build.

Josh Journey: Darkness Totems Review Verdict

[ Editor’s Note : Josh Journey: Darkness Totems was reviewed on PlayStation 5, and a copy was provided to us for review purposes.]

• Josh Journey
• Josh Journey: Darkness Totems

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Josh Journey: Darkness Totems Review

I have a soft spot for Beat ‘em ups. I have fond memories of playing many different games as a child, but Beat ‘em ups stand out for one particular reason. Most of the time I played these games with friends, either in two-player co-op on a home console or with four friends at the arcade (and sometimes even more – hello, X-men). It’s no wonder I am still drawn to these games now and I’m sure plenty of current developers are inspired to make Beat ‘em ups for the same reason. The latest entry that has caught my eye is Josh Journey: Darkness Totems , developed by Provincia Studio and published by QUByte Interactive. When I say caught my eye, I’m not exaggerating; this game has a phenomenal art style that looks like it was pulled straight out of a stylish cartoon. Art isn’t everything though, and I’m sure you’re wondering how the rest of the game holds up.

Josh Journey features a story with a simple premise. The Darkness Shadow has sent his army of nightmare monsters to The Province World. They have installed Darkness Totems in the four provinces of the world. Things are looking dire, but fortunately, all hope is not yet lost because Josh and his three hero friends are here to take on the darkness, to journey through it if you will. You will control all four heroes on a quest to destroy the Totems spread across the four Provinces. Josh Journey can be played in two to four player local co-op, or if you’re a lonely gamer such as myself you can play solo. While playing you have access to all four heroes and are able to switch freely between them with the right and left shoulder buttons or by pressing the right joystick in one of the cardinal directions. When playing two players each player takes on two heroes and can switch freely between the two they picked. If you are a popular person who has four real-life friends that are all in the same location at once then you each get to control one character. I was fortunate enough to play local co-op for a bit with my lovely girlfriend, but she quickly lost interest for multiple reasons.

I’m not going to make you wait any longer – I’ll fill you in on the non-art half of the game. Josh Journey ’s gameplay does not hold up well at all. The core gameplay – the combat – feels shallow, and in many situations I felt like it was impossible to avoid enemies’ attacks. The game lacks an acceptable level of what I would describe as give and take, between the player and the enemies. It’s missing some basic abilities/moves that we’ve grown accustomed to in our games over the years. Only one of the four characters has a traditional block move, and only one has a traditional dodge move, both of which must be unlocked in the upgrade shop in between levels. I think if the game was designed with a dedicated dodge or block button the combat wouldn’t feel as cheap.

However, that still wouldn’t fix the level of shallowness present in the combat system. Each of the four characters starts with 3 moves: a basic and heavy attack (3 of the characters can combo these together), and a special attack that can only be performed once the small bar under your health is filled by attacking enemies. The special attack in all four cases is extremely weak, especially considering you have to build up a meter to use it. Two of the characters are close-range melee fighters and the other two have short-distance ranged attacks. Each character has a couple of new moves that can be purchased in the upgrade shop, but the ones that I have unlocked so far don’t do much to improve the quality of the combat. 

I found myself drawn to the ranged fighters because it was easier to avoid getting hit. Each character starts with a very small health bar that can be whittled away quickly by getting hit a few times by enemies’ attacks. When a character dies you instantly switch to the next available hero. You can revive the fallen heroes by holding the A button next to them; however, you have to hold the button for what feels like an eternity and if you are hit it interrupts the buildup of the revival bar and you must start over. In addition, getting the HUD to display for the A input is very finicky, I could be standing right on top of or next to the dead hero’s icon and it would only display when standing in a very small spot. Once revived they regain half their health, which is reasonable, but this brings up another issue I have with the gameplay: Healing. There are not enough healing mechanics. Only one character has a healing move, and it is restricted to her special move. This move can only be performed if you find a particular pickup in the environment, and that pickup is rare; appearing once or so per level. Occasionally you will find a health potion inside breakable objects, but it only restores a sliver of your health bar. To add insult to injury, after you complete a level or if you give up and return to the map screen you have to go to the upgrade shop to refill all of your heroes’ health. This just doesn’t make sense to me.

Another reason for my lack of enthusiasm is the fact that this game is difficult. The regular combat is frustrating and this is amplified during the boss fights. The ones I fought were unique encounters, but they also fall back on simply adding more enemies during the later stages of the fight to make things more challenging. This game desperately needs difficulty options. Or perhaps they could let you keep the upgrade currency you earn in levels when you die, that way you could make your characters more powerful if you couldn’t beat a level, giving yourself a better chance to succeed if you keep playing.

I’ve already mentioned the stand-out art style, but I have to bring it up again. Until recently when reviewing games for the Tavern, games were rated by averaging the scores of four different categories, one of which was graphics. If we still used this format it would be difficult for me to give it less than a nine in that category. Josh Journey ’s art style reminds me of a cartoon you might see during the primetime block on Cartoon Network. It is stylized and they make use of many bright colors, and the color pallets they have chosen fit well together. Perhaps the most artistic aspect of Josh Journey ’s art design is the level map illustrations that have a fantastic and unique appearance. There are a few facets of the game’s art design that fall a little short. First off, I feel like some of the combat animations are a little lackluster and don’t stack up to the overall quality of the game’s art design. The other thing that stood out was how far the camera is zoomed out while playing. I’m used to having an up-close and personal view of the action when playing Beat ‘em ups, but here the far-away camera view takes away from the gameplay and doesn’t do any favors for the already mundane combat. 

Apparently, Josh Journey: Totems of Darkness started out as a short cartoon, and the creators were encouraged to turn it into a video game. Whoever handed out this advice did their friends a disservice; I think they should have focused on creating a full-scale movie or show because art is obviously their strong point. The gameplay in Josh Journey is severely lacking, and with no difficulty options, it will only appeal to more advanced players. Perhaps this game is a blast when playing with four players, but without any online options, most players won’t have enough people or controllers to try that out. 

This game was reviewed based on Xbox One review code, using an Xbox One console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.

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• Cartoon-inspired art style looks fantasic
• Combat is shallow and feels cheap
• Needs difficulty options
• No online co-op

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Josh Journey: Darkness Totems

Josh journey: darkness totems trailers.

Josh Journey: Darkness Totems - Launch Trailer - Steam, Switch, PS4/5 and Xbox One/Series

Josh Journey: Darkness Totems | Release Date Trailer - Steam, Switch, PS4/5 and Xbox One/Series X|S

Josh Journey: Darkness Totems Screenshots

Critic reviews for josh journey: darkness totems.

Josh Journey: Darkness Totems has positive highlights in its artistic part as a whole, but serious gameplay problems prevent any success in the final experience.

Review in Portuguese | Read full review

Josh Journey: Darkness Totems

• Screenshots

• 2021 ( Windows )
• 2022 ( PlayStation 4 )
• 2022 ( Xbox One )
• 2022 ( Nintendo Switch )
• 2022 ( Xbox Series )
• QUByte Interactive Ltda.
• Provincia Studio

UNVEIL THE POWER OF FOUR BRAVE HEROS IN A HAND DRAWN COUCH CO-OP JOURNEY!

Josh Journey: Darkness Totems is a hand drawn beat’em up game about four brave heroes, that use their skills to defeat the Nightmare Monsters using special combo attacks in a co-op gameplay.

The Province World is infested by the nightmare monsters from the Dream World. The Darkness Shadow, the entity that controls the Dark Side of Dreams, are sending his creatures and implanting Darkness Totems to control the four main provinces: Wind, Water, Desert and Industrial. The main objective of our heroes are to fight against these evil forces, destroying the Totems to bring again the peace and harmony to their World.

Each hero in Josh Journey has unique skills, to attack face to face, using sword or hammer, or to attack from distance, using magic or gunfire. You can choose between four heroes during a local gameplay with your friends!

– Swap Heroes quickly during gameplay, providing Massive Combos in battle!

– All characters with traditional 2D hand-drawn animation!

– Build Ability Board to make special attacks during the battles.

– Explore beautiful and big environments with great parallax in different provinces, like Wind, Water, Desert and Industrial.

– A huge cast of cute and creepy enemies with different behaviors and attacks.

– Epic battles with Big Bosses.

Josh, the Swordsman, uses the wind element. He has great dexterity, favoring quick, decisive strikes and the ability to quickly navigate his environment. He is particularly capable in aerial combat.

Melina, the Sorceress, uses the water element. She is a slight twist on the arcanist archetype, having impressive, long-ranged projectiles and diminishing her foe’s capacities. She adds to that powerful crowd control capacities, and optional support powers.

Farquol, the Nomad, uses the earth element. He is a tough hero who is part of a mystical and tribal community. His strikes, however, tend to be slower and harder to hit, packing a larger wallop as a counterpoint.

Z.O.Z., the Multitask Robot, uses the fire element. He presents a wide range of skills, such as explosive long-distance projectiles and bombs, that sways between violent means and the smart usage of props and hazards.

Source: Steam Store Description

• Game Engine: Unity
• Sound engine: FMOD
• Steam Early Access games

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Game added by Kam1Kaz3NL77 .

Game added October 7, 2022. Last modified October 7, 2022.

Josh Journey: Darkness Totems Reviews

Josh Journey: Darkness Totems has earned a Player Score of 91 / 100 . This score is calculated from 22 total reviews which give it a rating of Positive . Josh Journey: Darkness Totems review data is updated in real-time as more players share their feedback on Steam.

Last Updated: 5/6/2024

External Links

Genres & user tags, system requirements.

Josh Journey: Darkness Totems Steam Reviews

Josh Journey: Darkness Totems has achieved a Steambase Player Score of 91 / 100 . This score is calculated from 22 total reviews on Steam — giving it a rating of Positive . These are split between 20 positive reviews, 2 negative reviews, and will be updated in real-time as more players leave their feedback.

Take a look at Josh Journey: Darkness Totems Steam charts to explore more charts, stats, and additional game trends.

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Find a new game to play just like Josh Journey: Darkness Totems through our curated lists. Steambase uses Steam's User Tag and Genre system (and other game stats) to curate a list of the best and most loved games similar to Josh Journey: Darkness Totems.

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Steambase has best-in-class data powered directly by Steam, our data partners, and in-house experts. Data is enriched, cleansed, verified, and updated in real-time to ensure we surface the most up-to-date information. Learn more about the Steambase approach to data collection .

Josh Journey: Darkness Totems data has been sourced from:

• Valve Corporation. (2024, May 6). Josh Journey: Darkness Totems on Steam . Steam Store .
• Valve Corporation. (2024, May 6). Josh Journey: Darkness Totems . Steam Community Hub .
• Provincia Studio. (2023, July 8). Josh Journey: Darkness Totems . Josh Journey: Darkness Totems .

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Josh Journey: Darkness Totems

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Defeat the Nightmare Monsters to save the Province World in Josh Journey: Darkness Totems

Josh Journey: Darkness Totems is a hand drawn beat’em up game about four brave heroes, that use their skills to defeat the Nightmare Monsters using special combo attacks in a co-op gameplay. The Province World is infested by the nightmare monsters from the Dream World. The Darkness Shadow, the entity that controls the Dark Side of Dreams, are sending his creatures and implanting Darkness Totems to control the four main provinces: Wind, Water, Desert and Industrial. The main objective of our heroes are to fight against these evil forces, destroying the Totems to bring again the peace and harmony to their World. Each hero in Josh Journey has unique skills, to attack face to face, using sword or hammer, or to attack from distance, using magic or gunfire. You can choose between four heroes during a local gameplay with your friends! – Swap Heroes quickly during gameplay, providing Massive Combos in battle! – All characters with traditional 2D hand-drawn animation! – Build Ability Board to make special attacks during the battles. – Explore beautiful and big environments with great parallax in different provinces, like Wind, Water, Desert and Industrial. – A huge cast of cute and creepy enemies with different behaviors and attacks. – Epic battles with Big Bosses.

Software description provided by the publisher.

ESRB rating

Supported play modes, product information, release date, no. of players, game file size, supported languages.

Play online, access classic NES™ and Super NES™ games, and more with a Nintendo Switch Online membership.

This game supports: Save Data Cloud

WARNING: If you have epilepsy or have had seizures or other unusual reactions to flashing lights or patterns, consult a doctor before playing video games. All users should read the Health and Safety Information available in the system settings before using this software.

A Nintendo Switch Online membership (sold separately) is required for Save Data Cloud backup.

All rights reserved © 2022 QUByte Interactive. © 2022 Província Studio.

Josh Journey: Darkness Totems

Description

The World of Provinces is infested with nightmare monsters from the World of Dreams. The Shadow of Darkness, which is the entity that controls the Dark side of Dreams, is sending its creatures and building Dark Totems to control the four main provinces: Wind, Water, Desert and Industrial. Fight the forces of evil, destroy the totems and restore peace and harmony in the world. Each hero in Josh Journey has unique abilities, such as melee attacks using sword and hammer or also ranged attacks with magic or firearms. The player can choose from four heroes in a local campaign to play with friends!

Published by

Developed by, release date, playable on.

• Xbox Series X|S

Capabilities

• Xbox local co-op (2-4)
• Xbox local multiplayer (2-4)
• 4K Ultra HD
• Single player
• Shared/split screen
• Xbox One X Enhanced
• Xbox achievements
• Xbox presence
• Xbox cloud saves

Josh Journey: Darkness Totems Trophy Guide PS4

• Has a platinum trophy (Very Rare)
• There's a total of 43 trophies to earn
• Local multiplayer for 2-4 players

How to Get the Platinum Trophy in Josh Journey: Darkness Totems?

Welcome to MetaGame's Josh Journey: Darkness Totems PS4 Trophy Guide and Walkthrough! Below you will find all the trophies for Josh Journey: Darkness Totems. There is a total of 43 trophies to unlock in the game and there is a platinum trophy.

Guide Overview

Trophy roadmap.

• Play the campaign, kill related trophies
• Miscellaneous trophies

Josh Journey: Darkness Totems Trophies

You won't have much trouble getting the platinum trophy. The trophy 'Full Potion' will be the first trophy to get (Recover 100% HP with the Full Potion!). One of the rarest trophies is 'No Damage' (gold, Complete a stage without take damage!). It has a rarity of only 15.0%.

Platinum Trophy (Very Rare)

Darkness Shadow

Unlock All Trophies!

Common Trophies

Kill an enemy by burn!

Defeat the Evil Eye!

Farquol First Acquisition

Buy your first skill with Farquol!

Full Potion

Recover 100% HP with the Full Potion!

Kill the Evil Tree!

Hurricane Dream

Get 5 Enemies inside the Hurricane!

Josh First Acquisition

Buy your first skill with Josh!

Lizard Hunter

Kill 50 Lizards!

Mask Revival

Revive an ally by the Mask!

Melina First Acquisition

Buy your first skill with Melina!

Use the Ultimate Skill!

Z.0.Z. First Acquisition

Buy your first skill with Z.0.Z.!

Lizard Killer

Kill 100 Lizards!

Rare Trophies

Die for a Crab Claw!

Kill the Evil Dragon!

Die on Evil Water!

Fall from a Cliff

Die from a Cliff!

Fluffy Worm

Die for a Fluffy Worm!

Kill an enemy freezing it!

Killing in the Air

Kill your first air enemy!

Kill the Evil Worm!

Kill the Evil Lobster!

Die from poisoning!

Die on a barricade!

Survival Heroes

Complete the stage with 50% HP!

Damage Maker

Complete 1000 damage on Gus Robot!

Desert Province

Banish the Shadow from Desert Province!

Endurance Heroes

Complete the stage with 25% HP!

Farquol Mastery

Complete all the abilities of Farquol!

Freeze'em all

Freeze 4 enemies!

Industrial Province

Banish the Shadow from Industrial Province!

Josh Mastery

Complete all the abilities of Josh!

Last Hit Heroes

Kill the Boss with 5% HP!

Melina Mastery

Complete all the abilities of Melina!

Tongue Power

Pull 5 enemies with the tongue!

Tremor Kill

Kill 1 enemy inside Tremor Totem!

Triple Explosion

Kill 3 enemies with a explosion!

Water Province

Banish the Shadow from Water Province!

Wind Province

Banish the Shadow from Wind Province!

Z.0.Z. Mastery

Complete all the abilities of Z.0.Z.!

Nafilis Blessing

Complete the Campaign!

Very Rare Trophies

Complete a stage without take damage!

Josh Journey: Darkness Totems (PS4)

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Journey to the Center of the Earth

Where to watch.

Watch Journey to the Center of the Earth with a subscription on Max, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

What to Know

Modern visuals and an old fasioned storyline make this family adventure/comedy a fast-paced, kitschy ride.

Audience Reviews

Cast & crew.

Eric Brevig

Brendan Fraser

Trevor Anderson

Josh Hutcherson

Sean Anderson

Anita Briem

Hannah Ásgeirsson

Seth Meyers

Prof. Alan Kitzens

Jean-Michel Pare

Max Anderson

More Like This

Movie news & guides, this movie is featured in the following articles., critics reviews.

Josh Journey: Darkness Totems

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, jump-starting the nautilus with an electric eel.

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"Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" looks like nothing so much as one of those live-action adventures that Disney used to grind out in the 1950s — and hey, here's Captain Nemo's Nautilus to prove it. Also, a tree house to humble "Swiss Family Robinson," which contains a short-wave radio that has been assembled from old spoons, I think I heard.

The movie is very, very loosely a sequel to " Journey to the Center of the Earth ," with only two connections: It's inspired by a Jules Verne novel, and it co-stars young Josh Hutcherson as the hero Sean. The film opens with him on a motorcycle and being chased by cops, but not to worry; all he did was break into a satellite-tracking station to boost the power on a message for help sent by his grandfather from a lost island in the Pacific.

Sean, whose father in the first film ( Brendan Fraser ) has disappeared (from the cast, anyway), now has to deal with Hank ( Dwayne Johnson , aka the Rock). Hank is his new stepdad. Josh and Hank make friends by decrypting grandfather's message; Hank glances at it and intuits that the two-syllable words stand for dots and one-syllable words stand for dashes, which means Grandpa has had enough free time on his remote island to figure out a way to make Morse code several times longer than it previously was. Unanswered is why grandfather would encrypt a call for help.

This Hank, what a swell guy. He proposes that the two of them fly off to the Pacific and find Grandpa. On arrival somewhere, they hire a tourist helicopter pilot named Gabato, played by Luis Guzman as another one of those low-comedy guys who gets all worked up and is scared of stuff. (I enjoyed a reprise of this classic shot: Gabato runs toward camera, falls on stomach, looks up …and up … and up.)

Gabato has a daughter named Kailani ( Vanessa Hudgens ), a Polynesian beauty who wears a tank top and Daisy Dukes throughout the film. These four fly off in the helicopter, are trapped in a Force Five hurricane that rips it to pieces and are lucky enough to find themselves alive on the beach of the Mysterious Island.

This is your complete island. It has an active volcano; waterfalls with no apparent water sources streaming down cliffs; elephants the size of dogs, and giant lizards that are nowhere big enough to account for the size of their eggs. (Josh falls through the shell of one, splashes in a pool of yolk and is attacked by an unborn lizard chick.) Also on the island is the lost city of Atlantis, even though it's in the wrong ocean, and bees so big Sean and Kailani can both ride on the back of one. And Alexander Anderson, Sean's grandfather, played by Michael Caine , who will not be editing this role into his videos about how to act in movies.

I hope you understand I enjoyed most of this stuff. The director, Brad Peyton , apparently intended it as a genial parody of countless other movies in this spirit. There is, for example, a scene were Sean, Grandpa, Kailani and Gabato all sit around the old campfire and listen while Hank strums a ukulele and sings "What a Wonderful World." And I mean he sings it: every word of three verses. It's not every day you see the Rock channeling Gene Autry.

Sean deduces that Verne's novel contains everything they need to know, and this comes in handy when the volcano explodes, and the island begins to sink into the sea. Sure enough, Captain Nemo's submarine is still hidden underwater. Hank and Sean, trusting Verne, dive off a high cliff, and while holding their breath and swimming underwater, are able to (1) find the sub, (2) open the hatch by tugging and twisting it, (3) swim inside, (4) push a lever to fill it with air, and (5) get the power generator working by jump-starting it with an electric eel.

This is transcendently goofy. It isn't a "good" movie in the usual sense (or most senses), but it is jolly and good-natured, and Michael Caine and Dwayne Johnson are among the most likable of actors. Johnson is such a good sport, he even shows young Sean how to impress girls by flexing your pecs so quickly that nuts will ricochet off them. I can't think of any reason to pay extra for the 3-D.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Journey 2: Mysterious Island (2012)

Rated PG for some adventure action, and brief mild language

Josh Hutcherson as Sean

Dwayne Johnson as Hank

Vanessa Hudgens as Kailani

Michael Caine as Alexander

Luis Guzman as Gabato

Directed by

• Brad Peyton

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‘Crown jewels’: FSU graduating couple overcomes family challenges during academic journey

Florida State University graduating couple Josh and Rachel Duke are ending their academic journey at FSU with two degrees, a dissertation and a baby — 1-year-old Arthur Duke.

But the road to graduation was not an easy one for the Texas natives.

After six years, four rounds of IVF (in vitro fertilization) and the generosity of an embryo donor, the couple accomplished one of their top goals of starting a family — all while pursuing their degrees at the university.

“I think a lot of couples go through hardship and turn inward in that struggle, but I find that Josh and I both really made a decision to turn towards each other,” said Rachel, 38. “I think that kept us strong and made all the difference.”

While Josh will be graduating at 7 p.m. during FSU’s Saturday commencement ceremony at the Tucker Civic Center with his master’s degree in integrated marketing communications, Rachel will be graduating at 7 p.m. Friday with her doctoral degree in English literature with an emphasis in history of technologies.

More on commencement: Here’s a look at FSU, FAMU commencement speakers for the spring 2024 graduating class

Josh currently works as program director of Media, Communications and Marketing for the FSU College of Education, Health, and Human Science. Rachel is a rare books librarian in FSU Strozier Library’s Special Collections.

The married couple of 10 years met at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, where Rachel earned her bachelor's in English Literature and Josh earned his bachelor’s in English and creative writing.

Josh and Rachel struggled with infertility for a number of years as Josh had cancer in his early 20s.

But with the passion to start a family came the decision to go through an IVF medical procedure.

“It was really difficult emotionally, physically and financially, but we really wanted to pursue that and Rachel wanted the opportunity to be a mom and carry a child,” said Josh, 35.

“There were a couple of times where being a student and being a full time employee was challenging on its own, and then there was the disappointment of our first two IVF rounds not working. Plus, the number of shots that Rachel had to take was insane.”

The average cost of embryo adoption is $15,000.

But luckily, Josh and Rachel found a donor who gave them three free embryos. The first two did not work, but the last one was a success.

“It's been difficult, but I wouldn't change the journey for anything,” Rachel said. “We've learned a lot about each other, and we've gotten very good at project management as a team. We ended up with exactly the right kid at the right time.”

Due to complications during Rachel’s pregnancy in January 2023, the couple was forced to relocate closer to the University of Florida Health Shands Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in Gainesville for a couple of months since the hospital is known as one of the best in the country for high-risk pregnancies.

After a C-section, Rachel gave birth to Arthur in March 2023.

Despite the challenging transition from Tallahassee, Josh and Rachel both agreed that the support they received from professors and work supervisors at FSU was “overwhelming.”

FSU Dean and Professor of FSU’s College of Education, Health and Human Sciences Damon Andrew — also Josh’s supervisor — paid Josh and Rachel a visit in Gainesville at the time when he and his wife were driving to Miami for a conference.

“Josh and Rachel are crown jewels here at Florida State,” Andrew said. “They’ve been through a lot but still found ways to continue to succeed while developing professionally and personally with their home life. I’m very proud of both of them and what they’ve been able to accomplish.”

The same FSU support was felt again six months later when the couple went back to Gainesville as Arthur underwent surgery at UF Shands for a rare congenital lung condition.

“He's just about ready to start walking now, and you wouldn't know anything was wrong with him before he was born,” Josh said.

“He also loves books. If you give him a toy and a book, he'll reach for the book before he reaches for the toy.”

Rachel says Arthur has learned a lot of words too, but especially B words — bubbles, balloons and blueberries.

With graduation approaching, Josh and Rachel are both excited as their loved ones will be coming to Tallahassee for the two-day commencement ceremonies.

“It feels like we're reaping the rewards of so much work over the past couple of years all at once,” Rachel said.

Contact Tarah Jean at  [email protected]  or follow her on X:  @tarahjean_ .

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‘I love work but I also love tending to my plants’: actor Josh O’Connor on gardening, reluctant stardom and getting ripped for Challengers

​Formerly best known as The Crown’s Prince Charles, the ​British actor ​is starring as a cocky US tennis pro in Guadagnino’s new hit film. But, he says, he was happiest living off grid in a van for his next film, La Chimera

W hat makes a movie star? Josh O’Connor, the 33-year-old British actor best known until, well, last week as the thin-skinned, tight-lipped Prince Charles in seasons three and four of The Crown , has been mulling over this question of late. Earlier this year he completed a drama set in the first world war called The History of Sound , with Paul Mescal. “Paul’s a friend, and to watch him work was amazing,” says O’Connor. “I really can’t underplay how brilliant he is. Paul has that movie-star quality, whatever that is. I wish I could articulate it, but he’s just graceful about it all.”

Zendaya is another one. O’Connor is currently in cinemas alongside her in Challengers , Luca Guadagnino’s critically acclaimed psychosexual tennis romp, which topped the box offices in both the UK and US last weekend. They play two sides of a lascivious love triangle, with Mike Faist as the third, but it is clear that Zendaya’s Tashi Duncan is the one pulling the strings. “I’ve never done premieres like I’ve done with Challengers ,” says O’Connor. “So that’s alien to me anyway, but to see how she breezes through them with such class and generosity. I’m a nervous wreck, I don’t think I’m helpful to anyone. And Mike as well, we’re both a bit like: ‘What the fuck? This is mad!’ But she’s just on the nail.

“Call it what you want: chemistry, alchemy, talent, movie-star quality – Zendaya has it,” he goes on. “She’s just hit the jackpot.”

What about O’Connor: does he have movie-star potential? Or could he? “No!” he replies, with a self-deprecating giggle. “I don’t think I have. That’s not me being faux-humble. I’m too anxious a person. I don’t know that I have those attributes really. I don’t think I’m quite strong enough to be a movie star.”

He might be right, but that’s in no way a criticism. When we meet, on a Monday morning in a hotel bar in Soho, he has just returned from the multi-week, global promotional tour for Challengers . “Which has been exhausting and confusing and scary – like, baffling at times,” says O’Connor, who has tousled brown hair and the patchy beginnings of a beard, leaning back on the mustard-yellow banquette and sipping a cappuccino. “But at the same time, I was in Sydney one week and me and Mike walked over the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and it was amazing. Or I was in Monte Carlo. I’d never go to Monte Carlo and I was in this hotel room that I’ve never seen the like of, and I went into a casino. I felt like I was James Bond.”

Did he gamble? “No, I didn’t. Well, that’s the party line.” A beat. “No, I actually didn’t.”

O’Connor has a gentle, solicitous manner: when, later on, he talks about losing out on a job and feeling joy for the other actor who landed it in his place, you actually, just about, believe him. At home, his favoured “side hustles” are making ceramics and gardening. Unable to do these on the press tour, he started doing embroidery. He grabs his phone to show a couple of examples and – I’m not just saying this – they are genuinely impressive. I ask if he might put them on his Instagram, which is mostly images of pots and sculptures and black and white photography, and looks more like the curation of an artist than an actor. He winces; he doesn’t post so much on the site any more, he says. “I’ll just send it to my mum or friends and be like: ‘Look, I did some embroidery!’ That serves the purpose of showing off without having to show it off to the masses.”

All of which is to observe that O’Connor doesn’t radiate classic movie-star vibes. And that’s the case on screen as well. Movie stars tend to be bigger, more charismatic than their characters; they exert a gravitational pull. You never forget, for example, that you are watching Tom Cruise in a Tom Cruise film. O’Connor’s great skill, meanwhile, is to fully disappear into the parts that he plays. You never feel like you are watching Josh O’Connor in a Josh O’Connor film, even when you are.

Francis Lee, who directed O’Connor in his breakthrough 2017 film God’s Own Country , in which he played a repressed Yorkshire farmhand, has compared his transformative skills to those of Daniel Day-Lewis (a rare occasion where that comparison hasn’t looked ludicrous). Peter Morgan, the creator of The Crown , has said that O’Connor’s arrival on the series reminded him of when he first worked with a little-known Michael Sheen on the 2003 Blair-Brown drama The Deal .

O’Connor’s ability to shift shapes has never been more obvious than now. In Challengers , he is totally convincing as Patrick Zweig, a cocksure yet underachieving American tennis player who was at least partly modelled on the fiery Australian pro Nick Kyrgios. But also, from 10 May, O’Connor can be seen as the lead, Arthur, in La Chimera , a new film from the Italian auteur Alice Rohrwacher (director of Happy As Lazzaro ) that was a big hit at Cannes last year (and has since amassed high-profile fans including Greta Gerwig, who has said she’s “in love” with Rohrwacher’s work). Arthur is the talisman of a band of tombaroli , Italian grave robbers who rely on his gift for dowsing to find ancient objects buried in Etruscan tombs that they dig up and sell on the black market. It is a magnetic film, rich in magical realism, that sometimes feels more like a wild documentary than a narrative feature.

Josh O’Connor’s best performances, chosen by Guy Lodge

God’s Own Country (2017)

O’Connor had previously made an impression in some lower-profile British indies, but Francis Lee’s windswept rural gay romance announced him as a star: playing a tensely closeted Yorkshireman finally drawn out of his shell by a Romanian migrant worker, his wiry physicality completed his raw-nerve emotional vulnerability.

Only You (2018)

Too few people saw Harry Wootliff’s heartsore drama about a couple grappling with fertility issues, but it won O’Connor a second British Independent Film award for best actor (he also won for God’s Own Countr y). The film thrived on his chemistry with  Laia Costa, carrying their characters from the first lovestruck rush to the challenges of commitment.

The Crown (2019-2020)

Given his angular good looks and gentle onscreen persona, O’Connor wasn’t obvious casting as the former Prince Charles in Netflix’s hit royal family drama, but it wasn’t just the makeup and styling team that rendered him unrecognisable: his closed-off emotional frigidity struck a fine balance between sympathy and terror, and won him an Emmy.

La Chimera (2023)

Soon to arrive in UK cinemas, Alice Rohrwacher’s exquisite blend of earthy realism and ethereal fantasy has been a hit on the festival circuit. O’Connor is cast against type as a drifting tombarolo — a kind of archaeological grave-robber, combing Tuscany for Etruscan treasure in a muddied cream suit. Mostly speaking Italian, he revels in disreputable Englishman-abroad loucheness.

Challengers (2024)

If The Crown largely introduced O’Connor to international audiences, Luca Guadagnino’s steamy, sweaty, sporting love triangle underlines his status as a full-scale movie star. He deftly complements the restless sensual energy put forward by co-stars Zendaya and Mike Faist, but gives the slyest, most volatile performance of the three.

Certainly the two films, and O’Connor’s roles, could scarcely be more contrasting. That went for the experience of shooting them, too. For Challengers , O’Connor, who by his own admission is not a regular at the gym, had to be toned and muscular. He also had to be passably proficient at tennis (even though doubles are used for many of the action scenes) and had daily sessions for a month with Brad Gilbert, who has coached Andre Agassi and Coco Gauff. Guadagnino, who previously directed Call Me By Your Name , installed the actors in penthouses at the Four Seasons in Boston so they could recover from their efforts at the day’s end.

“Luca once described to me that actors are like racehorses,” says O’Connor, smiling. “And in order for your racehorse to be the best it can be, it has to be groomed and looked after and kept in a nice stable.”

La Chimera , on the other hand, was shot in Italy in two sections: the first half in winter, then a break – during which O’Connor filmed Challengers – then back for the second half in summer. After all that tennis, O’Connor returned to the La Chimera set unprecedentedly ripped: “I got into, like, for me, God form. I’ve never been in that shape in my life.” This made no sense for Arthur in La Chimera who has not long been released from prison and is crushed by the death of his girlfriend. O’Connor went on a crash diet, eating just a tin of tuna and an apple for the day’s main meal.

O’Connor’s original plan was to live in Arthur’s shack on a hillside in Lazio, but this was deemed too primitive by Rohrwacher: it didn’t have a functioning toilet or, indeed, much of a roof or walls. A compromise was struck that O’Connor would stay in his camper van, a refurbished DHL delivery truck that he calls Winnie and has painted sunshine yellow. Every Sunday, he would paddle across Lake Bolsena in a canoe on loan from Rohrwacher to buy his week’s shopping from the local village.

“I’ve noticed when I talk about being in a camper van on the side of a hill, it makes people think, ‘Oh he’s gone method,’” says O’Connor. “But truly it was the best possible accommodation available to me. I was right by Lake Bolsena, it was so beautiful. I had my solar shower, which you leave in the sun and you stick it on the tree. So I had hot showers every day.”

What about looking after your racehorse? “It actually was luxurious,” he corrects me, “and suits me better than the Four Seasons, which is nice but a little soulless.”

T here’s definitely a hippy streak in O’Connor, which he traces back to his childhood. He grew up in Cheltenham, the middle of three boys, to John, an English teacher, and Emily, a midwife, both now retired. Holidays were spent camping in France or walking up mountains. O’Connor didn’t especially enjoy it at the time, but the habit has stuck. “The camper van is very much still present in my life,” he says. “It’s parked at my friend’s farm, but when I next get a chance for a holiday, I’ll be in the van.”

O’Connor grew up surrounded by creative types: his grandfather, John Bunting, was a sculptor who taught Antony Gormley, and his grandmother, Romola Jane Farquharson, a respected ceramicist; his aunt, Madeleine Bunting, wrote books and columns for the Guardian . O’Connor, who has dyslexia, was educated at St Edward’s Cheltenham, a private, co-ed school where his father taught. He excelled at art, but eventually drifted into acting and earned a spot at Bristol Old Vic theatre school, which Daniel Day-Lewis and Pete Postlethwaite, two of his idols, had attended. He recalls lectures on Stanislavski and Meisner, pioneers of acting theory, and “someone else, I can’t remember the name”, as he tried to figure out what his approach would be when the time came.

There wasn’t much opportunity in O’Connor’s early gigs: bit-parts in Doctor Who and Peaky Blinders ; a bigger one as Larry in ITV’s The Durrells . But his chance came with God’s Own Country , Francis Lee’s debut film. To prepare for the role, O’Connor spent weeks working on a sheep farm in Yorkshire, building stone walls and delivering lambs. Eventually, he ran himself so ragged, losing more than 10 kilos (22lb) in weight, that he ended up in hospital for a week on a drip.

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“That was the closest to method, to a method that I did,” says O’Connor. “And I got very sick, which maybe highlights that. That film will always be very close to my heart and Francis is a huge inspiration. Still now. But it took a lot out of me. And it took me a few years to realise the impact that had had on my mental health and how I was working. And to realise I wouldn’t be able to maintain that level of in-depth living and working long-term – it just wouldn’t work.”

For O’Connor now, there is a distinction between remaining focused and prepared as an actor and closing yourself off to the world. “I basically shut down for that period of making the film,” he says, of God’s Own Country . “It was the beginning of my career, so it was easier to shut down to a point, and it wasn’t such a long shoot. But if I was to do that same method on La Chimera and Challengers , I wouldn’t have seen or spoken to my family and friends for a year, which would have been insane. And so, just from my mental health point of view, it’s not sustainable. I’d be devastated.”

Still, O’Connor understands the pull of a fully immersive performance: he won a British independent film award for best actor for God’s Own Country , and the film was one of the reasons he started speaking to Guadagnino about working together. “And I also think actors like to feel like they’re working,” he says, breaking into a goofy grin. “The idea of suffering for your art is very attractive. And it felt like that on God’s Own Country : it wasn’t nice being in hospital for a week, but I remember at the time thinking: ‘This is the stuff! This is how it goes!’ It’s just nice to feel like you’re working hard, that’s the truth.”

M ainstream success and more awards – a Golden Globe and an Emmy for best actor in 2021 – followed with The Crown . When he was initially invited to audition for the series, O’Connor declined. “Not because I was reticent about everything around it, it was just that I didn’t fully understand what the pull was to play someone like Charles,” he says. “It was only when I went in and chatted to them that I suddenly realised how much of an opportunity that character was. And I’m so glad I did. One of the best experiences of my career was making that show.”

O’Connor’s read on Charles was an empathetic one: at times naive and underestimated; later, becoming more tetchy and neurotic. The actor had the unsettling experience of going into the Covid lockdowns largely unknown and coming out a name (the fourth season of The Crown , which tracked Charles’s relationship with Lady Diana Spencer, was released on Netflix in November 2020). O’Connor has chatted with Mescal about his similarly discombobulating journey with Normal People , which also came out in that period, although he accepts that the scales were significantly more loaded for his friend. “When lockdown lifted, he was the most photographed man in the world,” says O’Connor. “That must have been a real shock to the system.”

Last year, O’Connor moved from a flat in north London to a house in a village outside Stroud, Gloucestershire. A big part of the appeal was to be close to his family, but mainly he wanted a bigger garden and a small ceramics studio. (He politely declines to say whether he currently has a partner.) This summer, O’Connor’s younger brother is coming to stay and they are going to dig a pond. “I sort of loved London for a bit,” he says. “But I always remember an article in the Guardian that my Auntie Madeleine wrote. Basically there was this line that people move to London to work enough so that they can move out.”

Because of Challengers and La Chimera , O’Connor hasn’t had much time at home recently. But Challengers is out in the world now and is striking a chord: “the horniest movie of the year”, noted New York magazine approvingly. O’Connor is especially pleased to have pulled off a character so removed from his own nature. “That was the scariest bit with Patrick, but it was also the most attractive bit, because I don’t think I’ve done that before,” he says. “To fully enter into that complete arrogance, confidence, wherever you want to call it. When the truth is, I err on the side of solitude and keeping myself to myself and I live in the country, like to be left alone. But Luca is very good at just going: ‘Forget who you are. Let’s focus on the parts of you that could lend themselves to Patrick, and pull those out.’”

Was O’Connor worried about the tennis not looking realistic? “Actors are very good at learning enough of a skill,” he says. “On The Crown , I remember having to learn polo. I did two sessions and I was like: ‘Guys, are you sure that’s enough?’ We are jacks of all trades, masters of none.”

Again, with La Chimera , the emotions are the total opposite: Arthur is probably the most attuned O’Connor has ever felt towards a character. “It’s funny because La Chimera feels like the core of my soul,” he says. “Not only because I gave so much of myself to that role, but also Alice [Rohrwacher] is my hero. She’s like a sister to me and the people involved in that film are like family to me. So it’s my baby, and you want to send it off into to the world.”

Our time is almost up, so I ask O’Connor what lessons he has taken from the past few chaotic months. He replies, tangentially, by bringing up one of his favourite books: Candide , Voltaire’s 1759 satire that set out to destroy the optimism of those times. “This is such an interview move,” laughs O’Connor, “particularly with the Observer , to be like: ‘Let’s drop in some literature, keep everyone happy!’” In particular, O’Connor refers to the ending, where Candide and his companions travel to Turkey and meet an old man sitting under a tree. Impressed by the simple ease with which he lives, they ask for his secret to a happy life. “We must cultivate our garden,” the man responds.

“My reading of that conclusion is that gardening is, at its heart, a small act of life,” says O’Connor. “You tend to this thing, which gives you some joy for, particularly in the UK, like, two months of the year. Then it dies and you tend to it again, you enjoy it, then it dies. It’s repetitive and pointless, but we do it.”

I’m a little confused: what exactly does this have to do with O’Connor’s career? “My response to the past couple of months isn’t: ‘Oh yes please, more of that,’” he explains, patiently. “I love making work, but I also love being in my garden and tending to plants and watching them live and die. That contrast, I’m hoping, will keep me grounded.”

So, Josh O’Connor, maybe not a movie star, but perhaps something even more special. That is, if he can be prised away from his garden.

• Josh O'Connor
• The Observer
• Luca Guadagnino
• Drama films

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Ex-Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel faces contempt and jail time over divorce disputes

Former Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel and his ex-wife are both facing contempt of court and seven days in the Ashland County Jail, according to court records.

Mandel , who served as state treasurer for eight years and made multiple unsuccessful runs for U.S. Senate, and Ilana Mandel are squabbling over parenting time, control of their three children's college savings accounts, the kids' sporting events and allegations that they each entered one another's home without permission.

Ashland County Common Pleas Court Magistrate Paul Lange found them each in contempt and threatened jail time if they don't comply with orders over the next four months. If they follow the orders, they can apply to purge the contempt of court finding.

The couple filed for divorce in Ashland County, where neither of them live, in April 2020. The court dissolved the marriage in June 2020.

The two returned to court in May 2023 to renegotiate parental rights and responsibilities and the court hammered out an agreement in November 2023. But shortly after that, each side said their ex started violating the court agreement.

A fight for open records

The Mandels convinced Ashland County Judge Ronald Forsthoefel, a Republican, to seal records about the couple's dissolution, which included details about their income, property and shared parenting plan.

In February 2021, The Cincinnati Enquirer sued  to open the records to the public. The paper won the lawsuit in October 2022 when the  Ohio Supreme Court ruled  that Forsthoefel improperly agreed to seal records.

While running in the GOP primary for U.S. Senate in February 2021, Mandel released redacted copies of the file to Ohio political reporters, including the Enquirer.

Who is Josh Mandel?

After serving on the Lyndhurst City Council, Mandel ran for the Ohio House in 2006 and served two terms before running for state treasurer in 2010. Just months after being sworn in as treasurer, Mandel announced his run for U.S. Senate. He lost to Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in 2012 and ran for reelection as state treasurer in 2014. He was ready to take on Brown again in 2018 but abruptly dropped out, saying he needed to attend to his wife's health.

In May 2022. Mandel lost the Republican primary to J.D. Vance  and largely slipped out of public view.

Laura Bischoff is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

Top RNC lawyer resigns after rift grows with Trump

The former president was angered by Charlie Spies’s criticism of his false 2020 election-fraud claims.

The top lawyer at the Republican Party is resigning after he cited conflicts with his other work obligations and after Donald Trump grew angry about his criticism of the former president’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, people familiar with the situation said Saturday night.

The lawyer, Charlie Spies, is a long-respected GOP election operative who was hired by Trump’s top lieutenants in March after the former president engineered a takeover of the Republican National Committee, which in recent years has been the party’s main operation in both fundraising and field operations.

Trump had approved of the hiring but later learned about additional comments the lawyer had made. Spies in the past had worked for, either directly or indirectly, former Florida governor Jeb Bush (R), Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). He was liked by Trump’s top advisers, who orchestrated his hiring even though they knew he was skeptical of Trump’s false claims of a stolen election.

“Charlie approached RNC chief of staff Chris LaCivita about potential time commitment conflicts, and it was agreed that while we appreciate and value Charlie’s expertise and professionalism he could not do this role full time and still maintain the obligations to his law firm practice that he has spent years successfully building,” campaign spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez said in a statement late Saturday.

Spies had been tasked with leading the party’s vast legal spending and election integrity program , and his hire was viewed as a sign Trump’s RNC could attract significant party talent.

Trump aides had worked to save Spies from being ousted after learning Trump was angry about his previous comments. They’re trying to convince Trump that Spies was a stronger election lawyer than others and to forgive the comments, said people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. He was viewed as close with LaCivita and Susie Wiles, Trump’s two top aides.

Trump advisers have sought to remake the GOP in recent months, removing dozens of the organization’s employees and quizzing applicants on whether they thought the 2020 election was stolen as part of interviews to stay in jobs.

But Trump’s current team hired Spies, which was puzzling to some Trump allies and friends, who questioned his loyalty to the former president. In recent weeks, Spies had become increasingly involved in the organization.

Spies has been flabbergasted by the drama privately, a person close to him said, believing he had the universal support of Trump’s orbit when taking the job.

Trump has grown angry in the past with other Republican Party attorneys. In 2020, he grew apoplectic when he was told that the party’s then-chief counsel mocked some of the election-fraud claims in emails with other Trump lawyers and disputed that the election was stolen.

Spies is a widely praised Republican election attorney, having pioneered the use of unregulated money from wealthy donors to fund presidential campaign efforts for super PACs. He has represented conservative influencers in litigation against Twitter for alleged discrimination against conservative voices on the platform, and he defended the right of politicians, including Trump, to stand for reelection despite the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment.

He was fiercely critical of Democratic efforts to change voting rules in advance of the 2020 election. He has also sued in attempts to force the trimming of voter rolls, and in 2022 he won a court ruling that invalidated the Michigan secretary of state’s instructions to poll watchers.

Spies has also repeatedly defended the presidential election system as being nearly impossible to rig, citing the broad distribution of authority in managing elections. During a 2021 appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference, he said correctly that allegations of widespread voting machine error in Michigan were false and that repeated recounts in Georgia had failed to show any voter fraud in the 2020 race there.

“Let’s win the elections, and not get worried about things that aren’t true,” he said at that event.

Election 2024

Get the latest news on the 2024 election from our reporters on the campaign trail and in Washington.

Who is running? President Biden and Donald Trump secured their parties’ nominations for the presidency . Here’s how we ended up with a Trump-Biden rematch again.

Key dates and events: From January to June, voters in all states and U.S. territories will pick their party’s nominee for president ahead of the summer conventions. Here are key dates and events on the 2024 election calendar .

Abortion and the election: Voters in about a dozen states could decide the fate of abortion rights with constitutional amendments on the ballot in a pivotal election year. Biden supports legal access to abortion , and he has encouraged Congress to pass a law that would codify abortion rights nationwide. After months of mixed signals about his position, Trump said the issue should be left to states . Here’s how Biden’s and Trump’s abortion stances have shifted over the years.

• Election 2024 latest news: After big weekend in Palm Beach, Trump returns to N.Y. courtroom 13 minutes ago Election 2024 latest news: After big weekend in Palm Beach, Trump returns to N.Y. courtroom 13 minutes ago
• How did we end up with a Biden-Trump matchup again? Earlier today How did we end up with a Biden-Trump matchup again? Earlier today
• Echoing 2020, Trump won’t commit to accepting 2024 election results May 2, 2024 Echoing 2020, Trump won’t commit to accepting 2024 election results May 2, 2024

• Cast & crew

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for a... Read all Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike. Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.

• Josh Friedman
• Amanda Silver
• Freya Allan
• Kevin Durand
• Dichen Lachman

• Proximus Caesar

• Youngster #1
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

The Big List of Summer Movies

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• Trivia This film is not a reboot and is set after the previous trilogy.

Proximus Caesar : What a wonderful day!

• Connections Featured in H-Cast: Insiders Expose Marvel! Blade Reboot, The Marvels & MORE! The H-Cast EP 78 (2023)

New and Upcoming Sci-fi & Fantasy

• When will Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes be released? Powered by Alexa
• May 10, 2024 (United States)
• United States
• Planet of the Apes Ride
• Helensburgh, New South Wales, Australia
• Disney Studios Australia
• Jason T. Reed Productions
• Oddball Entertainment
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 25 minutes
• Dolby Digital
• 12-Track Digital Sound
• Dolby Atmos
• IMAX 6-Track

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277 Goolsby Blvd

Deerfield Beach, FL 33442

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Hood Fitness is a family owned business that strives to create a community where individuals support one another's physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. We offer personal training, nutrition coaching, group classes and open gym. Our mission is to create a meaningful impact on the lives of everyone who walks through our doors and to inspire our broader community. We're committed to setting high standards in the fitness industry, focusing on safety, customer service, education, and lifestyle improvement for both adult and children’s fitness programs. Guided by faith-based values, we provide an environment that fosters growth for our staff, members, and students alike. Visit our front desk or our website to learn more. …

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Joining HF has been a game-changer in my journey/routine and I can't recommend it enough. Over years of being out of a "gym," solely focused on Pilates/Spin-I was so nervous to start back anywhere. From the moment I walked in (and throughout,) I've felt completely at home at this facility! The coaches here go above and beyond, there's no room for doubting yourself when Caleb & Josh are right by your side. HF exceeds expectations, they are SO attentive, they guide you ensuring you get the most out of every workout, focus on your form, and will continue to challenge you. The atmosphere is warm, positive and welcoming. Class times are convenient. What sets this gym apart is the level of professionalism, all ages, and the sense of community-no slacking here! First time in my life I've left a gym and always looking forward to my next class. Highly recommend to anyone looking for a supportive, motivating fitness community. Thank you Caleb, Josh, and HF fam for changing my life and being such an important part of my journey!

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