Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has crossed a big box office milestone.
According to Box Office Mojo, the spinoff film has grossed over $1 Billion in theaters around the world.
Rogue One hit this massive number in just over a month, whereas 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens crossed the milestone in a mere 12 days.
Along with stellar box office numbers, the movie is a success among fans and critics alike. It holds an 85 percent critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. Fans liked it a bit more, with the audience score at an impressive 88 percent.
Rogue One‘s popularity shows, yet again, just how well Disney is handling their franchises. With a slew of great animated titles, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Star Wars, the company is succeeding in the current movie landscape.
Plot synopsis: “From Lucasfilm comes the first of the Star Wars standalone films, ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,’ an all-new epic adventure. In a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire’s ultimate weapon of destruction. This key event in the Star Wars timeline brings together ordinary people who choose to do extraordinary things, and in doing so, become part of something greater than themselves.”
Rogue One stars Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso, Diego Luna as Cassian Andor, Alan Tudyk as K-2SO, Donnie Yen as Chirrut Imwe, Wen Jiang as Baze Malbus, Ben Mendelsohn as Director Orson Krennic, Guy Henry as Grand Moff Tarkin, Forest Whitaker as Saw Gurrera, Riz Ahmed as Bodhi Rook, Mads Mikkelson as Galen Erso, Jimmy Smits as Bail Organa, Alistair Petrie as General Draven, and Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma. Click here for the full cast list.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is still playing in theaters.
Micheal Keaton plays Ray Kroc who, at the beginning of The Founder, is a down on his luck milkshake machine salesman and appears to be on the verge of a breakdown; he’ll remind you of Willy Loman. His wife Ethel (Laura Dern) is supportive to the point where she attempts to pump him up every time he comes home after no sales. Then, Kroc had the cold-call that changes his life. After another day of zero sales, he goes and checks his messages and sees that a restaurant in California hasordered multiple mixers for their shakes. Kroc called to verify the order and realizes that there is something special going on at this restaurant and decides to check it out. He’s astonished when he pulls up to the establishment, McDonald’s, and it’s slammed.
Richard and Maurice McDonald (Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch) are extremely friendly to Mr. Kroc and offer him a tour of the facility. The film then takes a sad turn as it moves from a tale of innovation to a tale of betrayal as Kroc rips the McDonald’s brand away from the all too trusting brothers and buys them out for a ludicrously small sum of money with nothing written promising royalties.
Performances:
Micheal Keaton seems incredibly at ease playing flawed male characters. In Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), he played Riggan, a former superstar who is now an alcoholic and fallen on hard times. The Founder has Keaton steps into the role of Ray Kroc, a man who starts off as an unsuccessful salesman to becoming a megalomaniac. Kroc’s flaw isn’t his desire to achieve the American dream; it’s his lack of empathy for those he would destroy along the way. There was no boundaries he wouldn’t cross and no back he wouldn’t stab.
Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch play the McDonald brothers who are bound to making ethical business choices rather than ones that could make the most money. Offerman plays Richard McDonald and goes toe to toe with Keaton’s Kroc at different junctures. Richard is on to what type of person Kroc is but won’t do what it takes to get rid of him. Lynch and Offerman are critical parts of this film because to see how unethical Kroc was, you have to see how ethically driven these brothers are. A terrific moment is when Ray wants to cut costs nationwide for the stores by going to powdered milkshakes and gets into a shouting match with Richard who compares having milkshakes with no milk to living in Nazi Germany. His performance is the best I’ve seen from Offerman in any feature film, striking that appropriate balance of a man who was bound to his core beliefs and someone who wasn’t willing to take crap from people who questioned his methods.
Direction and Writing:
John Lee Hancock directs The Founder and is best known for his work directing The Blind Side and Saving Mr. Banks.Hancock focuses on the minutia of how McDonald’s grew into the giant it is today. That’s fine if audiences went to business school, but the focus should have been more so on Kroc and his relationship with the franchise owners as well as the McDonald brothers. It’s fine and dandy to know that he built his empire on buying the land for each establishment, but I want to know how he got with the franchise owners wife shortly after they signed a deal to open a restaurant. It’s wonderful to know that the McDonald brothers ended up making 1.5 million dollars off of their own name, but I want to know what happened after they realized he was opening a restaurant right across from them weeks later. There was an even better movie that they could have made had they shifted the focus both in both the directing and writing.
The Founder is a good film that could have easily been an impeccable one. While Micheal Keaton does a remarkable job and Offerman is the best I’ve ever seen in a feature film, this film gets in its own way. The most interesting part of this story wasn’t the business behind Kroc’s rise to the top, it was all the people he trampled on along the way. Hancock and writer Robert D. Siegel should have seen that.
No one who is planning on seeing the film will be dissatisfied with the final product. If anything, most will leave with more questions than they had before which is a sure sign that there’s more to the story that wasn’t told.
Day dreaming of next years crossover? Kevin Smith is too.
After taking a run at directing both ‘The Flash’ and ‘Supergirl’, uber nerd Kevin Smith has a big dream of doing the next CW crossover event. These events happen once a year, and are an extreme fan favorite. The four core shows, ‘Supergirl’, ‘The Flash’, ‘Arrow’, and ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ are all together in a four night crossover episode series. The story includes all the characters, and focuses on the particular shows main story during their episode.
Smith is a big fan of the CW and the super hero shows it’s been handing out. It’s no surprise he would want a piece of this awesome cake.
“If they ask me?” Smith laughed when we put the question to him yesterday.”I put in my request to [executive producer Andrew] Kreisberg already, dude.
After I watched their crossover, I said, ‘Please, dude, please, next year, just give me a taste of that crossover. I just want to be involved in one of them. I don’t care which one.’ They look like a nightmare to shoot, I’ll be honest with you. I did the ‘Killer Frost’ episode [of The Flash] right before they went into the crossovers, and the crossover schedule, you’re talking about four different shows where you’re swapping performers and characters and stuff like that. It’s a nightmare on all the AD’s, as they have to try to figure out how to make this all work. That being said, look at the end results, dude. That was absolutely thrilling to watch all four of those shows cross over….I’m asking, I’m asking. I don’t know if they’ll let me but believe me, I’ve already put in the request. I said, ‘Whatever it is next season, whatever the crossover is, even if it was The Death of Kevin Smith, I want to be involved somehow.'”
Time will only tell, but the feelers are out there, and something tells me he is going to get the job
‘The Flash’ comes back with new episodes this Tuesday, January 24th at 8/7c on The CW.
Some Of These Horror Movies Are So Bad, They’re Good!
Loving bad horror movies used to be a niche thing. For years, “cult classics” meant a small group of people rallied behind a movie that most hated. But there’s been a shift with how people view these kind of films. Now, a movie like ‘Sharknado‘ gets massive ratings and has so many people approaching the shlock.
To fully appreciate this uprising of “bad” movies, I’ve crafted together a list of the movies you either you need to know about or have to be reminded of! There’s some insanely obscure picks while others have too infamous not to mention.
Does your favorite notoriously bad horror film make this list? Did I leave off something that I should’ve put on? Let me know in the comments below!
Honorable Mentions:
-‘Birdemic: Shock and Terror‘
-‘Leprechaun 5: In The Hood‘
-‘The Abominable Dr. Phibes‘
I don’t know if anything will ever take the “King of Bad Horror Movies” crown from ‘Troll 2‘. Everything else seems to try too hard; ‘Troll 2‘ is just so organically bad but still so memorable. There’s even a documentary naming this the “best worst movie”!
Finally! ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ is back! The synopsis of the first new episode of the mid season is revealed! internet world has been lucky enough to get some snippets of the new episode. This one is particularly hard for Sara.
In the midseason finale, we found out what happened to Rip Hunter. He was MIA the entire season, the team tries, and fails to get him back. The new clip shows Jax giving Sara a pep talk, after the disappointment of not being able to save Rip.
Will they get Rip back?
Here is the synopsis for the upcoming episode, brought to you by my source.
LOST MEMORIES — When Damien Darhk (guest star Neal McDonough) and Malcolm Merlyn (guest star John Barrowman) try to capture Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) in 1967, they create an Aberration big enough to draw the attention of the Legends. However, when the team arrives they discover that Rip has no memories of his past due to “time drift” and is just a graduate film student.After trying to convince Rip of who he was, they discover that he possesses an incredibly powerful artifact known as the Spear of Destiny, which the Legion of Doom is after. Ray (Bradon Routh) and Nate (Nick Zano) realize that the Aberration has also affected them personally making it difficult to help the team. Meanwhile, Rory (Dominic Purcell) asks Stein (Victor Garber) for help and makes him promise to keep it a secret from the team.
After the crossover event, it seems as if ‘Legends’ is still a contender. Moving days and times should help it be a contender for the rest of the season. Premiering after ‘The Flash’ midseason opener.
All new ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ premieres at its new date and time, this coming Tuesday, January 24th at 9/8c. Right after ‘The Flash’ on The CW.
Millions of woman… men, and children around the world marched today in protest of President Trump and his ideals.
‘We’re Not Going Away’: Women’s March Highlights as Huge Crowds Protest Trump said The New York Times.
Superman is a defender of truth, justice, and the American way. It appears the real Supergirl has the same values. Melissa Benoist was in Washington, D.C. today and she had a strong, nerdy, and powerful message for our new president. Benoist held up a sign that said, “Hey Donald, don’t try to grab my pussy. It’s made of STEEL.”
It is very hard to not love this girl! You can follow the real-life superhero on Instagram @melissabenoist. ‘Supergirl’ returns to the CW on Monday, January 23.
Does this make you a bigger fan of Benoist? Comment below.
Assholes are everywhere, especially on the set of Universal’s latest movie! By now many of you have heard about a film from Universal called A Dog’s Purpose. If you haven’t, let me bring you up to speed. A Dog’s Purpose is based on a novel by W. Bruce Cameron and stars the voice of Josh Gad. It’s the story of a dog’s life, death, and reincarnation. Sounds cute, right? Unfortunately, a part of the creative team — the second unit to be exact — are assholes.
The film is set to release next Friday (January 27th, 2017) but you wouldn’t know it. Universal pulled promotions and press junkets, leaving the film with little exposure. Why? Behind the scenes video released by TMZ showed the second unit forcing a German Shepherd named Hercules to do a stunt it did not want to do. Crewmen are heard yelling “Cut it!” trying to stop the film as the dog is made to perform against its will.
The American Humane Association suspended their representative who was on set and is investigating further. But, a Care2 petition, along with PETA is trying to get Universal to donate proceeds from the film to animal protection groups. And the movie’s star, Josh Gad, released a statement regarding the flick.
I want to remind readers of two things. First, I love animals of all kinds, especially dogs. My furry friend, Commander Riker, means the world to me, so the thought of harm coming to him or forcing him to do anything against his will is gross. Second, I see the world in a very simple way: People are either assholes, or they’re not assholes.
So, on behalf of MFR, I’d like to say that the second unit team who worked on A Dog’s Purpose are 100%, USDA certified assholes.
For the sake of a shot they put a dog through hell. And the video might seem mild to some, but consider that animals don’t know what’s going on. They work on instinct, not rationalization, so when they fear it’s a deep-seated fear. They don’t “suck it up” or “get through it” they agonize. And for that, I say again, the second unit team are assholes and if Universal doesn’t do more to correct this, then they’re assholes too.
In December of 2014, former President Obama opened the doors to Cuba after 56 years of U.S. economic embargo. Two years later, MAD Event Management has partnered with Paradiso, the Cuban cultural agency, to launch Cuba Comic Expo, which will be held May 19–21 in Havana, according to Trade Show Executive.
A website was launched as well – cubacomicexpo.com – “Join us on May 18, 2017, for a historic trip to the beautiful Cuban capital of Havana. You will be treated to culture, tours and wonderful food and classic Cuban drinks.”
According to the article, Mad Event Managment will sponsor comic, animation, prose and other creators to join them in Cuba and will facilitate meetings with their Cuban peers for a one-day trade event, followed by a two-day public event to be held at Havana’s Cuba Pavilion.
“This cultural exchange program will welcome creators from the aligned pop culture worlds of comic book, animation, storytelling and other creative arts to Havana for a unique and historic event,” Marty Glynn, CEO of MAD said to TSE.
No creators or panels have been announced yet, but the Cuba Comic Expo website has information on how to book your trip if you are coming from the United States.
Stay tuned as more details become available.
MAD Event Management also produces the New Jersey Comic Expo, Long Beach Comic Expo, Anime Fan Fest, and Long Beach Comic Con.
Are you excited for Cuba Comic Expo? Comment below.
Split, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, appeared to be at first glance a return to past cinematic glory for the wildly popular director. However, this film is nothing more than a cliche filled, ego driven, meandering bore fest riddled with predictability. While I understand that Blumhouse is thrilled to release a product to a nationwide audience but one would think that they have standards of quality. Didn’t they see warning signs?
The story is about a man named Kevin who suffers from dissociative identity disorder. Kevin has 23 personalities, and it appears that the personalities with any conscience are no longer in control. “Dennis” (one of Kevin’s personalities with no moral compass) abducts three teenage girls and locks them in prison below the surface. Now if the movie had been this and this alone, we might have had a better overall product. However, it seems if the director was fueled by some desire to make the film predictable and cliche, so he creates a character in the story who saw the “good” in Kevin (his therapist played by Betty Buckley).
The therapist believes that people with multiple personalities can undergo changes biologically, making them appear to be very real. It would be one thing if the film got right to her point and put the focus back on Kevin, but alas her backstory went on and on and on. Nothing in the therapist story adds any layer or nuance to either the development of the film or Kevin himself.
The same can be said about the narrative surrounding Casey, which we see in the form of ill-timed flashbacks. How does knowing that her dad was sweet and her uncle was a child molester add anything to the story of Kevin’s break from reality? The answer is nothing. What it does do is distract from what’s important about the film, and that is Kevin Crumb’s mental well-being. When you add so many extraneous parts to the narrative, it loses focus and takes away from the impact of the film.
James McAvoy plays the villain Kevin Crumb and his performance is commendable. However, his efforts are wasted in this film. The supporting cast, including the three girls who are abducted, are incredibly lackluster and don’t elicit any empathy when the audience should 100% be pulling for their safe return. To take this point even further, it’s as if each girl serves as some sort of personality quota that the director was looking to fill, I can just hear him now.
” Okay … we need a feisty young looking girl, a popular blonde hair girl, and a loner who is the rational one of the bunch”
Kevin spends a majority of the film having an internal debate about his mental capacity and which personality is in charge. Why do I care which personality is calling the shots? FOCUS ON WHAT MATTERS! Why is Kevin even the way he is? The films barely address his past but doesn’t come close to addressing the level of psychological torture he endured to end up the way he was. Shymalan is hell bent on telling “his” story but isn’t dedicated to telling a quality story. It’s as if the director’s ego got the better of him.
In the end, Split is a film that got in the way of its own success. Instead of realizing what it already had, by adding layer after layer frivolous backstory it turned what was meant to be an extraordinary look into the evil one man possess to a very predictable look at someone with a mental illness.
Monsters Unleashed is Marvel’s newest crossover that brings in all their heroes to face a threat of giant monsters. Yes, Marvel superheroes are fighting something else besides each other. It’s a great sight to see after Civil War II and Inhumans vs. X-Men, so already this book gets a heap of praise from me. However, how does the rest of the comic hold up? Is it worth spending the $4.99 on? Or should Monsters Unleashed be written off as another uninspired Marvel crossover event?
Writing
Cullen Bunn has proven himself to be a great writer, and here is no exception. Monsters Unleashed’s plot is simple, but not mundane. Giant monsters are falling from the sky, and it’s up to our favorite Marvel heroes to stop them. Easier said than done. This issue allows the audience to experience the scope and scale of the incoming threats. It’s certainly a great hook that will leave the reader wanting more. But where the writing really shines is in its characterization and dialogue. Bunn gives each character a unique voice, and shows off as many of them as possible. All the major superhero teams have a page or two dedicated to them; they’re showcased in a way that might make people interested in their stories. I know I’ll be checking out Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur after reading this issue. (Hell this comic even made me kind of like the Inhumans. That’s impressive)
However, the entire issue isn’t just superhero team after superhero team battling a Kaiju. There’s a deeper plot that focuses on two characters that have a relation to the event. A young boy named Kei Kawade – who may be unwittingly responsible for everything happening – and everyone’s favorite bad-ass, British monster hunter Elsa Bloodstone. Her story indicates that she may have a way to stop the monster apocalypse, or at the very least, we’ll be seeing more of her soon. Which, I’m very happy about.
Art
Civil War artist, Steve McNiven, helms the artistic side of this crossover, so of course the art is outstanding – particularly in the monster design. Each one looks unique, epic, and for lack of a better word, monstrous. There is a grand scale in the panels, particularly in how the angles of said panels are set up. I felt small while reading this comic. There’s also a great sense of motion going on as we see each of the heroes take on a monster. Totally Awesome Hulk, Amadeus Cho, has a really epic scene as he takes down one ugly Kaiju. This book is worth checking out just on the art alone. Sure, there are a few wonky perspectives and facial expressions, but they are few and far between and can be forgiven, especially on this grand a scale. McNiven’s craft is definitely the strongest selling point for this comic. His pencils are complimented greatly by Jay Leisten’s inks and David Curiel’s coloring. Both of them add depth and complexity to these designs.
Final Thoughts
It’s a shame that Civil War II was the first event that sprung out of the All-New All-Different Marvel relaunch; clearly Monsters Unleashed is what should have been released back in May. This comic not only brings all the heroes together to fight a common foe, but it also smartly showcases all the major teams and their heroes. It gives the audience a little tasting of Marvel’s line up. If you’ve given up on Marvel event comics, this one might be change things around for you, as it is engaging, uncomplicated, and fun. If you haven’t read anything from Marvel in a while, this will give you a smorgasbord of everything great going on in their other comics.
However, there is that $4.99 price tag on the comic. If it were a dollar cheaper, or printed in a prestige formatting, then I would recommend this book in a heartbeat. The issue does come with more story, which is a plus. However, I’m not a fan of the flimsy, cheap paper Marvel uses for their books. There’s also the question of how the tie-ins will effect the story or the progress of the event. However, it’s still an enjoyable event and I’m excited to see where the series is going to go next.
