Strange as it may seem, the late Prince and Michael Jackson nearly did a collaboration not once but twice.
In 1987, Jackson wrote the song “Bad” for his seventh album. He intended to record it as a duet with fellow pop singer Prince. Jackson planned to spread a rumour of the two feuding in the media, culminating with the release of the song. However, Prince declined due to having concerns about the track’s lyrics. Years later, he explained why he opted out in an interview with Chris Rock.
Although the Bad duet never happened, they almost collaborated on the Batman soundtrack. Tim Burton tried to use Prince’s tracks Baby, I’m a Star and 1999 in the 1989 film, but the singer instead created a whole album’s worth of songs. While composing the material, Prince reached out to Jackson with an offer to work on the soundtrack. He would create funk and pop songs while Jackson would write love ballads for the movie. However, Jackson had to drop out due to his concert commitments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Lx_x0rTh3c
The Batman album proved to be financially successful for Prince’s career. It yielded the hit singles Batdance and Partyman. While Prince dismissed it as a minor work, the soundtrack is fondly remembered by fans.
It appears that Marvel Comics is ready to bring back Richard Rider. I say, “About damn time!”
Marvel released a teaser Friday afternoon titled, ‘A Long Awaited Return…’ with the Nova stars.
“I knew this was my chance to be a hero.”
This storyline is part of the ‘Standoff: Assualt on Pleasant Hill’ crossover.
Rider has been on the shelf since the ‘Thanos Imperative.’ Star-Lord and Nova went out like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid trying to trap Thanos in the Cancerverse. Then the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ film was really, really popular, and Thanos and Peter Quill returned to the pages of Marvel Comics, and they established a new Nova.
Are you excited for the return of Richard Rider? Comment below.
As we close in on ‘X-Men: Apocalypse,’ the wandering eye starts to look towards the future for the X-Men Cinematic Universe. Rumors swirled last week that FOX would like to redo the Dark Phoenix saga correctly. In ‘X-Men: Apocalypse,’ Jean Grey is played by Sophie Turner but it appears that Famke Janssen would like to return to the series.
“I’m actually really excited about [Sophie Turner playing Jean Grey]. And it’s not the first time obviously that it’s happened. In the X-MEN series, they’ve been doing this for years. Although women… it’s interesting because they’re replaced, and the older versions – or more mature, whatever the politically correct version of that is – are never to be seen again. Whereas the men are allowed to be both ages. Sexism. I think that I should be back along with my younger version and the way that we’ve seen it with Magneto and Professor X,” said Janssen to Entertainment Weekly.
It would make for an interesting film if Janssen were the devil on Turner’s shoulder pushing her to become the Dark Phoenix.
Do you want to see Janssen return as Jean Grey for one more film?
X-Men: Apocalypse is directed by Bryan Singer and stars Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy and Nicholas Hoult, Oscar Isaac (Apocalypse), Sophie Turner (Jean Grey), Tye Sheridan (Cyclops), Alexandra Shipp (Storm), Lana Condor (Jubilee), Olivia Munn, and Kodi Smit-McPhee.
Ancient mutant Apocalypse is unearthed after 5,000 years and recruits his four horsemen; Magneto, Psylocke, Storm, and Angel. The Four Horsemen of Apocalypse try to reboot the world through destruction.
The film is set in the 1980s, and we will see younger versions of previously seen characters.
One of the better parts of ‘Man of Steel’ was the time spent on Krypton and the fascinating world director Zack Snyder envisioned. Russell Crowe brought the action-hero and the gravitas to Jor-El. Three years later it looks like fans will get to see more of Krypton.
Deadline is reporting that David S. Goyer’s ‘Man of Steel’ prequel Krypton has been given the greenlight at Syfy. The project was stuck in the development stage for the past year-and-a-half. Deadline’s report also states that Damian Kindler is the executive producer/showrunner, and Colm McCarthy will direct the pilot.
The series is set two generations before the destruction of Krypton. It follows Superman’s grandfather — whose House of El was ostracized and shamed — as he fights to redeem his family’s honor and save his beloved world from chaos.
Goyer will also serve as executive producer to ‘Krypton.’
What do you think? Are you excited for a weekly series set on Krypton?
Green Room is the third feature film written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier, and the thirty-second release from A24 Films. The company has made a name for itself by distributing films that challenge the norm and embrace the strange, especially in the horror-thriller genre. So when they announced a backwoods thriller starring quintessential hero-figure Patrick Stewart as a white supremacist gang leader, people got excited.
The plot revolves around “The Ain’t Rights,” a punk band that’s broke and desperate for gigs. They accept the offer to do a show just outside of Portland at some redneck neo-Nazi bar, complete with swastikas and Confederate flags on the walls. After witnessing something that they shouldn’t have, the band members barricade themselves inside the green room, and the movie descends into madness from then on.
Saulnier’s aim was to create a thriller, plain and simple; Green Room‘s not trying to win any awards for writing or acting. Its goal is to pick the viewers up, shake them around for 95 minutes, and toss them back in their seats. It succeeds, there’s no doubt about that, but the way it succeeds may be a tad disheartening for some people.
The story starts out strong; the band is locked in the green room, and they deal with their captors through the bolted door. The tension builds in a very claustrophobic, and very internal way. It’s very well done and keeps the audience on the edge of their seats before exploding in an intense and cathartic moment featuring some pretty heavy gore. The problem is that the flick doesn’t go back to that initial mental terror (at least not to the same extent that it had gone earlier); it commits more to the gore, and starts throwing in jump scares. It’s ultimately a matter of taste, but the emotional tension that started the story just seemed more interesting and less formulaic than what comes after.
The one performance of note is Patrick Stewart’s, which is what the film’s marketing was built around. He’s hauntingly good as the bar’s owner Darcy, but he’s also underutilized and it doesn’t feel like he reaches his full potential. Darcy is calm, cold, and calculated during high-octane events, which makes for a brilliant and menacing villain figure; it’s how Vincent D’Onofrio played Wilson Fisk in the first season of Daredevil. But Fisk also had his tantrum moments where he would explode, allowing D’Onofrio to really go nuts and explore his range. Stewart doesn’t have any of these moments in Green Room, and he really should have. Letting him off his leash would have made the film entirely better and more interesting to watch.
Expectations were high on this picture, especially with A24 Films involved. That’s why it was disappointing to see it turn out to be another by the book horror-thriller. Which isn’t to say that the movie is bad by any means. Some people will love it (it’s Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes); it just depends on what type of thriller interests you. If you crave a visceral moviegoing experience with a fair amount of gore and jump scares, then Green Room is for you. But if you prefer a more intimate, complex, psychological thriller, you’ll most likely be bored by the time you reach its third act.
P.S. – The final moment before the credits roll is the best part, and it actually serves as a small form of redemption for the generic story. That just needed to be put on record.
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Green Room is in theaters now; check your local listings to find a theater near you!
Celebrating the release of the most video gamey movie to ever grace our screens in Hardcore Henry, the guys at the UnPOP Podcast take a look at how video games have shaped our culture and discuss their favorites and least favorites (Teaser: Star Wars Battlefront makes one of those lists). Also, What’s Cookin’ in The Rock’s Kitchen and The “Rhoda” to Redemption!
Have a topic you’d like to hear UnPOPPED? Send any comments/love/vitriol to unpopentertainment@gmail.com
10 years ago Sony Pictures brought Christophe Gans’ video game adaptation Silent Hill to the big screen. The French Canadian director not only played the video games himself but was a huge fan of the franchise.
As many other articles currently surfing the web with the popularity of the 10th anniversary release they also noted from the general resource of Wikipedia that Christopher Gans had to seriously fight for rights for this film. After five years of writing Konami, eventually a 30-minute presentation won the company over, and the production began.
Although I can certainly continue to regurgitate even more recycled information, that everyone else is using or complain about why it sucks in the light that it doesn’t follow the games shot by shot, I’d much rather give you some shed some light on why we should take the time to appreciate this mixed media art piece.
In 2006, I did not have the pleasure of playing any of the Silent Hill games just yet. At that point in life, I had my first survival horror experiences playing Resident Evil and Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem on Nintendo Gamecube but well aware of Silent Hill’s legendary experience. As I was first introduced to Silent Hill in Christopher Gan’s adaptation, I was immediately a fan of the eerie atmosphere regardless of its mediocre CGI. I remember falling in love with the actresses’ energy in the film, felt that the soundtrack was too perfect and personally was emotionally invested with the story line. However, not the most trustworthy point of view coming from a 17-year-old teenage girl who has barely dabbled in survival horror video games and has yet to see any sort of foreign horror.
Now fast forwarding to 2016, re-watching the movie with a slew of films under my belt and having a handful of gameplay hours of the first Silent Hill in the series, I can easily say I am still a huge fan of the movie. I still think the acting was on point, the special effects as far as the makeup and tangible set were fantastic, the musical score was probably one of my favorite soundtracks in history, and having an R rating delivered just enough gore without going overboard in the mainstream realm. It’s not perfect by any means, with as mentioned the CGI factor but I certainly appreciate Christopher Gans creative intentions.
In a 2006 interview, Christophe Gans could not stop stressing the importance of how emotionally invested he was playing the series and how important it was to interpret that into this opportunity to create the adaptation. When asked about how he felt while personally playing the games he responded:
“It’s very, very complex because…. The games are based on the very emotional approach on the storytelling. Usually in a game you have to face danger, you have to be a war hero, you have to be a hero. In Silent Hill you can’t be a hero.”
And I can certainly contest to that statement. Although only having experience in the first Silent Hill in the series, playing this character as Harry Mason is far from playing any supercharged soldier, superhero or ninja of any sort. Playing this regular Joe Schmoe with limited weapons was not only aggravating at first, but definitely built up the terror when things started to get very weird in the game plot.
In addition to his last statement, Christophe Adds:
“The creator of this series decide that gamer has to stay a human being, and not be an idealistic vision of himself or herself. So when you’re playing the game, you’re feeling very confusing, very disturbing, and constantly you try to see where the line is between good and evil, where is the line between making something good and making something ugly. The loneliness of your cocktail improves your adventure because most of the time you’re completely alone in the fog, and the dark. Makes you very vulnerable in terms of moral perspective according to what you have to do in the game.”
Although Christophe praised the complexity of the Silent Hill game plots, he didn’t find it necessary for the viewer to have experience playing the series to understand the movie. And I agree 100%. Regardless of what some of the “critics” had to say. Roger Ebert gave the film one and half stars:
“Although I did not understand the story, I would have appreciated a great deal less explanation. All through the movie, characters are pausing in order to offer arcane back-stories and historical perspectives and metaphysical insights and occult orientations. They talk and talk and somehow their words do not light up any synapses in my brain, if my brain has synapses and they’re supposed to light up, and if it doesn’t and they’re not, then they still don’t make any sense.”
Adopted kid, sleepwalking, past life transitions, other dimensions translating into already dead. Boom, doesn’t have to be a literal documentary especially since it’s based off a horror inspired VIDEO GAME.
But anywho I digress… What I found the most interesting amongst the interview, was the decision to make the protagonist a female. Apparently it was a verdict that was once again spawned from the importance of emotional connection within the film. With wanting to use the first Silent Hill of the series in the movie, they began to notice that a woman would just be a better fit for the character plot.
“…when we start the writing, respecting his personality, we found that he was acting; he was talking like a woman. This guy worked very well in the game, but when you try to transpose him as a real character, it’s a woman. And for me there were two options, I was completely transforming the guy except his name, or I was trying to keep the psychological atmosphere of the character, and I was making him a woman and we decided to make him a woman.”
In his defense, I sincerely felt like that was a wise choice. Especially with having Radha Mitchell as the lead actress. With having that powerful worried motherly aura mastered throughout the whole film, I really couldn’t see the Harry character having the same effect.
In regards to the creature selection in the 2006 film, Christophe wasn’t trying to match it completely up to one specific game. With playing Silent Hill 1-4, he was sort of in love with all of the creature development but felt it was crucial to have some of the most iconic terrors from the series.
“…but sentimentally, you know it was impossible for me to don’t have in my film the ominous creature mean straight jacket, the nurses, or red pyramid – pyramid head. It was impossible; I could not imagine silent hill without these creatures.”
So that definitely makes sense to me. I mean he sort of took his one shot at recreating a very meaningful series in life and made it somewhat his own. Regardless of relevancy in the game storylines, those creatures were still terrifying and still matched up with petrifying time-dependent atmosphere. The creepy sirens followed by the immense black out still provoke chills up my spine in both watching that film and playing the game.
But he didn’t fall short of addressing the most frightening piece of Silent Hill:
“Every fan knows that the monster in Silent Hill are not the most monstrous things in Silent Hill. The monster in Silent Hill are some kind of pathetic and strangely human. The real monsters in Silent Hill are the humans”
And isn’t that the ugliest truth in real life as well? With that being said, his visual representation of Alessa’s story of being treated as an outcast for things out of her control and further fueled by organized hate was something that hit a little too close to home for me in which always stuck with me from the first viewing of the film. Partly storyline and partly from Jodelle Ferland’s fantastic acting.
Wrapping up the interview with mentioning some of his favorite scenes from the Silent Hill 2, Christophe once again touches base on his emotional side. With the meeting of Red Pyramid and the climax at the end of the second story of the series is something that makes him tear up to this day.
“Actually it’s funny because these two moments make me cry and that’s one of the reasons I’d like to think that it was important to adapt this game. It was not only about fear; it’s about emotion. There’re not too many games that make you cry with a joystick in your hand; it’s very rare and unique.”
With an understanding that he was paying homage to series as well as acting upon the popular word in the interview -EMOTIONS- it’s important to note that this director seriously loved Silent Hill. As a fellow gamer and watching his eyes light up as he spoke about his experience as well as his utmost need to recreate the atmosphere he felt while playing, was a legitimate energy you can feel from the computer screen. Needless to say that Christophe Gans treated this as a passion project rather than just some quick Hollywood release like a lot of modern horror released today. That sort of dedication definitely transcends through the film and rightfully remains as one of the best video game adaptation to this date.
With Ikoma now lingering between half human and Kabane he attempts to escape with everyone on the train that Mumie has cleared a path for, with her two sawed off steam shotguns. Mumei however isn’t able to help against the Kabane on the train because of a time limit where here Kabaneri heart consumes her and she needs to rest. Ikoma is found out after the passengers see his now Kabane heart and is shot out of the train left for dead. The train comes up to a halt however unable to cross a bridge because of a mechanical malfunction. Ikoma returns getting brutally injured as her takes out Kagane and successfully manually engages the drawbridge level. Mumie shows back up to save Ikoma’s let for dead body and reveals to the police that she and him are Kabaneri, half human half kabane.
Review
It was almost cruel having to wait for the second episode of Kabaneri of The Iron Fortress, but it’s finally here, and its time to gush. First of all, every second of watching Kabaneri of The Iron Fortress I was cheering in my head. It didn’t matter if people were dying, everything was just so awesome that I felt like I needed to keep pumping myself up. And Kabaneri of The Iron Fortress is very much a pump up show. Everything down to the movie like action scenes and Hiroyuki Sawano’s insert song while Mumei playfully dispatches Kabane proves this. Kabaneri of The Iron Fortress has up until this point rocked out its story at a spinal tap eleven. So lets look at how it did this so well.
We finally get to see the follow-up of Mumie’s sweet decapitation in episode one and are exposed to her real potential as a kabane exterminator. She playfully, but not annoyingly, dispatches countless kabane, all while making a path for the citizens to get on the train. It seems she’s well-balanced her emotions towards the world and kabane, as opposed to seemingly everyone else besides Ikoma. In a world of seemingly insanely scared people, its nice to see someone who takes tries to take pleasure in the situation. And her skill level warrants that behavior, so I’m okay with it. To maybe make a comparison I’d say she’s like Woody Harrelsons, Tallahassee is Zombieland. And given what we learn at the end of the episode that Kabaneri are basically undead tanks, I’d say there’s loads of cool shit we can see from her, and Ikoma as well.
So if Mumie is the elegant tank, Ikoma is the bullet sponge, which has its own merits. His weapon makes him get up close and personal and he gets brutalized this episode. To be fair it was because he was surrounded, but that makes his triumph over it so cool. Because I assume he can still feel pain, and yet he powers through it in an attempt to save the train people just to spite them for leaving him behind. Now that’s a badass. But not one without relate ability, as the train drives away he cries at the fact that he’s going to die but his stupid ideals won’t let him take the rope his friend throws out. Theres a lot to chew on for his characters and seeing him steadfast on his ideals, but at the sometime be hurt by them makes for a compelling character.
As for the events of this episode, I’d say it flows in a way that is exactly what you want from this kind of show. That being that events happen in such a fast pace and with such impact that you don’t really have focus to put anywhere else. This makes for seemingly simple events to have surprising outcomes that you would normally figure out easily, but the show is so good at keeping you directly engaged, that when it happens you don’t see it coming. Kabaneri of The Iron Fortress masters engagement and with having a premise that’s not that original, this is crucial to its continue success. I can’t wait to see where they go from here and how they’ll blow me away next.
In 2012, ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ didn’t necessarily wow the critics and blow up the box office. The Rotten Tomatoes score was a 48%, and the film made $155 million domestically on a $170 million production budget.
Fast forward to 2016, Matt and EJ are trying to make it through ‘The Huntsman: Winter’s War’ a forced sequel that didn’t need to be made. The podcast duo was feeling optimistic after an exceptional episode of ‘Fear the Walking Dead.’
Listen to all our thoughts on ‘Fear the Walking Dead,’ ‘The Huntsman: Winter’s War,’ season six of ‘Game of Thrones,’ and the big budget ‘Power Rangers’ film in the podcast below.
Do you have a question that you would like answered during the show?
Email your questions to matt@popaxiom.com.
If you are looking to sponsor the podcast email matt@popaxiom.com as well.
Never heard of Matt Sardo?
For starters, he made the Kessel Run in less than 11 parsecs. Prior to that, he gave Doc Brown the idea for the flux capacitor and led the Resistance to victory over SkyNet – all while sipping a finely crafted IPA. As a radio host, he’s interviewed celebrities, athletes and everyone in between. He’s covered everything from the Super Bowl to Comic-Con.
Who is EJ Moreno?
Is he a trained physician? No. Is a he a former Miss Universe contestant? Possibly. But what we know for sure is he’s a writer, filmmaker, and pop culture enthusiast. Since film school, EJ has written & directed several short films. He’s used his passion of filmmaking to become a movie critic for MonkeysFightingRobots.com.
The Huntsman: Winter’s War (in theaters this weekend) reminds me of the video for the song “Why” by Annie Lennox. Both are visually appealing as well as extremely aggravating.
This film is both a sequel and a prequel to Snow White and the Huntsman, beginning before Snow White destroyed Ravenna (Charlize Theron) and continued after Snow White’s victory. If anyone is perplexed as to why this film was even made to begin with, Snow White And The Huntsman brought in 396.6 million worldwide (Don’t worry I was shocked as well). So why cut out Snow White from the sequel? Well, Kristen Stewart was discovered having an affair with the film’sdirector Rupert Sanders and the beefy Chris Hemsworth is more than capable of carrying a film. So goodbye Snow White and hello Sara (played by Jessica Chastain) and Freya (played by Emily Blunt).
The Huntsman: Winter’s War is a story developed by Evan Daugherty. To date, his biggest credits have been writing Divergent, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Snow White And The Huntsman. So it came as no surprise to me when the film was chock full of laughable dialogue and formulaic plots (just look at his body of work). His attempts at originality are nothing more than direct imitations from films such as Brave, Frozen, and Marvel’s Thor (at least we know what movies he must have recently watched).
Cedric Nicholas-Troyan (who sounds like a character in Game Of Thrones) takes over the director’s chair from Rupert Sanders and doesn’t learn from the mistakes of his predecessor. Instead of concentrating his efforts on developing a stronger plot, he opts to add more glitz and eye-popping visuals to the film. This movie may look great, but even dog poop can look presentable in the right light.
As for the plot, it begins by telling the story of Queen Ravenna’s (Charlize Theron who seems to be in this film just for the paycheck) and her rise to power. We learn of her sister Freya, who after experiencing tragedy in her life, now has Elsa-like powers from Frozen (Hence the title Winter’s War). Freya is hating life so she decides that if she can’t be happy, then no-one can. She decides that they will conquer all of these towns and kingdoms and kidnap the children so that she can groom them into her Huntsmen. Fast forward a few years and now we see what looks and sounds like Merida from Brave (she’s even good with a bow and arrow) but in reality it’s just Jessica Chastain running through the motions as Sara, the lone female Huntsman. She immediately catches the eye of a dashing of Eric (Hemsworth), and they are immediately drawn to another. Fast forward a bit more and long story short, Freya wants her sister’s magic mirror from the first movie so that she can be invisible. Of course, Eric and Sara have other plans for that mirror.
This film is littered with CGI creatures that appear to be goblins but look like a roided up Jar Jar Binks after he experienced third-degree burns. Nick Frost and Rob Brydon return as Eric’s dwarf sidekick but truthfully they seemed in the way for most of the movie.
It’s extremely aggravating that we have to endure these types of films. There’s truthfully no real reason for this film to have ever been made to start with, let alone released to the general public. The Huntsman: Winter’s War fails on every level. The story is ridiculous. The actors seem to be just going through the motions on screen. Visually, this film is okay, but not let me pay to see this in the theaters okay. Our only hope is that the general public gets with the program and fails to support the abomination in filmmaking so that we don’t have to sit through another one of these films.
