Entertainment Tonight released a behind the scenes look at Captain America: Civil War.
Captain America: Civil War is directed by Anthony & Joe Russo from a screenplay by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, Captain America: Civil War picks up where Avengers: Age of Ultron left off, as Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) leads the new team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. After another international incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability and a governing body to determine when to enlist the services of the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers while they try to protect the world from a new and nefarious villain.
The film stars Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Chadwick Boseman, Emily VanCamp, Daniel Brühl, Frank Grillo, William Hurt, and Martin Freeman.
Captain America: Civil War is set for release on May 6.
Saban Films and Lionsgate released the first trailer for I Am Wrath, the action thriller directed by Chuck Russell and starring John Travolta, Christopher Meloni, Sam Trammell, Amanda Schull, Asante Jones, Luis Da Silva Jr., Paul Sloan, Patrick St. Esprit and Rebecca De Mornay (Comingsoon.net)
I Am Wrath gets a digital release on April 15 and then hits the theaters on May 13.
With Travolta at 62, this is a film that should have come out 20 years ago. What Hollywood star today will lead the next generation of action heroes?
CBS and the CW released an official poster for The Flash Supergirl crossover in Supergirl‘s March 28 episode (Digital Spy).
The first race between the Flash and Superman was in the pages of Superman #199 from 1967. You can see the television series understands its history.
“‘Worlds Finest’ – Kara gains a new ally when the lightning-fast superhero The Flash (Grant Gustin) suddenly appears from an alternate universe and helps Kara battle Siobhan, aka Silver Banshee, and Livewire, in exchange for her help in finding a way to return him home.”
The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye series has been one of the best runs of comics the franchise has ever seen. With the unique and interesting stories by James Roberts and the outstanding artwork of Alex Milne the comic has earned Comics Alliance’s Best of 2015: Continued Excellent in Serial Comics Award. What’s so appealing about it? Basically it’s a series where the best and brightest Autobots and Decepticons are nowhere to be seen. Instead, characters like Swerve, a pop culture referencing bartender, Whirl, a psychopath who loves to stir things up, and Ultra Magnus, the one straight laced character in the mix are on a quest to find the ancient warriors known as the Knights of Cybertron which they think will help bring peace to their planet which is still settling after the end of the Decepticon and Autobot war.
So, how did the creative team decide to spend the big 50? By leaving the readers on a cliffhanger which will make them scream in frustration of how awesome it is. The story, “How Bright their Frail Deeds”, begins with a preface showing every Autobot and Decepticon from around the universe getting deathbed confessions and funeral requests from several members of the Lost Light crew. As Optimus Prime is quick to try to find a way to save them, it’s revealed these messages were sent three weeks ago and those who sent the message are probably dead. A very cryptic way to start a comic.
Jumping back to the Lost Light crew, after saving a group of aliens from some generic robots, they return to the ship and Megatron is teaching a class. This may come as a surprise to many, but Megatron has become a good guy and was made captain of the ship in an effort to give him a sense of purpose with his new alliance and make sure he stays in line. Just as it seems Megatron is starting to finally become all the way good, he decks someone. He insists it was an accident and gets a check over by new character Velicity, who has been working as the ship’s doctor. Just as she is starting to examine him, multiple crew members report hearing voices. After tracking the source of what was causing everyone to hear something, a team heads out to investigate. This is when things from bad to worse.
Turns out the voices were all a plan by a prisoner named Getaway, who has staged a mutiny and with the help of others has left the group stranded on a planet. This wouldn’t be so bad except for the fact the crew isn’t alone. The Decepticon Justice Division, a group of extremist Decepticons who have made it their life’s work to track down and destroy any deserters or traitors to the Decepticon cause are on the planet and want Megatron erased for changing sides and will destroy anyone who tries to stand in their way. This is where the main story comes to a close with a cliffhanger fans will be freaking out about for a month.
As it is an anniversary issue, the creative team decided to add a bit more with a backup story called “No guns, no swords, no briefcases.” In it, different crew members use a machine to appear as ghosts and flashback on important events in the comic’s history and look at different members of the crew they lost in the 50 issue run. It’s a nice short story which really shows some of the more powerful events which have occurred in the course of the series run.
The issue is fantastic and continues the level of excellence the creative team has been known for. The only complaint which can be addressed is, if you are a fan of Transformers and haven’t taken the time to check this comic out, this is as far from a starting point as you can get. This is the only real negativity which can be levied against this book and if you are a fan of Transformers, you owe it to yourself to find some back issues and read up so you can appreciate where this series is going.
This Michael Keaton career renaissance is one of the best stories to come out of Hollywood in some time. After starring in two consecutive Best Picture winners (Spotlight and Birdman), and collecting a Best Actor nomination (he should have won) along the way, Keaton isn’t slowing down any time soon.
Deadline reports Keaton has agreed to star in American Assassin, Michael Cuesta’s upcoming thriller about a badass Cold War vet who teaches greenhorns about the art of war. Keaton will play said Cold War badass, Stan Hurley, replacing Bruce Willis. Which, as crazy as it sounds, is probably the best news for the film. Willis has devolved into VOD action fodder in recent years and built a rather sizable reputation as a tyrannical prick on set, so Keaton taking over should smooth the road for Cuesta and probably result in a better film.
Cuesta (Kill The Messenger) had this to say about Michael Keaton joining the project:
Stan Hurley is one of the pillars of the Vince Flynn universe and a favorite character for millions of readers, so casting him was a daunting challenge… To have an actor as intelligent and gifted as Michael Keaton bring this beloved character to life is a thrill for everyone involved in American Assassin, and a cause for celebration amongst ‘Hurley’ fans the world over.
Nobody else has joined American Assassin at this point, but consider the wild notion that Michael Keaton’s name attached to a project should now draw the interest of top tier talent in 2016. This is the guy, one of my personal favorites, who stumbled through films like Jack Frost and White Noise for years (back off of Desperate Measures though) before he finally found his footing again in 2014. And on top of his career turnaround, where his talent has been able to truly shine, it seems Keaton is a genuinely good dude.
This Keaton-aissance is simply wonderful, and here’s hoping for another rousing success with American Assassin.
If Something Wild was released today, the movie could be seen as a genre twist on the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope. Melanie Griffith plays Audrey Hankel; she dresses weirdly, she cheerfully starts conversations with strangers, and she’s willing to do spontaneous road trips with them. Yep, all signs point to MPDG. All in high contrast to the shy, more conservatively dressed Charles (Jeff Daniels) who ends up joining her. But the movie doesn’t leave them as mere quirks or stereotypes, as the story goes on, they become fully formed human beings.
Jonathan Demme directs this movie to near perfection: The abrupt change in tone halfway through works without betraying the rest of the movie because Demme allows it to land naturally and with enough aplomb to get the audience excited for this new turn in the film. It doesn’t feel forced. It’s not the kind of twist that makes you wish the movie had stayed in the same tune it started in. The movie has a natural, mundane look to it but with the characters dressed in bright colors making them stand out and giving the movie a style that feels both real and cartoonish in a good way. And with Demme you also get some great filmmaker cameos such as John Sayles and John Waters, and great musician cameos such as The Feelies and Sister Carol. It must be mentioned that the movie also has one of the coolest end credit sequences ever put on film. It’s surprising and charming, just like the film itself.
Something Wild is something of an underrated gem. It has its fans, it’s respected in many cinephile circuits, but it has never quite joined the ranks of the classics. Could it be the change in tone? Maybe. But that’s what makes it a great experience to watch. This movie stands out as one of the most memorable films of 1986 and of the 80s overall. The fact that it almost feels like it could be made today is a testament to its endurance.
Will Ferrell and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ drummer Chad Smith, who are damn near twins separated at birth, are teaming up once again for a charity benefit.
The comedian and his rock star doppelgänger announced their Red Hot Benefit Comedy + Music Show & Quinceanera. Yes, that’s the title. Smith and his Chili Pepper bandmates will perform at the benefit, along with other acts Smith will curate himself. Ferrell, meanwhile, along with his Funny or Die compatriots, will collect comedians to perform.
“I have only one great regret in life and it’s that I never actually celebrated my quinceanera,” Ferrell told Rolling Stone. “I’d like to think it was just a simple oversight by my mother, but there has been a void inside me for many years. Growing up on the mean streets of Irvine, California, I have vivid memories of all my friends celebrating their quinceanera.”
This isn’t the first time Will Ferrell and Chad Smith have been seen in public together, confirming that they are in fact two different people. In May 2014 they appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon for a drum off, and discussed their “heated rivalry” over the years. “We had so much fun with Will on the drum-off and ultimately getting the entire band together to participate on the Tonight Show,” Smith said. “So much goodwill came out of one silly joke. We’ve been trying to find another way to get together and do some more good for our respective causes and I think we have found it.”
You can see Will Ferrell and Chad Smith, and the res of the acts at the Red Hot Benefit Comedy + Music Show & Quinceanera April 29, with general admission tickets on sale March 11.
There is no denying that the 2016 presidential race is one of the most contentious in recent memory. However, it would be a challenge to find another presidential race where one of the candidates was compared to an X-Men villain.
Last night during CNN’s ongoing coverage of the latest round of presidential primaries, Van Jones made this comparison.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGjhYDep4ao
That’s right he compared Republican front-runner Donald Trump to one of the more infamous X-Men villains. It’s not the first time he’s been compared to a bad guy, and it won’t be the last I would imagine. Now before anyone thinks that this is some slam against the candidate, Mr. Jones is truthfully pointing out a perceived strength of Mr. Trump.
“The harder you hit [Shaw], the stronger he gets,” Jones told a panel led by Anderson Cooper. “We’re gonna see how many bullets [Trump] can eat.”
You would be hard pressed to find a more definitive superhero of schlock cinema than the antihero at the center of Sam Raimi’s Darkman. The film wallows gleefully in the tropes of genre camp sensibilities, hyper-violent, over-stylized, and wonderfully entertaining. Raimi, the master of elevated B cinema, approaches Darkman with such unabashed love and attention it’s impossible not to share in his affection. And the stilted, ham-fisted noir dialogue, clawing through the teeth of its hard nosed characters, inviting nothing more than a good time (it lets you know what you’re in for from the opening scene) is a pleasant reminder that Liam Neeson began his career in many of the same places he’s reverted back to in his later, post-Taken genre years. This guy wasn’t always Oskar Schindler.
In 1990 he was Dr. Peyton Westlake, a brilliant scientist obsessively working on a synthetic skin generation technology. Call it the early days of the 3D printer. Westlake is inching ever so close to perfecting his technology, only the skin his machine produces destabilizes and dissolves at 99 minutes. Always 99 minutes. And wouldn’t you know it, he figures out what is keeping his skin from working completely just as a crew of henchmen break into his bayside laboratory.
These henchmen, led by Robert G. Durant (B Movie Hall-of-Famer, Larry Drake) aren’t interested in Peyton or his work; they’re in search of the ominous “important legal document” his girlfriend, Julie (Frances McDormand), has in her possession. It’s nothing more than a plot device to get Durant and his cronies into Peyton’s lab so they can kill his assistant, smash his head through some glass cabinets, burn him severely, and rig up a fuse to trigger a bomb sending Peyton – a human fireball – rocketing through the air and into the bay. Presumed dead. But he is recovered and taken to the hospital as a John Doe, where he is covered head to toe in bandages and poked and prodded by curious doctors.
Something has changed in Peyton, something has altered his very being. He has super strength, an aversion to pain, and some seriously messed up visions. And so this bandaged man, free from the constraints of the living, obsessively works to exact revenge.
But Darkman has more working for it than the typical plot trajectory of a superhero seeking his pound of flesh. The bandages are great, creating a Frankensteinian creature who is both doctor and patient. Peyton returns to his work in his destroyed lab – now with an on-the-nose fiery pit in the center – and re-creates his own face in order to reach out to Julie. Because Raimi and his team of screenwriters have made sure to instill their hero with more motivation than revenge. He loves, and he wants to be loved again, if only for a little while. He uses his skin reconstruction tech to rebuild his face and reach out to Julie (for 99 minutes), to muck up the works in Durant’s criminal enterprises, and even to impersonate Durant himself in one clever scene. These unique plot constructions, and Raimi’s earnest affection for his subjects, is what differentiates Darkman from imitators and from the low-rent sequels to follow.
Let’s not forget, in all this pathos and high-camp adventure, that some wonderfully crazy shit happens along the way regarding Peyton’s revenge plot and, more specifically, his slipping mental state. Especially this whacked out meltdown he has at a carnival with Julie. I mean, look at this…
…How wonderfully unhinged.
As Peyton, Neeson is equal amounts madness, anger, and unhinged burning desire. He allows the character to wallow in self pity from time to time, inviting the audience to feel sorry for him, fueling his anger and propelling him headlong into a sort of controlled insanity. And as an adversary, there isn’t anyone better than Larry Drake this side of William Forsythe. Durant is relentlessly cold and murderous, complete with his gross collection of human fingers from his victims. He is the appropriate, black-hearted flip side of our emotionally-driven hero. Love battling hate in the disparate mean streets, breathing with life and beautifully textured seediness.
Darkman is the Godfather of B-movies, the summit of undercard cinema that was hot in the early 90s. It thrives on the malicious mentality of its characters, and an intentionally artificial world of murderers and thieves. It carries echoes of the Universal horror films of the 30s, The Shadow, and manages to forge its own path, a depraved, inventive path through the brilliant B-movie mind of Sam Raimi.
You didn’t think HBO would succumb to us Game of Thrones fans so easily, did you? Jon Snow’s ultimate fate will only be decided during the airing of the show, and not in their forthcoming promo material. Of course, I still believe he’ll be back in some form, somehow but HBO has done a great job so far of subverting our expectations after hearing of set reports and the like. Here’s the season 6 trailer in full:
He’s so dead here, in fact, that we get two shots of his dead body and one shot of Ser Davos picking up Longclaw to do some sort of unfortunate violence. We’re going to be playing the long game as it comes to the fate of our lovable Crow.
Now, onto everything not Jon Snow, and there’s a lot!
It looks like the High Sparrow is still reigning supreme over the Red Keep, but Cersei’s retaliation is nigh as we finally get a look at the goddamn Mountain, back from Hell’s gates. The brilliance of Game of Thrones is that it is able to waiver your allegiances, one horrible deed at a time. Now, I’m all for some High Sparrow comeuppance after Cersei’s public shaming. Let loose the Foul Beast Gregor Clegane!
The all-knowing Red Priestess, Melisandre is finally cut down, forlorn after the loss of Stannis at the hands of the Bolton’s (though actually by Brienne). It’s strange to see her in this light, vulnerable after having spent seasons and years being right and pushing Stannis toward his ultimate victory. It seems as if Ser Davos has the upper hand in the relationship now and he will have to fight to hold on to Castle Black after the betrayal of Jon Snow. Ser Davos has become one of the most interesting characters on the show and not that he’s in sight of some real power, allowing his good will to manifest itself externally…. it’s sure to all go wrong and we’ll all be heartbroken. But one can hope!
Deanerys isn’t in a much better position, now a Dothraki slave after her capture at the end of last season. Ser Jorah is now looking for either Dany or Tyrion or both now that he’s been exiled (again) and left with nothing (again) and a ticking clock after having been poisoned with Greyscale (although Shireen Baratheon overcame it before she was burned alive by her father–I’m still reeling from that one). Though in one small clip of combat, there is one soldier wearing armor with the House Targaryen Sigil. It doesn’t look like he’s on Dany’s side of the Narrow Sea, though, as those seem to be Northerners he’s battling. Still, hope in some form.
Elsewhere, Reek is captured again, though it looks like at the hands of his former kinfolk. Could he become Theon Greyjoy again? It looks as if his Uncle Damphair is performing the Ceremony of the Drowned God upon him, so maybe there’s hope.
Arya seems to have faired much better. She gets tossed around quite a bit in this trailer. But then she’s got this going for her now:
And then we have the money shot:
Good ole Bran is back after a year of absence and it looks like he’s walking again, only to turn around to be RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE NIGHT’S KING (though we’re still unconfirmed if this horned leader of the White Walkers is the Night’s King of which George R.R. Martin writes in the books)! This could be, and likely will be, some sort of warging where the Three-Eyed Raven has helped Bran discover more of his powers and this scene is just a warning or hallucination. Still, The Night’s King is still out there and now likely aware of Bran and his powers.
Just this trailer has given us so much information and added so much more confusion that I hope HBO releases very little else leading up to season 6’s premiere on April 24th.
