The Walt Disney Studios announced today that Star Wars: The Force Awakens has set a new all-time domestic debut record with an estimated $238M. With a five-day international debut of $279M, the film has taken in $517M globally.
“Our sole focus has been creating a film that delivers that one-of-a-kind Star Wars experience, and director J.J. Abrams, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy, and the Lucasfilm team have outdone themselves,” said Alan Horn, Chairman, The Walt Disney Studios. “To all of the fans around the world who not only came out in Force to make this such an exciting and astronomical debut but who treated this film as their own and helped preserve the experience for their fellow fans by not spoiling it – thank you, we do.”
En route to this galactic launch, the film has smashed several all-time domestic box office records, including:
Biggest Thursday preview gross with $57M.
Biggest Friday and biggest single-day gross with $120.5M.
First film ever to post a single day over $100M.
Fastest film to $100M and $200M.
Biggest December debut (nearly 3 times previous record of $84.6M).
Biggest IMAX Thursday night preview ($5.7M), single-day ($14M, Friday), and weekend ($30.1M).
Highest theater average for a wide release ($57,568).
Star Wars: The Force Awakens debuted day-and-date internationally in nearly every market (except Greece and India, which open Dec. 24, and China, which opens Jan. 9) and set records in many. Highlights:
Biggest opening weekend of all time in UK (4-day), Australia, Russia, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Austria, Poland (3-day), Denmark (5-day), Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Ukraine, Iceland, Serbia, New Zealand.
Earn college credit for writing about pop culture.
Monkeys Fighting Robots is looking for passionate writers to drive the site’s coverage of pop culture. Writers will be responsible for a particular pop culture niche, providing opinion and news, and building a reader community using their multimedia storytelling skills. The best candidate has solid writing skills, understands pop culture, has a desire to be first, and is engaged on social media. Targeted areas of expertise include movies, television, comic books, music, craft beer and technology.
Required skills/experience:
Clean, clear, creative, persuasive writing.
Technically versatile and savvy enough to create content for different formats, devices and media, including video.
Strong familiarity with top sources for pop culture news.
Ability to produce 3-5 weekly blog posts on a topic with varying lengths and content styles.
Enthusiastic commitment to staying on top of the world of pop culture.
The ability to communicate with fans through social media.
An understanding of SEO (or willing to learn).
Must live in your parent’s basement (Just kidding!).
Work requirements:
Available to provide steady stream of content 3-5 articles days per week.
Always looking for breaking news in the world of pop culture.
Comfortable working remotely, staying in touch via e-mail, chat, text and phone.
Compensation:
Pay is based on web traffic.
If your article goes viral, you will be rewarded.
Start date/Application deadline:
Fall, Spring, and Summer internships available.
Apply now. We will contact qualified applicants.
Send your resume to matt@popaxiom.com
Todd Haynes (who has a history examining what makes up the “homosexual identity mixed with classic melodramatic pieces”) was the perfect choice to film the adaptation of The Price Of Salt, Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 novel about two women who boldly defy the strict social conformity in their 1950s. Even with the high expectations surrounding the adaptation of The Price Of Salt, nothing will prepare you for the startling impact of Carol. Carol is a beautifully developed, deeply felt love story that flushes out every nuance of its characters inner lives with great intelligence, amazing poise, and masterful filmmaking. Carol is right in-line with Haynes’ Far From Heaven and Mildred Pierce to the point where it could be easily called a companion piece. Carol is an inricate re-creation of mid-20th-century Americana and should have little trouble receiving critical praise, especially for Cate Blanchett. Blanchett’s portrayal of Carol is incandescent and will translate into significant year-end attention.
It’s rare to have a film with this much prestige centering around a homosexual relationship during the 1950’s, but Carol does seem to be generating a warmer audience embrace than films like Brokeback Mountain did ten years ago. The obvious differences between the two films go beyond the mere fact that Carol takes place in the 1950’s; Haynes’ film is not framed as a tragedy. For all its period restraint, Carol speaks to a larger issue that applies unmistakably to the present moment. It’s a modern film, disguised as 1950’s family drama.
The story takes place during Christmas 1950. A quiet Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara) leads a boring seemingly ordinary existence, holding down a temporary job in the doll section at a Manhattan department store (Haynes does seem to have a thing for dolls in his films). Into this world of manufactured items and display cases (which looks amazing thanks to the amazing production designer Judy Becker) steps Carol Aird (Blanchett) who’s looking to shop for a Christmas gift for her daughter.
The moment when Therese first sets eyes on Carol is a classic, unadorned love-at-first-sight moment. Therese uses Carol mistakenly leaving her gloves at the counter as a way to secure a second meeting. Haynes’ talent as a director is on full display during a scene where the two women have lunch at a nearby restaurant. He’s able to up the pace of the shot (which portrays anxiousness) during very soft yet very vunerable encounter and visualize the unspoken desire that these two women have for each other.
One of the film’s more remarkable moments is, despite their obvious differences in class and background, Therese and Carol seem to ease themselves (and the audience) so quickly into a bond that neither have any interest in defining. Screenwriter Phyllis Nagy makes some very smart adjustments to the text, such as having Therese aspire to a career in photography (rather than set design) her black and white practice shots of Carol adding yet another layer of desire to Haynes’ work of art. Carter Burwell’s score is both haunting and quite appropriate for the story being told. Burwell’s use of two-step progressions and random repititions seemed the perfect undercurrent to the longing that Carol and Therese felt. Haynes seems to have faith in the whole process and he’s able to achieve final product that is eloquence beyond words.
Rooney Mara is as mesmerizing as she was in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, albeit in an entirely different film. Mara seems at her best when she plays the role of a person who’s guarded, yet unafraid to pursue what she wants. Her longing for Carol is the most important part of the film and if it’s not done with the appropriate balance then Carol becomes a joke. Lucky for us, not only does Mara step up to the challenge, but delivers quite possibly the best performance of her acting career.
Carol ultimately belongs to Blanchett, and rightly so. In a world of smothering decorum and forced family cheer, Blanchett illuminates the screen with her best performance since Blue Jasmine. What caught me off guard was Blanchett’s method in Carol to play the role in a much more quiet and underplayed tone. Her decision pays off because what we have is a deeper and fuller performance from Two-time Oscar winner.
Overall, there is a reason why Carol ended up on my Top 15 films list of 2015 and that’s because it’s sensational. It’s superbly wriiten, brilliantly acted, and skillfully shot, an amazing film and a triumph for the cast and crew. At this point it’s a foregone conclusion that both Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara are both destined to be nominated for an Academy Award for their roles respectfully. Monkeys Fighting Robots own Larry Taylor even predicted as much in his Oscar article recently. While I’m not sure how Mara will fare against the field of contenders, Blanchett is a different story all together. Cate Blanchett’s performance as Carol is in such a class by itself that we all should start getting use to the idea of Cate as a three-time Oscar Winner.
Regardless of whether Carol wins any Oscars doesn’t take away from the idea this film needs to be celebrated. In a world where see the same regurgitated nonsense played on screens again and again, it’s refreshing to finish watching a film and feel delight.
In this time of Star Wars mania it’s easy to lose sight of what’s coming out at the theaters. Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight is a salty whodunit that owes as much to Agatha Christie as it does to many Westerns before it. I’m not exactly sure The Hateful Eight can be classified as a typical western; it most certainly could be labeled as a post Civil War film. Itcrams hair trigger racial tensions into a neutral setting (an outpost), where a mixed group of gunslingers try and make nice during a blizzard. The Hateful Eight is full of gratuitous violence and typical Tarantino dialogue that might sway people from wanting to give the film a shot. However, missing Tarantino’s eighth film would be a huge mistake. Tarantino’s film is yet another example of his cinematic genius. One can’t deny that there is an element of familiarity in this film, whether it’s revisiting the classic western like he did in Django Unchained or exploiting the distrust amongst strangers like he did in Reservoir Dogs. Familiarity aside, The Hateful Eight delivers on the sheer moment-to-moment action that Tarantino fans have come to expect, from scorching dialogue to explosive confrontations.
The film centers on the events that take place at Minnie’s Haberdashery – a watering hole that serves as these varmints’ only shelter from an approaching storm. The film serves as a pseudo Reservoir Dogs reunion as Mr. Blonde (Micheal Madsen) and Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), appear as a black-hat cowboy and a dandy british hangman, respectively. Joining them are two bounty hunters, John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and Major. Marquis Warren (Samuel Jackson), the former is tasked with escorting and outlaw named Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), to the gallows in Red Rock.
Underscoring Taratino’s commitment to keep it old school, the director brought back the Ultra Panavision 70mm (on certain screenings) format used on such epics as The Greatest Story Ever Told and How The West Was Won, but choose to ignore the outdoor scenery in a majority of the shots in order to achieve a more claustrophobic feel in the cabin. Still, the film open in such a way that I’ve never witnessed personally with a pre-credits placeholder and an overture card the depicts a stage coach racing from left to right in the shadows. In The Hateful Eight, Tarantino deviates from his usual move of controlling all parts of the film and he relies on Ennio Morricone to set the tone. Morricone gives an eight minute ominous synthesizer-driven mood setter that indicates that violence is just around the corner. Tarantino only enhances the mood with conjuring up a script that gives a sense of the old west. The audience truly feels that it’s every man for themselves and that the only way to interact with someone is to assume they want to kill you.
The audience will really get a kick out the sly hints that are shown in the film – from a stray jelly bean wedged between the floorboards, to the broken “whore” of a door that won’t close unless nailed shut. Just judging by all of the actors’ body language we know death lurks close by. Naturally, each character knows more than they are letting on which gives The Hateful Eight that aforementioned Agatha Christie vibe.
The suspense goes on till about the 100 minute mark when the first corpse ultimately hits the floor. The body count climbs much faster as soon as the audience have regained their seats following the intermission. In a neat twist, the director (playing the role of narrator) insinuates that during the break someone had actually poisoned the coffee at the Haberdashery. This came as no shock because everything in a Tarantino movie is done with wink and a nod.
While some might argue that The Hateful Eight is similar to other films (Delmer Daves’s 3:10 to Yuma is superficially similar and told in rapid 92 minutes), Tarantino knows how to take the story and make it epic. That is over course taking into account everything from the format, to the score , his instance on the grade theatrical viewing, and the wider-than-widescreen aspect ratio. Tarantino and Django editor Fred Raskin have even relaxed the tempo of the film so we can truly appreciate every frame of Quentin’s luxurious work.
Normally, when I see a film, it’s easy to point out which performances stood out and which ones simply didn’t. In The Hateful Eight, not a single performance stood out from the rest but they all beautifully complemented one another. I’m not exactly sure that Tarantino was even wanting performances that “stood out” as much as he wanted the principle characters to all fit into the intricate puzzle that was The Hateful Eight. If you had to single out one character out of the whole ensemble it would be Jennifer Jason Leigh’s portrayal of Daisy Domergue. Leigh creates a memorable character because she’s embodying the stereotypical role that most male villains take on in the Western. She’s mean, she’s evil, she’s certainly a little nuts , but you can’t stop watching her throughout Tarantino’s epic.
The Hateful Eight is yet another example of the genius of Tarantino. He’s taken a specific genre (The Western) and make it uniquely his own. The movie is well crafted, well acted, and beautifully shot –but above all else it is highly entertaining.
Numerous celebrity cameos have been reported since The Force Awakens opened this weekend. From secret stormtroopers (Daniel Craig), to secret aliens (Simon Pegg), to those who helped create BB-8’s voice (Bill Hader & Ben Schwartz), it seems like there wasn’t anyone in Hollywood who wasn’t involved in this movie. But possibly the biggest cameos were revealed today.
Midway through the film, Rey discovers Anakin/Luke’s old lightsaber in the basement of Maz Kanata’s watering hole. It calls to her, and upon touching it she is hit with a wave of voices and images from the past. Director J.J. Abrams confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that these include the voices of both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda, provided by none other than those who originated the roles.
Abrams states that Ewan McGregor, who played Obi-Wan in the prequels, was brought in to record a single line:
“You do hear a little bit of Yoda. You hear Luke yelling out, ‘Nooo!’ from that moment in Empire. And you hear Obi-Wan at the end say, ‘Rey … these are your first steps,’ … Here’s the cool part. We asked Ewan McGregor to come in and do the line. And he was awesome and we were very grateful. He was incredibly sweet and handsome, and all that stuff. Then he rode off on his motorcycle. Literally the coolest voice over actor ever.”
Later, another producer on the film, Bryan Burk, came back to Abrams with another recording of Obi-Wan saying “Rey…”
“I said, ‘That’s cool, is that the thing from Ewan McGregor?’” Abrams recalled. “He said ‘No, we took a line from Alec Guinness saying ‘Afraid.’” Not only that, but the lilt in his voice from that truncated word happened to fit exactly what Abrams had in mind. “They cut it, and you hear the performance – he’s saying it the way I would have begged Alec Guinness to have said it. It is so crazy perfect,” Abrams says. “So when you hear Obi-Wan talk to Rey it is both Alec Guinness and Ewan McGregor doing the voice.”
E.W. also confirms that Frank Oz returned to provide new Yoda dialogue for the moment, but Abrams ultimately decided to use “pre-existing elements.”
These are easy cameos to miss in a first viewing, but keep your ears tuned when you return to see The Force Awakens for a second (or third) time.
While it’s always fun to look back on all the wonderful experiences that we’ve had at the movies, it’s very therapeutic to also discuss those experiences that were painful. 2015 certainly was loaded with greatness but, like every year, is bloated with garbage as well. So in order to move and to start 2016 on the right foot, let’s rip off this band-aid and discuss the 15 worst movies of 2015.
15) American Ultra – written by Max Landis, who certainly has quite a resume, the finished product was a train-wreck. This movie didn’t know if it wanted to be a “stoner” movie or an action movie, but what it ended up being was a meandering, mindless waste of time. Landis even took to social media blasting people who hated on American Ultra, but what he didn’t understand is the majority of the American public wasn’t stoned enough to even accidentially buy a ticket to this mess.
14) Irrational Man– Woody Allen’s latest film boasted Emma Stone and Joaquin Phoenix which, in most circumstances, is quite an impressive lead actor duo. But when the script is the equivalent of Woody Allen murder fan-fic, the movie becomes a thin factory of sadness.
13) Ricki And The Flash– Meryl Streep can play a lot of different characters and is pretty amazing in most roles, but not in this complete waste of time. No one will ever see Meryl Streep and say “ hey … she kinda looks like the lead singer of the Indigo Girls,” but she certainly has the “look” in this headache-inducing film. Then you add in Streep’s daughter, who certainly inherited her looks and not her talent, sprinkle in Kevin Kline (who seems to be just cashing a paycheck these days), add in a terrible cliché filled script, and top it off with Meryl Streep’s worst performance of her career, you get Ricki And The Flash.
12) The Overnight – If you want to watch a film that will violate all of your senses, then this is the film for you. This movie is about a couple moving to Los Angeles and meeting up with another couple who seems to be into some kinky things. Basically, I can’t think of a logical reason you would ever want to subject yourself to this trash.
11) Vacation – Why would you ever attempt to remake a classic film? Why … Why …. Why ? If you are going to go down this dark path, why would you attempt to remake the film with Ed Helms ? On What planet is Ed Helms ever going to be keep up with the comedic timing of Chevy Chase (slightly younger but still)? Also, your answer for playing the Beverly D’angelo character is Christina Applegate? This was just a mess a painful mess … an awful painful mess.
10) Aloha – Can anyone honestly tell me the last good Cameron Crowe movie? Almost Famous? This movie literally makes no sense. Emma Stone having to play a half-Asian woman who is torn between a man and duty to the military? Bradley Cooper is in this film and I’m not exactly sure what motivated him to say yes to this film.
9) 50 Shades Of Grey – This is one of the films that was review proof. Despite being one of the worst reviewed films of 2015, 50 Shades of Grey made $166 million domestically in 2015, all on name recognition. I don’t think they could have picked two worse people to star in this film in Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson, who had as much chemistry as a couple of corpses in the morgue. A sequel to 50 shades is going to happen but I can’t help but wonder if the quality of the first film will have any effect on the box-office draw
8) Self/Less – Ryan Reynolds and Ben Kingsley (who I’m starting to think will appear in any film) team up in a film about immortality which isn’t the feeling you get watching this monstrosity. Reynolds gives a solid Green Lantern-level performance and Ben Kingsley basically just shows up.
7) The Night Before – If you’re looking for an unfunny movie about the holiday season featuring an actor (Seth Rogen) in his most annoying role yet, then have I got a movie for you!
6) Mortdecai – Whatever executive who thought Johnny Depp in a weird moustache playing a grifter would be funny needs to have their head looked at. If Johnny Depp is going to down any sort facial hair (fake or not) let it be the Jack Sparrow look because that seems to be his only wheel house these days. Mortdecai is an abomination!
5) Jupiter Ascending – You start off with Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne, add Channing Tatum, and Mila Kunis- it would seem you have the makings of pretty great movie.. right? Well, this movie is yet another example of how much the script matters to the quality of the film. No matter the quality of the actors in movie, if the story is terrible.. the movie will inevitably be terrible
4) Pan – This movie visually looked like psychedelic puke. Acting wise the performances were something you could have seen out at the Plains, Georgia Community Theater. The writing was just a meandering mess, something a fifth grader would write. Nothing could have saved this movie … not even Wolverine.
2) Boy Next Door– Now this movie just made me mad. Why even screen this movie … why even bother? Nothing redeemable about this film .. not the script .. not the acting .. especially not J-LO.
1) Magic Mike XXL – Magic Mike caught lightning in a bottle and was wildly successful because the film was both provocative and had comedic elements as well. Of course Hollywood’s answer to something working well is to go right back to the same concept once more except this time … they decided to make a more “serious” film about stripping. First of all, you won’t find anything in stripping that can be remotely considered to be “serious” and furthermore … well .. who am I kidding .. you don’t make a movie about stripping that’s suppose to be serious! This movie went off the rails right at that moment and never looked back.
Was this the week Roman Reigns finally connected with the WWE fan base?
That’s the overwhelming question coming off of Raw this past Monday with Roman Reigns leaving the show as WWE World Champion.
Leaving with the championship is almost a side note though as strange a thought as that is. The fact Roman Reigns would one day be WWE champion was a near enough guarantee, barring injury or bizarre event then it was happening, that much had been telegraphed over the last year and a half. What wasn’t a guarantee was whether Reigns would be able to seriously connect with the fans before he got the title and before this week it was looking just as far away as ever.
The build to Reigns versus Sheamus for TLC had been just another chapter in the mishandling of Roman Reigns.
The weird, cartoonish promos and lack of fire in the brawls were all present and accounted for. It was standard build to a Roman Reigns PPV match. Now all we needed was a lacklustre match at the show, and it would be another month as usual. But once we hit TLC that’s not what we got.
Based on the lack of substantial build and the fact it was a Sheamus-Roman Reigns main event, the crowd were against it from the start, with a “let’s go Cena/Cena sucks” chant erupting early on. What also happened from the start was Reigns and Sheamus working incredibly hard, using the TLC stipulation as best they could, incorporating brawling and decent spots, generally having a good match that gradually got the crowd involved. By the time Reigns went for one of his final climbs toward the belt, the fans were loud and on their feet. Interference from the rest of the League Of Nations (I hate that name) and the odds were typically stacked against Reigns, leading to the loss to Sheamus again. This time though something different happened, specifically unbridled rage from Reigns. Destroying Rusev, Alberto Del Rio and Sheamus with a chair, this was something we hadn’t seen before, this was raw, pure and exciting. It escalated as Triple H and Stephanie came out with Triple H getting destroyed for his trouble, who cares if he wasn’t in the wrong at that moment, he’s the Authority and he, had it coming and the crowd loved it. There was even a “thank you Roman chant”, whoever thought they’d see that day? There was no terrible quips, no sufferin’ succotash, this was what Reigns does best but that we so rarely see, a silent, unyielding force of nature.
The stakes were ratcheted up on Raw the next night when the ultimate wrestling authority figure, Vince McMahon returned to take down Reigns. Yes, there was references to McMahon’s genitals but what Roman said had a point, goading McMahon into giving him a title match. Plus if anyone can make a successful underdog face it’s Vince McMahon, he has a bit of experience in that department. Then came the match itself where everything but the kitchen sink was thrown at Reigns and still he persevered, still he fought and eventually won, even delivering a Superman Punch to the boss himself. The most important thing, the fans in attendance loved it; the internet hasn’t shut down, and it feels the reception has been positive.
So what’s changed? What’s been done differently from the last year? The answer would be two things, the first that TLC and Raw played to Reign’s strengths, they kept his promo time short and sharp, almost everything he said had a purpose and he didn’t have to tell a ten-minute story which is where things tend to go wrong for him right now. He got to do most of his talking in the ring which again, plays to his advantage of being a physical, powerful guy. To quote Paul Heyman’s ECW booking philosophy, accentuate the positive, hide the negative. Not a tough concept.
The second part of that answer is the deeper connection and appeal to the fans. After the match at TLC, the fans saw something interesting, exciting and something that on an individual level they could all relate to. That unadulterated anger and rage that comes from when you’ve been unfairly treated or screwed, this being pro wrestling it played out in front of you in the most literal senses. A man screwed so many times he couldn’t take it anymore, and he just didn’t care. Like Stone Cold representing the every man rebelling against the wealthy boss, this was the every man being angry at the man, the authority.
WWE needs to keep Reigns on this path, in this style, not necessarily opposing the Authority until the end of time but as a man of few words who talks through his actions and is always just on the edge of control. Being a pure ass kicking force of nature who is just here to fight would be something different in WWE that we only get close to when Brock Lesnar comes to town every so often, and it works out okay for him. Don’t let Roman get bogged down in complex stories and petty grudges, his experience with Bray Wyatt showed that wasn’t the way forward.
I know I don’t often say this but please WWE, keep doing what you’re doing!
This week, new character posters for the upcoming Ghostbusters reboot were released, featuring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon. As expected, social media backlash ran the gambit from “no more reboots” to the obvious and primitive sexist comments that have followed this production since it was announced.
Now while the movie going public may be suffering from remake and reboot fatigue, the reactions to this particular project seem a bit harsher and more vicious than say the recent RoboCop remake or the second rebooting of the Spider-Man franchise. Is it because the original Ghostbusters has such a standing legacy with people? Perhaps, and this does not apply to everyone, that it is merely because 4 women will be filling the roles of our favorite paranormal experts.
Ghostbusters (2016) photo: Sony Pictures
Why does this bother people so much?
From Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Madonna to Janelle Monae, women have been carving paths through every area of our culture for quite some time. What makes Ghostbusters so special? Is it because untold numbers of young fans (myself included) loved the movies, watched the cartoons, had the toys, and took turns playing their favorite Ghostbuster? Now with a female led reboot, are all of those memories and experiences now invalid? Guess what?
They aren’t.
For a long time, there had been hope of a 3rd film in the Ghostbusters series, but hope waned as time went on. Dan Aykroyd had been wanting to put a film together, and as recently as 2013, it looked like it may happen and that project went nowhere. August 2014 bought the announcement that Sony Pictures was moving forward with a complete reboot of the franchise, not a sequel, and an all-female cast. The internet exploded with cries of ‘my ruined childhood’, ‘no more reboots’, and a very curt and direct response by director Paul Feig.
The concern about reboots and remakes is not unfounded. The lukewarm offerings of films like Total Recall (2012), Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, and The Lone Ranger can be presented as reasons why a reboot or remake can be a poor idea, but like any genre or type of movie, there is plenty of good, bad, and middling offerings to be had. Batman Begins, Mad Max: Fury Road and 21 Jump Street were reboots that were universally praised, spawning sequels, and are credited with presenting a fresh take on a familiar story, even the 2011 reboot of Fright Night was a solid film with standout performances from Colin Farrell and David Tennant. Not liking reboots or remakes is OK. Using it as a shield to hide your disdain for women “trampling all over your childhood is not”, and the feeling is that is the case more often than not.
Ghostbusters should have the chance to prove its worth or folly on its own merits. The film has a competent director in Feig, Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy have had success in both television and film, and two of SNL’s funniest cast members (in my humble opinion) in Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon.
So grab your proton pack (you know you have one in the attic somewhere), your Ecto Cooler, and enjoy what is looking to be a welcome addition to the Ghostbusters legacy.
In case you have either been living under a rock for the past ten years, exiled alternative music from your life, or have simply not been paying attention, than you have heard of or at least heard the band Cage the Elephant at some point. Even if you haven’t, I can guarantee you can expect to hear about their newest album Tell Me I’m Pretty and I wouldn’t be surprised if it the album puts itself in a position as a contender for a Grammy.
The newly released studio album from the critically acclaimed Alternative Rock band ventures into new unexplored sounds and themes for the band which ultimately comes together in the form of a truly fantastic album. The group dives into themes that could one could go so far to say are dark and slightly sinister with such songs as “Too Late to Say Goodbye” and “Cold Cold Cold.” Though these themes of depression and pain have been seen before in other lyrics by the band, never before have they been so prominent and meaningful than in this album. Despite the dark lyrical content, the band still manages to create instrumentals that make you feel angst and despair (such as “How are You True” and “Trouble”) as well as energetic and alive (such as “Cry Baby Cry” and “Punching Bag”). A big contributing factor to the new sound can be credited to the producer of the album Dan Auerbach, the lead singer and guitarist for The Black Keys. What I found to be interesting was upon my first listen, I found traces of a lot of surfer rock influences in songs such as “Cry Baby” and “Mess Around” while also picking up bit and pieces of a 60’s style rock influence. Matthew Schultz’s vocals serve as the cherry on top of what is already a masterpiece, showing diversity and range. The only problem I had with the vocals was the excessive use of echoing and a heavy amount of bass added to his voice. Though I found the album to be a masterpiece in it’s own right, I question if it will ultimately stand the test of time. Though I found a lot of these songs to be catchy and entertaining, I doubt that any single song or songs will reach a level of fame that “Aint No Rest For the Wicked” has attained. In the end, Cage the Elephant has provided audiences around the world with something to be excited about through Tell Me I’m Pretty.
Luther is back, as all the reviews are saying, and he’s everything audiences remember. No character can look at nightmares like Luther does, and it makes him perfectly suitable to deal with this season’s villain. Since the first season the writers on this BBC gem have come up with several big bad guys, sociopaths, and just plain monsters. It started with Alice Morgan, the perfect psychopath that changed Luther’s life.
Now in Season 4 we got the monster. He’s a cannibal, and the crime unit is overwhelmed. Here enters Luther, who can somehow see past the horror of the case. This is why viewers love him. He steps into the situation with all the familiar intellect and urgency, but now he’s fearless. A few times in the episode Luther has these great moments where he stares powerful men in the face and makes them take a step back. It’s an important point to note, as it shows how Ripley’s death has changed Luther. Luther is fearless, numb, and possibly invulnerable.
Now Episode 1 has two storylines happening simultaneously. The first is concerning Alice Morgan. One of the big flaws in the previous season is the absence of Alice Morgan for the majority of the episodes, and Season 4 isn’t doing too much better. But we’ll get back to that. The second storyline has everything to do with the new criminal nightmare London has spit out. With this storyline, a new female lead emerges, and she’s best known internationally from HBO’s Game of Thrones. Rose Leslie plays the new DS on the block. Her character is much like a homage to Ripley as she’s young, fresh, and passionate. There’s lots of opportunity to play with her character more in the second episode, and hopefully, the writers take full advantage of that.
The entire episode plays like a movie with high production value and well-written subplots. The episode also references back to certain scenes as a method to play on audience expectations. The premiere ends with a fantastic cliffhanger referencing a mystery woman that briefly appeared in the beginning.
Now as this article from the Evening Standard points out, Season 4 is only two episodes. The first episode does a good job at setting up the plot, answering questions from Season 3’s ending, and establishing characters. One more hour of content might not cover everything brought up in this season, but Luther as a show does have a habit of condensing the story.
