“Digimon is better than Pokemon” was a phrase I heard a lot when I was in elementary school. Although I also heard a lot of “Pokemon is better than Digimon” as well. I never really chose a side but it seems even today this argument is still being had, and it seems both sides are as passionate as ever.
Before you click the link to the article where MTV columnist Crystal Bell does her speak about a debate we thought was long over, I want you to listen to my thoughts on the subject. For the most part I don’t really enjoy critiquing these kids shows as an adult and holding them up against each other. I mean they are both shows to sell toys. Kind of like most of the American TV shows in the 80’s and 90’s. I think both shows have their strengths and there is a reason that they are still coming up with content for both. But comparing them seems kind of pointless to me. The way I see it is if a grown adult compared different flavors of baby food. Sure they can compare the differences better than a baby can, but in the end it’s just baby food. I don’t want to kick over anyones childhood here, but I think it’s a sign of maturity when we can look back and admit “its just baby food” and that’s okay. We can still like baby food. What we shouldn’t be doing is acting like that same baby food should be critiqued the same way as a filet minion.
Anyway those are just my ramblings about this situation. Click here for the article if you’re interested in joining the fight or just want to hear someone elses view of the argument.
Darryl “DMC” Matthews McDaniels, one of the founding members of the legendary hip-hop group Run DMC, will make his Marvel writing debut this February, in Guardians of Infinity #3. The story will see DMC collaborate with longtime creative partner Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez and artist Juan Doe, and will star the Thing and Groot in their search for “a singularly powerful object located in New York City.”
DMC, a lifetime Marvel comic fan, has long spoken about how heroes such as the Hulk and Spider-Man served as his inspiration while beginning his hip-hop career.
Nic Pizzolatto is coming back for True Detective Season 3 over at HBO, but after the disastrously bloated, weird, aimless mess that was season 2, it’s easy to understand HBO inserting some stipulations into his contract.
While the very idea that True Detective Season 3 is not a sure thing, assuming it does move forward, HBO has given Pizzolatto three avenues to approach possible redemption according to the report over at Collider.
1. He can bring in a staff of writers.
2. Pizzolatto can bring in a third party to run the day to day.
3. Or he can just keep doing what he’s been doing.
This is a weird trio of choices for Pizzolatto. Because, who wouldn’t go with option three? The only way I can imagine him taking one of the first two choices is if the negative backlash from season 2 got into his head. Otherwise, why wouldn’t he believe in himself. At the same time, the first season of True Detective was dynamite thanks to Pizzolatto’s collaboration with Cary Fukunaga. There’s some debate as to who did what and who made the first season so perfect (beyond the team of McConaughey and Harrelson), but dismissing Pizzolatto’s skills based on a second season that clearly needed editing more than new creative juice isn’t the right approach.
Since Pizzolatto has both worked with a collaborator and done it on his own, why not try and bring in a staff of writers? What might be more important than having a slew of fresh minds with great ideas is having different approaches to the material, and people to bounce ideas off of. And someone to say “no” from time to time, which was perhaps the most glaring problem with season two, which had more hot air in it than the Goodyear blimp.
HBO is waiting to hear back from Pizzolatto before emoting forward with True Detective season 3. Whatever choice he decides, there is no doubt I will be there for episode one. No matter how disastrous season 2 may have become, it was certainly never boring.
Anyone with the slightest grip on the idea of metaphors in film can recognize the giant tumbling destruction of a metaphor in the opening scene of Sexy Beast. We see “Gal” (Ray Winstone), a retired thief, baking in the Spanish sun, poolside at his posh villa. He moves with the urgency of a man without a care, loping around his pool to grab a beer, his shoes, and a handheld fan. And then, tumbling down the hillside comes the boulder, a gigantic rolling stone of destruction that launches from the ridge, into the air, just missing Gal, and slamming into the tiles of the pool floor. It’s a comedic moment in a first act full of mirth, but perhaps Gal should have known then, this boulder was an ominous announcement.
Gal is married to Deedee (Amanda Redman), a retired porn star looking to distance herself from her former life just as much as her adoring husband. They are in love, and they enjoy late nights and dinner parties with their two close friends, Aitch and Jackie, two more stowaways from the drabness of a London underworld. This idyllic setting proves too good to be true before long, as a call comes to Aitch from London. A job is on the table and Gal’s old crew has requested his participation. But it’s less about that problem, and more about the problem of the voice on the other end of the phone. The very mention of the caller on the other end, who is heading out to Spain to retain Gal’s services personally, is enough to break apart the serenity Gal and Deedee have so carefully manicured.
It is Don Logan.
The mere uttering of Don Logan – it’s almost impossible for Aitch to spit the poisonous name out of his mouth – pierces the Spanish countryside like a knife, and director Jonathan Glazer wonderfully shifts the tone of the film from carefree and hedonistic, to one of nervous energy and fear. You can see it in all their eyes, their shifting weight, the slack in their face. Without knowing anything about Don Logan, you know he is something horrible, almost inhuman, a myth. But Don Logan is not a myth, he is very much real, and one of the greatest creations in all of crime cinema.
Ben Kingsley plays Logan. The man who once played Ghandi, who played the timid Jewish Accountant Itzhak Stern in Schindler’s List, now embodies a volcanic madman. It’s a 180 for Kingsley, and one of his best performances. Don arrives like a bullet through plate glass, spewing nervous energy, cultivating anxiety and nervousness to everyone around him, and refusing to take “no” from Gal, who is powerless in his presence. With his starched white shirt and smooth bald sheen, Don Logan is the boulder come to life, a reptilian beast, wrecking everything in his path. It’s no coincidence he arrives at the villa just as the boulder itself is being hauled away.
Logan spends two days tormenting poor Gal with threats and insults and hair-trigger psychotic outbursts. It is a frightening turn from Kingsley, a pure joy to behold. Gal refuses the job again and again, but Don will hear none of it. The job itself has its own interesting twists and turns involving orgies, a Turkish Bath, and one Ian McShane as the mastermind. But any of the third act, where Gal arrives to pull off the job for reasons of self preservation, pales in comparison to the lightning bolt of ferocity behind the mad eyes of Kingsley’s Don Logan.
Glazer, a sparse director who’s only features are Sexy Beast, the morose and detached Nicole Kidman film Birth, and the captivating 2013 thriller Under the Skin, shows off gleeful panache here. It’s not just some cold-twisted noir heist film, it is alive with flourishes, frightening dream sequences, and a hard-charged techno soundtrack that almost serves as Don Logan’s personal music. Forgetting the bookends of the film is understandable, but a slight. Sexy Beast can easily be broken into its three acts: the first is a delightful, funny, and charming glimpse into the life of a happy fat cat, the third a desperate play for survival.
And the second, well, the second is simply Don Logan.
Universal Pictures released the first trailer for The Huntsman Winter’s War, Wednesday.
The fantastical world of Snow White and the Huntsman expands to reveal how the fates of The Huntsman Eric and Queen Ravenna are deeply and dangerously intertwined. Chris Hemsworth and Oscar® winner Charlize Theron return to their roles in The Huntsman Winter’s War, an epic action-adventure in which they are joined by Emily Blunt and Jessica Chastain, as well as director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan. Producer Joe Roth (Maleficent, Alice in Wonderland) once again leads the team in a breathtaking new tale nested in the legendary saga.
Long before the evil Queen Ravenna (Theron) was thought vanquished by Snow White’s blade, she watched silently as her sister, Freya (Blunt), suffered a heartbreaking betrayal and fled their kingdom. With Freya’s ability to freeze any enemy, the young ice queen has spent decades in a remote wintry palace raising a legion of deadly huntsmen—including Eric (Hemsworth) and warrior Sara (Chastain)—only to find that her prized two defied her one demand: Forever harden your hearts to love.
When Freya learns of her sister’s demise, she summons her remaining soldiers to bring the Magic Mirror home to the only sorceress left who can harness its power. But once she discovers Ravenna can be resurrected from its golden depths, the wicked sisters threaten this enchanted land with twice the darkest force it’s ever seen. Now, their amassing army shall prove undefeatable…unless the banished huntsmen who broke their queen’s cardinal rule can fight their way back to one another.
The Huntsman Winter’s War is scheduled for release on April 22, 2016.
Paramount Pictures released the trailer for Zoolander 2 starring Ben Stiller as Derek Zoolander.
Zoolander 2 is directed by Ben Stiller and stars Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell, Penélope Cruz, Christine Taylor, Kristen Wiig, Billy Zane, Fred Armisen, Justin Bieber, Kim Kardashian, Olivia Munn, Kanye West, Ariana Grande and Mika.
The film was written by Justin Theroux and Stiller. Zoolander 2 is scheduled to be released on February 12, 2016.
This past week has been bustling with activity amidst the world of alternative rock and alternative metal. The bands Tool and Primus both announced upcoming U.S. tours, the Foo Fighters, and U2 have canceled shows in France due to the recent terrorist attacks, and President Barack Obama publicly mentioned the band Korn in a speech he delivered during a Medal of Honor ceremony. However, two days ago brought news that many view to possibly be the most important announcement yet. On November 16, 2015, the members of the influential and cult-status alternative rock band Ween announced that the band will reunite for two upcoming shows in 2016.
For those who are unfamiliar with the band, Ween is an American alternative/experimental rock band formed by Mickey Melchiondo Jr and Aaron Freeman, better known by stage names Dean Ween and Gene Ween. The band formed in 1984 and had since achieved a cult following. Their fan base is one of the most consistent and dedicated groups in music, and they are just as if not more active now than they were during the band’s pinnacle moments of success. Although many may not recognize the name of the band, chances are at one point you’ve heard at least one of their songs without realizing it. They even made a song for SpongeBob SquarePants about learning how to tie shoes.
The band broke up in 2012 after a notorious incident from the year before during a show in Vancouver, in which Aaron Freeman became intoxicated and drunkenly sang in the wrong key while lying face down on stage. Freeman has gone on record saying that he left Ween to work on his sobriety. The shows will take place this upcoming President’s Day Weekend in Bloomfield, Colorado. Now after more than three years later, the world will receive at least one more taste of the musical experience that is known as Ween.
Central City just can’t seem to get a week off can it? With metahumans and Zoom terrorizing it, why not have Gorilla Grodd return to the fold?
With the second season quickly gaining it’s feet, I felt that “Gorilla Warfare” was a pleasant change of pace. No Zoom, no other baddies, just a single linear story with a small dose of side story. In a way, it’s a slow episode within the main story, but gives a very strong push for character development.
With a broken spirit and back, Barry faces a road to recovery that doesn’t seem to come quickly compared to his other injuries. Zoom’s postering of him across the city, showing his true vulnerabilities to the city that views him as their champion, leaves Barry in that typical hero’s mindset. If he isn’t winning, he’s letting the whole city down.
But that story is on hold, for now.
Zoom is gone, Jay has been a no show for a few weeks now, no metas have been sent to Earth One and King Shark has been the Gorilla Grodd of last season – a one off waiting to make his return to center stage.
With all eyes focused on the telekinetic ape, we see an emphasis on the true nature of Team Flash. Despite being beaten down they return, week after week, to take on the next problem.
Following a series of pharmaceutical company lab technicians mysterious changes of hearts and the theft of some chemicals, Patty and Joe discover traces of gorilla DNA. Coming to a shock to Patty, Joe quickly realizes the true caliber of the recent attacks.
Furthering the character development, Cisco is finally getting his date with Kendra. Things seem to be going great on their way to the theater, where we are led to potentially seeing their first kiss. But, in a twist of fate, the first touch led to Cisco’s first vibe in a bit. An unsuspected vibe shows a vision of a floating person, with wings like an angel, or hawk.
Yes, we are treated to the first in-show look to Hawkgirl, one of the newest members to the future Legends of Tomorrow.
Obviously confused and taken aback from the sudden vision, Cisco shuffles off, stumbling over his vision and away to make sense of everything.
Turning the focus back to Grodd, things are getting tense between Harry and the team, minus one Caitlin Snow.
Disheartened from the lack of progress in saving his daughter, Harry expresses his interest in returning to Earth Two. Hoping to find an answer to catching Zoom, Wells leaves S.T.A.R. Labs to mixed feelings, some saying that if he wants to go, then he should go. Caitlin expresses her desire in having him stay in Earth One, knowing he is close to figuring out a way.
His idea, close all of the breaches down, except for the one that leads right into S.T.A.R. Labs’ basement. With hopes that he will resurface at some point, through the only opening possible, Harry hopes to use the speed canon to in fact lock him in a trap in Earth one. In theory, he has a good idea, but we have yet to see this plan in action against the likes of Zoom, who has thwarted their first bait and tackle attempt. However, it does open the door to an interesting trap for Grodd down the road.
With her sights set on helping Wells, Caitlin and Cisco were conversing in the basement, looking for a solution to closing the breaches. Suddenly, Caitlin goes catatonic and strikes Cisco before disappearing at the hands of Grodd.
Still depressed follow his first battle. Barry falls victim to a post-traumatic stress disorder, one which is hindering his ability to regain his ability to walk and his ability to speed away. After a struggle on the treadmill and a spill, Iris calls in the one person who she knows will restore his strength – Dr. Henry Allen.
After his release from his life sentence, Henry quickly exited from Central City just as quickly as he was released.
I always like an episode that features a man who Barry spent the better part of his short career setting free. His guidance was simple, “protect the city.” With Barry’s second father in Central City, you can clearly see the strong rapport that drove Barry to don the crimson costume in the first place. But without his key ability, he would put his faith in an eerie sight, Harrison Wells in the yellow Reverse Flash suit previously held by the former Wells.
Feeling no restraint, Barry instinctively sped to Wells, clearly lashing out at his former enemy, or the image of him.
Discovering Caitlin’s whereabouts seemed an easy task for the team, being held in a clocktower. Grodd looks to Caitlin for one reason, to make more gorillas like Grodd. While the science behind it was explained, the lack of a blast of dark matter was an obvious hinderance to that goal being accomplished.
With the help of Wells, Barry leads him and Cisco on a rescue mission. Obviously not as well-versed in the art of the yellow suit, Wells nearly performed his Earth One self to a tee, but was quickly foiled by Grodd. Calling out that his master never asked, just took, he threw Wells across the room and took control of Caitlin once more as she fled for the door.
Quickly thinking, Barry coached Wells into over-dosing Grodd with the stolen chemicals to overload his brain just enough to escape. Leaving the final encounter, some quick tinkering with the speed canon and a baiting scheme, Barry flushed out Grodd and brought him to the open breach.
Still in his PTSD mindset, Barry flashed into his fall against Zoom, with vivid images of his near-lifeless body being dragged around Central City. Frozen enough for Grodd to get close, he was struck and pinned by the angry ape. With a connection to Grodd, Caitlin quickly jumped to the center of the canon and brought him off of Barry. All it took then was a quick run from Barry and a flick of a switch and they had nearly captured him.
With unbelievable strength, Grodd was able to clamber away from the breach, but a last minute pep talk from good ol’ dad found Barry racing away and back to throw one last punch to throw him into the void.
Overall, this wasn’t an over the top action episode as compared to last week, but it was still a great addition to a growing show. Characters are in-depth and developing, and really nothing is holding back the multiverse from creating a bigger impact some point down the road.
When Grodd was first announced and appeared last season, it was only a matter of time before we saw Gorilla City. The famed city of sentient simians hidden in the center of Africa. After hitting the breach, Grodd was dumped off in a jungle and emerged at the top of the hill near the entrance to the city.
Thus leading the question, will we soon see the Flash’s Gorilla friend in Solovar? While Gorilla City was just a small sight, can we assume that Solovar is the leader of the ape utopia?
Also, Cisco kissed Hawkgirl. While he has no idea who this person is other than a barista at CC Jitters, let’s all just enjoy the fact that Vibe kissed Hawkgirl. Soon to be a staple in the Legends of Tomorrow, of which we will see a small hint of what is to come in 2016 with the show when the Flash and Arrow crossover event takes place in two weeks.
Flash gets a small break for next week, with the return being part one in the two-part, nine superhero event on December 1st.
In an interview with Newsarama, Frank Miller revealed that he will return to the ‘Dark Knight’ series after Dark Knight III: The Master Race is released.
“I thoroughly applaud what [Brian Azzarello’s] doing,” Miller said in the interview. “But now that he’s doing his, it’s now a four-part series. I’m doing the fourth.”
It remains unclear if Miller will illustrate the DKIV himself, as he did parts one and two, or if he will collaborate with an illustrator.
Dark Knight III: The Master Race #1, by Frank Miller, Brian Azzarello, Andy Kubert, and Klaus Janson, is scheduled for release on November 25.
Jay Roach directed Trumbo. Jay Roach? The same Jay Roach who directed the very trite and insignificant Meet The Fockers? The same guy who directed all the Austin Powers films? This is the same Roach who directed HBO’s Game Change, an uneven mostly expose/satirical look at the 2008 McCain/Palin campaign for president. Why would you pick Jay Roach to direct a story about a Hollywood Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, infamous for being black listed by the film industry during the 1950’s? Roach’s idea of being politically neutral is to make it so blatantly obvious which side he’s on that it’s as if a neon sign is pointing towards his end of the political spectrum. Roach’s impertinence is evident throughout the film, as it seems he’s more concerned about his opinion rather than being accurate about transpired during this time period in American History. Trumbo is an unsatisfying mixture of tones ranging from flat comedy to tedious hagiography.
Trumbo was doomed to falter from the moment they picked Roach to direct. Roach’s lack of seriousness in the film makes the product quite frankly uninteresting and ultimately dull at points. Trumbo is such an awkward mess of that I’m not even sure that the studio will realize what went wrong. The most important element of Trumbo that they had to get right was establishing a credible tone for the clashing of ideologies (the clash between Washington and the Hollywood types). Kirk Douglas, John Wayne, and Edward G. Robinson are impersonated by actors who are so unbelievably unconvincing, you wonder if they were cast straight off of America’s Got Talent. Trumbo makes Guilty by Suspicion look like a rousing success as a black list film.
Bryan Cranston takes on the title role of Trumbo and plays him in such an oversimplified manner that his portrayal borders on cartoonish. It was as if Cranston read “An Idiots Guide To Playing Vilified 1950’s Hollywood Screen Writers” and went right to work. Cranston seems to base his characterization of Dalton Trumbo based on a famous picture (I’m guessing he read that in Chapter One of “An Idiots Guide To Playing 1950’s Hollywood Screen Writers”) of Trumbo writing in the bathtub, cigarette-holder in hand. He plays that image to the extreme. He’s at his height of mimicry during the famous House Un-American Activities Committee rebellion:” Many questions can be answered ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ only by a moron or a slave.”
Even though there are oodles and oodles of Trumbo that are less factual and more mythological, Jay Roach and screenwriter John McNamara still idealize Trumbo as an example of a Hollywood “Maverick.” Yes, he did buck the system, write under a pseudonym, and won Two Oscars for Roman Holiday and The Brave One. Yes, he also wouldn’t submit to the request to testify in front of the House Un-American Acts Committee and went to jail for his deeply held beliefs. What I don’t get is, if you hold someone in such high regard as Jay Roach and John McNamara do, why wouldn’t you make a more serious film about his life? They completely gloss over the fact that he went to jail and the effect that it had on his family. It’s not like they didn’t have a great actress playing Dalton Trumbo’s wife; Diane Lane is as good as it gets. What about the other members of Trumbo’s group of Hollywood Ten that went to prison? It was as if they were part of this movement to show how wrong the House Committee was and then we hardly hear or see them for the rest of the film. Louis C.K., who plays Arlen Hird, had a pretty big part in what actually occurred. And yet, through Roach’s revisionist history his part is reduced to a small part of what transpired. Excuse me, have we forgotten that he was not only diagnosed with Cancer, his wife left him during the hearings? Do you think that could have been explored just a tiny bit?
All that aside, I wouldn’t say that I hated Trumbo, but I can’t help but think what might have been. Trumbo, with the right writer and director, is rich with so many different idiosyncrasies that it could have been a truly great film at a dark time in our nation’s history.
