Child’s Play is like the redheaded stepchild – pun intended – of the 80s/90s horror franchises. It’s never been that great, but at the same time it’s never been boring. Now, we have Cult of Chucky, which brings back a few familiar faces and manages to somehow build a Chuckyverse around the demonic doll.
Check out this trailer:
Chucky returns to terrorize his human victim, Nica. Meanwhile, the killer doll has some scores to settle with his old enemies, with the help of his former wife.
I don’t really know what’s happening in this trailer, but I do see that Jennifer Tilly is back for more. And if you didn’t recognize him, that’s Alex Vincent, the original Andy from the first film.
To be honest I’ve lost track of the number of Chucky/Child’s Play films after the original trilogy – which I loved – but apparently there were three MORE movies after Child’s Play 1, 2, and 3.
Cult of Chucky should please the hardcore fans of the franchise. It will be out October 20, but it will definitely be VOD so don’t head to the multiplex expecting to see this on the big screen.
Marvel has finally released the first trailer for Marvel’s Inhumans, revealing some of the craziest characters the studio has ever attempted to introduce. Originally intended for a cinematic adventure, the Inhumans are instead being placed on television, premiering on ABC this September. In a way, Marvel will still keep its promise of having the Inhumansappear on the big screen, as the show will premiere its first two episodes on IMAX screens before it’s official premiere date.
The series follows a royal family of Inhuman characters, who have spent years hiding from humanity on the moon. The series will display the tension between royal family members and the arrival of the Inhuman royal family on Earth. Bringing the Inhumans to the big screen is Anson Mount (Hell on Wheels), who will portray King Black Bolt alongside Serinda Swan (Graceland) as Medusa, Iwan Rheon (Game of Thrones) as Maximus, Eme Ikwuakor (Extant) as Gorgon, Isabelle Cornish (Puberty Blues) as Crystal, and Ken Leung (Lost) as Karnak.
Marvel’s Inhumans will land on ABC on Friday, Sept. 29, with a two-hour premiere starting at 8/7c. The first two episodes will premiere on IMAX screens starting Friday, Sept. 1.
“A game for those who seek to find, a way to leave their world behind. Jumanji.”
Via Facebook, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has released the first official trailer for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, the long-awaited sequel to 1995’s Jumanji, which starred the late Robin Williams. As the trailer makes evident, however, “the game has changed” since Alan Parrish rolled the dice in the hit family-adventure comedy. Not only is Jumanji now a magical video game, but this time around, instead of unleashing the jungle upon the real world, our main characters are all sucked into the jungle and must find a way to escape it, giving audiences our first glimpse at the magical world that Alan Parrish was transported to twenty-years ago.
Per Sony’s official synopsis:
“When four high-school kids discover an old video game console with a game they’ve never heard of – Jumanji – they are immediately drawn into the game’s jungle setting, literally becoming the avatars they chose: gamer Spencer becomes a brawny adventurer (Dwayne Johnson); football jock Fridge loses (in his words) “the top two feet of his body” and becomes an Einstein (Kevin Hart); popular girl Bethany becomes a middle-aged male professor (Jack Black); and wallflower Martha becomes a badass warrior (Karen Gillan). What they discover is that you don’t just play Jumanji – you must survive it. To beat the game and return to the real world, they’ll have to go on the most dangerous adventure of their lives, discover what Alan Parrish left 20 years ago, and change the way they think about themselves – or they’ll be stuck in the game forever.”
Though the trailer is probably not enough to elicit nostalgic feelings from children of the nineties who have fond memories of the original Jumanji, it’s edited in such a way that it’s more than enough to peak the interests of today’s more restless youth. For me personally, it doesn’t do nearly enough to alleviate all the concerns I have for this sequel, which I expressed back in April. Good or bad, with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson headlining this film along with Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan, the movie is sure to be a financial hit when it opens in theaters.
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle smashes into cinemas on December 22nd, 2017, but in the meantime, check out the trailer below and let us know if you’re excited for this twenty-years-in-the-making sequel!
The originality of Spider-Man: Homecoming’s narrative combined with a solid performance from the cast make this release a must see.
Summary
The story centers around two different characters. We have Adrian Toomes (Micheal Keaton) whose scrapping business has fallen on hard times after a contract to clean up after the battle of New York is ripped from him and given to a Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) lead government task force. He has a choice of either letting his friends and family fall into financial ruin or devise a scheme to make money quickly. So Toomes decides to take what scrap they still have from the alien invasion and build a suit that will allow him to steal more alien technology from the government. The ultimate goal was to get enough scrap to make weapons to sell on the black market
We also are following the exploits of 15-year-old Peter Parker (Tom Hollard). Parker was last seen in Avengers: Civil War as he was there to try and help Mr. Stark bring in Captain America. Now he’s back home after all of this excitement adjusting to life under the watchful eye of Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) and trying to keep up his grades. While Tony is insistent that he take this whole superhero thing slowly, Peter feels held back. Our young hero stumbles into the heart of the Toomes operation and rather than seek out the help of people who are more qualified for this sort of task; he decides to take this matter into his own hands in the hopes of impressing his mentor Mr. Stark.
What Worked
All the credit in the world needs to be given to both Jon Watts and Johnathan Goldstein. They were the task to take something that had already been repackaged multiple times and come up with a clever way of introducing us to that same character once more. We weren’t bogged down any backstory on how Peter got his powers or even with what happened to Aunt May’s husband. The focus was building the two narratives up. What turns an owner of a scrap metal business in Queens into a villain? Where does Parker’s heroism stem from?
It was clever for the writers to have Stark’s motivation for mentoring Peter be about him being a better person. Remember, these events happen just after Avengers: Civil War and he realizes that the blame for the divisions in the group falls on his shoulders.
The casting of Jacob Batalon as Ned was a stroke of genius. He provided immense amounts of comedic relief and helped ground the narrative. My favorite interactions between these two are when Peter tells Ned he has to go track down these weapons and Ned responds with, “But you’ll miss your Spanish Quiz.”
The ensemble was perfect. The cast gave this story about the rise of a new hero a very Breakfast Club like vibe.
Tom Holland!!!!!! How could you not love the exuberance and the innocence in his portrayal of Peter Parker? His performance has made me interested to see where this franchise could be headed in the next few years.
Keaton gave us a different spin on the traditional Marvel villain. Whiplash was motivated by vengeance; Green Goblin was insane, Vulture is driven by a need for his family to survive. All his character wants is to continue to make money so that he can support his family and that’s all. He even tries to explain this to Peter in the end. His performance was nuanced just enough to pull this type of character off.
This film has the best stinger that I’ve ever seen in a Marvel release. DON’T LEAVE UNTIL THE MOVIE CREDITS ARE DONE!
What Didn’t Work
Would have liked a bit more world building. If we are going to be getting three new Spider-Man films, then some groundwork needs to be laid out for future movies (not just in one of the two stingers at the end of the film).
Overall
Spider-Man: Homecoming is a welcomed example of originality in a genre that can be quite rote at times. The film is anchored by a great ensemble and solid performances from both Holland and Keaton. This certainly should be seen in theaters on July 7th. Hopefully, the success of this collaboration with Sony will lead to other ventures with Marvel. That certainly would be fantastic for all us.
Despite stellar cinematography and solid performances, The Beguiled is hampered by a lack of character development and zero intrigue.
Summary
The Beguiled is a remake of the 1971 Civil War drama starring Clint Eastwood. Both films get their source material from the Thomas Cullinan novel of the same name. The film centers around an escaped Union soldier played by Colin Farrell who is wounded and brought to a boarding house run by Mrs. Farnsworth (Nicole Kidman) by one of her students. Rather than simply turn him over to the southern forces, they allow him to recover from his wounds in one of the many rooms in her estate. Little did she realize the impact having a man around would have on a group of clearly repressed women. His warmth and charm win over the very rigid Mrs. Edwina played by Kristen Dunst and cause Alicia’s (Elle Fanning) heart to flutter. The sexual tension reaches a fever pitch when a betrayal occurs and everyone begins to realize who the real enemy is. The question then becomes, how are they supposed to handle it.
What Worked
Philippe Le Sourd’s cinematography is gorgeous. He makes great use of both candle and natural light to create the appropriate atmosphere for this narrative. Le Sourd is also able to capture the heat going on outside and inside the house too. By shooting many of the exterior shots in what appears to be during the early daylight hours, he was able to capture the rise in humidity. We are treated to a shot of steam seemingly rising from a nearby lake and the morning dew appearing to disappear before our eyes as the girls toil in the garden. Le Sourd is able to heighten the “heat” between Farrell and the rest of the cast by utilizing two shots and anytime they were in close and moving in ever so slightly as the sparks begin to fly.
Laura Karpman’s work with the score was marvelous. Her music certainly captures the tone of that era in American history.
Farrell was a great choice to play the role made famous by Clint Eastwood in 1971. The role of Colonel John Mcburney needed to be played by someone who has a mixture of charm but can quickly go dark without a moment’s hesitation. It also has to be believable that he be quite alluring to any number of the girls no matter what age they may be. Farrell is able to flirt with young Alicia, quickly pivot into talks of a future with Edwina, and still have a civil discussion about the need for a man in the house with Mrs. Farnsworth.
Kidman, Dunst, and Fanning all turn in solid performances. Kidman is shot out of a cannon with the type of energy reminiscent of characters from Steel Magnolias. Dunst’s character is reserved but can be quite cunning with her world play. Fanning is playing the repressed teenager who wants to feel the touch of a man.
Sophia Coppola’s attention to detail is always astounding to me. Whether it was the matching slippers from Lost in Translation or the use of the spy glass in The Beguiled. These girls live in a world shaped by life experiences which are as wide as the two inches Edwina moves the curtain at various points during the film. Their perception of the outside world is contained to what they observe in that spy glass. It’s this narrow collection of experience that contributes to them being so taken by the Colonel.
What Didn’t Work
While it’s obvious Coppola isn’t the biggest fan of commentary or even elaborate backstories for any of the characters in her projects, but Edwina seemed incomplete on screen. What we got was this woman who appears to have dedicated her entire life to helping young ladies who then tells a random stranger that she wants to run away from all of this. Why? What is it about Mrs. Farnsworth that causes her to want to run. Then, of course, the ending of the film was so jarring it left me wanting more.
The film would have gone up a few more notches for me had they focused more on the intrigue of all these girls lusting after one enemy soldier. In fact, Coppola may have ventured too far from the source material when crafting the narrative for this project. In the book, Farrell’s character has relations with multiple women before the story reaches its conclusion. Had Coppola included some variation of this in the film, the narrative would have been gushing with intrigue.
Overall
The Beguiled certainly contains elements that make this film far superior to any released this summer. The film is shot lavishly and the score is quite charming. Farrell, Kidman, Dunst, and Fanning all deliver solid performances in their respective roles as well. However, it’s hard not to wonder how much better this movie could have been had a few things been tweaked slightly. As it stands right now, Coppola’s latest project is worth seeing but then again most of her work generally is.
According to Mick Garris’s Post Mortem podcast, Neil Marshall’s Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen intends on differentiating itself from its predecessors (directed by Guillermo del Toro).
NEIL MARSHALL’S HELLBOY
Neil Marshall said to Garris,
“We’ve been granted permission to do it R-rated, which for me is just like taking the cuffs off. It’s like, okay, so now we can just make the movie we want to make. Nobody’s going to stop us…But, also, when you go back the original material, it is kind of bloody, so I’m going to embrace that.”
He also said that the movie would be made with as many practical effects and as little CGI as possible.
“I love to do stuff in camera whenever I possibly can, and use CG as the amazing tool that it is, to enhance or expand upon the world, but not to use it to replace reality, when you can do it [for] real.”
Paired with the announcement of David Harbour (“Stranger Things”) as Hellboy, it’s easy to see that Marshall is attempting to make a different movie from the popular cult classics Hellboy (2004)and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008). But is he succeeding?
DEL TORO’S HELLBOY
One of the most intriguing things about Del Toro’s Hellboy is that like Marshall’s promise, the 2004 movie depended largely on practical effects. It’s well-known that Doug Jones (Abe Sapien) spent upwards of 5 hours in the makeup chair for the first movie alone. He played three separate characters in the second movie.
Marshall’s comment, then, strikes somewhat the wrong tone. The main reason behind the final cancellation of Hellboy III, after all, was supposedly money. While practical effects are cooler and more interesting, they’re also far less cost-effective. Why is a brand new Hellboy reboot being made when Del Toro – a master of practical effects and creator of some of the most well-loved subculture movies to date – was denied the opportunity to finish his trilogy?
It’s too soon to decide whether Neil Marshall’s Hellboy will hold up to the high standards set by its predecessor. However, less than six months after the final nail in the coffin on Del Toro’s trilogy, it feels more like a cash-in. Deadpool and Logan have made R-rated movies profitable again. Movie studios are churning out reboot after reboot of Batman and Spiderman. It’s just a pity to see Hellboy join them.
Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen is coming in 2018.
Along with Secret Empire #5, Amazing Spider-Man #29 comes out this week. Peter Parker finally gets involved with the Marvel crossover event while dealing with his crumbling tech empire.
I’m going to start this piece off with two less-than-popular opinions. Personally, I think Secret Empire has been highly entertaining (including tie-ins). I also think this volume of Dan Slott’s Amazing Spider-Man is more good than bad. I know, I must some sort of idiot, right?
ASM #29 finally fits Peter Parker and company into the Hydra takeover. Anna Maria is struggling to keep Parker Industries afloat. She forces Pete to go on tv and address the recent public disasters the company has been involved in. The hostile Hydra takeover begins and Parker finds himself face-to-face with the Superior Octopus.
After being a major player in previous Marvel events, Spidey takes a back seat this time. Miles Morales has been getting the event spotlight recently.
Despite how stupid Superior Octopus is, Otto Octavius has returned to take his company back from Peter. The entire concept of the international Spidey adventures is fallout from when Otto was the Superior Spider-Man. While I’ve enjoyed the change of scenery (for the most part) and am not overly nostalgic for high school Peter (for the most part), it’s about time to close down Parker Industries.
The writing has been on the wall for a while. From the events of The Clone Conspiracy to aiding Silver Sable in the prevention of a Norman Osborn coup of Symkaria, Parker Industries is on a path of self destruction.
Amazing Spider-Man #29 sees that come to fruition with the rebranded Baxter Building being left in a pile of rubble thanks to Superior Ock. If Otto can’t have the company, nobody can.
As someone who wasn’t particularly blown away by Zdarsky’s first issue of Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man, having the ol’ Parker luck kick in is a good sign. It’s been fun and different seeing Spider-Man pretend to be Iron Man for a while, but a major fall from grace is an enticing direction.
How Secret Empire eventually shakes out will set Marvel up in more of a return to form. Having Parker lose his company and likely starting back from square one will play a big part in making Marvel feel like it used to. Spidey is a pillar in the comic book foundation, if his situation is more familiar and approachable to readers, the rest of the line will be easier to explore.
ASM going forward, as far as Secret Empire involvement, could potentially be a lot of fun. Whether it’s Pete getting involved with the resistance, focusing on Superior Ock, or just the continuous downward spiral for Parker Industries, you can color me excited.
If you’re in the camp that can’t stand the direction Dan Slott has taken the character for 29 issues, at least you know it’s coming to an end. In the mean time you can at least enjoy the art, which has been consistently solid.
It’s great to see Spider-Man finally get involved with the United States Of Hydra. It’s even better seeing that there is a major shift ahead for ol’ web head. With this piece, Marvel knows they at least have one fan still on board despite the disaster that was Marvel Legacy reveals.
Two weeks ago we told you about the Popcorn Frights Film Festival. The horror movie extravaganza gets started August 11th in Miami, Florida. The festival made its first wave of announcements that featured a new Wolf Cop movie, a film from acclaimed filmmaker Rodney Ascher (Room 237), Michael Keating’s new slasher-fest Psychopaths, and so much more. But all that was just the beginning! Popcorn Frights Film Festival released their second wave of announcements this week bringing the total cinematic body count to forty short films and features!
“We couldn’t be more thrilled with this year’s Popcorn Frights Film Festival program as it offers something exciting for every horror lover. These films brilliantly showcase the breadth and quality of genre work being produced worldwide and serve as a great reminder that the genre form is both thriving and continuously evolving. We’re honored to share the vision and voices of this remarkable group of American and international filmmakers and look forward to them creating many memorable moments this year.” – Igor Shteyrenberg & Marc Ferman, Co-Founders & Co-Directors of the Popcorn Frights Film Festival.
Check out what else is coming to the soon-to-be blood-soaked beaches of South Florida cinema:
Dead Shack
US PREMIERE. Three kids on a weekend getaway are holed up at a run-down cottage in the woods and must save their hard-partying parents from a shotgun-toting psycho (Lauren Holly) who wants to feed them to her slavering zombies.
The Hatred
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE. From the producer of Halloween comes the terrifying new feature centering on four young women who travel to their college professor’s new country home for a weekend getaway, only to discover that the house has a malevolent past. Featuring Andrew Divoff (Wes Craven’s Wishmaster), David Naughton (An American Werewolf in London), and Amanda Wyss (A Nightmare on Elm Street).
The Bride
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE. A young woman travels with her soon-to-be husband to his family home in the outskirts and becomes increasingly suspicious of their strange behavior. Sheer psychological terror soon overwhelms her as she starts witnessing terrifying visions when his family prepares her for a mysterious ritual ceremony.
68 Kill
SOUTH FLORIDA PREMIERE. This southern-fried caper focuses on infatuated nice guy Chip and his crazy girlfriend, Liza, whose relationship takes a sharp turn into homicide when they try to rob Liza’s sugar daddy – only to end up with two corpses, a hostage, and $68,000 in stolen cash.
Jackals
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE. A potent ’80s-set psychological thriller that centers on an estranged family who hires a cult de-programmer (Stephen Dorff) to get back their teenage son from a murderous cult, only to find themselves under siege when the cultists surround their cabin, demanding the boy back.
Preacher Feature is a weekly analysis of the AMC show Preacher based on the comic book of the same name by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. In this column, we will give a breakdown of the events from the previous night’s show, including how they relate to the comics, and speculate as to what’s going on and what might be coming up. This is to say that there will be spoilers, both actual and potential. If you have not yet watched the episode in question or are watching the show without reading the comics and don’t want to have any foreknowledge of what might happen to Jesse and company, then you would do well to stop reading this now.
Shootout at the Relax Inn
This episode picks up where the season premiere ended, with Jesse futilely trying to use Genesis on The Saint of Killers. Luckily for Jesse, his hotel is housing a number of members of The Greater Association of Gun Aficionados. Most of them come outside, armed to the teeth, to see what in the Hell (or out of it, as the case may be) is going on after a bullet intended for Jesse ends up in the skull of a delivery driver whose van then crushes The Saint against a lamppost. The thing about unstoppable killing machines, though, is that they are very hard to stop. The van doesn’t do the trick, nor does the flurry of bullets (and at least one grenade) fired by the gun nuts. While Jesse escapes once again, The Saint cuts the membership of GAGA down to basically nothing. Before escaping, Jesse and Tulip see on TV that their hometown of Annville has been destroyed by a methane explosion (Let that be a lesson to you: never watch TV). Of course, it’s not easy to process your grief while a seven foot tall, seemingly unkillable cowboy is chasing after you in a slow but inexorable fashion.
A Cure for the Blues
Meanwhile, wayward angel Fiore (or is it DeBlanc? It’s so easy to get them mixed up) finds himself in the titular Mumbai Sky Tower. In a sequence both hilarious and heart-breaking, Fiore, despondent over the death of his best and only friend DeBlanc at the hands of The Saint, tries to kill himself over and over. But in the world of Preacher, asphyxiation, electrocution, and even an old-fashioned bullet to the head (if it’s fired from an earthly weapon) are not enough to kill an angel for good, and Fiore is resurrected each time. After one of these attempts the crowd at the casino mistakes his death and rebirth for a magic trick and Fiore finds himself performing to sold-out crowds as an illusionist named Ganesh. Jesse and Cassidy confront Fiore and find out that he is the one who hired The Saint to kill Jesse, and so is the only one who can call him off. Cassidy has a plan to cheer Fiore up, and that is a little bonding to help him get over the loss of DeBlanc. And how does a 120-year-old vampire bond with a suicidal angel? With pillow forts, Archie Comics, and enough drugs to fill a mule’s rectum.
After a gleeful bonding montage, Fiore agrees to call off the Saint of Killers.
Goin’ to the Chapel
Now, Fiore isn’t the only one who is feeling down over the loss of a loved one. Tulip, having time now to digest the loss of Annville and with it Walter, her only real family, is sadly drinking in the casino. Jesse needs a way to cheer her up and the solution he arrives at is for them to get married in the hotel chapel. Shortly before the ceremony, however, Tulip recognizes Gary and, clearly not wanting Jesse to see this man, she makes an excuse and heads up to her hotel room. We the audience don’t find out exactly what the connection between this large man and Tulip is, but it has something to do with another mystery man named Victor.
Gary says Tulip needs to call Victor now and when Tulip declines, he gets violent. After getting thrown around the hotel room, Tulip gains the upper hand and bludgeons Gary to death with the wedding chapel pager. While waiting for Tulip, Jesse tells Fiore that he plans to keep using Genesis after The Saint has been taken off his tail. Tulip returns and tells Jesse that getting married is stupid and so the wedding is off.
Next Stop: New Orleans
Since we found out last episode that God loves jazz, the gang decides to find him in New Orleans. Tulip seems as hesitant to go to The Big Easy as she did to let Jesse find out about Gary and Victor. As they head out, Jesse uses Genesis on Fiore, telling him to “find peace”. The Saint, using Genesis as a beacon finds his way to The Mumbai Sky Tower and Fiore. Fiore has a change of heart and tells The Saint where is Jesse is heading and that instead of one less killing, he wants The Saint to perform one more: Fiore himself. During his next performance, Fiore is killed (for good) by a bullet from The Saint’s gun.
Easter Eggs/Connections to Comics
As seen at the end of season one, Fiore is picked up for relocation at the same spot as Walter White in Breaking Bad (another brilliant show made in part by Preacher co-creator Sam Catlin).
On the wall in Fiore/Ganesh’s dressing room is a picture of comedian/iconoclast Bill Hicks. Bill Hicks is mentioned in the comics as a favorite of both Jesse and Cassidy and, as Ennis pointed out in the comics, was something of a preacher himself.
Questions and Theories
I think the biggest questions after episode two are ‘who is Gary’ and ‘why is Tulip so concerned about keeping Jesse and him from finding out about each other?’ Could it be that Miss O’Hare got secretly married and is no longer ‘Miss’ at all? Or maybe Gary and Victor were involved with Tulip in a criminal enterprise so heinous (foreskin recycling?) she can’t stand the idea of Jesse finding out about it.
STX Entertainment has released the first official trailer for A Bad Moms Christmas, giving us our first look at the return of Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, and Kristen Bell as the titular mothers. This time around, rather than stressing out about PTA meetings, they’re stressing out about the upcoming holidays.
