I have to admit, I’m a huge Rick and Morty fan (not stand in front of a McDonalds obnoxiously, but big enough) and love the cleverness, raunchiness, and just flat out funny craziness that that show has leaves me always waiting for the next episode to see what’s going on in the world of C-137. Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon have created a gem for Adult Swim, which just signed a deal for 70 more episodes, so it’s not going away anytime soon. That doesn’t mean that Justin Roiland (along with Mike McMahan this time under Roiland’s “Justin Roiland’s Solo Vanity Card Productions!”) can’t do a little work on the side with his new show Solar Opposites coming next month on Hulu.
Solar Opposites’ premise is centered around “a family of aliens from a better world who must take refuge in middle America. They disagree on whether this is awful or awesome.” Hulu just released a trailer for the upcoming animated sitcom. It has the right amount of batshit craziness we have come to love and expect from Roiland and company.
The voice casts include Justin Roiland himself, Thomas Middleditch, Sean Giambrone, Mary Mack, and countless others. The eight-episode first season lands on Hulu May 8, 2020.
I honestly still don’t get the hate, but I’m not so stubborn that I won’t admit Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker had it’s issues. Something that was compounded by the release of Colin Trevorrow’s amazing script which gave real “what might have been” feelings to everyone that read it. While I loved the flick and had some real, genuine fun with it I’m aware alot of people didn’t, and I found myself wondering “Gee, I wish someone would put all of the reasons people disliked this movie into a 5 minute trailer type presentation so that I could better understand”. As luck would have it, the guys at ScreenJunkies are pros at doing just that. Ladies and gentlemen, check out the HonestTrailer for Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker
The stars of Avengers: Endgame, Downton Abbey, It, and Spider-Man have all come together for the Apple TV+ series, Defending Jacob. Chris Evans sports his bearded look again, joined by Michelle Dockery, Jaeden Martell, and JK Simmons in a drama that promises to be a big draw for the streaming service. This is also the kind of dramatic work Evans has been pining to do for years.
Defending Jacob stars Evans as a defense attorney torn between the law and his family when his son is accused of murder. The 8-episode series is directed by Morten Tyldum, best known for The Imitation Game, Headhunters, and Passengers, from a script by Dawn of the Planet of the Apes writer Mark Bomback. The cast includes Betty Gabriel, Pablo Schreiber, Cherry Jones, Sakina Jaffrey, Leighton Meester, Paul Wesley, and Kat Graham.
SYNOPSIS: A gripping, character-driven thriller based on the 2012 New York Times best-selling novel of the same name, and starring Chris Evans, Michelle Dockery, Jaeden Martell, Cherry Jones, Pablo Schreiber, Betty Gabriel and Sakina Jaffrey. The limited drama series unfolds around a shocking crime that rocks a small Massachusetts town and one family in particular, forcing an assistant district attorney to choose between his sworn duty to uphold justice and his unconditional love for his son.
Apple TV+ will debut Defending Jacob on April 24th.
China has been dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak longer than the rest of the world, and so they are further along in recovering from it. In recent days, Chinese movie theaters have begun to reopen in small numbers, and as we mentioned previously the plan was to lure in audiences with older films and some local favorites. Well, now you can add the two highest-grossing movies of all-time as part of the attraction.
Avengers: Endgame and Avatar are among the global blockbusters that will be re-released in China over the coming weeks as cinemas open their doors. Also included in the list are the entire Avengers series, plus Christopher Nolan’s Inception and Interstellar.
This is interesting because Endgame only tops Avatar by about $7M for the all-time crown, and these numbers will have an impact on the global total. What if Avatar really kills it in China and reclaims the top spot? Of course, that’s secondary to the fact that one part of the world is starting to emerge on the other side of this terrible pandemic, and hopefully the same will happen for the rest of us soon.
Nowadays we take many of the provisions provided by the Americans with Disabilities Act for granted. Parking spaces, brail signs on our elevators, ramps into buildings, service animals, TTY/TD, equal opportunity, anti-discrimination, and countless other provisions have been a part of our daily lives for the past 30 years have helped everyday life for Americans with some form of disability. But that was not always the case. For many, many years, differently-abled people had to endure the shame of an almost second-class citizenship for decades, until a very hard-fought battle was won by various disability rights advocates lobbied, protested, and even took over government buildings to have their needs met. And it all started at Camp Jened AKA Crip Camp.
Produced by the Obamas (looks like Higher Ground Productions is off for their second Oscar in as many years), Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution highlights Camp Jened in the Catskills, where from 1951 to 1977 many disabled young people got their first taste of a life where they weren’t considered an “other.” Many of the documentary subjects told their stories of being the “disabled” person in their local area, the ridicule, the shame, the demand for independence, and all the frustration that endured along with it. However, when they went to Camp Jened, they were just a regular person who had all the rights, respect, and dignity that should automatically come with everyday life. In addition to feeling like a respected American, at Camp Jened, many people there did what everyone does at summer camps, got their first kiss (and other things that required the camp to temporarily separate the guys and gals when there was an outbreak of crabs), smoked dope and partied, but also where they first had nightly discussions about their place in the world and began a second Civil Rights Movement.
Yes, a second Civil Rights Movement, because the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not offer protections for people with disabilities. Taking the sense of community and the demand for equal rights, many from Camp Jened ended up going to college at Berkley at a time when many in the country were still vocal about social ills not addressed. This led many of the former campers who stayed in contact with each other to start engaging their local, state, and federal representatives for their rights. Crip Camp has interviews from famed disability rights and advisor Judith “Judy” Heumann (whose humble beginnings started at Camp Jened), Denise Sherer Jacobson (who was so awakened by her sexual side at camp she went on to get a Master Degree in Human Sexuality), co-director Jim LeBrecht, and countless others told not only of their disabilities, but also how they wanted to change the world. The camp’s director Larry Allison put it best, “The problem did not exist with people with disabilities. The problem existed with people that didn’t have disabilities.”
Crip Camp goes to show the radical activism of many Camp Jened alumni did in Berkley, including the setting up of the Center for Independent Living all the way to their 25-day sit-in of the San Francisco federal offices with the activists demand to meet U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Joseph Califano of the Carter Administration to sign Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which was a long and grueling process. Aided by Vietnam Vets, Black Panthers, and LGBT activists, they fought hard for not only the meeting, but the signing of Section 504 and even harder for its implementation which didn’t fully become realized until 1990.
What makes Crip Camp so great is that it is a documentary through and throughout, and the people on the ground are the subjects. If Crip Camp was a dramatic movie, it probably wouldn’t have focused on the people that it needed to. The film also has such detailed raw footage, it’s almost as if everyone at Camp Jened knew that more than 40 years later a movie was going to be made about their experiences. Crip Camp interviews the subject in the present day, and it’s incredibly refreshing to not only hear them give their first-hand experience, but tell it as raw as they wanted to. There were quite a few F-bombs and vivid sexual descriptions, helping put a human face (and human experience) for people who often are not seen as “human” by everyone else. As stated before, it looks like the Obamas are on their way to a second Oscar (and its also great that they stepped out of the way as they did with American Factory), but all credit is due to directors James Lebrecht and Nicole Newnham, who put together a masterpiece that tells a much-needed story that pulls at your emotions in a non-cheap way, but also tells a fascinating story that people really don’t know much about, and it’s a great thing that the alumni of Camp Jened went to that obscure summer camp, as they went on a changed the world!
Sadly, us pop culture addicts in the DC area are going to have to wait for our biggest event of the year. Awesome Con, which had been scheduled to begin on May 1st, has been postponed to December 11th-13th due to the outbreak of COVID-19.
From the released statement:
To our Awesome Con family:
COVID-19 has made this an uncertain and challenging time for everyone. In continuing to prioritize the safety and health of our attendees, exhibitors, and staff, we have made the difficult decision to postpone Awesome Con until December 11-13, 2020.
We sincerely want to thank you for your patience and understanding while we worked with the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, exhibitors, and guests to move many pieces into place.
Launching in 2013, Awesome Con has quickly become the geek culture hub for those in the DC/MD/VA area, hosting dozens of big stars from all corners of the media landscape. This year’s show would’ve included nostalgic celebrities including Christina Ricci, Ric Flair, James Marsden, Ron Perlman, Zachary Levi, Michael J. Fox, Christopher Eccleston, Sean Astin, and many more.
Awesome Con has plans in place for those who may have already purchased tickets, VIP passes, or made travel plans. Please go to their website here for more information.
Punch Drunk Critics was honored to be there at the first Awesome Con and every year since, and we will be there when it returns this winter. Still, this is disappointing news even if it’s unsurprising.
To our Awesome Con family:
COVID-19 has made this an uncertain and challenging time for everyone. In continuing to prioritize the safety and health of our attendees, exhibitors, and staff, we have made the difficult decision to postpone Awesome Con until December 11-13, 2020. pic.twitter.com/vzJBLmNcbQ
I’ve marveled a little at the argument there may not be an appetite for digital movies while we’re all stuck indoors. That’s ridiculous. If you’re a movie fan you’ve got no choice but have an appetite for them, which is why studios have been bringing their biggest movies to VOD earlier than ever before. And now we have at least some evidence that audiences are indeed paying to watch from home, despite the $19.99 pricepoint.
Last weekend, the first in which all of the major theaters were closed in America, saw FandangoNow record their biggest weekend ever. While sales and rental figures weren’t made available, the online service’s top 10 is full of movies that were released digitally early, led by The Invisible Man, Onward, and The Hunt.
I’ll be curious to know what the figures are on these, but that we may never get. Expect to see Birds of Prey be near the top of the charts this upcoming weekend, and it’ll be very interesting to see what a new release like Trolls World Tour does next month.
Interesting to note that the $19.99 price on some rentals wasn’t a deterrent for people as #TheInvisibleMan, #TheHunt and #Emma all place in the top 6, and all arrived as premium rentals
Bloodshot (Vin Diesel) in Columbia Pictures' BLOODSHOT.
Vin Diesel’s Bloodshot didn’t exactly kill it during its shortened run at the box office. Unfortunately, it never had a chance to recover with the markets shutting down during the second week of release, but there’s a chance to find a brand new audience on digital. To celebrate yesterday’s early home release, Sony Pictures has made the first 9-minutes available online.
The opening minutes of Bloodshot set up the character’s origin, as soldier Ray Garrison survives a dangerous mission and reunites with his lover. But their time alone on an Italian isle is interrupted by a group of mercenaries led by Toby Kebbell’s Martin Axe.
My review of Bloodshotgave it more credit than most, with supporting players such as Eiza Gonazalez, Guy Pearce, and Lamorne Morris standing out.
Wealth. When institutional racism is discussed, it is the creation of wealth that has long been denied to black people even after the end of slavery. There is a huge difference between being rich, and being wealthy. White people have passed down wealth from generation to generation, whereas black people, through a variety of underhanded means, have been prevented from doing this. So it’s interesting to see Hollywood put such an emphasis on black wealth of late (Black Wall Street in Watchmen, Netflix’s Self Made), and Apple TV+ film The Banker is a crowd-pleasing, uncomplicated caper about two enterprising men of color, played by a pair of actors used to accomplishing superheroic feats.
The Banker, which sounds like the title of a Jason Statham action franchise, actually tells the true story of Bernard Garrett and Joe Morris, played by Avengers alums Anthony Mackie and Samuel L. Jackson. Directed by The Adjustment Bureau‘s George Nolfi, the film centers on Bernard and Joe’s attempts to make it rich as among the first African-American bankers in a time when financial institutions catered only to white men.
As a kid growing up in racist Texas of the 1930s, Bernard had to be careful about showing his intellect and his ambitions. Eavesdropping on the conversations of white businessmen gained him a working knowledge of how to get rich, although his working-class father warns him that it’ll never happen. Cut to years later and Bernard is in Los Angeles looking for real estate investment opportunities. It’s there that he first meets roguish entrepreneur Joe Morris, but refuses to work with such a shady individual. Bernard instead hooks up with an Irish agent (Colm Meaney), who digs his idea of buying up white properties and making them affordable for black tenants. It pisses off the white populace but earns Bernard a bunch of money, even though he must stay in the shadows as it’s safer to have a white face to the company.
This becomes a theme when Bernard eventually begins teaming up with Joe, and they hire working stiff Matt Steiner (Nicholas Hoult), who can barely do math, to be the front for their expanding business. A big part of The Banker involves Joe, Bernard, and Bernard’s level-headed wife Eunice (Nia Long) teaching Matt how to be the sophisticated con man he’ll need to be to pull this off.
So there are certainly heist elements to be found here, and they add a lot to The Banker‘s charm. Without them it would unfold like a fairly standard biopic, episodic in nature and free of embellishment. But it’s genuinely entertaining to watch Mackie and Jackson trade barbs while manipulating a rigged system. Together, Bernard and Joe are able to knock down barriers they couldn’t as individuals, including a scheme to control a major bank that Bernard couldn’t even get a loan meeting.
Those hoping for a deeper look at the civil rights aspect aren’t going to get it, though. Set in roughly the same time period as Green Book, racism is handled in a similarly hands-off way. The duo faces obstacles from a racist white establishment, especially when they try to expand in Texas, but there’s never the danger they must’ve truly felt. The Banker shifts too much of its focus onto Matt’s story, which may be interesting but is definitely a B-plot to the story of two black men trying to buck a system they are meant to fail against. Bernard’s hope, along with making money, is to affect real social change and make it easier for others just like him. What he discovers is something Joe already knows, and it’s that activism and business are a volatile mix.
Controversy surrounded The Banker when it was due to open last year, delaying its release until recently. Before then, it was pegged as a possible awards contender, following in the vein of the similarly historical Hidden Figures. While not quite up to that film’s level, The Banker informs and entertains, while asking only for a modest investment of your time.
If nothing else, the Coronavirus crisis is teaching people just how much goes into film and TV production. Today we found out, thanks to the good fellas at /Film, that both The Walking Dead and Supernatural have announced delays to the air schedule for the remainder of their seasons. While filming has wrapped on The Walking Dead and Supernatural has filmed 18 of it’s 20 episode final season, the pandemic has shut down post-production shops across the board, meaning no sound or visual effects can be completed and the final product can’t be edited for TV
The Walking Dead will “technically” have a season finale, just not the episode they intended. Announced via Insider.com the show will air it’s penultimate episode as this years season finale and will air the episode intended as the season finale later on in the year as a special event. Totally understandable but it seems strange that the final episode’s content is such that and can just be changed to a bonus episode down the road. I’m assuming that they are going the Game of Thrones route where the second to last episode is the real end with the final episode acting as an epilogue.
If you’ve been a reader of this site for a while, or spent any time listening to our podcast(s) you’ll know I’m a die-hard fan of Supernatural, something Travis has given me endless grief about. For the record, this show is one of the most fun, re-watchable, and downright entertaining shows ever created with chemistry to rival Friends or Seinfeld. Now that I’ve got that out of the way we can get to the details. The brothers Winchester are nearing the end of a 15 year long adventure that was originally to conclude in May, but now looks at a TBD to finish the run. Andrew Dabb, one of the writers on the show, announced via Twitter that last nights episode would be the last one to air until after people can get back to work. He was sure to say that the cast, crew, and The CW are all dedicated to finishing the series whenever that may be
(Due to the shutdown, this will be our last episode for awhile. Stay well, stay safe, and we'll see you on the other side.)
(Clarification: We have filmed through episode 18, however our visual effects and sound departments have closed because of the outbreak. So, right now, the episodes can't be finished. However, have some special treats coming along the way– to help us all get through this.)
Produced by the Obamas (looks like Higher Ground Productions is off for their second Oscar in as many years), Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution highlights Camp Jened in the Catskills, where from 1951 to 1977 many disabled young people got their first taste of a life where they weren’t considered an “other.” Many of the documentary subjects told their stories of being the “disabled” person in their local area, the ridicule, the shame, the demand for independence, and all the frustration that endured along with it. However, when they went to Camp Jened, they were just a regular person who had all the rights, respect, and dignity that should automatically come with everyday life. In addition to feeling like a respected American, at Camp Jened, many people there did what everyone does at summer camps, got their first kiss (and other things that required the camp to temporarily separate the guys and gals when there was an outbreak of crabs), smoked dope and partied, but also where they first had nightly discussions about their place in the world and began a second Civil Rights Movement.
