In the works for years, The Greatest Showman has long been a passion project for star Hugh Jackman. An entertainer himself who relishes the art of showbiz, Jackman has been eager to play P.T. Barnum, the man who invented show business as we know it. Now that he doesn’t have one Wolverine or X-Men movie to distract him, Jackman will finally get to play the famous ringleader this holiday season.
Directed by Michael Gracey, who has been on board practically since the beginning, the film should let Jackman sing and dance to his heart’s content. Michelle Williams, Zac Efron, Rebecca Ferguson, and Zendaya co-star as side acts, but it’s Jackman who is the main event as Barnum, who found a way to combine entertainment with business savvy. Here’s the synopsis:
The Greatest Showman” is a bold and original musical that celebrates the birth of show business and the sense of wonder we feel when dreams come to life. Inspired by the ambition and imagination of P.T. Barnum, “The Greatest Showman” tells the story of a visionary who rose from nothing to create a mesmerizing spectacle that became a worldwide sensation. “The Greatest Showman” is directed by exciting new filmmaker, Michael Gracey, with songs by Academy Award® winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (“La La Land”) and starring Academy Award nominee Hugh Jackman. Jackman is joined by Zac Efron, Academy Award nominee Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson and Zendaya.
Imagine Office Space meets The Purge and you’ve got a pretty good idea what the aims are for the appropriately-titled Mayhem, the latest film from Joe Lynch, a purveyor of over-the-top madness. Lynch is best known for directing the goofy LARP comedy Knights of Badassdom (geeks still routinely complain about its lack of wide release) and the single-location battle royale Everly, which featured Salma Hayek dispatching wave after wave of enemies. An excess of violence and minimum of plot is generally Lynch’s sweet spot, but as a gory satire of corporate corruption Mayhem isn’t going to get off quite so easy.
Steven Yeun, who played the beloved Glenn on The Walking Dead, is altruistic corporate peon Derek. The film begins showing us his rise to mid-level importance in a corporate law office, meaning he’s a nice guy who just does his job, even when it means hurting those who need help. He just feels really bad about it, and occasionally he paints. After being framed for a 7-figure screwup, Derek tries to plead his case but winds up fired, anyway. Good thing a pandemic has broken out in the building, a rage virus of sorts, similar to 28 Days Later. Even better? Court precedent has shown that those under the influence of this virus can commit any act of violence they want and get off on a technicality.
It’s about to get downright prehistoric around the water cooler.
Office Depot never needed advertising quite like this, as staplers, nail guns, scissors, and all sorts of cubicle goodies are driven through skulls and used to slice off tongues. Derek, joined by the equally-vengeful Melanie (Samara Weaving), a client recently screwed by the company, cuts a path through his co-workers in an effort get up to the top floor and go overtime on the big boss (Steven Brand), who is too busy brandishing his golf clubs to care. “Do you have any idea how many man hours I’m gonna lose until he’s replaced?”, the boss screams at the loss of a trusted assistant. Yeah, he’s one of those bosses; the kind of arrogant prick we’ve all had and secretly wished would get his comeuppance.
Why is it so tough to cheer Derek on in this bloody mission, then? A big part of the reason is the script by Matias Caruso, which fails to make much of a statement about amorality in the “Corporations are people, my friend” era. Or at least it seems to coast on the simple hope that we all just hate our bosses and despise those greedy corporate crooks. Yeah, we do, but a satirical splatter flick needs to have a little something more to say than that. By contrast there was considerably more insight in James Gunn’s similar The Belko Experiment. At some point there is so much violence that, stylish though it may be, it becomes tiresome without something to back it up.
Yeun is and will always be a likable star as long as he keeps playing the underdog, and Weaving gives the film a welcome dose of blue collar fury. Together they’re a fun pair to watch, especially since Weaving correctly approaches her role like a Looney Tunes cartoon. While there are buckets of blood spilled it’s shot in such a hyperbolic way that it’s impossible to take seriously. And that may ultimately be the problem with Mayhem, and why it lacks real-world resonance at a time when corporations are as popular as pond scum. This should have been an easy home run, but instead it’s like the boss made you stay late and miss half the game.
Holy spirits of vengeance, might The Crow Reborn actually be happening?? No film has been in deeper pits of development Hell than the reboot of The Crow, but could Jason Momoa and Corin Hardy be the ones who could see it take flight?
Momoa, who just completed shooting on Aquaman, took to Instagram to show his excitement for The Crow Reborn, although he doesn’t specifically state that it’s happening.
A post shared by Jason Momoa (@prideofgypsies) on Nov 12, 2017 at 7:51am PST
Everybody and their granddaddy has been attached to play Eric Draven, the vengeful hero of James O’Barr’s comic book. Mark Wahlberg, Bradley Cooper, Luke Evans, and Tom Hiddleston are only a few, with just as many directors attached before Hardy took over a couple of years ago. The film would then get swallowed up in a lot of legal mumbo jumbo, although right now Sony holds the rights.
It’s hard to believe Sony or anybody would want to move forward on this since it’s such a risky gamble. There’s a lot of love out there for Brandon Lee’s iconic take on the character in Alex Proyas’ film, but even that is little more than a cult favorite. Is there really enough passion out there to see The Crow remade? I don’t think so, and it seems to me it falls into the same general area as Momoa’s Conan the Barbarian which tanked badly. We’ll see what happens!
Last week in the Arrowverse, we focused on the possible damage that religion can play, got to meet a new member of Team Flash, got the best homage to Stephen Spielberg’s E.T., and met a possible new big bad guy for Team Arrow to deal with.
Supergirl was very interesting. Most of the episode focused on the idea that Kara was a messianic figure for many people that she had saved since becoming Supergirl. A new church was created, thanks to hopeless people finding hope in her heroics, as well as learning about the Kryptonian religion because of a probe that detailed her planet’s history. Kara wasn’t comfortable with the idea of being a Jesus-like character and spent most of the episode to try to dissuade her faithful followers, especially as she was going through her own dark place.
The Flash introduced a new metahuman, thanks to the Thinker’s planning. This time, the new metahuman wasn’t a bad guy. In fact, Ralph Dibny, AKA Plastic Man, was invited to become a possible new member of Team Flash in the aftermath. Although Ralph previously had a sketchy history with Barry, they made amends and he was a hero towards the end. Ralph also revealed to Barry that there’s a man behind the curtain orchestrating the current events, and they need to figure out who this bad guy is.
Legends of Tomorrow had the Legends save a young Ray, who befriended a young baby alien Dominator. The Dominator wasn’t what could have killed our fellow hero, but the Men In Black who wanted the alien for their own nefarious purposes. As Legends of Tomorrow is the most tongue-in-cheek shows in the Arrowverse, they did an outstanding job playing homage to E.T., as young Ray fulfilled the role of Elliot from the classic sci-fi movie in last week’s “Phone Home” episode.
Arrow continued with Diggle assuming the hood and leading the team. It’s surprising that they are sticking with this arc for so long. It’s clear that Oliver is missing his former nightlife as he consistently plays the back burner to all Team Arrow activities so that he can focus on being a politician and a dad. He did get a chance to play the guy in the chair and helped Team Arrow as “Overwatch” last week when they went on a mission to help save the Internet. Last week finally showed us who Helix hacker mastermind Cayden James was (guest starring Michael Emmerson). He’s sure to be a big baddie this season as you don’t cast someone a big as Emmerson for one episode. Meanwhile, Oliver has to go on his own side mission as Slade Wilson needs his help rescuing his lost son.
This week in the Arrowverse, some episodes were a lot of fun, some were very heavy. So how did the Arrowverse go this week?
Supergirl: “Damage”
While this week on Supergirl did not really touch any of the religious things from last week, this week’s episode “Damage” was equally impressive as it also dealt with very adult issues. The idea of making a devastating choice in a relationship for your own life goals, as well as the idea of poisoning children, are not to be taken lightly. They most certainly not what we would normally get from the more family-friendly episodes that have been in the Arrowverse, and especially on Supergirl.
The A story of this week’s episode focused on the fact that children were suffering from lead poisoning in National City. The only evidence that is pointing towards a cause is the fact that Lena Luthor created a weaponized “lead bomb” to deal with the Daximites in last week’s season finale to deal with the alien threat. The weapon was shown to be non-fatal towards humans, but would kill the alien invaders if they remained on earth. However, when children started showing up sick from lead poisoning, all fingers were pointed towards Lena.
Lena’s corporate rival Morgan Edge was more than happy to place blame on Lena and tie her to her less than savory family. Holding press conferences in her own hospital filled with sick children is a political low blow, and it works in his favor as Luthor becomes public enemy number one. Even when she tries to get ahead of the damage and holding a press conference, a concerned parent tries to kill her by shooting at her from the crowd. This forces Lena to think that she is responsible and she takes a leave of absence from her business activities and drowns herself in a bottle of wine.
Kara and Samantha aren’t too sure that this is her fault. Like the good friends they are, they decide to do some investigating on their own. Through their investigation, it’s revealed that it’s Morgan Edge who willingly poisoned children as a means to get back at his political rival. If we didn’t know that Morgan was the big bad guy before, he sure is now. This makes him an interesting villain, as he has no superpowers, just political and economic power, which is more than enough to take on his rivals. Even when he is stopped, he has a backup plan and blames one of his lackeys so he can live to fight another day.
The B story focused on Alex and Maggie are continuing to deal with their impasse. Alex and Maggie deeply love each other and want to get married, however, they have different life goals. Alex wants to one day have children, and that’s something Maggie has no interest in doing at all. Neither wants to budge from where they are, so how does this relationship move forward?
The two decide that they need to no longer be together. It’s heartbreaking for the two of them as they are genuinely in love with each other, but they just will not be able to move forward together. Before Maggie leaves, the two spend one last night together where they laugh, dance, cry, and spend the night together before they say their final goodbyes. In the aftermath of the breakup, Kara is Alex’s shoulder to cry on. Kara even calls J’onn telling him that the two of them will be away from the DEO for a little while, so that Alex can heal a little.
The episode ends with Samantha spending time with her daughter. Her daughter notices a hole in her mother’s shirt. Samantha then takes a look at her jacket where she sees a spent bullet in her jacket. Turns out during the shooting earlier when the parent tried to kill Lena Luthor, she was hit, but her powers saved her, confirming that she’s some sort of bullet-proof alien.
The Flash: “Girls Night Out”
No new Dark Matter metahumans this week on The Flash. Instead, it’s an episode full of bachelor/bachelorette parties as Barry and Iris have their own adventures. Barry and the guys have their own fun while Iris and the girls take center stage as they not only have a bachelorette party, but they also face off against evil metahuman gangsters.
Felicity from Arrow comes to town for Iris’ bachelorette party. Joining them also are Cecile and a reluctant Caitlin, who was in the middle of packing her bags to leave town before being invited on the festivities. This plays a giant role in the entire episode as Caitlin’s escapades before rejoining Team Flash are coming back to bite her.
As the girls are off for what appears to be a regular night out full of drinking and dinner (a tame bachelorette party) when a glass-eyed goon on this week’s bad guy Amunet Black shows up demanding Caitlin come with him. After the rest of the girls laugh him off as a stripper, an eye worm explodes from his glass eye to attack her. The girls get in fight mode and actually take him on. Caitlin realizes they need Killer Frost and turns into her Jekyll and Hyde persona to fight him off.
Killer Frost wants to get out of town because she knows that Amunet Black will still come after her. But Iris wants to help her friend. She even follows her as she tried to meet with the gangster. As Killer Frost pleads to Black (played by Battlestar Galactica alum Katee Sackhoff with an English accent) to let her go, Black reveals that Killer Frost is her best henchman and she needs her to secure safety for her latest trafficking victim, Weeper: a metahuman whose tears create a powerful hallucinogen. Although Killer Frost is able to escape thanks to Iris, the girls decide they will help get her free and save the poor metahuman help prisoner.
As Black goes to set up a deal with what is assumedly be a triad for Weeper’s tears, the girls spring into action. Despite having no powers, they use their brains to overcome Black (who’s magnetic powers are overcome by a magnet), her goons, and the triads, saving the day. At the end, Killer Frost and Caitlin manage to find a way to coexist and they both remain as members of Team Flash.
Meanwhile, the boys are also doing their own crazy night. Barry’s bachelor party was supposed to be nice and normal, just drinks and cigars. However, Ralph crashes the party and determines that it’s too lame, and proceeds to take the guys to a local strip club where he has his own framed picture as “customer of the month.” The funniest part of the episode is that Cisco gave Barry an alcohol concoction that can withstand his Speed Force-induced healing powers and get him really, really, really drunk. He proceeds to tell many patrons and strippers that he’s the flash countless times in his inebriation. Joe runs into Cecile’s daughter Joanie (who conveniently skipped the bachelorette party) stripping at the club. She explains to him it’s an exercise in feminism, but by the end of the episode, she decides to not continue it.
Thanks to Ralph stealing money from a stripper using his Plastic Man powers, the guys start a bar brawl and end up spending the night in jail. Barry and Joe have a heart to heart with Joe becoming a father again. Barry tells Joe that he was a great father to him despite having no help. Now that he has Cecile, he will also be a great father and there is nothing to fear. Harry (who didn’t get arrested) bails them out where they run into the girls back at STAR Labs and both parties say their nights were uneventful.
Legends of Tomorrow: “Return of the Mack”
This week on Legends of Tomorrow, the Legends go vampire hunting.
As the Legends are trying to understand the nature of these new time aberrations anachronisms, Nate tells the team that there are rumored vampire attacks in 1895 London. Mick becomes focused on the idea of killing a vampire. Gotta give props to actor Dominic Purcell, who is having a blast now on the show and completely is nailing the comedic timing for the character. He spends most of the episode with a stake in hand just ready to kill the undead. Even when the team meets a pathologist and are ready to perform an autopsy on a recently drained corpse, he quickly drives a stake through the body.
Oh, they also get some help this week. Even though they have been at odds with their former leader Rip Hunter and his Time Bureau, Rip is there trying to discover what’s going on as well. Despite reservations, Sara agrees to work with him to try and uncover the mystery surrounding the vampire and the mystery name “Mallus.”
While walking about, Nate gets kidnapped, which leads the Legends to learn about a secret society that happens to be run by none other than Stein’s ancestor (actor Victor Garber playing double duty this week as Stein and his great-great-grandfather), who leads an occult group. It turns out, they are trying to resurrect someone of power. The blood draining is not vampires, but instead, blood transfusions 1800s style. The person they are trying to bring back from the dead? Damien Dahrk.
Sara hates Dahrk more than anyone possibly could. After all, he killed her sister, Laurel Lance. She wants him dead. Meanwhile, Rip wants him to remain alive as he’s important to Mallus, which is Rip’s primary objective. Rip seemingly agrees with Sara, but it was a ruse as he then programs Gideon and the Wave Rider to imprison the Legends so that he can continue his solo mission.
The only person not stuck on the ship was Zari, who was captivated by one of the occult members as they were able to commune with her dead brother. She manages to infiltrate them just as they are resurrecting Dahrk. The Legends manage to escape the ship and arrive just as Dahrk is resurrected. The Time Bureau also arrives just in time which leads to an all-out battle against Dahrk and his forces while the song “Return of the Mack” is playing the entire time, hence the title. Even though the Legends hold their own, Dahrk manages to escape.
Because of Rip’s treachery, Sara realizes he can no longer be trusted and calls the Time Bureau on him to report his solo mission to them. They apprehend him for going against them and finally give the Legends free space to carry out their own missions without their interference, leaving Rip in their custody. I predict it now, Rip will be next season’s full-on bad guy.
Arrow: “Deathstroke Returns”
This week on Arrow, Oliver and Slade Wilson go on their own solo mission, and we finally get to see who Vigilante is.
Oliver seemed to be itching for some sort of action. Ever since he hung up the hood and gave the title of Green Arrow over to his buddy John Diggle, he’s been missing for his former lifestyle. Although he doesn’t want to go back towards the darkness, you know he secretly has been craving it. This week he gets to toe the line as Slade Wilson needs his help rescuing his son. Turns out his son joined Australian Secret Intelligence (following his father’s footsteps) and got himself in trouble in Kasnia.
However, Slade tells Oliver that he doesn’t need the Green Arrow. He needs help from Oliver Queen the politician. Turns out the folks in Kasnia would be fine with a face to face with a high profile American politician, so Slade has Oliver come to be the middle man to try and negotiate his son’s release.
The flashbacks return back to Arrow as they instead focus on Slade as he takes his son on a camping trip. Slade secretly was using the trip with his son as a means to carry out an execution. While he had a good time bonding with his son in the wilderness, he does bring his Deathstroke helmet and kills his target. It’s not revealed if his son actually saw the hit carried out, but it’s heavily implied.
When Oliver comes to the jail under the pretension of a humanitarian mission, the warden tells him that Slade’s son died during a prison fight the day before. Once Oliver reveals this to Slade, he goes to view the body. The warden didn’t count on this and gets caught in his lie. The warden’s family was threatened as a group called the Jackals kidnapped him.
Meanwhile, Team Arrow preparing for the vigilante vote. Vigilante, the take no prisoners vigilante tried to take out the politician responsible for the bill, Dinah uses a sonic scream against him. This causes his visor to shatter revealing him to be none other than her former partner and lover Vincent, who she thought was dead. Turns out the Particle Accelerator explosion that gave her the sonic scream powers also gave him a healing factor where he can heal from bullets to the head. He now operates as Vigilante and goes on killing sprees against those he deems bad guys, even corrupt politicians. Realizing how far gone he is after discovers his lair full of hordes of ammunition, Dinah wants to take him down. Diggle reasons with her to try and reach and help him. Once again, Dinah and Diggle look like they will eventually be a couple. They have the same amount of chemistry that Oliver and Felicity have.
In addition to trying to stop Vigilante, Team Arrow is now in FBI agent Watson’s crosshairs. She sets up meetings with each of them. Felicity is the first interview and provides Oliver with alibis. Hopefully, Watson is bad at her job (she isn’t) and can’t disprove those alibis. Diggle and Renee also have interviews with her. Curtis is upset that he’s not on the list.
Dinah knows that the politician is still on Vigilante’s radar, so she organizes protection during a television interview. She tells Team Arrow to lay low as agent Watson is there hoping to get them. Of course, Vigilante makes another attempt to kill the politician. He and Dinah have a fight where he reveals that he survived the explosion and is now doing what needs to be done. He takes a bullet to the head from a trigger-happy cop to save her. She then lets him escape when she realizes he can survive. In the aftermath, agent Watson comes to the conclusion that she is the Black Canary.
Slade realizes he has to take on the Jackals to try and find his son, he goes to full-on Deathstroke mode. After drugging Oliver, he attacks their lair. After killing numerous members of the group, he is finally cornered. With nowhere to go, the presumed leader of the Jackals (his former associate) tells him where his son is. His son is the leader of the Jackals!
1. Thor: Ragnarok– $56.6M/$211.5M Thor: Ragnarok continued to swing a mighty blow at the box office, earning $56.6M and bringing its domestic total to $211M. Worldwide the third, and by nearly all accounts the best film in Thor’s solo run, has grossed $650M in only a couple of weeks of wide release. That’s already better than every MCU movie before The Avengers, and it will likely top Doctor Strange‘s $677M in a day or so.
2. Daddy’s Home 2 (review)- $30M
It didn’t seem to matter that Thor: Ragnarok was still hanging around because all of the new releases opened big. The biggest was Daddy’s Home 2, which opened with $30M, just $8M shy of what Daddy’s Home debuted with. The inexplicably expensive film ($69) reunites Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell, joined by Mel Gibson and John Lithgow as warring dads and granddads. Basically, you can count on Daddy’s Home 3 sooner rather than later, especially with Paramount so hard up for hit franchises right now.
3. Murder On the Orient Express (review)- $28.2M
Kenneth Branagh’s star-studded Murder On the Orient Express pulled into the station with $28M, a strong start for the $56M adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic mystery. While star power doesn’t often mean much when it comes to big budget franchises, it often does with these mid-range dramas for adults. And ‘Express’ had the benefit of a much better marketing campaign than The Mountain Between Us had, even though they were targeting the same audience. Branagh’s film saw him take on the role of mustachioed detective Hercule Poirot, joined by Johnny Depp, Daisy Ridley, Willem Dafoe, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Josh Gad, and more. I don’t know if this will be the first in a series of Poirot movies, and I’m split on whether it should be, but if they do continue here’s hoping they’re smart enough to keep the budget manageable. So far the film has $85M worldwide.
4. A Bad Moms Christmas– $11.5M/$39.8M
A slight 31% is all A Bad Moms Christmas had to endure in its second weekend, securing the holiday sequel a total near $40M. It’ll probably take a few hits in the coming weeks but already this is quite the gift for the $28M comedy.
5. Jigsaw– $3.4M/$34.3M
6. Tyler Perry’s Boo 2! A Madea Halloween– $2M/$45.9M
7. Geostorm– $1.5M/$31.6M
While this looks like nasty weather for the $120M (although it’s really closer to $300M with marketing) Gerard Butler action flick, it does have $199M worldwide. So it’s not all bad. Just mostly bad.
8. Blade Runner 2049– $1.4M/$88M
9. Happy Death Day– $1.3M/$54.9M
10. Lady Bird (review)- $1.2M/$1.7M
After a killer opening weekend in just a handful of theaters, Greta Gerwig’s terrific Lady Bird expanded to a whopping 37 and kept the momentum going. It earned $1.2M for an average of $33K per site. The coming of age drama stars Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf, but this is being driven by great reviews and Gerwig, who has become an industry unto herself on the indie circuit. With genuine Oscar buzz surrounding it we may see a long run well into the holidays.
Early reviews are in for Justice League, and without posting a bunch of tweets about it, let’s just say the franchise’s future is still in question. But the only thing that really matters is if audiences dig it, and if it makes a bunch of money, which it most likely will. Also in doubt is whether Ben Affleck will stick around as Batman; the actor basically saying that it’s up to Warner Bros. to make that call. He’s all gung-ho for this film, though, and revealed a bit more of the plot that has been kept under lock and key…
“A Mother Box is an all-powerful, indestructible, technological cube that can also teleport a bunch of aliens to Earth from another world.”
He continues, “Once you combine the three Mother Boxes they form what’s called the Unity, a force that is pure power used to conquer worlds. Fortunately, these things don’t exist in real life, of course, but they’re a part of the DC Universe, and a problem for the Justice League.”
Whether Affleck returns for a sequel or not, he’s at least thought about it a little bit, saying “Now the Justice League is together, we have these stories that we can finally tell without being encumbered with setting up the backstory. We’ve done all that, so now we get to enjoy the adventures of this group of heroes as they take on the world.”
Ezra Miller, who plays the Flash, hopes that a sequel brings the screen debut of the villainous Injustice League, which unite Lex Luthor, Joker, Deathstroke, basically all of DC’s baddest dudes. I’d love to see the towering Giganta show. She’d make for an impressive visual.
“I think I can speak for everyone in the League when I say that we’re extremely excited by the prospect of continuing this journey. We don’t really know for sure, and we’re usually the last people to find out, but … each of the heroes in this movie has specific nemeses, and I think seeing some incarnation of the Injustice League (which includes Lex Luthor, Joker, Deathstroke and more) would be something that DC fans would be pretty stoked about.”
Gal Gadot has a more specific foe in mind, Cheetah, who happens to be Wonder Woman’s primary foe. Although she could also be part of the Injustice League…
“There’s so many good villains in the DC universe, but I would love to fight Cheetah. She’s a girl and that could be very interesting.”
Justice League opens November 17th. [TorontoSun/CBM]
This week’s episode of Gotham is filled with promotions, life lessons,
and relationships. Lets dive in, shall we?
Nygma story arc – “Stupid Lame Bird Brain”:
We begin back in the world of underground
fighting where we see Nygma dressed as Penguin. Nygma is taking pleasure in
mocking Penguin in an elaborate performance that the crowd seems to be eating
up. Lee warns Nygma that he is playing a dangerous game, but Nygma brushes off
the warning. In the ring, Grundy is facing a challenger who is off to a fast
start, landing some early blows. With each hit to his head, Grundy is seeing
flashes of his past which leave him quite confused. He shakes that off and
quickly disposes of his opponent… leading to the title of the episode becoming
incredibly clear from the get-go this week.
My thoughts: This
week we get introduced to something I like that call ‘Grundyvision.’ We are
taken into the mind of Grundy and see his flashbacks and see through his eyes. Nygma
is still as stupid as ever, but he is getting much better at figuring out different
ways to use Grundy to his advantage.
Jim story arc “Nothing In Gotham Is Free”:
The mayor has promoted Jim to Captain of the GCPD. Even with
everything going on between him and Harvey, his loyalty shines through
and Jim denies the job. The mayor tells him that Harvey is done, and if Jim
doesn’t take the job, someone else will. The mayor convinces Jim to hold on to
the contract, and to sign it if he has a change of heart. Jim goes back to the
precinct where Harvey is shouldering all the blame for Pyg’s trap. Jim tries to
remind him that everything is Pyg’s fault, not Harvey’s.
Harvey asks Jim to go to the bullet-hole club to support him
giving the bullets to the officers shot during Pyg’s trap, a tradition among
the officers of the GCPD. Jim takes a midday break to let Sophia know about the
promotion the mayor offers him. Quickly into their conversation, Jim realizes
that Sophia is behind Jim being promoted to Captain. Jim goes to the bar to
support Harvey during the bullet-hole club, but Harvey is a no show, leaving
the box of bullets for Jim to hand out. Jim performs this difficult task, the
task that should be performed by the GCPD Captain.
Jim finds Harvey drinking at his desk and wants to know why
he ditched the ceremony. Jim tells Harvey that his job is to take
responsibility for what happens to his officers and Harvey questions how Jim can
tell him what his job is. Jim has had enough of Harvey’s lack of leadership and
professionalism and has reached his limit. In a purely savage move, he signs
the contract the mayor gave him in front of Harvey and immediately removes him
of his duties of Captain of the GCPD. At the end of the episode, Jim goes to
visit Sophia and tells her that he is not her puppet. He tells her to leave
Gotham, a request that she immediately declines.
My thoughts:What
does Sophia want!?!? I have no idea what her motivations are and what game she
is playing. It seems like she is going back and forth making Penguin and then Jim
stronger. Maybe if she pits them against each other, they both might fail and
when the dust settles – she’ll be left standing? There is a chance that
Sophia’s plan might be backfiring as both Jim and Penguin have grown to resent
her during this episode. We all knew that the tension in Harvey and Jim’s
relationship was heading towards its breaking point… Jim taking Harvey’s job is
one major step in that direction. Jim clearly feels terrible for betraying
Harvey, but it will be curious to see how Harvey responds.
Barbara, Selina, and Tabitha story arc – “Looking For
Trouble“:
Penguin finds out about Nygma’s one man show and is quite
displeased. He sends Tabitha, Selina, and Barbara to the Narrows to see the
show and bring back Nygma – with or without his consent. Penguin sends Firefly
after the three of them to make sure that they get the job done. If they don’t,
he wants her to burn them all to cinders.
Barbara, Selina, and Tabitha get to the ring to see Nygma’s
performance and notice Lee in the audience watching. Immediately after, Grundy
enters the ring leaving Tabitha dumbfounded at how Butch can still be alive. She
manages to track him down backstage and sees that he is not the Butch of old. As
Tabitha is doing this, Barbara decides to check in on Lee. With her two
partners gone off on side tangents, Selina goes to take care of the reason
they are there in the first place – to kidnap Nygma. Eventually Barbara has had
enough of her back and forth with Lee and goes to help Selina.
As Selina and Barbara are leaving with Nygma, Grundy tries
to stop them. Selina invokes the ‘code of the narrows’ – their best fighter
would take on Grundy, the winner gets Nygma. Tabitha believes that Butch is
still in Grundy’s mind somewhere and that he wouldn’t hurt her, everyone else
is not so sure. The fight starts off with Grundy attacking Tabitha, but after a
few blows to the head – Butch’s memories are clear and Grundy remembers
Tabitha. Unfortunately she doesn’t realize it in time and knocks out Grundy. Barbara,
Selina, and Tabitha try and take Nygma and leave, but are met with a lot of
resistance from the people of the narrows. Firefly shows up and decides that
the three of them didn’t meet their deadline, so they must be burned to a
crisp.
Lee saves the day by shooting Firefly’s gas tank which puts
the fire out before it even started. Cherry tries to get the crowd to turn on
Barbara and co. but Barbara quickly shoots Cherry in the head and proclaims
that they no longer work for Penguin. The people of the narrows look to Lee as
their new leader. Lee denies the responsibility at first saying she is not a
leader, but Nygma convinces her otherwise.
My thoughts:In a
very interesting mirroring of the conversation Jim has with the Mayor to start
the episode, Nygma and Lee have the same one to end it. Jim and Lee have both
ascended in their respective workplaces, which seems ripe for their paths to
intersect soon. Barbara, Selina, and Tabitha going rogue is another hit to
Penguin’s power. He is not the forgiving type, so I imagine he will find a way
to try and deal with them in the future.
Penguin story arc – “Minions Are So Much Better Than Friends“:
While Penguin has sent out Tabitha, Selina, and Barbara to
do his bidding – he spends his time at the orphanage. He notices one boy
getting picked on and watches as this child prepares to set the bullies’
backpacks on fire. Penguin stops him from doing so and tries to instill some
life lessons in him. Penguin trains the boy on the most strategic (and less
violent) ways to take down his bullies. By the end of the episode, the training
does get a little more violent as Penguin is showing the boy the proper way to
stab someone. Penguin receives the bad news (and it comes in threes) that Nygma
was not kidnapped, firefly was disabled, and Jim was promoted to Captain. Sophia
tries to comfort him by saying that business isn’t everything. This leads to
Penguin once again doubting Sophia’s loyalties as he seems to blame her for
Jim’s ascension in the GCPD ranks.
My thoughts:Things
are starting to slip away for Penguin. Not only does he no longer have an agreement
with the GCPD, but now Jim is in charge. His is also starting to lose his hold
over the criminals of Gotham. Zsasz will be back soon and as long as he has him
on his payroll, he will always keep some power. He clearly is back to not
trusting Sophia, and I’m sure he’ll devise some scheme to test her loyalties
once again.
Next week on Gotham:
Bruce is back, Pyg is back – and all is well in the world of Gotham.Gotham has done a fantastic job of building a character base and
storylines and can afford to not have Bruce Wayne for episodes at time, while
still remaining interesting and enjoyable. Next week it looks like Pyg rudely
interrupts one of Penguin’s dinner parties and we get to see Pyg and Jim face
off once again. The Pyg storyline has lasted longer than I expected it to, much
to my delight of course.
Agent Coulson and the Agents of SHIELD aren’t headed to deep space for season 5, they’re already there. Last season’s finale saw them swept away to a space ship by a mysterious figure, and now they must figure out where they are and how to get back home. There have been rumors they are on aboard a SWORD (the intergalactic counterpart to SHIELD) ship, but to the best of my knowledge that has yet to be confirmed. And certainly it isn’t revealed in this new promo which holds on to many of the season’s secrets.
The vibe of this footage is basically Marvel meets Aliens, with Mack (my favorite character, played by Henry Simmons) making a perfect joke about the black guy always being killed first in alien movies. He’s so right. We also see what appear to be the blue-skinned Kree as villains, and creatures that look vaguely like the Brood. This season will also see the return of Nick Blood as Lance Hunter, although it’s unclear if he’ll be part of this storyline, and the Inhumans will return in the form of Flint, a young boy played by Coy Stewart.
Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD returns on December 1st with a two-hour premiere.
When DC Comics launched their Elseworlds line of comics it gave fans a unique twist on the legacy heroes they had known for so long. One of the earliest, and still one of the most successful, was Gotham by Gaslight, from writer Brian Augustyn and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. The series took place in the late 19th century and set Batman in a steampunk, clockworks settingfacing one of the most infamous serial killers ever: Jack the Ripper.
And now that story is the latest of DC’s terrific lineup of animated movies, and the first trailer has arrived. Boasting a different animation style in an attempt to mimick Mignola’s art, the film has altered version of Bruce Wayne/Batman (voiced by Bruce Greenwood), Catwoman (Jennifer Carpenter), James Gordon, and Alfred (Anthony Stewart Head). Director Sam Liu has promised a bloody, action-packed R-rated adventure just like the comic, which was pretty controversial when it published in 1989.
Batman: Gotham by Gaslight should hit Bluray/DVD in 2018.
Film dynasties have provided movie fans with some of the greatest titles of
all-time. From the Godfather to Star Wars via Harry Potter and Lord of the
Rings, franchises have the ability to capture a loyal fanbase like no other,
the release date, plot points and cast of any forthcoming release a constant
source of speculation, especially in the digital age.
With most of the active titles among these films firing out a film every two
years or so and many carrying popular spin-off titles, it’s perhaps fair to say
that enthusiasts don’t need to wait a huge amount of time to get their film
franchise fix. But for some the wait can be too painful, and their appetite for
their favourite film titles has to be abated with the increasing amount of
cross-industry merchandising filmmakers are licensing in the form of clothing,
comic cons, games and much more.
Of course, as with the films themselves, some releases are better advised
than others. Star Wars has long since been particularly adept at sanctioning
the very worst merchandising ideas, the R2D2 aquarium a particular low
point along with the frankly laughable 1984 TV spin-off Caravan
of Courage: An Ewok Adventure.
One area of entertainment that has seen huge interest from film fans is in
gaming, where a number of cross-platform releases have been inspired by
Hollywood. Some film franchises even out started as games – we’re looking at
you Tomb Raider and Assassin’s Creed – before making the leap onto the big
screen. For filmmakers and game developers alike, the relationship between film
and gaming appears to be a match made in heaven.
And this interest is showing no sign of cooling and as the
games industry continues to evolve, it’s not just flashy console games
that peak the interest, either, with mobile gaming filling their industry
with well-known movie titles. As franchises continue to unravel their
individual sagas, the games market continues to lap it up, with titles
such as Ted, Transformers and even Naked Gun taking their place alongside
long-established titles Halloween, Jurassic Park and Tomb Raider as online slots at William Hill games.
Indeed, these games give film fans an insight into their favourite titles in
a way even the films themselves can’t. Seeing the world through the eyes of the
character gives the entire franchise an interesting new perspective, and allows
gamers to escape into the world of the franchise.
Film franchises’ jump into other entertainment streams, such as music,
are well-known. The music and movie crossover is another that goes
hand-in-hand, with movie soundtracks often selling in huge quantities and
dominating the music charts. The film dynasty with the most obvious example of
musical pedigree is, of course, the James Bond series, which has
spawned all-time classic tracks such as Live and Let Die, Goldfinger and
Diamonds Are Forever, to name a few.
Forays into television by film franchises have been mixed in both audience
numbers and critical reception, and it’s fair to say that titles as varied
as the likes of RoboCop, Indiana Jones, Back To The Future and Lilo &
Stitch received better big-screen acclaim than their little-known TV spin-offs.
Whatever the reasons that the games and music market seems an easier nut to
crack than that of television, the likelihood that big movie franchises will
continue to cross-pollinate a number of entertainment and merchandise markets
in undoubted.
Which is your favourite movie song, game, piece of merchandise or TV
spin-off? Let us know in the comment box below!
