The chances of Deadpool 2 hitting the extraordinary box office heights of its predecessor are pretty slim. But so what? The first movie hit $783M, broke numerous records including becoming the most successful R-rated movie of all-time. Recent weeks have seen rumors emerge that test audiences weren’t happy with it, and while those stories were debunked it’s good to get some visual confirmation that everything is okay.
Everything. Is. Okay.
The new and apparently “final” trailer for Deadpool 2 is a riot, with Ryan Reynolds’ Merc with the Mouth taking liberal potshots at Marvel (see this post’s title) and DC. Ahhhh yes, everything is okay. In this hilarious and action-packed footage we get confirmation of a few X-Force members, and the introduction of an awesome new one; Peter, a regular guy with zero powers played by comedian Rob Delaney. Zazie Beetz’s Domino kicks ass, Colossus punches stuff and gets punched, Shatterstar gets a moment to shine, and Terry Crews as Bedlam makes you forget how lame the comic book version was.
We hadn’t heard much about The Equalizer 2 since Denzel Washington and Antoine Fuqua began working on the sequel to 2014’s hit action film. That all changes today with the release of the first trailer, which finds Denzel back beating people up to help others in need, but this time the scope has a larger, more international flavor like his own version of Taken.
Marking Denzel and Fuqua’s first ever sequel, itself kind of amazing, The Equalizer 2 once again centers on retired agent Robert McCall, who has become a hired gun for the powerless. The trailer begins with McCall taking his activities all the way to Turkey, where he’s still doing that thing with the watch, clocking down the seconds it takes to dispatch his foes. But after that we see the on-screen death of an important character from the first movie, and McCall jumps into action to get the people responsible.
If you don’t want to have anything spoiled you might want to avoid this one.
Also starring Melissa Leo, Pedro Pascal, Bill Pullman, Moonlight’s Ashton Sanders, and Sakina Jaffrey, The Equalizer 2 opens July 20th.
If you’ve been dying to hear Melissa McCarthy talk about her “mom boobs” then Life Of The Party is here to make your life complete. Directed by McCarthy’s husband Ben Falcone, who previously worked with her on Tammy and The Boss, the comedy centers on Deanna, a middle-aged mom fresh from a bitter divorce who decides to go back to college, the same one her daughter attends. Get ready for plenty of weed jokes, jokes about being old, and McCarthy joking about how the frat boys love her Vagoogle.
SYNOPSIS: “When her husband suddenly dumps her, longtime dedicated housewife Deanna (McCarthy) turns regret into re-set by going back to college…landing in the same class and school as her daughter, who’s not entirely sold on the idea. Plunging headlong into the campus experience, the increasingly outspoken Deanna — now Dee Rock — embraces freedom, fun and frat boys on her own terms, finding her true self in a senior year no one ever expected.”
Also starring Gillian Jacobs, Molly Gordon, Maya Rudolph, Julie Bowen, Matt Walsh, Adria Arjona, and Jacki Weaver, Life Of The Party opens May 11th.
Leave it to Warner Bros. to turn good news into shredded wheat. They were praised for hiring indie filmmaker Cathy Yan to direct their Harley Quinn spinoff, Birds of Prey, that would also feature Batgirl in a prominent role. With the red-hot Christina Hodson working on the script this was already shaping up to be one of their most promising movies. But now Justin Kroll at Variety says it’s more complicated than that because more than one script is in play.
Kroll tweets that two Birds of Prey scripts are being written, with Harley Quinn and Batgirl the only thing they share in common. What’s not clear is if Hodson is working on both but that’s not likely. Perhaps Warner Bros. feels Hodson’s plate is full enough since she’s working on the Batgirl solo movie, too, but this just seems like a needless complication.
In better news, Kroll thinks the Suicide Squad sequel, delayed to make room for Birds of Prey, may shoot immediately after. If true, it’s still a high priority project and won’t be left on the backburner for too long. Currently Gavin O’Connor is in line to direct with Margot Robbie and Will Smith definitely back as Harley Quinn and Deadshot. Hopefully we’ll start hearing more about the other characters to appear in both of these team movies.
Couple of BIRDS OF PREY tidbits I’ve learned since the Cathy has come on as director. There are two versions of script, only constant is Harley and Barbara Gordon in both. remaining characters different in both scripts.
Common and James Badge Dale are joining Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, and Elisabeth Moss in The Kitchen, a crime drama based on the Vertigo Comics series. Set in the 1970s, it follows the wives of Irish mobsters who take over the business when their husbands are imprisoned. The film marks the directorial debut of Straight Outta Compton writer Andrea Berloff. Common will play FBI agent Gary Silvers with Dale as Kevin O’Carroll, husband to Haddish’s character Ruby. Also in the cast are Domhnall Gleeson, Brian d’Arcy James, Margo Martindale, Bill Camp, with new additions Jeremy Bobb (Godless) and Myk Watford (No Country For Old Men).
This must be the day for finding new Disney villains. Hot off Ed Skrein being named the baddie for Maleficent 2, Disney has now found its heel for Jungle Cruise. Edgar Ramirez will join Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, and Jack Whitehall in the adventure film based on the popular theme park ride. Johnson plays a boat captain transporting a brother and sister to tree said to possess healing powers, only to run into problems from wild animals and competing expeditions. Ramirez will play a villain with a conquistador background. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, Jungle Cruise begins shooting next month. [THR]
Here’s something I missed from last month. Tomb Raider star Alicia Vikander, American Honey‘s Riley Keough, and Ben-Hur‘s Jack Huston will star in The Earthquake Bird. Netflix’s adaptation of the Susanna Jones novel has Wash Westmoreland (Still Alice) writing and directing. The Tokyo-set noir thriller centers on an a female expat accused of murder when her best friend goes missing in the wake of a tumultuous love triangle with a handsome photographer. [Deadline]
Another childhood favorite cartoon and toyline from the ’80s is about to become a live-action movie franchise. Paramount has worked out a deal with Fate Of The Furious and Straight Outta Compton director F. Gary Gray to develop and possibly direct M.A.S.K. as the launch of a potential series of films.
If you don’t know about M.A.S.K., let me just say that outside of Transformers it was my favorite cartoon and Hasbro toyline. The acronym is short for Mobile Armored Strike Kommand, a team of special agents who each drive or pilot vehicles that can be converted to other vehicles. Team leader Matt Trakker (Such a cool name.) had two primary vehicles: Rhino, a tractor trailer that transforms into a heavily armed mobile command center; and Spectrum, a Camaro which converts into a fighter jet. The goal of M.A.S.K. is to defeat terrorist organization V.E.N.O.M., Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem, which has its own vehicles with similar capabilities.
Paramount and Hasbro plan to ” move quickly to set a writer to hatch a contemporary subculture movie with a youth empowerment angle.” Uh oh. That sounds like teens getting behind the wheel. Or perhaps the film will focus on Matt Trakker’s thrill-seeking son, Scott Trakker, and his robot buddy T-Bob. [Deadline]
We’re only days way from Avengers: Infinity War now, so don’t be surprised if you see me cut back on posting any rumors, clips, whatever real soon. But not yet, and this rumor from Screen Geek is too big to overlook because it involves a major character’s death.
According to the site, a “reliable source” says an important MCU character will meet their demise right at the beginning of the film. I guess this is on top of other deaths we’re expecting to see in this game-changing blockbuster…
“The beginning of Avengers: Infinity War features the death of a major Marvel character. Some fans will be expecting it, while others will be blindsided. It sets the tone for the rest of the movie – as well as the future of the MCU. It’s good that the Russo Brothers are telling fans to be emotionally prepared for the film – because they’ll definitely need to be. Whether you’re expecting it or not, it’s going to be BIG.”
Feel free to speculate, but I think there’s one obvious candidate. We know Tom Hiddleston’s Loki holds one of the Infinity Stones, and he appears in a scene surrounded by Thanos’ Black Order, looking very much like someone who wants to get away. The only question I have is whether he goes out like a hero, which he seemed to be on the path towards in Thor: Ragnarok, or like his old scheming self.
Meanwhile, directors the Russo Brothers suggest there could a ton of deleted scenes from the movie’s home release. Not surprising given the wealth of characters they have to make room for, there should be a lot left on the cutting room floor. Joe Russo tells DigitalSpy…
“We were very tight with the scripts on ‘Winter Soldier’ and ‘Civil War,’ so there weren’t a lot of extras. This is a very big movie with a lot of characters in it, and we played around with a lot of improvisation, because we had new chemistry that we were defining between characters. It was the first time ever that all these characters were on screen together, so we played around with quite a bit of footage, and I think there will be some good stuff for the DVD.”
Finally, the Russos shot down rumors the Silver Surfer would appear in the film. I’m not sure who came up with that Metacritic whopper alleging the role’s casting, but it’s been out there, probably because the Surfer plays such a major part in the Infinity Gauntlet comic. The directors tell YahooUK…
“I don’t think we own Silver Surfer, but it’s fan-wish fulfillment and, you know, if this Disney-Fox deal goes through there’s going to be a lot more characters coming into the Marvel universe, so some of those crazy fan theories might come true.”
No, they don’t own the Silver Surfer. Despite fans’ hopes, the character still belongs to 20th Century Fox until the deal with Disney goes through. The character was last seen in 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer, played by Doug Jones (The Shape of Water) and voiced by Laurence Fishburne, who is now part of the MCU as Bill Foster in Ant-Man And The Wasp.
And I think that’s enough Infinity War rumors until it opens on April 27th. Unless there’s something huge.
I’m a huge fan of Amy Schumer, her comedy act, her whole vibe. And that includes the body positivity that has become such a huge part of her public persona and social media profile. She should probably keep it there and not in horribly misguided movies like I Feel Pretty, a Shallow Hal-esque misfire in which Schumer breaks free from the oppression she faces for being an attractive, healthy, blonde woman.
Schumer has been open about her body image issues, especially as she entered the world of Hollywood where being thin and attractive is everything. But I Feel Pretty is not the answer; it doesn’t even seem to know what the questions are. Despite some laugh-out-loud physical humor from Schumer and bizarre performance by Michelle Williams, the film is too shallow and misdirected to be given a free pass.
Marking the directorial debut of Never Been Kissed writers Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein, the film stars Schumer as Renee, the life of the party when she’s with her best friends (Aidy Bryant and Busy Phillips) but suffers from poor body image and low self esteem. From the beginning this thing is off the mark, as Renee, a perfectly hea woman, is routinely treated like a wet food stamp by everyone she encounters. Why? Because she’s not pretty enough. She works as an IT person for cosmetics giant LeClaire, but is kept isolated in a glorified basement away from the beautiful models who stroll throughout the building all day. Renee’s confidence is so low she actually tries to reenact the wish-granting scene from the movie Big, hoping she’ll wake up gorgeous.
Lo and behold, her wish does come true. Sorta. But only after she hits her head during a particularly embarrassing SoulCycle class. Renee now looks in the mirror and sees herself as stunningly attractive. She literally can’t believe it. Now fueled with enormous self confidence, Renee sets out to live the life she always wanted to lead, and magically it all starts falling into place for her. New job at LeClaire as the right-hand woman to squeaky-voiced CEO Avery LeClaire (Williams), a dorky and overmatched new boyfriend (Rory Scovel), and new friends because her old ones aren’t hot enough anymore.
Yeah, she becomes a bit of a jerk. Actually, she’s a total jerk. Renee isn’t confident, she’s got an ego the size of Jupiter. But worse than that is the entire idea that she needed to sustain a traumatic brain injury to feel pretty, this woman who is conventionally attractive by just about any measure. And, as noted before, she’s a lot of fun before the incident and just as much so after. The only thing that changes is that she values others less for being what she deems unattractive, but the film wants us to see this as confidence when it definitely isn’t.
Only occasionally does the film stumble onto the right path. Renee’s boyfriend Ethan, a guy she meets by being the outgoing and quirky personality she always has been, is someone who is also dealing with self-confidence issues. She’s way too much for a guy like him but she takes him out of his comfort zone. He falls for Renee because of the person she no longer thinks she is, and their relationship has real charm and warmth as a result. It’s even cute when she takes him to a bikini contest before getting on stage for a hair-whipping, butt twerking performance that wins over the crowd.
If only the rest of the film had been about Rene and Ethan overcoming their individual problems and learning to love one another, but the script doesn’t allow them enough time. It’s also surprisingly mean-spirited; when Renee encounters a supermodel (Emily Ratajkowski) with her own self-esteem issues, her response is to say she wants to punch her in her dumb face. If the movie’s point is that only you can control how you feel about yourself then this is not the way to show it.
You can tell Schumer believes in the material and I believe her heart is in the right place. She throws herself into the role, especially the physical aspects, and remains one of the most watchable and down-to-earth actresses around. In recent days she’s begun mounting a defense against criticism that it portrays an ugly woman who magically comes to perceive herself as pretty. Um, that’s the plot. Schumer says the film is “not about an ugly troll becoming beautiful, it’s about a woman who has low self-esteem finding some… Everyone’s got a right to feel that feeling, regardless of their appearance.” She’s definitely right, but that’s not what this movie is. Renee doesn’t just gain confidence and the ability to see herself as beautiful, she literally sees herself in a totally different body. For much of the film she does not think her friends and colleagues will even recognize her, and that has nothing to do with self-image.
The comedic highlight here is definitely Michelle Williams, whose Avery LeClaire is riddled with self-doubt because of her hilariously mousy voice. She gets some of the film’s best lines (“I thought I smelled animal products”) and wears some of goofiest, most pretentious outfits you wouldn’t be surprised to find on a runway model.
I Feel Pretty means well and is worth a few laughs thanks to Schumer’s exuberant performance, but ultimately it doesn’t look far enough beneath the surface to be truly perceptive.
When it was first announced that the CW was going to have a Black Lightning TV show, it didn’t seem to have a great deal of enthusiasm going for it. Many hard-core fans thought that if you were going to have a DC superhero with electricity powers, it should be the well-known Static Shock, not black Lightning. Plus having the main character play an over 40-year-old father of two, doesn’t exactly sell in a world where most heroes are youthful and energetic. However, power couple Mara Brock and Salim Akil managed to capture lightning in a bottle with this show, which is vastly different than all the other DC CW shows. For one, this show is authentically and aggressively black. Such issues like police brutality/corruption, drug use, government ignoring and flooding black communities with drugs, gangs, crime, black families, black LGBT issues, and had a killer soundtrack. Black Lightning was the CW’s answer to Marvel/Netflix’s Luke Cage. It’s a no-brainer that we’re getting a second season of the show as it was a mega-hit.
But before, we get to the second season, we gotta close this one strong…..
Jefferson, having battled both Tobias and Khali last week had his heart stop after Khalil gave him a strong punch. While his youngest daughter Jennifer used her (still undefined) powers to revive him, he’s not out of the woods yet. Jefferson spends most of the episode circling the drain. While he’s laid up in Gambi’s cabin in the woods with his family, from his perspective, he’s in some sort of limbo. He relives many of his lessons with his father as you find out that many of the things he says to his students as what his father said to him when he was younger. He also gets the chance to have a heart to heart with his father where he apologizes to him for what he believes are failures: from hiding under the bed while Tobias killed his father, to all the people her hurt as Black Lightning. His father tells him that he did as he was told and what he did as Black Lightning was necessary. He also tells Jefferson that now is not the time for him to leave. With that Jefferson comes back to the land of the living.
And just in time too. Proctor and the ASA have been looking for him as he’s the only original test subject that survived the process and in order to continue, he needs Jefferson’s DNA. Actor Gregg Henry is really hamming it up, especially this episode as he even mentions that he wants to “Make America Great Again” and being as racist as he possibly can short of saying the n-word. He deploys his ASA soldiers to the cabin to capture Jefferson. They even have weapons built to repeal both Black Lightning and Thunder.
Although Gambi cloaked this area from their radar, they know where he is. Jefferson and his family need to prepare for an assault. Gambi, loyal to the family opts to remain behind so until they can escape. However, Jefferson opts to remain behind as well. The only problem, his powers aren’t working. Wearing a bulletproof suit may help, but not if he gets shot in the head. Jennifer is feeling emotional and starts to power up. She then goes to hug her father while’s she’s charged up and in doing so, recharges Jefferson’s powers. The rest of the family (and Gambi) decide to remain behind.
While most of the action centered on the ASA against the Jefferson family, Tobias was also in the mix as well. He reveals to La La that he killed him on purpose as he invested a pretty penny into the “resurrection program,” which brings him back to life and be triggered by various words Tobias’s sends as well as visions from his past which haunt him. Tobias has one last mission for La La, he sends La La to meet with Proctor, but he has a bomb inside of him. While he doesn’t kill Proctor, it sets the stage for Tobias to lead an assault on ASA headquarters.
At the same time, the ASA troops are launching an assault on the Jefferson family. Playing “Timmy Turner” (once again, kickass soundtrack), the family defends their turf. Lynn even gets a shotgun and gets into action. Jennifer, who didn’t want to be a superhero willing uses her powers to stop one of the soldiers. Something tells me, she’s not going to want to go back to being a normal girl after this. Anissa gets trapped by some weapon built specifically for her, but thanks to Jefferson, she’s gets broken out of the containment field quickly. While the Jeffersons are dealing with the soldiers, Tobias, Khalil, and Syonide (she finally gets to talk this week) attack the ASA. Proctor manages to weasel his way out and escape, but his briefcase is now in Tobias’ possession, which makes him confident that he now will be able to rule Freeland with ease. The Pierce family catches up with Proctor, who tries to con his way out of punishment, saying all the Green Light children will die without him, but Gambi has heard enough and shoots him dead. While the ASA threat has been dealt with, Black Lightning will now have to deal with Tobias for another day.
Last week The Flash returned with a more light-hearted episode as Barry and company had to chase down the latest bus metahuman. This one was a criminal who gained the ability to make anything and anyone float as if they were made of helium. A power like that is something that DeVoe could surely take advantage of. However, the metahuman named “Null” proved to not be the great conflict of that episode. The conflict resided with Barry and Ralph. Ralph, ever the jokester was getting on Barry’s nerves with his comical antics, and they were in fact, interfering with the mission. However, Ralph ends up saving the day as Barry was levitated by Null and Ralph turning into a whoopee cushion proved to be life-saving. Sometimes, a little levity goes a long way.
Not this week though. This week took a dark turn for many of the characters as they struggled to deal with DeVoe and he continues to enact his plan. Ralph and Barry only have one more bus meta to find, and they have to find him before DeVoe does. However, this meta is truly living a hippie lifestyle. He’s off the grid and off electronics. Not someone you can really find unless you get lucky. However, Team Flash does get lucky. Turns out the last meta, Edwin, has the ability to teleport through different dimensions. While DeVoe can do this with his chair, to do it naturally would be great for him.
They escort Edwin to STAR Labs for his own safety. Meanwhile, Team Flash is having two problems internally. Ralph, knowing what the stakes are, wants an end to DeVoe. And no, not locking him up at Ironside prison, he’s gotta die! Barry, always the noble type of hero who tells Ralph that there’s always a better way. He reminds Ralph that he went from dishonored cop to noble hero. He shouldn’t kill DeVoe to “lose himself,” hence the title of the episode. The other big problem is Harry as he’s using the Thinking Cap to help increase his intelligence. While he promised not to use Dark Matter while using it, we all know he’s using Dark Matter. He starts to exhibit all the behavior of a drug addict. Personality changes, extreme possessiveness of the Thinking Cap, dependency on it, and denial that he has a problem. Later on in the episode, we actually see him use it and it’s clear he has an addiction.
While speaking with Edwin, Ralph discovers that Edwin has been to DeVoe’s pocket dimension headquarters, meaning Ralph might discover a way to find, stop, and kill The Thinker. Cisco also built a sonic weapon that will do the trick as well. However, when Barry, Cisco, and Killer Frost arrives and uses the weapon on DeVoe, it has no effect. Instead, it’s revealed it was a hologram. DeVoe arrived at STAR Labs and launches his own attack. Joe faces off against the robot samurai, Iris has to fight against DeVoe’s wife, leading Ralph to face off against DeVoe. To everyone’s surprise, Ralph gets the drop on DeVoe and is moments away from the killing blow when he decides to listen to Barry’s advice and spare him. This proves to be fatal and DeVoe first takes over Edwin’s body, then he takes over Ralph’s body killing him, forcing an immobilized Barry (who was neutralized by DeVoe using Null’s powers, meaning he got to her too). Caitlin, who was just getting used to partnering with Killer Frost was touched by DeVoe in the conflict, and he used Melting Point’s powers to take her Killer Frost powers away.
Team Flash definitely lost. Now with Ralph’s body, DeVoe is able to use his plastic powers to adapt to his expanding mind, meaning that he won’t need a new body, and he shape-shifts back into his original form as well, much to the delight of his wife. Barry packs up Ralph’s office and has a drink in his honor. It was surprising that they killed Ralph as most thought he would remain a regular, but with his life always in jeopardy, this could have been expected. Team Flash will need to pick up the pieces and power forward, but this definitely was an “Empire Strikes Back” episode for them.
Next week, Captain Cold returns to team up with Barry.
