Here’s the thing: I don’t really like Farrelly Brothers comedies. Dumb & Dumber just isn’t my brand of humor, nor is There’s Something About Mary, or Shallow Hal. However, there’s one Farrelly film that I’ll swear by and it’s Kingpin. The bowling comedy with the hooked-hand Woody Harrelson, an Amish Randy Quaid, and the super hot Vanessa Angel. Does it need a sequel 26 years after the fact? Probably not, but according to Collider one is coming.
According to the report, a Kingpin sequel is in early development by the Farrellys, although there is no script at present. We also don’t know if any of the original cast will be coming back, but one has to think so, right?
Kingpin followed the weird journey of bowling misfits, led by disgraced ex-pro Roy Munson (Harrelson), who takes under his wing Amish idiot Ishmael (Quaid), as they seek revenge on Roy’s rival, “Big Ern” McCracken, played by Bill Murray.
I would take this with a grain of salt, even though the source is pretty reliable. There simply isn’t much meat to the story, and a Kingpin sequel seems like a wildly horrible idea. It’s not like the first movie was a big hit, and is barely even a cult classic by Farrelly standards.
If there’s any reason that people might know about crime thriller Midnight in the Switchgrass, it’s because this is the film that launched the romance between Megan Fox and Colson “Machine Gun Kelly” Baker. And there are some who really REALLY care about that sort of thing. I am definitely not one.
The film marks the directorial debut of Randall Emmett, and also stars Bruce Willis who teams up with Fox as FBI agents on the trail of a serial killer. In one scene, we see Fox and Kelly in a steamy situation, only for her to turn the tables and kick his ass.
It must be wuv! Twu wuv!!!
Also in the cast are Emile Hirsch, Lukas Haas, Sistine Stallone, Michael Beach, and Caitlin Carmichael.
Midnight in the Switchgrass opens in theaters and VOD on July 23rd.
Bruce Willis (DIE HARD franchise) and Megan Fox (TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN) lead a powerful cast including Emile Hirsch (ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD), Lukas Haas (INCEPTION), and Colson Baker (BIRD BOX) in this gritty and intense crime-thriller. While in Florida on another case, FBI agents Helter (Willis) and Lombardo (Fox) cross paths with state cop Crawford (Hirsch), who’s investigating a string of female murders that appear to be related. Lombardo and Crawford team up for an undercover sting, but it goes horribly wrong, plunging Lombardo into grave danger and pitting Crawford against a serial killer in a twisted game of cat and mouse.
If you’re really into potty-mouthed teddy bears, this news should make your day. Seth MacFarlane is bringing back Ted, not for a third film, but as streaming series on Peacock.
Peacock has announced that they have ordered a season of Ted, which is based on the pair of R-rated comedies written and directed by MacFarlane. He’s in talks to return as the voice of the titular mouthy, oversexed teddy bear who is magically alive and best friends to his human pal, played by Mark Wahlberg. Collectively, the Ted movies made over $750M so you can see why this is a franchise worth keeping alive.
It’s unclear how much creative input MacFarlane will have, but one has to imagine it will be quite a lot. He’s also on board as an exec-producer. This makes for the second series MacFarlane has in the works with Peacock, along with the Bill Nye show The End is Nye.
Get ready to return to Eternia! Kevin Smith is taking nostalgic He-Man fans back to the ’80s with his Netflix series, Masters of the Universe: Revelation. Originally described as an “anime” series “continuation” of the original cartoon, the awesome new trailer doesn’t look to be either. Instead, it looks like someone who has been dying to play around with these characters for years and is finally getting that shot.
The gorgeously-animated series looks to be He-Man and the Masters of the Universe for grown-up folks, which makes sense considering its fans are largely adults. You get what appears to be a lot more action than the old cartoon had, too, plus all of the characters that we know and love. Skeletor, Man-At-Arms, Teela, Orko, Cringer, Beast Man, Sorceress, and more.
Mark Hamill brings his Joker voice to the role Skeletor, with Sarah Michelle Gellar as Teela, Chris Wood as He-Man/Prince Adam, Lena Headey as Evil Lyn, plus Justin Long, Stephen Root, Alicia Silverstone, Tony Todd, and of course, Smith found a part for his daughter Harley Quinn Smith.
This looks fantastic. Give it to me now! Masters of the Universe: Revelation hits Netflix on July 23rd.
There’s no such thing as coincidence, especially in Hollywood. While an adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights is set to burn up theaters this week, the first trailer for his feature directing debut just so happens to arrive. Tick, tick…BOOM! is based on the semi-autobiographical musical by Jonathan Larson, whose name will be very familiar to fans of his most beloved work, Rent. Not only do we get a taste of Miranda’s skills behind the camera, but we also get a listen at Andrew Garfield singing his heart out. Y’know what? He ain’t bad.
Garfield belts out some notes as Jon, an aspiring theatre composer who sees the clock to achieving his Broadway dreams winding down. As he approaches the age of 30, Jon begins to grapple with the idea that he may have chosen the wrong career.
The cast includes Alexandra Shipp, Robin de Jesus, Vanessa Hudgens, Joshua Henry, Judith Light, and Bradley Whitford as Stephen Sondheim.
Tick, tick…BOOM! is expected to hit Netflix this fall.
Is Ryan Reynolds the king of mindless blockbuster entertainment? Sorta looks that way with The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard set to drop an F-bomb on the box office next week, followed by the video game comedy Free Guy which looks a goofy fun blast we won’t want to think too much about.
Not that we can ever look at Reynolds as a background guy again, but in Free Guy he plays an NPC suffering from an existential crisis. What’s the meaning of life if you’re not meant to really have one? So he decides to chuck that aside and be the hero of his own story, which causes some digital chaos for those actually playing the game as it was meant to be played.
The film is directed by Shawn Levy and co-stars Jodie Comer, Joe Keery, Lil Rel Howery, Utkarsh Ambudkar, and Taika Waititi.
“There are among us a people gifted with a perfect memory of all their past lives. They call themselves ‘Infinites.’ Among the Infinites, two groups have vied for powers. On one side, the Believers, dedicated to using their knowledge for the protection and growth of all humanity. Against them stand the Nihilists, who see this power as a curse. New technologies have given the Nihilists an opportunity to end all life on Earth, and the race is on for its control.”
If there’s a problem with Antoine Fuqua’s Highlander-esque sci-fi flick Infinite, it’s encapsulated by the above exposition drop. Delivered by Mark Wahlberg’s downtrodden, possibly schizophrenic Evan McCauley, it lays out a needlessly complicated backstory so burdensome they thought it best to dump on us all at once. No matter how many cool car chases and running gunfights, the film never quite gets out from underneath a mythology that has been poorly thought out and gets worse along the way.
Manage to look beyond the ridiculous story and only at the cool CGI, fast paced action from the reliably muscular style of Antoine Fuqua, and Infinite can be quite enjoyable. Evan is a New York City guy whose mental illness and volatility have made it hard for him to land a job. Fortunately, he’s got other skills that he just sort of knows without having trained in them. He can fight like…well, like a Mark Wahlberg action hero, but he can also craft Japanese swords of impeccible quality. Evan is also a fountain of information, like a walking encyclopedia.
Thanks to that handy dandy narration from earlier, we already know everything that’s happening. Evan is an Infinite, who has lived multiple lives and been reincarnated with all of that past knowledge; he’s being pursued by the chief nihilist Bathurst (Chiwetel Ejifor, getting pigeonholed as a pompous baddie) who think he holds The Egg, an item that could bring about the oblivion of all things. Good thing Evan encounters fellow Infinite, a woman named Nora (Sophie Cookson), so she can explain all of this stuff to him (and us) again! She includes a bit about one of Evan’s past lives as Treadway (Dylan O’Brien), who was basically like the Scott Summers to their band of immortal X-Men. Treadway and Bathurst, which sounds like a folk band from the ’60s, used to be best mates before becoming mortal enemies.
Fuqua and Wahlberg are pretty much the perfect pair, which makes it odd they haven’t worked together since 2007’s Shooter. Both make movies that are unabashedly for dudes, and be damned if there can be any vulnerability or sensitivity shown. You won’t be shocked that Fuqua keeps the pace blistering, with the many street chases a particular highlight. Wahlberg isn’t called on to do much other than to act tough. It’s weird that a character can learn he’s part of a race of beings who are reincarnated for all of eternity and to have it not be the catalyst for some personal evolution, but it doesn’t happen for Evan. That’s just not the nature of a Wahlberg character. Evan is a badass from the jump, and being an Infinite doesn’t really change that. The supporting cast, which includes former Oscar nominee Toby Jones in a role that must’ve been sliced to ribbons, are mostly forgettable. The standout is Jason Mantzoukas as an oddball,
Not that anybody is going in looking for deep characterization, anyway. There’s a reason Paramount+ is the exclusive home to the film, rather than having it in theaters. Not only does the fledgling streamer need more to entice subscribers than Star Trek, but Infinite would’ve felt mediocre on the big screen where expectations, both visually and narratively, are a bit higher. But in the comfort of your home, Infinite is an exciting diversion but hardly the kind of film you’ll want to live through again and again.
Infinite hits Paramount+ exclusively on June 10th.
Way back in 2017, The Lego Batman Movie‘s Chris McKay was set to direct a Nightwing movie for Warner Bros. The film would center on Dick Grayson, the former Robin and ex-sidekick to Batman who became a respected hero in his own right. But with so many changes in the DCEU, the film was put on ice and many assumed it had died a quiet death. But according to McKay in an interview with CinemaBlend, all hope is not lost…
“I hope it’s still a reality. I hope that we still get to make that movie. As far as I’m concerned, it’s not lost yet. It is obviously something that… they’ve had other priorities, they’ve had other challenges. They’d had things that they needed to do, and I think that they found their way, with their recent successes, and the stuff that they are planning on doing now.”
“I think it opens the door for us to still be able to do a Nightwing movie,” he continued. “Whether you call it ‘in an alternate universe’ or you pick in their multiverse universe which universe it’s part of, there are different ways into it. But Nightwing is a big, action-packed, emotional movie. It may not, budgetarily, be similar to what we do with The Tomorrow War. But from a scope and scale standpoint, as far as the kind of action and the kind of heart, that’s what Nightwing is going to be all about.
It’s possible if Nightwing does happen it will be another mid-budgeted film similar to Batgirl and Blue Beetle, which are going direct to HBO Max.
Nightwing has a script by Bill Dubuque (The Accountant), but with so much time having passed it’s possible that someone will come in and give it a rewrite. As far as we know, Michael Keaton’s Batman will be sticking around the DCEU once Ben Affleck departs after The Flash. To me, that leaves the door open for a new, younger protector of Gotham City and Nightwing fits the bill.
Coming up next for McKay is sci-fi alien invasion blockbuster The Tomorrow War which hits Amazon Prime on July 2nd.
While we’ve yet to see the F9 crew tangle with dinosaurs (It’s coming, I’m sure), the closest thing to it is right around the corner! Jurassic World: Dominionis exactly one year away, but Universal is ready to pull the curtain back on their anticipated blockbuster, and you can check it out ahead of IMAX screenings of F9.
The announcement was made today by Jurassic Park star Sam Neill, who is returning as Dr. Alan Grant. He’ll be joined by other “originals” such as Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Satler and Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm. Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Justice Smith, Omar Sy, Daniella Pineda, Isabella Sermon, and BD Wong are back, as well. Newcomers to the franchise include Mamoudou Athie (Sorry for Your Loss), DeWanda Wise (She’s Gotta Have It), Dichen Lachman (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and Scott Haze (Venom)
Along with the announcement, a new poster captioned “It All Started Here” was released, with a mosquito that looks like it’s about to spread something horrible on the world. A new image was also unveiled with a look at the Moros Intrepidus, a feathered dinosaur that will be part of the film.
Jurassic World: Dominion opens June 10th 2022, directed by Colin Trevorrow.
Yesterday we posted about Apple TV+’s Summer and beyond preview, which showcased about 25 upcoming and renewed shows coming on the streamer. One of those, which only provided a glimpse was Invasion a series taking, what appears to be, a grounded look at an alien invasion. Sam Neill and Shamier Anderson star and feature prominently in the trailer, but other then the cast not much is made clear, and that’s a good thing. We do get a super quick shot at what could be either the invaders, or the invaders craft, but the focus is on the normality of everyday life and how quickly that can shatter, all delivered in front of an inspirational and equally haunting narration by Neill. One thing is for sure, money is not in short supply at the Apple TV+ production studios, because this thing looks amazing! I am curious to find out if the invasion happens in the first episode, or if it will be built up to through the first season. They did a great job of giving away just enough in this trailer to give me one more reason for signing on with Apple TV+. Hell….what’s one more streaming service?
Invasion is set to land on Apple TV+, October 22nd, 2021.
