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.
Fresh off Netflix releasing the first images from Cary Fukunaga’s Maniac TV series, the streaming network is gracing fans with a “Maniac” of a different sort. They’ve just announced the premiere date for the second season of GLOW, and they’ve done it with an ’80s-inspired music video to the sound of Michael Sembello’s 1983 hit song.
That track became so iconic because of its use in the film Flashdance, which is also about a woman doing whatever it takes to achieve her dreams. The video finds Alison Brie, Betty Gilpin, and the rest of the cast singing and dancing to the song until Marc Maron swoops in and breaks the whole thing up. I can’t get over the sight of Kia “Awesome Kong” Stevens, once one of the most feared grapplers of the squared circle, gyrating like a spandex fool. It’s hilarious and she’s great on this show.
Here’s the synopsis for season 2: Season 2 follows the women of GLOW as they become local celebrities, confronting the good, the bad, and the ugly realities of their newfound fame. As Ruth (Alison Brie) and Debbie (Betty Gilpin) settle into the day-to-day of making a season of TV together, they confront lingering issues at the heart of their friendship. Sam (Marc Maron) is still Sam, but now he has a teenage daughter living with him and twenty episodes to churn out. The wrestling is harder, the stakes are higher, and the hair is even bigger.
Netflix will debut the second season of GLOW on June 29th!
Lucasfilm has been taking some heat lately for its lack of diversity in choosing Star Wars directors, and it’s a complaint I haven’t necessarily agreed with. We have to remember that most of the movies were controlled by one man who naturally hired those most like him. Hey, it was what it was. But with the franchise branching off into spinoffs and new trilogies, it was time to have somebody other than a white male behind the camera. Yesterday that became a reality.
Ava DuVernay tweeted an image yesterday that had the Internet buzzing, and for good reason. Victoria Mahoney was hired as second unit director on Star Wars: Episode 9, becoming the first black female director on a Star Wars movie. Along with her acting career (she appeared on Seinfeld!) and TV work helming episodes of Gypsy, Queen Sugar, and more, she also directed the 2011 feature film Yelling To The Sky starring Zoe Kravitz.
She’ll be working alongside director J.J. Abrams on the film, and who knows? Maybe this will lead to her getting a Star Wars movie of her own? Star Wars: Episode 9 opens December 20th 2019.
After playing the villain Ajax in Deadpool, Ed Skrein will turn bad guy once again in Maleficent 2, the sequel to Disney’s hit Sleeping Beauty reimagining. He’ll be joining Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning with Pirates of the Caribbean 5‘s Joachim Ronning directing.
There aren’t a ton of details regarding the sequel at this point. Linda Woolverton will be turning to work on the script, only this time she’ll be co-writing with Jez Butterworth, known for action flicks like Edge of Tomorrow and Spectre. Maybe that’s a sign this will be an edgier, faster-paced movie than its predecessor. Skrein would be a solid fit for something like that given he also starred in The Transporter Refueled.
Then again, who cares about the men in these movies, am I right? Maleficent 2 begins filming this spring. [Variety]
We’re happy to offer our DC readers the chance to attend a free early screening of Tully, starring Charlize Theron in a reunion with Young Adult writer Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman.
SYNOPSIS: Marlo (Charlize Theron) , a mother of three including a newborn baby, is gifted a night nanny by her brother (Mark Duplass). Hesitant to the extravagance at first, Marlo comes to form a unique bond with the thoughtful, surprising, and sometimes challenging young nanny named Tully (Mackenzie Davis).
The screening takes place on Wednesday, April 25th at 7:30pm at Regal Majestic in Silver Spring. To enter, simply complete the required steps in the Rafflecopter contest form below. Winners will be selected on Saturday, April 21st and contacted by email. Good luck!
The new trailer for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is a major departure from previous ones, moving the action well beyond the exploding island and into the larger plot. What we find is that escape from the island is just the beginning and a deeper conspiracy ensnares Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire, one that finds them coming face to face with a powerful new dinosaur hybrid: the Indoraptor. Sounds like Snoop Dogg’s favorite dino.
Directed by J.A. Bayona, bringing the skills that made The Orphanage, The Impossible, and A Monster Calls all rewarding experiences in different ways, the film finds Owen sent back to Isla Nublar to rescue as many dinosaurs he can, including his pal Blue, the last Velociraptor of its kind. But once that deed is done they discover it was all a setup, and that Blue is needed for a darker purpose that seems to involve B.D. Wong’s returning Dr. Henry Wu.
This trailer is all about introducing the Indoraptor and presenting it as a menacing threat for Owen and Claire, including a creepy scene inside a little girl’s bedroom. They’re setting this one to be more of a monster movie than the previous film which I think is a smart way to go to keep things fresh.
