#American superhero comedy film

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

[wanderinginksplot]

What to watch during the writer's strike:

Don't pay attention to companies who blame writers for delayed movies and television shows! The WGA strike comes from people who are trying to make things better - not only for themselves and other writers, but the films and tv shows we all love.

While we wait for a resolution, I thought I would share some existing television shows that I enjoy. I didn't bother with too much well-known stuff. Instead, I focused on shows I feel many people missed because of the glut of content that all premiered at once over the last few years. (I may make another one of these for movies later on, but this one is about tv.)

[Update: Movie version here]

Feel free to add on! Just try to give a quick, spoiler-free synopsis for the show and the streaming service where it can be found.

List under the cut!

Netflix:

The Good Place (2016-2020) - A 'bad' woman is accidentally sent to heaven. She and her moral philosophy professor of a soulmate try to save her soul by making her a better person. Genre: Comedy with deeper implications and one of the best endings in television history.

Russian Doll (2019-2022) - When Nadia dies at her birthday party, she's more than a little confused to come back. Especially when it keeps happening. Genre: Time loop drama with a wicked sense of humor and a dash of theoretical physics. Potentially not ended?

Narcos (2015-2017) - The fight of the American DEA and the Colombian army against cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar and his reign of terror. Genre: Drama with thrilling elements. Lots of violence, some sex and language. Lots of subtitles. Features Pedro Pascal and Boyd Holbrook, if you need some extra incentive.

Derry Girls (2018-2022) - Five teens grow up in Derry, Ireland in the 1990s, amid the final years of the Troubles, a low-level war that lasted roughly 30 years. Genre: Comedy. Some sexual content, some religious content, less violence than you would expect, and the best nun ever to appear on film.

Arcane (2021-?) - Two sisters are alienated when one accidentally kills their adoptive father. Their different paths threaten the fragile peace of a city already on the breaking point. Genre: Drama with elements of action-adventure. Though it's animated, Arcane's animation is beautifully done with tantalizing steampunk elements that will keep you invested.

Disney+:

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008-2020) - If you haven't seen any of the Star Wars animated series, this is a good place to start. Set in the time gap between Episode II and Episode III, this series helps flesh out Anakin Skywalker and the Jedi. It is also a great introduction to some of the characters and plots of The Mandalorian. (Star Wars: Rebels is another good choice.) Genre: Adventure with some drama. Violence and death are a large part of The Clone Wars, but it's usually appropriate for children. The clone troopers will steal your heart!

Gravity Falls (2012-2016) - Dipper Pines and his sister Mabel are sent to Gravity Falls, Oregon to live with their great-uncle for their summer break. But when Dipper finds a mysterious book in the woods, the pair find that Gravity Falls is far more mysterious than it seems... Genre: Adventure with a lot of comedy. Though it's billed as a children's cartoon, Gravity Falls is an intriguing watch with mystery subplots that will keep anyone guessing. It also features a famously strong and cohesive series ending. I was in my late 20s when I first watched this and I was still invested!

Daredevil (2015-2018) - After being blinded as a young boy, Matthew Murdock trained his other senses to replace the sight that he lost. He uses his skills to protect the helpless in the New York City neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen. Genre: Action and superhero. Features a lot of incredibly choreographed violence. (Jessica Jones is also an excellent show to watch, especially if you think of David Tennant as the consummate 'good guy'. He's got range!)

HBO Max (Just 'Max' now, I guess):

Ghosts (2019-2023) - Petty roommate squabbles don't stop just because you're dead! Alison and her husband Mike inherit a house, then a near-death experience allows Alison to see its ghostly inhabitants. Chaos and humor ensue as the ghosts try to adjust to the house's new owners. Genre: Humor. Ghosts is a British sitcom, but since the writers are comedians (writing and performing in Horrible Histories), the show is done in a style that feels more natural to American viewers. Hint: watch the BBC version, not the American one. They're fairly similar, but definitely not the same!

Pushing Daisies (2007-2009) - A pie-maker with the ability to bring back the dead helps to solve murders. He's helped by his once-dead childhood sweetheart. Genre: Comedy with some dramatic elements. Some of the CGI-heavy moments haven't aged particularly well, but the show has a unique premise and an incredibly talented cast!

Hulu:

Abbott Elementary (2021-?) - This mockumentary series showcases an inner-city elementary school in Philadelphia. The teachers and administration do their best for the kids, but they're constrained by budgets and the limitations of the educational system itself. Genre: Comedy mockumentary. Though Abbott Elementary is fictional, some of the issues brought up are all too real. This is a funny and incisive look at the American public school system.

Amazon Prime:

Fleabag (2016-2019) - The unnamed protagonist of the show struggles through life on her own with limited support from her alienated family and the memories of her recently deceased best friend. Genre: Comedy with lots of dramatic elements. Lots of sexual content and references, some language, breaking the fourth-wall, and several characters you just long to hit. I watched the second season in a single day, that's how good this was.

Unknown Streaming Service:

Black Sails (2014-2017) - This prequel to Treasure Island features elements from the book, original characters, and real pirates from history in a setting that emphasizes realism. Captain Flint and his crew search for a legendary prize... one that might allow them to claim Nassau for their own. Genre: Action and adventure. Think Game of Thrones, but with pirates. Incredibly well-written and well-acted with gorgeous scenery, LGBTQ representation, and just enough historical accuracy to keep things grounded. Black Sails also boasts one of the best endings ever given for a television show.

Like I said, please feel free to reblog and add your own television show recommendations onto this list! There are plenty of things to watch and plenty of ways to support the WGA strike that don't involve giving in to big studios.

[mariacallous]

Mel Brooks, who mocked Adolf Hitler in his 1967 black comedy “The Producers,” has always made the case for satire as a weapon against tyranny.

“You have to bring him down with ridicule,” he told “60 Minutes” in 2001. “It’s been one of my lifelong jobs — to make the world laugh at Adolf Hitler.”

Of course, Hitler was long dead and there were 6 million fewer Jews on the planet when “The Producers” came out. Before and during World War II, satire proved a futile weapon against the Fuhrer: Charlie Chaplin made “The Great Dictator” in 1940, similarly reducing Hitler to a buffoon. But by the time the movie premiered that October, nearly 3 million German troops had smashed into France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

 The futility of satire was on my mind when, on the Thursday after Election Day, I toured a new exhibit at the Jewish Museum on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. “Draw Them In, Paint Them Out: Trenton Doyle Hancock Confronts Philip Guston” features two artists, one Jewish, one African-American, whose work wrestles with racism, white supremacy and antisemitism. 

Philip Guston, born Phillip Goldstein in Montreal in 1913, was inspired by the ferment of the 1960s to create a series of cartoonish paintings featuring hooded members of the Ku Klux Klan. In these almost cheerful paintings, the frightening avatars of white supremacy look like costumed children out of a Charlie Brown comic (or, more accurately, from “Krazy Kat,” a popular comic strip in Guston’s youth).

“These buffoonish Klansmen still today are a real rebuke, I think, to bigotry in all its forms,” curator Rebecca Shaykin, who organized the exhibit, said at the press opening. “They’re still just so incredibly powerful.”

About a third of the gallery is given over to Guston’s Klan paintings, as well as some of his earlier work. The rest features riotous paintings, cartoons and a film by Hancock, a Texas-born artist who was a child when Guston died in 1980 in upstate Woodstock, New York. Many of Hancock’s paintings directly quote Guston’s Klansmen: They are in painting after painting featuring “Torpedoboy,” a sort of Black superhero who Hancock considers his alter ego. The Klansmen try to lynch Torpedoboy; he fights back with what looks like a watermelon. In one painting, Torpedoboy appears to drive a spike through a Klansman’s head. 

In the exhibition catalog, Hancock describes what attracted him to Guston’s Klan paintings. “I fell in love with the forms, and how he used comedy to take the wind out of the sails of the KKK,” says Hancock. “He helped me understand where I could take” my own characters.”

Whether audiences appreciate the comedy depends on their sensibility; remember, it was decades before “The Producers” lost its “notorious” label and became a beloved institution, at least in its adaptation as a Broadway musical. For some, the Klan paintings by both artists could be triggering. In 2020, at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, four major museums certainly thought so, and postponed a comprehensive survey of Guston’s work. They explained that “the powerful message of social and racial justice that is at the center of Philip Guston’s work can be more clearly interpreted.” 

When the exhibition did open at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 2022, the museum offered a pamphlet from a trauma specialist and a detour allowing visitors to skip the Klan-themed works. 

The Jewish Museum seems unfazed by that controversy. When I asked Shaykin about it she said the Guston-Hancock show had already been percolating when she learned of the postponement controversy. “It just made it more imperative, I think, that we bring Guston into the present moment and pair him with a contemporary artist,” she said. The only suggestion that images might be controversial is a sign outside the gallery, warning that the exhibit contains “explicit language” and “depictions of violence and lynchings.”

James Snyder, director of the Jewish Museum, also said the exhibit is right for the political moment. 

“We don’t do politics,” he said at the press preview, “but if you think about what happened the other day in the election, and where we actually really need to go, this show could not be more timely.”

What happened, of course, was the election of Donald Trump to a second, non-consecutive term. And if ever there was a rebuke to the power of satire, it is Trump. Trump was a nightly target of nearly all the late-night talk shows, where he was mocked as a racist, a would-be authoritarian, a grifter and a vulgarian. With just a week to go before the election, Jimmy Kimmel made a direct appeal to Republicans to reject Trump, calling him “the exact meeting point between QAnon and QVC.” For years Stephen Colbert wouldn’t even say his name.

Deserved or not, the jokes about Trump didn’t make a dent in his popularity — and perhaps they only added to it. In a recent episode of his podcast, “Revisionist History,” Malcolm Gladwell talks about the “satire paradox”: the idea that satire, by making the targets entertaining, actually makes them more sympathetic. He quotes Jonathan Coe, a British writer who argued in a 2023 essay that “laughter is not just ineffectual as a form of protest, but that it actually replaces protest.”

“Laughter, in a way, is a kind of last resort,” Coe tells Gladwell. “If you’re up against a problem which is completely intractable, if you’re up against a situation for which there is no human solution and never will be, then OK, let’s laugh about it.”

Not that Guston and Hancock are not deadly serious in their aims. The art is provocative and appropriately disturbing. The exhibit suggests that Guston, who changed his name from the identifiably Jewish “Goldstein” in 1935, later felt guilty about abdicating his identity — and as a result felt complicit with the Klansmen who sought to erase both Jews and Black people. “They are self-portraits,” Guston once said of the Klan paintings. “I perceive myself as being behind the hood.”

Hancock’s seemingly humorous works are also working through extremely grim themes. The Klan was active in his hometown of Paris, Texas, and in 2021 a KKK chapter planned a “White Unity Conference” there before it was blocked by the city council. Born in the mid-1970s, Hancock acknowledges in the catalog that he had benefited from the “heavy lifting” done by his elders in the Civil Rights Movement. But as a Black man and Black artist, he couldn’t ignore the legacy of racism. “It wasn’t until I was much older that I started to peel away those layers, or have them peeled away for me,” he says.

That’s why the most effective works in the exhibit aren’t satirical. At all. They include early work by Guston, who already as a teenager was depicting the Klan and lynchings in the social realist style of the day. Nothing about these dark, frightening images is cartoonish or ambiguous.

And perhaps the most arresting work in the show is a video installation by Hancock, showing scenes from the fairgrounds of Paris, Texas, juxtaposed with photographs of the lynching of a Black teenager, Henry Smith, which took place on the same site in 1893. Hundreds gather around the makeshift gallows to watch the execution. They seem to be having a very good time.   

“Draw Them In, Paint Them Out: Trenton Doyle Hancock Confronts Philip Guston” is on view at The Jewish Museum, 1109 Fifth Ave., through March 30, 2025.

[gifpacklove]

PRIVATE COMMISSION #300 gifs of the American actress and dancer Grace Caroline Currey in the American superhero comedy film Shazam! (2019) and Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023) have been delivered privately to their owner !! if you are interested in commissioning me, feel free to check out the source link below !!

[heavenboy09]

Happy Birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 🎊 To The Most Distinguished & Absolutely Outrageously Humorous Canadian Actor you ever did see. Starring In Countless Funny Comedy Roles as well as Action, Scifi, Horror, Based On True Stories, Animated & Superhero Films. He has pretty much done alot of Genre's

Born On October 23rd, 1976

He is a Canadian and American actor, producer, and businessman. He began his career starring in the Canadian teen soap opera Hillside (1991–1993) and had minor roles before landing the lead role on the sitcom Two Guys and a Girl between 1998 and 2001. Reynolds then starred in a range of films, including the comedies National Lampoon's Van Wilder (2002), Waiting... (2005), and The Proposal (2009), and the superhero films Blade: Trinity (2004), and Green Lantern (2011). He provided voice acting in The Croods franchise (2013–2020) and Turbo (2013).

Reynolds's biggest commercial success came with the superhero films Deadpool (2016), Deadpool 2 (2018), and Deadpool & Wolverine (2024), in which he played the title character. His performance in the first earned him a nomination for a Golden Globe Award. He has also starred in the drama Woman in Gold (2015), the horror film Life (2017), and the action films 6 Underground (2019), Free Guy (2021), and The Adam Project (2022), and voiced Pikachu in Detective Pikachu (2019).

But He Is Probably The Most Sarcastic & Whimsical Actor of Canada 🇨🇦 You Probably will ever know.

Please Give it Up for The Man With A Smart Aleck Mouth

The 1 & Only

Mr. Ryan Reynolds 🇨🇦 Aka Deadpool Ryan Reynolds

#RyanReynolds #GreenLantern #Deadpool

[oswincoleman]

A great new interview with Jenna Coleman about Jackdaw, The Jetty, The Sandman, and her plans for the future!

The Jetty is set to release in September, and she’s currently filming Sandman season 2!

“I feel like I’ve definitely done my time of thrillers and murderers,” Coleman says. “My time of murdering and… thrilling? is done.”

She is on the lookout for “emotionally liberated” characters. “I kind of want someone who’s a bit more immediate, I think. I’ve done a lot of brooding, interior, tense anxiety pieces.” The irony is that the more of these she does, the more of them she’s sent. Why? Because she’s good.

Perhaps she might like to do more comedy? Coleman lights up. “I keep telling my agent I’m really funny. But I don’t think she’s quite taken it on board yet. I would love to do some more comedy. I love dark comedy.”

There was a bit of an “unreality” to the hysterical Comic Con level of recognition she encountered with Doctor Who, and she doesn’t seem itching to chase it.

If there were some kind of superhero call she’d be open to the possibility but acknowledges that it’s often hard to find a sufficiently “complex, nuanced character” in the heightened world of comic-book films – which is why she loves The Sandman, the second series of which she is filming now.

So in Jenna Coleman’s future there may be more theatre, and perhaps there will be more comedy, if her agent can be convinced. If it’s Geordie, American, Welsh or regal you want, look no further. She can wear a crown, she can fire a gun. She can do it all. She’s made it, and it was always inevitable.

[callmebrycelee]

MY MAN CRUSH MONDAY IS...BRETT GOLDSTEIN

FULL NAME: Brett Goldstein

DATE OF BIRTH: July 17, 1980

PLACE OF BIRTH: London, England

AGE: 43

SIGN: Cancer

BEST KNOWN FOR: Portraying Roy Kent in the American sports comedy-drama television series Ted Lasso; Hercules in the MCU superhero film Thor: Love and Thunder. In addition to being an actor, Brett is also a comedian, writer, producer, and podcaster.

HEIGHT: 5 feet and 11 inches tall

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Michael in the Mainstream: Top 100 Movies #75 - #51

Here is part 2, a follow up to the previous part! Let's not waste any time here, no need for a big ass intro for the second quarter:

75. Blue Velvet

This is weirdly one of David Lynch’s most straightforward works and yet is still one of his best ever. It’s a dark, seedy thriller that has the single best Dennis Hopper performance of all time—and this is a man with no shortage of great performances.

74. Wet Hot American Summer

I love comedies that are just a random collection of the funniest possible people you can think of doing gags, and that's exactly what this cult classic is. It’s hard for me to decide what’s funnier between Paul Rudd tossing children out of moving vehicles or H. Jon Benjamin portraying a talking can of mixed vegetables.

73. The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Easily one of the darkest films in Disney’s entire filmography, something that helps it stand out and shine. Yes, it isn’t a perfect film—the gargoyles can be extremely grating as I’m sure you know, though I’m a lot more forgiving than most because I just love hearing Jason Alexander’s voice—but I think the rest of the movie is so exceptional it makes the bad bits easier to swallow. Tony Jay’s performance as Frollo helps solidify him as one of the greatest and most depraved Disney villains ever. The dude is both horny and genocidal, a feat only matched by Thanos.

72. Jaws

The original summer blockbuster, and one of my favorite thrill rides since I was a teen. The sparing use of the shark really helps build the suspense like nothing else, and that opening is still utterly terrifying due to how chillingly plausible such a thing could be. This is an adaptation that is leagues better than what it’s adapting; muchlike the shark at the end, the movie blows Benchley’s novel out of the water.

71. Glass Onion

I think I may be a lunatic, because I genuinely prefer Glass Onion to Knives Out. Yes, the mystery is far less clever here mainly because the murders are caused by an egotistical idiot with no common sense. And yes, the comedy is amped up in this one. But these are all things that make me love it more. You’ve got Edward Norton playing a self-righteous pastiche of Elon Musk, which makes it so satisfying to see him flounder, and then you have the rest of the core cast portrayed by heavy hitters like Kathryn Hahn and Dave Bautista as well as a shockingly impressive turn as the co-lead alongside Daniel Craig from singer Jenelle Monae. In a world where obnoxious billionaires and other rich assholes are constantly getting away with crimes they’re flagrantly flaunting, it’s nice to see a character who resembles the worst of that group get what’s coming to him.

70. Holes

It is genuinely astonishing just how faithful to the book this movie is. Stanley being skinny is the most notable change, with everything else being just as it was in the novel. The Kissing Kate Barlow backstory segments are easily the best part, but the whole movie is a fun hunt movie with a delicious villain performance courtesy of Sigourney Weaver. This movie is as sweet as a peach and as savory as an onion.

69. Unbreakable

Forget The Sixth Sense (or don’t because that’s still a classic), this is M. Night’s magnum opus. The man completely deconstructed the superhero movie genre before it was even a thing, and he got Bruce Willis to give a performance second only to his role as John McClane in my humble opinion. Plus that final twist… Hoo boy. It’s honestly impressive that it hasn’t been as spoiled to Hell and back as The Sixth Sense’s twist, but that’s just a sign that this movie needs to be experienced for yourself.

68. Candyman

An epic meditation on the nature of urban myth with amazing atmosphere and a haunting score, all from the mind of horror master Clive Barker. Tony Todd plays horror’s sexiest supernatural slasher, which is all the more impressive when he is covered with thousands of live bees and yet still somehow oozes seductiveness.

67. The Goonies

80s kid adventure movies never got better than this one. There’s such a sweet, cheesy earnestness to the proceedings here; this is such an unbelievably goofy premise, but it’s played so straight that I can’t help but love it. All of the child actors here feel fun and natural, with Jeff Cohen’s Chunk easily stealing the show with his antics, but I’d also like to highlight Anne Ramsey as Ma Fratelli. She’s such a delightfully nasty villain, and she plays it with such conviction.

66. The Truman Show

Jim Carrey is a fantastic comedic actor. Everyone knew that back in the day. What many didn’t realize was that the man could deliver one of the most heartfelt and powerful dramatic performances you’ll ever see, all with a light comedic touch to pull it all together. I will say that if he deserved an Oscar for anything, it would be Eternal Sunshine, but this movie is far more enjoyable in my opinion. The movie was also scarily prescient in its vision of a future where every moment of a person’s life is recorded for the entertainment of others, to the point where this can almost be considered a horror film.

65. The Crow

A Gothic supernatural superhero story about revenge, a film that is sadly trapped in the shadow of the tragic on-set accident that claimed the life of its star Brandon Lee. It really is sad watching this, imagining the career his immense talent and charisma would have so easily given him, but it’s also awesome because this film kicks so much ass that it’s unreal. Considering I’m literally writing an urban Gothic horror fantasy series as we speak, it should come as no surprise that this movie is one of my favorites (as well as a minor inspiration).

64. The Lego Movie

When you put actual effort into your toy commercial, people will actually forget it’s supposed to be a toy commercial. And boy, did they go the extra mile with this one! This is animated so brilliantly it really emulates stop-motion, just with more polish. And where the sudden transition to he real world in the third act could have easily derailed the movie, it leads to a really powerful, heartfelt emotional reconciliation that ties the whole film together. The plot may be your standard family film adventure, but it just goes to show with enough skill (and Batman) you can do any plot really well.

63. Whiplash

I’ve called this one of the scariest horror movies in recent memory, and I stand by it. This is a movie where an abusive man in a position of power slowly erodes the willpower and self-esteem of a young man and drives him more and more insane in his never-ending chase of perfection. It’s far more chilling than any masked lunatic butchering girls for sick thrills.

62. Halloween

Ok, well, almost more chilling. John Carpenter is just that damn good at it… Though, to be fair, this movie basically invented the tropes the genre would later run into the ground. As far as slashers go, this is still one of the few that genuinely feels like more than just a showcase of gore and sex, and it’s also the last time for several decades that Michael Meyers truly felt like the unknowable, evil Shape.

61. Deadpool

You can say whatever you want about Ryan Reynolds, but you can never convince me he is not passionate to the character of Deadpool to a degree most superstars aren’t these days. Think about how Craig hated being Bond (I do not blame him); it’s just nice there’s a guy who not only adores the role he plays to the point he practically lives the role, but also worked tirelessly to ensure the character was brought to life properly on the big screen. As far as a straight Deadpool film goes, this is easily my favorite.

60. Spider-Man

Sam Raimi came out the gate swinging with his first shot at Spidey. Equal parts heart and cheese, just like a classic comic, this is as good of a Spidey origin as we could see on the big screen. As much as I love Spidey though, it’s Dafoe’s Green Goblin and J.K. Simmons’ JJJ who really steal the show here.

59. Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Forget Endgame. Forget Super Smash Bros. This right here is the single most ambitious crossover of all time. Bugs goddamn Bunny and Mickey motherfucking Mouse share a screen together; we are never gonna see something of this magnitude ever again. But let’s not pretend like the crossover part is the only reason I love this film; being a perfect blend of film noir and classic cartoon silliness is what really makes this the stone-cold classic that it is.

58. Army of Darkness

Ditching horror for comedic fantasy seems like a bad move for anyone else, but no one else is Sam Raimi. This is the movie that codified Ash Williams as one of my favorite heroes ever, solidifying his status as a snarky, quip-spouting badass who wields a boomstick and chainsaw with equal finesse.

57. The Shining

This is proof that sometimes being pragmatic when it comes to adapting novels. Maybe it isn’t the most faithful to King’s vision, but when you get one of the most atmospheric horror films ever made complete with an amazing soundtrack and career-defining performances from Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall, it’s hard to be too mad that they left King at the wayside so Kubrick could do his thing.

56. Spider-Man 2

This movie has a reputation as one of the greatest action films ever made. And, well, have you seen that fucking train fight? I love Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy a lot, but it is undeniable that this is where everything came together. Peter’s struggles in this film are more relatable than ever, Molina’s Doc Ock is sinister and tragic in equal measure… As far as Spider-Man in live action goes, this is as amazing as it gets. Guess when Doc Ock and Spidey collide it always results in a superior Spider-Man, eh? Eh?

55. Avengers: Infinity War

I think the reason Endgame gets a lot of flak for feeling more like an event than an actual movie is because it is following up an actual movie that is also an event. This is The Empire Strikes Back of superhero films, an epic step forward for the story that ends in a crushing defeat. Thanos picks up the pace after almost a decade of slack and effortlessly cements himself as one of the superhero movie genre’s greatest villains, in no small part to Josh Brolin’s compelling performance. It’s fun, funny, exciting, sad… It was always gonna be an uphill battle for Endgame to live up to this one.

54. A Nightmare on Elm Street

I always go back and forth over which between the first and third one is my favorite, because both are excellent slashers in their own right. It really depends on what day you ask me, really. Still, if we’re talking about which of the movies is actually genuinely chilling, the one where Freddy’s at his scariest, it is hands down this one. This is before he became more of a quipster, so he’s just a nasty fucking freak with a dark sense of humor here. What really gives this movie an edge, though, is you get to see Johnny Depp brutally murdered in a giant geyser of blood.

53. House

Surreal, trippy, dream-like horror films are totally my jam, and this is one that stuck with me ever since I saw it. It’s so strange and inventive, so batshit insane, so fucking cool! It also has the scariest piano this side of Super Mario 64 (that thing has to be an homage to this film).

52. Freddy Got Fingered

This movie is not simply “so bad, it’s good;” no, this movie is so bad, it’s art. Only an absolute genius troll of the highest order could create something that defies every bit of logic and crosses every single boundary to such a degree as this film. Tom Green absolutely knew what he was doing, and by god did he succeed beyond his wildest dreams! I didn’t get this film the first time I saw it, but boy do I get it now.

51. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

The middle film in a trilogy is always the hardest one to stick the landing on I feel. You make one misstep and no one’s coming back for the third one, you know? This movie does not have that problem at all. It starts with the full Gandalf vs. Balrog fight, it has Legolas deliver his world-famous line about where they’re taking the hobbits, it has Viggo Mortensen kicking that helmet (DID YOU KNOW HE BROKE HIS TOE FOR REAL? BET YOU NEVER HEARD THAT ONE), it has Treebeard, it has the epic battle of Helm’s Deep, it has dwarf tossing, it has it all! But most importantly, it has one of the best characters ever: Gollum. Andy Serkis as Middle Earth’s resident split personality crackhead is one of the most compelling characters in a movie that is genuinely stuffed with compelling characters. How he didn’t get an Oscar for this I’ll never know.

[kwebtv]

Character Actor

Paul Smith ( February 5, 1929 – March 3, 2006 ) Comic character actor with a perpetually perplexed or, alternatively, bemused expression, who, during the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, appeared in scores of television episodes, primarily sitcoms, including regular roles in five series, and was also seen in numerous theatrical features, television films and commercials, frequently in brief, sometimes unbilled, comedic bits. Best known for The Doris Day Show (1969-1971).

Smith was in 24 television episodes during the 1950′s encompassing eighteen series, from 1955's The Halls of Ivy, Navy Log and The 20th Century Fox Hour to 1959's Dinah Shore Show, in addition to a regular role on the 1959 sitcom Fibber McGee and Molly.

Seen in episodes of thirty series, starting, in 1960, with Johnny Midnight, Markham, Checkmate and Thriller, and ending in 1969 with Ironside and Adam-12, he was also a cast member in four sitcoms, among those series, and a semi-regular on a fifth, ABC's Bewitched, where, between 1966 and 1972, he appeared in nine episodes, usually playing a befuddled or exasperated cop who is flummoxed by the magical witchcraft of Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery). The size of his roles was mostly small and he did not even receive billing in the credits of some of his TV installments.

Smith's earliest 1960s sitcom was CBS' Mrs. G. Goes to College, which marked Gertrude Berg's return to series TV in October 1961, after having portrayed a character, coincidentally also named "Molly", Molly Goldberg, on her long-running ethnic family sitcom, The Goldbergs, which predated the McGees' Molly by six years, having begun on radio in 1929, moved to CBS television in 1949 and ended in 1956. The plot centers around Sarah Green, a widow in her early sixties, who decides to acquire higher education, matriculates in her hometown college and interacts with, among others, her Cambridge University exchange professor (Cedric Hardwicke) and next-door neighbor George Howell, a character analogous to Smith's Roy Norris from Fibber McGee and Molly, replete with a no-nonsense wife (Aneta Corsaut).

Three years following Mrs. G. and, after having spent a couple of 1963 episodes playing Commander Carter in the World War II-set military sitcom McHale's Navy, Paul Smith was back in uniform as a clueless captain at Andrews Airforce Base, during peacetime, in No Time for Sergeants, his third regular role on a sitcom.   Over a year of guest shots passed before Paul Smith was cast as a regular in another sitcom, his second on CBS and, again, on Monday night. The superhero spoof, Mr. Terrific.

Two more years of guest appearances followed, with Paul Smith eventually cast in The Doris Day Show, his final, and longest-running, sitcom, seen, as in the case of his two previous shows, Monday nights on CBS.   After departing Doris Day in 1971, in his last eleven years in front of the cameras, Smith had small roles in a couple of made-for-TV movies and five appearances on segments of the ABC comedy anthology series Love, American Style.   (Wikipedia)

[popentertainment-moviereviews]

JOKER: FOLIE Á DEUX (2024)

Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Zazie Beetz, Harry Lawtey, Steve Coogan, Ken Leung, Bill Smitrovich, Jacob Lofland, Leigh Gill, Sharon Washington, Gattlin Griffith, Mac Brandt, Tim Dillon, George Carroll, Mike Houston, John Lacy, Sam Wren Vincent, Troy Metcalf, Jimmy Walker Jr., G.L. McQueary and Brian Donahue.

Screenplay by Scott Silver & Todd Phillips.

Directed by Todd Phillips.

Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. 138 minutes. Rated R.

I know I’m kind of in the minority on this point, but I can’t even start to tell you how much I hated Todd Phillips’ 2019 movie Joker.

Five years later, here comes the follow-up, and it’s like Phillips said to himself: Hmm… how can we make this story even more annoying? I know! Let’s make it a musical. Better yet, let’s not even completely commit fully to the genre and make it sort of a stealth musical. The cast will start singing inappropriately, but mostly in a relatively subdued manner. None of the other trappings of the style – the dancing, the frenetic movement, the wild visuals, the boisterous chorus lines – need to be used. And we won’t even write our own music, we’ll just dust off some 60s and 70s pop songs and overly familiar standards from the Great American Songbook.

On the plus side, this time around, I don’t think I’ll be all that lonely in hating Joker: Folie à Deux. Because I really, really did hate it. If possible, this sequel is even more unbearable than the original. Imagine that.

I can’t imagine anyone actually liking Joker: Folie à Deux – then again, I felt that way about the first one, too, so maybe I’m not the best judge. Nonetheless, early buzz on the sequel seems pretty negative, so hopefully it’s not just me.

I take no joy in saying that. I actually was rather looking forward to the original Joker movie until I saw it. Because the truth is, Batman is a relatively dull superhero, but the one thing he always did have going for himself were the best villains. And a movie about arguably the most interesting of Batman’s villains could be amazing.

It’s just not this series.

At least the first Joker had something of a storyline. Granted, it was a pretty blatant rip-off of Martin Scorsese’s 1983 cult favorite The King of Comedy – they even cast that film’s star Robert De Niro in a major supporting role to make the connection even more obvious – but it was something of a plot.

Joker: Folie à Deux, on the other hand, is nearly two and a half hours (!!!) of Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) being psychoanalyzed and mistreated in an insane asylum. (Like we didn’t know he was mentally deranged from the first time he appeared on screen in the first film.) Then it switches to being a courtroom drama about Arthur’s criminal trial for the mayhem he committed in the first film, although it plays out like an episode of Law & Order: Super Villains Unit.

While in the asylum, he meets his one true love, Lee Quinzel, who becomes Harley Quinn. (Of course, in the first Joker movie, Arthur imagined Zazie Beetz’ character – who reappears here as a witness for the prosecution – was his one true love, so Arthur isn’t too reliable in matters of the heart.) Lady Gaga is okay, if way too subdued, as the future Harley. She certainly won’t make anyone forget Margot Robbie’s powerhouse performances in the same role.

My biggest problem with Joker: Folie à Deux is the same as my problem with the first film. In both of these films, the Joker is played as a sad, pathetic, miserable loser who has life take a massive dump on him throughout the entire running time. Is this really supposed to be the guy who is going to be Batman’s greatest nemesis?

At least in the original film, Arthur eventually snapped and went on a violent killing spree, which was not a great, moral or relatable storyline, but at least he did something. In Folie à Deux, any violence or mayhem which he commits is mostly done in fantasy sequences, which just makes him seem even sadder and more impotent in real life.

After it was over, someone who apparently enjoyed the movie much more than I did tried to convince me that Folie à Deux is a movie that shows the depths a man will go to for love. However, his relationship with Lee is so dysfunctional, so toxic, so driven by mania, that it’s hard to root for a happy ever after for these two crazy kids. They – and the world – are probably better off with them separate. We know that is not the case from the comics, although the ending does put that in doubt.

As I said in the original review five years ago, Joker has been known to inspire many complicated emotional reactions. Pity has never really been one of them.

However, even more than I pitied the Joker in these two movies, I mostly pity myself because I have now wasted about four and a half hours of my life watching this sad saga.

Jay S. Jacobs

Copyright ©2024 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: October 3, 2024.

[scratchybongvt]

Vinitom reacts to fanfiction about themselves

Writer’s note: Don’t worry, Sidemascots season 1 auditions is still in progress and will release later today.

No offense to any of the creators of all of the stories mentioned intended. All stories are real and sourced from Idea Wiki

Intro

Tom: What are we doing exactly, Vini?

Vinicius: Well, since we’re reunited, someone asked us to react horribly to some fanfiction loyal mascot lords made for us.

Tom: Are they actually horrible?

Vinicius: I don’t know, let’s go through this together, maybe we’ll find some good ones there.

Tom: Well, time for Episode 33 proposals then.

Vinicius and Tom: Heroes of Nature

Vinicius: Heroes of Nature? I’m smelling false information here.

Tom: Why?

Vinicius: We did absolutely nothing to save everyone in our lives and someone pretends that we did.

Tom: Come on Vini, they don’t know much of our personal stuff after all. Let’s see…

“Vinicius and Tom: Heroes of Nature (Portuguese: Vinícius e Tom: Heróis da Natureza) is an upcoming 2024 American-Brazilian computer animated sports comedy action and superhero film, produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and 20th Century Animation in collaboration with Birdo Studio, and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The film is based on the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic mascots and was created to maintain legacy of the 2016 Summer Olympics and 2016 Summer Paralympics.”

Vinicius: Disney? I’d rather choose being milked by Warner Bros.!

Tom: Come on, what do they know?

Vinicius: Point taken. Go on Tom.

Tom: Ahem…

“Set a few days after the events of Paris 2024: The Olympic Quest, Vinicus goes back to Rio de Janeiro to meet up with Tom in the Barra Olympic Park, their home. They had nothing to do due to the Olympics being over 8 years ago, so they played sports there and enjoyed their lifes in Rio de Janeiro. However, in the Tijuca forest, a group of criminals were chopping off the trees and killing the animals in there. When they heard the news, Vinicus and Tom were ready for their next adventure.”

Vinicius: I expect better.

Tom: Really?

Vinicius: This is what happens when Disney hires a bunch of amateurs, they can’t even spelled my name right!

Tom: At least it has a creative beginning.

Vinicius: And a terrible ending.

Tom: to the movie or the passage above?

Vinicius: The passage above.

Tom: Point taken.

Vinicius: What’s this? A few days after Paris 2024: The Olympic Quest?

Tom: Let’s see… oh my, no article found!

Vinicius: I’m having a feeling that the rest of the articles are as lazy as this.

Tom: hm.

Vinicius: What the? Near-swearing? Off-screen killing? Death scenes? PG-13?! What WERE they thinking?

Tom: uhhh… they can explain.

Vinicius: I’m gonna contact the contributors of this idea ASAP.

Tom: Do you know they’re all children?

Vinicius: exactly.

Tom: and?

Vinicius:…

Vinicius and Tom: Adventures in Rio

Vinicius: Oh wow, they really were like “32 episodes? Why not 10 seasons?”

Tom: Yeah the idea might get out of hand.

Vinicius: At least we’re being milked by Cartoon Network which was way better than the last one.

Tom: Fair point.

Vinicius: What’s this? I have Aura Body and Wing Manifestation in season 2? Some lorekeeper of this series need to explain this to us.

Tom: Maybe they thought stretching isn’t enough.

Vinicius; WHAT?! STRETCHING IS ENOUGH FOR ME!

Tom: Calm down, you’re scaring everyone.

Vinicius: Okay, I will.

Tom: Huh? Rio de Janeiro’s mayor in this series is Mayor Greenbutt and not someone based on an actual mayor.

Vinicius: These kids might have no knowledge on Brazilian politics.

Tom: True. So true.

Vinicius: Ooh, gallery! Better look at 5-year-old drawings!

Tom: I look terrible in these pictures.

Vinicius: Hopefully you will look way worse in next one.

Tom: 😡

Vinicius and Tom: New Adventures in the USA

Tom: Huh, that’s realistic, except there’s no Vini! 🤣🤣🤣

Vinicius: 😡

Olympic Mascots: Guardians of Light

Tom: Vinicius? Where are you going?

Nevermind then.

Let’s see, scroll, scroll, scroll, oh, Mirasome? Now I get why the title is not named after us. Scroll, scroll, scroll, oh wait a minute, the posters are made by the same idiot who made Adventures in Rio! I’m going to call the Carioca Sisters to round their houses.

Guardians of Light: Forces Together

Tom: Vini? You’re missing everything! *sigh* I guess it’s all just me now. Let’s see…

(2 minutes later)

Tom: Boooooring!

Vinicius and Tom (film)/Credits

Tom: Vini? Where were you this whole time?!

Vinicius: It’s better to not to say.

Tom: Well, it’s open to interpretation then.

Vinicius: Speaking of interpretation, this thing is nothing but credits!

Tom: Yeah kids are lazy these days.

Vinicius: Hopefully the author won’t left this unfinished.

Olympic Mascots And Friends: Chuck E. Cheese's Musical Adventure!

Vinicius: What the heck? This is nothing but nursery rhymes!

Tom: At least it’s associated with a restaurant Swifty and I went once.

Vinicius: You went to Chuck E. Cheese’s?

Tom: Yeah, let’s say recycled pizza tastes great.

Vinicius: Wait a minute…

Mascot Power

Vinicius: An anime ABOUT US?! I expect it to be about Mirasome!

Tom: Yeah kids in 2016 kinda loves anime to be honest.

Vinicius: Even today ffs!

Tom: ffs?

Vinicius: It just means for Fanta’s sake. *pops open a can and drink like a nobody*

Tom: Vinicius, do you know Fanta is more faint nowadays?

Vinicius: Pfffft…

Tom: You’re spitting orange juice in my face, Vini.

Miraitowa and the Olympic Spirit

Vinicius: Miraitowa? I thought all of them are solely about us!

Tom: Yeah but admin just ran out of ideas.

Vinicius: Better have a good one at the end.

Tom: Yeah.

Crystal Dark Pinkie

Vinicius: Ah crap, here we go again.

Tom: Vini, If you don’t accept something, EMBRACE it.

Vinicius: Why?

Tom: Swifty and I had a stupid idea that we will go to an anime exhibition for an hour. I love them so much we actually stuck around until midnight!

Vinicius: And you don’t like anime in the first place?

Tom: Absolutely correct.

Vinicius: The drawings look like they are in content awareness scale a billion times.

Tom: At least I look fine.

Vinicius: 😡

The Muppets meet Vinicius and Tom

Vinicius: Muppets, like…

Tom: The Jim Henson one, I think.

Vinicius: I was meant to say that.

Tom: Sorry, I thought you’re going to say Paulo Muppet!

Vinicius: No, I don’t remember him.

Tom: That’s sad…

Vinicius: Anyway, let’s read the storyline.

Tom: Vini, you must be aware that it’s pretty long, right?

Vinicius: Oh yeah, we might linger with it for an hour or so.

Tom: If you can, then do it.

Vinicius: Alright, ahem…

(30 minutes later)

Tom: I didn’t know someone would bother reading as much, and considering they have a creative choice for an antagonist, a mascot clone!

Vinicius: A clone of myself?

Tom: Yup.

Vinicius: *sniffs*

Tom: Oh no… someone get a tissue!

*phone rings*

Vinicius: Stay here Tom, I need me-time.

Tom: Do you know that’s it’s a strange number?

Vinicius: I don’t keep phone numbers to my contacts often.

Tom: Risky decision, Vini.

Well, that’s explains more than avoid reacting the Guardians of Light series.

Vinicius: TOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

Tom: What?

Vinicius: Someone said they are making a movie about us!

Tom: This MUST be a prank!

Vinicius: No, seriously! Warner Bros. Are going to produce it with Kayla Jordan as the director!

Tom: Sounds like a 15-year-old.

Vinicius: She IS a 15-year-old!

Tom: WHAT THE HECK IS HAPPENING WITH THE FILM INDUSTRY?! WHAT ABOUT LICENSING?!

Vinicius: The IOC and the IPC milks money from licensing nowadays.

Tom: We’re going to have the rest of our lives ruined, Vini.

Vinicius: I know right!

Vida: Come on girls! Let’s give him a lesson!

Tom: Vida?! Where are you and your sisters going?

Vida: To California, we’re targeting Jeremy Shada.

Vinicius: WAIT!

Holy Bela-Sol-Vida-Hitting-Jeremy-Shada-in-the-head!

Tom: Maybe that’s the reason why they decided to do that?

Vinicius: WHY?! WHY ARE WE RESORT TO THIS?! PLEASE I NEED HELP!

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

The Mask (1994) directed by Chuck Russell

[brokehorrorfan]

The Toxic Avenger Collection will be released on August 29 via Troma. The box set collects all four films in the cult classic superhero horror comedy franchise on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray.

1984's The Toxic Avenger is directed by Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman and written by Joe Ritter. Mitch Cohen, Mark Torgl, Andree Maranda, and Pat Ryan Jr star.

1989's The Toxic Avenger Part II is directed by Herz and Kaufman and written by Gay Partington Terry. Ron Fazio, Phoebe Legere, John Altamura, Rick Collins, Rikiya Yasuoka, Tsutomu Sekine, and Mayako Katsuragi

1989's The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie is written and directed by Herz and Kaufman. Ron Fazio, Phoebe Legere, John Altamura, Rick Collins, Lisa Gaye, Jessica Dublin, and Michael Kaplan star.

2000's Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV is directed by Kaufman from a script he co-wrote with Trent Haaga, Patrick Cassidy, and Gabriel Friedman. David Mattey, Clyde Lewis, Heidi Sjursen, Paul Kyrmse, Joe Fleishaker, Debbie Rochon, and Ron Jeremy star.

The unrated director’s cuts of all four films have been newly restored in 4K from the original camera negatives with HDR as well as English DTS 2.0 Stereo audio. A Toxic Avenger postcard is included. Special features are listed below.

The Toxic Avenger special features:

Introduction by The Toxic Avenger creator Lloyd Kaufman (new)

Audio Commentaries with Casts and Filmmakers

Prologue by Director Lloyd Kaufman

Introduction by Director Lloyd Kaufman

Interviews with Actors Jennifer Baptist, Robert Prichard, Mitch Cohen, and Dan Snow

Interview with Co-Director Michael Herz

Interview with Actor Aark Torgl

Behind the Scenes Photo Gallery

Trailers

The Toxic Avenger II special features:

Introduction by The Toxic Avenger creator Lloyd Kaufman (new)

Audio Commentaries with Casts and Filmmakers

Prologue by Director Lloyd Kaufman

Introduction by Director Lloyd Kaufman

At Home with Toxie Mockumentary

 Interview with Actress Lisa Gaye

Japanese News Report on the Filming

Radiation March - Short Film Directed by Lloyd Kaufman

The American Cinematheque Honors 40 Years of Troma

Trailers

The original negative of The Toxic Avenger Part II, while complete, was missing several short dialogue sequences in the opening third, which had been removed for pacing reasons. Although no film materials for these sequences could be located, in order to present the most complete version possible, these short segments were inserted from the highest quality digital master.

The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie special features:

Introduction by The Toxic Avenger creator Lloyd Kaufman (new)

Prologue by Director Lloyd Kaufman

Audio Commentary by Director Lloyd Kaufman

Audio Commentary by Actor Joe Fleishaker

Behind the Scenes of the "Return to Nuke 'em High Vol. 1" screening at MOMA

The American Cinematheque Honors 40 Years of Troma

Make Your Own Damn Horror Film - Behind the Scenes of Old 37 with Kane Hodder and Bill Moseley

Radiation March - Short Film Directed by Lloyd Kaufman

A Halloween Carol - Short Film Co-directed by Lloyd Kaufman

Rabid Grannies Blu-ray Infomercial

Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV special features:

Introduction by The Toxic Avenger creator Lloyd Kaufman (new)

Audio Commentaries with Casts and Filmmakers

Prologue by Director Lloyd Kaufman

Apocalypse Soon: The Making of Citizen Toxie

Tribute to Lemmy Kilmister

The American Cinematheque Honors 40 Years of Troma

Trailers

Pre-order The Toxic Avenger Collection.

[bkenber]

'American Fiction' Movie and Blu-ray Review

The following review was written by Ultimate Rabbit correspondent, Tony Farinella. “American Fiction” is the kind of adult drama which has been sorely missing from Hollywood over the past decade and a half.  Hollywood has become obsessed with the big screen blockbuster and superhero films. Now, of course, there is nothing wrong with those films, but the adult drama along with R-rated comedies…

[heavenboy09]

Happy Birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 🎊 To You

The Young & Delightful Blonde Haired American Actress👱🏻‍♀️ Of NBC'S Original Superhero TV Series, HEROES, The Sassy Singer Of ABC'S Nashville, The Voice Of Kairi In The Early Kingdom Hearts 💕 Videogames & The Bold & Sassy Survivor & FBI Agent Of The SCREAM 😱👻🔪🩸Franchise

Born On August 21st, 1989

She is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her lead roles as Claire Bennet on the NBC superhero series Heroes (2006–2010), Kirby Reed in the slasher horror franchise Scream (2011–2023), and Juliette Barnes in the ABC/CMT musical drama series Nashville (2012–2018). The latter earned her two nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film.

A native of Palisades, New York, she first appeared on-screen in a commercial in 1990 at only 11 months old. Her full-time acting career began in 1994 when playing Sarah Roberts on the long-running ABC soap opera series One Life to Live until 1997. She then went on to play Lizzie Spaulding on one of CBS's own soaps, Guiding Light from 1996 until 2000. For her work on Pixar film A Bug's Life (1998), she was nominated for a Young Artist Award and a Grammy Award, making her the 5th youngest artist ever to be nominated for a Grammy. Panettiere has also starred in the Disney football drama film Remember the Titans (2000), the final season of the Fox legal comedy-drama series Ally McBeal (2002), the comedy-drama film Raising Helen (2004), the Disney Channel original patriotic film Tiger Cruise (2004), the horse racing comedy film Racing Stripes (2005), the figure skating drama film Ice Princess (2005), the teen cheerleading film Bring It On: All or Nothing (2006), the romantic comedy film I Love You, Beth Cooper (2009), the true crime drama film Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy (2011), and the drama film Custody (2016). She voiced Kairi and Xion in the video game series Kingdom Hearts (2002–2017), and Samantha "Sam" Giddings in the video game Until Dawn (2015).

Please Wish This Young & Bright Delightfully Stunning, Blonde Haired 👱🏻‍♀️❤💛American Actress A Very Happy Birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 🎊 To You

YOU KNOW HER FROM BACK IN HER CHILDHOOD ACTING DAYS

YOU SEEN HER GROW UP IN HER LATER MOVIES & TV SHOWS AS A TEEN TO A ADULT & FLOURISHED, BEAUTIFULLY

& GUYS CANT RESIST GAZING AT HER & HER BLONDE BEAUTY 😍 👱🏻‍♀️💛❤

THE 1 & THE ONLY

MS. HAYDEN LESLEY PANETTIERE👱🏻‍♀️💛❤ AKA CLAIRE BENNET OF NBC'S HEROES , KAIRI OF THE EARLY KINGDOM HEARTS 💕 VIDEOGAMES, JULIETTE BARNES OF ABC'S NASHVILLE & KIRBY REED OF THE SCREAM😱👻🔪🩸 MOVIES FRANCHISE 🎥 Hayden Panettiere.

HAPPY 35TH BIRTHDAY 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 🎊 TO YOU MS. PANETTIERE 👱🏻‍♀️💛❤ & HERE'S TO MANY MORE YEARS TO COME

#HaydenPanettiere #HeroesNBC #KingdomHearts #NashvilleABC #Scream4 #ScreamVI #ClaireBennet #Kairi #JulietteBarnes #KirbyReed

[signalwatch]

The Marvels (2023)

Watched:  11/09/2023

Format:  Alamo Drafthouse

Viewing:  First

Director:  Nia DaCosta

Marvel has been having some issues, of late, with quality and maintaining a fanbase.  I'm not sure why having a fanbase for sci-fi/ fantasy stuff means eventually that the absolute worst people on Earth feel like their opinions should dictate what the rest of the planet sees and what constitutes a "good" Marvel, Star Wars or whatever movie.  But I suppose it's the same reason that people think they get to tell other people they're the only *real* Americans.

I don't want to define the film Captain Marvel or TV show Ms. Marvel by the audience that manages to mix misogyny and racism into rocket fuel for social media, but I will say - in the event of this year's strike by SAG-AFTRA, it's been tough to get much in the way of promotion out there for The Marvels other than dropping trailers, and that's left a gap in the conversation those folks have filled.  It's more likely we'll see the occasional hit-piece by a major industry publication looking for clicks than Disney doing anything worthwhile to actually promote the film on their own.  We coulda really used the lead cast hitting Hot Ones and Good Morning America.

Look, I agree:  Marvel has put out too much content since Endgame, and that's had a deleterious effect on the overall quality of the material.  Even I have been asking "will this be necessary?" as I hear about each new Marvel thing still in the pipeline.  And sometimes you're watching, say, Loki Season 2, and you're thinking "I literally do not care what happens here" because something like "oh noes, the timelines will all collapse" is both meaningless, up it's own ass of the story being about itself, and insanely old hat to us aging comic nerds who've seen timelines and multiverses collapse and expand over and over for our *entire lives*.  And, yes, Superman will still get printed every month.

Movie superheroes still have to have an antagonist, and they still have to wind up in a big crescendo of a finale, but we've seen this dozens of times in the past fifteen years.  You can polish it, put a new coat of paint on it, but eventually it's someone in a slugfest with their evil opposite who has the advantage on paper (but not the heart of a hero).

So what you have left is what you can do with characters.

And that brings us to The Marvels (2023), Marvel Studios' latest offering.  

The movie has mediocre reviews and is tracking to open badly.  I haven't read the reviews, because (a) I already had tickets and was going, and (b) I kinda wanted to write this before I saw what Chris Spectacles of the Akron Observer thought of the film.*  And I didn't want this review to be me addressing the concerns of reviewers.  

I saw it in a 2/3rds full theater on opening night, and with not a child in sight.  I will say the following up top:  

First - there's no post-post-credits sequence to wait for.  Go home after the first couple of them.  This is not a trick.

Second - Before watching this, yes, you will have to have seen Captain Marvel.  You should see Ms. Marvel.  You will want to just skip Secret Invasion, which this movie pretends didn't happen, and that's fine, because that show was quite bad and more confused the MCU than helped it along.

SPOILERS

The Marvels (2023) is not going to change the world.  This is also not going to "save" Marvel Studios, if, indeed, Marvel Studios needs saving, or the *idea* of saving the studio that means anything at all.  

What I'll argue the movie does is provide a fun time at the movies with characters that are a good hang for the movie's speedy, non-stop runtime.  If Guardians of the Galaxy taught Marvel that what you need is a mix of action, comedy, space and family issues, this movie is absolutely a product of that line of thinking.  The Marvels isn't trying to copy Guardians (despite the fact the villain is a version of Ronan who is a mean lady instead of a mean man), but clearly those items were on a whiteboard somewhere while this movie was getting sorted out.  

The movie knows that the villain's plot is going to fail, and knows we, the audience, are just following the beats on that score.  And so it does the unthinkable of late for Marvel:  it uses the plot as an excuse to tell a three-sided story with three solid characters thrust together an inextricably linked, thereby creating a movie that's character driven.  The problems it addresses are personal in nature as much, or more!, than the need to stop Kree Hammer Lady.**

We catch up with the MCU as Kamala Kahn has settled a bit into her role as teen-hero, Ms. Marvel.  She's still very much a kid living with her family (Marvel understands when they've struck character gold).  Meanwhile Carol is in deep space, living with Goose and part of a network of folks helping keep peace across the galaxy, one supposes.  And, working aboard SABRE's orbital base, Monica Rambeau (I think last seen in WandaVision) is putting her powers to some use and being a scientist/ astronaut type.

But it seems since we checked in during the 1990's, the Kree had a civil war that somehow:  (a) messed up their sun? (b) evaporated their oceans and (c) ruined their atmosphere, creating a permanent state of planet-wide nightfall.  Not-Ronan has taken up the mantle and is trying to restore Hala, the Kree homeworld in a very Kree way - by murdering people.  She's obtained the second Quantum Band (Kamala having the first one we'd seen - there are two) and she's using it to open worm holes to...  

Look, the plot is the villainous plot from Spaceballs, and our villain is MegaMaid.  There's really no way around it.  It's not what *I* would have done as a writer, but Spaceballs was also 40 years ago, so... we may have to let this one go.  What's important is that MegaMaid is targeting planets in which Carol Danvers has an emotional investment and stealing their water, air and sun, and that's personal and mean.  But why?  Well, thereby hangs a tale.

But, like I say, it kind of doesn't matter.  She could be unleashing cooties on those planets.  She exists so our heroes get together and figure out their personal stuff.  And that's what the movie is about.

Monica has to figure out what it means that Carol didn't come back for Monica when Maria fell ill, both the why's and the impact.  Kamala has a parasocial relationship with Carol that Carol feels she has to live up to, even as it inspires Kamala and Carol doesn't feel at all like that hero.  But Kamala's hero-worship is kind of the unspoken opposite of how Monica has reacted to learning she has powers of her own.  And Kamala and Monica are complete strangers, navigating knowing each other while also seeing each other's relationship with Carol.  It's complicated stuff!  You could have made a similar indie movie about a movie star, her old friend and a fan, and gotten much of the same effect.  

But this one is in space, action-packed (I mean VERY action packed) and manages to balance the sincere moments with the incredibly silly moments with the pathos of inadvertently causing the self-immolation of Space Nazis.  And, in my opinion, it all worked.  

I liked the singing planet (but they did need to hold to the concept through the battle), I liked the kitten Flerkens and the absolute chaos of the evacuation scene.  I liked Kamala's family dealing with the nonsense of superhero/ SABRE life.  I liked the kooky three-way fights and the "we gotta synch up" montage.  The fight sequences are very well choreographed and work well despite what absolutely should have been a lot of confusion for the audience - ironically, only the audience is in a position to get what's happening. And I very much liked that our heroes *tried* to reason with the mad despot once it was clear they had the upper-hand and offer a way out of this.

In general, I was already in the bag for Brie Larson's take on Carol, and it's interesting to see a version 30 years older and with a lot of new, self-inflicted baggage.  Iman Vellani's Kamala Kahn is an absolute delight and can't wait to see her again.  And Teyonah Parris is very pretty great as my first Captain Marvel, and with decades of baggage to sort through with Carol, the blip, super-powers and how to be a superhero, which, frankly, she doesn't want to be.

Complaints:

So - did the singing planet die?  I have no idea what happened there.  It would be nice to know.  It seemed like everyone was going to die, and no one seems to care.

They basically borrowed the ending of All Star Superman, but didn't do it as well or with much emotional resonance, which is a real bummer.  Now DC can't use it, and this didn't land as well as it could have for Carol.  Felt like it needed a few more beats.

We gotta find more interesting ways to dress aliens.  Bright robes are very 1990's ST:TNG and it keeps happening at Marvel

Space is boring in this movie.  Marvel space was defined by James Gunn, and it is beautiful. Show that candy colored majesty, not ST:TNG white stars (the new Trek knows this).  There's definitely some more creative design they could have done, but maybe less is more if Quantumania was any indicator

Carol sure is good at astro-navigation and everything is apparently cosmically nextdoor in the MCU

I don't understand how the heroes became disentangled

Kamala uses her powers without her bangle, and I didn't know that was a thing

Spoilery Spoilers

It was fun seeing Valkyrie again, and good use of the character in her current role.  Also, sure felt like she and Carol knew each other pretty intimately...  Close to making that happen as Marvel will get, I guess

I don't know who Park Seo-joon is, but he was swoony.  I guess he's a big star?  Probably make the kids very happy

The first post credits scene was met with audible joy from the audience, so here's hoping that works.

The second post credits scene received an involuntary verbal response from me and a few others in the theater.  I like where they're going with this.  X-Men will not work in the MCU, but as close-universe neighbors, seems like a fine idea.  Also, thank goodness that isn't the last we'll see of Lashana Lynch

I was led to believe Richard Ryder/ Nova would appear, he does not.  

(late edit: this movie has the single greatest needle drop in Marvel history)

I don't think this one landed for me exactly as hard as the origins of either Ms. or Captain Marvel, but if the requirement was "I would like to spend time with these people, and see them together in a fun way" this managed that.  It feels unnecessary only in that it only barely strives to move a universe of stories forward and is, instead, self-contained and about these three people and their family/ friends.  It is very necessary as a "we should have solo stories that advance the characters but not carry the universe forward in obvious and awkward ways" sort of way.

Would I watch four more of these?  Yes.  

And thank god they got Nick Fury into a place where it's not a drag to have him around.

Look, I don't know what you people want out of Marvel, but I want something fun I can rewatch without feeling like I'm doing homework.  I like a good adventure and fight scenes and jokes and characters to enjoy.  I suppose I'll check out some reviews, and I think from my laundry list of nits to pick, it's clear I'm not giving this a 5/5, but when all you hear is "underperforming" and "mediocre reviews" in a world with ten movies about Vin Diesel driving cars fast and the general shit people get enthusiastic for, I won't even pretend to know what people consider a win.

*I swear to god, if I see one more person thinking they've got the edgy take on Marvel by saying "I don't consider Marvel movies to be *cinema*...   Dude, we get it.  You're very special and very smart and you can get your "I'm a very smart person on the internet" cookie on your way out the @#$%ing door

**no one is beholden to remember made-up alien names for longer than the name pass by in the credits