#also more luca than james?!? i would not have predicted that

[anthonybialy]

Buffalo Bills Keep Going As Is

Back-to-back-to-back-to-back wins tops even Tom Emanski.  Fred McGriff thinks this is the team that gets results.  A Buffalo Bills home playoff game seems both like a fitting result and improbable occurrence.  The club embodied humanity while winning a fourth consecutive divisional title by not changing who they are for the regular finale.  Accept underachieving during victory as the best possible result.

This is Sean McDermott’s team, all right.  Winning while infuriating is a signature like Marv turning on faucets.  Workers who sort-of get the job done are not going to alter their approach to finishing their assigned tasks now.  It’d still be nice if they’d show up from the start of their shift in lieu of doing twice the work in half the time.

Figuring out where the end zone is and how clocks work would be productive uses of playoff preparation time.  The first half’s end and second half’s start combined to be as productive as the time in between.  Buffalo also scored zero points in the locker room.  A coach’s dream felt like a real one where they slept while having no control over events.

I hope they’re spending this week seeing how Leonard Fournette’s catching skills are, too.  Ronnie Harmon thinks James Cook’s drop was bad.  I wish George Lucas weren’t correct about history rhyming.  There was a James Cook glass, but he dropped it.

A punt returned for a touchdown just like McDermott planned proved to be the difference.  Points count no matter how you get them and affect what happens next, which should assuage guilt about lack of productivity.  That was some nice work by Deonte Harty, even though players need to stop celebrating before getting to the end zone.  Not dropping the ball is like avoiding an accident despite driving while texting: you won’t get away with it forever.

Convoluted cheering offered a distraction until prime time.  Trevor Lawrence finally inspires.  Let’s all give to his foundation.  A fourth down throw which still hasn’t landed reduced the magnitude of the league’s regular-season coda.  But settling for seventh would’ve reflected a lack of ambition.  The divisional winners spent much of the outing shaking a wild card mentality.

Making the tournament was not an excuse to look nonchalant.  The Jaguars melting down into the new year removed a good deal of potential stress.  But that was no time to coast.  Will those presented with an opportunity react by seeking more or dodging it?  A chance to win the division again was thrilling precisely because it’s simple.  We still had to learn who gets to patronize the New Era Flagship Store.  The home team’s fans had to travel back from Miami.

Finding a new way every game to keep results close is not the best approach to maintaining an interesting life.  But the Bills weren’t about to change their routine of not having one.  Unpredictability is predictable.  Everyone has an exhausting relative who’ll tantrum over trivial matters; some of us have more than one.  The particulars of any nasty outburst may differ, but the one consistency is that they’re lamentably bound to happen.  Self-improvement means not being the same any longer, which may be a good outcome and is certainly a near impossibility.

Josh Allen strives to overcome Sean McDermott and Josh Allen.  The single-handed hope doesn’t have to keep acting recklessly to prove something psychologically demented Hank Schrader-style.  Foolishness doesn’t have to be included in the package.  Presuming insane risks are intrinsic to a bold quarterback is like thinking rock stars live too intensely to live long, and meanwhile Keith Richards has had more birthdays than you.

A miscommunication with Gabe Davis is a tradition to abandon like spending Christmas wading in your contaminated gene pool.  Getting Eli Apple an interception is the best way to avoid cockiness.  Knowing he was out of position worse than Larry Brown just makes the attempt that much more regrettable.  Don’t aim at the trash receptacle.  This isn’t Kan-Jam.  

Throw to Stefon Diggs instead.  He and his quarterback occasionally act like they’re suddenly not soulmates.  The lack of chemistry is particularly frustrating given that they’ve previously had the relationship to which all aspired.  Watching them reunited like a Hallmark movie was satisfying even if they could’ve skipped anticipated drama.

Bounces go your way if fate’s on your side.  Or maybe fate takes your side if you’re acting with effective aggression.  After we’re done debating the universe’s nature, we can enjoy success from chaos.  Turning “What a drag” into a compliment is the result of Trent Sherfield's Divine performance.  A deflection going Buffalo’s way may mean existence’s sole purpose is not to crush us.

Doing as they please shows the Bills at their most successful.  Defenders know the call and the offense makes it anyway.  Daring them to stop you smirks at deception.  Josh is going to dive leftward like he can see the televised line, so go ahead and try to shove back.

Griping about the 11th win is a unique way of maintaining high standards.  Avoiding taking success for granted is a challenge for which we beg.  Make sure to never grow tired of adding to a divisional champions hat collection.  It’s remarkable how ordinary success has become despite this roster’s confounding tendency to complicate goals.

A playoff team that’s inspired an alarming lack of confidence finished as conference runner-up in spite of themselves.  The best choice entering the playoffs is to make a deal to continue enjoying wins no matter how aggravatingly they may unfold.  Regular practice creates routines.  The Bills established one during the regular season that worked, at least in the end.

[lyricfulloflight]

I posted 3,162 times in 2021

62 posts created (2%)

3100 posts reblogged (98%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 50.0 posts.

I added 3,209 tags in 2021

#the old guard - 745 posts

#fan art - 513 posts

#cherik - 499 posts

#joe x nicky - 466 posts

#luca marinelli - 257 posts

#james mcavoy - 234 posts

#fanart - 167 posts

#a work of art come to life - 117 posts

#yusuf al kaysani - 107 posts

#charles xavier - 104 posts

Longest Tag: 134 characters

#in moments like this all i can think about is that ''son of a merchant shows up at the siege of jerusalem wearing ye olde gucci'' post

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

I am actually writing today.

Fingers crossed I make some progress and can actually post something at some point.

25 notes • Posted 2021-06-20 15:25:30 GMT

#4

Okay people of tumblr, I am doing it.  Officially.

I, a Canadian, am watching Eurovision for the first time.

Thank you tumblr for converting me and opening my eyes to this... well whatever it is.  I look forward to finding out.  I may be a week late, and I already know who wins, but I am going to enjoy all of it regardless.

29 notes • Posted 2021-05-31 17:36:06 GMT

#3

Ducks head out...

I posted a new chapter of An Omega’s Worth if anyone is still interested.

Chapter 14 (only about a year late, lol)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22325605/chapters/82690054

“Charles Xavier, only son of the late Lord Brian Xavier, had grown used to living his life in quiet solitude in the country, exiled from public life. Suddenly he is recalled to London by his step-father for reasons unknown. Erik Lehnsherr is a ruthless businessman and owner of the most popular gaming hell in London. He is owed a significant amount of money by Cain Marko and he intends to collect - the sooner the better. Charles and Erik are brought together by unlikely circumstances, can they learn to trust each other? Can affection grow from a business arrangement?“

38 notes • Posted 2021-08-17 00:35:34 GMT

#2

I am so excited folks!

The amazing @lindstrom2020 made me a book of one of my fics!

Here it is: The Consequence of Hiding all bound and beautiful.

Many many thanks @lindstrom2020! I hugged it and gushed over it and cannot wait to add it to my shelf 😊.

39 notes • Posted 2021-03-01 17:04:05 GMT

#1

kiki 12 by clo cliquot

My ‘The Old Guard’ Big Bang fic has arrived!

“Nile can't help but be fascinated by Joe and Nicky's relationship: its longevity and its happiness. One day she caves and asks how it all began.

Or the story of how Joe and Nicky became Joe and Nicky. Its not a pretty tale, but it is an honest one.“

If you’d like to give it a read, please read it here: To Build A Home

Thank you to my artist @notablogtobefollowedunless​ for her stunning art which is can see above, and in the fic. Check out even more  of her work on tumblr!

170 notes • Posted 2021-02-12 03:12:43 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

What if Bella and Renata changed places in the story? What would change?

... You sure you want me to answer that?

This, my friend, is the path to the heart of darkness.

First, for my sanity’s sake, when you say switch places I’m assuming that things like genetics/gifts are staying intact.

This is a meta to be written, but at least on some level, while gifts are informed by genetics they also are informed by what you need. Jane and Alec point to this as well as surviving vampires whose gifts were curiously helpful. Of course, there’s something to be said that perhaps this is survivor bias. The ones with helpful gifts survive because Afton was murdered. And there’s something to be said for that, and I do think that comes into play, but in a different meta.

RIGHT

What Happens to Bella

Bella is molested if not raped by her Uncle Luca.

Bella is groomed from... some point that’s worryingly early in her life, to be turned into a vampire when she’s an adult. Given Renata’s story and her gift, given Makenna’s centuries later, it’s highly likely that Uncle Luca rather than making a fellow “protector” of the family is taking tithes in the form of daughters to become his brides for a time.

And when I say highly likely I mean I can think of no other explanation where everything in the backstory lines up so neatly.

Renata’s saved from rape and molestation thanks to her gift. Bella’s gift is extremely powerful and versatile as well, however, while it does change to suit her needs it seems to rely heavily on precognition and mental protection. In canon, having Renata’s abilities would have made Bella untouchable by James, Victoria, and Laurent. Instead, she gets warnings through Hallucination Edward and precognitive dreams or else is able to shield herself entirely mentally.

As a result, I imagine Bella would have terrifying prophetic dreams growing up, in which Uncle Luca, the patron saint of the family that no one has ever seen, turns out to be a flesh eating demon who rapes her. She might even have a Hallucination Edward equivalent who tells her to GET THE FUCK OUT.

Bella is reassured by her entire family that everything is fine, Luca’s the family protector and certainly not a demon, and that Bella joining him when she turns 20 will be a wonderful thing.

As a result, Bella probably grows up a neurotic mess, probably just as isolated if not more so than she was in canon.

And then it’s too late.

As Luca’s pulling the same stunt he did in canon, I imagine the Volturi eventually show up. Bella is offered the same out she was in canon and, like Renata, I imagine she takes it desperately.

Only, given everything, she likely doesn’t have the same attachment to the family that Renata did. I imagine as a survivor of sexual assault who was sold off by her family, however unwillingly they did so or however much they were hoodwinked, that she wouldn’t know what to think of them. Not for a very long time, anyway. So, I imagine in this universe, Uncle Luca and all the humans who knew of him die. 

Renata not existing, Bella is taken on as a bodyguard, and is a pretty good deal. She’s not Renata, who is the best bodyguard anyone could wish for, but she shields well from mental attacks and they can have someone like Felix be the muscle where appropriate. In this world, Aro probably actually would have some eventual use for Alice, as she could support Bella in predicting any direct attacks on at least the Volturi coven (Aro, Caius, Marcus, and the wives).

Bella is a mess for a very very very long time. While I like to think eventually she’ll recover, I can’t tell you what this would be. I think Bella would be extremely hesitant to ever take a lover or get married, and would instead devote herself to Aro’s protection with at least Renata’s zeal if not more so.

What Happens to Renata

For the sake of my sanity, to truly put Renata in Bella’s place, I’m imagining she’s Edward’s singer. You’re not living the Bella experience if you don’t have to deal with Edward.

Renata, in 2005 for reasons unknown, moves to Forks to live with her estranged father Charlie. 

Renata attends Biology that first day of school where she’s very nearly eaten by Edward. Only, instead of Edward not being able to read her mind, he finds himself unable to get close to her. He can’t sit at her table, her gift sends him wandering in a drunken daze across the room and into the wall.

Edward is very confused, utterly humiliated, but he has no idea what’s happened. Part of Renata’s gift is that you don’t realize you’ve been deflected. You just suddenly find yourself not having approached Renata like you expected.

Edward probably tries to return to his seat, holding his breath, and thinking of Carlisle’s beautiful face (he seriously does this in canon). However, he’s unable to that time either, and this time Renata probably pushes him out of the room entirely.

Edward congratulates himself for unconsciously resisting temptation in the classroom (which would have been very bad and required his brutal murder of all the witnesses).

He’ll eat her after school.

Much like canon, Edward upon leaving school is probably able to clear his head enough to realize he does not have to eat Renata Swan. So he flees the state, lives with the Denali for the two days it takes to get sick of them, and comes back.

And here’s where things get... bad.

Presumably, Renata does not struggle with depression the way Bella does. Terrible things happened to her in canon, and it’s true we know very little about her, but for all she shadows Aro she doesn’t seem to give off those same depressed vibes Bella does.

Renata also, presumably, does not have the weird genetic quirk Bella does where she finds vampires a) not terrifying at all b) omg hawt.

Most people in canon, when they look at a vampire, see something that’s hauntingly beautiful but also wrong. Vampires are fucking scary looking. Even at their gentlest, they do not look right. Bella’s just... into that.

So, unlike canon, the second Biology class Renata looks at Edward in complete terror and Edward can read every thought through Renata’s mind that he tried to eat her. Edward has a complete existential crisis over this as Renata was witness to his most demonic side that he loathes.

Edward will never be with Renata the way he was with Bella because of this. Part of what appeals to him about Bella is that he can a) project a persona of his choosing onto her while thinking he knows her well b) she’s this angelic creature who sees the best in demons. Renata sees demons and sees demons.

Biology is awkward and terrible, Renata probably desperately thinks about switching seats, but doesn’t want anyone to sit next to Edward the demon. 

Then the truck happens.

Much like Bella, Edward saves Renata’s life (and I headcanon that Renata’s gift actually allows for this due to the imminent danger coming from a truck rather than a person). Only, this time, there’s no excuse that he was secretly doing it for love, he’s doing it for that sweet sweet blood.

Renata is taken to the hospital, she’s seen everything, and Edward can see every thought in her head where she absolutely knows Edward Cullen is not a human being.

The family has their vote, only this time, it goes differently.

Renata would never let Alice play Barbie Bella, and thus, Alice does not see Renata as her future best friend forever. Nor does she see Renata becoming Edward’s future lover and mate.

However, Alice still votes no, because it’s not going to work. None of them are going to be able to murder Renata.

Edward is conflicted and votes no, but doesn’t have the reassurance that it’s because he’s in love, it’s secretly because he wants to eat her. He’s not admitting that to himself yet.

As in canon, Carlisle tries to think well of his ridiculous family, and tells Rosalie, “No, Rosalie, killing a teenage girl because you don’t want to move high schools is bad.”

Jasper thinks carefully about this, and tries to devise different schemes to kill Renata and gauge Alice’s opinion. Unlike in canon, he’s not given the two certain futures: Edward will eat Bella or Edward will turn Bella.

Jasper eventually decides to lace Renata’s house with explosives and, when she’s home (preferably if she’s alone but he’s alright with Charlie Swan as collateral damage) blow the place up from a distance.

Alice saw this succeeding, unfortunately, Edward and Emmett make a few decisions.

Jasper is blowing up a motherfucking house. The police chief’s house no less. This is the coolest thing the family has ever done. That Rosalie approves, while not saying as much out loud due to her abiding by Carlisle’s decision, makes this even better. Emmett wants involved, desperately, Jasper gives him some small task that he fucks up.

The wiring is done incorrectly, the bomb will never detonate.

Edward is now in full protector of the women and children (and blood bags) mode and plans to counter Jasper’s attack and confronts him and Emmett. They have the all out brawl that Alice saw in canon.

Renata wakes up in the middle of the night to find the family of demons fist fighting each other outside her house, having wired her house to explode. They have now gone past the point of no return, in a sense, where in canon Bella had had a car accident and would in time remember this as a very strange incident in her life, now the vampires have tried to blow up her house.

I imagine things continue to escalate as the witness now really has to be murdered. They fail every time, Renata lives in a paranoid hell where she can’t tell anyone that every night demons come to murder her in her bedroom.

Carlisle is appalled by everyone and eventually tells Renata the truth and offers her immortality.

[seredelgi]

One Tree hill ships ranking

So ok, this is very mainstream but I just wanted to do this thing. This is my opinion, no need to get upset.

Note: I’m only rating couples that did, at some point, develop some sort of romantic  or pshysical feelings, wether mutual or one sided. Also, I will be rating them based on how much I enjoyed them. This means that if one is higher, it doesn’t mean it’s better on every aspect.

1. Nathan Royal Scott & Haley James Scott

Is there even anything to say? Those two are soulmates.

2. Peyton Sawyer and Jake Jagielski

Because those two had such perfect chemistry, and Peyton did deserve a guy like Jake.

3. Brooke Davis and Julian Baker

Damn am I glad that Brooke finally got the happy ending she deserved. She could finally feel loved and taken care of, and Julian was so good to her.

4. Brooke Davis and Lucas Scott

Because, as much as I hate Lucas for breaking her heart twice and for pretty much being unsufferable, he was his best version of himself when he had Brooke at his side. Plus, those two have great chemistry.

5. Peyton Sawyer and Lucas Scott

They were kinda cute, even though I definetely felt less chemistry than there ever was with Brooke, Lucas has always loved and wanted Peyton more. I’m happy they got together in the end, I just wish they had realized it without breaking hearts all over town.

6. Brooke Davis and Chase Adams

I don’t know why, but I loved this storyline very much, even if it didn’t last that long.

7. Skills Taylor and Bevin Mirskey

Too cute omg, deserved so much more screentime.

8. Karen Roe and Andy Hargrove

Liked their relationship far more than her and Keith, and loved Andy’s character. Pretty underrated.

9. Quinn James and Clay Evans

Kinda cute, even if, let’s face it, completely predictable.

10. Marvin “Mouth Mcfadden and Millicent Huxtable

Cute, even though they never really interensted me that much.

11. Skills Taylor and Deb Lee

I thought they were funny and very cute, despite the age gap. I could see Skills going for an older woman. Sue me.

Also, Deb’s best era.

12. Lucas Scott and Rachel Gatina

Well, what can I say? I kind of enjoyed watching Lucas end up going after someone else while two beautiful girls are already after him.

13. Karen Roe and Keith Scott

I’ll be honest, I’ve never really liked the two that much even as characters, so I wasn’t really into it. That, plus the absent chemistry, and the typical storyline of the man who is in love and never tells it because??? But, they were left without any clousure, and they had a daughter, so…

14. Brooke Davis and Owen Morello

They had something, but the show decided to ruin it.

15. Chase Adams and Alex Duprè

So yeah, they made sense.

16. Brooke Davis and Felix Taggaro

Ok so, I didn’t enjoy them that much, and they were pretty toxic, BUT at least I could see him really caring for her even if his ways were more than flawed. Brooke just deserved better tho.

17. Dan Scott and Karen Roe

I know, I’m surprised they made it so high, but the thing is, even if they were, of course, a big fat no in the end, I feel like the show had to explore their dynamic at least once before putting it away for good. I enjoyed that storyline very much exactly because of the complications that it developed.

18. Nathan Scott and Peyton Sawyer

As a couple? Absolutely freaking not. Worst pairing ever. They brought the worst in each other, but as friends? They just made perfect sense.

19. Nathan Scott and Brooke Davis

If there ever was a universe in which Nathan Scott wasn’t madly in love with Haley James, which I highly doubt, than in that universe, these two still fuck. In our universe tho, they were, without a doubt, the most underrated friendship of the show. And we were absolutely ROBBED of more scenes.

20. Dan Scott and Rachel Gatina

Ugh, as much as I see the reason behind them together I just wish they hadn’t done Rachel so dirty. Such a good character, but they kinda let her go in the latest seasons.

21. Nathan Scott and Rachel Gatina

As much as I would have never have beared the sight of them actually together, it was kind of fun to see Rachel try.

22. Dan Scott and Deb Lee

Absolutely freaking worst couple of the show, brought the worst in each other, and were never able to get through their differences, not even for their son.

23. Haley James Scott and Chris Keller

Haley’s lowest point, we can all agree on that. But I kind of feel like this had to happen to make her and Nathan’s relationship even stronger.

24. Peyton Sawyer and Julian Baker

Not gonna lie, I was pretty interensted when it became clear they had a past and it seemed like he wanted her back, but then, as soon as the Brooke/ Julian dynamic developed, I just didn’t want Brooke to have someone to share with Peyton all over again.

25. Lucas Scott and Lindsey Strauss

A pathetic attempt at making us fear they wouldn’t have let Peyton and Lucas finally be happy, and yet another excuse for Lucas to behave despicably.

26. Chase Adams and Mia Catalano

I’m sleeping already.

27. Peyton Sawyer and Peter Wentz

For real?

28. Julian Baker and Alex Duprè

I cannot express how much this relationship frustrated me. Because I got that, but why can’t Brooke just get a break and have a man without competing with anyone?

29. Rachel Gatina and Cooper Lee

No. Just… No.

Surely I’ll be missing some. Some of them i didn’t put ‘cause they’re not enough relevant to me.

[aion-rsa]

How the Jaws Scene in Back to the Future Part 2 Predicted Modern Blockbusters

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Back to the Future Part II is a strange movie. As a sequel that director Robert Zemeckis and screenwriter Bob Gale never intended to make, the ambitious follow-up to one of the greatest sci-fi comedies of all time was put into production simultaneously with Part III, which may have ultimately hurt the middle chapter since Zemeckis was still shooting scenes filmed in the Old West while editing Part II’s trippy vision of the then distant future…of 2015.

Even so, there are elements in the second Back to the Future that still play like gangbusters today, particularly in the sequences set during 2015. To be sure, part of the charm now is what those wild guesses about the future got wrong—such as the idea we’d all be driving around in flying cars, or even simply own cheap cars that didn’t run on fossil fuels. There were no real hover boards in 2015 (or 2021 for that matter), nor even automated Texaco pumps. Yet what Back to the Future Part II got very right is the numbing horror of something like Jaws 19.

Indeed, one of the best bits in the whole film is a slight dig at BTTF’s own studio, as well as the legacy of the film’s producer. The original Jaws is of course the first modern Hollywood blockbuster and it put Steven Spielberg on the map. With its innovative storytelling of leaving the monster to the imagination before finally providing the spectacle in the third act, Jaws is a masterpiece in narrative restraint that could still play for all audiences.

…Which is something no one would say about the three cash-in Jaws sequels that Universal Pictures green lit in the span of 12 years after 1975. In fact, when Back to the Future Part II was released in ’89, it’d only been two years since Jaws: The Revenge, the one where the ghost of Jaws went Bahamas and chased the Chief Brody character’s widow to the Caribbean while on a vendetta for what happened in ’75. It’s kind of hilarious.

As is the scene in Back to the Future Part II. In that sequence, Michael J. Fox’s Marty McFly stands slack jawed in the middle of Hill Valley’s town square, the same space that was so memorably used in the first BTTF film where Marty was forced to finally accept he’d traveled to the year 1985. In the sequel, he comes to realize what it means to be in 2015 when he turns around to face the local multiplex, which has only one film on its marquee: Jaws 19. And then to demonstrate to Marty the state of 21st century special effects, the “HOLOMAX” release teases its thrills as a holographic Great White Shark emerges from the building and descends on Marty’s head.

Perhaps like many an audience member who choked on their popcorn kernels in ’75 with fear, Marty screams bloody murder—and then realizes it’s just a movie and scoffs, “The shark still looks fake.” Yes, it always did, but at least in the first movie that didn’t matter so much.

At the time, the scene was a nice dig at Universal’s expense as well as the Jaws franchise as a whole. What was once the most revolutionary Hollywood movie of 1975 had become a punchline by 1989: a once glorious title that’d been run into the ground with endless cash grab sequels. And the joke is even funnier because of the “19” in the title. Nineteen movies of the same franchise. Could you even imagine?!

Oh, how sweet the irony is, then, that one of the most absurd notions in Back to the Future Part II turned out to be the most true! No, there haven’t been 19 Jaws movies (yet), but that might be by virtue of the studio churning the franchise’s mystique into putty before Gen-Xers and Millennials could grow up with it beneath unsullied nostalgia glasses. Nevertheless, the future where Jaws 19 could exist came true.

Consider that we scoff at the idea of 19 Jaws movies being made in 40 years, but Marvel Studios has released 25 pictures in only 13, with two more due out before Christmas 2021. And that doesn’t even include the television shows that are now coming to dominate Disney+.

I know what some will say: Marvel movies are a series of interconnected franchises, as opposed to one amorphous content farm. But that’s not entirely accurate. There are exceptions, of course, which stand out as singularly distinct from other MCU efforts. There’s Black Panther, for instance. That 2018 Oscar nominee is totally removed from the events of The Avengers, you might say. Then there’s Guardians of the Galaxy and its wacky space opera shenanigans occurring literal light years away from the events of Iron Man 3.

And yet, the appeal for most moviegoers, and the brilliance of Marvel’s marketing strategy, is that they all seem like the same thing to the undiscerning eye. And even to the discerning one, there is a pat familiarity to the formula, story beats, and sitcom-esque ability to wink at the audience at its own silliness. Tonally, they all feel of one piece. Hence why the first Shang-Chi movie was gladly welcomed by the industry last month as Marvel’s latest blockbuster hit—a feat borne in large off it being the next Marvel movie, as opposed to a new original property without a built-in audience.

It’s an aspect to the whole series which caused Dune director Denis Villeneuve to suggest that some Marvel movies are “cut and paste.” It’s also a formula which aids the studio to force its millions of fans to see it “as all connected” and be encouraged to go see the Ant-Man sequel they might otherwise skip in order to discover how its post-credits scene will set up the deus ex machina for Avengers: Endgame.

And that aforementioned Black Panther originally had its protagonist introduced in Captain America: Civil War, an Avengers movie by another name. It’s also the only “Cap” flick to cross $1 billion because they stuck Iron Man in it. Similarly, James Gunn’s Guardians films are genuinely auteur-driven, yet they still worked as a years-long tease of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame’s big bad: Thanos. Hell, Infinity War’s biggest selling point in the trailer was seeing the Avengers and Guardians meet face-to-face for the first time.

The methods and talent being used to produce these endless sequels are far more sophisticated and entertaining than the hack work which produced Jaws: The Revenge, but then that’s why Jaws only lasted four movies and Marvel’s already mapping out its 30th “event” in the next few years.

This is not meant to only criticize Marvel, however. They are simply the most successful studio at exploiting their intellectual property in the 21st century. Universal’s own Fast and Furious movies aren’t half bad at that game, though. This summer just saw the 10th “Fast Saga” movie when you count Hobbs and Shaw. And while Vin Diesel claims the 11th main line Fast and Furious movie will be the last, you just know with its own Avengers-sized cast that Hobbs and Shaw will be merely the first spinoff franchise from “the family.”

Even Spielberg, who was reportedly never happy with the Jaws sequels and what they did to his first masterwork, has been much more ready to “open up” later successes like Jurassic Park. Considered a “smart” blockbuster entertainment in 1993 that inspired genuine awe from millions of moviegoers, that film’s fourth sequel (which was produced by Spielberg, like all the follow-ups) reveled in watching dinosaurs stalk around a haunted house, as if they were Frankenstein and Dracula. Next year’s Jurassic World: Dominion is supposedly intended to be the “final” film of the three most recent, Chris Pratt-led sequels, as well as another sendoff to the original 1993 movie’s cast. Yet it seems dubious that it’ll be the last film set in that “universe.”

After all, the “Skywalker Saga” ended with a whimper in 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, but Disney is preparing to churn out more Star Wars movies and TV shows than ever before in the next decade.

This is not to say you should feel ashamed for enjoying any of these movies or franchises. Folks like what they like. But what Back to the Future Part II perhaps unintentionally predicted was that audiences would have an appetite for a proverbial Jaws 19.

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When BTTF became a trilogy, sequels were still seen as a creatively risky proposition. Filmmakers often maintained artistic credibility by attempting to turn sequels into a larger thematic whole—often as a trilogy. Lucas set that standard with Star Wars, and only after his buddy Francis Ford Coppola claimed he’d never make another Godfather movie after Part II. Spielberg originally walked away from Indiana Jones after three movies, and many likely wish he’d stayed firm about that in retrospect. Meanwhile, Zemeckis and Gale have done the near impossible thing: refuse to allow Universal to make a fourth Back to the Future movie or reboot the series entirely.

But equivocations in the industry about a proverbial Jaws 19 are long gone. What was once a cheeky riff on the dystopian Coca-Cola billboard ads in Blade Runner have become a modern day reality in 2021. And hey, there’s now a real holographic Times Square billboard ad for that, too.

The post How the Jaws Scene in Back to the Future Part 2 Predicted Modern Blockbusters appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/39HMnzU

[balletroyale]

Love the "promotion game" you did with MT and BT dancers! What are your predictions for Royal Ballet soloists/first soloists? Thank you!

Oooh one I feel rather more confident on! 

I will do men and women. Each category will be likeliness of being promoted to principal. I will also add some first artists (ok, one). As always this may not be what I want but what I suspect will happen. 

NOT IF BUT WHEN:

William Bracewell (Surprised he isn’t already, tbh) 

Reece Clarke (Especially because he seems to be the only one Natalia Osipova will dance with) 

Anna Rose O’Sullivan (Obviously being curated to be the next female principal, probably on the retirement of Morera. Even more cemented by her Englishness -- the Royal Ballet has gotten flack for lack of English principals in the last few decades)

Joseph Sissens (Am I really saying definitively that this first artist is going all the way to principal? Yes, yes I am.) 

ITS POSSIBLE:

Cesar Corrales (They’ve been putting a LOT of energy into him and giving him a lot of opportunities. But these opportunities don’t seem to have gone particularly well) 

Fumi Kaneko (I really don’t understand what’s happened her. All of a sudden she just popped out as a contender for principal. I tend to think there will always be someone she just misses out to, but who knows) 

Mayara Magri (I just don’t see this as the forgone conclusion others do) 

WHO KNOWS:

Luca Acri (I would never have thought this before, but he had some interesting debuts last season) 

James Hay (All of a sudden he’s getting these great opportunities? Sort of came out of nowhere) 

Beatriz Stix-Brunell (I think her peak has already happened, tbh) 

Nicol Edmonds (I think he will go up to first soloist, but there’s just way too much male talent right now to go all the way) 

Benjamin Ella (Almost certain will go to first soloist, but doubtful if he will go beyond) 

Meaghan Grace Hinkis (I high-key love this dancer. She’s had some really, really interesting debuts. But she also hasn’t had any movement in the company since 2015. I think principal is probably out of sight but there are lots of aging women in the company...) 

BABE IT AINT HAPPENING:

Claire Calvert (Has been pretty firmly placed in the soloist category) 

Tierney Heap (Hasn’t had any leading roles as a first soloist) 

Itziar Mendizabal (Doesn’t have the range to be a principal) 

Valentino Zucchetti (I think the recent documentary made this pretty clear. And he’s moved in the direction of choreography pretty significantly. He also dances a lot of ‘character’ roles. But I suppose there’s a slight chance...) 

Calvin Richardson (I just really don’t see this happening) 

Olivia Cowley (I mean I guess there’s a slight chance she would go up one level? But then again, not at all?) 

Isabella Gasparini (Too old) 

Tomas Mock (Recently had a promotion and they like to spread them out) 

David Yudes (He hasn’t even had a soloist role in at least a year) 

WHEN HELL FREEZES OVER:

Yuhui Choe (People who think someone who joined the company in 2002 will get promoted need to stop thinking it will happen) 

Melissa Hamilton (Especially because she doesn’t seem to have a ton of company loyalty) 

Romany Pajdak (Now this might be controversial. I like her and everyone else fell in love with her during the recent livestream. BUT she was just promoted. And she can’t be promoted straight to principal and the royal likes a few years between promotions. And she’s already in her mid-30s. I just don’t see there being time left for her to go all the way to principal) 

Paul Kay (No real promising roles) 

Fernando Montaño (I thought he had already left for some reason? He has other focuses now than ballet) 

[sexyrasputin]

Rome knocked on V’s open door and poked her head in.

“How are you?” she asked, voice as gentle as it had been when V told Rome and Adria about being James’ other woman to his mate.

V shrugged. “Not the greatest. You? I heard Derek left.” This led to a withering sigh from Rome.

“Yeah, he’s gone.”

“Is that good or bad?”

“Good. I think. I don’t know.”

V raised an eyebrow. Rome sighed again and entered the room, sitting down on the other twin bed, Mimi’s old twin bed. She didn’t want to tell V every thought she’d had. It was too soon to voice her full realizations, and while she knew V wouldn’t be snarky or arrogant, Rome wasn’t vulnerable enough to open up that much yet.

“I was gonna sleep with him last night,” she confessed, wrapping her knees to her chest with her arms. V turned to face her, frowning.

“What changed? You always seems pretty into him.” Rome had been pretty into Derek. The most she’d been into a guy other than Luca ever. But he still wasn’t Luca.

“He’s not the one for me,” Rome whispered, her voice breaking at the threat of tears.

“Does that mean Luca...” V didn’t finish her sentence. She didn’t have to to know the answer.

Rome answered anyways. “Yeah, it means he’s the one for me, whether I want it that way or not.”

There was a long pause, and a heavy silence filled the space between the two twin beds.

“Do you want it that way?”

Rome buried her head in between her legs at V’s question. She wanted it that way, oh how she did!, but she didn’t want to want it that way.

“I’m not sure,” she said eventually.

“It’s okay if you do, and it’s okay if you don’t, Rome. As much as I want to see you two back together, it’s still your choice.”

Rome’s head popped up to stare at V.

“Since when are you not pushing your opinions on me?”

V chuckled nervously. “Since watching Dex and Frankie and that whole fiasco and how maybe the mating process isn’t as easy or clear cut as I like to think it is.”

Okay, that at least made sense.

“Yeah. I just—I don’t know how to feel about all this.” Rome frowned. “I don’t know if I want to want him, because I do want him, but I dunno if that’s the right move. He’s an alcoholic, he’s scary when he’s angry, and I’ve changed, too.” She also absolutely shattered his heart, time and time again. Rome bit her lower lip.

“I’m gonna give you my opinion, and you don’t have to pay attention to it, but I need to get this out there,” V warned. “Adria’s death screwed everyone over, but especially you and Luca. I know he blames himself for losing her and for you losing her. He blames himself for losing you. And maybe he should, maybe he shouldn’t. It was a tough situation where he made what was probably be the hardest decision ever.” She paused.

“I also know that before you and Luca knew you were mates, as young as 15 or 16, Adria and I would sit there and talk about how you guys were head over heels for each other, but neither would admit it. When we found out that you guys are mates, I don’t think Adria and I stopped laughing with excitement for a week. You guys were always such a natural fit, ya know? And yeah, things have changed since then. More than any of us could have predicted. But I still think that natural fit is there. It may take some searching for it, it may take some growing and changing, but I think you two are still at your best when you’re together, no matter how long it takes to get to that stage.”

Apparently, everything that V had been trying to tell Rome for years had finally condensed itself into a simple explanation. That or Rome was finally listening. It was probably the last one.

“Every time I kissed Derek, Luca was all I could think about,” Rome admitted, still not realizing she hadn’t called him Lucas. “Derek broke things off because he knew I wasn’t over him. He knew I still have feelings for him, something I haven’t wanted to admit to myself for almost two years.” She sighed, burying her face back between her knees.

“How do I get back to normal with Luca? I can’t just go up to him and kiss him. Even if that’s all my body has been telling me to do every time Derek kissed me.”

V chuckled, reminiscing over some unknown memory. “Baby steps. Be nice or at least civil. Get to know him again. He’s changed a lot, and so have you. Not all of it has been for the best, but some of it has. Just spend more time with him, even if you guys aren’t alone.”

Finally, Rome let her legs drop back down to the floor. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.”

V offered her a weak smile. “Dex suggested we have a movie marathon today. Matteo and Frankie left for home already,” V frowned at this, “but the plan is to stay here until at least tonight. We can watch yours and Luca’s favorite movie. I know you guys have refused to watch it without each other.”

Her face brightened. Maybe this would work. Maybe this was a good idea. “Yeah, yeah let’s do that.”

[ljones41]

“LIVE AND LET DIE” (1973) Review

“LIVE AND LET DIE” (1973) Review

Between 1967 and 1972, EON Productions spent a chaotic five years trying to find one man to portray James Bond following Sean Connery’s decision to retire from the role. Nineteen sixty-eight found Australian model, George Lazenby in the role. But after one movie, the excellent “ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE”, Lazenby decided that he did not want to continue the role. Connery came back for one last movie – “DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER”, but did not bother to stick around.

Then in 1972, Broccoli and Saltzman hired Roger Moore (famous for the TV series, “THE SAINT”) to portray the British agent. And Moore went on to play the role for the next 12 years. But he had to start somewhere and he did with 1973’s “LIVE AND LET DIE”, an adaptation of Ian Fleming’s 1954 novel. This was the very first Bond movie I had ever seen. Although I have a great sentimental attachment to the movie, I do not really consider it to be among the finest in the franchise. Nor is it a personal favorite of mine.

Following the murders of three MI-6 agents (in New York, New Orleans and the fictional island of San Monique), Bond is assigned by “M” to investigate their deaths. His investigations in New York leads him to a Harlem gangster named Mr. Big. But as it turns out, Mr. Big is also San Monique’s foreign minister, Dr. Kanaga. Bond eventually learns that Kanaga/Mr. Big plans to use the heroin grown in the San Monique opium fields to flood the current heroin market and gain complete control of the U.S. drug market (very similar to the schemes of Harlem gangster, Frank Lucas). He ordered the three British agents killed, because apparently they were in danger of stumbling upon his scheme.

I am going to be frank. As much as I like “LIVE AND LET DIE”, I have never been impressed by the screenplay written by Tom Mankiewicz. It never made any sense to me that the British government would be interested in the activities of a diplomat from an island that had obviously been a former French colony, or an American gangster. If the three agents and Bond had been French, I could see them working with CIA agent Felix Leiter on this case. But there you have it. And Bond’s San Monique showdown with Kanaga had always struck me as being rather disappointing. Another aspect of the movie I found disappointing was the leading lady – namely Jane Seymour as Kanaga’s Tarot card seer, Solitaire. I have nothing against Seymour’s performance. She seemed to be her usual, competent self. But other than predicting Bond’s arrival in New York and later, at Kanaga’s San Monique estate; and warning Bond about Rosie Carver (via a Tarot card), I found nothing impressive about Solitaire’s role in the story. Especially since she eventually became nothing more than a moaning damsel-in-distress. And Geoffrey Holder as Baron Semedi did not really do much for me, but his ghostly appearance at the end of the movie was memorable.

Fortunately, “LIVE AN LET DIE” had its virtues. Roger Moore’s long experience with action roles in television (“MAVERICK”, “THE SAINT”, and “THE PERSUADERS”) allowed him to segued into the Bond role with great ease. He already seemed very comfortable in the role. And without any problems, Moore managed to establish his own style. Unfortunately, very few people appreciated this at the time. And Yaphet Kotto created an impressive villain in an interesting duel role as the smooth and intelligent Kanaga/the bombastic Mr. Big. To this day, Julius Harris’ TeeHee remains one of my favorite Bond henchmen of all time. All I can say was that the man was perfect – humorous, yet very menacing. David Hedison’s friendship with Moore proved to be very effective in his first outing as CIA agent, Felix Leiter. The warmth and easy manner between Leiter and Bond seemed more apparent than in any other Bond film. And I rather enjoyed Gloria Hendry’s performance as the amusingly clumsy, yet treacherous Rosie Carver. And let us not forget the hilarious and unforgettable Clifton James as the long-suffering Southern lawman, Sheriff J.W. Pepper. James’ peformance was so impressive that the producers brought him back to reprise his role in 1974’s “THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN”.

Also among the movie’s virtues was its smooth direction by Guy Hamilton, which included a rather fun boat chase through the Louisiana bayou, fine performances and the rich atmosphere of New York’s Harlem and New Orleans. Cinematographer Ted Moore did much to contribute to the film’s atmosphere. But it is the movie’s score by George Martin and theme song by Paul McCartnery and Wings that seemed to be the movie’s most impressive virtue . . . other than Moore, Kotto, Harris and James’ performances. Although the story for “LIVE AND LET DIE” struck me as unimpressive, I still find the movie to be very entertaining.

[newagesispage]

                                                                            JUNE    2020

PAGE RIB

FX and Ryan Murphy will bring us season 10 of American Horror Story next year. The cast includes Mac Culkin, Kathy Bates, Sarah Paulson, Evan peters, Billie Lourd, Lily Rabe and Finn Wittrock. There will also be a spinoff called, wait for it, American Horror Stories. Woo Hoo!!

*****

Reno 911 is back

*****

I happen to have a clementine in my butt. –Jimmy Kimmel

*****

NASA got their dragon launch. It is unfortunate that they had to compete with the current cycle.

*****

Sam Springsteen (son of Patti and Bruce) has been sworn in as a Jersey City firefighter.

*****

Ryan Murphy’s Hollywood is great. I don’t know how to feel about the fast and the loose and the nice made up endings like Once upon a time in Hollywood.  Will this be a trend??** Another great one on Netflix is, Have a good trip.

*****

Are there biopics in the works for Michael and Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, the Bee Gees and Bowie?? That is the word.

*****

Days alert: Look for Lani to become pregnant. Eli and Justin are both thinking marriage. Claire is back which will bring Shawn and Belle back. Gabi may be kidnapped. Word is that July will have a wedding every week that will lead to a funeral.  Allie Horton is all grown up and heading back with a secret. Will she be like Mom, Sami?? Brady thinks that ruining Titan will get back at Victor. Sonny and Will may get a chance at another child. Eve may be back later in the summer. And, C’mon Xander, do something wonderful to get your woman back. Lucas may be on the way back and Orpheus is leaving. ** Judi Evans (Adrienne) had a serious horseback riding accident on May 16. She had broken ribs, a collapsed lung and 2 chipped vertebrae. The good news was in the hospital they discovered a blood clot so the whole thing saved her life.

*****

Morton Buildings is being sued by 2 women for harassment and discrimination. One incident claims an employee said, “God created women by lining up all the men and castrating the stupid ones.” Another lawsuit was filed in 2009.**Thanks for the tip, Di.

*****

If you expect elementary school children to endure the trauma of active shooter drills for your freedoms, you can wear a mask to Costco. –Sara Elizabeth Dill

*****

House republicans have sued Pelosi to block proxy voting.

*****

Seth Rogan, Steve Carell and Ben Schwartz are donating funds to bailout Minneapolis protestors after the death of George Floyd.** The country has been turned upside down as another cop kills another black man. No need to rehash, we have all seen it. I wonder if those four horrible cops are proud of what they have done to their city. Could we finally have a tipping point in this time when racism is spotlighted with our racist President? After many incidents in just the past couple of weeks and everyone on edge with coronavirus, it has boiled over. Scary Clown threatens to start shooting as Minneapolis burns down. Burn down a police station, get a cop arrested (finally)? Seems worth it to me. The way the killer looked into the camera as if he was just so proud is gonna stick with us as it should.  ** A CNN crew were arrested live on the air but released later after Jeff Zucker spoke to Gov. Walz.**  Liberate Minnesota was the Trump tweet, well, they are working on it.** I am hearing people saying in all sincerity lately that it is time for the humans to go, we are ruining each other and the planet.

*****

If you have not seen the Killer Mike speech from Atlanta, you need to check it out.** Netflix, Hulu and Paramount are taking a stand and showing support for the Black lives matter movement.

*****

John Cusack put out video of police coming at him with batons and pepper sprayed him as he protested in Chicago. More than 1000 were arrested and it continues.** In Flint, Sheriff Chris Swanson and other police put down helmets and joined the protestors. Police in Schenectady took a knee and joined the march. The behavior is spreading and look what a difference it makes, could they be starting to get it?

*****

Never thought I’d say this but in light of everything that is happening, the DNC made a big mistake in not backing Berne Sanders. –Pete Buttigieg ** Ok, first, of course he is right but you helped set this all in motion. It is a bit late for that …or is it? Biden is not the OFFICIAL nom, the deal is not done yet. Will Bernie jump back in the race?? Perhaps we will soon see BERNE FOR PRESIDENT again.

*****

American carnage was a self -fulfilling prophecy, alas. –Susan Glasser

*****

Scary Clown 45 has designated Antifa a terrorist organization. ** There is no legal authority for designating a domestic group, any such designation would raise significant concerns. –ACLU

*****

In any season, police violence is an injustice, but its harm is elevated amidst the remarkable stress people are facing amidst covid-19. Even now, there is evidence of excessive police initiated force and unwarranted shootings of civilians, some of which have been fatal. –American Medical Association.

*****

Washington Week had a great discussion about how all the ills in US history have played out in 2020. Impeachment, pandemic, depression and civil unrest are all here at once.

*****

Word is that Trevor Noah has been proven much more popular than the other late night hosts since they have been at home.

*****

I predict the picture of the upside down flag with the backdrop of the burning liquor store will be the lasting image of the Trump Presidency.

*****

This is the Presidency George Wallace never had. –Max Boot

*****

Spanish flu, Polio, Aids, Covid-19: Why don’t people get any smarter? The masses (and sometimes those in charge) can get it wrong over and over again. From Dr.? Phil and Dr Oz and their cavalier attitude toward death to Rosie wanting her son to take a leave of absence from the grocery store, we just do not learn. Even before that, I can’t forget the woman who wanted to change her vote after she found out Buttigieg was married to a man. Is she even a dem? Do your research people! Respect others, people!! Have compassion, stop being so selfish and use your brains!!** Puerto Rico was a pre curser to the pandemic response.

*****

Amy Cooper Chris Cooper? WTF? Another liberal who is not really liberal.

*****

Crime in general is down and police shootings are up. And yes, now the opportunists are out of control and anger is boiling over but protests against police brutality causing police brutality is WRONG!

*****

Check out the book, What makes a marriage last, from Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue.

*****

Ben Taub, Barry Blitt and Colson Whitehead have won the Pulitzer Prize.

*****

Word is that Nick Cage will play Joe Exotic of Tiger King fame. Of course he will.

*****

I refuse to wear a mask because God did not have us born with one.- Nino Vitali** How many people have you heard say, “The President isn’t wearing a mask, so I don’t have to.”

*****

It looks like Apple will partner with Paramount for Scorsese’s adaptation of Killers of the Flower Moon.

*****

Oh my: Scary Clown is having a twitter feud with twitter!  He has to, of course, lash out and now signs an executive order targeting social media. He is going on about section 230 which gives immunity to social media companies against being sued over content.  It could curb liability protection. Experts say it will only encourage lawsuits because he does not want to be edited.

*****

If Native American tribes were counted as states, the five most infected states in the US would all be native tribes. –Nicholas Kristof

*****

Did ya see that Jeff Epstein doc from James Patterson. It is lays blame in all directions. Why does it seem like all these old guys on there with all that money have such yellow teeth?

*****

Lindsey Graham is urging Federal judges in their mid to late 60’s to step down so they can fill the spots with republicans.

*****

Richard McGuire tried to live at Disney World in a zoological park that was closed down.

*****

Caterpillar, Levi, Black and Decker and others have cut jobs but gave millions to shareholders.

*****

Axl Rose and Steve Mnuchin had a twitter feud.

*****

China announced plans to introduce a National Security law in Hong Kong. The law enables mainland Chinese National security agencies to operate in the city for the first time. Using a rarely used constitutional method, they bypassed Hong Kong legislature. Since the former British colony became a semi-autonomous region of China more than 20 years ago, they have manages its own affairs. The law will affect media, education, politics and international business. Many acts will now be criminalized. Hong Kong is party to international treaties guaranteeing civil liberties that China is not. The U.S. is urging Bejing to reconsider. Pro- democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong were tear gassed as they yelled, “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times.”

*****

The Michael Flynn charges were dropped.

*****

Holyoke soldier’s home in Massachusetts lost 70 souls to Coronavirus. AP photographer David Goldman got a projector and cast big pictures the vets onto the homes of loved ones. Each one had a story including one vet who was sent to Nuremberg to guard Nazis. He claimed to have filled Hermann Goring’s glass with toilet water.

*****

The swimming Dinosaur, Spinosaurus has been getting a lot of attention.  The Sahara desert which was once massive rivers kept the first intact aquatic dinosaur.  With a snout, teeth and jaw like a croc, it is so far the only known kind of dinosaur that lived in the water.  The 50 foot long bizarre fin-like tail is like a giant paddle.  Paleontologists encourage others to have a look at other fossils to see if there are more.

*****

Octavia Spencer is said to have been telling everyone she is a year younger than she is. She is turning 50.

*****

The $69 million ventilator scam. Really? The White House heard from a guy who told them he could supply the product so the WH told NY to order them and stood behind the guy but it was a scam. Scary Clown sure loves his shady people, intentional or not.** A Florida woman, Rebecca Jones claims that she was asked to fudge the numbers to make reopening look better. ** Georgia moved their dates around on a graph to make their cases seem flattened. ** For 17 months, Florida investigated voter fraud for Trump and Gov. Scott. They found NOTHING!!

*****

Amazon stock price is up 25% yet they have become notorious for the terrible way they treat their workers. Bezos is set to become a trillionaire.

*****

We have to remember that order comes from chaos. True enhancements can come from large scale crisis. What will we learn from this one? This is a warning!!** Universal health care? No more buffets? ** Prices will probably go up everywhere what with the closings and all the extra cleaning. I hope this means that hotel bedspreads will be cleaned after every stay.  It looks like there may be no cocktails or food on planes.

*****

Take a virtual tour of the statue of liberty. All the fun without all the swaying.

*****

Local PBS stations are making it easier to learn. Students will be able to put on a channel for lessons that does not need cable or internet. Woo Hoo!!

*****

Insiders say that Trump threatened to sue his campaign manager because he did not agree with his assessment and the poll numbers in a 2 day rant.** Just one more example of Scary Clown double talk. Then: Less testing, less positives. Now: So much testing is a badge of honor.**Doctors without Borders are now here, not the third world countries that they usually help, it is US.

*****

Haven’t we had enough of powerful men being accused? A female Dem candidate would have been nice and Bernie did not seem to have any baggage that way either.

*****

Will the Senate see fit to ok some more stimulus $? 4 trillion to prop up Wall Street seems per the usual. Enough for them, let’s take care of those small businesses and those really in need.

*****

Thao and the get down stay down is one of the best in this internet entertainment era.

*****

Check out Stars in the House with Tony Shalhoub and others.

*****

The Detectorists on Acorn TV is a great little show!!

*****

Happy Day! There is a new season of At Home with Amy Sedaris!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*****

It looks like Pier 1 will permanently close as well as JC Penney, J Crew, Sears and Neiman Marcus.

*****

Check out the wonderful, This is about Humanity!!

*****

Have U seen the trailer for The King of Staten Island?? OMG Pete Davidson, Steve Buschemi and Marisa Tomei , just to name a few!! I can’t fucking wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*****

Bill Maher looked really high on his 5-22-20 show. This working from home makes him much more mellow!!

*****

3 Russian doctors treating coronavirus have fallen out of windows in about a weeks time.** Russia boasts that it has more ventilators per capita than the U.S. After they made fun of us, on May 22, the first shipment of U.S. ventilators headed to Russia. They are a gift from Trump and the U.S. taxpayers. –Julia Davis

*****

State Department Inspector General Steve Linick is out.  Was he investigating Pompeo?  Trump never knows anything about any of it. Why are all the protectors of the rule of law thrown out?  ** Was Pompeo throwing lavish foreign policy dinners with Reba, Dale Jr. and the owners of that horrid chicken sandwich place? ** The clean water rule has been suspended which cuts protections for most of the country’s wetlands.

*****

The market facilitation program has been helping small farmers over the last few years in a $28 billion bailout. Trump’s sanctions brought this on and the corona virus has made it worse.  Mostly the money has helped bankers and bigger farms. Much like the stimulus $ that was earmarked for small business, there are loopholes that screw up the ‘rules.’ The cap is not being followed like they may say because the $ is going to “investors” in the farm and often not the actual farmer who works on a smaller scale. A small farm run by family members may not get the bailout. It seems to be more important to get a good lawyer who can manipulate the paperwork.  Sad that taxpayer $ is used this way.

*****

Just in time, the Space Force flag and plans for the super duper missile have been unveiled. WTF??

*****

Paula Poundstone is a woman I knew I liked. She was recently talking about not liking couches. I thought I was the only one, People are always telling me how much they love their couches and I don’t get it.

*****

Jeff Gibbs and Michael Moore are upset after Youtube pulled their doc, Planet of the Humans. After 8.3 million views, there was a copyright claim by Toby Smith of about 4 seconds of footage.  Now , this is not the first time that Moore has had problems with content in one of his movies.  Many have claimed there is a lot of fiction in this latest venture. I think I would just remove the possible copyright infringement and move on. It can now be seen on Vimeo.

A Florida law that restricts felon voting is found unconstitutional by a federal judge.** The RNC filed a lawsuit against California to stop mailing ballots to registered voters.

*****

R.I.P. Little Richard, Roy Horn, Jerry Stiller, Sam Lloyd, Ann Sullivan, Mike Cogswell, Michael Keenan, Shirley Knight, Irrfan Khan, Hana Kimura, Forrest Compton, Jimmy Cobb, George Floyd, Ken Osmomd, all the corona victims, Lynn Shelton, Richard Herd, Larry Kramer, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Anthony James, Fred Willard and Carolyn Busch.

[oscopelabs]

3D, Part 1: James Cameron and the Broken Promise of the Third Wave by Vadim Rizov

[Note: This essay is the first in a two-part series on 3D. Part 2, coming soon, will discuss the unexpected peak of 3D as an artistic form. —ed.]

It’s not fair to say that James Cameron ruined projection standards by pushing for a digital changeover—the industry impetus was already under way—but Avatar left less of an impression as a movie than as technological advocacy, resulting in unintended, still-lingering side effects. Cameron dreamed of 3D cinema arriving, finally, at what he viewed as its overdue narrative fruition; he couldn’t have imagined compromising projection standards or undermining film archiving in the process. This is a two-part essay: The first is a grim recap of the Third Wave of 3D, which has unfolded over the last decade. The second will advocate for a secret classic of 3D cinema at its inadvertently experimental peak.

****

The not-too-reductive standard narrative goes like this: 3D was popularized contemporaneously with widescreen in the ‘50s as half of a two-pronged initiative to lure audiences away from their TV screens by giving the theatrical experience something unavailable at home. By decade’s end, widescreen was normalized; ’60s and ‘70s one-offs excepted, 3D wasn’t. 1980’s Comin’ at Ya! kicked off its second wave, which had a similarly short lifespan. In both runs, 3D failed to transition from passing gimmick to standard filmmaking option, mostly due to the diminishing thrill of seeing things flying at you, but also due to technological flaws that made the results physically difficult to watch. This history’s a bit of an oversimplification: like sound, color, and widescreen (all of which were experimented with long before they became standard options), 3D had test-run incarnations well before its ‘50s boom. Still, this story is largely accurate. So what makes the third wave different?

Cameron’s ideal 3D would be to create totally immersive worlds, refusing to throw objects at viewers the way the first two 3D waves had done. These effects were presumably cheap grabs for attention, while Cameron was focused more on depth rather than breaking the proscenium. In a (troublesomely unattributed) quote from 2009, a collaborator summed up his approach: “There’s a scene early in [Avatar] where something jumps out of the screen. Jim said, `I just did that so that they would know I know how to do it. But then I stopped doing it because that’s not what 3D is; 3D is bringing the audience completely into the environment of the movie.’” Narrative disruption was not on the agenda; Cameron’s films have always followed conventional dramatic arcs, and Avatar has a particularly unchallenging (“archetypal”) story. This meant yoking 3D to digital projection, which would straighten out the format’s numerous problems once and for all by eliminating both the visual eyestrain and eyeline problems of watching 3D, either polarized (the default standard until digital) or in anaglyph (the infamous red-and-blue glasses format that became a stand-in image for the format, despite being relatively rare) and the double potential for error caused by an incompetent projectionist. Cameron had spent years preparing audiences—and, more importantly, the industry—for a digital conversion. In 2005, he, George Lucas, and Peter Jackson appeared at ShoWest, the trade theater convention to boost for 3D and, by association, digital projection. “I’m giving you guys plenty of warning,” Cameron said. “You’ve got two years to get ready.” His timeline was off, the larger idea was not: In 2009, 16,000 screens worldwide were digital-ready. The next year, that had shot up to 36,000.

It’s not clear digital projection is the optimal way to see Avatar; the late 3D advocate Ray Zone saw the film five times in multiple formats in its first run, concluding not only that film-based IMAX 3D (with two 70mm projectors running simultaneously) was the correct way to see the film, but that “One hint that IMAX 3-D 15/70mm was the native 3-D format for Avatar was that the new large platters would only hold two hours and forty minutes of 15/70mm film—the exact running time of the film.” Nonetheless, Avatar’s overwhelming success sped up a slow-moving push to digital conversion, which the industry had been inching towards for some time. George Lucas had some digital screenings of Phantom Menace, but locally, I remember digital first rearing its head at the arthouse—specifically Austin’s long-closed four-screen Dobie Theatre, an independent that had by then been bought by Landmark Theatres. The arthouse chain went in early for digital projectors, a bright future ushered in Windows Media Player 9. (From a press release at the time: “The film is a milestone in digital origination — a genuine work of art that takes full advantage of new technology. Windows Media 9 Series will show it in all its glory.”) “We can hear the techies in the crowd oohing and ahhing already,” The Austin Chronicle’s Marc Savlov wrote. “It'll only be a matter of time before the entire industry goes digital and the notion of scratched and blotchy film and frazzled frame adjustments will seem very quaint indeed. Progress, baby. We live for it.” My first screening in that format was Russian Ark, Alexander Sokruov’s one-take Hermitage film that would have been impossible to realize on celluloid, with its inherent time limits on how long each reel can be. That projection (the Dobie was only one of four US theaters to play it that way in the film’s initial run) made sense: digital in, digital out.

Still, the stakes of first digital conversion were relatively small; Avatar’s success upped digital’s presence significantly while coupling it to 3D. This is the part that’s different: where previous pushes for 3D worked with (extensively) modified versions of existing film hardware, this time the medium’s perfection accelerated the wholesale rethinking of film production and exhibition. Striking and shipping 35mm prints was expensive, as was paying qualified projectionists, and said prints would get beat up; the longer you waited to see a film, odds were the worse it would look. And “qualified” projectionists certainly weren’t the baseline standard by any means: I remember going to see Talk to Her improperly projected in 2002, the frame misaligned so that the bottom of the frame showed as a sliver at the top from start to finish. (Here’s a much more dramatic projection fail story from back in the day; probably everyone has at least one.) As with any new tech rollout, unforeseen problems followed: smaller theaters crowdsourced funds for new projectors or risked going out of business, digital files proved anything but foolproof in practice, a push for digital archiving placed the history of film at risk as new storage formats proved highly unstable relative to well-preserved film. (This last sentence is a heavily compressed version of what David Bordwell tracked at length in his highly recommended “Pandora’s Digital Box” series.) More succinctly, this is the first time 3D introduced a specific ghost in the machine: every time you go to a multiplex to see a movie that looks way too dark, the odds are good someone left the 3D lens on, and no one’s around who can fix it or who would even care to. What started as an attempt to perfect 3D had the inadvertent effect of undoing 2D digital projection standards.

Again, none of this is directly James Cameron’s fault. He’s just the one who helped push through a change faster than it might have been implemented otherwise. Avatar’s blockbuster breakthrough was followed the next year by Alice in Wonderland, which harvested a billion-plus dollars worldwide, making the case that it didn’t matter whether 3D was native or, as in Tim Burton’s film, post-converted. Not a year later, Jeffrey Katzenberg—another 3D booster—was already worried “the bloom was off the rose” because cynical types “thought they could just deliver a kind of low-end crappy version of it, and people wouldn't care, or wouldn't know the difference.” Five years later, Katzenberg was blunter, quoting (intentionally or not) Easy Rider to convey the extent of his disappointment: “we blew it.” 3D’s never had as big a year since 2010: its revenue has declined every year since, and production of 3D films has gone down. The technology stuck, but 3D’s potential as a normative storytelling tool remains once again questionable until further notice.

Setting aside the grim trajectory of 3D’s current wave, which has seen revenue (and audience demand) for the format decrease, it’s worth reflecting on Cameron’s original idea that 3D would add “depth” to the familiar, instead of a better brand of comin-at-ya effects. For years, whenever people would ask which 3D movies I liked, I’d say Yogi Bear. This is (not entirely) a smartass answer: obviously Goodbye to Language would be a better response, but Godard sought to dismantle all 3D’s rules one event shot at a time, and no one will (be able to) follow up on its visual inquiries. Pina made visual sense (the performers are dancing outside, depth is important), Hugo looked neat, and Tron: Legacy was a cool lightshow (though that had more to do with sheer color overload and Daft Punk’s super-loud score as rendered on the biggest speakers theatrically available, and a 3D expert friend swears it has some of the worst use of the medium he’s ever seen); otherwise, my 3D sampling has mostly been review assignments of bad-looking movies. The worst are the post-converted monstrosities. A real low here was the new Pete’s Dragon, which Disney screened in 3D: it looked extremely dark, which was predictable, but worse, a bunch of shots which were clearly shallow-focus, had all been rendered as three to four separate planes of depth, casting blurry background areas in semi-sharp relief, each shot an unintentional diorama. It was sort of possible to tell what the compositional intent was, but impossible to really envision it.

So Yogi Bear is peak 3D. Why not? At a cost of $80 million, Yogi Bear renders a depth-filled Jellystone Park entirely on par with Pandora, with all of the depth and none of the tacky colors. Both movies tell stories, both benefit from depth to spatially reconstruct a largely external environment: the differences are mostly details. In an interview Google will no longer let me find, but which I swear I remember, Cameron said only 19 shots (or thereabouts, let me hedge) in Avatar featured zero CG. These are, I presume, the shots of Jake Sully back on base; to me, they’re easily the most memorable parts of the movie, capturing the full depth of a set (and its metal walls) in a way that’s way more compelling than a fully rendered fake ecosystem . What if Cameron was wrong and 3D is, fundamentally, not just a way to enhance immersiveness but one which, when deployed in the non-CG constructed world, can recode the nuts and bolts of narrative filmmaking visual language itself? In Part II, I’ll look back at the much-derided second wave of ‘80s 3D to make the case that 1983’s Treasure of the Four Crowns, a little-regarded Raiders of the Lost Ark knock-off, is one of the format’s greatest, most progressive and inadvertently suggestive moments.

[douxreviews]

Krull (1983) Review

"In the fortress you will need more than men and swords. You will need the power of the Glaive."

Krull is a work of pure cinematic cheddar. I used to adore Krull when I was younger. It was one of those films that made those rainy Sunday afternoons stuck inside just that little bit more bearable. I still have some leftover childhood affection for it, despite all its flaws.

Everything kicks off with the most disastrous wedding since Amanda Carrington wed Prince Michael of Moldavia. The beautiful (but bland) princess Lysa is about to marry the handsome (but bland) prince Colwyn when the wedding is crashed by the Slayers, a group of wannabe Stormtroopers with equally dire marksman skills. In next to no time the guests are mascaraed, the bride abducted, the groom is mortally wounded and the band they booked for the reception is still late.

The Slayers take her back to the Black Fortress, a massive, err, fortress that changes location every morning (which must make ordering stuff off Amazon tricky). You see, their master, the unimaginatively named 'The Beast', has decided to marry this beautiful (but bland) princess. Why? I'm not sure. Best I could come up with is because she's played by Lysette Anthony. I don't know about anyone else but that's a good enough reason for me. Even if she has been dubbed by another actress.

Luckily for Lysa, her handsome (but bland) husband to be is nursed back to health by a wise old sage, who eventually sacrifices himself so that the hero can complete his quest (as you do). Soon enough they are setting off on said episodic quest to rescue the beautiful (but bland) princess from the Black Fortress. Assuming, that is, they can find it. Neither of them thinks of checking Google Maps before they leave. First stop, pick up cool super weapon. All questing heroes need a cool super weapons. Since Lightsabers are copyrighted, he'll have to settle for the Glaive. A really fancy shooting star that, for some foolish reason, will only be used once and then discarded.

Next, they need to get themselves a gang together. Questing is no fun if it is just you and some old bloke. People will assume you're a delightful gay couple on holiday for the summer. So along the way they teams up with a comedy wizard, a Cyclops (who, also, eventually sacrifices himself) and a ragtag team of bandits including Thénardier, Osker Schindler, Hagrid, Tucker Jenkins and additional canon fodder. As badass fantasy teams go, the Fellowship of the Ring have got nothing to worry about. Most of this lot will be dead by the end.

Krull suffers from the same problem as all 80s fantasy films; predictable plotting, bland characters, cheesy monsters, corny dialogue, cheap special effects, and acting that just screams 'I really fancy getting a new conservatory'. It's a film that aims big, regardless of how small its budget is. It wants to do for sword and sorcery what Star Wars did for science fiction. Obviously the filmmakers thought the best way to go about this was blatantly copying that film’s plot (Lucas can't exactly complain, he'd already swiped it off Kurasowa).

Nevertheless, there is much to enjoy in Krull. For starters, there's the sequence with Francesca Annis and the giant spider that still gives me the creeps, despite the dated effects. James Horner provides a robust, swashbuckling score. Just try and ignore how much it recycles his work on Wrath of Khan. The Glaive is an awesome weapon that the film doesn't make enough use of. And I just can't help but love any that casts someone like Alun Armstrong as its Han Solo figure. Wonderful actor through he is, Harrison Ford he ain't.

Notes and Quotes

--Lysette Anthony wasn't the only one to have their vocals replaced. Robbie Coltrane was dubbed by actor Michael Elphick.

--If I were in Colwyn's shoes, I'd just tell Liam Neeson that the Slayers took his daughter too and send him to the Black Fortress alone. The poor bastards wouldn't stand a chance.

-- Going by the surrealist interiors of the Black Fortress, the Beast must be something of a Dali fan. Could do with some comfy chairs, though.

Colwyn: "The forest is not safe. You best travel with us." Ergo: "Me travel with you? Do you know who I am?" Colwyn: "No." Ergo: "I am Ergo the magnificent. Short in stature, tall in power, narrow of purpose and wide of vision. And I do not travel with peasants and beggars. Goodbye!"

Ynyr: "There are kingly virtues other than bravery. Courtesy is one of them."

Colwyn: "The reward is freedom... and fame!" Torquil: "Freedom? We have it! And fame? Nah. It's an empty purse. Count it, go broke. Eat it, go hungry. Seek it, go mad!"

Colwyn: "Would you follow a king to the black fortress?" Torquil: "Now I know you're a lunatic. I wouldn't follow me own father to the black fortress."

Two and a half out of four Downton Abbey dvds the Beast ordered off Amazon.

Mark Greig has been writing for Doux Reviews since 2011.

[brigidoa2169alexander]

Liverpool v Spurs, /20 | Premier League

Score tottenham liverpool - Tottenham Liverpool live score, video stream and H2H results - SofaScore

Navigate to the next page next. Comments Join the conversation. To use comments you will need to other JavaScript enabled. Tottenham played a back tottneham - Really?

Against a team lacking in confidence and with a makeshift defence? Oh dear Score tottenham liverpool. Reply posted by Aoibh, at 28 Jan Aoibh Aoibh replied: I agree should have went at them from the word go. More replies 40 down.

Tottenham 1-3 Liverpool: Premier League champions end poor run

Comment posted by yourego, at 28 Jan yourego. Aoibh replied: How come mane and salad are ok then? More replies 66 down. Comment posted by Andy, at 28 Jan Andy. The better team won, Jose. You need to beat more than spurs to win you league. More replies 63 down. We have been struggling with confidence and goals. I saw the Spurs line up tonight and was quietly confident.

Mourinho is his own worst enemy. Thanks for that. Reply posted by Bileybill, at 28 Jan Bileybill. Bileybill replied: Yep agree. Score tottenham liverpool ver special from our special one More replies 6 down.

Comment posted by Elarbee, at 28 Jan Elarbee. Regarding the 'double handball' disallowed goal, if the ref is ruling that one out - surely he can't give a free kick to spurs after And why is Bale not coming on for Kane at half time?

Reply posted by sun ra, at 28 Jan sun ra. More replies 28 down. A cracker of a match. Well played Liverpool. Reply posted by Hoopsy, at 28 Jan Hoopsy. Hoopsy replied: The league isn't over yet More replies 27 top article. Comment posted by pirlosfeet, at 28 Jan pirlosfeet.

Anyone think Harry Kane injured himself while diving? Can I say Firmino was immense otherwise. Harry Winks 63'.

Dele Alli. Christian Eriksen 88'. Son Heung-Min. Brandon Austin. Jan Vertonghen. Ben Davies. Score tottenham liverpool Lo Celso 88'. Eric Dier. Tanguy Ndombele 63'.

Lucas Moura 84'. Score tottenham liverpool So Score tottenham liverpool. Top Player Stats. Match Stats. Now Playing. Harry Kane Spurs. Andrew Robertson Liverpool. Trent Alexander-Arnold Liverpool. Jordan Score tottenham liverpool Liverpool.

Goals stats. Actual match. England Premier League » Round Liverpool England In Premier League position: 7 49 points. Finished 90 '. Under 1. Under 2. Asian Handicap Check more info for this match scorers, lineup on live match center. Click here. Special offers. H2H Video. Get video code. Check our tipster competition. Check demo without register.

Create new free account Read tipsters rules. Subscribe to our newsletter with predictions for free. Submit Remove. Check today's full matches list Check our predictions page. Change team stats: All Home Away. Score tottenham liverpool Stats. Form team: Tottenham Hotspur. Last 6 matches stats 6. Half-time entertainment. Poor old Newcastle, 94 years without a title and counting. Louise Score tottenham liverpool reports on their current malaise.

A highly entertaining half. Updated at 8. It had been coming. Thaigo, Robertson and Alexander-Arnold try to find the killer pass, but the score tottenham liverpool defence stays resolute.

Thiago concedes a clumsy foul, and the pressure on Spurs is lifted. For a second, Spurs were in a spot of bother there. Now Bergwijn appears to have some sort of problem, carrying himself quite gingerly at the minute. Alisson comes right to the edge of his box to claim. Son claims the catch was made outside the area, but neither ref nor VAR shows interest.

Liverpool fly up the other end, and Mane appears to be clear down the middle. However Rodon slides in to tackle, another challenge that had to be perfectly timed. Magnificent defending. Scott Murray Thu 28 Jan Key events Show 9. Content Hotspur Liverpool Mane 65 9. Tottenham Hotspur Liverpool 9. Tottenham Hotspur Liverpool Salah 56 9.

Tottenham Hotspur Liverpool Hojbjerg 49 9. Tottenham Hotspur Liverpool Alexander-Arnold 47 8. Live feed Show. Facebook Twitter. You wait eight hours, and look! And yet Gareth Bale is nowhere to be seen. This has been score tottenham liverpool curious game from Thiago, and we should not be afraid to say that. He will surely score tottenham liverpool good but in this game he has perhaps not been at his expansive best, partly a function of a deeper role but also because he still seems to be familiarising himself with the score tottenham liverpool rhythms of the English game.

There have been moments - he was crucial in the build-up to Salah's disallowed goal - and there's no reason to not assume he won't get better quickly.

But it still score tottenham liverpool been the Thiago we hoped for tonight. Bobby's effort hits the side-netting from a tight angle. It's becoming very hard to read handballs at the moment, the ball bouncing off Dier's arm and onto Firmino's in the build-up to the goal. From there Thiago and Mane combine to tee up Salah but we're brought back for the handball far earlier in the play. Curious, but Spurs would have fumed if that goal had stood.

Tottenham Hotspur. Tottenham Hotspur vs. By James Benge. Jan 28, at pm ET 1 min read.

[aion-rsa]

Every Upcoming Blumhouse New Horror Movie For 2021 and Beyond

https://ift.tt/2Jkmo81

In just over a decade Blumhouse Productions has gone from a very smart agile indie to possibly the most significant horror production company out there. It’s slate is huge, it most quickly and cheaply, trusts in its creators and favours originality and genuine scares. Though the pandemic has meant certain release dates have had to move, or not as yet locked in, it’s clear the Blumhouse juggernaut is showing no signs of slowing. It has several film in production, with release dates set for 2021 and even more movies in various states of development.

We’ve rounded up the latest on all of Blumhouse’s upcoming horror movies. Note: we have not included TV, we haven’t included anything which is clearly not a horror and the projects which have been in development hell for many years are summarised briefly at the end. We’ll keep this updated so pop back for all your Blumhouse needs.

Image from 2013’s The Purge

The Forever Purge

Release date: 9 July 2021

This fifth installment of the The Purge franchise will reportedly be the last with creator and writer James DeMonaco promising a ‘really cool’ end to the series. This movie was originally scheduled for a summer 2020 release – filming wrapped in February 2020 – but dates inevitably shifted and now it’s aiming for Summer 2021. While DeMonaco wrote the script, the movie is directed by Everardo Gout who’s best known for his work on National Geographic series Mars. The movie stars Ana de la Reguera and Tenoch Huerta with Josh Lucas and Will Patton. 

Welcome to the Blumhouse (second batch)

Release date: 2021 tbc

This imprint which launched in October and streams on Amazon Prime will get another four installments in 2021. The series once again aims to give a platform to upcoming and underrepresented voices. The movies are:

Madres

A pregnant Mexican-American woman and her husband move to a migrant community in California where she starts to experience strange visions and phenomena. Is it the legendary curse? Or is something more sinister going on? This is a first feature from Ryan Zaragoza and stars Tenoch Huerta (The Forever Purge) Ariana Guerra, Evelyn Gonzalez, Kerry Cahill, and Elpidia Carrillo.

The Manor

Residents of a nursing home are haunted by supernatural forces in this film from Soulmate director Axelle Carolyn. Barbara Hershey stars as a woman who’s recently moved into the home following a stroke who suspects malevolent beings are at prey and needs to convince everyone around her she doesn’t belong there at all in order to escape.

Black as Night 

Teenage misfits battle vampires who are attacking New Orleans’ disenfranchised in this feature from Maritte Lee Go which sounds like it might appeal to a young female demographic as well as the usual Blumhouse fans. It stars Asjha Cooper, Fabrizio Guido, Craig Tate, Keith David, Mason Beauchamp, Abbie Gayle and Frankie Smith.

Bingo

Set among an eldery community in the Barrio of Oak Springs, Bingo sees a stubborn group of friends lead by the matriarchal Lupita who keeps them together a family, face their toughest threat yet when they discover their Bingo hall is to be sold to a powerful force. Gigi Saul Guerrero, who directed an episode of The Purge TV show and also a segment of Blum’s Into The Dark horror series takes the helm.

Halloween Kills

Release date: October 15 2021

Originally planned for October 2020, this follow up to David Gordon Green’s 2018 Halloween reboot (which was a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s 1978 Halloween) will now arrive in October 2021 to carry on the saga of Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her family in their ongoing battle with Michael Myers. The previous installment was a smart addition to the franchise dealing with themes of PTSD in the wake of what Laurie experienced as a teen so we have high hopes for this. Blum has said the movie will be “Huge” and “Intense” and will feature returning legacy characters from the original. 

Halloween Ends

Release date: October 14 2022

The third part of the reboot trilogy is planned for 2022 and will bring to a close this part of the saga. Ahead of the release of Halloween Kills it’s difficult to predict which direction part three will take us in but if IMDb is to be believed Laurie, her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and Granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) will be in a final showdown with The Shape.

Paranormal Activity 7 (as yet untitled)

Release date: 2022 TBC

Announced back in 2019, Blumhouse is supposedly planning a seventh installment to the found footage franchise, with Oren Peli the creator of the original Paranormal Activity attached to write. No plot details have been released yet and it’s possible the unexpected events of 2020 have affected plans for this. The latest in the franchise – 2015 Paranormal Activity: Ghost Dimension is the least profitable of the series but still grossed $79M worldwide from a budget of $10M.

Vengeance

Release date: 2021

This is the directorial debut of actor and comedian BJ Novak (who was one of the writers on the US version of The Office, where he also played Ryan Howard), which follows a radio host from New York (also played by Novak) who travels down South in an attempt to solve the murder of his girlfriend and discover what happened to her. The movie co stars Logan’s Boyd Holbrook as well as Ashton Kutcher and Issa Rae. The production began in March 2020 but was put on hold due to COVID19, but has started back up again and Blum says they’ve almost finished shooting what he describes as “a cool, offbeat movie”.

Five Nights At Freddy’s

Status: Pre-production

Currently in pre-production is this adaptation based on the popular horror video game franchise where a night security worker at a restaurant called Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza is terrorised by sentient and murderous animatronic characters who come alive after dark. The movie was originally optioned by Warner Bros with Gil Keenan to direct but is now with Blumhouse under Chris Columbus. Despite delays, Blum is confident this is still very much on the cards telling Inverse “”It’s still active. We haven’t quite figured it out, but we’re getting closer every day.” The videogame franchise featured several sequels and spin offs so if Blum and Columbus can make this a hit there’s every possibility for multiple sequels.

Wolfman

Status: Pre-production

After the massive success of The Invisible Man, long time Blumhouse collaborator Leigh Whannell has signed on to tackle another classic Universal monster with the Wolfman. This is one of the strangest but most exciting titles on Blumhouse’s slate with Ryan Gosling attacked to star as a man who is cursed after being bitten by a werewolf. Gosling is a massive talent, Oscar nominated twice, who is selective with his projects so we can only imagine the script must be something special. 

Mother Nature

Status: Pre-Production

Announced back in May Mother Nature marks the directorial debut of Jamie Lee Curtis herself. An eco-horror co-written by Curtis and Russell Goldman who’s head of development at Curtis’ company Comet Pictures, this is the first film in a three year first look deal Comet Pictures has with Blumhouse. Details are scant but it looks like this will be themed around climate change. “I’m 61 and my motto now is: ‘If not now, when, if not me, who?’” Curtis told EW. Well quite.

Untitled John Ridley Paranormal Thriller

Status: Pre-production

Novelist, screenwriter and director John Ridley is set to write and direct this chiller based on this article entitled ‘Project Poltergeist’ which tells the true story of a young boy who is purported terrified by supernatural occurrences in a public housing project in the 1960s. “This is an incredible true-life narrative of a young man dealing with horrors – both paranormal and racially systemic — in a community that is scarred by hate, yet ultimately brought together by hope,” said Ridley, speaking to TheWrap. “I really appreciate Blumhouse’s commitment to telling stories that seek to entertain audiences even as it challenges them.”

Patrick Wilson in Insidious

Insidious 5

Status: Pitch

It’s been ten years since the very scary first installment of Insidious, one of the franchises that really helped put Blumhouse productions on the map, and the series shows no sign of disappearing into the Further just yet. A fifth film is apparently on the cards with star Patrick Wilson set to direct. The film will focus on the Lambert family ten years on as son Dalton prepares to go to college. “We’ve had a lot of luck with first-time directors who are actors, even Jordan Peele (Get Out) or Joel Edgerton on The Gift,” Blum told Den of Geek.

Caroline Ward in Host

Untitled Rob Savage project

Status: Pre-production

Sure the defining horror movie of 2020 has to be Host, a low budget indie written, shot and released in just 12 weeks during lockdown, a Zoom horror which perfectly captured the zeitgeist. After rave reviews, Savage and his team, screenwriters Gemma Hurley and Jed Shepherd and producer Douglas Cox signed with Blumhouse for a three picture deal. In typical quick and dirty style they’ve already begun work on the first of these features, which will reportedly be scarier and more ambitious than Host. Definitely one to watch.

Untitled Dracula project

Status: Treatment

Announced back in March, Jennifer’s Body and The Invitation director Karyn Kusama is attached to another Universal Monster project – a new adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Kusama told the Kingcast podcast that it would be a fairly faithful adaptation which will lean into the idea of multiple voices and points of view to tell the story, and perhaps present a slightly different version of the Count himself. “I would just say in some respect this is gonna be an adaptation called Dracula but it’s perhaps not the same kind of romantic hero that we’ve seen in past adaptations of Dracula,” said Kusama.

Untitled The Thing Remake/Untitled John Carpenter/Blumhouse Project

Status: Pitch

January of 2020 saw rumours that Blumhouse was working on a new iteration of The Thing, based on the (relatively) recently unearthed longer version of the story the movie is based on Who Goes There?, by John W. Campbell Jr. – the longer version is called Frozen Hell. Though there are two separate entries on IMDb for this project they are clearly the same ‘Thing’ – the ‘Untitled John Carpenter/Blumhouse Project’ suggest the Halloween 2018 director David Gordon Green maybe attached.

Firestarter

Status: Script

This new adaptation of the Stephen King novel has been kicking about since 2010 but there has been some movement recently. Zac Efron has been cast in an as yet undisclosed role and Blum has promised a “faithful” adaptation. At one point Akiva Goldsman was attached to direct, then later Fatih Akin but as things currently stand The Vigil director Keith Thomas is the frame to re-tell this story about a young girl with the telekinetic power to set things on fire. There was a previous adap of this story released in 1984 starring Drew Barrymore and directed by Mark L. Lester, with a miniseries Firestarter: Rekindled broadcast on the sci-fi channel in 2002, so this sits within remake territory.

Untitled Elizabeth Moss Project

Status: Pitch

This is a proposed adaptation of Virginia Feito’s novel, Mrs. March, with Moss producing and set to star. The novel will be published in 2021 and has been likened to Shirley Jackson. According to the synopsis it follows an upper Eastside housewife “who unravels when she begins to suspect the detestable protagonist of her husband’s latest bestselling novel is based on her”. Moss’s Love and Squalor productions with partner with Blumhouse on the project

Also in development:

Blumhouse has a multitude of other projects at different stages of development many of which likely won’t ever see the light of day. Here what else has been mooted.

Mark Duplass in Creep

Creep 3

Status: Development unknown

Third part of the Mark Duplass/Patrick Brice series – reached script stage, last updated Dec 2016

Curse 

Status: Optioned

Werewolf story based on a graphic novel, optioned April 2018

Devil’s Night

Status: Development unknown

Night before Halloween story, reached script stage, last updated July 2017

Families 

Status: Development unknown

Cannibal horror, reached script stage in 2015, last updated January 2017

Fangland 

Status: Development unknown

Dracula as an arms dealer. Script in 2009, last updated March 2017.

Intruders

Status: Script

Dead Snow’s Tommy Wirkola is attached to write and direct this domestic abuse thriller, last updated May 2018.

Read more

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Invasion

Development unknown

A home invasion occurs at the same time as an Alien invasion. Script as of March 2018, last updated July 2020

M3GAN 

Status: Script

Housebound director Gerard Johnstone is attached to this story about a robot doll who develops sentience, with Get Out’s Allison Williams attached. It reached the script stage in July 2018, but no news since.

Magic Eight Ball 

Status: Script

This project about the kids’ toy has been kicking around since 2006 with the latest version of the script listed as June 2019. Currently Jeff Wadlow of Fantasy Island is attached

Sleepwalker 

Status: Script

Alexander Aja who made Switchblade Romance is listed as attached to this, though there’s been no update since September 2017

Snapshot 1988

Status: Optioned

Mike Flanagan was attached to this adaptation of a Joe Hill story, though nothing’s been updated since 2016

The Black Phone

Status: Treatment

Another planned adaptation of a Joe Hill story, with Scott Derrickson attached. No updates since the treatment in 2017 though.

The Breathing Method 

Status: Development unknown

The only story from Stephen King anthology Different Seasons not to be turned into a movie, Scott Derrickson was also attached to this, but there’s been no movement for years with the last update in May 2017.

Untitled Chris Hardwick/Blumhouse Project

Status: Pitch

Collab with comedian and actor Hardwick, no news since October 2017

Untitled Dee Rees Horror Project

Status: Treatment

Collab with Mudbound director, Rees, described as “ghost story centering on an African-American lesbian couple living in a small town”. No news since May 2017.

Untitled Jason Blum/Chris Morgan Project

Status: Script

This collaboration with producer Chris Morgan has been around since 2013, with the latest update April 2017. The synopsis reads “A group of students get in over their heads with their new technological invention.”

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The post Every Upcoming Blumhouse New Horror Movie For 2021 and Beyond appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[wigwurq]

WIG REVIEW: STRANGER THINGS 2

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last week, you already know that STRANGER THINGS SEASON 2 DROPPED AND OMGOMGOMGOMG!!!!1 It’s been a week and somehow the internet hasn’t imploded over this show so I guess it’s time to talk about the wigs. As with Twin Peaks, I’ll be reviewing each episode as I watch them and adjusting whether the season as a whole wurqs. Let’s get demogorg-going! 

CHAPTER ONE : MADMAX

The Duffer Brothers live and breathe 80s nostalgia (obvs) so we open with a rando car chase in Pittsburgh because THE 80S (if the Duffer Bros really wanted to make this 80s accurate, it should have been Detroit or Chicago - THE DEMOGORGON IS IN THE DETAILS, isn’t it?) Anyway, some rando punk burglars are staging a getaway - with the help of some chick who is basically an older, more ethnic Elle. And she’s got a #008 tattooed on her arm. DUN DUN DUN.

Back in Hawkins, it’s a year after Will and Barb (RIP) got trapped in the Upside Down and everyone is doing JUST GREAT AND DON’T HAVE PTSD LET’S JUST LISTEN TO DEVO THANKYOUVERYMUCH. Oh and go to the arcade, where we meet our wiggiest non-wig in this dude eating cheetos and creepily demanding sister dates from Mike. 

We also meet Winona Ryder’s new boyfriend, RUDY RUETTIGER (aka Sean Astin)! No wig, but dang HE LOVES MR. MOM AS MUCH AS ME. YES!

Speaking of Winona Ryder, girlfriend got a MUCH better wig than last season. I still don’t know why she needs to wear a wig at all, but I mean…sure? Clearly the wig budget is bigger than last season (if they can afford to license every song of the 80s to play during the episode, they can throw a few bucks at Joyce Byer’s mane, so amen). 

Over at the high school, Nancy Wheeler got herself a haircut! She is clearly trying to channel some Jennifer Grey action but much like her body, this hair has no body (get this girl and this hair a sandwich). 

Just sayin’…she should have had more of that KFC. Joe Keery’s epic hair remains flawless. 

We are also introduced to the major wig of this episode (and likely, this season) in the form of a mulletted new bad boy, BILLY. I love that his name is Billy in a clear homage to Rob Lowe in St. Elmo’s Fire…but only time will tell if he can wail on a saxophone. This wig is…fine? It obviously looks like a wig so already that is a negative. Also I’m guessing everything about this guy is a negative.

Meanwhile, Nancy and Mike’s mom got herself a new ‘do! Welcome to the 80s, GIRLFRIEND! Bye bye Farrah waves, hello BANGS! Mama like. Damn fine wig. Still, why are you voting for Reagan (but of COURSE you are). BOO. #GeraldineFerraro4Ever

Meanwhile, Elle lives! But of course she does. And Millie Bobby Brown got herself a PERM just as the 80s intended. 

And she’s living with Sheriff Hopper who took time out of his busy schedule of looking at “poisoned” pumpkins (which is clearly a job for Moana, duh) to take care of Elle. He got hisself a daughter and she got herself a dad! SOBBING.

CHAPTER TWO : TRICK OR TREAT, FREAK

It’s Halloweeeen and of course our favorite foursome dressed up as the Ghostbusters (and NO ONE WANTS TO BE WINSTON). Sadly, they go to the lamest school ever where no one else dresses up for Halloween. BOO indeed!

Will is still seeing some pretty effed up Upside Down visions but more scary: this poor kid had to have a bowl cut in the show and in life! This is the ultimate commitment to your art! Pure terror!

Rudy Reuttiger continues to be our favorite dad, fully committing to vampire hair and teeth and then slow dancing with Winona Ryder to “Islands in the Stream.” DREAMBOAT.

Meanwhile, Elle is getting cabin fever from watching Susan Lucci on TV all day and her hair is looking bigger and curlier than ever! Still, sorry you couldn’t go trick or treating, gurl.

Over at the most 80s teen Halloween party ever, new badboy Billy is suddenly a popular beer chugging sweaty bohunk (who listens to Ted Nugent - yep, this guy is the worst!) Also of course his new pal is dressed as the bad guy from The Karate Kid. 80s VILLAINS CONVERGE! 

 Meanwhile, Will’s older brother, a so-called purveyor of good musical taste, thinks this chick CLEARLY DRESSED AS SIOUXIE SIOUX is a member of KISS! BLASPHEME! YOU ARE DEAD TO US, JONATHAN!

Oh and Steve and Nancy OBVIOUSLY had a couple’s costume, and one of the most confusing ones EVER. It was confirmed to me later that they were Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay from Risky Business (and not Johnny and June Carter Cash as I had suspected)…but if that is true this costume is AN EPIC FAILURE. Why isn’t Steve just wearing a white shirt and no pants? Why is Nancy’s hair all bouffanted out like June Carter Cash? WHY ISN’T SHE WEARING A BLONDE WIG?!?! WIG FAILURE x100000000. BOO ON YOUR HORRIBLE ATTEMPT AT A POP CULTURAL HALLOWEEN PARTY, DUFFER BROTHERS! THE DEMOGORGON IS IN THE DETAILS! BOO ON YOU!

CHAPTER THREE: THE POLLYWOG

Dustin found a new friend in a trashcan (where all the best friends come from!) and quickly decided that he has discovered a new species which DEFINITELY WON’T MESS ANYTHING UP. Kids, amiright?

Meanwhile, it should be mentioned that Dustin’s mom is played by Netflix MVP Catherine Curtain (our favorite former guard from OITNB). This lady loves cats as much as I do and knows her way around a good Midwest mom wig. Amen.

This episode also gives us some flashbacks to explain how Elle came to live with Hopper. And we get some flashback wigs! As with all men’s wigs, this one sucks. The texture is a nightmare and the back flips up with little assist from this shearling coat.

Elle is definitely getting cabin fever and busts out to see Mike, which she does in the very 5 minutes he happens to be talking to Max (isn’t it always the way?) then totally makes Max ruin her ollie in a jealous rage and hightails it out of there. We’ve all been there, gurl.

Speaking of Max, her awful brother Billy makes some mention of her not actually being his sister . Oh god. HES NOT HER DAD, RIGHT? UGH. Also he continues his reign as a new sweaty bohunk always as he plays mullet basketball with Steve (and of COURSE he’s ‘skins’ not shirts. UGH). Also if you’re gonna be an 80s villain, I guess you should be a pro-sports 80′s villain, right? The demogorgon is in the details (I have a quota to say this once during every episode recap).

Meanwhile, through the power of 80s home video consumerism, Winona Ryder and her slightly better season 2 wig realize that Will’s effed up Upside Down visions might be for reals (thanks, wax paper!) Oh, and thanks for the terrible advice to stand up to demogorgons, RUDY REUTIGGER.

CHAPTER FOUR: WILL THE WISE

Whilst trying to stand his ground against demogorgons, Will gets possessed by one (again, way to go, RUDY!) Winona Ryder’s season 2 wig got a wurqout trying to figure out what the eff is going on with suddenly coldblooded Will and his effed up vine illustrations.

Meanwhile, Nancy and her Jennifer Grey minus the body perm and Jonathan who apparently listens to the Clash (ugh) have staged a stakeout in the most effed up public park ever and it totally worked - bitches got hauled away to Hawkins Labs immediately! There, they totally got Paul Reiser on TAPE saying some shady shit. Side note: is this show just a big commercial for RadioShack?

Back at the high school, apparently the only class is SKINS VS SHIRTS and Billy is king! His horrible mullet wig got a shower which did nothing for it but did lead to some pretty fabulous homoerotic dialogue. Ooh la la. As always, the demogorgon’s in the details.

Billy’s dried off coif looks HORRIBLE IN BACKLIGHTING - major 80s hair fail. This wig blows. Also, NICE CANADIAN TUXEDO.

Oh and Billy is a complete racist who likes to control everything his sister (?) does. Continuing in the long tradition of 80s villains who are just evil for the sake of being evil, Billy joins their lexicon. What are his motivations? WHO KNOWS?! HE’S JUST LIVIN TO BE AN ASSHOLE. Similarly, I would totally approve of this dude playing the James Spader role in a remake of Pretty in Pink. ALSO I TAKE IT BACK: NEVER REMAKE PRETTY IN PINK, PLEASE. 

In the end, Elle finds the secret file about her actual family and teleports to see her mama (SOBBING). And, as predicted, that pollywog Dustin found turns out to be a mini demogorgon who eats his cat. (DOUBLE SOBBING). I know y’all are still mourning Barb, but the death of Mews the cat might be the worst thing to ever happen on this show. RIP.

CHAPTER FIVE: DIG DUG

After Mew the cat’s tragic demise (known only to Dustin at this point), his mom continues her frenzied search for her beloved feline and her wig is as frazzled as she is. Still, Dustin’s mom is officially my favorite mom on this show not only because of her kitty love, but because she has a damn Mondale/Ferraro sign in her front lawn (and is apparently the only Hawkins resident not voting for Reagan). The demogorgon is as always in the details. #GeraldineFerraro4Ever 

Speaking of demogorgons, note to self: don’t go investigating them in a creepy vine/tunnel by yourself because you’ll probably end up being trapped there alone.

Great work, Hooper. 

Luckily Will’s art therapy home installation is about to get the cartographical analysis it needs from Rudy Reuttiger who is back in our good graces after his abysmally bad demogorgon advice. 

Winona’s season 2 wig remains shook but hopeful.

There remains to be no hope for Billy’s mullet wig, which took a brief break from skins vs shirts to drive his sister (?) to the arcade where Lucas gave her the 411 on Hawkins’ demogorgon problem. 

Speaking of truth quests, Nancy and her no-body perm is on one with the help of Jonathan and apparently their little road trip is so long that they had to spend the night in a hotel for the sole purpose of having this awkward “we’re not gonna do it” scene. Just drive through the night! You’re teenagers! 

Speaking of road trips, Elle found her mama! Buuut her mama remains to be a catatonic shell of her former self as does her hair. 

I guess if you’re catatonic, hair is the least of your problems, but this coif definitely needs some self-care. 

We do get some flashback wig action, and apparently even after having her child stolen away during a Twilight Sleep delivery, Terry Ives was looking pretty fierce in the 70s! 

Her sister, Becky, has a much bigger perm than last season and also a much bigger creepy factor. She doesn’t really question Elle’s sudden appearance or the faulty electrical work in her house, or Elle’s Poltergeist TV static communication skills. Maybe she’s just super trusting…or there is a Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? scenario afoot…

CHAPTER SIX : THE SPY

Good news: with the help of Rudy Reuttiger, Hopper got saved from the demogorgon tunnel! Bad news: Will is still possessed/his insides are burning/he has selective memory loss/he might be dying imminently. And Winona’s season 2 wig is PISSED ABOUT IT. She goes into full on Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment mode and demands Hawkins Labs fix her son. Hey, you break it, you buy it. 

Meanwhile, Nancy and Jonathan’s super unsexy roadtrip suddenly gets sexy with the help of….a rando crazy wall journalist, and ton of underage vodka drinking, and a bunker with a french-doored guest room. Beyond the inappropriateness of serving copious amounts of booze to teenagers, this creep/amateur Francis Ford Coppola impersonator also fully pimps out his pad for late-night teenage sexcapades. And the following morning has the nerve to ask Jonathan “how was the pull-out?” THIS LINE IS OFFICIALLY THE WORST THING TO HAPPEN ON THE SHOW. YUCK.

Meanwhile, Dustin has gone code red with the disappearance of his now huge pet demogorgon and the only person at his disposal to help is: Steve?!?! Sure. This is bromance is actually the perfect antidote to any Nancy/Jonathan romance grossness. Not only should these guys be bffff, but Steve shares his hair secrets with Dustin and they include Farrah Fawcett hairspray. The demogorgon is always in the details and this one is pure happiness. Never change, you guys and #TeamSteve ALL THE WAY.

Lucas finally gets the code red message and hightails it over to Max’s house for help. Max’s house is basically an extended weight gym for Billy who is pumping iron while blasting Ratt with no adult supervision in sight. ALL 80S VILLIAN STEREOTYPES CONVERGE. Also Billy’s mullet wig is getting sweatier and curlier by the episode but not any better as a wig. However, this week we get a glimpse of one dangly earring which confirms his homage to Billy in St. Elmo’s Fire. We still need for him to wail on a saxophone and make jokes about Mare Winningham’s underwear for the homage to be complete, however. Oh also, Max’s big family secret is: her parents are divorced! DUN DUN DUN. 

Anyway, back at the old junkyard, Dustin, Steve, Max and Lucas spread around a ton of raw meat and gasoline and wait and see what happens (WHAT A PLAN!) Steve, the most popular guy in high school until that sweaty bohunk Billy showed up, seems unfazed by hanging out with two nerdy middle school guys and a “random girl” but does get a little too cocky when he breaks out of the bus to confront the demogorgons hisself. Also I’m pretty sure the Duffer Bros are trying to turn Steve into Michael J. Fox this season because he’s definitely wearing the same Nike shoes he does in Back to the Future and also OF COURSE THEY ARE.  Also between Steve’s nail bat and Negan’s barbed wire bat on The Walking Dead, baseball is officially dead to me.

CHAPTER SEVEN: THE LOST SISTER

Our girl Elle who is now going by her birth name, Jane, explains to her weird Aunt Becky what she saw in her Poltergeist shapeshift into her mama’s subconscious and while weird Aunt Becky finally decides to call someone about the rando tween that showed up at her house, Elle/Jane stole some dough and booked it out of there in search of her “sister”, another stolen girl who was experimented on at Hawkins Lab. Cue your least favorite Bon Jovi song and some POV shots of Chicago at night and suddenly we’re in every 80s teen movie ever shot in a city (the city was always Chicago).

Just beyond that building from Adventures in Babysitting and some trashcan fires (the demogorgon is always in the details) she is reunited with her “sister” Kali who you might remember from Chapter One of this season and her gang of misfit PUNKS!!!!!!!! 

Basically these randos are every stereotypical punk who was featured in 5 seconds-50 minutes of any 80s teen movie. White chick with a pseudo Cyndi Lauper ‘do, oversized bow and faux prep school look: CHECK! Kinda angry black chick still rockin’ a power ‘fro and 70s military duds: CHECK! Super angry white dude with an x-treme dyed mohawk, face piercings, dog collar, and a switchblade: CHECK! Looks angry black dude in black bomber coat described as a “teddy bear”: CHECK! Ethnic chick with tons of black eyeliner, asymmetrical half-shaved hair wearing an oversized coat, combat boots and fingerless gloves: CHECKCHECKCHECK! This is a perfect assemblage of PUNKS that would fit in perfectly at the most 80s punk party EVER. The Duffers outdid themselves here. As for wig quality? I mean….it’s about as good as the hair in that punk party link so I’ll give it an amen.

But what is the deal with these PUNKS anyway? Turns out that they’re not just stealin’ stuff to buy hair products and living in a cool warehouse that could easily double for the digs on any season of Real World. Led by Kali, they track down and murder former employees of Hawkins Lab (and also steal stuff - hair products ARE VERY EXPENSIVE!) Kali helps Elle/Jane tap into her rage so that she can move stuff and whatever. Here, Elle/Jane totally moved a big train for no reason! Way to go?

Most importantly, these PUNKS give Elle/Jane a PUNK MAKEOVER! Thanks to a gallon of black eyeliner and hair gel, a pop-collared oversized coat, french-cuffed jeans and white kicks,  she magically transforms into Dave Vanian (lead singer for The Damned duh!) While she could easily use her newfound LEWK to front a cool band, she instead leads the PUNKS to one of the former labworker’s houses. 

There, the sisters in their cool duds debate whether to let this dude live or die (Elle/Jane says nope after discovering the dude has some kids). And honestly, maybe y’all should just…go start a band instead? In the end, the cops bust in on the PUNKS’ digs and Elle/Jane buses it back to Hawkins.

The internet super hated this episode for a number of reasons: it’s pointless, it feels like one of those episodes where a popular show tries to incubate a spin-off of new characters (never to be seen again!), Elle/Jane is helped by her cool ethnic sister only to leave her behind, thus fulfilling the “magical negro” trope, her sister also helps her tap into her anger to better fuel her skills only to abandon them when it counts so all in all…it’s pointless. These are all valid points and I get it but I still liked this episode because any opportunity to enjoy silly 80s PUNK stereotypes is an hour well lived. 

EPISODE EIGHT: THE MIND FLAYER

Back in Hawkins, the lab is undergoing a teeny weeny bit of trouble ever since Will’s shadow monster tricked everyone into letting all the demogorgons loose and basically everyone is maybe about to die. Winona Ryder’s season 2 wig is NOT ABOUT TO LET THAT HAPPEN so just like FIGURE IT OUT, PAUL REISER.

Paul Reiser does NOT really figure it out but Rudy Reuttiger is ON IT because he knows basic (in the computer sense that is). Pretty soon Rudy is realizing that admitting you know basic is like admitting you can type - DON’T DO IT OR YOU WILL PROBABLY BE KILLED BY A DEMOGORGON. 

Bob is absolutely killed by a demogorgon (after saving everyone!), thus fulfilling the internet’s need for Bob to be the new Barb. #RipBob #RipBarb

Meanwhile, everyone’s least favorite skins vs shirts player, Billy, is gettin’ hisself ready for a hot date (who is the lucky lady????) He sprays some random hairspray on this disgusting mullet (definitely NOT Farrah Fawcett hairspray), sprays some cologne down his pants and he’s READY! This dude’s wig looks worse every single time I see it but I do have to throw some respect this character’s way for having a TANK poster in his room (the demogorgon is always in the details). Also why does every room in this house have a fireplace?

No time for questions! Billy’s dad is home and he is every 80s villain dad combined - an abusive, violent, terribly mustachioed monster. And now we get it! Villains beget villains; violence is learned at home. It’s all a cycle. Demogorgons, please kill this dude first. 

Back at home, Winona Ryder’s season 2 wig is an EFFING MESS and so is she. Shadow monster, get out of Will already! 

The only solution seems to be making a hostage barn for Will’s Shadow Monster and we learn two important things: interrogation lighting makes Will’s bowl cut look shiny and lustrous and also Will knows morse code! CLOSE THE GATE, Y’ALL!

WHO ON EARTH CAN CLOSE THE GATE?!?!?!

Oh, right: Elle/Jane. Duh. 

CHAPTER NINE: THE GATE

Elle/Jane’s sudden appearance RIGHT AT THE PERFECT MOMENT leads to a bunch of mushy reunion hugs, all of which are delivered while Elle/Jane still has a bloody nose. If you really loved her, GIVE HER A DAMN TISSUE! Anyway, after everyone has a lot of FEELINGS, a plan is made: Elle/Jane and Hooper will go to the lab to close the gate and Winona Ryder’s season 2 wig will take Will and Jonathan to Hooper’s cabin to break Will’s Shadow Monster virus with all of the heat necessary. Sounds legit!

Steve, our new favorite character and sudden nice guy apologizes to Nancy and her new curly up-do for abandoning her drunken ass at the Halloween party and tells her to go to Hooper’s cabin with Jonathan. If this means more time for Steve and Dustin’s bromance, so be it!

Meanwhile, Nancy’s mom is taking some time out of her busy schedule of allowing her kids to disappear for days on end while she daydrinks white wine to have some ME TIME in a bubble bath reading a romance novel. Calgon, take me away! This up-do is even better than Nancy’s and the best Nancy’s mom’s wig has ever looked. Sadly, someone has the audacity to ring her doorbell just as she’s truly weewaxing and her good-for-nothing husband is out-cold sleeping in the study! UGH. WHO ON EARTH COULD BE AT THE DOOR?!

OOH-LA-LA! Don’t you love it when you’re reading about an oily bohunk and then one just shows up? And uses the dumbest line ever and asks if you’re Nancy’s sister, not mom?

I think Nancy’s mom got her groove back! Does this mean she’ll finally abandon her Reagan supporting, constantly napping older husband? Only time will tell but girl, your wig looks GOOD.

Thanks for the cookie, Nancy’s mom. Billy’s mullet still looks TERRIBLE.

Billy’s mullet then hightails it over to the Byers residence where he and Steve have a skins vs shirts rematch battle thus ensuring that Winona Ryder’s house is completely trashed at least once every season of this show. Steve puts up an admirable fight but he’s no match for Billy’s violent assholery. Also way to go doing nothing: Mike, Lucas and Dustin! The only one able to stop Billy is his sister (?) Max who sedates him with some of Will’s conveniently accessible sedatives and then threatens him with Steve’s nail bat. Max is the new Negan! All hail! Also Billy’s character never amounted to ANYTHING and we never got to see him wail on a sax so: missed opportunities all around.

Over at Hopper’s cabin, Winona’s season 2 wig is getting all kinds of swampy in the sweat lodge they’ve created to exorcise the shadow monster out of Will. What a MESS.

Meanwhile, Steve comes to in Billy’s car which is being driven by Max (and yes, we see the Indiana Jones reference, Duffer Bros!) and despite probably having a concussion from being wailed on by Billy, goes into the demogorgon vine tunnel to burn out some demodogs. This is where Stranger Things achieves peak Goonies status. 

Anyway, back at Hawkins Lab, Paul Reiser is totally still alive (yay?) and Elle/Jane is able to harness her anger just like her sister helped her to do and close the damn gate. Now will someone PLEASE GET HER A TISSUE?!

A month later, it’s Christmastime (because just like now, the 80s skips straight from Halloween to Christmas). Everyone is doing GREAT YOU GUYS. Dustin’s mom got a new cat (Mews 2.0) and he got hisself some Farrah Fawcett hairspray! Can this show actually bring back this product? I feel like it has the power to do so. 

Anyway, the hairspray of hairgod Steve transforms Dustin into THIS! YES! I have no idea why Steve drives Dustin to the Snow Ball but logic went out the window years ago with this show. I guess they just still have a bromance, which does warm my heart and #TeamSteve always.

Anyway, inside the Snow Ball, Lucas successfully dances with Max, who is wearing a striped velour shirt and burnt sienna corduroy PANTS to a semi-formal - ok gurl you officially won me over. Also some rando girl asks Will to dance and even though she calls him zombie boy, it’s nice. 

Sadly, no one wants to dance with Dustin and his duckie shoes (officially best 80s movie reference - the demogorgon is always in the details). Dustin 4Ever and all you Hawkins Middle School girls can fall into the upside down for not wanting to dance with him!

Luckily, Nancy is inexplicably chaperoning the dance and comes to Dustin’s rescue. Her up-do HAS NEVER LOOKED BETTER! Her no-body perm FINALLY GETS BODY! HALLELUJ! Also just look at the meeting of these two hairdos. Magic.

In the end, Jane (who is officially Jane now because Paul Reiser gave Hooper some official birth certificates about it - vegetable mom be damned!) shows up to dance with Mike because OF COURSE SHE DOES. Her hair is sort of a gelled down combo of curly and sleek and...ok? All these Snow Ball hair lewks are wigless anyway since no one wants Billy’s mullet to chaperone anything. And it is because of this awful mullet and Winona’s season 2 wig that I have to say.....

VERDICT: DOESN’T WURQ

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND November 8, 2019 – DOCTOR SLEEP, MIDWAY, LAST CHRISTMAS, MARRIAGE STORY and more

Well, last weekend was a thing, wasn’t it? The movie I liked the most didn’t do great, the movie I really wasn’t into did better than expected, and Terminator: Dark Fate? Yeah, that’s the end of that franchise… hopefully?

This week, there’s some good, some bad and some okay to decent. I’m probably under embargo on the two bad movies so you’ll just have to guess which is which.

Actually, I already reviewed Mike Flanagan’s DOCTOR SLEEP (Warner Bros.) over at The Beat, and my review of Roland Emmerich’s MIDWAY (Lionsgate) will probably havegone up over there by the time you’ve read this. That just leaves Universal’s holiday rom-com LAST CHRISTMAS and Paramount’s PLAYING WITH FIRE.

Doctor Sleepis the latest Stephen King adaptation, this one based on his 2013 novel that is a sequel to The Shining, the movie starring Ewan McGregor as the older Danny Torrance, Rebecca Ferguson as “Rose the Hat” and newcomer Kyliegh Curran as Abra Stone, a young girl with powers who turns to Danny to help her face Rose and her gang of roving power vampires. As you can read in my review, this one isn’t so bad, and if you’re a fan of The Shining, there’s stuff for you to enjoy even though it’s not nearly as scary.

Not sure what more I can say about Midway, other than it’s Emmerich’s version of the WWII Pacific battle with a mostly-male cast that includes Woody Harrelson, Patrick Wilson, Aaron Eckhart, Randy Quaid and many more, most of whom have done better work. Basically, I wasn’t a fan, and I’m not sure how well it will do even with Monday being Veterans Day. I’ll be curious to see how others feel about the movie.

Also, not much to say about Playing with Fire other than its John Cena doing a family comedy with director Andy Fickman, Kegan Michael-Key, John Leguizamo, the wonderful Judy Greer, and honestly, I doubt anyone who might read this column would have any interest. Put it this way, it’s no Instant Family, one of my favorite movies from last year.

In many ways, my favorite movie of the weekend is Last Christmas, directed by Paul Feig from Bridesmaids and Ghostbusters, which is indeed based loosely on the George Michael song of the same name, but it brings together Emilia Clarke with Henry Golding from Crazy Rich Asians, as well as Michelle Yeoh from Crazy Rich Asians, and Emma Thompson, who co-wrote the film.

I’ll have an interview with Feig over at Next Best Picture very soon, but here’s my short review…

Mini-Review: You know you have to be doing something right if you make a Christmas rom-com that’s able to get a Jew into the Christmas spirit while watching your movie even before Halloween, but that’s the case with this great collaboration between Paul Feig with Emma Thompson.

I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I was definitely surprised by how much I liked Emilia Clarke in the role of a fuck-up who can’t seem to find a regular living place since her roommates keep kicking her out. She works at a Christmas shop in London’s busy market owned by Michelle Yeoh, who is lovingly known as “Santa.” One night, her character Kate encounters a handsome and mysterious young man named Tom (Henry Golding), and the two become friends and then get closer.

It’s pretty amazing to see Clarke doing something we really haven’t seen her do before and that’s being funny, but she also sings in the movie and has a nature that some might deem “Manic Pixie Dream Girl”-ish. In fact, she plays an elf. (rimshot) It’s hard not to think of Zooey Deschanel in Elf as you watch Clarke spend time in her work costume but Kate is very likable and nothing like Clark’s previous roles. Golding is as charming and handsome as ever, making him come across like the new Hugh Grant, but their scenes together propel Last Christmas into a place where you really feel for both of them.

There are aspects to Last Christmas that are predictable, including a twist that’s literally spoiled in the first few minutes of the movie, but the movie is just so enjoyable overall that this can be forgiven. Even if you’re the worst Scrooge about the holidays, it’s hard not to enjoy all of the Christmas spirit permeating this movie, particularly Yeoh’s character, but it also finds a way to make you feel good about helping others during the holidays, something that I hope rubs off on anyone who sees this.

Basically, Last Christmas is a romantic comedy that’s actually romantic and very funny, as well as a great way to kick-off the holiday movie season! It’s taken some time, but Love Actually finally has a worthy successor.

Rating: 8/10

You can read more about the new wide releases over at The Beat.

LOCAL FESTIVALS

The big festival hitting New York this weekend, today in fact, is this year’s installation of DOC-NYC, which boasts 300 films and events circulating around the world of documentary filmmaking, including many World Premieres, as well as screenings of some of the year’s biggest commercial and critical hits in terms of docs.

Oddly, tonight’s Opening Night is Daniel Roher’s Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band, which was also the opening night gala of TIFF this year. I still haven’t seen it. Closing night is the NYC premiere of Ebs Burnough’s The Capote Tapes, which I also haven’t seen. The festival is giving Visionary Tribute Lifetime Achievement awards to Michael Apted, who will screen the latest in his ongoing doc series, 63 Up, as well as to Martin Scorsese, whose Netflix film Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story will screen. I actually haven’t seen too many movies in this year’s festival just cause I’ve been busy with other things, but I have seen Joe Berlinger’s The Longest Wave about windsurfer icon Robby Naish and Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe’s He Dreams of Giants, a great follow-up to Lost in La Mancha, which follows Terry Gilliam’s efforts to finally make The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Other movies include the World Premiere of Beth B’s Lydia Lunch: The War is Never Over on Saturday night, the NYC Premieres of Oren Jacoby’s On Broadway, Beth Kopple’s Desert One, Kristof Bilsen’s Mother plus many more. (On top of that, my own group, the Critics Choice Association will be announcing its own Critics Choice Documentary Awards this Sunday.)

LIMITED RELEASES

There are two can’t-miss movies this weekend, the first of them being Noah Baumbach’s latest Marriage Story, which in my opinion is the best film he’s made in his entire career, and that’s saying something. This one stars Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson as a couple going through a divorce, and if this sounds familiar, it might be since Baumbach’s 2005 movie The Squid and The Whale was also about a divorce, that of his parents. It’s hard not to think that at least some of Marriage Story might be based on Baumbach’s own divorce from actor Jennifer Jason Leigh as Driver plays a theater director and Johansson plays an actor who appears in many of his plays. The real sticking point is their 6-year-old son and the fact that Johansson’s character wants to put him in school in California where she has an upcoming job, but his father, who is about to bring his play to Broadway without his wife, wants him in New York. At first, the couple plan on divorcing without lawyers and remaining friends, but as lawyers are brought on board – played by Laura Dern, Alan Alda and Ray Liotta – things just get more vicious. Not only is this one of Baumbach’s best-realized screenplay but the performances he gets out of his cast are indelible, particularly Driver and Johansson who have a number of highly charged scenes together, including one that’s absolutely unforgettable. It’s easily one of the best movies of the year, and it will be very much in the awards race. Marriage Story opens on Wednesday (today!) in New York – at the City Cinemas (formerly the Paris Theatre) and IFC Center – in L.A. and a few other cities. It won’t debut on Netflix until December 6.

Another movie that definitely needs to be seen is HONEY BOY (NEON), written by and starring Shia LaBeouf and directed by Alma Har’el, who has previously directed documentaries and music videos. It’s loosely based on some of LaBeouf’s own experiences as a child actor dealing with a turbulent relationship with his father with Noah Jupe from A Quiet Place and next week’s Ford vs. Ferrari playing the young actor “Otis Lort” who later in life (played by Lucas Hedges) is dealing with the repercussions of an alcoholic father, played by LaBeaouf, apparently based on his own father? It’s a really amazing film that obviously was extremely cathartic for LaBeouf to write while he was going through his own rehab therapy, plus he also has singer FKA twigs making her feature film debut as an amorous neighbor of Otis who lives at the motel where he stays with his father. I’m not going to say too much more about the film other than it’s extremely powerful and emotional

There are a couple decent docs opening this weekend, the one I recommend first and foremost being Roger Ross Williams’ THE APOLLO, which will open at the Metrographafter opening this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. It’s an amazing look at the landmark Harlem theater that’s made so many careers over the years from performers like Aretha Franklin and James Brown, combining amazing archival footage with new interviews.

I haven’t gotten around to seeing Lauren Greenfield’s new documentaryThe Kingmaker (Showtime), which will open at the Quad Cinema in New York before it airs on Showtime, but this one is about the political career of Imelda Marcos, the Philippines’ first lady who became almost more famous than her President husband Ferdinand, mainly for her collection of shoes.

Samuel Bathrick’s doc 16 Bars opens at New York’s Village East Cinema and in L.A. next Friday. It follows Arrested Development’s “Speech” Thomas as he works with in mates in a Virginia jail to write and record original music as part of their rehabilitation.

Netflix is also releasing Despicable Me co-creator Sergio Pablos’ animated film Klaus in theaters this Friday in advance of its worldwide streaming debut on Netflix on November 15. It features Jason Schwartzmann as the voice of Jesper, a spoiled rich kid son of the postmaster who is sent to a frozen island in the Arctic circle where he finds allies in a local schoolteacher (voiced by Rashida Jones) and meets a mysterious carpenter named Klaus (voiced by J.K. Simmons).

Opening at New York’s Cinema Village is Joel Souza’s CROWN VIC (Screen Media) starring Thomas Jane as a veteran cop with Luke Kleintank (also in Midway) as his rookie cop who are looking for a missing girl and hunting two cop killers in Los Angeles. It also stars Bridge Moynihan.

Nicolas Cage stars in PRIMAL (Lionsgate) as Frank Walsh, a hunter and collector of rare and exotic animals who catches a rare white jaguar, except that the ship taking his cargo also includes a political assassin being sent to the U.S. who breaks free and lets the jaguar loose. So this is like Life of Pi only with more Nicolas Cage? It also stars Famke Janssen, Kevin Durand and Michael Imperioli and opens in select cities asnd On Demand.

Similarly, Danger Close (Saban Films) will be in theatrs, On Demand and Digital, this one starring Travis Fimmel (Warcraft) as Major Harry Smith in Kriv Stenders’ war movie, written by Stuart Beattie. It follows Smith as he takes a group of 108 young soldiers from Australia and New Zealand into the Battle of Long tan against 2,500 Viet Cong soldiers. I guess this is an alternative to Midway for Veterans’ Day?

STREAMING AND CABLE

Debuting on Netflix is Luke Snellin’s holiday rom-com Let It Snow, starring Isabela Moner (Dora and the Lost City of Gold), Odeya Rush, Shameik Moore and Liv Hewson as a group of high school seniors in a Midwestern town who are snowbound on Christmas Eve. It’s based on a book by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle.

REPERTORY

Let’s get to some old(er) movies, starting with the Metrograph in New York, who begins a series with filmmaker Noah Baumbach in Residence in conjunction with the release of Baumbach’s latest and greatest, Marriage Story. Besides screening Baumbach’s own 1995 film Kicking and Screaming, 2005’s The Squid and the Whale and 2007’s Margot at the Wedding, Baumbach will present screenings of Spike Lee’s Crooklyn (1994) on Saturday, Eric Rohmer’s Pauline at the Beach (1983), which inspired Margot with more movies to come between now and November 22. The Metrograph also continues its Welcome To Metrograph: Redux series with Shunji Iwai’s 2001 film All About Lily Chou-Chouon Thursday and again on Saturday. This weekend’s Playtime: Family Matinees is Steven Spielberg’s 1981 classic Raiders of the Lost Ark, while Late Nites at Metrograph  will screen Bong Joon-wo’s The Host on Thursday through Sunday, way too late for this old man. You’ll also have another opportunity to see Hitchcock’s 1971 thriller Frenzy on Thursday night.

TheFilm Forumwill be screening Yasujirô Ozu’s 1957 film Tokyo Twilight in a new 4k restoration starting Friday, as well as bringing back his 1953 film Tokyo Story, as well, continuing from the Shatamachi series which ends Thursday. The Forum is also screening Henry King’s 1949 movie Twelve O’Clock a few more times this weekend, and on Sunday and Monday, it will screen Rowland Brown’s 1933 film Blood Money. This weekend’s Film Forum Jr. is George Lucas’ American Graffiti.

The IFC Center is gonna be pretty busy with Doc-NYC (see above) but its Waverly Midnights: Spy Games offering will be Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) and Late Night Favorites: Autumn 2019 will screen Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (one of my favorites).

Opening at the Quad on Friday is a 4k 20thAnniversary restoration of Joan Micklin Silver’s A Fish in the Bathtub, starring real-life husband-wife comedy duo Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara. The 1999 comedy from the director of Hester Street and Crossing Delancey is about a woman who finally had enough with her stubborn husband so she moves in with her married son (played by Mark Ruffalo!!!), driving him crazy enough to convince his sister (Jane Adams) to try to repair the relationship.

The Roxy Cinema will be screening Valley Girlo n Weds and  Alan Parker’s 1984 film Birdy on Thursday, both starring Nicolas Cage, and the 1979 film Draculastarring Frank Langella on Saturday.

Uptown at Film at Lincoln Center, they’re kicking off a short series called Jessica Hausner: The Miracle Worker, including a sneak preview of her sci-fi thriller Little Joe, and showing her earlier films Amour Fou, Hotel,Lourdes, Lovely Ritaand a bunch of shorts.

MOMA continues Modern Matinees: Iris Barry’s History of Film and Vision Statement: Early Directorial Works, the latter showing Sebastian Silva’s The Maidon Wednesday evening, Jane Campion’s The Piano on Thursday, Debra Granik’s Down to the Bone on Friday, John Cassavetes’ Shadows(1959) on Saturday and Kelly Reichardt’s Old Joy (2006) on Sunday, as well as Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days.

The Alamo Drafthouse in Brooklyn will show Tom Hanks’ The ‘Burbs on Thursday night in conjunction with Rotten Tomatoes, then next Monday’s Fist City is America Ninja 2: the Confrontation from 1987, Terror Tuesday is one of my favorites, Final Destination 3 (2006) and Weird Wednesday is the 1984 film Decoder.

Out in Astoria, the Museum of the Moving Image will screen Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers (1997) on Saturday as part of its ongoing “No Joke: Absurd Comedy as Political Reality” series. Friday night, its showing Godfrey Reggio’s 1982 classic Koyaanisqatsi, introduced by Ramell Ross as part of his “Some Other Lives of Time: Subjective Spaces for Nonfiction” series. I have no idea what that means. MOMI is also showing Vassilis Douvilis’ The Homecoming as part of “Always on Sunday: Greek Film Series,” which apparently has returned after a six-month hiatus.

Out in L.A., Tarantino’s New Beverly has been showing double features of Jackie Brown with Lewis Teague’s 1980 film Alligator, and no, I don’t know the connection either. Friday’s horror matinee is David Cronenberg’s The Brood while the midnight movies are Pulp Fiction on Friday night and Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence on Saturday night. The Kiddee Matinee is one of my faves, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and then Monday’s matinee is James Mangold’s Cop Land, starring Sylvester Stallone. Next Tuesday’s wacky triple feature is Stunts, Walking the Edge and The Kinky Coches and the Pom-Pom Pussycats. Now THAT is what I call a triple feature...

The Egyptian Theatre is showing Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman in a limited engagement but on Saturday, it will show Raoul Levy’s Hail, Mafia! (1965) as part of “Joe Dante’s 16mm Spotlight” with Mr. Dante in person. Over at the Aero, they’re having a series called “All the Right Stuff: The Artistry of Phillip Kaufman with the director in person and double features of Raiders of the Lost Arkand The Wanderers on Friday, Invasion of the Body Snatchers/The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid on Saturday and The Unbearable Lightness of Being on Sunday (with Juliette Binoche)!

The Friday midnight at Landmark’s Nuart Theater is the anime classic Akira.

Next week, James Mangold’s Ford vs. Ferrari takes on Elizabeth Banks’ Charlie’s Angels and Bill Condon’s The Good Liar, starring Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren.

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Frankfurt 0-0 Arsenal LIVE: Score, Unai Emery makes SEVEN Europa League changes | Football | Sport

FRANKFURT 0-0 ARSENAL

Frankfurt XI: Trapp, Abraham, Hasebe, Hinteregger, Da Costa, Kamada, Kohr, Sow, Kostic, Silva, Dost

Arsenal XI: Martinez, Chambers, Luiz, Mustafi, Kolasinac, Torreira, Xhaka, Willock, Smith Rowe, Saka, Aubameyang

Unai Emery makes even changes from Watford draw

FRANKFURT 0-0 ARSENAL

30: Chance! Great counter-attacking football from Arsenal with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang driving down the left channel. He clips the ball over to the advancing Joe Willock, who loses composure and leathers it high.

Frankfurt vs Arsenal LIVE: Europa League score, goals, highlights and updates (Image: GETTY)

Frankfurt vs Arsenal LIVE: Europa League score, goals, highlights and updates (Image: GETTY)

27: I don’t want to use David Luiz as a punching bag – but he’s looking vulnerable. The centre-back completely misjudges the flight of a Frankfurt corner – allowing Hinteregger to chest it down and leather one at goal. Blocked.

24: Arsenal are creaking now as Frankfurt continue to boss things here. Emiliano Martinez keeps Arsenal in it when making a fine save from Filip Kostic, who struck a firm effort having beaten Calum Chambers for the umpteenth time today.

Frankfurt vs Arsenal LIVE: Europa League score, goals, highlights and updates (Image: GETTY)

21: Chance! Frankfurt should have the lead. Kostic strolls in down the left and angles his run towards goal only to fire high and wide. Andre Silva then sits Calum Chambers on his backside with a nifty turn before winning the corner. This place is going mad, just imagine if they actually scored!

18: Injury concern for Arsenal with Lucas Torreira in agony. He strides to meet a through pass from Saka and looks to have twisted his ankle when jumping over goalkeeper Trapp. Fallen very awkwardly.

He’s getting booed by the Frankfurt supporters, who aren’t exactly sympathetic. Oh… he’s fine. Miraculous recovery…

Frankfurt vs Arsenal LIVE: Europa League score, goals, highlights and updates (Image: GETTY)

15: Frankfurt get away with one as Sow gifts the ball to Saka in midfield. The teenager runs at goal but delays the pass to Aubameyang, who can’t find a way past Hasebe. Good opening not taken advantage of.

13: Silva has a pop from distance having been afforded far too much space by David Luiz. The striker doesn’t need a second invitation to fire wide of the target.

Hinteregger earns an early booking for tugging back Chambers. Silly.

10: How’s that for a stat. Half of Arsenal’s starting XI have played in the Bundesliga. Don’t ask me to go through them all – it’ll take me far too long.

I also can’t hear myself think with these Frankfurt supporters. They haven’t stopped signing since about 5pm. I wonder if they offer a discount to anyone sitting behind one of the nine giant flags they are holding…

Frankfurt vs Arsenal LIVE: Europa League score, goals, highlights and updates (Image: GETTY)

7: Slow-burner? Did I really say that?! Well things have burst into light now as Lucas Torreira squanders an absolute sitter.

Bukayo Saka sends a delightful cross in from the left to an unmarked Torreira, who arrives to balloon it miles into the stands from five-yards out. Should be 1-0 to the Arsenal.

5: First shot of the evening falls to Djibril Sow. He arrives on the edge of the area to crack a first-time effort straight at Emiliano Martinez.

3: How have things started? Very slowly indeed. Lots of huff, puff and tackling – not much fluency, chances or even completed passing. We’ll call it a slow-burner.

FRANKFURT 0-0 ARSENAL

1: Right then, the long and winding road to the Europa League final starts now. It’s a hard journey – but it’s worth it. Just ask Chelsea, who lost at home to Valencia… OK, that didn’t work, but you know what I mean.

Frankfurt vs Arsenal LIVE: Europa League score, goals, highlights and updates (Image: GETTY)

Europa is massive for Arsenal

17:50: BT Sport pundit Owen Hargreaves: “I think the Europa League is massive for both of them [Manchester United and Arsenal]. They’ve fallen behind Manchester City and Liverpool, they have.

“The fact of the matter is this competition I think for both teams is, in a way, must win. I don’t see either of them finishing in the top four the way they’re currently playing. So I think the best way to get in there is this competition.

“I think for Arsenal, with all the players they have, can they find a way to win this competition? They probably have one of the best squads in the competition.”

Frankfurt vs Arsenal LIVE: Europa League score, goals, highlights and updates (Image: GETTY)

Frankfurt fans…

17:40: Not much to write in this update, other than these Frankfurt supporters are completely committed and certifiably insane.

A quick Google search led to hundreds of videos of supporters shaking stadiums, taking 12,000 fans away for a group stage game against Bordeaux and removing seats in protest of not being able to stand.

To say a hostile atmosphere is expected inside the 51,500 capacity Commerzbank-Arena would be an understatement.

Twitter round-up

Ally: Wow Aubameyang starts this match after playing for 90 mins in all our games. Meanwhile, Ozil is rested after just playing 70 mins.

Dan: Ozil being rested is a terrible decision. If anything the man needs more minuets. Definitely not match fit and we won’t see the best of him until he gets back into the swing of things.

Ire: Betting companies need to have an option to bet on Ozil getting “rested”… Cuz based on the last 2 seasons, that’s a pot of gold.

I suspect that’s why they don’t have a market for that, Ire…

Frankfurt vs Arsenal LIVE: Europa League score, goals, highlights and updates (Image: GETTY)

Ozil rested…

17:25: Yep, one 70-minute appearance and Mesut Ozil deserves a rest. Sounds about right.

The German playmaker made his first appearance of the season against Watford on Sunday. The 30-year-old missed the start of the season after being targeted by carjackers and because of illness.

“Really the first match he played on Sunday, he played well and was good physically,” Emery said.

“Now he is ready to help us, not tomorrow but on Sunday – we are going to play another match and tomorrow we are thinking to do some rotation.”

Frankfurt vs Arsenal LIVE: Europa League score, goals, highlights and updates (Image: GETTY)

Predictions

17:15: Frankfurt have a fun game on their Twitter feed. The randomly generated scorelines stop when you click on it – revealing your prediction.

Mine, as you can see, says it’ll be 5-4 in favour of Arsenal tonight. Just checked and it’s 200/1 on Betfair. Easy money I reckon.

Another tweet Frankfurt sent out read: “Dear Arsenal fans, a warm welcome to the Frankfurt City Forest for the first group match of the 2019/20 Europa League campaign. We are very pleased to be able to greet you in our wonderful stadium. Let’s enjoy an exciting and fair European cup tie together!”

Awwww, aren’t they nice.

Frankfurt vs Arsenal LIVE: Europa League score, goals, highlights and updates (Image: TWITTER)

Elsewhere…

17:10: Arsenal aren’t the only British representative in action this evening – not by a long shot.

Celtic are also in the strange, silly and unnecessary 5:55pm slot. Neil Lennon’s side travel to France for a tricky clash with Rennes.

Later tonight Manchester United welcome Astana to Old Trafford, Feyenoord travel to Steven Gerrard’s Rangers and Wolves host Braga.

Frankfurt vs Arsenal LIVE: Europa League score, goals, highlights and updates (Image: GETTY)

Twitter round-up

James: Shkodran Mustafi x David Luiz is the most ambitious crossover event in history.

Boom: David Luiz and Shkodran Mustafi paired together for a Europa Group Stage match away at Frankfurt. What could possibly go wrong?

Jack: Shkodran Mustafi, David Luiz AND Calum Chambers. Sounds like Unai Emery wants a sweet payoff and few months off.

We’re one Mike Dean officiating away from complete and utter comedy tonight.

Team news – Frankfurt

16:50: I’ve no idea how many changes Frankfurt have made – but I know there’s no sign of Luka Jovic, Ante Rebic or Sebastien Haller.

All three of last season’s heroes have been sold to Real Madrid, AC Milan and West Ham for well over £100million.

There’s still more than a couple of threatening players in Frankfurt’s ranks with Bast Dost, Andre Silva and Filip Kostic all starting.

Frankfurt XI: Trapp, Abraham, Hasebe, Hinteregger, Da Costa, Kamada, Kohr, Sow, Kostic, Silva, Dost.

Subs: Ronnow, N’Dicka, Falette, Fernandes, Joveljic, Chandler, Paciencia.

Frankfurt vs Arsenal LIVE: Europa League score, goals, highlights and updates (Image: GETTY)

Team news – Arsenal

16:45: Unai Emery has made seven changes from the trip to Vicarage Road.

The four survivors are Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Granit Xhaka, Sead Kolasinac and David Luiz, the latter presumably a punishment for conceding that late penalty.

Elsewhere Emiliano Martinez starts between the sticks with Calum Chambers at right-back with Shkodran Mustafi partnering Luiz in the middle.

There’s starts for youngsters Joe Willock, Emile Smith Rowe and someone I’ve been hugely impressed with – Bukayo Saka.

Frankfurt vs Arsenal LIVE: Europa League score, goals, highlights and updates (Image: GETTY)

Starting XI…

16:40: Well… Unai Emery has certainly made changes from the side who drew with Watford on Sunday. What a game that was… for the neutral.

Arsenal XI: Martinez, Chambers, Luiz, Mustafi, Kolasinac, Torreira, Xhaka, Willock, Smith Rowe, Saka, Aubameyang.

Subs: Leno, Ceballos, Maitland-Niles, Pepe, Nelson, Guendouzi, Martinelli.

Afternoon

16:35: The return of Thursday evening football… how I’ve missed you.

That’s right, folks. Europa League action returns to our screens with an unusually exciting opener. And I mean that in the nicest possible way.

Usually it’s someone like Astana, Qarabag or Ludogorets – but tonight Arsenal must travel to Bundesliga outfit Frankfurt.

Frankfurt’s Commerzbank-Arena is an absolute cauldron. I remember last season against Chelsea they had flares, terrifying flags and even dismantled the seats.

This will not be a walk in the park.

Frankfurt vs Arsenal LIVE: Europa League score, goals, highlights and updates (Image: GETTY)

FRANKFURT vs ARSENAL – TEAM NEWS

Arsenal continue without striker Alexandre Lacazette, who is sidelined until October with an ankle injury.

Full-backs Hector Bellerin and Kieran Tierney have resumed training but haven’t made the trip to Germany. Rob Holding is in line for a first appearance for nine months.

Serbia winger Filip Kostic and midfielder Mijat Gacinovic are expected to be available for last season’s Europa League semi-finalists.

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