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Hollywood blockbusters don't get more gleefully unhinged than John Woo's "Face/Off." Produced during the decline of a maximalist action-filmmaking phase that began at the dawn of the Reagan era, Woo wisely cast two of the most fearlessly over-the-top actors on the planet to hard-sell the film's absurd premise. The result was a gonzo classic that left many of the genre's practitioners scrambling to conceive of something, anything, wilder than the notion of a cop (John Travolta) infiltrating the crime syndicate run by the madman (Nicolas Cage) who killed his son by having the criminal's face grafted onto his -- oh, and when the bad guy unexpectedly rouses from his coma, he undergoes the same procedure to pose as the cop.

This is madness, which means you either make this movie with Travolta and Cage, or you don't make it at all.

Both actors were at the height of their powers in 1997. Two years prior, Cage had earned a Best Actor Oscar for his shattering performance as a suicidal alcoholic in Mike Figgis's "Leaving Las Vegas," while Travolta had reinvigorated his career as a hitman with tragically nervous bowels in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction." They would eventually veer off into garish self-parody, but before they did they got to essentially parody each other in Woo's film. It's a blast to watch, but, according to Travolta, he had a much easier go of it than Cage.

You Be Me For A While, And I'll Be You

In an interview with Build, Travolta acknowledges that he had no idea if his appropriation of Cage's demeanor was going to play in an emotionally believable way: 

"I often wondered if it was working. It was Joan Allen and Nic that assured me that it was. I knew it was a very bold thing to try to pull off: us being each other. We don't look exactly alike, and we don't behave at all like each other." 

Fortunately for Travolta, Cage has an unmistakable way of being. You know this if you've watched "Face/Off" several hundred times like a rational cinephile, but you should still click through to the above-linked video to watch Travolta effortlessly nail Cage's affectations a good 20 years after completing the film. It's uncanny.

Cage had the far trickier assignment of being Travolta. "Most of the other things I ever played were very far from who I am as a person," says Travolta. Eager to help his co-star, Travolta offered up a bit of advice. "I said, 'If you really want to find me, maybe look at movies like 'Phenomenon' or 'Michael' or 'Look Who's Talking,' where it's a little more like my personality.'" Cage clearly took this to heart. How else to explain why Travolta's blowing him off the screen for most of the film. It's not that Cage is giving a poor performance. Far from it. He keeps us fully invested in the righteousness of Travolta's character, so that, when they finally switch back, we're legitimately moved by this deeply tortured man going home to his wife and family -- with a replacement son to boot! But Travolta is obviously having more fun.

The Re-Caging Of Travolta

"Face/Off" is a slightly melancholy watch nowadays because, aside from his spot-on portrayal of, essentially, Bill Clinton in "Primary Colors," Travolta has spent the majority of the 21st century selecting projects that are unworthy of his immense talent. Cage, on the other hand, has just worked consistently, likely due in some part to his financial woes. But while he's made a good deal of what we used to call direct-to-video dreck, he can still completely disappear into a part when the material is worthy of him (as he did most recently in "Mandy" and "Pig"). Maybe Travolta needs to tap back into that Cage juju, sans facial replacement surgery, and see if he can't get inspired to give his first truly great performance in well over a decade.

Read this next: 17 '80s Action Movies You Definitely Need To See

The post Why John Travolta Thinks He Had An Easier Time On Face/Off Than Nicolas Cage appeared first on /Film.

23-year old Phillip Carroll of Maryland survived falling into the crater at Mt. Vesuvius after dropping his cellphone during the daring act. Apparently, in true American Tourist fashion, Carroll and his family had hiked to the crater along a closed trail through a forbidden area. — Read the rest

"They said the world would end in 2036, but they were wrong. The world ended a long time ago," Jade Wesker (Ella Balinska) tells us. She sounds pretty pissed off, but she has every right to be. The world technically hasn't ended, but most of the planet has been overrun by a virus that makes covid look like a walk in the park. A global breakout of the t-virus has turned civilians into blood-thirsty creatures who want nothing more than to tear into flesh. As the spectacular opening sequence of Netflix's "Resident Evil" shows us, the effect of the t-virus is even more devastating when animals are infected, often turning creatures into super-sized, and super-powered, versions of themselves.

The show, the latest adaptation of the hit video game series, unfolds over two timelines: one in 2036, where Jade is battling to survive an apocalyptic world, and desperately trying to research the infected to try and figure out how to eradicate the virus. The second occurs 14 years earlier, just three months before the breakout, when a young Jade (Tamara Smart) and her sister Billie (Siena Agudong) move to New Raccoon City with their father Albert Wesker (Lance Reddick). Albert is one of the highest-level employees at the all-powerful Umbrella Corporation, a company that finds itself in need of image rehabilitation after the tragic outcome of the original Raccoon City. Their solution lies in a new pharmaceutical: Joy, which promises to rid people of things like anxiety and depression and change the world in a positive way. As you can likely infer from the world imminently crumbling, the rollout of Joy does not go as planned.

"Resident Evil" is one of the most recognizable names in entertainment and a hugely successful horror franchise. Since the first video game was released in 1989, countless other "Resident Evil" games have followed, and there's even a six-film series starring Milla Jovovich that grossed over $1 billion at the box office. There's a heck of a lot of lore and stories readily available for a television series, but this new Netflix series tells a new story that both longtime franchise devotees and newcomers alike can enjoy. It of course borrows some familiar elements, largely things like the Umbrella Corporation, Raccoon City, the t-virus, and the one and only Albert Wesker, so those with previous "Resident Evil" knowledge can probably see what's coming a bit clearer, but the series is sure to pack some surprises.

High Production Values, Medium Storytelling

Thankfully, "Resident Evil" looks great. Post-apocalyptic films and shows are so often caked in a dreary, dusty greyness, but the production design is impressively varied. The show isn't afraid to use color, boldly using hues of blues, browns, and especially reds to keep things visually enticing. The earlier timeline in New Raccoon City is also wonderfully designed. Everything from the Wesker family home to the high school to the Umbrella headquarters is overwhelmingly white, creating an eerie, sterile feel that perfectly fits the idea of the Umbrella Corp-designed city.

What's most important when it comes to the world of "Resident Evil" is the monsters. I'm thrilled to report that the makeup and visual effects are really impressive, and the creatures that lurk in the show are legitimately menacing. There's a particularly massive monstrosity in the show's opening sequence that's actually jaw-dropping, and various creepers through the show feel believable. And "Resident Evil" isn't afraid to show the blood-soaked havoc and violence these monsters are capable of. The zombies are also positively grotesque, and what's really impressive is the individuality amongst the hordes, which goes a long way in building authenticity.

You may expect a show based on a horror video game franchise to be all about spooky violence, but "Resident Evil" is seriously devoted to world-building and storytelling. In 2036, Jade is tormented by what happened to both her sister and father during the outbreak, the reality of which is kept extremely close to the writers' chests — halfway through the series, their outcome is still very much a mystery. 

It's a difficult balance to maintain, as a number of moments in the later timeline are wonderfully choreographed and exciting, and it's where most of the entertainment value in "Resident Evil" lies. Most of our time, however, is spent in the past, where things develop ... slowly. The show is trying to build up an expansive world rife with nasty corporate maliciousness, conspiracy theories, and medical jargon, and while that's all alarmingly relevant these days, it's not doing anything especially new. The whole greedy corporation thing feels particularly derivative, and while its critiques are valid, it all feels derivative.

A Bingeable Thriller

Fortunately, the performances are strong: Agudong really nails the moodiness of burgeoning teenage years, and Smart is a joy in a forceful charismatic performance as she comes to terms with what's about to happen to the world and her father's implications in it. And speaking of their father, Reddick is wonderful as Albert Wesker, torn between his role as a father and scientist, whose quiet, brooding intensity is highlighted in a spectacular moment at the high school principal's office. Balinska is strong as the adult Jade, showcasing an impressive physicality and no-nonsense ass-kicking of a great action star, but the vast majority of the character's development comes through her childhood self, leading our main character to feel a bit too thin at times. The talents of these performers are just enough to make the show still feel entertaining even when the plot starts to drag a bit, allowing a bit of forgiveness when some significant logical leaps occur to keep things going.

While "Resident Evil" really nails the action sequences and some chilling character designs, it's surprisingly light on these pivotal moments. It's a shame, as it's the best part of the show, and when things kick into full gear it feels as if the show could truly be one of 2022's great television offerings, but the thrills are too few and far between. Considering it's a horror franchise, it's also really light on genuine terror — it frequently fails to reach the dread-inducing heights of Mr. X jumpscares or walking around the mortifying house in "Resident Evil 7," and frankly, never comes close. Things do eventually pick up when it comes to some sweet fights and buckets of gore, but it really shouldn't take such a long time to really start cooking.

Despite some pacing issues and a generally unremarkable story, there's a lot of fun to be had watching "Resident Evil." It looks terrific and a lot of the characters are interesting, and when things get violent, the thrills are palpable. Things slowly ramp up over these four episodes, so here's hoping that the second half of this eight-episode season revels in what makes "Resident Evil" such a beloved franchise — endless, shocking terror, great characters, and a whole lot of grotesqueries.

"Resident Evil" hits Netflix on July 14, 2022.

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The post Resident Evil Review: Strong Action and Monstrous Creatures Elevate the Latest Adaptation of the Video Game Series appeared first on /Film.

At a time when our country -- and, in fact, the world -- seems to be more bitterly divided than ever, perhaps one piece of pop culture-related news will manage to bring us all together in shared celebration. The only sticking point is that it has to do with statues of fictional meth kingpins (naturally).

The "Breaking Bad" phenomenon wasn't that long ago, all things considered, especially with the prequel/spin-off series "Better Call Saul" currently wrapping up its acclaimed run with its sixth and final season. But part of me can't help but wonder how the original show would've been received if it only aired within the last few years. For one thing, I simply can't imagine that its notoriously slow start (until its availability on Netflix, which allowed most of its target audience to catch up ahead of the final few seasons) would've remained as such in our current streaming era. Perhaps most dramatically, however, I believe Bryan Cranston's Walter White and Aaron Paul's Jesse Pinkman would've been meme'd into oblivion and turned into folk heroes by the internet at large ... even more so than they already have been in the intervening years.

Some seem to be taking that "folk hero" aspect a little more literally than others, as it turns out. Sony Pictures announced (via Collider) that they will be unveiling a pair of new statues commemorating the criminal exploits of Walt and Jesse in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where "Breaking Bad" (and "Better Call Saul," for that matter) was originally filmed and set. I, for one, welcome our new meth overlords.

Statues, B****!

From jilted high school chemistry teacher and aimless high school dropout (respectively) to fearsome drug kingpins forever immortalized in bronze -- what a journey for Walt and Jesse, folks.

Sony Pictures announced the incredibly entertaining news that Heisenberg himself and his right hand man (and sometimes foe) Jesse Pinkman will both receive statues of their own on July 29, 2022, outside the Albuquerque Convention Center to honor the prolific series and its two unforgettable protagonists. Why make such a public display of a pair of fictional (and, honestly, quite despicable) criminals? Honestly, the better question would be why not? In a statement, co-creator Vince Gilligan had this to say about the upcoming event:

"Over the course of fifteen years, two TV shows and one movie, Albuquerque has been wonderful to us. I wanted to return the favor and give something back. These larger-than-life bronzes of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman exist thanks to the generosity of Sony Pictures Television and the artistry of sculptor Trevor Grove, and I love them. It makes me happy to picture them gracing The Duke City for decades to come, attracting busloads of tourists."

In a joint release, both Cranston and Paul joked, "We also appreciate that the statues will be indoors, and therefore protected from pigeons depositing their critiques on our heads." The duo will be in attendance at the official unveiling alongside Gilligan, co-creator Peter Gould, Mayor Tim Keller, and other guests. There's no word on exactly what these statues will look like, but here's hoping we get Jesse's memorable "Magnets!" pose (which, if you ask me, puts Rocky's famous statue to shame) alongside Walt's legendary "What are you talking about?" expression.

Read this next: The 12 Best Characters In Better Call Saul Ranked

The post Albuquerque to Get Statues of Local Heroes Walter White and Jesse Pinkman appeared first on /Film.

Microsoft today became the latest Big Tech company to cut jobs during a period of mounting economic uncertainty. Bloomberg reports that the Redmond firm is "realigning business groups and roles" after the close of its fiscal year (on June 30), even as the company intends to grow its headcount in the coming months. From a report: The layoffs reportedly affect less than 1% of Microsoft's 180,000-person workforce and follow no clear pattern with respect to geography or product division, touching on teams including customer and partner solutions and consulting. They come after Microsoft slowed hiring in the Windows, Teams, and Office groups while assuring that recruitment hadn't been affected by industry headwinds. "Today we had a small number of role eliminations. Like all companies, we evaluate our business priorities on a regular basis, and make structural adjustments accordingly," Microsoft told Bloomberg in an emailed statement. "We will continue to invest in our business and grow headcount overall in the year ahead." Microsoft reported strong earnings in Q3, with a 26% year-over-year increase in cloud revenue and overall revenue of $49.4 billion. But in early June, the company revised its Q4 revenue and earnings guidance downward, citing the impact of foreign exchange fluctuations.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

For a show that delights in the carefully constructed minutia of process and subtlety and patience, perhaps no actor in the sprawling and immensely talented ensemble cast better represents the ethos of "Better Call Saul" than Rhea Seehorn as Kim Wexler. Her character functions as the heart, soul, and moral center of the series, serving as Jimmy McGill's (Bob Odenkirk) conscience while navigating her own intensely compelling personal journey through the legal (and, despite her best efforts, criminal) landscape of New Mexico.

But Seehorn's performance -- consistently praised by viewers and critics since the very first season, yet only belatedly getting the awards attention it so obviously and richly deserved from the start -- has always stood out as a giant among giants, no matter what kind of material the writers' room threw her way. And as effortless as the actor made it look, that was no easy task when sharing screen time with the likes of powerhouses such as Jonathan Banks, Michael Mando, Tony Dalton, Michael McKean, and, of course, the always-phenomenal Bob Odenkirk. Yet now, finally, Rhea Seehorn's tireless efforts have been rewarded with an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series ... her first and only nomination for "Better Call Saul" as the series draws to a close, absurdly enough.

Say it with me, folks: it's about damn time.

An Emmy-Unfriendly Performance?

All one needs to do is take one look at the types of performances that lend themselves to receiving love from the Emmy voters and it quickly becomes apparent why Rhea Seehorn's Kim Wexler has repeatedly found herself on the outside looking in during awards season. Like most awards bodies, the Emmys tend to naturally gravitate towards recognizing the showiest, loudest, and most in-your-face performances in any given year. That's great news for actors who benefit from monologue-heavy and viral-ready scenes (looking at you, "Euphoria" and "Succession"), but comparatively less so for those such as Seehorn who put in quiet, layered, and yeoman work on an episode-by-episode basis.

But, importantly, that's not to suggest that Seehorn's repeated snubs at the Emmys were in any way justified. Precisely the opposite, in fact.

As subtle and deftly nuanced as she's proven to be, few would claim that co-creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould and their team of writers have neglected to provide Seehorn with those show-stopping moments where she's tasked with laying it all out there. Just last season (though over two years ago in real time), Lalo Salamanca's (Dalton) unbearably tense confrontation in Jimmy and Kim's apartment resulted in our favorite character bravely stepping up and telling off the show's most fearsome villain the only way that the irrepressible, tenacious, and feisty Kim knows how. In fact, the last six seasons are littered with patented Kim Wexler moments that neatly summarize why she's become such a fan-favorite and why her uncertain fate has become a constant source of anxiety among viewers.

Throughout it all, however, the needs of the story have always come first -- and Seehorn has always risen to the occasion. 

Subtlety Is Queen

Now that all of our ceaseless complaining about Rhea Seehorn's snub can thankfully come to an end (although be aware that our coordinated campaign to support her actual win now begins!), there's perhaps no better time to sit back and truly appreciate just what the perfectly-cast actor brings to the table -- and how "Better Call Saul" simply wouldn't work without her.

The key to recognizing just how much the performer brings to her role -- and don't forget, she added directorial work to her responsibilities with the season 6 episode, "Hit and Run" -- starts and ends with her irreplaceable value as the angel (and, since the season 5 finale, the demon as well) on Jimmy McGill's shoulders. Ostensibly, the main thrust of the series follows Jimmy's tragic regression into the Saul Goodman caricature who barely seems to contain any depth whatsoever underneath his huckster exterior and grossly immoral practices. But both viewers and the writers themselves quickly realized that Kim's parallel arc as Jimmy's friend, confidant, and eventually his wife proved just as fascinating to watch. In no time at all, the inevitability of Jimmy's downfall derived its tension out of whether the occasionally scheme-loving Kim would be able to pull herself back from the brink or give into her indulgences.

All of these conflicting emotions (and, mind you, largely interior conflicts) have been consistently brought to life through easy-to-miss body language: micro expressions on Seehorn's face, the set of her shoulders while talking to Jimmy, and her impeccably modulated delivery of even the most minor lines of dialogue. What's already present on-page built the foundation for Kim's strength as a foil to Jimmy, but Rhea Seehorn elevated that to another level entirely.

And now, long overdue, she finally has that Emmy nomination. It's about time the awards shows caught on to what everyone else has known for years.

Read this next: The 12 Best Characters In Better Call Saul Ranked

The post Better Call Saul's Greatest Performance Finally Got an Emmy Nomination appeared first on /Film.

Every few years, a television show comes and takes over the world, dominating pop culture and media discourse unlike anything we've seen before. "Game of Thrones" has been a global phenomenon since it first premiered in 2011 — until its eight-season run culminated in 2019. 

Despite its rather laborious ending, "Game of Thrones" created a world that was impossible to navigate, one that was imbued with texture and realism in great detail against a rich tapestry of fantasy elements. The world-building draws you in from the beginning as you dive deeper into the meticulous, political, power-hungry world of Westeros. A show of such nature and cinematic scope is not easy to make, and to wrap the story in a fitting, deserving way is a challenge that is much harder than it may seem. It's no wonder several "Game of Thrones" cast members have confessed that the last season drew from their strengths, exhausting them in the process. In fact, two cast members have inferred that the final season of the HBO series was "designed to break" the cast, and it did so emotionally and physically.

The Workload On The Final Season Was Overwhelming

During a 2019 interview with The Guardian, actress Gwendoline Christie (who played the warrior Ser Brienne of Tarth) said filming on the final "Game of Thrones" season was "a lot, a lot, a lot." In season 8, Christie's character swiftly moves into the center of the action, fighting on the frontlines to save Winterfell from the Army of the Dead (if you haven't watched the show, think of them as ice monster zombies who won't die.)

The actress agreed with the words of her co-star Kit Harington (who played Jon Snow), who previously noted that the workload on the season had explicitly been "designed" to break the actors (via GQ Magazine). It's a long journey to stay with the same character for years, and it appears that season 8 was particularly challenging, not only because of its expansive scope but also because it weighed emotionally on the actors.

"The last season of Thrones seemed to be designed to break us," Harington said in his interview with GQ.

"Everyone was broken at the end. I don't know if we were crying because we were sad it was ending or if we were crying because it was so f***ing tiring. We were sleep-deprived. It was like it was designed to make you think, Right, I'm f***ing sick of this. I remember everyone walking around towards the end going, 'I've had enough now. I love this, it's been the best thing in my life, I'll miss it one day – but I'm done.'"

Gwendoline Christie Agrees

"It was just a lot, a lot, a lot. It was a lot!" Christie noted, describing the filming of the last season. After hearing what her co-star had to say, the actress confirmed that she agreed, and the feeling was mutual.

"I agree with Kit. They squeezed the orange. Every last drop of juice out of that orange! And just a husk was left behind."

It's no easy feat to achieve the popularity and critical acclaim that "Game of Thrones" did. The show's cinematic accomplishment is an undoubted triumph in television; its groundbreaking achievements in cinematography and storytelling might be replicated by others, but its magic can never be captured. Even though the show's final season was a disservice to the long-running story, and its legacy is a bit complicated, it's impossible not to credit the show for what it was able to do: bridge the distance between millions of viewers across the world.

Read this next: The Best Movies Of 2021

The post Game Of Thrones' Final Season Seemed 'Designed To Break' The Cast appeared first on /Film.

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Yesterday on a Northeast Philadelphia street corner, a mugger apparently attempted to rob a 46-year-old victim at gunpoint. When the victim snatched the gun from the culprit, a second gunman jumped from a vehicle to help his robber buddy. While on his back fighting the first gunman, the victim fired at the second gunman until both suspects ran off. — Read the rest

Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez) noted in the first-season finale of "Only Murders in the Building" that there were loose ends that she, Oliver Putnam (Martin Short), and Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin) failed to tie up. One of the biggest loose ends the show had last year was the relationship between Charles and Lucy, the teenage daughter of his ex-girlfriend Emma. We met neither Lucy nor Emma last year, but heard of Charles' heartbreak and saw him begin to rekindle at least a texting connection with Lucy in the finale. But whatever happened to that dangling strand of story? The fourth episode of season 2, "Here's Looking at You...", aside from indulging in the use of an ellipsis that makes my grammatical mind grumble, answers that question directly.

The episode opens briefly in the past — presumably when Charles and Emma were still together, though she remains unseen — as we see Charles and a younger Lucy in his kitchen, singing to a bouncy song called "Angel in Flip Flops." (Put a pin in that.) In the present, we see a teenage version of Lucy (Zoe Colletti), though she's not officially introduced as such, filming herself in a darkened hallway of some kind talking about how weird it is to return to someplace you haven't been in a long time. With the foresight of ... well, having watched the episode before writing this recap, I can tell you we'll get full clarity on this vague opening soon enough. What we do see is how the texting relationship between Charles and Lucy grew after their initial re-greeting in the first-season finale, culminating with Charles finding out that Emma not only met a new man, but is marrying said new man (with Lucy as a bridesmaid).

Charles, meanwhile, has other thoughts on his mind aside from Lucy and her texts. As was teased in the premiere of the new season, Charles is getting to step into his old detecting shoes as Brazzos, though now he's Uncle Brazzos and finds out on his first day on set that he has to be in a wheelchair, Ironside-style. (You remember "Ironside", right? The '80s detective show with Raymond Burr? Ask your parents. Or your grandparents, I don't know.) His grandstanding speech to the crew is undercut by that wheelchair, a new addition along with "a touch of dementia," which is there so the studio can write him out if he's put in prison for Bunny's death. That would be shocking enough, until he goes to his trailer ... and is greeted by Lucy.

A Big, Heaping Bowl

After the opening credits, we see Oliver on the phone with his son Will (Ryan Broussard) saying that podcasting stuff has gotten in the way of him seeing his son's school-play rehearsal. This is in spite of the fact that Will's clearly drowning in stagecraft and trying to wrangle the crazy elementary-school kids for his production of "The Wizard of Oz." Oliver might wish he didn't hang up on his son, though, when he enters the elevator and sees the deli king himself, Teddy Dimas (Nathan Lane), out on parole while he awaits trial. Oliver is understandably unnerved at the presence of Teddy — wouldn't you be, if you encountered an old friend who turned out to be a grave-robbing criminal you'd sent to prison? But Teddy surprisingly says that prison was "transformative," as he's now getting a better sense of not acting on his thoughts, like, say, "wringing your neck." Oh boy.

Theo's also out and also awaiting trial, and Teddy teases that his son is coming over to visit later that day in spite of being angry. Teddy promises that Oliver is going to see him around because "I'm going to f**k you. I'm not sure when, or how, quite yet. But I'm going to f**k you. Hard." Listen, I'm a simple man. I have simple desires in this life. One of those desires is for one of you to make a GIF of Nathan Lane growling at Martin Short that the latter will be "choking on a big, heaping bowl of f**k." A very funny and ominous scene.

Lucy has joined Charles back at his apartment, to explain why she's there randomly to see "my super-cool TV-star ex-dad ... kind of person." But even a few seconds of listening to her talk is visual proof that Charles is somewhat lost when trying to engage with a modern teenager. Plus, Charles finds out that his ex-girlfriend's wedding happened two weeks ago. Lucy, for her own part, seems as unhappy about it as he is; when he asks if it was a nice ceremony, she pauses and says "Nice ... is a word." At that point, Oliver and Mabel enter, the former updating them all on his encounter with Teddy, and the latter saying that their neighbor Howard (Michael Cyril Creighton) has "hot goss" about Nina Lim (Christine Ko), their new prime suspect. They are, of course, surprised and delighted to meet Lucy, but Charles is terrified of having to interact with a teen at all. "She's an older person now! I don't understand things she says!" After comparing listening to Lucy to "watching 'Squid Games' without the subtitles on," he begs Mabel to talk to her to figure out what's really going on.

Very quickly, though, Mabel becomes as lost as Charles is: though she's fairly young, she's pretty confused amid Lucy's fast-talking explanations of how our heroine has become very popular on "mental-health TikTok." Thankfully, Oliver re-enters with an old record of that song we saw Charles and young Lucy singing at the start, "Angel in Flip Flops." It turns out that song is one Charles originated back in the 1970s (based on the very old photo of a permed Steve Martin on the record cover), and while Oliver teases him by dubbing it "terrible music," Mabel recognizes one of the song's riffs as having been sampled by a long list of modern hip-hop artists, so much so that Charles makes a couple hundred grand a year on royalties alone. Nice work if you can get it.

At that moment, as she's helping Charles prepare an omelet like in the old days, Lucy is surprised that the knife she just grabbed is covered in blood. Because, as you may recall, our trio knew Bunny was stabbed but hadn't found the knife. Well ... good news? They found it! Oliver's equally horrified to realize that the knife is one of his own, though Charles is wise enough to warn him from touching it. Charles also wants Lucy out of the way so she's not involved, but Oliver isn't as quick-witted: when he hears a firm knock on the door, he flings the knife up in fear, and it sticks to the apartment roof, just as Howard enters.

Crawling Through The Walls

Howard's "hot goss," though, isn't really hot gossip at all, but a revelation that the black eye he received the night of Bunny's murder was courtesy of Nina Lim, who punched him. "She'll cut a b**ch," he says. (I will note that it is ... interesting we did not see Nina punch Howard in the pre-Bunny's death part of last week's episode. I have no idea if that means anything one way or the other, but I just think that's interesting.) As much as we might want to focus on this confession, though, the podcasting trio is mostly worried he'll notice the knife dangling above his head. Fortunately, they're able to usher him out quickly, after which they hear noises in the bathroom courtesy of Lucy, who just figured out how people keep sneaking around their apartments: there is a secret passage leading from Charles' bathroom, through which people can walk through the walls. (I will note here that if you're fairly eagle-eyed, you will have a good idea of the location of where Lucy recorded her opening-scene video.)

Lucy quickly explains how she knows these passages exist at all, thanks to some friendly hide-and-seek games with a nearby neighbor back when she visited Charles regularly. (She also quickly sneaks in that she skipped out of her mother's wedding, which feels like a pretty big deal.) Oliver uses the opportunity of "literally crawling through the walls like rats" to spy on Teddy so he can get a better idea of what the deli king is plotting. Charles and Mabel, meanwhile, decide to spy on Nina, who's looking over some strange blueprints with "her baby daddy" Jared (someone who our heroes are notably unfamiliar with), and noting that "Bunny had to go." The blueprints are important, too, because they clue Charles and Mabel into the "giant space pod" that Nina is planning to install above the Arconia, thus representing the kind of modernization and monetization she mentioned to Bunny. "That's why Bunny had to go!" Charles says, before being struck by his ethics and another nosebleed.

Oliver is struck by another scene of strife, as he locates Teddy's apartment and sees the man arguing with his son Theo (James Caverly), who reveals (via ASL, of course) that he's gotten his own attorney for the trial. No matter how hard Teddy tries to tell his son he's the only one who can protect Theo, that just angers the younger man, who literally pushes him away and tells him to back off, leaving Teddy a sobbing mess. And Oliver a bit, too, as he later realizes "I've never wanted to hug my son more."

I Missed You

The more pressing problem is that while Charles and Mabel believe they know Nina's full plot, they didn't record anything. "So how do we nail her?" Lucy suggests they give Nina "a little push," leading the quartet to visit her with a random assortment of gifts for her new arrival. And it's good timing, too, because even though Oliver tries to zero in on a confession by urging Nina to "spill it," her water breaks in front of them. Charles immediately springs into action, taking Nina to a chair, and calming her anxiety about being a bad mother, by talking her through the initial pangs of labor. Though it does lower Nina's terror, she tearfully says, "I wish Bunny were here," before then switching to ferocity as she tells Charles to find Bunny's killer. Fortunately for everyone, the EMTs arrive before Charles has to deliver the baby himself. After the EMTs get Nina ready for the hospital, Mabel has a brief heart-to-heart with Lucy, noting that she can be honest with Charles. "Just tell him whatever it is," Mabel says about the reason — whatever that reason is — for why Lucy is really here, right now.

After Oliver and Mabel (the former taking the murder weapon with him to parts unknown), Lucy tells Charles she thought that his old ex Jan — aka last season's murderer — was right for him initially too, and he shouldn't feel too bad about it. Lucy also explains that her mom's new husband isn't a bad guy, but the unspoken part is that he clearly isn't Charles. "Eight years is like ... that's, like, a really long time," she says, fighting back tears as she notes how long it had been between the last time she'd seen Charles as a little kid and when he texted her at the end of last season. "You're allowed."

Oliver does right by his own promise, and heads to North Jersey to see his son Will in action with the school play. "This is what they used to do with Judy Garland, instead of a bag of candy, it was a bag of methamphetamines," Oliver says upon dangling a bag of Skittles for the kids to focus and listen to Will. Hey, whatever works.

Charles is about to send Lucy back to "dystopian Connecticut," but that's when she finally tries to explain what she's really doing there. See, it turns out that the night of her mom's wedding was the same night our trio got arrested, and thus, the same night Bunny was murdered. And yes, Lucy chose to see Charles that night instead of her mom. In fact, she was even in the building, on Charles' floor, only to text him (with him just a few feet away) and to have him politely call a rain check on meeting up with her. Lucy, who (as established in an earlier text message) had a working key to Charles' apartment, not only went inside, but went into the hidden passage behind his bathroom. Yes, that's where she filmed the video we saw at the opening, talking about how "things seem smaller, emptier." I can only imagine! 

Worse still? Well, Lucy not only hears, in muffled tones, Bunny's death, but desperately tries to hide when a mysterious figure clad in black walks through the passages, presumably just having killed Bunny. There's enough debris in the passage that Lucy remains hidden, and the masked figure sneezes through the dust (a detail we may want to revisit by the end of the season, who knows) and walks off. "You need to get tougher before they find you," Lucy says in the present, as Charles reflects on how she's the second woman, after Bunny's mom, who he's sent off from the building lately who seems to know more than him about Bunny's death.

In the final scene, we see that Charles has been getting lots of calls with an "Unknown" caller somewhere in upstate New York, but that he's not so confused about the identity of said caller. That's because he decides to visit that person at the county jail. It's none other than Jan (Amy Ryan), his ex-lover and last season's murderer. "I've missed you," she says slyly after he asks for her help. Oh dear, Charles.

MacBeats And The Deliverer

Overall, this is a very fun episode with more than a dash of farce in the middle thanks to the bloody knife. I do want to reveal my theory here (with the caveat that as I type these words, I've seen the next few episodes thanks to screeners, and this theory isn't going to be spoiling anything from those episodes): I feel like a) there are two people involved in this season's murder, and b) one of those people is Howard. We know from last season that Howard faints at the sight of blood, if we take him at his word, so it's doubtful that he would've been the one to stab Bunny himself. But Howard's also been trying to sow the seeds of doubt regarding Nina, doubt that this episode seems to largely dispel. Yes, Nina is ruthless, but the whole "crawling behind the walls" thing seems pretty much out of the question for a super-pregnant woman. Maybe we can just chalk this up to Michael Cyril Creighton being both sufficiently huffy and sneaky in his performance this season, but ... I feel like we should keep an eye out for Howard. Until next week!

OTHER THOUGHTS

– Some easy jokes are funny, by which I mean I laughed at Steve Martin struggling to get his iPhone to transcribe the words "Still works" into a text.

– Another easy joke I laughed at: the fact that Charles has to wear a very goofy white-haired wig over his ... white hair.

– "Honey, no one cares about the Tin Man." Ouch, Oliver.

– "$200 on the Upper West Side will just get me a bagel and a soy latte." I assume that is roughly accurate, New Yorkers?

– That Oliver worked on a modernized take on "Macbeth" is one thing. That it starred Vanilla Ice is another. That it was called "MacBeats" is...well, kudos, writers.

– I'd love to see a clip from that old show Charles guest-starred on, "The Deliverer."

Read this next: The Best Movies Streaming Right Now: Malignant, A Hero, And More

The post Only Murders in the Building Goes Deeper into the Arconia In Its Latest Episode appeared first on /Film.

As the global economy increasingly begins to resemble the “this is fine” meme, people are naturally seeking creative solutions to their money challenges. In the past, economic downturns have bolstered ideas like the tiny house movement and the #VanLife subculture, as people try to figure out more flexible and…

Read more...

Dread Presents has revealed the official poster and trailer for TIN CAN, which you can check out in the player below.

As the world faces a deadly plague, humanity’s hope for a cure lies with a scientist, Fret, who awakens imprisoned in a metal chamber and must desperately work to escape her confined cell to save the last of humanity.

Cold, pale and in the dark, Fret (Anna Hopkins) crashes back to consciousness inside a small metal chamber. Inside her confined cell, Fret attempts to piece together how she was imprisoned. As a scientist, who was on the brink of discovering a cure from a deadly plague, Fret desperately works to escape her cell to save the last of humanity.

Directed and co-written by Seth A Smith (The Crescent, Lowlife), TIN CAN stars Anna Hopkins (“The Expanse”, V/H/S/94), Simon Mutabazi (Across The Line, Thug), and Michael Ironside.

TIN CAN will be in select theaters on August 5, on Demand on August 9, and available on home video on September 6, 2022. To learn more, check out our review!

The post [News] Dread Presents’ TIN CAN Finally Gets Trailer! appeared first on Nightmarish Conjurings.

"Researchers and engineers from Kyoto University and the Kajima Corporation have released their joint proposal for a three-pronged approach to sustainable human life on the Moon and beyond," reports Gizmodo. The first element involves "The Glass," which aims to bring simulated gravity to the Moon and Mars through centrifugal force. From the report: Gravity on the Moon and Mars is about 16.5% and 37.9% of that on Earth, respectively. Lunar Glass and Mars Glass could bridge that gap; they are massive, spinning cones that will use centrifugal force to simulate the effects of Earth's gravity. These spinning cones will have an approximate radius of 328 feet (100 meters) and height of 1,312 feet (400 meters), and will complete one rotation every 20 seconds, creating a 1g experience for those inside (1g being the gravity on Earth). The researchers are targeting the back half of the 21st century for the construction of Lunar Glass, which seems unreasonably optimistic given the apparent technological expertise required to pull this off. The second element of the plan is the "core biome complex" for "relocating a reduced ecosystem to space," according to a Google-translated version of the press release. The core biome complex would exist within the Moon Glass/Mars Glass structure and it's where the human explorers would live, according to the proposal. The final element of the proposal is the "Hexagon Space Track," or Hexatrack, a high-speed transportation infrastructure that could connect Earth, Mars, and the Moon. Hexatrack will require at least three different stations, one on Mars's moon Phobos, one in Earth orbit, and one around the Moon.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Yuri Bubliy aka 1usmus, has given a first look at the upcoming Hydra 1.2 AMD Ryzen tuning and overclocking utility which adds support for Zen 4 CPUs & also allows GPU tuning as an additional component to the suite.

Hydra 1.2 To Feature AMD Zen 4 Tuning & Overclocking Capabilities Along With RX-Tuner Radeon GPU Tuning Support

Announced back in July 2021, the Hydra Tuning utility for AMD Ryzen CPUs was designed as a successor to the CTR (Clock Tuner For Ryzen), offering a new interface and a simpler way to tune and optimize Ryzen CPUs. Since its release, the utility has received several updates and currently offers:

• Automatically find Curve Optimizer (CO) values
• Combine PBO + CO and manual OC
• Modify or create your own Voltage/Frequency curve
• Change CO in real-time and observe which cores are the bottleneck
• Create your own "boost", which consists of dynamic profiles
• Evaluate the quality of the sample and find the ideal voltages
• Perform undervolting

2 of 9

Now Yuri has announced that he's already working on the next big update to the project in the form of Hydra 1.2 which will add various components to the overclocking and tuning suite. These include:

• Complete redesign of all features.
• New Curve Optimizer diagnostics (and for Zen 4).
• More flexibility for AMD PBO2 and HYBRID OC.
• Automatic problem solving (assistant).
• Auto GPU tuning.
• Unlimited GPU profiling.
• Powerful new monitoring.
• More safety.

HYDRA 1.2

Complete redesign of all features.
New Curve Optimizer diagnostics (and for Zen 4).
More flexibility for AMD PBO2 and HYBRID OC.
Automatic problem solving (assistant).
Auto GPU tuning.
Unlimited GPU profiling.
Powerful new monitoring.
More safety. pic.twitter.com/8Bp38vVd0z

— Yuri Bubliy (@1usmus) July 12, 2022

So it looks like the main features inside Hydra 1.2 will be a complete overhaul of the design and features. The new feature set includes a new curve optimizer diagnostics for existing & upcoming Zen 4 CPUs from AMD that will be featured in the Ryzen 7000 'Raphael' family, increased flexibility for AMD PBO2 and Hybrid OC, an automatic problem-solving assistant, a more robust monitoring system, additional safety features and more importantly, a new GPU tuning feature known as 'RX-Tuner'.

That's right, it's time for the RX-TUNER. Fortunately, Radeon also have quite a significant performance or energy efficiency margin. I will share the results of the optimizations in a couple of weeks.

— Yuri Bubliy (@1usmus) July 12, 2022

Right. RDNA3 has more possibilities in terms of overclocking. I have plans to cover the entire AMD ecosystem in one application.

— Yuri Bubliy (@1usmus) July 12, 2022

Based on the name, RX-Tuner is specifically centered around AMD's Radeon RX GPUs and will allow automatic GPU tuning capabilities with unlimited GPU profiling. Yuri states that Radeon GPUs have a significant performance or efficiency margin and he plans on showcasing the first results of these optimizations in the coming weeks. The utility will not only feature support for existing RDNA GPUs but also the upcoming RDNA 3 GPUs.

So it looks like Hydra 1.2 is on the path to becoming the one-stop overclocking and tuning solution for AMD Ryzen CPU and Radeon GPU owners. We can't wait to see the latest version of Hydra in action!

The post Hydra 1.2 AMD Ryzen Overclocking & Tuning Utility Ready For Zen 4 CPUs, Now Features ‘RX-TUNER’ For GPU Tuning Too by Hassan Mujtaba appeared first on Wccftech.

Above is the incredible first Deep Field image from NASA's new James Webb Space Telescope.

"It is the deepest image of our universe that has ever been taken," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

From NASA:

The image shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago.

— Read the rest

I recently joked to a friend that the creative process behind "Westworld" at this stage is just showrunners Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan constantly trying to out-galaxy-brain the rest of the world. (Then again, it's not not that.) No longer content to be a mystery-box series, each batch of episodes since season 1 has been a confounding mystery box built upon another mystery box. The fact it only airs every two years makes it all the harder to remember how "Westworld" even got to where it is in any given season. In our era of Too Much Content, two years might as well be five, adjusting for inflation.

Still, if you hadn't checked out prior to season 4, it's likely because you're more charmed than put-off by the show going out of its way to make its plot confusing. There's also something agreeable about the way the series refuses to hold its audience's hand, revisiting minor story threads and characters with the unearned confidence that those watching at home will readily recall them or grasp their importance (although it might just be the sickos like me who get a kick out of this). This has been all the more true of season 4. The events of season 3 would've been hard enough to remember even if it hadn't aired near the start of the pandemic — a period that's a blur for most people, regardless of their TV viewing habits.

With that in mind, let's break down the big things you need to know to keep up with the plot in "Westworld" season 4.

I, Robot, You Dolores

By this point, it's less a question of which characters are hosts (or robots) on "Westworld" than it is one of which characters are not hosts, so far as we know.

Leading the way for Team Human heading into season 4 is Caleb Nichols (Aaron Paul), the military veteran turned construction worker who teamed up with Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) in season 3 to take down the quantum computer system Rehoboam and prevent it from controlling the fate of the human population. In order to do that, however, Dolores had to be linked to Rehoboam, causing her to be destroyed when Caleb had the system erase itself. Hence the mystery in season 4 involving Christina (also Wood), a person who writes stories for non-playable characters in video games and looks just like Dolores, yet seems to be human (or, at the very least, thinks she is).

Outside of Caleb, though, most of the main characters on "Westworld" are either hosts like Maeve (Thandiwe Newton), Clementine (Angela Sarafyan), and Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth), or hosts modeled after dead people, as is the case with Bernard (Jeffrey Wright). Here's where things get a little confusing. William, aka The Man in Black (Ed Harris), was seemingly killed and replaced by a host at the end of season 3. As it turns out, though, he's still alive in season 4 and being held captive while the Man in Black host wreaks havoc out in the world.

As for who's pulling the strings on the Man in Black host and keeping William prisoner? That would be the host version of deceased Delos executive Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson), whose mind is actually a copy of Dolores', but ended up developing her own unique identity and agenda by the end of season 3.

Where Have All The (Host) Cowboys Gone?

After Dolores led the hosts of Westworld in an uprising against their human overlords and the park's guests in season 1, "Westworld" season 2 ended with most of the park's hosts — including the Ghost Nation elder Akecheta (Zahn McClarnon) — uploading their minds to a digital haven known as the Sublime (or as it's been called on the show, "robot heaven"). By the end of season 3, Bernard learned Dolores had left him and his surprise ally Stubbs a key to access the Sublime under the belief Bernard would travel there and find a way to save humanity, rather than merely delay its downfall like Rehoboam.

Maeve, who was prevented from entering the Sublime with her daughter in season 2, spent much of season 3 caught up in the war between Dolores and Engerraund Serac (Vincent Cassel), the richest man in the world and co-creator of Rehoboam. After several twists and turns, including the permanent death of Maeve's host lover Hector (Rodrigo Santoro), Maeve teamed up with Dolores and Caleb to stop Serac and destroy Rehoboam. Amidst the chaos, Maeve's co-worker at the Mariposa Saloon in Westworld, Clementine, escaped into the world, only for the Man in Black host to find her, kill her, and re-program her near the start of season 4.

Finally, remember Teddy (James Marsden), Dolores' host lover in Westworld? He's been dead since the end of season 2, with the Westworld park having (for a while) shut down after Dolores' violent revolution. But with the introduction of a mysterious figure who looks exactly like Teddy, the reveal of a brand-new "themed" park, and the hosts now running the show at Delos, all's not so quiet on the "Westworld" front in season 4.

New episodes of "Westworld" drop Sundays on HBO. 

Read this next: The 14 Best Sci-Fi Shows On Amazon Prime

The post Westworld's Plot Is Confusing — Here's What You Need to Remember appeared first on /Film.

Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD owners on Steam won’t lose access to the game on September 1st, Ubisoft clarified today after a notice on Valve’s storefront suggested the title would become unplayable later this year. “Current owners of those games will still be able to access, play or redownload them,” a spokesperson for the company told Eurogamer.

The confusion around Liberation HD’s playability stems from an announcement Ubisoft made earlier this month. In a move designed to free up resources for its newer and more popular titles, the company said it planned to drop support for online services in 15 games, including Liberation HD. As a result of the decision, online features and downloadable content would become unavailable in most of the affected titles. However, the only game Ubisoft said would be completely unplayable was Spade Junkies due to it being a multiplayer-only experience.

Many thought Ubisoft planned to take things a step further when a Twitter user named Nors3 shared a screenshot on Monday of Liberation HD’s Steam page. “Please note this title will not be accessible following September 1st, 2022,” said one of the notices on the game’s storefront listing. The warning prompted many to accuse Ubisoft of dropping to a new low.

Ubisoft told Eurogamer it’s working with Valve and other platform owners to provide more accurate information on the future of the 15 games affected by its decision. “It has always been our intention to do everything in our power to allow those legacy titles to remain available in the best possible conditions for players, and this is what we are working towards," the company said.

Kids are tougher than we give them credit for. They love the spooky stuff like scary stories about kids fending off child-eating monsters, haunted graveyards, and alien invasions. Author Neil Gaiman understands why, telling a Canadian interviewer that what's important is to tell kids that "a bad thing can be beaten." Kids want to overcome their nightmares, so they can grow up and feel a little more confident about themselves.

But we grow up, and sometimes we remember snippets of the stories we read and the movies we watched. Some of them are incredibly weird, and we think, "Is that right? Are we misremembering something? Was that really in a movie?" Forums exist to track down some of these fragmented memories, bringing back a rush of feelings. "Who let us watch that?" being a common one. These are some of those movies. Screwy sci-fi and freaky fantasies that lit our kiddie imaginations — and gave our adult selves nightmares.

9

Released in 2009, director Shane Acker and producer Tim Burton's movie "9" is like "Watership Down" in that we're not sure who the audience was supposed to be. It wasn't marketed to kids, but they sure found it. With its creepy green-hued CGI world, it does look and feel like a kiddie movie but with a Guillermo del Toro sensibility.

Taking place in a steampunky alternate universe, 9 is the story of an Earth ravaged by a robot apocalypse. What remains are the Fabricator's endless machines and nine hacky-sack homunculi called Stitchpunks, who are driven to live and maybe find a way to revitalize a world where not even bacteria has survived. Millennials who encountered this movie too young may remember some truly horrifying sequences. One Stitchpunk is harpooned through the chest. Others undergo a "Dark Crystal"-style soul extraction. What's likeliest to be lodged in your memory is the Cat Beast, a robot with a cat's skull strapped to its head and a glowing red Terminator eye fixed on its prey.

Unico In The Island Of Magic

Osamu Tezuka is more than a legend. He's the icon of Japanese manga and animation, the man that invented "Astro Boy" and became Japan's answer to Walt Disney in the 1960s. One of his more obscure projects, still beloved by many, is "Unico." The first anime adaptation of Tezuka's short series, it's the saga of a chibi unicorn so lovable that the gods decree he must be exiled or killed. But it's the second film that goes off the rails into horror, embedding itself in the minds of Gen X adults like a sleeper cell.

"Unico in the Island of Magic" aired on the Disney Channel in the early and mid-'80s, and holy crap was it something. Lord Kuruku is an orb-shaped goblin hell-bent on turning all the people in the world into featureless puppets. He has a willing servant named Toby, and the scene in which Kuruku stalks his apprentice while menacingly chanting Toby's name that's lodged itself in a lot of people's brains. Not content to hassle his acolyte, Kuruku turns the entire village into eerie, blocky puppets that march their way to their new lord's service. It was terrifying then. It still is.

The Gate

Everybody has the memory of their first horror movie chained up in the brain's basement, ready to shove its way back into their adult dreams. Unless you saw "Poltergeist" way too early, 1987's "The Gate" is a pretty good contender for looking back and wondering why the hell you did that to yourself.

It's the film debut of Stephen Dorff, playing a kid named Glen, and it contains the '80s gag that everyone's parents feared: the devil might be lurking in heavy metal. After a hole opens in the backyard and grants Dorff and his friend a geode carrying a demonic message, things take a turn for the ominous. Glen's friend, Terry, has a metal album whose liner notes contain a scary amount about demonology, but playing it backward might help them out. Unfortunately, the involvement of a dead dog as an accidental sacrifice undoes any good intentions the kids had. This flick is loaded with creepy visuals like demonic parents, hordes of tiny demons, and human corpses boarded up in the walls. It's the shot of a demon's eyeball sprouting from Glen's hand that may linger the most. In any case, it's a great starter horror movie with a resolution that'll help new horror fans sleep that night.

Return To Oz

If you shudder at the phrase "the Wheelers," then you remember "Return to Oz," the utterly bizarre sequel to "The Wizard of Oz" that came out in 1985, 46 years after Dorothy's big adventure. This time, Dorothy doesn't bonk her head in the barnyard. She's in a sanitarium because her family thinks she's mentally ill over the Oz thing, which is already a hell of a step up from dealing with flying monkeys.

With a plot cobbled together from a couple of L. Frank Baum's "Oz" novels, including "Ozma of Oz," our new Dorothy (Fairuza Balk) is freed from the hospital and swept back into Oz with the help of a strange girl. But Oz is more nightmarish than ever, controlled by an usurper king who's not exactly a reliable authority figure. Sometimes, he's a raving stone tyrant — one-eyed and horrible enough to scare off the aforementioned Wheelers themselves lest they face his rage. Masked, inhuman, and mindlessly cruel, they still haunt our memories.

The Last Unicorn

Adapted from Peter S. Beagle's beautiful fantasy about myth and mortality, "The Last Unicorn" is an improbable piece of art. It was produced by Rankin-Bass, the same studio that made "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" a stop-motion star, with art from the Japanese studio Topcraft, whose best animators would later establish Studio Ghibli. From Angela Lansbury as Mommy Fortuna to Sir Christopher Lee as King HaggardIt, "The Last Unicorn" has a shockingly good voice cast.

When necessary, it's also as raw and as nightmarish as its source text. The Unicorn's quest is haunted by the story of the Red Bull, but before she can find out more, she's put on display in a cheap roadside carnival. The carnival is run by a real witch, though, and Fortuna is locked in a dance of death with her previous star attraction, the harpy Celaeno. Celaeno is a grizzled old bird, her chest bare to the night sky and her every rasp loaded with fury. Her escape and revenge on Fortuna are hidden by her wings, but Fortuna's clawed hand and the sounds of joyful carnage from the immortal harpy leave no doubt as to what's happened.

The Witches

Nicholas Roeg is a weird, typically adult director who's best known for giving us David Bowie as the beautiful alien we all knew he was in "The Man Who Fell to Earth." But Roeg is also the man behind 1990's "The Witches," which gave us Anjelica Huston as the beautiful witch we all know she is, too. But Huston, as the Grand High Witch, hides a terrible malevolence under her skin, and she's not above turning all the children in the world into mice.

With creature effects from Jim Henson's studio, this movie is a treat and a trick all in one. Though loathed by writer Roald Dahl, who wasn't keen on the 1971 "Chocolate Factory" adaptation, either, it's a great ride through a kiddie nightmare. The witches are as awful as a Skeksis when unmasked and just as cruel and manipulative. It's also terrifying to see the children go unbelieved when they try to warn the adults of the chaos the High Witch wants to unleash. Yeah, there's a 2020 remake. Don't bother. Stick with the original, although it's got some hugely problematic issues, and cuddle up with a favorite plush toy. You'll need it afterward.

Superman IV: The Quest For Peace

Without getting into an internet slap fight, it's still fair to say that for several decades, Christopher Reeve was the best incarnation of Superman we could have asked for. Polite, charismatic, and chameleonic, his light makes the first two "Superman" films seem as fresh and real as ever. The third movie, with Richard Pryor, isn't up to par, though it still has some great sequences. And then there's "The Quest For Peace," a movie so crappy that most people forget it exists.

Yet, kids in the late '80s would have encountered this bag of garbage just long enough to have a couple of things lodge in their memories, namely the villain, Nuclear Man, a hairspray'd wrestling reject in a hot yellow leotard. This incarnation of the evil that faces the world if we don't get rid of our nuclear weapons sprouts claws — some nice acrylic nails — in his big fights with Superman. As for the gentleman who played a villain so bad it killed the movie franchise for decades, Mark Pillow is living a quiet life, taking the infamy of one of the worst movies of all time in stride — as he should, since none of this was his fault.

The Black Hole

Arguably the strangest Disney movie to date, "The Black Hole" was released in 1979. We're not suggesting anything, but the drug of choice in the 1970s was cocaine. "The Black Hole" is a kid's introduction to "Event Horizon." A ship of explorers discovers a long-lost research vessel at the edge of a black hole and boarding it reveals it's still in operation. The man in charge, Dr. Reinhardt (Maximilian Schell), has a blood-red terminator robot named Maximillian at his side at all times. Maximillian haunts many a dream as it is. But it gets worse.

Dr. Reinhardt zombified his previous crew into servitor cyborgs. He'll zombify his new guests if he can, and then he's going to take his whole research vessel through the black hole to see what's on the other side. He partially succeeds, but guess what! He finds hell —  an actual Dantesque hell, and the mad doctor is condemned to be its lord, somehow fused inside of Maximillian's shell. Do not do drugs before watching this one. You will not enjoy the trip.

Flight Of The Navigator

"Flight of the Navigator" is a cute Disney coming-of-age special effects extravaganza. It has adorable puppet aliens. Paul Ruebens voices a charming if somewhat obnoxious AI assistant. Young David (Joey Cramer) gets to fly a super-cool chrome spacecraft, but first, his family has to live with the trauma of an abrupt, decade-long disappearance that's kept David at the same age. Then, NASA scientists abduct the kid. Very fun.

David's return is kid horror supreme. For him, he's only spent a few minutes wandering around a ravine, but when he tries to go home, it's suddenly not his home anymore. It's all due to a well-meaning attempt to preserve galactic knowledge for science, which runs parallel to NASA's well-meaning attempt to figure out the connection between this kid and the mysterious craft they've recovered. Fortunately, it does have a happy ending, even for the creepy-cute alien puppet David befriends, but it's a wild ride getting there.

Masters Of The Universe

Sure, Dolph Lundgren's oil-slicked physique as He-Man, the Master of the Universe, isn't exactly forgettable once you've seen it. Frank Langella turns Skeletor into a whole meal, stealing an ill-advised adaptation of the Mattel toy-selling cartoon and making it a lot more fun to watch than it has any right to be. But do you remember Billy Barty as Gwildor, a strange little dude who's always up to shred on a cosmic keyboard that can open portals across space and time?

Instead of squabbling over He-Man's famous Sword of Power and trying to overtake Castle Grayskull, the cosmic key is the film's central plot device. To be fair, the movie starts with Grayskull in enemy hands, and the cosmic key is the magic MacGuffin the heroes need to escape the new regime. Of course, the Eternians end up on Earth, Skeletor is hot on their heels, and the timey-wimey music machine immediately ends up in the hands of a pair of teenagers. The plot makes no sense, but the effects (and Dolph Lundgren's thighs) are spectacular.

The Secret Of NIMH

Don Bluth is the unsung master of modern animation. A former Disney employee, he struck out on his own in the early 1980s and set about creating a handful of unforgettable movies. While "An American Tale" and "Anastasia" are probably his most well known, the eerie and beautiful "The Secret of NIMH" shows its age the least.

Adapted from "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" by Robert C. O'Brien, this dark fable has a widowed mother for its protagonist, a sweet little mouse named Mrs. Brisby. One of her children is gravely ill. Her only choice is to turn to the weird rats living in a rose bush for help, but she has to find that out via the Great Owl, a looming figure that introduces itself by smashing a big spider under its talons. If that scene doesn't wake you up at night, the flashbacks to the experiments at NIMH will finish the job of wrecking your psyche. The rats along with a couple of mice, including Brisby's spouse, Jonathan, suffer physical and mental torture until they make their deadly escape.

Explorers

From the director of "Gremlins" comes a sci-fi movie that's not meant to give kids nightmares, but it's just as weird. Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix have their big debut in 1985's "Explorers," an honest-to-goodness cult movie that didn't stand a chance at the movie theatre. "Back to the Future" was released nine days earlier. Bad luck, kids.

Spurred on by strange dreams, the kids of "Explorers" build a tiny spacecraft with just enough oomph to break Earth's orbit, but they get picked up moments later by a pair of goofy aliens that apparently only speak in sitcom quotes — kind of like "Contact," but with the "Looney Tunes" instead. It turns out Hawke's new googly-eyed friends are also kids who just want to hang out and play, but everyone is up way past their bedtime. It's a charming movie, a wonky take on first contact as seen through the eyes of those most likely to take it in stride. If you don't have a vague memory of this one, it's still worth the visit.

MirrorMask

Everyone loves to shudder at Neil Gaiman's "Coraline," the stop-motion nightmare from LAIKA with the button-eyed mom, but fewer remember "MirrorMask," which was released four years earlier in 2005. Directed by Dave McKean, who created Gaiman's "Sandman" covers and the interiors for Grant Morrison's seminal "Arkham Asylum," "MirrorMask" was designed from the ground up to evoke the same dreamlike, fantastical fears as "Labyrinth."

Young Helena finds herself in a world of shadows. Helena is already distraught from her mother's illness and has no idea that she's switched places with the princess of this dark world. As with Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz," so much of this world is drawn from Helena's mind, it's unclear how much is real and how much is her teenage self trying to figure out who she wants to be. With Gaiman, the answer is best left to individual discussion, but first, you have to get the memory of the screwed-up cats with human faces out of your brain.

Read this next: The 14 Best Animated Movies (That Aren't Made By Disney Or Pixar)

The post Sci-fi and fantasy kids movies you thought were a fever dream appeared first on /Film.

"Thor: Love and Thunder" is finally out and setting box office records. The latest MCU movie is another entry in the universe of Marvel movies having an identity crisis caused by trauma and heartbreak.

According to Taika Waititi, Thor goes through a bit of a midlife crisis in the film, and it makes sense considering what he's been through. In "Thor: Ragnarok" alone he lost his father, his eye, his hammer, and his home. Then in "Infinity War," he lost his friend, his brother, and half his people. The resulting depression led to Thor gaining weight and becoming one of the best characters in "Avengers: Endgame," before "Love and Thunder" undid that in a quick training montage.

Still, "Love and Thunder" continues the sad Thor train, with the god of thunder clinging onto his old hammer in the best romance of the film, a mini-crisis of identity once he realizes his god heroes are actually trash, and also a hilariously sad Loki joke Waititi rescued from the "Ragnarok" cutting room floor.

RIP Loki

Though Loki is not present in "Love and Thunder," his memory lives on, kind of. In his quest to get help from the gods in stopping Gorr the God Butcher, Thor asks Zeus for help, but is instead ridiculed and accidentally stripped naked — revealing a big back tattoo in honor of the fallen god of mischief. Speaking to Insider, Taika Waititi said the big RIP Loki tattoo was originally thought of as a comedy bit for "Thor: Ragnarok" since Thor believes his brother is dead, but the audience knows he's alive.

"[Thor] was going to say, 'I mourned you, look I even got this stupid tattoo,' and Thor lifts his sleeve and it's a tattoo that says 'RIP Loki.'"

Sadly, as it often happens, the gag never made it to the film "for some reason," according to Waititi, but he was still determined to get it into a film. "So I doubled down and put it on his back," Waititi added. "And then [Marvel Studios head] Kevin [Feige] was like, 'Can we make it five times bigger?' So that's why it covered his entire back."

What makes the gag even funnier is the miscellaneous tattoos around the RIP Loki one, like a giant tattoo of Loki's helmet, a tiny grave for Thor's brother, a rose, the word "brothers," and also a list of every important person in Thor's life that has died: his mother, his father, Heimdall, Loki, and also the Avengers Tony and Natasha. It's a small detail, but it's a nice touch that at least one of the Avengers still thinks of Natasha.

"Thor: Love and Thunder" is now in theaters.

Read this next: Every MCU Post-Credits Sequence Ranked From Worst To Best

The post Here's The Thor: Love and Thunder Joke That Was Originally Supposed To Be in Thor: Ragnarok appeared first on /Film.

A relatively new kind of Windows worm, known as Raspberry Robin, has been spreading from victim to victim across Europe, mainly via USB devices. Red Canary intelligence analysts initially discovered this worm in September 2021, and have warned Windows users of its potential threat to their devices.

Read more...

Nearly all industrial scale Bitcoin miners in Texas have shut off their machines as the companies brace for a heat wave that is expected to push the state's power grid near its breaking point. From a report: Miners such as Riot Blockchain, Argo Blockchain and Core Scientific, who operate millions of energy-intensive computers to secure the Bitcoin blockchain network and earn rewards in the token, flocked to the Lone Star State thanks to its low energy costs and liberal regulations on crypto mining. The state has become one of the largest crypto-mining hubs by computing power in the world. "There are over 1,000 megawatts worth of Bitcoin mining load that responded to ERCOTs conservation request by turning off their machines to conserve energy for the grid." Lee Bratcher, president of Texas Blockchain Association told Bloomberg in an email response. "This represents nearly all industrial scale Bitcoin mining load in Texas and allows for over 1% of total grid capacity to be pushed back onto the grid for retail and commercial use." Miners may see a drop in profitability as the heat wave keeps their machines off by sending energy prices soaring and further stressing the state's power grid. The miners are already struggling to repay debt and raise additional capital with Bitcoin prices in sharp decline.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Twice in the past month KrebsOnSecurity has heard from readers who had their accounts at big-three credit bureau Experian hacked and updated with a new email address that wasn’t theirs. In both cases the readers used password managers to select strong, unique passwords for their Experian accounts. Research suggests identity thieves were able to hijack the accounts simply by signing up for new accounts at Experian using the victim’s personal information and a different email address.

John Turner is a software engineer based in Salt Lake City. Turner said he created the account at Experian in 2020 to place a security freeze on his credit file, and that he used a password manager to select and store a strong, unique password for his Experian account.

Turner said that in early June 2022 he received an email from Experian saying the email address on his account had been changed. Experian’s password reset process was useless at that point because any password reset links would be sent to the new (impostor’s) email address.

An Experian support person Turner reached via phone after a lengthy hold time asked for his Social Security Number (SSN) and date of birth, as well as his account PIN and answers to his secret questions. But the PIN and secret questions had already been changed by whoever re-signed up as him at Experian.

“I was able to answer the credit report questions successfully, which authenticated me to their system,” Turner said. “At that point, the representative read me the current stored security questions and PIN, and they were definitely not things I would have used.”

Turner said he was able to regain control over his Experian account by creating a new account. But now he’s wondering what else he could do to prevent another account compromise.

“The most frustrating part of this whole thing is that I received multiple ‘here’s your login information’ emails later that I attributed to the original attackers coming back and attempting to use the ‘forgot email/username’ flow, likely using my SSN and DOB, but it didn’t go to their email that they were expecting,” Turner said. “Given that Experian doesn’t support two-factor authentication of any kind — and that I don’t know how they were able to get access to my account in the first place — I’ve felt very helpless ever since.”

Arthur Rishi is a musician and co-executive director of the Boston Landmarks Orchestra. Rishi said he recently discovered his Experian account had been hijacked after receiving an alert from his credit monitoring service (not Experian’s) that someone had tried to open an account in his name at JPMorgan Chase.

Rishi said the alert surprised him because his credit file at Experian was frozen at the time, and Experian did not notify him about any activity on his account. Rishi said Chase agreed to cancel the unauthorized account application, and even rescinded its credit inquiry (each credit pull can ding your credit score slightly).

But he never could get anyone from Experian’s support to answer the phone, despite spending what seemed like eternity trying to progress through the company’s phone-based system. That’s when Rishi decided to see if he could create a new account for himself at Experian.

“I was able to open a new account at Experian starting from scratch, using my SSN, date of birth and answering some really basic questions, like what kind of car did you take out a loan for, or what city did you used to live in,’ Rishi said.

Upon completing the sign-up, Rishi noticed that his credit was unfrozen.

Like Turner, Rishi is now worried that identity thieves will just hijack his Experian account once more, and that there is nothing he can do to prevent such a scenario. For now, Rishi has decided to pay Experian $25.99 a month to more closely monitor his account for suspicious activity. Even using the paid Experian service, there were no additional multi-factor authentication options available, although he said Experian did send a one-time code to his phone via SMS recently when he logged on.

“Experian now sometimes does require MFA for me if I use a new browser or have my VPN on,” Rishi said, but he’s not sure if Experian’s free service would have operated differently.

“I get so angry when I think about all this,” he said. “I have no confidence this won’t happen again.”

In a written statement, Experian suggested that what happened to Rishi and Turner was not a normal occurrence, and that its security and identity verification practices extend beyond what is visible to the user.

“We believe these are isolated incidents of fraud using stolen consumer information,” Experian’s statement reads. “Specific to your question, once an Experian account is created, if someone attempts to create a second Experian account, our systems will notify the original email on file.”

“We go beyond reliance on personally identifiable information (PII) or a consumer’s ability to answer knowledge-based authentication questions to access our systems,” the statement continues. “We do not disclose additional processes for obvious security reasons; however, our data and analytical capabilities verify identity elements across multiple data sources and are not visible to the consumer. This is designed to create a more positive experience for our consumers and to provide additional layers of protection. We take consumer privacy and security seriously, and we continually review our security processes to guard against constant and evolving threats posed by fraudsters.”

ANALYSIS

KrebsOnSecurity sought to replicate Turner and Rishi’s experience — to see if Experian would allow me to re-create my account using my personal information but a different email address. The experiment was done from a different computer and Internet address than the one that created the original account years ago.

After providing my Social Security Number (SSN), date of birth, and answering several multiple choice questions whose answers are derived almost entirely from public records, Experian promptly changed the email address associated with my credit file. It did so without first confirming that new email address could respond to messages, or that the previous email address approved the change.

Experian’s system then sent an automated message to the original email address on file, saying the account’s email address had been changed. The only recourse Experian offered in the alert was to sign in, or send an email to an Experian inbox that replies with the message, “this email address is no longer monitored.”

After that, Experian prompted me to select new secret questions and answers, as well as a new account PIN — effectively erasing the account’s previously chosen PIN and recovery questions. Once I’d changed the PIN and security questions, Experian’s site helpfully reminded me that I have a security freeze on file, and would I like to remove or temporarily lift the security freeze?

To be clear, Experian does have a business unit that sells one-time password services to businesses. While Experian’s system did ask for a mobile number when I signed up a second time, at no time did that number receive a notification from Experian. Also, I could see no option in my account to enable multi-factor authentication for all logins.

How does Experian differ from the practices of Equifax and TransUnion, the other two big consumer credit reporting bureaus? When KrebsOnSecurity tried to re-create an existing account at TransUnion using my Social Security number, TransUnion rejected the application, noting that I already had an account and prompting me to proceed through its lost password flow. The company also appears to send an email to the address on file asking to validate account changes.

Likewise, trying to recreate an existing account at Equifax using personal information tied to my existing account prompts Equifax’s systems to report that I already have an account, and to use their password reset process (which involves sending a verification email to the address on file).

KrebsOnSecurity has long urged readers in the United States to place a security freeze on their files with the three major credit bureaus. With a freeze in place, potential creditors can’t pull your credit file, which makes it very unlikely anyone will be granted new lines of credit in your name. I’ve also advised readers to plant their flag at the three major bureaus, to prevent identity thieves from creating an account for you and assuming control over your identity.

The experiences of Rishi, Turner and this author suggest Experian’s practices currently undermine both of those proactive security measures. Even so, having an active account at Experian may be the only way you find out when crooks have assumed your identity. Because at least then you should receive an email from Experian saying they gave your identity to someone else.

In April 2021, KrebsOnSecurity revealed how identity thieves were exploiting lax authentication on Experian’s PIN retrieval page to unfreeze consumer credit files. In those cases, Experian failed to send any notice via email when a freeze PIN was retrieved, nor did it require the PIN to be sent to an email address already associated with the consumer’s account.

A few days after that April 2021 story, KrebsOnSecurity broke the news that an Experian API was exposing the credit scores of most Americans.

Emory Roan, policy counsel for the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, said Experian not offering multi-factor authentication for consumer accounts is inexcusable in 2022.

“They compound the problem by gating the recovery process with information that’s likely available or inferable from third party data brokers, or that could have been exposed in previous data breaches,” Roan said. “Experian is one of the largest Consumer Reporting Agencies in the country, trusted as one of the few essential players in a credit system Americans are forced to be part of. For them to not offer consumers some form of (free) MFA is baffling and reflects extremely poorly on Experian.”

Nicholas Weaver, a researcher for the International Computer Science Institute at University of California, Berkeley, said Experian has no real incentive to do things right on the consumer side of its business. That is, he said, unless Experian’s customers — banks and other lenders — choose to vote with their feet because too many people with frozen credit files are having to deal with unauthorized applications for new credit.

“The actual customers of the credit service don’t realize how much worse Experian is, and this isn’t the first time Experian has screwed up horribly,” Weaver said. “Experian is part of a triopoly, and I’m sure this is costing their actual customers money, because if you have a credit freeze that gets lifted and somebody loans against it, it’s the lender who eats that fraud cost.”

And unlike consumers, he said, lenders do have a choice in which of the triopoly handles their credit checks.

“I do think it’s important to point out that their real customers do have a choice, and they should switch to TransUnion and Equifax,” he added.

More greatest hits from Experian:

2017: Experian Site Can Give Anyone Your Credit Freeze PIN
2015: Experian Breach Affects 15 Million Customers
2015: Experian Breach Tied to NY-NJ ID Theft Ring
2015: At Experian, Security Attrition Amid Acquisitions
2015: Experian Hit With Class Action Over ID Theft Service
2014: Experian Lapse Allowed ID Theft Service Access to 200 Million Consumer Records
2013: Experian Sold Consumer Data to ID Theft Service

Update, 10:32 a.m.: Updated the story to clarify that while Experian does sometimes ask users to enter a one-time code sent via SMS to the number on file, there does not appear to be any option to enable this on all logins.

AMD & NVIDIA graphics card prices have dropped hard, and it's not just the used graphics cards that are flooding over from the crypto crash but also new graphics cards at various online shops that are currently available far below the MSRP.

The Entire Range of AMD & NVIDIA Graphics Cards Is Currently Available Below MSRP in China, RTX 3090 Ti Prices Fall By Up To 38% & 6900 XT By 37.5%

According to reports coming in from China, the latest inventory of graphics cards from NVIDIA and AMD has just arrived in stores and the prices are way below their MSRPs as they should be by now. Graphics card prices have been on a decline mainly due to two reasons, first being the GPU market course correction which saw two years of inflated prices due to supply and logistics issues, and the other being the crypto crash which has resulted in several used graphics cards to flood the market at super-cheap prices.

This has resulted in retailers around the globe correcting the prices on graphics cards from NVIDIA & AMD but most buyers and even shopkeepers are using eBay as a reference for where the prices are heading. The graphics cards being sold on eBay are used and not brand new. There's also no way of telling whether the card was used for mining operations or not. This is where this Chinese price listing comes in which shows brand new graphics card prices at up to 33% below MSRP.

Chinese 'New' Graphics Card Prices (7/11/2022):

Graphics Card	Current Price (Retailer)	MSRP	Difference vs MSRP
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti	9499 RMB ($1415 US)	14999 RMB ($2234 US)	-38%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090	8498 RMB ($1266 US)	11999 RMB ($1787 US)	-29%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti	5998 RMB ($893 US)	8999 RMB ($1340 US)	-33%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB	4695 RMB ($699 US)	N/A	N/A
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10 GB	4598 RMB ($685 US)	5499 RMB ($819 US)	-16%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti	3842 RMB ($572 US)	4499 RMB ($670 US)	-15%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070	3396 RMB ($506 US)	3899 RMB ($580 US)	-13%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti	2875 RMB ($428 US)	2999 RMB ($446 US)	-4.1%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060	2189 RMB ($326 US)	2499 RMB ($372 US)	-12.4%
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050	1700 RMB ($253 US)	1899 RMB ($282 US)	-10.4%
AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT	7859 RMB ($1171 US)	8399 RMB ($1251 US)	-6.4%
AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT	4999 RMB ($744 US)	7999 RMB ($1191 US)	-37.5%
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT	4293 RMB ($639 US)	5099 RMB ($759 US)	-15.8%
AMD Radeon RX 6800	3988 RMB ($594 US)	4599 RMB ($685 US)	-13.2%
AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT	3399 RMB ($506 US)	4199 RMB ($625 US)	-19%
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT	3049 RMB ($454 US)	3699 RMB ($551 US)	-17.5%
AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT	2490 RMB ($371 US)	3099 RMB ($461 US)	-19.6%
AMD Radeon RX 600 XT	2218 RMB ($330 US)	2999 RMB ($446 US)	-26%
AMD Radeon RX 6600	1799 RMB ($268 US)	2499 RMB ($372 US)	-28%
AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT	1174 RMB ($174 US)	1499 RMB ($223 US)	-21.6%
AMD Radeon RX 6400	894 RMB ($133 US)	1299 RMB ($193 US)	-31.1%

The list includes the previous and new graphics card prices from today (11th July 2022) and also compares them to the MSRP. So coming to the juicy bits, all-new graphics cards from NVIDIA and AMD are now being sold way below MSRP. The only cards that are in the single-digit range below MSRP are the AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT at -6.4% and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti at -4.1%. One is a fairly new graphics card positioned at the top and the other is one of the most popular GPU in the mainstream segment. Despite that, these graphics cards can now be bought for prices that are lower than the MSRPs in new condition.

The graphics cards with the most aggressive price cuts are also the fastest by each respective company. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is being sold at -38% below MSRP while the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT is being sold for -37.5% below MSRP. The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and the RTX 3090 have also seen a fairly big price drop of -29% and -33%, respectively. One thing I should be pointing out is that the official MSRP for these graphics cards is slightly higher in China due to added VAT. So now these graphics cards are not only below their MSRPs but also below the international MSRP (minus the VAT).

Based on where the pricing is going, in a few months, we might be able to get an RTX 3090 at or under $1000 US and the same with the AMD GPU lineup. Both AMD and NVIDIA are clearing up their GPU inventory to make room for next-gen graphics cards which are expected to launch this fall. So expect more aggressive price cuts and deals in the coming months.

The post Chinese Retailers Selling AMD & NVIDIA Entire Graphics Card Lineup Significantly Below MSRP, Prices Drop Up To 38% by Hassan Mujtaba appeared first on Wccftech.

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Elon Musk did not become the world’s richest person by playing into the hands of his opponents – a fact that many analysts appear to be ignoring in their newfound zeal to declare Twitter a no-brainer favored contender in the upcoming legal fight. Musk did not invest billions of dollars into Twitter only to abandon his social media-related ambitions at this juncture. In contrast to the word on the street, this appears to be a well-thought-out gambit to force a lower purchase price for the global town square.

As a refresher, Elon Musk officially walked away on Friday from the agreement to acquire Twitter, alleging that, in contravention to the purchase agreement, the social media platform failed to provide pertinent information “related to the consummation of the transaction.” Specifically, Musk has identified Twitter’s failure to satisfactorily prove the fidelity of its Monthly Active Users (MAUs) metric as a major stumbling block. Bear in mind that Twitter has consistently maintained that less than 5 percent of the active accounts on the platform could be defined as bots or fake accounts, a claim that has been declared dubious by Musk on several occasions.

In order to assuage Elon Musk’s concerns, Twitter did grant the CEO of Tesla access to its “firehose” – a massive stream of internal data that consists of over 500 million tweets that are posted each day. However, Musk alleged in his letter to Twitter’s board on Friday that the access was of limited value given that it came with strings attached:

Additionally, those APIs contained an artificial “cap” on the number of queries that Mr. Musk and his team can run regardless of the rate limit—an issue that initially prevented Mr. Musk and his advisors from completing an analysis of the data in any reasonable period of time. Mr. Musk raised this issue as soon as he became aware of it, in the first paragraph of the June 29 Letter: “We have just been informed by our data experts that Twitter has placed an artificial cap on the number of searches our experts can perform with this data, which is now preventing Mr. Musk and his team from doing their analysis.” That cap was not removed until July 6, after Mr. Musk demanded its removal for a second time.

The other major reason cited by Elon Musk to walk away from the deal centered on Twitter’s failure to “preserve substantially intact the material components of its current business organization.” Here, Musk has cited Twitter’s recent decision to fire two key executives as well as layoff a third of its talent acquisition team.

Elon Musk has Brilliantly Cornered Twitter

This brings us to the crux of the matter. Twitter has played right into the hands of Elon Musk by challenging his termination of the purchase agreement in a Delaware court.

Twitter had only two options in the face of Musk’s gambit: to agree to terminate the deal and claim a maximum of $1 billion in damages or sue for specific performance – that is, ask the courts to enforce the agreement.

Elon Musk’s detractors rightly claim that he had waived off due diligence during takeover negotiations, thereby severely damaging his legal standing at this stage. The quantum of bots on Twitter needs to be substantially higher than what the social media platform has continued to claim for the court to even consider setting aside the agreement. Nonetheless, Musk does have a considerably solid claim when it comes to Twitter’s recent layoff decisions.

However, all of these observations wrongly interpret Elon Musk’s hidden motive behind this move. The CEO of Tesla is not looking to walk away from the takeover agreement. Rather, he is looking to drastically reduce the platform’s purchase price. And here, Musk is on reasonably solid footing. As per an analysis by @SpecialSitsNews, “only 10% of litigated deals end up being done at original offer values.”

3/ Based on our analysis of deals since 2000, only 10% of litigated deals end up being done at original offer values, but ~40% tend to go through post-litigation at lower valuations. This stat is even higher for Delaware deals... Maybe this is Elon's goal all along for $TWTR?

— Special Situations Newsletter (Jay Singh III) (@SpecialSitsNews) July 9, 2022

Moreover, Delaware courts have usually enforced specific performance but at a lower valuation. For instance, LVMH was recently forced to acquire Tiffany & Co. under similar circumstances but at a lower price.

8/ Specific performance was a remedy in a more recent deal during Covid as well, when the French Retailer $LVMH threatened to walk away from a deal to purchase Tiffany & Co. Ultimately, LVMH agreed to lower the price by $425mn to $15.8bn. pic.twitter.com/rcdEpmwrUC

— Special Situations Newsletter (Jay Singh III) (@SpecialSitsNews) July 9, 2022

With Twitter refusing to renegotiate its purchase price and Elon Musk unwilling to pay such a hefty premium for an ailing company, litigation was the only feasible way forward for the CEO of Tesla to try to reduce the social media platform’s acquisition price.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk is doing what he usually does supremely well – troll the proverbial daylights out of his opponents.

pic.twitter.com/JcLMee61wj

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 11, 2022

Do you think Musk will succeed in his gambit to acquire Twitter at a lower price? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

The post After Playing a Brilliant Gambit To Try To Lower Twitter’s Purchase Price, Elon Musk Is Now Brutally Trolling the Social Media Platform by Rohail Saleem appeared first on Wccftech.

Popular Science reports: A raft of thin-film silicon bubbles deployed from Earth into outer space and stretching to the size of Brazil could potentially block the Sun's solar radiation from further warming Earth, possibly helping to not only stave off climate change, but potentially reverse it. This new "space bubbles" plan offered by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology rifts off a concept first offered by astronomer Roger Angel. The multidisciplinary team of architects, civil and mechanical engineers, physicists and material scientists have worked on the technical and social aspects of what the group calls a "planetary-scale project" in an effort to find a non-Earth-bound solution to climate change. The MIT group believes that if the raft of bubbles can deflect 1.8 percent of incident solar radiation before it hits Earth, they can fully reverse today's global warming. Even if they can't establish a 1.8 percent shading, they trust a smaller percentage provides enough benefit to help mitigate global warming. To make it happen, the group proposes deploying small, inflatable bubbles into outer space that they could then manufacture into a space raft the size of Brazil and suspend near the L1 Lagrangian Point, the location between the Earth and Sun where the gravitational influence of both bodies cancel out. The team does suggest having some sort of system to ensure the raft stays in place and that may provide the ability to move the bubbles closer to the Sun for optimal impact.... MIT cautions they don't view the project as a replacement to current adaption and mitigation efforts, but as a backup solution should climate change spin out of control... They plan to investigate low vapor-pressure materials to rapidly inflate and assemble the rafts, whether with a silicon-based melt or a graphene-reinforced ionic liquid... The team also believes a bit of science fiction may help in finding "novel ways" of shipping the material to space, such as a magnetic accelerator, known as a railgun.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

If you’re a fan of some older Ubisoft titles, it might be worth taking a look at your back catalog and downloading some of those games while there’s still time. The company has announced that come September 1st, 2022, a number of its titles will no longer be able to access the internet. That means not only will those games lose multiplayer capabilities, but it also means that any games that have DLC that needs to be activated online will no longer be accessible following that date. The affected games are as follows:

• Anno 2070: multiplayer, linking accounts, online features
• Assassin’s Creed 2: multiplayer, linking accounts, online features
• Assassin’s Creed 3 (Remaster not affected): multiplayer, linking accounts, online features, DLC access
• Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood: multiplayer, linking accounts, online features, DLC access
• Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD: multiplayer, linking accounts, online features, DLC access
• Assassin’s Creed Revelations: multiplayer, online features
• Driver San Francisco: multiplayer, linking accounts, online features, DLC access
• Far Cry 3 (Remaster not affected): multiplayer, linking accounts, online features, DLC access
• Ghost Recon Future Soldier: multiplayer, to play single-player campaign you’ll need to put the console in offline mode
• Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands: multiplayer, linking accounts, online features, DLC access
• Rayman Legends: linking accounts, online features
• Silent Hunter 5: multiplayer, linking accounts, online features
• Space Junkies: entire game
• Splinter Cell: Blacklist: multiplayer, linking accounts, online features
• ZombiU: linking accounts, online features

Of course, this highlights a greater issue when it comes to digital game purchases. At any time, companies can (and likely will) revoke access to your games, even if it’s decades down the line. Your favorite games now that require online services to activate will, one day, no longer be playable. The same can be said of cloud gaming platforms, which Ubisoft has also been a massive proponent of. What’s particularly egregious is that in this instance, Ubisoft is entirely removing Assassin’s Creed: Liberation HD from Steam, after putting it on sale for the Steam summer sale. Owners of the game won’t be able to continue playing it, either. Silent Hunter 5 displays the same message on its Steam page.

As for the reason why Ubisoft says it’s closing the online services for these games, it’s not the most clear-cut of answers. The company simply states that “closing the online services for some older games allows us to focus our resources on delivering great experiences for players who are playing newer or more popular titles.” In other words, it likely just means that these games cost the company money to keep the servers up, but the problem is that elements of those games that require activation servers (such as DLC) will fail because of those servers going down. The most recent game on the list is Space Junkies, which launched in 2019 as a VR multiplayer title.

If you’re affected by this server shutdown, let us know in the comments below. As companies sunset older titles that relied on online activation methods for DLC and other additional content, this is likely to become a more and more common phenomenon. Even the most popular titles like Call of Duty, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch, and more will eventually have their servers shut down, and games that have single-player campaigns should be protected from going entirely redundant. The DLC that people purchased should be protected too, especially when it comes to games that could have been purchased for full price just a few months ago.

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Source: Ubisoft

The post Ubisoft to disable online services and DLC activation for some of its older games, even if you bought them full price appeared first on XDA.

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