New submitter Mononymous writes: Created by Graham Nelson, Inform 7 compiles a powerful object-oriented language resembling English into a working text adventure. Friendly GUIs for various platforms have been open source for many years, but the core compiler remained proprietary. Now, 16 years after its initial freeware release, Nelson has released the source code under the Artistic License 2.0 in a public GitHub repo. Inform 7 is one of the largest "literate programs" ever released.
American tourists in Israel found an unexploded shell in the occupied territory of the Golan Heights and decided to keep it as a souvenir. Upon arrival at the airport, they informed security agents about the big live shell that was packed in their luggage. — Read the rest
The Joker is arguably the most iconic superhero villain of all time, a character serving as a mirror opposite of Batman, capable of both terrorizing audiences and making them laugh — often at the same time. This character has resulted in many incredible performances in film and television (even video games), as well as a handful of questionable incarnations.
Just as everyone has their preferred Dark Knight, fans also have their favorite Joker, and one name that comes up frequently is Mark Hamill. In addition to being Luke Skywalker, the actor has had a rather prolific and acclaimed career in voice acting, and has played several incarnations of Joker for 30 years and counting. What makes his performance special is how versatile it is, with Hamill giving us many different versions of the Joker, even if the character hasn't technically changed at all.
'I Try To Play Him Like I'd Never Played Him Before'
Hamill first played the character in the "Batman: the Animated Series" episode "Christmas With the Joker," (though the episode "Joker's Favor" made it to air first). Hamill got the job after auditioning for the part using a voice inspired by the Blue Meanies from "Yellow Submarine," and since then, he's played the character in everything from shows like "Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?" and "Robot Chicken," to the "Batman: Arkham" video game series (above), and many more animated appearances.
Speaking to Rotten Tomatoes about his many voice roles, Hamill described his approach to the character as being as wild as the Joker origin stories:
"First of all, I try to play him like I'd never played him before. And then you would look at the script, and it would call for different things. There was an episode where Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy team up, sort of a Thelma and Louise, so the Joker's left at home shuffling around in the house, you know? So in that instance, he was used for a kind of pathetic comedy. So, like you say, every project is different. That's what keeps it fresh and interesting."
'He's Probably Like A Spice'
The thing about Joker is that he's more of a malleable mold that different filmmakers and artists can shape into whatever they need for that particular story. Though a variety of actors have given us different portrayals of Batman, the character has remained relatively static in terms of personality in film. Meanwhile, the Joker has been transformed massively across the years. Within Hamill's tenure alone, the character has been portrayed as a clown, a savvy crime lord, a psychopathic killer, and everything in between. He's as campy and funny as Cesar Romero, and as threatening as Jack Nicholson, often simultaneously.
"When you look at the script it's like the first time every time. And you look at the script and you go, 'How is the Joker used in this particular script?' And it's all over the board, the colors they use him for. He's probably like a spice, a very distinctive spice. If you add too much of it, it'll probably make you slightly nauseous. But you crave it when you don't have it. That's what the Joker is like for me. I never expected it to have such peaks and valleys and a career all its own."
Times may change, Gotham may change, but if there is one thing we can count on, it's Mark Hamill being a perfect Joker every single time.
We fully expect our science fiction to transport us to far-off places, to unimaginable alien vistas populated by things beyond our wildest dreams. We actively want to be confronted by the unknown on our flight of fancy. But, even for a genre obsessed with pushing the limits of outer space or the inner space of our minds, it's occasionally possible to boldly go a little too far.
Perhaps it's the theme itself that disturbs our conventional sensibilities, or where an element of horror suddenly emerges where there wasn't any, startling us like an animatronic monster popping up in a ghost train. Maybe it's a sudden shift in tone altering the film you were expecting, or not what you're presented with there and then, but that which lingers with you long after the film has finished.
Whichever applies, here are 14 examples of science fiction movies which, for one reason or another, pushed the boundaries a little too far. Let's see what's out there...
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978)
The central premise at the heart of both the 1956 original and the superlative 1978 remake of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is a terrifying one -- that you will be replaced by an emotionless alien duplicate -- but the sequel takes this existential nightmare one step further. At this stage in the movie the heroes have already uncovered the alien's method of invasion, that a large organic pod placed by a sleeping victim will hatch their perfect replica -- but here we see the result of this process gone wrong.
As our leads attempt to navigate their way through the city, resisting showing any emotions so to blend in with the invaders, a dog scurries out into the street. No normal hound though, but one with the head of a tramp we'd met earlier. As they slept together for warmth on the streets of California, their pod replacement became a monstrous fusion of the two.
Our heroine gasps in horror, their subterfuge is revealed, and the aliens emit their familiar anguished scream. And with the image of that monstrous human/dog chimera etched on your brain, you'll struggle not to scream aloud yourself.
Color Out Of Space
Another in a lengthy line of adaptations of the works of Rhode Island's own H.P. Lovecraft, cosmic horror is par for the course. In many, humanity is but an insect beneath the regard of godlike beings that could destroy us with a whim -- but this isn't the most disturbing thing about this Nicolas Cage 2019 adaptation.
When a meteor falls into Nathan Gardner's farmland, it brings madness and horror, as a reality and sanity-wrenching organism has arrived with it. Struck by energy from the titular Color out of Space -- which is primarily a pink purple, incidentally -- Gardner's wife and son are horrifically fused together. Rather than be killed outright -- the smallest of mercies -- this new hybrid form survives. Believing this hideous abomination can be cured, the unstable Gardner locks them away.
The form continues to mutate, the son slowly being absorbed into the mother's mass, with both conscious and aware of their predicament. Luckily, glimpses of the abomination are brief, but its noises alone will convince you that there are worse things than death. Those gurgling utterances will stick with you long after the rest of "Color out of Space" has faded from your memory.
Slither
In this often-overlooked entry written and directed by Peacemaker's James Gunn, "Slither" is a science fiction black comedy starring Nathan Fillion that seeks to homage the fun and energy of 1950s B Movies. It features some thoroughly memorable alien critters in the form of disgusting little alien slugs that force their way into the throats of human hosts, taking them over.
The tone remains light with an air of cartoon gruesomeness until our hapless heroes stumble across a barn and the occupant within. Poor old Brenda Gutierrez has been captured by the lead protagonist Grant Grant -- played with gusto by Michael Rooker -- and chosen to be the host for his alien offspring.
Her body is inflated to monstrous size, resembling nothing more than a pink balloon with a tiny, attached face. Clearly in some distress, she screams in agony as her inflated form begins to convulse, and she bursts open like a piñata, albeit one filled with hungry parasitical alien parasites and not fruits and candy. You'll never look at bubble gum in the same light again.
Altered States
With both the movie and Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign occurring in the early nineteen-eighties, the former First Lady's message seemed to have missed an obvious trick. Although perhaps "Just Say No or your experiments with psychoactive drugs may cause you to devolve into a proto-consciousness" might not have looked as good on the posters.
In "Altered States," scientist Edward Jessup experiments with a combination of narcotics and sensory deprivation to tap into different states of consciousness, but his experiments take him to the brink of disaster. Firebrand British director Ken Russell might have seemed an odd choice to helm this William Hurt-starring science fiction body horror, but his sense of surrealism and spectacle turned out be the perfect fit.
Rather than a particular moment standing out, the whole movie is unnerving from start to finish. Feeling as much like a bad trip getting progressively worse as a cinematic experience, it's an amazing debut for the sadly missed William Hurt. In a movie where a far-fetched premise will succeed or fail based on the strength of its lead, "Altered States" is a surreal nightmare of a movie, discomfort imprinted on every frame.
The Blob (1988)
The 1958 original (with an unforgettable Burt Bacharach theme and a nearly thirty-year-old Steve McQueen pretending to play a teenager) was a classic fifties B-movie featuring the common trope of an alien invading a small unassuming American town. In this case, however, the alien was a huge pulsating carnivorous mass of strawberry jelly – although, as with most films of the age, the young hero saved the day.
The remake -- featuring the dream team of Chuck Russell at the helm helping Frank Darabont with screenplay duties -- followed a similar path, albeit moving the tale to the modern day. By the time the amorphous antagonist had arrived on the scene, the plot had firmly established our heroine and our square-jawed all-American hero...
...who promptly got dissolved within the acidic form of the mauve monstrosity, leaving nothing but a severed, twitching hand. You suddenly had an idea of how cinema audiences must have felt back in "Alien" in 1979 when Captain Dallas got the shaft in the shaft. Suddenly nobody was safe, and all bets were off. We weren't in Steve McQueen territory anymore.
Annihilation
Based on the first book of author Jeff VanderMeer's "Southern Reach Trilogy," "Annihilation" sees Natalie Portman's Lena tasked with taking a group of female recruits into a mysterious extra-terrestrial phenomenon known as the "Shimmer," the site of a meteorite impact three years previous. The laws of physics and nature behave differently within this mysterious zone, with the team encountering a variety of anomalies -- alien fungi and plants growing into the shape of people, to name two.
However, it's one particular encounter that will stick with any viewer. One of the team is savagely killed by a vicious mutated bear, its face stripped to a skull. It's a later encounter with the aforementioned ursine that profoundly disturbs. Noises from the atrocity are revealed to be the echoed repeated dying cries of their deceased comrade.
Writer Alex Garland is no stranger to smart and cerebral horror and science-fiction -- "Sunshine" and "Ex Machina" are two notable examples -- but the noises from that damnable bear are as much nightmare-inducing as they are thought-provoking. It's scarier than the average bear, Boo-boo.
Alien
It's one of the most memorable scenes in science fiction and is as effective now as it ever was. It's the moment that elevates "Alien" from being a film about astronauts threatened by a man in a rubber suit into a truly terrifying piece of sci-fi cinema.
Executive Officer Thomas Kane, seemingly recovered from his close encounter with an overly friendly face-hugger, settles down for a meal with his fellow crew members. The mood is light, but the eighth passenger onboard the USCSS Nostromo is about to make its presence known, bloodily and messily.
So, what makes the scene work and prevents it from being gratuitous gore? A believable world, a stellar cast of believable characters, and genuine human reactions. The stage directions merely state "the alien emerges." The crew -- having set up the shot -- knew what this would entail, the cast, less so. None of them -- especially Veronica Cartwright as Lambert, who passed out after the cameras stopped -- were quite prepared for how much blood there would be. Director cruelty, perhaps, but undoubtedly cinematic magic.
Society
Imagine being the sort of person who goes into movies completely blank, the sort of person capable of avoiding teasers, trailers, and spoilers. An act difficult back in the nineties, next to impossible now. Imagine the perfect surprise of viewing "From Dusk till Dawn" in 1996 and watching as a fun and violent heist movie suddenly mutated into an amazingly over-the-top vampire movie. Then imagine that same lucky soul watching Brian Yuzna's 1989 movie "Society," being entertained by a film that feels like a David Lynch remake of "Beverly Hills 90210," and then being plunged headlong into that final act.
Imagine being confronted with that orgiastic depraved mass of writhing, entwined bodies from the fevered imagination of the appropriately named special effects pioneer Screaming Mad George. "Society" had already been a far from subtle satire of the upper class, but it's this last gleeful segment that hammers the theme home with a sledgehammer that the upper class is literally feeding off the poor.
It's as surreal as it is disgusting and will brand "Society" onto your pre-frontal cortex forever.
Fire In The Sky
"Fire In the Sky" was one of a spate of alien abduction movies possibly released to tie-in with the success of "The X-Files" TV series. When a group of six loggers encounter a UFO in 1975, one of them is abducted. Much of the film concerns the subsequent questioning of the missing man's colleagues and the skepticism of their accounts of what happened on that fateful night, but it is when the missing logger Travis Walton is found and recounts his own series of events that a decidedly average science fiction thriller becomes absolutely gripping with scenes too uncomfortable to watch.
These aren't the benevolent aliens of Close Encounters, happy to communicate with humanity by means of a jolly little ditty, but sadistic torturers. There's no sterile gleaming white lab but a dingy operating theater. Walton is partially suffocated before having alien goo bolted into his throat to stop his futile screaming. The rest of the process (thankfully) is left to our imagination.
With incredibly effective practical effects -- especially for the uncaring alien observers -- it's as effective a scene of horror as you'll ever see. It's also a violent and visceral tonal shift that'll cause you to recoil with whiplash.
Looper
Many medium-budget science fiction films use time travel as a gimmick, but rarely well. "Looper," however, stands above the crowd. It's a smart and fast-paced thriller about time-travelling assassins wiping out targets sent from the future, talking payment in silver strapped to the time-severed victims' bodies. These well-paid assassins know the genuine cost of their job – that one day the victim set back in time will be their future self, effectively "closing their loop."
Looper Seth (Paul Dano, Riddler in "The Batman") is the friend of the protagonist (and fellow Looper) Joe. Having failed to kill his future self, he sets in course a series of events that will pit Joe against his elder equivalent: Bruce Willis.
It's a scene that might not stand up to scientific scrutiny, but Old Seth's attempts to escape are foiled by young Seth being mutilated in the present day. In a shocking scene made worse due to a desperate Seth being unable to do anything about it, body parts begin to vanish -- fingers, his nose. In the end, he has to accept the inevitable -- that escape is futile.
The Thing (1982)
According to critics at the time, the whole movie went too far. Admittedly, many of the scenes from John Carpenter's remake of the 1951 B-Movie "The Thing from Another World" could be considered extreme and therefore worthy of consideration on this list, but one in particular stands out.
Quite understandably, considering all the stress of being stranded in an Antarctic base with a shapeshifting alien, geologist Vance Norris has a heart attack. It's when he's being defibrillated by Doctor Copper that Vance's chest opens up wide, revealing a gleaming set of extra-terrestrial incisors, that the fun begins.
As an armless Copper staggers backward (with a double amputee temporarily standing in for the actor), Norris' chest erupts like a Las Vegas fountain, spewing out another alien form. It's the sheer escalation of events that makes the scene sing, with everything going from bad to worse and then worse still. Culminating with the reveal of a head with spider legs that subsequently becomes a close encounter of the flambéed kind thanks to the flamethrower of Kurt Russell's MacReady, it's a scene that barely comes up for air. Considering how the scene started, here's hoping your heart's okay after it all.
Tetsuo: Iron Man
A film opening with a fetishist obsessed with embedding pieces of scrap metal into his open wounds was never going to be accused of subtlety or restraint. With this in mind, it's a fair bit to consider the whole film as going a smidgeon too far. With the protagonist -- known only as the salaryman -- dragged into a world of techno-fetishism and bio-mechanical horror, it's as much a frenzied fever dream as it is a movie.
Filmed in high-contrast visually striking black and white, "Tetsuo: Iron Man" is a hyper-energetic, chaotic, and experimental film -- part art-house, part low-budget horror. On the rusted metal surface, it owes a debt to David Cronenberg's penchant for body horror and the melding of flesh and metal -- but it's just as beholden to the work of Tomoyuki Tanaka, with many of the fights between metal-imbued twisted cyborgs feeling like clashes between scaled-down Kaiju.
Featuring scenes you'll doubtful never see in mainstream cinema -- in particular, ones involving an appendage granted drill-like qualities -- you'll never see the like again. Until you watch "Tetsuo II: Body Hammer," a sequel with a slightly more coherent plot but at the cost of a certain amount of weirdness.
Under The Skin
Loosely adapted from the "unfilmable" Michael Faber 2013 novel of the same name, "Under the Skin" features Scarlett Johansson as the unnamed lead, an enigmatic woman picking up men from the streets of Glasgow, Scotland to lure them into an inky black pool where they are devoured.
It's a loose plot, more concerned with atmosphere than story, but is a compelling and disturbing watch. There's a delightful ambiguity to it all; is Johansson's alien malignant or benign? Is the black void her homeworld, or a different dimension? An unconventional narrative and an abrupt ending mean that your questions will more than likely not be answered to your satisfaction, but -- like the book -- it'll keep you thinking.
What makes the movie chillingly effective is the fact that some of the cast aren't professional actors. In fact, many of the scenes were shot with hidden cameras. This grants the movie a rare fly-on-the-wall style, giving it an almost documentary-like appearance, bringing a mundanity to the extraordinary sights the film will present you with. The title has a dual purpose, appertaining to the true form that lurks under Johansson's earthly form as well as the fact that this film, like a splinter, will well and truly get under your skin.
The Fly 2
We can all happily accept the narrative that the good guys win, to inevitably ride off into the sunset, and the bad guys get punished. In 1989's "The Fly 2," the bad guys don't come much worse than Anton Bartok, a sociopathic CEO who will go to any lengths for power. The sequel is a pale imitation of the exceptional Cronenberg 1986 original, but it is made memorable solely through the conclusion -- a standout example of "getting your just deserts." In his desperation for power, protagonist Martin -- son of Seth Brundle from the first film -- drags Bartok into a teleporter pod, using him to cure himself of his mutation.
It's only in the final scenes we did what this did to Bartok, with what remains of the once-great man kept alive for experimentation in the same laboratory he once ruled over. His sorry form, now reduced to a bloated maggot-like monstrosity, drags itself awkwardly to a food bowl and stares ahead with a single unblinking human eye.
Does any semblance of Bartok's human sentience or consciousness reside within that twisted form? If so, it seems too cruel a punishment, even for this loathsome man. Now that's science fiction gone too far.
Mother's Day is right around the corner, and if you want to pick up a new piece of tech for mom, you can do so for less before the holiday. A number of Apple devices are on sale, including the latest iPad Air and the AirPods Pro, while a bunch of earbuds have been discounted, too, like the newest models from Beats and Jabra. The Fitbit Charge 5 remains on sale for $130, while a few of iRobot's latest robot vacuums are hundreds of dollars off. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.
AirPods Pro
Apple's AirPods Pro are back on sale for $175, which is 30 percent off their normal price. We gave them a score of 87 for their improved fit, good audio quality and solid ANC.
Apple's latest 16-inch MacBook Pro is $250 off and down to $2,249. While that's still a hefty price tag, it's the lowest we've seen since the laptop came out last year. We gave the notebook a score of 92 for its super fast performance, stunning Liquid Retina XDR display, fantastic keyboard and array of ports.
Many color options of the 41mm Apple Watch Series 7 are down to $330, or $70 off their normal price. We gave the wearable a score of 90 for its bigger screen, faster charging and handy watchOS 8 features.
The latest iPad Air is $40 off and down to $559. We gave it a score of 90 for its much improved performance thanks to the M1 chip, Center Stage-capable cameras, good battery life and solid build quality.
The entire Galaxy S22 lineup is on sale right now, with the Galaxy S22 Ultra and the S22+ both seeing $200 discounts. The standard S22 is $100 off and down to $700 as well. If you want the best that Samsung has to offer right now, we recommend going for the S22 Ultra, which earned a score of 89 from us for its bright, colorful display, built-in S Pen and solid cameras.
Both the 40mm and the 44mm Galaxy Watch 4 models are $50 off and down to $200 and $230, respectively. While not record lows, these sale prices are some of the best we've seen since last Black Friday. We gave the Galaxy Watch 4 a score of 85 for its bright, crisp display, comprehensive head tracking and improved third-party app support.
The new Beats Fit Pro earbuds are $20 off and down to $180. That's one of the best prices we've seen all year, and they earned a score of 87 from us for their comfortable fit, punchy bass, solid ANC and loads of handy features.
The Beats Studio Buds are back down to a record low of $100. We gave them a score of 84 for their tiny, comfortable design, balanced sound and quick-pairing on both Android and iOS.
Solo Stove's spring sale knocks hundreds off its fire pits, so you can grab one for as low as $200. The Ranger, which is the smallest model, comes in at that price, while the mid-sized Bonfire is $160 off and down to $240 and the big Yukon is a whopping $325 off and down to $425. We've recommended these gadgets in may outdoor guides because they're fairly portable and create fires that won't smoke you out.
Amazon's Echo Dot is still on sale for $28, and you can get the tiny smart speaker bundled with a smart plug for only $5 more. We gave the Echo Dot a score of 88 for its attractive design, decent audio quality and tap-to-snooze alarm feature.
The second-gen Echo Show 5 is down to $45 right now, which is half off its normal price. We gave it a score of 85 for its great sound quality, compact size and tap-to-snooze feature. And if you want to up your smart home game, you can get a two-pack of the Blink Mini indoor security camera for only $35. They'll work with the Echo Show 5, allowing you to see camera feeds from the smart clock's display.
You can still save $5 when you buy a Nintendo $50 eShop gift card from Amazon, so you'll get the full $50 for only $45. You can then use those funds to get new titles like Kirby and the Forgotten Land, or stock up on a bunch of more affordable games.
Jabra's new Elite 4 Active earbuds are $20 off and down to $100, which is a new record low. The budget-friendly Elite 3 are also on sale and down to only $60. We gave the Elite 4 Active a score of 84 for their comfort fit, solid sound quality and customizable ANC, while the Elite 3 came in at 88 thanks to their good battery life, reliable onboard controls and comfortable fit.
iRobot's affordable Roomba 694 is still on sale for $180 right now, which is a record low. This is one of our favorite budget-friendly robot vacuums thanks to its easy to use mobile app, good cleaning power and sleek design.
The Roomba j7+ robo-vac and the Roomba s9+ are both $200 off right now and down to $599 and $799, respectively. These are both advanced machines from iRobot, with the j7+ sporting a pet poop detection feature, while the s9+ has the strongest suction power of all of the company's robot vacuums. Both also come with clean bases, so you won't have to empty their dustbins manually after each cleaning job.
The Fitbit Charge 5 tracker is down to $130, which is only $10 more than its record-low price. We gave the device a score of 82 for its accurate onboard GPS, slim design, standard Fitbit Pay and long battery life.
Ninja's 10-in-1 multicooker is $70 off and down to $130, which is close to its all-time-low price. This is a solid alternative to an Instant Pot as it has a bunch of cooking modes including pressure cook, slow cook, steam, yogurt and even air fry.
Both Google's standard Nest Thermostat and the more advanced Learning model remain discounted right now. You can pick up the regular version for $100, while the Learning Thermostat is still on sale for $200. They share most of the same features, but you'll get a slicker design, a higher-res display and the ability to connect with Nest Temperature Sensors with the Learning model.
A handful of Google smart home devices are on sale right now, including the Nest Video Doorbell Battery, which is $30 off and down to $150. This gadget will let you keep an eye on what's going on outside your door from your phone, and there are no wires to fuss with when you install it. You can also pick up the Nest Cam Indoor and Outdoor for less, coming in at $80 and $150, respectively.
This midrange Bluetooth speaker is $80 off and down to $300, which is the cheapest we've seen it. It earned a spot in our portable Bluetooth speaker guide for its dynamic yet balanced sound quality, IP67-rated design and relatively compact size.
Withings' ScanWatch is $50 off and down to $230 right now. It's a hybrid timepiece, so if you like the look of analog watches, this might be the wearable for you. In addition to all-day activity and sleep tracking, the ScanWatch also takes electrocardigrams and tracks heart rate, oxygen saturation, respiratory wellness and more.
For a limited time, you can pick up the ThermoPop instant-read thermometer for $14 less than usual, bringing it down to $21. This is the smaller sibling to the Thermapen One and we like its splash-proof design, backlit display and cute design.
The Arcade Stick from 8BitDo is on sale for a limited time only for just under $76. That's 16 percent off its normal price and the cheapest we've seen it. We liked its distinct, retro design, its solid joysticks and primary buttons and its compatibility with Nintendo Switch, PC and Raspberry Pi.
"Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba," or simply "Demon Slayer," is an international sensation. The show, which launched in 2019, quickly gained popularity in Japan and spread like wildfire due to its gorgeous animation, a perfect mix of horror and wholesome, and a cinnamon roll of a main character, Tanjiro Kamado. After its 26-episode run, the Japanese animation studio Ufotable quickly developed a sequel film, titled "Demon Slayer: Mugen Train." It made over $505 million at the worldwide box office and globally became the second highest-grossing film of 2020, on top of becoming the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time — and for good reason.
The movie is impeccably animated, featuring incredible technicolor fight sequences that take your breath away. More than its aesthetics, "Demon Slayer: Mugen Train" is able to deliver touching character beats that make it more than just another action anime; it's full of heart and packs an emotional punch that may just have you in tears at the very end. If you've watched "Demon Slayer: Mugen Train" and are craving more action, emotion, and high-octane battle sequences (or maybe a little touch of horror) in either animated or live-action stories, here are 13 films that may just scratch that itch.
Jujutsu Kaisen 0
Like "Demon Slayer," "Jujutsu Kaisen" is a newer anime series that quickly took the world by storm with its animation and creepy demon design, along with a wholesome yet powerful central character. In the world of "Jujutsu Kaisen," jujutsu sorcerers are tasked with protecting the world from the evil and violent proclivities of demons. Young sorcerers train at the esteemed Jujutsu High to carry on the ancient art.
A prequel film, "Jujutsu Kaisen 0" (based on the manga of the same name), was released in the U.S. in March 2022. It follows the origin story of Yuta Okkotsu, a character only briefly mentioned in the series but said to be extremely powerful. In the film, he's shown as a child with his best friend, Rika. They promise to marry each other when they grow up, but she's tragically hit by a car. Her undying love resurrects her soul as an angry demon connected to Yuta. He's taken under Satoru Gojo's wing to train and learn how to control Rika for good.
What unfolds is not only a tale about grief, but a rather tragic story about a war between the living and the undead, led by a traitorous sorcerer. Don't worry if you haven't watched the series; the film is accessible to both diehard fans and those unfamiliar with the world of demon-hunting sorcerers.
Paprika
The late Satoshi Kon was a cinematic genius. From the trippy TV series "Paranoia Agent" to the harrowing horror story "Perfect Blue," Kon created uniquely gorgeous yet terrifying stories about the dangers of technology and fears of increased human isolation. His magnum opus, and perhaps his most well-known work, is his 2006 film "Paprika," which was his final feature before he died in 2010.
The movie follows a scientist, Dr. Atsuko Chiba, who has helped create a machine called the DC Mini, which allows access into a person's dreams as a kind of psychiatric treatment. In reality, she's an uptight and serious woman, but in the land of dreams, she's known as Paprika, a floating free spirit. When the technology is stolen, someone begins killing people in their dreams and causes the subconscious to seep into reality. Kon packs the film with incredible surrealist imagery that beautifully encapsulates the strange, fleeting nature of dreams and what happens when humans use it as a battleground.
"Paprika" is often cited as a major influence for Christopher Nolan's 2010 film "Inception," which not only deals with a similar subject matter, but also seems to take specific shots from Kon's work. Most notably is the scene where Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Arthur is running on the walls and ceilings of a long hallway. While Nolan has never directly confirmed those claims, critics, such as Ciara Wardlow from Film School Rejects, have analyzed the two and noted their extensive parallels.
My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising
If you're still looking for wholesome yet action-filled anime, then you need to watch "My Hero Academia" and its companion film "My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising." Izuku Midoriya is a teenager who lives in a world where a large part of the population possesses quirks, which are essentially superpowers. They range from the typical invisibility and fire powers to people with frog-like abilities. Anything you can think of exists in this universe.
Midoriya doesn't have a quirk until he meets the number one hero, All For One, who secretly transfers his powers to young Midoriya. Midoriya is accepted to the prestigious quirk school UA and thus begins his journey as a professional hero. The film takes place later in Midoriya and his class' hero education. They all have better honed their powers, fought monsters, and bonded together as a team and family of sorts.
The movie continues to show the love and loyalty between classmates while placing them on the isolated island of Nabu with a dangerous enemy possessing an uncontrollable quirk. Similar to "Mugen Train," the film balances wholesome relationships with gorgeous action sequences that will have you cheering at the screen. ("Heroes Rising" won't reduce you to tears like "Mugen Train," though.)
The Midnight Meat Train
This is the dark horse pick of the list, but I stand by my choice to include this absolutely gnarly Clive Barker adaptation. It stars a then relatively unknown Bradley Cooper as Leon, a photographer who stumbles upon an ancient and depraved secret in the New York City subway. Mahogany (Vinnie Jones) is a butcher and serial killer who, armed with a meat tenderizer, kills unsuspecting victims who are unfortunate enough to end up on his train.
Mahogany isn't just killing for fun, though. He's killing to feed something that lurks in the subterranean depths under the city. Leon is disgusted but intrigued, looking at this as an opportunity to capture a darker side of humanity for his upcoming show. Also, Brooke Shields has a cameo.
While not as family-friendly as "Mugen Train," this is for the horror-inclined folks out there seeking more gory action and something a little more depraved. Since its source material is from the mind of Clive Barker, you can expect a weirdly erotic, blood-splattered tale with a title much funnier than anything shown in the film.
Redline
If you're looking for more absolutely stunning animation, Takeshi Koike's 2009 "Redline" should skyrocket to the top of your watchlist. The film follows JP, a racer on planet Dorothy who competes in deadly races to pay off his debts. When his debts are paid and he can finally leave the racing world, he's urged by fans to take part in the Redline race, the biggest race in the galaxy, which takes place on a planet full of angry cyborgs. It's a recipe for disaster.
While it sounds like there's extensive lore for the film, it's mostly just about its colorful and ridiculous vibes more than anything else. Plus, JP has an absurdly massive pompadour. Think "Space Dandy," but even bigger. It's the macho racing movie ratcheted up to 11 with incredibly well-endowed women and elaborately drawn cars. The movie may have hypersexualized subject matter, but boy, is it fun to look at. "Redline" is comprised of over 100,000 hand-drawn frames, which took seven years for the studio to complete.
Train To Busan
This wouldn't be a list of movies to watch after "Mugen Train" without Yeon Sang-ho's 2016 Korean zombie horror film "Train to Busan." It's both a zombie movie and a tender film about the fractured relationship between a father and his young daughter Soo-an (Su-an Kim). Divorced dad and busy white-collar worker Seok-woo (Gong Yoo) takes his daughter for a weekend and boards a train to, you guessed it, Busan. Little do they know that a zombie virus is quickly starting to spread across the country.
As an infected passenger begins biting and infecting more people, the uninfected must barricade themselves and fight for their lives in an incredibly cramped space. These zombies are relentless, fast, and hungry, and Sang-ho makes sure the viewer falls in love with select survivors to ramp up the stakes. "Train to Busan" makes innovative and creative choices to use such a confined space for a variety of horrifying scenarios. Plus, the deeply sad ending will have you in tears. Who doesn't want to be scared and sad all at once?
The Boy And The Beast
"The Boy and the Beast" is a classic tale of a boy and his grouchy mentor, but with a twist. Here, a human is brought into the Beast Kingdom to train under Kumatetsu, a human-like bear with something to prove. While the film is full of action and long fight sequences (all gorgeous to look at), it's also a heartbreaking look at grief. The young Ren is mourning the death of his mother and looks to this kingdom as an escape from a seemingly indifferent father. Once he's in the kingdom, though, he can't leave, so he takes on a new identity and a new life.
For the next eight years, he continues to train until he finds a way back into the human world. This division between lives tears at Ren, unable to decide which life is truly his. Similar to the journey of Tanjiro in "Demon Slayer" who must suffer great loss before pursuing his destiny, Ren must decide what home means to him and who his true family really is.
Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind
If you're seeking a character similar to Tanjiro, Nausicaä is your girl. She's the hero of Hayao Miyazaki's 1984 anime film "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind." She's also the princess of the Valley of the Wind, a small oasis in an apocalyptic world a thousand years after the Seven Days of Fire. Now, giant bugs called Ohmus roam the desert, and a toxic jungle covers the landscape.
While it's an extremely deadly environment, Nausicaä flourishes among its creatures and is more connected with the earth than most. Her peaceful existence is soon interrupted when a ship from the kingdom of Tolmekia crashes into the valley. Its cargo contains the embryo of a Giant Warrior, which helped destroy the world a thousand years ago. Nausicaä must fight to prevent another apocalypse and find a way to reunite humans and nature to save the planet.
"Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" is the beginning of Miyazaki's tendency to weave environmentalist messaging into his works. Through fantastical tales of giant bugs and magical princesses, he's able to comment on what our future could look like if we refuse to respect Mother Earth.
Snowpiercer
If you loved the use of trains in "Mugen Train" but want a grittier story with a heavy dose of class warfare, then check out Bong Joon-ho's 2013 post-apocalyptic thriller "Snowpiercer." The year is 2031, and the world has been plunged into a new ice age after humanity attempted to solve global warming. To keep the human race alive, the remaining population lives on an eternally running train called the Snowpiercer. The poor are placed in the back of the train, with the upper class taking up the front. In the back of the train, people live in squalor with little space to sleep and weird protein bars as their only sustenance.
Curtis Everett (Chris Evans) decides to lead an uprising and charge to the front of the train to the conductor known only as Wilford. He partners up with Namgoong Minsoo (Song Kang-ho) who designed the train's security. Joon-ho expertly uses the small space of the train to create a surprising variety in car design, providing a gorgeous and disgusting visual display. I particularly love Alison Pill's performance playing an overly bubbly teacher who is quick to pull out the automatic weapons. It's a hammer over the head about class and the treatment of the poor, featuring some incredible choreographed fight sequences.
Legend Of The Millennium Dragon
In "Legend of the Millennium Dragon" an ordinary young boy named Jun accidentally travels back in time 1,200 years to an era when humans were plagued by demons, or Oni. Upon his arrival, Jun learns he's special and may just hold the power to defeat the demons for good. Of course, his journey is riddled with troubles as he must learn how to be a warrior.
He struggles to find his footing but eventually taps into his inner potential, which includes summoning a mythical dragon named Orochi. While he believes his intentions of killing Oni are pure, he suddenly discovers that everything he was told about the creatures was a lie. Jun must make a choice about who to believe and how best to bring peace to the world.
Some have found "Legend of the Millennium Dragon" to carry deep influences from the works of Hayao Miyazaki, particularly "Spirited Away" and "Princess Mononoke." If you're a sucker for a young hero's journey and fell in love with Tanjiro's path in "Mugen Train," this is one not to miss.
The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
Here we have another iconic live-action train movie, the crime drama "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three." (To be clear, this is the original 1974 version directed by Joseph Sargent, not the 2009 remake starring Denzel Washington.) This tense, action-packed film takes place on the Pelham 1-2-3 in New York City. Four men hijack the train and take 17 hostages, demanding a million dollars in ransom money or they'll start killing passengers. Talk about the commute from hell.
A police lieutenant negotiates with them and must hurriedly hatch a plan to stop the criminals in their tracks. They won't be caught so easily, though, as this group of bad guys comes from violent backgrounds themselves — they're smarter than the average criminal. The film cuts back and forth from the events on the train to transit authority headquarters, showing the mounting tension between law enforcement and the hijackers. It's high octane thrills that'll make you sweat, a worsening nightmare as the chaos increases and the bullets start to fly.
Gunbuster
Gainax studio's "Gunbuster" hails from famed animator and creator of "Neon Genesis Evangelion," Hideaki Anno. Originally a six-episode series, a film was released that's essentially an abridged version of the show. It follows a young girl named Noriko Takaya who is training to become a pilot of a special mech suit to fight the Space Monsters (their actual name) that threaten to eradicate humanity.
Yes, this is a mech anime, which means badass space battles between human-piloted robots and evil aliens. While Noriko's father was a famous admiral, her skills are adequate at best; she goes to space to join the fleet and prove herself. The situation becomes increasingly direr as the aliens seem to multiply by the second. It's another mech anime that sees young teens both trying to deal with the experience of just growing up as well as being placed in life-or-death situations.
Like Tanjiro in "Demon Slayer," the world rests on Noriko's shoulders in a way that would be stressful for even the most mature adult. And yet, they are expected to accept their mission without argument, while Noriko navigates her struggle to understand her responsibility and duty to the continuation of the human race.
Gunbuster 2: Diebuster
The sequel to "Gunbuster," "Gunbuster 2: Diebuster" was initially released as a series in 2004 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Gainax, and was also condensed into a feature film. Here, "Diebuster" follows aspiring pilot Nono, who wants to help protect the world from the still-invading space monsters in Buster Machines. She becomes part of the elite teen pilot group Topless, and must navigate interpersonal relationships on top of deadly missions. You know, just another day in the life of a teenage girl.
Nono also has another motive: to be like the mysterious figure Nonoriri who Nono talks about but never explains who she is — at least not at first. As the film goes on and the battles continue to rage, the connections between "Gunbuster" and "Diebuster" become more clear, ending with a scene that will take your breath away. Just like the ending of "Mugen Train," you'll shed a tear (or 20) at the conclusion of "Diebuster."
An affordable place to live nowadays is a mixed bag. Whether or not we want to admit it, there’s always a catch. A landlord that doesn’t repair things. Infestation issues. Or, in the case of a horror movie, something spooky is knocking on those walls. The tale of a haunting in a cheap living space is a familiar playground in the horror genre, and will most likely be tapped into more as we all attempt to navigate the current housing/rental market. That said, it is disappointing when you pick up a haunting tale that fails to deliver on the haunting component. Unfortunately, ROOM 203 fits in this category.
The film follows two young women, who have known each other for their entire lives, moving in together in an affordably questionable apartment. Kim (Francesca Xuereb) is studying to become a journalist at a local university while Izzy (Viktoria Vinyarska) is hoping to become an actress. This is while simultaneously dealing with the grief of her mother overdosing. Strange things start to happen not long after they’ve moved in. Mysterious pendants appear in a suspicious-looking hole in the wall. There’s also the oddly concerning medieval scene depicted in a stained glass window. Oh, and the smell of death just started out of nowhere. It soon becomes a race against time for the girls to figure out what’s going on or else risk their lives.
ROOM 203 starts off promising. The set-up to the haunting is pretty clear within the first few minutes of the film. However, while the film starts off with a bang, it doesn’t return to that sense of urgency and shock that was desperately needed to keep the viewer focused. A lot of time is spent on the individual lives of our main characters. Normally, this isn’t a bad thing. However, from a writing standpoint, all the time spent away from the actual haunting itself and more time on expositionary-based filler, makes the story lack focus. This lack of focus will be a deterrent for viewers.
Another deterrent is in the execution of the scares. Much of the build-up seems to happen either offscreen or in poorly lit spaces. The explanation for the haunting itself and the exposition-based research done by Kim and her partner onscreen fall flat in generating investment. After patiently waiting to see where things are heading, it’s difficult to say that the actual horror elements won’t be a letdown. Xuereb and Vinyarska do work to try to give something in their performances to maintain some sense of horror, but it’s not enough to make the impact needed to make the wait seem worth it.
Overall, ROOM 203 is a hard sell. The screenplay written by Ben Jagger (who also directs), John Poliquin, and Nick Richey focuses too long on what the girls are doing in their own lives leading up to the haunting. This ends up undercutting what could have been done with the haunting many will be hoping to see play out onscreen. And, while Xuereb and Vinyarska do the best they can with the material given, the elements that could have made the film work just aren’t there or aren’t well-executed.
ROOM 203 debuted theatrically in selected cities on April 15, 2022, including New York City (The Kent Theater), Chicago (Emagine Chatham), Ft. Worth and Dallas (American Cinemas). ROOM 203 is now available nationwide on all major VOD platforms, including iTunes, Prime Video, DirecTV, Cox, Time Warner, Dish, Vudu, and Google Play.
At least six different Russia-aligned actors launched no less than 237 cyberattacks against Ukraine from February 23 to April 8, including 38 discrete destructive attacks that irrevocably destroyed files in hundreds of systems across dozens of organizations in the country.
"Collectively, the cyber and kinetic actions work to disrupt or degrade Ukrainian government and military functions and
One of the more unique aspects of "The Sopranos" was the way it killed off its major characters. Season 2 featured its main antagonistic figure Richie Aprile (David Proval) being taken down not by any of the main gangsters, but by a spur-of-the-moment decision made by his fiancée, Janice (Aida Turturro). Season 4 showed Ralph (Joe Pantoliano) getting killed halfway through the episode out of retaliation for suspicion of him killing a horse. It would've been more expected for Ralph to get whacked back in season 3 when he was acting like a full liability to the crew; instead he's killed after he's mellowed out a bit and become more sympathetic than in his debut season.
But it's with season 6's "Kennedy and Heidi" that the show does something truly unprecedented. Not only does it kill off Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli), one of the most important characters on the show throughout its whole run, but it does so at the beginning of the episode. After a relapsed Chris crashes the car and nearly gets himself and Tony killed, Tony makes the cold, calculated decision to suffocate him to death and tell everyone he died purely from the crash. Although it was widely speculated that Christopher might not survive the final season, fans weren't expecting his death to be so anticlimactic.
The rest of the crew seems sad to hear the news, but they get over it quickly. Tony himself doesn't feel any real guilt over the situation; he's cracking jokes at Chris' funeral and keeps bringing up the fact that the car seat in the back for Chris's daughter was destroyed in the crash. It's meant to be a justification for killing Chris — arguing that Chris had gotten so irresponsible he could've easily gotten his infant daughter killed if the circumstances were different — but the more Tony brings it up, the more it feels like a hollow excuse. He'd been wanting to kill his nephew for a while now, car seat or no car seat.
The Devolution Of Tony And Chris' Relationship
On rewatch, one of the most heartwarming aspects of the early seasons is the relationship between Christopher and Tony. They may bust each other's balls, sure, but you can tell Tony genuinely loves his nephew and wants the best for him, and Christopher sees Tony as a father figure and respects his decisions. When Christopher is shot and nearly dies in season 2, Tony's devastated.
The first real sign of decay comes in season 4, in which Christopher's heroin addiction progresses to the point where an intervention's necessary. Because this is a show about emotionally stunted mob guys, the intervention goes poorly. Tony's enraged when he finds out Christopher accidentally smothered Adriana's (Drea de Matteo) dog to death, then disgusted by the revelation that Christopher was high during his mother's funeral. Christopher snaps at Tony, saying "The way you eat, you'll have a heart attack by 50." The intervention ends about as well as we could've expected it to, with the rest of the crew beating the s*** out of Christopher before he begrudgingly heads off to rehab.
Christopher returns from rehab a new man, genuinely focused on maintaining his sobriety and becoming a better person. But as much as Tony claims he wanted him to get better, nothing annoys Tony more than the sight of someone becoming a better person. This was made most clear the season 5 episode "Cold Cuts," where Janice starts working on her anger problems, and Tony stomps all over it to make himself feel better. People changing themselves for the better just reminds Tony of how he's only changed for the worse over the years, and it brings out the most spiteful side of him. Throughout season 5, Tony's constantly going back and forth between shaming Christopher for his addiction and then shaming him for his sobriety. As much as Tony bashes Christopher for his relapse in season 6, it might not have happened if Tony had been even a tiny bit more supportive.
Tony And Adriana
Their relationship nearly ends a season early in "Irregular Around the Margins," where Tony and Adriana get in a car crash in the middle of the night, leading everyone (Chris included) to believe Tony was sleeping with Chris's fiancée. What makes the situation more damaging is that while Tony and Adriana technically didn't do anything, it sure seems like they would have hooked up if the crash hadn't stopped them.
Although it's Adriana that deals with the brunt of the scandal, Christopher nearly gets himself killed when he drunkenly storms into the Bada Bing and points a gun at Tony in front of everyone. If anyone else had done this they probably would've been whacked, but because Tony still has some semblance of humanity left, he makes an effort to find a solution, and the two of them manage to work things out. The episode ends with Tony, Carmela (Edie Falco), Christopher and Adriana going on a double date, making a public declaration that the conflict between the two men is all behind them.
At the time this may have seemed like a rough patch the two would be able to recover from, but in hindsight it was simply another sign of their inevitably decaying relationship. In season 6, Christopher produces a movie about an assassin who gets revenge on his boss in part for sleeping with his fiancée; the clear implication is Christopher still on some level believes Tony slept with Adriana and resents him for it.
Long Term Parking
The biggest test of Christopher's loyalty to Tony happens when Adriana reveals she's been an informant for the FBI. Adriana gives him a choice: He could flip on Tony and enjoy a life free from the mob, or he could betray the woman he loves so he can continue living the lavish lifestyle of a made man. Adriana's offer comes at a pretty opportune time for him as he's become increasingly dissatisfied with his life, particularly in the way he's been treated by the rest of the crew. But in the end he chooses the mob, and Tony sends Silvio to murder Adriana in the one of the show's darkest moments.
Although Christopher tries to tell himself he made the right decision, by season 6 he's a shell of his former self. He jumps into a marriage with a woman he's barely gotten to know, and despite constantly expressing hatred toward Adriana, it's clear he knows deep down he threw away the only woman who ever truly loved him. What's worse is despite the massive sacrifice he made on behalf of the crew, he doesn't get any real credit for it. He's now placed under suspicion that he himself might flip, and the mockery over his addiction gets even worse.
There are a lot of reasons for Christopher's relapse in season 6, but at the core of it is his understanding he made the wrong choice and he can never take it back. That's part of what makes Tony's smothering of him so especially cruel: Christopher threw away his chance of happiness for the guy who'd end up killing him.
Showing Tony's Descent Into Pure Evil
In a season 3 review for the show, TV critic Emily St. James described the central theme of the show as "people can change, but most are unwilling." The first half of season 6 has Tony recovering from a near-fatal gunshot wound. Confronted with his own mortality in a way he's never been before, Tony tries his best to improve himself for the first time in a long while. Whereas seasons 1 through 5 mark Tony's gradual descent into an irredeemable person, season 6a was a brief period where Tony pulled back from the brink and made an honest attempt to change his trajectory.
But as it turns out, improving yourself is hard, so it only takes a few episodes post-coma for Tony to find himself going back down the same old path. Even before Christopher's death, the second half of the final season shows us Tony at the worst he's ever been. He nearly decides to whack Paulie (Tony Sirico), his gambling addiction spirals out of control, and he gets in one of his most brutal fights with his wife since "Whitecaps." The episode after Christopher's death really zeroes in on how bad Tony's gotten, as he can no longer bring himself to even pretend to mourn the death of the person he once cared so much about.
Much discussion has been made of the finale of "The Sopranos" and whether Tony dies during that final cut to black, but Tony's soul was gone long before that point. By the time he was coldly watching the lights fade out of Christopher's eyes at the beginning of "Heidi and Kennedy," there was no longer anything inside Tony worth saving.
A Final Condemnation Of The Mob
More so than anyone else on the show, Christopher was dealt multiple opportunities to separate himself from the mob. Tony gave him an easy out of the mafia back in season 2's "D-Girl," telling him that if he left then to pursue a career in Hollywood he wouldn't have to worry about any repercussions. The decision Christopher's faced with in "Long Term Parking" had much higher stakes, but Christopher responded in the same basic way. He's somebody with creative ambitions, but he can't pursue them because to do so would be to abandon the mafia world he's always known.
If the biggest running theme in the show is the gradual loss of Tony's soul, the second biggest is the idea that the mafia, for all its perks, is not worth the trouble. By the time we reach "Kennedy and Heidi," Christopher's gotten everything he wanted on a surface level: He's got a nice wife and kid, an impressive house, a position of general power and respect. But he's still miserable because the cost of all this was way too high.
Chris is offered multiple chances to leave the mob and become a better person, and he turns each of them down. In a show that's ultimately a condemnation of the mafia, it makes sense that "The Sopranos" would ultimately punish him for these decisions. Much like with Tony's maybe-death in the finale, the moment where Christopher was truly beyond saving was when he let his crew murder Adriana. As sad as his death scene was, by this point in the series the Christopher we'd known and loved had long since withered away.
Re-Volt and Deadly Dozen Reloaded games are now available with more releases to come during the event. More than 220 hot deals on classics up to 90% off and a special Good Old Games page to gather all classic games in one place!
Continuing on delivering our promise to give more love to the classic games and shine some spotlight on them, here is Good Old Games Week! It’s a special event that puts classic games front and center. You can expect some great deals, but also, we have amazing releases waiting for you, that will be awesome additions further expanding our Good Old Games catalog.
We wanted to give Good Old Games a special place of their own, so together with this event, we’re also premiering a new webpage, devoted entirely to classic games to make our selection of titles easier to browse and discover.
From the 2nd of May, every two days the theme of our highlights will change, so remember to check back to see what new we have prepared for you, including more releases!
Don’t wait, come over and discover classic games waiting for you to give them some love. The event will last until Monday, May 9th, till 10 PM UTC, while the discounts on titles mentioned above will be valid until 6th May, 1 PM UTC.
Improvisation is a skill often reserved for the great comedians of our time. This applies to Tom Hanks, as his performance in the 1988 comedy "Big" proves. While "Big" didn't put Tom Hanks on the map, it was his biggest commercial success of the 1980s and marked his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. It is arguably his first "classic" film, with apologies to the "Splash" fans in the room.
Hanks had to reconnect with his inner child for the film. In the body switch movie he plays a crestfallen 13-year-old boy, Josh, who wishes he was big and wakes up the next day to find himself in the body of an adult man, courtesy of a Zoltar fortune-telling machine. After a series of hilarious developments, Josh finds himself in a relationship and is catapulted to the position of vice president of a toy company. Josh soon finds that being big isn't all it's cracked up to be.
While growing up might not be fun, acting like a kid apparently is, and what the cast and crew soon found out is that Hanks, playing the role of a man-child, was having as much fun as a teenager himself.
Hanks Improvised Much Of The Film
Not only was Tom Hanks having fun, he also created classic scenes on screen. According to the New York Post, director Penny Marshall gave Hanks just two words to describe his 13-year-old character: innocent and shy. Hanks took it from there, improvising scenes throughout the production, many of which made the final cut. Hanks costar Elizabeth Perkins, who played Josh's love interest, Susan, called the tuxedo scene the most memorable of the entire film.
But it wasn't all Hanks. Perkins credited a lot of Hanks' magic to director Penny Marshall. Perkins said:
"He walks through the door in a white tuxedo, and the first choice he makes is, 'Everyone's staring at me. Is my fly open?' That was all Tom Hanks. Penny is one of those directors who says, 'let's just do it again and see what happens.' So, there was an enormous amount of play, which really allowed Tom to find those adolescent moments that made you believe he was 13."
As great as Hanks was, there was that tricky age difference between the love interests that had to be navigated. Of course, Hanks had fun with that, too.
'Just Let Me Move My Big Balls'
Another scene almost entirely improvised was the trampoline scene in Josh's apartment. When the 13-year-old Josh hosts Susan for a sleepover for the first time (of course, she doesn't know he's 13 yet), Hanks slid in some subtle age-related jokes a 13-year-old would likely make. Perkins recalled filming the scene:
"Most of that was improvised. We jumped on that trampoline until our bottoms were sore. There's a tiny line you can't hear very well. When I'm getting up on the trampoline, Tom says, 'let me move my big balls.' You have to really listen for it, but it is there. That's the kind of thing he would just throw out."
For the record, Marshall handled the age difference between the two love interests by implying a physical relationship off-screen rather than explicitly showing it. Perkins would tell Page Six she was okay with the implied relationship and that it was never a concern on the set, saying, "It was not even something we broached or discussed on any level. Different times."
While Hank's improvisation might have lightened the tension on the set of "Big," he didn't stop with the movie. He continued to hone those skills throughout his career, and they would come in handy during a potentially life-threatening emergency.
Hanks Might Have Saved A Life With His Improv
Tom Hanks has been known to create memorable moments in cinema thanks to his improvisation, including a classic "Forrest Gump" line. He recently put his skills to the test during a legitimate emergency. As People notes, Hanks was performing Shakespeare's "Henry IV" in Los Angeles in 2018 when an audience member had a medical emergency. For five minutes, Hanks improvised onstage to draw attention away from the chaos, allowing emergency responders to do their jobs.
Hanks just can't help himself. Whether in a mega-budget film or a simple interview, his improv skills shine through. During an interview at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival Hanks was asked about Fred Rogers and impressed everyone with his improvised response.
From iconic scenes in classic movies to lifesaving distractions, Hanks' improv skills will not be denied. They helped make "Big" one of the classic comedies of the 1980s and put Hanks on par with Bill Murray as perhaps the greatest improvisation actor of his generation.
When Ruth Langmore, played by Emmy winner Julia Garner, sets out on a revenge quest in "Ozark," she looks to music for inspiration. "Ozark" Season 4: Part 2, which hits Netflix today, sees Ruth gunning for Javi Elizonndro (Alfonso Herrera) after the shocking events of the Season 4: Part 1 finale. Along the way, Ruth is bumping some hip-hop, specifically, Nas, and she's bumping into another rap legend, Killer Mike, who's here to cameo and talk music with her.
Nas has dabbled in acting, making his feature-film debut opposite the late DMX in "Belly." He also served as the narrator and co-executive producer of Stephen Adly Guirgis and Baz Luhrmann's Netflix musical drama, "The Get Down." So he has an existing relationship with the streamer and it's not hard to see how Netflix might have garnered the rights to some of his music for another one of its flagship shows, "Ozark."
Though Killer Mike is perhaps best known to music-lovers as one half of the duo Run the Jewels, he, too, has an existing relationship with Netflix and has spent time developing his own modest filmography in addition to his impressive discography. Killer Mike made his musical debut in 2000 on the classic Outkast album, "Stankonia," and he would go on to play himself in the film "ATL," which co-starred Outkast's Big Boi. Since then, he has made further cameos in Edgar Wright's "Baby Driver" and the Ethan Hawke-led Showtime series, "The Good Lord Bird," and he's co-hosted the Netflix documentary series, "Trigger Warning with Killer Mike."
Now, the Atlanta-born rapper can add "Ozark" to his list of acting credits, courtesy of the Season 4: Part 2 premiere. Check out Killer Mike's "Ozark" scene, below.
Killer Mike In Ozark
The scene takes place in a diner, where Ruth stops at Killer Mike's booth and goes all fangirl on him, saying, "I just want to say, I really love your s***." He asks her what she's listening to, and she lets him hear a bit of the Nas song "N.Y. State of Mind" in her earbuds. The song comes from Nas's 1994 debut album, "Illmatic," which came out when he was only 20 years old, as Ruth notes.
Killer Mike tells Ruth, "When I listen to that record, his projects are in Queens, and you can kinda see Manhattan, and I've always thought it was so hopeful and f****** cruel at the same time." Netflix's official description of the scene notes that Killer Mike "validates [Ruth's] interpretation" of the song, "drawing parallels to her own life." And indeed, it's not hard to see how Ruth — with her criminal record — has long been inhabiting her own sort of projects in the Ozarks, with Marty and Wendy Byrde (Jason Bateman and Laura Linney) and their thin veneer of respectability and clean backgrounds representing the unattainable Manhattan for her.
"Ozark" Season 4: Part 2 is streaming on Netflix now.
"Ozark" Season 4: Part 2 is finally here, and with it comes the end of the Netflix series and the perpetually blue money-laundering adventures of Marty and Wendy Byrde, played by Jason Bateman and Laura Linney, respectively. It was only a few short months ago that the seven-episode first half of season 4 dropped, so longtime "Ozark" binge-watchers will likely have it fresher in mind than they did with season 3 (which came out in 2020, leaving a two-year gap between seasons). One thing sure to stick in the viewer's mind is the intense midseason finale, "Sanctified," which, suffice it to say, did not end well for everyone involved.
Even before its shocking final moments, "Sanctified" saw Javi Elizonndro (Alfonso Herrera), the menacing nephew of drug cartel leader Omar Navarro (Felix Solis), ambush Marty in a violent way. Their confrontation went down in the home of Jim Rattelsdorf, the attorney and political operative played by Damian Young, an actor Netflix viewers might also recognize from "House of Cards." As it happens, "House of Cards" star Robin Wright was also in the director's chair for "Sanctified."
In an interview on the Post-Credit Podcast, Herrera discussed what it was like shooting the scene with Bateman, who also serves as an executive producer on "Ozark" and has directed a number of episodes himself, including the series premiere and series finale. Herrera said:
"What I enjoyed a lot about Jason is that his talent, it's equivalent to his generosity. He's incredibly generous on set, and not just with cast, with every single member from crew. And to have a number one that sets the tone like that, it's very easy to work with someone like that. And specifically that scene, that episode, it was directed by Robin Wright. So, it was amazing to see that collaboration between Jason and with Robin, and us working the scene together."
'He Was Physically There'
Although the confrontation in "Sanctified" involves Javi kicking Marty and pistol-whipping him, Alfonso Herrara revealed that Jason Bateman insisted on being physically present in the scene and not using a stunt double. He continued:
"What I really admired from Jason was, he was there, and he was physically there. And sometimes there was a double, and he said, 'No, no, no, no; I'm going to do it myself. It has to be that way.' And I was trying to be very careful because of the physicality of the scene, but he was like, 'Don't worry man. I have protection, you're good, you're cool. Let's just try to make it the best we can be.' And it was great. Specifically that scene, it was choreographed very well, and Jason, he was — I mean, he's Jason Bateman. He was amazing."
This wasn't the first time "Ozark" viewers saw Marty down on his knees begging for his life while a Mexican drug cartel member loomed over him with a gun. If anything, the scenario seemed like an intentional callback to the very first episode of "Ozark," in which Marty witnessed his partner's shooting and pleaded with another Navarro cartel lieutenant, Camino Del Rio (Esai Morales) in a similar fashion, thereby jump-starting his whole money-laundering scheme and move to the Ozarks. It just goes to show that, after 37 episodes and counting, Marty is still playing the same dangerous game.
You can tune in to see how it ends for him and the Byrde family in the final half-season of "Ozark" on Netflix. "Ozark" Season 4: Part 2 is streaming now.
With his starring role in "Taken" in 2008, Liam Neeson pioneered what now practically constitutes a whole sub-genre of action-dad films. The movie saw Neeson moving out of the mentor phase in his career, seen in films like "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace," "Kingdom of Heaven," and "Batman Begins," and into a fresh phase where he would exercise a new "very particular set of skills" to kick butt and, yes, take names. Since then, Neeson has still turned in some fine dramatic work (see: "The Grey" and "Silence"), but his filmography has leaned more into action thrillers, such as his four collaborations with director Jaume Collet-Serra, "Unknown," "Non-Stop," "Run All Night," and "The Commuter."
In recent years, other dramatic actors like Kevin Costner, Sean Penn, and Bob Odenkirk have gone a similar route as Neeson and tried to reinvent themselves as action movie stars, to varying degrees of success. Neeson has had his eye on at least one such actor, and he's also looked to some other Hollywood legends for inspiration. In Jack Giroux's interview with Neeson for /Film, the actor revealed who among his peers and predecessors has a strength and sensitivity he admires. He said:
"It's interesting. Yeah, Burt Lancaster. Robert Mitchum did too. I know he did have a quality that was bordered on vulnerability, that made him a great actor, I think. Mitchum was fantastic, a big hero of mine from when I was a teenager. There was just something about him I liked. And who else now? Who else has got that? Denzel Washington. I mean, Denzel's a fantastic actor, probably our greatest movie star in this country I think. I've seen him on stage. I've seen a lot of his films. Love those 'Equalizer' films. I mean, Antoine Fuqua, love those movies. Denzel could do that too. He can show a strength and a solidity and touch on the vulnerability, which is incredibly watchful."
How Good Is Your Memory?
This year, Washington earned his 10th Oscar nomination for "The Tragedy of Macbeth," so that he has now been nominated across five decades and is the most nominated Black actor in Academy Award history. Washington has largely eschewed sequels in his career, but "The Equalizer" franchise is an exception, and it now has a third movie on the way. I say: send The Equalizer back to Home Depot, put him on a forklift, and have Nex Coxman, Neeson's character from "Cold Pursuit," come crashing through the wall in a snowplow. But let them both play it strong and sensitive.
While we wait for the "Coxman vs. The Equalizer" crossover to materialize, Neeson's latest action thriller, "Memory" opens today. We missed sharing the trailer for this one, but you can see it above. "Memory" sees Neeson teaming with filmmaker Martin Campbell, who knows a thing or two about action, having helmed two of the best James Bond movies. In "Goldeneye," Campbell introduced the world to Pierce Brosnan as Bond, and in "Casino Royale," he did it all over again with Daniel Craig.
In "Memory," Campbell's got Neeson's character, Alex Lewis, slamming guys' faces into side mirrors and car windows and taking dudes out with a gun with a silencer (not unlike Bond). Lewis is an assassin whose memory is faltering even as he refuses to carry out a contract on a kid. The movie costars Guy Pearce and Monica Belluci and it comes with this synopsis from Open Road Films:
MEMORY follows Alex Lewis (Liam Neeson), an expert assassin with a reputation for discreet precision. Caught in a moral quagmire, Alex refuses to complete a job that violates his code and must quickly hunt down and kill the people who hired him before they and FBI agent Vincent Serra (Guy Pearce) find him first. Alex is built for revenge but, with a memory that is beginning to falter, he is forced to question his every action, blurring the line between right and wrong.
Josh and Benny Safdie had struck gold with their collaboration with Adam Sandler for the critically-acclaimed "Uncut Gems." Well, it seems like there will be a reunion fairly soon: the Safdie brothers are planning to work with Sandler again on a brand new project, with the hopes of recreating the magic of their 2019 crime thriller. Sandler confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that he is "going to do another movie with the Safdie brothers," and offered some insight into the situation:
"They're working hard on it. Their work ethic is bananas. They're always working, always writing, always thinking. I don't know what I can tell you, but it's gonna be very exciting. It's different. But I don't want them to ever say, 'What the hell did you tell him that for?' So I'll just let them talk [about it]."
Although Sandler refrained from furnishing further details, the project in question seems to be an interesting one.
'I Made A Crazy Risk, A Gamble, And It's About To Pay Off'
"Uncut Gems" is a truly special film, as it was one of the rare instances where Sandler was able to prove his acting chops when granted the right material. A character study through and through, "Uncut Gems" is a frenetic cinematic experience, moving quickly from one scene to the next, while navigating a wide range of emotions that injected the narrative with great dynamism. Sandler's performance as Howard Ratner won him an Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead, and critics lauded his performance for the most part.
Considering the success of the A24 film, it is not entirely surprising that the Safdies will be working with Sandler again. On the other hand, Sandler has expressed his enthusiasm and interest in working with the directorial duo time and again, saying how much he "love[s] these guys:"
"We talk about it [working together again] constantly, man. I love these guys, I love 'em. I mean, they're incredible filmmakers... Of course, I would die to work with them again, because it's a brand new feeling. But the funniest thing is when I would say to the Safdies, 'Your future is so bright,' they didn't want to talk about that. They were like, 'I just like Gems, man.' They just were so deep in it."
Well, I would never be opposed to the Safdies threatening us with a good time — speaking of which, another collaboration with Robert Pattinson (who gave a stellar performance in "Good Time"), when? For now, it seems that the Sandler-Safdie collaboration should be enough, as it would mean another potentially arresting crime drama with extremely high stakes, with Sandler embracing his abilities to shine as a serious, nuanced actor once again.
Details about the new Safdie-Sandler project remain scant at the moment but stay tuned for our coverage as and when the deets drop.
"Breaking Bad" boasts some of the best writing on TV. Especially when it came to plotting and character, the writers had a great ability to connect every single dot and make it seem like everything in the show was connected and planned out in advance. Likewise, every character felt well-rounded and fleshed out, from side characters, one-off characters, and villains.
And when it came to villains, none was as terrifying or fascinating as Gus Fring, a businessman who could be ruthless one minute, and calm and gentle the next. This is in no small part thanks to a brilliant performance by Giancarlo Esposito, who brought forward the humanity as well as the enigma of the character so as to easily lure the audience into trusting Gus as a reasonable businessman before revealing a merciless drug lord.
This brings us to "Better Call Saul," which has defied any and all expectations of what a spinoff and prequel could do, becoming as good if not better than "Breaking Bad." The show has slowly but surely brought back a lot of the big and small players of the original show, exploring how they got to where we first met them, without falling into prequel tropes of explaining the origin of every dumb thing or showing vastly different characterizations of known characters.
But then there's the "Better Call Saul" version of Gus, who we meet at a time before he becomes one of the biggest drug lords north of the border, as he starts to build an empire in secret. This version of Gus is a much more erratic and volatile character, and even Esposito was surprised by it.
Wait A Minute. That's Not The Gus I Know
Speaking to Collider, Giancarlo Esposito shared his bewilderment over realizing the guy he's played for so long as someone who has his stuff together is everything but, at least for now. "How much of that do I show?" Esposito asked, as he tells the story of an automated dialogue replacement recording for a scene later in the season and thinking "That's not the Gus I know," and being uncomfortable playing the character. In the end, the show's sound editor, Kathryn Madsen, convinced Esposito that being uncomfortable and playing a different Gus is exactly what he wanted. Esposito continued:
"I want the audience to really understand and see the Gus that they know and love who is a Gus that they're also very fearful of. I scare people, and I do it in a way that's kind of ... It's disarming and frightening, because you never know when it's coming and because we know that he can do his own dirty work ... I feel sometimes like a little boy in that I am in wonder and enchanted by the world, but when you take my toy away, and I don't get what I want, I'm vicious. That, to me, is a great analogy for who Gus really is under me."
Rock And Hard Place
While we saw the "Chicken Man" act cruel toward Jesse (Aaron Paul), and even threaten to kill Walt's infant daughter, his treatment of Nacho Varga (Michael Mando) in "Better Call Saul" has been incredibly cruel in a way that almost comes from out of nowhere. After discovering Nacho had poisoned Hector Salamanca (Mark Margolis) by switching his pills, Gus coerced Nacho to work for him under the threat of turning him over to the Salamancas and later of killing his dad if he didn't follow Gus' every command.
This takes us to the episode "Rock And Hard Place," which shows Gus at his cruelest yet. But before we go any further, be warned. Heavy spoilers for season six of "Better Call Saul" ahead.
The episode serves as Nacho Varga's swan song, as we see him agreeing to be a sacrificial lamb for Gus to keep his father safe. Gus agrees, but not before one last smug show of force, asking Mike to beat the crap out of Nacho right after his last meal. We barely see Gus in the episode, staying squarely focused on Nacho's experience as going from a promising crime career to a thankless scapegoat that dies just to serve the ego of a man who will die just a few years later.
This may be a different Gus than Giancarlo Esposito remembered, but it is still the same old Gus we met in "Breaking Bad."
This update upscales ALL objects and effects. It also fixes all conflict texture names between Strife and Doom. I used a combination of 4xBSRGAN and Yandere PixelArt models. I'm happy the renaming part was partly automated. For example, to rename multiple BLOD textures to BLUD (like BLODA01 BLODB01) all I had to do was use DOS and type RENAME BLOD* TO BLUD*. Commandline can occasionally make life easier. If you recall, I used the ScaleTex models to fix the concrete textures in the last update. So for a Todo list: I would like to re-upscale some of the textures that came out "too clean" for a more gritty look. They will still be upscaled but with more of the dirt and grit preserved by ScaleTex. Also, fonts need to be upscaled, and some of the pics were hiding with the sprites, so they will be upscaled also.
When it comes to the medium of animation, one name stands boldly and brightly above all others: Walt Disney Animation Studios. Ever since "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was released in 1937, the studio has remained at the forefront of animation, whether it be traditionally hand-drawn or CGI animation. Though the studio has struggled throughout its many decades, it always manages to come out on top. It's hard to quickly summarize what makes a classic Disney film, but you can always count on a combination of beautiful animation, impactful characters, and memorable songs.
What then, makes for the very best Disney movies? There's no special formula to figure it all out, but we're going to try. These films have characters you'll always remember, songs you listen to over and over again, and some are massively underrated classics you'll be discovering for the first time. Here are the 35 best animated Disney movies ever.
The Adventures Of Ichabod And Mister Toad
This charming film made at the end of Disney's wartime era is comprised of two segments. The first is based on "The Wind in the Willows," which follows an adventurous frog, J. Thaddeus Toad, Esq., and his madcap mission to maintain his estate. It's a lot of fun and has plenty of charm. The second, based on "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," is one of the best things Disney has ever produced. The film culminates in a climactic chase between Ichabod Crane and the legendary Headless Horseman. It's a stunning amalgamation of color, sound, and beautiful animation that provides wonderful thrills and chills. It's one of Disney's most underrated movies, and one you've simply got to see.
Starring: Bing Crosby, Basil Rathbone, Eric Blore
Director(s): Jack Kinney, Clyde Geronimi, James Algar
"I can show you the world," Aladdin sings to Jasmine, and we believe it. "Aladdin" is a spectacular romp and a fantastic action-adventure movie. The film follows a commoner who gets embroiled in a scheme to obtain a magic lamp that contains a genie with unlimited power who will change his life forever. The film is a constant joy, largely thanks to the magnificent Robin Williams, who helped make the Genie one of the greatest characters in Disney's history. Throw in a dastardly villain and wonderful songs from Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, and you have one of the finest Disney films.
Starring: Robin Williams, Scott Wenger, Linda Larkin
Walt Disney animation has always been about taking things to the next level and doing the unexpected. In 1951's "Alice in Wonderland," Disney unveiled one of its quirkiest and most delightfully absurd curiosities. Based on the Lewis Carroll books, the movie sees Alice entering the bizarre world of Wonderland as she meets a cast of wacky characters on her quest to return home. Come for the story, and stay for the unpredictable and hugely memorable characters and wonderfully stylized animation.
Starring: Kathryn Beaumont, Ed Wynn, Verna Felton
Director(s): Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske
An extraordinary coming-of-age story, "Bambi" follows a young deer growing up in the forest alongside his friends, Flower the skunk and Thumper the rabbit. Thanks to extraordinary artistry from people like lead illustrator Tyrus Wong, "Bambi" is one of the most visually sumptuous animated films ever made. It's every bit as heartwarming as it is devastating, and while it is largely remembered for its soul-crushing death sequence, the movie is a powerful story of bravery, resilience, and figuring out who you are. "Bambi" is Disney animation at its finest: bold, visionary, unexpected, memorable songs, great characters, and an unforgettable story.
Starring: Hardie Albright, Stan Alexander, Peter Behn
While Disney struggled throughout the 1980s, "The Little Mermaid" got things back on track financially, but it was the 1991 masterpiece "Beauty and the Beast" that firmly re-established Disney as the ultimate player in the world of animation. The film was the first animated feature to be nominated for the Academy Award for best picture, and it's easy to see why. The songs, delivered in lush, broadway-style stagings, are divine, and the characters are sensational. It seamlessly integrates hand-drawn animation with CGI as showcased in the beautiful ballroom dance sequence. A powerful romance and a resplendent fairy tale, "Beauty and the Beast" is an all-time classic.
Starring: Paige O'Hara, Robby Benson, Jerry Orbach
The ultimate rags to riches fairytale, "Cinderella" finds a young woman transforming from an overworked and poorly treated servant into an elegant princess. Working off concept art from the tremendous talent of Mary Blair, the film is full of incredible details. Just watch the astonishing "Sing Sweet Nightingale" scene. It's also one of the most visually luscious films the studio has ever made. Cinderella is also a deeply underrated character and is far from the passive woman many imagine her to be. The story has been told countless times over the last century, but it's never been done better than in Disney's animated iteration.
The magnificent elephant that learned to fly was created at a time of great pressure at Disney, as the company's previous film, "Fantasia was a box office disaster. "Dumbo" was the result of scaling back the cost of development by opting to use watercolors instead of oil-based paints to save money. The film is no less beautiful than its predecessors, and "Dumbo" ended up getting Disney back on track. The beautiful number "Baby Mine" is one of Disney's finest tearjerker moments, and the image of Dumbo's mother cradling him behind bars is as haunting as it is beautiful. There's also the magnificent "Pink Elephants" sequence that features the world's finest animators flexing their most creative muscles. It's a brisk 64 minutes and makes for perfect Sunday afternoon viewing.
Starring: Edward Brophy, Cliff Edwards, Verna Felton
Disney's 2000 classic, "The Emperor's New Groove," has an unbelievable history, and it's something of a miracle that it even exists. It's an even bigger miracle that the film ended up being sensational. Beat for beat, it may just be Disney's funniest movie, with an ingenious script that has as much fun making fun of itself as it does telling an engaging story. The adventure of Kuzco, a spoiled Emperor who is transformed into a llama and seeks to reclaim his spot on the throne with the help of villager Pacha, is wonderfully off-kilter. "The Emperor's New Groove" may have the single best villain-henchman duo in Yzma and Kuzco, and if you like your films with their tongue planted firmly in cheek, this is the one for you.
A spectacular musical adventure, "Fantasia" marked a bold departure from Disney's first two films. Walt Disney's passion project, "Fantasia" doesn't contain a singular narrative. It contains a series of short films that work in tandem with various pieces of classical music. The film is Disney's longest, but the two-hour runtime breezes by thanks to magical moments like "The Nutcracker Suite," and "Night on Bald Mountain," which introduced us to the magnificent Chernabog. Most iconic of all is "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," which marked Mickey Mouse's feature film debut.
Starring: Deems Taylor, Leopold Stokowski, Walt Disney
Director(s): James Algar, Samuel Armstrong, Ford Beebe, Norman Ferguson, Jim Handley, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield
While not technically a sequel, "Fantasia 2000" is a sort of spiritual successor to the original "Fantasia" and even includes the original's most famous sequence, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." That said, there's no requirement to watch the original (though you should), as "Fantasia 2000" is another beautiful celebration of classical music, and it features some of Disney's most visually adventurous work. "The Firebird Suite" is the definition of jaw-dropping, while Eric Goldberg's exquisite "Rhapsody in Blue" is truly the cream of the very rich crop.
Starring: Steve Martin, Itzhak Perlman, Bette Midler
Director(s): James Algar, Gaëtan Brizzi, Paul Brizzi, Hendel Butoy, Francis Glebas, Eric Goldberg, Don Hahn, Pixote Hunt
It's best known for "Let It Go," the song everyone's heard a million times, but "Frozen" is a genuinely great addition to the Disney canon. For starters, "Let It Go" is a legitimate classic, and one of Disney's best songs. The film follows Anna, who sets out to find her sister, Queen Elsa, who has become overwhelmed with her fantastic ice powers. While it gets bogged down by the dead weight of trolls (a problem rectified by the broadway adaptation), "Frozen" is a beautifully told, visually stunning story that's a testament to the power of female friendship and sisterly bonds.
Starring: Kristen Bell, Jonathan Groff, Idina Menzel
The very definition of underappreciated, "The Great Mouse Detective" marked the directorial debut of Disney legends Ron Clements and John Musker. Inspired by fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, the movie finds mouse detective Basil of Baker Street taking up a peculiar case of a missing mouse, which sets him on a collision course with his sworn enemy, Professor Ratigan. The film is a delicious crime caper, featuring a hugely committed Vincent Price, who makes the debonair villain Ratigan come to life with the terrific musical number "The World's Greatest Criminal Mind.
Starring: Vincent Price, Barrie Ingham, Val Bettin
It's genuinely hard to believe that "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" got away with a mere G rating, as it's one of, if not the, darkest movie Disney has ever made. The adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" explores the life of Quasimodo, Notre Dame's bell-ringer, as he seeks to discover his independence, dealing with his vicious master and falling for a Romani girl along the way. The film is full of beautiful animation that brings the city of Paris to life in all its glory and features perhaps the most sinister villain of them all in Judge Frollo.
A charming slice of classic Americana, "Lady and the Tramp" is a romantic and sensitive look at the world of dogs. Lady is a Cocker Spaniel who has an adoring, loving family — until they have a baby, and Lady finds herself no longer the apple of her people's eyes. Through no fault of her own, Lady finds herself out on the streets, and there she meets the scruffy and charming Tramp, who shows her the life of a street dog. The two end up falling for each other, and part of their courtship includes one of Disney's most iconic moments involving an Italian restaurant, a plate of spaghetti, and the song "Bella Notte."
Starring: Barbara Luddy, Larry Roberts, Peggy Lee
Director(s): Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske
This 2002 Disney film is just your classic story of an Elvis-obsessed young girl and her unshakable bond with her dog that's actually an alien ... wait, what? "Lilo & Stitch" is a fantastical film set in Hawaii about two sisters struggling with the loss of their parents and the alien impersonating a dog that changes their lives. The film is full of surprises, and a stable of terrific supporting characters (Jumba and Pleakley forever). It's a lovely story about the family bonds that tie us together. As Stitch says: "Ohana means family, and family means nobody gets left behind."
Starring: Daveigh Chase, Tia Carrere, David Ogden Stiers
Earning just under $1 billion at the global box office, 1994's "The Lion King" is the highest-grossing hand-drawn animation ever (not adjusting for inflation). It boasts incredible animation, great characters, and the most heartbreaking scene in a Disney film since 1942's "Bambi." Hans Zimmer's epic score complements the equally epic story, which follows a young lion forced to flee from his home after the tragic death of his father. The CGI adaptation of the film was an enormous financial success, but it doesn't have anything on the emotional animated epic. If you're going to watch "The Lion King," make it the 1994 masterpiece.
Starring: Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons, Nathan Lane
"The Little Mermaid" kicked off the Disney Renaissance, which brought Disney back to the massive success of its early days. The movie follows the feisty mermaid Ariel as she falls madly in love with a human — to the devastation of her father King Triton. To spend time with him, Ariel makes a deal with the devil — or rather, the magnificent sea-witch Ursula. In exchange for her voice, she's granted legs to make it to shore. The film has the best collection of songs you can find in any film. From the devious "Poor Unfortunate Souls" to the joyous "Under the Sea" to the emotionally resonant "Part of Your World," nobody does it better than Howard Ashman and Alan Menken.
Starring: Jodi Benson, Pat Carroll, Samuel E. Wright
This incredibly charming movie is a package of short films, including "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day," which snagged an Oscar for best animated short. The movie follows Winnie the Pooh and the residents of the Hundred Acre Wood as they go about their lives, and it's the perfect film when you need to feel warm and fuzzy inside. Many have given voice to a certain stuffed bear over the years, but Sterling Holloway is the definitive Winnie. There are plenty of fun songs from the Sherman Brothers, including "Up, Down, Touch the Ground," a body-positive anthem in which Pooh proclaims "I'm short, fat, and proud of that."
Starring: Sterlin Holloway, John Fiedler, Paul Winchell
One of the newer entrants on the list, "Moana" is proof that there's still plenty of magic to be found at Disney Animation Studios. "Moana" follows our titular fiery heroine, who wants to know what life is like beyond the shores of the island she calls home. When her village's resources begin to dry up, she sets off on an epic adventure to restore nature with the help of scheming god Maui, all accompanied by great songs courtesy of Lin-Manuel Miranda. The effects are world-class, and if you get bored (which is highly unlikely), simply staring in awe at how realistic the environments look is more than worth the price of admission.
Like most young women of her time, Mulan was supposed to be preparing for marriage. But when her ailing father is drafted into the war, Mulan disguises herself as a man and secretly joins the army in his place. "Mulan" is a fantastic story of courage in the face of unspeakable terror and is one of Disney's most earnest and effective stories of the power of women. Its large-scale action is remarkable, and it's a legitimately rousing tale, thanks in part to the magnificent musical number "I'll Make A Man Out of You."
While we're used to Disney releasing at least one animated film each year, the 1960s were very quiet for the House of Mouse which released only three films. The best of the (small) bunch was "One Hundred and One Dalmatians," a film with a unique animation style and freewheeling attitude that fit perfectly with the swinging '60s. The film follows a pair of Dalmatians, Pongo and Perdita, who set out to rescue their puppies from the downright evil Cruella de Vil, who wants to turn them into a fancy fur coat. It's a delightfully funny, wholly original film that ranks as one of Disney's very best.
Starring: Rod Tayler, Cate Bauer, Betty Lou Gerson
Director(s): Wolfgang Reithermann, Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi
The ultimate ode to the power of childhood imagination, "Peter Pan" takes us to the magical island of Neverland. Peter Pan transports the Darling children of London to the island, where they find themselves in a world of joy, and fun, but also of considerable danger, as the maniacal Captain Hook is looking for retribution. The animation is impressive, and watching the children fly around London at night is magical. "Peter Pan" may contain one of the most ill-judged, wildly offensive musical numbers ever, but its overarching sense of whimsy and adventure are delightful.
Starring: Bobby Driscoll, Kathryn Beaumont, Hans Conried
Director(s): Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske
While "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" may be the darkest Disney film, "Pinocchio" is definitely the scariest. The classic story of a puppet coming to life is utterly mesmerizing. The astonishing sequence in Pleasure Island where boys transform into donkeys is some of the most reliable nightmare fuel you can witness. Most Disney films have a single villain, but "Pinocchio" has a cavalcade of them, each more menacing than the last. It may be frightening, but it's also a rich story full of hope, wonder, and a healthy dose of magic. It's one of the most remarkable examples of hand-drawn animation you can find, providing a masterclass in depth and lighting that's never been matched.
Starring: Cliff Edwards, Dickie Jones, Christian Rub
Disney aimed for a bold new direction with 1995's "Pocahontas," one of their most serious films about forbidden love. It's also Disney's only film based on a real person, and while the historical accuracy is extremely flaky at best, the movie still succeeds thanks to its excellent protagonist, insightful songs, and jaw-dropping animation. Pocahontas is a terrific addition to the pantheon of Disney princesses. She's strong, smart, independent, and fiercely devoted to following her dreams. While it may not have achieved the Oscar glory they were so clearly hoping for, it did take home two Academy Awards for best musical or comedy score and best song for the phenomenal "Colors of the Wind."
Starring: Irene Bedard, Linda Hunt, David Ogden Stiers
After years of CGI movies, Disney returned to the glorious world of hand-drawn animation for their 49th feature, "The Princess and the Frog." Many fantastic animators returned to bring wonderful characters to life. The film is set in bustling New Orleans, where hardworking Tiana seeks to own her very own restaurant. One fateful night, Tiana ends up kissing a frog to turn him back into a prince, but instead, she turns into a frog, too! "The Princess and the Frog" made waves for being the first Disney film featuring an African American princess, and Tiana is one of the best characters the studio has ever crafted. The art-deco "Almost There" sequence is one of the most beautiful moments in cinema.
Starring: Anika Noni Rose, Keith David, Bruno Campos
The sequel to "Wreck-It Ralph" finds our beloved video game characters taking on their biggest challenge yet: the internet. The movie is one of Disney's strangest. It's also by some measure, their most self-referential, featuring an extended scene inside Disney's website, where Vanellope meets all the other Disney princesses. The internet, where much of the film takes place, is rendered in incredible detail, and the use of constant referencing and advertising fits perfectly in its world. "Ralph Breaks the Internet" is frequently confounding, bizarre, and overwhelming, which makes it a brilliant reflection of what surfing the web is actually like.
Starring: John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Gal Gadot
This 2021 movie is the newest film on the list and an exciting new direction for Disney animation. "Raya and the Last Dragon" takes place in the vast kingdom of Kumandra that's been divided after a great conflict. Raya sets out on a mission fraught with peril as she seeks to reunite the people of Kumandra by finding the mythical last dragon. Just when you think there's nowhere further for CGI animation to go, "Raya and the Last Dragon" appears with unbelievable detail. The movie is full of memorable characters and thrilling action sequences. "Raya and the Last Dragon" is the closest Disney has come to a traditional action movie, and it's one heck of a ride.
Hell hath no fury like a woman who isn't invited to a baby's birthday party. That's the reason Maleficent appears in a smoke cloud of doom to curse Princess Aurora, claiming that on her 16th birthday, she'll prick her finger on a spinning wheel and fall asleep forever. Employing a unique style developed by ingenious artist Eyvind Earle, "Sleeping Beauty" looks different from every other Disney film. It's deeply indebted to medieval art, and its bold, graphic visions are breathtaking. While Aurora may be the least interesting princess, Maleficent makes for one of the all-time great villains, as she's complete with a sharp wit, incredible design, and tremendous power.
Starring: Eleanor Audley, Mary Costa, Verna Felton
The first-ever feature-length Disney movie, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is still one of the best. The classic fairy tale is built on vanity, as the Evil Queen seeks to kill Snow White for the sole reason that a magic mirror deems her to be the most beautiful in all the land. It may sound farfetched, but the film makes its premise seem completely believable. It's bold and daring, with the sequence of Snow White escaping through the forest enduring as one of the most visually striking and utterly terrifying pieces of animation ever. The ultimate tale of love at first sight, "Snow White" is as ravishing today as it was in 1937.
Starring: Adriana Caselotti, Lucille La Verne, Pinto Colvig
Making incredible use of deep canvas technology, exemplified in its titular hero's swinging through an ever-changing jungle landscape, "Tarzan" marked a titanic step forward in the possibilities of hand-drawn animation. Tarzan, a man raised by apes, finds his world forever changed when he meets Jane, the first human he's ever seen. Complete with songs written and performed by Phil Collins, including the emotionally rousing "You'll Be In My Heart," which won an Oscar, "Tarzan" is a stunning adventure about finding your place in the world, and what it means to be a family.
Starring: Tony Goldwyn, Glenn Close, Minnie Driver
"When will my life begin?" asks Rapunzel in the delightful opening number from "Tangled". It's a fair question. Rapunzel has spent her entire life locked up in a hidden tower by Mother Gothel, who claims to only want to protect her. When the mysterious and rather charming Flynn Rider discovers the tower, it allows Rapunzel to leave her home for the first time, changing her life forever. "Tangled" marked a major milestone for Disney, as it was the studio's 50th animated film. It's a movie worthy of Disney's enormous legacy, and it provides a refreshing update on the familiar princess tale.
Starring: Mandy Moore, Zachary Levit, Donna Murphy
A major update on Robert Louis Stevenson's classic, "Treasure Island," directors Ron Clements and John Musker finally had their dream project realized with "Treasure Planet." The film follows Jim Hawkins, an adventurous teenager who comes across an intricate map that leads to the most legendary treasure haul of them all. The film is a technical marvel, using software that could create vast 360-degree sets for artists to work their magic on. Don't let the fact that "Treasure Planet" was a complete box office failure put you off. This is an emotionally resonant, exciting, and seriously entertaining sci-fi adventure.
Starring: Joseph Gordon Levitt, Brian Murray, Emma Thompson
The final hand-drawn film Disney has made to date, "Winnie the Pooh" is Disney at its most charming. The movie follows Winnie the Pooh and the gang as they set out on a courageous adventure to save Christopher Robin from the vicious Backson, whose name may or may not simply be a spelling error. It has a terrific sense of humor and is as equally entertaining for kids as it is for adults. Clocking in at just under 70 minutes, it's the easiest watch on the list, but still has the transformative power to make you feel as if you're among familiar friends in the Hundred Acre Wood.
Starring: Jim Cummings, Craig Ferguson, Travis Oates
Diving headfirst into the world of video games, "Wreck-It Ralph" reimagines the classic arcade game villain as the enormous Wreck-It Ralph, played with gusto by John C. Reilly. Tired of being the bad guy feared by everyone in his game, Ralph seeks to prove that he has what it takes to be a hero. He finds himself in "Sugar Rush," a colorful kart-racing game, and there he meets Vanellope von Schweetz. The two find themselves bonded by their status as outcasts, and as he helps Vanellope prepare for a major race, he finds his biggest test yet racing towards him. For fans of video games and Disney fans alike, "Wreck-It Ralph" has plenty to offer, from plenty of gaming references to a charming and familiar story with a unique spin.
Starring: John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jane Lynch
Disney's take on the buddy cop comedy, "Zootopia" is an unexpected delight from the House of Mouse. This sprawling film, which is clearly influenced by noirs, crime capers, comedies, and thrillers, follows Judy Hopps, a rabbit with dreams of being a police officer in the metropolitan city of Zootopia. She manages to get on the force, but it's far more challenging than she ever imagined, but with the help of the hustling fox Nick Wilde, she may be able to solve a major case and bring stability to the city. "Zootopia" proves that Disney still has plenty of creativity in the tank, and while it has many influences, it manages to feel original and different from all other Disney films.
Starring: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Jenny Slate
Forget all the Daniel Day-Lewises and Meryl Streeps of the world — no conversation about actors committing hard to their roles is complete without Bruce Campbell. "The Chin" spent close to 40 years playing Ash Williams in the "Evil Dead" franchise, going back to the very first movie in 1981. In the years that came after, he reprised the role in a pair of film sequels, voiced the groovy Deadite slayer in a trio of video games, starred in three seasons of the TV show "Ash vs Evil Dead," and even popped in for a post-credits cameo in 2013's "Evil Dead" movie reboot.
Like all good things, however, Campbell can't wield his boomstick forever, and has made it clear he's done bringing the character to life. Campbell didn't wait to break to break the news, either, taking to social media to state he had "retired as Ash" shortly before the "Ash vs Evil Dead" series finale aired in 2018. He's elaborated on his reasons for doing so since then, saying in 2021, "Whatever the cliched phrase is, I left it all on the table. I've got nothing left to give." It's not that he's tired of dealing out one-liners or swinging his chainsaw arm around, either. As the actor, who turns 64 this year, has explained, he "physically just can't do him anymore."
Campbell Has Suffered For His Art
When it comes to suffering for their art, few actors can match Campbell and his work on the "Evil Dead" series. It all began with Sam Raimi's "The Evil Dead," a no-budget horror movie that Raimi, Campbell, and their longtime producer Rob Tapert had to bend over backwards in order to finance. Things didn't get any easier after that, either, with filming taking place in a rundown cabin miles from civilization in the Tennessee woods. Describing the experience, Campbell said:
"From the beginning to the end — they were all low points. You were in a cabin that had not been occupied in decades, and had no power (or) running water; no sewage; no nothing. It was kind of like camping out for 12 weeks, but meanwhile you're trying to do a movie. There wasn't much acting required: You were cold, you were miserable, you were covered in blood. Some actors have to run around in circles, do push-ups, slap yourself in the face to get ready. We were miserable all day long; we were good to go."
Thanks to the film's success, Raimi, Campbell, and Tapert were able to secure proper funding and resources when they reunited for the sequel, "Evil Dead II," in 1987. But even more so than in the first movie, Raimi delighted in tormenting Campbell by subjecting Ash to all sorts of Deadite-related mishaps. Over the course of the film, the character spins violently through time and space, is attacked by his own reflection, cheerfully saws his possessed hand off, and even gets blasted with an almost-never-ending stream of blood. Campbell took it all like the champ he is, too, no matter how tiring or gooey the stunt was.
That remained the case in, by far, the most comedic of the "Evil Dead" films — 1992's "Army of Darkness." Raimi's movie basically turns Ash into a Looney Tunes character, with Deadites constantly punching him, and an entire scene devoted to skeletons poking and slapping his face in the style of The Three Stooges. The barometer would later shift back closer to the horror end of the horror-comedy spectrum in "Ash vs Evil Dead," a series set years after "Army of Darkness." It also features some of the grossest human-vs-Deadite battles in the entire franchise, including a notorious moment where Ash tangles with the possessed intestines of a corpse housing the Necronomicon.
Evil Dead (And The Necronomicon) Will Live On
Campbell's enduring appeal as Ash lies with his ability to retain his swagger and shake off whatever nastiness the Necronomicon throws his way, no matter how painful or disgusting. At the same time, this makes the role incredibly physically demanding to play, no matter the age of the actor. Campbell admitted this really caught up to him during filming on "Ash vs Evil Dead," referring to his three seasons on the show as "the longest seasons of my life." Yet, for all the wear and tear they took on his body, he never let it show in his performance, always being quick to recover, flash a cocky grin, and dive back into the fray of things.
For related reasons, a lot of people had a hard time picturing the "Evil Dead" films carrying on without Campbell during the 20-year break between "Army of Darkness" and Fede Álvarez's "Evil Dead" reboot in 2013. The latter was not as beloved as Raimi's original movie, but still managed to convince a lot of people the horror property could thrive without its groovy hero. This will once again be put to the test with Lee Cronin's "Evil Dead Rise," the latest film set in the "Evil Dead" universe.
Campbell, for his part, isn't worried, saying "there are more ['Evil Dead'] stories" to tell that don't involve Ash. After four decades of duking it out with the gnarliest demonic creatures around, he's certainly earned a rest.
(Superhero Bitsis a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)
In this edition of Superhero Bits:
Marvel and DC celebrate National Superhero Day.
"Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" advance ticket sales are huge.
Michelle Pfeiffer seems open to returning as Catwoman.
James Gunn had some input with the "Thor: Love and Thunder" script.
All that and more!
Watch The Flash Season 8 'Death Rises' Promo
Here is the official promo for the 12th episode of the eighth season of "The Flash" on The CW:
With a new Meta terrorizing the city, Joe (Jesse L. Martin) lends a hand to the local authorities, meanwhile Barry (Grant Gustin) gets an assist from Cecille (Danielle Nicolet) who helps to track the mass murderer.
Phil Chipera directed the episode, working from a story by Alex Boyd with the script by Arielle McAlpin and Dan Fisk.
Harley Quinn Season 3 Will Have Lots Of Guests Stars Promises Kaley Cuoco
We still have to wait for "Harley Quinn" season 3 on HBO Max, but star Kaley Cuoco has provided a little bit of an update to the folks at TV Line. The actress promises that there will be "so much good stuff!" That includes a bunch of "brilliant" celebrity guest voices. She wouldn't go any further than that, but she assures fans that the new season is "great, it's ridiculous, it gets more and more insane."
Cuoco also confirmed that Harley and Ivy are still together, adding, "They are living life, loving each other, fighting... Their relationship is the main focal point of this season, and it's hilarious and actually really, really sweet." While no release date has been set, the show is expected to return sometime this year.
Moon Knight's In-Universe Movie Tomb Buster Gets A Poster
Those who have been keeping up with "Moon Knight" will surely recall the movie that Oscar Isaac's character Marc Spector was watching during his childhood. The fictional movie is called"Tomb Buster," which seemed like sort of a low-budget companion to "The Mummy" or "Indiana Jones." Well, in keeping with the tradition of providing bizarre posters for this show, Marvel has released a poster with the VHS of "Tomb Buster" on it. That's right, it's not a poster for the fake movie but a poster for the show with the VHS on it. This show continues to be weird, and the marketing certainly follows suit. The finale of "Moon Knight" drops next Wednesday on Disney+.
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness Ticket Sales Are Big Already
It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" is expected to have an absolutely massive opening when it arrives next week. But, as noted by Collider, Disney revealed at CinemaCon that the movie has already seen $42 million worth of pre-sales, which is an absolutely gigantic figure. This points to one of the biggest opening weekends at the box office since the pandemic began, likely only rivaled by that of "Spider-Man: No Way Home." If you haven't purchased tickets yet, now might be a good time to do so.
DC Celebrates National Superhero Day With Nightwing's Butt
It just so happens to be National Superhero Day, and as one might expect, DC Comics got on the action, just not in the way you'd expect. DC shared an image of Nightwing along with a cake that has his sculpted butt on it. The not-so-subtle idea being that one might refer to a juicy booty as "cake" these days, just like the youths. I won't spoil it, for those who wish to do some exploring, but the comments section is just about as fun as you might expect. Just A+ work from the DC social team here. No notes.
Thor: Love And Thunder Had A Bit Of Input From James Gunn
The Guardians of the Galaxy are going to play a prominent role in the upcoming "Thor: Love and Thunder." But the group is also set to return to the silver screen next summer in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," not to mention the "Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special." So did anything have to be adjusted to make the pieces fit? A fan recently asked Gunn on Twitter whether or not he had any input on the "Thor" sequel's screenplay for that reason. Gunn simply replied with, "I asked for some things to be adjusted and they were adjusted." While we don't know what those things are, it's nice to know that Taika Waititi and Gunn were able to collaborate to their mutual benefit.
Michelle Pfeiffer Is Open To Returning As Catwoman
Michelle Pfeiffer played Catwoman in 1992's "Batman Returns," putting the skin-tight suit on once and only once. But with DC opening up the multiverse, and Michael Keaton's Batman returning in "The Flash," it seems more possible than ever that she could return as Selina Kyle. In speaking with The Hollywood Reporter recently, Pfeiffer didn't rule it out, saying, "It would depend on the context but, yeah, I'd consider it." It sounds like someone at DC/Warner Bros. might need to come up with some compelling context in a hurry. In the meantime, we'll get to see Pfeiffer back in the MCU next year for "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania."
Marvel Celebrates National Superhero Day With Avengers Concept Art
Lastly, Marvel's UK and Ireland Twitter account also got in on the National Superhero Day goodness by sharing some concept art from 2012's "The Avengers." Aside from fitting the day in question, this also serves as an anniversary post, as the film that first proved the Marvel Cinematic Universe could truly be possible will be celebrating its 10th anniversary next week, with its original U.S. release taking place on May 4, 2012 (though it rolled out overseas a bit earlier). The artwork was done by Ryan Meinerding, who is still working at Marvel Studios to this day.
If you're a fan of horror movies, you probably feel conflicted about the works and legacy of Eli Roth. If you're a fan of video games, you probably feel conflicted about the works and legacy of all video game movies. Finally, those two unsettling works/legacies will be combined in one unholy union with Eli Roth's "Borderlands," based on the video game of the very same name (which you probably already knew).
The game, which was released by Gearbox in 2009 and spawned two sequels and a prequel, tells the story of a crew of "vault hunters" who travel to the alien planet of Pandora in an attempt to find a vault full of alien treasure (read: weapons) before any of the massive corporations floating around the universe, colonizing planets, can beat them to it. The first game is jam-packed with cool loot, space monsters, and a cast of characters filled with lovable scamps like the abundant Claptrap robots.
As for who will flesh out these scamps in Roth's adaptation, we're looking at a pretty stacked cast list, including Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, and (the voice of) Jack Black. Will it be good? Who knows! Will it be a lot? Probably! Either way, we've got all of the coverage you crave about Roth's descent into the world of video game adaptations straight from CinemaCon.
Does Cate Blanchett Play Video Games?
The "Borderlands" footage came as part of a sizzle reel from Lionsgate, which also showcased footage from "The Hunger Games" prequel "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" and the upcoming "Dirty Dancing" sequel. In the footage, we see Cate Blanchett as Lilith in a killer bright red wig, which seems worth the price of admission alone. Kevin Hart's character Roland says, "Nothing better than a little wham, bam, thank you, man." There's a robot (fans of the games will recognize as Claptrap) voiced by Jack Black, who says, "Whoopsie, you accidentally shot me in the face again."
And that's about all there was to see! It isn't much, just enough to give a little tease of the upcoming "Borderlands" movie, which looks like it will maintain the humorous tone of the game.
Looking for an official synopsis of this video game movie madness? Right this way:
Lilith (Blanchett), an infamous outlaw with a mysterious past, reluctantly returns to her home planet of Pandora to find the missing daughter of the universe's most powerful S.O.B., Atlas (Ramirez). Lilith forms an alliance with an unexpected team — Roland (Hart), a former elite mercenary, now desperate for redemption; Tiny Tina (Greenblatt), a feral pre-teen demolitionist; Krieg (Munteanu), Tina's musclebound, rhetorically challenged protector; Tannis (Curtis), the scientist with a tenuous grip on sanity; and Claptrap (Black), a persistently wiseass robot. These unlikely heroes must battle alien monsters and dangerous bandits to find and protect the missing girl, who may hold the key to unimaginable power. The fate of the universe could be in their hands — but they'll be fighting for something more: each other.
"Borderlands" loots its way into theaters sometime in 2022.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Qualcomm bought a chipmaking startup called Nuvia back in March of 2021, and later that year, the company said it would be using Nuvia's talent and technology to create high-performance custom-designed ARM chips to compete with Apple's processor designs. But if you're waiting for a truly high-performance Windows PC with anything other than an Intel or AMD chip in it, you'll still be waiting for a bit. Qualcomm CEO Christian Amon mentioned during the company's most recent earnings call that its high-performance chips were on track to land in consumer devices "in late 2023."
Qualcomm still plans to sample chips to its partners later in 2022, a timeframe it has mentioned previously and has managed to stick to. A gap between sampling and mass production is typical, giving Qualcomm time to work out bugs and improve chip yields and PC manufacturers more time to design and build finished products that incorporate the chips. [...] Like Apple's processors, Nuvia's support the ARM instruction set but don't use off-the-shelf ARM Cortex CPU designs. These processor cores have been phenomenally successful in commodity SoCs that power everything from Android phones to smart TVs, and they helped popularize the practice of combining large, high-performance CPU cores and small, high-efficiency CPU cores together in the same design. But they rarely manage to top the performance charts, something that's especially noticeable when they're running x86 code on Windows with a performance penalty.
Few things in pop culture get the people as mad as superhero movies. In particular casting news for superhero movies really throws fans into a tizzy, especially if it's for a Batman movie. Whether it's Robert Pattinson, Ben Affleck, Heath Ledger or even Michael Keaton, if it's Bat-related, you can never please everyone.
When Heath Ledger, the heartthrob star of "10 Things I Hate About You" and "A Knight's Tale" got cast as the Joker in "The Dark Knight," one person got particularly angry about the news — Jack Nicholson. Okay, he didn't actually get angry, but he certainly wished he had another opportunity to flash that maniacal smile.
The legendary Oscar-winning star of "The Shining" redefined the Clown Prince of Crime for a whole new generation with his portrayal of Jack Napier in Tim Burton's "Batman." Of course, that meant Nicholson was 71 when "The Dark Knight" was released, but that didn't stop him from thinking he should have been allowed to return to the part as the first septuagenarian Joker.
'It's A Part I Always Thought I Should Play'
Just like Michael Keaton's performance was a huge departure from the delightfully campy and fun 1966 "Batman," Nicholson's performance was also much darker, in order to stand out as different from Cesar Romero's over the top clown from the classic series. In a recently unearthed behind-the-scenes look at the making of 1989's "Batman," Nicholson said he specifically wanted to avoid brightening the character for kids. On the contrary, he wanted to scare them, saying, "The more you scare them, the more they like it."
Nicholson also must have realized he didn't want anyone else to scare the children, because when MTV interviewed him before the release of "The Dark Knight," Nicholson somewhat playfully fired off at the mention of Heath Ledger's then-upcoming portrayal.
"Let me be the way I'm not in interviews. I'm furious. I'm furious," Nicholson said, laughing at himself, unfortunately not while waving a ludicrously long gun that shoots a little flag that says "BANG!" Nicholson went on, "They never asked me about a sequel with the Joker. I know how to do that! Nobody ever asked me."
To be fair, there is a reason for that. Spoilers for the 33-year old "Batman" film from Tim Burton: The Joker falls off a building and dies in the 1989 "Batman," so he could not return for a sequel (though if it were possible anywhere, it would be in comic book movies). Still, Nicholson is not impressed by the laws of physics. When asked if he was given a change to return, he said.
"No. It's like, in any area, you can't believe the reasons things do or don't happen. Not asking me how to do the sequel is that kind of thing. Maybe it's not a mistake. Maybe it was the right thing, but to be candid, I'm furious."
But not as furious as he is about missing out on another possible Oscar-winning role in "The Dark Knight," a role he seemed very competitive about. Nicholson explained, "The Joker comes from my childhood. That's how I got involved with it in the first place. It's a part I always thought I should play."
Now, all jokes aside, the very idea of Nicholson stepping off his giant yacht, walking up to Christopher Nolan and demanding to be cast in "The Dark Knight" is hilarious. Even funnier is the idea of 71-year-old Nicholson playing Joker (either young or old) opposite Christian Bale, and terrorizing Gotham in-between going to Lakers games.
Now, someone please ask him what he thought of Barry Keoghan's take on the Joker.
MSI has released its official AMD AGESA 1.2.0.7 BIOS firmware for its high-end MEG X570 series motherboards. The latest BIOS enables enhanced support for the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D CPU & also fixes some of the major bugs such as the fTPM issues that users had been encountering for a while now.
MSI's Top Brass of X570 Motherboards First To Recieve AMD AGESA 1.2.0.7 BIOS FIrmware, Fixes fTPM Issues Once And For All
MSI did fulfill its promise of offering AMD AGESA 1.2.0.7 BIOS firmware later this month and now the top tier MEG X570 motherboards have finally received the update. As of right now, the four top MSI boards including the MEG X570 GODLIKE, MEG X570S ACE MAX, MEG X570 ACE and the MEG X570S Unify-X have received the BIOS which can be found in the download links provided below (MSI's official Google Drive Repository):
As for the updates, the first and most important is the AMD AGESA 1.2.0.7 BIOS firmware will get rid of all the stuttering issues that were reported with fTPM on the AMD Ryzen platform. This has been a nuisance for many users but it's nice to know that these issues are now more or less fixed. The other upgrade comes in the form of Ryzen 7 5800X3D CPU support for the 300-series boards. To run the latest 3D V-Cache CPUs on X370, B350, and A320 motherboards, you will be required to update to the new AGESA 1.2.0.7 BIOS for full compatibility. Finally, you can also see the Ryzen SMU Checker screenshot that's been provided below:
As for when the rest of the motherboards get their AMD AGESA 1.2.0.7 BIOS firmware, they are expected to roll out throughout May. MSI has said that they will skip the AGESA 1.2.0.6 Patch C BIOS for 300/400 series motherboards given that the new BIOS firmware is shipping in less than a month's time. Also, there's a special overclocking-unlock BIOS headed to X570 motherboards soon by MSI so stay tuned for that too.
It is a big day for fans of dinosaurs and, to be more specific, humans interacting with dinosaurs. Universal Pictures has released a brand new trailer for this summer's "Jurassic World Dominion" following its debut at CinemaCon recently. This trailer was released just as advance tickets went on sale for the film, signaling that years after 2018's "Fallen Kingdom" opened the floodgates, we are finally going to see how this trilogy wraps up. And with the original "Jurassic Park" cast returning no less. We decided it would be good to take a much closer look at all of the chaos (and there is a lot of it) in this trailer, going over it beat-by-beat to see what we can learn. Let's dig in, shall we?
Hello, Maisie
The trailer kicks off with a shot of the clone girl from "Fallen Kingdom," aka Maisie Lockwood, who is chopping some wood in an isolated cabin. It's snowy and she's there seemingly living the quiet life with Chris Pratt's Owen Grady and Bryce Dallas Howard's Claire Dearing.
They've built a little family of sorts in the aftermath of the events of the last film, it would seem.
Baby Blue
As we saw in the previous trailer, Owen's raptor pal Blue has had a baby. Baby Blue, if you will. But Maisie says "that should be impossible" signaling that this comes as a big surprise to all of them. Life finds a way, as it were.
The scene has an odd bit of tension to it. Perhaps Blue becoming a mother has changed the dynamic between her and Owen. And the relationship between man and dinosaurs was always tenuous in the first place, let's be honest.
It's A Trap!
Here is where things start to go wrong. We see a little bit of animal skin here being used to bait and trap baby Blue. The poor little guy never saw it coming.
We then get a glimpse at the hunters responsible for this capture. They look pretty low-tech, just in a pickup truck. This isn't InGen or anything like that. These are seemingly just some guys trying to make some money by capturing a dinosaur. The world has changed a lot.
Angry Blue
This situation angers Blue something fierce. Naturally, no mother can be expected to be chill when her baby is taken from her. Things get extremely tense between her and Owen, far more than before.
We can see the panic on Claire's face and rightfully so because Blue actually takes a little nip at Owen. Not a full-on bite, but enough to make this concerning. This moment is key because Owen promises Blue that he will get the baby back and this appears to be inciting incident that will set the whole story in motion.
Flying Dinosaur Nest In The City
While I can't quite identify what specific species of flying dinosaur this is, we can see it gliding over a cityscape and, holy crap, it has made a nest on top of One World Trade Center. This is but one of many illustrations throughout this trailer that points out just how out of hand everything has become with dinosaurs not just surviving — but thriving — out in the real world.
Hi, Ellie!
While this is a recycled shot from the first trailer, this serves as our first look at Laura Dern returning as Ellie Sattler for the first time since "Jurassic Park III" in this trailer. The opposite side of this shot is a crazy swarm of an unidentified nature coming her way, but we don't see that here. Just Dr. Sattler in all of her glory.
Mosasaurus Madness
This is yet another shot we've seen before but a good trailer moment nonetheless. We can see that the Mosasaur is doing just fine, thriving in the ocean and attacking unsuspecting fishing boats. Bad for fishermen, entertaining for moviegoers. Another example of the chaos that humanity is having to endure following the events of the last film.
Henry Wu's Admission Of Guilt
BD Wong is once again back as Dr. Henry Wu, the scientist who is arguably most responsible for bringing dinosaurs back to life. This is lowkey one of the most important shots in the trailer, as Wu, wearing what can only be described as a depressing cardigan, says that they have made a "terrible mistake." He appears to have had a change of heart and feels that something he has done relating to these previously extinct creatures was a step or two too far. An interesting wrinkle, given how he was more or less a villain on the wrong side of the law in the last film.
Ankylosaurs On The Range
It's not all bad in this new world. Here we can see some Ankylosaurs enjoying a bit of peace out in the open range. Nobody is bothering them and they aren't bothering anybody, much like any other larger, otherwise peaceful animal that exists in nature.
Dino Chaos Ensues
Remember how everything was nice just a second ago? No longer. Dinosaurs and humans are far from adapted to living with one another, and it gets chaotic. We see here some Gallimimus running in the middle of the freeway, making this almost look like a found-footage monster movie for a second.
We then see some Nasutoceratops causing trouble for some vehicles as well. And by trouble, I mean utter destruction. Now, were these people asking for it? Or was this just an unfortunate incident brought on by the colliding of two species that should never have been in the same place?
The Original Trio Returns
Here we get our first shot of the original gang back together, including Sam Neill's Alan Grant and Jeff Goldblum's Ian Malcolm alongside Dern's Ellie Sattler. Grant is, unfortunately, kind of just hanging out in the background of this particular shot but it's a big shot of nostalgia to see them all together again for the first time since "Jurassic Park" in 1993. Also of note, Ian says the "doomsday clock might be about out of time." So he does not have an optimistic view of all this chaos going on right now.
An Angry Carnotaurus And His Allosaurus Friend
Owen is in bad shape here as he is facing down a Carnotaurus and an Allosaurus who were both just let out of enclosures, seemingly to his surprise. Of note, the Carnotaurus is missing a horn, which could add to its whole pissed-off attitude here. Also, these are carnivores who were locked in a cage. Were they going to be happy?
Raptors On The Loose
Here we see some similar cages being opened and the look on the faces of these men indicates this was not the plan. They are in the middle of a city and it is not a good place to have raptors running loose. Specifically, these appear to be the new Atrociraptors we've seen in previous trailers and images. This will end poorly.
Raptor Chase Time
An absolutely gigantic portion of this trailer is spent on these raptors chasing Owen and Claire through the city. This is merely the beginning, with Owen mounting up on a motorcycle for a truly wild-ass chase that is about to ensue.
Again, we've seen bits of this sequence elsewhere but we get an awful lot more of it here and, specifically, we get one heck of a moment coming up here in just a second that warrants much discussion.
Claire Totally Owns A Raptor In Wild Fashion
Let me be perfectly clear, still images cannot do this moment justice. During the chase, Claire is in the back of a truck and trying to figure out how to stop these beasts. So, she grabs a metal rod, sticks it against two cars, and a raptor slams into it neck first, then proceeds to do a flip and fall on its back, seemingly incapacitated.
People can be of one of two minds about this: either they think this is very stupid or they are prepared to empty their wallets to see this on the big screen as soon as humanly possible. I will show my hand, dear reader, and let you know I fall squarely in the latter camp and would like to punctuate this by merely saying, f*** yes. Absolutely f*** yes.
One Unlucky Guy
Not a whole lot of substance to say here but man, this is one unlucky dude. Imagine just riding around on a scooter, minding your own business, when an Allosaurus just decided to lean down and eat you for lunch. Or perhaps brunch, it's not clear what time of day it is. But that is a little beside the point. One big takeaway here is that returning director Colin Trevorrow does not appear to be shying away from violence.
Fire And Dinosaurs
Again, not a ton to say here but this is a pretty incredible-looking shot. We see a forest just absolutely ablaze, with dinosaurs of all sorts caught in the path of its destruction. What started this fire? That remains unclear but these dinos are clearly in trouble.
Hello, Mamoudou Athie
While he was in the background of a previous shot this serves as our first good look at Mamoudou Athie as Ramsay Cole, a new character in the franchise. Very little is known about him and the trailer doesn't provide us with too many clues. Though he does seem to have excellent fashion sense and I would very much like to know where he got that shirt.
Claire And Ellie, Bathed In Red
Here, we get a little bit of Claire and Ellie bonding with one another. Though all of this red light they are bathed in leads us to believe it is not under great circumstances.
Ellie also delivers the line, "For our world to survive, what matters is what we do now." What does this mean as it relates to the plot, exactly? We shall see.
Ian's Still Got It
We now get a solo shot of Ian, showcasing the man in all of his glory, leather jacket and all. Even all these years later, the man's still got it. At this moment, we also hear Owen saying "we could use your expertise." This seems to imply they are trying to rope the surely reluctant Dr. Malcolm into a dino-centric adventure.
Snow?
This shot doesn't offer much but it does raise an eyebrow or two. We see a helicopter of sorts hovering over a wintery landscape. We also know that we are going to get dinosaurs in the snow for the first time ever in this film, and this shot points to that being the case. As for who is in the chopper or where it is headed? Questions that remain unanswered. For now.
A Baby Raptor?!
At this point, Alan Grant expresses his shock at seeing a baby raptor, particularly Baby Blue. While it's not clear how this reunion comes about it would appear that Owen and the gang are successful in their quest to track down Blue's offspring.
A Promise To A Dinosaur
Ian now gets in on the fun with a quip, remarking in amazement that Owen made a promise to Blue to get her baby home safe.
At this point, Owen quips back in surprise that this seems strange to him. Owen, as we know, has a real bond with this animal and there is a bit of a generational gap here. Owen largely grew up in a world with dinosaurs in it. Ian did not and, quite frankly, their experiences with them have differed a lot.
A Nice, Fiery Callback
This serves as a pretty badass moment and one that is a bit of a callback to the original "Jurassic Park" at the same time. Ian is seen distracting our new big carnivore, the Giganotosaurus, with a torch.
This is reminiscent of him distracting the T-rex in the original movie during the breakout sequence so that Alan could save Tim and Lex. Now might also be a good time to point out that The T-rex does not appear at all in this trailer, which is pretty interesting given how central that character is to this franchise.
Maisie Is In Trouble
This is another shot we've seen before but we get a bit of an extended glimpse at it here. Maisie is in a cage and a gigantic carnivore is trying to eat that cage. We don't see the dinosaur but, piecing some things together, given that this takes place at night, it seems like the Giganotosaurus is a safe bet.
Claire Is Also In Trouble
This is a shot we've seen before as well but Claire is trying to escape the feathered Therizinosaurus and, to do so, she is having to crawl into a swamp. This is, to say the very least of it, far from an ideal situation to be in.
Kayla, Our New Hero, Is In Trouble Too
DeWanda Wise is playing a new character in this film, a pilot named Kayla. Here, she is seen in the cockpit of a plane with Maisie. And, wouldn't you know it? They're in trouble! This is because Quetzalcoatlus is getting ready to tear up that plane.
Again, a sequence we saw in the last trailer but we get a tiny bit more from Kayla here. She's clearly brave. Or foolish. Either way, it seems like a good fit.
Pyroraptor On The Ice (And Underwater!)
This is maybe the wildest sequence in the whole trailer. We've seen this bit of the feathered Pyroraptor in other trailers, with Owen and Kayla having nothing but tasers to defend themselves. But this time, the thing goes underwater!
To make things even more insane, Owen falls under the ice too and we get a shot of this feathered raptor getting ready to attack under the ice. Safe to say, Trevorrow is pulling absolutely no punches here.
The Whole Gang
This shot sees just about every single major character we've met up to this point gathered together, with only Kayla missing. Or at least she's not in the shot. What are they all doing with Dr. Wu? Where are they, exactly? These are burnings questions that the trailer refuses to answer.
The Biggest Carnivore
This shot is of the Giganotosaurus and, what is remarkable is that it appears to be an animatronic and not a CGI creation. That is worth noting as these recent sequels have been a little light on animatronics.
We also get a shot of the original trio gathered together looking at this beast, with Alan saying this is the "biggest carnivore the world has ever seen."
Ellie Is In Danger
This all appears to be happening at or around the film's climax. Or at least all in the same big action sequence. The Giganotosaurus can be seen here chewing on a bit of railing that Ellie just so happens to be standing on, much to her peril.
It appears as though it is going to be up to Owen to save here, quite literally, from the jaws of death.
You're Not Safe, Owen
To finish up the trailer, we get a tiny moment of levity interrupted by a major moment of terror. Owen is assuring the gang that they have escaped the danger by saying "see, not so bad." But they can see that the Giganotosaurus is right behind them, ready to smash through the glass of the building they are in. No safety here, only lots of teeth and broken glass.
And that's about it! One of the big takeaways is just how little Universal Pictures is showing us here. Lots of characters we haven't seen and very little of the plot has been revealed. This indicates we could be in for some major surprises when the film finally arrives this summer.
"Jurassic World Dominion" is set to hit theaters on June 10, 2022.
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