Ronald.phillips

People can't seem to get enough of James Gunn's superhero show about John Cena's "Peacemaker," a series that effortlessly incorporates a world needing hi-tech laboratories, white-trash white supremacy dens from the 1980s, maximalist trailer homes, secret task force vehicles, and fully-furnished apartments belonging to hot babes possessed by butterfly aliens. The attention to detail paid by the production team of "Peacemaker" is incredible, and just about every object, record sleeve, poster, and product label is meant to push the story forward or give deeper insight to the characters. During a recent interview with "Peacemaker" production designer Lisa Soper, we found out that even Peacemaker's trusted animal companion Eagly has been gifted objects made specially just for him.

It's been said that a dog is man's best friend, but for the f-bomb dropping Peacemaker, he needs a partner that's a bit more fowl-mouthed. Made completely of CGI and voiced by the legendary Dee Bradley Baker, Eagly is the scene-stealing bald eagle bestie of everyone's favorite murder himbo. Christopher Smith/Peacemaker frequently puts himself in harm's way to protect his feathered friend, and much like us, would absolutely die for him. With so much love and attention given to their relationship, it makes sense that the production design would also reflect it, sneaking in little references to just how intense Smith's dedication to meeting Eagly's needs actually is. And we mean all of his needs.

Peacemaker Bought Eagly Porn

"Peacemaker" is a pretty filthy show (THIS IS A GOOD THING!), and viewers have been privy to seeing more of John Cena's bare ass than anyone who grew up watching him on WWE could have ever possibly predicted. Fortunately, that filth extends even to Eagly, as Soper confirmed eagle-eyed viewers may be able to catch a magazine of bird porn on Peacemaker's living room table.

"You can see there's a lot of provocative material and magazines, and most of them have like, little things written on them where he's comparing himself. We also made him a magazine that he could have bought Eagly, which was like porn. It's called boobies and tits or tits and boobies, which are types of birds. It just has the birds on the front cover. We thought it was funny because it sounded like porn for birds. I think it's on the coffee table. It moved around. Sometimes it's on the counter, sometimes it's on the coffee table. I don't know if you can see it in the final cut, but it's got like a gray cover with literally the birds on the front."

It's not the easiest thing in the world to spot, but knowing it exists adds another level to Smith's love for his best friend. Gunn has said in interviews that he "liked the idea that Peacemaker has a soft spot for one of the more notoriously grumpy birds — who also has a soft spot for him." I've long believed that true friends aren't afraid to buy porn for their buds, and it's incredible that this now includes Peacemaker and Eagly.

Read this next: Batman Movies Ranked From Worst To Best

The post Did You Spot Eagly's 'Porn For Birds' in Peacemaker? [Exclusive] appeared first on /Film.

CD Projekt RED has released the highly anticipated Patch 1.5 for Cyberpunk 2077. This update is 50GB in size, and you can find below its full patch notes. Now what’s also cool here is that CD Projekt RED has added a built-in benchmark tool on PC. As such, PC gamers can adjust their settings and … Continue reading Cyberpunk 2077 Update 1.5 is 50GB in size, is now available, full patch notes →

The post Cyberpunk 2077 Update 1.5 is 50GB in size, is now available, full patch notes appeared first on DSOGaming.

Microsoft is releasing its first big update to Windows 11 today, and it includes a lot of new additions. From a report: A public preview of Android apps on Windows 11 will be available today in the US, alongside redesigned Notepad and Media Player apps. The first big Windows 11 update will also include a bunch of improvements to the taskbar. The public preview of Android apps on Windows 11 will allow users to install apps from Amazon's Appstore. The Verge points to workarounds to get Google Play Store running on Windows 11 unofficially. Back to more changes: The biggest changes in this Windows 11 update are related to the taskbar. The time and date will finally be available on multiple monitors in Windows 11, something that was missing at launch. The weather widget also returns to the taskbar in this update, and a new mute / unmute feature in the taskbar will be available for Microsoft Teams calls. You'll also be able to quickly screen share a specific app or window from the taskbar directly into a Microsoft Teams call. Microsoft has also redesigned the Media Player and Notepad apps for Windows 11. Notepad now includes multi-step undo, an improved search interface, and dark mode support. The new Media Player app is designed to replace Groove Music and Windows Media Player and includes support for both audio and video and a design that better matches Windows 11's UI improvements.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Google has announced a new version of Chrome OS called Chrome OS Flex, which is designed to run on old PCs and Macs. The Verge reports: The operating system can be installed "within minutes," according to Google's blog post. Google told me that Chrome OS Flex will look and feel identical to Chrome OS on a Chromebook -- it's built from the same code base and follows the same "release cadence." It did caveat that some features may be dependent on the hardware of the PC you're using. In fact, it said this for every specific feature I asked about, including always-on Google Assistant and Android phone syncing. So, if you're going to try this, keep an eye out. If you want to try out Chrome OS Flex yourself, you can learn more on the Chrome Enterprise website. Note that the OS is still in early access mode, so you may encounter bugs -- you can boot it directly from a USB drive if you'd rather poke around before installing it on your machine.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Regardless of the role and industry, having solid tech skills can boost your job prospects. Computer skills can also help you progress in your career.

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In the latest disappointing censorship news out of China, fans of the American sitcom "Friends," are outraged to discover that the re-release of the popular series has been greatly censored. In a not-so-shocking development, it turns out that any moment referencing LGBTQIA+ themes or sex has been modified or straight-up edited out.

The editing was noticed immediately, as the first episode of the series shows Ross (David Schwimmer) informing his parents that he and his wife Carol (Anita Barone for one episode and Jane Sibbett for the rest of the series) are splitting up because she's come out as a lesbian. In the new Chinese edit, he tells his parents that they are getting a divorce, and the scene cuts to their shocked reaction. In season 1, episode 10 "The One With The Monkey" a New Year's Eve kiss shared between Chandler (Matthew Perry) and Joey (Matt LeBlanc) has been completely omitted.

As Jiayun Feng reported for SupChina, this change is massive, as "Friends" is one of the most beloved foreign television shows in the country. "Since its original run, from 1994 to 2004, the series has not only entertained a generation of Chinese viewers, but also inspired its learning of the English language and influenced its understanding of American culture," Feng said. "Last year, when a reunion special of the show aired, it prompted watching parties, emotional essays, and trending hashtags on Chinese social media." The censorship changes have sparked an outrage from fans, who believe that this act of censorship is moving culture backward.

'Don't Say Gay' Is Real And Terrifying

In the second episode, the word "lesbian" is still spoken by the characters, but the Chinese subtitles allegedly chose to ignore it in translation. In "The One With Joey's Dirty Day," the suggestion to go to a strip club is translated as "going out to have fun," and in "The One with the East German Laundry Detergent," Ross' acknowledgement that women can have multiple orgasms is mistranslated to women "having endless gossip."

The changes have become a trend since Xi Jinping came into power in 2012, enforcing traditional gender roles to the point where portraying effeminate men has been explicitly banned. According to Feng, the hashtag "Friends is censored" #老友记删减#" was the most trending topic on Friday night on Weibo, but the tag had been censored by Saturday morning and searching for the tag results in the message "This topic is not shown according to relevant laws and regulations." The complaints have mostly been noticed in season 1 episodes, so there's no telling how the storyline of Chandler's transgender parent is going to go, if it even exists.

While censorship is hardly new in China, it is a concerning sign of what may become possible in other parts of the world. America is currently battling "Don't Say Gay" laws which look to criminalize any discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in the classroom, and would require teachers to out queer students to their parents if they disclose to someone at school that they identify as LGBTQIA+. Americans love to imagine ourselves as a "free country," and on a superior moral compass compared to countries like China, but it's hard to see much of a difference between banning Carol's lesbian status on a show from nearly 30 years ago and banning the mention of the word "gay" in a classroom in 2022. Censorship is censorship and homophobia is homophobia no matter what environment it exists in.

Read this next: The 15 Best Anthology TV Series Ranked

The post Friends Censored in China to Remove Any Mention of Carol Being a Lesbian appeared first on /Film.

The saga of the censored "Fight Club" ending continues. Director David Fincher has now spoken out about the decision to excise footage from the end of his oft-misinterpreted 1999 film. It happened like a reverse Tyler Durden move, except this act of splicing mayhem was on the Chinese streaming service, Tencent Video, and not in a projection room with cigarette burns appearing over the Brad Pitt character's cannonball shoulder.

If you're just now joining us, the saga began when news broke that Tencent had replaced the usual "Fight Club" ending with a descriptive caption, which, ironically, hewed closer to Chuck Palahniuk's novel. This is something Palahniuk himself noted when he spoke out about it to TMZ. The new ending sent Tyler (or the nameless Narrator, played by Edward Norton, whose subconscious conceives Tyler as an imaginary friend) to a mental health facility, similar to his fate in Palahniuk's book.

Tencent subsequently restored Fincher's original ending as news of its censorship spread, and I'm sure that China itself would much rather us talk about the ongoing 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. But if you were wondering what Fincher has to say about the whole affair, he recently spoke to Empire about it, where he said:

"It's funny to me that the people who wrote the Band-Aid [ending] in China must have read the book, because it adheres pretty closely."

As to how it all happened in the first place, Fincher said:

"Here's what we know. A company licensed the film from New Regency to show it in China, with a boilerplate [contract]: 'You have to understand cuts may be made for censorship purposes.' No-one said, 'If we don't like the ending, can we change it?' So there's now a discussion being had as to what 'trims' means."

"If You Don't Like [It], Why Would You License This Movie?"

Fincher was reportedly "bemused by the whole situation," which seems like a healthy attitude to have. However, he did point out the inherent absurdity of a platform acquiring a film for its streaming library, only to radically alter it. As he put it:

"If you don't like this story, why would you license this movie? It makes no sense to me when people go, 'I think it would be good for our service if we had your title on it... we just want it to be a different movie.' The f***ing movie is 20 years old. It's not like it had a reputation for being super cuddly."

Fincher has a point, but in all fairness to the Chinese ... think of what it's like for a streaming service in that country to cater to the needs of cinephiles there, while also living under China's strict censorship system, whereby criminals in movies "must always be punished for their crimes onscreen and societal harmony restored."

This is why the powers that be censored that "Fight Club" ending in China, and I honestly believe that the only reason it got uncensored is because it was bad PR for the Olympics. Maybe, for them, a censored "Fight Club" was better than no "Fight Club" at all?

Is anyone reading this from China, or would a foreign entertainment site like /Film not make it through the Great Firewall?

Read this next: Butkus To Punchy: Ranking All 8 'Rocky' Movies From Worst To Best

The post David Fincher Breaks Down That Censored Chinese Fight Club Ending appeared first on /Film.

With "Better Call Saul" gearing up to air the two parts of its final season, viewers don't have much time left to spend with Bob Odenkirk's character on that show. However, outside the role of Slippin' Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman, Odenkirk has made a name for himself as of late as a Nobody. Not nobody, but the star of "Nobody."

Improbable as it might seem, Odenkirk's "Nobody" character, Hutch Mansell, can hold his own in a bus fight just as well as Shang-Chi. Sure, he might get thrown out the window by a Russian crime lord's brother and his droogs, but Hutch will charge right back onto that bus and continue beating the living daylights out of them. He's not as graceful as Shang-Chi, but he gets the job done.

Written by "John Wick" creator Derek Kolstad, "Nobody" was the surprise action-dad hit of 2021. Inquiring minds want to know if there's a sequel on deck, and Odenkirk is here to address that in a new issue of Empire magazine. (Yes, my fellow Luddites, though Entertainment Weekly may have ceased print publication last week, they still make magazines some places, at least in the UK.)

Here's what Odenkirk has to say on the prospect of a "Nobody" sequel:

"We are working on making that happen. Universal has been very upbeat and welcoming. Derek and I have talked story. It's not a sure thing yet, but we're working on it. I think the signs point to yes."

Don't You Want Nobody To Love?

"Nobody" director Ilya Naishuller confirmed last summer that a sequel script was in development, though as we previously reported, it had not been greenlit yet. At the time, Naishuller said, "There's plenty of stories that can be told in this world, with the character Hutch. I know that [writer Kolstad] has begun work on the sequel." He also suggested that the sequel would give Connie Nielsen more to do than just play Hutch's wife.

It sounds like "Nobody 2" (working title: "Somebody?") still hasn't been officially greenlit yet, though Odenkirk seems optimistic. The actor survived a heart attack on the set of "Better Call Saul," and to date, "Nobody" has raked in $55 million on a $16 million budget, according to Box Office Mojo. So maybe he has good reason to be optimistic.

What are you waiting for Universal? Give the man a sequel!

You can read more in the April 2022 issue of Empire, which hits shelves (yes, they still have those, too) on February 17, 2022.

Read this next: The 15 Best Jackie Chan Movies Ranked

The post Nobody Star Bob Odenkirk Says 'Signs Point to Yes' For a Sequel appeared first on /Film.

"No Matter How Many Lives," the season finale of the Red-Light District Arc (or Entertainment District Arc, depending on who you ask) of "Demon Slayer" aired yesterday, and I'm in my feelings about it. It was beautiful, heartbreaking, and a lot of other adjectives for "that made me cry a lot, and I want more." While the majority of the episode was spent finally getting into the devastating details of Daki and Gyaturo's lives before the siblings became ruthless Upper Rank demons, there was still enough to reveal more of Nezuko's powers, hints at the upcoming season 3, and a shocking revelation about Muzan Kibutsuji's connection to the Demon Slayer Corps.

Daki And Gyutaro — The Saddest Backstory Ever?

As expected, we finally got Daki and Gyutaro's backstory. Not only was it predictably tragic, but it's also probably one of the saddest backstories we've seen in the series thus far — and for some of the most ruthless villains we've seen so far. I mean, Daki's human name was literally that of a disease, which is pretty messed up. Not to mention the whole "brutally maimed and left for dead after years of struggle and abuse" thing. The two became demons when the demon Doma found them on the edge of death and offered to "save" them if they wanted to eventually join the ranks of Muzan's Twelve Kizuki. It's easy to see how their horrible circumstances hardened their hearts and made it all the easier for them to travel the dark path that ultimately led to their demise as demons.

Still, while undoubtedly tear-jerking, I like that the extensive amount of time dedicated to painting the painful portrait of Daki and Gyutaro's human lives wasn't used to excuse their hateful and homicidal behavior. It's still made clear that they could have made better choices, especially with Gyutaro expressing sorrow and regret over his terrible and corrupting influence on Daki. I couldn't help shedding a tear (or several) as he spoke about how his little sister could have had a better chance at life if not for him, and I straight-up bawled at the fact that Tanjiro was still kind enough to comfort the slain siblings in their final moments so that they wouldn't lose each other. And don't even get me started on Daki's tearful refusal to leave her brother's side no matter how many lifetimes the two experience.

The Afterlife And Reincarnation

Speaking of lifetimes, it seems the finale more or less confirmed the series' concept of the afterlife and reincarnation. Several times this season, we've seen fallen characters like Tanjiro's other family members and Rengoku interacting with our protagonists in some sort of strange, blank liminal space. At first, I thought these scenes may have just been representations of the characters' minds as they search for strength in times of defeat, conjuring images of those they cared for in order to keep fighting. However, this episode leads me to believe that they may have actually been in a type of purgatory, or at least someplace where the souls of the departed can interact with each other — and occasionally their living friends and family, under certain circumstances — before moving on to the next life.

For example, Daki and Gyutaro both mention being reborn and living multiple lifetimes as though it's a certainty. Then, when they're in "purgatory," Gyutaro tries to separate himself from Daki before presumably moving on to the next life in an attempt to free her of her bad influence when they're reborn. He tells her to go towards the light while he walks toward flames and darkness, which implies that they still have the opportunity to choose to be better in the next life. Readers of the "Demon Slayer" manga likely know more about this subject than I do — I've only watched the anime so far, and the story has already come to a conclusion in the manga — but I feel like there is just more than just metaphors and symbolism at work, and I like the idea that there's a concept of the afterlife built into the "Demon Slayer" world, as it adds to the elements of hope and triumph of humanity that characterize the series.

Muzan & Kagaya Are Related

Something just as interesting as potential reincarnation is the fact that we find out Muzan and Kagaya (the terminally ill leader of the Demon Slayer Corps) are related. This is revealed when Kagaya, coughing up blood, refers to Muzan as "the sole blemish on my family," after learning of Tanjiro and the gang's victory against Gyutaro and Daki. This, again, is something that manga readers have apparently known for a while, but a shocking revelation for fans who have yet to do so.

Tengen's Retirement & Nezuko's Flames

As for everyone else, we learn that Tengen is going to retire from being a Hashira due to the injuries he sustained battling Gyutaro, much to the frustration of Obanai, the Snake Hashira. After Obanai tells him to "keep fighting until you die" since the Demon Slayer Corps is already down one Hashira after Rengoku's death, Tengen counters by stating that he believes Tanjiro has what it takes to become a Hashira — even if Obanai happens to hate him. Obanai, who almost seems like a bigger hater than Gyutaro, is shocked to learn that Tanjiro even survived. Because of this, I hope we get to whatever potential dynamic could develop between Tanjiro and Obanai if Tanjiro does end up becoming a Hashira.

As for Nezuko, we find out that not only do her pink flames inflict some serious damage on demons, but they have the opposite impact on humans. Nezuko is able to heal her brother, Inosuke, Tengen, and everyone else by setting them ablaze, engulfing them in her cute pink flames. and effectively nullifying Gyutaro's final attack from the previous episode. It's a little silly, but I love it, and the reactions of the other characters as Nezuko set people on fire provided some much-needed humor to balance out all the emotional heaviness of the episode.

Final Thoughts And Season 3

Season 2 of "Demon Slayer" has been nothing short of amazing, and the finale was the perfect conclusion to the Red-Light District Arc while laying the foundation for the upcoming one. The official "Demon Slayer" USA Twitter account recently posted that season 3 will adapt the manga's Swordsmith Village Arc for the anime series. If it's anything like season 2, we can expect equal parts humor, heartbreak, and hope, all wrapped in a beautifully animated packaging.

I'd like to see more of Nezuko, Akaza, and Muzan in the upcoming season, in addition to finding out more about the rainbow-eyed Doma — the demon who turned Daki and Gyutaro — partially because he looks cool, and also because they probably wouldn't throw him into the finale if they didn't plan on making him a key player in "Demon Slayer" season 3. I also hope to see more of the realistic and relatable struggles and personal victories of the "Demon Slayer" gang.

Read this next: The 15 Best Japanese Horror Movies Of All Time

The post Demon Slayer Season 2 Finale: A Hopeful & Heartbreaking Masterpiece appeared first on /Film.

In the Mexican city of Cuauhtémoc last week, a security camera captured footage of a flock of yellow-headed blackbirds falling from the sky. Some then flew off but many didn't survive. No, it wasn't 5G radio waves jamming their navigation systems. — Read the rest

Today marks the 30th anniversary of "Wayne's World," the second feature film to be adapted from a "Saturday Night Live" sketch. Mike Myers and Dana Carvey turned the public access duo into a box office sensation, spawning a sequel and a whole series of "SNL" films in the 1990s, for better ("Coneheads") and for worse ("It's Pat"). Though it's "SNL" mastermind Lorne Michael and his sketch comedy cast members responsible for bringing "Wayne's World" to life, it's director Penelope Spheeris who wrangled the short-form concept into a feature-length film. Sorting through endless pages of new ideas on set and working with a lot of big egos, Spheeris pulled off nothing short of a comedy miracle. We sat down with the filmmaker recently to take a look back at the challenging production, what it's like working with Lorne Michaels, the possibility of seeing "Wayne's World 3" come together, and more.

"The Challenge Was Just Trying To Grab The Good Jokes Out Of The Air And Swat The Flies Away."

Note: This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

It's wild to think that it's been 30 years since "Wayne's World" was released. Three decades on, how do you look back at your time working on the movie?

A very fun time making the movie, even though some people say it might not have been, but it was a fun time to make it. And I think about how hard I was trying at that point, because it was my first studio movie and I wanted to do a really good job. I think a lot about how life is so different now than it was back in those days, not with just filmmaking, but just life in general.

You mentioned some people saying that maybe there were some not great times on the set, and I've read about some of the challenges. Can you talk about what it was that made "Wayne's World" so challenging at the time? Do you think there was so much protection from Mike Myers, this being his baby and a character that he created? Maybe it's this concept coming from "Saturday Night Live" and having Lorne Michaels have a big investment? What do you think made it such a big challenge?

Honestly, what made it a big challenge was the timeframe and we had 34 days. The other thing was being given so many new script pages all the time from the writers, because on "Saturday Night Live," the writer is God. So I'd be directing, "Action." Then somebody would go, "Ah," with a piece of paper. And it's like, "I have to shoot what?" The challenge was just trying to grab the good jokes out of the air and swat the flies away.

"Wayne's World" came along before there was ever anything thing like bonus features on DVDs, so I was curious, because there was so much extra writing on set and improvisation, were there a lot of deleted scenes that ended up on the cutting room floor that have never been released?

That's a good point and a good question. But the fact of the matter is, with the limited shoot days, we didn't have a lot of extra footage left over. It was what they call B-roll. I shoot rather efficiently, I like to think, so I don't do more takes than I have to. A lot of times the boys, Dana and Mike, would request a lot of extra takes because they would go, "I could do this better." And I'm like, "No, I got it, man. You don't need to do it better. I got it." [They'd say,] "Trust me, I could do it better." Then I would do another take, and they would do it better. So I don't know. You only got 10 hours to shoot in the day, so you got to get it all in there.

"I Said, 'What? Where Am I Going To Get A Mechanical Hand?''

There's a featurette on the Blu-ray where you mentioned that you had a lot of options in the editing room because you shot it your way, you shot it Mike's way, you shot it Dana's way, and then you shot one for the writers, Bonnie and Terry Turner.

I probably exaggerated a little.

So I was curious, if you can encapsulate at all what the differences were between what each of you wanted when you were shooting any given scene?

I feel like I would shoot it my way first, and then Dana and Mike would come up with new ideas about it. I'll give you an example. We shoot the scene where Garth has taken the licorice out of the top of the car from the dispenser. Dana would say, "Could you put more licorice in there? So that I can do all my dialogue while I'm pulling down the licorice?" I'm like, "What's the point?" He goes, "It just feels better." "Okay, fine. We'll put more licorice in there so you can pull the licorice down for your whole dialogue set. Okay." So stuff like that.

On the commentary, you said that Dana was constantly trying to add different gadgets to the car. Do you remember what any of the other ones were besides the licorice dispenser?

Yeah. There was a time where, you know what, I don't think you ever saw this in the movie. I haven't seen the movie in 30 years, so you can tell me. When's the last time you've seen the movie?

I actually just watched it yesterday.

Okay. Were you ever in Garth's bedroom?

Yes, there's at least one or two shots in Garth's bedroom.

Yeah, but not much, right?

Right.

The things that [Dana] wanted in his bedroom were just unattainable. The prop department, the heads were spinning. He would keep trying to come up with the goofiest things that he would like to just have as props background in his bedroom. And I'm like, "Dude, we're not going to be in there that long. Not going to even have time to look at them. Don't have the time to see them." But yeah, he was always trying to come up with [more gadgets], and that mechanical hand thing, that was his. The day before we're shooting that he was like, "We've got to have a mechanical hand." I said, "What? Where am I going to get a mechanical hand?" "Just cut one off of a mannequin and we'll hook it up." I'm like, "Okay."

"I Felt Sometimes Like It Was A Little Too Invasive And Too Controlling..."

Lorne Michaels seems like he was a pretty hands-on producer. In the commentary, you mentioned a lot of specific ideas that came from him. Was this just because it was a unique situation since "Wayne's World" came from "Saturday Night Live," or is Lorne Michaels really just that involved of producer?

Lorne was hardly there.

Oh, okay.

He was there, I'm going to say, tops, four days out of the 34 days. He might have come in for an hour or two. He comes in, he sits down, everybody's nervous and trying to make him laugh. Then he says, "So where would you like to have dinner this evening?" It's all about going to Mr. Chow's. So Lorne didn't bug us. He really didn't. He helped a lot, he would call me sometimes and suggest things, because he would look at dailies occasionally. I don't think he would watch dailies every day, but he would call me, and he would say, "You know Penelope, you can't ever go into anything negative, nothing negative. We only want positive stuff here."

Like when Garth goes into the club and hits a guy with the taser. Well, I shot that, and it was a little too real for Lorne. So he says, "You have to shoot that over again because it looked like it hurt. I don't want anyone to feel any pain. I don't want to see any vomit in this movie, because vomit goes over the edge, goes into the negative." He goes, "If Phil's got to spew, then he's got to not show any vomit. He's got to pretend." I'm like, "Okay, Lorne." So he kept me on track that way.

It was fascinating to hear, throughout the commentary, these little philosophies Lorne had on comedy and making sure "Wayne's World" never got too dirty. It was always on the cusp of being just a little bit naughty. Did that result in any creative differences?

Yeah, it was a little bit naughty. We were allowed to have Cassandra wear a bustier, but that's about as nasty as it got. You know what I mean? So are you saying there was -- excuse me for not knowing this --  a commentary by Lorne?

No, there were just little moments throughout your commentary on the Blu-ray where you talked about certain moments that Lorne specifically wanted to keep at a certain level of clean.

Yeah, that's very true. I'll go dirty anytime. 

Was it difficult to hold back because of that in some cases?

A little bit, yeah, but Lorne kept it on track. I felt sometimes like it was a little too invasive and too controlling, but it's Lorne. You don't challenge Lorne, you just do what the hell he says, you know what I mean? So I followed his instructions, and I never let it get too negative. You know the scene where Stacy falls through the skylight? [Wayne's] ex-girlfriend.

Yeah.

Because I had shot "Hollywood Vice Squad" and "Boys Next Door," I knew how to shoot action, so I made that look really realistic. The piece of candy glass that we had to use was like $10,000 or something. So the stunt girl for Lara Flynn Boyle fell through the candy glass, and that was a great laugh. It was really funny, and it was a little bit over the edge in terms of violence, but they didn't ask me to shoot that over again. I figured out later it's because the candy glass cost so much. So you're not going to do a take two on that one.

"I Knew I Needed Someone Who Could Sing And Play An Instrument And Perform On Stage Believably And Still Be A Great Actress."

You mentioned Cassandra, and with Tia Carrere, you guys got lucky, because not only was obviously a great actress, but she did all of her own singing. Do you remember if there was anybody else who was in the running for that role besides Tia Carrere?

Oh, yeah, I mean, everybody, because she was the star, sexy chick in the film, and everybody had their idea. We all have different ideas about that sort of thing, and everybody had their idea, and everybody kept submitting possibilities to play that role. I don't usually like to take the credit, because we all deserved it, but I have to take the credit for fighting for Tia. As a music video shooter, somebody that knows how to make music videos and everything, I knew I needed someone who could sing and play an instrument and perform on stage believably and still be a great actress. Plus, she spoke Cantonese. How do you find that one person?

Did anybody else come close to landing that role besides Tia Carrere?

Maybe for other people, but not for me. The minute I saw her, the minute I read her in an audition, I knew. There was never a question.

"It Was Just By The Skin Of Our Teeth That We Got Reebok."

The product placement scene is one of the most memorable sequences in the movie. How difficult was it to figure out all the brands you were able to use? Were there any brands that you remember that you wanted, but you couldn't get for that scene?

Good question. We were up against the wall when we had to shoot that scene, because that is mega legal department clearance stuff. You can't go shooting something you don't have cleared. So it was funny, I said, "We have to have at least four or five things to make the joke work." And we didn't have the shoes cleared. We wanted Nike, and Nike would not agree. I'm shooting all day long, and finally I'm like, "You guys, I'm at the shoe scene. We got to have Garth with his feet up here and I got to see the logo. So what's the shoe?" They said, "We can't get Nike, but Reebok just came through." It was just by the skin of our teeth that we got Reebok."

Oh wow. That's great. Were there any others who didn't want to be part of it?

Probably, but I don't really remember because we got Pizza Hut, we got the pizza --

-- Doritos.

Yeah, we had most everything. With such a short prep, there were times we were flying by the seat of our pants. Mike really wanted to have Aerosmith be in the film to do what Alice Cooper ended up doing. They didn't tell us until last minute, and I had to scramble and call up my — I knew Alice from doing other work with him. It was a lot of just really flying by the seat of your pants. We didn't really have a long prep. I think it was probably six weeks, tops. I didn't even get my contract signed until we were already shooting.

That's crazy.

I know, it was.

One final thing I wanted ask you about, there's a trailer for "Wayne's World" that is so unique, and they didn't do trailers like this a lot back then, and they don't even do them at all now. It's the teaser that played only before "The Addams Family" that has Wayne and Garth sitting in the graveyard and basically just saying, "Hey, 'Wayne's World' is coming." Were you involved with that trailer idea?

No. I did the "Bohemian Rhapsody" music video afterwards, but I remember when they did that trailer. That's the marketing department at Paramount, and I thought it was brilliant, to be honest with you.

Yeah. It's such a unique way to promote the movie and I wish that they would do more like that nowadays.

The only problem is you can't go to a theater and see it, you know? So there's that.

Any hopes for "Wayne's World 3" at all? Would you be down?

Of course I would, but I don't think Mike and Dana want to do it, or it would've been done by now. But I do imagine seeing Wayne and Garth as older people and acting as silly as they did back then, and I think it would be hilarious. But I don't know, I don't think I could convince them to do it.

I feel like with "Bill and Ted" coming back, Wayne and Garth can do it, too.

I know! Bill and Ted could do it, and everybody loved it. Come on, guys. Let's get going.

Read this next: The 15 Best '90s Comedies Ranked

The post Looking Back at Wayne's World 30 Years Later with Director Penelope Spheeris [Interview] appeared first on /Film.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Chinese fans of U.S. sitcom "Friends" have expressed dismay online after noticing censorship in recently released episodes of the beloved show, including of LGBT issues. Several major Chinese streaming sites, including Tencent, Baidu's IQiyi, Alibaba's Youku, and Bilibili, started showing a version of the first season of the show on Friday, its first re-release in China for several years. But fans soon noticed parts of the long-running show were different to what they had seen before and complained of censorship which included the removal of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-related content, as well as mistranslations. In one example, a conversation where a main character, Ross, explained his wife was a lesbian, was deleted. Another scene where another character, Joey, suggested going to a "strip joint" was translated as "go out to play" on the version shown on Tencent Video. As users started to notice the changes, they began discussing and "boycotting" the move. The discussion was a "hot search topic" on Weibo on Sunday. Reuters adds: But in a sign the discussion itself may have caught the attention of censors, searches on Weibo on Sunday for several variations on the hashtag or search term #Friendshasbeencensored produced either zero or limited recent results. The development follows a similar treatment of David Fincher's 1999 cult classic "Fight Club." Fans were shocked to find that a version of the movie that was made available on Tencent Video had a new ending where the authorities win. After much uproar, the original ending for the movie was restored.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

There’s nothing quite like a proper shower after a long day. But if weak water pressure and irregular spray patterns are preventing you from washing away your troubles, then it might be time to give your shower head a deep clean.

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Trying to overcome my entirely natural aversion to cooking because microwaves exist, I decided I would try to min-max the situation. Make one meal that will last three days, then all I have to do is heat it up for the last two. 

That's close enough to the same level of laziness as the microwave. Problem solved. So I went with rotisserie chicken, rice from a rice cooker (which I've never used), squash*, mushrooms, snap peas, and carrots. 

Mistakes were made. 

Allow me to summarize just a handful of the things I learned:
1. Every natural instinct I have is wrong.
2. *Do not buy what looks like a squash in the grocery store without looking at the label, because it is probably a cucumber. 
3. When the instructions to the rice cooker say "add water to this level," you may think this means add the water first, then add the rice. It does not. 
4. After slicing vegetables, holding a flexible cutting board underneath with one hand will crown the cutting board, leading to substantial vegetable spill-off on the sides.
5. In reference to #4, you can only catch so many things with one hand. 
6. When the rice in #3 completes in the "fuzzy logic" cooker, you will find that it can only "logic" some mistakes, not the basic inability to follow directions. 
7. The second time you cook rice, it will be easier to follow the instructions. Unfortunately, this takes another 40 minutes, and by the time it completes, you will be too annoyed to reheat the vegetables and chicken you had to put in the fridge. You may think the rice will heat everything up. It will not. 
8. Electric range tops remain hot long after you turn them off.
9. Cooking is for grown-ups. Adult supervision is needed at all times.

After starring as teenage vampire heartthrob Edward in the "Twilight" franchise, actor Robert Pattinson did everything he could to distinguish himself as a "serious" performer, taking on every challenging role that came his way. Whether he's running for his life in the Safdies' "Good Time," being sad in space in Claire Denis' "High Life," or practicing his best sassy French accent in "The King," Pattinson has earned a name for himself as a performer willing to go the distance. Few roles challenged Pattinson quite like his role as lighthouse keeper Ephraim Winslow in Robert Eggers' "The Lighthouse," however, and that experience ensured the British actor would never quite be the same. Filming the claustrophobic historical horror pushed Pattinson to his limit physically and mentally, leading the actor to nearly punch Eggers on one particularly tough day. Pattinson and his co-star Willem Dafoe suffered for their art, but the result is as beautiful as it is brutal. 

That's a darn good thing, because Pattinson had a really bad time.

He Was Intimidated By The Role (And His Co-Star)

Pattinson's approach to choosing roles is as careful as it is careless. In an interview with GQ, he joked about agreeing to being in "The Lighthouse," saying:

"I'm constantly doing risk assessments, which drives everybody crazy, trying to predict every single element that could possibly happen. And then, at the end of it, just being like: Ah, f*** it! I'll just play a lighthouse keeper who f*** a mermaid! I think this is the right move!"

With the exception of a mermaid that may or may not be a figment of Winslow's imagination, the only character he interacts with in the whole movie is Dafoe's elder lighthouse keeper, or "wickie," Thomas Wake. Wake and Winslow annoy one another from the very beginning, and by the time they're trapped together with dwindling rations due to a storm, that annoyance has turned into bitter hatred. The characters had multiple sources of inspiration, including the real-life tragedy of Smalls Lighthouse in 1801 and the story of Prometheus stealing fire from Proteus in Ancient Greek Myth, but Dafoe and Pattinson's performances would have to be perfect to make it work. Working with Dafoe was intimidating for Pattinson, and they didn't get much of a chance to discuss his fears before shooting.

Rehearsals went badly for Pattinson, who grew frustrated by trying to take on the character before shooting began. Eggers and Pattinson were furious with one another, and by the end of the week the star was convinced he would be fired before filming even began. At the end of each day, he would slam the door on his way out and felt "quite angry" with Eggers. The fury died down once they were on set and Pattinson was able to embody Winslow, but even then the performer was terrified.

In a discussion with Interview Magazine, Pattinson shared his fears:

"My idea for "The Lighthouse" was that if I don't really understand this script on a cerebral level, then I'll try to understand it on a physical level. But I must say that I've never seen someone with such a supernatural level of energy as you. I remember watching [Dafoe] and being, like, 'How are you doing this?'"

Pattinson later said that he likes to take on roles specifically because he doesn't think he can do them in order to keep challenged. While he may have thought the script was tough, he had no idea just how difficult filming would actually become. 

Brutal Filming Conditions

Filming "The Lighthouse" was a waking nightmare for Pattinson and Dafoe. They filmed on location in Halifax, Nova Scotia, inside of a lighthouse built just for the film. The weather was miserably wet and cold, and both performers were put through the wringer to bring their characters to life. One particular scene pushed Pattinson to his breaking point, and he nearly punched Eggers. He told Interviewer:

"That's the closest I've come to punching a director. However much I love Robert [Eggers], there was a point where I did five takes walking across the beach, and after a while I was like, 'What the f*** is going on? I feel like you're just spraying a fire hose in my face.' And he was like, 'I am spraying a fire hose in your face.' It was like some kind of torture. It definitely creates an interesting energy."

Dafoe has gone on record calling Pattinson "a warrior" for his approach to the challenge, remembering the harsh sting of the water on their faces. Dafoe went through plenty of his own challenges while filming, including delivering lines with big mouthfuls of dirt, but he wasn't tortured quite to the level of Pattinson, whose character is slowly going insane. There wasn't much camaraderie on set, either, which added to the miserable sense of isolation. Dafoe shared his feelings about filming the feature in an interview with Esquire, saying:

"We both were working hard, in really tough conditions. It's not like we hung out in between takes, joking with each other. It was demanding enough, and the weather was s***ty enough that you did your thing, and then you went home. I'm not complaining. It was fun. But when you go home after 12 hours and you're soaking wet and you're cold all day, last thing I wanna do after being with those guys all day was to hang out with them and have some drinks."

Becoming A "Mad Person"

There was more to Pattinson's misery than just physical discomfort. The young actor put himself through intense training to portray Winslow, and arrived in Halifax much earlier than his co-star in order to prepare. He would wander the streets, muttering his lines to himself over and over in order to get the right accent, and that was just the beginning of his efforts. He didn't completely commit to Method acting, which is the tactic of staying in character even after "cut" has been called, but he dedicated himself to the performance a bit more intensely than the average actor. In order to portray a man slowly unraveling due to a combination of going stir-crazy and drinking kerosene, Pattinson would become a little unhinged himself. In scenes where he's supposed to be drunk on kerosene, he said that he was "basically unconscious the whole time." He would make himself vomit, stumble, and even urinate in his trousers. 

In order to make himself move with discomfort, Pattinson put a rock inside one of his shoes. Before his takes, he would spin himself around in circles to simulate being dizzy from drunkenness. During one take where Pattinson was leaning on Dafoe and they're sort of slow-dancing together, he started making himself gag and Eggers had to yell cut. Pattinson recalled the experience to Esquire, saying:

"There's a scene where Willem's kind of sleeping on me and we're really, really drunk and I felt like we're completely lost in the scene and I'm sitting there trying to make myself gag and Robert [Eggers] told me off because Willem's looking at him going: 'If he throws up on me, I'm leaving the set.' I had absolutely no idea this whole drama was unfolding."

For Pattinson, throwing himself entirely into the character was a way to escape his early fame. Instead of hiding from the paparazzi or adoring fans, he's able to be as wild and intense as he wants on set, and that gives him the opportunity to not only escape from the world, but himself. "It's like being an adrenaline junkie," he told Esquire. "When you don't know how to do something, why not just run headfirst into a wall? See what happens. I haven't got any other ideas." 

After his difficult time filming "The Lighthouse," maybe next time he'll make sure the wall he's running into isn't made of crashing water. 

Read this next: The 13 Best Movies About The Devil Ranked

The post How The Lighthouse Changed Robert Pattinson Forever appeared first on /Film.

Microsoft is enabling a Microsoft Defender 'Attack Surface Reduction' security rule by default to block hackers' attempts to steal Windows credentials from the LSASS process. BleepingComputer reports: When threat actors compromise a network, they attempt to spread laterally to other devices by stealing credentials or using exploits. One of the most common methods to steal Windows credentials is to gain admin privileges on a compromised device and then dump the memory of the Local Security Authority Server Service (LSASS) process running in Windows. This memory dump contains NTLM hashes of Windows credentials of users who had logged into the computer that can be brute-forced for clear-text passwords or used in Pass-the-Hash attacks to login into other devices. While Microsoft Defender block programs like Mimikatz, a LSASS memory dump can still be transferred to a remote computer to dump credentials without fear of being blocked. To prevent threat actors from abusing LSASS memory dumps, Microsoft has introduced security features that prevent access to the LSASS process. One of these security features is Credential Guard, which isolates the LSASS process in a virtualized container that prevents other processes from accessing it. However, this feature can lead to conflicts with drivers or applications, causing some organizations not to enable it. As a way to mitigate Windows credential theft without causing the conflicts introduced by Credential Guard, Microsoft will soon be enabling a Microsoft Defender Attack Surface Reduction (ASR) rule by default. The rule, ' Block credential stealing from the Windows local security authority subsystem,' prevents processes from opening the LSASS process and dumping its memory, even if it has administrative privileges. While enabling the ASR rule by default will significantly impact the stealing of Windows credentials, it is not a silver bullet by any means. This is because the full Attack Surface Reduction feature is only supported on Windows Enterprise licenses running Microsoft Defender as the primary antivirus. However, BleepingComputer's tests show that the LSASS ASR rule also works on Windows 10 and Windows 11 Pro clients. Unfortunately, once another antivirus solution is installed, ASR is immediately disabled on the device. Furthermore, security researchers have discovered built-in Microsoft Defender exclusion paths allowing threat actors to run their tools from those filenames/directories to bypass the ASR rules and continue to dump the LSASS process. Mimikatz developer Benjamin Delpy told BleepingComputer that Microsoft probably added these built-in exclusions for another rule, but as exclusions affect ALL rules, it bypasses the LSASS restriction.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Korean zombie thriller "All Of Us Are Dead" became Netflix's fifth most-watched non-English series debut in the streaming juggernaut's history, and for very good reasons. Part zombie apocalypse survivor story and part coming-of-age romantic drama, the first season of "All Of Us Are Dead" provided 12 jam-packed hours of entertainment that has kept the show on the most-watched lists across the globe since its release on January 28, 2022. Following a group of students trapped in their high school during a zombie virus outbreak, the students find themselves at ground zero, abandoned by the government, and left to survive with their own skills and resources. High school is hard enough without watching your friends transform into flesh-hungry monsters, or worse, having to kill those same friends in order to survive.

The Jonas virus, created by brilliant scientist turned school teacher Lee Byeong-chan and named after philosopher Hans Jonas, was originally concocted as a way to provide Mr. Lee's bullied son Jin-sun a medical way to transform fear into rage and aggression and motivate him to fight back against those who cause him harm. Unfortunately, the virus mutated into mindlessness and bloodlust, kickstarting the events that would lead to a zombie outbreak. Everyone is susceptible to the Jonas virus, either becoming a zombie or asymptomatic "hambies" (half-human, half-zombies). That is, everyone except Nam On-jo (Park Ji-hoo).

What Is Nam On-Jo's Zombie Status?

Most of those infected with the Jonas virus turn into out-of-control zombies operating purely out of rage and destruction, but those who turn into hambies can teach themselves to control their zombie urges, and pass themselves off as human. It's a rare result of the virus, but it is possible. After Kim Hyeon-ju (Jung Yi-seo) is bitten by an infected hamster, locked up for days, and eventually taken to the school infirmary, she starts lashing out, spreading the Jonas virus, and infecting the students, teachers, and nurses trying to help her. It was assumed that Nam On-jo was bitten during the outbreak, as we later see her father asking her if she is okay while she holds her bandaged wrist.

Nam On-jo doesn't show any signs of zombie infection, sensitivity to 24hz frequency tones, or any other guaranteed signs of being either a hambie or a full zombie. Since On-jo is scratched before chaos breaks loose and her bandaged wrist is hidden under the sweater, no one checks to make sure she isn't infected. This all takes place right before the outbreak explodes into a full-on epidemic, so there were clearly bigger fish to fry than questioning On-jo's asymptomatic wound while the entire school watched their classmates transform into bloodthirsty rage monsters.

'Twas Only A Scratch

Those who become hambies have been shown to have regenerative abilities, with students Yoon Gwi-nam and Choi Nam-ra suffering devastating injuries that they're able to gradually recover from. This has led many to believe that Nam On-jo was likely able to heal her own wounds. It's a great theory, but if viewers go back and rewatch the moment Kim Hyeon-ju finally goes full zombie and attacks everyone around her, she snaps at Nam On-jo, but doesn't actually bite her. Professor Park Sun-hwa sees Hyeon-ju snap at On-jo, and asks if she's okay, but she just nods while holding her wrist. Moments after her paramedic father bandages the wound, Lee Cheong-san asks On-jo if she was bitten, and she replies that it's only a scratch.

If On-jo only sustained a scratch, there was no passing of blood between the two women. The school nurse, however, was actually bitten by Hyeon-ju and became the first zombie to spark the domino effect of infection throughout the rest of Hyosan High. That said, at the end of the first episode, a zombie charges at On-jo only to scream in her face, but not before sniffing her. The zombies don't attack one another, so did this zombie sense what no one else knew? 

While it seems like the scratch theory is the strongest, all of this could change in future seasons of "All Of Us Are Dead." We already know that the Jonas virus is capable of mutating and turning into different variants depending on the host's biochemistry. There's always a chance that On-jo could wind up as some sort of "super hambie" in the next season and lead to even more zombie carnage. At this point, it's hard to tell just what the Jonas virus is capable of. But If On-jo has been an asymptomatic host this entire time, she could also very well be the source of a cure.

Read this next: The 20 Best Zombie Movies Of All Time

The post The Big Clue Everyone Missed Early On In All Of Us Are Dead Season 1 appeared first on /Film.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is urging organizations to strengthen their security stance and stay on alert for potential Russian cyberattacks.

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"The Hateful Eight" is one of Quentin Tarantino's most divisive films. It also has one of the highest body counts in Tarantino's filmography. The movie feels more like a stage play in its tight focus on a group of nasty characters trapped in a cabin during a deadly blizzard. While transporting murderer Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to be lynched, bounty hunter (played by Kurt Russell) meets four other travelers — some with ulterior motives — in the warmth of Minnie's Haberdashery. Intense verbal sparring, psychological torture, and bloody shootouts ensue during their confinement. The ensemble's selfishness and deception is revolting.

Tarantino explores the racial tensions of post-Civil War America with a razor-sharp nihilism — ideas that particularly resonated with audiences in 2015, when Donald Trump's presidential campaign was in full swing. The final result of Tarantino's brazen film polarized critics and audiences, and the journey towards its release was difficult.

Filming In The Harsh Winter

Since the film was set during a raging snowstorm, Tarantino was forced to shoot exteriors under harsh conditions and had to be dependent on the unpredictability of Mother Nature. He told Entertainment Weekly: 

"[Y]ou could never trust a weather report that was any more than three days in advance. So depending on what the weather was, we're either doing this or we're doing that. There was no, 'Oh, okay, we're going to start a scene and then work it to its emotional integrity until we're done with it. And then we'll do some other scene and work it to its emotional integrity.' No. It was: drop and pick up, drop and pick up, drop and pick up pretty much the entire time we were in Colorado."

This meant that the actors and filmmakers had to be on the top of their game during shooting so that they could get the take they needed within a limited time frame, unlike Tarantino's usual method. However, Tarantino noted that this chaotic way of working energized and took him out of his comfort zone. The auteur elaborated in an interview with Deadline on the importance of the weather to the story despite its instability: 

"We had to juggle scenes in editing to keep things consistent, but like you said, the blizzard, snow and weather are characters. That's why we went all the way to Colorado to capture that ... When it came to that beautiful snowfall such as the opening sequence, that happened but did not occur again for 2 weeks, so often it meant we had to wait two weeks before shooting the other side of the scene. If it was foggy or cloudy, then we were in the stagecoach shooting. It wasn't about shooting with gorgeous snow on one side then fake it with phoney snow on that side, I don't operate like that. Challenging, but worth it.

The cold, volatile environment is the perfect backdrop for his vile characters' squabbling, and serves as a metaphor for their chilling cruelty. 

Shooting In 70mm

Another challenge in the creation of "The Hateful Eight" was shooting in 65mm with Ultra Panavision 70 lenses that had not been used since the film "Khartoum" in 1966. This was part of Tarantino's ongoing commitment to keep shooting on film alive. Tarantino's award-winning cinematographer Robert Richardson noted that type of celluloid and the widest aspect ratio of 2.76:1 "provides such unparalleled scope, resolution and beauty that everyone should be using it" (via IndieWire). "The Hateful Eight" marked the first anamorphic 70mm theatrical release in nearly half a century. 

Although Tarantino was confident that he could revitalize this style of shooting after the testing the cameras, he was worried about the freezing cold's effect on them. He told Entertainment Weekly: 

I just had to assume that there would be times that the lenses would freeze, or that the big camera would freeze. We're dealing with a really tricky technical process and we're doing it in a very untricky way, being open to the elements the way we were. And I'd already had a bad experience with that to some degree or another at least on one important day on Django when we were shooting in the snow. Even the guns didn't work. And that happened to be the day we were doing Django's fast draw. So literally in between takes, you got a hair dryer on the lenses and a hair dryer on the guns to make sure that they were warm enough.

Tarantino thanked Gregor Tavenner, the AC on "The Hateful Eight," who did everything he could to secure the cameras so that a similar incident would never happen. 

A Roadshow Style Release

Quentin Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight" was released roadshow style in a few theatres that could screen films on 70mm. A roadshow release is a form of theatrical exhibition that was popular during the era of the spaghetti westerns that Tarantino so lovingly homages. It involves showing a film to a limited number of theatres for a certain time period before wide release. Often this version of the film includes extra footage. 

"The Hateful Eight" roadshow boasted an exciting, theatrical event style atmosphere that included an overture, intermission, and extended scenes. The roadshow version runs for three hours and two minutes and has alternate takes of certain scenes because Tarantino felt some of the 70mm footage would not work on smaller screens.

Tarantino took a gamble in making "The Hateful Eight" by using an antiquated method of filming and withstanding a turbulent winter. In doing so, though, he successfully used the expansive landscapes of the frosty snow to emphasize the empty, cold nature of the characters and juxtapose their uncomfortable imprisonment indoors. It's a risk that paid off, as the brutal western is one of Tarantino's most compelling works.

Read this next: The 20 Best Westerns Of All Time

The post The Big Gamble Quentin Tarantino Took in Making The Hateful Eight appeared first on /Film.

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Whether it's a holiday, a birthday, or an anniversary, tech gifts can be a great option.

New polling from the firm Ipsos finds that most Americans worry about bad behavior on social media, and want companies to act.

The world doesn’t need to know when you’re taking a shit. Sure, it’s a normal bodily function that nobody need be ashamed of—but sometimes you just want to poop without announcing it to everyone via sounds and smells. Here’s how to do that.

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When you look at Android 13 in the hindsight, you would not be surprised when I tell you that it does not offer a lot of upgrades in terms of how it looks. Sure, you are getting a more secure photo picker, themed icons along with new Wi-Fi permissions but it also turns out that the upcoming also let users run alternative operating systems such as Windows 11 using a VM (virtual machine)

Android web and app developer Danny Lin (kdrag0n) has decided to show off Windows 11 Arm running in a virtual machine on his Google Pixel 6. The phone was running Android 13 Developer Preview 1 update.

Apparently, Android 13 Can Run Windows 11 But Would You Do It?

You can check out the screenshot below.

And here's Windows 11 as a VM on Pixel 6 https://t.co/0557SfeJtN pic.twitter.com/v7OIcWC3Ab

— kdrag0n (@kdrag0n) February 13, 2022

Lin has also talked about how Windows 11 was "really usable" although, at the moment, hardware GPU acceleration is not supported. He even posted a video showing Doom running on Windows 11 VM. You can check that out below.

Yes, it runs Doom (connecting to the phone's Windows VM from my computer for keyboard input) pic.twitter.com/6PORUnJk8m

— kdrag0n (@kdrag0n) February 14, 2022

In case you are wondering, Windows 11 was not the only OS that Lin managed to get running on Pixel 6. He also showcased a number of Linux distributions that could boot up on the device.

If you are wondering how it is possible, then you should know that Android 13 on the Pixel 6 does support new virtualization. Google seems to be doing a lot of work when it comes to having a better virtualization framework so it can run better on other devices.

There is no denying that Windows 11 running on Android 13 and a Pixel 6 is impressive but we have to tell you that for a common user, it might not seem like a suitable thing to do, in the first place. Still, if the tech bug in you is restless, you can go ahead and start tinkering, as well.

The post Android 13 Can Let You Run Windows 11 by Furqan Shahid appeared first on Wccftech.

Matt Groening and Josh Weinstein's animated fantasy-comedy "Disenchantment" is back on Netflix for Part 4, and these 10 episodes will change things in Dreamland forever. At the end of the third season, Princess Tiabeanie, or "Bean," was crowned Queen of Dreamland after saving it from destruction yet again. Bean (voiced by Abbi Jacobson) is not a perfect ruler by any means, but she truly does care about her subjects, including her strange little elf buddy Elfo (Nat Faxon) and her personal demon, Luci (Eric André). Unfortunately, the trio split up at the end of last season, and things looked especially bad for Luci, who was dead and stuck in Heaven with a bunch of boring angels. 

Part 4 sees Queen Bean reunite with her mildly-insane father, Zøg (John DiMaggio), as well as with her evil mother Queen Dagmar (Sharon Horgan). Over the course of the season, the characters all learn about the many ways family can shape us, and embrace the importance of the families we've created for ourselves. 

SPOILERS for Part 4 of "Disenchantment" from here on out!

So Elfo Is Half-Ogre?

One of Part 4's biggest reveals was Elfo's parentage. The odd little elf has never felt like he belonged among his tiny brethren, and his father Pops (Billy West) hasn't told him much about his mother. In episode 2, "The Good, The Bad, and the Bum-Bum," Elfo discovers that his mother is actually the Queen of the Ogres, Grogda (Tress MacNeille). Some fans guessed as much based on the characters' skin tones and similar nose, plus Grogda's interest in his name in previous seasons, but the theory was finally confirmed. Apparently, Pops and Grogda had an affair and raised young Elfo together before the gnomes attacked — and Pops believed Grogda was dead. When reunited, Grogda's current husband, the King of the Ogres, forces Elfo and his brother Junior to fight to the death, but Elfo refuses. The King of the Ogres dies in an accident, and the happy (if unusual) family is allowed to finally flourish.  

Zøg's Three Odd Children

At the end of last season, the deposed King Zøg was a wandering madman, capable only of honking. He stumbles across a monastery and learns the power of inner reflection, becoming a much more enlightened man. After returning to Dreamland, he decides to reconnect with his lost love Ursula the Bear Woman (Jenny Batten). The two have a friendly reunion and things appear to be looking up for Zøg when she tells him that she has a secret. It turns out that Zøg and Ursula have a son together, whom Zøg semi-affectionately calls "Bear Boy." After Ursula falls to what sure looks like certain death, (though with this show anything is possible), Zøg takes Bear Boy back to his castle to try and do a better job parenting his youngest. He forces the bear-hybrid to share a bed with his middle child, Derek (MacNeille), which introduces instant sibling rivalry and causes a lot of problems. Though Zøg is a pretty terrible father, he's really trying and has been trying to be better to Bean and Derek for a while now. Imagine fathering a bucktoothed badass like Bean, a whiny underwater wimp like Derek, and a freaking bear kid. At least he's trying, which is more than can be said for Bean's mom Queen Dagmar. Derek's mom is a busy pirate queen now, but even she shows up to help out mid-season. If there's one certainty in Part 4, it's that Dagmar is a royal pain. 

What Happened In Hell?

Speaking of Dagmar — it turns out that she arranged some kind of marriage between the Queen of Dreamland and the Devil, and she drags Bean down to Hell for the world's warmest wedding. Bean manages to use a bit of quick-moving (and quick-thinking) to marry her mother to the Devil instead, slicing Dagmar's hand and putting it on the scroll to seal the deal before mommy dearest can stop her. This turns Dagmar into the Queen of Hell, a role she both deserves and seems to delight in once she realizes the potential to torture her poor daughter even more. 

Bean tries to use reverse-psychology on the Devil prior to their wedding and he actually becomes a bit intimidated by her. It turns out that she learned from the best: her mother. The next time we see Satan, he's practically begging Bean to help him figure out a way to get away from his new wife. "I don't think I can survive an eternity married to your mother," he tells Bean, and as weird as it is to think of Dagmar as scarier than the devil himself, she's proven herself to be truly terrible. She even pushes an unconscious Bean over the castle balcony and leaves her for dead at the end of the season, taking Bad Bean's severed head with which to create some kind of Bean puppet or disguise. Wait, I've gotten ahead of myself, haven't I? At the end of the season, Bean does battle with a "bad" version of herself that's been living inside her head, and Bad Bean makes it out into the real world through some wacky Dreamland magic. The doppelganger goofiness is both a lot of fun and a great metaphor for Bean's journey throughout the series as she's overcome her greatest enemy: herself.

So There's Two Beans Now?

Well, not exactly. Bad Bean existed because of her mother's machinations, and that version of her had the screws installed in her head for the ridiculous crown that Bean is cursed to wear as the bringer of the apocalypse, as foretold by Dagmar. Bean doesn't want any of that, and she certainly doesn't share her alternate self's desire to destroy Dreamland, so she cuts off Bad Bean's head with a clean sweep of her sword. The real problem comes when Dagmar arrives on the elevator from Hell, hoping to be meeting Bad Bean for a celebration. As much as our hero tries to pretend to be her evil twin, she fails, and Dagmar ends up chucking her unconscious body into the ocean. It turns out that with Tiabeanie, like the Highlander, there can only be one. 

At the beginning of "Disenchantment," Princess Bean was selfish, boorish, and contributed very little to anything other than the royal family's bar tab. Through her friendships with Luci and Elfo, and her increased closeness to her father, she has started becoming a better person and a better ruler. She even found love this season in the form of a mermaid that may or may not have kissed her father once. Bad Bean tries to break her better self down by explaining all of the things that Bean has done to hold herself back, and instead of tearing her down, it lifts her up. Bean can still be a messy, troubled person, but she's stopped trying to be apathetic and cool and has started really caring, making her a better Bean, and one capable of defeating her own doppelganger. 

Is Everyone Going To Be Okay?

A lot of big events happen in "Disenchantment" Part 4, and the finale ends on a whole slew of cliffhangers. We know that Bean's not dead, as she falls into the arms of her mermaid romantic interest and they kiss, but just about everything else is left up in the air. Bean's brothers, father, and a few other unusual residents of Dreamland are being held captive in a freak show in Steamland after being kidnapped near the end of the season; Luci and Elfo don't know that Bean even fell; and now Dagmar's back with the Devil in tow! Things aren't looking great for Dreamland, but as long as Bean, Elfo, and Luci can stick together and use their special brand of friendship, maybe things will turn out okay in the end. Part 5 of "Disenchantment" has yet to be officially announced, but if the series does well over the next few weeks we should see a renewal. After all, leaving us all in suspense over these lovable weirdos forever would just be cruel. 

"Disenchantment" part 4 is streaming exclusively on Netflix. 

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(Welcome to Survey Says, a feature where we conduct a movie-related survey for a random group of people and explain why they're completely right, completely wrong, or somewhere in-between.)

Hey, all you groovy guys, gals, and binary-busting babes, it's time to take a look at another small-sample survey to see what folks think about pop culture. For this edition, we asked 573 people in the United States which Netflix series they thought was cancelled too soon. The streaming titan has a habit of dropping tons of original series only to cancel them if the immediate response is anything other than outstanding, so our voters had plenty of shows to choose from. 

For this assessment, voters were allowed to choose from the following: the ill-fated live-action "Cowboy Bebop," Baz Luhrman's musical 1970's drama "The Get Down," the 90's flavored teen coming-of-age comedy "Everything Sucks," the post-apocalyptic action-comedy "Daybreak," the superhero dark comedy "I Am Not Okay With This," the sci-fi Mars colony drama "Away," and Sherlock Holmes supernatural series "The Irregulars." All were cancelled after only one season, and some have small but dedicated fan-bases, so there's really no telling who folks will pull hardest for. Will teenage angst beat out historical fiction? Did people really hate "Cowboy Bebop" as much as social media would lead us to believe? What the heck is "Daybreak," anyway?

Check out the results below!

See Ya, Space Cowboy

It turns out that about 18% of the people we surveyed are in the same boat as I am and are super bummed out that "Cowboy Bebop" was cancelled. While the first season had its flaws, it was ambitious and featured killer chemistry from its main cast, who deserved a chance to goof around in space for at least one more season. Maybe I'm just extra bitter because my favorite episode of the anime is in the second season, and I just wanted to see John Cho and co. re-enact "Mushroom Samba." To use the titles of the other shows to explain my feelings, I am not okay with this, and everything sucks. (Okay, that's a bit hyperbolic, but you can't blame me for trying.) 

Both of those teenage-based series got quite a few votes as well, with "I Am Not Okay With This" grabbing just over 17% of votes, and "Everything Sucks" sliding in close behind with 16%. "The Irregulars" also vies for the top spot, with around 17% of votes as well. "Daybreak," which I had never heard of before today and is apparently a high school post-apocalyptic dramedy, came in behind these with 14% of votes. Each had a different take on adolescence and/or young adulthood, but apparently none of them was unique enough to catch major audience attention. 

Rounding out the bottom are "The Get Down" with 8% of votes and "Away" with 7%. "The Get Down" was incredibly expensive, which explains Netflix's decision to cancel, while "Away" suffered from a similar case of big budget and small viewership. 

Here's hoping that Netflix learns a lesson and stops going all-in with huge, big-budget series when there are plenty of smaller stories that could have bigger returns. Except for "Cowboy Bebop," which I do want back. Oh well, at least we'll always have New Tijuana. 

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The post 18% of Fans Said This Netflix Original Show Was Canceled Way Too Soon appeared first on /Film.

Improvisational comedy in film can be an incredibly tricky tactic to use. If the film is built around improv, such as the entirely improvised mockumentaries from Christopher Guest, they can create bizarre, wholly unique, hilarious moments that may never have made it into a script, and here we are thinking about them decades later. At the height of Judd Apatow-produced comedies, improv could incite plenty of laughs but also make the film come to a screeching halt, spending endless minutes on riffs that would go nowhere and would not serve the story in any way. If the film is not entirely constructed around improv, you better make sure the people involved have complete awareness of the film's characters for it to actually create lasting, impactful comedy. In recent years, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay were one of the few consistently successful people who could implement improvisation in a natural way, making their creative split even more sad.

Being able to come up with a line as funny as one written by one of the greatest comedy writers of the last 50 years is an even tougher task. Nora Ephron's Oscar nominated screenplay for "When Harry Met Sally ... " (don't forget that ellipsis) still reigns as one of the finest entries in the romantic comedy genre. It is filled to the brim with iconic joke after iconic joke, and for me, it is an annual New Year's Eve rewatch. So someone else coming in to do some of their own punch up work on that script has a lot to live up to. As it turns out, the signature joke from "When Harry Met Sally ... " was not just an improvised line but a result of a beautiful collaboration between artists to create one of the most indelible comedy moments in cinema history.

"I'll Have What She's Having"

Chances are strong that the first scene you think about in the story of Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan) takes place in Katz's Deli, where Sally informs Harry that all women have faked orgasms during sex and openly demonstrates what that looks like in front of all the patrons. Over 30 years later, the scene is still gobsmacking in its boldness. But the key to the scene comes from the button, when we cut to an older woman in the deli who says to a waiter, "I'll have what she's having." It is the perfect cherry on top on the sundae, and every time it makes you laugh so hard that you miss what happens at the beginning of the next scene. This perfect line was not in Nora Ephron's screenplay but improvised by Billy Crystal. That being said, a lot of decisions had to be made in order to create the right circumstance for Crystal to be able to come up with that scene capper.

According to the commentary with director Rob Reiner, Nora Ephron, and Billy Crystal, the origins of that scene came during the development stages of the screenplay because they needed a scene where Harry learned something about women that men didn't know. Ephron suggested the notion that women fake orgasms. Reiner did not believe that this happened and ended up asking all the women in the Castle Rock production company office if it was true, which of course it was. This was probably a flagrant human resources violation, but it happened. When reading and rehearsing the screenplay, it was Meg Ryan who suggested that the conversation happen in a public place and that she demonstrate a faked orgasm. It was then that Crystal came up with the famous line, and Rob Reiner knew exactly who should deliver it: his mother Estelle Reiner.

Watching the film, this scene feels as natural and easy as a cinematic moment could feel. It is the only way that scene could have been made. You have no idea how much thought and collaboration between people had to occur in order for you to uproariously laugh the way you did. The Katz's Deli scene perfectly demonstrate how no film is just the product of one person. Peopll looking to achieve the same artistic goal, who listen and react to one another with an open mind, make the best films. You cannot attribute the success of that scene to only the director, writer or even the star who came up with that memorable line. Everyone involved is responsible.

Too Much Pepper On My Paprikash

"I'll have what she's having," is nowhere near the only improvised moment in the film. One of my favorites is a scene between Harry and Sally at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in which Harry begins using a funny voice to talk with Sally, saying things like "Waiter, there is too much pepper on my paprikash." Crystal and Reiner wanted to implement the idea that couples sometimes have a weird voice they use to talk to each other sometimes. They purposefully did not tell Meg Ryan that Crystal was going to use this voice and say a bunch of weird things. She just had to lock in and improvise the scene along with him. There is even an instant, which you can see above, where Ryan looks off camera to Rob Reiner for a brief second to see if she is supposed to be going along with it. It is such a genuine moment between these two characters, created by actors who know those people inside and out, who can play any situation they are put in perfectly.

Way more of the film is improvised than you would think, including the tremendous "baby fish mouth" game of Pictionary. What makes this improv work so well is no one is improvising for the sake of showing off. Every moment created on the spot comes from enhancing what is already on the page. Nora Ephron's screenplay is already filled with a ton of jokes, but more importantly, she writes fully realized characters with inner lives that can exist in the world when they aren't on camera. You need that kind of structure and grounding to make improvisation effective, and "When Harry Met Sally ... " finds the exact right way to mix written and improvised jokes to create what truly is one of the greatest comedies of all time.

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The post The Major Line in When Harry Met Sally You Probably Didn't Know Was Improvised appeared first on /Film.