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Benedict Cumberbatch is easily one of the most popular actors working today. He's also quickly become one of the best. Cumberbatch has appeared in some of the biggest franchises in film history, and he's also an award-winning television and theater actor. Many viewers worldwide were first introduced to Cumberbatch thanks to his reinvention of Arthur Conan Doyle's classic detective in the acclaimed BBC series "Sherlock." 

Cumberbatch had a huge year in 2021, starring in five films including "Spider-Man: No Way Home," the highest-grossing film of the year,  and the top awards contender "The Power of the Dog." This diversity of projects speaks to Cumberbatch's reach. He's truly mastered multiple genres and appeals to fans and critics alike with his meticulous performances. Regardless of how much screen time Cumberbatch has, it's impossible to forget his roles. He's virtually guaranteed to see similar acclaim in 2022 when he reprises his role as the Sorcerer Supreme in the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel "Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness." 

Here are the top fifteen greatest Benedict Cumberbatch movies, ranked.

The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug

While it took the trilogy a while to get there, the eventual reveal of the dragon Smaug in 2013's "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" was well worth the wait. Smaug is only teased in the first film, "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey." Still, the dwarves know the challenging task of retaking their homeland will involve a battle with the fire-breathing beast. Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) is finally introduced to his main task when he infiltrates Smaug's lair. However, the sleeping serpent is far from what he imagined.

As the voice of Smaug, Benedict Cumberbatch does a brilliant job capturing the dragon's intelligence while tormenting Bilbo. He deceives Bilbo into a conversation by masking his suspicions, toying with the fragile Hobbit as they play mind games. Cumberbatch does a great job utilizing motion-capture technology to craft Smaug's body language, and his bellowing voice rattles the scenery. Smaug's conversation with Bilbo is the highlight of the trilogy.

War Horse

Steven Spielberg's charming epic "War Horse" captures the magic of the acclaimed stage play on which it's based through the gripping power of dramatic scenery and massive historical recreations. The film tells the amazing story of a horse named Joey who is raised by a sensitive boy named Albert Narracott (Jeremy Irvine) during the lead-up to World War I. Albert becomes heartbroken when Joey is sold to Captain James Nicholls (Tom Hiddleston) and forced to join the war effort.

Nicholls serves under Benedict Cumberbatch's character Major Jamie Stewart, who is initially skeptical of both his companion and his new horse. After challenging Nicholls to a race, he realizes he's underestimated them both and shows them more respect. Although he and Nicholls have their disagreements, they serve valiantly together during a critical battle. The battle sequence is thrilling as they work together but ends on a tragic note when the Germans claim victory and take Joey away.

The Current War

There's a fascinating story behind the release of the historical thriller "The Current War." The film initially debuted to mixed reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival. However, that print was eventually revealed to be an incomplete version that director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon was forced to premiere. With the film's release in question, it sat on the shelf for two years. "The Current War" eventually hit theaters as Gomez-Rejon's director's cut, and It's a terrific look at the behind-the-scenes conflicts in the development of 19th century technology.

Benedict Cumberbatch is simply phenomenal as the legendary Thomas Edison, giving insights into how the famed inventor developed his innovations in electricity as safer and more practical alternatives to the gas industry. Edison's rise to prominence is questioned by the gas titan George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) who sees Edison's inventions as fads. Their rivalry turns the story into an exciting battle of wits.

Star Trek Into Darkness

"Star Trek Into Darkness" is perhaps the most controversial film in the franchise due to the parallels that it draws to the beloved 1982 classic "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." Several scenes are recreated beat for beat with slightly adjusted dialogue. While the storylines are very different overall, "Into Darkness" did introduce a new version of Khan portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch. Regardless of sentiment about the creative decisions that went into the film, Benedict Cumberbatch delivers a strong take on the iconic villain that examines both Khan's empathy and ruthlessness.

Under the codename John Harrison, Khan commits a terrorist act and becomes the subject of a manhunt by the crew of the Enterprise. When he's captured on the Klingon homeworld, Kirk (Chris Pine) questions Khan. In an emotional scene, Cumberbatch reveals that he's a superpowered being who is trying to save his crew. Khan was forced to make weapons for Starfleet General Marcus (Peter Weller).

Black Mass

As Johnny Depp turned to makeup-heavy roles in the 2000s, his performances began to slip. However, he returned to form in 2015's "Black Mass" as notorious gangster Whitey Bulger. Director Scott Cooper establishes an old-fashioned mob movie tone and employs an excellent cast to portray the real-life figures. In the film, Bulger begins a partnership with the FBI agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton). Connolly eventually ropes in Bulger's brother Billy (Benedict Cumberbatch), a leading politician who has recently become the Massachusetts Senate President.

Cumberbatch (who speaks with a surprisingly strong Irish accent in the film) crafts a complex portrayal of a shady politician. He dismisses his brother's criminal activities with willful ignorance and attempts to mask his involvement with anything explicitly illegal. Cumberbatch helps to craft an interesting portrayal of familial relationships and the bonds that siblings feel. The death of the Bulgers' mother packs a surprising emotional punch and shows a softer side to these dangerous men.

The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain

One of Benedict Cumberbatch's greatest abilities is his ability to make oddball characters relatable. It's a particularly effective skill when spotlighting underrepresented figures from history. In "The Electrical Life of Louis Wain," Cumberbatch delivers a dynamic performance as artist Louis Wain. Wain is a journalist for The Illustrated London News under the editor Sir William Ingram (Toby Jones) but struggles to meet financial demands while supporting his five sisters.

Wain begins an unusual artistic pursuit: painting extravagant pictures of cats. The idea of raising a cat as a pet isn't a common practice in 1880s England, but Wain has a fondness for his feline friends  — his art reflects the happiness they bring him. Wain's endeavors cause his community to consider him an outcast, but he's supported by his wife Emily Richardson (Claire Foy). There's humor in how Wain befriends cats, but the film earnestly shows the beauty of his work.

The Courier

Benedict Cumberbatch has rarely been more likable than he is in Dominic Cooke's old-fashioned spy thriller, "The Courier." A mix of author John le Carré's Cold War politics and Alfred Hitchcock's penchant for placing regular people in incredible situations, "The Courier" tells the amazing true story of British businessman Greville Wynne (Cumberbatch). Wynne is a family man who loves his wife Sheila (Jessie Buckley). In an unlikely turn of events, he's courted by CIA officer Helen Talbot (Rachel Brosnahan) to negotiate with Soviet informant Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze).

"The Courier's" early scenes are surprisingly humorous. Wynne has no experience in espionage and is awkward performing the duties of a spy. His infiltration of a volatile international situation is thrilling as he adjusts to his duties and is tasked with the responsibility of preventing nuclear conflict. However, the story takes a dark turn when Wynne is targeted by his own government and imprisoned.

Doctor Strange

By 2016, The Marvel Cinematic Universe was in full swing with audiences already accustomed to the regular team of Avengers. In the MCU's leadup to the massive "Infinity War" and "Endgame" crossover events, new characters needed to be introduced to fill out the team. Backtracking to do another origin story could have seemed simply obligatory and slowed down the story's momentum, but Scott Derrickson's vision of Doctor Strange provided an exciting introduction to magic in the MCU. The 2016 film rested on the brilliance of casting Benedict Cumberbatch as the titular hero, surgeon Steven Strange.

"Doctor Strange" is a great execution of a hero's journey in which the central character isn't particularly likable  — Strange is arrogant. When a debilitating car accident robs him of his skill as a surgeon, he desperately seeks a cure. Failed by traditional medicine, he travels to the Far East to seek the guidance of the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton). He realizes his destiny is greater than just regaining the use of his hands and begins learning the ways of the mystical arts.

Cumberbatch makes the training sequences engaging as he puts Strange's inherent research abilities to good use. He also grows into a more empathetic man. There's a beautiful moment towards the end when he and the Ancient One reflect on the fleeting nature of reality and how it gives life meaning. Cumberbatch also has great chemistry with fellow wizard Wong (Benedict Wong).

The Mauritanian

While many films centered around the aftermath of 9/11 are simplistic celebrations of patriotism that don't consider nuanced political context, "The Mauritanian" is a strong historical biopic that appeals to an international perspective. Based on a true story, the film follows a Mauritanian man named Mohamedou Ould Slahi (Tahar Rahim) who is accused of being one of the orchestrators of the terrorist attack. Slahi is imprisoned without being charged with a crime. Defense lawyer Nancy Hollander (Jodie Foster) and her assistant Teri Duncan (Shailene Woodley) take his case. As they listen to his story, they realize his innocence.

Benedict Cumberbatch gives a brilliant performance as Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Couch, a character who at first glance might appear to be the story's antagonist. Stuart lost many friends during 9/11, and he's given the task of investigating Slahi. Stuart is determined to convict Slahi, but after conversations with Hollander and Duncan, he realizes that he wasn't given all the facts. Stuart is a patriot and believes that justice cannot be served unless all the evidence is in. He begins to look deeper into the case and realizes that his supervising officers have hidden critical details from his division. Stuart reassesses his ideals when he finds himself at the center of a conspiracy. Eventually, he joins Hollander in Slahi's defense.

Atonement

Ian McEwen's classic novel "Atonement" is a beautiful (yet infuriating) romantic story of a relationship doomed to tragedy. Joe Wright's 2007 adaptation of the novel is just as gorgeously shot and tragically depicted as the material deserved. Set in the British countryside just before the Second World War, the story centers around the wealthy Tallis family. Young housekeeper Robbie Turner (James McAvoy) falls in love with Cecilia Tallis (Keira Knightley), and they begin a passionate affair. Unfortunately, Robbie is soon falsely accused of sexual assault by Cecilia's jealous younger sister Brion (Saoirse Ronan).

It's not revealed until the film's conclusion that Brion's misinterpretation of the crime was caused by the conniving Paul Marshall (Benedict Cumberbatch), a wealthy friend of the Tallis family. Marshall assaulted Cecilia's cousin, Lola Quincey (Juno Temple) years before. Hiding his crime, he lets Robbie take the fall for his latest attack. Cumberbatch makes a compelling villain.

1917

Sam Mendes's World War I epic "1917" captures the gripping nature of combat and realistically depicts the war through the eyes of soldiers of different ranks. The film is centered around two young infantrymen, Lance Corporals William Schofield (George McKay) and Thomas Blake (George MacKay). In the film, Schofield and Blake are assigned a critical mission to go behind enemy lines by their superior officer, General Erinmore (Colin Firth). They soon discover that a  secret German invasion could potentially devastate half of the British Army and cripple the war effort. In order to prevent the loss of life, the pair must deliver the message to Lieutenant Colonel Mackenzie (Benedict Cumberbatch).

Reaching Mackenzie is the goal of their mission, and Cumberbatch's appearance during the film's most exciting sequence immediately establishes the gravity of the situation. Mackenzie is a long-time commanding officer who wants to see a quick resolution to the conflict, and Cumberbatch perfectly embodies the spirit of the character. Still, he is skeptical of Schofield's insistence that he must halt his assault. However, when he realizes what the Germans are planning, he immediately begins to fix the situation and change his frontline strategy.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Acclaimed spy novelist John le Carré was renowned for crafting complex narratives of intrigue and suspense that integrated realistic depictions of espionage, politics, and war. Le Carré 's 1974 novel "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" was his masterpiece. The highly complex material made any potential adaptation a challenge, but director Tomas Alfredson honored the source material with his masterful 2011 film.

"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" features a massive ensemble of beloved British actors. Still, Benedict Cumberbatch manages to stand out as a highlight. He co-stars as Peter Guillam, a low-ranking British intelligence officer who becomes a close ally of main character George Smiley (Gary Oldman). Smiley is brought out of retirement by a spymaster known only as "Control" (John Hurt). Tasked with finding a mole that has been feeding classified secrets to the Soviet Union, Control gives Smiley four codenames of top agents to investigate: "Tinker" Percy Alleline (Toby Jones), "Tailor" Bill Haydon (Colin Firth), "Soldier" Roy Bland (Ciarán Hinds), and "Spy" Toby Esterhase (David Dencik). Knowing few people he can trust, Smiley gives Guillam a dangerous assignment to steal a logbook.

12 Years A Slave

Steven McQueen's 2013 historical biopic "12 Years a Slave" is a 21st century masterpiece. Rather than attempting to encapsulate the entirety of slavery into a single story, the film focuses on the reflections of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free man who is kidnapped and sold into slavery at a plantation in Louisiana. Tackling important subject matter doesn't necessarily make a film an instant classic, but McQueen's film is a finely crafted work that allows the audience to witness Solomon's torment.

The film makes use of an excellent ensemble, and Benedict Cumberbatch plays a particularly critical character. He appears as plantation owner William Ford who purchases Solomon from slave catcher Theophilus Freeman (Paul Giamatti). Ford is interested in Solomon's musical talents and gives him a violin to practice with. Cumberbatch expertly meets the challenge of depicting the deceptive kindness that Ford shows to Solomon. Although he appears to be fond of Solomon, Ford is still an oppressor who holds sinister beliefs and is indifferent to the suffering of enslaved people.

The Imitation Game

The 2014 biopic "The Imitation Game" is an ambitious historical epic. The film is set during the most grueling campaigns of World War II in which the British Army was desperate to stop the advance of the Nazis by using codebreakers to intercept and transcribe secret messages. Cumberbatch stars as Alan Turing, the brilliant mathematician who developed a computation machine that became a forerunner of the modern computer. A brilliant man who deserves to be remembered for his pivotal role in helping defeat the Nazis, Turing's life nonetheless ended in tragedy. Tormented and ostracized from the country he saved because he was a gay man, Turing died by suicide less than a decade after the end of the war.

It's an important story, and Cumberbatch delivers a powerful performance that captures Turing's heroism, extreme intelligence, and heartbreaking final days. Despite the tragic ending, "The Imitation Game" is very entertaining thanks to its exciting depiction of the process of codebreaking. Cumberbatch shows how Turing's fascination with puzzles drives him to develop the device that helped turn the tide of the war.

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

The Power Of The Dog

Jane Campion's modern masterpiece "The Power of the Dog" is a slowly-paced, deconstructive take on the American Western that steadily reveals itself to be a grippingly beautiful and tragic tale of masculinity. Benedict Cumberbatch gives the most complex and heartbreaking (and nearly unrecognizable) performance of his career). He makes a bold choice in playing the character of Phil Burbank from Thomas Savage's novel of the same name as a brutal and cruel man. Cumberbatch makes the viewer despise him and then has the nearly impossible task of peeling back the layers and finding something relatable within him.

Set in the farmlands of Montana in 1925, "The Power of the Dog" follows Phil as he heads a team of cowboys on his family's ranch. Phil's reclusive behavior makes it difficult for his brother George (Jesse Plemons) to relate to him. Nevertheless, the friendlier man looks up to him. As George grows romantically involved with waitress Rose Gordon (Kirsten Dunst), Phil mocks his romantic yearnings and takes pleasure in tormenting Rose. When George marries Rose, Phil finds a new target for his insults — Rose's adolescent son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee).

Peter's lack of ranching experience and soft nature make him an easy target, but Phil soon discovers something in the young man that he's fond of — even if he can't understand it. Phil takes Peter under his wing and becomes a father figure to him.

Read this next: The 14 Best Val Kilmer Movies Ranked

The post The Top 15 Best Benedict Cumberbatch Movies Ranked appeared first on /Film.

Amazon Prime started out as a subscription for free shipping for online orders, but over the years has expanded into other benefits and categories, like extra features on Twitch and Prime Video. The ever-increasing benefits in turn has helped Amazon justify increased prices for Prime, and now the service is becoming more expensive yet again.

Amazon revealed in its Q4 earnings report (via The Verge and Variety) on Thursday that Prime’s price will soon be increased from $119/year to $139/yr, and for people who pay monthly, it will go from $12.99/month to $14.199/mo. The price hike will go into effect for new signups on February 18, and existing customers will see the increased price after March 25.

The company said on Thursday that the price increase is due to “the continued expansion of Prime member benefits as well as the rise in wages and transportation costs.” The last price hike for Prime was back in April 2018, and before that, the price was raised to $99/yr in 2014. Amazon Prime’s original yearly cost was $75/yr.

Amazon also revealed other information in its latest earnings report, such as a 9% increase in net sales for Q4 2021 ($137.4 billion). The company’s stock price jumped to a high of $2,884,95 in after-hours trading, as analyst predictions for the past quarter were more conservative than Amazon’s actual results. The profits were boosted by Amazon’s 20% stake in the electric car company Rivian, and Amazon ordered 100,000 electric vehicles from the company for its own package deliveries.

The news comes ones day after Amazon workers at a warehouse in New York’s Staten Island filed a petition to form a union, while another union vote is the works at a warehouse facility in Alabama. The latter vote was ordered by the National Labor Relations Board, after the group found Amazon improperly interfered in the first election from April 2021.

The post Amazon Prime’s price is increasing again, because Jeff Bezos needs more money appeared first on xda-developers.

The e-commerce giant hopes investments like Thursday Night Football will keep the service attractive.

Trying to follow Star Citizen’s development roadmap often feels like a game in and of itself, as it goes far beyond the usual vague list of promises, offering a sprawling, interactive system that track where features are in development and when they’ll potentially be delivered. I guess the idea was that providing more information would reduce questions from fans, but of course it’s only made things more contentious, and it seems developer Cloud Imperium Games is tired of playing this particular game.

In the past, Cloud Imperium offered a full year of tentative release dates for features, which players understandably saw as promises of a sort, leading a “very loud contingent” to get angry when said features were pushed back. Cloud Imperium’s solution to this? Simply provide less information for players to get upset about. While the “Progress Tracker” portion of the Star Citizen roadmap will still be fully updated, the Release View section will soon only provide information about the next quarter, not the next full year. People won't complain about missed deadlines if you take away the deadlines, right?

It has become abundantly clear to us that despite our best efforts to communicate the fluidity of development, and how features marked as Tentative should sincerely not be relied upon, the general focus of many of our most passionate players has continued to lead them to interpret anything on the Release View as a promise. We want to acknowledge that not all of you saw it that way – many took our new focus and our words to heart and understood exactly what we tried to convey. But there still remains a very loud contingent of Roadmap watchers who see projections as promises. And their continued noise every time we shift deliverables has become a distraction both internally at CIG and within our community, as well as to prospective Star Citizen fans watching from the sidelines at our Open Development communications.

Rather than continuing to display release projections that carry a high percentage chance of moving (those multiple quarters out), we will no longer show any deliverables in the Release View for any patches beyond the immediate one in the next quarter. Even though we always added a caveat that a card could move, we feel now that it's better to just not put a deliverable on Release View until we can truly commit to it. We’re going to emphasize more strongly than ever that you should focus your attention on our Progress Tracker, which has been our continued goal.

Somehow I don’t think this will resolve the clash between Star Citizen’s devs and players – people are going to remember what you promised, even if you take it off the roadmap. Hopefully, Cloud Imperium begins to deliver features at a faster rate eventually, as they’re setting up a new Manchester headquarters they plan to eventually expand to over 1000 staff. Much of the studio’s efforts are returning to Star Citizen’s celeb-packed single-player mode Squadron 42, but it’s release is likely still a couple of years away.

Star Citizen is available now on PC. The game is currently in alpha, with no firm date on when it will enter beta testing or get a full release.

The post Star Citizen Scales Back its Roadmap Due to Fans’ “Continued Noise” Over Feature Delays by Nathan Birch appeared first on Wccftech.

The PCIe Gen 5 standard is coming with the launch of next-gen graphics cards but it is also fully compatible with existing cards from NVIDIA. In fact, manufacturers of power supplies, such as ASUS, are introducing fresh products furnished with the new next-gen connectors and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 30 Founders Edition lineup looks to be ready.

PCIe Gen 5 power connector adapts to Molex MicroFit 3.0 employed by the NVIDIA RTX 30 series Founders Edition

ASUS revealed its new Thor & Loki PSU series last month which are prepared to be compatible with PCIe Gen5 connections. The new ASUS ROG Thor 1000W Platinum II PSU is equipped with a 12-pin cable that can produce 600W, making it the first power supply unit to offer this power connector.

Andreas Schilling from HardwareLuxx notes that the next-gen connector is compatible with NVIDIA RTX 30 Founders Edition 12-pin cable. The 12-pin cable, also called the “Molex MicroFit 3.0 dual row (12 circuits),” is equal in design and provides identical power wattage. It would stand to believe that  NVIDIA enforced the next-gen connector over a year before the new standard was available.

ASUS revealed the company's newest power supply line with an interesting moniker named "Loki." The Loki power supply units will offer a full execution of the PCIe Gen5 connection technology — a 4-pin set in addition to the current 12 pins. Igor’sLAB notes that the four extra pins are added to help the system perceive the power required for the graphics processor through signal carriers. The utilization of the connector is called “12VHPWR High Power Connector (H+)”.

The MicroFit 16-pin cable, a new cable with a connection that has not seen any utilization on the market, has no compatibility options with current and unreleased graphics cards at this time. VideoCardz notes that naming the "12+4-pin" connector can be confusing to people calling the connection a "16-pin connector." the website feels that the naming of the 12+4-pin cable is also considered the 16-pin.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Founders Edition is compatible with the PCIe 5.0 power connector due to the card not needing to utilize more than the required 450W. The company placed a limit on the card through the S3 signal, or SENSE0, stopping the card from accessing the full 600W by internally grounding the card. If it was not grounded, the power could access the full 600W and possibly damage the card itself.

S1, or "CARD_PWR_STABLE," and S2, also known as "CAR_CBL_PRES," guarantee the connections from the graphics card are correct and that the amount of power produced is appropriately arranged. S4 is the only signal that has yet to be defined by the current PCI-SIG specifications. The other signals — S1, S2, and S4 — are regulated for separate functions.

PCIe 5.0 connectors are warranted 9A (12V), offering a fully current power of 648W, 48W over the official specifications described. Users could speculate that future cards will utilize a single connector in the current triple 12-pin design. It is unknown if the upcoming AMD RDNA3 or NVIDIA Lovelace graphic cards will require stronger power units or continue the PCIe 5.0 capability.

There is word that the new NVIDIA RTX 3090 Ti will be the first card from the company to equip with the PCIe 5.0 connection. EVGA teased their new Kingpin graphics card that does not offer the standard 8-pin connector configuration.

Source: HardwareLuxx, Igor's Lab, VideoCardz

The post NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Founders Edition Graphics Cards Are PCIe Gen 5 Connector Ready by Jason R. Wilson appeared first on Wccftech.

Just when you thought slapping each other in the face was just a game that drunk Russian men played at parties, here comes SLAPFACE. Newly added to Shudder, SLAPFACE is an indie film that will sneak up on you. Is it supernatural? Is it mental? Is it all of the above? The premise sounded interesting, so I figured that I would give it a try and see what it was all about.

SLAPFACE was written and directed by Jeremiah Kipp. It follows the story of Lucas (August Maturo) and his brother Tom (Mike Manning). After their mother died, they are left alone in a run-down house in the woods outside of town. Tom is left to try and take care of loner Lucas. Lucas doesn’t have any friends and the people he hangs out with are the bitchy twins Donna (Bianca D’Ambrosio) and Rose (Chiara D’Ambrosio), who bully him incessantly. Although tagging along with the twins is Moriah (Mirabelle Lee), Lucas’s secret girlfriend who treats him like shit around the twins so she can fit in. Tom gets himself a little girlfriend of his own in Anna (Libe Barer), who sees Lucas and Tom’s situation and genuinely worries about Lucas. She seems to be the only one. Tom is struggling and the town’s sheriff (Dan Hedaya) sees Lucas as a trouble maker.

One day, the twins dare Lucas to go into an old building where a witch is rumored to live. He pretends to be afraid, but when he comes across the actual witch, he wakes up in the woods with no recollection as to how he left the building. Lucas and Tom have this game they play called Slapface where they literally just slap each other as hard as they can. Tom says it’s a release for both of them, but Anna isn’t convinced. When Lucas makes a friendship with the witch, she seems to take care of him, but then the killings begin and she becomes out of control.

Aside from Anna, there really aren’t any likable characters in the entire movie and you just get a knot in your gut for Lucas. It’s like the poor kid never even had a chance. Lucas himself seems so devoid of feelings, it makes you wonder what’s even real in the film. That question will never go away and will never be answered. While SLAPFACE ended leaving me with more questions than answers, the movie still somehow pulls it off.

The cinematography is simple but effective with great environments and lighting. Even though we see the witch and it is similar to that of a Halloween fright mask, because of the concept and story, the weird makeup FX doesn’t take away from the emotions of the story. Maturo did an incredible job as Lucas, showing emotional flexibility as someone devoid of fear and feelings to a face full of tears. The ending is powerful (albeit confusing) and that’s all due to Maturo.

Overall, while SLAPFACE isn’t an incredible psychological horror film, it isn’t a bad way to spend an hour and a half of your time. It may leave you with some unanswered questions, but the confusion can’t outweigh the pull of curiosity as to who the witch is and what is happening to these boys in the woods.

SLAPFACE is now available for viewing on Shudder.

The post [Movie Review] SLAPFACE appeared first on Nightmarish Conjurings.

On Saturday, TikToker Bethany Coker opened her car to find mud caked all over her seat. She was completely baffled. "On today's episode of what the actual fuck," she says in the first video below. "It looks like someone rolled around in fucking mud and got into my car." — Read the rest

AMD's is cooking up a refresh of its RDNA 2 GPUs which will feature three new Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards for the high-end gaming segment.

AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT, RX 6850 XT, RX 6750 XT To Feature 7nm RDNA 2 Refresh GPUs With 18 Gbps Memory

The AMD Radeon RX 6000 graphics cards are rumored to see a new RDNA 2 refresh around mid of 2022 (June-July). So far, the rumors only stated that they will be getting a graphics & memory clock bump but Moore's Law is Dead says that his sources have confirmed that these chips will retain a 7nm process node and won't utilize the newer 6nm RDNA 2 design as featured on the Navi 24 and its several mobile GPU outings.

I can now 100% confirm the upcoming 6950 XT, 6850 XT, and 6750 XT are still on the same 7nm node as their predecessors.

That still leaves room for an above 10% boost when combined with 18Gbps memory, & thus I still expect the 6950 XT to be a far better product than the 3090 Ti.

— Moore's Law Is Dead (@mooreslawisdead) February 3, 2022

MLID also states that the AMD Radeon RX 6000 RDNA 2 refresh graphics cards are called the RX 6950 XT, RX 6850 XT, and RX 6750 XT as of right now (also reported in previous rumors) & these would be the final names unless AMD decides something else.

AMD Radeon RX 6000 XT RDNA 2 Graphics Card Refresh

The AMD Navi 21 and Navi 22 GPUs are the ones that will be refreshed for the upcoming Radeon RX 6X50XT lineup. The AMD Navi 21 GPU currently powers the Radeon RX 6900 XT, RX 6800 XT & RX 6800 while the Navi 22 GPU powers the RX 6700 XT on the desktop platform. So if AMD was to use a similar GPU naming convention as their mobile lineup, then their replacements coming in Q2 2022 are going to be known as the Radeon RX 6950 XT, RX 6850 XT, RX 6750 XT.

From the previous rumor, we came to know that these cards would also feature 18 Gbps GDDR6 memory dies. Currently, all cards except the upcoming RX 6500 XT & the flagship RX 6900 XT LC, features 16 Gbps memory dies. The bump to 18 Gbps might offer higher bandwidth and increase performance by 2-5% but that doesn't indicate a huge difference with the refreshed series. AMD seems to not be considering Navi 23 GPUs for the upgrade as they are more mainstream offerings and were released recently compared to the higher-end variants which have been out for over a year now.

It would've been worthwhile if AMD gave its existing desktop GPUs the 6nm treatment & managed to get more performance efficiency out of them but that clearly isn't happening. It looks like this soft refresh is going to be a very silent release and will only come specifically via AIB cards.

There would also be a small price difference and the TGP numbers are expected to go up slightly with the addition of the faster memory chips. These GPUs will likely compete with Intel's high-end ARC Alchemist GPUs that are launching in a few months.

The following table shows all the RDNA 2 graphics cards that AMD is currently offering:

AMD Radeon RX 6000 'RDNA 2' Desktop Graphics Card Lineup:

Graphics Card Name	GPU Codename	Process Node	Compute Units / Cores	Memory Capacity / Bus	Memory Clock	TGP	Price (MSRP)	Launch
Radeon RX 6950 XT	Navi 21 XTXH?	7nm	80 / 5120	16 GB / 256-bit	18 Gbps	300W?	$999 US?	2022
Radeon RX 6900 XT LC	Navi 21 XTXH	7nm	80 / 5120	16 GB / 256-bit	18 Gbps	330W	$1199 US	July 2021
Radeon RX 6900 XTX	Navi 21 XTXH	7nm	80 / 5120	16 GB / 256-bit	16 Gbps	300W	$999 US	October 2020
Radeon RX 6900 XT	Navi 21 XTX	7nm	80 / 5120	16 GB / 256-bit	16 Gbps	300W	$999 US	October 2020
Radeon RX 6850 XT	Navi 21 XT?	7nm	72 / 4608	16 GB / 256-bit	18 Gbps	300W	$649 US?	2022
Radeon RX 6800 XT	Navi 21 XT	7nm	72 / 4608	16 GB / 256-bit	16 Gbps	300W	$649 US	October 2020
Radeon RX 6850	Navi 21 XL?	7nm	60 / 3840	16 GB / 256-bit	18 Gbps	250W	$579 US?	2022
Radeon RX 6800	Navi 21 XL	7nm	60 / 3840	16 GB / 256-bit	16 Gbps	250W	$579 US	October 2020
Radeon RX 6750 XT	Navi 22 XT	7nm	40 / 2560	12 GB / 192-bit	18 Gbps	230W	$479 US?	2022
Radeon RX 6700 XT	Navi 22 XT	7nm	40 / 2560	12 GB / 192-bit	16 Gbps	230W	$479 US	March 2021
Radeon RX 6600 XT	Navi 23 XT	7nm	32 / 2048	8 GB / 128-bit	16 Gbps	160W	$379 US	July 2021
Radeon RX 6600	Navi 23 XL	7nm	28 / 1792	8 GB / 128-bit	14 Gbps	132W	$329 US	October 2021
Radeon RX 6500 XT	Navi 24 XT	6nm	16 / 1024	4 GB / 64-bit	16 Gbps	107W	$199 US	January 2022
Radeon RX 6500	Navi 24 XL	6nm	12 / 768?	4 GB / 64-bit	16 Gbps?	TBD	$149 US?	2022
Radeon RX 6400	Navi 24 XL	6nm	12 / 768	4 GB / 64-bit	16 Gbps	53W	$139 US?	January 2022

The post AMD RDNA 2 Refresh To Retain 7nm GPUs, Will Feature Radeon RX 6950 XT, RX 6850 XT & RX 6750 XT Graphics Cards With 18 Gbps Memory by Hassan Mujtaba appeared first on Wccftech.

Showtime's surprise smash hit series "Yellowjackets" follows a New Jersey high school women's soccer team in 1996 as they head to the national championships, only to crash land in the remote Canadian wilderness and fight for their survival. While the girls are talented soccer players, they each have to learn how to come to terms with their new roles after the crash and work together to survive.

The series also flashes forward to the remaining survivors 25 years after the crash, resulting in a complicated and fascinating mystery box of past and present. Part sendup of '90s teen movies, part domestic horror, and part psychological thriller and survivor epic, "Yellowjackets" is a gripping show unlike any other with an ensemble cast of incredible women at its center. With so many moving pieces involving a rich company of dynamic characters, we've ranked all of the complex and nuanced "Yellowjackets" main characters from worst to best.

15. Jackie

By virtue of the show's structure and point of view, Jackie's identity is intertwined with Shauna's. Like many of the "Yellowjackets" characters, Jackie (Ella Purnell) fulfills a clear archetype from the beginning of the series. She's seemingly the perfect, popular soccer player, with the perfect, popular boyfriend, Jeff. Before the crash, Jackie's can-do spirit and optimism holds the team together. Though she's a bit rebellious and sardonic, she's largely depicted as straightforwardly sunny, the mediator for every conflict between her friends and teammates. 

However, things change after the crash as Jackie's selfishness comes to the surface. In the midst of a shared trauma, Jackie's nonstop whining and menial contributions to the group's survival efforts quickly cause her teammates to lose respect for her. The shifting dynamics also highlight the underlying lies and tension between Jackie and her loyal best friend, Shauna, for the first time as Jackie discovers Shauna's secret pregnancy and the father of her child. 

To make matters worse, Jackie takes out her frustration with Shauna on innocent victims, spoiling Natalie and Travis's burgeoning romance by doing the same thing to Natalie that Shauna did to her. As the rest of the team becomes more primal, the simmering anger between Jackie and Shauna leads to a fight that would forever change their fates ... while also revealing that Jackie may not have been the perfect best friend she seemed to be.

14. Adam

Adam (Peter Gadiot) meets Shauna after she hits his car, an encounter that should have been the end of their relationship. However, Adam begins to doggedly pursue her, offering to fix her car for free if she'll go to dinner with him. As Shauna becomes more convinced Jeff is having an affair, she becomes more willing to engage in one with Adam. Initially, Adam seems to be an embodiment of every bored housewife's fantasy; he appears to be everything that Jeff isn't, a sophisticated artist with an exciting life who, most importantly, is enthralled with Shauna. 

However, as the affair heats up it becomes clear that Shauna doesn't know as much about Adam as she thinks she does. Worse yet, Adam continues to break boundaries and pressure Shauna, showing up uninvited to her home and risking her family and marriage for his own short-term gain. While Shauna's suspicions don't end up being correct, Adam is still a selfish liar whose intentions were ultimately unclear.

13. Callie

Callie's (Sarah Desjardins) origins are incredibly difficult. Born to teen parents who began their relationship in an affair, it's understandable that Shauna and Jeff's teen daughter would be sulky and spoiled. There is also a lot about Callie that we still don't know (for example, how much of her life she experienced in the wilderness). What we do know about Callie, like many of the other characters, is introduced through Shauna's eyes as a stereotypically ungrateful teenager. 

Interestingly, the more we get to know Callie, the more her perspective is understandable. Her parents are in a rocky place with their marriage (which they don't hide well), and her mother's traumatic past is still very much a part of their present. As Shauna and Callie lead weirdly parallel lives, acting out and partying, Callie expresses a rare moment of empathy towards her mother, hinting at a deeper maturity. It's also clear in that moment that Callie sees much more than Shauna realizes. Yet Callie is one of the rare characters on "Yellowjackets" that feels largely one-dimensional, seemingly focused on partying over everything else.

12. Jessica

Jessica Roberts (Rekha Sharma) is one of the more fascinating and enigmatic characters of the series. Initially introduced as a kind of audience surrogate in the pilot episode, Jessica interviews several people connected to the Yellowjackets before showing up at Shauna's house uninvited to discuss the 25th anniversary of the crash. This incident propels much of the action in the present storyline, as Shauna calls Taissa to have her squash the story. Of course, Taissa doesn't ... as Jessica is, in fact, a private investigator she hired as part of her senate campaign to see if any of the Yellowjackets have talked and are a liability. 

Things only grow more complex for Jessica when Misty (Christina Ricci) calls her to meet up and talk and instead drugs and kidnaps her. As Misty's captor, Jessica has to play a calculated game of chess figuring out how to deploy the information she has and when. Jessica is clearly intelligent and gutsy, but unfortunately for Jessica, she underestimates Misty in multiple ways, leaving her fate up in the air.

11. Jeff

When we first meet Jeff (Jack DePew), he's Jackie's devoted boyfriend and seems to be the perfect high school guy. We don't know much about him beyond that, causing him to be a bit one-note at first ... until he gives Shauna a ride home and we learn the two are having an affair behind Jackie's back. In the present day, Shauna and Jeff (Warren Kole) are married and live with the burden of the past -- including Jackie's ghost -- between them. Jeff is distant, spending every night away from home to go to the store, leading Shauna to believe he's having an affair. While he and Shauna are in couples therapy, through Shauna's eyes, Jeff seems to be disengaged from his own marriage and family. 

As the season goes on, though, flickers of Jeff's personality appear, first when he defends Shauna to Jackie's parents, and later when the truth finally erupts between Shauna and Jeff. Because we know Jeff purely through Shauna's perspective, learning the truth about his affair is a paradigm shift. Jeff isn't a cheater, but simply doing what he can to protect his family, even if those choices are twisted in their own way. Jeff may not be the most effusive or passionate man, but he does stand by Shauna and love her despite all of her baggage and flaws.

10. Kevyn

Unlike many of the other "Yellowjackets" characters, we see more of Kevyn (Alex Wyndham) in the present than the past. As Natalie's loyal best friend who harbors unrequited feelings for her, Kevyn witnesses the abuse and dysfunction in her home when they're young. When they reunite as adults, it's under troubling circumstances: Natalie and Misty have been arrested for breaking and entering into Travis's home and Misty, posing as Natalie, calls Kevyn, now a cop, to bail them out. While Natalie is still hung up on Travis, especially after his apparent suicide, Kevyn is ready and willing to explore a relationship with her as an adult. 

Natalie takes full advantage of Kevyn's kindness, using him to get more information about what happened to Travis with Kevyn falling right into Natalie's trap. Kevyn fits into an archetype, too, of course -- the best friend with an unrequited crush -- and as a result, has to accept Natalie's feelings (or lack thereof) and move on after Natalie crosses a line. Kevyn is not particularly complex, but he is heartbreaking because of the way he treats Natalie (with pure unadulterated understanding and love) and the way she uses him in return.

9. Ben

The only surviving adult, and one of the few surviving men of the crash, the Yellowjackets' coach Ben Scott (Steven Krueger) has a harrowing journey, waking up with a piece of the wing crushing his right leg. After Misty amputates his leg below the knee (without his consent), Coach Ben has to navigate a new relationship with his team, teaching them how to shoot and prepare the animals they kill. However, he also has to deal with an unexpected and uncomfortable crush from Misty, his overeager nurse. 

While Ben initially tries to maintain his teacherly demeanor with the girls, and especially Misty, Ben's role shifts when they realize they aren't getting rescued anytime soon. As the girls grow more powerful after the crash, Ben has to relinquish control and let them take the reins. This allows other dynamics to form, including a surprising friendship with Natalie, who offers a nonjudgmental space for Ben to be himself -- a gay man. After Ben admits the truth to Natalie, including his relationship, he also offers a heartfelt toast to Taissa and Van's own public expression of their love. While Ben's fate is unclear, his commitment to coach the girls in whatever way he can is endearing.

8. Lottie

At the beginning of the series, Lottie (Courtney Eaton) is one of the quieter characters, seeming to fade into the background amidst the more prominent and vocal Yellowjackets. Lottie is primarily framed through her wealth; her father pays for the private plane the team takes to Nationals that leads to their eventual crash. As the season continues, we learn more about Lottie, and her backstory that builds to the mystery about who she really is. 

When the girls are first sorting through the wreckage in the immediate aftermath of the crash, Lottie finds her suitcase including a bottle of pills, presumably some sort of anti-psychotic, with only a few left. We later discover that Lottie has been plagued with seemingly prophetic visions for most of her life. After spending more time in the wilderness and running out of her medication, the visions return with shocking accuracy, terrifying Lottie until Laura Lee baptizes her and reassures her the visions are a gift. 

With renewed self-assurance, Lottie becomes confident in what she sees and believes, spearheading a literal manhunt through the woods. As winter approaches and things take a disastrous turn, Lottie leads the girls with unnerving calm and foresight. Lottie's role in the present is more questionable aside from a brief mention in the finale that links her involvement to the larger puzzle of the season, but her mysterious presence is alluring and frightening.

7. Laura Lee

Like many of the characters in "Yellowjackets," Laura Lee (Jane Widdop) originally appears to be a shallow archetype before the series reveals more under the surface. Unlike the rest of her teammates, Laura Lee is very religious, asking to lead the team in a prayer before a practice scrimmage. Laura Lee's unwavering faith initially makes her a bit naïve, leading her to believe she caused the crash for going against God's will by calling her mother a bad name. 

Yet as the season continues, Laura Lee's resilience is surprising, as she's always aware of the dangers of the situation she and her teammates are in. She also forms a close bond with Lottie, assuring her that her visions are a gift from God through a baptism. When the Yellowjackets find the cabin they set up camp in, they also discover an abandoned airplane. Laura Lee asserts herself then, deciding she can learn how to fly it based on her childhood experiences with her pilot grandfather. 

While Coach Ben and many of the girls try to talk her out of flying the plane, Laura Lee's faith propels her forward. Incredibly, she is actually able to fly -- until the plane explodes mid-air. Laura Lee's final moments are heartbreaking as she makes peace with her death and her purpose, cementing her as a brave and loving character.

6. Travis

Despite being such a large ensemble cast, Yellowjackets largely introduces characters through the perspectives of one of the Yellowjackets, as is the case with Travis and Natalie. Surviving the crash with his younger brother after the horrific death of their father, Travis (Kevin Alves) is introduced as a sullen, grieving teenager with a bucket of daddy issues. As the two best shooters in the group, Travis has to learn how to work with and trust Natalie on their hunting expeditions. 

The first major bonding moment between them occurs when he leads Natalie off course and back to the crash site to collect a ring from his father's corpse. When he can't stomach the job, Natalie does it for him, bringing the two closer together. After that, Travis is more willing to open up to Natalie and the two forge a tender romance that follows them both into the present. While Travis has many insecurities that lead him to make hurtful decisions regarding his relationship with Natalie, Natalie's experience in the present storyline showcase how profound their connection is.

5. Van

The bubbly class clown of the group, Van (Liv Hewson) is easily one of the most likable Yellowjackets. We know little about her life outside of the team, aside from a brief interaction with her mother the morning before the crash. In keeping with the structure of the series, Van is mostly filtered through her relationship with Taissa, a formative first queer love. While the two are not fully out, Taissa especially, Van's attachment to Taissa leads her to make decisions she may not otherwise. 

Van is driven to survive like everyone else, but also because she wants to take Taissa on a real date in New York City when they make it out. When Taissa decides to search for civilization, Van goes with her, even though she doesn't seem to fully agree with the decision. This trust leads to disastrous consequences for Van who is brutally attacked the first night of their quest. While Van is self-conscious after the attack mars her appearance, she still maintains her sarcastic and optimistic demeanor. Van also has an air of mystery, joining Lottie in a conspicuous prayer in the final moments of the season. Van's complicated mystical view of the world and deadpan humor make for a winning and endearing character. 

4. Misty

The Yellowjackets' requisite weird girl, we know little about Misty's (Samantha Hanratty) life before the crash other than that she has a lower social standing than her teammates, getting prank called and bullied by random mean girls. Of course, like her teammates, Misty evolves into a different person after the crash, spurring into action thanks to her Red Cross babysitter training and triaging the aftermath of the crash. While Misty was relegated to the sidelines by her teammates before the crash, they soon find her indispensable to their survival, leading her to make the deadly decision to destroy the emergency beacon from the plane. 

Misty's desperate need to be loved and belong also leads her to attach to Coach Ben, an understandable but embarrassing crush that drives her to make more bad decisions like drugging Ben and the rest of the team with wild mushrooms. Perhaps more than any of the other Yellowjackets, Misty's (Christina Ricc) teenage tendencies follow her into adulthood as a nurse who casually torments her patients and ruthlessly drugs and kidnaps Jessica in an effort to be part of the team. Somehow, despite her behavior, Misty is eminently likable and empathetic because of why she does what she does, in no small part due to her intelligence, grit, and sunny disposition.

3. Natalie

Messy but endlessly empathetic, Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) is the black sheep of the Yellowjackets and her life beyond. A grungy, stoner burnout, Natalie's abusive father and unhappy home life lead her to party with a very different group from her teammates -- like her best friend, the nerdy goth Kevyn (Charlie Wright). As somewhat of an outsider, Nat adopts a wry observant sensibility, generally the only one of the group who can call everyone out in equal turn due to her deep, but hidden, compassion for others. 

This leads to a transformative relationship she begins after the crash with Travis, the son of their coach who died in the crash. Thrust together for hunting expeditions, the two soon bond over their shared traumas and sarcastic demeanors and form a real and deep bond that lasts a lifetime. Like the others, Natalie's (Juliette Lewis) past informs her present, including her habitual substance abuse. In the present, Natalie's addictive personality and desperation to learn what happened to Travis lead her to treat everyone else around her horribly, using Kevyn and Misty to get what she wants. However, Natalie's pain and vulnerability still make her empathetic even as she manipulates and lies.

2. Taissa

Our first introduction to Taissa (Jasmine Savoy Brown) is an unforgettable moment of clarity. When the team is practicing their final scrimmage before Nationals, Taissa's fierce competitiveness boils over as she declares one of the junior varsity players isn't ready for game time. When no one else listens to her, Taissa takes matters into her own hands on the field and injures her during a play. Taissa's same single-minded determination carries through after the crash. While the team sets up camp at an abandoned cabin, Taissa fears that they're giving up hope of ever leaving. Determined to find a chance at rescue, Taissa leads a risky expedition in search of human life, leading to disastrous results that cement the team's need to stay in place.

Taissa's (Tawny Cypress) perseverance and, at times, questionable doggedness persist in the present where she is running for state senate. While Taissa has a picture-perfect family with her wife Simone (Rukiya Bernard) and son Sammy (Aiden Stoxx), the tender threads of her life slowly begin to unravel as the past resurfaces. Taissa's mysterious and creepy sleepwalking habits persist throughout her life even as she disavows any possibility of the supernatural, making her slightly hypocritical and frustrating. However, Taissa is also kind and generous in her relationships with Van and Shauna, the latter of which persists into the present as the two discover they are the only ones who can understand each other's pain.

1. Shauna

With a sprawling ensemble cast like "Yellowjackets," there isn't one main character, but Shauna comes the closest. When we first meet Shauna (Sophie Nélisse), she's introduced almost entirely in relation to Jackie. The two have a strong friendship, but it's clear Shauna also harbors quiet bitterness about the power dynamics between them. After the crash, these resentments are heightened in both directions as Shauna grows into her own person and discovers she's pregnant with Jeff's baby, understandably keeping the secret from Jackie. When Taissa discovers Shauna's secret, she and Shauna grow closer, further driving a wedge between Shauna and her once best friend. 

These dynamics haunt Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) in the present day, where she is married to Jeff and questioning whether he really wants to be with her, or would rather have been with Jackie, leading her to embark on a risky affair with Adam. Shauna is a reclamation of a specific kind of archetype -- the main character's best friend. With so much airtime given to the Jackies of the world, Shauna's voice is refreshingly smart, heartfelt, and incisive and one that television has been missing for far too long.

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The post Every Yellowjackets Main Character, Ranked appeared first on /Film.

In Martin Scorsese's gritty drama "Taxi Driver," Robert De Niro stars as Travis Bickle, an unhinged, insomniac veteran and New York City cab driver. Travis channels his violent urges and obsession with a presidential campaign worker named Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) into a mission to remove the city of its sleaze and corruption, first by saving a twelve-year-old prostitute named Iris (Jodie Foster). 

"Taxi Driver" is a haunting depiction of post-Vietnam isolation and nihilism, but it was met with boos during its screening at the Cannes Film Festival in 1976, and again while receiving the coveted Palme d'Or — "accompanied by a hand-wringing caveat that 'cinema not become a source of hatred,'" The Hollywood Reporter notes. There was so much contention surrounding the film during the festival that "Marty, Bobby and Harvey [Keitel] kind of got stuck at the Hotel du Cap and didn't come out very much," Foster recalls. 

With a radical script from Paul Schrader, Scorsese's unflinching focus on a psychopathic loner and the degradation of New York City during that time period was too much for viewers to handle. His explicit portrayal of Travis' raging vigilantism drew the most controversy.

The Ending Was Too Violent

Travis fulfills his John Wayne rescue fantasy by gunning down Iris' pimp (Harvey Keitel), her client, and a bouncer. Bullets tear through their flesh, blood erupts from their wounds and splatters everywhere. This graphic display of Travis' cold-hearted slaughter drew the most criticism and left viewers "ashen-faced" at Cannes, especially the famous playwright Tennessee Williams, who served as the jury head. "Watching violence on the screen is a brutalizing experience for the spectator. Films should not take a voluptuous pleasure in spilling blood and in lingering on terrible cruelties as though one were at a Roman circus," he said (via THR).

The violence was also too much for the MPAA; in order to receive an R rating instead of an X, Scorsese had to desaturate the color during the shootout sequence to tone down the blood's realism and vibrancy. Scorsese was pleased with the results, but the cinematographer Michael Chapman confessed in a "Taxi Driver" DVD Commentary that he regrets the decision — especially because the original print without the color changes no longer exists. 

The carnage in "Taxi Driver" is somewhat tame by today's standards, but the controversy surrounding it attests to the anxieties of that era. During the 1970s, there was a rise in crime, terrorist attacks, and increased reports of serial killers that put Americans on edge. Throughout the Vietnam War, which ended just a year before the release of "Taxi Driver," the horrors of Vietnam flickered on American television screens every night. The wounds of this violent culture were still too fresh for audiences to easily be able to consume such savage bloodshed on screen. 

Travis Is Seen As A Hero

The ambiguous ending of "Taxi Driver" also drew controversy amongst film critics and audiences. After the shootout, an injured, bloodied Travis sits on Iris' couch and appears to be taking his final breaths. However, a thank you letter from Iris' father explains that Travis survives and is proclaimed a hero by the press and law enforcement. Travis successfully "washed the scum off the streets" and is rewarded for it with renewed attention from Betsy. Both Schrader and Scorsese insist the ending is not a dream and Travis does indeed live, despite the sequence's fantastical feeling. 

When considering the "Taxi Driver" ending as reality, many film critics found it improbable and were disturbed by Travis' victory. "Most crippling is the ending, in which the macho movie cliche of the heroine who returns to the hero once his capacity for purgative violence has been revealed is crossed with the film's vaguest gesture of empathy with Travis," wrote Richard Combs in Monthly Film Bulletin (via Off Screen). Critics such as Combs failed to recognize that Schrader and Scorsese were not celebrating Travis, but commenting on the pervasiveness of crime during that era. In her New Yorker review of "Taxi Driver," Pauline Kael acknowledges the filmmakers' true intentions: 

"This film doesn't operate on the level of moral judgment of what Travis does. Rather, by drawing us into his vortex it makes us understand the psychic discharge of the quiet boys who go berserk. And it's a real slap in the face for us when we see Travis at the end looking pacified. He's got the rage out of his system for the moment at least and he's back at work, picking up passengers in front of St-Regis. It's not that he's cured but that the city is crazier than he is."

Travis exists in a city and a country that is so riddled with violence that even a psychotic gunman can become a national hero. According to Paul Schrader on a DVD commentary, the media's lionization of Travis highlights America's sensationalism of violence and was inspired by Sara Jane Moore — the second woman who tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford — appearing on the cover of Newsweek (via The Take). "Taxi Driver" captured the 1970s zeitgeist with a daring aggression that shocked audiences and still resonates today. 

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The post The Taxi Driver Controversy Explained: How Martin Scorsese's Ultra-Violent Ending Shocked Audiences appeared first on /Film.

A grim, ultraviolent tale set in a dystopian future, "A Clockwork Orange" is one of Stanley Kubrick's most controversial films. Malcolm McDowell gives a spine-tingling performance as Alex DeLarge, a charismatic yet psychopathic delinquent with nefarious, loyal followers called "droogs" who spend their days torturing others for fun. The twisted film was stamped with an X rating and removed from distribution in Britain. "A Clockwork Orange" is based on Anthony Burgess' novel of the same name, which was similarly banned from classrooms and libraries.

One of the film's most notorious and difficult-to-watch scenes occurs during a home invasion where Alex and his droogs violate an elderly writer and his wife. Alex rings their doorbell and pretends that his friend is dying and he needs to ring the ambulance. Although the wife is hesitant to let them in, she acquiesces at her husband's request. Suddenly, the entire group spills inside, their evil infiltrating the peaceful home. One of the droogs picks the woman up and throws her over their shoulder, the other pins the husband down.

While the couple is frozen in fear, Alex — who wears a sinister phallic-shaped nose— frolics around the room and starts to sing "Singin' in the Rain" while he slaps and gags the woman's mouth shut, then kicks husband in the stomach to the rhythm of the joyous tune — maliciously replacing "rain" with "pain."  After trashing the man's office, Alex disrobes and rapes the frightened woman. Kubrick uses a fisheye lens to distort the image of the husband looking on in tears, emphasizing the repulsiveness of the situation and putting the audience in his horrified shoes. It's an absolutely chilling moment — and it was completely improvised by McDowell. McDowell's spontaneous routine would impact the film in substantial ways. 

A Creepy Juxtaposition Of Sound

Since "Singin' in the Rain" was not in the original script, Kubrick had to pay $10,000 to use the song in the scene and the end credits. For 10 days, Kubrick had been grinding his actors to work on the excruciating scene. Kubrick wanted the gang to do something more than simply have them demolish the house, so he asked McDowell to start dancing. It is a testament to McDowell's instincts that he was able to come up with a song that makes the scene even more terrifying than it already is. That Moment In points out how the "innocence of the music paired with the sexualized violence and gleeful delight" is utterly chilling. McDowell describes "Singin' in the Rain" as the "most euphoric song in film history" and its inclusion in the scene "took things into a surreal place" (per The New York Post). 

Gene Kelly's good-natured musical number from one of the most comforting American musicals of all time being used to soundtrack a woman's brutal rape is gut-wrenching. Music paradoxically contradicting what is shown on screen is known as "sound dissonance." Films Fatale describes sound dissonance as "the use of a song or composition that greatly contrasts the visual subject or activity." These moments "creep into your soul, but they also have a rhythmic pulse to them. Often, you'll find it nearly impossible to separate the song from the scene." Other filmmakers would use this technique, such as Quentin Tarantino's "Stuck in the Middle With You" scene in "Reservoir Dogs" and David Fincher's use of "Orinoco Flow" in "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." 

The disharmony between "Singin' in the Rain" and the gang's cruel acts discomforts the audience and amplifies the couple's traumatic experience as their private space is violated by these evil men. The juxtaposition also expresses how Alex causes innocent people's pain for his own selfish enjoyment. 

Gene Kelly's Reaction

Legend has it that Gene Kelly was angry with Stanley Kubrick and Malcolm McDowell for inserting his legendary musical number into such an aberrant scene. He reportedly rebuffed McDowell after a big Hollywood party shortly after the film was released. McDowell told The Hollywood Reporter that after being introduced, Kelly took one look at him and walked off. McDowell was understanding: "He cut me dead. Can you blame the poor man? I took his wonderful moment and completely f***ed with it." But it turns out he was wrong about why Kelly was mad. Decades later, the actor finally learned the truth about Kelly's annoyance:

"I am telling this story to the Academy, and afterward this lady came up and said, 'I'm Gene's widow. Gene wasn't upset with you, Malcolm. He was really upset with Stanley Kubrick because he hadn't been paid.' And I went, 'My God, there's quite a gang of us who haven't been paid!'"

Although it may not have worked out for Gene Kelly, Malcolm McDowell's improvisation on the "A Clockwork Orange" set was a stroke of genius that made cinema history. 

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The post The Clockwork Orange Scene You May Not Have Known Was Improvised appeared first on /Film.

One of the best sci-fi television series recently came to an end, as "The Expanse" aired its sixth and final season starting last year. The series finale, "Babylon's Ashes," was full of the same character-driven stories and realistic space action that made "The Expanse" a hit and ended the series on a high note. Fans were quick to point out that the "Expanse" novels by James S.A. Corey, which form the basis of the series, have three entries that haven't been adapted. This has led to one question: could the series find life elsewhere?

"The Expanse" showrunner Naren Shankar said that the series' future lies in the hands of Alcon Television during an interview with Entertainment Weekly:

 "You know, honestly, that would be more of a question for our studio, for Alcon. They control the property, but what I will say is that there's definitely more to tell and I'm sure Ty and Daniel would say exactly the same thing. But yeah, that's probably about as much as I can say at this point."

Life After Amazon?

One cast member is certainly ready to continue the story of "The Expanse". During a radio interview on EW Live, Dominique Tipper, who plays Naomi Nagata, expressed her hopes that "The Expanse" could find a new home:

"Look, this is the end of the TV show on Amazon ... So we'll just have to see what happens."

It wouldn't be the first time "The Expanse" moved from one home to another. The series originally began life on the Syfy network before it was cancelled after its third season -- joining other Syfy shows like "Deadly Class" and "Krypton" that were cut down in their prime. After a lengthy fan campaign, Amazon Prime Video picked up the show in 2018 for the final three seasons. Should Alcon Television choose to continue "The Expanse," there are plenty of streaming services where the show could land. Perhaps HBO Max could prove to be viable since Warner Bros. holds the rights to "Blade Runner," another Alcon production? Stay tuned.

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The post Is Season 6 Really the End for The Expanse? appeared first on /Film.

"Is that Sebastian Stan's actual penis" is the phrase I typed into Google shortly after watching episode two of Hulu's "Pam & Tommy" series. This purely scientific inquiry yielded interesting information about how the massive talking penis (voiced by Jason Mantzoukas) is:

1. Not Sebatsian Stan's actual penis

2. A prosthetic that required the skillful efforts of SFX artists and puppeteers to bring to life

In addition to the impressive work that went toward making sure we got to see Stan's Tommy Lee have an extended heart-to-heart with his genitals, there was also a considerable amount of effort put into completely transforming Stan and Lily James into one of the most infamous couples of the '90s.

The Bare Facts On The Talking C***

The idea for the surreal scene actually came from Lee's own memoir, "Tommyland," in which his penis is featured an actual character. Showrunner Rob Siegel was very clear in stating that the surprising (cast)member featured in the second episode of "Pam & Tommy" was not real, saying, "That's not actually Sebastian Stan's d*** [...] It's a puppet, it's like Yoda." Specifically, the penis puppet is an animatronic prosthetic created by special effects company Autonomous FX, and operated by SFX artists Mike McCarty and Dave Snyder. 

Jason Collins, an SFX makeup artist for "Pam & Tommy" went into detail about the process of creating it in an an interview with GQ:

"It was made from silicone and involved lifecasting Sebastian so that we could then sculpt the appropriate size and blend points. Once we were done sculpting, another mould was made and we cast it from a plasticized silicone. The silicone is medical grade and gives the appendage a life-like fleshy quality,"

Considering the fact that the end result was both realistic and hauntingly large, it's clear that the SFX team was meticulous in its attention to detail since it has become a matter of public knowledge that Tommy Lee had a pretty sizable schlong after the unauthorized release of the sex tape he made with his then-wife Pamela Anderson in the '90s. While some CGI was used to help enhance the overall impact of the sentient appendage, the penis puppet was primarily the result of practical effects, which Siegel says was always the goal:

 "From the start, we always wanted it to be an animatronic d***. Most of these sentences have never been uttered. But we had a guy build us an animatronic talking d*** and they strapped it on Sebastian, and I hope to God we got behind-the-scenes footage of that day." 

I also hope they got behind-the-scenes footage of that day, respectfully. 

How Sebastian Became Gross

Sebastian Stan's metamorphosis into a famous douchebag didn't stop at the artful application of a giant talking penis. Getting as close as possible to the notorious Tommy Lee also included having all of the Mötley Crüe drummer's various tattoos applied (and frequently touched up) all over his body, and wearing prosthetic nipples applied with medical grade adhesive so that he could sport the musician's nipple rings without having to have his actual nipples pierced. Speaking from experience, nipple piercings are incredibly painful, so it's very cool that the SFX team found a way to make them look authentic without asking too much of Stan in terms of sacrificing his body for the sake of art and accuracy. The entire process took around three hours -- with 45 minutes of that time being taken up by the nipple application.

Even with the aid of prosthetics, Stan still put his own body through intense physical changes in order to better replicate Lee's look. Rather than wearing a wig, Stan's actual hair was also chemically straightened and dyed in order to match the locks of his real-life counterpart. In an interview with Esquire, Stan also opened up about his adopting an extreme diet and workout routine in order to slim down and maintain the slight physique of a drug-loving rock star. "I basically did a lot of fasting and running on an empty stomach, which was really hard," he admitted, along with saying that he also adopted "a vegan diet, except without the carbohydrates," and that he found the process of changing his dietary habits and physical routine to be "tough."

Further illustrating his commitment to the role, Stan prepared to become Tommy Lee by playing the drums at least three times a week and watching footage of Lee in action in order to nail his signature drumstick twirl. You have to admire his dedication to portraying a scandalous dirtbag -- and I say this not because I have any issues with voracious sexual appetites, recording said appetites, or "rock star" lifestyles, but because Lee was an abusive creep, and I would be remiss if I did not take the opportunity to say so. That said, I think Sebastian Stan somehow still manages to be kind of attractive in the role, despite perfectly emulating the gross, speedo-donning tool that was Tommy Lee of the '90s. Or maybe I'm just thirsty and longing for a new season of "Falcon and the Winter Soldier," trying to fill the Bucky-shaped hole in my heart with a tattoo-clad weirdo.

How Lily Became Pam

In the same way that there was an entire process behind Lee/Stan's talking d***, actress Lily James revealed that a small army was involved in the process of becoming Pamela Anderson. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, James thanked all of the people involved in helping her become completely unrecognizable as the iconic "Baywatch" babe and activist:

"I have to give all the credit to David Williams on the makeup side, and Barry Lee Moe from hair, and the prosthetic team, and my day-to-day makeup artist Abby [Lyle] and Mo [Meinhart], who are the greatest people ever and just so dedicated, so full of love and attention to detail [...] And Kami [Lennox], our costume designer, is out of this world."

As the quote suggests, prosthetics were a key element in James' metamorphosis. The British actress was fitted with a custom chest plate to match Anderson's signature silhouette -- meaning that the perky pair we see in the series are not the result of biology or plastic surgery, but rather a damn good SFX artist. Additionally, James wore a custom forehead prosthetic and dentures in order to better match Anderson's facial features and recreate her smile. According to James, the entire process of hair, make-up, and prosthetic application took a total of four hours before filming, with the end result being a nearly perfect replica of '90s Pam. "I was in the makeup chair at 3:30 a.m., and there would be this four-hour process to get me into the Pamela look," she said. During this time, James would watch interviews with Pamela Anderson in order to study her accent and better prepare for the role, obviously to much success.

Like Stan, James says she also underwent intense physical changes to successfully mimic her half of the infamous celebrity duo: "I worked with this amazing trainer, Matt Bevan, who worked with Daisy Ridley as well. He worked me so hard and I got really fit. I lost a ton of weight." The actress credits both the physical training and the work of the makeup artists in helping her look like a carbon copy of Anderson.

The fact that the incredibly involved and technical transformations of Stan and James into Lee and Anderson end up looking so real and effortless rather than veering into parody is a true testament to the skill and dedication of the costume designer, SFX team, and make-up artists, as well as to the willingness of the actors to become canvases for the sake of entertainment and storytelling.

"Pam & Tommy" is currently streaming on Hulu.

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

The post How Pam & Tommy Used Prosthetics to Transform Lily James and Sebastian Stan (and Sebastian Stan's Package) appeared first on /Film.

It's hard to wrap one's head around the fact that "Home Alone" star Macaulay Culkin is in his 40s. He's done some amazing work since starring in the holiday classic, such as "American Horror Story" and "Party Monster," but "Home Alone" is just one of those things that sticks in the public consciousness and plays every Christmas. Culkin appears to be having an odd time with it as well. Last year, he tweeted about turning 40 and making everyone feel old.

Now he's got a forthcoming documentary series about that very subject called "Macaulay Culkin's Midlife Crisis," according to Variety. The doc comes to us through Lightbox, and it will follow Culkin taking a trip around the world to learn about aging. I, for one, would like to learn about aging from Macaulay Culkin. I would also like to have a couple hours to process that I am not the same age that I was when I first watched "Home Alone." 

"Guys, I'm Eating Junk And Watching Rubbish!"

Jonathan and Sion Chinn, co-founders of Lightbox, said in a statement: 

"Mack remains as iconic, and as loved as ever — a social media sensation, internet entrepreneur and a hard-working member of his pizza-themed Velvet Underground tribute band ... Despite his legendary status, like the rest of us, he's having to confront what it means to be a normal middle-aged guy, with a wife and a new kid who's soon going to be the same age he was when he became a massive global superstar. We are thrilled to be working through our mid-life crises with him on this exciting project!"

Culkin responded with his usual humor, "Wow, Lightbox. Thanks for reminding me I'm in my 40s ... Well, rather than make a big deal about it, I figure we should just make a show about it. Makes sense."

I love this very much. I also love the fake social media fight between Culkin and fellow child star turning adult actor Devon Sawa. It brings me joy. Culkin is also the CEO of the pop culture site and podcast "Bunny Ears." That band they mentioned? It's called Pizza Underground and he is the vocalist. He co-founded it back in 2013, and you can partake in their pizza musicality right here. Otherwise, Culkin recently made a cameo appearance in the Hulu comedy series "Dollface" in the "History Buff" episode.

"Macaulay Culkin's Midlife Crisis" will be executive produced by the Chinns and Emily Gerson Saines. Stay tuned for more.

Read this next: Actors Who Died In 2021

The post Home Alone Star Macaulay Culkin is Making a Midlife Crisis Documentary After Turning 40 appeared first on /Film.

Everyone loves Yoda. Sure, people go ga-ga for Grogu these days, but remember that we were all once calling him "Baby Yoda," because we don't even know their species' name. The original little green guy, voiced by the legendary Frank Oz, has made an appearance in all three of the "Star Wars" trilogies, and is one of the greatest creatures to ever wield the Force. 

During his design phase, however, there was a version of Yoda that wasn't so lovable. In a recently-unearthed interview with creature creator Stuart Freeborn from July 1979, an original prototype puppet of Yoda was revealed, and he's one creepy-looking critter. The video was found and posted by the 70sSciFiBoy YouTube channel, and shows both the animatronic head design we know and love alongside the absolutely grotesque original version. The footage is grainy and the audio a little rough, but it's still a neat, if somewhat unsettling look into the creation of one of pop culture's most popular puppets. 

The Yoda Puppet Of Your Nightmares

I'll admit it right out the gate: puppets kind of freak me out. But the original Yoda puppet depicted above has got to be one of the creepier ones I've ever seen. One eye squints as if he's peering into the future, while the other is wide-open, like he's reading my thoughts. As Freeborn explains the character and the design, he continues moving his hand inside of the puppet's mouth ever-so-slightly, so it looks as if Yoda is sort of chatting along with him. The original concept drawing of Yoda also appears, and thankfully the finished Yoda doesn't look too much like that either. Freeborn calls him an "interesting little character" and a "clever little fellow." He says "he is the Force himself," which is an interesting tidbit for hardcore fans to dig into, but I still can't quite get past the way Yoda 1.0's face looks. It's like a wax figurine of Ed Asner was left to rot in a factory that only made green crayons, and is going to haunt my nightmares. 

"Once he starts talking, you can't stop him," Freeborn says as he continues to move the mouth. The camera zooms, the tiny pink maw continues to flap, and that open eye sears right into your soul. There are plenty of terrifying and adorable creatures in "Star Wars," ranging from the sneaky Jawas to the slug-like Hutts, but Original Yoda might be the most terrifying of them all. Let's hope Grogu never has to see this. 

Read this next: 14 Korean Horror Movies You Need To See

The post Long-Lost Star Wars Interview Reveals a Very Upsetting Early Design for Yoda appeared first on /Film.

343 Industries has released the February 3rd Update for Halo Infinite on all platforms. This patch is around 1.1GB in size and packs a number of multiplayer tweaks and fixes. Going into more details, the February 3rd Update packs multiplayer service improvements for Big Team Battle (BTB). As such, players should find full matches quicker … Continue reading Halo Infinite February 3rd Update released, is 1.1GB in size, full patch notes →

The post Halo Infinite February 3rd Update released, is 1.1GB in size, full patch notes appeared first on DSOGaming.

To make it harder for stalkers to abuse them, Apple included (and has since upgraded) several safety features that will alert someone to the presence of a nearby AirTag that's not their own, including an audible beep. But according to PCMag, one Etsy seller was, up until very recently, selling AirTags with the speaker physically disabled, raising privacy concerns once again. From a report: The AirTag, a small, easy-to-carry device about the size of a quarter, relies on Apple's Find My network which leverages millions of Apple devices to discreetly keep tabs on the location of the trackers and report that information back to each tag's registered user. The general idea behind the AirTag was that users could attach one to their keys, their backpack, or to other valuable items, and be able to quickly locate them if lost. To prevent their misuse, such as using an AirTag to track someone without their knowledge, iOS users would be eventually notified if a tracker registered to someone else was nearby, while Android users would have to rely on an audible beep that would start chirping three days after an AirTag was separated from its owner. The product was ripe for abuse -- a concern we emphasized in our initial review of the AirTags -- and a couple of months after their debut Apple addressed those concerns with promised updates that would see Android users getting similar notifications as iOS users when an AirTag was nearby through a new Tracker Detect app that allowed Android users to more easily spot the devices. And the timeframe for when the trackers would start beeping after being away from its registered owner was shortened to a "random time inside a window that lasts between 8 and 24 hours," according to a CNET report.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Google today announced a new version of Workspace, the company's productivity service that you probably still refer to as G Suite. With the new -- and free -- Google Workspace Essentials plan, Google wants to bring more business users onto the platform by offering them the basic Workspace productivity tools -- with the exception of Gmail. From a report: Until now, in order to use Workspace with a non-Google email address, you had to sign up for the $6/month/user Business Starter account after a 14-day trial. That paid plan is not going away, but all you now need to do is sign up with your work email and you're good to go. No credit card needed. The new free plan is essentially the existing entry-level Business Starter plan, but with a reduced storage quota of 15 GB (down from 30). Otherwise, though, you can use Google Meet with up to 100 users for up to 60 minutes in each call, get access to Spaces for work collaboration and Chat for gossiping about their co-workers. All of the standard tools like Sheets, Slides and Docs are also included, of course. Since you already have an email address from work, though, there's no Gmail included in this edition, which makes sense, given that it would be tough to send out emails with your work address from there, leading to all kinds of confusion.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved legislation that, if passed into law, would force Apple to let users install apps from outside of the App Store. From a report: The bipartisan 21-1 vote is a strong endorsement for the bill from Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal, Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar, Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn and eight other cosponsors, but it still faces a long road to get a vote in the full Senate. The bill seeks to loosen the duopoly that Apple and Alphabet's Google have over mobile app distribution, part of Congress's push to curb the power of U.S. technology giants. "If you're a consumer, what this measure means to you is cheaper prices, more innovation, better products and more consumer safeguards by opening the walled garden so that new entrants are willing and able to compete on values like privacy and children's safety," Blumenthal said during the hearing. Google and Apple "own the rails of the app economy, much as the railroad companies did at the start of the last century." Blumenthal estimated the value of the app store market at about $100 billion a year. The measure, S. 2710, would require Apple to let users install apps on their phones and other devices from sources on the web or alternative app stores, a process that's called sideloading. This provision would most impact Apple. While Google offers its Play Store on mobile devices, it doesn't bar users from downloading Android apps elsewhere. Sideloading, which Apple has said poses security risks for consumers, would allow apps to avoid Apple's commissions, which range from 15% to 30%.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

One day, we will all don AR glasses, capable of serving up information geospatially tied to every house and place in our neighborhoods. But who will own and control these spatial AR layers? From a report: It's the stuff of nightmares: The other day, I found my property occupied by a stranger, who was renting it out, Airbnb style. The good news: I'm OK. I wasn't actually evicted from my own home -- at least not in this world. Someone had acquired my property in Upland, a blockchain-powered game that allows people to buy, develop, rent out and sell virtual land parcels based on real-world property borders. It's a bit like Monopoly, played on top of Google Maps, with virtual land speculation happening on a gamified version of the real world. With bright and colorful imagery, and a goofy-looking llama as a mascot, Upland emphasizes that it's all fun and games. That's true for its economy as well, as most of its in-game transactions have little to no monetary value in the real world. The person who bought my property currently makes the equivalent of 4 cents a month in Upland's in-game currency by renting it out to other players. However, Upland has big ambitions, which include eventually expanding into AR, and providing its data via APIs to third-party developers who may one day be able to build their own game and nongame applications with it. And the company is not alone: A small but growing number of startups and crypto initiatives have begun selling and renting out AR spaces tied to real-world addresses. One day, these efforts could be key to telling your smart glasses which information to display as you look at a famous landmark, or even your neighbor's home. This brings up a ton of questions: Who should have the rights to an AR layer tied to a physical address? What does it mean that these AR properties are being divided up among early adopters before most people even know they exist? Will we see the same issues that have plagued real world real estate, including gentrification and displacement, replicated in AR?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Back at CES 2022, NVIDIA teased its flagship GeForce RTX 3090 Ti graphics card and asked gamers to stay tuned for more information later that month. We are officially three days past January and NVIDIA seems to either have forgotten about the RTX 3090 Ti graphics card or something has gone really bad with the new flagship.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Delay Could Be Linked To Not Enough 'Full-Fat' G102 GPUs, Also  Custom Models Listed in APAC Markets For Over $4000 US

In the latest video by Moore's Law is Dead, it is reported how NVIDIA has been silent with its AIB partners and hasn't communicated anything so far regarding the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti graphics card. The graphics card was meant to be announced in late January. The 27th was the last date which we knew about through the rumor mill but that didn't happen But neither of them saw any announcement regarding the graphics card.

So what's the issue? Well, it's still all mere speculation but MLID's sources do point out a few things which we have also heard from our own sources. First of all, it was reported that the card had PCB and BIOS-related issues and that they were later resolved. But the latest on the RTX 3090 Ti is that NVIDIA doesn't even have enough Ampere GPUs to produce the GeForce flagship in meaningful quantities.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti does utilize the same GA102 GPU that is featured on the RTX A6000 and it's been more than a year since the original Geforce RTX 3090 was launched so one would expect that the yields over at Samsung would've gotten better. But the RTX 3090 Ti doesn't utilize just any GA102 GPU, it will feature the full-fat die, with everything enabled and it also has higher clock speeds which is why the TGP jumped from 350W to 450W. And it looks like producing Ampere GA102 dies that hit the right clocks with the right power is proving to be a difficult task for NVIDIA.

But it begs the question, why did NVIDIA showcase the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti in the first place if they knew that producing such as GPU would be so hard. They could've instead waited for the right time to unveil the card but it is likely they wanted to make a statement that they were still going to be the king of the hill, knowing that AMD would have an RDNA 2 refresh somewhere down the line in 2022. The other factor which we all seem to be dismissing is whether or not the new 21 Gbps dies that power the 3090 Ti's memory side are available in good quantities. These dies are going to offer higher speeds and double the capacity and GDDR6X was already a major constraint in production of the original lineup. So we have to consider that too.

But while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is 'indefinitely' delayed, there are still several retailers who are listing unreleased custom models and pricing them around the $4000 US price point. One such retailer in Vietnam has started taking pre-orders with pricing starting from around 88 million VNĐ for GALAX's Gamer EX Black model which isn't even the top model that the manufacturer will have to offer. The top model from GALAX, the HOF Extreme, is likely to be priced at around $6000 US+. Upon asking our source regarding the availability in Vietnam, he stated that buyers who pay the full price of the card can indeed get their hands on the graphics card.

Also, several manufacturers have all of their marketing ready, we have seen MSI's SUPRIM X models being listed online, ASUS's TUF Gaming packaging being leaked and EVGA already has its flagship KINGPIN Hybrid ready and are waiting on NVIDIA's greenlight.

The post NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Delay Likely Linked To Full ‘450W’ GA102 GPU Yields, APAC Retailers List Custom Models For Over $4000 US by Hassan Mujtaba appeared first on Wccftech.

Those who happen to find themselves in Philadelphia have an opportunity to make their lives just a little bit sunnier. Co-stars and married couple Rob McElhenney and Kaitlyn Olsen, a.k.a. Mac and Dee from "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," are also business partners as the proprietors of Mac's Tavern, a bar found in the middle of the City of Brotherly Love.

The cast of the longest-running live-action sitcom has always had strong, loving ties to the program's setting, even if its members all live in Los Angeles. McElhenney himself grew up in Philly and Olsen famously went into labor while attending a baseball game between the Phillies and the LA Dodgers. The series' fictional bar, Paddy's Pub, is portrayed as a little-frequented, unsanitary dump where the owners spend more time getting drunk behind the counter than running a business. Mac's Tavern, on the other hand, is a real, honest-to-god establishment, devoid of any rat-infested basements or ocular patdowns.

From Paddy's To Mac's

The sports bar is located in the heart of Old City at 226 Market Street, right down the block from the Declaration of Independence and the Liberty Bell. According to its website:

Mac's Tavern was formed by a small to semi-medium group of partners, comprised mainly of old friends. Mixed with a few national, local and (perhaps) cult celebrities — most notably, Rob and Kaitlin McElhenney of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" fame — the dynamic is as unique as it gets.

The description boasts craft brews and grub alongside a jukebox and plasma TVs, though there's sadly no milk steak or rum ham on the menu. There was most likely no kidnapping of restaurant critics, either, since the bar has successfully been in operation since 2010.

The interior space isn't an exact replica of Paddy's Pub, but there's painted artwork of the "It's Always Sunny" cast running alongside the top of the wall. Fans will probably also appreciate the signed Chase Utley jersey on display, though will note the lack of stickers. ("You guys put Philly on the map!" wrote Utley in an address to "Always Sunny.")

The space occupies the site of a former dry goods store that, according to the site, was possibly frequented by the likes of neighborhood denizens Benjamin Franklin and Betsy Ross. Now, Mac's Tavern has once again become a part of modern Philadelphia history. Truly, though, one has to wonder what the Founding Fathers would think about the spaghetti policy.

Read this next: 20 Underrated Comedy Movies You Need To Watch

The post The Cast of It's Always Sunny Has a Real Bar in Philadelphia You Can Visit appeared first on /Film.

The Biden administration has formed a panel of senior administration officials and private-sector experts to investigate major national cybersecurity failures, and it will probe as its first case the recently discovered Log4j internet bug, officials said. From a report: The new Cyber Safety Review Board is tasked with examining significant cybersecurity events that affect government, business and critical infrastructure. It will publish reports on security findings and recommendations, officials said. Details of the board will be announced Thursday. The board, officials have said, is modeled loosely on the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates and issues public reports on airplane crashes, train derailments and other transportation accidents. The new panel's authority derives from an executive order that President Biden signed in May to improve federal cybersecurity defenses. The cyber board isn't an independent agency like the transportation board and will instead reside within the Department of Homeland Security. It will have 15 members -- three times as many as the full complement of the transportation board -- from government and the public sector who don't need to be confirmed by the Senate. It lacks subpoena power, unlike the transportation board. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in an interview that the cyber board was intended to draw solutions to future problems from past cybersecurity crises, rather than casting blame where shortcomings are identified.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ransomware attacks in many cases hit industrial control systems (ICS) or operational technology (OT) environments, and impact is often significant, according to a report published on Thursday by IoT and industrial cybersecurity company Claroty.

read more

The latest version of the popular Xbox 360 PC emulator, Xenia, adds support for various post-processing effects, as well as support for Variable Refresh Rates.

The team behind the project has released a new update for the Xenia emulator, resulting in vastly enhanced visuals, more detail, and reduced latency when playing Xbox 360 titles on PC.

“Specifically, with this new update, Xenia will look more beautiful than it ever looked before - at a low, or even near-zero, performance cost!”, Xenia graphics programmer ‘Triang3l’ writes. “This is achieved thanks to the magical wonders of the image post-processing effects developed in the industry, as well as changes to the emulator that help the newly added filters shine in an Xbox 360 emulation environment.”

“Additionally, the update brings OS presentation and window interaction reworks, in particular, that help reduce the image output latency and provide more stable frame pacing.”

The following new features have been added through the new Xenia version:

Post-processing effects added in the new update:

• The gorgeous AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 1.0, also known as FSR, for very high-quality edge-preserving and sharpness-restoring upscaling even from sub-720p to the resolutions of modern monitors!
• AMD FidelityFX Contrast Adaptive Sharpening, or CAS, enhancing the fidelity of the picture especially in the areas where it’s needed the most.
• NVIDIA Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing 3.11 — FXAA — eliminating jaggies in the image regardless of what anti-aliasing method the game uses internally, or if it doesn’t at all, and especially useful in combination with FSR or CAS so they have good edges to enhance.
• Dithering with a blue noise pattern to increase the smoothness of gradients.

Non-square resolution scaling added recently — most interestingly, the 1x2 and 2x1 modes, which significantly improve the amount of detail with a much smaller performance impact than 2x2 — now providing near-native quality when combined with FSR and FXAA!

Variable Refresh Rate support, as well as presentation threading improvements, for reducing the latency before the game’s output appears on screen.

High DPI monitor support and other window system interaction enhancements.

The latest Xenia build can be downloaded from the project’s official website.

The post New Xbox 360 Emulator Xenia Update Adds FSR, CAS, FXAA and VRR Support, Greatly Enhancing Visuals and Reducing Latency by Aernout van de Velde appeared first on Wccftech.

Following a number of delays, Techland's zombie-survival RPG Dying Light 2: Stay Human is finally getting ready to go live on February 4, 2022. And seeing how that's tomorrow, you might be interested in reading some reviews for this ambitious title. If that's the case, you can find a select number of them below:

PC Gamer 84/100:

After the 50 hours it took me to complete the main quest, about a dozen sidequests, and a bunch of other activities, I still have plenty to do in Dying Light 2, and I'm keen to keep playing. Hell, even after wrapping up the story there are still a bunch of skills I haven't unlocked, quests I haven't begun, and large sections of the city I've barely set foot in—not to mention plenty of bandits I've yet to set foot on.

IGN 7/10:

Another in a long series of big, ambitious games whose potential greatness is visible just beneath a grimey layer of bugs, Dying Light 2 Stay Human could very likely become the stellar zombie survival adventure it’s meant to be someday. For now, though, it’s best added to your backlog unless your irritation with crashes and technical issues is outweighed by eagerness to dance across rooftops with its excellent parkour, which – when everything works – is an unforgettable way to explore the last city’s open world and join in the post-apocalyptic stories of its many weird and distinctive characters. No patch can fix the forgettable main plot or the protagonist I couldn’t pick out of a police lineup even after 80 hours in his shoes, but Dying Light 2’s streets tell their own stories.

Eurogamer Recommended:

I can't pretend to be an expert in big blockbuster games - the bloat and overstated breadth isn't exactly to my taste - but Dying Light 2, with its varied systems lifted wholesale from elsewhere, is a welcome reminder of how hugely entertaining they can be. There's a brutality to its breadth, to the vastness of its world - this is the triple-A experience served up with the subtlety and grace of a modified hammer to the head. It's rarely elegant, but it is most definitely enjoyable.

Game Informer 9.5/10:

Dying Light 2 is an engaging journey of discovery and gaining power. Almost everything you do embraces those dynamics. In evolving beyond the first game's offerings, putting a stronger emphasis on the characters helps shape the world in meaningful ways. Some of Aiden’s choices are difficult, especially those surrounding a character named Lawan – who is given a hell of a pulse by Rosario Dawson. I can’t say enough great things where his and her stories go. I adored almost every second of this game and see myself often revisiting it, as Techland has announced at least five years of DLC is on the way. That’s a wonderful promise to hear when starting a new game that has turned out this well.

PCGamesN 6/10:

I spent around 30 hours with Dying Light 2, and I’d say I liked about ten of them. Ten more I tolerated, and the last ten saw my patience for its flaws wearing perilously thin; godspeed to any of you who go for that full 500-hour completionist run. The most frustrating part is that I love the freedom of running around the world and the crunchiness of the fighting when the battles are more varied. There are good parts to Dying Light 2, but they’re the same elements that made the first game such a success.

NME 3/5:

It’s more Dying Light but at what cost? A marketing campaign promised the world but a production hamstrung by constant delays and shifts in key personnel has delivered a joyless game that lacks the spirit of exploration of its predecessor and strips out a lot of the joy.

GameRant 2.5/5:

Dying Light 2's glitches are inconvenient, but really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the game's problems. The game's biggest issues are its main story quests, boring dialogue, and underwhelming combat. However, those who can overlook those issues will find a game with an excellent parkour system, amusing side quests, and a huge open world that's a blast to explore. Throw in Dying Light 2's 4-player co-op, and it's clear to see that there is a great game underneath some problems.

New Resident Evil 4 HD Project 1.0 comparison videos has been shared online, highlighting many of the improvements brought by the mod.

The new videos, which has been shared on YouTube by HHM Gaming Sebax Redfield and GameDiff, focus on the visual improvements introduced by the mod, like improved textures and more.

Resident Evil 4 HD Project 1.0 has been launched earlier this week after years of development. It introduces, alongside the already mentioned visual enhancements, a lot of other tweaks and fixes that improve the experience considerably.

• This is not a remake, it’s a remaster created by fans, for fans.
• The “resident evil 4 HD project” is a complete graphical remaster of the entire game. It includes enhanced textures, 3D models, menus, cutscenes, prerendered videos, lighting, visual effects, and more.
• The HD project also fixes certain sound bugs and broken / missing effects, which arose mainly as a consequence of the many times the game has been ported through the years.
• This package doesn’t include the entire game, only the files to upgrade the game.
• You need to have an installed copy of the resident evil 4 PC port, released on Steam.
• The HD project is compatible with all languages, including the Japanese version. It’s tested for version 1.0.6 & 1.1.0
• Some mods are not compatible with this project. Please ask the modders who created your favorite mods to adapt them to the HD project if needed.
• This HD pack won’t affect achievements or game saves.
• BRIGHTNESS (in game Options) should be set to the MAX in order to get the best visuals.

More information on the Resident Evil 4 HD Project can be found on its official website.

The post Resident Evil 4 HD Project 1.0 Comparison Videos Highlights Texture Quality Improvements and More by Francesco De Meo appeared first on Wccftech.

The following contains minor spoilers for episode ten of 'Star Trek: Prodigy.'

One thing that’s become increasingly common among genre shows is the idea of the “mid-season finale,” where a program goes on hiatus for a bit, but not before shaking things up for the rest of the year. Even children’s shows like Star Trek: Prodigy can’t escape from this phenomenon, as the Paramount+ cartoon takes a break (again) after a huge two-parter with big changes for the characters and central conflict.

The first season has so far been a long chase between the escaped prisoners aboard the USS Protostar and their former captor, the Diviner. Last week’s cliffhanger forced the crew to surrender their ship to the Diviner in exchange for the lives of their fellow prisoners from the prison colony Tars Lamora, leaving them stranded on the Diviner’s sabotaged ship, the REV-12. But it turned out that our erstwhile teens had a plan to take their ship back, and this week’s installment sees that plan come to fruition. It’s an enjoyable, though largely unsurprising, adventure.

Nickelodeon

Where the show upends things is when it comes to our villain, whose mission is finally revealed to his daughter Gwyn and thus, the audience. And yes, it involves time travel. Most interesting of all is that the Diviner’s storyline is backburnered if not completely scuttled now, with the Protostar crew instead focused on getting to the Federation. And it was intended that way all along — these episodes were written over two years ago, before the pandemic started. In fact, showrunners Kevin and Dan Hageman revealed this week in an interview with Engadget that they just wrote episodes 39 and 40. That would be the end of season two, which was only announced back in November.

The long lead time is due to the lengthy animation process, though it also has the knock-on effect of making the show unresponsive to fan concerns, which is exactly how the Hagemans prefer it. The lengthy production time keeps them beholden to the writer’s room and not a vocal online minority, a phenomenon that has derailed other franchises (most notably Star Wars). For the Hagemans, their most important audience is kids, but not in a way that talks down to children. The decision to set the series so far from explored Federation space is part of keeping it accessible to newcomers, while also freeing it from any constraints imposed by any of the concurrently running Trek programs on Paramount+ like Picard.

Nickelodeon

But even as it remains kid friendly, the Hagemans told Engadget that they want to create the kind of moments that “[stick] to your bones,” like seeing “ET dead on the table.” They want the show to have an impact, and this week’s scene with Zero is hopefully one of those.

Another inspiration for this season of Prodigy comes from a less sci-fi, more action-oriented source: the 1993 film The Fugitive. Not so much in the idea that we’ll see a lot of train explosions, but more in the sense that there’s no real villain in the central conflict. The plot arc will involve Starfleet trying to get the Protostar back, and the kids having to keep it away due to what happened in this week’s episode. It’s just two well-meaning groups with different goals, something I’ve personally noticed in a lot of media lately and a premise that the Hagemans believe it’s important for kids to see.

Nickelodeon

It’s also important to them to see the kids grow and adapt to their situation, especially as they’re being tasked with situations that even Starfleet-trained officers would struggle with: “You see kids dealing with a lot of emotions; a lot of things are coming at them, and there’s times when you feel crippled, and that’s something you see in adolescence.” We’ve already seen some significant character growth for Rok-Tahk, and the Hagemans promise that the characters will age for whatever number of seasons the show gets. And even Murf gets a plot arc, one that “is not about what Murf is … more like where does Murf go; what does Murf become?”

Murf fans only have to wait for the next 10 episodes, at least. The rest of the season will see the crew finding out what the Diviner did to their ship, and how it puts the Federation out of reach. I’ve previously noted how the series showcases its technology by focusing on the have-nots, something on display this week as the prisoners of Tars Lamora finally get access to the universal translator tech that so impressed the Protostar crew early on. And, while the ship has seemed a bit overpowered compared to the other 24th century tech we’ve seen in other shows, the Hagemans promise it will still be limited in some ways, and the ship won’t be “zapping around at their will.” 2383 technology may have proved life-changing for Prodigy’s crew, but going forward the program can now showcase how it can also be fun.

The administrators of the Node Package Manager (npm), the largest package repository of the JavaScript ecosystem, said they enrolled the maintainers of the top 100 most popular libraries (based on the number of dependencies) into their mandatory two-factor authentication (2FA) procedure. From a report: npm, which is owned by GitHub, enforced this new security requirement starting yesterday, February 1, 2022. "Maintainers who do not currently have 2FA enabled will have their web sessions revoked and will need to set up 2FA before they can take specific actions with their accounts, such as changing their email address or adding new maintainers to projects," the GitHub security team said in a blog post. The move represents the second phase of a major push from the npm team to secure developer accounts, which have been getting hijacked in recent years and used to push malware inside legitimate JavaScript libraries. In many cases, the accounts are hacked because project maintainers use simple-to-guess passwords or reused passwords that were previously leaked via breaches at other companies. The first phase of this process took place between December 7, 2021, and January 4, 2022, when the npm team rolled out a new feature called "enhanced login verification" for all npm package maintainers.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We’re excited to introduce Cyber Signals, a cyber threat intelligence brief informed by the latest Microsoft threat data and research. This content, which will be released quarterly, offers an expert perspective into the current threat landscape, discussing trending tactics, techniques, and strategies used by the world’s most prolific threat actors. As such, we hope it’s a valuable resource to Chief Information Security Officers, Chief Information Officers, Chief Privacy Officers, and their teams, as they continue to evolve technologies, policies, and processes against the constantly changing threat landscape. At Microsoft, we believe that security is a team sport and that when we share what we’re learning, we can all make the world a safer place.

Cyber Signals aggregates insights we see from our research and security teams on the frontlines. This includes analysis from our 24 trillion security signals combined with intelligence we track by monitoring more than 40 nation-state groups and over 140 threat groups. In our first edition, we unpack the topic of identity. Our identities are made up of everything we say and do in our lives, recorded as data that spans across a sea of apps and services. While this delivers great utility, if we don’t maintain good security hygiene our identities are at risk. And over the last year, we have seen identity become the battleground for security.

While threats have been rising fast over the past two years, there has been low adoption of strong identity authentication, such as multifactor authentication (MFA) and passwordless solutions. For example, our research shows that across industries, only 22 percent of customers using Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), Microsoft’s Cloud Identity Solution, have implemented strong identity authentication protection as of December 2021. MFA and passwordless solutions can go a long way in preventing a variety of threats and we’re committed to educating customers on solutions such as these to better protect themselves. From January 2021 through December 2021, we’ve blocked more than 25.6 billion Azure AD brute force authentication attacks and intercepted 35.7 billion phishing emails with Microsoft Defender for Office 365.

With 8,500 security defenders protecting the platforms, tools, services, and endpoints that support our online lives, we’re dedicated to thwarting advanced cyberattacks. At Microsoft, we understand our role in helping to protect and defend our most valuable digital asset, our identity. To ensure people are who they say they are when they access Microsoft accounts and services, we verify their identity—but relying on a single password to authenticate users creates an attractive point of failure for hackers.

Online threats are increasing in volume, velocity, and sophistication. From IoT to nation-state activity, new ransomware tactics to insights into the cybercriminal economy, Cyber Signals provides trend analysis and practical guidance to strengthen the first line of digital defense. With increasing numbers of people working remotely and accessing their business apps and data from multiple locations, including home offices, coworking spaces, and other remote locations, individuals are realizing the importance of secure authentication. And it’s not just about securing enterprises, it’s our personal data, devices, identities, platforms, and clouds that are also targets.

Learn more

With Cyber Signals, we’ll share trends, tactics, and strategies threat actors use to gain access to the hardware and software that houses one’s most sensitive data. We will also help inform the world on how, collectively, we can protect our most precious digital resources and our digital lives so we can build a safer world together.

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

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