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This post contains major spoilers for "Infinity Pool."

In Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel "The Sun Also Rises," war veteran Jake Barnes, who has suffered an injury leaving him unable to have sex, tells a friend who's sleeping with his beloved, "You can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to another." In Thomas Wolfe's 1940 novel "You Can't Go Home Again," protagonist George Webber, a novelist, returns to his hometown after writing about it in a successful book. The novel's contents have outraged his old neighbors and family, appalled by what had secretly laid within George's psyche.

In Brandon Cronenberg's latest film, "Infinity Pool," writer James Foster (Alexander Skarsgård) learns about being caught between these two literary extremes in the most disturbing, humiliating, and embarrassing way possible. Now three films into his directing career, "Infinity Pool" further cements Cronenberg's auteurist signature style, his tropes, themes, and aesthetic. It also belongs to a long, proud line of boundary-pushing satire-thrillers that slam the wealthy, joining the ranks of Pier Paolo Pasolini's "Salò," Luis Buñuel's "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" and even León Klimovsky's "The People Who Own the Dark."

Yet the biggest strength of "Infinity Pool" lies within its literal and figurative stripping of Foster, a stand-in for a typical masculine ideal. Like Hemingway, like Wolfe, and like so many other incisive artists, Cronenberg bursts the bubble of masculinity's egotistical self-image, and seems to wonder, through the film, if such a lesson will ever stick.

The Devil's Playground

"Infinity Pool" begins by chronicling the vapid day-to-day of the idle rich, chief among them James Foster and his beautiful wife, Em (Cleopatra Coleman). They're on vacation at an exclusive resort in the (fictional) country of Li Tolqa, a place of great natural beauty. James and Em sleep late, half-heartedly make plans for the day, and generally seem zombified by their vacation routine, all in the ostensible name of James looking to get his writer's groove back as he hasn't written a novel since his first failure of an effort several years ago.

James seems to wake up a bit upon meeting Gabi (Mia Goth), an actress on vacation with her real estate developer husband, Alban (Jalil Lespert). As James and Em begin to hang out with the couple, James finds himself drawn to Gabi in several ways, most prominently the fact that she purports to be a huge fan of his book, and her specialty also lies in failure; specifically, performing failure believably while acting in commercials.

Gabi and Alban take the Fosters on a getaway day trip to a secluded beach outside the resort, bribing a resort employee to let them borrow a car and leave the grounds, which tourists are forbidden from doing. While there, James gets his penis as well as his ego stroked by Gabi, and the foursome revel in their idle privilege — until that night, when James, driving back to the resort late at night, finds the car's headlights suddenly cutting out, whereupon he hits and kills a farmer crossing the road. Knowing the laws are disturbingly strict in the country, Gabi convinces everyone to leave the body and drive back, claiming she and Alban will explain things away in the morning.

A Tourist Trade

The next morning, however, James and Em are taken away to prison in a very third-world fascist fashion. After being separated from his wife, James is interrogated by Detective Thresh (Thomas Kretschmann), and it's here that Cronenberg unveils the film's sci-fi/body horror twist. Since murder, even manslaughter, is considered a capital crime in Li Tolqa, the highly religious and traditional community has a law that states that the man's next of kin must execute the perpetrator. However, in order for the country's tourist trade to remain unharmed, the authorities have developed a technology that provides an alternative (albeit for a sizable fee, which must be paid from an ATM while on site): the criminal will be "doubled," or cloned, so that the double may be publicly executed and the original can return to the resort. James chooses this option, goes through the humiliating and disassociating cloning process, and later when he awakens, witnesses the double's bloody death at his victim's young son's knifepoint.

Em watches the execution with James and is horrified at her husband's reaction. Rather than being upset or appalled, James is fascinated, even exhilarated by the experience. Finding his passport missing upon returning to the resort, James sheepishly tells Em they can't leave yet and is later summoned by Gabi to a secret meeting of other resort guests. These people reveal themselves as fellow "zombies," the elite who are wealthy enough to be able to afford to be "doubled" for their crimes multiple times over. They welcome James among their ranks and introduce him to an altogether unique pleasure of this vacation: committing increasingly dangerous and transgressive crimes, seemingly without consequence.

No Rules, Just Right

With this fantastically devilish "doubling" technology, "Infinity Pool" becomes a highly effective metaphor for the way the ultra-rich treat ethics and morality as a non-issue. James, Gabi, and the rest of the "zombies" get away with all manner of heists, brutality, assault, and harassment because the consequences won't be theirs; in fact, the execution of their doubles becomes added entertainment for them rather than a disturbing deterrent. Even though James and company are referred to as the walking dead, in horror terms, they're like the ugly Americans from the "Hostel" films who get to be on both sides of the torture, both victim and perpetrator. They hew even closer to vampires, the group resembling the similarly hedonistic gangs of "Near Dark" and "The Lost Boys" in their behavior.

Much like those examples, Gabi and the zombies have their own type of rationale for their bad behavior, treating it like a chic self-improvement exercise, because how can one really know themselves and what they're capable of unless all consequences are removed? Em, for one, doesn't appear to subscribe to such flimsy rationalizations for the gang's almost NC-17-rated orgies, telling James he's "gone wrong around the eyes" and leaving him. James isn't sad to see her go, instead diving further into depravity with his new community.

The group continues to abuse the locals in more ways than one; where the film begins with the Li Tolquans demonstrating their beliefs and practices as a bit of cultural entertainment for the tourists, the zombies make use of the locals' traditional masks and wear them while raiding private homes and institutions, as well as take a Li Tolqan religious drug and do it recreationally.

Purple Haze-Ing Ritual

During one raid on a Li Tolqan hospital facility, the zombies abduct Detective Thresh, having deduced that he is holding James' passport so that the latter must remain in the country. Taking him back to the resort, the gang encourages James to beat, degrade, and humiliate the Detective while he wears a bag on his head. Only, after the bag is removed, they reveal that James has actually been abusing another one of his doubles.

This kicks off James' well-founded paranoia that the group does not have his best interests at heart, seemingly paying off what his previous drug-induced hallucinations have hinted at. Removing his passport from beneath the bathroom sink of his room which he placed there himself, James tries to leave for home, only for Gabi and the zombies to chase him down and force him back to the resort at gunpoint. Wounded while attempting to escape the gang, James runs through the woods and finds himself collapsing outside a remote farm, which may or may not be the home of the man he'd run over accidentally days earlier.

The gang turns up outside the farm with James' double, who they refer to as a dog, and insist that the "sucky baby" James must kill the double himself. James refuses, but the double attacks him, and in the scuffle James beats his own double to death with his bare hands. Gabi tenderly holds him while he suckles at her breast, smeared with the blood of his double. It appears that much of, if not all of the events of James' vacation were one big test, a game for the zombies to play to mess with James and see if he would "pass" by becoming one of them.

Can't Run Away From Yourself

Did James pass, however? Was that even a possibility, or was the torture, humiliation, and ultimate revelation the point? And what, if anything, has he learned about himself?

When James first meets the zombies, one of them brings up the notion that many savvy audience members are thinking about as soon as Brandon Cronenberg's twist drops: how does James, or any of the gang, know that they're the original? How many doubles of them exist, anyway? The title "Infinity Pool" refers to the reason Gabi and Alban originally got in trouble with the Li Tolqans, where the construction of a pool for a new resort went wrong and resulted in some accidental deaths. It also refers to the type of pool itself, an optical illusion that seems to indicate to the naked eye that there is no horizon when, in fact, there exists a definite ending, a certain limit to the pool.

With "Antiviral," "Possessor," and this film, Cronenberg's thematic focus seems to be a skewed response to his famous father: where David Cronenberg's movies are rampant with self-destruction, Brandon's films concern the destruction of the self, a redefinition, and sublimation of identity. James doesn't know who he is, hence his failure as an author.

Gabi and the zombies perceive this as a fault in James' masculinity, pegging Em (who married James for no better reason than to get back at her father) as a woman who has sapped his virility. On the outside, James is the perfect male specimen: handsome, rich, and in shape. Cronenberg seems to say that James' failing isn't being a whipped wimp, but is instead a result of his emptiness: he's all surface, no depth, like Vincent or Roger O. Thornhill, like an infinity pool. In essence, a clone even before he's been doubled.

Was It Fate?

Brandon Cronenberg provides a tantalizing number of ambiguous hints that there's far more going on behind the scenes. Even though Gabi and the zombies claim James' road accident was his own foolish fault, there's the sense that it could've been orchestrated by somebody. During James' orgy-and-drug-fueled hallucinations, he has visions of the zombies circling him wearing some sort of VR headsets, all while a demonic Em leads the pack. "Is this a dream?" the supposedly real Em wonders aloud as she leaves James in tears. How much of James' ordeal is real, anyway? And who's to blame?

In the end, the answers to those questions don't matter. James, having finally found himself and realized the depth of his failing (professionally as well as morally), can't merely get on a plane back home with the rest of the two-faced zombies. Instead, he remains at the empty resort during the country's rainy season, alone. James, like George Webber, can't go home again, and like Jake Barnes, can't get away from himself. He'll remain in Li Tolqa forever. Because, after all, that's where he died.

Read this next: Horror Movies You Don't Want To Miss In 2023

The post Infinity Pool Ending Explained: Vacation, Meant to Be Spent All Alone appeared first on /Film.

Amy Heckerling's 1982 film "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," written by Cameron Crowe, is a coming-of-age film that contains far more embarrassment and ambivalence about the teen experience than any expected notes of wistful nostalgia. The Ridgemont High students don't always make good decisions and find themselves stumbling toward sexual liberation and an adult sense of agency. They are trying to achieve some sense of dignity, which is difficult when your sexual encounters are mortifying and you have to wear stupid costumes to your minimum-wage job. They're not good kids or bad kids. They're complete people. It's the film's sense of emotional honesty that likely has it firmly ensconced in the pop consciousness. Its comedic moments are but icing on the cake. 

"Fast Times" is set in California's San Fernando Valley, and the character played by Sean Penn, Jeff Spicoli, is a somewhat spaced-out, stoned surfer dude who has massive ambitions to win surfing contests and date multiple beach bunnies simultaneously. These ambitions are dismissed by Ridgemont High's cruel teachers, notably the stern Mr. Hand (Ray Walston) who gets into something of a rivalry with his student. When Spicoli attempts to disrupt class by ordering a pizza delivery in the middle of it, Mr. Hand logically argues that the pizza should go to the entire class. Spicoli is humiliated. 

In 2020, Penn's charity, the Community Organized Relief Effort, or CORE, staged a charity table read of Crowe's script to raise money for the organization. Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, Julia Roberts, Matthew McConaughey, Shia LaBeouf, Henry Golding, John Legend, Ray Liotta, Jimmy Kimmel, and Morgan Freeman participated. After the reading, Crowe and Heckerling appeared to talk about the making of the film, and how the part of Spicoli should perhaps have been some hapless nonprofessional off the beach. 

Someone Off The Beach

As Cameron Crowe tells it, it was his idea to simply go to the local surfers and ask one of them to appear in the film, saying: 

"We knew we needed someone to play this surfer-stoner character, but I always thought, 'Let's just get somebody off the beach,' y'know? Like somebody that would never get the joke, y'know, and just be that guy. But sure enough, we were casting the movie, and Amy was on her way up to the office where we were casting, and I was walking down the street here and this guy screams by in a Trans-Am. A blonde guy. Doesn't stop. I barely see the side of his face. He turns the corner and I'm like, 'Jesus! What a day, y'know?'"

As a savvy reader might guess, Amy Heckerling and Crowe were about to see that blonde guy again. Of course, that blonde guy was Sean Penn. At the time, Penn had only appeared on a few episodes of television, and in two films: "Taps," and the documentary anthology "The Beaver Kid 2." Despite a short filmography, Penn was stridently confident. Crowe said that shortly after convening at the office after the Trans-Am incident, Penn came in with less of an audition as an ultimatum. 

"10 minutes later I'm sitting in the office, the guy walks in. Same blonde guy. [He] comes in, sits down, and says, 'I grew up with characters like this. I know how to play this guy.' We're like, 'Great, great. Show us.' [He said] 'No, you hire me and I'll show you what it's like but I'm not going to audition.'"

Penn did not grow up in the Valley, but he was born in Santa Monica, which is right by the beach. 

The Sheer Force Of His Sean-Ness

At the time, Sean Penn had also been working on his 1983 film "Bad Boys," which hadn't been released yet. "Bad Boys," directed by Rick Rosenthal ("Halloween II") was a prison drama about hard life in juvenile hall in Chicago. According to Penn, that film was perhaps too intense for Crowe and Heckerling. Crowe recalls Penn's bluster, and how his staunch refusal to act in an audition scene or produce an audition reel made him strangely more appealing for the part of Spicoli. Crowe said: 

"We're like, 'Well, we don't know you so maybe you should tell us if there's something we can see.' He said, 'Well, I was in this movie called 'Bad Boys' but you can't see it. It's not ready for you. Hire me and I'll show you.' Amy, I still don't know how we did this. We hired him without hearing a word. We didn't even hear him say, 'You d***.' He was like, 'I'll show it to you on the day.' Sure enough, he got that job on the sheer force of his Sean-ness."

"You d***," incidentally, is a notable line of dialogue from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." 

After the film was released, Penn immediately became recognized as one of the more striking actors in his age group. Crowe would go on to write and direct other notable young-people-struggling movies like "Say Anything..." and "Singles," and Heckerling would go on to make enormous hit comedies like "National Lampoon's European Vacation," "Johnny Dangerously," two "Look Who's Talking" movies, and "Clueless." 

Looking over the roster of actors who also worked on "Fast Times," one can see the flashpoint for a new wave of young talent. 

Read this next: The 20 Most Influential Comedy Stars In Movie History

The post Sean Penn Refused To Audition And Still Landed Fast Times At Ridgemont High appeared first on /Film.

There still needs to be more entertaining monster horror, especially in the werewolf subgenre. MY ANIMAL looks to fill that in this lesbian lycanthrope tale of young love. Playing at Sundance Film Festival, the story is less horror than an exploration of identity and acceptance. Werewolf stories wrap them in a transformative beauty, and writer Jae Matthews with director Jacqueline Castel unleashes it with a measured skill that makes MY ANIMAL reside alongside beloved Ginger Snaps.

A full moon shines as Heather (Bobbi Salvör Menuez), clad in only a long, white nightgown, kneels on the floor. The only light in the room comes from the full moon, visible through the softly billowing curtains and the television playing a black-and-white werewolf film. As Heather looks up at the moon, blood flows from her nose as her body contorts and cracks. The reflection of the moon in her eyes is stunning. The film on television talks about love making the man a beast, but love also makes the beast beautiful. Heather growls and crawls across the carpeted floor, only her glowing, full-moon eyes discernible in the shadows. At once, it is terrifying but remarkably breathtaking.

A Slip-Up That Shapes Heather’s Life

Her mother, Patti (Heidi von Palleske), enters the room, but Heather is no longer there. Worried, Patti heads to the woods to search for Heather. Her husband, Heather’s father Henry (Stephen McHattie), right behind her in the desolate, snowy, wooded forests, warns Patti to go back inside as his eyes glow. The sound of a growl and scream echo then the title card appears. The feral, natural beauty of the opening is one of the most gorgeous I’ve seen.

It’s unclear how much time passed between the opening and the next scene. But Heather works out in her room with women’s bodybuilder posters adorning the walls. Chains and cuffs adorn her bed. Castel clues viewers into the past as Heather helps her mother, passed out in the living room, into bed. She pulls off her shirt, and the audiences see a long scar across Patti’s side. Heather is more of a parental figure now than her and her twin brother’s mom, Patti. She helps them train in hockey along with her father.

Coming-of-Age Tale Meets Lycanthropy in MY ANIMAL

Her life is a monotonous work routine, caring for her brothers and mom and fetching alcohol from the store for her mom. That injury changed how the two interact. Her mom speaks to her like Heather has a debt still unpaid. Heather’s close to her father, who understands, as a fellow werewolf, how she grapples with herself. Heather’s life changes when she meets Jonny (Amandla Stenberg), there for regionals in figure skating. As the pair get closer, Heather struggles to accept her werewolf aspect. Like the film she watched, there is a hope that love can make her beautiful.

Coming-of-age tropes are everywhere, including coming out, loss, sexual experience, drugs, and even a hairstyle change. Castel’s distinct directing style and colors make My Animal unique. Lesbian stories are still too few on the ground in genres like horror, which have an array of subgenres. The music is perfect in the film, sounding gorgeous in all the silent moments. The 80s synths sound wildly close to another fun monster film, Near Dark, with a bit of a Tangerine Dream surrealness. If you close your eyes, you think you’re listening to the Near Dark or Firestarter soundtracks. That makes me love MY ANIMAL even more.

Problem With Identity

Throughout Heather’s life, someone is unwilling to accept her identities. The coach for the adult hockey she wants to join denies her because she’s a girl. Her mom feels like her werewolf identity automatically makes her more her father’s child. Werewolf transformation is often a metaphor for queerness, and here Heather is both. Her gender and lesbian identities tragically still wind up being the most significant issues. But you cannot embrace one aspect of yourself while resenting the other. She lives a restrained life, fearing what might happen if she unleashes her passions.

Toward the end, I thought of the werewolf version of Near Dark‘s bar scene, and it does on a smaller scale. But this movie is less horror. Rather, the focus is Heather’s growth. Though the ending felt rushed, it doesn’t detract from MY ANIMAL being a sensual, gorgeous film. Transformation is not only a physical change. It includes reworking how a person engages with themself, and that’s where MY ANIMAL, a werewolf coming-of-age film, resides.

The post [Sundance Review] MY ANIMAL appeared first on Nightmarish Conjurings.

One of the best aspects of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the way anyone can reappear at any time. Even when you think they've forgotten a character like Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) from "The Incredible Hulk," he'll come back as the Leader in "Captain America: New World Order." Did anyone expect Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Valentina Allegra de Fontaine to show up in "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever?" And who knew Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) and Darcy (Kat Dennings) would make a great team to investigate the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen)? Putting familiar characters in new combinations is part of the fun of comics, after all.

Sometimes, though, enough is enough. Whether it's dead characters who won't stay dead or bad characters who keep ruining our enjoyment with their presence, some just don't need to come back. Whether a return would cheapen a fantastic exit, belabor a joke, or simply annoy us even more than they already did, many significant and minor characters in the MCU are fine the way they are -- and should go no further.

Here are the top 10 candidates for permanent closure.

Pizza Poppa

Oh no! Slander against the great Bruce Campbell! Well, no, not exactly. Nobody's saying Bruce Campbell shouldn't come back ... and if they are, they're wrong. He just shouldn't come back as his "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" character, Pizza Poppa.

Look, it's only natural that Campbell's (first) big moment in the MCU inspired an instant cult following, to the point that fans at the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con rigged up a fake action figure, hoping Hasbro might follow suit. The beauty of Pizza Poppa, though, is that he's a one-joke character; a street vendor from another reality who sells spherical pizzas, as is the norm there. That, and he causes a bit of minor annoyance to Doctor Strange and America Chavez.

Here's the thing: via "Spider-Man: No Way Home," Campbell's position in the MCU's multiverse is retroactively established. His is the face of multiple characters who annoy Spider-Man in Tobey Maguire's timeline. "Multiverse of Madness" suggests his face is associated with similar behavior toward heroes throughout many realities. The actor should come back -- again and again and again. But as a different minor character every time.

Danny Rand

It's not entirely clear that Danny Rand is completely in the MCU, since the status of the Netflix shows is hazy. But since Charlie Cox's Daredevil is definitely back, let's take the time to make clear that Finn Jones' Danny Rand can stay where he is, thanks. True, Jones wasn't as bad as some would have us believe, and the fact that he was a mediocre white savior was sort of the point -- thanks to his incompetence in the role, and taking it from a more deserving competitor, the mysterious city of K'un-Lun was left foolishly unguarded. Honestly, though, his story was told. We don't need a rehash of any of this, and Rand as a live-action character is kind of like when you order Bruce Wayne from Wish. Plus, whether it was Jones' fault or the choreographers', he didn't come off as especially convincing as the world's greatest martial artist.

If the MCU needs Iron Fist, it should take a page from the comics and use the newest inheritor of that heroic mantle, Lin Lie. The hero formerly known as Sword Master already has a past with Namor, and could cause trouble for Shang-Chi. Danny can come back long enough to pass the torch, but after that, he needs to be outta here.

Gamora

No disrespect is hereby intended to either the character of Gamora or the amazing Zoe Saldana, who plays her. It's just that storylines need to have consequences. 

Consider: at the end of "Avengers Endgame," the conversation between Hawkeye and Wanda makes clear that there are no take-backsies with regard to the death of Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a Black Widow. To claim the Soul Stone, she had to die, and die in an irrevocable way, even considering all we know about Marvel cosmology.

So how come Gamora got to live? She died for the Soul Stone first.

Technicalities, technicalities. Sure, it's not the same Gamora, but rather a variant from a different timeline. Still, her arrival has essentially brought the character back. Hawkeye would probably be satisfied with a Natasha from a slightly different timeline that still had most of the same memories, just as Peter Quill expects he can rekindle his love in Gamora-from-the-past. Without creating major plotholes, though, she has to go. "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" taught us that incursions of variants into other universes can have grave consequences -- though "Loki" suggests that a mere TVA badge can avoid that problem. For the Gamora variant plotline to work, she has to be a significant hazard to our reality, and leave it.

Hey, we don't make the rules. We just nitpick like crazy when they appear broken.

Eros And Pip The Troll

"Eternals" remains a sadly underrated Marvel movie, truly breaking from any cookie-cutter mold with a definitive directorial voice in Chloe Zhao. It's shot primarily on location, it suggests that religion is a lie and propaganda must be rejected, and it digs deep into the secret history of the superheroic universe. When they learn the truth, some heroes become villains -- but even that depends upon one's point of view.

Unfortunately, it ends with a dreadful mid-credits scene that introduces Harry Styles as Eros, brother of Thanos, and Patton Oswalt as the voice of some horrifically rushed CG for Pip the Troll. These are characters you can't just spring on people. In comics, anything goes, but in the movies, we need a bit more context to understand how an Eternal who looks like a human pop singer can be sibling to a big purple monster. If the universe is also going to spring a character on us called a troll, there also needs to be some kind of preparation for the fact that this troll isn't like most of the giant movie monsters we associate with the concept.

Marvel's Nate Moore confirmed recently that we haven't seen the last of Styles and Eros, also known as Starfox, which is too bad. He and Pip made a brutally annoying, shoehorned-in intro, and we'd just as soon send them right back out like a revolving door.

Prove us wrong, Marvel.

Heimdall

Anyone who's read this far on the list has sussed that an appearance here is (mostly) not an insult to the actor. Idris Elba is acting royalty, and his stoic, alien presence as Heimdall has really helped put across the notion of Asgard as a space civilization. Like many a Viking, space or Earthbound, he died in battle and got to enter Valhalla. It was a noble and fitting end for the taciturn warrior.

Then "Moon Knight" established that characters can come back from the afterlife. And "Thor: Love and Thunder" showed us Heimdall and Jane Foster kicking it in the afterlife. This will most likely set up Jane's Mighty Thor for a return from the dead, which is fine -- she's the second best thing about "Love and Thunder" (after Christian Bale's Gorr) and we didn't get enough of her. Heimdall, though, not so much. His death needs to matter. It's part of what gave Thanos real villain cred, aside from everything else.

Ralph Bohner

How exciting was it that first time Evan Peters appeared on "WandaVision"? It seemed as though the Disney-Fox merger was starting to bear fruit for Marvel, with the "X-Men" movies' Quicksilver showing up as a substitute for the MCU version, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Had Wanda Maximoff somehow pulled an alternate version of her dead brother through the multiverse to console her in her time of need? Excited fans needed to know ...

... Until they actually did, and it resulted in a cheap dick joke. It turned out Peters was actually playing an actor named Ralph Bohner, possessed by Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) to pretend to be Wanda's brother Pietro and keep her in the delusion longer. However, if no Quicksilver that looks like this exists in the MCU, why would anyone think such a ruse would work? Peters in that get-up doesn't look anything like Taylor-Johnson ever did. But the cheap charade it turned out to be does recall his most famous line: "What? You didn't see that coming?"

If Peters returns, it needs to be as Pietro. Because when it comes to Bohner, fan interest has decidedly gone soft.

Trevor Slattery, The Fake Mandarin

When "Iron Man 3" revealed that the man who appeared to be a global terrorist mastermind known as the Mandarin was, in fact, a clueless English actor named Trevor Slattery, it was a brilliant twist. Ben Kingsley is precisely the type of actor to be cast as a super-villain, and LEGO sets released before the movie came out depicted the character fighting Iron Man directly. As the longtime comics archenemy of Tony Stark, he felt long overdue onscreen. When he appeared in trailers for the first time, he looked intimidating enough, even if his American accent sounded a bit off.

That turned out to be a perfect twist, because he was, in fact, a British actor doing a bad accent. It also nicely dodged accusations of the Mandarin character being a racist caricature, since the "Mandarin" was revealed as a caricatured compilation of Western terrorist fears. But once Slattery was revealed as a hapless actor, that should have been the end of him.

Instead, he turned up in "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," which makes some degree of sense, because the original 'Mandarin," better known as Wenwu (Tony Leung) was just a bit upset with him. So far, so good. Then the movie made him an actual hero, fighting alongside the good guys against dragons. Given everything known about the character thus far, it strained credulity (even more than the existence of dragons). Keep him a coward, or not at all.

Korg

Enough already with this guy.

When Taika Waititi took over the "Thor" series with "Ragnarok," it was a welcome change of pace. Adding his trademark whimsy to a script he did not originally write, the director struck the right balance of action, humor, and social commentary. He also grounded some of the movie's events with the character of Korg, whom he played, a gladiator who just wants to go along to get along, and who was based on some soft-spoken-yet-large security guards Waititi had known.

As a brief funny cameo in "Avengers Endgame," Korg was also welcome. The weirdness of the rock guy and his little alien buddy just hanging out playing video games once again brought a welcome casualness to a crazy situation. Enough was enough, though. By the time Korg became full-on narrator and co-lead of "Thor: Love and Thunder," Waititi overplayed his hand. As he often does in scripts he writes, he failed to hold back or counter much of the silliness, and by the end, the rock-man has a husband named Dwayne. Get it? Because of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Most Marvel jokes work because they refer to things in-universe; that kind of metatextual humor belongs more to a "Shrek" sequel than "Thor."

On the plus side, Korg and Dwayne are a positively portrayed gay couple with a child, Dwayne's goofy and unlikely mustache aside. On the other side, two Korgs in a future movie could be insufferable. Take the happy ending, and stay there.

Tony Stark

Without Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.), there would be no MCU. Had "Iron Man" flopped, Marvel might not have tried again for quite a while. Downey, a popular fan choice for the role due to his acting chops and Stark-like struggles with addiction, helped forged a new direction for comic-book movies, which mostly tended towards the dark and semi-gritty since Tim Burton's 1989 "Batman." With a wry sense of self-aware humor, he allowed audiences to laugh with the storylines rather than at them. When stakes got higher in subsequent team films, his sarcastic rejoinders felt distinctly human.

So when he died in "Avengers Endgame," it meant something. He couldn't be defensive with a quick quip, nor could he snark his way out. He was faced with an honorable death and made the noble sacrifice sincerely. He was Iron Man. It was glorious.

Undoing that for a star power boost would be a terrible idea. Not just because a death like that needs to stick, but because with a pivot toward younger, female heroes, his macho ironic detachment doesn't seem right. Kamala Khan, Kate Bishop, Yelena Belova, Riri Williams, et al, are sincere and excited to be heroes, having grown up in a world where super-powered beings exist. Genuine wonder is easier to mock than sardonic wit, so it's rarer, but Marvel Studios needs to go there. And it's no country for Iron Men.

Everett Ross

Presumably, most people reading this have seen the meme describing Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis as the "Tolkien white guys" in "Black Panther." It's funny because it's true, not just because Freeman played Bilbo Baggins, but because he takes on a role typically played by black costars in action-hero movies, of the outmatched sidekick who still manages to do just enough heroic stuff at the end. He's Wakanda's melanin-challenged Kevin Hart.

There's a problem with that, though, and it's pointed out every time a "Black Panther" movie comes out. Everett Ross is presented as CIA. Not part of some in-universe substitute like SHIELD, but the real CIA. Whatever side you take on that particular agency, comic relief ain't it. The actual Central Intelligence Agency destabilizes governments, operating above the laws of the countries they're in. They don't just send fun guys to hang with the king and team up to fight supervillains.

He has also kind of outlived his purpose. In "Wakanda Forever," he mainly exists to give unnecessary exposition and set up future movies. He also makes multiple rookie mistakes, and even becomes a sort of damsel in distress by the finale. The real CIA would have kicked him to the curb or disappeared him long ago.

Read this next: MCU Superpowers That Don't Quite Make Sense

The post 10 MCU characters we want removed from the movies for good appeared first on /Film.

Strangely, Elvis Presley and Kurt Russell's careers are intrinsically linked. For more than four decades, Russell has been a Hollywood mainstay. With his chiseled chin and rugged good looks, the actor looks like he was born to be a Hollywood A-lister. His performance in 1981's "Escape from New York" put him on the map as one of Hollywood's hottest action heroes. With subsequent films "Silkwood" and "Overboard," Russell would prove he had the acting chops to succeed in any genre.

But it didn't always feel like that. Russell made his feature film debut in 1963 with an uncredited role in the Elvis Presley movie "It Happened at the World's Fair." Despite rubbing elbows (technically kicking shins, which is what his character does to Elvis) with one of the most popular entertainers of the era, Russell would spend the next 16 years toiling away in film and minor television roles, waiting for his big break. Ironically, an unexpected reconnection with the King of Rock and Roll would lead to Russell's eventual Hollywood breakout. And the actor knew that it was coming from a polarizing role.

Russell Found An Older Elvis Inspiring

Kurt Russell, first and foremost, is an Elvis fan. "An Elvis movie to me is always worth watching, simply because of Elvis," Russell said on Turner Classic Movies. After working with Elvis in 1963, Russell had two opportunities to see the musical icon live in concert. The shows were two very different performances. The first time Russell saw the King he was still in his prime. The second time was after the unkind years had worn Elvis down.

It was that second Las Vegas performance by Elvis that inspired Russell, and would eventually lead to his big break. In 2016 the actor told GQ how fans gasped at the drastic new look of the icon, and how it influenced him. Russell said:

"I'm telling you, God's honest truth, 30 seconds later, he was Elvis. What I realized about that was, which I drew on later on, he was living it. He was just doing what he was doing and had gone to the 'Oh, f*** it' state, and he was fantastic. He knew it didn't matter if he weighed a thousand pounds. The performance, it made it sort of even better. He was moving into a different zone, and becoming like Pavarotti, or something."

It was that confidence he observed watching Elvis that Russell would draw on a few years later when taking a risk on a movie that he knew could easily be a disaster.

'I Have Waited 17 Years To Take This Big Chance'

Playing Elvis Presley isn't easy. Just ask Austin Butler, who auditioned for 5 months before Baz Luhrmann's recent biopic. The same was true four decades ago. When ABC decided to make a TV movie about Elvis a year after his death, the network struggled to find an actor to play the King. Eventually, the role was offered to an unknown Kurt Russell. Watching Elvis' bravado years earlier gave the actor the courage to take the risky lead role in the aptly named "Elvis."

"I know one thing, there's no in-between, it's either really going to be great or really horrible, just stinking," Russell told the Los Angeles Times (via GQ) before the film's release. "I have waited 17 years to take this big chance, and I thought about it for 10 minutes."

The gamble paid off. Russell and director John Carpenter teamed to create a gritty portrayal of Elvis' life. Russell's portrayal of the icon surprised critics, as The New York Times television critic John J. O'Connor wrote:

"I have only seen this actor in television's 'Swiss Family Robinson' series and a couple of westerns and was totally unprepared for his dynamic capturing of the Elvis image. He is probably better looking and less pudgy than the original, but his swagger and curious vulnerability are brilliantly on target. It is an impersonation that expands to a stunning performance."

"Elvis" was nominated for three Emmys, including an Outstanding Lead Actor nomination for Russell. The film's surprising success marked his official arrival in Hollywood, 16 years after his debut beside Elvis. Russell would team up with Carpenter four more times on his way to becoming a Hollywood icon himself.

And he owes it all to an inspiring performance from an aging, well-worn Elvis Presley.

Read this next: The 14 Greatest Biopics Of The 21st Century

The post Kurt Russell Knew His Elvis Movie Would Be Polarizing appeared first on /Film.

If you follow the Backblaze blog, you’ve likely come across some of our “How to Back Up Your Life” posts. We’re interested in helping you, our readers, design the best backup plan for your needs, regardless of what your setup is, what social networks you’re on, or if you’re on a Mac or a PC.

Of course, Dropbox has shown up in that content. We have several articles talking about the best ways to integrate with their platform, and some articles that just talk about how to deal with the differences between sync and backup.

Recently, we heard that Dropbox released a backup product and wrote an article comparing our two services. (We’re flattered that they consider Backblaze to be the gold standard to compare to!) We thought we’d take this opportunity to respond, mostly because we want our library of guides to include their new offering, and a little bit because, well, there were some interesting interpretations included in the article.

Without further ado, our thoughts on the differences between Backblaze and Dropbox backup.

Backup vs. Sync

Dropbox started out as a syncing service, which, as we’ve noted before, is not the same as a backup service. When you’re using a sync service, you can easily delete or change a file, save it, and then lose the one you actually wanted to keep. This is one of the big reasons you should back up, even if your files are synced.

Over the past several years, Dropbox has been expanding their offerings, including file transfer, document signing, and now backup. It makes a lot of sense if you want to be a leading file management system. But, does Dropbox Backup stack up as a functional, independent product—or is it more of an add-on they’re offering to their sync functionality?

A Quick Note on Citing Your Sources…

When I set out to write this article, I first wanted to see if the things Dropbox claims hold water—After all, innovation is about iteration, and you don’t change or get better if you believe your product is perfect. Maybe we could learn something.

I kept hearing about this product research they’d done:

You know we at Backblaze love data, so I was curious—How did they collect this data? Who were these users? I couldn’t find much more information about it in the article. But, after some digging, I found this on their product page:

It makes sense that people who already use Dropbox would like a product similar to the one they’re paying for. But, do the rest of the claims of the article hold true?

Let’s Talk Pricing

Hey, price is definitely a part of my decision when I purchase services, and I’m sure it’s part of yours too. So, let’s get the big argument out of the way first.

Backblaze Personal Backup is $7 per month. That license includes an automatic, set-it-and-forget-it backup service, unlimited data storage, 30-day version history, and you can add one-year version history for just $2 per month or forever version history for $2 per month plus $0.005 per GB for anything over 10GB.

For argument’s sake, let’s grant that Dropbox also built a backup product that runs smoothly in the background. I haven’t personally tried it, but I’ve used Dropbox for file management, and it’s a great service.

Dropbox Backup has several tiers of payment. It’s also included in many of their other paid plans—so, in other words, if you’re already paying $12–$90+ per month for Dropbox, you can take advantage of Dropbox Backup. But, if you’re trying to purchase just Dropbox Backup, there are several tiers of licensing, and (like most SaaS companies) there are discounts for paying monthly versus yearly.

So, let’s try to compare apples to apples here. Say you only have $10 per month budgeted for your backup plan. Here’s what you’d get with Dropbox:

• Year-long commitment – so no flexibility to cancel
• 2,000GB data cap
• 30-day version history

For the same $10 per month, here’s what you’d get with Backblaze:

• Monthly commitment – flexibility to cancel
• No data cap
• One-year version history

For reference, in 2020 most consumers were storing around 500GB of data in their personal storage clouds, but, unsurprisingly, we store more data every year. According to experts, data storage is doubling about every four years. So, you can certainly expect those “running out of space” notifications to be pushing you to upgrade your Dropbox service, and probably sooner than you’d expect.

Speaking of Flexibility

Once you check out Dropbox’s Help docs, there are a few other things to note. Essentially, if you want to use Dropbox Backup, you have to turn off other syncing and backup services (except for OneDrive).

In order for Dropbox Backup to work, you have to turn off iCloud and Google Backup/Sync services, both of which are super compatible with your mobile devices and which many many folks rely on (two billion Google customers can’t be wrong). And, what about business use cases? Say you’re an enterprise client who wants to work in G-Suite—Dropbox Backup is not your answer. To put it simply: Dropbox Backup works best if Dropbox is the product you also use to store your files in the cloud.

Backblaze, on the other hand, works with whatever other services you’re rocking. Many of the choices we’ve made are reflective of that, including our restoration process. Dropbox offers restoration in place—if you use Dropbox to manage your files already. Basically, when you restore in place, you’re making a change to the virtual environment of your files (their copy of your hard drive that lives in Dropbox), and then they send that back to your computer. If you use a different syncing service or are accessing a file from another device, well, you’re going through the same download/restore process as every other backup service.’

Restores for All

Here’s another thing: It’s a main point in Dropbox’s article that we offer recovery via USB. They turn their noses up at delivering files via the mail—Why would you wait for that?

Well, if you’ve lived in areas with not-great internet, dealt with being the family IT hero, or have a ton of data that needs to be moved, you know that having many ways to restore is key. Sure, it’s easy to scoff at all things analog, “OMG a USB drive via the mail?!” But an external drive (in this example, a USB) comes in super handy when you’re not tech savvy or have a ton of data to move—anyone who’s had to migrate lots of files (at work or at home) knows that sometimes the internet is not as fast as moving data via external devices.

And, of course, you can always restore files from the internet with your Backblaze Personal Backup account. That’s our front-line method in our Help docs, and we’ve built a Download Manager to make things more seamless for our customers. We’ve made updates to our mobile apps, and just as importantly, we offer Backblaze B2 Storage Cloud and Backblaze Business Backup products. That means that if you ever outgrow our Personal Backup services, we’ve got you covered.

To Sum Up

We’re always happy there are more backup options for consumers. A little Backblaze flame warms our hearts when we know peoples’ data is backed up. Of course, we’d love it if everyone used Backblaze, but we want people to back up their data, even if it’s with a competitor.

If you’re already a paying Dropbox user, this may be a great option for you. But, if you’re like the majority of people and need something that works, no matter where/how you store your files or what other services you use, Backblaze Personal Backup is still your easy, affordable, and proven option.

The post Backblaze vs. Dropbox: Backing Up Our Backup Claims appeared first on Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), National Security Agency (NSA), and Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) are warning organizations of malicious attacks using legitimate remote monitoring and management (RMM) software.

IT service providers use RMM applications to remotely manage their clients’ networks and endpoints, but threat actors are abusing these tools to gain unauthorized access to victim environments and perform nefarious activities.

In malicious campaigns observed in 2022, threat actors sent phishing emails to deploy legitimate RMM software such as ConnectWise Control (previously ScreenConnect) and AnyDesk on victims’ systems, and abuse these for financial gain.

The observed attacks focused on stealing money from bank accounts, but CISA, NSA, and MS-ISAC warn that the attackers could abuse RMM tools as backdoors to victim networks and could sell the obtained persistent access to other cybercriminals or to advanced persistent threat (APT) actors.

Last year, multiple federal civilian executive branch (FCEB) employees were targeted with help desk-themed phishing emails, both via personal and government email addresses.

Links included in these messages directed the victims to a first-stage malicious domain, which automatically triggered the download of an executable designed to connect to a second-stage domain and download RMM software from it, as portable executables that would connect to attacker-controlled servers.

“Using portable executables of RMM software provides a way for actors to establish local user access without the need for administrative privilege and full software installation—effectively bypassing common software controls and risk management assumptions,” the US government agencies warn.

In some cases, the email’s recipient was prompted to call the attackers, who then attempted to convince them to visit the malicious domain.

In October 2022, Silent Push uncovered similar malicious typosquatting activity, in which the adversaries impersonated brands such as Amazon, Geek Squad, McAfee, Microsoft, Norton, and PayPal to distribute the remote monitoring tool WinDesk.Client.exe.

In the attacks targeting federal agencies, the threat actors used the RMM tools to connect to the recipient’s system, then entice them to log into their bank account.

The attackers used the unauthorized access to modify the victim’s bank account summary to show that a large amount of money had been mistakenly refunded, instructing the individual to send the amount back to the scam operator.

“Although this specific activity appears to be financially motivated and targets individuals, the access could lead to additional malicious activity against the recipient’s organization—from both other cybercriminals and APT actors,” CISA, NSA, and MS-ISAC note.

The agencies underline that any legitimate RMM software could be abused for nefarious purposes, that the use of portable executables allows attackers to bypass existing policies and protections, that antivirus defenses would not be typically triggered by legitimate software, and that RMM tools provide attackers with persistent backdoor access to an environment, without the use of custom malware.

CISA, NSA, and MS-ISAC also warn that the legitimate users of RMM software, such as managed service providers (MSPs) and IT help desks, are often targeted by cybercriminals looking to gain access to a large number of the victim MSP’s customers, which could lead to cyberespionage or to the deployment of ransomware and other types of malware.

To stay protected, organizations are advised to implement phishing protections, audit remote access tools, review logs to identify the abnormal use of RMM software, use security software to detect the in-memory execution of RMM software, implementing proper application control policies, restrict the use of RMM software from within the local network, and train employees on phishing.

Related: CISA Updates Infrastructure Resilience Planning Framework

Related: NSA, CISA Explain How Threat Actors Plan and Execute Attacks on ICS/OT

Related: NSA Publishes Best Practices for Improving Network Defenses

The post US Government Agencies Warn of Malicious Use of Remote Management Software appeared first on SecurityWeek.

Prepare your home to handle any natural disaster or emergency with these crucial essentials.

The U.S. government's cybersecurity agency has warned that criminal financially motivated hackers compromised federal agencies using legitimate remote desktop software. From a report: CISA said in a joint advisory with the National Security Agency on Wednesday that it had identified a "widespread cyber campaign involving the malicious use of legitimate remote monitoring and management (RMM) software" that had targeted multiple federal civilian executive branch agencies -- known as FCEBs -- a list that includes Homeland Security, the Treasury, and the Justice Department. CISA said it first identified suspected malicious activity on two FCEB systems in October while conducting a retrospective analysis using Einstein, a government-operated intrusion detection system used for protecting federal civilian agency networks. Further analysis led to the conclusion that many other government networks were also affected.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Any organization that handles sensitive data must be diligent in its security efforts, which include regular pen testing. Even a small data breach can result in significant damage to an organization's reputation and bottom line. There are two main reasons why regular pen testing is necessary for secure web application development: Security: Web applications are constantly evolving, and new

The Pro Display XDR and its ridiculous price tag made it difficult to recommend to many buyers, but we have something that costs significantly less and provides so much more in return, including that crisp 5120 x 2880 resolution, more commonly known as 5K. Presenting the Apple Studio Display, which is now available at an unbeatable $1,299.99 on Amazon, making it the lowest price we have ever seen to date.

Even then, aside from the high resolution, what would compel customers to pick this display up? Well, for starters, it is made using premium materials that will not only prop up any room you place it in but it will also last you longer than other monitors that are predominantly made up of plastic. Furthermore, its 27-inch IPS LCD is the sweet spot for display sizes, and its 600 nits of brightness will be more than plentiful for the majority of buyers.

At the top, you get a 12MP ultrawide camera with Center Stage support, which will follow you around when you are engaged in video calls. Keep in mind that the Apple Studio Display is not just meant for your MacBook, Mac mini, Mac Studio, or any other Mac, but it will also play nice with any Windows-powered notebook you have available at the time. You just have to make sure that your existing machine has a Thunderbolt 3 or Thunderbolt 4 port.

Now here is something that the Apple Studio Display offers that your current monitor does not; a six-speaker sound system with Spatial Audio support, delivering an impeccable listening experience. It also features a three-mic array so the person on the edge of the planet can listen to your voice clearly.

The adjustable stand makes your work sessions less fatiguing on your neck and if you have a portable MacBook that needs to be hooked up to the Apple Studio Monitor, it can also supply it with 96W of power to keep your notebook charged. While $1,299.99 might be a little too much for a monitor, we will gladly say that all the features we talked about are not even present on a regular high-resolution display, so in most cases, the price is justified.

Get the Apple Studio Display at its lowest price of $1,299.99 on Amazon

The post Apple Studio Display And Its Pixel-Perfect Resolution With A Premium Build Quality Can Be Yours At Its Lowest Price Of $1,299.99 by Omar Sohail appeared first on Wccftech.

Prior to tackling our Dead Space Remake review, I wasn't entirely convinced we needed a re-do. While the sci-fi horror romp is now almost 15 years old, its unique package of genre-defining mechanics and interstellar terror still holds up today. Thankfully, Motive has respectfully transformed the original concept into something that feels like a 2023 caper, all while retaining everything that still makes the original grotesquely brilliant.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: The best horror games on PC, The best space games on PC, Dead Space system requirements

The NIST compliance framework consists of 5 core functions: identify, protect, detect, respond and recover. In my previous column, I mapped threat intelligence capabilities to the NIST core function of Identify. In this column, I will continue the discussion by mapping threat intelligence to the additional functions of Protect, Detect and Respond.  By doing so, I will highlight how threat intelligence is critical when justifying budget, not only for governance, risk and compliance (GRC) personnel, but also for threat intelligence, incident response, security operations, CISO and third-party risk buyers.

Concerns such as data leakage, IOCs, credential theft, third-party vendor suppliers and the selling of intellectual property are all relevant to the NIST framework. As CTI teams prioritize the intelligence requirements of their business stakeholders, it is beneficial to provide context by mapping the impact of cybersecurity threat intelligence programs to the following NIST core functions.

PROTECT

Data Security

9) PR.DS-5: Protections against data leaks are implemented: Data leakage detection capabilities can be used to identify and remediate data leakage. Monitoring outbound connections and content going to file sharing or cloud services is typically a starting point.

Information Protection Processes and Procedures

10) PR.IP-12: A vulnerability management plan is developed and implemented: CTI providers typically provide a monitoring solution for vulnerability management (VM). Providing telemetry details on an attacker’s near real-time abilities to exploit vulnerabilities is differentiated than traditional, static VM tooling.

DETECT

Anomalies and Events

11) DE.AE-2: Detected events are analyzed to understand attack targets and methods: Proactively detect events and react during incident response activities to provide context and enrichment for investigations. Conducting threat group attribution is a common threat intelligence use case for reacting to an incident.

12) DE.AE-3: Event data are collected and correlated from multiple sources and sensors: Threat intelligence and managed service providers are a source for event data, context and enrichment. IOCs, compromised credentials and intellectual property theft are common event data sources.

Continuous Security Monitoring

13) DE.CM-1: The network is monitored to detect potential cybersecurity events: Similar to the previous bullet, CTI data and managed service providers monitor the external network and alerts on potential cyber security events that are relevant to your perimeter network and cloud services.

14) DE.CM-3: Personnel activity is monitored to detect potential cybersecurity events: CTI tooling monitors the external digital footprint of key staff and VIPs to detect cybersecurity events. Personal identifiable information (PII) takedowns are common outcomes.

15) DE.CM-5: Unauthorized mobile code is detected: Mobile application monitoring detects unauthorized mobile code including any code posted to third party repositories (Github), cloud services or hosting providers (Linode).

16) DE.CM-6: External service provider activity is monitored to detect potential cybersecurity events: CTI feeds and managed service providers can be used to monitor external service providers for potential cybersecurity events. For example, data leaks of third parties are a common breach for larger enterprises and can be monitored.

17) DE.CM-8: Vulnerability scans are performed: Similar to the above, CTI providers can enrich vulnerability scanners with greater context and external telemetry.

RESPOND

Response Planning

18) RS.RP-1: Response plan is executed during or after an incident: CTI providers can be used for the external investigation component of incident response plans. This is common to prepare for various ransomware actors.

Analysis

19) RS.AN-1: Notifications from detection systems are investigated: Not just limited to network devices, CTI and threat management functions augment incident response to alerts of security events and incidents.

Mitigation

20) RS.MI-3: Newly identified vulnerabilities are mitigated or documented as accepted risks: CTI teams submit vulnerabilities validated in the wild to appreciate stakeholders for remediation.

Protecting, detecting and responding to cyber incidents is generally considered with the security operations team and incident responders using tools to protect endpoints and servers and remediate security incidents. While these are critical aspects to comply with NIST, threat intelligence squarely fits into these facets of NIST from an “outside the firewall” approach.

Related: Mapping Threat Intelligence to the NIST Compliance Framework Part 1

The post Mapping Threat Intelligence to the NIST Compliance Framework Part 2 appeared first on SecurityWeek.

Apple is reportedly taking multiple steps back as far as the user upgradeability goes on the company’s Mac Pro. In addition to not being able to upgrade the RAM, customers will also not be able to hook up external GPUs sporting a PCIe slot. However, it is possible that Apple is locking out external GPU support because the Mac Pro’s own solution will be more than capable.

Perhaps the only thing users can upgrade on the upcoming Apple Silicon Mac Pro is the storage

After his prediction surrounding the Apple Silicon Mac Pro’s lack of upgradeable RAM, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman now claims that the workstation expected to tout the company’s fastest SoC will also ship without external GPU support. With previous Macs sporting Intel processors, Apple gave users the ability to hook up graphic cards when they were placed in enclosures, with the connection taking place through a Thunderbolt 3 port.

Ever since the M1 lineup of Macs rolled out, Apple has dropped support for external GPUs without providing a solid reason. As far as user-upgradeability goes, only the Intel-based Mac Pro provides that facility, where customers can swap between the storage, GPUs, RAM, and even the CPU, though the latter is a lengthy process and requires a more detailed disassembly.

Gurman states that the only thing that will be upgradeable on the upcoming Mac Pro is the storage, meaning that customers will be able to save some money. However, he does not point out if the storage available to purchase will be based on the industry standard, which is the M.2 PCIe NVMe protocol, or if Apple intends to introduce its own proprietary connector with the Mac Pro launch. It appears that we will find out in the coming months.

The next Mac Pro may lack user upgradeable GPUs in addition to non-upgradeable RAM. Right now Apple Silicon Macs don’t support external GPUs and you have to use whatever configuration you buy on Apple’s website. But the Mac Pro GPU will be powerful with up to 76 cores.

— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) January 26, 2023

Also, for those worried about the lack of graphics performance, Gurman states that the Apple Silicon Mac Pro’s 76-core GPU will be sufficiently powerful. However, customers will likely need to configure their way to get the 76-core GPU option as it will not be provided with the base model. With the Mac Studio offered with a 24-core GPU for the base configuration, Apple could follow the same approach, asking its customers to pay a premium to get the 76-core GPU model that will be a part of the M2 Ultra.

Since Apple stopped development work on the M2 Extreme, the M2 Ultra will be the most powerful custom silicon made by the company. Unfortunately, do not expect all of these components to be housed in a brand new chassis because, according to a previous rumor, the Mac Pro will retain the same enclosure as the one featuring Intel’s Xeon processors. This means that it will be difficult to lug it around if you want to make some adjustments to your existing workspace.

Overall, we still believe that Apple will find success with the upcoming Mac Pro, but we cannot help but wonder the kind of popularity the workstation would have garnered if there were different rumors being talked about. Regardless, we will update our readers during the official announcement, which may be held in the second half of this year, so stay tuned.

The post Apple Silicon Mac Pro Will Not Support External Graphic Cards, But Its Own GPU Is Said To Be Plentiful by Omar Sohail appeared first on Wccftech.

The original Dead Space was the product of a very different era. Back in 2008, survival horror was on a downward trend, with Dead Space being a bit of an outlier that publisher Electronic Arts didn’t quite seem to appreciate or know what to do with. 14 years later, survival horror is back in a big way and Dead Space’s trademark bone-sawing sci-fi take on the genre couldn’t be more in demand. Just over a month ago, we got the (not entirely successful) Dead Space spiritual successor The Callisto Protocol, and now EA is poised to release a full-on Dead Space remake.

The new Dead Space may be the passion project of Montreal-based developer Motive Studio, but does it stand up against today’s top-tier horror titles? Or has time sliced the legs out from under the game? Fasten your helmets and seatbelts; it’s time to return to the Ishimura.

The new Dead Space largely sticks to the story you remember. Players once again take on the role of Isaac Clarke, a regular working-class systems engineer who is part of a team sent to investigate when the massive “planetcracker” ship USS Ishimura stops sending signals. Isaac’s girlfriend Nicole happens to be the medical officer aboard the ship, so he has an extra personal stake in the mission. Upon arriving, it’s soon discovered most of the people on the Ishimura have been transformed into grotesquely-mutated undead “Necromorphs” created by the Marker, an artifact worshipped by the cult-like Unitologists. As Isaac’s crew drops like flies, he must find a way to survive the Ishimura, find Nicole, and hopefully head off the Unitologists’ dark plans.

While Motive doesn’t mess around with the Dead Space’s core plot, new multi-part sidequests provide more detail about what characters like Nicole, Dr. Mercer, and others have been up to when Isaac wasn’t around. In addition, new logs, environmental details, and spoken lines from Isaac himself combine to create a richer, more lived-in-feeling world.

Isaac is well-equipped to explore that world, boasting all his classic abilities and then some. Combat is once again a matter of slicing through limbs rather than going for the headshot, with the ability to throw items and enemies with Kinesis and cast pockets of slow motion with your Stasis ability adding just enough additional depth. The new “peeling” system, which graphically shows the flesh being shredded off the bones of whatever unfortunate enemy you’re assaulting, is more than just gross (although it is very gross). In the past, limbs just kinda popped off once you hammered on them for a while, but now you can see exactly how close they are to snapping, allowing you to better react and strategize.

Dead Space’s collection of weapons, from the ever-reliable Plasma Cutter to the nasty Ripper and powerful Contact Beam, remains one of the most unique and empowering ever dreamed up. This time around, the majority of your weapons receive new alt-fire modes, most of which are significantly more useful than in the past. For example, the Flamethrower now allows you to throw up a blazing wall to block enemies, while the Pulse Rifle can shoot off a powerful shotgun-like blast. New weapon upgrade trees also hide some fun new options, including the ability to fire off ricocheting Ripper blades.

On top of tweaks to combat, zero gravity traversal has received a full redo, as you now have full 3D control rather than simply jumping from point to point. This certainly feels more modern than the old approach (and more in step with Dead Space 2 and 3), although this means some Zero-G sections are actually more complex and challenging than in the past.

As with story and combat, the new Dead Space largely sticks to coloring within the lines laid down by the original game when it comes to level design. Dead Space has always exuded a certain M-rated Metroid vibe, but now it sports a full-on Metroidvania-style layout. While you won’t be getting lost as often as you would in a real Metroid game due to your trust locator beacon, the map is now much more interconnected. Meanwhile, a new security lock-out system will present you with many enticing doors, chests, and lockers you’ll only be able to access when you return to an area later in the game.

Beyond the Metroid-esque changes, you’ll mostly see the same areas you did in the original game, but in many cases, their layouts have been significantly overhauled. Additionally, new circuit breakers and corruption tendrils that must be cleared out of the way by shooting their weak spots add a reoccurring puzzle element to progression. Playing the new Dead Space feels like returning to a neighborhood you haven’t visited in years – the landmarks are all still there, but the way they’re arranged and relate to one another may not be quite how you remember.

As if the layout changes weren’t enough, the makers of the new Dead Space attempt to further throw vets off with the new “Intensity Director.” This system provides a wide range of dynamic scares, with Motive promising over 1200 unique events. At times it’s fairly obvious you’re being messed with, but when it really works, the Intensity Director serves up some of the scariest moments in the game. You’ll grip the controller extra hard when the lights go out right after you’ve survived a particularly tough encounter and I’ll admit I screamed more than once when the system spawned a sneaky Necromorph behind my back.

Dead Space doesn’t over-rely on this procedural approach, though. Motive also hand tweaks and polishes a number of the game’s set pieces and encounters. Often this is for the best – your initial encounter with the Hunter is now a lot more exciting, the part from Chapter 7 where you have to defend Nicole is less annoying, and boss fights are improved. That said, I can’t help but feel like Motive could have practiced a bit more “addition by subtraction” and completely removed some bits. Sure, the asteroid shooting section from Chapter 4 has arguably been improved, but frankly, I could have done without it altogether.

In general, the Dead Space remake still feels a bit dated in some ways. You can only save at certain spots, checkpoints are ungenerous, and level design still revolves heavily around elevator, gondola, and tram rides, even though the load times they once masked shouldn’t be an issue anymore. More fundamentally, Dead Space never really lets its horror breathe. Even Resident Evil, which has a reputation for being more on the action-ey side of the spectrum, still occasionally takes time out to focus on building tension or to toy around with different horror genres. Dead Space, on the other hand, never really lets up with the steady drum beat of objectives or changes its level of intensity. Of course, some will enjoy that relentless approach, but as the horror genre has matured over the past decade-and-a-half, I think we’ve seen that variety and modulations in tone can be valuable tools.

While Dead Space sometimes feels like a product of the past, it doesn’t look like one, bringing a new aura of dread to the Ishimura through the use of impressive lighting, fog, and reflections. I played most of the game in Quality Mode with ray tracing, as I feel a game like this benefits from the improved atmosphere, and it seemed to mostly hold a steady 30fps on PS5 with only brief spots of trouble in particularly elaborate effects-laden areas. Generally, action scenes held up well, even with lots of Necromorphs and carnage on screen. Does Dead Space measure up to recent survival horror visual showcases like Resident Evil Village, The Last of Us Part I, or even The Callisto Protocol? Honestly, not quite. The level of detail isn’t there, and fairly regularly occurring visual bugs drag things down a bit (thankfully, these glitches usually don’t affect gameplay). This is a very nice-looking game; it just doesn’t reach that highest tier.

One area in which the new Dead Space absolutely does match or beat the competition is replayability. While the campaign sticks to the original’s core beats, the expanded map and new moments mean what was once a 10-hour campaign took me closer to 15 hours to complete. Throw sidequests and a much-improved New Game+ with fresh collectibles, enemies, and an alternate ending to unlock into the mix, and Dead Space should continue to live on your recently-played list for some time.

This review was based on a PS5 copy of Dead Space provided by publisher Electronic Arts.

The post Dead Space Review – An Effective Yet Finite Facelift by Nathan Birch appeared first on Wccftech.

Regardless of genre, the best films typically revolve around compelling, multi-dimensional characters who viewers can become emotionally invested in. Since the mid-'80s, filmmaker Spike Lee has given life to characters who remain memorable long after the credits roll. Lee's characters are more than just the protagonists of their respective stories; they're vehicles for the director's social commentary. His films frequently tackle racial politics, which these characters face head-on in their daily lives. For them, discrimination and poverty are ever-present facts of life that shape their decisions and motivations.

However, these characters' greatest strength is the humble, true-to-life nature of their personalities. They frequently smash stereotypes, giving audiences a glimpse at the humanity behind their outward personas. For instance, several Spike Lee joints feature would-be criminals who receive as much empathy and development as traditional heroes. Many of Lee's characters become symbols of hope and resilience, while others are hysterical everymen who could easily be your neighbors or friends. They struggle to find love, prosperity, and purpose in a world that stacks the deck against them, and their losses and triumphs become enduring universal stories that highlight a side of the American experience that often goes unseen.

Shadow Henderson — Mo' Better Blues

Spike Lee kicked off the 1990s with "Mo' Better Blues," a dramedy about an ill-fated musician named Bleek Gilliam (Denzel Washington). His bandmate, Shadow Henderson (Wesley Snipes), is a talented, ambitious saxophone player who wants to strike out on his own. Shadow steals the spotlight with extended solos, launching a rivalry between the two musicians. Despite his attempts to usurp Bleek, Shadow still acts as his support system when it counts. For example, when Bleek suffers a near-fatal beating, Shadow puts their rivalry aside to help him. This dynamic character exists in the space between enemy and best friend.

Though he is an intriguing and ever-present force in the film, Shadow is not as strong as some other supporting characters. Unfortunately, like many of Spike Lee's creations, Shadow often embodies his name. He brilliantly commands center stage, but also easily slips into the background. He therefore has far fewer poignant scenes than his more famous counterpart. However, whereas Bleek's intense focus on the limelight blinds him to the troubles in his life, Shadow maintains an effortless balance. His music often has a stronger voice than he does, but that leads to enduring success.

Rodney Little — Clockers

Father figures take many forms in Spike Lee joints, but few are as vicious as Rodney Little (Delroy Lindo), the drug lord at the heart of "Clockers." Rodney manipulates his young dealers and weaponizes paternal affection to satisfy his greed. He endears himself to his crew through a twisted kind of tough love, providing the structure they crave while still posing an ever-present threat. He puts young men in harm's way for profits, but shares wisdom in small, almost heartwarming moments. These moments keep his dealers under his spell, but his cold-hearted nature always lurks below the surface.

His calm, collected image unravels when he forces the barrel of a gun into a dealer's mouth and overtly threatens his life. With the thin veil of poise ripped away, Rodney permanently loses some of his dimension. Despite revealing some dark details about his past and being an obvious product of his environment, he never has a redemptive moment. Instead, his entire personality is id and rage. Even the pain of being betrayed by his closest follower devolves into a selfish, destructive tantrum. Rodney is an incredibly memorable character, but one of the least sympathetic that Lee has ever created.

Julian Big Brother Almighty Eaves — School Daze

Spike Lee's second feature, "School Daze," follows multiple students at Mission College, a historically black university. At the epicenter of this undergrad tale is Julian "Big Brother Almighty" Eaves (Giancarlo Esposito), a senior Gamma Phi Gamma fraternity member whose nickname hints at his self-importance. Julian is the epitome of the "big man on campus" archetype, with fraternity brothers who admire him and a girlfriend who fills other men with envy. He exudes an undying air of superiority and is unapologetically ruthless. Yet, Julian knows who he is and has no interest in changing.

Although his position allows him to spread positivity, his god complex compels him to abuse his power instead. In one of Julian's first scenes, he leads a group of pledges around on a leash, thoroughly enjoying their public humiliation. It's a cringeworthy moment, but his exaggerated mannerisms and outlandish power trip make it a hilarious start to the film. Despite all of his awfulness, Julian is the comic relief "School Daze" needs. However, he is also a cautionary tale about the dangers of unchecked power, even within microcosmic environments like Mission College.

Bleek Gilliam — Mo' Better Blues

Bleek Gilliam is a dedicated trumpet player, shameless philanderer, and the protagonist of "Mo' Better Blues." Bleek is a very appropriately-named character because his future as a musician is quite bleak. Although undeniably talented, his off-stage decisions ultimately deprive him of the success he might have enjoyed. Bleek is embroiled in love affairs with two different women, feuding with one of his bandmates, and relying on an ineffective manager with a gambling addiction. Instead of addressing these issues, Bleek uses music to blind himself until the consequences of his choices become impossible to ignore.

Although he'd never win any awards for his sense of morality, Bleek is a solid main character. His undying dedication to his craft is admirable but also obsessive. Music is both the love of his life and his undoing, and that duality creates a universal story. Ultimately, his is a tale of redemption and building a good life after a tragedy. However, for all his intrigue, Bleek is not exactly a likable character. His singular focus in life makes it difficult to relate to him and, therefore, harder to cheer for than some of Lee's more multi-dimensional protagonists.

Jake Shuttlesworth — He Got Game

"He Got Game" is a movie about basketball, but it also demonstrates that atonement comes in many forms. A convict named Jake Shuttlesworth (Denzel Washington) receives a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shorten his prison sentence if he can convince his son, Jesus (Ray Allen), to play basketball for a governor's alma mater. However, Jake's estranged relationship with Jesus makes this a tall order, even with a week of supervised release. He decides to face his past head-on and try to bond with his son over their shared love of basketball.

Even-keeled Jake isn't the most memorable Spike Lee character, but he takes an admirable approach to his circumstances. Despite Jesus' choice being the potential key to his freedom, he approaches the situation cautiously. It would be easy to portray Jake as a desperate convict who will do anything to sway Jesus, but Lee instead allows him to be what he is: a father seeking forgiveness. Jake is undeniably well-conceived, but his lack of emotional range or a sweeping character arc makes him more forgettable than he deserves to be. In a film filled with slow, quiet moments, Jake's integrity speaks for itself.

Montgomery Monty Brogan — 25th Hour

The 2002 film "25th Hour" incorporates the somber atmosphere of post-9/11 New York into a story about a convicted criminal facing a lengthy prison sentence. Drug dealer Montgomery "Monty" Brogan (Edward Norton) has just 24 hours to get his affairs in order before his sentence begins, and he feels the pressure to soak up every last minute of freedom. Regret is a significant component of Monty's pre-incarceration swan song, with plenty of self-pity on the menu as well. While you can understand why Monty feels sorry for himself, his attitude initially makes it a little difficult to warm up to him.

Monty may not make as strong of a first impression as some of Lee's best protagonists, but Monty's strength is his deeply layered personality. Viewers discover the fear and compassion he hides beneath his tough exterior as his story unfolds. Throughout his final day as a free man, Monty is alone in a sea of people, contemplating his life and making peace with his choices. Although he initially blames the world for his fate, he also curses his own greed and carelessness. Monty's story is about self-forgiveness, which is often the hardest type to achieve.

Mister Señor Love Daddy — Do The Right Thing

In 1989, "Do the Right Thing" put Lee on the map with a story about social unrest in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. The film opens with Mister Señor Love Daddy (Samuel L. Jackson), a radio host who begins his 8:00 AM segment with a blaring alarm clock and a command for listeners to "wake up." This scene creates a subtle continuum with Lee's previous movie, "School Daze," which ends with a student ringing a bell and the same demand. This connection immediately indicates that Love Daddy is an important messenger.

Love Daddy has some of the best lines in the film, but rarely interacts with anyone. The neighborhood mostly takes his presence for granted, such as when the local pizza delivery boy, Mookie (Spike Lee), is late with Love Daddy's lunch because he stops to argue with another character. However, Love Daddy's voice echoes throughout the film, offering keen observations about the state of the neighborhood. He becomes an indispensable vehicle for the film's message about the consequences of unaddressed racial tensions, which are -- as he is -- ever-present in the background. "And that's the double truth, Ruth."

Nola Darling — She's Gotta Have It

Proud womanizers are common in films, but Spike Lee shows the flip side of that stereotype in 1986's "She's Gotta Have It." Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Johns) is a visual artist who maintains romantic relationships with three men, all of whom are aware of each other's existence. One hilarious scene features Nola inviting her lovers to spend Thanksgiving with her -- at the same time. Unsurprisingly, the only one who expects a peaceful evening is Nola, who is quickly disappointed by the men's rivalry.

Nola's most striking characteristics are her integrity and dogged pursuit of happiness. She could easily lie to each of her suitors to keep the peace, but refuses to be dishonest about her life choices. Even better, she doesn't require the acclaim many male characters would seek if they were in her shoes. For Nola, dating multiple men isn't about racking up conquests -- it's about happiness. While society probably didn't accept her behavior in the 1980s (and likely wouldn't now, in many respects), she doesn't care about living up to anyone's standards but her own. Strong female protagonists are a rarity in Spike Lee films, but Nola is the gold standard.

Mookie — Do The Right Thing

Spike Lee frequently appears in his own films, but few of his onscreen appearances are as memorable as his role in "Do the Right Thing." Lee plays Mookie, a young man who is the glue between the Italian-owned Sal's Pizzeria and the surrounding Black community of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Mookie doesn't take anything seriously, including his job or responsibilities as a father. Nevertheless, his outgoing, affable nature makes it easy for him to get along with both his neighbors and his boss, Sal (Danny Aiello). When racial tensions flare in Sal's Pizzeria, Mookie even serves as a peacemaker. However, his actions are motivated by a desire to remain employed, not by any moral principles.

Later, Mookie finally chooses convictions over comfort when he starts a riot outside Sal's. Mookie's choice to throw a trash can through the shop's window is one of the most powerful, unforgettable moments in any Spike Lee film, and his transformation from slacker to community activist leaves an enduring impression. "Do The Right Thing" isn't Mookie's only film appearance, either. In 2012, Spike Lee reprised this iconic role in "Red Hook Summer," where Mookie appears wearing his original "Sal's Pizzeria" shirt.

Strike — Clockers

Some of the best characters in Spike Lee's movies have unexpected quirks that elevate them above familiar tropes. For example, although most movies portray drug dealers as one-dimensional villains, Lee uses unique personality traits to humanize Strike (Mekhi Phifer) in "Clockers." Whereas the film's beginning makes it appear that Strike is thriving in the drug trade, his subtly childlike characteristics demonstrate that he is a victim of his circumstances. For example, Strike doesn't go anywhere without a bottle of Chocolate Moo, an immature choice of a beverage that he believes helps his severe stomach issues.

Indeed, while watching Strike endure the harsh realities of life as a small-time pusher, it's easy to forget that he's only 19 years old. However, audiences are reminded of his youth through an unusual hobby: Strike loves tinkering with model trains. While the drug-pushing side of his life is fast-paced, this pastime is calm and meditative. Furthermore, watching Strike lose himself in his pursuit endears him to viewers without robbing him of his dignity. Rather than hammer audiences with the tragedy of seeing Strike grow up too quickly, the train set is a silent representation of his arrested development. His eventual escape from the neighborhood is a touching triumph because Strike truly deserves a second chance.

Ron Stallworth — Black KkKlansman

In 2018, Spike Lee brought the incredible true story of detective Ron Stallworth to life in "Black KkKlansman." In the 1970s, Stallworth — a Black man — successfully became a card-carrying member of the Ku Klux Klan through a complex intelligence operation. Although Stallworth is African-American, his ingenuity and impressive gift of gab helped him win the favor of several influential Klan leaders. With help from a white police officer who poses as Stallworth for in-person meetings, the detective exposes the harrowing crimes committed by the organization. 

John David Washington brings Stallworth to life in the film, following in the footsteps of his father, Denzel Washington, who has notably appeared in multiple Spike Lee productions. Washington expertly captures the complex emotional world of a man caught between two worlds. Although Stallworth is a dedicated police officer, he also faces racism inside and outside the department. These experiences are painful, and Stallworth shows an incredible amount of restraint in how he handles volatile situations. He is among the funniest of Lee's protagonists, and has the best sense of humor about himself and the world around him.

Vaughn Dap Dunlap — School Daze

At the beginning of "School Daze," audiences meet Vaughn "Dap" Dunlap, a politically active senior at Mission College. In many ways, Vaughn is a typical student, enjoying hanging out with friends and spending time with his girlfriend, Kyme (Rachel Meadows). However, despite his youth, Vaughn already has a firm grasp on the importance of the world outside of college. While his fellow students concern themselves with football games and fitting in, Vaughn protests South Africa's apartheid and raises awareness on campus. 

Vaughn's actions firmly plant "School Daze" in the cultural climate of its day. This movie hit theaters in 1988, when the pressure to end apartheid was at an all-time high. For example, an article from The Michigan Daily announced the University of Michigan's decision to divest remaining holdings in South African companies, a process many U.S. institutions undertook in the 1980s. Undoubtedly, Vaughn acts as the film's messenger. As the movie draws to a close, he makes one final plea for the student body -- and the audience -- to heed his call. He stands in the quad at daybreak, ringing a bell and uttering a hauntingly memorable refrain: "Wake up ... wake up ... wake up."

Malcolm X — Malcom X

In 1965, Alex Haley published "The Autobiography of Malcolm X." While most autobiographies are self-written, this book is the result of a collaboration; the human rights activist told Haley his life story, and Haley put it on paper. The book later became the inspiration for 1992's "Malcolm X." Like the text, the film digs below the surface of the leader's cult of personality and sheds light on his complicated origin story and road to redemption. Although Spike Lee wasn't the first filmmaker to work on "Malcolm X," he was the one who finally brought the longstanding project across the finish line. 

The film's script beautifully captures the spirit of the original autobiography, and, as a result, the dramatized Malcolm X (Denzel Washington) embodies the charm and determination of his real-life counterpart. As he follows Malcolm X's journey from wayward teenager to activist, Washington's performance is stunningly lifelike. Many events unfold on screen exactly as they did on the page. In speaking to The Baltimore Sun, Washington explains that he felt confident after receiving positive feedback for playing Malcolm X on stage. That confidence radiates through his portrayal of the activist as a multi-faceted and deeply passionate leader, father, and human being.

Radio Raheem — Do The Right Thing

Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn) is the most irreplaceable character in "Do the Right Thing." Radio is named for his beloved boombox, of course, which he carries everywhere while blasting one song: Public Enemy's "Fight the Power." The song's history as a protest anthem complements Radio's imposing stature and obvious pride in his identity. His clothing choices reflect both sides of his heritage: African and American. His signature t-shirt reads "Bed-Stuy Do or Die," and he wears an African-inspired pendant. However, Radio's most recognizable accessories are his massive rings, which read "Love" and "Hate."

Of all the supporting characters in Spike Lee's arsenal, Radio has the most weight behind his words. He doesn't have as many lines as the other characters, but when he does speak, everyone sits up and takes notice. In a simple but incredibly powerful monologue, Radio discusses the battle between love and hate, linking the concept to the battle between good and evil and the story of Cain and Abel. His wrongful death at the hands of police officers is the final spark that ignites the neighborhood's racial powder keg. In the end, Radio is not just one young man in a Brooklyn ghetto. He is every victim of police brutality, including those who suffer hauntingly similar deaths over three decades later. Most importantly, Radio is a choice: confront one's enemy with hate and violence, or embrace the belief that love can conquer all.

Read this next: Jordan Peele's Most Brutal Movie Moments Ranked

The post The 14 Best Spike Lee characters, ranked appeared first on /Film.

(Re)make us whole again

It’s been 15 years since Dead Space first hit the Xbox 360, and a lot has happened since then. Survival horror and action games have evolved a lot in that timeframe. With the prospect of reviving a dormant but well-remembered franchise, EA Motive has quite a task.

For the most part, though, Motive has managed to revive the spirit while reimagining the container. The Dead Space remake frequently surprised me, both in how it put twists on familiar moments and still held true to the spirit of the original. Those fans who have been hoping for their limb-cutting, boot-stomping blend of action and body horror to arrive should be satisfied in Motive’s take on Dead Space.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctQl9wa3ydE

Dead Space (PS5 [reviewed], Xbox Series X|S, PC)
Developer: Motive
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Released: January 27, 2023
MSRP: $69.99

The crux of Dead Space is still the same: engineer Isaac Clarke and a small band of operatives are responding to a distress call from the planet-cracking USG Ishimura, a station that’s also home to Isaac’s long-distance partner Nicole. A crash-landing leads the crew to begin exploring a ship that’s clearly fallen into disrepair, and they soon learn why as screaming, terrifying horrors dubbed “necromorphs” start crawling out of the air ducts, straight for their throats.

Some of the most noticeable differences between Motive’s remake and the original Dead Space are in the story. To be clear, broad story beats are still intact. But the way they happen, how characters are introduced or even possibly perish are changed, and things just play out a bit differently than you may remember. It’s not quite at the scale of Resident Evil 2, but there’s enough that I kept opening up old videos and surprising myself at how Motive had reimagined this story. 

Even the way Isaac gets from chapter to chapter has changed, thanks to a few new ways for him to get around the Ishimura. The zero-gravity moment from later Dead Space replaces the swimmer-kick-and-launch from the 2008 Dead Space, and the results are pretty great. I did find reorienting was a bit awkward, so I spent a decent chunk of my zero-G time flying parallel to the “floor.” Still, sections that felt a bit stiff in the original now feel way more fluid and mobile in the remake.

[caption id="attachment_359830" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Speaking of stiff, forget the old turret sequences. Rather than sitting in a chair and firing cannons at asteroids, the turret-centric portions take on a more active approach. I won’t say too much more, but Motive took those, some of my least favorite sequences in the original, and made them some standout sections.

The tram is also a bit different, serving as the fast-travel hub for a much more open Ishimura. Node doors have been done away with, and you’re encouraged to backtrack more through Isaac’s Security Clearance level, which bumps up at different points in the story. It makes sections where you’re treading back through old haunts feel a bit fresher, as there may be new treasure to discover.

Something that I didn’t gel quite as well with were the side quests. Motive has introduced a few side quests that expand the narrative of the game, diving deeper into certain characters or different sides of the Ishimura crew. While I enjoyed the drive and some of the content itself, actually back-tracking for these objectives felt a bit hollow, as it usually just meant walking back through old corridors, following my basketball-dribble waypoint line to its next target. Some are gated by security level too, something you might not realize until you get there and find out you can’t open the right door yet.

When the narrative takes drastically different turns, though, it really works. A few moments have some massive added drama and tension, characters from the original shine in new ways, and the remade versions of them look fantastic. Isaac even speaks and removes the helmet a few times, with his Dead Space 2 and 3 voice actor Gunner Wright lending his voice. It works really well, and builds up the big dramatic swings very well.

[caption id="attachment_359826" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Visually, Dead Space looks great. I mostly stuck to Performance mode on my PlayStation 5, opting for the 60 FPS that made the action feel crisp and responsive. Even then, when not on the ultra-high scale settings, Dead Space looks good. Seeing all the rusted metal and occasional glints of light, contrasting the shadows where fleshy, lumpen necromorphs waited to pounce, felt like seeing Dead Space the way I remembered it.

Still, so much of what drew me to Dead Space is still here. Isaac is an engineer, trying to survive on a mining ship, so his implements and arsenal are all improvised from tools not normally meant for such violence. The Plasma Cutter rips through limbs, the Ripper slices through bodies, and the Force Gun lets out a deafening boom with each discharge. And yes, the chopping is still good. Blowing off a necromorph’s claw, grabbing it with Kinesis and sending it flying back still feels great.

There’s something about this era of game design that still shines through, and still hasn’t been lost in the update. Dead Space rarely wrests the controller away from me. And everything in its world is reactive and tumbling into each other. In one zero-G section, I was trying to line up an explosive container, to blast towards a pesky wall-clinging necromorph, when it lunged at me. I dodged to the side, still holding onto the container with my Kinesis ability, and watched as it slammed face-first into the barrel and blew itself up. It would’ve been brilliant had I planned it, but was even better in the way I hadn’t.

[caption id="attachment_359823" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

My absolute favorite moment of playing the remake happened during a tense fight. Necromorphs were crawling out of vents and gutters, cornering me on a narrow walkway, and I pulled out my Line Gun. I figured putting a laser trap on a handrail would give me a nice way to stem the tide, and slow down my pursuers as I fought for better ground. My shot went a little wide though, and instead of landing on the rail, it attached itself to a necromorph’s head.

Rather than shutting off, the laser activated. Now, normally, the laser would act as a wire, running from its origin point to an endpoint directly across, slicing enemies in half as they tried to walk through it. Well, that origin point was now attached to an angry necromorph’s head, and the laser now emitting from his dome was whipping around the room, like I had startled Cyclops from the X-Men.

These moments, of interactivity and reactivity, are the heart of Dead Space for me. I don’t think it’s particularly scarier than other action-leaning survival horror games. It’s certainly demanding, asking me to count my inventory and savor every health pack, making calculated risks by selling items for precious nodes that can upgrade my weapons or armor. Isaac is slow and not meant for acrobatics, and the weapons can feel clunky in a good way, mirroring how Isaac is repurposing his Space Home Depot loadout for real-time alien downsizing. Stomps made my haptics rumble, and instant deaths were brutal and quick, punctuated by the trademark flatline blaring in my speakers.

[caption id="attachment_359829" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

What Dead Space still nails, alongside the atmosphere and a story that’s given some extra momentum from Motive’s tweaks, is the fast and evolving survival situations. It’s walking into a room, seeing a red barrel in one corner and some stompable crates in another, and knowing you’re about to get ambushed. It’s questioning every air vent you see, and smiling when the game’s intensity director gives it a little spin, just to keep you on your toes. It is my wildly flailing laser-head zombie, slashing up his compatriots and taking a chunk out of me in the process. I couldn’t even be mad. It was just good.

There are some hitches that I ran into, from some odd menu fuzziness to pick-ups that would stubbornly refuse to be picked up, and even some weird save issues—nothing that killed my progress, but definitely enough to keep me a bit cautious.

It feels great to just dive back into the USG Ishimura, though. Dead Space as a concept still holds up, and the reworking EA Motive has provided highlights its best features while shoring up old pitfalls. Sci-fi survival horror fans should get what they want out of this: the return of a classic, with gorgeous graphics and some new twists, but the same old boot-stomping good time.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Dead Space appeared first on Destructoid.

The FBI has at least temporarily dismantled the network of a prolific ransomware gang it infiltrated last year, saving victims including hospitals and school districts a potential $130 million in ransom payments, Attorney General Merrick Garland and other U.S. officials announced Thursday.

“Simply put, using lawful means we hacked the hackers,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said at a news conference.

Officials said the targeted syndicate, known as Hive, operates one of the world’s top five ransomware networks and has heavily targeted hospitals and other health care providers. The FBI quietly gained access to its control panel in July and was able to obtain software keys to decrypt the network of some 1,300 victims globally, said FBI Director Christopher Wray. Officials credited German police and other international partners.

It was not immediately clear how the takedown will affect Hive’s long-term operations, however. Officials did not announce any arrests but said they were building a map of Hive’s administrators, who manage the software, and affiliates, who infect targets and negotiate with victims, to pursue prosecutions.

“I think anyone involved with Hive should be concerned because this investigation is ongoing,” Wray said.

On Wednesday night, FBI agents seized computer infrastructure in Los Angeles that was used to support the network. Two Hive dark web sites were seized: one used for leaking data of non-paying victims, the other for negotiating extortion payments.

“Cybercrime is a constantly evolving threat, but as I have said before, the Justice Department will spare no resource to bring to justice anyone anywhere that targets the United States with a ransomware attack,” Garland said.

Garland said that thanks to the infiltration, led by the FBI’s Tampa office, agents were able in one instance to disrupt a Hive attack against a Texas school district, stopping it from making a $5 million payment.

The operation is a big win for the Justice Department. The ransomware scourge is the world’s biggest cybercrime headache with everything from Britain’s postal service and Ireland’s national health service to Costa Rica’s government crippled by Russian-speaking syndicates that enjoy Kremlin protection.

The criminals lock up, or encrypt, victims’ computer networks, steal sensitive data and demand large sums. The extortion schemes have evolve to where data is stolen before the ransomware is activated and is effectively held hostage. Pay up in cryptocurrency or the criminals release it publicly.

As an example of Hive’s threat, Garland said it had prevented a hospital in the Midwest in 2021 from accepting new patients at the height of the COVID-19 epidemic.

The online takedown notice, alternating in English and Russian, mentions Europol and German partners in the effort. The German news agency dpa quoted the public prosecutor’s office in Stuttgart as saying cyber specialists in the southwestern town of Esslingen were decisive in penetrating Hive’s criminal IT infrastructure after a local company was victimized.

In a statement, Europol said companies in more than 80 countries, including oil multinationals, have been compromised by Hive. It said Europol assisted with cryptocurrency, malware and other analysis, and that law enforcement agencies from 13 countries were involved in the effort.

A U.S. government advisory last year said Hive ransomware actors victimized over 1,300 companies worldwide from June 2021 through November 2022, receiving approximately $100 million in ransom payments. It said criminals using Hive’s ransomware-as-a-service tools targeted a wide range of businesses and critical infrastructure, including government, manufacturing and especially health care and public health facilities.

Even though the FBI offered decryption keys to some 1,300 victims around the world, Wray said only about 20% reported potential issues to law enforcement.

“Here, fortunately, we were still able to identify and help many victims who didn’t report. But that is not always the case,” Wray said. “When victims report attacks to us, we can help them and others, too.”

In some cases, cybersecurity experts say, victims quietly pay ransoms without notifying authorities — and even if they’ve been able to quickly restore their networks — because the criminals have stolen files that could be extremely damaging to them if leaked online, such as information that could be used in identity theft.

John Hultquist, the head of threat intelligence at the cybersecurity firm Mandiant, said the Hive disruption won’t cause a major drop in overall ransomware activity but is nonetheless “a blow to a dangerous group.”

“Unfortunately, the criminal marketplace at the heart of the ransomware problem ensures a Hive competitor will be standing by to offer a similar service in their absence, but they may think twice before allowing their ransomware to be used to target hospitals,” Hultquist said.

But Brett Callow, an analyst with the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, said the operation is apt to lessen ransomware crooks’ confidence in what has been a very high reward-low risk business.

“The information collected may point to affiliates, launderers and others involved in the ransomware supply chain,” Callow said.

And analyst Allan Liska of the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future said the operation shows “law enforcement’s multi-pronged strategy of arrests, sanctions, seizures and more is working to slow down ransomware attacks.” He predicted it would lead to indictments, if not actual arrests, in the next few months.

The ransomware threat captured the attention of the highest levels of the Biden administration two years ago after a series of high-profile attacks that threatened critical infrastructure and global industry. In May 2021, for instance, hackers targeted the nation’s largest fuel pipeline, causing the operators to briefly shut it down and make a multimillion-dollar ransom payment that the U.S. government largely recovered.

Federal officials have used a variety of tools to try to combat the problem, but conventional law enforcement measures such as arrests and prosecutions have done little to frustrate the criminals.

The FBI has obtained access to decryption keys before. It did so in the case of a major 2021 ransomware attack on Kaseya, a company whose software runs hundreds of websites. It took some heat, however, for waiting several weeks to help victims unlock afflicted networks.

The post US Infiltrates Big Ransomware Gang: ‘We Hacked the Hackers’ appeared first on SecurityWeek.

Few major Hollywood pictures have developed the kind of infernal reputation that "The Exorcist" has since its release in 1973. The audience reaction to its shocking scenes is the stuff of legend and religious figures have widely deplored it. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office of Film and Broadcasting (USCCB-OFB) condemned the film; The Christian Century labeled it "hardcore pornography;" and evangelist Billy Graham also had plenty to say (via Sage Journals). He stated that watching the film was like "exposing oneself to the Devil" and that "there is a power of evil in the film, in the fabric of the film itself" (via True Crime Edition).

Was Graham right? If the myth is to be believed, "The Exorcist" was surrounded by malevolent forces from Day One; William Friedkin's production was apparently beset by a series of mishaps, bad omens, accidents, injuries, illnesses, and even deaths, with nine people either directly or indirectly connected to the film passing away during the shoot. The set burnt down and a 10-foot statue of the demon Pazuzu got shipped to the wrong continent by mistake, causing a lengthy delay. A carpenter cut his thumb off while a lighting technician lost a toe. Linda Blair's grandpa died, as did Max von Sydow's brother. Jack MacGowran, who played Burke Dennings in the movie, passed away shortly after the film wrapped (via American Hauntings).

A curse or just plain bad luck? I'd opt for the latter, but I guess when you're working on a film about age-old demons you might be forgiven for feeling more superstitious than usual. Nevertheless, the infamy of "The Exorcist" and, to a lesser extent its sequels, has persisted over the years. With its special evil aura, it is perhaps little wonder that the series also has a long and troubling history with the worst humanity has to offer.

The Zodiac Killer

The still unidentified Zodiac Killer, who provided the inspiration for both "Dirty Harry" and David Fincher's excellent procedural "Zodiac," operated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late '60s. The Killer was responsible for five confirmed murders, but claimed up to 37 in total, stating in a series of taunting letters to the local press that he was collecting them as slaves for the afterlife. Adding to the mystery, he also sent four cryptograms to the press. 

The unsolved nature of the case has kept the Zodiac Killer in the public imagination and amateur sleuths are still trying to crack it over 50 years later. One of the Zodiac's ciphers, sent to the San Francisco Chronicle in 1969, wasn't solved until 2020 (via Washington Post). The message in the "340 Cipher," verified by the FBI, opens with the line "I hope you are having lots of fun in trying to catch me" and references a TV show, which experts believe refers to Jim Dunbar's talk show in 1969 when someone called in identifying themselves as the Killer.

Some people have suggested that the Zodiac Killer remained active into the '80s, and several armchair detectives have claimed to crack the case. One of the most cited suspects, the only publicly-named person of interest by the police, was a sex offender named Arthur Leigh Allen, although this claim was never substantiated. As recently as 2022, author Jarett Kobek suggested another compelling suspect in his book "How to Find a Zodiac" (via The Guardian).

In his final letter to the press in 1974, the Zodiac Killer referenced "The Exorcist," calling the film "the best saterical comidy [sic] that I have ever seen." William Peter Blatty later based the serial killer in his novel "Legion" and its film adaptation "The Exorcist III" on certain aspects of the Zodiac case.

Paul Bateson

"The Exorcist" even featured an alleged serial killer in a small role. Radiologist Paul Bateson, who appeared in the upsetting hospital scene where Regan receives an angiogram, was later convicted in 1979 for the murder of writer Addison Verrill. Details about the crime were gleaned from a call that Bateson made to Arthur Bell, the Village Voice writer who covered a range of LGBTQ issues in the '60s and '70s.

Bell informed the police about the call and was given NYPD protection. An unidentified caller later the same night identified Bateson as Verrill's killer and the police went to his apartment straight away to take him into custody. Bateson knew why they were there, indicating to a copy of the Village Voice with Bell's article about Verrill's murder (via Esquire).

Bateson was also linked to six other men who were found dismembered in the Hudson River. The prosecutor claimed that Bateson bragged about killing and cutting up other victims, but the evidence wasn't substantial enough to indict him for the murders. He was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison in 1979. This series of murders in the mid-'70s inspired William Friedkin to make "Cruising," having previously turned down the chance to direct an adaptation of Gerald Walker's novel of the same name, which focused on a serial killer preying on NYC's gay community. 

Just to add another sinister connection, a few days after "Cruising" was released in theaters, a Texan woman suffering from paranoid schizophrenia cut out her 4-year-old daughter's heart after watching "The Exorcist" on TV. She had become convinced that the girl was demonically possessed (via UPI).

Jeffrey Dahmer

There is a cyclical nature to the way life inspires cinema and cinema inspires life. William Peter Blatty based the Gemini Killer in "Legion" and "The Exorcist III" on the Zodiac Killer; in turn, Blatty's creation became an inspiration for one of the most notorious serial murderers in American history.

Between 1978 and his arrest in 1991, Dahmer murdered 17 boys and young men. During his high-profile trial, the details of his crimes were revealed to be of a particularly grisly nature (via Crime Museum) which I'm not going to get into here. Dahmer plead insanity but it didn't wash; he was sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences with an additional one added after he entered a guilty plea for the murder of his first victim.

One of the focal points of the trial became Dahmer's obsession with "The Exorcist III." He watched it repeatedly and Tracy Edwards, the would-be victim who managed to escape and tell the police, testified that the killer played the film on VHS as they sat together on a bloodstained mattress (via Pink News). Edwards was lucky to get away, and his alert led directly to Dahmer's arrest. Dahmer was beaten to death in prison by another inmate in 1994.

The prominent link between Blatty's film and the notorious serial killer perhaps overshadowed its return to form for the series, but Dahmer wasn't just a fan of "The Exorcist III." He also bought yellow contact lenses so he could look like Emperor Palpatine in "Return of the Jedi" (via Movie Maker). Both movies came up again recently in the Netflix series, "Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story" but it is the connection to "The Exorcist III" that sticks the most, perhaps because of its focus on religious evil rather than galactic villainy.

Danny Rolling, Aka The Gainesville Ripper

"The Exorcist III" also became known in another lesser-known case. Only a few months after Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced in 1992, Danny Rolling, aka the Gainesville Ripper, was charged with the murders of five college students over a four-day killing spree in 1990. By that time Rolling was already in jail and potentially facing multiple life sentences for a series of armed robberies (via Biography). 

During his trial in 1994, psychiatrist Dr. Robert Sadoff testified that Rolling believed he had an alternate personality called "Gemini" and may have been emulating what he'd seen while watching "The Exorcist III," possibly hours before he embarked on the series of killings ( (via AP News):

″Gemini is a part of Mr. Rolling's persona... Mr. Rolling deals in magic, fantasy and mysticism.″

Initially pleading not guilty to the crimes, Rollings changed his plea just before the trial. Mental health professionals decided that while personality disorders were a factor in the crimes, Rollings was sane enough to understand what he was doing. He was sentenced to death by lethal injection and later claimed responsibility for an earlier case in Shreveport, Louisiana, where three family members were slain and posed in a similar fashion to the Gainesville victims. Rolling was executed at Florida State Prison in 2006.

In the early '90s, the Gainesville Ripper case came to the attention of a bit-part actor and budding screenwriter called Kevin Williamson. After watching a true crime show that focused on Rolling's crimes, he was inspired to write a script called "Scary Movie" about a killer preying on college kids who knew all the tropes of horror flicks. That script became "Scream" which, in turn, inspired two Idaho teens to kill their friend in 2006 (via Lad Bible), continuing the cycle of art imitating life and vice versa.

An Optimistic Note

That's all pretty grim reading so I'd like to conclude on a more optimistic note. Over the past few weeks, I have been writing a series of explainers on "The Exorcist" franchise, and spending time with the movies has reinforced the feeling I've always had about the series. Despite their atmosphere of brooding malevolence, I'm struck once again by the positive view of humanity that the films represent. In "The Exorcist" and "The Exorcist III" in particular, William Peter Blatty focuses on selfless, fundamentally good people prepared to make heavy sacrifices to beat the Devil.

In the original film, you have Father Merrin (Max von Sydow) and Father Karras (Jason Miller), two priests who lay down their lives to save a young girl from demonic possession. The Director's Cut concludes with Lieutenant William Kinderman (Lee J. Cobb) walking off arm-in-arm with Father Dyer (William O'Malley), leaving us on a note of comradeship after the death of their mutual friend, Father Karras.

Kinderman is an interesting character. As a homicide detective, he has seen the worst of mankind, but he is defined by his kindness. The name Kinderman is derived from the German "Kindermann," or Children Man, but we can also take it literally in English; there are few kinder men in horror history. 

Blatty brought Kinderman and Dyer back for "The Exorcist III," and their ornery friendship is the heart of the film. After Dyer is murdered and Father Karras's body is possessed by a serial killer, Kinderman performs the ultimate act of love, shooting the latter to free his soul from spiritual torment and sacrificing himself in the process.

There is plenty of evil in the world but, whether you believe in God and the Devil or not, the original "Exorcist" trilogy reassures us that we have the power to defeat it.

Read this next: The 95 Best Horror Movies Ever

The post The Disturbing Connection Between Real-Life Killers and The Exorcist Movies appeared first on /Film.

William Shakespeare's "The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice," inspired by the Italian story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio (1504 - 1573), was likely first performed around 1603 at the Globe Theater just outside of London. The story follows the titular Venetian military commander and his relationship with Desdemona, the daughter of a senator. Othello and Desdemona are both mature adults, and speak their emotions clearly, unlike Shakespeare's other well-known Veronan youths. One of Othello's ensigns, Iago, announces to the audience that he secretly hates Othello, and aches for his undoing. The term "Moor" is an old English word used, insensitively, to refer to anyone with dark skin, and didn't necessarily refer to any country of origin. The word is fraught and deserves more context than I can provide here. 

Because Othello's race is constantly mentioned in the text of the play, many critics see Iago's hate and jealousy of Othello to be motivated by brazen racism. Iago sets about a plot to make it look like Desdemona is actually having an affair with another one of Othello's officers, a chump named Cassio. The jealousy drives Othello to violence, and he eventually kills Desdemona. Then, learning about Iago's lies, he ends his own life, as well. Spoilers on a 420-year-old play. "Othello" is an intense, grand tragedy. 

For many years, thanks to widespread institutionalized racism throughout Europe and the United States, Othello was typically played by white actors who darkened their skin on stage. It wouldn't be until 1825 that actor Ira Aldridge would become the first Black actor to play the part. Look up the multi-volume biographies about Aldridge sometime, as he led a fascinating life.

The First Signs Of Trouble

White actors continued to play the role on screen for over 170 additional years, however. White actors playing Black characters was widely accepted and quite common for many decades, as there were times and places where Black actors were not permitted to perform. White Othellos became a stubborn, racist acting tradition. Along the way, actors like Laurence Olivier, Orson Welles, Anthony Hopkins, and Michael Gambon have played Othello. The first Black actor to play Othello in a major cinema adaptation was Laurence Fishburne ... in 1995. Patrick Stewart also played Othello in 1997, but in that production, all the other characters were played by Black actors. 

Welles adapted "Othello" to film in 1951, writing the script, directing, and playing the title character himself. Suzanne Cloutier played Desdemona, and Irish actor Micheál Mac Liammóir played Iago. Welles has notoriously had trouble on his film adaptations, and his "Othello" was perhaps one of the more chaotic. Welles' production of "Othello" was detailed in the 1992 book "This is Orson Welles," which was a series of transcribed conversations between the filmmaker and Peter Bogdanovich. 

Bogdanovich knew that "Othello" took a notoriously long time to make, having begun its filming as early as 1949, prior to the making of "The Third Man." Welles tells Bogdanovich that all the funding was secured via Scalera Film Studios. Importantly, he experienced no studio interference, something Welles was all too familiar with. 

Get Everyone Naked

Welles assembled a cast and traveled to his shooting location when he ran into the first bump in production. Then the second, larger bump. Welles explained, saying:

"I gathered together my actors and [Alexandre] Trauner [art director] and my Italian crew, and away we went to Mogador to shoot it. We arrived in this condemned area — a little-known, out-of-the-way port on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, and everybody checked into hotels. Two days later, we got a telegram saying the costumes wouldn't be coming because they hadn't been completed. A day later, a telegram came saying they hadn't been started. And then a telegram came saying that Scalera had gone bankrupt. So I had a company of fifty people in North Africa and no money ... but how can you shoot 'Othello' without costumes?"

Welles had a brilliant idea as to how to shoot a period film without costumes: get everyone naked. Or, at the very least, shoot multiple key scenes in a Turkish bathhouse, where the men would be in nothing but robes and towels. As they were shooting, local tailors were hired to cobble together what costumes they could. While the Turkish bath scenes add an element of intimacy and privacy to his "Othello," they were in fact born entirely of production necessity. Welles revealed that his ideal costumes would have been derived from particular Christian art -- dressing politicians in animal-like outfits -- and were meant to expose a certain degree of hypocrisy in the Italian Catholic court. With local tailors, that wouldn't be possible anymore. 

"I shot until the money ran out," Welles said. This was all being done with his own personal cash, by the way. After that, Welles essentially began having to pass the hat, asking new investors to chip in a few bucks. 

He found one ... and he wanted to be in the movie.

Passing The Hat

"[E]verybody had to go home until I could earn some more or find some more," Welles said. He continued, saying: 

"In fact, we stayed a little longer by virtue of a fellow who arrived and arranged for sales of the film for some strange countries like the Dutch East Indies and Turkey ... places like that. We got together about $6,000 or $7,000 and stayed on a week or two more, thanks to him. And I gave him a role in the film. He wasn't an actor and he's very poor in it, but he was a big help in getting us the money." 

Welles does not say which actor it was, so it will have to remain in the realm of speculation. When the money ran out again, actors began leaving production to take other jobs until more funding could be secured. Notably, Liammóir, his Iago, and Hilton Edwards, his Brabantio, returned to their native Ireland together (the two were boyfriends) to act in various theater productions. Once more funding was secured, Welles had to wait and wait and wait until everyone was free again. 

Ultimately, shooting took about three years to complete. Welles said:

"So, even when I got the money, I had to wait until my actors were free, which made a long wait even longer than it took me to get the money. And when they were free, we went back again to Africa and then to Italy, where we shot all over the place and finished it. But that began the story of how long it takes me to make a movie. You know: 'Look at him — even on his own pictures, it takes him over three years to finish it.'"

Keeping In Good Spirits

One might be tempted to think that, because of the play's tragic subject matter, it was a dark and miserable shoot. On the contrary, Welles was quick to point out that the constant roadblocks were viewed with more bemusement than frustration. It seems he and his crew were happily able to roll their eyes at the all-too-predictable chaos that comes with filmmaking. Despite everyone's good humor, Welles quickly got stuck with the bad reputation he mentioned above. He also started to encounter production troubles on future films which were legitimately miserable. He said: 

"Yes, it's still very prevalent, and it all began with 'Othello.' But the movie wasn't arduous -- we had tremendous fun doing it and everybody got along awfully well. Our headaches were all riotous and amusing; it wasn't anguish like 'Mr. Arkadin' (1955) was. 'Arkadin' was just anguish from beginning to end. No, it was a very happy experience for me in spite of these terrible troubles."

Modern audiences, of course, may not be able to watch the 1951 version of "Othello" without confronting, first and foremost, Welles' own whiteness. The man was perhaps a brilliant actor and a fascinating Old World bon vivant, but he is also the product of a time when a white actor playing a Black man was considered acceptable. These days, Welles' "Othello" might be viewed as a curio for Shakespeare completionists. 

At the heart of it, there is at least a wrenching, poetic script by one of the English language's most celebrated playwrights. One might still appreciate the Bard's words.

Read this next: The 15 Best Historical Epic Movies Ranked

The post Othello Was A 'Maddening' Film For Orson Welles To Make appeared first on /Film.

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is remembered for many things: transcending genre, witty dialogue, creating one of TV's greatest female icons, and complex plot lines built on monstrous metaphors, to name a few. These days, creator Joss Whedon may be best known for his abusive behavior on set, but there was a time when his feminist credentials seemed unimpeachable. Despite the revelations about Whedon's actions, his magnum opus remains my favorite series of all time. Although my relationship with the show may be a bit more complicated now, I will never love it any less.

Whedon plotted out "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" seasons well in advance and there are allusions to upcoming storylines scattered throughout the series. One particularly fascinating trail of breadcrumbs leads directly to the death of our hero, Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar). The character was killed off in one of the show's best episodes, the season 5 finale "The Gift," after jumping into a portal to save the world — she saved the world a lot. Buffy was resurrected for the season 6 premiere, but her sacrifice was planned out at least two years ahead of time.

Counting Down

The penultimate episode of season 3, "Graduation Day, Part 1," sees Buffy and Faith (Eliza Dushku) have a knock-down, drag-out fight that ends in the former stabbing the latter. Ultimately, both slayers wind up in the hospital in "Graduation Day, Part 2" — after a dying Angel (David Boreanaz) nearly drains Buffy dry. Despite their differences, Buffy and Faith are two sides of the same coin. They understand each other in a way no one else can. Plus, slayers have that whole prophetic dream thing going on. So, it makes sense that the two share a dreamscape while both fighting for their lives.

While that dream sees Faith help Buffy figure out how to defeat Mayor Wilkins by reminding her of his human weakness, there is another piece to this puzzle, one that sets up Buffy's eventual demise. Faith says to Buffy, "Miles to go. Little Miss Muffet counting down from 7-3-0." Cryptic to be sure, but packed with meaning. The first part, of course, refers to the Robert Frost poem "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" and everything Buffy still has to do before she dies.

We'll come back to the Miss Muffet part, but let's talk about the number 730. Buffy dies two years after Faith says these words to her, roughly 730 days. In fact, it would have been almost exactly that many had the season 3 finale not been pushed back a couple months in the wake of the Columbine shooting. Whedon has spoken about how Buffy's season 5 death had been planned since the end of season 3.

It's So Late

That isn't the only reference to Buffy's death. Season 4 finale "Restless" sees the Scooby Gang fighting for their lives while the First Slayer tries to kill them all in their dreams. Buffy's dream, in particular, has plenty of clues about what's to come. While Buffy is talking to Tara (Amber Benson), there is a digital clock that reads 7:30. Buffy says, "It's so late," and Tara responds, "Oh, that clock's completely wrong." It is because, by this point, the time until Buffy's death has been cut in half.

Much of this foreshadowing is known by longtime fans of the show, but there is one possible reference that only the most observant viewers have noticed. In the season 4 episode "Who Are You?" when Faith is in Buffy's body, she steals a credit card from the Summers' home and books a flight. The expiration date on the card is, you guessed it, 05/01, the month and year of Buffy's death. Coincidence? Perhaps, but knowing how far ahead of time Whedon was planning the slayer's demise, it seems probable this was intentional.

Be Back Before Dawn

Now let's discuss the other major event foreshadowed in that "Graduation Day" dream sequence: Dawn Summers (Michelle Trachtenberg). Miss Muffet is used in reference to the arrival of Buffy's sister, something the show calls back to in the season 5 episode "Real Me," when one of Glory's victims shouts the phrase "curds and whey" at her. There's another mention of "someone sits on a tuffet" by Glory a couple of episodes later in "No Place Like Home," and we know the hell god was looking for Dawn, though she didn't yet know it.

Faith also alludes to Dawn in a dream sequence in the season 4 installment "This Year's Girl," saying to Buffy, "Little sis is coming." Then, when Tara and Buffy are talking during Buffy's dream in "Restless," Tara tells her to "Be back before Dawn." Dawn would go on to debut in the season 5 premiere.

One of the wildest things about the introduction of Dawn is how the show just had Buffy's little sister show up like she'd always been there. She may appear at the end of season 5's first episode, but her presence is not explained until its fifth installment. This was weekly television, giving fans nearly a month to speculate about what was going on. We'd always known Buffy was an only child, but there was no way to really go back and confirm that in the year 2000. It was pretty cool that the series let that mystery unspool across multiple episodes, just long enough to make viewers question their own memories.

Death Is Your Gift

Buffy's death is one of the show's most heartbreaking scenes and it still brings me to tears even though I've watched the series countless times — Christophe Beck's lovely score is forever etched into my memory. It's pretty incredible that the plans for that moment can be traced so far back. There are certain plot points that pay off much better because the seeds were sewn earlier in the series. Would Buffy suddenly having a sister have worked out so well if so much planning hadn't gone into it? Look, I've never been a Dawn fan, but season 5 is one of the show's best. It feels well thought out because it was. 

For as much hate as season 6 gets, I've always appreciated that there were real consequences for what happened to Buffy. Without that, the show's stakes would've disappeared completely. A lot of us get lost in early adulthood, so in keeping with the show's themes, it's appropriate that the Scooby Gang struggled to find their way. These characters remain unforgettable so many years later and it's due to all the work that went into their arcs, as well as the fantastic cast who made them so lovable.

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is a series that still means so much to so many people. No one can change that. Not even Joss Whedon. It's impressive when you consider how much care went into crafting the show's narrative and it's a damn shame that Whedon couldn't put that much care into treating people with respect behind the scenes.

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The post How Joss Whedon Foreshadowed Buffy's Death in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 5 appeared first on /Film.

When we first heard about the upcoming "65," all we officially knew about the project was its rather vague title, the fact that Adam Driver was installed as the lead, and that the story would follow an astronaut who "crash lands on a mysterious planet only to discover he's not alone." That's it! Upon the release of that glorious first trailer, however, it quickly became clear why Sony was being so coy about this movie. Now, however, the secret's out -- it's basically "Planet of the Apes" by way of "Jurassic Park" and I mean that as the highest possible compliment -- and the film's marketing machine is free to lean into the dino-heavy action as much as they like.

And oh, what dinosaur action there is. Honestly, there's something incredibly endearing about a star like Adam Driver signing on to a movie as schlocky and silly as this one looks to be. (Again, that's not a criticism!) The actor might be most well-known for his appearances in "Star Wars" and "Girls," but he's also become a favorite of auteur filmmakers like Ridley Scott, Noah Baumbach, and Jim Jarmusch. Now, he can add "Astronaut who lands on a dino-infested Earth and blasts his way to safety" to his impressive and very prestigious résumé. May we all make career choices as fascinating as Driver's!

Check out the newest "65" trailer below.

Watch The 65 Trailer

Isn't it weird how the "Jurassic" franchise has pretty much had a stranglehold on all depictions of dinosaurs in modern cinema? Sure, there was that blink-and-miss-it moment in "Aquaman" featuring a few dinosaurs when the heroes reach Earth's core (I'm pretty sure I didn't hallucinate all that, at least) and the MonsterVerse's "Godzilla" and "King Kong" movies have at least included some dino-adjacent monsters in the midst of the big kaiju brawls. But what's stopping the industry from finally letting go of the superhero trend and replacing it with what the people truly want? Love or hate the "Jurassic World" movies, it's clear that audiences have an appetite for the kind of mayhem that only a T-Rex can provide.

This is why it's so important that Hollywood takes all the right lessons away from "65." The upcoming sci-fi/horror flick comes from the writing/directing duo of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who you may know as the screenwriters behind "A Quiet Place" -- another original and refreshing action/horror franchise that breathed new life into another group of classic cinematic monsters. Who's to say lightning won't strike twice with all the zaniness that "65" has going for it? I, for one, can't wait to experience it myself when it comes to theaters on March 17, 2023.

After a catastrophic crash on an unknown planet, pilot Mills (Adam Driver) quickly discovers he's actually stranded on Earth ... 65 million years ago. Now, with only one chance at rescue, Mills and the only other survivor, Koa (Ariana Greenblatt), must make their way across an unknown terrain riddled with dangerous prehistoric creatures in an epic fight to survive.

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The post 65 Trailer: Adam Driver Goes Full Planet Of The Dinos In Sony's New Sci-Fi Thriller appeared first on /Film.

When "Shazam!" hit theaters back in 2019, it was a breath of fresh air not only for the DC Extended Universe but for superhero media as well. While it obviously did have a big world-defining conflict that Billy Batson (Asher Angel and Zachary Levi) had to deal with, it was ultimately a coming-of-age tale all about becoming comfortable with yourself. You are able to create the best possible version of yourself, and that is perhaps best evidenced by the fact that Billy and his foster siblings can now fight crime as the Shazam Family.

So, where does that leave our heroes to go next? According to the latest trailer for "Shazam! Fury of the Gods," this puts them right in the path of the Daughters of Atlas, a sisterly duo consisting of Hespera (Helen Mirren) and Kalypso (Lucy Liu), who seek nothing but total power. Sure, that sounds pretty generic for a superhero movie, but couple that with the original Shazam (Djimon Hounsou) not liking Billy's blasé approach to superheroism, and you've got a story that will surely satisfy DC fans.

Check Out The New Shazam! Fury Of The Gods Trailer

Alright, roll call time! Jack Dylan Grazer as Freddy, Ian Chen as Eugene, Faithe Herman as Darla, and Jovan Armand as Pedro will return in their characters' regular forms. However, when they say the word "Shazam!" they will be played by Adam Brody, Ross Butler, Meagan Good, and D.J. Cortrona, respectively. Grace Fulton will also return as the eldest foster sibling, Mary, and will also play her superhero form this time around.

Joining the franchise is Rachel Zegler, whose Anthea is another Daughter of Atlas, although it's unclear whether she will be joining her sisters in their path to world domination. Rizwan Manji, who played the memorable janitor Jamil in "Peacemaker," will also appear in an undisclosed role. Here's to hoping Jamil becomes a character that just randomly pops up in other DCEU media, as that guy was a delight.

David F. Sandberg has returned to direct "Shazam! Fury of the Gods," working from a script written by Henry Gayden and Chris Morgan. It will also be the first DC project to be produced by Peter Safran after he took on the role of DC Studios' co-head alongside James Gunn. 

"Shazam! Fury of the Gods" races into theaters on March 17, 2023.

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The post Shazam! Fury of the Gods Trailer: The Shazam Family Grows Up appeared first on /Film.

Quentin Tarantino's directorial debut, "Reservoir Dogs," is an awe-inspiring film, primarily because of how engaging it is while featuring hardly any action, despite its genre and premise. The film tells the story of anonymous criminals, using colors as codenames, who stage a jewelry heist that goes terribly wrong. Fearing the presence of a rat among them, what follows is a tense and concise 90-minute thriller filled to the brim with powerhouse performances that carry the film. One of the most fascinating things about "Reservoir Dogs" is that the audience never gets to see the actual heist happen. Only the events leading up to it and the disastrous aftermath are shown.

The fact that "Reservoir Dogs" is mainly comprised of characters standing or sitting around talking to each other was a factor that undoubtedly played into the struggle Tarantino went through to get his first feature film made. Perhaps even Tarantino had known the unlikelihood of someone financing the project, as he originally planned on funding the film himself with a shoestring budget, along with shooting it in black and white, not dissimilar to his lost work-in-progress film "My Best Friend's Birthday." And while the structure of Tarantino's script gave some the impression that the film would be better as a play, the filmmaker felt it told a simple but highly effective story that could still be cinematic, if properly executed.

An Eye For The Cinematic

In an interview published in the 1994 issue of Film Comment, Quentin Tarantino spoke of how certain people who read his script assumed that "Reservoir Dogs" could be realized more effectively as a live stage play. After all, much like a play, the film largely takes place in a single location (the warehouse where the characters are constantly coming and going), save for a key flashback. However, Tarantino knew his own script better than anybody. Moreover, although he had yet to make a name for himself in the eyes of Hollywood, he was confident in his ability to translate his written words into potent cinema through the lens of a camera. He explained:

"People would read it and go, 'Well, this isn't a movie, this is a play, why don't you try and do it in an Equity Waiver house?' I was like, 'No, no, trust me, it'll be cinematic.' I don't like most film versions of plays, but the reason I had it all take place in that one room was because I figured that would be the easiest way to shoot something."

Sometimes less is more, and that's especially the case with "Reservoir Dogs." The film may never show guns blazing in massive police shootouts or car chases, but such a crime's emotional and physical aftermath is explored to its fullest. Add in a level of distrust and the idea that the characters could be found out by the police at any moment, and you have a level of tension that couldn't have been recreated with any actual heist.

Playing With 'Theatrical Elements'

Despite its limited locations and budget, "Reservoir Dogs" did boast impressive camera angles. The technical elements, along with its soundtrack and non-linear storytelling, all take what could've been an exciting stage production and transform it into a riveting feature film. It's these hybrid aspects of Quentin Tarantino's script for the film that please him the most, as he explained in the same interview:

"To me, the most important thing was that it be cinematic. Now, having said that, one of the things I get a big kick out of in 'Reservoir Dogs' is that it plays with theatrical elements in a cinematic form — it is contained, the tension isn't dissipated, it's supposed to mount, the characters aren't able to leave, and the whole movie's definitely performance-driven."

While the script for "Reservoir Dogs" may have confused Hollywood then, that certainly wouldn't be the case for future films that Tarantino would end up writing. Over 20 years after his first feature, Tarantino would write a script similar to "Reservoir Dogs" with its one-location setting: "The Hateful Eight." A dark film with surprisingly resonant themes, "The Hateful Eight" explores the same concepts of distrust and also sees the director tapping into the tension a single-location film can bring. The more intimate and intense films like these show Tarantino's versatility as a director, crafting large-scale movies and stories that could essentially be stage plays. Despite the director's intent on retiring from film directing after his tenth film, there may yet be a future for him on the stage when all is said and done.

Read this next: The 23 Best Heist Movies Of All Time

The post Why Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs Script Confused Hollywood appeared first on /Film.

Scientists from the U.S. National Institutes of Health found a link between dozens of different viral exposures and a later increased risk of Alzheimer's disease and other brain disorders. Gizmodo reports: They analyzed data from two existing and nationally representative biobank projects tracking the long-term health of residents in Finland and the UK, respectively, collectively involving around 450,000 people. They looked for links between viral infections that led to hospitalization and six neurodegenerative diseases: Alzheimer's disease (the most common form of dementia), ALS, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, vascular dementia, and generalized dementia. In the Finland data, they initially identified 45 types of viral exposure potentially linked to a greater risk of neurodegenerative illness. To double-check these results, they then ran the same sort of analysis on the UK data and found a similar relationship for 22 types of viral exposure across both datasets. Some of these exposures involved specific viral infections, such as influenza, varicella zoster virus (the cause of chickenpox and shingles), and herpes simplex viruses. Others concerned where an infection or its harmful effects took place, such as viral encephalitis or meningitis, types of brain inflammation that can be caused by many different viruses. For some exposures, the risk of subsequent brain illness extended up to 15 years later, while the strongest link was seen between viral encephalitis and Alzheimer's. The team's findings were published earlier this month in Neuron. "As vaccines are currently available for some of the associated viruses, vaccination may be a way to reduce some risk of neurodegenerative disease," the authors note.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

If you didn’t have enough of MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries – better get ready for the new DLC, Rise of Rasalhague!

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries is an action sci-fi FPS that takes place in the year 3015. Humanity has colonized thousands of star systems spanning a vast region of space known as the Inner Sphere. As a player, you take up the role of a power hungry mercenary, who happened to be in a privileged enough position to capitalize big time. You’ll wreck, stomp and go all out ballistic, step inside and become your own weapon of war.

In the MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries - Rise of Rasalhague though, will allow you to enjoy the game even further – you’ll get to join the people of the titular Rasalhague in a fight for freedom and independence from the Great Houses and discover the Crusader ‘Mech; all in a brand new 12 mission quest line.

Now on GOG!

At least two federal agencies in the U.S. fell victim to a "widespread cyber campaign" that involved the use of legitimate remote monitoring and management (RMM) software to perpetuate a phishing scam. "Specifically, cyber criminal actors sent phishing emails that led to the download of legitimate RMM software – ScreenConnect (now ConnectWise Control) and AnyDesk – which the actors used in a

On Dec. 23, 2022, KrebsOnSecurity alerted big-three consumer credit reporting bureau Experian that identity thieves had worked out how to bypass its security and access any consumer’s full credit report — armed with nothing more than a person’s name, address, date of birth, and Social Security number. Experian fixed the glitch, but remained silent about the incident for a month. This week, however, Experian acknowledged that the security failure persisted for nearly seven weeks, between Nov. 9, 2022 and Dec. 26, 2022.

The tip about the Experian weakness came from Jenya Kushnir, a security researcher living in Ukraine who said he discovered the method being used by identity thieves after spending time on Telegram chat channels dedicated to cybercrime.

Normally, Experian’s website will ask a series of multiple-choice questions about one’s financial history, as a way of validating the identity of the person requesting the credit report. But Kushnir said the crooks learned they could bypass those questions and trick Experian into giving them access to anyone’s credit report, just by editing the address displayed in the browser URL bar at a specific point in Experian’s identity verification process.

When I tested Kushnir’s instructions on my own identity at Experian, I found I was able to see my report even though Experian’s website told me it didn’t have enough information to validate my identity. A security researcher friend who tested it at Experian found she also could bypass Experian’s four or five multiple-choice security questions and go straight to her full credit report at Experian.

Experian acknowledged receipt of my Dec. 23 report four days later on Dec. 27, a day after Kushnir’s method stopped working on Experian’s website (the exploit worked as long as you came to Experian’s website via annualcreditreport.com — the site mandated to provide a free copy of your credit report from each of the major bureaus once a year).

Experian never did respond to official requests for comment on that story. But earlier this week, I received an otherwise unhelpful letter via snail mail from Experian (see image above), which stated that the weakness we reported persisted between Nov. 9, 2022 and Dec. 26, 2022.

“During this time period, we experienced an isolated technical issue where a security feature may not have functioned,” Experian explained.

It’s not entirely clear whether Experian sent me this paper notice because they legally had to, or if they felt I deserved a response in writing and thought maybe they’d kill two birds with one stone. But it’s pretty crazy that it took them a full month to notify me about the potential impact of a security failure that I notified them about.

It’s also a little nuts that Experian didn’t simply include a copy of my current credit report along with this letter, which is confusingly worded and reads like they suspect someone other than me may have been granted access to my credit report without any kind of screening or authorization.

After all, if I hadn’t authorized the request for my credit file that apparently prompted this letter (I had), that would mean the thieves already had my report. Shouldn’t I be granted the same visibility into my own credit file as them?

Instead, their woefully inadequate letter once again puts the onus on me to wait endlessly on hold for an Experian representative over the phone, or sign up for a free year’s worth of Experian monitoring my credit report.

As it stands, using Kushnir’s exploit was the only time I’ve ever been able to get Experian’s website to cough up a copy of my credit report. To make matters worse, a majority of the information in that credit report is not mine. So I’ve got that to look forward to.

If there is a silver lining here, I suppose that if I were Experian, I probably wouldn’t want to show Brian Krebs his credit file either. Because it’s clear this company has no idea who I really am. And in a weird, kind of sad way I guess, that makes me happy.

For thoughts on what you can do to minimize your victimization by and overall worth to the credit bureaus, see this section of the most recent Experian story.

If you're looking to run Windows applications on Linux, then you've probably heard of Wine. Wine works as a layer translating Windows API calls to POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface) calls while also recreating a Windows directory structure and providing alternative implementations of system services. It doesn't use any emulation or virtualization to execute Windows binaries, either. Now, Wine version 8.0 has just been released with a ton of improvements and changes.