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Believe it or not, the Eddie Murphy movie Coming to America was released 30 years ago today. Murphy plays an African prince who wants to find a bride who will love him for more than his fabulous wealth, so he travels to New York in a fish-out-of-water story. Along the way, he meets a cast of wacky characters played by stars and by actors who eventually became stars, plus quite a few played by Murphy himself. Let's learn some more about the film.   

7. IT WAS CUBA GOODING JR.’S FIRST FILM.

According to IMDb, his character is known as “Boy Getting Haircut” in the famous barbershop scene.

8. JAMES EARL JONES AND MADGE SINCLAIR, THE KING AND QUEEN OF ZAMUNDA, ALSO VOICED THE KING AND QUEEN IN THE LION KING.

The duo must’ve truly impressed Disney, because the on-screen couple landed the coveted gig of voicing Mufasa and Sarabi, respectively, in the 1994 animated masterpiece.

I remember that well, when I recognized the voices in The Lion King. Mufasa and Sarabi even looked like the King and Queen of Zamunda. Read more trivia about Coming to Americaand enjoy a couple of clips at Mental Floss. 

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You may wonder how on earth there could be this much information on how to hold a cat, but Dr. Uri Burstyn, the Helpful Vancouver Vet, doesn't waste any time giving us solid information about cats and their reactions. He shows us his techniques for picking up a cat, restraining a cat, and dealing with a "shoulder cat," in case you have one of those. Squish. That. Cat. None of my cats, as needy as they are, like to be picked up. I attribute that to them being raise in a houseful of clumsy kids. -via reddit 

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The few English words in this video are NSFW. I would assume that's the case if you understand Dutch, too. Cars are driving through Safari Park Beekse Bergen in the Netherlands. A French family opens their doors and gets out near a group of cheetahs, despite posted warnings in many languages that you don't do that. In the first part of the video, it appears that another car pulls up to warn them, but that doesn't stop them from getting out of the car again later, with terrify results.

As others have pointed out, they were really lucky these were cheetahs. If they had done this near lions or tigers, it could have turned out much worse. -via reddit

In 1958, America's new space agency called NASA launched an extensive search for men who would become astronauts. Of 508 candidates, the Mercury 7 were selected via a battery of physical, psychological, and intellectual tests.

Hopefuls sat in extreme heat and cold, did math in 145-decibel rooms (normal conversation is 60 dB), and spent hours in isolation chambers. On top of all that, candidates took 12 intelligence tests. These exams sought to predict a wealth of unknowns: how the men would maneuver spacecraft, if they could problem-solve midflight, and whether they grasped the science that would keep them aloft.

While the physical tests can't be taken online, Popular Science is offering us the chance to try a small portion of the intelligence tests those men took 60 years ago. I tried it; all I can say it I'm glad the questions aren't timed. Good luck! -via Mental Floss

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Sakeru gum comes in regular and long. In these TV ads, Chi-chan seems to prefer the long kind. About a dozen ads ran in the series over the past year, and we are lucky to have them all together with subtitles. While technically SFW, it's full of innuendo that wouldn't fly so well on American TV. The story takes some turns as Chi-chan battles her temptation and constantly loses, but it ends with a twist you do not see coming at all. -via Geeks Are Sexy

With our archives now 3,500+ articles deep, we’ve decided to republish a classic piece each Friday to help our newer readers discover some of the best, evergreen gems from the past. This article was originally published in April 2018.

The best part of many action/superhero/sports films is arguably the training montage scene, in which we get to see, in compressed time, the protagonist prepare to do battle with his opponent. There’s something incredibly inspiring, and thumos-inflaming, about seeing a man transform from clumsy and out-of-shape, to skilled and fit. It’s a potent symbol of the kind of metamorphosis we all often hope to make in our lives.

Of all the cinematic training montage scenes that have ever been, those from the Rocky films are unarguably the best. Featuring a perennial underdog who always manages to finds scrappy ways to beat the odds, and always gives it all he’s got, they never fail to light a fire in your belly.

Fictional though the Rocky character is, his training regimen provides real inspiration on tough, often creative ways to get fit and strong — no-excuses exercises that frequently employ free or improvised equipment and could be incorporated into your own routine (make sure you get the butcher’s permission before you go punching his carcasses of meat, though).

Below we break down every single exercise from the training montages featured in the first, second, third, fourth, and sixth Rocky installments (in Rocky V, Balboa takes a break from fighting himself to train another boxer). Some of the exercises remain consistent across the various films, while each installment also incorporates new moves and methods.

Use this complete library of exercises to get pumped, add some variety to your workouts, and start really training like a champ.

Rocky I

The training montage that sets the archetype for all others. We’re introduced to Rocky Balboa, a kind-hearted blue collar bloke who makes a living collecting debts for a loan shark on the mean streets of Philly. The small-time club fighter gets a chance to face off against heavyweight boxing world champion Apollo Creed.

Rocky doesn’t have the kind of training resources his opponent does, and makes do with what he’s got — running through scrap yards and wailing on slabs of beef. Rocky’s journey into fighting shape is accompanied by the greatest training montage song of all time — “Gonna Fly Now” — and culminates with one of the most famous scenes in cinema: a run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (an exercise that was part of the real-life training routine of Joe Frazier). 

Running With Bricks in Your Hands

Distance Running

Hitting the Speed Bag

Alternating One-Arm Push-Ups

Clapping Push-Ups

Sit-Ups

Punching Meat

Sprints

Running Up Steps

Rocky II

In Rocky II, our underdog protagonist gets a shot at a rematch with Apollo Creed, and again trains in scrappy fashion — continuing to improvise his exercises (shouldering a log; chasing a chicken), while adding some weight work as well. Rocky also does an encore run that once more culminates atop the art museum steps, this time joined by a crowd of kids cheering on their hometown hero.

Hitting Junk With a Sledgehammer

One-Arm Pull-Ups on a Jungle Gym

Sit-Ups, Straight, and With Twists or Punches at the Top

Jumping Rope

Hitting the Speed Bag

Hitting the Pads

Back-to-Back Medicine Ball Pass

One-Arm Push-Up

Lateral Dumbell Raises

Front-to-Back Barbell Presses

Frog Hop and Duck Walk With a Log on Your Back

Hitting the Heavy Bag

Chasing a Chicken

Distance Running, With Children

Rocky III

In Rocky III, Balboa is no longer an underdog in the traditional sense; having successfully defended his title ten times, he’s garnered significant fame and wealth. But when he learns that his manager hand-picked lesser opponents for his fights and that he hasn’t truly been squaring off against the best, he decides to take on a young, hungry, powerful contender — James “Clubber” Lang.

Balboa’s new challenge becomes sloughing off the softness he’s accumulated from being on top, and trying to find some of the old hunger himself. At first he fails, and his unfocused training regimen results in a loss to Lang. Balboa must then deal with not only the fallout of this failure, but the death of his manager. It turns out to be Rocky’s former rival, Creed, who helps him to again find his fighter’s heart. Creed trains Rocky with classic boxing exercises, while putting a new emphasis on speed, footwork, and agility, and taking his runs off the urban pavement and onto the beach.

Hitting the Speed Bag

Footwork Drills

Shadow Boxing

Swimming

Hitting (and Dodging) the Double-End Bag

Jumping Rope

Hitting the Pads

Sand Runs

Rocky IV

Rocky IV is a study in contrasts. The individualistic, democratic United States vs. the communist Soviet Union. A kind-hearted boxer vs. an unfeeling robot. And an old school, back-to-nature training regimen vs. a modern, high-tech one.

While Rocky’s opponent, Ivan Drago, uses all kinds of experimental gizmos (and drugs) to get in shape, Rocky sets up camp on a remote Russian homestead and goes full-on wild man, creatively utilizing what’s at hand to get “farmer strong.” The stakes of the fight — a chance to symbolically establish national superiority and avenge Creed’s death at Drago’s hands — call forth the longest training montage in the series, an epic sequence that requires two parts to fully encapsulate. 

Hitting the Speed Bag

Sawing Wood

Tossing Rocks

Pulling a Weighted Sled

Pull-Ups on a Beam

Carrying Log on Shoulders in Snow

Outdoor Nightime Shadow Boxing

Felling a Tree

Jumping Rope

Hanging Sit-Ups With Punches, or Held, at the Top

Splitting Wood

Hitting the Pads

Hoisting Rocks

“Dragon Flag” Core Exercise

Cleaning and Pressing a Wagon Full of People

Ducking and Throwing Upper Cuts Back and Forth Under a Rope

Shouldering and Twisting a Wooden Yoke

Running/Crawling in the Snow + Scrambling to the Top of a Mountain

Rocky Balboa

In the final installment of the series in which Rocky fights (these days he’s mentoring Apollo Creed’s son), an aging Balboa comes out of retirement for one more fight. In his late 50s, he can’t hope to compete against his younger opponent on quickness and agility and will instead have to rely on raw strength and power. As Rocky’s trainer tells him:

To beat this guy, you need speed — you don’t have it. And your knees can’t take the pounding, so hard running is out. And you got arthritis in your neck, and you’ve got calcium deposits on most of your joints, so sparring is out.

So, what we’ll be calling on is good ol’ fashion blunt force trauma. Horsepower. Heavy-duty, cast-iron, pile-driving punches that will have to hurt so much they’ll rattle his ancestors. Every time you hit him with a shot, it’s gotta feel like he tried kissing the express train!

In order to build some “hurtin’ bombs,” Rocky really hits the weights hard and incorporates compound barbell lifts into his more traditional boxing exercises. Things come full circle as “Gotta Fly Now” (which went missing in Rocky IV) returns, and Rocky once more ascends the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum. 

Jogging

Neutral Grip Pull-Ups

Bench Press

Kettlebell Clean and Press

Back Squat

Lat Raises With Chains

(Not Pictured: Incline Press)

Medicine Ball Push-Ups

Tire Slams With Sledgehammer

Overhead Keg Slam

Hitting the Heavy Bag

Walking Upper Cuts With Dumbbells

Pull-Ups

Clean & Press

Punching Meat

Running Stairs, in the Snow

The post The Complete Library of Rocky Training Exercises appeared first on The Art of Manliness.

The Oscar for Best Cinematography goes to whichever movie was judged to have displayed the best camera work over the preceding year. To show us what kind of movies the Academy likes for this award, Burger Fiction put together a supercut of all the winners from 1929 to 2016, plus the nominees for this year's Academy Awards. I would bet you've seen most all of them.    

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There's a list of the all the movies used in this video here, along with the names of the cinematographers.  

Any old tent will work when you're staying at a campground, which is why most people buy a cheaper tent that's rugged enough to use multiple times but not so sturdy it can stand up to the harshest elements.

And the truth is there are very few tents out there that can actually withstand extreme temperatures and environments, and from the look of it none of them can compare to The North Face's newest tent- the Geodome 4.

The Geodome 4 is made to be used in the harshest conditions and most rugged terrains on Earth, plus one tent can hold four people so you don't have to "rough it" alone:

With its dual-layer, water-resistant exterior, the ‘Geodome 4’ was designed to resist wind speeds of up to 60mph. The tent sleeps four persons and offers enough clearance so that you can stand up inside.

Composed of five main poles and one equator pole, the dome tent is surprisingly easy to assemble, which is good news should those horrendous elements that you’d want to hide from be present.

For now though, the tent is only slated for availability in Japan.

-Via DesignTAXI

The more you look at this photograph, the more details stand out. There are 17 men, all engaged in some activity: pointing a gun, boxing, cutting hair, playing a musical instrument, reading a paper, enjoying whiskey, or staring at the photographer. That photographer was Fred Tyree, who took the picture in 1906 in Patarau, New Zealand. The men were workers at the Prouse and Saunders Flaxmill, where they harvested flax six days a week, and posed for the picture on a Sunday. Charles Anderson was intrigued by the photo and dug up what he could find about how it came about. He pieced together the lives the flax mill workers and the long, arduous journey Tyree took to Patarau.

That night he would rest at a tiny settlement manned by workers of Prouse and Saunders. Perhaps, Hindmarsh went on, Tyree would have joined in on the Saturday evening festivities, pleased to make it in time for the workers’ one day off a week the following day. Tyree would have drank beer with them, ingratiated himself so by the following day they were more than eager to indulge the photographer in a staged image.

Sunday morning would have been spent setting the scene beside one of the camp huts. A pirate flag was hoisted as a backdrop, bundles of flax carefully placed. Tyree would have choreographed every detail before finally climbing under the hood of his camera. Those 17 men posed in rock-still formation – one reading a newspaper, two pretending to box, another pointing a rifle at a stuffed kiwi, the cook standing proud in his whitest apron while a boxer drained a bottle. Some men bore tools, others washed clothes, three men played musical instruments.

Then, it was done.

Read the story of the most badass photograph ever taken in New Zealand at The Spinoff. -via Metafilter

This is the truth of raising children. You may recall doing plenty of chores for your parents in your own childhood, but they remember it differently. For them, it was a matter of either teaching you how to do them or getting you to do them, and they always ended up expending the lion's share of the effort. That's because it is a parent's job to teach you the things you need to know to deal with life. That's one reason being a grandparent is so great. You reap that sweet, sweet karma when your kids find out how hard they made it for you. This comic is from Zach Weinersmith at Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.

Russian drivers began using dash cams in their vehicles as soon as they were available to the public. They were important for defense against scam artists who demanded payment for being hit. But the cameras across the vast country caught all kinds of "only in Russia" events that made their way around the world via the internet. Now, director Dmitrii Kalashnikov has compiled the wildest of these videos into a feature-length documentary entitled The Road Movie, which opens in New York this Friday. Here's the trailer.  

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The Road Movie can be pre-ordered as a digital download, available March 6. -via Laughing Squid