Monthly Archives: April 2013

MOVIES

Hero Express: ‘Black Panther’ Rumors & Bad News For ‘Justice League’?

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Welcome back to the Hero Express, your one-stop sometimes SPOILER filled shop through the top stories in superhero comic based Film & TV news!

X-Men Days of Future Past

Bryan Singer uses Twitter to preview Beast and to fool.

https://twitter.com/BryanSinger/status/318836138452328448

I am not usually one who likes April Fool’s Day, but I did get a good laugh out of this “casting announcement”. Like in our last installment of Hero Express, Singer uses Twitter often to let fans in behind the scenes, including casting  news. So it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that he’d cast Lady Gaga as the Dazzler, but let’s be honest, it was a sigh of relief when realized it was a prank.

Thankfully it appears as if all joking is over as he later tweeted out this picture.

X-Men, Superhero

Beast is looking pretty good! Nicholas Hoult (Warm Bodies) is set to reprise his role as the younger Kelsey Grammer/Hank McCoy/Beast, but its still unclear if this is simply a makeup test, a concept pic or the actual look of Hoult as Beast.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

What’s that about Black Widow?

Oh, you heard correctly, Black Widow has been confirmed by Marvel as a part of The Winter Soldier. Not only that but Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury also has a relatively substantial role in the film. Marvel was very chatty about the new Captain America movie and released info on Robert Redford’s role as……

superhero

Alexander Pierce!

A S.H.I.E.L.D Agent himself, Pierce works alongside  Nick Fury in what will amazingly enough be the first time Redford and Jackson have starred in a movie together. In the EW article it is said that he has been pulled back in to “help run” the agency.

As if all that wasn’t enough, they kindly gave us a glimpse behind the scenes with Chris Evans as Captain America and his trusty shield.

superhero

Marvel’s Black Panther

No, really, it’s a thing now.

First it was Ant-Man and Doctor Strange. Now its Black Panther. At this rate Marvel is going to be announcing movies about Auric and Silver Fox or another somewhat obscure superhero any day now. There isn’t much out there about the Black Panther project that’s been hinted at for an eternity (about as long as Ant-Man) but earlier today Morris Chestnut tweeted that “It’s time to get familiar with the Black Panther character!” which included a picture of the Black Panther comic.

Later in the day he responded to someone who everyone needs to maybe hold their horses a bit because –

I’m guessing maybe Marvel got a little touchy about this because now both tweets have been taken down as has the link on his Facebook page. Of course that’s all it took because now we are all talking about Black Panther! Well done Mr. Chestnut, well done.

Speaking of Doctor Strange, he’s got a director now. Well, a rumored director at least. The Latino Review (sadly this is not the first time I’ll mention them) are keeping at their somewhat amazing ability to sniff out rumors and are saying that Evil Dead‘s director Fede Alavarez is slated to helm Doctor Strange. Of course just rumor for now so we’ll have to see if it sticks around. There a lot of time between now and Doctor Strange’s scheduled premier in 2016.

Guardians of the Galaxy

From ballet slippers to “green skinned humanoid”

THR is reporting that the star of the hit movie Center Stage, Zoe Saldana, is in talks to join Guardians of the Galaxy. Okay, so she’s had a few roles since Center Stage, not the least of which would be Star Trek and Avatar (small little art films, maybe you can find them on Netflix), but she’ll always be that little ballet star wannabe to me.

superhero, guardians of the galaxy

If things progress like people think they will, Saldana will be joining Chris Pratt and Dave Bautista in the 2014 movie. Who will she play? Well, it’d be none other than “The Most Dangerous Woman in the Universe”, Gamora. All they need now is Groot and Rocket Raccoon and the Guardians will be set.

Justice League

Will someone please make this happen?

Seriously universe, outside of The Dark Knight trilogy, DC fans haven’t had much to brag on when it comes to big box office summer blockbusters. Would it kill you to let the pieces fall into place for the Justice League movie? Would it?

Apparently it would.

Once again, The Latino Review is behind the rumor that the Justice League movie is derailing. El Mayimbe joined the SchmoesKnows podcast and gave them the bad news.

It was one thing when they said Christian Bale wasn’t going to be Batman, that I can live with. I can even live with Christopher Nolan not being involved at all. Part of me was even okay with Ben Affleck directing. But it just seems that with each passing day, it becomes more apparent that this is never going to happen, no matter how much we want it to.

Excuse me as I go find a beer to cry into.

The Flashpoint Paradox

C. Thomas Howell goes from cop to comic bad guy.

Finally some non-Marvel news that’s good news!

That’s right, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox production is moving along and none other than SouthLAnd actor C. Thomas Howell is voicing Professor Zoom/Reverse-Flash. We already knew quite a few of the other voices, including Vanessa Marshall as Wonder Woman and Ron Perlman as Slade Wilson but there hasn’t been any word on who play the voice of Flash yet. It is set for DVD/Bluray/Digital Download release on July 30th, 2013.

Superhero

Of course it would be wrong to mention Flash without paying tribute to the man behind the superhero, Carmine Infantino, who passed away on April 5th. A man who did great things for the DC Universe, such as being one of the guiding hands behind the Silver Age of DC Comics, he leaves behind a legacy that is not soon to be forgotten.

That about does it for this edition of Hero Express! Let us know what you think of these stories in the comments and we’ll see ya next time!

GAMING

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 – Uprising DLC is Coming!

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The Replacers are back and it looks like we’re about to get ourselves from new Call of Duty DLC for Black Ops II! The new DLC is called Uprising and it will arrive for Xbox Live users (sorry PS3 and Wii U peeps) on April 16th which means not only are we being treated to a double XP weekend, but we’re getting a new Replacers ad with the always looking for a job Peter Stormare. Looks like he brought along a new friend, Mr. J.B. Smoove from Curb Your Enthusiasm amongst other things. While not as great as the first one (if anything because that one was brilliant in that we didn’t know what to expect), it’s still a funny ad to check out. Naturally, it’s embedded just below for your enjoyment:

cod uprising magmaAlright, onward with the DLC news. We are getting four new maps called Magma, Studio, Vertigo and Encore. Magma takes places in an Asian village that is being overrun by an active volcano. This introduces the element of lava bearing down on the people and some short and long-range points of attack. We also get Encore which takes place in an amphitheater that is wide open with the center stage being touted as the best position. Personally, this will probably be a sniper haven because of its wide open space so we’ll have to see how it all goes down. Vertigo follows as it’s a skyscraper level and it instantly reminds me of more dangerous Hotel combined with the Die Rise zombie map from the last DLC for Call of Duty. I like the idea of having to jump from space to space and it’ll probably be hilarious to see one Brian Kronner fall off the map repeatedly. The next map, which is destined to be my favorite one judging from how they are selling it, is called Studio. It takes place at a movie studio back lot where all the sets are up from the various genres of movies. But did catch my eye was it’s reference to Firing Range, that awesome level from Call of Duty: Black Ops. Seems to be a good one to check out for sure.

cod uprising mob of the dead

Of course we have to mention the zombie map Mob of the Dead. This map will actually take place in a prison from the 1950s that resembles (if not, an exact replica) of the famous Alcatraz prison. It will also feature four actors portraying old school gangsters like Michael Madsen, Ray Liotta, Chazz Palminteri and Joe Pantoliano that were planning to escape, but get the unfortunate luck of having to blast a few zombies on the way out of the prison. There will be a storyline involved with building a plane out of parts to help escape the island so could we actually get an ending for once? Time will tell but I’m already excited at the prospect of playing this map. There’s also a new mode called Afterlife that is being introduced to where if your character dies, they can see through walls and interact with objects your living teammates cannot touch. Also you get to fire electricity from your hands to battle zombies as well as powerful some perk machines. So this should get interesting…

All in all, this should be good times and you can check the below video to get more details on the Uprising DLC. Until then, we shall see you on April 16th, 2013 on Xbox Live. I guarantee you’ll see the Grizzly Bomb team online and swearing and throwing controllers complaining that was effin’ BS whenever we get killed.

Movie Trailers

Room 237 – New Trailer Looks Excellent

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The Shining is one of my favorite horror movies of all time, and as I’ve previously written here before, I think potentially one of the best and most complex films of all time. It’s a film that a lot of people know and have seen but haven’t ever really taken the time to ponder the deeper themes or implications of. It’s one of my favorites for that reason alone, because watching it with a friend who claims to have seen it before, and “got it”, and then blowing their mind with the myriad weird details about the impossible architecture, subliminal meanings, commentary on cultural genocide, and of course the entire nature of the film itself being potentially not even supernatural at all. For the longest time though, finding out any of this information was only available online, either in long, relatively boring essays, or complicated, drawn out YouTube videos narrated poorly by some english dude with a lisp. Well that looks to change with the release of Room 237.

Room 237 is a documentary about all of the hidden, background themes in The Shining, be they present, extrapolated, or projected. Anything from thoughts about the Apollo 11 moon landing that Kubrick allegedly faked, to Native American genocide, to Hitler’s genocide, and I’m sure a slew more in between.

http://youtu.be/rHE5YUNkssQ

The best thing about this trailer, and at the same time the worst, is how little it shows. It’s essentially an unfunny parody of the original trailer for The Shining, only without the infamous elevator doors, which are now replaced by a VCR. It’s clever enough I think, but at the same time I think it’s one of the few cases where less isn’t more, but is still less. A more traditional trailer with snippets of talking heads briefly mentioning the topics that will inevitably be covered in the film would have been nice. It’s funny because I almost never say anything like that, and usually prefer more creative or inventive trailers like this one. I just happen to think the case is different for documentaries, since you’re really watching a movie about  a movie, little clips that would “spoil” things aren’t really that big of a deal, since the point is to spark thought and debate to begin with.

Room 237 is out now on a lot of VOD services, and in limited theaters (although good luck finding one playing it), so not only can you watch this trailer and be intrigued, but you can probably walk over to your Xbox/PS3/iTunes/Amazon/whatever and spark up the film to watch for yourself right then and there. It’s a film almost certainly worth watching if you’re a fan of The Shining, I know I am and I can’t wait to see it.

Room 237

TV

HBO’s Game of Thrones: 302 – ‘Dark Wings, Dark Words’

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Naturally there are going to be some critics out there that watched ‘Dark Wings, Dark Words’ that will come off as less impressed than others. In fact, there were some that came out of the woodwork after the first episode, claiming the pacing was off or that nothing truly happened. Well guess what? There are several characters that didn’t get a turn to reintroduce themselves to the adoring public so you can expect a bit more exposition to set the rest of the season up. So while some people will complain to get on with the show (seriously, I’ve already seen some people over my Facebook feed), I think this will pay major dividends later on in the season when it all comes together. I’m glad that every character will get their time to shine while still introducing new characters that will fit into the future as well so I don’t mind the deliberate pace of the show so far this year. Yeah, it might be slow again for the second week in a row but I’ll take a week like this over most of the crap that is shown from the scores of mediocre shows that flood our cable box each evening.

Continue reading HBO’s Game of Thrones: 302 – ‘Dark Wings, Dark Words’ →

TV

SNL 38.16 – Melissa McCarthy & Phoenix

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I had to check twice that there hasn’t been a new SNL episode since Justin Timberlake because that seriously seems like eons ago, but alas, there were not which made this week’s turn with Melissa McCarthy a bit disappointing. Don’t get me wrong, it was still funny, but you’d think with someone as good as McCarthy and well over a month to prepare, it would be a bit better than it was.

The cold open was lazy. Really. Disappointing given that there’s been quite a few episodes in a row where they’ve had great cold opens and I was getting quite used to that. Plus it was Bobby Moynihan who I usually really enjoy no matter what he’s doing. However the real crime was this man.

Dennis Rodman, SNL, Kim Jung Un

Now I understand that someone like Dennis Rodman might have gotten tongue tied due to not being in front of an audience before – that’s scary, I get it – but come on man! The line is, and has been for a very long time, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!” How you mess that up, I do not know. Again, perhaps is was stage fright, entirely possible for a man not used to people watching him.

The monologue was great though. Melissa McCarthy does physical and ridiculous humor so well that it was fun to see her get the chance. I will say though, just looking at those shoes made my feet hurt! Her mention of crocs made me immediately think of this.

Melissa McCarthy, crocs, SNL, Gilmore Girls

Oh Sookie St. James how I loved you. You and your love of sensible shoes. Although the monologue did have a musical number, it didn’t have that “oh my lord not another musical monologue!!” feel to it. Actually watching McCarthy try to keep up with Taran Killam while fumbling around was hysterical.

Melissa McCarthy, SNL, Coach Kelly
Credit to: norewardisworththis

However it wasn’t nearly as funny as the ESPN “Outside the Lines” sketch with McCarthy as Coach Shelia Kelly who, it turns out, is even more awful of a coach than the now fired Rutgers coach Mike Rice. Even though it was long (is is just me or have the last few episodes been really bad about long sketches?), it didn’t really get old. Jay Pharoah as the whistle-blowing Assistant Coach who then get’s the the crap beat out of him? Delightful. Bill Hader with a black eye? Yes please. I loved this sketch, so much. I particularly enjoyed the inset of the toaster laying on the ground after it’d been thrown. That’s just funny.

I’m beginning to wonder if NBC has asked SNL to promote The Voice because is it really that great/awful of a show that it warrants two sketches in a season? Outside of a few lines like “I like your misplaced enthusiasm”, it wasn’t much to write home about, especially since they’d done it before.

I’d be okay with them replaying the “Honeybaked Ham” sketch every week. I’m sure after awhile it might get old, but that would be a long while. It is a little embarrassing how loud I laughed when the “presentation” started. Then when she pulled the ham out of the pig costume? I was damn near in tears.

Melissa McCarthy, SNL, Ham
Credit to: tubulartv

Not only was the sketch funny, but it made me really want ham; from Bobby Moynihan’s footie pajamas or not is optional.

SNL, Melissa McCarthy, Bathroom Businessman

When the “Bathroom Businessman” started, it was sort of amusing. When Kenan Thompson crapped his pants, it was mildly funny. When it popped up as a “Decency” PSA? Perfect. I imagine we’ll see this again at a later date when they need something to fill time.

Weekend Update was on fire this week! Not only that but it got a pretty good chunk of airtime which seems like that hasn’t happened in recent episodes. Three guests? That’s pretty good. I do wish however, that they’d do this when it’s a weaker guest and not someone like Melissa McCarthy. Recent Bar Mitzvah boy is growing on me and that’s only because Vanessa Bayer sells it so well. How she captures the awkwardness of a young teenage boy is beyond me but she does, so well. Kenan Thompson’s Charles Barkley is scary good. I felt guilty for laughing about Kevin Ware’s injury, but I did it anyway.

Peter Drunklage, SNL, Melissa McCarthy, Game of Thrones

This was, without a doubt, the highlight of Weekend Update. Perhaps the only thing better was when Peter Dinklage, I’m sorry, Peter Drunklage, said that the IRS stood for “Immigrant Return Services” and Seth Meyers’ reaction to the audience. Fantastic. Shameless plug – if you are a Game of Thrones fan, make sure you check out our reviews each week.

SNL, Melissa McCarthy, Pizza Eater
Credit to: pieceofhumangarbage

Million Dollar Wheel and Dating in the 90’s each weren’t horrible but they certainly could have been better. But Pizza Plan? That was awesome. Instead of  bringing back a specific character from McCarthy’s first time hosting (which is very often the case), they did a sketch that was reminiscent of McCarthy’s “taste tester” character.

Between the repeating of her name and constantly giving Jason Sudeikis a new pen, this was fun to watch. Add in the ridiculous, but almost brilliant, idea of a business solely comprising of being paid to eat leftover pizza, and this was a fantastic sketch. Not only was it funny but it clearly illustrated how good Melissa McCarthy is. This was not really a great sketch on paper. Much like the majority of the episode, the writing was a little lackluster, but McCarthy is so dedicated and puts so much effort and energy into selling those sketches, that they work. I’m always amazed at how little she looks at cue cards. I mean she has a improv background (Groundlings) so it makes sense but even the people who still do improv for a living, the SNL cast, are reading off cue cards on the regular so it’s refreshing to see. It does make me wonder how much better the episode would have been had she been given better material. Oh well, we’ll just have to wait until she hosts again to see!

Next week it’s the tall man himself, Vince Vaughn!

Melissa McCarthy, SNL, Vince Vaughn

Until then SNL fans!

TV

Joss Whedon’s S.H.I.E.L.D. Gets A Title Change

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It looks like S.H.I.E.L.D. is no more. Well at least the title is no more. According to EW.com, apparently there comes news that the title is being changed to (or at least referred to for the time being as) Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. While we can all debate why, they also included a show summary that everyone can read up on before we debate this title:

[quote]

Joss Whedon (MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) shows us not all heroes are super with MARVEL’S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.

Fresh from his role in the summer’s box office smash, MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS, Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) returns to the worldwide law enforcement organization S.H.I.E.L.D. He puts together a small, highly trained, team of Agents to tackle the cases that haven’t been classified yet, the new, the strange and the unknown. That team consists of straight arrow Agent Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), an expert in combat and espionage; pilot and martial artist Agent Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen); and brilliant if socially awkward scientists Agent Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and Agent Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge). They’ll be joined by civilian new recruit and computer hacker Skye (Chloe Bennet).

Prepare for an epic adventure that showcases the hope and wonder of the human spirit. This is a world of Super Heroes, aliens and the unusual – of action, spectacle and world spanning stories. The show will speak to the human condition through the lens of our very human, non-powered S.H.I.E.L.D agents – that together we are greater than we are apart, and that we can make a difference in the world.

Executive Produced and co-written by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen (Dollhouse, Dr.Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog), Jeffrey Bell (Angel, Alias) and Jeph Loeb (Smallville, Lost, Heroes) comes Marvel’s first live-action TV series, MARVEL’S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.

[/quote]

agent of shield
Credit: nerdlunch.net – Also not a photo from set…

So let’s break it down quickly: I think it’s an odd move. I mean, it shouldn’t be surprising because Marvel wants to tag their branding on everything now (Marvel’s The Avengers ring a bell?) but it’s just too much at this point. Plus just saying S.H.I.E.L.D. would have just made enough waves as a short and efficient attention grabbing title. EW speculates because ABC might want to separate its title from FX’s The Shield but I can’t buy that because the series isn’t running anymore and enough time should have passed so confusion would not be made. Even the ‘Agents of’ part comes off as redundant because who else would we be following in S.H.I.E.L.D.? The Janitors of S.H.I.E.L.D.? The Real Housewives of S.H.I.E.L.D.? (Crap, call Bravo now and tell them to stop that idea from getting on the air.) Regardless, this is all done for the advertisers as Joss & ABC prepare the pilot to show off in May to generate some ad sales so who knows, we might get the title change back or perhaps something more ridiculous might be in hand. Although does it matter? We could probably just stop and declare this the best pilot of the fall season and they could name it whatever they want because even an appearance from Hasselhoff as a Nick Fury doppelganger couldn’t stop the me from watching.