Some sequels, like The Dark Knight, Spider-Man 2, Hellboy 2, Blade 2, etc., surpass the originals in almost every respect. Yet when sequels become franchises, cracks generally can – and do – begin to show. Some just get too big for their boots and try too much too soon (here’s looking at you, Pirates Of The Caribbean and The Matrix) but Chapter 3 is often where things tend to go a bit skewiff....
Most Americans likely associate darts as an activity to kill time in dingy bars or in their uncle’s musty rec room. BBC America looks to change that image. After all, darts in the U.K. is considered a serious sport. In fact, only soccer beats darts in sports TV ratings across the pond. While there is obvious appeal to Anglophiles stateside, BBC America also stresses other ways in which darts could appeal to Yanks....
This review contains spoilers. 5.5 Orca Shrugged After a couple of very heavy instalments, this week’s Sons of Anarchy is more fun that it has been in a while. It has everything a good episode needs: Explosions! Fist fights! Drugs! Bad Irish accents! And of course, cameos from the cast of Kurt Sutter’s previous show, The Shield. The main arc in this week’s episode is a blackmail plot somewhat reminiscent of a Coen Brothers film....
I’m not sure whether the UK practice of having Oscar-winning filmmakers direct electoral campaign ads has crossed the pond yet, but judging by 30 Rock’s brilliant parody of the recent midterm TV spots endured by the American public, I’d hazard a guess it hasn’t. But regardless of their suitability for office, idiotic public figures are of course brilliant for one thing: providing succour to comedians. The crazies that came out of the woodwork during the 2010 midterms proved too good a comic opportunity for Tina Fey to pass up, and this week’s 30 Rock boiled them all down to a fine reduction of political lunacy....
Adapted from Susan Williams’ novel Colour Bar, A United Kingdom initially rushes the whirlwind yearlong courtship which is interspersed with fractured familial relations (on both sides) and vulgar societal racism. The interracial newlyweds face a searing backlash from Khama’s Bamangwato community, the apartheid government of South Africa and duplicitous British diplomats who are intent on rescinding the politically volatile marriage at any cost. David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike share a warm and authentic chemistry together as an embroiled yet doting couple facing a socio-political battle of industrial scale....
In any context, A Wrinkle in Time is an empowering children’s film (and it very much is committed to being a children’s film) with weird, wonderful visuals quite unique from anything we’ve seen in family films before. In this context, however, A Wrinkle in Time is a cinematic light in the darkness, a mythological statement from the biggest studio in the world, by way of Selma director Ava DuVernay, about how we all have value and deserve to be loved....
Oh my, by the bristling beard of Odin, now that was an ending! Before we can discuss the climax, let us discuss what got us there. Namely, an episode of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD that flip-flopped between two timelines and multiple points of view to tell a story and finally reveal a major secret about Skye. No, not that secret, the other one you didn’t even know existed. We still don’t know who Skye really is, (although these days I have abandoned my Jessica Drew theory for Daisy Johnson, but even that was called into question today) but we do know a boatload more about her parentage....
Any character that’s been around as long as Spidey has can accumulate plenty of stupid moments that, for better or worse, are canonical and must be acknowledged. Comicbook fans are the ones who have to live with it, while the general public can safely ignore them – until now, because there are the 3 worst offenders. If you thought the Devil-dealing Spider-Man of One More Day was hard to read (and I’m skipping that one because the wound is still too fresh) just you wait…...
Cast by writer-director Eoin C. Macken, Chapman will play Matthew, a character the logline describes as “aimless” and having been “pulled into the world of toxic masculinity” during an especially listless Dublin summer in 2003. He may wind up being brought down by his conspiratorial mate Kearney (Cole), yet he still yearns for his childhood crush Jen (Taylor-Joy), a young woman on her own path. Walsh-Peelo’s Rez is meanwhile described as succumbing to the boys’ “paranoia....
Arrested Development Season 5 Episode 7 GOB is a perfect Arrested Development character. He’s loud, thoroughly mediocre, weirdly sexual, and prone to making “huge mistakes.” He’s also a magician (illusionist), which can safely be considered one of the funniest professions. GOB has spent almost the entirety of the season up until this point, quietly sulking in the background over his failed relationship with Tony Wonder. To make matters worse, due to the vagaries of “very famous people scheduling” he’s had to do so alone, with Ben Stiller as Tony only appearing via phone call....
1.20 Home Invasion The big news for geeks in Home Invasion is the J. August Richards (Angel) guest spot as villain of the week, Mr Blank. He does a good job as the creepy assassin after Laurel and the little boy in her care and, frankly, it’s just nice to see him again. Oliver’s case of the week is the first to truly combine his two lives, mainly due to Tommy’s awareness of what he’s really getting up on his ‘business meetings’ (“I just need to swing by the club and pick up my best suit”), but this causes renewed friction between him and Diggle when he fails to come through on a promise....
The golden rule of a spoiler-free review of a series finale, particularly one as eagerly awaited as the finale to Ashes To Ashes, is this: if in any doubt, shut the heck up. Instead, let’s get down to what we can talk about: the finale of Ashes To Ashes is brilliant. We’ve watched it twice now, and it’s still spinning around in our heads, with no sign whatsoever of going away....
Attack on Titan: Season 3, Episode 5 “In this cramped world that we humans have, one spark will engulf all in no time.” It seems like such a basic principle that most people in this series follow, but it’s interesting to see how this rule reframes the characters in new lights. In the same sense, it’s amazing how the power of this principle can completely turn the tables. This episode begins with Erwin moments away from execution and by the end of it all he couldn’t be in a more comfortable position....
Here’s what we’ve got: Avatar 2 – December 18, 2020 Avatar 3 – December 17, 2021 Avatar 5 – December 19, 2025 So it will take over a decade from the release of the first Avatar film (which was released in 2009 and took in $2.7 billion globally) to get us that initial sequel. Why is there a three year gap between Avatar 3 and Avatar 4? That’s anybody’s guess....
The spoilers are coming… One of the biggest shocks among the dead was King T’Challa, a.k.a. Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), especially after his standalone movie had done so well at the box office. We weren’t the only ones reeling from that particular departure, it turns out, as Marvel exec and Black Panther producer Nate Moore was also pretty upset, going so far as to urge directors the Russo brothers to change their minds about the move all the way back in 2015, before Ryan Coogler had even finished making his pre-Black Panther boxing movie, Creed....
1.7 The Man In Number 9 Last week, I described the poor Chinese girl’s situation as having gone from the frying pan and into the fire. The very same sentiment may apply to the Bates family now as the removal of Deputy Shelby has brought Sheriff Romero crashing into their cosy little freakshow. He’s been there all along of course, but he’s been selling them, and the audience, a real duck....
If Wreck-It Ralph, then, gave us the extraordinary Vanellope von Schweetz (still probably my favourite new Disney character of recent times) and Frozen homed in on two sisters torn apart, Big Hero 6 turns to a boy genius by the name of Hiro. Courtesy of an impressive opening sequence, it’s clear that Hiro is a young man schooled in BBC 2’s Robot Wars, as he takes his latest invention into a robot battle, with his ‘bots’ emerging victorious....
In fact, this first episode, The National Anthem, reads like a condensation of all his past experience; it contains the cynical misanthropy of his old Guardian Screen Burn columns, a smattering of the profane and witty dialogue from his brilliant Nathan Barley comedy series, as well as the kind of behind-the-scenes insight into TV production that his work on programmes such as You Have Been Watching and 10 O’Clock Live may have afforded....
Black Sails Season 3 Episode 7 The most exciting thing in this episode is what doesn’t happen. Max doesn’t betray anyone. Jack Rackham doesn’t get tortured. Woods Rogers doesn’t turn Eleanor’s down offer of sex. Anne Bonny doesn’t get in an epic fight with six soldiers. They better have something really good coming up. I love looking at the clothes. Flint’s current coat is much more appropriate that his former black leather number....
Still, Mel Gibson clearly isn’t ageing like a typical guy in his 60s. In Blood Father, his character wears a salt-and-pepper beard like an Old Testament prophet and grumbles bitterly about immigrants stealing jobs, but he also has the toned biceps of a Russian shot putter and those same glinting blue eyes that made him a superstar in the era of Lethal Weapon and Mad Max 2. Come to think of it, Blood Father provides Gibson with more than a few opportunities to reprise some familiar moments from his greatest hits: he gets to wield a shotgun just like Max, and he even lives in a trash-ridden trailer like his signature hero, Martin “Lethal Weapon” Riggs....
