At this point, you know what Jackass is about. It’s the perfect combination of reality television and a scripted program, with wacky stunts intermingled with random craziness, ‘man on the street’ reaction shots, meshed with performance art. As sheer spectacle, you can’t go wrong with Jackass 3D. Jackass 3D is the third film in the Jackass series, as well as a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the television, film, and home video phenomenon that began in 2000....
Based closely on the structure of the musical, Jersey Boys – directed by Clint Eastwood, no less – tells the story of Frankie Valli, Tommy DeVito, Bob Gaudio, and Nick Massi – the original line-up. Tommy is a two-bit crook in Newark, who gets the beautifully voiced Frankie to join his group. However, it isn’t until Joe Pesci (yes, you read that right) introduces them to songwriter Bob Gaudio that it all clicks, and pop stardom beckons....
5.5 Shot All To Hell This feud also examined the idea of legacy and in particular a person’s family name, which, especially in certain rural areas of middle America is something that can affect how future generations are judged by their respective communities. As such, Boyd, before forcing Paxton to shoot himself, tells him that his death does not end this feud and that his family will suffer and his “children and their children’s children will have a mark against their name....
1.6 You Can Never Go Home When we last left off with Kiss Me First, things had become quite a bit more complicated for Leila and Tess. The supposed cult was now an actual cult with uniforms, pills and a basecamp, and in order to rescue Tess, Leila had to face off against Tippi – a true believer. All of that madness somehow goes more or less unacknowledged in this finale, which leaves us on a cliffhanger and fails to answer any questions it posed throughout the six episodes....
Legends of Tomorrow Episode 15 “Oh my god, they’ve tortured him.” First off, sorry this review is late. I just got back from London on secret Den of Geek business. Sadly (or perhaps luckily) it wasn’t London 2166, but it will have to do. Second of all, I’m sorry I didn’t review “River of Time.” I had Kryptonite poisoning something fierce last week, and was in no shape to do much of anything....
Legends of Tomorrow Season 2 Episode 16 You know what the best thing about Legends of Tomorrow is right now? That the show has found its groove, and everyone working on it knows it. Last week, Mick betrayed the Legends, brought the Spear of Destiny to the Legion of Doom, and let Eobard Thawne rewrite reality. This week, we got to spend some time in that new reality: Thawne runs STAR Labs, Merlyn has his family and his hand back, Damien Darhk is the Mayor of Star City, and Snart and Rory are robbing banks in Central City....
That first little sequence, before we hit the main opening chase scene, is symbolism and motif from start to finish. The Test Card F foreshadows what is to come, and the fact he seems to be dreaming about being in his hospital bed adds a level of confusion. Is he dreaming about being in 2006? Sam throws himself whole-heartedly into the 70s for the sake of June, shot and in a coma....
Based on director David Sandberg’s short film of the same name, Lights Out enters the search for original horror with a very simple but original visual idea of a shadowy figure that only appears when the lights are out or dimmed. The lights go on and the figure disappears. It sounds simple and not particularly scary on paper, but if you’ve seen the trailer for the movie, you might have an inkling of how this can be used to freak out even the staunchest horror buff....
Seriously, would another 15 minutes genuinely make it a better movie? Almost certainly not. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t want to see what else was left on the cutting room floor. Whenever more Ghostbusters deleted scenes are discovered, we’re going to watch them, even if all the ones we’ve seen so far were left out for good reason. Butit looks like we might get to see some more after all, including at least one scene that has become the stuff of Ghostbusters fan legend....
A fine set of events, admittedly, but mostly things that have been telegraphed by individual episodes of this season. Perhaps it’s because previous seasons have left us expecting scraps of revelation right at the end rather than all the way through, but as a finale, it feels like it’s just moving pieces into place rather than overturning the board as previous ones did. It’s fairly telling that my interest is less in what happens in Season 5 than how they’re going to tell it....
The film, for the most part, is effectively a two hander, with the other prominent role here being that of Chuck Traynor, an infamous and not particularly nice human being. Played here by Peter Sarsgaard, Traynor starts out as a friendly man, luring the innocent Lovelace into a new world and new experiences, and overseeing her becoming a massive star off the back of the infamous porn movie, Deep Throat....
7.7 Waterloo “What is happiness? The moment before you need more happiness.” That season five line typifies the cynicism that, previous to Waterloo, I’d taken to be Mad Men’s essential perspective. Over six and a half seasons, Matthew Weiner’s show has been a circus of disenchantment and unfulfillment. Against a backdrop of social discontent and ad-land lies, we’ve seen Don’s death wish, Joan’s compromises, Pete’s frustrations, Peggy’s loneliness, Kinsey’s failed ‘enlightenment’, Lane’s fate and more....
Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam is the latest entry in the humorous and lighthearted RPG series from Nintendo. While past Mario & Luigi games have experimented with some pretty big ideas, like time travel and traversing dream worlds, the big twist this time around involves the addition of Paper Mario to the team, along with numerous baddies and environmental elements from the Paper Mario world. Although this crossover of different game worlds leads to some confusion among the characters themselves, it makes perfect sense in execution, as the best aspects from both series are fully utilized, leading Paper Jam to be another solid addition to the always excellent and beloved RPG series....
Corvette Summer. Oh wait, did I say kidnapped princess? I’m sorry. I meant car. He goes in search of a kidnapped car. Yes, it’s been thirty years since Corvette Summer fish-tailed into theaters and left audiences wondering for the very first time if the price of a movie ticket was too high. Little did they know they were not only witnessing an abysmal comedic misfire but also the sudden, violent death of Mark Hamill’s career, which was still in its infancy....
He kicks off the show with getting a few comments from locals – “if Boston was a type of a car it would have to be a souped up Ford Escort with furry dice in the window” – and then quickly gets down to business. And it immediately becomes clear that he’s got the crowd very much on his side. The audience interaction is actually really quite brilliant. There’s a warmth to the gig, and Steel is relaxed enough to work in the reactions and words of his audience well....
Marvel hasn’t had the best year on TV. While The Defenders made a splash, Iron Fist was pretty much narratively dead on arrival. And let’s not linger too long on Marvel’s Inhumans, which limped along on ABC, despite being nearly universally panned by critics and fans alike. Based on the comic book series by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona, Marvel’s Runaways follows the lives of six teens — Alex Wilder (Rhenzy Feliz), Nico Minoru (Lyrica Okano), Karolina Dean (Virginia Gardner), Chase Stein (Gregg Sulkin), Gert Yorkes (Ariela Barer), Gert’s adopted sister Molly Hernandez (Allegra Acosta) — and their probably-evil parents....
Frankly, one senses that if Whale had infinite resources, he’d just as soon have made a movie about Mary, the young woman whose nightmare still electrifies modern dreams. Yet studios have long balked at the stranger-than-fiction life of Mary Wolstoncraft Shelley (née Godwin), and judging by Haifaa Al-Mansour’s overdue biopic on the literary icon, it’s been perhaps because of the same reason Miss Godwin was so easily dismissed by publishers in her day: Who wants to hear this kind of tale from a woman?...
This episode belonged to Simon, whose view of life is literally wide-eyed. Those large blue-grey pools remain permanently open, surveying, observing, navigating everything around him, searching for threats and for allies in this bizarre world he finds himself in. Simon’s gradual fall under Sally’s tricksy seductive spell was rather tragic to watch, his little face lighting up into a shy smile as Sally paid him so much attention and gave him clear signals that they were becoming an item....
Over half a century since its heyday film noir endures as a source of both earnest tribute and knowing parody. Perhaps the most convincing reason for this is its striking visual signature; the shadows, the menacing urban environment and the suit-hat-gun combination of its male principals. The strength of these images means that It’s very easy to produce an ‘idea’ of noir, a general impression of it that encompasses all of these elements while missing the central ingredient of moral uncertainty and outright cynical worldview that made it work as a narrative artform....
Indeed, Liquid Television was the crucial 1990s platform responsible for the emergence of would-be MTV hit series Beavis and Butt-Head, along with the bizarre, ultraviolent and titillating assassin series Æon Flux, which, in 2005, would be adapted as a movie starring Charlize Theron. Now, the series has been made available for consumption in its originally-aired form, thanks to the folks at Internet Archive, who have uploaded the whole kit and caboodle, providing – with equally-nostalgic commercials and MTV News breaks – all 27 episodes from Liquid Television’s 1991-1994 run....
