Fire and blood.
These are the words of House Targaryen. They are also the best description to the majority of this episode. It is almost entirely action, with hardly any dialogue.
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A satisfying conclusion often seems like is one of the most elusive things in entertainment. A memorable quote from the Tom Cruise movie Cocktail says, “Everything ends badly, otherwise it wouldn’t end.” More often than not, franchises tend to burnout and lose steam. TV shows run for more seasons than they should, movie franchises keep going for no apparent reason other than the studio does not want to relinquish a tent pole intellectual property. The bottom dollar often trumps creative integrity.
Read MoreWith the release of Avengers: Endgame nearly upon us, a friend of mine asked me where it would ranked on the list of my most anticipated movies of all time. When was the last time I was thishyped for a movie? It got me thinking and I came up with a list of 15 movies that I remember being in the range of how hyped I am for Avengers: Endgame.
Now, sadly, as this list will reveal, the hype and anticipation one feels for a movie does not have any bearing at all on the overall quality of the actual film. Most of these A handful of these movies I ended up being disappointed with; one in particular left me with a cinematic scar that will never fully heal. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve tried to manage my expectations for some movies, but the eternal appeal of anticipation is the hope that the finished product will somehow match or exceed your expectations for it, and those are the moments that make us love movies, right?
So, let’s get into the list!
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The show opens to a long parade of soldiers marching through the streets outside of Winterfell. The first familiar face we meet is Arya; it is fitting because In at least two past episodes Arya served as a reflection of the audience. She is playing this role again, but now as a grown woman.
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It’s 2019 and they’re making movies about everything now. First it was The Angry Birds Movie. Then came The Emoji Movie. Now we’re getting Shazam!. Look, not every phone app needs a movie! Ok, so Shazam! is actually not about the music app on your phone. It’s actually another superhero movie, which may cause some people to groan, by DC, which may cause more people to groan. But it’s actually a pretty entertaining movie and comes at the superhero genre from a unique if not quite fresh perspective.
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Over the past decade, Marvel Studios has grown to become one of the biggest movie studios in the world. There is one character however, who is far more interesting and compelling than a casual viewer might gather if they are only interested in the movies: SHIELD Agent Clint Barton AKA Hawkeye. He’s the one with the bow and arrow and is portrayed by Jeremy Renner in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
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Early on in Us, a homeless man is seen holding up a cardboard sign that says Jeremiah 11:11. When I got out of the theater from seeing Us, I quickly looked up this Bible verse, curious as to what it said. “Therefore, thus says the Lord, Behold, I am bringing disaster upon them that they cannot escape. Though they cry to me, I will not listen to them.” This ominous verse from the prophet Jeremiah, spoken to the people of Israel, is a warning of judgment for breaking their covenant with God. It’s an interesting find by Jordan Peele, the director of Us, the follow-up to his debut directorial effort, Get Out.
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You can learn a lot about a person and the types of movies they love. You ask 3 people what the best movie they have ever seen is, and you are likely to get three different movies.
Like a dog whistle or a typical Sam Smith song, movies speak a note whose unique resonation can only be heard by that specific person based on their life experiences.
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This season of Saturday Night Live can at best be described as unremarkable. While we’re used to perhaps only have one or two sketches hit per episode, this season has seen multi-episode stretches go on before anything memorable is presented.
They’ve fumbled the ball when they have strong hosts such as Steve Carell, Matt Damon and Jonah Hill. They couldn’t save first time hosts from flubbing(Halsey, Clair Foy). And if you’ve grown tired of the political takes on the show, this season has put you to sleep.
The only two highlights of this season have been the John Mulaney(which is what happens when a former SNL writer is the host) and the fact that the hosting duties have been given to a bunch of people of color(six as of now).
But it’s going to take some strong shows to salvage my opinion of this season. Let’s check in to see how the cast is doing.
Safe
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21 movies into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and we have our first one with a female lead. This has been a dividing issue for many, for some it is an empowering moment about representation and for others (idiots, in my opinion) it’s a chance to show their trollishness and insecurity. I think it’s great that Captain Marvel, like Black Panther before it, serves a demographic that hasn’t been served by previous films in the MCU and potentially grows the market for Marvel. But ultimately, what matters is whether the content is good and worth coming back to for more, so let’s delve into that, and maybe a bit into the female empowerment for good measure.
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Well, it’s that that time of year again, on the cusp of spring we start to look forward to the summer months and the summer movie slate. And with that comes the long-running Fantasy Box Office league that myself, Chris, Greg, Tim, and Paula participate in. After a dominant 2018, I’m looking to stay on the mountaintop, but I have to admit that it will be very difficult this year. This summer is incredibly stacked, so much so that we decided to extend the summer rosters from 7 to 8 and our auction budgets from $70 to $80. It made for an interesting draft and some unique rosters and calculations on everyone’s part, which should make for a fun summer. Let’s take a look at the rosters, going in order from last season’s last place to first.
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I love a good survival movie. I thoroughly enjoyed movies like The Edge and Cast Away when I was a teen. In the past few years there have been a few good ones, too; in particular Gravity and All Is Lost. Man’s struggle to survive either in extreme conditions or on the edge of existence is enthralling to me. As such, I was very interested when I saw a poster and eventually a trailer for Arctic, starring Mads Mikkelsen.
Arctic places Mikkelsen‘s Overgård in the middle of a snowy nowhere, somewhere in the Arctic Circle, following him through his daily routine. His routine is set to the timer on his watch, and it quickly becomes apparent that he has been there for some time in a downed plane. He has a giant SOS message dug out of the snow and permafrost, fishing lines that he checks, and a daily hike that involves mapping his location and running a hand-cranked distress signal for a few minutes each day.
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If you had told me at the beginning of the decade that an animated film would spawn a trilogy that nailed all three movies that came out this decade, I would probably have been very curious to see what Pixar had planned. While Pixar has never worked at that pace on their sequels, DreamWorks Animation has had a few very successful franchises that they have kept going. Arguably, the best in overall quality has been the two How To Train Your Dragon movies, and How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is a satisfying cap on the trilogy.
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Coming five years after the wildly successful original, Warner Bros has released The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part. Nearly everyone is back from the first film in some capacity. The prolific duo of Chris Lord and Phil Miller, who wrote and directed the first film, remain as screenwriters but have handed off the directorial reins to Mike Mitchell.
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A new music-centric feature film showcasing the most famous band of all time.
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It’s all over except for the tears. And I plan on exacting tears. The fall 2018 season of the Fantasy Box Office concluded on January 31. After winning the summer league, I successfully defended my title in the fall league with a dominant performance at the box office. This makes it 3 in four seasons. Like my freshly crowned champion New England Patriots in the NFL, yes, it’s a dynasty!
All of the rosters can be found below along with the final totals. Coming out of the draft, I thought I had a good roster. As it turned out, some pieces (Bohemian Rhapsody) were strong than I expected while others (The Grinch, Mary Poppins Returns) didn’t quite live up to my expectations. However, I still managed to eclipse the $500 million mark.
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Out of all the movies that came out of 2018 no movie (in my opinion) has had more of the underdog story than Bohemian Rhapsody. Based on the life and times of Freddie Mercury and Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody tells the story of Freddie through moments in time leading up to the legendary Live Aid Concert in 1985.
The film opened to mixed reviews from the critics but the audience and the fans came through showing their immense support.
However reports of Bryan Singer "Director" of the film, being very unprofessional on set to the point of barely showing up. And when he did show up he would argue with everyone. Reports even state that he threw things at Rami Malek who stars as Freddie Mercury. This report Singer vehemently denies.
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Yesterday morning I got really excited at about 7:45am when I was on Twitter and remembered, “Oh, it’s Oscar nomination day!” Almost immediately after this, I also got slightly bummed out because I knew that there were bound to be disappointments with the nominations. Cinephiles have a love/hate relationship with movie award ceremonies like the Oscars because so often truly great gems get overlooked, the Academy always gets something wrong, what resonates now might be lost in the shuffle in five or ten years, and yet we always hold out hope that the films we champion will somehow win out and be rewarded for their greatness and it will validate everything we believe about the movies we love. Or maybe that’s just me. Suffice to say, there were a few nominations I loved, but quite a few snubs I hated.
Let’s get into some of the biggest Oscar snubs this year and who I would kick out to put them in.
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Pretty much everyone who loves movies as a kid gets exposed to Disney’s catalog, though there usually ends up being gaps here and there. My sister was obsessed with a handful of Disney animated movies, so those were on constantly in our house growing up, but a few slipped through the cracks, as did much of the older Disney live-action movies. Mary Poppins was one of those films I missed growing up, only to cause quite the consternation amongst my friends who adore it when I revealed that when Saving Mr. Banks came out a few years ago. Shortly after seeing that, I remedied the situation and did quite enjoy Mary Poppins, though I suspect not to the same degree I might have if I’d seen it when I was younger. Over 50 years later, Disney has returned to the character with Mary Poppins Returns.
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