Director Danny Boyle has championed some unique stories into films, including 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire, and Trainspotting. His 2019 film Yesterdayfit into this grouping nicely, a very British story about a singer/songwriter named Jack, played by Himesh Patel (The Aeronauts), who encounters a miracle of sorts: a solar event that changes several aspects of the world. The key change? The world never knew a band called The Beatles. But the twist is only Jack can remember The Beatles. It’s a goodhearted drama with a dose of comedy and a bit of a love story. It’s also science fiction. Yesterday is now streaming on HBO Max, along with other digital streaming platforms.
A little bit Robocop, a little bit Bionic Man, a little bit of every Marvel solo character origin story, and very Vin Diesel, the movie adaptation of the 1990s Valiant Comics Harvey and Eisner Award-nominated sci-fi/superhero Bloodshot was the first movie industry collateral damage from the pandemic because it arrived March 13 in theaters, the same weekend the U.S. federal government began responding and theaters began to modify their rules and ultimately close. Which also made it the first for a studio to release at theatrical prices via the new “theater-at-home” option from Vudu and Amazon Prime. The good news is it’s well worth full ticket prices, and would have been even better on the big screen. It has all of the right beats we’ve seen in the past decade in the better movies adapting comics beyond the traditional superheroes of DC Comics and Marvel. It also introduces fans of all things borg to the next squad of cyborg warriors worthy of sequels.
A little bit Robocop, a little bit Bionic Man, a little bit Deadpool and Venom, a bit of The Punisher, and very Vin Diesel, the comic book adaptation of the 1990s Valiant Comics Harvey and Eisner Award-nominated superhero Bloodshot is finally making its way to theaters. Sony Pictures released the first trailer for the film this week, and it has all of those components we’ve seen in the past decade from movies adapting comics beyond the traditional superheroes of DC Comics and Marvel. The inclusion of nanites as part of Bloodshot’s powers make him the latest borg to make it to the big screen. Whatever Martin Scorsese or Francis Ford Coppola or anyone else wants to say about superhero movies, these films are an art form in their own right, with their own language, look, music, editing, and story–just like every other genre of film. Fans will be the only judge that matters when Bloodshotarrives early next year.
Diesel, who somehow seems to be the pick for Italian characters despite his own northern European roots, is a smart casting decision for Ray Garrison aka Angelo Mortalli (which fits Diesel so well), the new incarnation of the cybernetic warrior whose modified blood gives him regeneration abilities (think Wolverine) but also makes him controllable by others (think Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse). He has the action hero role solidly on his resume from his role as fast car driver and ex-con Dominic Toretto in seven (so far) Fast & Furious films and Xander Cage in two xXx films, and he brings sci-fi street cred playing Riddick in the Chronicles of Riddick series. And, of course, he’s one-half of our favorite superhero duo, playing the voice of Groot in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The movie co-stars Guy Pearce (hopefully more LA Confidential and less Iron Man 3),Eiza González(Hobbs & Shaw, Alita; Battle Angel, Baby Driver),Lamorne Morris(New Girl, Game Night),Toby Kebbell(Warcraft, Fantastic Four, Planet of the Apes, Kong: Skull Island),Sam Heughan(Midsomer Murders, Outlander), and Talulah Riley(Doctor Who, Thor: The Dark World, Westworld). Kick-Ass 2 writer Jeff Wadlow wrote this story, which will be directed by visual effects artists Dave Wilson. Music was created by horror movie go-to composer Steve Jablonsky(Ender’s Game, Transformers series, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, The Amityville Horror, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre).
As with Deadpool and Venom, this second tier character and footage is going to get superhero fans into theaters. Here is the first trailer, with Vin Diesel starring in Bloodshot:
November of course means Novembeard–where participants grow beards to raise awareness of men’s health issues. Or, just because beards are cool and it’s become an annual tradition. So who better to celebrate than the actor who has made a beard work for him throughout his career? That would be Kurt Russell. As Snake Plisskin in Escape from New York. As MacReady in The Thing. As Jack Burton in Big Trouble in Little China (stubble counts). (Russell only had a moustache in Tombstone so we’ll skip that one). As the sheriff in Bone Tomahawk. As John Ruth in The Hateful Eight. As Ego in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2. Even his son Wyatt knows how to sport a cool beard–He wore won this year as the star of Lodge 49. So what’s left for the guy with the cool beard to take on next? How about playing the guy with the best beard of all time? That’s Santa Claus, of course.
The best part? In this trailer for Netflix’s new The Christmas Chronicles, Russell isn’t playing just another “Bad Santa” role. Sure, it looks like a traditional family Christmas show, but Russell revealing how cool Santa is (and always has been) and lines that sound like they were written for Jack Burton? That’s an inspired choice.
He knows when you’ve been bad or good, so you’d better clean up your act right now.
The movie stars Benji star Darby Camp and The Babysitter’sJudah Lewis as kids who want to film Santa in action. Look for co-stars Kimberly Williams-Paisley(Father of the Bride, Darrow & Darrow) as their mom, plus Lamorne Morris (New Girl, The Guild) and Martin Roach (Kick-Ass 2, The Shape of Water).
Check out this new trailer for The Christmas Chronicles:
If you want to know why three cast members of the Fox TV series New Girl were up for Emmys last year, just get a copy of New Girl: The Complete Second Season, now available on DVD. With yet another episode last night, New Girl is still cranking out laughs in its third season every Tuesday night. New Girl has become the surest way to get a quick dose of laugh-out-loud humor on network or cable television. The only frustrating thing about New Girl is that each episode is less than half an hour, and it always feels like it is over too fast. And that makes it that much more fun to watch 25 episodes at a few hours per viewing with the DVD set.
Season Two finally saw series star Zooey Deschanel’s Jess hook up with Jake Johnson’s Nick, the poster boy for the lazy post-college set. Deschanel was nominated for leading actress in a comedy series for her work in Season Two and it’s no wonder–she’s fun, quirky, and smart. Season Two also saw Max Greenfield’s performance as Schmidt nominated for best supporting actor in a comedy series. It’s hard to think of the last actor that worked as hard as Greenfield does for a laugh, finding himself constantly in the most embarrassing and over-the-top circumstances. Deschanel and Greenfield have made themselves actors to watch for whether in TV appearances (Deschanel in Bones and Weeds, Greenfield in Veronica Mars and Castle) or in movies (Deschanel in Elf and The Happening).
