Tuesday, May 31, 2022

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Field of Dreams: Kevin Costner Pays Tribute to Ray Liotta

Posted: 31 May 2022 10:50 AM PDT

 

With the recent passing of Ray Liotta, we find out that one of the coolest moments in cinema just happened and wasn't planned. Kevin Costner took to Twitter to honor his co-star as the two starred together in the 1989 film Field of Dreams. In one of the scenes Costner's character of Ray Kinsella is pitching to Liotta's Shoeless Joe Jackson, one of the best and most infamous baseball players in history. Kinsella is awestruck that he's pitching to a legend but tries to get fancy and throw a curve. Jackson smacks it directly back at Kinsella, who scrambles out of the way and ends up on his ass. Jackson glares at him. According to Costner's post, that moment was a stunt but really happened while filming and the two actors didn't break character.

 

 

Costner wrote: "Devastated to hear the news of Ray Liotta's passing. While he leaves an incredible legacy, he'll always be "Shoeless Joe Jackson" in my heart. What happened that moment in the film was real. God gave us that stunt. Now God has Ray."

The post Field of Dreams: Kevin Costner Pays Tribute to Ray Liotta appeared first on Bleeding Fool.

Some Familiar Star Wars Rebels Confirmed for Upcoming Ahsoka Shows

Posted: 31 May 2022 08:25 AM PDT

 

 

When Rosario Dawson first appeared as Ahsoka Tano on The Mandalorian, she name dropped Grand Admiral Thrawn and that go Star Wars fans asking questions. Ahsoka first appeared in Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series but would later return in Star Wars: Rebels where Thrawn was a major villain. This made everyone wonder what other Rebel characters might make the jump to live action.

 

CBR learned a little more at Star Wars Celebration this weekend including confirmation that Natasha Liu Bordizzo will be playing Sabrine Wren. Her joining the series had been known for a while but her character had not been confirmed until now. Two others confirmed to appear are Hera Syndulla, though no casting has been announced, and the C1-10P droid known as Chopper. The droid made an appearance at the convention on stage with Rebels creator Dave Filoni.

 

The Ahsoka series is supposed to stream in 2023.   

 

 

Another bit of Ahsoka news that came out of Star Wars Celebration was news that an upcoming animated series called Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi. The series is set to premiere later this year on Disney+ and is an anthology series filled with original shot stories from the prequel era that will include the origin story of Ahsoka Tano. According to StarWars.com, we'll be seeing a lot of familiar faces including Count Dooku and Qui-Gon Jinn and word is that Liam Neeson will return to voice the character.

 

Also returning to the franchise is Janina Gavankar who voiced Iden Versio in the Star Wars Battlefront II game. In the series she will be playing Pav-ti, the mother of Ahsoka. Also, those who got to see the teaser trailer for the series have stated that we'll see the return of Yaddle, a female jedi master from the same unnamed race as Yoda and Grogu. The premise for the series will tell a new story every episode but they main focus will be on the lives of Ahsoka and Dooku.

The post Some Familiar Star Wars Rebels Confirmed for Upcoming Ahsoka Shows appeared first on Bleeding Fool.

Doctor Strange 2 Opens Portals to More Woke MCU Content

Posted: 31 May 2022 06:15 AM PDT

 

According to a writer at the Federalist, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is laced with what the emphasis on what America Chavez was built upon should make clear, and just as disturbingly, horror-genre elements:

 

Raimi changed all that in the sequel, as Wanda possesses an innocent mom, torturing and murdering people in gruesome ways. "Doctor Strange 2" gives us all the hallmarks of a stereotypical horror flick, but without the suspense that makes them great, and then leaps back into an incoherent fantasy. This witchcraft keeps the plot afloat, distracting from holes in the storyline. If you're going to take on a multiverse, you shouldn't use sorcery as a crutch to hide the parts that don't make sense. […]

In short, the film is a trifecta of graphic, creepy, and cheesy. If Marvel wanted to merge with the horror genre, it should have debuted a new series instead of messing with an old one. The jump is jarring.

 

On this note, I’ve noticed there seems to be quite a few horror-themed movies turning up lately (including a remake of Stephen King’s Firestarter and Crimes of the Future), and it’s honestly worrisome, because it symbolizes the bad influence all the concentration on darkness has upon entertainment of recent. However, if the 2nd Ghost Rider movie of the past decade was a dud, putting an end to more such adaptations in a hurry, then there’s little point in remaking them now, if a horror film is such a big deal.

 

Worse yet is the message of the film delivered to us through the hypocritical hands of Strange as he stops at nothing to save the day. Wanda's insatiable self-deception becomes almost a relief in comparison to the sangfroid of Strange, who breaks no sweat at crossing the very same line that makes Wanda the bad guy.

"You break the rules and you're the hero," Wanda says. "I break the rules and I'm the enemy. Hardly seems fair."

On its face, the film doesn't seem that woke, and to its credit, it's not a feminist propaganda piece. There's just one brief flashback to Chavez's lesbian "moms," but nothing more — we think.

But America Chavez is not a Stan Lee creation. She's a lesbian character from Joe Casey and Nick Dragotta's 2011 comic "Vengeance #1."

And all of a sudden, we realize what door Marvel just opened. The sexuality of Marvel's newest female superhero now has protection in any future production from one of the biggest of the Marvel franchise: "Doctor Strange." Any pushback to an overtly lesbian character can now be fought with the assertion that she's already in "Doctor Strange 2," and she's lesbian in the comics.

 

They didn’t mention, however, that, as previously noted, the 2 lesbian moms were killed off in a cliched showbiz setup wherein lesbians are killed as plot devices, and that can also be tasteless and reprehensible. But, the reviewer has a point that the politicized structure of this film, relying as it does on characters developed for political points, serves to further woke agendas, and if Disney/Marvel Studios use the global box office gross as justification, it’s no wonder we’ll be swamped with more of this agenda-driven use of homosexuality in any upcoming films allegedly based on Marvel products.

 

 

That aside, it sure is ironic how, for a movie as woke as Multiverse of Madness actually is, they had no qualms about victimizing Scarlet Witch’s reputation full force, depicting her as a murderous madwoman instead of an admirable heroine fearlessly battling sci-fi criminals in a fictional world. It just shows how even today, many of the writers and editors responsible for bringing down the quality of Marvel’s comics to dismal levels are still getting away with it.

I’m as big a Doctor Strange fan as the next person is – and proudly own a big portion of the stories from up to the turn of the century in trade paperbacks – but that’s exactly why I don’t want to watch movies like these. Because the sad truth is, they do the source material a terrible disservice.

 

Originally published here.

The post Doctor Strange 2 Opens Portals to More Woke MCU Content appeared first on Bleeding Fool.

Tom Cruise’s ‘Maverick’ Earns Its Place Among op Memorial Day Films

Posted: 31 May 2022 04:45 AM PDT

 

Top Gun: Maverick soared over the competition in this past weekends box office. The long-awaited sequel… 37 years waiting… has brought in $151 million domestically and $248 million worldwide.

 

This is the second-best Memorial Day weekend opening, just behind 2007's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End which debuted at $153 million. It's also the best opening for a Tom Cruise starring vehicle. Reports say that 11.1 million moviegoers will have seen the film by the end of the weekend, which races past the originals open weekend of 2 million people.

 

 

Top Gun: Maverick sees the return of Tom Cruise's self-assured test pilot, who had been brought in to train a group of young fighter pilots, one of which is the son of Maverick's deceased best friend Nick "Goose" Bradshaw. While Cruise is the only main player returning for the movie, Val Kilmer also makes a small reprisal of his role as Iceman, with the rest of the new-to-franchise cast including Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Ed Harris and Monica Barbaro.

 

 

Christian Toto of Hollywood in Toto had this to say of the legacy sequel:

 

The ageless star [Cruise] is in full control of his film destiny, and he clearly helped "Maverick" avoid most, if not all, of the culture war booby traps.

No hand wringing over military might or extended emasculation of its rugged hero, for starters. No lectures on America's imperfect past or gender inequality.

And, suffice to say, "Top Gun: Maverick" isn't woke in the slightest. It is, though, a testament to American excellence and the ability to achieve a goal no matter the odds.

 

Reaction to the film has also been positive as Rotten Tomatoes has it at 97% from critics and 99% from audiences. Of the 319 reviews they've listed, only 11 are 'rotten' and when you look at their top critics, 69 of 70 ranked it as 'fresh'.

 

John Nolte of Breitbart explains why, unlike recent installments in the 007 or Star Wars franchises, this legacy sequel is being embraced by critics and moviegoers alike.

[…] it didn't do what James Bond did—turn itself into a mewling little pajama boy gerbil of a movie. It didn't do what Star Wars did and pervert a romantic-adventure series into a shrill Womyn's Studies lecture. Instead, Top Gun chose to respect human nature and remain what it was, what worked, and what normal people love. The audience sensed that, and now it's over-performing […]

 

 

 

The rest of the box office rounds out with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness at 21.1 million for the four-day weekend, The Bob's Burgers Movie bowing for $15 million it's opening weekend, Downton Abbey: A New Era grabbing $7.5 million and the animated The Bad Guys taking in $6.1 million.  

The post Tom Cruise’s ‘Maverick’ Earns Its Place Among op Memorial Day Films appeared first on Bleeding Fool.

Superman Films Ranked: #10 Superman III (1983)

Posted: 30 May 2022 03:25 PM PDT

 

#10 in my ranking of the theatrically released Superman films.

 

YouTube Video

 

What is this? With Richard Donner definitely not coming back, the directing job went back to Richard Lester who played nice with the Salkinds and did what they wanted on Superman II. Given complete control (or, as complete control as the Salkinds would allow), Lester created a Saturday morning cartoon of a live-action Superman film. I wouldn't really mind, much like the Schumacher Batman films aren't bad because they take lighter tones, but Lester doesn't seem to know how to build a story across two hours of film to save his life. The only reason his version of II was a success was because he was building off of Donner's work (and I'm not a huge fan of Donner). Left to his own devices, Lester had no idea what to do.

 

 

The movie opens and it's obvious that things are going to be very wrong. After a weird little sequence introducing Gus (Richard Pryor), a guy who can't hold a job who gets the idea to learn the computers, we get our title sequence. Remember the title sequences of the first two? Epic lettering across cosmic scenery with grand John Williams music? How about smudgy lettering over unrelated pratfalls on the streets of Metropolis set to a John Williams cover band? The epic feel of the first two has been replaced by largely unfunny comedic skits that don't involve our main character except in passing. This is depressing out of the gate.

 

 

Clark Kent (Christopher Reeve) has the great idea for a newspaper article. He's going to his…high school reunion. Let's be honest. This is an idea for a television episode, not a superhero film. Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) skips out of the movie, going to Bermuda (and ends up in what sounds like a far more interesting movie) while Kent takes Jimmy Olsen (Marc McClure), who's out of the movie soon enough on his own. On their way to Smallville, they come across a chemical plant fire that Superman puts out, learning about an acid that becomes…I don't know…super dangerous when it gets too hot, and Jimmy breaks his leg to disappear from the movie forever.

 

 

Back at Smallville, Clark meets up with Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole), a high school crush who has a kid and is stuck in Smallville with no prospects. Without Lois around, the woman that Clark reversed time to save, he's free to try to hit that. A romance buds, and it's cute at best.

 

Meanwhile, Gus goes to work for Webster Company where he executes salami slicing to move fractions of pennies into his own account. He's quickly found out by Ross Webster (Robert Vaughn), CEO of the company, and brought into his schemes for general evildoing, starting with trying to corner the coffee bean market by hacking a weather satellite to force a tsunami and storms upon Columbia because computers are magic. It's so successful it seems that Ross alongside his sister Vera (Annie Ross) decide that they will cook up another scheme to corner oil as well. Superman happens across Columbia as the disaster strikes and reverses the damage, so that means that the Webster plans for oil conquest are doomed to failure as well, even though they don't have a plan yet. Or something.

 

 

They decide that the only way to defeat Superman is to create artificial kryptonite, and they send Gus to hack a satellite, find a piece of kryptonite in the stars, which he accomplishes without an inconvenience, and determines its chemical composition except for less than one percent of an unknown substance which he decides to just say is tar because reasons. And then, because this is definitely how you make compounds, Webster's scientists cook up some artificial kryptonite instantly. Sure. Whatever.

 

 

Gus presents the stuff to Superman at a public ceremony in Smallville, and it makes Superman, well, not evil, but into kind of a dick. He hits on Lana while someone is in danger, delaying himself long enough for the person to die. He flicks peanuts at liquor bottles, shattering them. He rights the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

 

It's kind of stupid in execution, but there's an idea here that might have been interesting. What if, let's posit, Superman was a complex individual who had subconscious desires like being lazy, drunk, and not running around saving everyone all the time? He's a good guy, so he suppresses these thoughts pretty thoroughly, but the artificial kryptonite brings that out of him. Considering the movies significantly smaller visual scale and stakes, this might have been an interesting direction to take the character. Make it more inward for a movie, giving us an interesting character study of a man who has sacrificed everything he wants himself for the greater good, including his love Lois Lane. Maybe Lana could represent a second chance at love considering how Superman decided that Lois can't know his secret identity, creating a distance between them?

 

 

You know what it would take to make that into a movie? Skill and tact. I'm not sure Lester had that, and the script by David and Leslie Newman offers no solid ground to build from.

 

Anyway, Superman has a fight with himself in a dump, emerging back as his normal self, and we're ready for our final showdown. He tracks the group of criminals to the west where Ross has set up a computer of Gus' design that seemingly Vera is the only one to know how it works? I guess. Whatever. It's a thinking computer of some kind that finds the weaknesses of people and uses that against them, which turns deadly towards Superman until he flies away, returning with a cannister of the acid from earlier. I'm going to be honest, I'm shocked that there was a set up and payoff at all in this movie. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it's there. A golf clap is in order.

 

 

This disaster of a film is the product of producers thinking that they're creatives. Producers can be quality voices in the process, but they're generally business people first and foremost. You hire creatives to do their thing, so you need to be comfortable with them before you hand them tens of millions of dollars. This is just further fallout from not trusting Richard Donner on the first pair of films. They stayed with a director who would do as told instead of one who understood how to tell a story.

 

 

The height of this film is probably Reeve's performance as Dick Superman. He snarls pretty good, and it's amusing. Other than that, not even Richard Pryor can lighten things up.

 

Rating: 1/4

 

Originally published here.

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Bryce Dallas Howard Returns to Directing The Mandalorian in Season 3

Posted: 30 May 2022 12:55 PM PDT

 

Bryce Dallas Howard is back in the Star Wars fold. The actress-director, who stars in this June's Jurassic World: Dominion, is directing an episode of season three of The Mandalorian, The Hollywood Reporter reports.

 

This episode marks her fourth outing for a Star Wars series and cements her connection to the bounty hunting world. Howard directed the season one episode "Sanctuary" and the season two episode "The Heiress." She also helmed one of the standout episodes of last year's The Book of Boba Fett, the Mando-centric episode, "Return of the Mandalorian."

 

Season three of Mandalorian began shooting last fall and is now in post.

 

Lucasfilm, the Disney-owned company behind the Star Wars universe, keeps the directors of the shows shrouded as much as possible. Mandalorian has seen filmmakers such as Peyton Reed, Taika Waititi, Rick Famuyiwa and Robert Rodriguez helm installments. Deborah Chow directed one episode and then moved to direct an entire season of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Showrunners and writers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni also directed outings.

 

Filoni, the longtime driving force of Star Wars' animation side, made his live-action directorial debut with the very first episode of Mandalorian, going on to direct three more episodes, including one for Boba Fett. Filoni is reportedly expanding his behind-the-camera schedule, and will be directing a "handful" of episodes of Ahsoka, the series starring Rosario Dawson. That series, which also has Peter Ramsey directing an episode or maybe more, began production in April.

The post Bryce Dallas Howard Returns to Directing The Mandalorian in Season 3 appeared first on Bleeding Fool.

‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 Premieres February 2023 with Katee Sackhoff

Posted: 30 May 2022 07:55 AM PDT

 

Season 3 of Disney+'s The Mandalorian will debut in February 2023, co-creators Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni said onstage Thursday during a panel at Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim.

 

The EPs also brought out onstage Katee Sackhoff, saying she is returning to the series in the pivotal role of Bo-Katan Kryze after playing the Mandalore icon during Season 2.

 

The room at the Anaheim Convention Center also got to see a teaser for Season 3.

 

YouTube Video

This is not the teaser you’re looking for…

 

Favreau and Dave Filoni worked on Season 3 during the pandemic, while the company has been revving up other Star Wars series around it including The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi which hits the streamer Friday.

 

Set five years after 1983's Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Disney’s The Mandalorian stars Pedro Pascal. The series has been nominated for 39 Emmys including Best Drama Series and has won 14.

 

More details surrounding Sackhoff will likely emerge Saturday during a Mandalorian-focused panel headlined by Favreau and Filoni as well as "special guests." The panel, titled "Mando+ : A Conversation with Jon Favreau & Dave Filoni," will feature a look back "and a look ahead at what's to come."

 

via Deadline

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The Biggest Changes in the Online Gaming Industry

Posted: 30 May 2022 06:05 AM PDT

 

Online gambling platforms revolutionized the gaming scene in a lot of ways. Since then, it has been a continuous improvement over the years. Currently, there are a lot of changes in the gaming scene, and most of them are very beneficial.

 

One of the major benefits that the evolution of digital gaming has brought into the game is the ease of financial transactions. Netherlands’s players can now access multiple payment systems, including the iDeal system. This benefit is so great that players can easily access the largest online casino with IDEAL in the Netherlands. Also, there are now a vast number of games available to players. That being said, here are the major changes in the industry currently.

 

BETTER PAYMENT OPTIONS IN ONLINE CASINO

This is one of the changes you can see in the online game industry of today. They accept deposits and payments with different methods. One of the payment methods is the use of credit and debit cards. Since this payment method started, payers don’t have to bother about moving with cash in their pockets. All you need is to register for and get one of these cards that you can use to place your bets.

 

 

Another payment option amongst others you can find in today’s is the use of bitcoin. Though not everyone knows about and uses this payment option, it is a verified means of making payments. If you are a crypto buff, this is an excellent means of making payment.

 

CONSOLE TIMES

 When console time first came up in the USA and Western Europe in the early 1970s, it was a hard reach for customers. Then, acquiring a console time required a huge sum of money. Over the next few years from then, consoles were released. As time went on, games became and are still accessible. There is even an alternative to computer devices. The use of disks and game cartridges soon became a thing of the past. People can now access and download games online using their computer devices. Every year, casino players spend money to get more computers and console time. In fact, in November 2020, the ninth console entered the industry.

 

ESPORTS

Recently, there is now a widespread economic impact that has led to a lot of development in the online gaming industry. One of these noticeable developments is the emergence of the fast-growing Esport. This is a result of streaming platforms like Amazon-owned Twitch.

 

 This has helped increase the earnings and money-making opportunities in the game industry. These days, top players over $10000 from sending a game broadcast to their followers on platforms like Twitch. This means that gamers now have access to another means of making much money aside from placing bets. The Esport, as mentioned above, is fast-growing, and its audience is too. This has attracted the interest of companies that promote sports events.

 

MOBILE GAMES

Mention will always be made of the plethora of mobile games as one of the huge changes in the online gaming industry. These days, many casino players find it comfy to play their best games with their mobile devices. Apart from the fact that people deliberately buy console time for their computer, playing your game on the train queue is also a benefit. You can play your game anywhere and at anytime with your mobile devices. This is one reason that makes mobile games an excellent option for many players.

 

Playing games with your mobile phone has made it easy to play games compared to a keyboard and joysticks. Many people see mobile games as a prospective market that can generate high profits. You can’t stop without mentioning the good background graphic design that makes you want to always play mobile games.

 

IT IS A GIANT IN THE GAMING MARKET

The emergence of Google, Apple, Amazon, and Nvidia in cloud gaming is one of the changes you can see in the online game industry.

 

Nvidia, for example, as of 2013, allows you to play already purchased but not installed games. It is one of the ways of streaming games with the help of the cloud without the usual installations. It now has a full version that started in 2020.

 

Google is another way that players can use to purchase and stream games. It was launched in 2019. This makes it unnecessary for players to buy power processors and expensive hardware to play.

 

Conclusion

The changes in the digital betting world have made it extremely easy for players to get an excellent gaming experience. This article has considered these different evolutions that make betting more fun. They are the most successful evolution among the many adjustments made to the industry.

 

The post The Biggest Changes in the Online Gaming Industry appeared first on Bleeding Fool.

Taika Waititi’s Star Wars Film is Up Next on Lucasfilm’s Calendar

Posted: 30 May 2022 05:25 AM PDT

 

After revealing Star Wars‘ return to theaters is not very far, far away, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy confirms Taika Waititi’s Star Wars movie will be the franchise’s first to play in theaters since The Rise of Skywalker in 2019. Rian Johnson could not be reached for comment.

 

 

In an interview out of the ongoing Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, Kennedy said the untitled movie from the Thor: Love and Thunder director is targeting a “late 2023” release. Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, which Kennedy says has been pushed aside at Lucasfilm as director Patty Jenkins continues to develop the script about the new generation of starfighter pilots, previously landed on the December 22, 2023 release date.

 

Kennedy has confirmed reports that Waititi’s film will mark the franchise’s return to theaters after a four-year hiatus. Kennedy clarified Waititi’s Star Wars is aiming for “not 2023, but late 2023,” adding, “We haven’t locked anything in.”

 

 

The next era of Star Wars films has been “in movement all along,” Kennedy said of Lucasfilm’s post-Rise of Skywalker slate. “As we leave the [Skywalker] saga, we have all this great, exciting work happening on the television side that informs so much about where we’re going. We want to be very intentional about that.”

 

Kennedy continued, “We have great talent that we’re working with — people who care so deeply about what the next iteration of Star Wars is and about getting people back into movie theaters, so we can really come out with a bang. That’s important to us.”

 

Let’s see where this goes. He’s a better choice than J.J. Abrams at the very least.

 

via ComicBook.com

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Jude Law to Star in Previously Unannounced Star Wars Series ‘Skeleton Crew’

Posted: 30 May 2022 12:25 AM PDT

 

Jude Law is going to star in a new "Star Wars" series coming to Disney+. The announcement was made at the "Star Wars" Celebration in Anaheim, CA. The show was previously reported as being in the works earlier in May as part of a larger "Star Wars" story.

 

The description they gave was, "The show takes place during the post–'Return of the Jedi' reconstruction that follows the fall of the Empire, the same as 'The Mandalorian,' but its plot remains a secret. It's created and executive-produced by director Jon Watts and writer Chris Ford, who made 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' for Marvel. A casting notice has called for four children, around 11 to 12 years old. Inside Lucasfilm, the show is being described as a galactic version of classic Amblin coming-of-age adventure films of the '80s."

 

It was informally referred to as "Grammar Rodeo" at that time, a reference to an episode of "The Simpsons" in which Bart and three of his classmates take a roadtrip together by renting a car with a fake ID.

 

Watts and Ford will executive produce "Skeleton Crew" along with Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni. Exact details on who Law will be playing in the series remain under wraps.

 

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