I really fucking hate that I have to keep writing about this horrible pandemic. I wanted my readers, as well as the listeners of my podcast, to come here for an escape from all the tragedy that has been brought about by this health crisis. Unfortunately, a problem on a global scale like this is going to touch virtually all aspects of life, including the film and entertainment industry. As we get closer to Summer Movie Season, film studios have had to start making hard decisions about what they’re going to do with their large summer, tentpole films that were scheduled to be hitting theaters soon.
Some companies are bumping back their films an entire year to next summer, like Sony Pictures. One of the big summer movies that I was really looking forward to was Ghostbusters: Afterlife.Sony decided to move Ghostbusters afterlife and several other of their High profile movies back to summer 2021. Some studios will choose to release certain films digitally and on streaming services, but I seriously doubt any of the very high profile movies will take that route. With Disney+ hitting over 50 million subscribers, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some smaller Disney films that were scheduled to be released, popping up on Disney+ throughout the summer. Like they recently did with Pixar’s Onward.
Check out this INCREDIBLE fan made poster for Thor: Love and Thunder.
As you might suspect, my biggest concerns were the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. Fortunately, Marvel Studios has just released their new plan for rolling out their upcoming film slate. It seems like basically everything has just been bumped back by one movie. For example, Black Widow was originally scheduled to come out in May 2020 with The Eternals hitting theaters in November. Now Black Widow gets the November release date and the Eternals gets bumped to February 2021. Check it out in the image below:
Not included in the schedule above is Spider-Man 3, which currently has a release date of July 16, 2021. Marvel also officially announced Ant-Man 3, Blade, and Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3, but those three films have not yet been giving official release dates. However, Marvel has movies coming out on October 7, 2022, February 17, 2023, May 5, 2023, July 28, 2023, and November 3, 2023. So the three aforementioned films will each take up one of these release dates, leaving 2 dates open for unknown movies. Could either of these dates be Fantastic Four or X-Men projects? Who knows? We’ll just have to wait and see…
Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @PJWrightWBM or type Worlds Best Media into the search bar, you can also like and follow us on our Facebook page; World’s Best Media. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again! Stay healthy and stay safe!
Let me start off by saying something that, I think, everyone needs to hear in this crazy time we’re all going through…. WE’RE FUCKED! THE GODDAMN SHIP IS GOING DOWN AND THERE AREN’T ENOUGH FUCKING LIFE JACKETS! In the immortal words of the late, great Bill Paxton: GAME OVER, MAN! GAME OVER!
Phew! Well… now that I got that out of my system, down to business! Most of us (with the exception of a significant number of morons) are holed up inside, waiting for this shit storm to blow over before they murder their family. On a side note: this little GLOBAL PANDEMIC, is just a preview of things to come in the 21st century. There are more than a few existential threats heading our way in the coming decades. Unfortunately, just like the federal government’s abysmal preparation for Covid-19, we’re doing jack shit to prepare for global threats that will make this epidemic look like a picnic in the park (Climate Change, The Exponential Advancement of A. I., more Pandemics). To quote Ultron “When the Earth starts to settle, God throws a stone at it. And, believe me, he’s winding up.”
On that happy note, I’m sure people are doing whatever the can to pass the time. What better way to while away the hours than to binge watch some great TV series? So today I give you Paul’s Quarantine TV Binge Guide! These are my picks for the best shows available, to give you a fun escape from life’s crushing misery! I tried to offer up variety in my picks.Some of these are well known show’s that you may not have watched yet, a few series to watch with the family, and I also have some hidden gems that folks might not be as familiar with. Each series is available to stream on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, HBO (along with the HBO steaming services), or On Demand. Each of these excellent shows get my personal seal of approval and I’m sure there’s something on this list for everyone. Let’s dive in!
Daredevil: Seasons 1-3 (Available On Netflix)
Many of you may have already seen this series, but it bares repeating for those who haven’t. Daredevil is a masterpiece, plain and simple. I absolutely love The MCU, so even compared to movies like Infinity War and Endgame, Daredevil could be the best content to come out of The Marvel Cinematic Universe. I’ll even go as far as to say that the 3 seasons of Daredevil, amount to the very best live-, comic book adaptation done in any medium. Daredevil redefined superhero fight scenes with the now iconic Season 1 Hallway Fight. The “Single Take” fight scene became a staple of the show, with “The Stairway Fight” in Season 2 and “The Prison Fight” in Season 3. The incredible cast is anchored by Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock and Vincent D’Nofrio as Wilson Fisk, whose rivalry is electric. This is the most riveting and complex hero/villain dynamic since Nolan put Bale and Ledger on screen together. Though Netflix ended the series 2 years ago, the Season 3 finale works very well as a series finale. It brings the characters and the story full circle. So even if we never see a Daredevil adaptation with this phenomenal cast again, the 3 seasons of Daredevil tell one complete story that is a MUST WATCH.
If You Like That, Watch This:Jessica Jones Season 1 (Netflix)
Locke & Key: Season 1 (Netflix)
This is a great show to watch with the family, especially if you have kids over 10 years old. After a terrible personal tragedy, The Locke Family moves to their ancestral home, Key House. Relocating to a small Massachusetts town, each member of The Locke Family is looking to start over with a clean slate. Mother, Nina, her teenager children Tyler and Kinsey, little brother Bodie, and their paternal Uncle Duncan. As they try to build new lives, it becomes clear that Key House and it’s surrounding grounds are much more than an old family mansion. The Locke siblings begin to discover magical keys throughout the estate. Each key possess its own amazing and unique power. All the while dark, supernatural forces conspire to steal the keys for their own sinister means. Like I said, this is a great show to watch with the family because not only is it a great new series, I’d say the series never gets more intense or violent than any of the darker Harry Potter films. Locke & Key is definitely one of my favorite new shows of the year.
Watch This, If You Like:Stranger Things (Netflix)
The Outsider: Season 1 (HBO)
This riveting supernatural mystery thriller based on the novel by Stephen King stars Ben Mendelsohn as Det. Ralph Anderson, a small town Georgia Detective. When a young boy is found brutally murdered, all the evidence points to Terry Maitland (Jason Bateman), a beloved local teacher and baseball coach. After eyewitness, fingerprint, video, and DNA evidence all paint a damning picture of Maitland as the killer, Ralph thinks he has his man and stages a very public arrest of Terry Maitland. Case closed, right? Well, Terry is shocked and insists his innocence after his arrest. In fact, Maitland claims he was a hundred miles away at the time of the murder. He was at a hotel for a conference with dozens of witnesses. Even more baffling is the video evidence backing up Maitland’s story along with physical evidence at the hotel he was staying at. So Det. Anderson is faced with evidence that proves the suspect committed the crime AND simultaneously proves his innocence. So what the hell happened? Is Maitland innocent? and if so, who or what committed the crime? How can one man seemingly be in two places at once? As Stephen King put it, the central concept behind this story is how does a normal, intelligent, down to earth man like Ralph Anderson come to terms with the realization that the supernatural is real and the creature that committed the crimes he’s investigating isn’t human? We’ve seen this trope in hundreds of film and television shows over the years: the down the earth cop has to come to terms that monsters are real. Yet it has never been so well acted and well written as it is in The Outsider. Ben Mendelsohn, is already an excellent and versatile character actor, but his work here as Det. Ralph Anderson is among the very best of his career. The rest of the cast is fantastic as well but Mendelsohn is the stand out here. A suspenseful and atmospheric home run for HBO.
Watch This If You Like:True Detective, The X-Files
Guillermo Del Toro’s Trollhunters: Seasons 1-3 (Available On Netflix)
Here’s another TV show that you can watch as a family, especially if you have younger children, that won’t make you want to blow your fucking brains out while watching it. However, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this to very young children, I would say at least eight years old and up would be appropriate for this series. Trollhunters is a classic coming-of-age, “heroes journey” type story. The series follows high school student Jim Lake as he and his best friend Toby discover an entire hidden world of trolls and other magical creatures, secretly living alongside us. This, mostly, peaceful magical community, has their own protector called The Trollhunter. When one Trollhunter dies, the next one is magically chosen to protect the Troll and human world. The Trollhunter’s primary weapon is an amulet created by the wizard Merlin himself. It grants the wearer armor and weapons like swords and shields, as well as enhanced strength and agility. By some magical fluke, (or is it?) the amulet chooses Jim to be the first human Trollhunter and it’s not some job you can just quit. This is a real destiny type of thing. Jim, along with help from his friends both human and troll alike, has to come to terms with his responsibility as a hero and a young man. It’s colorful, funny, and adventurous enough to appeal to the kids in the family. However, the deep, well realized characters, great voice performances, rich mythology, and action/fight sequences intense and real enough to keep an adult watchers interested. With beautiful, unique animation and fantastic characters, Trollhunters is a great binge for the whole family.
If You Like That, Watch This:3 Below: Tales of Arcadia, a spinoff of Trollhunters about three alien refugees, a teenage brother and sister as well as their warrior protector, posing as human while hiding out on Earth in Arcadia, the same town that Trollhunters takes place in. Hence the “Tales of Arcadia” subtitle (Available On Netflix), Star Wars: The Clone Wars Seasons 2-7 [Season 1 sucks] (Disney+), Star Wars: Rebels Seasons 1-4 (Disney+)
Watchmen: Season 1 (HBO)
This season of television is an absolute masterpiece. I mentioned earlier in the article that I thought the Daredevil television series on Netflix was the best live action comic book adaptation of all time well, this might be the new contender. Created by show runner Damon Lindelöf, who had previously created or co-created such television series as LOST and The Leftovers, HBO’s Watchmen is basically a sequel to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s classic 1985 graphic novel. considering that watchmen is considered by many to be the greatest comic book or graphic novel ever written, some would consider an attempt at a sequel of any kind is sacrosanct. Which is what makes the fact that this television series is so spectacular, that much more incredible. This is a once in a lifetime creative homerun for show runner Damon Lindelöf. Season 1 of the series is so brilliant that many fans don’t even want a second season, everything was done so well in the first season, how could they possibly top it in Season 2? A creator doesn’t just pull a show like this out of their ass. They gave it their all. They made this series is if it was the last story they would ever tell in their lives. It’s that good. The fantastic cast includes standouts like the amazing Regina King and Jeremy Irons looking like he’s having the time of his life. They’re far from the only standouts in an incredible ensemble cast. The performances from the cast across the board are inspired. With multiple actors giving awards worthy performances. The story is incredibly complex and multilayered, yet every piece fits together perfectly. The mysteries are intriguing without ever being confusing. Just like the graphic novel it’s based on, when rewatching episodes of the series you pick up on new details that you missed the first time aroundottom line, the series is fucking spectacular. However, there are some things you should know going into the series. I will say that if you have not read the original graphic novel or watched Zack Snyder‘s 2009 adaptation you may be a bit lost. This is a sequel to the graphic novel first and foremost, not Snyders film. As such, certain key differences in the film and the comic book are important to understand and fully appreciate the television series. Below, I included two videos, the first gives an overview and explains the broad strokes of the original graphic novel, which you can watch right here:
This second video explains the major differences between the graphic novel and the film. For the most part, the 2009 Watchmen film is an extremely faithful adaptation except for one MAJOR change the film makes to the ending of the film. The series serves as a sequel to original graphic and multiple major plot points from the show revolve around a concept that was otherwise absent from the 2009 movie. Watch it here:
More To Check Out…
The Mandalorian: Season 1 (Disney+)
OZARK: Seasons 1-3 (Netflix)
Good Omens: Season 1 (Amazon Prime)
Community: Seasons 1-6 (Netflix)
*Bookmark this page because I will be posting updates!
Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @PJWrightWBM or type Worlds Best Media into the search bar, you can also like and follow us on our Facebook page; World’s Best Media. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again! Stay healthy and stay safe!
Even if it’s just a small dose, I’ll take as much RIck and Morty in my life as I can get! This week we had two pretty cool Rick and Morty videos drop. First up is the new trailer announcing that the series returns Sunday, May 3rd at 11:30pm on Adult Swim to wrap of the last episodes of Season 4. Personally, it almost didn’t matter to me what was shown in the trailer, I love this series and I’m just excited to have it back. I don’t min patiently waiting for the rest of Season 4 (as long as those pricks are hard at work on Season 5, anyway…). Check out the new trailer:
Rick and Morty is so insane that you can’t make much of a prediction about what will happen in the back half of Season 4. However, I remember when the trailer for Season 3 was released and it had a brief piece of dialogue that, even out of context, had me laughing my ass off every time I watched the trailer. To this day, it’s still one of my favorite Morty moments in the series. Here’s the Season 3 trailer, take a quick look and I’ll point out the moment that fucking kills me every time:
I LOVE the moment in the trailer when clearly some crazy shit is going while Morty and Beth are standing in the driveway to the house. Morty is already clearly furious So when a never before seen neighbor hears the ruckus next door, he pops his head over the fence and asks “Everything OK over here?”. A now ENRAGED Morty whips his head in the neighbor’s direction and screams “MIND YOU OWN GODDAMN BUSINESS, GENE!”. It’s a small moment, but I love it. The brief exchange even serves Morty’s series long character arc. That moment is actually from the Season 3 episode The Whirly Dhirly Conspiracy. With RIck off on the other side of the universe with Jerry, Summer tries to to use one of Rick’s gadgets to make her tits bigger. in classic RIck and Morty fashion, the situation goes sideways real fucking fast.
The other RIck and Morty video the we got this week actually came out before the trailer for the upcoming new episodes. The anime-style clip, which is about 5 minutes long, is stylized mix of Samurai Jack, Kill Bill, and Lone Wolf and Cub. Surprise, surprise, Rick is the Wolf and Morty is the cub. Unlike the announcement trailer, I actually think there might be a few clues in this video that may be referencing some of the show’s series long mysteries. Watch it right here and I’ll give you a couple of my theories below:
I may be reading too much into this, but just go with me here for a second. During the clip called “Samurai and Shogun”, Samurai RIck is traveling through the countryside with a Morty. Portals begin to open around them, and Samurai RIck is attacked by a group of Ninja Ricks. Samurai RIck takes them out one by one, but the leader of the Ninja Ricks is given the most attention: The One-Eyed Ninja Rick, wearing an eye patch.
In the series, Rick is only really attacked by other Ricks like this when it has something to do with The Citadel of Ricks. The first time the audience was introduced to The Citadel of Ricks was also when we first encounter “Evil Morty”. This version of Morty has seemingly achieved RIck-level intelligence and is even more ruthless than our Earth C-137 Rick. He is a mastermind hiding in plain sight. Evil Mortycontrols, or created, a robot RIck, used by Evil Morty to carry out his schemes and protect the secret that Evil Morty even exists. Evil Morty controls his robot Rick through a fake eyepatch that he wears. Evil Morty uses the eyepatch to disguise the technology underneath that he uses to control his robot Rick. One-Eyed Ninja RIck even says the reason for the fight is that they want this Morty because of some special abilities. What’s more “special” than an evil Morty? Back to Samurai and Shogun, whe Samurai Rick kills all the other Ninjas and the cuts one-eyed Ninja Rick’s head off, it seem like it took him a little too long to die. For a second, I thought he was going to be a robot or something.
I know this doesn’t all completely add up and this little mini Rick and Morty cartoon doesn’t seem like it’s in continuity. I also know there are some big holes in this theory. I’m just suggesting that the folks behind Rick and Morty might want the audience to recall some elements and ideas from previous episodes. It just seems that there are a lot of details added to this video short referencing Evil Morty and some of the other over arcing elements of the series. The eyepatch, Evil Morty, The Citadel of Ricks, etc. Anyway, I’m psyched for the rest of Season 4 of Rick and Morty!
Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @PJWrightWBM or type Worlds Best Media into the search bar, you can also like and follow us on our Facebook page; World’s Best Media. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again! Stay healthy and stay safe!
Two years ago when Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was about to come out, I was one of the only people I knew that was actually excited to see it. I even wrote an article about it here on World’s Best Media, what I wanted to see. One of the things that I talked about wanting, was world building. Welcome to the Jungle brought us into the world of Jumanji in a way that they weren’t able to do in 1995 when the Robin Williams version was made. It was awesome, and I genuinely loved the film.
The latest entry in the series, Jumanji: The Next Level delivers on the world building aspects. We’re no longer confined to just a traditional jungle environment, but get to see the desert, and a snow covered jungle, and with new levels, we get different animals than the previous film. This is now fully realized, and I suspect I know how the next film is going to go, but we’ll get to that in a little bit.
* SPOILER ALERT! For The Rest Of This Article*
One of the cool things of Welcome to the Jungle, was that our four main characters, are avatars of teenagers, and it allows for some strong character moments, as well as comedic fodder. Jack Black was a teenage girl, Dwayne Johnson was a skittish nerdy kid, Karen Gillan was a nerdy girl, and Kevin Hart was a black jock. In this film, in order to keep everything fresh, they scramble the characters and introduce some new ones. This time, Johnson is playing Danny Devito, Kevin Hart is Danny Glover, Jack Black is now the jock, and Spencer , who had the Dwayne Johnson avatar in the last game, is now Awkwafina who is a new playable character.
Eventually once they’ve done the necessary character work, they find a way to switch all the characters back into the previous avatars, with Danny Glover becoming a horse, and Danny Devito transferring into Awkwafina.
Since the avatar actors playing multiple characters (mostly) is such a big part of the film let’s talk about it. Personally, I think Welcome to the Jungle’s character assignments were perfect, but I understand that they wanted to do some work with it this time. Kevin Hart is great as both of his characters, handling Danny Glover’s character just as well as the jock character. Also Awkwafina is amazing as both characters; she handles being a nerdy teenage boy with perfection, and I think her Danny Devito is great. That brings us to Dwayne Johnson, I don’t love his Danny Devito; he has moments that are great, but there’s a lot of moments when the ‘Rock’ persona and Devito persona aren’t blended well; he doesn’t fully get the cadence and accent right, and it’s a bit cartoony. Jack Black as the athlete doesn’t work well for me, it’s not terrible, but Jack Black as the jock handles the character stuff well, but his ‘black voice’ borders on uncomfortable, it’s less about racial issues for me, and more about his voice falling into the uncanny valley, of being close enough to not be offensive, but far enough where it’s awkward.
I think that the character work, and set pieces really overcome all of the shortcomings in the performances. I won’t tell you much about the actual plot, I wouldn’t do it much justice, but the film is well paced, and really enjoyable. I’ll just say, as you should already know, is that our characters win, and escape Jumanji. So let’s talk about easter eggs, and where I think the next installment is going.
In the previous film, the characters find tree a house with a carving that says: “Alan Parrish was here”. Which is an homage to Robin Williams and the first Jumanji movie. And I amThe Next Level, talks about a restaurant called Nora’s several times throughout the film, and eventually once everything is back to normal we discover that Nora was the Bebe Neuwirth character from the original, and in the end we see her hiring Danny Devito. I suspect that she’ll have some part to play in the next film, and will not just be a cameo.
As our heroes, recently returned to their own bodies outside of the game go to Nora’s to grab a meal and celebrate their victory, we cut back to the video game console, in the teenage boy’s basement as a heating repairman goes to touch it, and we hear the drumbeats that signal the game is coming, and cut to the main street where Nora’s is, and a pack of Ostriches comes rampaging down the street, the characters see them, and we cut to the credits.
Now, when I say I think I know where this is going, it’s probably pretty obvious, and I’m not making any bold predictions, but I think we’re going to get to see a setting more similar to the original film, (although I suspect the effects and scale will be drastically expanded), and we’ll have to see the characters working with the avatars who have stepped out of the game into their world. This will allow for a third set of avatar characters, the ones that the game originally intends for them, and by bringing them into our world, they keep the ‘fish out of water’ theme. I also suspect we may see something of a “Last Action Hero”/Buzz Lightyear style identity crisis within the characters in which they realize their reality isn’t actual reality.
Personally, after the previous two films, I’m 100% down for whatever comes next.
It’s been a long time coming for, Paul “Old Man” Sr., but on this episode of the show we finally breakdown the first season of HBO’s fantastic new series The Outsider, based on the novel by Stephen King! The taut supernatural mystery/thriller starring Ben Mendelsohn recently wrapped up it’s debut season with multiple spectacular performances and excellent writing! You’ll definitely recognize the main character, Ralph Anderson, played by prolific character actor Ben Mendelsohn who has appeared in a shit load of films and TV series like, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Bloodlines on Netflix, The Dark Knight Rises, and Captain Marvel. That’s just to name a few, there are literally dozens of other great performances I could mention. However, he may have delivered one of his best performances in The Outsider. Also, below I have some additional important info on the fantastic comic book store, The Hall Of Comics, that I mentioned at the beginning of this week’s podcast. If you’re cooped up in the house all day because of all the craziness going on in the world right now, what better way to pass the time then to finally dive into the world of comic books? The guys at The Hall Of Comics are exactly the people to help you do it safely and easily during this difficult time, you can read all about it below!
So join Paul Sr. and I as we discuss one of our favorite new series. Season 1 ended a few weeks ago and really hope we get a second season of this excellent show.
Listen here: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/24192464 Or subscribe on Stitcher, Spreaker, iHeartRadio, Deezer, Podchaser, Castbox, Podcast Addict, Google Podcasts, & Apple Podcasts/ITunes…
As I mentioned on this episode of The World’s Best Podcast, The Hall Of Comics in Southborough, MA have come up with some innovative and more importantly SAFE ways to get comics during this health crisis. I’ll let the guys explain it to you themselves right here, but let me just say, as one of the worlds biggest germaphobes, if I’m using this service, which I am, you know it’s got to be foolproof!
Make sure you check out their newsletter, too. I genuinely look forward to reading it every week. It gives a breakdown of all of the major comic book releases that week, details any major announcements in the comic book industry, offers personal comic book picks from the staff, gives out info about upcoming events, and more! Here’s this week’s newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/thehallofcomics/ma-shutdown-update-hellions-new-comics-newsletter-1916461 Tell them Paul sent you!
Thanks for listening and reading! Follow me on Twitter @PJWrightWBM or type Worlds Best Media into the search bar, you can also like and follow us on our Facebook page; World’s Best Media. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again! Stay healthy and stay safe!
Due to the current health crisis, most movie theaters are closed or very soon will be. On the bright side, many notable films that have just been released in theaters, or were scheduled to be released sometime in the next month, are going to be available to purchase digitally or on demand.
Movies have already been making the transition from traditional movie theatre openings to digital and streaming releases. I think that depending on how well these films sell on digital platforms, it could take us one step closer to more and more films being released through streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and iTunes in addition to or instead of movie theaters. Regardless of how the health crisis turns out, this will definitely affect the film industry’s future. Below is a list of movies that are available to purchase digitally or on demand, now and in the coming weeks:
Now Available
Pixar’s Onward
The Invisible Man
Emma
The Hunt
March 24th
Birds of Prey
Bloodshot
The Gentlemen
Doolittle
The Way Back
March 31st
Bad Boys For Life
Sonic The Hedgehog
I’ll be updating the website is more films are announced…
Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @PJWrightWBM or type Worlds Best Media into the search bar, you can also like and follow us on our Facebook page; World’s Best Media. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again! Stay healthy and stay safe!
This was a busy week, so I was late to post a webpage for the latest episode of The World’s Best Podcast, even though the episode came out earlier this week. I think it worked out well, because the delay meant that way I get to show you guys some cool content related to my review of The Invisible Man and promote my guest appearance on Tim Cuff and Ryan McDonald’s podcast, Cuff’s Basement! Going on that podcast was a lot of fun and you can read all about it below my invisible man review content.
Anyway, on this episode of “The World’s Best Podcast”, I review the excellent new thriller THE INVISIBLE MAN! Full Spoilers! Listen here: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/23699306 Or subscribe on Stitcher, Spreaker, iHeartRadio, Deezer, Podchaser, Castbox, Podcast Addict, Google Podcasts, & Apple Podcasts/ITunes…
During this weeks episode, I talk about how The Invisible Man is among the roster of Universal’s Classic Movie Monsters.
Icons such as, Dracula, The Wolfman, Frankenstein’s Monster, and more. These films are largely the reason vampires, werewolves, and various forms of the undead appear so frequently in our popular culture. There have been literally thousands of TV shows and movies featuring vampires and werewolves (sometimes even both). However, in other cultures around the world vampires and werewolves are far less prevalent in popular culture and take a backseat to other supernatural creatures.
I found this awesome piece of art online that gives us a more gruesome and terrifying look at Dracula, The Wolfman, and Frankenstein’s Monster, without losing the classic Universal Monsters “look” that made them so iconic!
During my review of The Invisible Man, I brought up several scenes I love from other movies starring classic universal monsters. Like this fantastic scene from 1999’s The Mummy starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weiss:
I LOVE 1999’s The Mummy and this is probably my favorite scene. Wait until the end, Brendan Fraser’s reaction to seeing The Mummy for the first time is fucking CLASSIC!
I also mentioned the iconic werewolf transformation scene in the film, An American Werewolf In London. As well as the much less iconic, but still interesting transformation scene from Benicio Del Toro‘s remake of The Wolfman. You can watch both clips below:
An American Werewolf in London (1981) Transformation Scene
The Wolfman (2010) Transformation Scene
Here’s a side-by-side comparison between The Invisible Man of 1933 and the new 2020 version (without giving too much away about what makes this new incarnation of The Invisible Man so cool…)
L. 1933; R. 2020
Well, that’s it for my review and coverage of The Invisible Man, but we’re not quite done yet today… Now, let’s switch gears here a little bit! It’s two podcasts for the price of one!
As some of my listeners may know, Ryan McDonald who is a frequent co-host on the The World’s Best Podcast and Tim Cuff who was my original co-host on the show, have their own fun and unique podcast called Cuff’s Basement. It’s hilarious, it’s weird, and it’s a blast to listen to. I recently had the chance to make an guest appearance on Cuff’s Basement, on an episode of the show where Ryan, Tim, and I each picked our 3 Favorite Comic Book Superhero Movies of all time. Of course, being the comic book movie super fans that we are, this ended up being a three-part episode. You can listen to the first 2 installments of our 3-Part episode right now, through the link to the Cuff’s Basement iTunes feed, which I’ve posted below. While you’re there don’t forget to hit subscribe, so you can listen to Part-3 of our Best Superhero Movies podcast as soon as it’s posted! I had a lot of fun recording this with the guys and I hope you all enjoy listening. Don’t miss it!
Thanks for reading and listening! Follow me on Twitter @PJWrightWBM or type Worlds Best Media into the search bar, you can also like and follow us on our Facebook page; World’s Best Media. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again!
I’m a huge fan of Pixar, and I think the argument can be made that they have the best record of any film company ever, based on average quality, and financial success rates. I do not however, have an issue seeing Pixar’s flaws, and from the moment I saw the trailer for Onward, I thought “Well, that’s gonna be a dud.”
Onward in someways seemed to diverge from what I was used to from Pixar, of the 21 previous films, 16 of them had main characters that were animals/objects/emotions, and while Onward isn’t about humans, they’re human-lite. Other than Brave (and perhaps you’d argue Coco, but that’s a religious and philosophical debate for another post) none had featured magic, and this was the first film to not have some connection with ‘Earth.’
I don’t exactly know how to to describe it, but there was a lack of interest on my part, and if I didn’t have a 3 year-old, I probably would have skipped the film. But, I do have a 3 year-old, and he wanted to see unicorns eating trash, and so my wife and I took him on Saturday, and the three of us loved this film.
Now, one of the things that has become something of a Pixar staple, In the last 15 years, you could argue that it’s been their defining trait, has been their ability to make you adults sad, and in that way, this film was totally Pixar. I’m a bit of a crier as it is, but my wife isn’t, and she was choking up a couple times during the film. But one of the other things that Pixar does well, is they make you sad and then make you happy again, and this didn’t fail to deliver.
I don’t really think I need to go into spoilers, so please note that all of what I’m about to tell you, is in the trailers.
The film is about two brothers who go on a quest two finish a spell that brings their father back to life for a day, and because they have half completed the spell at the beginning, it’s a race against the clock. It’s a story about family, something Pixar has done an pretty incredible job with on a few occasions. (See what I did there? Incredible job?)
This film has fun, and adventure, plenty of laughs, and as I mentioned before, tears. It’s a great time start to finish. I do want to mention something that it accomplishes, which no animated film has ever done before, and it’s a super mild spoiler. There is a scene in which they’re dealing with a great height, and there are some live action films in which I have gotten a sick to my stomach feeling due to my own fear of heights (The Walk did it in the trailer alone), and this film had me feeling that flip-floppy vertigo feeling for about a minute. That may sound like a complaint, but it should really be a testament to how invested I was in the story.
As far as ranking this with other Pixar films, I would say it’s in the top third, I don’t know if it’s as good as Toy Story 3, WALL-E, Up, or Inside Out, but it’s certainly better than all of the Cars films, Brave, and The Good Dinosaur.
It’s Movie Trailer Tuesday here at World’s Best Media! We have some new trailers and featurettes from 2 very different, but very cool upcoming superhero movies: Marvel’s Black Widow and the new film from DC Animation, Justice League Dark: Apokolips War!
First up, we have the final trailer for Marvel’s Black Widow, opening May 1st. Fans have been clamoring for a Black Widow movie for years and early projections have this film doing big numbers for Marvel.
Personally, I’m most excited to see Taskmaster make his big screen debut. Taskmaster is a mercenary and assassin who can perfectly mimic the fighting style and ability of any combatant he encounters. It was especially cool to see Taskmaster studying the surveillance videos of Natasha’s big fight with the guards at Hammer Industries during the climax of Iron Man 2 (her first appearance in The MCU). We also see Taskmaster breakout moves mimicking the some of the best hand to hand fighters in The MCU, like Captain America, Black Panther, and Hawkeye. I think this is going to be a blast, but check out the trailer for yourself right here…
DC Animation just released their adaptation of Superman: Red Son, arguably one of the most beloved Superman stories ever told. I loved the film, it was a return to the glory days of fantastic DC Animated Movies. Even though I love the DCAU, lately they have not been on par with the amazing work they’ve done in the past. However, it looks like they may be back on track. While Red Son was excellent, I found myself even more excited by the sneak peek at the next DC Animated film, Justice League Dark: Apokolips War.
This is the culmination of at least a dozen or more movies that began with Justice League: War, which was about how the Justice League was formed to repel the forces of Darkseid and his invading armies. DCA puts out at least 3 or 4 movies every year and at least 1 or 2 of these films have taken place in this shared DC Animated Universe that started with Justice League: War (The other films released each year tend to be their own standalone stories like Superman: Red Son, Batman Gotham by Gaslight, or The Killing Joke). This new film looks like the DCAU version of Avengers: Endgame. This video was previewed as a feturette on the special features of Superman: Red Son, just give it a watch and you’ll see how cool this movie looks…
If that wasn’t enough, DC Animation also released a trailer for the new film as well which you can watch right here…
Justice League Dark: Apokolips War will be available digitally on iTunes on May 5th and on Blu-Ray/4K on May 19th.
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We got our first look at the new Batmobile from the latest big screen incarnation of The Dark Knight, The Batman directed by Matt Reeves and starring Robert Pattinson. People always tend to get excited about the new Batmobile whenever a new Batman project is on the horizon. Folks get almost as excited about the car as they do about the Batman suit. I love the more grounded look of this design, something that looks it’s based on a souped up Dodge Charger. Take a look at the pictures posted below.
Personally, my two favorite versions of The Batmobile are The Tumbler from Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy and the futuristic Batmobile from the classic animated series, Batman Beyond. But like I said before, I really like this new look for The Batmobile, it’s definitely a different direction to go in.
Batman Beyond Batmobile Batmobile AKA The Tumbler from Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy
There has been a few rumors going around lately that The Batman will feature Robin in someway or another. This new Batmobile design lends some validity to the rumors because, as many others have pointed out, this Batmobile is very similar to the version Batman had when he met the boy who would go on to become the second Robin, Jason Todd. Batman caught him trying to steal the wheels off of the Batmobile and decided to take the orphan boy in. It shouldn’t have been much of a surprise to readers that Jason was eventually beaten to death by The Joker with a crowbar and was still inside the warehouse where The Joker was keeping him when the building exploded. A kid who tries to steal the rims off the fucking Batmobile isn’t exactly the brightest bulb around. Anyway, the similarity between the two designs are leaving some people to speculate that Jason Todd may appear in this new film in some way. Personally, I’d rather see Dick Grayson or Tim Drake, but I’ll take what I can get.
This is similar to the speculation that was taking place a few weeks ago after images of Robert Pattinson as Batman on his motorcycle surfaced online. The Bat-Suit Pattinson was wearing and the bike he was riding, were very similar to the suit and motorcycle Batman in Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s story Zero Year.
Left: from the upcoming film, The Batman; Right: A scene from the Batman “Zero Year” storyline
Batman from the “Zero Year” storyline
I really dig everything I’ve seen so far from The Batman. Do you like the new design?Let me know what you think in the comments below!
Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @PJWrightWBM or type Worlds Best Media into the search bar, you can also like and follow us on our Facebook page; World’s Best Media. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again!
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