22
May
Sometimes, impossible things just happen, and we call them miracles. Though that line may have been spoken by Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith in the Season 5 episode “The Pandorica Opens,” it has perhaps special relevance for Doctor Who fans right now, who are living through a moment most of us had given up hope on ever seeing. No, it’s not the fact that the Doctor is a woman now. (I’d like to believe we all knew that would eventually happen at some point, no matter how many folks resisted or complained about it.) It’s that Christopher Eccleston, the man who…
10
May
This article is part of our Collector’s Digest content series powered by: Want to know something about world of nerdy collectibles? You ask Brian Volk-Weiss, the prolific producer and creator of Netflix’s The Toys That Made Us and A Toy Story Near You, two must-watch documentary series that track the stories of the coolest, rarest, and most valuable toys and collectibles ever made and where to find them. Volk-Weiss isn’t just a documentarian, though. He’s spent years chasing collector’s items for his own personal collection, and he’s learned a few secrets and heard quite a few stories about the high-stakes…
04
May
This article contains major spoilers for Invincible season 1 and potential spoilers for Invincible season 2, based on the comic. The finale of Invincible season 1 was one of the most exhilarating bits of superhero storytelling in some time. The genre is no stranger to the “son must confront his evil father” plotline, but rarely has any depiction of superhero action felt so visceral or terrifying. Mark Grayson’s struggle (and ultimate failure) to stop his Viltrumite father Nolan led to nearly 20 uninterrupted minutes of super-powered carnage. Hell, Omni-Man literally held his son’s body against a train to use as…
30
Apr
This article contains spoilers for Returnal. In case you haven’t heard, Returnal is one of the best games of 2021, one of the PlayStation team’s most original supported projects in years, and one of the best reasons to be angry that you still can’t find a PlayStation 5. Returnal is also the source of one of the most compelling and confusing video game stories in recent memory. Much like Hades, Returnal uses its roguelike gameplay as the basis for a complicated time loop narrative that leads to multiple endings that have so far left many scratching their heads. So what exactly…
21
Apr
This article contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home. These days, you’d lose a metaphorical hand to a studio’s red lightsaber if you dished details on any major upcoming plot twists. Media training for interviews, fake scripts, and so much green screen that the actors couldn’t even really tell you what was happening on set if they tried are all extremely commonplace behind the scenes of the big franchises, so that invested audiences get to experience that collective shock when Cap wields Mjolnir, or J. Jonah Jameson live-streams the doxxing of…
19
Apr
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is reclaiming its roots, as evident in the debut trailer for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which showcases a defining return by the shadowy syndicate that tangled with Tony Stark way back in 2008’s original Iron Man. Yet, while Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) is on a collision course with the long-awaited “real” Mandarin (Tony Leung), he will clearly have his hands full fighting a masked villain named Death Dealer, whose hitherto obscurity in the pages of Marvel Comics seems to belie the character’s importance in the film. Death Dealer, as depicted in the upcoming…
15
Apr
In stories of doomed World War II gallantry, little is as romanticized as Operation Market Garden. A technical failure by the Allied Powers to defeat the Nazis in 1944, this invasion of the Netherlands left British paratroopers stranded around a bridge in Arnhem, far too removed from their tanks to hold the line. Nevertheless, the bravery of those Airborne “Red Devils” has lived on in pop culture, as have the Dutch resistance fighters who sheltered them. What has been largely forgotten is that among those courageous souls was… a teenaged Audrey Hepburn? For about a week, in fact, the future…
22
Mar
The story of how Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles went from underground comic book to the highest grossing independent film of all time is the stuff of Hollywood legend. But ask producer Tom Gray about the sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, and you are likely to hear an altogether different tale. One of a frantically rushed production, censorship backlash and a change of director and direction. Actors were replaced, there were clashes with the comic book creators and a series of strange and unusual characters were added to the mix – including Vanilla Ice. Gray…
06
Mar
Outside of the dragon Sisu, Tuk Tuk might be the most adorable thing in Raya and the Last Dragon. Technically a fantasy creature who is half-armadillo and half-pug, this hybrid beastie embodies pure fairy tale fun in Walt Disney Animation Studios‘ latest adventure. And with his nifty hard shell acting as a giant unicycle upon which our heroine Raya gets around desert wastelands, we are sure kids are already wishing they could have a Tuk Tuk of their own. It’s a nifty design, but what might surprise a lot of folks is the voice beneath the hard shell and cuddly…
05
Mar
This article contains spoilers for WANDAVISION. WandaVision‘s stunning finale alters the landscape of the MCU by posing a series of questions that seemingly set-up Marvel Studios’ biggest post-Endgame plans. It’s could be years until we get definitive answers to all of those questions, but there’s little doubt that we’ll eventually look back on WandaVision as the bold experiment that laid the groundwork for whatever comes next. Still, there’s a good chance that when people think back on WandaVision years from now, it won’t be the MCU elements of the show they remember most fondly. No, that honor will likely go to…
04
Mar
When one thinks about 1988’s Coming to America, a few things stand out: James Earl Jones and Madge Sinclair as the King and Queen of Zamunda speaking to their son Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy) at a breakfast table with intercom radios; the opulence of Zamunda’s palace, which represented an idealized African nation to 1980s audiences the way Wakanda does today; and of course Murphy and Arsenio Hall’s Semmi fresh off the plane in Queens, New York with no idea what “common” means—or also Murphy and Hall under pounds of makeup as the argumentative old-timers at the nearby barbershop. The film…
24
Feb
Henry Cavill has set tongues wagging this week by giving his fans a blurry look at a potential “secret project” on the way. The Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League actor posted an intriguing image on his personal Instagram account that gave us a peek behind the scenes of The Witcher, which is currently gearing up to deliver its second season on Netflix, but made sure we caught a glimpse of what he was reading to pass the time. Cavill snapped a selfie in the mirror while hair and makeup fitted his Geralt of…
04
Feb
This NANCY DREW review contains spoilers. Nancy Drew Season 2, Episode 3 Ever since Nancy Drew decided that ghosts are real back in its very first episode, the series has had to walk a fine line: Make its supernatural baddies genuinely scary, but not so much that they overshadow the rest of the show. “The Secret of Solitary Scribe” is a great example of when that balance works – combining multiple legitimately scary sequences with solid character work. As the clock ticks down to the Drew Crew’s Aglaeca-foretold death date, Nancy and her friends get desperate, in more ways than…
20
Dec
If you ever sit down to watch 20th Century Fox’s original trailer for Miracle on 34th Street, a few things might appear strange. Right off the bat it’s unique—unprecedented even—to market a new release without any real footage from the film. Other than a few seconds of the movie’s opening titles and an actual shot from the picture’s final seconds, audiences were told nothing about Miracle on 34th Street other than it was “hilarious!” “exciting!” and, dare they say it, “groovy!” There was of course a reason for this: 20th Century Fox, and more specifically studio head Darryl F. Zanuck,…
17
Dec
This article contains spoilers for The Stand episode 1 and some aspects of the book. Though Stephen King may be best known as a prolific creator of bullies, creeps, and monsters (sometimes all in one person), one of his finest characters is firmly on the side of the angels. “Mother” Abigail Freemantle is a key figure in King’s 1978 classic The Stand (and in its 1990 unabridged version as well). A direct descendant of freed slaves, the 108-year-old Mother Abigail serves as God’s figurehead on Earth following a superflu pandemic that kills off 99% of the population and sets up…
11
Dec
Back in September news broke that Marvel was bringing a Nick Fury TV series starring Samuel L. Jackson to Disney+. At the time, it wasn’t clear what shape the series would take, since Fury had last been seen in Spider-Man: Far From Home zipping off into the depths of space on a Skrull ship. Despite the fact that Jackson’s Fury had a prominent role in that film (in terms of the stuff going on on Earth), it was revealed that it wasn’t Fury at all…but rather the shape-shifting Skrull Talos played by Ben Mendelsohn who Fury had aided and befriended during…
25
Sep
Secret Society of Second-Born Royals follows Sam, a teenage royal rebel second in line to the throne of the kingdom of Illyria. Just as Sam's disinterest in the royal way of life is at an all-time high, she discovers she has super-human abilities and is invited to join a secret society of similar extraordinary second-born royals charged with keeping the world safe. With guidance from their Secret Society instructor James, Sam and a new class of royal recruits must first learn to harness their new powers at a top-secret training camp before they can save the world.Rated: Not RatedRelease Date:…
22
Sep
A flash of lightning. An iconic red and gold costume. Weird sci-fi villains and blockbuster special effects. We could only be talking about the beloved The Flash TV series, right? Ah, but this isn’t Grant Gustin and Team Flash from the CW’s The Flash. No, this is The Flash TV series from 1990, the one starring John Wesley Shipp and boasting a theme song by none other than superhero movie maestro Danny Elfman. The Flash was an expensive gamble for CBS and ultimately only lasted one season, but its legacy lives on and it remains an important part of superhero…
06
Aug
Set in England during 1947, The Secret Garden follows a young orphan girl who, after being sent to live with her uncle, discovers a magical garden on the grounds of his estate. Rated: PGRelease Date: Aug 07, 2020
