21
May
Apple TV+’s docuseries 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything makes it seem like The Rolling Stones’ Exile On Main Street album was more fun to record than listen to, and that sets a high standard. The record distills the band’s sounds, from acoustic world music political ballads, through deep heartfelt blues, to honky tonk so funky you have to shake your ass. The group plays country, Southern blues, R&B, and the almost-punk-before-punk “Rip This Joint.” “Tumbling Dice,” is a radio staple. Keith Richards even took the lead vocals on a track to keep you happy. There was so much…
22
Apr
Take a stroll down Sesame Street and witness the birth of the most impactful children's series in TV history. From the iconic furry characters to the classic songs you know by heart, learn how a gang of visionary creators changed our world.Rated: PGRelease Date: Apr 23, 2021
11
Mar
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, the game that really kickstarted the fighting game genre, has turned 30 this year. To celebrate, Ryu and Chun-Li are appearing in Fortnite. It’s par for the course for Ryu, who has been in so many crossovers to fight everyone from everywhere. Ryu has crossed over with the cast of Tekken, the guys from King of Fighters, the Marvel superheroes, just about everyone under the Nintendo banner, GI Joe, Power Rangers, and even Family Guy for some odd reason. Ryu and Street Fighter have crossed over with nearly everyone. Yet for some reason, the…
23
Feb
Edgar Wright has assembled a treasure trove. That’s the best way to describe what it feels like to be a cinephile reading the March 2021 issue of Empire magazine. In an approach more persuasive than any weighty think piece on box office numbers, or an introspective Op-Ed from a film critic, the Shaun of the Dead and Baby Driver filmmaker made the case for cinema by compiling a list of anecdotes and stories, big and small, from fans and legendary filmmakers alike. Because when the lights go out in a darkened theater, we’re all the same audience for a brief,…
19
Feb
Catriona Ward‘s The Last House on Needless Street is one of the most anticipated books of the year, with Stephen King himself singing its praises. King said of the gothic tale: “The buzz building around Catriona Ward’s The Last House on Needless Street is real. I’ve read it and was blown away. It’s a true nerve-shredder that keeps its mind-blowing secrets to the very end. Haven’t read anything this exciting since Gone Girl.” Marketed as a cross between Gone Girl and The Haunting of Hill House, the psychological horror tells the tale of “a boarded-up house on a dead-end street at the edge…
08
Feb
When it isn’t about rage-quitting against your best buddy sitting next to you on the couch, or some guy playing against you across the country, fighting games are all about beating the arcade mode. Doing so means defeating the pesky final boss. We’ve fought so many final bosses over the last 30+ years. Whether they’re godly megalomaniacs or bloodthirsty loners out to prove they’re the best, there are pleny of cheap-ass villains standing in the way of character-specific epilogue cutscenes. So I’ve decided to rank the 50 best final bosses in fighting game history. This ranking includes both default final…
29
Jan
If you haven’t been following the simply incredible story involving the WallStreetBets subreddit using GameStop stocks to beat hedge funds and large investors at their own game (and make a bundle in the process) I highly recommend you start doing so. This bizarre saga isn’t over, and it will likely have repercussions that will be discussed for years to come. While many of you probably didn’t expect to learn so much about the inner working of the stock market thanks to the suddenly surging stock price of a video game company left for dead, this is hardly the first time…
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,…
18
Nov
This article contains mild The New Mutants spoilers. The New Mutants is an odd duck. The writing was on the wall back in 2017 when 20th Century Fox first pushed the film off its original 2018 release window. Apparently the delay was the result of the studio wanting to make it more of a horror movie via reshoots… reshoots that then never happened. Even so, those horror elements are still on bonkers display in Josh Boone’s final cut of the film, now available on Blu-ray and VOD. Even without knowing Boone was vocal that the Nightmare on Elm Street movies…
23
Oct
One of the things that always impressed me about Bruce Springsteen is the melodic possibilities he can find in two-chord vamps. He doesn’t do it all the time, that would prove to be monotonous all night, but when he does it is a consistent affirmation of the power of rock and roll. It’s like he took every early inspiration which weaned him and plays their feel as if it were an instrument. Not the melodies, but what the melodies convey. The “stone and the gravel” in Springsteen’s voice may not be a suitable vehicle for the smooth vibratos of Drifters’…
12
Aug
For 12 years, Yoshinori Ono has been the face of the Street Fighter series, much like Ed Boon is to Mortal Kombat and Katuhiro Harada is to Tekken. After a trilogy of Street Fighter III titles came and went in the late-90s with little mainstream success (costly arcade hardware and lack of marketing for home ports didn’t help), the once giant of the fighting game genre coasted on its reputation and stopped releasing brand new installments beyond a crossover game or an updated home port. Ono helped change that as the producer and project manager of Street Fighter IV in…
12
Aug
The film trilogy adapting R.L. Stine’s Fear Street book franchise is officially relocating its ominous traffic to streaming giant Netflix. A deal has been closed that will see Netflix acquire the Fear Street films from Disney, reports Deadline. The plan now is to premiere each of the interconnected film entries—all directed by Leigh Janiak—in Summer 2021 at the interval of a month apart. Netflix’s early marketing plans will see the trilogy heralded by a campaign dubbed “The Summer of Fear.” While a solid release date was not provided, the summer window seems solid and shouldn’t be susceptible to COVID-dealt delays,…
06
Aug
Street Fighter V first arrived in early 2016 and what started as a barely-playable disaster with a scant roster of 16 has been improved to become one of the best fighting games currently on the market. And in June, Capcom held a special live stream to promote what will be its fifth and final season of downloadable content for the game. When all is said and done, Street Fighter V: Champion Edition will have 45 fighters, the most in any Street Fighter game. Oddly enough, the stream did not include any trailers. Even still, there was plenty of news about…
03
Jun
One of the darkest, and until recently, least publicized chapters of in American history will soon get the mainstream documentary it deserves. NBA star LeBron James’ production company SpringHill Entertainment is developing a documentary about the destruction of Tulsa Oklahoma’s Black Wall Street. The documentary will be helmed by Salima Koroma, who announced the project on Twitter. “The Tulsa Race Massacre is not just a black story but American history. The fabric of this country is soaked in racism and today 99 years later, we’re still fighting for change,” Koroma wrote. “That’s why I’m partnering with SpringHill Entertainment to tell…
29
Feb
Scream Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street sets the records straight about the controversial sequel to A Nightmare on Elm Street, which ended Mark Patton’s acting career, just as it was about to begin. Scream Queen follows Patton as he travels to horror conventions across the U.S. Each new city unwraps a chapter from his life that is met with equal parts joyful and bittersweet detail, as he attempts to make peace with his past and embrace his legacy as cinema’s first male “scream queen.” Scream Queen also finds Patton confronting Freddy’s Revenge cast and crew for the first time,…
18
Dec
Recommended This second DVD release from Shout Factory Kids celebrating Sesame Street's 50th anniversary consists of a special made this year for prime time on both HBO (where the show has moved for its first run episodes) and PBS (which still presents the show delayed after the HBO showings, and with an annoying "E/I" symbol at the top of the screen to count towards the FCC's required hours of "educational programming" each week- in that regard it's likely for the better that its new primary home is HBO.) Like the 25th anniversary special, which was one of the very first…
21
Nov
Skip It Sesame Street was one of the only things I was allowed to watch on TV in my early years, and it's no question that it helped to shape me. It was one of the first times that TV had been used to educate children on things like numbers and spelling without being either boring or silly. Its creators had noticed that children memorized TV commercials easily, so they thought the same approach could be used to make them learn things that were actually important. The resulting show has been in a format of clips, primarily focusing on Sesame…
