Listen, I know I am not crazy and I also know that the next Superbowl (which is Superbowl LI) isn’t going to happen for another 274 days (from todays date May 7TH), but there were just too many factors that played a part in me thinking about it. First of all, this weekend saw the official release of Captain America: Civil War (read review here) into theaters and it also happens to be Free Comic Book Day which saw the release of Civil War II as well as a Captain America comic. So with all of this in my face constantly, it made me remember a bet that was waged during SuperBowl 49 between Chris Evans (Captain America) and Chris Pratt (Star Lord) an they called it Superhero Bowl 49 as Pratt was a Seattle Seahawks fan and Evans a New England Patriots fan. I don’t know why one wasn’t down for last years SuperBowl, but I would love to see it return once again. They made an incredible T-Shirt with proceeds going to charity and they dressed in character for each other’s charities. It was all fun and it was for great causes.
So, I thought of a list of teams that I would love to see make the next SuperBowl in hopes that there is an actor from that city that plays a Marvel character. Anthony Mackie, the man who plays Falcon represents The New Orleans Saints. Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Scarlet Johansson (Black Widow), and Paul Rudd (Ant-Man) all can represent whatever team from the New York/New Jersey area (Jets or Giants). Don Cheadle who plays War Machine represents the Kansas City Chiefs while Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) could represent either the Oakland Raiders or the San Francisco 49ERS (depending on his preference). Chadwick Boseman is from South Carolina so it would be interesting to see what team he picks whether it be Carolina or any of the teams near by. If we go beyond the film, there’s Mark Ruffalo (Hulk) who can represent the Green Bay Packers and Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury) and Dave Bautista (Drax) could represent the Washington Redskins. Vin Diesel who plays Groot could also represent either Oakland or San Fran while Bradley Cooper (Rocket Raccoon) could represent the Philadelphia Eagles. If we go into the television universe of Marvel, Jon Bernthal (The Punisher) could represent the Washington Redskins while Kristen Ritter (Jessica Jones) could represent either the Eagles or the Pittsburgh Steelers (depending on her preference). Meanwhile Mike Colter (Luke Cage) is just like Chadwick Boseman where it depends on his preference as he is also from South Carolina. So, keep all of these options in mind once the football season starts and hopefully they bring back Superhero Bowl once again.
Since Marvel’s Avengers: Age Of Ultron has now come and gone, we are just awaiting what the future will hold for the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe). We know that Ant-Man is coming this summer, but what about all the other films for Marvel’s Phase 3? Well, Marvel has announced who is going to be starring in Captain America: Civil War and thanks to comingsoon.net we have who it is right here. Here is what they report, “Set for release in the United States on May 6, 2016, Captain America: Civil War is directed by Anthony and Joe Russo (Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, “Community”) from a screenplay by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely (Captain America: The Winter Solider, Marvel’s Captain America: The First Avenger). The film returns Chris Evans as the iconic Super Hero character Steve Rogers/Captain America along with Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man, Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon, Paul Bettany as The Vision, Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye, Don Cheadle as Jim Rhodes/War Machine and Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch. After his debut in Marvel’s Ant-Man on July 17, 2015, Paul Rudd will make his first appearance alongside the Avengers as Scott Lang/Ant-Man in Captain America: Civil War. The cast of the film also includes Chadwick Boseman (42, Get on Up) as T’Challa/Black Panther, Emily VanCamp (“Revenge”) as Sharon Carter/Agent 13, Daniel Brühl (Inglourious Basterds, Bourne Ultimatum) as Baron Helmut Zemo, Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow/Crossbones, William Hurt (Marvel’s The Incredible Hulk) as General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross and Martin Freeman (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.).” There’s also a rumor that the new Spider-Man will also appear in the film, but stay tuned here for more info as it becomes available.
If you’re a fan of Quentin Tarantino’s work like Django Unchained then you are going to be excited for this little piece of news that I have for you right here. While they have been filming the new Tarantino film The Hateful Eight, the cast of the film is on the newest issue of Entertainment Weekly. Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Kurt Russell are on the cover of the issue and you have to check out the stache that Kurt Russell has for the film. Other than that, here is what Tarantino told Entertainment Weekly, “For me it has more of a western ‘Iceman Cometh’ kind of vibe about it. A bunch of guys in a room who can’t trust each other. That wasn’t a marching order when I sat down to write the script, but pretty quickly I realized this is kind of a nice coming-full-circle.” Walton Goggins, Demian Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern and Channing Tatum (who has a minor role in the film). Here’s a synopsis of the film according to comingsoon.net, “In The Hateful Eight, set six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Leigh), race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as “The Hangman,” will bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren (Jackson), a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix (Goggins), a southern renegade who claims to be the town’s new Sheriff. Losing their lead on the blizzard, Ruth, Domergue, Warren and Mannix seek refuge at Minnie’s Haberdashery, a stagecoach stopover on a mountain pass. When they arrive at Minnie’s, they are greeted not by the proprietor but by four unfamiliar faces. Bob (Bichir), who’s taking care of Minnie’s while she’s visiting her mother, is holed up with Oswaldo Mobray (Roth), the hangman of Red Rock, cow-puncher Joe Gage (Madsen), and Confederate General Sanford Smithers (Dern). As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, our eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all…” Check out the cover below:
I am actually shocked that someone actual did a remake of one of the most classic films of all time. There should be a list of films that should be deemed untouchable because of the fact that there was nothing wrong with them in the first place. Well, apparently is more of a reboot or something of that nature as National Lampoon presents Vacation. The film stars Ed Helms as a grown up Rusty Griswold who wants to continue his father’s tradition so he decides to take his wife (Christina Applegate) and his two sons James (Skyler Gisondo) and Kevin (Steele Stebbins) on a cross country trip to Wally World as it will be closing down forever. I assume that Chevy Chase is going to be making some sort of cameo in the film and the film also stars Chris Hemsworth (Thor) and Charlie Day (Horrible Bosses). Check out the red band trailer below and check out Chris Hemsworth’s part in it:
More Marvel News for all of you as it pertains to the films that will close out Marvel’s Phase Three in Avengers: Infinity Wars Parts 1 and 2. The film is going to be in production for nine months and Joe and Anthony Russo, who are also directing Captain America: Civil War, announced that the film will be shot entirely using IMAX and ARRI’s next generation revolutionary 2D digital camera according to comingsoon.net. The Russo brothers talked about it stating, “The intent with the Infinity War films is to bring ten years of accumulative storytelling to an incredible climax. We felt that the best way to exploit the scale and scope required to close out the final chapter of these three phases, was to be the first films shot entirely on the IMAX/ARRI Digital camera.” Senior Executive Vice President, IMAX Corp. and CEO of IMAX Entertainment Greg Foster also spoke about the announcement stating, “Over the years, IMAX has had the incredible good fortune to work with some of the world’s finest, most talented filmmakers, who continue to push the envelope both technically and creatively. We could not be more excited to deepen our partnership with Joe and Anthony Russo, a pair of filmmakers we believe are next-generation trailblazers. Marvel’s Avengers franchise has become a global phenomenon and to have it pay off in this epic way using the IMAX/ARRI digital camera is the very definition of event movie-going.” Part opens in Imax on May 4, 2018 while part 2 will open n May 3, 2019 so stay tuned here for more info as it becomes available.
I am going to warn you that if you were not one of the lucky ones to see the film Avengers: Age Of Ultron in the opening weekend and if you do not want any spoilers, then you need to stop reading the article because there may be spoiler alerts. For Super Sunday, we wanted to continue with one of the most anticipated films of this year if you are into the comic book movie scene with the Avengers: Age Of Ultron film that sees our supergroup of heroes Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) in a battle that they never dreamed of as they take on the artificial program created by Stark and Banner called Ultron (James Spader). After a retrieval mission for the Loki’s Tesseract Septor, Stark gets the wild idea of creating an A.I. program to shield the world, but what he didn’t expect was that it was going to turn against him to destroy the world. Now, the Avengers have to stop him before it’s too late, but it could be a mission that they may not comeback from. The film also stars Elizabeth Olsen (Godzilla) as Scarlet Witch, Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick Ass) as Quicksilver, Samuel L. Jackson (Goodfellas) as Nick Fury, Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda) as War Machine, Paul Bettany (Priest) as Vision/Jarvis, Anthony Mackie (Pain & Gain) as The Falcon, and the film was directed by Joss Whedon (Avengers).
What can I say about the film that probably is’t going to be said other than you need to get your behinds to the theaters to check out the film as soon as possible because it’s well worth it. Joss Whedon does an excellent job of mixing comedy with the drama in the film much like he did in the first film, but he turns it up to 11 in this film and its simply masterful. The interactions between our heroes and sometimes the villains are priceless and very hysterical. First, I want to say that James Spader does an excellent job as Ultron and while I liked the combo of Taylor-Johnson and Olsen (they played husband and wife in Godzilla) who play the twins Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, their accents were a little weak as you can tell they were struggling with it. One thing I will also say about the film is that this was Jeremy Renner’s shot to shine as Hawkeye had a lot of screen time and it was awesome. What the movie does do is that it sets up the films that will follow as Whedon gives you clues to Marvel’s Phase three films that are still to come especially as to which Avenger will meet his untimely death in the future. Nevertheless, they keep turning up the heat and they keep lifting the bar that I don’t know how DC is going to bounce back considering they took a whole year off. There is plenty of action, drama, and a new relationship that hangs in the balance, so go out and see the film. I am giving Avengers: Age Of Ultron an A+ for a final grade.
For this week’s Super Sunday film, we are heading back into the Marvel Cinematic Universe because Avengers: Age Of Ultron is less than a week away. So, we decided to review the last film that was made in the Iron Man realm as we tackle Iron Man 3. In the timeline of events, the world now knows who Iron Man really is thanks to the attack on New York City by Loki and the alien forces. The only problem is that Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) hasn’t been handling what happened very well as he is now the victim of anxiety attacks. Though, something else is about to happen that rocks Stark’s world. A new and formidable opponent known only to the world as the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) is causing enough damage that it sets Stark on a quest of rebuilding and retribution. The film also stars Gwyneth Paltrow (Iron Man) as Pepper, Jon Favreau (Swingers) as Happy, Guy Pearce (L.A. Confidential) as Aldrich Killian, Rebecca Hall (The Town) as Maya, James Badge Dale (World War Z) as Savin, Paul Bettany (Priest) as Jarvis, William Sadler (Hard To Kill) as President Ellis, Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda) as Iron Patriot, Ty Simpkins (Insidious) as Harley Keener, Miguel Ferrer (Robocop) as Vice President Rodriguez, and the film was directed by Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang). The film also features cameos from various news anchors and political analysts like Bill Maher, Josh Elliot, Joan Rivers, Thomas Roberts, George Kotsiopoulos, and more.
Is this my favorite film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Well, I can’t answer that because every time they come out with a film, a better and more bad ass one comes out not too long afterwards. Marvel and Disney have been hitting home runs with all of their films whether it be Iron Man, Avengers, or even the Guardians Of The Galaxy. They are dominating the box office for a reason and what more can you say about the film other than the fact that Robert Downey Jr. is Iron Man. Do you want action well than this film has it. Do you want melodrama well then this film and any of the others are great sources of it. Do you like Robert Downey Jr.’s Charisma then you’ll enjoy every last drop of it in this film as it oozes out of him. I have to say that I also enjoyed seeing Guy Pearce as the villain and the origin story that builds it up is great as well. I cannot wait to see what the future holds when the new Avengers film comes out this Thursday (April 30) because I know it’s going to be epic. I was kind of hoping for an Iron Man 4, but I’ll take whatever we can get out of Robert in any of the films. Robert deserved the award he received at the MTV Movie Awards because he has had the most epic comeback of a career that cultivated with these Marvel films. That is why I am going to give this film an A for a final grade.
There is no denying that a true story is a lot more interesting to watch because it really happened even though sometimes it seems like the most unthinkable thing. That is why I started the Based On A Truesday Story (a play on the words True and Tuesday). This week’s film is the compelling tale of tragedy in Africa in the country of Rwanda called Hotel Rwanda. Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle) was a manager of a hotel called the Hôtel des Mille Collines when war all of a sudden breaks out in the country of Rwanda between a militant group known as Hutu Militia. The Hutu are hunting down a group of Africans known as Tutsi and they are slaughtering them in an act of genocide. So, Paul will do his best to protect thousands of Tutsi from falling victim to the genocide by hiding them in his hotel in hopes that they can escape. The film also stars Hakeem Kae-Kazim (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) as George Rutaganda, Nick Nolte (48 HRS) as Colonel Oliver, Fana Mokoena (World War Z) as General Bizimungu, Sophie Okonedo (After Earth) as Tatiana Rusesabagina, Antonio David Lyons (American History X) as Thomas Mirana, Joaquin Phoenix (Her) as Jack Daglish, David O’Hara (Braveheart) as David, and the film was directed by Terry George (In The Name Of The Father).
George Santayana once said, “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” and quite sadly the man is correct. We have seen it time and time again throughout history and it’s very sad. In the 1940’s Adolf Hitler blamed all of Germany’s troubles on the Jewish Community and in Rwanda the Hutu’s did the same when they sought out to massacre millions of Tutsi’s which they did in 1994. The film has often been compared to 1994’s Schindler’s List due to the fact that Oscar Schindler protected hundreds of Jewish people from massacre like Paul Rusesabagina did in Rwanda with the Tutsi’s. One of the things that struck me as sad is that this was happening all over Africa whether it be in Liberia, Rwanda, or even Darfur. You see the struggle within the film that Paul goes through along with his family as they struggle to protect so many while trying to protect themselves. They risked their lives and basically were able to bribe their way to freedom. It’s sad when you see all the abandoned children due to the causality of the madness that ensued. The acting is superb and the movie is gripping, it is definitely worth checking out if you’re interested in real life stories. I am going to give the film an A for a final grade.
For today’s super Sunday film, I wanted to throw a curve ball at what you guys may think I was going to choose for today’s film. I chose the 1993 film The Meteor Man which stars Robert Townsend as Jefferson Reed, a school teacher in an inner city that has been plagued by violence and street gangs for way too long. Some of the local residents want to make a difference, but they just don’t know how their going to do it until one faithful day that will give the steam they need to move ahead. Jefferson will have a chance encounter with a meteor that changes his life forever because it gives him super powers. At first, he wants to keep it a secret, but his family feels that they can use his newly gained powers to finally clean up the streets of Washington DC from one of the most ruthless gangs in The Golden Lords which is headed by it’s ruthless leader Simon Caine (Roy Fegan). Now it’s up to him to save the streets and clean them up for good from the Golden Lords before they figure out his secrets and use it against him. The movie also stars James Earl Jones (The Sandlot) as Earnest Moses, Robert Guillaume (Lean On Me) as Ted Reed, Maria Gibbs (The Jeffersons) as Mrs. Reed, Eddie Griffin (Undercover Brother) as Michael, Don Cheadle (Iron Man) as Goldilocks, Bill Cosby (The Cosby Show) as Marvin, Big Daddy Kane as Pirate, Naughty By Nature as The Bloods, Cypress Hill as The Cripps, Sinbad (Jingle All The Way) as Malik, Frank Gorshin (Twelve Monkeys) as Byers The Monster, Cynthia Belgrave (The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three) as Mrs. Harris, Bobby McGee (Harlem Nights) as Uzi, and the film was written and directed by Robert Townsend as well.
One thing I have to say is that I know it received a poor rating on Rotten Tomatoes because it is a little bit cheesy, but this movie must of had a little impact in it’s in hey day. You have to think about how many superhero films back in the day had an African-American male as the lead superhero? Not very many, but the ones I can think of is the 1997 antihero/superhero Spawn and the comedy parody film Blankman that came out in 1994. This film definitely predates the amazing melodramas that we got starting with The X-Men and all the way up through today because the film was campy at times and some of the scenes were cheesy. I definitely think it has a classic story to it of a man getting super powers in order to rise up against the oppression faced in his neighborhood. The casting in this film is actually where it’s at for me because it features a mix of old and the new in African American cinema as a lot of stars of yesteryear (Jones, Cosby, Guillaume, Gibbs, Belgrave) mixed with the new (Cheadle, Griffin, Sinbad, McGee). It was almost like the old were passing the torch to the young bucks to take over Hollywood. I also like the fact that they had rappers Big Daddy Kane, Cypress Hill, and Naughty By Nature included in the film as gang members. Marvel Comics later on would come out with a small miniseries of The Meteor Man, but nothing after that. I am going to give the film a B- for a final grade.
Listen, I know I am not crazy and I also know that the next Superbowl (which is Superbowl LI) isn’t going to happen for another 274 days (from todays date May 7TH), but there were just too many factors that played a part in me thinking about it. First of all, this weekend saw the official release of Captain America: Civil War (read review here) into theaters and it also happens to be Free Comic Book Day which saw the release of Civil War II as well as a Captain America comic. So with all of this in my face constantly, it made me remember a bet that was waged during SuperBowl 49 between Chris Evans (Captain America) and Chris Pratt (Star Lord) an they called it Superhero Bowl 49 as Pratt was a Seattle Seahawks fan and Evans a New England Patriots fan. I don’t know why one wasn’t down for last years SuperBowl, but I would love to see it return once again. They made an incredible T-Shirt with proceeds going to charity and they dressed in character for each other’s charities. It was all fun and it was for great causes.
So, I thought of a list of teams that I would love to see make the next SuperBowl in hopes that there is an actor from that city that plays a Marvel character. Anthony Mackie, the man who plays Falcon represents The New Orleans Saints. Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Scarlet Johansson (Black Widow), and Paul Rudd (Ant-Man) all can represent whatever team from the New York/New Jersey area (Jets or Giants). Don Cheadle who plays War Machine represents the Kansas City Chiefs while Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) could represent either the Oakland Raiders or the San Francisco 49ERS (depending on his preference). Chadwick Boseman is from South Carolina so it would be interesting to see what team he picks whether it be Carolina or any of the teams near by. If we go beyond the film, there’s Mark Ruffalo (Hulk) who can represent the Green Bay Packers and Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury) and Dave Bautista (Drax) could represent the Washington Redskins. Vin Diesel who plays Groot could also represent either Oakland or San Fran while Bradley Cooper (Rocket Raccoon) could represent the Philadelphia Eagles. If we go into the television universe of Marvel, Jon Bernthal (The Punisher) could represent the Washington Redskins while Kristen Ritter (Jessica Jones) could represent either the Eagles or the Pittsburgh Steelers (depending on her preference). Meanwhile Mike Colter (Luke Cage) is just like Chadwick Boseman where it depends on his preference as he is also from South Carolina. So, keep all of these options in mind once the football season starts and hopefully they bring back Superhero Bowl once again.
Moshpits And Movies 