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16 Nov

James Bond Needs to Have Fun Again

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James Bond is dead. Blown up by a big old bunch of missiles to destroy the nanobots he was infected with. At least, this Bond, the one played by Daniel Craig, is dead. He’s also the Bond who we first met beating up a guy in a toilet in the moody black and white opening of Casino Royale. And with him dies the first properly 21st-century take on Bond, hailed as a complete reinvention of the character despite being written by the same screenwriters who supposedly killed the franchise in fans’ minds with Die Another Day (not to mention Johnny…

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16 Nov

The Key Character Moments That Make The Rock Michael Bay’s Best Movie

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This article contains The Rock spoilers Michael Bay has made a career out of big, explosive, action movies. That’s sort of his brand. His 1996 film The Rock fully fits that category, but it is somehow more than the sum of its bullets and bravado. Even amid the carnage, the film never loses sight of the human stake, something that sadly can’t be said for most of his other films. The Rock stars Nicolas Cage as Dr. Stanley Goodspeed, a FBI chemical weapons specialist shanghaied into storming Alcatraz and neutralizing the warheads controlled by a group of disgruntled US Marines.…

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15 Nov

Spectre Director Admits the Big Problem With the James Bond Movie

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When the government of the United Kingdom needs something impossible done, they call James Bond. Since 1962, we have watched 007 prevent madmen from flooding the Earth, knocking over rockets, starting a world war via the news media, and shooting people on an elaborate funhouse island. With his array of gadgets and unflappable charm, MI6’s best secret agent knows how to work his way out of any difficult situation, making the world safe for British Imperialism and unfettered capitalism. But, of course, Bond is a figure of fantasy, not a real person, and real people rarely overcome such unlikely odds.…

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15 Nov

Marvel’s Star Wars Easter Eggs Are Out of Control

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This article contains Black Panther: Wakanda Forever spoilers It’s finally time to dive into Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, as Ryan Coogler has the honor of rounding off Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As with any MCU outing, there’s a slew of Easter eggs that reference everyone from Ant-Man to Ultron, tragic tributes to Chadwick Boseman, and a setup for Thunderbolts. However, for eagle-eyed nerf herders or moof milkers, you might’ve spotted some nods to a certain galaxy far, far away.  During the scene where Shuri (Letitia Wright) and Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) are kidnapped by Namor’s forces, they…

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15 Nov

Christmas Movies and TV Specials: Full 2022 Schedule

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It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Or so they say. Some people love the holiday season. And then there are those grinches who don’t see the whole appeal. But if there’s one tried and true way to get into holiday spirit, it’s through exposure therapy to Christmas movies and specials. In the streaming era, there are more options than ever to catch a Christmas movie or a holiday TV special pretty much whenever you need it. Still, each day in the late November and December calendars brings a whole host of new options to the table. Here we’ve…

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14 Nov

Wakanda Forever Box Office Proves ‘Superhero Movie Fatigue’ Is Overstated

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Black Panther: Wakanda Forever just had the biggest November opening weekend in box office history. Granted, as soon as the sequel to 2018’s game-changing superhero movie was announced by Marvel Studios to be a Thanksgiving-adjacent release, that milestone seemed almost a foregone conclusion. Nevertheless, it still was pretty remarkable when Black Panther 2 officially clocked in at $181 million on Monday morning, blowing away previous record holder Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which opened to $158 million in 2013. This number, by the by, also trounces previous Marvel November releases like Thor: Ragnarok ($122.7 million in 2017) and Doctor Strange ($85…

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14 Nov

Star Trek: William Shatner Reveals the Secret to the Franchise’s Success

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When Star Trek first hit screens in 1966, it seemed like the most unlikely hit. While there was certainly juice in creator Gene Roddenberry’s pitch to film “Wagon Train to the Stars,” and the network CBS showed enough confidence in the show to let producers shoot a second pilot, the debut episode hardly portended great things. “The Man Trap” pit Captain James T. Kirk and his crew against a salt vampire masquerading as a former flame of Doctor Leonard McCoy. But from those humble beginnings, Trek has become one of the world’s most beloved franchises, consisting of ten television series,…

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14 Nov

Black Panther 2 Just Set up a Major Phase 5 MCU Movie

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This article contains spoilers for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever If there’s one thing that Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever nailed, it was a surprise cameo that no one saw coming. Away from the shock return of Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger, the writers managed to keep a lid on Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. Alongside nods to Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man and trade agreements with New Asgard, Wakanda Forever has a major tie to the wider MCU that sets up Jake Schreier’s Thunderbolts.  Hoping to be the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s answer to DC’s Suicide Squad, the Thunderbolts are…

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14 Nov

Star Wars Finally Delivers the Missing Piece of The Phantom Menace

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This Star Wars article contains spoilers for Tales of the Jedi. Back when he still had full creative control of Star Wars, George Lucas spent a lot of time revisiting and tweaking his finished films, much to the frustration of fans who’d grown up with the theatrical releases. Using (at the time) innovative CGI, the creator retroactively added characters to scenes where they hadn’t appeared before, or completely changed how iconic moments played out (e.g. Han shot first). It began with the Star Wars Special Editions in the late ’90s, which remastered the Original Trilogy for a new generation of…

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14 Nov

How Tom Cruise’s Oblivion Called Back to a Forgotten, Smarter Type of Sci-Fi

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Oblivion was released as a Tom Cruise vehicle in 2013, giving him his second best box office weekend up to that time outside of the Mission: Impossible franchise. However, the sci-fi pseudo-epic also received middling reviews and almost immediately dropped out of the public consciousness altogether. Which makes its reemergence into it via Netflix this month intriguing. Oblivion admittedly has its flaws, yet it is worth a second look if only because it so clearly has ambitions to be something so much more. In 2013 we had only recently gotten a glimpse at what the future held as the commercial…

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14 Nov

Ranking the Roger Moore James Bond Movies from Worst to Best

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Believe it or not, there once was a time when James Bond movies were fun. And more than fun, Bond himself had fun in them! As difficult as it is to sometimes imagine after Daniel Craig, James Bond was previously a character of high camp and sheepish boarding school humor. And no actor ever better personified that side of Bond than Roger Moore. Moore was the third actor to portray Bond in Eon Productions’ 007 series, although for many (particularly those who came of age in the ‘70s and ‘80s) he remains the definitive portrayal. With the naturally debonair demeanor,…

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12 Nov

Where Black Panther 2 Leaves Wakanda and the MCU

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This article contains Black Panther: Wakanda Forever spoilers. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever begins with the unexpected, shocking (and offscreen) death of Wakanda’s King T’Challa, victim of an unspecified disease that even his brilliant scientist sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) could not stop. It’s a harrowing, relatively brief prologue to the film that, of course, reflects the real-life 2020 passing of Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman. T’Challa’s death seemingly leaves Wakanda, now ruled by T’Challa and Shuri’s mother, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), vulnerable, especially since no one is stepping up right away to take on the mantle of the country’s protector: the…

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12 Nov

Who is Marvel’s New Black Panther in Wakanda Forever?

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This article contains Black Panther: Wakanda Forever spoilers. How can you do a Black Panther movie without Chadwick Boseman? The shocking news of Boseman’s death in 2020 raised many questions about the sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Realizing that there’s no replacing Boseman himself, Kevin Feige and director Ryan Coogler decided against recasting T’Challa and allowing a different character to become the Black Panther. Of the many characters in the MCU, the Black Panther may be best suited to legacy. After all, we know from the first film that T’Challa was just the latest in a long line of Panthers,…

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12 Nov

The Marvel Cameo in Black Panther 2 Matters More Than Any Other in the MCU

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This article contains Black Panther: Wakanda Forever spoilers. The Ancestral Plane is a personal thing for each person who accesses it. This truth was made explicitly clear in the original Black Panther movie. During that 2018 landmark superhero epic, the metaphysical space is revealed as a destination reserved for members of the Wakandan royal family. New arrivals to the afterlife (or simply visitors stopping briefly by, thanks to the Heart-Shaped Herb) see a uniquely individual paradise that best suits the events and memories from their own lives. For Chadwick Boseman’s King T’Challa, that came in the form of a psychedelic…

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11 Nov

Wakanda Forever Ending Explained: Where it Leaves the World of Black Panther in the MCU

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This article contains Black Panther 2 spoilers. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever begins with a nation in disarray. Their beloved leader King T’Challa, the Black Panther, has died, just after he brought Wakanda onto the world stage. Despite the vast sacrifices he and Wakanda made to battle Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War and despite the gift of Vibranium he gave to the world, it wasn’t enough. Various Western forces — including those of the US government, led by the Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine — want to take advantage of the country’s mourning, driving Namor to force Wakanda into conflict with the underwater nation of Tālocān.…

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11 Nov

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Soundtrack Might Surpass the Original

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Wakanda Forever! After the tragic passing of star Chadwick Boseman forced Marvel Studios and director Ryan Coogler to rethink their approach for a sequel to 2018’s smash hit, Black Panther, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hits theaters this weekend. The long-awaited sequel will double as both the latest entry in Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and as a tribute to the late Boseman. Box office projections estimate that the film is set to open to between $175 million and $185 million domestically, putting it slightly lower than the original film’s $202 million opening weekend haul, but making it the…

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11 Nov

How Black Panther 2 Addresses The Passing of Chadwick Boseman

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This article contains some Black Panther: Wakanda Forever spoilers. Marvel’s Black Panther was an unprecedented cultural moment in ways that are still being felt today. More than just prove the world was ready (desperate even) for a Black superhero film, Black Panther also provided towering evidence that we were eager for a mainstream Hollywood movie steeped in African civilization and futurism, made by a nearly all-Black cast and crew. It earned a record-shattering $1.3 billion at the box office while on its way to an astounding seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture (the first ever for a superhero movie). It…

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11 Nov

10 Rejected James Bond Songs Better Than the Movie Versions

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The James Bond franchise is the gold standard for long-running film series. Sixty years of 007 have not only come with new takes on the secret agent himself but what the franchise should be for each generation of the character. This has meant consistent alterations to every aspect of the movies, as one star takes over for another, from ditching the overt sexism on Bonds past when Daniel Craig took over the role to embracing the absurd in the early years, namely the later Sean Connery films and the majority of the Roger Moore era. Even the music has changed…

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11 Nov

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Post-Credits Scene Explained

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This article contains Black Panther: Wakanda Forever spoilers. We’ve long known the second Black Panther movie would be something of a wake. After making such a profound impact on the culture with 2018’s Black Panther, the loss of star Chadwick Boseman felt like a genuine blow to our collective psyche. A young, gifted, and exceedingly warm screen presence, Boseman influenced the way an entire younger generation could see themselves in our most popular modern fairy tales (i.e. superhero movies). So it felt crucial that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever addressed that loss honestly. And, indeed, Ryan Coogler’s second MCU picture both…

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11 Nov

Black Panther 2: What Marvel Movies Should You Watch to Get the Full Experience?

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The original Black Panther movie was a game-changer for Marvel Studios and perhaps the superhero genre as a whole. Released in February and (at least in the the minds of some fans) in the shadow of what was the latest Avengers movie, it’s doubtful even Disney anticipated Black Panther to open north of $200 million or that it would go on to be the first superhero flick nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. Yet here we are in the shadow of a true, kingly MCU movie. Still, the road to its sequel has been long and marred by tragedy.…

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