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13 Oct

Squid Game Isn’t Netflix’s First Korean Hit, and It Won’t Be Its Last

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Squid Game has proven itself to be Netflix’s biggest launch ever, with more than 111 million household views in the first month of release—but it’s far from the streamer’s first Korean hit, and it definitely won’t be its last. South Korea has been successfully exporting its culture for decades now, and Squid Game is only the latest success story in the country’s economic and political strategy to become one of the world’s biggest exporters of popular culture… Hallyu as Korean Economic & Political Strategy If you know anything about Korean history as an American, then you probably know about the…

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13 Oct

The Velvet Underground Review: Lou Reed Was a Pop Singer All Along?

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With The Velvet Underground, director Todd Haynes effectively evokes the Andy Warhol Factory’s experimental celluloid renderings, and captures both why Warhol was so taken by the band, and the reason the Velvet Underground were not made for factory settings. Both Lou Reed and John Cage are renowned as antagonistic agitators, and the band had nothing but disdain for much of their contemporaries. They even had a spat with their west coast counterparts, Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, who were also musically adventurous, and virulently anti-hippie. Because The Velvet Underground’s songs were about drugs and dregs, Zappa thought they were a…

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13 Oct

The Flash Season 8 Set Photos Tease Surprise Villain Joining Despero for Armageddon

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This Flash article contains spoilers for season 8 and “Armageddon.“ The Flash season 8 premiere will be unlike any you’ve watched before. This year, the show is opening with a five-part crossover event called “Armageddon,” the type of CW superhero extravaganza that is usually reserved for the holidays. This massive superhero team-up will bring several Arrowverse favorites back to Central City to fight a mysterious alien threat. The cast of heroes includes Javicia Leslie as Batwoman, Brandon Routh as The Atom, Cress Williams as Black Lightning, Chyler Leigh as Sentinel, Kat McNamara as Mia Queen, and Osric Chau as Ryan…

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13 Oct

Back 4 Blood: The Best Cards In the Game

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We’ve talked about the best decks in Back 4 Blood, but since a deck without cards is…well…nothing, it’s time to look at the absolute best cards in the game that we’ve used so far.  Yes, the strength of an individual card is ultimately based on your deck, playstyle, and the decks and playstyles of your team, but when you really look at the complete collection of Back 4 Blood cards, you start to spot the ones that are either generally beneficial in most situations or enable an incredible new strategy that you have to try. So while you can’t always…

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13 Oct

Link Tank: Lashana Lynch Doesn’t Want to Be the Next James Bond

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No Time To Die breakout star Lashana Lynch doesn’t want to be the new James Bond, she’s thinking much bigger. “‘It made me appreciate the changes within the franchise that were happening,’ says Lynch. It ‘made me excited as an actor. That first scene in Casino Royale is the most memorable opening scene in cinema history. I thought, ‘This is feeding my soul.’ It made me connect in a way I hadn’t before.’ 15 years later, Lynch is 007. In No Time to Die, Lynch co-stars as ‘Nomi,’ a young, skilled MI6 agent who replaces Craig’s retired Bond — and takes over his…

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13 Oct

Horror Movies That Should Get the Halloween Reboot Treatment

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Three years ago, director David Gordon Green and producer Jason Blum took on a challenge: reboot the classic horror movie Halloween (1978) with a new sequel that basically ignored all the other sequels and remakes, some nine in all, which had come out in the last 40 years. 2018’s Halloween was a resounding success, both creatively and commercially, acting as a direct sequel to the John Carpenter milestone and dispensing with all the canon (good or bad), and baggage that had built up in the previous decades. Now that Gordon and Blum have proved that their experiment was viable—and are…

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13 Oct

11 Actors Who Could Be the Next James Bond

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James Bond Will Return. It’s a promise made during the ending credits of pretty much every 007 flick, but they felt especially poignant during the final scrawl of No Time to Die. Without getting into spoilers, one might wonder about the longevity of the franchise after an ending with as much closure as Daniel Craig’s swan song. But while Craig’s particular version of Bond has ridden off into the sunset, you can rest assured that… James Bond will return. Hence the question now becomes not if Bond shall return—or if Bond should have a spin-off, as we considered here—but rather…

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13 Oct

Doctor Who’s Scariest Episodes: One Fan’s Horror Highlights

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Based on all known criteria, I am an adult. Doctor Who is not meant to scare me very often. It’s meant to scare children, and if it freaks anyone else out that’s a bonus. I can write about which episodes scared me when I was young but then I have to factor in that I hadn’t seen most of Doctor Who when I was young. Born in 1985, my fears were based on what little I had seen on telly and the videos I could afford – I was less likely to be able to afford a VHS double-pack so…

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13 Oct

Supergirl: Alex Danvers is Finally a Mom

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This SUPERGIRL article contains spoilers for Season 6, Episode 15, “Hope for Tomorrow.” Supergirl Season 6 Episode 15 Supergirl packs a whole lot into one incredibly long day in this episode. Kara finds herself in a real Sword in the Stone situation with the Hope Totem, which requires her to, “Inspire a hope that burns brighter and longer than the sun.” Alex and Kelly welcome Esme to their very adorably excited family, and have some pretty realistic first-day hurdles for a kid who has had a really tough time. But in the end, Alex Danvers and her family are going to be…

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13 Oct

Back 4 Blood: Every Cleaner Ranked

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Back 4 Blood is the spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead in every way that matters most, but first-time players may be surprised to learn that each of the game’s playable cleaners actually come equipped with unique skills and abilities that make them so much more than interchangeable survivors. While Back 4 Blood does a surprisingly good job of balancing those cleaners in a way that makes it easy to justify inviting any of them to the party, the fact of the matter is that there are just some cleaners that feel more powerful than others (at least at this…

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12 Oct

How Star Wars: Ronin Brings the Saga Back to Its Roots

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Emma Mieko Candon, author of Star Wars: Ronin, is pulling from Star Wars the way George Lucas drew from Akira Kurosawa films. Her novel redefines pop culture vocabulary like “Jedi” and “Sith” in order to bring them back to the ideas that inspired them: Force-users as samurai, and all that implies. In the novel, it’s the Jedi who are affiliated with Imperial lords and the Sith who have rebelled against them. Forget lore about Darth Bane or the Old Republic — or rather, set Ronin aside as its own alternate universe. Without anything so literal as Marvel’s multiverse, Ronin opens…

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12 Oct

Scream Trailer Gambles on Hollywood’s New Reboot-Sequel Strategy

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“Hello, Sidney.” It’s the iconic line from the infamous Ghostface killer. The face behind the mask might change from Scream movie to Scream movie, but that raspy Roger L. Jackson vocal performance stays the same. After all these years, it’s even still menacing a woman who’s arguably the greatest “final girl” of all-time. Hence today’s new Scream trailer, which ends with Neve Campbell being threatened with the lofty claim that “it’s an honor.” As in, it’s an honor to be the latest slasher to take a stab at you, Sid after five movies in 25 years. That level of deference…

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12 Oct

Does Home Sweet Home Alone Follow the Original Canon?

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Home Sweet Home Alone, the latest entry in the long-running Christmas comedy family film franchise, has made its impending Disney+ arrival known with a debut trailer. Similar to the many sequels that preceded it, the new movie apparently adheres to the same structural beats set from 1990’s original Home Alone. However, besides distinguishing itself with a recent break out star in Jo Jo Rabbit’s Archie Yates, the film is seemingly grounded in the canon of the original, as evidenced by the return of Devin Ratray’s Buzz. As the trailer implies, Home Sweet Home Alone’s ordeal of Yates’s Max is far…

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12 Oct

Back 4 Blood: The Best Deck Builds

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Back 4 Blood may be the most obvious Left 4 Dead successor we’ve gotten since Left 4 Dead 2 was released in 2009, but the game’s card system may leave you scratching your head and wondering what the best possible deck builds are. I ultimately feel like Back 4 Blood‘s card system offers it a creative edge over Left 4 Dead and every other Left 4 Dead-inspired game out there, but trying to build a complete deck can feel a little overwhelming. There are just so many possibilities to consider and the game doesn’t offer a ton of guidance in…

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12 Oct

Halloween Kills Review: Michael Myers Movie is Filler But No Thriller

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The trouble with announcing you’re going to be making a trilogy of movies is that, well, you have to then make a trilogy of movies. And Halloween Kills, the second part of the franchise reboot, which serves as a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s 1978 classic, is a significant step down after the refreshingly respectful, competent, and creepy 2018 Halloween. “Evil dies tonight” runs the mantra of the Haddonfield residents who are suddenly confronted with the same masked menace who terrified them 40 years ago. Yeah, but it doesn’t though, does it? After all, we know there’s going to be…

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12 Oct

Link Tank: Beast Wars: Transformers Turns 25 Ahead of its Big Screen Debut

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25 years later and the Beast Wars: Transformers CGI doesn’t hold up, but it’ll get another shot on the bring screen in 2022. “With that, the computer-generated animated series Beast Wars: Transformers had begun. Premiering in late September 1996, the series was the first American venture for the Transformers franchise since the original cartoon concluded almost a decade earlier. With a new style of animation and the use of animal transformations as opposed to vehicles, Transformers fans initially met the show with skepticism. Still, before long, Beast Wars was embraced for its dynamic writing and vivid characters.” Read more at…

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12 Oct

DC’s New Superman is Bisexual, Socially Conscious, and More Like the Original Character

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Superman is bisexual. Well, that doesn’t really tell the entire story. It’s more accurate to say that a Superman is bisexual, he’s the current protector of Earth, and he’s currently the headliner of one of DC’s very best comics. Before you start wondering just when Clark Kent had found the time to explore his options considering that he spent most of his career dating one of the most accomplished reporters of all time utilizing two different identities, know this: Clark Kent/Kal-El, the Superman who has been fighting for truth, tolerance, and justice since 1938 isn’t the one being honored by…

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12 Oct

Endeavour’s Unanswered Questions and Dangling Plot Threads

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“I can’t help feeling like I’ve missed something,” Morse told Thursday over two drained pints and a luncheon meat sandwich in the closing moments of Series 2’s ‘Trove’. He was right about that. Castle Gate’s finest may have collared the conspirators in two murder cases and recovered a cache of stolen museum treasures, but something had been missed – namely, a notebook. More on that below.  Series 8 left fans feeling a little like Morse in that pub. The finale’s closing scene left us on a poignant note, with a hopeful message courtesy of Fred Thursday. It also left us with unanswered…

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12 Oct

Black Widow Explains Why Natasha Didn’t Get a Funeral in Avengers: Endgame

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Contains spoilers for Black Widow and Avengers: Endgame. Spoiler alert: Natasha is no more. Avengers: Endgame saw Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) sacrifice herself at Vormir to obtain the Soul Stone, helping to undo the Thanos snap which saw 50% of the universe disintegrate. It was a noble act, and a choice on Nat’s behalf – she and Clint Barton fight, not to sacrifice each other, but to be the one to die, and ultimately Natasha wins. We might not like it, but hey, at least it was Nat’s will. But surely Nat could have had a funeral – after all,…

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12 Oct

James Bond Actors Ranked from Worst to Best

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“Bond, James Bond.” It’s one of the greatest lines of dialogue in movie history—the 22nd best ever, according to the AFI—but if you say it to five people, they will likely think of five different scenes. Will it be Sean Connery who springs to mind with the original utterance, cigarette drooping from his mouth, a look of simultaneous boredom and excitement twinkling in his eye? Or maybe it’ll look like a more recent vintage with Daniel Craig’s own iconic 007 standing over a foe while holding a machine gun? I’m sure there’s even someone out there who’ll jump to the…

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