Wednesday, November 8, 2023

‘Secret Invasion’s violent ending may have ruined Captain Marvel’s reputation in the MCU

Carol is already shouldering a lot of blame — for not being there when Monica’s mom died, for not rushing to aid Earth-616 when Thanos attacked, and for joining the second battle a little too late. And now, courtesy of the messy note Secret Invasion ended on, Captain Marvel now has a big target on her back.

Now, this is strictly in-universe, as in the real world, Brie Larson has established beyond any doubts (ones that only trolls seemed to harbor, anyway) that she has not joined the MCU to “prove herself” — she already did that long before she became Captain Marvel. But in the MCU, especially in its OG reality, Captain Marvel will have a hard time revamping her reputation now, unless things take a miraculous turn out of the blue in The Marvels.

In its insane bid to be illogically shocking, Secret Invasion employed many unexpected and unwarranted plot twists. While we are still hung up on the pointless deaths of Maria Hill and Talos, the real curveball was thrown our way by the dear U.S. President Ritson, by announcing that he has introduced a bill that will, from here on, recognize every alien that sets foot on Earth as enemy combatants. Directly burned by the Skrulls — for he trusted one with his life for years — Ritson also openly threatens any extraterrestrial being, and claims every one of them will be killed.

Wow, he is pissed. And what’s more, his words and palpable anger have given others the chance to openly target anyone they think are Skrulls, while hiding their original agenda, and killing them without the fear of consequences.

While we know that a change in authority is right around the corner — Harrison Ford will become the new president in Captain America 4 — it would be childish to expect that the MCU’s Congress didn’t pass Ritson’s bloody bill, as Gravik and the Skrulls did manage to kill thousands of innocent bystanders, and infiltrated the highest ranks of the government with plans of staging a grand coup.

So, while Fury walked away, scot-free, after saving the president, even though he played a big role in keeping the Skrulls on Earth, guess who will now shoulder the brunt of the blame? Yep, Captain Marvel. She is the one who gave Fury agency to make promises to the Skrulls about finding them a home, and it is not a secret. Imagine the kind of reception she would now receive on Earth — the efforts she put in to thwart Thanos already paled in comparison to Tony Stark’s sacrifice, and with the destruction the Skrulls caused, she will now be remembered as the reason the aliens were able to wreck so much havoc.

As the trio is expected to keep switching places in The Marvels, only Nov. 10 will tell if Carol will get a taste of the brewing anger towards her on Earth during her short, glitchy stays on the planet.



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Tuesday, November 7, 2023

The 10 most iconic horror villains matched with their Thanksgiving pie counterpart

The 10 most iconic horror villains matched with their Thanksgiving pie counterpart

When it comes to loosening your belt and crafting the perfect dinner plate, there’s no other food craze as colossal as Thanksgiving. And while appetizing items such as cranberry sauce and stuffing certainly rank at the top, the Fall festivities would simply be empty without the inclusion of various pies.

And just as delicious as these Thanksgiving pies are, it would feel almost meaningless to eat without something enjoyable playing on the TV in the background — especially when it’s a spine-shivering horror extravaganza. So far, we’ve already presented an intriguing lineup of the best Thanksgiving horror movies to watch this November, but we’ve yet to dive in and unfold specific horror villains and what their Thanksgiving pie counterpart would be. 

So with a list of delectable pies to choose from, let’s fully examine which particular villain goes best with a hearty slice of dessert heaven.

Pinhead – Peach Cobbler Pie

Images via Entertainment Film Distributors / JoyFoodSunshine

As a notoriously beloved pie that holds all of its ingredients together, one cannot think farther than Pinhead — if not for the fact that Pinhead keeps his entire clan of Cenobites together. Much like the crust of Peach Cobbler Pie is the glue that holds the dessert together, Pinhead is undoubtedly the true ringleader of his group. Of course, you’ll have to substitute the whips and chains for vanilla ice cream — but that’s what makes it all the more interesting.

Jigsaw – Coconut Cream Pie

Images via Lionsgate / LifeMadeSimple

If you ask most Saw fans, I’d put good money on the fact that many of them adore John Kramer / Jigsaw even though they really shouldn’t. And just as Jigsaw is a guilty pleasure, as far as horror villains are concerned, it’s hard to deny that Coconut Cream Pie carries that same reputation. In fact, even those who absolutely despise coconut on its own seem to love this pie — so you can see why Jigsaw most relates to this dessert.

Hannibal Lecter – Lemon Meringue Pie

Images via Orion Pictures / Betty Crocker

For me, when I think of Lemon Meringue Pie, I think of pure sophistication and class. I think of a neat pie with a ton of flavor — which can easily be said about The Silence of the Lambs antagonist Hannibal Lecter. With the pie’s foundation embodying a sour and tart flavor with a flaky crust on the edges, there’s simply no pie that fits the cannibalistic psychiatrist better. But considering he’s a cannibal, we’ll have to worry that he might eat himself.

Chucky – Key Lime Pie

Images via MGM/UA Communications Co. / AllRecipes

Let’s be honest here — you either love Key Lime Pie or you absolutely hate it. Truthfully, the same can be said about Chucky, seeing as the killer doll often provides hilarious one-liners but also kills people. Key Lime Pie leaves you with a sour taste in your mouth and certainly gets messy, but we can’t help but love it anyway. So these qualities not only fit the pie itself, but these qualities certainly showcase the sort of villain Chucky is.

Pennywise – Sweet Potato Pie

Images via Warner Bros. / Well Plated By Erin

Now, do I really need to spell this one out for you? From the ginger found in pumpkin pie, which matches Pennywise’s hair, to the spice-inflected savory flavor, which accurately matches his wicked personality, I can’t think of a pie that fits the demonic clown better than this. That’s not to say there isn’t a small touch of sweetness in Pennywise’s repertoire — mainly found within Tim Curry’s classic version, but still, it’s there… Somehow.

Ghostface – Pecan Pie

Images via Dimension Films / Baker By Nature

Out of all the pies on this list that accurately connect to their human counterpart, Pecan Pie undoubtedly showcases exactly the kind of villain Ghostface has proven to be. With Pecan Pie, its rough and crunchy edges contain a softer, more delicate interior — which are qualities that, it could be argued, are in the same vein as perpetrators who don the Ghostface attire. Despite these characters being vicious killers, most of their motives are driven by their sensitivity, which has left them feeling hurt, abandoned, or betrayed.

Freddy Krueger – Blueberry Pie

Images via New Line Cinema / Always Eat Dessert

As complex as a horror villain can get, there’s simply no denying that Freddy Krueger, much like Blueberry Pie, is one of a kind. The delicious pie, which is easily considered to be a fan-favorite, is basically a what-you-see-is-what-you-get sort of dessert. The same reputation can be made for Freddy Krueger, who is simply a vicious monster who attacks unsuspecting victims in their sleep and makes their lives a real-life nightmare. Hey, we never said he was as sweet as blueberries.

Leatherface – Cherry Pie

Images via Bryanston Distributing Company / Shugary Sweets

Much like Leatherface, Cherry Pie is an extremely intriguing dessert with an abundance of layers. While Leatherface appears like a sadistic monster, backstory provided throughout the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies has showcased that Leatherface simply follows orders from his psychopathic family. In all honesty, he’s just used and abused because of his size and brute strength — when really he’s just sweet and innocent deep down, just like a slice of delicious cherry pie.

Jason Voorhees – Pumpkin Pie

Images via New Line Cinema / BloominThyme

As rounded and robust as pumpkin pie truly is, it’s hard to deny the fact that it’s often overlooked in favor of other pies that are actually more popular. That being said, the same can be echoed for Jason Voorhees — with an onslaught of other horror villains often favored over him. And yet, Jason still remains as savory and sought-after as pumpkin pie, with its dense flavor also proving to be true in regards to Jason’s character as a dense character with a hardened exterior. 

Michael Myers – Apple Pie

Images via Universal Pictures / Delish

Quite simply, everybody loves apple pie, just like everybody loves Michael Myers. Without question, Michael is one of the most popular horror villains out there — as All-American as Mom, baseball, and apple you-know-what. All he needs is a little scoop of vanilla ice cream to go with him. When it comes time for family members to rifle through the dessert table, there’s no doubt that they’re all heading for apple pie first. In that same vein, we’d probably all head for a slice of Zaddy Myers at the horror villain table. I said what I said.



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Review: The ‘Modern Warfare III’ campaign is the disaster ‘Call of Duty’ fans had been anticipating for years

Review: The ‘Modern Warfare III’ campaign is the disaster ‘Call of Duty’ fans had been anticipating for years

Modern Warfare III might be the first Call of Duty game to leave me completely baffled, and that’s saying something for a guy who gave up on the franchise in 2014.

It has all been building up to this critical moment. People are always going on and on about how video games are in decline and the future of the industry is in jeopardy due to the increasingly callous market development strategies and lifeless cash-grab attempts, but never before have we been so soundly proven right about our half-hearted cynicisms.

Sure, we can make memes on Reddit to dunk on Call of Duty enthusiasts all day long. Some of them might even roll with the punches, admitting that while Activision has grown progressively greedier over the past decade, and the games more creatively bankrupt, they can still unironically enjoy a match or two of Domination or Team Deathmatch with their friends.

The truth is, even if Activision and its numerous game studios were to develop and release a great Call of Duty game, we probably wouldn’t even be able to tell it apart from all these other numerous, annual installments that offer fans the same interactive cuisine over and over again. That, unfortunately, isn’t the case with Modern Warfare III. This isn’t a book you don’t judge by its cover. This isn’t a gem hidden behind an exterior of bland mediocrity. If anything, it is precisely a practice in bringing the worst of Call of Duty together in a last-ditch effort to keep the franchise relevant, leaving you wanting more and maybe even questioning if you really spent $70 on a three-hour campaign that was oh-so-plainly produced to serve as a DLC for Modern Warfare II.

A mission from 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III'
Those cinematic story missions are almost entirely absent from the game, and this first one in prison is one of them / Credit: Activision

Don’t get me wrong; with the current industry obsession to maximize content over quality and give us titles that run for at least twice as long as their previous-gen counterparts, I’d actually welcome a game like Call of Duty, which has traditionally entertained 6-7 hour campaigns. Modern Warfare III oversteps this mark and betrays our confidence, promising in name to give us a proper continuation of the MW reboot series, only to leave us hanging with a narrative that ends as soon as you’re starting to settle in for the spectacle.

Worse still is the fact that, unlike the original Modern Warfare trilogy which ended with the third installment, Activision is clearly planning to expand this subseries beyond that threshold, and we wouldn’t be surprised at a Modern Warfare IV or even a fifth entry somewhere down the line, especially given the abrupt, cliffhanger-y way the 2023 game ends.

Modern Warfare III is something of an aberration even in the fatigued Call of Duty franchise. By convention, we should’ve gotten the next Black Ops game by Treyarch, followed by another installment from Sledgehammer Games. But 2023 caught Activision off-guard, with the company fumbling to keep its stock value high amid Microsoft’s acquisition battle.

The last 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III' mission in London
The game is visually breathtaking like its predecessors, but the company’s insistence to keep releasing these games for eighth-gen consoles (PS4, Xbox One) is definitely keeping the IW engine back / Credit: Activision

Lo and behold, they find the perfect solution in the form of the next Modern Warfare. This particular offshoot has done nothing but break records for Activision since its conception in early 2005, with 2022’s Modern Warfare II pushing past the franchise’s all-time high record by generating $800 million in three days — so why wouldn’t they be tempted to rush the sequel’s release in such a chaotic moment?

Except for the fact that Modern Warfare III by Sledgehammer was not the sequel. The story was originally intended to serve as a DLC for Modern Warfare II, entailing the introduction of Makarov as the story’s main villain, but Activision shifted direction mid-swing, instead asking the studio to somehow turn this into a fully-fledged Call of Duty experience.

Developers often get creative and experimental with DLCs; it’s a fun playground where nothing is off-limits, and the project’s small scale helps cultivate that creativity. Modern Warfare III is unfortunately an outlier in this regard, despite Sledgehammer’s best efforts to take the gameplay down a new path.

A single-player mission from the 2023 game 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III'
Even missions that try to hearken back to those glory days come off as weak imitations / Credit: Activision

The cinematic thrill of contemporary warfare was always the selling point of MW, but you get none of that here. The missions are broken down into sandbox levels wherein you control a certain member of Task Force 141 and go through a checklist of objectives. The open environment and the tools of CoD royale give players a certain degree of freedom in how they approach these missions, but it all reminds us more of those “Strike Force” side missions than anything from your classic Call of Duty single-player campaign experience. This story and setup might have worked under the guise of an expansion pack, even if barely, but for an official continuation of the story started with the 2019 reboot, it only comes off as subpar.

It’s incredibly bizarre to consider that under the technical limitations of the time, the 2007 Modern Warfare and its subsequent follow-ups in 2009 and 2011 were by far more immersive, more fleshed out (narrative-wise), and even more exciting to play through. Now, more than a decade later, we get a game that barely meets the standard of the time, let alone the acclaim of its predecessors. Even Modern Warfare III’s allusions to the past — including a mission that takes place in a snowy landscape — can’t quite imitate their success, despite being vastly superior in terms of visual fidelity.

I don’t know about you, but when I was much younger and playing those older games, this is not how I imagined Call of Duty would be in a decade. And yes, it’s strange that I bring up a critique of the entire franchise when I should only be talking about a single entry, but like I said at the beginning of this review, Modern Warfare III appears to embody everything that’s going wrong with this series, whether it be mediocre level design, a barely coherent plot, or Activision’s general insistence to milk the franchise to oblivion.

This review is based on the PlayStation 5 version of the game, and all screenshots captured by We Got This Covered are from time spent playing the game. A review copy was provided by Activision.



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The 7 best Gal Gadot movies, ranked

Despite presiding over a career mostly taken up by action blockbusters that are a far cry from breakthrough arthouse films, Gal Gadot has grown into one of the most respected actresses of our generation.

Fast & Furious in 2009 marked the Israeli thespian’s breakout in Hollywood, a success she would top by landing the role of Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman in the DCEU. It’s unclear what the future will hold for Gal now that the superhero cinematic universe is getting rebooted, but we decided to review some highlights of her career nevertheless, ranking them from worst to best in this circle.

7. Knight and Day (2010)

Gadot had a brief role to play in Knight and Day, the 2010 action film spearheaded by Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. Still, as far as supporting characters go, this one was a memorable performance from the Wonder Woman star. Knight and Day is a very middling, forgettable thriller when all is said and done, but it still bears the mark of James Mangold, who is one of the more acclaimed action filmmakers out there.

6. Red Notice (2021)

Red Notice is one of those films that only work because of their lead actors. In this case, those leads happen to be Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot, who elevate a very generic script and make the movie actually bearable. In fact, thanks to this talent, you might actually lose yourself in the rhythm and start to have fun.

5. Death on the Nile (2022)

While this movie fell short of actually capturing the magic of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile, there’s something charming about Kenneth Branagh’s honest attempt to bring Hercule Poirot to life. This time around, the enigmatic ensemble is led by none other than Gal Gadot, who portrayed the wealthy heiress Linnet “Linny” Ridgeway-Doyle in the sequel. Whatever else can be said of the sequel and its discernible shortcomings, Gadot was an amazing addition, at times single-handedly carrying the scenes.

4. Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)

This is probably the best movie on this list, but given the fact that Gadot only plays a minor part, it probably shouldn’t receive the top honors. Ralph Breaks the Internet is a brilliant sequel through and through, and Gadot’s character Shank also shines as the badass NPC racer, Shank. It’s a wonder why Gadot hasn’t been cast as a voice actor in more projects, because her somewhat raspy voice and distinct English accent make her a perfect choice for exotic characters.

3. Keeping Up with the Joneses (2016)

Keeping Up with the Joneses confirmed that Gal Gadot is perfectly capable of embodying a comic character. Besides, whoever thought of teaming her up with Isla Fisher is a genius, because their chemistry in that movie was through the roof, as strange as it might sound on the face of it. You put Zack Galifianakis, Jon Hamm, Isla Fisher, and Patton Oswalt in a movie, and you’re almost guaranteed to get comedy gold. So imagine our surprise when the character who shined the most among that ensemble was Gadot’s Natalie Jones.

2. Fast Five (2011)

Gisele was an important part of the original Fast & Furious movies. Gadot reprised her role in Fast Five in 2011 and served in Dominic’s crew, while also developing a romantic bond with Han. Gisele is not quite a femme fatale, with Gal trying to channel her inner heroine into the character, keeping her kind, but also surefooted. We singled out Fast Five because it was the best one out of the three entries she appeared in. The character seemingly perishes in the sixth entry, but it is revealed during the mid-credits scene of 2023’s Fast X that Gisele somehow survived.

1. Wonder Woman (2017)

Even after all these years, I still believe the first Wonder Woman by Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot is the best movie that came out of the DCEU. The 2017 solo outing might feature its fair share of generic plot elements and tired superhero tropes, but Gadot’s magical performance as Diana Prince turned it into something really special. It also proved to everyone that their initial reservations about Gadot were unfounded because we couldn’t have asked for a better Wonder Woman. If James Gunn is half as clever as we take him for, he’ll keep Gadot around for his DCU reboot in some capacity.



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Monday, November 6, 2023

The reprehensible reboot of an exceedingly average trilogy forced to can its own sequels in disgrace plays a dangerous game on Netflix

The reprehensible reboot of an exceedingly average trilogy forced to can its own sequels in disgrace plays a dangerous game on Netflix

There’s only one shaven-headed English action hero who can anchor a trilogy revolving around an ass-kicking protagonist who makes their living ferrying dangerous cargo, and as The Transporter Refueled made abundantly clear, it sure as hell wasn’t Ed Skrein.

The 2002 original inadvertently gave rise to an entire subgenre that’s still going strong more than 20 years down the line as the first-ever mid-budget actioner to feature Jason Statham in the lead role, something that’s long since become his bread and butter.

the transporter refueled
via EuropaCorp

The Transporter trilogy was hardly groundbreaking or even all that great if we’re being honest, but they did the job for anyone looking for nothing more than lightweight punch, stab, and shoot ’em ups that allowed Statham to cut loose and do what he does best. Somebody somewhere figured that it was the brand making it so popular, though, which proved to be a hilariously misinformed decision.

Skrein was named as the new Frank Martin, with plans for an all-new Transporter trilogy announced, which ended up going up in a plume of embarrassing smoke when Refueled under-performed at the box office and was savagely beaten into a state of near-death by critics and audiences, who couldn’t have been any more scathing in their assessment that when it came to the franchise, it was Statham or no dice.

Even the worst action movies have habit of rearing their heads on Netflix, to be fair, and it was only a matter of time before it was The Transporter Refueled‘s turn. Sure enough, FlixPatrol has named it was one of the newest additions to the platform’s worldwide watch-list, but you’re exponentially better off revisiting the Statham trio instead.



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Sunday, November 5, 2023

‘It won’t be like six months later’: A billion-dollar franchise with a definitive ending that was abandoned days later hints at what’s to come

‘It won’t be like six months later’: A billion-dollar franchise with a definitive ending that was abandoned days later hints at what’s to come

You’ve got to wonder what the point was in crafting a so-called “definitive” ending for Keanu Reeves’ title hero in John Wick: Chapter 4, when all it took was a matter of days before the key creatives openly admitted that another entry in the iconic action franchise was virtually guaranteed to happen.

Presumably, director Chad Stahelski and his leading man weren’t entertaining the notion of a Chapter 5 when they called it a wrap on the latest installment – which pushed the property past the billion-dollar mark at the box office – but that doesn’t hold much water either when you remember the two of them were originally set to shoot back-to-back, so a fifth outing was always on the cards.

john wick chapter 4
via Lionsgate

Of course, nobody was buying it for a second that John Wick really was dead, and that sentiment is only furthered by longtime producer Basil Iwanyk becoming the latest key figure in the gun-toting saga to confirm to ScreenRant that Chapter 5 is a lot more likely to happen than not.

“So I think that what I love about the end of John Wick 4 is, if this means that there’s never another John Wick movie, it’s a nice elegant way of ending it, right? If there is another John Wick movie, which I do believe there will be, we don’t know what it is yet, but I do believe. I do feel like it will be a completely other book. If these movies were four chapters, you kind of blame it on the metaphor. The next John Wick will be another book. It won’t be like six months later from John Wick 4. We just don’t know what that is. But we all love spending time together, and we love the process.”

Prequel series The Continental explored the mythology in greater detail, while next year’s spin-off Ballerina will further the universe in the present day, which will set the stage nicely for Chapter 5 when it gets announced to the surprise of not a single soul, and then sets about explaining how the title hero faked his own death.



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Latest Marvel News: Tony Stark’s 15 year-old cheeseburger bites into ‘The Marvels’ discourse as the top brass tell the world ‘Echo’ is inessential

Latest Marvel News: Tony Stark’s 15 year-old cheeseburger bites into ‘The Marvels’ discourse as the top brass tell the world ‘Echo’ is inessential

You know things are getting strange when a cheeseburger that was mentioned in the Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s very first movie is being dredged up and used to bat away criticisms of its 33rd, but that’s how things have been going for The Marvels.

It’s another unexpected development for a discourse that’s largely followed the path everybody expected it to based on the backlash, trolling, and review-bombing that dogged its predecessor, but it might not even be the MCU’s most troubled project of the week.

A tortured Disney Plus series has been making history for reasons both good and bad, while its single most cursed feature appears to have cost a high-ranking executive their job. Just another regular day at the office for Marvel, then…

Cheeseburgers lobbed in the generation direction of The Marvels criticism

the marvels
Image via Marvel Studios

A clip from The Marvels showcasing a tense catch-up between Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers and Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau opened the doors to the latest bizarre back-and-forth, with one viral post noting that nobody’s going to have a clue what the pair were talking about.

If you’ve seen Captain Marvel and WandaVision then you most definitely will, but an A+ rebuttal made the point of noting that Jon Favreau referenced the humble American cheeseburger in Avengers: Endgame a full 11 years after Iron Man, and it still hit everybody square in the feels.

Marvel’s interesting approach to marketing Echo is to tell you it doesn’t really matter

Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) brandishes a gun in a screenshot from the Echo trailer.
Screenshot via Marvel Studios

For better or worse, Echo will be blazing a trail when it lands on Disney Plus and Hulu in January of next year, but the creation of the Marvel Spotlight banner in particular could prove to be a double-edged sword.

Executive Brad Winderbaum literally compared the series and everything to follow under the bespoke label as being comparable to “comics fans don’t need to read,” which doesn’t sound like the best method for guaranteeing audiences are obligated to check it out.

Blade may have added a Marvel executive to its ever-increasing casualty list

Mahershala Ali in a purple suit faces the left while Blade from the Marvel comics looks fiercely to the right.
Images courtesy of Marvel

As if cycling through a multitude of writers, directors, and screenplays wasn’t enough, it’s been claimed that the ongoing Blade fiasco has even claimed the job of a high-ranking Marvel Studios executive who failed to notice the production was crashing and burning under their watch.

Angry Kevin Feige might be a meme, but reports of the boss getting angry for one of the first times in recorded history purportedly offers a snapshot into just how badly the Daywalker’s ball is being dropped.

That’s it for yet another week of all things Marvel, but you know fine well that it all kicks off again tomorrow.



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Have there been any Bass Reeves movies?

History is what you make of it. In the case of Bass Reeves’ history, it’s four movies, a dozen or so television appearances, and some of the wildest frontier lawman stories in the history of the West.

Reeves, who was born an enslaved person in Arkansas in 1838, lived a truly incredible life. At some point during the American Civil War, he made an escape from his captors. The details are fuzzy, but the prevailing theory is that he went to live with nearby Native Americans until the 13th Amendment kicked in, which would go a long way towards explaining his later familiarity with Native languages and the frontier in general. After a few years of farming, Reeves turned those skillsets into a job as a Deputy U.S. Marshall – the first Black Deputy to serve west of the mighty Mississippi. He would spend a storied career bringing in as many as 3,000 fugitives from justice, including his own son. Reeves killed 14 criminals in gunfights, one cook while he was cleaning his gun, and had both his hat and his belt shot off.

Dramatic, impressive, and hard not to root for, the life of Bass Reeves has been the basis of a handful of movies and television shows. The latest, Taylor Sheridan’s Lawmen: Bass Reeves, debuted on Paramount Plus on Nov. 5, 2023.

A year prior in 2022, the independent film Corsicana saw writer/director Isaiah Washington step into Reeves’ spurs in a story about the lawman tracking a group of outlaws across Texas. The year before that, The Good Fight’s Delroy Lindo played Reeves in Netflix’s historical action figure fight The Harder They Fall. 

David Gyasi, star of the Amazon Prime series Carnival Row, played Bass Reeves in the 2019 direct-to-streaming film Hell on the Border, alongside once-and-future Hellboy Ron Perlman and The Paul T. Goldman Chronicles star Frank Grillo. 2013 saw DCEU regular Harry Lennix as Reeves in The Die by Dawn. Meanwhile, Amazon has been mum about a Bass Reeves biopic helmed by The Eternals director Chloe Zhao since they first announced it in 2018. Twin Territories, a separate project produced by Morgan Freeman, was ordered to series by Amazon in 2022.

Reeves’ unique place in history has also made him an easy target for sci-fi, fantasy, and speculative fiction stories. For examples of what one of America’s most iconic lawmen would have looked like fighting aliens, demons, or perceived concepts of heroism in a racially divided world, check out Legends of Tomorrow, Wynonna Earp, and HBO’s Watchmen, respectively.



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‘It’s 100% true’: Shockingly, the director ripping off a $2.4 billion phenomenon admits their ‘D-Cup, A-Bomb’ crossover is a shameless cash-in

‘It’s 100% true’: Shockingly, the director ripping off a $2.4 billion phenomenon admits their ‘D-Cup, A-Bomb’ crossover is a shameless cash-in

Whether it’s legacy sequels to classic horrors that ignore the rest of canon, reinventing beloved children’s stories as blood-soaked slashers, or having animals go on drug-induced rampages, there’s always a slew of shameless rip-offs waiting in the wings, so the only real surprise about Charles Band’s Barbenheimer is that it hasn’t released yet.

The cinematic phenomenon of the year that saw Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan’s respective cultural juggernauts combine to earn almost $2.4 billion at the box office has spawned plenty of memes and moments as it is, and the craze isn’t over by a long shot. When asked by The Hollywood Reporter is he was cashing in for the sake of trying to piggyback the Barbenheimer mania, Band was as honest as you’d hope.

Barbenheimer
Images via Warner Bros. and Universal

“It’s 100 percent true. But it’s also an opportunity to have fun with the bizarre coupling of these two movies and the combination of Barbie’s vibe and the darkness of Oppenheimer. You mix that together and you have such an opportunity for dark humor. It’s so silly, But it seems like every other feature is dark and depressing, and it’s like, God, we need a little humor going into 2024.”

As you might have guessed, the story focuses on Dr. Bambi J. Barbenheimer, a “brilliant scientist doll living in Dolltopia, a world of endless summers and beach parties,” alongside her subtly-named boyfriend Twink Dollman. Furious at the way dolls are being abused by human children, the title hero heads into the real world and decides humanity is so far beyond saving that building a nuclear device to kill them all is the only solution.

It’s undoubtedly going to suck, but the tagline of “D-Cup, A-Bomb” at least deserves a small round of applause for being so ridiculous.



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‘The ultimate edgelord movie, but I still love it’: Yep, it’s that time of year when a cult classic co-opted by crusaders enjoys its moment in the sun

‘The ultimate edgelord movie, but I still love it’: Yep, it’s that time of year when a cult classic co-opted by crusaders enjoys its moment in the sun

It’s the fifth day of November, so you already know what that means; at some point today, V for Vendetta will become one of the hottest trending topics in all of social media and popular culture.

A minor box office success at the time of its initial release after securing almost $135 million from theaters, the comic book adaptation’s above-average reviews and engrossing dystopian stylings were quickly dwarfed by the reputation is gathered after the fact.

17 years on, and you can bet both your house and bottom dollar that Hugh Weaving’s mysterious and enigmatic title hero will be swamping your timeline, with countless fans all over the world celebrating its pivotal day by rewatching the Wachowski-backed blockbuster helmed by the duo’s protege James McTeigue.

v for vendetta
via Warner Bros.

It would be easy for some folks to downplay their unabashed love for V for Vendetta in an effort to avoid being caught up in the various crusades to have co-opted its iconography, but as one Reddit user called it when the film made its inevitable annual return to the spotlight; “The ultimate edgelord movie but I still love it.”

In the United Kingdom, everyone gathers together to light big-ass fires and set of fireworks, but the tradition of revisiting V for Vendetta has become a great deal more global and internet-savvy than Guy Fawkes Night/Bonfire Night/Fireworks Night/whatever you want to call it has.

You don’t have to be an edgelord to appreciate the slick, propulsive, and action-packed thriller for its many merits, but don’t let its appropriation (and the widespread mockery that often follows) put you off, either.



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