Podcast: Andor (reprise), Spirited, & The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special

Andor, Spirited, & The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special

Greetings, programs, and welcome to a very special Awesome Friday Podcast. This week we’re covering three things: First, we’re headed back to Ferrix to revisit Andor, which might be the best Star Wars thing in a long while. Following that, we’re kicking off the holiday season with a look at Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell in AppleTV+’s new holiday musical Spirited, and then a quick trip out to Knowhere for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. This episode is jam-packed, so what are we waiting for?

After the jump, you’ll find podcast listings, streaming links for all three titles, and all of our other content.

Continue reading “Podcast: Andor (reprise), Spirited, & The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special”

Review: ‘Dune’ is a vast, beautiful film that loses sight of its emotional core

Dune

Expectation, thy name is Dune. Years in the making and then delayed for an entire year thanks to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Dune has the weight of expectations hanging over it. Director Denis Villeneuve is an accomplished visionary with a clear eye for details and world-building alike, but how can the story of Dune –a famously dense work– be adapted into a movie?

Continue reading “Review: ‘Dune’ is a vast, beautiful film that loses sight of its emotional core”

Review: ‘Army of the Dead’ is dumb, fun, and Zack Snyder’s best movie in years

ARMY OF THE DEAD

Zack Snyder has been making comic movies almost exclusively for the last 15 years, starting with 300 and most recently with this year’s release of his extended cut of Justice League. That’s not a complaint, but it is interesting to me that he has come back to zombies after having finished that run, the genre that started his career.

It is my opinion that his remake of Dawn of the Dead, penned by James Gunn and released in 2004 as his first feature, is my favourite of Snyder’s films. His return to the genre is a proposition that I found exciting, and while it’s not a perfect movie by any stretch, Army of the Dead is his best movie in ages.

Continue reading “Review: ‘Army of the Dead’ is dumb, fun, and Zack Snyder’s best movie in years”

Review: ‘Blade Runner 2049’ is as good as the original.

The original _Blade Runner_ is held up by many as the gold standard of dystopian existential science fiction films. It asks questions about the nature of humanity and what it means to truly live while at the same time painting a picture of a world that seems to have broken under the weight of more people being alive than ever before. It’s an acknowledged masterpiece –even if it took a decade or two and two different directors cuts to get to that status– and that’s a lot to live up to.

And I’m here to tell you that it does. I’m also here to tell you that you should probably go into it as cold as possible, so maybe bookmark this and come back to it after you’ve seen the film to see if you agree with me. I’m not going to say any major spoilers but regardless, this is your warning.

Continue reading “Review: ‘Blade Runner 2049’ is as good as the original.”

Tony Jaa + Scott Adkins Join Kickboxer Remake; Movie To Feature Most Boxes Kicked Ever

Tony Jaa

I haven’t blogged about this before but the seminal 1989 Jean Claude Van Damme martial arts movie (that’s a pretty apt description of all his work, really) Kickboxer is being remade –because of course it is– but on the up side they seem to be casting a lot of awesome people in it.

Continue reading “Tony Jaa + Scott Adkins Join Kickboxer Remake; Movie To Feature Most Boxes Kicked Ever”

Review: Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy

The marketing for _Guardians of the Galaxy_ has basically been omnipresent for the last few months. Hardly a day went by without a new poster or image or teaser or whatever. The reason for this is simple: this is the first real test of Marvel’s brand. Guardians, like it or not, is a lesser known property and while this film connects with the over reaching continuity of the established Marvel Cinematic Universe it doesn’t actually feature any characters that we’ve already met meaning that they can’t trade on the popularity of Iron Man or Captain America they have to rely on the corporate brand. In this world of “new things are risky let’s remake something from the 1980s” that’s kind of a big deal.

So it’s a good job they knocked it out the fucking park with this movie otherwise they’d be in trouble. Yes, it’s great and you should see it. No need to even finish reading this review. Just go. Or finish reading this review and I’ll give you a few reasons why.

Continue reading “Review: Guardians of the Galaxy”

Guardians of the Galaxy Extended Trailer

Guardians of the Galaxy

Here’s another trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy. This one is (slightly) longer and features more of the Guardians themselves rather than people talking about them plus if you don’t blink you’ll catch a glimpse of Michael Rooker as Yondu (who looks awesome) and hear a line from Lee Pace as Ronan The Accuser. Lots of characters in this movie have the name “The”. It’s a thing we’re going to have to get used to if the MCU keeps heading down the cosmic path.

Continue reading “Guardians of the Galaxy Extended Trailer”