Pop Culture News, Reviews, and Opinions
Greetings programs! it’s that time of the week: Awesome Friday, on a Sunday. On this weeks episode of the podcast we’re taking on two new theatrical releases: Candyman, from director Nia DaCosta and Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings from director Destin Daniel Cretton.
It’s ok, folks; our long national nightmare is over. Marvel’s latest film is out, and we can all stop holding our breath because it’s pretty great. I know there are a ton of you out there waiting to see this, and you want to go in as blind as possible –and that’s honestly a good idea!– so if you want to bookmark this and come back later, here are the Coles Notes: it’s good! It has some great laughs! It has some absolutely dope fight scenes! Simu Liu and Awkwafina are great together! I think you’re going to like it!
Greetings programs, and welcome to episode five of the Awesome Friday Movie Podcast!
Continue reading “Awesome Friday Movie Podcast: ‘Nine Days’ & ‘Marvel’s What If…’”
Here’s a true story for you. When I was young, I collected comics. Not that uncommon, to be sure, especially among kids in the late 80s and early 90s who had heard stories about the adults who paid off their homes by hanging on to comics and baseball cards and other collectables. So I didn’t just collect comics; I collected comics.
I loved many characters and series, but the one I enjoyed most –the one that I was buying when no one else I know was– was a series by Marvel called “What if…?”, in which a toga-clad all-seeing cosmic being related stories of the Marvel universe I knew and loved but with a single change. Imagine the butterfly effect at work: a butterfly flaps its wings in China, you get rain in Stanley Park; Peggy Carter doesn’t go up to the observation room as Steve Rogers is headed toward the experiment that would make him Captain America, and instead, we end up with Captain Carter. I loved it. I still do. And now they’ve made an animated series out of it.
Matt loves a list way more than I do, not through any sense of my own hatred of them, but more than I find it hard to find the time or energy to rate art against itself. But Matt’s ranking of the Marvel movies was too interesting to resist texting him my own (very different list), which he then encouraged me to put up as a companion post. So here it is!
Please remember that A) lists aren’t facts, art is subjective and B) my value starts and stops at “is it creative/fun?” these days, so feel free to disagree. We’re both right.
Anyway, here’s my list of Marvels.
Continue reading “The Films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Ranked, Simon’s Edition”
Yup, you read the headline right. We’re podcasting again, and we have a new episode for you!
Continue reading “Awesome Friday Movie Podcast Episode 1: ‘Black Widow’ & ‘Loki’”
Loki, Marvel’s latest Disney+ television series ended last night with a number of surprises, but perhaps the most surprising thing is that it was a season finale –cliffhanger and all– rather than a the end of a self contained series.
There are a few big revelations, so let’s talk about them and what they might mean and a few thoughts I have on where things might go. Yes, this article will be absolutely riddled with spoilers (and assumes you’ve watched the series).
Well, here’s a thing that I haven’t done in quite a while. The last time I wrote out a full ranking of the films in the MCU there were only 14 entries in the franchise. Only. Now, there are 24, plus the three limited series on Disney+, and if that doesn’t sound like a lot? There are ten movies and ten series on deck in the next two years.
If you had any doubts about the Marvel money train slowing down? Think again!
For the purposes of this list I am only looking at the films, and thinking back on how they all work (or not). This list is obviously my opinion, but feel free to agree or disagree with me here or on the social medias.
Without any further ado, here are all the Marvel films ranked from worst to first, according to Matthew.
Continue reading “The Films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Ranked, Black Widow Edition”
Marvel Studios has become an unstoppable cultural behemoth. Under normal circumstances, their films routinely make a billion dollars at the box office, the kind of money that every other studio on the planet has been chasing ever since the 2012’s The Avengers proved that the interconnected universe of films is a thing that could work.
It’s a shame that these aren’t normal circumstances then, because with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic pushing Black Widow –the film so many fans have been waiting for for years– into a hybrid release, it probably won’t make a billion dollars at the box office. To be clear: that’s a shame because it’s excellent.
Continue reading “Review: ‘Black Widow’ is a great, character-driven action-adventure”
Marvel’s next film has a new trailer! Shang-Chi is the highly anticipated martial arts film Disney and Marvel have on deck for September, and it looks great. It looks like a martial arts film from Marvel and not a Marvel martial arts film (so far), if that makes sense.
Fair warning, though, this trailer looks like it gives away a significant portion of the plot, so if you like to go into these things blind, this is your cue not to read.
How do you follow in the footsteps of a giant? How do you live with the sins of your past? These are two of the questions at the heart of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the new series on Disney+ that follows Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan, reprising their roles as Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes, respectively.
This week WandaVision comes to a close with a nearly hour-long episode, fittingly titled “The Series Finale”. This episode will bring the story to a close (mostly, this is Marvel we’re talking about), but is it successful? There’s only one way to find out.
Heads up, I wrote the recap a little differently this week, with a section dedicated to each character. It was definitely easier to write, and I hope it’s easier to read.
This week is the penultimate episode of WandaVision, and at a solid 10 minutes longer than the previous episodes, there is a whole lot of plot to get through and a whole lot of loose threads left for the finale to tie up. Let’s get right to it!
Continue reading “Recap & Review: ‘WandaVision’ Episode 8 dives into Wanda’s personal history”
We’re in the home stretch with WandaVision and the pace is starting to pick up. There’s a lot to unpack this week so let’s get right to it.
Continue reading “Recap & Review: ‘WandaVision’ Episode 7: A villain revealed!”
Last week ended with the appearance of Wanda’s brother Pietro, but now played by actor Evan Peters, who played a version of the character featured in the Fox X-Men movies. It was a hell of a twist, and this week starts to deal with that. A little bit.
Continue reading “Recap & Review: ‘WandaVision’ Episode 6: Sibling shenanigans and raising stakes”
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