Chad C has a triple feature hoping to take your mind off Endgame for five minutes. Do they succeed? Probably not, but you don’t know. The rare see it, stream it, skip it combo is free for your faceholes inside right now!
This column will introduce you to the most popular movies that are coming out in theaters this weekend.
What movie will you see?
Atomic Blonde
Is there anyone more badass than Charlize? Didn’t think so. Based on the graphic novel, The Coldest City, Atomic Blonde tells the story of an undercover agent who is sent to Berlin during the cold war to recover missing agents. Charlize stars as Lorraine Broughton or The Atomic Blonde, while the rest of the cast includes, James McAvoy, Eddie Marsan, John Goodman, Toby Jones, Sofia Boutella, and more. David Leitch is the director of this action flick. Leitch has directed John Wick and is directing Dead Pool 2 for 2018. Go check out Atomic Blonde in theaters.
The Emoji Movie
🙂 🙁 Don’t you want a full length animated movie starring the better version of those symbols? Well, now you got one. Lending their voices for this flick are T.J. Miller (what else is new), James Corden, Anna Faris, Maya Rudolph, Steven Wright, Patrick Stewart, Sofía Vergara, and many more. Tony Leondis is the co-writer and director this expressional flick. Leondis co-wrote and directed the 2008 animated feature, Igor. Don’t be all emo this weekend, go see The Emoji Movie. Or not.
Five years after Fox cashed in on the appeal of Aliens clashing with Predators, director Ridley Scott made it clear that he was ready to return to the science fiction world which put him on the map. He had a meeting with writer Jon Spaihts, and together they mapped out a prequel of sorts to one of the most highly regarded movies of all time.
But a more contemporary approach was not what Scott was looking for. And, in a controversial move, Fox brought in Lost‘s Damon Lindelof to add an extra outside dimension to the answers fans were looking for. The resulting film Prometheus is still debated by film goers -and the hosts of this very podcast- for what exactly it adds to the universe it was claiming to be a part of.
Join me, Jack Valley, and Johnny Moreno as we engage in what is probably the most debate heavy podcast that’s been had since I started sprinkling in the retrospective format. And then gear up, as we get ready to ride the Alien wave straight into Alien Covenant, to be reviewed the week following its release.
This column will introduce you to the most popular movies that are coming out in theaters this weekend and why you should go see them.
What movie will you see this weekend?
The Fate of the Furious
Fast 8. Furious 8. F8 of the Furious. Furiou8. Anyway, Dom is back again. However, it seems Dom may be switching sides. Dun Dun Dun. Starring in this elaborate car chase/heist flick are Vin (I am Groot) Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Charlize Theron, Jason Statham, Scott Eastwood, Kurt Russell, Michelle Rodriguez, Helen Mirren, and more. Directing Fast 8 is F. Gary Gray. Gray has directed A Man Apart, The Italian Job, Be Cool, Law Abiding Citizen, and Straight Outta Compton. It seems Gray has worked with Vin, The Rock, and Charlize before. Go see F8 this weekend.
The Lost City of Z
You’re lost. Ok Jax, relax. Based on a true story, The Lost City of Z is about a British explorer who goes missing while searching for a mysterious city in the 1920’s. Starring in this real-life action adventure tale are Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller, Tom Holland, Ian McDiarmid, and more. James Gray is the writer/director of this flick. Gray has written and directed The Yards, We Own the Night, Two Lovers, and The Immigrant. Use that GPS and don’t get lost on your way to the theater this weekend.
Well, through all the trash talk, high hopes, and broken dreams, there’s only one week left in the second year of the HFL. Next weekend will see the final weekend of box office totals, mag covers, nudity, and any other point grabbing methods our ladies have used all year. This week sees Juno Temple bare her top side in Vinyl, a Total Film cover for Charlize Theron and Emily Blunt, and the regular old box office numbers. Hit the link below for the entire spreadsheet and make any last second pleas for points we might have missed. Otherwise, sit there and take it.
Starring: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Zoe Kravitz, Riley Keough, and Nathan Jones
“I live, I die, I live again!”
Leave it up to two guys in their 70s to teach filmmakers half their age and younger how it’s done. Action films have long been the go-to for people who like to, and this is a phrase I HATE using, turn off their brain and watch. 70 year old doctor turned filmmaker George Miller first ferociously introduced us to the character of Mad Max in 1982, starring a then 23 year old Mel Gibson as the title character, who is a vengeance driven warrior. After two subsequently successful sequels, Miller relegated himself to many different genres, from the big budget star studded fantasy/comedy Witches of Eastwick to family films such as the two Babe films and the Oscar winning animated movie Happy Feet. With Miller’s kids now grown up, he brought John Seale, the 72 year old cinematographer of movies like Rain Man and The English Patient out of retirement to make a brand new sequel to his three previous thrashing action pieces. Mad Max: Fury Road, their resulting film, ended up being one of the most enjoyable and fun movie going experiences I have had this year.
Now I have a confession I should state right now. Going into this screening of Mad Max: Fury Road, I had never seen one Mad Max film. The closest I had ever come to watching a movie in the series was when my father would play Beyond Thunderdome star Tina Turner’s song We Don’t Need Another Hero while driving me to school for a week straight back in 1987. The thing is, I never had the urge to watch them, as they always seemed like cheaper, dirtier, and grungier versions of the action films I grew up with. On top of that, besides last year’s gripping film Locke, I have never been a huge fan of Hardy’s. So I walked in Mad Max: Fury Road cautiously pessimistic. But from his pulse-pounding opening chase all the way to his thrilling finale, Miller stomped all over any type of pessimism I had walking in, and I honestly feel Fury Road will more than satisfy Mad Max enthusiasts and excitingly entice newcomers alike.
Set in a post apocalyptic world, Mad Max: Fury Road doesn’t have much of a story. And believe it or not, that is a straight on compliment. Because how many times have we seen action films get bogged down in pretentious exposition while setting up action scenes that are glossed over with an over abundance of CGI? Fast & Furious series, I’m talking to you. Miller trusts his audience to connect the dots and uses each frame of his film to get us from point A to point B without taking unnecessary zigzags in between. Fury Road starts us off with a bombastically joyous chase scene which gets Max (Hardy) caught and brought before masked Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne). After lead slave/worshipper Furiosa (Theron) seems to turn against her leader, Max gets sucked into the main plot, as he is strapped to the top of a car because of his ‘blood bank,’ which I am not going to describe here. But I will say this is one of many innovative points of interest in Fury Road. Eventually, Max ends up helping Furiosa and her band of rebels, which includes ex Bay-formers girl Whiteley, who goes against the sexpot-type she played in that fighting robot filled franchise to turn up as a dirtied and pregnant character by the name of Splendid. Yes you read that right, and yes her character matches her namesake.
Hardy does a fine job of taking the reigns from Gibson without threatening the ghost of those former films. I must reiterate that I was not fully confident that I would buy him in any sort of action hero role. What works for Hardy here is that he is a part of the action without carrying any type of heroism. He is a bystander, living only to carry on the vengeance he acquired after the long ago death of his wife and child. Hardy wears this face well, and I look forward to more of his, uhhh, accidently falling into adventure stories.
With Hardy in witness mode, that leaves Theron’s Furiosa as the film’s main focus. A sure to be cos-play hit at this year’s Cons, Furiosa is a revelation of character complicity. Theron obviously worked out hard for the role as she handles herself well in the film’s action scenes, and all the people screaming anti-feminism remarks about the film’s advertising really have no idea what the hell they are talking about. Her hairless, ass kicking with a touch of womanly tenderness made for the strongest onscreen bald female character since Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley in Alien 3.
As good as Theron was, the real revelation to me was an almost unrecognizable Hoult as hilariously bizarre Dux. Hoult (Beast in the last two X-Men films) steals almost every scene he is in. As does Keough (daughter of Lisa Marie Pressley) who takes a role that could have been one note and makes it stick out in a movie which revolves around its next exciting chase. Notice none of these descriptions involve me delving into the performances or way of pulling off a complex character arc. The reason for this is because Mad Max: Fury Road is not a movie that does any form of character building whatsoever. While this would be a detriment to most films, Miller builds on this seeming lack of characterization by amping up the intensity. He intermittently points the camera toward the film’s grainy gold and brown post apocalyptic world and forces his audience to wait with baited breath for the film’s next action scene.
The very first sentence of this review might have been a little harsh. Even the completely preposterous Fast & Furious movies and widely panned yet wholly successful Transformers films have their place. What I will say is that Miller has done the impossible in creating a visually stunning and incredibly immersive action film in a mostly practical world. High-octane action is on full throttle in Mad Max: Fury Road, and I question whether you will have a better time at the movies this year.
Now if you will excuse me. I have three previous movies to watch.
Welcome to the October 26th edition of Working the Weekend with Luke here at Binge Media. Hopefully, you all enjoyed my top ten trilogy countdown (to see the full list, click HERE). But now that the list has been completed, I need to find a new way to entertain you. So I’ve come up with this. Every now and again, I’m going to bring you a celebrity showdown…a 1-on-1 matchup of two Hollywood heavyweights. I’ll give you a tale of the tape, the positives and negatives of each individual, and then I’ll pick a winner and let you either praise me or tear me a new one. Just a few that first came to me could be Pacino vs DeNiro or perhaps Van Damme vs Seagal, and you know I’m always open to suggestion. But for our first bout, I’m going to hang on to the success of Gone Girl for at least one more week and bring you a matchup of two childhood friends that have both gone on to big careers. That’s right, it could only be…………..
BEN AFFLECK vs MATT DAMON
THE TALE OF THE TAPE
42 AGE 44
60 ACTOR CREDITS 68
6 DIRECTOR CREDITS 0
5 WRITING CREDITS 3
15 PRODUCER CREDITS 15
2 ACADEMY AWARDS 1
THE EARLY ROUNDS
We won’t count that both Damon and Affleck were extras in Field of Dreams during the scene at Fenway, so I’ll go ahead and start off with the film where both gained a little fame, Damon more so than Affleck.
Damn, were you really expecting to read anything about School Ties today? And yes, that is Chris O’ Donnell next to them. If you haven’t seen it, Matt Damon plays the overall villain where the star is actually….wait for it….Brendan Fraser in a dramatic role. Process that for a moment, but Fraser plays a Jewish kid who is recruited by a prep school to play football, but is forced to hide his religion. Matt Damon finds out, tells a Jewish joke, a naked shower fight breaks out and eventually Damon is expelled. The movie actually isn’t as bad as it sounds. It’s not great by any means, but it really did put Damon on the map. Affleck is in it as well, but his role isn’t nearly as big. He’s just one of the other students with a few lines here and there. So out of the gate, I’ve gotta give the edge to Damon.
But Affleck fights back with 1993’s Dazed and Confused. He certainly didn’t have top billing here either, but he certainly showed that he can play the asshole too as hated super duper senior O’Bannion. And in case you weren’t aware, this movie also helped launch the career of Matthew McConaughey, who happens to be sitting ringside waiting for his rumored bout against Leonardo DiCaprio.
But back to the action. 1995 has rolled around and Kevin Smith has made it big with a little low-budget flick called Clerks and finally has some money to spend on Mallrats. Affleck is cast as yet another prick who attempts to steal Shannen Doherty (why would anyone want to do that) away from Jason Lee. He still isn’t a star yet, but this movie and the next in the series, Chasing Amy really get his name out there. Matt Damon hasn’t been doing a ton, but gets a decent role in Courage Under Fire with Denzel Washington and Meg Ryan. At this point, he’s definitely got the upper hand. Neither is an A-lister just yet, but they’re determined to achieve this status so they start working on writing a movie for themselves. You know what comes next.
And you know what comes next.
Good Will Hunting turned Matt Damon and Ben Affleck into full-fledged stars. Along with winning the Oscar with his pal for Best Original Screenplay, Damon was also nominated in the Best Actor category, so at this point, I’ve still got to give the edge to Matt Damon.
THE MIDDLE ROUNDS
With big fame usually comes big budgets and they both certainly took advantage. I will openly admit that I think Armageddon is a very entertaining movie, and Affleck is actually involved in the most emotional scene of the movie opposite Bruce Willis. Damon is still ahead on points here though with a nice role in Saving Private Ryan and stars in the very underrated Rounders with Edward Norton. But then come movies like All the Pretty Horses, so there’s certainly nothing positive to discuss there. I know a lot of people really thought The Talented Mr. Ripley was a good film, but I didn’t. The only points on my scorecard that Damon gets here is that he kills Jude Law, who I’ve never been a fan of anyway.
Affleck is trying so hard to be a movie star instead of an actor, but bombs like Reindeer Games (we do get a naked Charlize Theron here though) and Pearl Harbor certainly aren’t helping his case. And don’t pretend that you actually like Shakespeare in Love just to sound like you know about movies. Throw in Bounce, Forces of Nature, and Gigli and I think we’ve got our first knockdown of the fight.
But we also get some more Kevin Smith in here, including this gem from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
And I’ll be completely honest. Affleck gets a point from me for Jersey Girl. Maybe it’s because I have daughters, but I love that movie and I don’t care who knows it. If you haven’t seen it, I won’t give anything away, but I will share a great scene he has with Will Smith.
In the meantime, Matt Damon has entered the world of franchises. The Ocean’s franchise became wildly popular with Damon starring alongside heavyweights like Clooney, Pitt, and Cheadle, and I thought he did a great job holding his own. But honestly, the franchise that became his really surprised me. I never thought that Matt Damon could be an action star, but now I can’t picture anybody else as Jason Bourne. Score a few points for Damon here.
Affleck tried to get in on the action with Daredevil, and do I really need to get into that?
I really wish more people had seen Hollywoodland. If you don’t know what this is, Affleck plays George Reeves, who played the role of Superman (the TV show) back in the day. It also stars Adrien Brody and Diane Lane, but Affleck is really solid here as he shows the back and forth that Reeves had with playing the iconic character, ultimately ending with his death that was ruled a suicide but many have thought to be murder. Overall, this is a really underrated movie.
The problem for Affleck that year (2006) is that Matt Damon was part of yet another dynamic ensemble cast in The Departed. Again, Damon really holds his own with crazy talented guys like Leo and Jack.
Clearly, Affleck has always been behind in points in the acting category. So what can he do to get back in this fight?
THE LATER ROUNDS
There’s a big shot by Affleck!
And another!
And another…… and Damon is down!
The well-rounded attack from Ben Affleck has everybody asking themselves “Oh damn, did you know he could do that?” Obviously, we knew that he could write. But he’s really made a name for himself behind the camera. 2007’s Gone Baby Gone proved that he could take a script that he wrote and turn it into a really solid movie. The same can be said for The Town, which actually gets better each time I watch it. And somewhere along the line, his acting skills jumped up a notch as well, as evidenced by that same movie and in Argo, where he starred, wrote, and produced, picking up his second Oscar to boot.
Meanwhile, Matt Damon hasn’t given me anything that I’ve really been crazy about since Invictus, but that was five years ago. He looked a little out of place to me in True Grit and I will admit that I did not see Elysium, but that movie just looked awful to me. Let me know if I’m wrong. I suppose We Bought a Zoo was nice for families.
As for this year, The Monuments Men was basically a dud for Damon, but Affleck has a huge hit on his hands right now with my favorite movie of the year thus far.
In my mind, Gone Girl has put Ben Affleck ahead on points. He’s actually become a very solid actor, which is where Damon had the advantage for so many years. Throw in the fact that Affleck is doing more behind the scenes with all of the writing, directing, and producing and I’ve got to give Ben Affleck the overall edge in this battle to this point.
So what’s next for these two? Well, Matt Damon knows he’s behind a little bit these days. He does have a small role in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar and on a similar note, he will be starring in The Martian due out next year about an astronaut stranded on Mars. More Bourne movies may be on the horizon as well, if all the reports I’ve read are true.
Affleck will continue to be busy as well. Once again, he’s set to write, direct, and star in a movie, this time called Live by Night, a Prohibition Era crime drama, so I’ve got high hopes for that. And in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past year, there’s this.
I may be in the minority here, but I think he’s going to kill it as Bruce Wayne/Batman, but that’s just me. The rest of the Internet seems to think he’s going to bomb in the same way they thought Heath Ledger was going to bomb as The Joker. How’d that turn out by the way?
So now I leave it to you. This fight is far from over, as each is poised to have a long career, especially if the rumors are true that Damon will be getting behind the camera as well. I’m giving the slight edge right now to Ben Affleck but that’s just me. But where do you come out on this? Are you a Damon guy or an Affleck guy? Who’s going to deliver the knockout blow? Leave your comments below or you can always follow me and tweet @THElukenorris.
And after a week’s hiatus, the Beverly Hills, 90210 clip of the week returns. Since I mentioned Mallrats today, here’s a little more Shannen Doherty for you.
Tusk, Sons of Anarchy, Patriots Training Camp and the Batman V Superman Teaser
It’s Tuesday again. I can’t believe July is gone already. I work on a 6-day work/school week every week, and when a new month starts I can hardly believe it. Needless to say, this summer will most likely be considered a wash, but that’s not the worst thing since the schoolwork is paying off in spades. This week was relatively light on flicks and shows but in spite of that I did manage to carve a chunk out of the TV Homework Ammon gave me from our podcast last week, as well as a few other things. Kevin Smith remains one of the most interesting fanboys in pop culture. The guy changes his mind on a dime but he has a pretty direct connection to a lot of franchises and movie stars that are on the A-list, not to mention the great podcasting work he’s made his primary function these past few years. Smith was someone I used to love as a director, mainly for Clerks, Clerks II and Chasing Amy. Since he’s strayed from Jay and Silent Bob, his work has been spotty at best, but I absolutely love Red State. I think the film is a unique take on a genre, has a pretty solid cast for what it sets out to do and is entertaining in a darkly cynical way. Color me excited for Tusk, Smith’s next horror-thriller hybrid. In fact, if Smith only made horror from here on out, I think I would be alright with that. The story seems weird but the mere fact that Smith is giving Michael Parks some scenery to chew on is enough for me to be all in. September can’t come soon enough. As per the final season coming up, I decided to pick up where I left off on Sons. I had stopped somewhere at the beginning of Season 4 almost a year ago, but luckily Netflix saved my place and I started up again without any confusion. I’m two episodes from finishing Season 5, which by the time this posts I will have probably finished. Rather than give you a summation of my feelings in paragraph form, I’ll give you my bullet points:
Jax is a tool
The plot is way too complicated for a biker show. Seriously, this is a moody soap opera where guys sometimes go and beat people up for “turf”
Loyalties bounce back and forth so quickly I have no idea where a lot of the characters stand
Tig is way too ok with the shit that gets thrown at him in this season (so far)
Walton Goggins is a comedic demigod
I will be finishing this soon. I think I’m hate-watching this the same way Jim Law does, but you could do a lot worse on TV these days. This week marked the birthday of the guy I consider to be the greatest director of all time, Stanley Kubrick. If you aren’t familiar with his work (you don’t know Stanley Kubrick? WTF?!?!), just watch 2001: A Space Odyssey and get into it. Seriously, the guy made classic, challenging films with each outing. How many directors can even get one of those throughout their career? From the brutality of A Clockwork Orange to the innovation of Barry Lyndon, Kubrick was and, to me at least, always will be the most innovative filmmaker of the century. Here’s hoping Nolan rises to this level of greatness with Interstellar (something I see as a distinct possibility). Comic-Con came and went without too much fuss this year. The Marvel panel told us nothing we don’t already know and Star Wars didn’t even make their presence known. Warner Brothers, however, severely rocked my socks with the Batman V Superman teaser. I have made it known on this site in the past that Zack Snyder is a toolbag of epic proportions. He severely fucked up Man of Steel and, despite the visual greatness, shit all over Watchmen. That being said, Affleck looks incredible in the armored Batsuit. This teaser told me two things right away:
Affleck may pull this off
Snyder may be poised to give us the truest incarnation of Batman we’ve seen yet
I know this is a bold statement to make, but this 30-second teaser was very satisfying. I am still hesitant that this is going to work out well, but if it does it could be the most comic-bookey (is that a word?) flick we’ve seen yet. I love Nolan’s trilogy for it’s ability to take Batman and put him in the real world, but hopefully this gives us a different, more comic-centric approach to the character. I still don’t give a fuck about Superman though. The fact that August is already here means Patriots football is very close to being back. Pre-season, whatever, I’m in. There’s an energy with the reports coming out of camp this year that most of us fans can really feel. This time of year is always full of optimism for football fans, that’s true. Hell, social media lit up when Sammy Watkins made a smooth, one-handed catch after recovering from a trip at Bills training camp last week despite it being completely undefended. The fact that we’ve got Edelman coming off a career-high season, Darrelle Revis and Brandon Browner being added to the secondary along with the return of Patrick Chung and a healthy, hopefully non-buterfingered Steven Ridley, there’s a lot of hope this year. My fingers are firmly crossed we can contend with the Broncos on a more even playing field this time around.
Finally, I’m leaving you with the spectacular Mad Max Fury Road trailer that premiered at Comic-Con. This thing looks really great and very Road Warrior-esque. Check back this week for our next Strain commentary (sorry about last week, schedules didn’t quite permit), as well as a possible BingeMusic Cast and our daily blogs. Binge on! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akX3Is3qBpw