The core gameplay mechanic of Knockout City is about as simple as can be: throw and catch. As in traditional dodgeball, two teams (either 3v3 or 4v4) collect balls and hurl them at each other to score points, and can catch balls to defend themselves. The big change to the actual game of dodgeball is that instead of the field of play being flat and split in two, players are free to jump, dash, and glide around multi-tiered environments, pick up randomly spawned balls, and hunt each other down arena-shooter style, but with a twist....

That’s why his ninth feature, Licorice Pizza, feels like a big gulp of fresh (if problematic) air. Set in the San Fernando Valley in 1973, and reportedly based loosely on the early life of Anderson’s friend (and American film producer) Gary Goetzman, the film is a rambling, funny, warm-hearted ode to a certain bygone time and place, yet with an undercurrent of darkness that reflects the transitions and contortions that America was going through as it whiplashed from the late countercultural ’60s to the arch-conservative early 1980s....

“When Alex Trebek began hosting Jeopardy, Ronald Reagan was in his first term, Ghostbusters was a recent box-office hit, and most Millennials hadn’t been born yet. Now, after nearly four decades, his time behind the podium is done. Trebek, a TV icon, died over the weekend from pancreatic cancer that he was diagnosed with a year and a half ago.” Read more at The Atlantic. Check out eleven memorable facts about the late TV icon and Jeopardy!...

“For every critically acclaimed box office juggernaut Marvel Studios has released, there have been just as many widely panned superhero flops. Some of them were victims of misguided expectations, some were ruined by heavy studio interference, but one movie that checks both of these boxes is Josh Trank’s FANT4STIC, also known as 2015’s Fantastic Four.” Read more at Inverse. Fandom asked everyone who they’d like to see in Spider-Man 3, and actor Vincent D’Onofrio dropped a comment… Read more at The Mary Sue....

“2018’s Aquaman was surprising in so many ways. Formerly a superhero punchline, Aquaman shocked audiences with an ambitious, balls-to-the-wall action-adventure. The film had everything: deep-sea monsters? Check. Octopus playing drums? Check. Julie Andrews voicing an ancient sea creature? Check. After Nolan’s self-serious Batman trilogy and Snyder’s humorless time helming the DC universe, Aquaman was a breath of fresh air. A colorful, silly romp that never took itself too seriously and provided enough CGI dazzle and actor charisma for a genuinely entertaining family-friendly time at the movies....

“It’s one of those movie-making factoids that seems impossible to believe: the idea George Lucas would have handed over the keys to both of his fledgling franchises to an up-and-coming screenwriter with only two previous feature film credits. And when you talk to Lawrence Kasdan in 2022, he laughs and shakes his head. Over four decades later, even he can’t believe it.” Read more at Inverse To no one’s surprise, #ReleaseBatgirl has already begun to circulate around social media....

“MONDAY AM: According to data this morning, Warner Bros.’ Elvis wins No. 1 this weekend with a $31.1M opening beating the fifth weekend of Paramount/Skydance’s Top Gun: Maverick which did $29.6M. It’s the third No. 1 opening for Warner Bros. YTD after The Batman‘s $134M and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore ($42.1M).” Read more at Deadline Christian Bale said he’s open to returning as Batman again, but only if Christopher Nolan is behind the camera....

“Good sports movies are tough to make. The most successful have to transcend the drama and excitement inherent in sports themselves; why watch a movie about basketball when you could simply watch a great basketball game? But when done right, sports movies offer more depth than the average game, illuminating not just the sport depicted, but the deeper part of human nature that makes us love watching other people play games....

“‘We met over some Indian food. We started with dessert, which is how I like to start, and we both realized we were bros.’ But Del Toro had an agenda. He was putting together his first feature film (Cronos, a vampire-inspired Mexican independent drama). After coming across Perlman’s work while researching prosthetic makeup artists, he sought out the actor for a starring role based on ‘a bunch of work that I actually thought nobody had seen,’ Perlman humbly recalls over the phone....

“We—and the convention-going community as a whole, especially our fellow artist alley peeps—hoped that things would be okay come summer, then fall, then winter. Deep down, though, I knew that the season was over for 2020. Having that many people gathered in a space for a weekend was too risky, so the question became, ‘What about 2021?’” Read more at The Mary Sue. If you botch your turkey from Whole Foods this Thanksgiving, you may be one of a thousand people eligible for a free $35 gift card....

But. What Are Tolkien’s Posthumously Published Works? Thanks to the work of Tolkien’s son Christopher Tolkien, who was his literary executor until his own death in 2020, Tolkien managed to be even more prolific after his death in 1973 than before it, racking up an impressive 35 posthumous publications. These include some of his best known works, such as The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and The Father Christmas Letters. Academic Works And Non-Fiction Letters of JRR Tolkien (1981), The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays (1983), Tolkien On Fairy-Stories (2014)and A Secret Vice: Tolkien on Invented Languages (2016)....

We meet young Emmett Till in episode three of Lovecraft Country, “Holy Ghost.” Till, referred to as “Bobo” and portrayed by Rhyan Hill, is seen using a Ouija board in Leti’s basement the night of her housewarming, alongside Diana (Jada Harris), and Gil (Scott-Heron, played by Maceo Smedley). The kids take turns asking questions, which the board answers, and when Bobo asks if he’ll have a good time on his trip, the board says no....

Throughout three seasons, we’ve watched the passengers struggle to adapt to their new reality, which has changed their relationships with their families, made them garner often-unwanted attention, and put them in difficult and dangerous situations as their return gave them prophetic visions and thoughts known as “Callings.” But that’s not all, so before things get rolling again, let’s look back at where the show left us… What Happened on Flight 828?...

Manifest Season 3 Episodes 5 and 6 It was a smart move to air these two particular episodes of Manifest back-to-back, as it brings the meth-head arc to a close in an unexpected manner and pivots to a whole new way of looking at the death dates and the callings. There were plenty of big moments in “Water Landing” and “Graveyard Spiral” that made the two-hour event worth tuning in for, and the satisfying revelations glossed over some of the flaws that, as usual, come from character motivations that lack believability because of the prophetic compulsions that act as their only explanation....

No, Mario won’t actually die anytime soon (except for the many times that we’ve accidentally killed him in video games), but the fact that Nintendo has decided to discontinue their support of so many Mario projects on the same day is certainly a bizarre way to treat one of their most beloved characters. Mario may not be dying, but Nintendo’s management of digital games (along with Sony’s recent digital distribution decisions) does raise serious questions about how we’ll be able to access new and retro Nintendo games in the future....

This is one of the many provocative images percolating in Noah Baumbach’s sweet and unexpectedly warm film about the end of a marriage, but not entirely the love it was built upon. Forty years after Robert Benton essayed the struggles of divorce with the solemnity of a war crime in Kramer vs. Kramer, Baumbach crafts a more complex, intimate, and funnier film that makes the pain of truly irreconcilable differences all the bitterer....

Marvel has just concluded their 8th show on Disney+, rounding out the Phase 4 experiment in a definitive way. While fans await the next stage of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s plans for the streaming service, it’s a great time to reflect on the tropes and trends that are beginning to emerge as Kevin Feige’s studio grapples with a slightly different medium. The need for a big bad has driven every series in the superhero genre....

But that might change with the Fantastic Four. Ever since No Way Home director Jon Watts stepped down from the project to work on Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, Feige has been hunting for a replacement. No news has been yet released regarding who will take on this highly anticipated Marvel picture, but Deadline reporter Justin Kroll indicates that Feige has high expectations for whomever he chooses. In a Twitter thread, Kroll posted news from an anonymous source that although the search is a priority for Marvel, “don’t expect it to be filled anytime soon as they are not even close to cutting down long list of candidates....

But don’t let us spoil it for you…take a look at this trailer first, and then we’ll get into the history of the TVA. The TVA was introduced in the legendary Walt Simonson Thor run back in 1986. In Thor #372, an officer from the distant future named Justice Peace showed up in the present to work with Thor in preventing a killer from unleashing a terrible outbreak. Basically, 12 Monkeys only Thor’s there, so the good guys win....

It feels worthwhile remembering this aspect of the character nowadays. After all, the most popular modern image of Spider-Man—Tom Holland’s affable nerd in the Marvel Cinematic Universe—has largely abandoned this fundamental element of the comic book character in favor of becoming the MCU’s most happy-go-lucky hall monitor. While creative liberties in adaptations are always necessary and should be encouraged, it still feels like a vaguely missed opportunity that such a great performance has been tasked over the course of three films (or six when you count all the Avengers movies Holland has appeared in) with ostensibly playing Tony Stark’s sidekick....