You might suspect that a “Whodunnit?” case built into a Hitman game would be somewhat watered down, but the truth of the matter is that Death in the Family’s murder mystery is one of the better examples of this format in video game history (and my personal favorite since the best quest in The Elder Scrolls franchise). In fact, it’s quite easy to miss vital clues and walk away with the wrong impression of who the murder actually is....
Homeland Season 6 Episode 11 Homeland season 6 is in its final movements. The season finale is only a week away, and the penultimate hour didn’t want you to forget that as it ended its 50-minute drama on a thundering cliffhanger filled with explosives, vital missed phone conversations, and every implication that a full-throated military coup is in motion with CIA badmen headed to “protect” the president-elect at gunpoint. And ironically, the most exciting thing about the episode is not in the pyrotechnics of a somewhat arbitrary cliffhanger; it’s in the tension of a president (or president-elect) sitting down with rightwing talk radio/fake news, legitimizing that type of crazy and challenging it in a conversation that would suggest the fate of the republic rests in the hands of the seedy underside of the internet....
In 1970 House of Dark Shadows flipped the vampire subgenre on its head. While certainly a B-horror in the Hammer mold, this chiller wasn’t satisfied with one bloodsucker, or even two. Instead Dark Shadows would turn nearly its whole cast into the ravenous undead, indiscriminately slaughtering beloved heroes and heroines, not caring for a second that they were also the stars of a daytime soap opera—one that was appointment TV for millions of kids across America....
We love a good anti-hero, and from Breaking Bad’s Walter White to The Sopranos’ Tony Soprano, rooting for the wrong character feels right sometimes. George R.R. Martin is no stranger to delivering TV anti-heroes, with the likes of Lena Headey’s Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones being a masterclass on how it’s done. When it comes to House of the Dragon, some call Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) the “new” Cersei, but let’s be honest, there’s only one villain we’re really rooting for here… Matt Smith’s Daemon Targaryen....
House of the Dragon Episode 2 It’s long been observed (including by me in last week’s House of the Dragon episode 1 review) that the best scenes in the Game of Thrones universe frequently feature little more than a handful of well-dressed characters talking to one another in opulent rooms. Before HBO realized that there was gold in them there Westerosi hills and upped the show’s budget to massive CGI battle levels, Game of Thrones was often content to let its characters talk things out, with George R....
Three dragons is nice. But what about 17? That’s the kind of visceral reframing of this fantasy that Ryan Condal offered to the Hall H faithful at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday. We’ve of course heard before that House of the Dragon—the new prequel series co-created by Condal and Martin—is about a different, grander time in Westeros, with the show picking up about 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones....
Now that F9 is streaming on HBO Max, cars n’ splosions fans who weren’t able to check out the penultimate entry into the Fast & Furious franchise last year are finally getting a chance to catch up with the film’s ludicrous plot and its set up for the upcoming tenth installment. But if F9 turned out to be a rather frustrating affair for a keen audience still very dedicated to the saga, it was perhaps even more so for those who tinkered away on its pricey product placement behind the scenes and who agreed to stuff RED’s Hydrogen One smartphone into proceedings....
Guiseppe Acromboldo painted human figures made out of fruits and veggies. One of Ang Lee’s best films, Eat Drink Man Woman, features lovingly shot scenes of elaborate meals. And who’s mouth hasn’t watered at the sumptuous depictions of food in a Ghibli film? Food remains a prominent part of nearly every art form. Gaming is no exception. From delicious digital delicacies like Pac-Man’s fruit to Arthur Morgan’s hearty bear stew in Red Dead Redemption 2, food has not only been lovingly portrayed in games for decades but has long served as one of the medium’s most iconic and important powerups....
Now Landon gets a shot at a horror/comedy trifecta with Freaky, in which Kathryn Newton plays a high schooler who inadvertently swaps bodies with a hulking, unstoppable serial killer called the Blissfield Butcher (Vince Vaughn) and must find a way to get back to her own body before the change becomes permanent. Landon, who co-wrote the movie with Michael Kennedy, tells Den of Geek that the film wasn’t initially what he was looking to do after finishing up his Happy Death Day duo....
But not if you’ve watched Succession. After that masterpiece of TV, Matthew MacFadyen’s Mr Darcy is officially ruined. HBO’s dark drama about the despicable media magnate Logan Roy (Brian Cox) and the damaged children he has raised who routinely stab each other in the back is terrifically entertaining television, and everyone in it is brilliant, including Matthew MacFadyen who plays Tom Wambsgans, boyfriend and latterly husband, to Shiv Roy (Sarah Snook), an awful person who demands they have an open relationship on their wedding night....
The sentiment is understandable. In fact, it was initially shared by her husband, writer-director-actor John Krasinski, who, like his wife, was skeptical about the prospect of making a follow-up, even in our modern era of shared universes. But as Blunt told us when we sat down a year (and lifetime) ago in New York’s Dolby SoHo, once Krasinski gets a new idea, it’s the damnedest thing. “I was the one who was even more steadfast about not coming back,” Blunt says....
The Loki season finale felt like the payoff that MCU fans have been waiting for: it was a massive expansion of the MCU while also rewarding those of us most steeped in the lore of the Marvel Universe. And in that, it was a triumph in more than one way: He Who Remains, the dramatically revealed big power pulling all the strings throughout the entire series, was retconned from his comics origins into an even deeper, wilder character family: the Kangs....
This is where Boba’s spinoff series, The Book of Boba Fett, picks things up. With Jabba and all of his minions dead, Boba and Fennec can now take over the Hutt’s criminal organization. “The Book of Boba Fett, a thrilling Star Wars adventure, finds legendary bounty hunter Boba Fett and mercenary Fennec Shand navigating the Galaxy’s underworld when they return to the sands of Tatooine to stake their claim on the territory once ruled by Jabba the Hutt and his crime syndicate,” reads the show’s official synopsis....
Viral clips of Sandler pulling up to random public parks and gyms to play pick-up basketball games with awestruck civilians have been circulating online for years, so it seems natural that his obsession with the game would bleed into his onscreen work. It worked brilliantly in Uncut Gems, and Hustle similarly benefits from Sandler’s understanding of the game and the culture that surrounds it. Bolstering the movie’s authenticity are the real-deal ballers involved—most of them make fleeting appearances, but their involvement alone lends the movie credibility when it comes to how it explains the ins and outs of pro ball....
The finale of Invincible season 1 was one of the most exhilarating bits of superhero storytelling in some time. The genre is no stranger to the “son must confront his evil father” plotline, but rarely has any depiction of superhero action felt so visceral or terrifying. Mark Grayson’s struggle (and ultimate failure) to stop his Viltrumite father Nolan led to nearly 20 uninterrupted minutes of super-powered carnage. Hell, Omni-Man literally held his son’s body against a train to use as a cudgel against innocent citizens!...
Like the books, the show centers on Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun), an ordinary high schooler with an extraordinary family tree. His father is Nolan Grayson a.k.a. Omni Man (J.K. Simmons), a super-strong, super-fast, extraterrestrial superhero from the planet Viltrum. Mark’s mom, Debbie (Sandra Oh), is human, which means Mark is only half Viltrumite and has been waiting since he was a child for his powers to manifest. When they finally do, he’s thrust into a new world of superheroics that he isn’t quite ready for, all while attempting to navigate the brambles of teenage life....
To understand how Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness might take a good chunk of its inspiration from the journey of Reed Richards in Marvel Comics, let’s first take stock of how Doctor Strange has been depicted in the MCU. What If…? and the Multiverse of Strange The Stephen Strange of the MCU is a distant one. In fact, his whole story thus far, whether in the main MCU or in one of its parallel dimensions in What If…?...
Believe it or not, but people didn’t always wish their favorite TV show would end after one season. In the pre-streaming “before time”, the goal of most television programs, particularly comedies, was to stick around for as long as audiences would have them. Now, as the TV globe grows more vast and viewer’s understanding of story grows more sophisticated, there’s often a desire for shows to get out while the getting is good....
Stranger Things is never shy about saluting its film inspirations (that chess set in season four’s Rainbow Room? It’s the same one that Roy and Sebastian use in Blade Runner, to give one of a billion examples). So when the Netflix show appears to quote from an extremely famous movie scene, it’s worth chewing over the potential implications. Especially when the extremely famous movie scene in question backs up a major twist some fans are predicting for Stranger Things Season 5....
Inspired by an article called “Top Guns,” written by Ehud Yonay for the May 1983 issue of California magazine, the film detailed the lives of pilots at the Navy’s elite Fighter Weapons School (known as TOPGUN) in Miramar, California. Written for the screen by Jack Epps Jr. and the late Jim Cash, the Tony Scott-directed movie starred Cruise as Lt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, a skilled pilot and natural rogue who must learn how to become part of a team if he wants to fly the dangerous missions he’s training for....
