When the film begins, an unseen apocalypse has been muddled through for an unknown amount of time, but it’s certainly taken its toll on Ejogo and everyone left that matters in her life. Secluded and surviving in her presumable childhood home, a house deep in the woods, the picture opens on Sarah saying goodbye to her father Bud (David Pendleton), a man suffering from a mysterious plague that has caused blisters to crop up on his face and body....

It’s easy to answer that question if you’re talking about the Super Mario franchise or even the birth of the character from a creation standpoint, but when you’re trying to figure out how old Mario is in the Super Mario universe and the grand Nintendo chronology…well, that’s where things get tricky. I can’t guarantee that looking into this subject will offer an answer that you’ll be satisfied with, but if you’re just interested in diving deeper into this particular rabbit hole, here’s a slightly more exhaustive attempt to answer a question that has proven to be much more complicated than you’d ever guess it would be....

It was a year and lifetime ago when the Spiral: From the Book of Saw trailer caught everyone off guard. What is this police procedural thriller starring Chris Rock and… wait a second, is that the Saw music? Yes, it was! Rock, plus Samuel L. Jackson, is starring in a reboot/spinoff of the 2000s’ most popular horror franchise: Saw. How it would connect to those gruesome bloodbaths which helped pioneer the “torture porn” subgenre of horror, was not immediately clear....

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige reveals to Variety that parallels to the pandemic are, coincidentally, planned to permeate throughout the MCU by way of “The Blip,” which was the collective term attributed to what occurred after Thanos’s universe-halving Infinity Gauntlet snap in Avengers: Infinity War and Bruce Banner/Hulk’s reversive snap—using Tony Stark’s Nano Gauntlet—in Avengers: Endgame. Feige discusses how Marvel’s pre-pandemic plans to weave the Blip and its fallout throughout the MCU was given a sad bit of serendipity by way of the ongoing real-world tragedy of the pandemic, which is currently closing in on 2 million deaths worldwide....

Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman is nothing if not subversive. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the comic’s depiction of Death. Gaiman’s Death isn’t a dour, scythe-wielding mute, but rather a vibrant, surprisingly lively lady just doing her job. When it came time to cast the ultra important role of second oldest of The Endless, Netflix’s Sandman adaptation didn’t have to look too far down the TV landscape to find a suitably joyful face....

There are no big Hulu original films of note this month. Instead there’s a whole host of original series. The TV parade starts on Nov. 5 with the release of Animaniacs season 2. Also getting a second season this month is monarchal comedy The Great on Nov. 19. The most intriguing series, however, is animated Marvel comedy Marvel’s Hit Monkey. As its name so graciously implies, this is a show about a hit monkey…as in monkey assassin....

Plus, it was a hit, which meant the “we have a new horror franchise!” signs lit up at the offices of original backer Film District. So Insidious 2 came along in 2013, with Wan and Whannell taking up camera and pen again, but it proved to be an unnecessary, overplotted, and often incoherent sequel that actually dissipated the good will of its predecessor. Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015), a prequel, was directed by Whannell himself from a streamlined script, making for a marginally better film but still something of a wheel-spinner....

The first Insidious, written by Whannell and directed by Wan, came out in 2011 and was a gigantic success (earning $97 million against a budget of less than $2 million). The pair followed it up in 2013 with Insidious: Chapter 2, but then Wan went off to do a little movie called Furious 7. With Insidious: Chapter 3 slated to go, Whannell not only wrote the movie but made it his directorial debut....

The 1973 San Francisco interview, which was the basis for the 1976 book, was conducted 50 years prior to the events of the series. Everyone has moved on, but the titular vampire calls Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian), the formerly young journalist who conducted the half-century-old interviews, to Dubai for some refinements he’s sure will present a much more nuanced story. Debuting after the final season premiere of The Walking Dead, Interview with the Vampire ushered in an Anne Rice multiverse for AMC, already adapting her The Lives of the Mayfair Witches book series, and the author’s purists are as fiercely protective as they have ever been....

But there is one very intriguing possibility, a version of Tony Stark that would fit the tone this movie appears to be going for… SUPERIOR IRON MAN Axis was Marvel’s 2014 summer comics crossover event, where, under attack from Red Onslaught (Red Skull with some of Charles Xavier’s brain grafted on), the Scarlet Witch casts a spell to “invert” Red Skull’s brain and bring Xavier’s forward. Unfortunately, the spell also inverted the morality of almost everyone there, including several Avengers, X-Men, and a special ops team of villains on a particular mission....

The superhero vampire movie Morbius is now available on Netflix. It’s an unremarkable movie (at best), but it’s gained notoriety through memes and bad reviews. But thanks to Netflix, more eyes will be on Matt Smith’s sexy dance moves and Jared Leto’s slow-motion, brushstroke-enhanced acrobatics than probably in the entirety of its disappointing theatrical run. Morbius is a Marvel Comics character who has menaced Spider-Man on the page since 1971....

Netflix’s Jupiter’s Legacy, the first product of the streaming company’s acquisition of Mark Millar’s “Millarworld” universe back in 2017, sets the stage for an epic superhero drama that looks to only intensify in subsequent seasons. The first season ends with several devious plot threads set in motion, most of them revolving around the deceitful Brainwave/Walter Sampson’s sneaky betrayal of his brother, the Utopian/Sheldon Sampson, and their superhero group the Union....

He stands alone on the rooftop waiting, always waiting, in a context that should be as familiar to moviegoers as the blinding floodlight behind him, which shines its bat-shaped insignia into perpetual darkness. His name is James Gordon and he has been here before, hat and moustache in hand, patiently anticipating that distant thunder to finally roll up in the shape of a Dark Knight. Yet, something is different about this scene, for as the lightning cracks ever closer, it becomes apparent that he awaits not one superhero but four who manifest in a flash of light....

And so Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts has sadly come to an end with its third season. While it’s a shame that we’ve only had less than a year filled with new Kipo episodes at the least got a satisfying ending. The main conflict was resolved, Kipo and friends are onto new adventures, and HMUFA is going strong. Still, we have a few lingering questions after the finale that we dug into to make sure everything was clear....

“THR reports Disney has ordered ten episodes of a streaming TV series revealing the secret origins of Captain Nemo from its classic 1954 film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Written and executive produced by James Dormer (Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands) and executive produced by Johanna Devereaux, Nautilus will follow Nemo, an ‘Indian prince robbed of his birthright and family’ as a ‘prisoner of the East India Company.’” Read more at Gizmodo Anthony Mackie is back in the stars and stripes in Captain America 4!...

“If this were a normal year — LOL — at this point, we’d actually have a pretty good sense of what the Oscar race would look like. There might even be some sure things in some categories. But this is not a normal year and that makes for an awfully weird, but very interesting awards season to come.” Read more at Thrillist. Five parrots at the Lincolnshire Wildlife Park have been removed from the main park after they learned to swear at visitors....

“This is very much a story about love,’ says Francis Lawrence. The sentiment may be surprising, coming from the director of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes—but there’s far more to this prequel than the Games you’re expecting. ‘It’s this kind of love story set in a different kind of a world in a different time,’ he adds. ‘A very intimate love story.’ He isn’t wrong.” Read more at Vanity Fair Bryce Dallas Howards speaks out on the pay gap between her and her Jurassic World co-star Chris Pratt but also explains Pratt helped get her better royalties from the franchise elsewhere....

“Despite COVID-19, Netflix had a good 2020. At the end of last year, the company passed a milestone by reaching over 200 million paid subscribers. The pandemic and the ensuing stay-at-home orders helped Netflix add a record 37 million new subscribers during the year, a 31% annual increase from 2019.” Read more at PCMag. The bolwoningen, fifty golf ball-shaped homes in Den Bosch, Netherlands, may just be the coolest alternative living homes on this planet....

“The Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) has revealed its annual Top Ten List as well as winners of its film awards which was topped by Nomadland. In addition, The Chloé Zhao American wanderlust drama was named Best Picture. Also on the list is Pixar’s Soul which was also named Best Animated Feature.” Read more at Deadline. Acclaimed poet and writer Maya Angelou is the latest addition to Mattel’s “Inspiring Women” line of Barbie dolls....

“That’s right everyone, set your phasers to cry. I know I did when I heard Levar Burton’s voice coming through my speakers as Geordi LaForge! And not just Burton, but several of The Next Generation’s core cast will be returning as well in an epic final send-off to these beloved characters. Here’s who will be returning.” Read more at The Mary Sue The director of Morbius is taking the adverse reaction to his film shockingly well....