All posts relating to general happenings in mainstream entertainment, where it’d be movies, television, music, or other things that fall within that bubble.
As controversial as this may be, let’s not bury the lede here. Gal Gadot could be embracing AI because she’s come to the realization that she’s never been that good of an actor and believes that her performances could be enhanced by AI. Sadly, Gal also believes that it’s called AL and not AI… because AL rhymes with GAL and so, of course, she believes it in it.
Best of luck in all her future endeavors, I guess.
(And of course, it’s age-restricted… Thanks, mainstream monkeys.)
From reputable news outlet The Onion comes this report about Sony’s plans to release another shitty doodad that doesn’t do the thing it’s fucking supposed to.
Wait, what do you mean this is a parody video?
Hold on, what do you mean this video is SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD?!
I thought this was relevant.
Still is.
Oh well…
Tomorrow’s a proper vid… but not THAT vid. Tomorrow will explain why.
Someone sent me a link to something that has been causing some concern within the Doctor Who fan circles – a fan-made episode of Doctor Who that was crafted entirely with AI. It opens with David Tennant’s Doctor on the verge of regeneration and turning into a completely AI-Generated actor named John War or something like that.
I only caught glimpses of it here and there before shutting the video off and making a note to watch it later… only to discover that the video had been taken down. From what little I’ve seen, this AI thing may have done a better Doctor Who story than anything to come out of Marble Mouth Davies’ second stint in the Who chair.
If you find that response concerning, you should… and I can say that just from watching a few minutes of clip here and there.
Yeah… we might as well have THAT talk, too. Why not?
Believe me when I say that calling this “a thing” is probably the nicest thing I have to say about this. And once I knew Mike McMahan was one of the dudes behind this – he of Lower Decks fame – I had a feeling on where this was headed.
For what it’s worth, I did like Lower Decks. It took a while to grow on me, but it did, eventually… but that doesn’t necessarily mean I want another cartoon in that vein. That brand of comedy starts to wear itself thing. Small doses, I can accept. Series after series of this stuff, however? No thanks.
Oh well… we’ll see how the diehards react, point and laugh accordingly, and move on with our lives.
So a certain trailer dropped for a certain movie recently that’s coming up. A certain day of doom, apparently. I saw the trailer when I first got wind of it, which wouldn’t have been more than a day or two after it dropped. I saw it, shrugged, and moved on with my life.
However, if you want me to say something nice… that Lanterns show looks mildly interesting.
The first two teasers didn’t show you much… and that’s fine. They’re teasers; they’re supposed to tease you with something bigger, not blow their wad from the start. Nonetheless, initial reactions were mixed and people assumed the worst… and that’s without getting into potential rumors of the spoilery kind.
Then the actual trailer hits and there’s more to be excited about. There are Manhunters, there is a potential mystery, there’s Sinestro, there’s the looming specter (no pun intended) of Hal Jordan eventually being replaced by John Stewart. While the show is still largely grounded on Earth, there is promise of Green Lantern action. There needs to be. And if the show does well… maybe they lean more into the sci-fi stuff in a potential second season. Assuming they get one, of course.
So yeah… looking forward to Lanterns… Clayface, not so much… not my cup of tea, but hope it turns out well for those who are interested in this one.
From Deadline.com is an article reporting that Atari Inc. has inked a deal with Universal Pictures to develop ten of their classic video game properties into theatrical motion pictures, with the first project being a screenplay by Matt Reilly and Carl Hampe, to be produced by Entertainment 360… they don’t specific what particular IP this is adapting, but according to the article, Universal has the rights to make movies based on the following Atari properties.
Get a load of this, folks. We’ve got ASTEROIDS… we’ve got ADVENTURE… we’ve got BERZERK… we’ve got BREAKOUT… CENTIPEDE… CRYSTAL CASTLES; I can see a possible Bentley Bear franchise if that ends up being a winner… MILLIPEDE, so we already know Centipde might get a sequel… MISSILE COMMAND, which, yeah, I could see a movie out of that… PONG… yes, PONG is getting a movie… and finally YARS’ REVENGE, which might be the only one that has some basis for a possible feature film.
Now the rest of it, though… yeah, I question why things like GRAN TURISMO or CALL OF DUTY are getting movie adaptations, but at least, those are recent gaming properties that people are widely familiar with and are still being played today. But when someone tells me that they’re going to make a movie about PONG, which is just two lines and a dot bouncing around the screen… this is CollegeHumor-levels of parody we’re dealing with here.
But here’s the thing, though; is there any real, genuine interest from the movie-going audience in seeing movies based on very old, very ancient Atari arcade titles? And most of all, how do you make movies based on these things and make them interesting? These are old arcade titles with the barest minimum of substance. How do you make a movie about blasting asteroids? How do you make a movie about BREAKOUT? BERZERK… I don’t know, maybe… MISSILE COMMAND might have something to it… ADVENTURE is just fill in the blanks… YARS REVENGE has something there… but explain to me how you make a movie about PONG?
And then explain to me why anyone would want to make movies about these games, let alone watch them… and I’m not asking that in any dismissive fashion, as if to say, “Who the fuck is gonna watch this shit?” I’m genuinely curious as to why anyone believes that people would want to see movies based on these very old and simplistic Atari games that, outside of those few who still play these old Atari games… is there an audience out there that is absolutely clamoring for an Atari cinematic universe to come along and exist among all the other IPs being farmed for content fodder that is going to get a bit of a buzz, get released, and then quickly forgotten about to make way for the next big thing.
I mean, if you’re an old-school Atari fan and you’re excited about this news, I’m curious as to why… because as someone who grew up playing Atari and still plays Atari in some fashion, I have no interest in these potential films whatsoever… but then again, I must be missing something because apparently, there is an interest in making these arcade titles into movies.
So… I don’t know… we’ll see how this develops and who knows? Maybe that first movie gives us a good first impression and maybe grabs some eyeballs. And hey, if they produce a trailer worth a damn that sells me on whatever they’re doing, I’ll give it a shot… on streaming, of course. I haven’t had the urge to watch a movie in theaters since Superman.
Ten years ago, on this very day, the third Ghostbusters movie premiered at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre a week before it saw release in theaters everywhere…
Oh, no… I’m not talking about Afterlife, that came out years later.
I’m referring to the one directed by Paul Feig. The one with the all-female cast.
The divisive one.
Ten years ago, I wrote a bit on this thing shortly before this saw release and you can read that here if you’d like. But to make a long story short, I saw the trailer they put out for this thing, I thought it sucked, and I moved on with my life. It didn’t look like a good movie, the comedy bits were painfully unfunny, and there was no reason for me to waste time or money on something that I know I’m not going to like. How can I know this based on the trailer? Because the trailer is supposed to sell you the movie. If it convinces you to watch the movie, great. The trailer convinced me that I wouldn’t like this movie based on the comedy.
Then I heard the online noise because people were upset at the all-female cast and that became a blanket statement of “we don’t want men watching this thing.” Never mind that most fans were upset that they weren’t getting a third Ghostbusters movie with the original cast – which is what they wanted all these years and they somewhat got that with Afterlife. James Rolfe made a video illustrating this very point and the media nailed him hard because they thought “he didn’t want no women in Ghostbusters” or something stupid like that. Noted “alleged” comedian Patton Oswald made a scene over this without having seen the video, which showed how much of a tool he turned out to be.
And so when I heard that bit about not wanting any white men to watch, I decided, “You know what? If you don’t want me to watch, I will not watch.” Not that I needed the help – the trailer more than convinced me that this wouldn’t be worth my time – but if the people making this film do not want me to watch this film, then I won’t. And it became one of the few films on this list that I absolutely will not watch under any circumstances. Whatever curiosity I might have had or could have had for this film were easily sated with reviews from other content creators and most importantly, word of mouth from trusted folks who saw the film and flat out told me, “Yeah, this movie sucks. Go watch Bridesmaid instead.”
And then the movie bombed and the people involved blame white men for not watching the movie… you know, the same white men they wanted nothing to do with in the first place and said as much.
Ten years have passed and we’ve seen other films fall into the same trap; they feature a female protagonist, they say stupid things about not wanting male audiences, the male audiences don’t show up, the movie bombs, and they cry foul rather than admit they fucked up. Hollywood had adopted the wrestling mentality of blaming the audience for their own failings rather than admit that they’ve put out a shit product and alienated a portion of their paying audiences. Tell that audience to fuck off and they’d be more than happy to do so.
Ten years later and I still haven’t seen the movie. No real desire or incentive to do so. I did (and still do) feel bad for the cast who just wanted to make a good film and for a time, they did embrace the roles, taking some photos with sick children and things of that nature. I thought it cool that they did stuff like that and only wished that they had a better movie. Like I said back then, if they had just done a movie that was similar in tone to the original movie with the new cast, I would have been fine with that. I probably would have given it a watch on Netflix or whatever.
This thing, however? Not so much… and it wouldn’t have been that big of a deal because how many movies have I skipped out on because I’ve seen trailers and/or commercials for these things and decided it’s not for me? There’s quite a few. I lost count. And maybe some day, if it popped up on a streamer and I had nothing better to do, I’d figured… sure, why not? But since they told me flat out that they don’t want me watching their film… again, I’m more than happy to oblige if that’s how you feel about it. I’ve got plenty of other stuff I can watch or occupy my time with.
Because if you’re not going to value me as a viewer or potential customer, why should I reward you with my time and money? And unfortunately, that would be a question I find myself asking a lot of people these days. What happened to the days where humanity strived to be better? Or is that just a catchphrase we put on a T-shirt for ten bucks a pop at Walmart?
Oh well… the story continues, I suppose.
For the record, I haven’t seen Supergirl yet. I’d imagine it’ll be on streaming in a couple months or so, which is probably the most likely time I’ll catch it unless, so I can’t tell you whether the movie is good or not. I’ve mentioned my lack of enthusiasm for this thing last week and that’s about the extent of my opinion on this thing. That having been, regardless of whether you liked the film or not, you have to agree that whoever made the decision to open it on the same weekend as TOY STORY 5 needs to go home and rethink their life.
I’m not saying that to deflect any failings, but I’d imagine more people would be excited for another round with Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the gang than they would a largely untested property. And no, six years on the CW doesn’t equal box office success. The Flash on TV was a fun ride (at first) while the Flash movie was… a thing that exists.
And I can say that because I did, for some reason that escaped me, saw that movie.
Anyway, if I get a chance to watch Supergirl – at some point – I’ll post some thoughts on here. Not sure when that’s going to be, though.
So June happens to be the month in which I’ve chosen to implement a moratorium on wrestling-related material and for the most part, that’s been a success. I avoided talking about this other business that has, largely, been a chore to follow, which made it somewhat easy.
However, considering today marks the 30th anniversary of a rather significant promo that planted the seeds for one of the most successful T-shirts in the history of that business, it’d be foolish to not mention SOMETHING on this occasion.
And then you sort of come to realize that there is nothing you can say about this piece of business that has been said better than others might have. So as a compromise, I’m going to direct you to my old PPV musings of the show in question, which I have conveniently updated bits and pieces to better express my thoughts. Maybe when this thing turns 35, I’ll give it a proper musings rather than the obvious rush job these things were back in the day… assuming we make it that far.
In addition, I recently uncovered the thoughts on the promo when it turned twenty years old. They more or less sum up my thoughts on the matter and won’t take too much of your time to read. Please give these a read. Thanks.
Happy birthday, Austin 3:16.
Yes, you’re getting older.
Later.
Relevant Reading Material
WWF King Of The Ring 1996 Musings
Twenty Years Ago, The Book Of Austin 3:16 Was Forged…
I am conflicted. On the one hand, it looks like a promising flick. It hits all the right notes. And it feels like the first time that Todd Holland gets to play in an old-school, back to basics Spider-Man flick.
On the other hand, though… knowing how often the Marvel train derailed itself so many times with empty promises and lackluster returns…
I don’t know… I want to give this thing a chance because it looks like a fun time, but I’m weary of another theatrical letdown…
I don’t know, kids… we’ll see.
