This week’s show is short on big blockbusters when it comes to what’s hitting theaters, but long on news from all around the entertainment world. We’ll be touching on a few movies coming to theaters this week, but frankly, outside of the seemingly predictable but entertaining sci-fi flick Life, there’s not much to crow about here. In other words, if you haven’t yet seen Kong: Skull Island or Get Out, now’s a good time to check them out. It’s helpful that Hollywood gives us these makeup weeks, isn’t it?
There’s plenty to discuss when it comes to what’s in the pipeline, however, including the ceaseless news about Warner’s Justice League movie, which has everything in the world going for it except a talented director. OK, that was below the belt, but let’s face it: If Zack Snyder was as good at storyline and character building as he is at creating fancy suits and superhero weaponry, Batman v Superman wouldn’t have sucked so hard. Sorry, we call ’em like we see ’em here, folks. In any case, the Justice League film put out some new posters this week, as well as a “trailer teaser,” which isn’t a teaser for the movie, but a teaser for the trailer for the movie. Got that? The big Justice League trailer comes out Saturday, and we’re still intrigued to see how things are looking.
Speaking of Batman v Superman sucking (except for the first hour before things unraveled, which we actually quite enjoyed), uber-producer Brett Ratner, who executive produced the film, called out aggregate review site and aide to our show Rotten Tomatoes this week, calling it “the destruction of our business.” Now, we don’t want to go off on a rant here, but isn’t that exactly what somebody who makes mindless blockbusters with nothing compelling to write home about would say? Of course, such mega-producers hate Rotten Tomatoes — it’s the only thing that keeps them honest. Before RT, movie studios could gussy up films like BvS, which did look pretty incredible in the trailers, so that we’d all have to dig through reviews (and spoilers) or be completely unaware of the fact that we were about to see a mindless piece of superhero candy layered in dialogue on par with a 7th-grade literature course. Sorry, Brett, but RT is a dear friend to moviegoers everywhere, and it isn’t going anywhere.
Ratner went on to express his respect for reviewers, but said that the site’s format of putting scores on movies isn’t fair, and that it “put a cloud” over his superhero epic. It reminds us a little of a certain president of a certain country who only likes polls if they’re in his favor, and calls the rest of them fake. It’s interesting that Disney’s Marvel Studios hasn’t made any such outcries. RT’s Jeff Voris said it best, however: “At Rotten Tomatoes, we completely agree that film criticism is valuable and important, and we’re making it easier than it has ever been for fans to access potentially hundreds of professional reviews for a given film or TV show in one place.” Well said, Mr. Voris.
But enough movie politics — we got some pretty cool news about Deadpool 2 this week. While it was previously rumored that Kyle Chandler was in line for the role of Deadpool’s ultraserious sidekick, Cable, this week we got a more intriguing name who’s reportedly in play. The always engaging Michael Shannon is rumored to be the top name on the list to play Deadpool’s comedic foil — and we couldn’t be happier. If Shannon does indeed take the role, this movie could be really picking up steam.
In the land of TV, we got a first look at Noah Hawley’s third season of Fargo this week, and it looks just as quirky, violent, and intriguing as ever. We’ll discuss the latest news, including the sharp cast that includes Ewan McGregor and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
And that’s not all! We’ll also be discussing new Han Solo news (including news about how he got his name), a new Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 poster, Sony’s Black Cat/Silver Sable Spider-Man spinoff, a Death Note teaser, and much more! So join us live today at 2 p.m. PT, or take our podcast along by subscribing via one of the links above!
