Posts

Movie titles have gotten lazy. More recently, the trend has become to give a film a name that gives everything away before the first trailer drops. Some titles are so painstakingly obvious they may spoil the ending, while others give away a crucial plot detail without you even noticing. Either way, this way of shopping movies to customers is so ubiquitous that we could rattle off candidates for days. But just because a title qualifies as literal doesn’t always mean it tells you everything you need to know....

In 2001, 4Kids Entertainment acquired the rights to produce the English dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! for an international audience. They must have realized that they bit off more than they could chew, as the show required extensive editing in order to become broadcast-worthy. Yu-Gi-Oh! was filled with gruesome deaths that needed to be censored, which often led to ridiculous changes to the show. The Yu-Gi-Oh! television show helped to popularize the card game of the same name....

The 16-inch MacBook Pro is showing as unavailable for pickup at many Apple stores, with online orders showing delayed shipping too. That is naturally creating speculating about an imminent launch of the upcoming M1X model – which turned out to be correct! Mark Gurman spotted the issue. While there’s no one who would be happier than me to see the launch of the 2021 16-inch MacBook Pro with Apple Silicon, there is an alternative explanation for the lack of immediate availability: supply chain issues....

The Black Widow, aka Natasha Romanoff aka Natalia Romanova, is one of the Marvel Universe’s fiercest fighters and stealthiest spies. Making her comic book debut way back in 1964 in an issue of Tales of Suspense, the Black Widow was originally a femme fatale who made trouble for Iron Man and his Avengers. Over time, she became an ally, an Avenger, and even a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. As a result, Natasha held her own against gods, aliens, and otherwise enhanced human beings in battles that spanned decades....

There were some TV shows that based their entire existence on story twists. Shows like Lost and Twin Peaks kept their audience tuning in every week with shocking revelations that made them rethink the events of previous episodes. It was these mystery plots and the unraveling of the meaning behind them that enthralled audiences across the globe and turned them into fans for life. You can’t resolve every storyline in a shocking way, otherwise, the audience will grow to expect the unexpected and the twists that do appear will lose their effect....

HBO is known for producing some of the best content TV has to offer. With shows like Westworld, Silicon Valley, and Game of Thrones - they have certainly established a reputation for themselves. Likewise, HBO has also produced a number of award-winning miniseries, especially with the likes of Band of Brothers and The Pacific. The two shows are often compared to each other due to their focus on the U.S. military during WWII....

This week on Happy Hour Zac and Benjamin take a retrospective tone this week, remembering the short-lived Cards app, the passing of Steve Jobs on the tenth anniversary of his retirement as CEO, all the incredible new features in iOS 15 beta 7, and the not-so-great-deal that is the Apple News Partner Program. Sponsored by Baseus: Get a special deal on the new Baseus 10,000mAh portable Mag-Safe charger and power bank with code 9TO5MACBASE....

Aspiring writers get a chance to fix The Simpsons’ Apu problem thanks to a new contest launched by film producer and YouTube personality Adi Shankar. The venerable animated sitcom The Simpsons just made history by passing Gunsmoke to become the scripted series with the most-ever episodes. Lately however, the conversation around The Simpsons hasn’t focused on its admirable longevity, but rather on the possibility that the long-lived show has finally grown out-of-touch with the culture at large....

The underwhelming first look at Disney’s reinvention Aladdin highlights the creative problems with their current formula of live-action remakes. The first images of Guy Ritchie’s Aladdin have debuted - which come shortly after the first Aladdin trailer debuted in October - and the response has been overwhelmingly negative. Aladdin remains one of Disney’s most beloved films, so remaking it in live-action was always going to be controversial. The 1992 Aladdin animated film was the highest grossing film of its year; it brought in over $500 million worldwide and ushered in the studio’s new wave of direct-to-video sequels that would become a lucrative cash cow for 20 years....

Alan Rickman wasn’t too happy with the way Severus Snape was handled in the Harry Potter films in the early years of the franchise. The actor, who tragically died of pancreatic cancer in 2016, brilliantly played the iconic villain-turned-hero in the successful 8-film Warner Bros. franchise based on the best selling novels of the same name from author J.K. Rowling. Regarded as one of the most important characters in the lore, Snape started as a snooty, stoic and oftentimes scary professor in Hogwarts....

Through the Fire & Blood and The Book of Swords novels, author George R. R. Martin has given us more insight about the history of Westeros before the events of A Song of Ice and Fire, which inspired the highly-successful HBO television series Game of Thrones. However, the TV show was notoriously unfocused on whatever took place before Ned Stark decided to head to King’s Landing to serve as King Robert Baratheon’s Hand....

Being a superhero means that you automatically win at being the toughest person in the room, on most occasions. In Marvel and DC, being a superhero means that you’re frequently rushing toward world-ending catastrophes. All superheroes are tough, but some are tough all the time, while others tend to hang up their toughness on their time off. For this article, we’ll look at the heroes who are tough all the time versus those who can be pretty relaxed when not saving the world....

From first loves to tales from the high-school halls, there’s something magical about teen movies. Even if you aren’t a teenager, these movies remind you of your earlier years, or they might inspire you to reach out and reconnect with old friends (and loves). Whichever way you look at it, it’s a genre of cinema that’ll never go away – even if the different generations of teenagers behave differently. Hollywood understands the potential of this genre and spends millions of dollars producing new flicks that’ll pull audiences into the theater seats....

Question: is Better Call Saul really, truly, honest to goodness a better show than Breaking Bad, or are people who claim that just trying to be edgy? Well, it’s hard to say. Personally, we don’t like to take sides, especially on this matter since both shows are so great, but let’s expound on this issue. Could it be that the spin-off of an iconic saga of a TV series is actually better than the legendary show that inspired it?...

Heads were turned with the announcement of Chris Rock being attached to star and be an executive producer in the latest Saw film, that has currently been titled as The Organ Donor. Even more heads were turned with the announcement of Samuel L. Jackson to star in the film as well. With this news come lofty expectations, and the movie will need to pull something different out of its hat to stand out from the other Saw films, which never could capture the entire mainstream fanbase....

The series built up to it perfectly. Two of fan’s favorite characters standing on opposite ends of the Valley of the End. On one side there was Naruto, a genin trying to prove to his friend there was still a path for him back at Konoha. On the opposite side, there was Sasuke, an avenger determined to find a way towards power even if it cost him his life. The image is iconic in the lore of the Naruto Series....

Save $100 on Apple’s new 12.9-inch M1 iPad Pro Arriving with a 12.9-inch display and all of the flagship specs you’d expect from the iPad Pro lineup, Apple’s latest device arrives powered by the new M1 chip for the first time. Matching its Mac counterparts on performance, it also now arrives with a Thunderbolt port that’s supplemented by Wi-Fi 6 connectivity. Not to mention, the most notable upgrade this time around in the form of an all-new Liquid Retina XDR display with 1,600 nits of peak brightness and ProMotion 120Hz refresh rate....

While no one seriously expects Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger to compete with their action movie characters John Rambo and Colonel John Matrix in real life, most of us have wondered how much of the toughness the actors display on screen is for real. In this article we list some of the movie tough guys who impressed us as tough in real life and others who are only tough on screen....

Warning: SPOILERS ahead for 13 Reasons Why season 2. Graphic descriptions of sexual assault - 13 Reasons Why season 2 was never going to be an easy watch, but no one was quite ready for just how harrowing the ending was going to be. We knew an ongoing court case from the Baker family would force old wounds to be reopened, and we also knew Jessica coming to terms with her rape ordeal would be tough to see played out on screen....

Ending a movie is often a matter of cutting your losses, especially when it comes to the final lines the viewers hear. With superhero films, there’s often the added complication of planned sequels. This means that any resolution can only be temporary, and things shouldn’t change too much. Often, this means that the film uses its final moments to set up a future installment, paying things forward so to speak....