Month: December 2020

On Saturday, word broke that one of the season’s biggest new movies — Monster Hunter, in which Milla Jovovich, well, hunts monsters — was pulled from theaters in China. The reason? A line that was perceived as racist against Chinese people. Now one of its producers has released a statement, apologizing and claiming that it was not intentional.

In the statement, an unidentified producer for Constantin Films said that he “sincerely apologizes to Chinese audiences for a line of dialogue contained in an early scene of Monster Hunter. He continued:

“There was absolutely no intent to discriminate, insult or otherwise offend anyone of Chinese heritage. Constantin Film has listened to the concerns expressed by Chinese audiences and removed the line that has led to this inadvertent misunderstanding.”

The line is delivered by Asian-American rapper/actor Jin Au-Yeung, aka MC Jin, who turns to his scene partner and says, “Look at my knees. What kind of knees are these? Chinese.” It’s a riff on an old, racist playground rhyme that goes “Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees – look at these” — a line that was used to mock children of Asian descent.

Making the line’s inclusion especially inexplicable is that Monster Hunter is an international co-production between American and Chinese production houses, among others, based on a video game from the Japanese company Capcom. The movie reunites Jovovich with her Resident Evil director — and husband — Paul W.S. Anderson, and it also features T.I., Ron Perlman, and Thai martial arts legend Tony Jaa. It opened this weekend in China and it’s due for American theaters on December 25.

(Via ComicBook.com)

The 2020 election season isn’t quite over. No, we’re not talking about the outgoing president who refuses to concede, even after having his butt handed to him by dozens of courts. We’re talking about the Senate runoff in Georgia, which is set for January 5 and which might end with the Republicans — and its infamous leader Mitch McConnell — losing control of the chamber. Trump’s infamously bumbling team has been screwing that up, too; one of his lawyers actually told Republicans to boycott the election, which is…an interesting strategy. So is incumbent candidate David Perdue skipping one of his debates entirely, resulting in a noticeably empty podium.

Perdue is facing re-election against Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff, and the last time they squared off, in late October, Ossoff absolutely clobbered him, calling him a “crook” and accusing him of misleading his constituents about the severity of COVID-19. The next day Perdue — whose stiff non-response to the accusations went viral — swore he’d skip their subsequent debate. Perdue made good on that promise, but the debate still went off, only with a noticeably absent podium.

Shortly before the debate was scheduled to happen, Ossoff called his opponent out over Twitter.

And he tore into him during the debate itself. If Perdue’s plan was to allow the man who may take his job ample opportunity to attack him without a chance for him to respond, then he succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.

“David Perdue has been getting rich in office,” Ossoff told viewers, standing opposite a vacant podium. “And instead of taking public health expertise and guidance from the CDC and getting that to the people, and implementing policy, he was buying up shares and manufacturers of vaccines and medical equipment.”

Ossoff added, ““He’s not here because he’s afraid he may incriminate himself in this debate.”

The fact that Perdue skipped the debate awarded it even more attention than had he shown up. And it gave people on Twitter plenty of excuses to do some attacks of their own.

A lot of people reflected on that empty podium.

Some saw a perfect metaphor for Perdue’s reputation.

And some made sure to praise Ossoff for actually showing up.

Georgia’s other runoff race is between incumbent senator Kelly Loeffler and Democratic rival Raphael Warnock, who were set to debate after Ossoff and Perdue. To her credit, Loeffler plans to actually show up. Both Democratic candidates will have to win in order for the Senate to flip.

When Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. stepped into the ring for their exhibition bout that, somehow, resulted in a draw, it was a rather ridiculous entry into the world of exhibition boxing but at least pit two actual fighters — and two of the best of their era — against each other. While the two legendary champions going toe-to-toe was the main event, the spotlight was taken by Jake Paul, the YouTube star, knocking out Nate Robinson in the latter’s boxing debut.

That fight was everything actual boxing fans hate about these exhibitions, as it put someone who has no business being in the ring in Robinson out there against the bigger Jake Paul, who previously had a knockout win in a slightly more legitimate exhibition match in 2019. Floyd Mayweather is no stranger to a money grab, and after seeing the immense amount of attention the Jake Paul fight got, he couldn’t help himself but call up Jake’s brother and fellow YouTuber turned boxing exhibitionist, Logan Paul, to set up an even more ridiculous pay-per-view event.

Mayweather, of course, is one of the greatest fighters all time, lording over the welterweight and super welterweight divisions for a decade from 2006-2016 after a decade in the late 90s and early 2000s in which he dominated at super featherweight and lightweight. In case you aren’t familiar with boxing’s weight classes, Mayweather has never fought an actual fight at above 154 pounds, and regularly came in under that even when stepping up to fight at super welterweight — for example, when he fought Conor McGregor in their exhibition match, he weighed in at 149 pounds.

Logan Paul, like his brother, has one exhibition bout under his belt, knocking out KSI in a cruiserweight showdown in which he weighed in at 199.4 pounds, just under the limit. That means that in their last “fights” the two men who will meet on February 20 will have been a full 50 pounds apart. I have no idea how this will be sanctioned or even set up, as Paul can’t get anywhere near 154 pounds and Floyd could do nothing but eat from now until February and probably could barely touch 160.

Anyways, despite that this is apparently happening and, as is so often the case with Mayweather, the promotion for the fight is rather brilliant. They are offering a special $24.99 PPV price for the first million buys, and then tiering pricing up as the fight date comes closer to get as much money in immediately as possible.

I cannot in good conscience suggest anyone buy this fight, but that won’t stop plenty for tuning in to what I can only imagine to be a less exciting version of Mayweather-McGregor, as Floyd isn’t going to even entertain the possibility of getting caught with a big shot from the (much) bigger Paul. As such, expect lots of Mayweather slipping and jabbing and doing all the things that made him the best in the world but also frustrated fans for years who hoped for something exciting to happen in his fights but were instead treated to a defensive exhibition. That worked well when he was fighting for real titles, but not so much for an exhibition like this.

While the denizens and lawmakers of New York City have valiantly fought COVID-19, normalizing masks and social distancing and even shuttering beloved institutions, not everyone has played by the rules. One exception: Staten Island bar employee Daniel Presti, who has become a Fox News regular for repeatedly defying pandemic laws, even allowing patrons to drink and eat indoors, sans masks. He’s been arrested for the crime twice in the span of a week, and his most recent brush with the police allegedly involved him running over a deputy with his jeep.

According to New York 1, the incident happened at Mac’s Public House, where Presti is general manager, in the early hours of Sunday. Police had been staking out the joint, whose windows had been darkened to obscure the illegal activity happening inside. They observed several patrons entering through a back door, but they waited until after Presti was closing the bar, after midnight, to make their arrest.

But it didn’t go so smoothly. Presti — who had declared the bar an “autonomous zone,” free of any pandemic-related laws that might stop the spread of an already out-of-control virus, though the police obviously disagreed — made a run for it. He jumped into his jeep and, in the commotion, allegedly struck one officer, who was thrown onto the vehicle’s roof. Presti kept driving, but he was soon apprehended. The deputy has since been treated for his wounds and was discharged.

It’s a pretty wild story — but it also may not have happened.

A lawyer representing Presti disputed the story told in the police report. Whatever the case, the next day the bar manager was escorted from the local precinct and into a sheriff’s car.

The previous time Presti was arrested was on last Tuesday, when he pulled the same stunt, minus the alleged part where he tried to flee the scene and ran over a cop. The next night the streets outside were filled with “patriots,” i.e., people potentially spreading a highly contagious disease.

Though Presti’s been fêted as a hero among conservatives, others have not been so kind. One noted Staten Islander who does not appreciate Presti’s cavalier attitude amidst a global public health crisis is Pete Davidson, who on the most recent SNL started to rail on him on Weekend Update, only to wind up talking about dildos bearing his likeness instead.

Meanwhile, on the day Presti illicitly opened the inside of his bar to patrons, there were reportedly over 200,000 new COVID-19 cases in America and over 2,000 COVID-19-related deaths.

(Via NY1)

The holiday season is a time of giving and receiving, and Pete Davidson would really like you to know that, should you be in need of a last-minute gift, you can always buy your loved ones a vibrator with his face on it.

Davidson’s first appearance on this week’s Saturday Night Live found him parodying Eminem’s “Stan, changing the lyrics so it’s about threatening Santa into giving him a PlayStation 5. But he returned for “Weekend Update,” where he pitched another kind of holiday gift. Davidson was brought in to talk about a bar owner protesting COVID safety regulations in his hometown of Staten Island, but he kept getting sidetracked talking about a vibrator adorned with his face on it currently being sold on Etsy.

Davidson joked that this new story means he’s not what people think of when asked “What’s the worst thing that’s come out of Staten Island?” “Weekend Update” co-host (and fellow Staten Island native) Colin Jost said that people liked Davidson, which gave him a chance to point out that they do, just not in the “right way.”

“I don’t get to, like, host the Emmy’s like you and (Michael) Che,” Davidson said. “But I did just find out there’s an Etsy store selling Pete Davidson vibrators.

“Yeah, how weird is that? You can buy a vibrator with my face on it for $15 dollars or one without my face for $20,” Davidson continued. “I don’t even get a cut of the sales. Now I know how Chappelle feels.”

The sketch continued, but the Davidson-branded vibrators came back later, when he pointed out things you could do at home instead of drinking inside a bar in Staten Island. This time, however, the vibrators were labeled as “official.”

“I just decided it was,” Davidson said. “It’s a quality item, and it’s weirdly accurate. How did they know how white it is?”

A quick look at the listings for such items on Etsy reveals that there are indeed various items for sale at that price, and many predate the airing of this SNL sketch. So either the show has done some pretty substantial legwork to get these out there so they can make these jokes, or Davidson has some very enthusiastic fans. I think it’s safe to say, however, that the latter is much more likely.

Zion Williamson is one of those guys that every time you look at him on a physical level you can’t believe he’s real. He’s insanely fast, can jump out of the gym, and has a level of powerful athleticism that few possess. So when he goes up against guys, even in the NBA, he’s usually the one dominating them, not the other way around.

That was until he came in for group practices with the Pelicans and discovered just how incredibly strong his new teammate Steven Adams is. Adams does not let other bigs dominate him. He uses a mix of strength and savviness to force anyone going up against him to work for every basket and fight through every screen. It’s like going up against a moving brick wall.

On Sunday, following practice, Williamson spoke to the media and spoke about how absurdly strong Adams is.

“I thought I was strong, Seeing it up close, on the same team now, and it’s crazy. Steven is really strong and he’s a great basketball player”

It’s funny to hear Williamson speaking about how strong Adams is because it’s not exactly a secret in the NBA. Everyone knows how powerful he is, but it’s also one of those experiences where you don’t really understand it until you go up against him — Jimmy Butler famously discussed how he thought he was going to die when he ran into an Adams screen once. It’s one thing to see video of a guy like Adams shoving someone off the block, but it’s another to be the one being shoved. Especially when you’re a guy like Williamson that is so used to dominating everyone he goes up against.

It’s safe to say that Williamson is happy to have Adams playing with him, not against him, this season.

Aubrey Plaza is currently doing publicity for two projects at once, as she promotes the Hulu holiday comedy Happiest Season as well as another film, Black Bear. And it seems, as busy as she is, she’s heard all the buzz from fans about her role in the former and that many wished her character got a different fate from the writers.

The movie, which stars Mackenzie Davis and Kristen Stewart as a couple headed home for the holidays, also features Plaza in a supporting role. Spoilers incoming if you haven’t seen it yet, but the film is one of the rare holiday movies to feature a homosexual relationship front and center, though some fans think the wrong couple stays together at the end.

And on Thursday’s appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Plaza was asked about the romance in Happiest Season and specifically how she wanted the movie to end. In the film, Plaza plays Riley, an ex of Abby (Davis) who runs into her and Harper (Stewart) several times in the film. Many people who watched the movie thought that Riley and Harper should end up together, but that’s not how the film plays out. Which has had a lot of people tweeting about the pairing in the days since the film started streaming.

“Do you have a message for the fans who think you should have ended up with Kristen Stewart?” Colbert asked around the 1:30 mark of the video. Plaza smiled and admitted that she’s with them.

“Look, I wanted it too, okay? I’m not gonna lie. I wanted it too. I wanted it very badly,” Plaza said. “But I didn’t write the thing and I didn’t direct the thing. I showed up, did my job, and got out of there. There are some things you just don’t have control over.”

Still, Plaza said she’s not convinced all is lost for her character.

“I’m not giving up hope for Riley,” she said. “I think she’s got a bright future ahead.”

It’s unclear if she’s talking about a sequel or a standalone film where Riley finds love, or maybe it’s just wishful thinking.

But there are plenty of people interested in a retcon, or at the very least more satisfying conclusion for one of the few truly likable characters from the holiday film.

When Green Book won the Best Picture Oscar two years ago, Spike Lee — whose BlacKkKlansman was also up for the prize — tried to storm out of the Dolby Theatre in disgust, only to be told he had to return to his seat. It was perhaps the most public and ostentatious form of criticism the film received, having been chastised in some circles for its retrograde white savior narrative. But there’s one person who is definitely pro-Green Book: star Viggo Mortensen.

In a new interview with The Independent, the erstwhile Aragorn — whose performance was Oscar-nominated, though co-star Mahershala Ali did win his second Best Supporting Actor trophy — reflected grimly on the film’s violently split reputation. “It’s become a cliché to say, ‘Is this movie going to be the Green Book of this year?’” he said. “Green Book has become a pejorative.”

He continued:

“Much of the criticism that was levelled at that movie was not only unreasonable, but it was inaccurate, mendacious, and irresponsible … It’s based on a load of bulls*** and an axe to grind and little else. Does it affect what I’m doing, or how people perceive me as an actor? Maybe it does. But I can’t really do anything about that.”

Mortensen didn’t go into details about how calling out a film that features a white character “teaching” a black character how to eat fried chicken could be considered “inaccurate, mendacious, and irresponsible.” He also could have argued that its instant classic pizza-sandwich scene does atone for some of its more questionable aspects. Alas.

The acclaimed actor — whose directorial debut, Falling, in which he plays a gay man dealing with his conservative father (Lance Henriksen), just opened in the UK — has sometimes been a bit more critical of past work. In 2014, he semi-infamously said he preferred The Fellowship of the Rings to the other LOtR films, saying that with The Two Towers the series “already started ballooning, for my taste, and then by the third one, there were a lot of special effects. It was grandiose, and all that, but whatever was subtle, in the first movie, gradually got lost in the second and third.” A handful of years later he was a bit more circumspect:

“I don’t really want to get into it … but over the years certain things that I’ve said have been taken out of context in certain ways that were unfortunate. I’ve tried to be honest when someone is asking me which movie I prefer. My preference is certain scenes that I remember and that’s natural, but the overall experience was fabulous, unforgettable, instructive. The obvious benefit is that the popularity of the trilogy around the world opened doors for us. Dave Cronenberg wouldn’t have been permitted to cast me in A History of Violence had it not been for the popularity of the trilogy, for example.”

(Via The Independent)

The New York Jets entered Sunday at 0-11 on the season, a game ahead of the 1-10 Jacksonville Jaguars for the first overall pick and, presumptively, the right to select Clemson star quarterback Trevor Lawrence in next April’s NFL Draft.

Both teams found themselves in the lead at various points on Sunday, as the two fanbases fretted over the possibility of getting a win and ruining their draft position. Now, the players on the field of course don’t care about where they’re drafting next year, but fans surely do and for the Jets they found themselves leading by four points late in the game against the Raiders.

Las Vegasmarched down the field and had a 4th-and-3 opportunity inside the 10, but failed to convert on a second attempt after offsetting holding penalties wiped away a touchdown initially. However, with just over 90 seconds to play, Las Vegas had two timeouts remaining and were able to force a punt, getting the ball back with just over 30 seconds to play. After moving the ball into Jets territory, Vegas needed a minor miracle to escape the ignominy of being the first team to lose to New York this season, and got that in the form of a bomb from Derek Carr to rookie speedster Henry Ruggs III.

It is an incredibly Jets finish to the game, as New York somehow failed to put any safety help over the top on the outside of the field, instead leaving room for Ruggs to go one-on-one and, with his incredibly sub-4.3 speed, that’s a losing proposition for most defensive backs in the league.

Jets fans are thrilled by the result, as they maintain a stranglehold on the top spot in next year’s draft, and as such the right to take Lawrence or Justin Fields or whatever player they desire. Jaguars fans, meanwhile, not only saw their hopes for being tied for that top spot taken away but find themselves in overtime in Minnesota with a chance of moving two games out of that top pick and, likely, locking themselves into second at best.

Keeping his “Get Twisted Sundays” series alive for one last week, Tobe Nwigwe recruited D Smoke for their new collaboration, “Headshots.” Just like his other singles from the past weeks, Tobe delivers an impressive visual for the track. It begins with Tobe laying on the ground beside a few dancers. Shortly after he resorts to the seashore with a woman beside him before the visual transitions to show D Smoke rapping his verse in the water while fully-clothed. As the video comes to an end, the two rappers reunite as they sing the final lines of the song.

The track arrives ahead of Tobe’s Cincoriginals project which the Houston rapper will drop at the end of the week on December 13. It will be his second project of the year following The Pandemic Project which he shared in August. Cincoriginals is led by “Bozos” and “Father Figure” and flaunts guest appearances from EarthGang, Duckwrth, Big K.R.I.T., Royce Da 5’9,” Black Thought, D Smoke, Bun B, Trae Tha Truth, and more.

As for D Smoke, the video arrives after the Inglewood native landed a Grammy nomination in the Best Rap Album category for his Black Habits debut. He joins Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist’s Alfredo, Nas’ King’s Disease, and Jay Electronica’s A Written Testimony.

You can watch the “Headshots” video above.

Cincoriginals is out on 12/13 via Tobe Nwigwe. Pre-order it here.