Month: July 2021

As part of their ongoing publicity stunt to distract from the January 6 commission, the Republican quartet of Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Louie Gohmert, and Paul Gosar have been accused of trespassing after storming a Washington, D.C. jail on Thursday with a camera crew in tow. The members of Congress set out to “expose” the conditions of prisoners who were arrested for the assault on the U.S. Capitol building following a Donald Trump rally, but they never made it past the front entrance where a guard quickly shut them down.

Via Mediaite:

Footage of the morning incident showed Gohmert and Greene being intercepted by a guard when they attempted to enter the building, telling them, “You right now are obstructing the entrance into this facility. This is the way people enter.”

Greene protested that they were not there to obstruct the entrance. “Right now, that’s what you’re doing,” the guard replied as she departed to find a supervisor.

After being denied entry, the quartet turned to the Right Side Broadcast Network camera crew accompanying them and began to criticize the facility.

“If that attitude is any indication of how they’re treating their prisoners inside, I have great concerns,” Greene said. After being escorted outside, Gohmert proclaimed that they’re in “totalitarian, Marxist territory here.”

The incident at the D.C. prison is now the quartet’s second publicity stunt that has been thwarted in the past 48 hours. On Tuesday, the Republican politicians attempted to hold a press conference outside the Department of Justice to counteract the Jan. 6 commission hearing featuring Capitol Police testimony. However, the presser was quickly abandoned after protestors wouldn’t stop whistling and asking Gaetz, “Are you a pedophile?”

(Via Mediaite)

Maybe it’s unfair to compare Suicide Squad and The Suicide Squad. They’re two different movies from two different directors, and only one has a shark. Not just any shark, either, but King Shark. Of course The Suicide Squad is getting good reviews with King Shark in it. But I’m not sure anyone expected it to have a 99 percent Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising its cast, humor, and gleeful violence. It’s actually the DC Extended Universe’s top-rated movie on the review aggregation website, while Suicide Squad, the one starring Jared Leto, is at the bottom with 26 percent.

Director David Ayer has long felt that 2016’s (Oscar winning!) Suicide Squad was a victim of reshoots and that the intended cut is “an amazing movie” that “just scared the sh*t out of the executives.” On Thursday, a day after The Suicide Squad review embargo lifted, he compiled all his thoughts into a lengthy note on Twitter.

“I put my life into Suicide Squad,” Ayer wrote. “I made something amazing. My cut is intricate and emotional journey with some bad people who are shit on and discarded (a theme that resonates in my soul). The studio cut is not my movie. Read that again. And my cut is not the 10 week director’s cut — it’s a fully mature edit by Lee Smith standing on the incredible work by John Gilroy. It’s all Steven Price’s brilliant score, with not a single radio song in the whole thing. It has traditional character arcs, amazing performances, a solid third-act resolution. A handful of people have seen it.”

Ayer added that he’s never fully told his side of the story and never will. Why? “I’m old school like that. So I kept my mouth shut and took the tsunami of sometimes shocking personal criticism,” he wrote. Ayer finished by praising The Suicide Squad director James Gunn and that he supports Warner Bros. and he’s thrilled “the franchise is getting the legs it needs… James’ brilliant work will be the miracles of miracles. I appreciate your patience. I will no longer speak publicly on the matter.” The top reply:

You can read the entire note below.

While it might not be his most iconic comic book role, there’s no denying that seeing J.K. Simmons portrayal of Commissioner Gordon in Justice League left DC fans wanting even more. Luckily for us, it seems we might be getting just that. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Simmons and Warner Brothers are currently negotiating the actor’s return to the iconic role, and the DC universe, in the upcoming Batgirl film.

This news follows last week’s announcement that In The Heights actress Leslie Grace had been cast as the film’s titular hero, Batgirl, who you might also know as Barbara Gordon or — wait for it — Commissioner Gordon’s daughter. While the film’s plot is being kept under wraps, the father-daughter combo is incredibly important to the Batman universe at large, and their arcs frequently involve one another’s involvement, making Simmons’ reprisal of Commissioner Gordon all the more important. The great news? It seems pretty important to Simmons, too.

According to Simmons in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, he previously agreed to play the role of Gordon in three DCCU movies, and is still hopeful “there’s more of that in the future.” As of right now, the actor is sitting at just one with 2017’s Justice League, meaning we’ll hopefully be getting a couple more films featuring the lovable, gruff grump.

As of right now, there is no set release date for Batgirl, though the rapidly growing cast can only mean filming is just around the corner. In addition to Simmons and Grace, directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah are attached to the film as well as Birds of Prey and the upcoming The Flash script writer Christina Hodson. If all goes well, we’ll hopefully see Batgirl in theaters and on HBO Max sometime next year.

When Outer Wilds came out in 2019 it was a game that many people considered revolutionary. A game about exploring and learning as much information as possible before the end of the universe occurs sounds morbid, and in a lot of ways it is, but the mystery of the game is what pushed players forward. Almost everyone who played Outer Wilds had high praise for it and many have called it not just a great video game, but one of the best ever made.

However, the game of Outer Wilds was extremely self-contained with an ending that didn’t leave much room for elaboration. That’s why it was a bit of a surprise when on Thursday it was announced that the game would be receiving an expansion. Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye will release in September and it will be the only expansion the game receives. It’s time to go back and explore the universe one more time.

This creates so many questions. Does this mean there will be more worlds to explore? More story elements? Is it setting up for Outer Wilds 2, which got teased back at E3 with a cheeky trailer that had no actual info other than it was in development? Whatever the case, with a September release date, we won’t have to wait too long for it to come out. We’ll find out more when we finally get our hands on it, but for now, we can only speculate about what is going to be entering the Outer Wilds universe with this expansion.

FBoy Island: Season 1 (HBO Max series) — Hoo boy this show looks like one hot mess, and that might be exactly what you need during this slightly disastrous summer. Escape to a land where a dozen self-proclaimed “FBoys” compete against a dozen self-proclaimed “Nice Guys” for the affections of three ladies. Nikki Glaser hosts, and the show aims to answer the ultimate social experiment’s question, according to the synopsis: “Can FBoys truly reform or do Nice Guys always finish last?” (Well, one of the FBoys crushes a mango with his bicep in the show’s trailer, so this is entertainment.)

The Wine Show: Season 3 (Sundance/Acorn TV series) — Who doesn’t want to see a bunch of dashing and distinguished gentlemen — Matthew Goode, Matthew Rhys and James Purefoy — travel across Portugal to unearth the region’s best wine? There’s also an exploration of sparkling wine and other countries involved, including Thailand and Germany, and eventually there’s New York City, along with wine, wine, and more wine.

Resort To Love (Netflix film) — Christina Milian stars as a pop star who’s hired for her ex-fiancé’s wedding, which obviously sounds like a total disaster. She, of course, can’t do jack about the situation due to her current music-career meltdown. And she’s in a very precarious state, personally, while aiming not to fall back in love with her ex. Who will be getting married in this movie, exactly? We’ll see how predictable this gets.

Transformers: War for Cybertron: Kingdom: Season 1 (Netflix series) — The Autobots and Decepticons must confront rival Cybertronians that have been spawned by their conflict. There are Predacons, too, and a Golden Disk, and Megatron might now hold a distinct advantage in his rivalry against Optimus Prime. Robot drama!

Behind The Music: Season 1 (Paramount+ series) — This revival brings back the Emmy-nominated docuseries that was once so popular on VH1 and will not be updated for a new generation. Of course, one should expect the older generations of music to be showcased here because, let’s face it, music can be considered ageless. The profiled artists this season include Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, LL Cool J, and Huey Lewis, and one can expect plenty of “vault” episodes that have bene remastered and updated with fresh interviews. MTV Entertainment co-produces this series, which will stream only on Paramount+.

Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story: Season 1 (Peacock series) — In addition to Dr. Death as dramatized (and starring Joshua Jackson), this docuseries dives into just the facts as doctors attempt to stop Dr. Christopher Duntsch, the murderous surgeon.

Ultra City Smiths: Season 1 (AMC+ series) — Fans of Robot Chicken will undoubtedly want to check out this stop-motion animated selection from Stoopid Buddy Stoodios and showrunner Steve Conrad. Expect very adult-oriented humor and the voices of Kristen Bell, Dax Shepard, Alia Shawkat, Tim Meadows, John C. Reilly, Bebe Neuwirth, Jason Mantzoukas, and Damon Herriman.

Jellystone!: Season 1 (HBO Max series) — Rustle up the family for this treat of a show featuring the residents of Jellystone, including Yogi Bear, Cindy Bear, Huckleberry Hound, and all of their joyous pandemonium.

Earlier today, I wrote about how rappers in 2021 are breaking out of their comfort zones and trying new things, unconcerned with fitting archetypes or remaining stuck with one consistent sound like rappers of the past. Lil Yachty’s new song, “Love Music,” offers a perfect example. Rather than relying on the bass-heavy, bombastic trap that he’s been kicking around the last couple of years or even reverting to his early cartoon-trap styles, this song sees him going soft-rock like it’s 2005 all over again.

Naturally, the video is accompanied by a colorful video full of fluffy cotton candy clouds and six-foot sunflowers, which surround Yachty and his leading lady as they hold hands, have a picnic with Baskin Robbins, and Yachty turns into a real-life heart eyes emoji. The cutesy aesthetic is a sharp contrast to Yachty’s most recent work with the grimy grifters of the Detroit rap scene on Michigan Boy Boat, but right in line with the playful image he cultivated early in his career and still maintains with Reece’s Puffs raps and movies based on Uno.

“Love Music” is also part of a general shift in the landscape toward the sounds of the 2000s — namely pop-punk, which pervades new and upcoming releases from the likes of MGK, Willow Smith, and Young Thug. Once again, Yachty’s playing the part of trendsetter, providing the poppier counterpoint to the aggressive (but still fun) music being made by his contemporaries.

Watch Lil Yachty’s “Love Music” video above.

Gymnatics have been a big topic of interest at the 2020 Olympics for a number of reasons, and a huge event, the women’s all-around final, goes down tonight at 8 p.m. In the US, that’s airing on NBC, and now Swift has given the network an assist by doing a new ad for the broadcast.

Over footage of gymnasts training and competing, Swift says in the minute-long spot, “Life can surprise you. It can humble you. It can test you. It can inspire you. They didn’t expect this to be the story, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t ready for the spotlight. They’ve worked for this. They’ve dreamed about this. They belong here. So don’t be surprised as the story takes flight from here, in the women’s all-around in Tokyo.” The ad is also scored by an instrumental version of her Evermore title track.

Meanwhile, Justin Bieber recently offered a message of support to Simone Biles, who will not be participating in tonight’s competition after withdrawing from the event. Bieber wrote, “Nobody will ever understand the pressures you face! I know we don’t know each other but I’m so proud of the decision to withdraw. It’s as simple as — what does it mean to gain the whole world but forfeit your soul. Sometimes our no’s are more powerful than our yes’s. When what you normally love starts to steal your joy it’s important we take a step back to evaluate why. […] So proud of you @simonebiles.”

The Los Angeles Lakers are among the most active teams (that we know of) on the trade market hours before the 2021 NBA Draft. The Lakers have significant roster upgrades they would like to make around LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and with just the mid-level exception available to them in free agency and the 22nd overall pick on Thursday night, their only real options for a significant addition is through the trade market.

There’s significant buzz that Buddy Hield is a top target of the Lakers, who have reportedly put the No. 22 pick, Montrezl Harrell, and either Kyle Kuzma or Kentavious Caldwell-Pope on the table in hopes of landing the sharpshooting two-guard from Sacramento. However, the Harrell portion of that trade could be an issue, as he would have to agree to pick up his player option and forego free agency to play a year with the Kings. There’s reason to believe he might be willing to do so, as the Kings can offer him a far more significant role than he had in L.A., and his market is likely not very high this offseason due to a down year in 2020-21, but it’s certainly not a guarantee.

Without Harrell involved, the Kings might not be interested and L.A. would need to look elsewhere to offload Kuzma as they have been reportedly trying to do all offseason. The San Antonio Spurs, according to Marc Stein, are among the teams with interest in Kuzma and have approached the Lakers about figuring out a sign-and-trade to send Compton-native DeMar DeRozan back home.

Adding DeRozan, who is not a three-point shooter, to the LeBron and AD pairing isn’t necessarily ideal from a spacing perspective, but he would give them a big boost in the secondary creator department next to James. The bigger issue with this option is that being involved in a sign-and-trade would hard cap the Lakers (around $140 million) and that would significantly limit their options for filling out the rest of the roster. As such, working out a deal for Hield seems likely to be L.A.’s priority on Thursday night, but if Harrell isn’t on board and Sacramento won’t be amenable to a different package, then it’s possible that they would engage further with the Spurs to bring a third star to L.A.

During his years on SNL, Jason Sudekis likely crossed paths with frequent musical guests Foo Fighters, led by Dave “This Could Be My Penis” Grohl. But it wasn’t until Ted Lasso that he incorporated one of their songs in his work.

Sudekis told Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus on the After School Radio show that “My Hero,” the anthemic single from the band’s 1997 album The Colour and the Shape, is the “first time that I heard a song and I felt I saw a whole movie about that song. At least my interpretation of it. I’ve never spoken to Gus [Brandt] nor Dave [Grohl] or any of the guys in the band about what that song is about. Some of those themes are literally being used in season two of Ted Lasso.” He continued:

“Just the idea of false prophets or don’t meet your heroes or the idea that all statues have clay feet, I think is another example of that. People are human. I pay attention when a song becomes a muse, whether you end up using the tune or not. But yeah, I saw a beginning, middle, and end to a story in that song, for me. That was really profound at 21 years old, 22 years old, having just moved to Chicago to try this acting thing.”

The chorus for “My Hero” goes: “There goes my hero / Watch him as he goes / There goes my hero / He’s ordinary.” Your hero can be anyone — it doesn’t have to be world-famous soccer player. Unless it’s Roy Kent. Roy Kent should absolutely be your hero.

You can listen to After School Radio from the link below.

(Via the Hollywood Reporter)

Skepta and J Balvin fall into a black widow’s trap in their sultry, surprising video for “Nirvana.” Taken from Skepta’s upcoming EP, All In, the song features a Spanish-inflected guitar loop over which the two rappers deliver flirtatious verses to the objects of their desires. The chorus promises to take a lover “to your Nirvana” as they insist that “every day’s a celebration when you come from the Gaza.”

In the elegant-looking, KLVDR-directed video for the track, Skepta approaches a sophisticated woman during a dinner party at her mansion. While at first, there are hints of heist thrillers like Netflix’s Lupin, it turns out that Skepta is really the one getting played as his seemingly successful seduction of the lady of the house ends with him awakening imprisoned alongside J Balvin, who’s tied to a chair and looks quite distraught, implying this isn’t for fun. The video concludes with the mistress walking the halls of the opulent mansion leaving what looks suspiciously like bloodstained footprints behind her as she goes to find her next victim.

The eerie video is surprisingly the first single from the new EP, which Skepta only announced earlier this week. Titled for the British star’s newfound love of poker, it also features Kid Cudi and Nigerian rapper Teezee and drops tonight at midnight.

Watch the video for “Nirvana” above.