Month: November 2021

Following Monday night’s all-out Ghostbusters: Afterlife premiere, which featured original stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson walking the red carpet and blowing away the crowd, the first reactions to the nostalgic-heavy sequel are rolling in. While critics are loving the ’80s vibes infused into Afterlife, there’s a name that keeps popping up in almost every reaction: Mckenna Grace.

Starring as Phoeobe, the granddaughter of classic Ghostbuster Egon Spenger, who was famously played by the late Harold Ramis, Grace’s performance has been called everything from “captivating” to “stealing the show” as critics loved her character’s entry into the series as well as her chemistry with co-star Paul Rudd.

You can see some of the reactions below:

As you can see, the word “emotional” pops up a lot, and that’s a feeling that original Ghostbusters Murray and Hudson both felt about returning to the classic franchise that’s right up there with Star Wars as a defining part of so many childhoods. Here’s what the two told Entertainment Tonight about reuniting with Akroyd to film Afterlife:

Hudson then shared, “I saw Danny in his jumpsuit, Bill and I started crying. So apparently it was very important to me.”

Murray added, “I really never expected to still have another paranormal problem.”

Naturally, Murray couldn’t help but make a crack about all of the tears as he saw people “walking out crying, so I don’t know if that’s good news or bad news.”

Ghostbusters: Afterlife proton blasts its way into theaters on November 19.

It’s been a while since Smino delivered a full project to the world, but that could be changing very soon. He returned with “Rice & Gravy” in May, his first single since 2020’s “Tempo,” and it would begin a return to form that brings us to his latest single, “I Deserve.” The track is a mellow effort, one he dedicates to a let friend Pooh, and on Tuesday he shared the music video for it.

In the visual, Smino learns that his neighbor is facing eviction after failing to pay rent. Here, the rapper decides to plan and promote a “rent party” for family and friends around the block. The funds that were made from the event were collected and given to Smino’s neighbor which saved him from eviction. Prior to releasing the track, which Smino previously revealed was dedicated to his late friend Pooh Man, he spoke about its importance to him.

“Tbh I ain’t gave much of a f*ck bout bein onna internet or eem bein a artist since bro left,” he wrote in a tweet. “I’m talented/blessed af tho so I can’t stop.. God gave me a lot to share so i did my best @ channeling this shit into sumn meaningful.”

The new video arrives after Smino teamed up with Syd for their “Right Track” collaboration. More recently, Smino lent his vocals to Terrace Martin’s new album Drones as he appeared on “This Morning” with Arin Ray.

Watch the “I Deserve” video above.

The Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer was all about the Spidey villains from movies past. Yet given that this is the mulitiverse, people cannot help but speculate that there’s possibly a secret Spidey (or two) other than Tom Holland’s Peter Parker incarnation. About those villains, though? There’s slightly “off” versions of Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin, Jamie Foxx’s Electro, and Thomas Haden Church as Sandman. Last but certainly not least, we’ve go Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus, who appeared to be taken aback at the sight of the Holland-Spidey in the trailer.

And that brings us to some ridiculousness that must be acknowledged. First, here’s some new emoji-matched hashtags that materialized ahead of the trailer.

“DocCok” is certainly one of them, and what has the Internet done with this? You guessed it (see below). The MCU only recently had its first sex scene in Eternals (which pulled the act off tastefully), but this hashtag definitely isn’t headed toward canon. Still, it’s funny in the silliest way, and it’s hard to say “no” to silly these days.

As for when we’ll hear more about possible non-villain blasts from the past, one can be certain that Sony and Marvel Studios won’t reveal anything before they’re ready. The trailer did not show Andrew Garfield and/or Tobey Maguire, even though a certain “hand” shot is making some people believe otherwise. Meanwhile, Tom Holland is apparently dreaming of James Bond, but aren’t we all?

The “not fun” Spider-Man: No Way Home arrives in theaters on December 17, 2021.

With his latest role, Jason Sudeikis is really showing off his versatility as an actor. On his hit series Ted Lasso, he plays a soccer coach who is a premiere motivator. Now, he has been cast in a new Foo Fighters video, in which he plays a swimming coach who is a premiere motivator.

Today, Foo Fighters shared a minute-long teaser clip for their upcoming visual for the Medicine At Midnight highlight “Love Dies Young,” which premieres in full tomorrow at 10 a.m. ET. In the clip, Sudeikis plays a coach of a swimming team, seemingly (since their faces aren’t show) consisting of the Foo Fighters band members. As they get ready to compete in the “Synchronized Swimming Championship,” as indicated by a sign on a wall.

In the clip, Sudeikis, who wears an American flag jacket but speaks in a non-American accent, shares some inspirational words and lights a fire under his team with lines like, “I picked you up out of the water with my hands, from the scruffs of your necks, and I looked at you and said, ‘You will be a champion! Or not.’”

Check out the teaser clip above.

Medicine At Midnight is out now via Roswell/RCA. Get it here.

Hot on the heels of the epic new trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home that has fans pumped for the final installment in the Homecoming trilogy, Tom Holland is the center of a career-spanning feature for GQ where he’s, once again, heavily hinting that his time as Spidey is coming to an end. Several times during the lengthy interview it’s noted that Holland is ready to move from playing the friendly neighborhood wallcrawler. GQ also reports that No Way Home completes his Spider-Man contract, which conflicts previous reporting that Holland is still signed up for one more MCU film.

While other Marvel actors have talked about life after the Avengers before, Holland, however, has a specific role: James Bond.

“He talks about being James Bond a lot,” says Holland’s long-time Spider-Man co-star Jacob Batalon to GQ. “A lot a lot.”

Not only does Holland have his eyes set on the British super-spy, but he’s not being shy about who the MCU’s new Spider-Man should be if he actually does walk away. Via GQ:

“Maybe it is time for me to move on. Maybe what’s best for Spider-Man is that they do a Miles Morales film. I have to take Peter Parker into account as well, because he is an important part of my life,” he says. But also: “If I’m playing Spider-Man after I’m 30, I’ve done something wrong.”

Is it likely that No Way Home could be Holland’s final ride as Spider-Man? Maybe not. In the lead-up to the film, there’s been lots of talk about his Spider-Man clashing with Tom Hardy’s Venom. Although, as secretive as Marvel can be, that could all be subterfuge to mask Holland making a dramatic exit in No Way Home or wishful thinking to keep him around the MCU a little while longer.

(Via GQ)

Do I go to concerts by myself? All the time! This is partly due, of course, to my vocation as a music critic taking me to more concerts than the average person. But even if I was a civilian, I would relish my solo concert experiences.

Is this “actually incredibly sad”? You can take my answer with a grain of salt but: No! In fact, it’s awesome. And it’s also necessary. If you happen to be a big music fan, you will likely encounter situations where nobody in your friend group wants to see a concert that you want to see. But you shouldn’t look at this as a setback. It is, rather, an opportunity. If you have never experienced the pleasures of solitary concert-going, well, I envy you. Because you are about to enter a whole new world, my friend.

You say you go to the movies by yourself. What is the advantage of going to a movie by yourself? You have the freedom to see what you want, when you want. You aren’t beholden to another person’s whims or opinions. You don’t have to talk another person into seeing what you want to see if that person happens to not share your tastes or interests. Is there anything worse than successfully persuading a person who doesn’t care about the film you care about into going along, and then having to worry about whether this other person is enjoying the experience as much you are, which inevitably influences your experience? God forbid this hypothetical killjoy despises a film that you love. Now, instead of simply enjoying a great cinematic experience, you now have to contend with the terrible thoughts of Debby Downer over here in a neighboring seat.

All of this translates to attending a concert by yourself. Actually, I would say it applies even more to concert-going. Let’s say a band you love is playing a club downtown on a Tuesday night. Who in the world is going to agree to tag along to see a concert on a Tuesday night by a band they might not know or like? Talk about a big ask. That’s a way bigger commitment than simply agreeing to see a movie. And there’s a very good chance you won’t find anyone to go with you.

But why should this prevent you from doing something you want to do? Because you’re worried about looking “sad” or violating some unwritten social contract? This is ludicrous. Even if you are able to successfully to persuade a friend to tag along to that Tuesday night show, you are now adding unneeded stress to a situation that should just be pure fun. Because it’s now your responsibility if your friend has a boring night. You have put that burden on yourself for no good reason!

How do you handle this? Unless you’re a sociopath, you will want to make the night more entertaining for your friend. You’ll offer to buy a round of beers. If he wants to talk over the music, you’ll let him. All the while, your friend will be pulling you away from the music and toward him. Which is exactly what you don’t want, because you can hang out with this dude anytime. But this band might not come back to town for another two or three years. And here you are, yapping through a conversation you don’t want to have while spending money you’d rather not spend instead of simply enjoying the music.

I’ll say it again: This is ludicrous!

Have I made my point yet? It’s one thing if you and your guest are equally engaged in the music. This will undoubtedly enhance the experience. But if you’re dragging someone along purely for the sake of companionship, it will likely detract from the experience. You’re better off going alone and commiserating with strangers in the audience — some of whom will also be there by themselves — and achieving a more organic and amenable communal experience. Or you can decide to not do that and focus entirely on the band! When you go home after the show — or you can leave during the encore if you wish, because again you are entirely in control of your own destiny here — you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much less money you have spent on compensatory booze.

Here’s the thing about concerts as “social” events: I think this is mainly true for people who don’t really care about the band on stage. It’s true that hanging out before the show is social. And certainly there are conversations to be had between bands on a multiple act bill. But the individuals who talk during the music are — no exaggeration — the worst people in the world. They should be tried, convicted, and jailed for being supreme irritants. What this means is that the social aspect of concerts is overrated, to the point of actively hurting the enjoyment of the music. So, I support any and all efforts to reduce the number of “chompers” at any given show, including not dragging along disinterested parties in a misguided attempt to preserve the “social” aspect.

You remember how Tom Petty does his little “Hello CD listeners” bit in the middle of Full Moon Fever? You can’t do that on vinyl or on Spotify.

5. Albums that are Zaireeka

Honestly, this infamous Flaming Lips record — originally four CDs with different tracks designed to be played on four separate CD players simultaneously — was already impractical in its initial form. But the idea of listening to it on vinyl is — I’m sorry — really, really dumb.

Outside of a cameo in Free Guy and some voice-over work, Channing Tatum hasn’t appeared in a movie since 2017’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle. That is far too long without Magic Mike in our lives. But Tatum will star alongside Sandra Bullock in The Lost City of D, which sounds like Romancing the Stone but with more thirst traps, as well as P*ssy Island with Zoë Kravitz and an Afghanistan-set drama with Tom Hardy.

But before all that, there’s Dog.

Dog “follows the misadventures of two former Army Rangers paired against their will on the road trip of a lifetime. Army Ranger Briggs (Tatum) and Lulu (a Belgian Malinois dog) buckle into a 1984 Ford Bronco and race down the Pacific Coast in hopes of making it to a fellow soldier’s funeral on time. Along the way, they’ll drive each other completely crazy, break a small handful of laws, narrowly evade death, and learn to let down their guards in order to have a fighting chance of finding happiness,” according to MGM.

Tatum co-directed the film with Reid Carolin, the writer of Magic Mike and Magic Mike XXL, one of the best sequels of all-time (I am absolutely serious here). It’s a shame it’s been four years with no C-Tates in our lives, but at least he’s here now — and he’s brought a a very good dog. Dog opens on February 18, 2022.

Now that Britney Spears is officially out of her conservatorship, she has more personal freedom than she had in the years she spent bound by the legal arrangement. She’s been enjoying herself so far, as her first post-conservatorship weekend was “amazing” and she noted, “I felt like I was on cloud 9 the whole time !!!” Now that #FreeBritney has resulted in a free Britney, the singer is looking forward to doing some things she wasn’t able to do before, like have another baby.

On Instagram yesterday, she shared a photo of a baby standing on its toes and wrote, “I’m thinking about having another baby !!! I wonder if this one is a girl … she’s on her toes reaching for something … that’s for sure.”

This comes after Spears said in court this summer that she couldn’t get pregnant because she was being forced to keep an IUD in her body. She said, “All I want is to own my money… and for this to end… and for my boyfriend to be able to f*cking drive me in his car. And honestly, I want to be able to sue my family.” She continued, “I have an IUD in my body right now that won’t let me have a baby and my conservators won’t let me go to the doctor to take it out. I feel ganged up on. I feel bullied and I feel left out and alone. I want to be able to get married and have a baby.”

Spears has been eager to talk about her conservatorship lately, and in another Instagram post from yesterday, she suggested that she’d like to have a deep-dive conversation about it with Oprah.

In what might sadly be described as this generation’s Frost/Nixon interview, unhinged pillow magnate Mike Lindell sat down with a tuxed-up Donald Trump –looking like an aging blackjack dealer in a sh*tty casino — at Mar-a-Lago for a wide-ranging interview that touched on many of their most bonkers shared delusions theories about life and politics. The former president has never been known for his verbal restraint, and he didn’t hold back when it came to his previous allies, including Mitch McConnell and Mike Pence.

As Raw Story reports, Trump is (surprise!) still riding that “Rigged Election!” train, and Lindell is sitting right beside him and enjoying the scenery. After declaring that “these elections were incredibly dishonest,” the former president went on to perform a Greatest Hits album’s worth of his favorite lies, including how he clearly won Arizona and that “they basically used COVID-19, or the China virus, to rig the election and it’s a shame.” Trump’s one wish, he explained, was that the Republicans would get tougher, then singled out McConnell and Pence specifically:

“Mitch McConnell’s a disaster—the guy’s a disaster, the Old Crow… And it was very sad when Mike Pence gave those votes over because when you have more votes than you have voters, when you have others things that are so wrong—and that was then. And since then, many other things have happened.”

Cohesive arguments have never been Trump’s strong suit, but there’s nothing new about the former president blaming anyone and everyone he can for not going along with his Big Lie that the election was stolen from him. You can watch part of the interview above. What you won’t see is the part where, per the Daily Beast, Lindell suggests they should melt down our voting machines and turn them into prison bars, which Trump described as “very interesting” and “a very good idea.”

(Via Raw Story)

President Joe Biden plans to spend Thanksgiving with his family in Nantucket, a small island off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and the inspiration for a limerick that dates back to at least the early 1900s. There’s many different versions of the dirty poem, but they all begin the same way, “There once was a man from Nantucket…”

That’s also what Ted Cruz tweeted when he saw where the president will celebrate the holiday next week. It was a confusing reply because, as many on Twitter pointed out, the Texas senator is implying that Biden is the man from Nantucket and therefore has a… how to put this? Remember what Shailene Woodley said about Aaron Rodgers? That.

“Does Ted Cruz know what the man from Nantucket limerick is about? Because he basically tweeted that Joe Biden has big d*ck energy,” @AngryBlackLady tweeted. “I just feel like that’s probably not the message he was going for. Poor little f*cker is not funny and he tries so hard.” @renegadecut added, “Nothing to see here, everyone. It’s only Senator Ted Cruz implying that the President is so well-endowed that he can suck his own d*ck.” Others wondered, doesn’t Ted Cruz have better things to do than tweet dirty jokes about the president? And some replied with limericks of their own.

At least he’s not tweeting about Big Bird anymore?