When it comes to Batman villains, Penguin and Riddler haven’t appeared on the big screen since the ’90s films Batman Returns and Batman Forever respectively. That all changes with The Batman, which will feature dramatically different takes on the characters than Danny DeVito’s gothic performance and Jim Carrey going full rubber-faced camp.
In the new film starring Robert Pattinson as the Dark Knight, Colin Farrell takes on the role of Penguin while Paul Dano steps into the more prominent role of Riddler, who will push Batman to the limit over the film’s three hour runtime. As for which version of the villains the two actors will be playing, these will be entirely new takes with varying degrees of influences from the comics and even a little dash from the Batman: Arkham video games.
Colin Farrell’s Penguin Is A Little Bit Fredo Corleone
In an interview with MovieMaker magazine, Farrell revealed that his Penguin (a.k.a. Oswald Cobblepot) will have a brokenness to him that will be reminiscent of John Cazale’s Fredo Corleone in The Godfather films.
“Matt [Reeves] was just talking about somebody who had very real and very lofty ambitions, but never really had the opportunity or the chance to explore them, and was maybe looked upon as someone who was handicapped, whether it was psychologically, intellectually — Fredo was frowned upon as less than the other brothers, and maybe Oz as well, in his life, was looked upon as somebody who wasn’t capable,” Farrell said. “And so that’s one of the things that fuels Oz.”
Warner Bros.
Paul Dano’s Riddler Has Shades of ‘Mindhunter’ And The Zodiac Killer
Dano’s Riddler is probably the most dramatically different from the comics. While Farrell’s Penguin still maintains the character’s gangster roots, Reeves told Total Film that Dano’s Riddler will go in a wild new direction inspired by Mindhunter and the Zodiac Killer, but his actions aren’t entirely about the killing.
“He’s not just a serial killer. He definitely has a political agenda,” Reeves said. “There’s a terrorist aspect to him. He’s indicting the city for what it is. And one of the things he’s doing with each of these crimes is, he’s attacking the so-called legitimate pillars of the city. The whole point of it was to put [Batman] on the path of trying to solve a mystery that was not only going to reveal the history of the city, and why it’s so corrupt, but that also is going to turn at a point, and become actually quite personal.”
During the press conference for Dr. Dre’s upcoming Super Bowl halftime show featuring Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Mary J. Blige, and Snoop Dogg, the West Coast rap impresario refused to offer any insights into potential surprises during the performance, but he did offer assurances regarding what fans won’t see: anyone’s junk. After Snoop brought up the infamous “wardrobe malfunction” from the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show with Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake, Dre jumped on the opportunity to razz his notoriously mischievous costars.
“I had to talk Snoop and Eminem out of pulling their penises out,” he joked. “Especially Eminem.” You can check out the full press conference above.
Of course, the wild days when you could expect Snoop or Eminem to troll America this way are far behind both. In one of Snoop’s recent interviews regarding the upcoming performance, he waffled about performing one of his most iconic songs while admitting to being “nervous about watching it to see what the reaction is.” Eminem likewise admitted that the preparations were “f*cking nerve-wracking,” telling Sway Calloway that “there’s nothing more final than live TV… if you f*ck up, your f*ck up is there forever.”
There is a definitive answer to the question about AJ’s virginity in the episode, as we see him bribe some noisy neighborhood teens with a mountain bike (“it’s a Gary Fisher”) to get them to go somewhere else long enough to give his new 30-year-old single mom friend from work the peace and quiet she needs to climb up on Anthony Jr Jr. Inspired by the scene, I’ve been driving around with a lightly-used mountain bike in the back of my Ford Explorer, and so far it has not lead to sex. But I’m hopeful.
The question posed on the pod is, was this AJ’s first time? He’s definitely hanging around girls his age throughout the show, but as Matt points out, he’s got the energy of a guy who has resigned himself to a life of sweaty handjobs.
Support the Pod: become a patron at patreon.com/Frotcast and get more bonus content than you could ever want, AND if you sign up for the Pod Yourself a Shoutout tier, you can bask in the glory of hearing your name on the podcast like this week’s newest members: Champion Patron, Sesame Street, A Little, The Ogre, Cinnamon Eagle, Dr. Starsky, Friend Zone, Die Hard, & The River.
As we head into Super Bowl weekend, you’re probably in the midst of planning out the food spread you’re going to host and/or absolutely f*cking obliterate at that big party on Sunday. When it comes to the Super Bowl, there are a few staples that are absolute musts — you have to have great chips and salsa, wings are stone cold hit, and who doesn’t love to pair an icy beer with a delicious slice of carb-loaded pizza?
Without that mighty trifecta, is your Super Bowl party even really a party? We say no. But making pizza while engaging with the game and friends is… a challenge. So as you plan out that Sunday spread, we’ve decided to help you decided where to order your pies.
We’ve hit all the big national brands in a big ranking of the best pizza your party-fund money can buy. Considering pizza comes with a variety of toppings and combinations (one of the food’s many strengths), ranking pizzas in a completely fair way is a difficult task. We made it easier on ourselves by sticking with the old classic, pepperoni. But we’ll also be sure to pay extra attention to the tasting notes of both the crust and sauce and, in the spirit of sports, assign a one to five score for each, as well as a score for the pepperoni.
This should help you to make confident choices with whatever topping combination speaks to you the most. Let’s eat, but first…
What Makes A Good Pizza A Good Pizza?
When it comes to pizza, I’m pretty picky. In my opinion, few things can compete with the magic of a big foldable New York City slice from a giant 18-inch pie, but it’s been a minute since I’ve been on the east coast (damn you, covid!) so I’ll settle for any corner pizza joint that can attract long lines and fresh slices, or making my own at home with fresh-made dough fermented for 24 hours minimum.
Good pizza dough is deliciously chewy, foldable, but not too bready. It should provide a light crispiness, but not have the texture of a cracker. A great sauce is bright, but not distracting, I’m not a fan of complex and garlicky marinara sauces on pizza, I like a sauce that elevates the flavors on top of the pie without overpowering them. Cheese is cheese — almost always great as long as it doesn’t taste cheap and its fully melted.
Sound about right? Good. Now, let’s rank ‘em, beginning with the absolute worst of the worst.
15. Chuck E. Cheese — Pepperoni Pizza
chuck e cheese
Oh boy. This is the worst pizza I’ve ever had. I know including Chuck E. Cheese in the first place seems like a weird move, but some people swear by this pizza. It’s even available for delivery (who are the people ordering this? Kids with stolen credit cards?) from most food delivery services.
It shouldn’t be.
If you’ve ever attended a kid sibling or younger cousin’s Chuck E. Cheese birthday party, you’ve probably smelled the aroma of sweaty feet permeating the air. It would make sense to assume it’s all the gross kids running around, but it’s actually this pizza. HOT TAKE: Pizza shouldn’t smell like feet unless you pile parmesan onto your slices, and yet this stuff has a pungent and offensive odor that is more “socks” than “aged Parmigiano Reggianno.”
It only gets worse when you bite into it. It’s sickly sweet, almost rotten tasting, and overly salty. Just a garbage pie.
The Breakdown:
Sauce: 1. Might as well be ketchup.
Crust: 2. It’s a bit on the sweet side but almost flavorless, akin to bad frozen pizza.
Pepperoni: 2. Gummy, almost steamed.
Total Score: 5
14. Sbarro — Pepperoni Pizza
Dane Rivera
This is in very close competition to Chuck E. Cheese’s horrid slice, but somehow this one feels more offensive to me. Why is Sbarro even still a thing? They haunt mall and airport food courts with their weird overly greasy-salty pizza. The mozzarella here has a weird translucent look to it, it’s almost grey, and the pizza is dripping with orange grease that will stain your plate and bleed through the paper container it comes packaged in.
The sauce is fine but way too liberally applied, it tastes garlicky and a bit sweet, and the crust is on the heavily bready side. But the worst part of this pizza —aside from the greasy cheese — are the thick slices of pepperoni. They’re cut so thick that they don’t even cook properly, instead you get a chewy ham-like slice on your pizza. This pizza truly has one of the worst mouthfeels in the game.
The Breakdown:
Sauce: 2. It tastes okay, but it’s laid on pretty thick and will gush off the slice as soon as you chew into it.
Crust: 2. Too bready for its own good
Pepperoni: 1. Thick, salty, greasy, foul. Absolutely no redeeming qualities.
Total Score: 5
13. Roundtable — Original Pepperoni Pizza
When I was younger, Roundtable was the height of pizza perfection. There was a certain allure about it, maybe because it was housed in a restaurant instead of delivered in a car, but a younger version of me thought this was real fancy shit. Turns out it’s not.
The crust is a bit softer than the other pizzas on this ranking. It has a nice slightly sweet bready flavor. But the sauce is too bright, it’s attempting to taste zesty but it just comes off as sour. The pepperonis have a nice crispy edge but a soft middle that makes them a bit too chewy for my liking. Altogether, this pizza just isn’t good and for some reason costs about four times the price of 7-Eleven’s.
The Breakdown:
Sauce: 1. Oddly sour.
Crust: 3. It’s very sweet, the salty pepperoni counteracts that a bit, but I imagine this would taste weird on a plain cheese pie.
Pepperoni: 2. Great on the edges, gross in the middle.
Total Score: 6
12. 7-Eleven — Pepperoni Pizza
7-Eleven pizza is a pizza of circumstance. Nobody rolls up to 7-Eleven and grabs a pie for lunch. It’s the sort of thing that you get when you stumble into a 7-Eleven after a night of partying and need a quick bite to help sober up. It’s cheap, tastes fine, but more importantly, gets the job done and we love it for that.
But when it comes to ranking pizzas sober, this is real bottom-of-the-barrel stuff.
The crust is stiff and stale, a bit like a Digiorno. The sauce is chunky like a paste and heavily sugared, though the pepperoni is nice and crispy. The presentation almost always looks like the person who made it did so with their eyes closed though. The pepperonis are never aligned right., it doesn’t matter when you’re drunk but it’s a pretty easy criticism to have when you’re paying attention.
The Breakdown:
Sauce: 1. Too sweet and too thick.
Crust: 2. Stale and flavorless.
Pepperoni: 3. It’s crispy and salty, but its sloppy presentation leads to inconsistent bites.
Total Score: 6
11. Pizza Hut — Original Pan Pepperoni Pizza
pizza hut
It might be shocking to see a chain as huge as Pizza Hut this close to the bottom of the list but… Pizza Hut’s OG pan-style pizza is not good. It’s the reason Pizza Hut offers so many different crust options, because their OG is awful. It’s greasy, with a weird spongey almost fried dough that traps all that orange grease that explodes in your mouth with every bite. Pizza Hut’s sauce is also way too sugary and sweet, it is flavorful with notes of garlic and Italian seasoning, which might be some people’s jam but personally, I find it pretty off-putting. The pepperonis are too soft, the mozzarella cheese tastes cheap, everything about this pizza screams glorified frozen pie.
You might be wondering if I even like pizza with the constant hate I’ve been dishing out on all these chains, I promise you I do, but this pizza is by all metrics bad. The fact that Pizza Hut has been getting away with this garbage for this long is ridiculous.
The Breakdown:
Sauce: 3. Sweet, thick, and sweet again. This might be the sweetest sauce of any pizza chain.
Crust: 1. What the fuck is this stuff? Pan pizza is a legitimate style that can be delicious, but this is a disgrace.
Pepperoni: 2. The pepperonis have a good flavor, but recently Pizza Hut has rolled out a new mini-cup style pepperoni and it’s a vast improvement over their stock peps. Order that instead and let Pizza Hut phase this old girl out.
Total Score: 6
10. Hungry Howie’s — Pepperoni Pizza
I don’t know if the Hungry Howie’s locations in the chain’s home state of Michigan are better or something, because I know there is a lot of love for Hungry Howie’s out there, but that’s certainly not the case here in California. This pizza is pretty middling.
The sauce has a sweetened tomato paste flavor that dominates each bite a little too heavily, the crust is flavorless, Howie’s whole gimmick is flavored crusts, so it tastes to me like they’re going for dough that acts as a canvas for the seasonings of your choice. I will give it to the pepperoni though. It’s salty, crispy, everything you want from pepperoni but I’d prefer slices a hair thinner.
The Breakdown:
Sauce: 2. Too sweet and tastes cheap.
Crust: 2. A flavorless blank canvas.
Pepperoni: 3. Crispy and salty.
Total Score: 7
9. Blaze PIzza
Dane Rivera
There is a certain difficult-to-define soullessness to this pizza. Everything about it sounds like it would result in a good pie, and yet…
Blaze uses fresh dough, their mozzarella tastes like whole milk mozzarella, it’s fire-roasted, and you even have the option to sprinkle oregano or sea salt to give it a bit more flavor and complexity. But it completely lacks character.
The pizza utilizes fresh dough but it’s not even hand-tossed or slapped, instead, it’s pressed in a machine, forming a uniform perfect circle. It’s robot pizza, and it tastes like it. The ingredients never mesh together, they feel like separate parts rather than coming together as a single flavor experience, and that charred fire flavor overpowers everything.
Really not sure whether to write a 5,000 word opus or just say “not v good” and leave it at that. It’s so close to being a nice pie but it never comes together as it should. If you are ordering from here, you’re certainly better off going for a more complex group of flavors than sticking with the straight pepperoni.
The Breakdown:
Sauce: 4. This is what a simple pizza sauce should be, it’s bright and tomato-forward, but not too distracting or loaded up with too much garlic and unnecessary herbs. This is by far my favorite part of Blaze pizza.
Crust: 2. The charred flavor would taste good if it didn’t overpower the entire pie.
Pepperoni: 2. The pepperoni here is a bit forgettable. Aside from some saltiness there just isn’t a lot to taste here.
Total Score: 8
8. Little Caesars — Hot N Ready Pepperoni
Little Caesars
If you asked me before I wrote this article to guess where Little Caesars would land on a pizza ranking, I’d confidently say near the bottom. That would be wrong though. Little Caesars gets a lot of hate for being the cheap option, but I think that hate isn’t justified. This pizza is pretty good and does what the Pizza Hut pan-style pizza attempts to do, but does it right.
The crust here has that crispy pan-fried quality but doesn’t taste like it was deep-fried. It’s wonderfully spongey and isn’t quite as greasy as Pizza Hut’s. The pepperoni also isn’t bad, it has a weird flat quality to it and could be a lot crispier, but it has a good beefy flavor. The weakest aspect of this pizza is the sauce. It’s thick, about as thick as Pizza Huts, and similarly sweet, but it tastes like it was made with really low-quality ingredients. The sweetness is almost artificial.
The Breakdown:
Sauce: 2. It tastes cheap and strangely artificial, likely tomato paste-based.
Crust: 3. Does what Pizza Hut tries to do with their pan-style pizza but way better. It also heats up really well, which is always a good thing with pizza.
Pepperoni: 3. It’s your standard pepperoni. It’s a bit on the salty one-note side, like a Slim Jim, but that’s to be expected with cheaper ingredients.
Total Score: 8
7. Pizza Hut — Stuffed Crust Pizza
Dane Rivera
Pizza Hut’s Stuffed Crust Pizza is almost always a disappointment. I desperately want this pizza to be good — the idea of stuffing crust with cheese makes it objectively better — but the crust itself is the problem. Sure, it’s a step up from Pizza Hut’s pan-style crust but it has no structural integrity, this pizza flops around like a scuba diver’s flipper.
The dough tastes like salted butter and overall has a “holy sh*t this is not good or my body”-soggy quality to it. The only part of this pizza I really like eating is the crust, but if you let it sit for too long the cheese inside starts to harden inside and gives the crust a gummy mouthfeel that tastes like pure salt.
Pizza Hut also doesn’t use the highest quality cheese, it tastes like skim milk-based mozzarella and has a watery taste that I find a bit off-putting the second it’s not piping hot.
The Breakdown:
Sauce: 3. See entry 11 for my thoughts on Pizza Hut’s sauce.
Crust: 4. This is a hard one, I love the crust, it’s filled with cheese, but the rest of the dough is way too buttery. It’s as if someone poured movie theater popcorn oil all over it.
Pepperoni: 2. See entry 11 for my thoughts on the pepperoni. Order the mini pepperoni cups and you’ll save this pizza.
Total Score: 9
6. Papa John’s — Original Crust Pepperoni
papa johns
Papa John’s is treated as the weakest link between the big three chains. Pizza Hut and Dominos are the Pepsi and Coke of the fast-food pizza world, which makes Papa John’s… I don’t know the Dr. Pepper? It’s that third option for people who are looking for something different but for some reason won’t just give their neighborhood pizza place a try. Luckily for all the odd ducks out there, Papa John’s is pretty solid.
The crust is slightly sweet, deliciously gummy, and perfectly thick. It’s flexible and foldable, and is noticeably dusted with flour, which leads me to believe it’s actually hand-tossed at Papa John’s. I don’t know this for sure, it’s just a guess! That flour mutes the flavor a bit though.
The pepperoni is also sliced thin, which helps them get nice and crispy in the oven and they are slightly bigger than your average pepperoni slices, offering great coverage across the pie. It’s a pretty solid option. Also, the garlic butter is bomb and I know there are a whole ton of diners who order this pie just for that sauce.
The Breakdown:
Sauce: 3. The pizza’s weakest link. Like a lot of these chains, it’s just a bit too sweet. As the pizza sits the flavors start to move into distracting territory. It’s much more palatable when it’s piping hot.
Crust: 3. Buttery without being greasy, slightly sweet, gummy, and foldable.
Pepperoni: 4. I like them a lot. They’re a little too thin to really taste noticeably beefy, but they have a nice slightly spicy flavor to them and crispy up perfectly.
Total Score: 10.
5. Pizza Hut — Hand-Tossed Pepperoni Pizza
Getty
This should be Pizza Hut’s flagship pie. About eight years back, Pizza Hut reformulated this crust and it’s one of the best decisions they could’ve made. If we could get this hand-tossed dough with the crust from the Stuffed Crust pizza, we’d have a near-perfect pie.
It’s very similar to Papa John’s hand-tossed pizza, but it doesn’t have that liberal flour dusting that mutes some of the flavors and it isn’t as sweet. A light brush of garlic-infused butter transforms this crust and helps it to crisp up in the oven, while still retaining that chewy goodness and soft mouthfeel once you bite into it.
The pepperonis and sauce weigh this one down a bit, but right now Pizza Hut is selling a Spicy Pepperoni Lover’s pie that features both the new mini cup and standard pepperoni, as well as a newly formulated sauce that is brighter and less thick and sugary with a spicy edge. If the Spicy Pepperoni Lover’s pizza didn’t have chopped chilies, we could’ve included it in this ranking and my hunch tells me it would’ve won the top spot.
But this isn’t that. It’s close to being amazing, but it’s weighed down by a few ingredients that Pizza Hut needs to tweak.
The Breakdown
Sauce: 4. The sauce gets an added point here because the garlic butter brushed crust acts as a counter-balance to the sweetness and keeps it from overpowering the sauce.
Crust: 4.5. It’s an almost perfect crust, but something about it leads me to believe it’s not actually hand-tossed in the store.
Pepperoni: 2. It still suffers from Pizza Hut’s horrible floppy pepperoni.
Total Score: 10.5
4. Marco’s Pizza — Pepperoni Magnifico
Marco
There is so much complexity here compared to the previous entries. The Pepperoni Magnifico features two different types of pepperoni, standard-sized and mini-cups and both are delicious and mingle together beautifully. They crisp up in the oven nicely and have a peppery, spicy, and salty flavor. They’re so good you’ll want to pick a few off of your pizza just to eat them on their own (if you do, the minis taste better).
The cheese is also way more interesting here, it’s salty, a bit nutty, a little creamy, and will satisfy people who like extra cheese on their pies without actually having to order the extra cheese. It’s very distinct. The crust is also pretty solid, Marco’s puts some sort of garlic seasoning on it. I can give or take that, but the pizza itself is crispy on the outside and gummy on the inside. I just wish the crust was just a bit thicker.
The Breakdown:
Sauce: 4. Remarkable. This is exactly what a good pizza sauce should be. It tastes like someone cracked open a can of San Marzano whole tomatoes, hand crushed them, and threw in some salt and a glug of olive oil.
Crust: 3. It’s good, the garlic-y crust isn’t necessary though, and if anything I feel that weighs this one down.
Pepperoni: 4. You get your standard pepperoni plus the mini cups? If you’re a pepperoni lover, this is easily one of the best in the game.
Total Score: 11
3. Domino’s — Hand-tossed Pepperoni
Domino’s is probably the brand that surprised me the most during this ranking. The quality here is higher than you’d think a national pizza chain would have — the dough is yeasty and crispy on the outside, and soft and chewy on the inside, with an airy crust and a liberal dusting of cornmeal that helps create a really great and sandy texture to this pizza.
Domino’s, like Marco’s, kicks it up a notch by brushing the crust in garlic-infused oil and it works much better than Marco’s approach. Something about how the garlic interacts with that earthy flavor from the cornmeal tastes delicious and helps to ensure that each bite of pizza is savory and full of flavor. The pepperoni is good, it’s a bit thicker than I’d like it to be but it’s adequately crispy and garlicky, with a beef-forward flavor with a slight sweet lift courtesy of the pork.
The sauce is surprisingly herbal, with a complexity to it that doesn’t overstay its welcome. It’s not as bright a sauce as I’d like it to be, but the way it doesn’t stain the palate keeps its complex flavor from overpowering the pie.
The Breakdown:
Sauce: 4. Herbal and complex without being distracting.
Crust: 4. It’s airy, and crispy, while being soft and chewy and has a great texture courtesy of the cornmeal dusting and garlic.
Pepperoni: 3.5. For a standard-sized pepperoni, it’s has a damn good flavor. If Domino’s would drop a mini-cup version, we’d be willing to bump it up a point.
Total Score: 11.5
2. Mod Pizza — Pepperoni Pizza
Dane Rivera
When I first tried Mod Pizza I didn’t think it would end up ranking this highly but here we are. This is another build-your-own-pie-assembly-style concept, but where Blaze lacks character, this actually has some distinct flavors that taste unique to Mod Pizza.
My biggest criticism is that the crust is comically thin, it doesn’t really have much of a chew to it, but it has a really great flavor that makes up for its shortcomings. It’s yeasty and crispy, like a sourdough crust, but still retains some of the sweetness you’d get from a thicker pie. The sauce is fantastic, it really pops and introduces some sweet tomato-forward flavors that mingle perfectly with the pepperoni and milky mozzarella cheese.
The pepperoni has a slight cayenne-pepper burn to it that simmers on the palate. Aside from the thin crust, this pizza has no weak links.
The Breakdown:
Sauce: 5. Bright, tomato-forward, flavor elevating, this is as close to a homemade sauce as you’re going to get.
Crust: 3. The flavor is great, but it’s way too thin to deserve anything higher than a three.
Pepperoni: 4. It edges slightly into a subtle spice territory and is one of the better-tasting pepperonis on this list. It’s not Boar’s Head, but it comes pretty close
Total Score: 12
1. Domino’s — Brooklyn Style Pepperoni Pizza
Dane Rivera
The national pizza chain scene doesn’t have a perfect pizza. There isn’t a single nationally deliverable pizza out there that can match the flavors of a New York City slice. Accept that. Nothing being driven to you from a chain after being assembled by underpaid teens matches the focused and complex flavors of a scratch-made pizza cooked with a proper pan (or better yet a wood-fired oven), and there is a high chance that there is an independent pizzeria in your neighborhood that will blow every national pie on this list out of the water. So if you’re willing to put in the effort to make you own pie or take a chance on a local spot, we highly suggest you do that.
But if you don’t want to… get the Domino’s Brooklyn Style pizza. Every time. I mentioned in the intro to this piece that I think the best pizza comes out of New York (sorry Chicago) but having said that this doesn’t win the top spot because it comes close to mimicking that experience. It doesn’t. There isn’t anything about this pizza that actually resembles the gooey, melty, super-indulgent qualities of a New York slice — it’s not even made on a proper 18-inch pie. Dominos cut corners by only making this 16 inches, and tried to cover up the deception by cutting this pizza into six slices instead of the standard eight, tricking you into thinking each pie is more substantial than it actually is, because of course they did.
But failed geometry aside, it’s fucking delicious.
Yes, it still suffers from Domino’s lackluster pepperoni, but everything else about this pizza just works. Because the earthy tasting cornmeal-dusted crust is hand-stretched thinner here, it has an overall better balance between its crispy outer and chewy inner. I’m not sure if its thinner stretch helps it to char better in the oven, but it tastes more charred than Domino’s OG hand-tossed pie. The herb-heavy sauce is way more robust than what you’d find on an actual New York slice, giving this an overall heavy flavor that comes across a lot more savory and really works with the pepper-forward pepperoni.
The Breakdown:
Sauce: 4. If it was brighter and less complex it would be closer to what it’s trying to be. It’s a bit on the distracting side, but not in a bad way.
Crust: 5. The best crust at any national pizza chain hands down. More pizzas should be cornmeal-dusted.
Pepperoni: 3.5 if it was sliced a bit thinner it would crisp up better.
Total Score: 12.5
FINAL THOUGHTS:
12.5 for a delivery pie by a chain that services most of the country is incredible. Did you expect a 15 to be awarded? No chance. Head to Di Fara in Brooklyn. Or maybe to Naples or Bologna. But considering the circumstances, a 12.5 is freaking fantastic. If you’re ordering from a chain, this is most definitely the play and will earn you that MVP spot at the Super Bowl party.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is one of the most highly-anticipated video game movies in quite some time. The first one ended up being a pleasant surprise, and news of a sequel generated plenty of excitement. They had a good foundation to build off of and the early trailers left a good impression — it even has Idris Elba playing Knuckles! Everything about the follow-up so far feels like it’s going to perfectly nail how a Sonic adventure should go, and its getting plenty of attention because of that.
With the movie set to come out in April, one of its major promotional moments will occur during the Super Bowl. Paramount released a new trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on Friday, and the trailer is meant to air on TV during the Super Bowl. It even features a funny pun involving the tails side of a coin.
YouTube
The trailer itself gives us a little bit more info about what we can expect to see in the movie. As if there aren’t already plenty of reasons to be excited, we can see many iconic images such as Sonic and Tails’ plane, The Tornado, and snowboarding on an icy mountain. It even features a giant death machine created by Dr. Eggman meant to destroy Sonic. All of this looks and feels exactly how a Sonic movie should, and that’s what makes it so exciting. Hopefully, the movie doesn’t just meet the expectations of every Sonic fan, but exceeds them.
Spoilers for The Power of the Dog will be found below.
Let’s get this out of the way upfront. Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance as a very bad man in The Power of the Dog is so phenomenal, and so convincing in this neo-western, that it’ll make you want Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to arrive tomorrow, just so you can see him as a good guy again. Cumberbatch deservedly earned an Oscar nomination (as did married co-stars Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst) for his turn in the movie that really went to town on toxic masculinity, but let’s just say that the ending of the film came as a surprise to many who watched.
Benedict’s sinister leading man, Phil, ended up — despite overpowering and dominating every moment of the movie and menacing Dunst’s character even when he wasn’t onscreen — dying what seemed to be a relatively uneventful death. So, what happened, and what was the point?
Netflix
Phil ended up (as the doctor onscreen confirms the greatest possibility) dying of anthrax exposure and poisoning. This arrived as news that didn’t seem believable to his brother, George, who noted how careful Phil was while dealing with animals and the possibility of infection. However, Phil had let his guard down with Peter, who was nursing a strong desire to protect his mother, Rose, at all costs. Phil, of course, had continued to express contempt for Rose throughout the film, and after Phil cuts his hand in the field with Peter, the young man appears to have come up with a plan to poison Phil by giving him contaminated rawhide. Peter has been, as we previously saw with his careful use of gloves, very aware of anthrax bacterium, and he saw an opportunity and seized it.
Although there are plenty of nuanced touches here surrounding the relationship between Phil and Peter (and much to be considered on that subject, no doubt), Peter’s decision put an end to Phil’s reign of ranch terror.
The Power of the Dog is currently streaming on Netflix.
Drake’s gambling history is sort of infamous at this point, as he’s willing to lay out huge sums on the outcomes of everything from basketball games to roulette spins, getting lucky and losing in more-or-less equal measure. Naturally, with Super Bowl LVI kicking off this Sunday, he’s got a lot of money on the line, posting screenshots of his online wagers to Instagram. In total, he’s got $1.26 million (in Bitcoin, no less) riding on the outcome, split across three bets.
He’s got $472,364 on the Los Angels Rams to win outright over the Cincinnati Bengals, while two prop bets posit his friend, Rams wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., to receive for more than 62.5 receiving yards ($393,636) and score at least one touchdown ($393,636). They’re all relatively safe bets, with payouts of $713,244, $712,457, and $846,288, respectively — the Rams have the hometown advantage, after all, and ODB has been relatively solid all season despite tearing his left ACL during the 2020 season (something Drake can relate to).
However, should he hit on all three, he’s looking at just about doubling his money ($2,271,989), so they aren’t bad bets either. His post explained the rationale behind them with the caption, “All bets are in on the family.” The rapper, like much of the country, will be tuned in with crossed fingers this Sunday.
Ana de Armas is an unexpected choice to play Marilyn Monroe, but the same thing could be (and was!) said of Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana, and now she’s Oscar nominee Kristen Stewart. The Cuban-born actress, whose scene in No Time to Die should have been the whole movie, was cast as the Golden Age of Hollywood actress in Andrew Dominik’s Blonde. The film comes out later this year, and there’s been rumors that it was given an NC-17 rating by the Motion Picture Association of America — rumors that Dominik calls “a bunch of horsesh*t.” But Blonde will have the feel of an NC-17 movie.
“It’s a demanding movie,” he told Screen Daily. “If the audience doesn’t like it, that’s the f*cking audience’s problem. It’s not running for public office. It’s an NC-17 movie about Marilyn Monroe, it’s kind of what you want, right? I want to go and see the NC-17 version of the Marilyn Monroe story.”
Dominik also discussed working with de Armas. He said that there was “work involved” in making her “sound American” as Monroe, but “she is fucking amazing — the one thing nobody’s going to complain about is [de Armas’] performance.” It’s unknown when Blonde will be released on Netflix due to theatrical release laws in France, but Dominik is hoping for a Cannes Film Festival premiere in May.
Until then, we still have Deep Water to look forward to.
While other kids were playing soccer, young Donovan Carrillo had other dreams. Despite living in the warm and temperate climate of Mexico, Carrillo had a singular vision of grabbing gold at the Winter Olympics.
And now, win or lose, this passionate figure skater has already become a huge success story at the Beijing Winter Games, becoming the first Mexican to advance to the Olympic free skate final event.
“I always wanted to be at the Olympics,” Carrillo told NBC after his performance Tuesday. “I used to talk about this dream with people. They were always laughing or telling me that it was impossible for a Mexican to qualify.”
In addition to dealing with the fact that Mexico has no competitive winter sports leagues, Carrillo was often called “a girl” for his interest in figure skating, telling the Associated Press that “they sometimes even think that to practice an artistic sport, it’s going to affect your (sexual) preferences as a person. I never thought that. I think that’s one of the reasons of why we don’t have many male skaters in my country.”
Donovan Carrillo, who practices in a shopping mall ice rink, is the first skater from Mexico to qualify for the Olympic free skate. 🥰 pic.twitter.com/qZFBl4LVYr
Throughout his pursuit, Carrillo never let the naysaying keep him down. Instead, he became more resourceful, training alongside girls and practicing in the ice rinks of shopping malls. Imagine having to perfect your pirouette while dodging families and amateur hockey players.
Hard work and determination paid off, because Carillo found himself in Beijing, bearing the flag of Mexico at the opening ceremony.
Carrillo’s entire Olympic debut has been an homage to his heritage: blades displaying the green, white and red color of the Mexican flag, a sparkling black and gold costume designed by Mexican fashion designer Edgar Lozzano, and using music from his father’s favorite band, Santana.
“It’s something that I always try to do with my performance, to involve the Mexican culture,” Carrillo told AP.
Donovan Carrillo is the first Mexican in over 30 years to represent Mexico in ice skating at the Winter Olympics LETS GOOOOOOO pic.twitter.com/75w5UTOf6K
Fast forward to Tuesday (Feb 8), and Carrillo delivered a stunning, career-best, history-making performance in the short program, nailing the quad toe loop and landing an insane triple axel.
The score of 79.69 takes Carrillo to the longer free skate competition, a never-before seen feat from his country, making the 22-year-old athlete Mexico’s most successful figure skater in history.
Carrillo might have been pressed with overwhelming obstacles, but he proved to the world that dreams are worth pursuing.
Resident Evil 4 is considered one of the best video games ever made. The Resident Evil franchise has always been touted as one that helped popularize the survival horror genre. Then, with the changes made in Resident Evil 4, it was praised yet again for revolutionizing it. The franchise was able to become more action-heavy, with many of the game’s features being adopted in future entries. One change, the over the shoulder camera angle, was used until Resident Evil 7 when the franchise moved to a first-person camera angle.
Despite the newer games shifting away from what Resident Evil 4 made popular, its influence has still been very present in the franchise. Recent remakes of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 both took mechanics from Resident Evil 4 to make those games feel more modern. With both remakes being so popular, there have been rumors of an eventual remake for Resident Evil 4, but that raises an important question: How does one recreate, and improve on, a game that revolutionized an entire franchise?
According to one report from Imran Khan of Fanbyte, one way that a Resident Evil 4 remake may look to improve on the previous game is by bringing back some previously cut content, which could potentially make the game even more terrifying than the original.
The reason for this time change isn’t arbitrary. Capcom wants to adjust the tone of the remake into something spookier, taking direct inspiration from discarded Resident Evil 4 demos. That footage, which was used in early GameCube preview reels, featured Leon wandering a lonely castle, getting possessed by black smoke, and fighting off living dolls, as well as other ghostly manifestations. Some of this stuff made its way into the original game in other ways. Most of it, however, was left on the cutting room floor and direct comparisons are being made during development of the remake.
Some changes to the story, such as giving side characters bigger roles and more screentime, are also planned.
While the Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 remakes were praised for their gameplay changes, another aspect that made them so beloved was how terrifying they became. They took two games that became less scary as they aged and made them feel horrifying again. Resident Evil 4 is, for some people, when the franchise moved away from being traditionally scary and focused more on being a campy good time. That doesn’t mean it lacked scary moments, but it definitely leaned more into action and camp than horror. This reported remake, with the addition of the cut content, could bring the best of all worlds together.
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