Month: March 2022

If Jeff Bezos has been looking to secure a captive audience with Pete Davidson in order to learn how to harness his newly acquired BDE, there couldn’t be a more perfect place to do it than outside Earth’s atmosphere. According to new reports, just such a get-together could be in their shared future. According to Page Six, the SNL comedian and the Amazon founder are close to finalizing details on a deal that would allow them to take their bromance to the next level with a space flight aboard Bezos’s Blue Origin spacecraft.

Back in January, Davidson and current woman-who-bizarrely-finds-Davidson-attractive (and no, I’ll never get it so don’t even try to explain it) Kim Kardashian were seen having dinner at Bezos’s home in Los Angeles. The details are sketchy in terms of how their relationship progressed from a casual couples dinner to space travel buddies, but sources tell Page Six that Davidson is close to signing a deal to hop aboard an upcoming Blue Origin flight.

“Pete is excited,” a source close to Davidson told Page Six. “They haven’t signed a contract yet, but it looks like it’s going to happen. The details are being finalized. He got on really well with Jeff when they met.”

No details about when the flight might happen have been released, but Davidson unfortunately won’t be the first celeb to head to infinity and beyond with Bezos. In October, legendary Star Trek actor William Shatner hopped aboard a Blue Origin flight and, at age 90, became the oldest person to ever travel to space.

(Via Page Six)

The Batman is longer than Pulp Fiction. It’s longer than Heat, it’s longer than The Godfather, it’s longer than 2001: A Space Odyssey. True, there have been some great movies that are longer — Apocalypse Now, Braveheart, The Godfather Part II — but one important distinction here is that none of those were about Batman. Most importantly, this one feels long.

You know that scene where the Joker sits in an interrogation room and describes his evil plans and Batman punches the bulletproof glass and screams that he’s a madman? In The Batman, that scene (in this case featuring The Riddler, played by Paul Dano) takes place more than 90 minutes into the movie.

This bloat would be a lot easier to explain if The Batman was your typical lynchpin in an expanded universe, a movie responsible for staging meet-ups for 10 other superheroes while establishing storylines for three other villains — á la one of the Avengers movies, which I definitely wouldn’t want to sit through again either. But The Batman isn’t even part of the DCEU. This was supposed to be a weird, stand-alone take on Batman, like Joker (which lots of people hated but I mostly loved).

At times it does feel like Matt Reeves is attempting something admirably bold here, an angsty film noir that happens to have Batman in it, a Gotham-based Chinatown or a Seven (two movies 40 or 50 minutes shorter than The Batman, incidentally). Reeves’s Gotham certainly rains a lot. But for all its self-consciously hard-boiled pretensions, The Batman still manages to feel like 10 pounds of shit stuffed into a five-pound sock.

Your mileage, so it should go without saying, may vary. Just as in his Planet of the Apes movies (Reeves directed Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes and War For The Planet Of The Apes) there’s a lot to love about Reeves’ stylish compositions. For me, it’s hard to get past the fact that Warner Brothers seems to have found the only blockbuster director with even less of a sense of humor than Christopher Nolan. And Reeves’ work seems to lack Nolan’s vulnerability. Tim Burton’s Batman movies were emo. Christian Bale growled and brooded. This version seems joyless, lacking any playfulness whatsoever.

We don’t have to watch Batman’s parents get murdered this time around, which I suppose is nice. Reeves, with a script co-written by Peter Craig (The Hunger Games, 12 Strong), skips straight to Bruce Wayne as a reclusive, brooding orphan, cooped up in a weird old house with his surrogate father, Alfred, played enjoyably here by Andy Serkis, who brings a chavvy muscularity to the role. The plot turns on the murder of Gotham City’s mayor by The Riddler, a Zodiac-esque serial killer who leaves cryptic ciphers addressed to Batman at the scenes of his crimes, as well as creepy vlogs where he screams into a voice modulator until it distorts. The main thing setting him apart from all previous Batman villains is that he’s no fun at all. One of The Batman‘s recurring needle drops is Nirvana’s “Something In The Way.” It’s apt; The Batman is sort of the movie equivalent of “Something In The Way,” a Nirvana song for people whose favorite thing about Nirvana was Kurt’s depressive heroin hangovers.

The Riddler’s stated goal is to expose the corruption of Gotham City (which once again is a sort of New York but not New York), which is beset by corrupt officials and a powerful mafia, in the form of Carmine Falcone (John Turturro, in the Sam Giancana sunglasses he wore in Sugartime) and his lieutenant, The Penguin, played by Colin Farrell in make-up so extensive I didn’t know it was Farrell until I looked it up afterwards. It’s a city in decline where politicians party with prostitutes and everyone is addicted to “drops.”

Why the Riddler is so hung up on Batman in all this is a little unclear. As is why Reeves has chosen to combine 50s gangster references with 70s serial killer references utilizing 2020s social media, with side stories about insane asylums and orphanages. Where are we? When are we? Reeves seems to be going for a Chinatown/noir kind of a thing, but his references are all mixed up, and the plot feels like it’s moving in fast-forward. Batman and Alfred keep solving the Riddler’s ciphers almost instantly, revealing little. Round and round it goes, while Batman and Selina Kyle (Zoe Kravitz) pout at one another. Say what you will, they both have magnificent jawlines.

The Batman wants so badly to be hard boiled, to be “a vibe,” but it attempts to squeeze in so much that it feels frantic. Why is there so much plot? Why do we care about this Penguin at all? Reeves can’t seem to decide whether this is meant to be cartoonishly dark or actually dark, contemporary or retro, a stand-alone movie or tie-in. It seems to want to be everything all at once, everything except fun. That’s probably why it’s two hours and 56 minutes long.

It saves its big action set piece for a point well after the movie probably should’ve ended. The feeling that Reeves may have had a vision for a tight, spare Batman movie before he tried to incorporate every passing reference and studio note feels all but confirmed by the time we get to the post-credits scene. This scene is placed alllll the way at the end of the credits, mind you, past the color correction firms and logos for the film stock company and the names of the assistants to the Latvian second unit, and ends up being easily the laziest, most irrelevant two-second epilogue ever tacked on. Coming on the heels of a three-hour Batman movie it felt almost vindictive. I almost respect it. If Matt Reeves was telling me to go fuck myself at least I’d know that someone was having fun.

‘The Batman’ is in theaters now. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

Laura Ingraham is very upset about the current situation going on with Ukraine/Russia. Now, before you nod your head in agreement that you, too, are distraught at the war Vladimir Putin has inflicted on Ukraine—and feel ashamed for agreeing with Ingraham on anything—understand that thing she is so enraged about isn’t the needless death of innocent civilians because an unhinged dictator is pining for the days of the USSR. No, she’s annoyed about the poor Russian oligarchs who are having their super-yachts, Swiss ski villas, and other one-percenter playthings seized.

On Thursday night, the Fox News host—oblivious to things that actually matter—threw a fit about the rationale behind freezing the over-the-top assets of the Russian oligarchs who are very much to blame for the current Russia Ukraine War.

“Even if we could expeditiously freeze every oligarch’s luxury assets, would that really stop the suffering of the Ukrainian people that’s happening right now? Do we think Putin’s going to wake up and say… ‘You know that chalet in Gstaad was so important to me. I think I’ll call Zelenskyy and send the troops home.’ No.

More importantly, we have to ask: Is there a possibility that this could all backfire and make things even worse for Ukraine? Is anyone in the Biden administration even gaming any of this out? You wonder. So let’s be real. As satisfying as it may be to see these 400-foot luxury liners padlocked, chasing down oligarchs is like swatting away mosquitoes when a cobra is about to strike your leg.”

Did we mention that Ingraham’s rant includes her using a RUSSIAN ACCENT?

And before you think “Let the rich tyrants keep their super-yachts!” was Ingraham’s worst take of the night, as a side note: She also made time to call the whole operation one big staged event… just like the COVID crisis.

“These moves are about as effective as cloth masks on a cross-country flight,” Ingraham said, cluelessly. “Now we just got finished with COVID response theater and now they’re starting up with Ukraine Response Theater.”

You can watch part of the clip above.

(Via @Acyn)

Dua Lipa was at the center of a heartwarming viral moment late last year when an 80-year-old superfan was filmed having an excited reaction — “Are you sh*tting me,” he repeatedly exclaimed — to getting Lipa concert tickets as a birthday gift. Lipa herself shared the video and wrote, “OMG THIS MELTS MY HEART!!!” The fan was happy about that, as he said in a follow-up video, “Five minutes of fame is the greatest thing to ever happen.”

It appeared that was the end of the saga, but the story actually continued last night.

Lipa guested on The Tonight Show yesterday, where Jimmy Fallon arranged for Lipa and the fan (Papa Richy, as he’s known) to meet. Fallon got Richy to the studio by telling him he won a radio contest for the year’s best TikTok video. Instead of being interviewed on the radio like he thought, though, Richy was escorted to the Tonight Show stage.

When he emerged, he was surprised by the audience and happy to meet Fallon and shake his hand. He actually didn’t recognize Lipa, who was standing right next to Fallon, immediately. It was only after Fallon told him who she was that it clicked for him, causing him to put his hands on his head, take a step back, and exclaim, “Oh my god! Holy sh*t!” Fallon then pointed out how it was Richy’s dream to dance with Lipa, so with some music from The Roots, they got their groove on.

The YouTube clip of the segment also includes some off-air footage of Richy and Lipa in conversation on stage, with Richy telling her he was at her concert in Miami and that he loved it. He started to note one of the outfits Lipa wore during the show, which prompted Fallon to playfully get between Richy and Lipa and protectively shoo him away. As Richy left the stage, he shouted, “I got to dance with Dua! Oh! Oh! Oh!”

Elsewhere on the show, Lipa and Fallon talked about touring and some other things she has going on, so check out clips from Lipa’s Tonight Show appearance above and below.

Dua Lipa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

(SPOILERS for The Batman will be found below.)

The Batman saved the end credits scene for before the credits. What a concept. In the final minutes of the three-hour-long film, Edward Nashton, a.k.a. Riddler, has been locked up in Arkham Asylum for, among other misdeeds, placing bombs around Gotham’s seawalls, flooding large sections of the city. But his ultimate plan, to cleanse Gotham of its sins, backfires when Batman thwarts his plan to assassinate newly-elected mayor Bella Reál and assists in the recovery efforts. Gotham is still a crime-riddled mess, but citizens now have a costumed hero to rally around — and it ain’t the Riddler.

A devastated Edward Nashton is licking his wounds from inside his Arkam cell when he hears a voice and, later, a familiar laugh. We never see the fellow inmate’s full pale face, but it’s clear: Gotham has a new Joker (director Matt Reeves confirmed it).

It’s not Jared Leto, or Joaquin Phoenix, or a CGI Cesar Romero (if only), it’s actor Barry Keoghan who is listed as Unseen Arkham Prisoner on IMDb. That’s because:

a) the “Earth-2” Joker and Riddler have big plans together (“Don’t be sad. You did well. Gotham loves a comeback story”) for the all-but-confirmed sequel. Robert Pattinson has expressed interest in adapting the “A Death in the Family” storyline, in which the Joker brutally murders Robin, but only under one condition: “[Robin] has to be 13.”

b) Barry Keoghan rules.

You might know him from being creepy in The Killing of a Sacred Deer, or being creepy in The Green Knight, or being creepy in Eternals, or not being creepy (!) in Dunkirk, where he worked with previous-Batman director Christopher Nolan. I never thought I would welcome another Joker to the DC universe, but here we are: it’s good casting.

For more on The Batman, check out our interview with director Matt Reeves.

When it comes to Europe’s summer festivals, Glastonbury is the grandaddy of them all. Think Coachella, but bigger and across five days. Now Glastonbury has finally announced the long-awaited lineup for the June 22nd to 26th affair, and the festival also cemented the headlining slate with Kendrick Lamar and Paul McCartney.

McCartney and Lamar will be playing the grandiose Pyramid Stage, along with a previously announced performance from Billie Eilish. We’ll go ahead and take the Pepsi challenge on these headliners, because can this really be topped? Taking place at Worthy Farm in Pilson, Somerset, England for the first time since 2019, the camping festival had already been sold out before the lineup was ever announced. It’s a testament to the cultural significance of this massive gathering and the lineup is positively bonkers.

Also on the bill are legendary diva Diana Ross; pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo; Mercury Prize winner Arlo Parks; jazz fusion legend Herbie Hancock; Oasis leader Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds; a TLC reunion; indie-pop queens Mitski, Phoebe Bridgers, and St. Vincent; Little Simz headlining the smaller West Holts Stage; and a whole lot more. Glastonbury says that there’s still more artists to be announced, including more headlining and emerging acts.

Check out the full lineup poster above and visit the Glastonbury website for complete details on the fest, lineup, and a final ticket pre-sale opportunity.

Loads of TV shows saw postponements due to the pandemic, and with Amazon’s The Boys, the wait for Season 3 has been longer than the gap between the first two seasons, but surely not too bad, right? Hmm, October 2020 still feels like about a century ago, even though that’s not even close approaching Atlanta territory (that wait between seasons will be four years, after all), but still, the masses want more wickedly fun and enormously depraved goodness from this superhero-skewering show.

The good news is that The Boys live-action series will return for Season 3 on June 3. There’s a half-handful of months left to go until we see Antony Starr as Homelander losing his sh*t behind a terrifying smile again, and Amazon knows that this show’s a juggernaut, so they put some spinoffs in motion, including this animated offering, The Boys Presents: Diabolical, that’s partially meant to tide over impatient fans (some of whom have arguably been too impatient). Amazon’s making a name for itself with R-rated animation, too, so this is a win-win scenario even if Diabolical didn’t face this difficult dilemma:

Can a franchise that, in live action, manages to consistently stun — by exploding a room full of heads (during a congressional hearing, no less) and featuring some of the most shocking sex scenes put to screen — possibly be more outrageous in animated form?

Admittedly, I felt skeptical while approaching this one. I had prepared myself to be underwhelmed because it didn’t seem possible for animation to double down on a show that basically already behaves as though it’s an animated show, in terms of outrageous stunts. Fortunately, the answer is “absolutely, hell yes,” and Diabolical is every bit as satisfying (and disgusting) as fans could have hoped it would be.

You can thank-blame a host of depraved minds, including Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (who can’t seem to miss as producing partners), Eric Kripke (showrunner of the O.G. series), Justin Roiland (there’s some heavy Rick and Morty flavor), Garth Ennis (who penned the prescient comic book series long before deconstructing superheroes was cool), plus stories from Andy Samberg, Awkwafina, Ilana Glazer, and more. The voice talent here is ridiculous(ly good) as well, including Simon Pegg (as Hughie, which is circular as hell and great), along with Don Cheadle, Kieran Culkin, Kevin Smith, Jason Isaacs, Kumail Nanjiani, Kenan Thompson, Ben Schwartz, and too many more. Several live-action stars pitch in with their same characters here, including Antony Starr, Karl Urban, Chace Crawford, Elisabeth Shue, and Giancarlo Esposito. It’s a high-octane buffet of nerd fuel, all for a show that’s essentially an appetizer.

The stories, as well, deliver more disturbing adventures and insight into characters that fans both love and loathe. A lot of the episodes are standalone stories, but they still inform us on how Compound V affects the world at large, in random ways. Like how superheroes get divorced, or what happens when one of those Billy Butcher-wielded laser babies ends up in the wild. We do, of course, receive a hefty dose of Homelander and learn about his terrible early days (which shine some light on that infamous airplane scene) as a Vought International asset. That, presumably, is one of the canon entries that Eric Kripke talked about, which could factor into what happens in Season 3. And we receive a cameo from The Deep, in an episode that’s even more twisted than his live-action talking-gills and tan-lines scenes would suggest.

The very good news (for the punchier types out there) is that the entire Diabolical season feels like lining up at the bar and doing shots with instant gratification. All eight episodes are lean and mean. They’ll all release simultaneously, so the anger-review bombers can settle the hell down and start binging before hardly any time at all. And it works because the storytelling style is suited to binging (unlike the O.G. series, which is well-suited to the weekly format). As well, the show’s array of animation styles (from Looney Tunes-grade stuff to a more sophisticated anime look and everything in between) is almost dizzying, and Diabolical turns out to be a wonderful little gift for people who love messed-up Supe stories.

There’s a danger, of course, with an anthologized approach to episodes because quality tends to wax and wane with obligatory weak links in the mix. That doesn’t happen here. It’s all nutso and wild, but of course, some episodes will appeal more than others to any given viewer. I, personally, found unprepared for this outcome: some of these stories are surprisingly endearing and even sweet. My favorite story, in fact, is one penned by Awkwafina and it’s just gross and awful and, somehow, ends up being a very heartfelt story involving a piece of Compound V-induced poop. I’m both ashamed and delighted to admit this. (Oh shush. It’s a nice story!) Man, this is one twisted franchise, and Diabolical respectably stacks up to its live-action counterpart.

Amazon Prime’s ‘The Boys Presents: Diabolical’ premieres on March 4, and ‘The Boys’ returns on June 3.

Atlanta rapper Omeretta The Great is a skillful artist who’s spent quite some time working her way up in the hip-hop scene. Last month, she took a gamble with her controversial song “Sorry Not Sorry.” The track aimed to set the record straight on what cities are and are not considered “Atlanta.” “College Park is not Atlanta / Lithonia is not Atlanta,” she raps on the song. “Clayco is not Atlanta / Decatur is not Atlanta / Gwinnett is not Atlanta / Roswell is not Atlanta / Forest Park is not Atlanta / Lilburn is not Atlanta.”

The song sparked plenty of controversy on social media as many debated whether Omeretta’s claims were correct. One of those who responded was fellow Atlanta rapper Latto who actually said Omeretta “said the truth tbh” on the song. Now, Latto has lent her talents to the rising rapper as she remixed “Sorry Not Sorry.” Just like Omeretta, Latto shows pride and love for her hometown while namedropping acts like Migos, 21 Savage, Ciara, Ludacris, and Outkast as well as cities like Clay County and Decatur.

While Latto may be in support of Omeretta’s song, T.I. had a different take about “Sorry Not Sorry.” He did so through an indirect response on Instagram. “Respectfully…. Only fools dispute facts,” he captioned a picture of Atlanta’s metro area.

You can check out Latto’s remix of “Sorry Not Sorry” above.

The Lakers descent to the bottom of the Western Conference continued on Thursday night when they were run out of Crypto.com Arena by their in-town rivals, as the Clippers thrashed the Lakers by a 132-111 final score.

After taking a 17-point lead in the first half, the Clippers let the Lakers go on a 14-0 run to close the second quarter to make it 66-63 going into the break. A big reason for that run was foul trouble that knocked Reggie Jackson to the bench, but in the second half he came back with a vengeance, burying the Lakers almost single-handedly. Jackson finished the game with 36 points, nine assists, and eight rebounds, and enjoyed closing out the Lakers in style as he went directly at Russell Westbrook to send a little extra message along with the win.

With the game no longer in doubt in the fourth quarter, the Lakers still had their stars out there and, as such, Jackson stayed in to give them a little more of the business. Jackson hit Westbrook with a high-step into a filthy crossover that had Russ going the wrong way and out of frustration, Westbrook kicked Jackson’s leg to try and trip him as he went by.

Jackson laughed it off and immediately went right back at Westbrook and LeBron James on the ensuing possession, drilling a three for the exclamation point on the evening.

It was yet another dreadful performance by the Lakers, who continue to play some of the worst defense in the league, while the Clippers keep rolling along despite their significant absences, thanks in large part to Jackson’s efforts in taking over the reins of the offense and getting himself and others terrific shots. The Lakers will be back on national TV on Saturday night in primetime on ABC against the Warriors.

After his excellent 2021 year, Blxst seems set on making sure that his 2022 is just as good, if not better. Last year, the California native enjoyed the success of his late-2020 debut project No Love Lost as it granted him a spot on the 2021 XXL Freshman Class list. He also landed collaborations with Nas, YG, Mozzy, Russ, and more. Elsewhere, he and Bino Rideaux reconnected for their joint project Sixtape 2. However, that’s all in the past now and Blxst is back in action this year with his new song, “Sometimes.” The track is yet another collaboration from him as it finds him paired beside TDE singer Zacari.

Together, Blxst and Zacari describe a relationship that’s proven to be a bit distracting to them. Questions from their lovers and temptations from outside sources make it hard for the singers to stay focused and do what they need to do in their day-to-day lives. Blxst delivers the new song after he teamed up with Buddy for their single, “Wait Too Long.” Prior to that, he went solo and dropped his heartfelt song, “About You,” which was later released with a video that featured Paige Audrey-Marie Hurd from 50 Cent’s Power series.

As for Zacari, he released his Sol EP to conclude 2021 and it delivered four new songs and a lone feature from Justin Nozuka.

You can listen to “Sometimes” in the video above.