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A must-visit for any fan of amusement parks is Wisconsin Dells. The Wisconsin city is known as “The Waterpark Capital of the World” due to its multiple water-based theme parks, including Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park. The Greek-themed resort will not only have you singing “I Won’t Say (I’m in Love)” (most of what I know about Greek mythology, I learned from the animated movie where Danny DeVito voices a half-man, half-goat), but it’s also the future home of America’s tallest waterslide.

If you think the drop at the end of Splash Mountain (soon-to-be Tiana’s Bayou Adventure) is scary, wait until you get a load of The Rise of Icarus. The ride is 145 feet tall, features five body slides, and is the star of the park’s $8 million expansion. Have a look:

When The Rise of Icarus was announced last year, Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park wrote on Facebook:

As the Greek myth goes, Icarus soared too close to the sun on wings fastened to his body with wax, with the heat of the sun melting the wax and Icarus falling to the sea. Here at Mt. Olympus you’ll experience a much happier ending at the bottom of the slides!

(In case you were wondering, the world’s tallest waterslide is Kilimanjaro, located at the Aldeia das Aguas Park Resort in Brazil. It’s 164 feet tall.)

Other attractions at Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park include an outdoor theme park with the Hades 360 Roller Coaster and a Trojan Horse Go-Kart Track; an outdoor water park with a rotating water slide and a fast “lazy” river; and an indoor water park for when it gets chilly (it is Wisconsin after all). The Rise of Icarus opens this summer. You can find more information here, and buy tickets to Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park on the park’s website.

Beyoncé’s mission to break the internet in a recent Verizon commercial may not have been a success (which I think was the point?), but it did succeed in generating substantial hype for her new music — which dropped in realtively short order after the commercial aired in the form of two new singles, “16 Carriages” and “Texas Hold ‘Em.” They’re the first pieces of “Act II,” which fans believe will mark Beyoncé’s first full-length foray into country music. It’s also something she’s allegedly been sitting on for a while, so just when did she record this mysterious project?

According to a statement Beyoncé shared shortly before the release of Renaissance in 2022 (and after a leak of the album hit the internet ahead of schedule), she actually recorded three “acts” of her then-upcoming musical project during the pandemic in 2020. “Act I” was, of course, Renaissance. “Act II” will be the country album, while “Act III” remains shrouded in mystery for the time being. Here’s what she wrote:

“This three act project was recorded over three years during the pandemic. A time to be still, but also a time I found to be the most creative.

Creating this album allowed me a place to dream and to find escape during a scary time for the world. It allowed me to feel free and adventurous in a time when little else was moving. My intention was to create a safe place, a place without judgment. A place to be free of perfectionism and overthinking. A place to scream, release, feel freedom. It was a beautiful journey of exploration.”

Act II is due for release on 3/29.

A few notes before we dive into a little rundown of the best and worst of the 2024 Super Bowl commercials:

• This list is by no means definitive or exhaustive and I might be mean to one you liked or leave off another entirely
• America’s best working commercial actor was too busy coaching the game to be in an ad this year
• We will get to it later but I have no clue how we ended up with two Flashdance-adjacent ads in 2024
• I have always hated the E*Trade baby very much

Here we go.

THE GOOD

ON ONE HAND: Too many commercials relied on the celebrity of it all this year, a trend that’s been bubbling along for years now and finally broke me this year. I think sometimes it gets in the way of having actual fun ideas for these things because the creative process kind of starts and stops with landing a big name.

ON THE OTHER HAND: I gasped when Beyonce showed up. Look at her having fun in there. Her acting career has had its ups and downs but I vote we give her another shot at a fun little ensemble comedy.

In conclusion, I choose to believe Beyonce and Tony Hale are friends now.

A few notes:

• We are now going on like four decades of having fun with Arnold’s accent and it still hasn’t gotten old to me
• Which is weird because I also watched the Christopher Walken ad and came away thinking, “We get it, he talks funny, let it go”
• I am allowed to be inconsistent

I don’t know. Maybe I was just won over by Danny DeVito popping up at the end. Especially since he tweeted this last night after the halftime show, too…

I kind of wish he’d been eating a huge Jersey Mike’s sub, too. Let Danny thrive.

This commercial contained two of my favorite things:

• A cool and empowering message that people can do a lot of things that the traditional guidelines of society often keep them from doing
• Video clips of kids absolutely getting wrecked

Good commercial.

Ugggghhhh I don’t know. I should hate this. It’s got everything I usually hate, from the unnecessary Boston to the Tom Brady cameo to… all of it. And yet.

And yet!

I found it charming. I think it was the stuff with Matt Damon that helped. But mostly it’s the thing where Ben Affleck legitimately loves Dunkin so much. Next year the ad should just be a 30-second compilation of paparazzi shots of him sipping an iced coffee set to that one Dropkick Murphys song with “Thanks to our most loyal customer” at the end.

Listen to me.

I love this for Michael Cera.

This one has:

• Lionel Messi playing soccer with a dog on a beach
• The song “Cuando Cuando Cuando,” which is awesome and reminded me of Game Night, which is a good movie
• A deeply perplexing Dan Marino cameo where Messi kicks the ball to him on a yacht and he catches it with his hands (not allowed) and then just whips it back to the beach like it’s a football?

Insane. I loved it. Ted Lasso was there, too.

There are not enough commercials where old ladies zipline to get revenge on their nemesis in the name of snack chips. I am always saying this.

THE BAD

Buying up time for multiple ads in one Super Bowl is risky business because it can get old and annoying really fast if it doesn’t work. I like Dan Levy and Heidi Gardner very much.

These ads… less so.

Oreos are too tasty to get stuck with a Kris Jenner Sliding Doors punchline. They’re good cookies. We don’t need to bring Ancient Greece and the afterlife into this.

I do not and will never care about what kind of mustache Chris Pratt has.

I understand that FanDuel was in a tough spot here with the recent passing of Carl Weathers but there is something existentially depressing about running a silly little ad with Gronk missing a field goal and then smash-cutting to a black screen remembrance of the beloved actor in the ad who died two weeks earlier.

Carl Weathers deserved better.

ON ONE HAND: Good for the entire cast of Suits for cashing in on their rocketship ride to superstardom after one billion people watched every episode on Netflix last summer for some reason.

ON THE OTHER HAND: Please imagine explaining any of this to the version of yourself that caught a few episodes of Suits on USA in like 2013.

It’s… weird, right? It’s really weird. Reasonable arguments can be made that more people recognized Harvey Specter than Bradley Cooper in the second ad. Think about this for a few minutes today.

THE UGLY

Two problems here:

• Do not make me have positive feelings about the jiggly gummy candy you expect me to eat
• Why are we doing Flashdance references in 2024?

WHY ARE WE DOING THEM TWICE, ACTUALLY?

I don’t know, man. Part of me wants to know how this happened, how we ended up with two separate Super Bowl commercials that riffed on a movie that came out before any of the players in the game were born. A bigger part of me just wants to sigh very deeply and beg advertising executives to watch any other movie. Good for Jennifer Beals, though.

“What if the E*Trade baby played pickleball?” is the kind of idea Pete Campbell would have pitched in an episode of Mad Men before getting berated by Don Draper and mocked by Roger Sterling.

This represents the nicest thing I can say about this ad. It’s fascinating, in a perverse way. I… I kind of want to hear the ideas that got rejected before they settled on this.

Most companies spend their whole budget on making a spectacle that airs once during the game.

Temu appeared to spend $11 on making this ad and then used the rest of their budget to make people at home watch it during every commercial break all night.

No thank you.

Trains should not destroy private property with an ice-cold blast of wreckage to deliver single cans of beer to awkward parties.

LL Cool J should have been arrested at the end of this commercial

Jon Stewart makes his triumphant return to The Daily Show this week. However, since his departure, a lot of things have changed, and we’re not just talking about the political landscape. Now, more than ever, viewers have been ditching their cable subscriptions and turning to streaming to watch their favorite shows. However, The Daily Show is still airing on Comedy Central, a broadcast network, which makes things a tad tricky for cord-cutters. Fortunately, we got you covered.

First things first, Stewart will return as host on Monday, February 12, and he recently opened up to CBS Mornings about why he made the decision to come back to his old stomping grounds.

Via The Hollywood Reporter:

“If you want to be present in this world, you have to be present in this conversation and you have to be as relentless and as tenacious as the counter-narrative that’s being formed. So much of the information that we see now is weaponized … and it keeps taking exponential leaps,” he said. “It’s not just the election. It’s AI. It’s the way that we’ve militarized all our conflicts. It all ties together to one larger idea, which is the form of government we love so much is an analog — I don’t want to say dinosaur — but it is analog and the world now moves at an increasingly infinite digital pace and reconciling those two things, I think, is the challenge of the moment for people.”

While Stewart is technically back as the host of The Daily Show, it’s only a part-time gig. That means he’ll only be at the desk on Monday nights followed by a slate of rotating guest hosts.

If you want to watch Stewart’s first night live, and don’t have a cable subscription, you have a few options. However, they will all include picking up a live TV streaming package like Hulu + Live TV, Philo, fuboTV, Sling, and YouTube TV.

If you don’t need to watch The Daily Show as it airs, Paramount+ will have the latest episode available for streaming on the next day without the purchase of a live TV package. That means Stewart’s first night back on The Daily Show will be available to stream on Paramount+ on February 13.

Jon Stewart returns to The Daily Show on February 12 at 11 pm ET

Usher’s incredible Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show performance gave viewers 25+ years worth of hits crammed into the 15-minute set. It also delivered a banger of a new meme for fans online who couldn’t help but swoon at a tender moment he shared with guest artist Alicia Keys. Fittingly, she had joined him onstage to perform their 2004 hit “My Boo” which led to a tender embrace.

Naturally, their chemistry sent fans into a tizzy, resulting in a number of jokes at the expense of the stars’ spouses, Swizz Beats and Jennifer Goicoechea — especially Swizz. Check out some samples below.

Swizz, however, is holding it together — or, at least, trying to make it look that way. In an Instagram post with shots from the performance, the producer wrote, “Y’all talking about the wrong damn thing!!! y’all don’t see that amazing dress covering the entire stadium? Tonight’s performance was nothing but amazing with 2 amazing giants. Congrats @usher and my love @aliciakeys that song is a classic. We don’t do negative vibes on this side we make history.”

And, look, we get why the smoldering moment would get fans’ attention. After all, Usher did once sing, “Don’t leave your girl ’round me, true playa for real.” Swizz is probably safe. Probably.

Usher is at the forefront of the music world right now after his Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show performance this weekend. With how comfortable he and Alicia Keys looked together on stage, some might be wondering:

Is Usher Married In 2024?

Actually, maybe!

As People notes, Usher and Jennifer Goicoechea first sparked dating rumors when they were seen together at producer Keith Thomas’ 40th birthday party in June 2019. They have since had two children together: daughter Sovereign Bo, born in 2020, and son Sire Castrello, born in 2021.

Furthermore, the publication reports that according to court records, Usher and Goicoechea got a marriage license in Clark County, Nevada on February 8. A marriage certificate does not appear to have been filed yet, but perhaps one will be soon if the two decided to have a Las Vegas wedding while in town for the big performance.

In November 2023, Usher told People of Goicoechea, “I have an amazing partner, a support system. We have any amazing dynamic between our relationship, where I’m able to be passionate still about what I do, and have an incredible partner to work through some of the harder times as a young man, dealing with children and dealing with the dynamic of how you communicate with them.”

He also said, “I’m very happy, very fortunate to have an incredible friend, not just a partner. She’s my best friend and I love her.”

Poor Things was one of 2023’s best movies. It’s also one of the year’s most nominated films at the Oscars. Poor Things is up for Best Picture, Best Director for Yorgos Lanthimos, Best Actress for Emma Stone (in a career-best performance), Best Supporting Actor for Mark Ruffalo, Best Adapted Screenplay for Tony McNamara, and Best Half Pig, Half Chicken for this guy.

If you missed seeing Poor Things in theaters, well, it’s still playing in select locations. It’s also coming to digital soon. Searchlight Pictures announced today that the film will available on digital platforms like Prime Video, Apple TV, and Vudu beginning on February 27, followed by a Blu-ray and DVD release on March 12. The bonus content includes the making of Poor Things featuring interviews with Lanthimos and Stone, as well as three deleted scenes.

Here’s more:

From filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and producer Emma Stone comes this incredible tale and fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.

You can watch the new trailer for Poor Things below.

As anticipated, Marvel unleashed a trailer for Deadpool 3 during the Super Bowl, and it was the madcap first look that did not disappoint. Now titled Deadpool & Wolverine, the wild preview introduces Ryan Reynolds‘ Merc with the Mouth to the MCU where he promptly gets to work declaring himself as the Marvel Jesus. The studio could desperately use a hit after a rough 2023, and Deadpool could very easily be the Messiah that Kevin Feige is looking for.

As for how Deadpool makes the jump from the Fox movies to the MCU, that was just one of the many surprises tucked into the Deadpool & Wolverine trailer. It turns out Deadpool will get snatched up by the Time Variance Authority from Loki, which is an interesting twist. However, instead of dealing with Tom Hiddleston’s Trickster God or Owen Wilson’s Mobius, Deadpool’s handler will be Succession‘s Matthew Macfadyen.

Based on the trailer, it appears that the TVA is very concerned about the state of the Sacred Timeline, which seems to be colliding with the Fox universe. (An event that was heavily hinted at in The Marvels.) For some reason, Deadpool is “special” and will play some sort of role in alleviating (or exacerbating) the fallout of whatever reality-shattering event is happening.

In the meantime, the multiversal shenanigans gave the filmmakers a chance to litter the Deadpool 3 trailer with Easter eggs, and Marvel fans had a blast trying to catch them all. We’ll break down as many as we can below:

Doctor Doom

Doctor Doom is a major Marvel villain that MCU fans are hoping will appear sooner rather than later, and take over as the next Big Bad now that Kang is being quietly sidelined follow Jonathan Majors’ conviction. That fan fever has led to wild speculation that the figure below is Doom, but honestly, we not put money on that one.

Could Doom show up in Deadpool 3? Literally anything is possible with this movie, so we’re not ruling it out. It just probably isn’t this dude.

Secret Wars

While we’re not entirely sold on Doctor Doom being spotted in the trailer, that is very clearly an issue of Secret Wars lying next to Deadpool as he waits to get stabbed by Wolverine. That particular issue is from a Secret Wars series from the mid 2010s that saw Doom basically become an all-out God as he saved the collapsing Marvel Universe by crushing it and building a new one with the help of Doctor Strange and Molecule Man.

Considering Avengers: Secret Wars is the next big Marvel event movie, Deadpool 3 is putting some significant cards on the trailer with this tiny little Easter egg.

Cassandra Nova

While Emma Corrin’s role in Deadpool & Wolverine hasn’t been officially confirmed, the overwhelming fan theory is that she will be playing Cassandra Nova. As the twin sister of Professor X, Cassandra is a wildly powerful psychic who can do some serious damage if allowed into the MCU. This screenshot of the back of what is presumably Corrin’s head, seemingly confirms her role as Nova.

Patch

Hugh Jackman’s return as Wolverine is no secret and has been heavily touted by Reynolds. More excitingly, Jackman will finally don Wolverine’s yellow spandex suit from the comics, and judging by the trailer, he may be rocking a few other looks from the comics, too. Most notably, his tuxedo look when working undercover as Patch.

Pyro

Last seen in X-Men: The Last Stand, Aaron Stanford is back as Pyro, which is a neat little cameo that further cements the theory that Deadpool & Wolverine will go buck wild smashing the Fox X-Men films into the MCU.

‘Moon Knight’ Ice Cream Truck

While the Fox films will clearly get a lot of love, the Deadpool 3 trailer also had some MCU Easter eggs including the ice cream truck from Moon Knight:

And, Of Course, A Deadpool Easter Egg Inside Your Deadpool Trailer

In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, one of the TVA screens is showing the pre-recorded speech of Deadpool accepting an Emmy for Welcome to Wrexham because Ryan Reynolds was too busy filming, well, Deadpool.

Deadpool & Wolverine pegs into theaters on July 26, 2024.

Nope. Usher didn’t get paid for his stellar Super Bowl Halftime Show performance, no matter how good it was.

Stars who perform the Super Bowl Halftime Show are usually given a budget with which to stage the show so they aren’t coming out of pocket, but they also don’t get a check at the end of the night (or up front) as they would for a normal concert.

So, why do they do it? Because, simply put, it’s an opportunity to get their faces and work in front of the biggest television audience in pop culture today. For instance, going into this show, some fans were actively questioning whether Usher was someone who should be doing the Super Bowl, wondering if he was “big enough” for TV’s biggest moment.

Now, after the performance, not only have those skeptics largely been converted, but many of them will also be checking out Usher’s catalog, or checking for him in the future. To paraphrase Shaq: They weren’t familiar with his game, but they are now.

In the past, stars have seen enormous streaming increases as curious viewers do their research, including Dr. Dre, Rihanna, and even Spongebob Squarepants. So, even if Usher didn’t get paid, it’s still extremely worth it, as those streaming bumps can result in big payouts when those royalty checks roll in. The Super Bowl is one time that getting paid in exposure is worth just as much as a check.

Check out more of our Super Bowl coverage here.

Usher has been a premier showman for decades now, so it’s not surprising that he put on quite the performance for his Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show yesterday (February 11). Some surprises, though, came via the guests that Usher recruited to join him on the field. So, let’s run through who Usher performed alongside for his big moment (aside from the hundreds and dancers and backing musicians who were also involved).

Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show: Alicia Keys

Usher started off solo, performing at least portions of “Caught Up,” “U Don’t Have To Call,” “Superstar,” and “Love In This Club.” Then, Alicia Keys emerged as the first guest, playing piano as she and Usher sang “If I Ain’t Got You” before transitioning into their chart-topping 2004 duet “My Boo.”

Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show: Jermaine Dupri

Next was “Confessions Part II,” which featured an introduction from Jermaine Dupri.

Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show: HER

Usher ran through “Nice & Slow” and “Burn” by himself before HER played guitar (and absolutely shredded) on “U Got It Bad” and “Bad Girl.”

Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show: will.i.am

Immediately after HER was will.i.am’s turn, who emerged for a quick portion of “OMG,” his and Usher’s No. 1 hit from 2010.

Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show: Lil Jon

Then it was onto Lil Jon, whose distinctive gravely yell introduced a snippet of his and DJ Snake’s “Turn Down For What.”

Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show: Ludacris

Lil Jon stuck around for the next song as the performance headed into the finale. “Turn Down For What” transitioned into “Yeah!,” so naturally, this was Ludacris’ turn to pop up.

Revisit the full halftime show performance here.