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Big news on the World of Wizarding front. Sources for both The Hollywood Reporter and Variety say that a live action Harry Potter series is headed for HBO Max. While the streaming service and Warner Bros. denied to Variety that a series is in development, and no writers or actors are currently attached, the two publications report that sources have confirmed that the series is in the “very early stages.” Obviously, a live-action series based on Harry Potter would be a huge win for HBO Max as it looks to gain ground after a competitive first year. Considering the wizard world is one of Warner Bros.’ most lucrative franchises, the show could be HBO’s next Game of Thrones but with the added benefit of reaching a much younger audience.

However, this latest news isn’t without controversy. Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling has been facing intense backlash for her anti-trans views, and the Fantastic Beast series recently had a problem of its own. As Variety explains:

Franchise creator J.K. Rowling received tremendous backlash due to a series of anti-trans tweets and a lengthy essay on the subject in June 2020. Then Johnny Depp, who played the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald in the “Fantastic Beasts” films, exited the franchise after he lost a libel case against the British tabloid The Sun, which published an article in 2018 alleging he was a “wife beater” due to allegations of domestic violence made by his now ex-wife, Amber Heard.

Considering Warner Bros. and HBO Max are denying that the Potter series is in development, there’s no word on Rowling’s involvement with the project. But as THR notes, it’s pretty much a given that she will be given the “complicated rights issue” surrounding the IP. “Rowling controls the franchise and has a say in everything involving the property.”

(Via The Hollywood Reporter & Variety)

Keeping up with new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.

This week saw a fresh Billie Eilish collab and another posthumous appearance from Juice WRLD. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.

Billie Eilish and Rosalía — “Los Vas A Olvidar”

Billie Eilish’s most successful singles have been solo efforts, but she has a handful of collaborations in her discography as well. The latest is her Rosalía meet-up, “Los Vas A Olvidar,” which Eilish wrote not just with her brother, but her entire family.

Rhye — Home

Rhye has been a unique voice in music over the past few years, and his airy, dreamy vocals make a return on Home. Throughout the course of the soothing album, Michael Milosh shares more subtly funky R&B that’s as good for relaxing as it is for moving your body to.

DJ Scheme and Juice WRLD — “Buck 50”

It’s been just over a year since the tragically premature passing of Juice WRLD, and since then, there’s been a steady stream of posthumous content from the late rapper. Another one popped up last week with his and DJ Scheme’s “Buck 50,” a mellow effort that sees Juice letting detractors know not to mess with him.

Smino — “MLK Dr”

MLK Day was especially poignant this year in light of recent racial tensions in the US, and Smino marked the occasion with “MLK Dr” (short for “Martin Luther King Drive”). The track only runs for about 90 seconds, but it’s a worthwhile slice of psychedelic hip-hop with an equally trippy video.

Wale — “Good Vibes (Za)”

Wale, a native of Washington DC, is perfectly qualified to address the Capitol Building riots through song, and that’s just what he does on his latest single, “Good Vibes (Za).” On the track, on which he seeks the title, he also pays tribute to a couple of his recently deceased hip-hop peers, Nipsey Hussle and Pop Smoke.

Hand Habits — “4th Of July”

Hand Habits is in the lead for the year’s best video about digging a hole thanks to “4th Of July.” Naturally, the concept is deeper (hehe) than it might sound and it scores another anthemic folk-rock gem from Meg Duffy.

Rich The Kid — “Nasty” Feat. Flo Milli, Mulatto, and Rubi Rose

A number of women have been dominant hip-hop forces in recent years, a fact that Rich The Kid acknowledges through his featured guests on “Nasty.” Joined by Flo Milli, Mulatto, and Rubi Rose, the foursome follow the title’s lead and get rauchy, rapping about the bedroom, the ways they excel within that domain, and so on.

Kota The Friend — Lyrics To GO, Vol. 2

Ten tracks usually amounts to a full-length album, but since there’s not a track on Lyrics To Go, Vol. 2 that runs for over 2 minutes, Kota The Friend’s latest ends up being a brief 15-minute project. While it may seem like the songs don’t have enough time to lift off, Kota still manages to pack a punch throughout the release.

BRS Kash — Kash Only

UPROXX Sessions alum BRS Kash only just released his debut mixtape a few days ago, but he was becoming a star even ahead of that. One of the project’s highlights is a remix of “Throat Baby (Go Baby),” he got DaBaby and City Girls to join him, and DaBaby’s new contributions include lyrics about some action down low at a Lowe’s.

Joey Badass — “Let It Breathe”

Joey Badass had more to celebrate than just the start of Joe Biden’s presidency on January 20, as the date also marks his birthday. To mark the occasion, he dropped a video for “Let It Breathe,” in which he treats himself to a birthday Porsche.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The problem with movies these days is that not enough of them feature King King punching Godzilla straight in the mouth. Some of them get close, like Pacific Rim, which featured a giant robot walloping a Godzilla-like beast in the face with an ocean liner. I appreciate that if only for the effort. It’s not the same, though. We do not need to bring robots and sea vessels into this. Let’s keep in simple: just one huge monkey punching one huge lizard right in the kisser. That’s why I was — still am, if we’re being honest — so excited about the trailer for Godzilla vs. Kong, the sequel to the 2017 film Kong: Skull Island, set to drop straight to HBO Max this March. It features King Kong punching Godzilla in the face. Hard, too. A real haymaker. Cinema has returned.

The trailer features a ton of other dope stuff, too. We are going to get way into it in a second, I promise. You won’t even believe how many people from your favorite television shows are in this thing. But first, if you haven’t seen it, or even if you’ve seen it 25 times, please take three minutes and enjoy the trailer right now. A decent argument can be made that this — just the trailer, not even the full film — will be the best movie of 2021.

God, what a perfect piece of art. How lucky all of us are to be alive to witness this. The sucker straight-up opens with a city in shambles and King Kong tranquilized and groaning on a boat. This is a good start, and it gets better immediately because danger is looming and Alexander Skarsgard and his Aviators are about to set this plot in motion with three simple words.

Agreed.

It’s fun to pretend this is his character’s solution to everything and this is the first time he was right. Like, the government is holding a meeting about water quality and he raises his hand and the mayor is all “Look, I’ll call on you but this better not be another suggestion about King Kong” and then Alexander Skarsgard gets all fidgety and mumbles “It couldn’t hurt” and the mayor just sighs deeply and moves on and Skarsgard slinks back into his seat mumbling about how maybe King Kong should be mayor.

Oh, hell yes. Not only do we have a cool vest scientist, we also have a little girl who is the only one Kong communicates with, and who Kong is sworn to protect. While this is troublesome because it means this little girl is 100 percent going to be in Godzilla-based danger by the end of the movie, it also rules so hard. I hope she’s sitting on Kong’s head in the final battle and controlling him from up there by yoinking on his fur like she’s Remy the Rat from Ratatouille.

Freakin’ blammo. After a bunch of shots of an ocean beast terrorizing the open seas with what appears to be an indestructible tail that missiles bonk off of like Q-Tips, the scaly demon launches itself out of the water and into the curious Kong’s jaw. But… what it is? Who is it? How could anyone possibly know besides reading the title of the movie or consuming any small cross-section about 100 years of pop culture?

It’s a mystery. We may never fig-….

YES.

Imagine how powerful it must feel to deliver the “It’s Godzilla” line in a movie about King Kong and Godzilla engaging in hand-to-hand combat. God, it must be so thrilling. I bet Rebecca Hall leaped out of bed the day this scene was being filmed. I hope she got to do 50 takes of it with a slightly different reading on each one. I need to stress here that I am not being sarcastic at all. A movie like this always has a line like this and getting to deliver it is like earning a new badge in the Boy Scouts for an actor. I am legitimately happy for her.

“It’s Godzilla.” Just beautiful. I don’t see how this can get any b-…

I just shouted. I probably shouldn’t have shouted because I knew this was coming and wrote the whole intro about it, but I did and I do not regret it. Look at it. Look at how far Kong reared back for that punch. He telegraphed it from a mile away and stupid Godzilla still didn’t even get his stupid head out of the way. It’s so beautiful I could cry.

I don’t know why I love it so much. Maybe it’s the simplicity of it. Here we have a movie that cost nine figures to make and features more CGI than Star Wars and has the resources to do anything it wants, and what it wants to do is have King Kong coldcock Godzilla like they’re in the later rounds of a title fight in a Rocky movie. I don’t see how I can be expected to focus hard enough to finish writing this with that GIF just sitting right up there. I might have to cover my screen with a sticky note.

Oh really? These are dangerous times? How could you tell? Was it the massive hell-lizard bursting out of the deep to destroy half of a navy? Maybe the thing where our only hope at stopping it is releasing a different massive beast that only takes orders from one small child? I don’t know. Seems pretty under control to me.

Maybe if the lizard also shot lasers out of its mouth. Then I could see it.

Ahhhhh, okay. Fair enough.

Ladies and gentlemen, Kyle Chandler is in this movie. Coach Taylor himself. And, as I mentioned way back in the first couple paragraphs, he is one of many people from your favorite television shows in this movie. We also have Millie Bobbie Brown (Eleven from Stranger Things) and Brian Tyree Henry (Paperboy from Atlanta). It’s almost to the level of John Wick 3, which had Ian McShane (Al Swearingen from Deadwood) and Asia Kate Dillon (Taylor from Billions) and Jason Mantzoukas (from every good comedy) and Jerome Flynn (Bronn from Game of Thrones) and Lance Reddick (from The Wire and Bosch), which raises an important question: how the hell is Lance Reddick not playing an authority figure in the movie about Godzilla and King Kong whomping on each other?

Well, my friends, I have excellent news: Lance Reddick is in this movie. According to IMDb, he is playing a character named “Monarch Director,” which is almost perfect if it is the character’s title and full-on perfect if it is the character’s actual name. I’m going to pretend it’s the latter until I have real indisputable evidence to the contrary. Please do not ruin this for me.

This is very stupid but do it anyway, just for me. Next time you watch an action movie, think about two things:

• A 24-hour news network covering everything that happens live on-air
• The insurance adjuster who has to go out and investigate the damage after everything is over

The first one is fun but the second one might be even better, especially if you picture some guy trying to convince the insurance company that a bumped fender from six months earlier happened in the Godzilla fight.

ADJUSTOR: So Godzilla did this? You’re sure? He burned down 15 city blocks downtown but also made his way out to this neighborhood — 10 miles away — and did no damage to any property here or in-between other than cracking your fender on the left side?

GUY WHOSE NAME IS PROBABLY LIKE LARRY OR EARL: Uhhhh, yeah. And he stole the new 80-inch flat-screen I had in the backseat. Put that down, too.

Oh wow. Oh, my God. Not only does Rebecca Hall get to deliver the “It’s Godzilla” line, she also gets to deliver the “The myths are real” line that shoots us off into an explanation of exactly why Godzilla and King Kong hate each other so much. What a role. Again, not being sarcastic at all. This is Jeff Goldblum Territory here, people. This is a big deal. And I would take another paragraph or two to get into it all if I had time, which I do not, because it turns out their feud has been bubbling for centuries and that means I get to post a GIF of King Kong knocking a flying hellbeast out of the sky with a second flying hellbeast like he’s Jim Thome smashing a dinger or something.

I cannot possibly express to any of you in strong enough terms how badly I need this in my life. Things have been so weird for the past year or so. Everyone has been stuck inside and terrified because of a deadly global pandemic and we had a particularly ugly presidential election that featured an armed insurrection at the Capitol and, I’m sorry, but I think we deserve to see King Kong and Godzilla just wallop the hell of out each other for two hours while a crew of recognizable faces pops up every now and then to deliver the most obvious information possible.

We’ve earned this. Would it be cooler to see it on a huge IMAX screen in a theater, surrounded by a bunch of other lunatics who freed up a substantial chunk of a Saturday to see two monsters clobber each other? Yes, sure, of course. But will it also be nice to watch this on HBO Max in my living room on some boring Friday night with a pizza and a couple beers? Also yes, extremely. I want it now. I want it before now. I want to have seen it and I want to be getting ready to watch it a second time tonight. I want to have seen all or parts of it on basic cable on three dozen different rainy weekend afternoons, to the degree that when someone sees I have it on they’re like “Are you watching the Godzilla and King Kong movie again?”

Yes. Yes, I am. I mean…

Yes.

YES.

YES.

Thank you.

Donald Trump just spent his first weekend out of office, and you’ll never believe what he misses the most: His Twitter account. The twice-impeached former president is reportedly furious that he can’t publicly vent his anger after being banned from the social media platform following the attack on the U.S. Capitol building in early January. Trump is particularly incensed at Dr. Anthony Fauci, whose demeanor notably improved as soon as Joe Biden’s administration started, and Fauci hasn’t been shy about highlighting the drastic improvements right out of the gate.

Just like his time in the White House, Trump spent the weekend “hate-watching” Fauci on TV, but without the aid of his Twitter “release valve.” According to The Daily Beast:

Fauci’s re-emergence on prime-time television during the Biden era infuriated the exiled Trump, who began whining about how “incompetent” the doctor was, and how he probably should have fired Fauci when he had the chance, a source close to the former president and another individual familiar with the matter tell The Daily Beast. (Technically, Trump did not have the power to fire Fauci, a career federal employee.)

It probably doesn’t help that the visible change in Fauci’s mood immediately went viral not even a day into the Biden administration taking over. As some Twitter users pointed out, Fauci is feeling so good that he doesn’t need to wear glasses anymore.

In Fauci’s defense, working for Trump was not only frustrating from a public health standpoint, but also legitimately frightening. In a new interview with The New York Times, Fauci opened up about the death threats his family received, including the time he opened up a letter filled with white powder. Understandably, Fauci was furious that his wife and children were in danger, and that the danger was coming from Trump supporters who were angry that the doctor’s coronavirus briefings would cost Trump the election.

“There was chatter on the internet, people talking to each other, threatening, saying, ‘Hey, we got to get rid of this guy. What are we going to do about him? He’s hurting the president’s chances,’” Fauci told the Times. “You know, that kind of right-wing craziness.”

(Via The Daily Beast & New York Times)

Glenn Close has been nominated for seven Oscars, and lost every time. That’s three Best Supporting Actress nominations (for The World According to Garp, The Big Chill, and The Natural) and four Best Actress nominations (Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons, Albert Nobbs, and The Wife) but zero trophies. Close is only one nomination-but-no win away from tying the record set by Peter O’Toole (Amy Adams is right behind her), but Pete Davidson, of all people, is hoping the actress doesn’t make history.

Variety had Close and Davidson chat for a virtual interview (he was in a basement in Long Island, she was in Montana, could I make it any more obvious?) during which her close calls at the Academy Awards were brought up. “What can we do to get you an Oscar?” the SNL star asked. “We have to get the internet to help, because you deserve seven!” Clearly someone hasn’t seen Albert Nobbs… But Close isn’t sweating her losses.

“Is it better to be wheeled out in a wheelchair and get the lifetime achievement award?” she said to Davidson. “You don’t have to make a speech. It’s beyond me. I don’t know what to say about that. I just have to keep doing what’s good. You’re fulfilled by your work, and that’s the process to me. It’s what feeds my soul, but it really is nice when other people like it. It might be cool to never get one. I wouldn’t mind being wheeled out when I’m old and drooling, and I have a gray wig to cover my bald head.”

You hear that, Pete Davidson? Close thinks it would be “cool” to not win an Academy Award for Hillbilly Elegy, one of the most bad terminator (worst) movies of 2020. Respect her wishes. Save the passion for the Sunset Boulevard remake.

Late last year, as Donald Trump agitated to overturn the results of the recent election, Kodak Black made it a point to trouble the outgoing administration for an early release from prison. He tweeted support for the so-called “Platinum Plan” and even offered to donate $1 million to charity within the first year after his release if he was pardoned.

However, now that his wish has been granted, with Trump commuting Kodak’s sentence on his last day in office, sharp-eyed fans noticed that Kodak’s donation promise may have been rescinded. Several noticed that the tweet had been deleted (although screenshots last forever, as you can see above), although Kodak profusely thanked Trump and even shouted-out the former game show host in his new song, “Last Day In.”

After the tweet’s absence was noted, Kodak Black’s lawyer, Bradford Cohen, reached out to TMZ to offer a statement.

“A statement promising something for something in exchange is not appropriate and although Kodak has always given to charity his whole career and will continue to do charity, not in exchange for anything. Some think this is a story. It isn’t. Instead of harping on a young Black man and how much charity he does, why don’t we take a look at the amount of charity the writers of these articles do? Last week, Kodak pledged $100k to setting up a scholarship fund in the name of Meadow Pollack. The week before he donated $50k to barstool fund to help small businesses. That’s $150k and he’s been out 5 days.”

That may be the case, but this may be a case of Kodak’s words speaking louder than his actions — especially since he still faces prosecution in his 2016 sexual assault case in which he was accused of raping a 17-year-old girl at a hotel after one of his concerts.

I told a friend last week, “there’s a new Taken movie out with Liam Neeson.”

“They made another Taken movie?” he asked, incredulous.

Well, not exactly, but yes. It was called The Marksman, and like most Liam Neeson action movies since 2008, it was essentially a Taken movie in everything but name. I think we all know what a “Taken movie” is by now. Key and Peele perfectly distilled the phenomenon for posterity in their recurring valet sketches, which eventually grew beyond “Liam Neesons” to encompass everyone from Bruce Willy to Anne Hathaway.

One man (or, sure, woman), at least 40 to 45 years of age but preferably older, has something important taken from him — his wife, his daughter, his dog, his car, or maybe just a rug that really tied the room together (no, The Big Lebowski doesn’t count, but that’d be a fun parody). That now-pissed-off person must then have “a particular set of skills” that make him a nightmare for all the kidnappers and rug thieves out there. Thus begins his (or her!) one-person revenge rampage (no buddy revenge movies, no “one last score movies,” those are different).

All of which got us to thinking: what are the best non-Taken Taken Movies? I tried to outline the best of the genre below, as well as create a brief taxonomy of why they qualify as “Taken movies.” Such as: the reason for their revenge rampage (“this time, it’s personal”), and the personal qualities they bring to it (“a particular set of skills.”).

Movie: Rambo Last Blood

Liam Neesons?

73-year-old Sylvester Stallone

This Time… It’s Personal

Rambo’s adopted granddaughter goes to Mexico to try to find her father, who tells her that he never cared about her, and when she goes to drink away her troubles she gets drugged and kidnapped by a drug cartel who want to sell her into sex slavery.

A Particular Set Of Skills

In short… he’s Rambo.

Or as he puts it in Rambo (aka Rambo IV, aka John Rambo, aka the Rambo movie before this one) “You know what you are. What you’re made of. War is in your blood. Don’t fight it. You didn’t kill for your country. You killed for yourself. The gods are never gonna make that go away. When you’re pushed, killing’s as easy as breathing.”

General Thoughts

Rambo: Last Blood is one of the all-time masterpieces in accidentally (?) saying the quiet part out loud. It’s one of the goriest, most xenophobic movies ever made, in which a now actually-ghoulish looking Sylvester Stallone is a Frankenstein’s monster of grievance politics. Stallone has always been legitimately brilliant when it comes to having his finger on the pulse of Americans’ worst impulses at any given time, whether it be furthering the POW/MIA canard in Rambo II or dedicating Rambo III to the mujahideen, and Last Blood is his BUILD THE WALL! The man also can’t not make an entertaining movie. Last Blood is like Taken, only 10 times more violent and xenophobic.

Movie: The Outlaw Josie Wales

Liam Neesons?

46-year-old Clint Eastwood.

This Time… It’s Personal

Josey Wales is a simple Missouri farmer, until one day, a gang of pro-Union Jayhawks murders his wife and son.

A Particular Set Of Skills

Wales joins a Confederate militia and survives a massacre. If Wales learning to fight from the Confederacy seems somewhat… ah… problematic… we’ll get to that.

General Thoughts

Folks… I fell down the rabbit hole with this one. I always thought of Josey Wales as a sort of proto-Taken, with pissed-off old Clint Eastwood spitting tobacco juice on everyone, and it is, but I didn’t entirely remember the plot. Nor did I realize that it was based on a novel by “Forrest Carter,” which was actually the pen name of Asa Earl Carter, a former KKK leader and speechwriter for George Wallace. Carter even wrote the “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” speech. He later fell out with Wallace on account of Wallace not being racist enough, and ran against him in the 1970 primary. If you’re wondering why a story that seems so pro-Confederate is also so pro-Native American, well, Carter’s fake writer persona, “Forrest Carter” was Cherokee (Asa also claimed Cherokee ancestry). Though one might also note that he named his persona “Forrest” …after Nathan Bedford Forrest, the founder of the Klan.

Carter even wrote a fake Native American memoir that Oprah put on her recommended reading list (side note: how many times has Oprah been duped by a fake memoir??). The Outlaw Josie Wales‘ original screenwriter Philip Kaufman, was apparently aware of this and tried to tone it down:

The film’s first director, Philip Kaufman, was not impressed by “The Rebel Outlaw Josey Wales.” “‘Fascist’ is an overworked word,” says Kaufman from his California home, “but the first time I looked at that book that’s what I thought: ‘This was written by a crude fascist.’ It was nutty. The man’s hatred of government was insane. I felt that that element in the script needed to be severely toned down. But Clint didn’t, and it was his movie.” Eastwood eventually fired Kaufman and went on to direct himself.

For movies in the Taken genre, I would argue that having terrible politics is canon.

Movie: Destroyer

Liam Neesons?

51-year-old Nicole Kidman

This Time… It’s Personal

A gang of bank robbers killed her boyfriend!

A Particular Set Of Skills

Kidman’s character, Erin Bell, is an LAPD detective, basically the lady version of every self-destructive alcoholic detective character who’s smart and cynical and doesn’t give a shit anymore. At one point, she gives a gang member in a hospice a handjob in exchange for information. It’s basically Destroyer‘s twist on Liam Neeson stabbing the old lady in the arm. Brilliant.

General Thoughts

It’s about time someone made a lady Taken! Destroyer is actually smarter, more artsy, and less pulpy than most of the movies on this list, and for the most part my only criticism is Kidman’s over-the-top alcoholic make-up the entire movie. Like, really? We couldn’t have a female version of the drinking-himself-to-death detective without giving her black eyes, sallow skin, and fake liver spots? Talk about hamming it up. She was like the live-action embodiment of the kid’s mean cartoon of Moe on The Simpsons.

Aw, jeez, you got the stink lines and everything?

Movie: True Lies

Liam Neesons?

47-year-old Arnold Schwarzenegger.

This Time… It’s Personal

The terrorist group “Crimson Jihad” kidnaps Harry Tasker’s wife and then his daughter.

A Particular Set Of Skills

Schwarzenegger’s character, Harry Tasker, poses as a computer salesman but is actually an intelligence agent with “Omega Sector.” He excels at weapons, hand-to-hand combat, subterfuge, and can even fly a Harrier jet. The man has range.

General Thoughts

You could make the case that while Harry Tasker’s wife and daughter do get kidnapped, it wasn’t exactly the “inciting event” for the whole movie like in a pure Taken movie. It was more just a consequence of his life as a spy, from which he hasn’t yet retired. True Lies is probably more of a straightforward, eighties-style action movie, and also a brilliant parody of eighties-style action movies. What makes it so rare and wonderful is that it works perfectly as both. It may not fit the genre perfectly but I’d be damned if I left it off.

Movie: John Wick

Liam Neesons?

50-year-old Keanu Reeves.

This Time… It’s Personal

They stole his car and killed his dog, who was a gift from his dead wife. The full tooken trifecta!

A Particular Set Of Skills

He’s an orphan who raised by Belorussian assassins to become an assassin.

General Thoughts

It feels like John Wick was born when someone thought “what if Taken, but more?” (Shoulda called it “Taken It To The Limit”) It works, probably because Taken was built on excess to begin with. Keanu Reeves was also inspired casting — who knew then that the good-natured dopey surfer guy had it in him to play a crotchedy bruised up badass? No one transitioned from young and cute to scarred and rugged as seamlessly as Keanu Reeves.

Movie: Blood Father

Liam Neesons Played By:

60-year-old Mel Gibson.

This Time… It’s Personal

Mel’s character, John Link, has a drug addict daughter who was dating a drug lord, but she shoots him in the neck during a botched robbery and has to flee. On the run, she reconnects with her estranged father and John Link subsequently has to protect her from a drug cartel.

A Particular Set Of Skills

John Link is an ex-con and recovering alcoholic, but mostly he’s just grizzled as hell.

General Thoughts

Separating the art from the artist and all that, Mel Gibson might be the ideal, if not original, Liam Neesons. He arguably helped invent the Taken genre in Ransom. I will never escape the image of an unhinged Gibson barking “GIMME BACK MY SON!” into the phone. He perfects it in Blood Father. A lot of actors who were sex symbols in their younger days have an awkward phase in middle life where they’ve clearly aged out of “young heartthrob” but haven’t quite owned “badass grandpa” yet. For Mel that period lasted probably a decade. Blood Father was the film where he finally fully accepted his leatheriness and it worked (again, assuming you can watch his movies without hearing him scream racial slurs). Being that it also stars William H. Macy and Dale Dickey, it probably has the best cast of any movie on this list.

Movie: Gran Torino

Liam Neesons Played By:

78-year-old Clint Eastwood.

This Time… It’s Personal

(*long string of racial slurs*)

Mostly, there’s a Hmong gang that tries to coerce Clint’s neighbor, Thao, into joining their gang, and his initiation is trying to steal Clint’s prized Gran Torino. His vengeance is part retribution for Thao, part retribution for his Gran Torino.

A Particular Set Of Skills

Clint’s character is a Korean War vet and winner of a Silver Star who still keeps his M1 in pristine condition. Also, he’s really old.

General Thoughts

It’s hard to separate movies in which the “retired badass” learns to kill again and ones in which he finds a reason to live. Lots of them, like The Marksman, which inspired this list (which was directed by a long-time Eastwood collaborator), are both. Gran Torino is like that. By now Eastwood has made a string of “problematic old man” movies, and Gran Torino is still by far the best of them.

Movie: Falling Down

Liam Neesons?

49-year-old Michael Douglas.

This Time… It’s Personal

First William Foster gets laid off from his job, then he gets stuck in traffic and his A/C breaks down, then a shop owner won’t give him change for a phone call, some gang members try to mug him, the fast food place has just switched to the lunch menu even though he wants breakfast and have you ever noticed they sell hot dog buns in packs of six but hot dogs in packs of eight??? Falling Down is kind of like if Limp Bizkit’s “One Of Those Days” and a Denis Leary bit tongue kissed and then became a movie, the ultimate example of a white man slowly driven insane by petty grievances.

A Particular Set Of Skills

William Foster is a former defense engineer but mostly he’s just really pissed off. It works because no one juts his jaw and grinds his teeth like Michael Douglas.

General Thoughts

Admittedly, Falling Down is technically probably more of an “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” movie than a Taken movie, but it’s such a landmark pissed-off-old-white-guy movie that I feel like I have to include it. The beauty of Falling Down was that there was actually a scene in which Michael Douglas rebuffs a neo-Nazi fan of his work. As if to say, “Whoa whoa whoa, I may be a pissed off old white guy, but I’m not that kind of pissed off old white guy!”

Movie: Man On Fire

Liam Neesons?

50-year-old Denzel Washington.

This Time… It’s Personal

Bad guys kidnap his 9-year-old client and best friend, played by Dakota Fanning. She was the reason he decided to live! He was even acting as her swim coach.

A Particular Set Of Skills

John W. Creasy is an alcoholic former U.S. Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance Captain and CIA Special Activities Division officer.

General Thoughts

Does anyone direct a meat-and-potatoes action movie better than Tony Scott? And is there a better Liam Neesons than Denzel Washington? Man On Fire is also, to my knowledge, the only movie on this list in which the hero crams a bomb in someone’s ass. Now THAT’S how you Taken.

Movie: The Accountant

Liam Neesons?

44-year-old Ben Affleck.

This Time… It’s Personal

The CEO of the company the Accountant has been hired to audit fires him before he can finish the job, which makes him furious. He hates leaving things unfinished!

A Particular Set Of Skills

Chris is a high-functioning autistic whose father, an Army Psyops officer, put him through “an intense regiment of stoicism and martial arts training” from the time he was just a young child. Also, he’s really good at math, can instantly calculate the distance and wind resistance of long-distance sniper shooting, and eating foods in multiples of three. He also listens to heavy metal for exactly 15 minutes a day and stares at a Honus Wagner baseball card to calm himself. Basically, the greatest action hero ever created.

General Thoughts

The Accountant may not fit the genre perfectly, in the sense that Ben Affleck’s character isn’t coming out of retirement. But come on, a high-functioning autistic assassin trained in martial arts who loves baseball cards? You can’t beat that plot. If I were Joe Biden, my first executive order would be to greenlight three Accountant sequels.

Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

The Weeknd has done a terrific job in promoting his album After Hours, not just in getting the word out, but in generating stories that went beyond the music. The most recent example of that came from his “Save Your Tears” video, in which he appeared to have some major facial plastic surgery done. His artificial-looking face, which indeed was artificial, had everybody talking, and now he has trotted it out again for a new Instagram post.

The photo is a simple one and seems to have been taken on the day of the “Save Your Tears” shoot. The angle at which The Weeknd has his head makes his extreme protruding cheeks the highlight of the picture. A few weeks ago, he shared another photo of himself in character, sitting in a make-up chair and posing to show off his exaggerated features.

In case it wasn’t clear, The Weeknd didn’t actually go to a plastic surgeon and get his face deformed. It was done with the help of prosthetics, and the person who brought the look to life, Prosthetic Renaissance Makeup-FX Studio designer Mike Marino, recently shared how he made it happen. The process involved multiple facial prosthetics, and it’s fascinating to see how it came together.

Many NBA teams will endure loss-stained seasons this year, eyeing the 2021 Draft’s crown jewel in Cade Cunningham as a reward for their fortitude. But the consolation prize for missing out on Cunningham is also entirely worth the struggles because USC center Evan Mobley is a stellar prospect, even if not quite in Cunningham’s realm.

Through 15 games, the 7-footer is averaging 16.5 points, 8.6 rebounds, 1.9 assists (2.3 turnovers) and 2.9 blocks on 63.9 percent true shooting (.584/.350/.705 split). Despite a restrictive team context (more on this later), he has been one of the country’s top players, ranking 12th in BPM (12.2) and first among freshman. His two-way dominance pervades throughout most games and he’s the primary reason USC looks the part of a potential second-weekend NCAA Tournament team.

And yet, understanding the tantalizingly special prospect he is requires a vastly deeper look than the outline his college sample has provided. The Trojans’ scheme and personnel, particularly on offense, often run counter to showcasing all that he offers. Mobley projects as a valuable face-up scorer, using an array of skills and tools, but isn’t always granted the freedom to show his full arsenal.

He’s a quick and efficient leaper to convert extension finishes near the rim; NBA defenders are longer than college ones, but Mobley’s leaping ability will still distinguish him athletically and enable him to score over the top most of the time. He eats up space with galloping strides and operates concisely in narrow windows with economical footwork, while possessing a good enough handle to beat defenders, especially big men.

Even when defenders sag off to invite a 3 or long 2, he can manipulate that cushion to his advantage, taking a couple dribbles to promptly rise for a paint shot, relying on his feathery, ambidextrous interior touch. He’s shooting 26 of 58 (44.2 percent) on 2s away from the rim this season. All of these tools shine through on his face-ups.

[On the pass against Arizona State, ignore the turnover, the vision and idea are more important]

The key for his future team is recognizing who Mobley is as a self-creator. Planting him in the on the block with his back to the basket, which happens far too frequently at USC, will not deliver optimal results. His poor core strength and high center of gravity make it difficult for him to generate advantages down low. It’s already been an issue in college occasionally and brawnier NBA defenders are sure to pose further complications, while also mitigating the impact of his agility in space, an asset he’ll wield over most big men.

These face-up opportunities, likely to utilize his driving and interior scoring gravity by pulling in help, allow chances to showcase his passing. One of his best traits is the rate at which he surveys the floor and diagnoses passing reads. With the proper personnel to capitalize off of his playmaking, he’s going to pick apart teams. It’ll force opponents to be timely and selective in how they approach double-teams and help positioning, simplifying some of his scoring load.

Many of his best passes have occurred from the post this season, usually after he’s spurred a double-team his direction. He isn’t going to be a domineering back-to-the-basket scorer in the NBA — meaning fewer doubles to leave someone open will occur — so the translation will not be direct, but the timeliness with which Mobley discerns reads and how he executes them remain salient. His passing is not at all confined to the post, either, featuring short-roll distributing and live dribble faculty.

The short-roll creation is only part of his devastating ball-screen prowess. He’s going to be one of the best pick-and-roll bigs in the NBA, yielding equity as a passer, lob threat and, potentially, floor-spacer. With a 7-foot-5 wingspan, innate body control and springy vertical, Mobley has an elite catch radius above the rim. Toss the ball within his expansive orbit and he will finish plays.

He ranks in the 89th percentile around the rim this season, swiftly transitions from screen to roll and is instinctive in identifying when to slip or dive into space. USC’s lack of viable creators, as well its propensity for posting up in the lane while a pick-and-roll is unfolding, prevent him from thriving, but the mammoth potential he touts is evident. Addressing his core strength deficiency is critical too, propelling him to better merge vertical explosion with power to wrangle with the NBA’s foremost rim protectors. His length and quick leaping give him a high floor as a finisher, but core strength shortcomings could inhibit him from being a premier scorer around the rim.

His finishing and instincts manipulating openings in the defense will also serve him well in dribble hand-off initiation. Pair him with a legit DHO partner and Mobley should feast playing off of their gravity. Elite ones like JJ Redick and Duncan Robinson are difficult to uncover, but really, anyone who forces defenders to consider their choices suffices. Refining his screen-setting to consistently make contact is imperative, albeit rather low-hanging fruit for improvement, but his offensive utility is going to shine when he’s not constrained by such limited guard play, floor-spacing and schematic tendencies.

As previously exhibited, he also is adept at attacking from the perimeter. That ability extends to pick-and-pops. Preferably, the jumper progresses smoothly to command respect, but he also excels at capitalizing on any runway afforded to him by defenders. Even if they sag off to protect against the drive, he owns the touch, extension and quick leaping to benefit, all of which aid him as a face-up scorer. Quite simply, he’ll have utility as a popper, though the value does not solely have to come from deep.

Projecting his 3-ball is an interesting exercise. Throwing on my amateur shot doctor hat will only get me so far, but let’s try anyway. Through 15 games, he’s 7 of 20 (35 percent) beyond the arc and 70.5 percent (67 of 95) from the free throw line. During 150 minutes (14 games) at the 2019 Adidas Gauntlet in AAU play, he went 2 of 10 (20 percent) beyond the arc and 6 of 12 (50 percent) at the line. The willingness to shoot so young is a good sign. The rhythm of his mechanics is pretty encouraging.

His energy transfer is mostly good, though the elongated hitch shortly before his release affects the fluidity and increases the stiffness of his wrist flexion. Streamlining that release to move from a pronounced two-motion shot to a sort of 1.5-motion shot could do wonders, alleviating the issues on the back-end of his energy transfer. A slow-motion compilation helps illuminate my points.

My general conclusion is that Mobley will be a tenable spot-up shooter because the willingness and positive foundational mechanics exist. Tweaking away the hitch is likely important to be much more than just a guy who takes 1.5-2.5 triples per game and knocks them down at a 34-36.5 percent rate. However, I once considered the jumper to be a floor-raising necessity, whereas I now deem it a ceiling-raising skeleton key. If he reaches a threshold that demands opponents close out — and that threshold tends to heighten as one’s interior scoring or slashing aptitude elevates (think Giannis or De’Aaron Fox) — leveraging his driving and agility will be easier. He’ll create more advantages to produce as a scorer and passer. Considerably more avenues to offensive goodness arise. But it is not needed for him to be a very good player offensively.

Face-ups, floor-spacing and pick-and-roll finishing are not the extent of his potential deployment. Mobley’s coordination, touch, handle and agility as a 7-footer can and should be leveraged in other facets, too. Empower him to lead grab-and-go sequences to seek cross-matches in transition. Giannis does this a ton, and it’s one way Mobley should emulate him. Encourage him to spearhead the occasional pick-and-roll as a ball-handler, thrusting a big man into screen navigation, while accounting for Mobley’s driving and passing acumen. Send him downhill off of screens, where his intersection of size and mobility is, once again, a weapon.

There is much more to his offensive repertoire than has been regularly showcased at USC. His future NBA employer must be cognizant of this atypical skillset to maximize him and place defenders in a bind. Scheme him into space and let him cover tons of ground in a brief amount of time before using length, interior touch or passing to capitalize. With those tools, plus close to zero buffering delay as a decision-maker, he can function suitably in a variety of contexts.

He’s a scalable offensive player, who provides finishing, initiating and playmaking. Expecting him to consistently catalyze possessions is misguided, but he will simplify the burden of any ball-handler, while his skillset is simultaneously amplified by their presence, assuming they have notable scoring gravity. A stretch 4 alongside him, clearing the lane for his face-ups, attacks off the catch and rolls to the rim, would be a welcome addition as well. It’s a much easier archetype to land nowadays, meaning Mobley isn’t quite the difficult team-building centerpiece he might’ve been early last decade.

Although Mobley brandishes a variety of paths to offensive functionality, he is unlikely to be a dominant offensive big man. He’s capable of donning many hats, but he remains a complementary player on that end. His lack of strength and fully projectable shooting caps the scoring prowess and the jumper would have to be highly versatile for him to ascend the upper echelon. That’s why a floor-spacing front-court partner and tenable lead guard are vital to constructing an idealized team around him.

The main allure regarding him is his defense, which has a chance to exist in rarefied air among his contemporaries. The gaudy block total, with 44 through 15 games, undersells the level to which he reshapes the offensive approach of opponents. Because of his length and mobility crossover, he is able to play off of defenders, positioning himself to contain any drive, while also contesting or deterring jumpers. It’s his most popular defensive play this season and one with appreciable merit because he’s precisely the archetype to fluster elite pull-up guards, dissuading them from shooting over the top while also owning the lateral movement to stay tethered downhill. Wings with size and strength, a la Luka Doncic and LeBron James, won’t be as heavily influenced (then again, they rarely are), but a plethora of off-the-bounce scorers will struggle against him.

Conceptualize him in the Bam Adebayo archetype of defender rather than, say, Joel Embiid or Rudy Gobert, who are stronger and more paint-oriented. This is not to posit a straight-line comparison between Mobley and Adebayo, but rather to establish a general sense of how he’ll flourish defensively. Both, though, offer stylistic diversity and are capable across an array of requirements.

He can play drop coverage, but also is more than capable to switch or hedge ball screens. He’s tremendous in drop coverage because his length and mobility discourage initiators from using the space ahead of them to drive or pull up, allowing the perimeter defender to recover after fighting over the pick, exactly the purpose of such a scheme. As a switch defender, he’s active on his feet and rapidly flips his hips to mirror any change of direction. On hedges or traps, his size and lateral movement are imposing barriers around which to drive or pass.

There are dozens of instances this season when he blankets the team’s primary options, whittles down the shot clock and leaves them with scant, if any, high-value choices. It’s the seal of an imposing big man defender, someone whose alteration and deterrence domain exists well beyond the rim.

One minor issue that stems from so many players refusing to shoot near him is a belief of that as the baseline. Sometimes, he fails to rotate because he just expects guys to bypass a shot and migrate elsewhere. It’s caught him flat-footed or floating out of position on plays where a rotation can be easily executed. Growing to understand that will not be the case as often seems like a routine fix eventually, but is nonetheless worth noting as a potential hurdle to maximizing his defensive output.

Inside, he leans on short-area quickness, acute anticipation, vertical explosion and length to muck up the paint. He’s a stifling help-side rim protector and that, along with his perimeter adroitness are why he should be useful as a 4-man, too. If certain matchups are likely to exploit his high center of gravity and poor core strength, he can play next to another big man who might be better equipped to handle someone such as Embiid, Nikola Jokic, Karl-Anthony Towns or Domantas Sabonis — and few stymie any of them as is, because they’re All-NBA-caliber players (or better).

Emphasizing any defensive shortcomings in the post is missing the forest for the trees, though. At his peak, Mobley will almost assuredly have achieved some strength gains to the point of his length, anticipation, body control and quick leaping mitigating any prominent concerns. Post defense matters, but it is not a headlining portion of defense, even for big men. And Mobley frequently applies his length to turn away entry passes, which, to some degree, should help mitigate the flaw.

Most importantly, anyway, the young man is a menace anchoring the paint, playing light on his feet, darting in at a moment’s notice and erasing shots, both on and off the ball. He’s so punctual, intelligent and decisive in every movement, rendering it tough to sneak anything by him. With manipulative positioning, he’s also wily enough to bait guys into taking shots they have no business attempting near him.

The extent to which Mobley checks paramount boxes defensively is absurd. He protects the rim, he limits pull-up jumpers, he rarely fouls (2.1 per 40 minutes), he’s smart, he can handle various coverages, and he has distinguished physical tools. Cleaning up his consistency of contests inside and core strength are likely necessary to reach Defensive Player of the Year levels. Regardless, he’s going to be a terror, possessing high-end versatility and impact during an era that continually demands more from defenses.

Few big men own the length and mobility to flummox pull-up maestros, while being good enough to enforce the back line and supply enough offensive productivity to warrant heavy minutes. The USC 7-footer is next in line.

Feeling optimistic about a runner-up finish in the Cade Cunningham Sweepstakes might seem tough, but the chance to select Evan Mobley, a prospect much closer to rivaling Cunningham for first overall than dropping to third in this class, will be reason to smile for one lucky franchise.

Trey Songz is reportedly on a 24-hour hold in a Kansas City jail after an altercation with a police officer at Arrowhead Stadium during Sunday’s Chiefs game, according to TMZ. A fan shot a video of the fight, which depicts the singer and the officer grappling in the stands, with Trey putting the officer in a headlock and the officer pinning him to a seat. Witnesses say Trey was defending himself after the officer attacked him, while the official police report says he was arrested for trespassing, resisting arrest, and assaulting a police officer.

The first two charges are misdemeanors, while the latter charge is a felony, albeit a lower-grade one, according to TMZ. Trey was placed on a 24-hour hold and will reportedly be released later tonight. A witness told TMZ that the fight started when fans heckled Trey and he asked them to stop. The officer supposedly accosted the singer without warning and, caught off guard, Trey fought back. In the video, fans try to shout down the officer, and when the officer’s backup arrived they were able to separate the two and arrest Trey.

The incident is Trey’s second arrest in three years. In 2018, he was arrested for allegedly assaulting a woman at a party. Earlier this year, he was criticized for hosting a packed party in Houston with Fabolous, despite contracting COVID-19 last fall.