Film
Eddie Murphy Briefly Quit Acting After Receiving Decade’s Worst Actor Razzie Award
Over the past few years, Eddie Murphy has experienced a career resurgence, thanks to movies like Dolemite is My Name and the recently released Coming 2 America, as well as an Emmy-winning return to Saturday Night Live. The renaissance came after a five-year period in which he only released one movie. During an appearance on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast (transcribed by The Independent), Murphy explained the hiatus was prompted by his winning of the Worst Actor of the Decade Razzie. “I was making shitty movies,” Murphy told Maron. “I was like, ‘This shit ain’t fun. They’re giving me Razzies…’ Motherfuckers gave me the Worst Actor Ever Razzie. [So I thought], ‘Maybe it’s time to take a break.’” However, the hiatus lasted longer than Murphy originally planned. “I was only gonna tak...
Zack Snyder’s Justice League Accidentally Shown to HBO Max Subscribers Attempting to Watch Tom & Jerry
Zack Snyder’s Justice League isn’t due to hit HBO Max until March 18th, but some subscribers got an early, inadvertent look on Monday. HBO Max confirmed to Deadline that a glitch temporarily caused the first section of Justice League to stream for users trying to access the new Tom & Jerry movie. “The error was addressed within minutes,” according to HBO Max, but not before several people caught wind of the error and shared video and screenshots of the leak to social media. Snyder’s director’s cut runs four hours long and adds the Joker into the movie, with Jared Leto reprising his Suicide Squad character for the newly shot scenes. Warner Bros. provided Snyder with a reported $40 million for additional footage after he convinced the studio to do reshoots, on top of ...
The Zamundan Palace in Coming 2 America Is Actually Rick Ross’ House
Eddie Murphy reclaimed his acting throne last week with the release of Coming 2 America, a sequel to the 1988 comedy flick. In it, Murphy stars as the iconic Prince Akeem Joffer of the fictional country of Zamunda, and he lives in an enormous palace with his ultra royal family. Not everything is as it seems in the movie, though. As it turns out, Zamunda was recreated in Georgia, not Africa, and the stunning mansion is the real-life home of Rick Ross himself. Ross’ home is a casual 45,000 square-foot mansion in Fayetteville, Georgia with 235 gorgeous acres surrounding it. There are 12 bedrooms, a dining room that seats up to 100 people, and a gold ceiling trim throughout the entire mansion. It’s an absurdly ornate palace both internally and externally, and the team behind Coming 2 America w...
Uzee Usman: Piracy is endangering Kannywood industry
Nigerian filmmaker, actor, and CEO of Uzee Concept, Uzee Usman, has called on the government to help kick piracy away in the movie Industry, particularly in Kannywood. He made this known during an interview with newsmen at the movie shoot of White Blood (Farina Mini) in Abuja recently. He said though no doubt that the Nigerian film industry is growing fast, what requires greater attention is the problem of piracy, which has become a menace that has eaten deep into the industry and may grind it to a halt. He pointed out that although Nigeria has laws against piracy, it remains a thriving business partly due to poor implementation of copyright laws, a near-lack of prosecution of offenders, and corruption in governance agencies. He added that it’s still becoming a huge problem in the northern...
TCM’s New Series Examines Problematic Films Like Psycho, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Tarzan Through Modern Lens
Turner Classic Movies has launched a new film series called Reframed: Classic Films In The Rearview Mirror. Taking place every Thursday night during the month of March, the series addresses racism, sexism, and bigotry present in old movies through a modern lens. That means a bunch of iconic flicks — Psycho, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Tarzan, you name it — are being reassessed with nuance and care, and likely prompting a wave of “cancel culture!” fearmongering in the process. Since its formation, TCM has committed itself to preserving the most iconic movies from the beginning of film history and onwards, and most people associate it with the black-and-white flicks their grandparents used to watch. But as our country works towards equality onscreen and off, that means everyone m...
Lola Bunny Gets New Look, Will Be Less Sexualized in Space Jam: A New Legacy
Lola Bunny (photos via Warner Bros. and Entertainment Weekly) Lola Bunny has a new look for the new Space Jam movie. In the long-awaited sequel to the 1996 original, the only female member of the Tune Squad will no longer have a hyper-sexual appearance compared to her male teammates. Earlier today, Entertainment Weekly provided a first look of Space Jam: A New Legacy, which features LeBron James and his Looney buds: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, Porky Pig, and Lola Bunny. Along with a handful of promising stills from the upcoming film, EW also spoke with its director, Malcolm D. Lee, about the noticeable alterations to Lola’s character. In Michael Jordan’s version of the film from 25 years ago, Lola was clad in a skimpy two-piece and was basically cast as a sexual obj...
Coming 2 America Is Not 2 Bad: Review
The Pitch: The king has returned! Eddie Murphy is back to check in on his 1988 invention Akeem, the now-ruler of the fictional African nation of Zamunda. As established in Coming to America, Zamunda is both a lavish and antiquated locale: not a lot of TVs, multitudes of rituals and ceremonies, beautiful interior design that would make a real estate mogul blush, all affectionately anachronistic. Akeem’s content with his three daughters and his loving queen Lisa (Shari Headley) by his side. Yet for the sake of kick-starting a sequel, he needs a male heir to avoid war with General Izzi (Wesley Snipes), leader of Nextdoria (you come up with a better fake name). And as it just so happens, Akeem hooked with up a woman named Mary (Leslie Jones) in the ‘80s, and unknown to Akeem, Mary raised his s...
Michael B. Jordan Wages a One-Man War in First Trailer for Without Remorse: Watch
In the first trailer for Without Remorse, masked assassins shoot Michael B. Jordan and leave him for dead, but it’s okay because he’s definitely not coming back to murder them all, right? Right!? Based on the 1993 Tom Clancy book of the same name, Without Remorse provides the origin story for recurring character John Clark, aka John Kelly. This tale of Cold War revenge has been updated to modern times, with conflict in Syria replacing the Vietnam War. But while portions of the book have been given a facelift, the overall structure is the same: Kelly loses his pregnant wife while he himself is shot. Everyone expects him to die, but lo and behold, he survives, and the experience leaves him… well, you’ve seen the title. “There’s something inside of me that I can’t turn off,” Ke...
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge On the Run Is a Total Franchise Play: Review
The Pitch: It’s another SpongeBob movie—what do you need, a road map? Actually, maybe: This newest adventure is an underwater road trip, with SpongeBob (Tom Kenny) and his starfish pal Patrick (Bill Faggerbake) on a mission to save Gary, SpongeBob’s beloved pet snail, who’s being used as part of a skincare regimen for King Poseidon (Matt Berry). This snailnapping was engineered by the scheming Plankton (Mr. Lawrence), who wants SpongeBob to stop (inadvertently) interfering with his plans to ruin the Krusty Krab, the restaurant where SpongeBob happily toils away. There are also two different robot assistants, one amusingly voiced by Awkafina. A Brand New Sponge: This is the third SpongeBob film, following 2004’s The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie and 2015’s The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of W...
Hugh Grant to Play Villain in Dungeons and Dragons Movie
Hugh Grant has been cast as the antagonist of Paramount and eOne’s upcoming Dungeons & Dragons film adaptation. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he will play a villain named Forge Fletcher. It actress Sophia Lillis has been added to the big-budget feature, as well, in which she’ll portray a character named Doric. The two actors join a stacked cast for the movie, which is based on the titular fantasy role-playing game. Bridgerton breakout Rege-Jean Page recently joined the production, which also includes Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, and Justice Smith. Game Night co-directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley are helming the film, for which they re-wrote a Dungeons & Dragons script that was based on an original draft from Michael Gilio. Not much is known...
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s Cannabis Brand, Houseplant, Comes to the US
Two years ago, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg launched their mid-century modern cannabis line, Houseplant, in their native Canada. Now, the brand is officially crossing the border, as it will soon be available in the United States. Well, at least one part of the US. California residents will soon be able to purchase the company’s three strains of marijuana flower — indica, sativa, and hybrid — via the to-be-launched Houseplant website. Each varietal is named after weather patterns, like the 33% THC (that’s a lot!) sativa strain Pancake Ice. No word yet on when or if the brand’s pre-rolled joints, soft-gel capsules, and two flavors of carbonated beverage (grapefruit and lemon) will follow suit. While the actual weed will only be available in Cali to start, Houseplant’s new home good...
Ed Burns on What He Learned from Steven Spielberg
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Stitcher | Overcast | Pocket Casts | Radio Public | RSS Their obsession. Their words. Someone else’s movie. Hosted by Paul Davidson, The Side Track interviews filmmakers, producers, writers, actors, and film fanatics, then hands them the mic to present their own personal feature-length audio commentaries of the movies that moved them and made them who they are today. In the Season 2 premiere, writer, director, and producer Edward Burns (The Brothers McMullen, She’s the One) explains how he broke into Hollywood with a micro-budget indie smash, what he learned from Steven Spielberg, his new EPIX series Bridge and Tunnel, how Sarah McLachlan wrote a song just for him and w...