HBO Max
An Animal Ethologist Reviews Godzilla vs. Kong
Godzilla vs. Kong (HBO Max) In the super-sized slugfest Godzilla vs. Kong, now in theaters and streaming on HBO Max, two of cinema’s mightiest monster-movie titans go toe-to-toe on a cross-continental rampage, leaving comically outsized destruction in their wake and finally answering the question of which beast can truly claim the title of “king of the monsters.” In one corner, there’s Godzilla, the noble warrior Kaiju, he of the atomic breath, armored scales, and ear-splitting roar. In the other, there’s King Kong, the greatest of the great apes, who can extend one finger in a gentle caress or ball his hands into fists to hurl a fearsome haymaker. That this massive, long-fated melee between giant lizard and giant ape is not a bastion of scientific accuracy somewhat comes with the blockbus...
Godzilla vs. Kong Is Punch-Drunk Fun: Review
The Pitch: Godzilla and Kong square off in battle to determine who will be the planet’s apex predator. Five years have passed since the events of Godzilla: King of the Monsters when Godzilla established himself as Earth’s alpha Titan. Presently, only Godzilla and Kong remain active, and both are continuously monitored by Monarch, the scientific organization that tracks and studies Titans. Kong now resides in a large dome on Skull Island, designed to look like his natural habitat before the island’s climate shifted into near-constant hurricanes, but also to protect him from Godzilla. Doctor Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) oversees his daily life along with her adopted, deaf daughter Jia (Kaylee Hottle), who can communicate with Kong through sign language. Jia and Kong’s connection is unmistake...
Bag Secured: Issa Rae Lands 8-Figure Film & Television Deal With WarnerMedia
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Bernard Smalls / @PhotosByBeanz83 Her show is named Insecure, but her money sure isn’t. Variety broke the news that Issa Rae secured a hefty bag after re-upping her commitment to HBO with a five-year overall deal, but will now see her Hoorae media company partner with WarnerMedia as part of its cover feature featuring the actress/media mogul. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed in the announcement. Still, according to Variety, the pact is valued to be at around $40 million, putting her in the company with Donald Glover. He also recently landed an eight-figure deal with Amazon Studios. The publication reports that as part of the pact, HBO, HBO Max, and Warner Bros. television will get the rights to Issa Rae’s television shows plus a ...
Zack Snyder’s Justice League Is An Audacious Mess: Review
The Pitch: Well, it’s finally here: the infamous “Snyder Cut.” The rallying cry of DC fanboys for nearly half a decade, Zack Snyder’s original version of the DC cinematic universe’s Avengers equivalent before studio meddling and a tragic death in the family led the oft-maligned director to step away and let Joss Whedon get his grubby, quippy little hands all over his self-serious, baroque baby. The 2017 version was visibly, obnoxiously, the product of two directors with warring approaches wrestling with a single project: Snyderesque aesthetics clashed mightily with repetitive, snarky repartee that didn’t seem to befit the DC verse’s grumpiest heroes. It was a bit more fun, but incredibly uneven, and featured one of cinema’s most horrifying upper lips. But now, amid enormous, organized...
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 ...
Tom & Jerry Is Just a Lazy Brand Exercise: Review
The Pitch: Did you read that Vulture interview with David Fincher where he described Alien 3 as making “a library title for a multinational, vertically integrated media conglomerate”? And you know how Scorsese reasonably tsk-tsked the usage of the word “content” because of how media companies and journalists have been using that condescending term to describe works of art? Ladies and gentlemen, here’s the latest piece of content for vertically integrated media conglomerate WarnerMedia’s library, Tom & Jerry. Yes, Tom & Jerry 2021 arrives this weekend on HBO Max, and answers the age-old question of what a Tom and Jerry ‘toon would be like today, and whether they could fight to Eric B. & Rakim’s “Don’t Sweat the Technique”. The Short, Short, Short of It: Your kids will probably l...
HBO Max Will Not Remove Woody Allen Films
Despite producing a whole miniseries about the disturbing sexual assault allegations against Woody Allen, HBO has no plans to remove his films from its HBO Max library. On Sunday, February 21st, HBO and HBO Max debuted the first episode of Allen v. Farrow, a four-part docu-series investigating claims made by Allen’s adoptive daughter Dylan Farrow. Besides that, the flagship streaming platform from WarnerMedia currently hosts six Allen films, five of which star Dylan’s mother Mia: Another Woman, Broadway Danny Rose, Radio Days, Shadows and Fog, Scoop, and September. And HBO plans to keep them for the foreseeable future. “These titles will remain available in the library,” the company wrote in a statement (via The Wrap), “to allow viewers to make their own informed decisions a...
Judas and the Black Messiah Puts a Nostalgic Lens On a Modern-Day Struggle: Review
The Pitch: The early morning of December 4th, 1969 served as an exclamation point for this country’s most tumultuous decade. The assassinations of Medgar Evers, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X; became jarring reminders that the virtues of morality, peace, and equality would never supersede the ideology that the United States was built on – racism. At 21 years old, Fred Hampton’s life may have been cut short, but his legacy continues to live on. Directed by Shaka King, Judas and the Black Messiah is not only a film about the political killing of one of the movement’s most promising figures, but an exploration of the inner turmoil plaguing the man who set him up – and the mindset of many others like him. In a powerful montage, the film opens with footage focused on quotes and spee...
Issa Rae Launching ‘RAP SH*T’ HBO Max Series, City Girls Co-Exec Producers
Source: Jerritt Clark / Getty HBO Max has been making some epic moves in the content wars and once again, they’ve scored what could be a major hit. The streamer has just announced a new series tentatively titled RAP SH*T with Issa Rae named as the lead executive producer with co-executive producing credits for JT and Yung Miami of the City Girls. The announcement shares that along with the aforementioned Rae and City Girls, writer Syreeta Singleton will serve as the executive producer and showrunner for the eight-show series. The logline reads, “RAP SH*T (wt) follows two estranged high school friends from Miami who reunite to form a rap group,” which, to us, reads like the City Girls are a possible influence on the story. Montrel McKay, who worked on A Black Lady Sketch Show and Road Tripp...
Jeffrey Wright to Voice Batman in New Podcast Series
HBO Max is developing a Batman spin-off series for TV, and apparently they’re crafting a Batman miniseries for your ears, too. Say hello to Batman: The Audio Adventures, a new podcast by HBO Max starring Jeffrey Wright as the Caped Crusader. Don’t expect it to get too dark, however, because the roll call also includes comedic actors like Seth Meyers, Jason Sudeikis, and dozens more. Written and directed by Dennis McNicholas, Batman: The Audio Adventures is a multi-episode series that’s putting “a comedic take” on the Dark Knight, notes The Hollywood Reporter. It’s separate from DC’s multi-year deal with Spotify — which includes the new Batman Unburied podcast written by David S. Goyer — and as such it will hit WarnerMedia’s streaming service sometime in 2021. To help draw out the laug...
What’s Streaming on HBO Max in February 2021
HBO Max is offering more than valentines in February. As promised, the streaming giant is delivering more Warner Bros. theatrical features as part of their same-day program. This month sees the release of the star-studded Judas and the Black Messiah and the live-action re-imagining of Tom & Jerry. Judas… is a biographical drama on the life of Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya), the Illinois chairman of the Black Panther Party who was betrayed by William O’Neal (Lakeith Stanfield). The film is set to premiere at this weekend’s Sundance Film Festival, and has already been named one of the 10 best films of 2020 by the National Board of Review. Elsewhere, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver returns for what should be a far less vitriolic season given the changing political climate, while Studio ...
