More Hell, More King, and More Phantasm?

Yesterday was an interesting day for entertainment news, as you’ll see below. We’ve got all kinds of stuff like game announcements for games DEFINITELY COMING OUT THIS YEAR, and a possible sequel from Sam Raimi. Oh yeah, Phantasm is also coming out on UHD. I feel like I’ve heard people talking about that franchise before.

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Mario, Mutants, and a Star Wars?

Trying a new thing here at the ATH Network. We’re going to give you old news. That’s right, it’s the news you may have already encountered out in the wild, packaged into a bite-sized link collection post with the catchy title “Yesterday’s News Today.” Now, you might be asking, “Why this? Why now?” It’s a good question.

Now without further ado, let’s see what happened yesterday.

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Ranking the MCU Through Phase 4

Now that Phase 4 is totally wrapped up and phase 5 is set to start this week, I thought it would be an excellent time to rank ALL OF THE MCU!  As a constant critic of all things Marvel, my list might differ from some. Still, I can honestly say I don’t think they have released a truly bad product yet. Even if your favorite is way down the list, remember even at its worst, MCU delivers entertaining movies.  So let’s get to it!

Note this list will only consider things that are still canon, so no Netflix shows or Agents of Sheild.

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James and the Giant Problem

Being a fan can really suck sometimes.  You find something which speaks to you on a level you yourself don’t fully understand, it brings you joy.  You start buying stuff related to it.  You own the movies, the comics, you watch the videos of the games because you don’t have time to play them all.  It becomes part of your identity, loving anything even remotely related to it.  You see more people start loving it, or maybe they already did, and people with money notice.  Now they start pumping serious money into it. The real test begins, do enough people love it for the same reasons you do?  If so, you are in luck, you are going to be getting so much content you won’t be able to keep up, I promise.  If not…well, then you are in a tight spot.  God help you if the general audience doesn’t just “not care” but actively condemns what you love.  Now you can get ready for an onslaught of, you’re wrong, I don’t trust your opinion, and the general assumption that you don’t know what you are talking about.

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One Ping Only: The 30th Anniversary of The Hunt For Red October

The name Tom Clancy is now synonymous with the techno spy thriller and realistic military-based stories. For most younger people it is also synonymous with several video game series including Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell, among many others. Clancy’s early career was in insurance however he used to write novels in his spare time. In 1984 he sold his first novel for $5,000 to a small publishing house in Maryland. That novel was The Hunt For Red October. The book was a huge hit and became a national best seller. The main character, Jack Ryan, went on to appear in 10 novels written by Clancy, and a further 11 novels that were written by other authors. By the end of the 1980s Tom Clancy had become a household name, Alec Baldwin remarked that Clancy’s novels were so popular that he would often look around in business class on a plane to see that 8 out of 10 people were reading a Clancy novel.

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The Other Voices: Blindspotting

Last night I watched BLINDSPOTTING.

Written by its stars, Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal, and directed by Carlos Lopez Estrada, this 2018 film is about a black man and convicted felon at the end of his probation, trying desperately to avoid trouble in Oakland while his white best friend tries as hard as he can to start it.

I know this column, which I cruelly abandoned a few months ago with every intention of getting back to it soon (I AM going to finish my opus on 50 Shades), is supposed to be primarily about directors, so I’ll give a nod to Estrada, who cut his teeth on short films, music videos, and TV episodes before being given BLINDSPOTTING as his feature debut, so although he’s not a household name, he had a ton of experience before he walked onto this set, and this film appears to have raised his profile.

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Stepping Through the Wormhole: 25 Years of Stargate: The Complete Franchise

Because it became clear very early on into this project that an article covering the entire Stargate Franchise would be far too long I broke it down into four parts. But I also wanted to present the full article in all it’s glory as well so here it is. What you might consider the Deluxe Edition. I hope you all enjoy it.

UNLOCKING THE GATE – THE ORIGINAL FEATURE FILM

In October of 1994, Stargate hit the cinema screens and became a surprise hit. Critics were not kind to the Roland Emmerich-directed epic adventure, but it struck a chord with audiences with it’s stunning photography and intriguing story. It launched a franchise that has become one of the most popular Science Fiction franchises of all time. A franchise that consists of: 3 films, 3 live action series, 1 animated series and, most recently, a 10 part mini-sode series. Not to mention the various games and books that were released. But we will get to all that in time; first we need to go back to the beginning, to where it all started….The 1994 feature film.

I should probably preface this part of the article with a small statement; it may seem like I am being harsh against the feature film but that is only because of everything that came after. The film started it all and without it we wouldn’t have got SG1 or anything else, however, for me the film just doesn’t hold up in comparison to the series.

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A Modern American Classic: The 25th Anniversary of Heat

It’s rare that films come along that are recognized as an instant classic, but 25 years ago the Michael Mann written and directed crime epic Heat did just that. Heat was not just any crime thriller; it was an intricate story that wove interconnected plots together like a fine suit with a realism that is rare in crime cinema. Not only that, it was one of the most meticulous and detailed films not only in the crime genre itself but in all of cinema history.

It is not widely known but Heat was actually based on a true story that happened in Chicago in the early 1960s. Neil McCauley was a real career criminal who had been in and out of prison throughout his entire adult life. The pursuit of McCauley was led by Chicago Detective Chuck Adamson, who would later serve as the inspiration for the character of Vincent Hanna. Adamson and McCauley did sit down and have coffee like in the movie and on 25th March 1964 McCauley was chased down during the execution of a robbery and gunned down by Adamson. When Michael Mann was introduced to Adamson by a mutual friend, a man by the name of Nate Grossman, the McCauley story captured Mann’s imagination. He put a lot of the real events into the story that would eventually become Heat.

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The Other Voices: Booksmart

Every time someone I follow on Twitter watches director Olivia Wilde’s 2019 film BOOKSMART, they immediately rave about it and order everyone who reads their tweet to see it. So I finally saw it. And I agree one hundred percent: SEE IT. It’s even on Hulu right now, so just go watch it. I’m not gonna spoil it, so this article is safe for you to read, but as soon as it’s done, you need to see this film. Or go watch it now and come back after.

OK? OK.

I’m just gonna dive right in by saying that this is one of the best edited films I’ve ever seen. Editor Jamie Gross makes such judicious choices with where to let the story breathe and where to get cheeky. When filmmakers talk about voice – this film has it in spades. Even the music choices keep the momentum going when the story slows down. All this comes together in post – but it can’t happen unless the right shots were filmed on the day. And to that vision, we can credit Wilde and her cinematographer, Jason McCormik.

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The Other Voices: Atlantics

Hey! It’s been a long winter vacation, but I’m back this week with French director Mati Diop’s supernatural indie drama ATLANTICS, now available on Netflix.

On New Year’s Day, for some reason, my partner put TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON on the TV first thing in the morning. That night, we decided to watch 6 UNDERGROUND, completely not intending to make it a full circle Michel Bay kind of day. And if there’s one thing I learned from that experience, it’s that if you’ve ever wondered what the opposite of a Michael Bay movie is, it’s ATLANTICS.

ATLANTICS tells the story of a young Senegalese woman, Ada, who despite being engaged to a rich asshole,  is in love with a construction worker named Souleiman, who, along with his coworkers, is not paid his promised salary for 4 months of work on a huge tower that looms over the town of Dakar. In order to find work, the men all hop on a boat and try to cross the sea to Spain, leaving their women behind. The men don’t reach their destination, and that’s when weird shit starts happening.

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