Stubs - The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (2024) voices by Eric Bauza, Candi Milo, Peter MacNicol, Wayne Knight, Laraine Newman Directed by Pete Browngardt. Screenplay by Darrick Bachman, Pete Browngardt, Kevin Costello, Amdrew Dickman, David Gemmill, Alex Kirwan, Ryan Kramer, Jason Reicher, Michael Ruocco, Johnny Ryan, Eddie Trigueros. Produced by Michael Baum. Run time: 91 minutes. Color. USA. Animated, Comedy

Porky Pig and Daffy Duck are back on the big screen in The Day the Earth Blew Up, a Warner Bros., animation film released by Ketchup Entertainment. If you’re expecting the old Looney Tunes from your childhood, this is a good facsimile but doesn’t quite live up to expectations. Some of that may have to do with the fact that there are 11 writers on the film and while the style is reminiscent of the past, the humor is a little cruder.

Stubs - Waitress

Waitress (2007) starring: Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Cheryl Hines, Adrienne Shelly, Eddie Jemison, Jeremy Sisto, Andy Griffith. Directed by Adrienne Shelly. Screenplay by Adrienne Shelly. Produced by Michael Roiff. Run time: 104 minutes. Color. USA. Comedy.

Every holiday seems to have related films, take Groundhog Day, or even a genre of films, Christmas with the holiday film. But some holidays don’t have films that come to mind. For Pi(e) Day, can we recommend Waitress directed by Adrienne Shelly?

URLate

While browsing the free section on Steam, I have been careful in discerning games I want to play, with one factor being whether it stands out for the right reasons. One such title is the recently-released URLate, the first title from solo indie dev NoSepoGames. The point-and-click gameplay and visual style intrigued me enough to play it as soon as I could, and even in its short length it showed a lot of promise from this new developer.

Stubs - Conclave

Conclave (2024) starring: Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Isabella Rossellini Directed by Edward Berger. Screenplay by Peter Straughan. Based on Conclave by Robert Harris. Produced by Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell, Michael Jackman, Alice Dawson, Robert Harris. Run time: 120 minutes. Color US/UK Political Thriller

While art is not always a reflection of real life, sometimes a movie comes at a time when, even though it might be fiction, gives insight into current and future events. With the current Pope seriously ill, the process through which he would be replaced is examined in Conclave, a film from director Edward Berger, based on the novel of the same name by Robert Harris.

Stubs - Elektra

Elektra  (2005) starring Jennifer Garner, Goran Višnjić, Will Yun Lee, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Terence Stamp Directed by Rob Bowman Screenplay by Zak Penn, Stuart Zicherman, M. Raven Metzner.  Based on Comic book characters by Frank Miller. Motion picture characters by Mark Steven Johnson. Produced by Arnon Milchan, Gary Foster, Avi Arad. Color Run time: 97 minutes. Superhero USA

If you watched the recent Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) and saw Jennifer Garner dressed up as a superhero and were unfamiliar with the character she’s playing, you might be tempted to watch Elektra (2005), in which she portrayed the titular character. Or, if you watched the much-assailed Daredevil (2003), you might want to see what happened to the Elektra character that was believed dead but apparently wasn’t, in which case you might also be curious about this film, the supposed continuation of her story.

Sonic Colors: Ultimate

Following the release of Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Team and Dimps decided to try a new approach based on fan feedback that saw Sonic returning to his roots. Not only would they make Sonic the only playable character, but the balance between speed and platforming would hearken back to the Genesis days and there wouldn’t be any gimmicks as in Sonic and the Black Knight. Additionally, there would be two notable personnel changes: Ken Pontac and Warren Graff, best known at the time for their work on Happy Tree Friends, would take over writing duties and the entire English dub cast would change once more, with the exception of Mike Pollock continuing his role as Doctor Eggman. This approach led to mostly positive reviews in 2010, though the game would only see a release on the Nintendo Wii and DS.

A decade later, Sonic Colors would receive a remastered release, Sonic Colors: Ultimate, due to both the influx of fans from more recent games and the first Sonic the Hedgehog film, as well as the fact that Colors remains locked to the Wii and DS platforms. Blind Squirrel Games would develop this remaster, based on the Wii version, and add in a good amount of new content, including mechanics meant to help beginner players. Unlike the original game, however, Ultimate would receive more mixed reviews due to a number of newer bugs and glitches. Although I bought a PS4 copy day one back in 2021, as I had never owned or played the original Colors, the controversy over the release led me to waiting until well after the “Play Date” had passed before taking a crack at playing it. I may be biased, but after coming right off of Sonic Superstars, I found Sonic Colors: Ultimate a rather enjoyable, if flawed, experience.

Stubs - Anora

Anora (2024) starring Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Aleksei Serebryakov. Directed by Sean Baker. Screenplay by Sean Baker. Produced by Alex Coco, Samantha Quan, Sean Baker. Run time: 239 minutes. Color. USA Comedy, Drama

Sometimes the hype hits the road and it’s not a pretty sight. You hear over and over again how good a film is and how many awards its won and you think you need to watch it to keep up. A few years ago, it was Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and this year it’s Anora. But after watching, you wonder why it’s being hailed as a possible Academy Award Best Picture winner.

Daredevil (+ Director's Cut)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Daredevil.

In a post-MCU world, it can be difficult to remember a time when Marvel had licensed their properties to other studios in the 2000s, even more so the films that didn’t reach the same notoriety as some of Fox’s thirteen X-Men films or Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy at Sony. One of these films was Daredevil, starring Ben Affleck and released by Fox in 2003. Although it received mixed reviews from critics, it still saw some success at the box office, earning $178 million against a budget of $78 million, and spawned the Elektra spinoff film, itself a box office bomb. Based on the reviews at the time, as well as negative word of mouth and Ben Affleck earning a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor, I went in expecting a cinematic trainwreck on par with other duds like Batman & Robin or Fant4stic. Instead, I saw a film that, while flawed in execution, represented a bold step forward for grounded cinematic takes on comic book superheroes.

Stubs - The Locket (1946)

The Locket (1946) starring Laraine Day, Brian Aherne, Robert Mitchum. Directed by John Brahm. Screenplay by Sheridan Gibney. Produced by Bert Granet. Run time: 86 minutes. Black and White, USA, Drama, Psychological Thriller, Film Noir

As part of the clean out the DVR Saturday, we watch The Locket. The recording, as it turns out, dates from the 2015 edition of Summer of Darkness. This fact speaks to the need for clearing out old recordings and the fact that the recording was still playable after nearly 10 years.

Sonic Superstars (PS5)

Sonic Mania’s success in 2017 convinced Takashi Iizuka, the head of Sonic Team, that fans wanted more “Classic Sonic” content. However, he wanted another angle to help attract a wider audience rather than rehash Mania, a game created for hardcore fans, with a direct sequel. However, the idea of another 2D Sonic the Hedgehog game wouldn’t come to fruition until 2021, when Sonic Team would collaborate with Arzest, a studio created by Sonic co-creator Naoto Oshima. After about a year-and-a-half in development, the final product, Sonic Superstars (Superstars), would release to mixed reception from critics and fans.

Although the idea of another “Classic Sonic” game intrigued me, since I loved Mania in spite of its flaws, I didn’t play it on release for one reason or another (including a previously-mentioned medical condition). However, the hype for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (the movie), put me in the right mood for more Sonic content, which would include Frontiers and Superstars. Unfortunately, for every interesting and novel thing that Superstars does in exploring the potential of the 2D games, it does another that makes it an experience so infuriating that I couldn’t bring myself to finish it.

Paddington in Peru

With the success of the first two Paddington films, it’s inevitable that a third film, Paddington in Peru, would follow to make it a trilogy. While I was unfamiliar with Paddington when this film was announced, I quickly became a fan after watching the first two films in anticipation, and hoped that the third would maintain the same level of quality despite a change in director. After seeing it opening weekend, although it doesn’t quite reach the same heights as the previous films, it does nonetheless feel like a worthy successor to the original duology.

Paddington 2

As with the first Paddington film, I will admit to not seeing Paddington 2 when it first released, mainly due to how silly it looked in the marketing. After actually watching the original recently, I found myself eager to watch the sequel at the next opportunity, enough to actually track down and read a library copy of the original A Bear Called Paddington book in the interim. I can not only speak more confidently of the first film’s faithfulness to the source material, I can also say that I enjoyed the second film, which I rented through Amazon Prime Video, even more than its predecessor.

Paddington

I will admit to not having much familiarity with the British children’s literature icon Paddington Bear, though I was at least aware of him with his iconic red hat and blue coat. It’s because of this unfamiliarity that I did not see the 2014 film adaptation Paddington, or its sequel Paddington 2, when they first came out, though I had been meaning to watch them after hearing how good they are. With the upcoming US release of the third film, Paddington in Peru, I finally got around to watching the first film to see how good it was, and found it to have exceeded my expectations.

Sonic Frontiers (PS5)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Frontiers.

Following the divisive Sonic Forces (Forces) in 2017, Sonic Team started exploring options for advancing the design space for 3D Sonic games, as producer Takashi Iizuka felt that they had reached the limits of the design philosophy established by Sonic Adventure (SA1). Director Morio Kishimoto felt inspired to go in an open-world direction, allowing players a greater sense of freedom than the previous linear style would allow. As development on Sonic Frontiers (Frontiers) progressed, the team also brought on writer Ian Flynn due to his work on the IDW Sonic the Hedgehog comics in an effort to bring out the emotional aspect of the story while downplaying the humor that had driven some prior games. Although the game would miss its intended 30th Anniversary launch, it would still receive an announcement in 2021, followed by a release in 2022, with mixed reception from critics but more enthusiastic response from fans.

While we did get this game shortly after it first came out on 11/8/2022, the existence of an update roadmap led to some waiting before actually playing it. Since Sega had already scheduled the final update for 9/28/2023, we considered that the “Play Date” (“the day you can actually bask in the glory of a working game”, per Mega64) and felt more confident once that day had finally come and gone. After playing through SA1 and Sonic Adventure 2 (SA2), Frontiers felt like a natural next step and while we enjoyed our time with it and appreciated how it advanced the Sonic design space, it still holds itself back from achieving its full potential.

It's almost like they're telling you when it will be fun.

Black Dynamite

While we’ve reviewed cult films on this blog before, we’ve never reviewed one quite like Black Dynamite. Back in 2009, this parody of, and homage to, 1970s blaxploitation films hit theaters to great reviews, but bombed at the box office, making only $296,557 against a $2.9 million budget, thanks to its rather limited release in a mere 70 theaters over just two weeks. Despite this, however, the Black Dynamite franchise expanded to include a two-season animated series on [adult swim] and a handful of comic book issues. My first exposure to Black Dynamite actually came from the cartoon, which I loved, but never finished watching as other life events got in the way. Once Max started removing even more content, however, with the Black Dynamite cartoon on the chopping block, I started revisiting it and thought that I should finally give the original film its due. Even without having seen any of the blaxploitation films that had inspired it, I’m glad that we can enjoy such an underrated gem.

PIO

 

In the indie game space, some of the most interesting games can come from the work of students or game jams, as they sometimes explore some unique mechanics or spins on existing ones that have a lot of potential for further exploration. One such game is PIO, a recent game I found from browsing the free section of Steam, made by Korean team Star of Star at the ChungKang College of Cultural Industries. The visual style and interesting gameplay ideas caught my attention, enough to download and try it for myself. Although the game is pretty short, and can be beaten in about an hour or so, I still liked it enough to want to see more from its mechanics and setting.

Stubs - The Johnstown Flood

The Johnstown Flood (1926) starring George O'Brien, Florence Gilbert, Janet Gaynor Directed by Irving Cummings Screenplay by Edfrid Bingham, Robert Lord. Produced by William Fox Run time: 60 minutes. Black and White with tints. USA. Silent, Melodrama, Disaster

On Friday, May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam, located on the south fork of the Little Conemaugh River, catastrophically failed. The result was a flood in Johnstown, Pennsylvania that killed 2208 people and accounted for $17 million (equivalent to $580,000,000 in 2023 dollars) in damage. The death total made the disaster the largest loss of civilian life in the U.S. at the time. It has only been surpassed twice, by the 1900 Galveston hurricane and the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

Stubs - The Red Badge of Courage

The Red Badge of Courage (1951) starring Audie Murphy, Andy Devine, Robert Easton Burke, Douglas Dick. Directed by John Huston. Screenplay by John Huston, Albert Band. Based on the novel The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (New York, 1895). Produced by Gottfried Reinhardt. Run time: 69 minutes. Black and White. USA. Drama, War

Texan born Audie Murphy enlisted in the Army as soon as he could after the attack on Pearl Harbor at the start of World War II. He first saw action in the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily; then in 1944 he participated in the Battle of Anzio, the liberation of Rome, and the invasion of southern France. Murphy fought at Montélimar and led his men on a successful assault at L'Omet quarry near Cleurie in northeastern France in October. He received every American combat award for valor available at the time of his service, including the Medal of Honor. He also received recognitions from France and Belgium.

As a result, he made the cover of Life magazine on July 16, 1945. That cover brought him to the attention of actor James Cagney, who had recently formed a production company with his brother William. They gave him training in acting, voice and dance, but never cast him in any production. A personal disagreement ended the arrangement in 1947.

Flow (2024)

One animated film from last year that flew under many people’s radars was Flow (Latvian: Straume), which I first heard about through Animation Magazine. The visual style and basic premise were enough to intrigue me, but I had a hard time finding a theater in my area that was showing it, let alone at a more convenient time, when I remembered to look for tickets. The movie winning the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature increased my interest further, though I opted to wait until it became available to rent through Amazon Prime Video to finally watch it. I will admit, however, that I was mildly distracted by the ongoing SoCal fires at the time of my initial viewing due to living within the vicinity, but I still did my due diligence to give the film as much of my attention as possible. With that said, although I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, I still think the Golden Globe should have gone to fellow contender The Wild Robot.

Stubs - An American Tragedy

An American Tragedy (1931) Starring: Phillips Holmes, Sylvia Sidney, Frances Dee Directed by Josef von Sternberg Screenplay by Samuel Hoffenstein Based on the novel An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser (New York, 1925). Produced by Josef von Sternberg Runtime: 96 minutes. USA Black and White Melodrama, Romance, Pre-Code.

On July 11, 1906, Chester E. Gillette drowned Grace Brown in a lake in Herkimer County, New York. That murder was the basis of Theodore Dreiser’s 880-page novel, An American Tragedy, published in 1925. When Paramount bought the rights, the film was originally planned as the American debut of Sergei Eisenstein, the renowned Soviet film director; Battleship Potemkin (1926).

Apparently, Eisenstein was so interested in the project that he wrote, what the Associate Producer David O. Selznick called “the most moving script I have ever read." However, B.P. Schulberg, the head of Paramount, wasn’t so impressed and replaced Eisenstein with Josef von Sternberg. Eisenstein never did make a Hollywood film and returned to the Soviet Union.

The change in director didn’t change the Hays Office’s objections to the film and the aspect of the story that dealt with an abortion. Colonel Jason S. Joy, the Director of the Studio Relations Office, wrote to Schulberg on April 25, 1931, "If the references to abortion remain in "American Tragedy"...it will surely tend to eventually open the way for a more serious development of this subject in pictures." However, Schulberg wasn’t willing to eliminate Roberta's attempts to secure an abortion from the film because of an earlier approval given by Father Daniel J. Lord, a clergyman who collaborated on the draft of the Hays Code. But on July 15, 1931, Jesse Lasky wrote to Hays agreeing to eliminate the following dialogue, which refers to abortion: "You went to the druggist who testified here." "Yes sire." "Anyone else?" "Yes sire, to seven others before I could get anything at all." "But what you got didn't help, did it? "No sir."

Stubs - Mystery House

 

Mystery House (1938) Starring Dick Purcell, Ann Sheridan, Anne Nagel, William Hopper Directed by Noel Smith. Screenplay by Sherman L. Lowe, Robertson White Based on the novel Mystery of Hunting's End by Mignon G. Eberhart (New York, 1930). Produced by Jack L. Warner (Executive Producer), Hal B. Wallis (Executive Producer) Run time: 56 minutes USA Black and White Mystery

In 1935, Warner Bros. began marketing a series of films as Cine Club, aimed at increasing audiences attending WB mystery movies. The series was tied to Black Mask, a pulp magazine, and consisted of 12 films, the first The White Cockatoo (1935) and the last Mystery House. Filmed in only a couple of weeks in November 1937, the film wouldn’t be released until May 21, 1938.

Stubs - A Complete Unknown

A Complete Unknown (2024) starring Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro, Boyd Holbrook, Dan Fogler, Norbert Leo Butz, Scoot McNairy Directed by James Mangold. Screenplay by James Mangold, Jay Cocks Based on Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald. Produced by Fred Berger, James Mangold, Alex Heineman, Bob Bookman, Peter Jaysen, Alan Gasmer, Jeff Rosen, Timothée Chalamet Run time: 141 minutes. Color. USA. Biographical, Musical, Drama

Hollywood has been on a roll making film biographies of musicians of late. The current subject is Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. This is the second Dylan fictional biography; he was also the subject of I’m Not There (2007), an experimental biopic, which included Cate Blanchett representing one aspect of Dylan’s life.