by Emily Nagle
This morning, Disney+ revealed the first trailer for the upcoming live-action remake of their 1940 animated film “Pinocchio”, which is set to premiere on their streaming platform on Disney+ Day on September 8.
Although it is a remake of one of Disney’s oldest animated films, “Pinocchio” retells a story that originated back in 1883 with Carlo Collodi’s children’s book “The Adventures of Pinocchio”. It stars Tom Hanks as childless woodcarver Geppetto, who wishes upon a star for his puppet (voiced by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) to become a real boy. His dreams come true when a Blue Fairy (Cynthia Erivo) brings Pinocchio to life, and Geppetto brings him up like his own child. However, Pinocchio has a lot of growing up to do, and seeks out an adventure to learn what being human is all about.
In addition to Hanks, the cast includes Luke Evans (“Beauty and the Beast”) as The Coachman, Keegan-Michael Key as con artist fox Honest John, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Pinocchio’s voice of reason, Jiminy Cricket. Also set to appear are Pinocchio’s cat Figaro and goldfish Cleo. “Pinocchio” will also introduce completely new characters that were not in the 1940 film, including friendly seagull Sofia (voiced by Lorraine Bracco) and Signora Vitelli (Sheila Atim).
The film will be directed by Robert Zemeckis (“Back to the Future”, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”) with an original score by frequent collaborator, award-winning composer Alan Silvestri. Erivo will perform the film’s iconic song “When You Wish Upon A Star”.
“Pinocchio” isn’t the first film of 2022 to be based on the puppet, nor will it be the last; earlier this year, Lionsgate released the animated film “Pinocchio: A True Story”, starring Pauly Shore as the voice of the titular puppet (which became an Internet phenomenon due to its peculiar voice acting). In December, Netflix will be debuting a stop-motion animated film based on the tale, directed by Guillermo del Toro and starring Gregory Mann, Ewan McGregor, and David Bradley.
by Emily Nagle
Top 5 Highest Grossing Films for Weekend of August 19-21, 2022
5. DC League of Super-Pets ($5.7 million)
4. Top Gun: Maverick ($5.9 million)
3. Bullet Train ($8 million)
2. Beast ($11.6 million)
1. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero ($20.1 million)
This weekend saw two major releases breaking into the top 5, with the top release being Crunchyroll’s “Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero”. Part of the popular Japanese media franchise, this film is the twenty-first Dragon Ball theatrical feature, with the last one being “Dragon Ball Super: Broly” back in 2019. “Super Hero” is the first film in the series to be animated predominantly in 3D, and has received positive reviews praising its story, nostalgia, and fan appeal. It’s also made history as the biggest anime movie premiere ever, premiering in over 3,000 theaters across the United States!
Coming in at number two is “Beast”, which made slightly less than “Super Hero” despite being released in 700 more theaters. This is likely due to its mixed reviews from critics, who pointed out a lackluster story that couldn’t be saved by excellent action sequences or beautiful cinematography. It stars Idris Elba as Dr. Nate Daniels, a newly widowed dad who travels with his two daughters to a South African game reserve for a vacation. The getaway quickly turns into a fight for survival when he is pursued by a bloodthirsty lion.
by Emily Nagle
“She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” premieres on Disney+ today. In honor of the show’s premiere, I will be reviewing a film from the Galxy catalog of a similar title: “The Amazing Bulk”. For context, this film is a mockbuster parody of Marvel’s “The Incredible Hulk”.
The movie is about Henry “Hank” Howard (Jordan Lawson), a government research scientist who is developing a serum that will increase strength and longevity. Hank also is planning to marry Hannah (Shevaun Kastl), the daughter of General Darwin (Terence Lording), who commissioned Hank to create the serum. However, Darwin won’t let Hank marry his daughter until he develops an effective serum.
It all seems impossible until one night, when Hank and his fiancé get mugged on the subway. When they get home, Hank injects himself with the serum and transforms into the Bulk, a giant purple humanoid who looks a lot like a rip-off of Thanos. Hank then goes back out, finds the mugger, and kills him.
Most of “The Amazing Bulk” falls into the “so bad it’s good” category due to the low-budget visuals. When the opening credits are in Comic Sans, you pretty much know what you’re getting yourself into. Actually, scratch that – I was unprepared for how lazy the visuals were going to be. This movie came out in 2012, but the CGI is reminiscent of a 90s video game. Some of the scenes feature unnecessarily over-the-top transitions where they zoom into a microscope lens or something to change locations.
Before watching this movie, I saw the trailer and couldn’t stop laughing at the awful visuals. Every single background is green-screened in, and the animation is super low-budget. However, the CGI takes up maybe about a third of the movie, leaving us with bad acting and an incomprehensible story. And while the terrible CGI is hilarious, the live-action sequences are tough to sit through. They have boring dialog that sounds like it’s from a video game cutscene, terrible audio mixing (despite nearly 20% of the film’s budget going towards sound editing), and the confusing story will leave you thinking, “Wait, what’s going on?”
Here’s why the story is so weird: There’s a bad guy named Dr. Werner von Kantlove (Randal Malone) who lives in a castle with his wife Lolita (Juliette Angeli) and loves blowing up monuments. Why? Who knows. But his scenes are thrown into the movie for seemingly no reason, as nobody even mentions him until the end (at which point it just gives the impression that they had to come up with a way to connect the two stories at the last minute). I love low-budget film ripoffs as much as the next person, but by the time the movie ended, I was tired and ready for it to be over. The joke had mostly run its course.
If you’re a sucker for terrible CGI or absurd film ripoffs, you’ll get a kick out of “The Amazing Bulk”. You can experience the magic for yourself, and stream “The Amazing Bulk” for free on Galxy.
by Emily Nagle
Happy National Black Cat Day! 🐈⬛ 🐾 🖤 This day was established in 2011 by Wayne H. Morris. After experiencing the loss of both his sister and her 20-year-old black cat named Sinbad, Morris created this day to abolish myths associated with black cats. Over a decade later, observance of this day has only increased each year! In honor of this special day, I watched a horror film from Galxy’s catalog, titled “The Black Cat“.
Here’s a bit of background on the film: while it’s marketed in the United States as “The Black Cat”, it’s actually an Italian film originally titled “Demons 6: De Profundis”. Director Luigi Cozzi directed a few other films in the “Demon” series, but this one is not a sequel (even though it was intended as one, which is really confusing). The American title of “The Black Cat” comes from an Edgar Allan Poe story.
As for black cats, this movie is surprisingly lacking. In fact, it’s not even really about cats. There are a few black cats that show up randomly a few times throughout the film, but they don’t actually do anything. Poe’s story is about someone who starts abusing animals, but this movie has absolutely nothing to do with that, instead having a completely different plot.
“The Black Cat” follows film director Marc (Urbano Barberini) and his actress wife Anne (Florence Guerin) as they shoot a horror movie. All is going well until Anne is haunted by visions of her character, a witch named Levana who has risen from the dead after hundreds of years. The movie is super absurd, and has weird pacing. As a result of the awkward pacing and crazy stuff just randomly happening (in addition to the black cats popping up, there’s other weird creatures and a few bloody shots), it’s hard to tell what’s going on.
While it’s fairly devoid of dark-colored felines, if you’re looking for a crazy, over-the-top horror movie that you don’t want to think super hard about, “The Black Cat” is free to watch now on Galxy.
by Emily Nagle
Top 5 Highest Grossing Films for Weekend of August 12-14, 2022
5. Nope ($5.4 million)
4. Thor: Love and Thunder ($5.4 million)
3. DC League of Super-Pets ($7 million)
2. Top Gun: Maverick ($7.05 million)
1. Bullet Train ($13.4 million)
This weekend was a quiet one at the box office, with no wide releases; as a result, the top five consisted entirely of films that have already been released. The newest film, “Bullet Train,” made it to number one, grossing just under half its premiere box office from last weekend.
The only film this weekend that experienced an uptick in ticket sales was “Top Gun: Maverick”, which made 2% more than last weekend. After dropping out of the top 5 last weekend due to “Minions: The Rise of Gru” grossing slightly more, this film soared back to the top, taking on the number-two spot. To date, it has made $673.8 million across the United States, as well as a combined worldwide total of $1.4 billion. It remains the highest-grossing film of 2022, dominating “Jurassic World: Dominion” by more than $400 million!
by Emily Nagle
Emmy-winning actress Anne Heche has died at the age of 53 a week after the fiery car crash that left her intubated and in a coma. Heche’s family made the difficult decision to take her off life support after doctors declared her brain dead. The news was confirmed earlier today in an Instagram post from her friend Nancy Davis.
“Heaven has a new Angel. My loving, kind, fun, endearing and beautiful friend @anneheche went to heaven,” Davis captioned the post that featured multiple photos of the actress. “Anne was always the kindest, most thoughtful person who always brought out the best in me…My heart is broken 💔💔💔”
Born in Aurora, Ohio on May 25, 1969, Heche’s acting career began just after her high school graduation in 1987, when she got casted as twins Marley Love and Vicky Hudson in soap opera “Another World”. This role won her a Daytime Emmy and two Soap Opera Digest Awards.
Heche’s success would only increase in the late 1990s as she went on to star in even more successful films, including crime drama “Donnie Brasco,” disaster film “Volcano”, and slasher film “I Know What You Did Last Summer”. Her big break, however, came in 1998, when she earned a Saturn Award nomination for her role as Marion Crane in Gus Van Sant’s remake of “Psycho.” From here, she was casted in many successful independent films, including “Birth”, “Spread,” and “Cedar Rapids”.
More recent roles include being series lead in “The Brave” as Deputy Director Patricia Campbell, in addition to a supporting role in “Chicago P.D.” as Dep. Superintendent Katherine Brennan. She was also a contestant on season 29 of “Dancing with the Stars” in 2020.
Heche is survived by her two sons Homer and Atlas.
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