by Emily Nagle
Following his violent outburst at Chris Rock last weekend, Will Smith has announced that he will be resigning from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences.
In a statement, Smith shared, “I am resigning from membership in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and will accept any further consequences the Board deems appropriate. Change takes time and I am committed to doing the work to ensure that I never again allow violence to overtake reason.”
According to an inside source who reported to CNN, members of the Academy “firmly asked” Smith to leave the ceremony following the incident, but he refused.
Smith’s online presence has been low-key since then, with the exception of an apology posted to his Instagram on Tuesday. Directed to Chris, the Academy, and everyone involved in and watching the ceremony, the black screen read, “I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”
Prior to Smith’s resignation, the Academy had scheduled disciplinary proceedings for Smith regarding violations of the code of conduct. Instead, they have accepted his resignation from the prestigious film organization.
As for what this means regarding Smith’s future, he will be unable to vote on Oscar nominees each year from this point forward. However, his work will still be eligible for future awards and nominations.
by Emily Nagle
Actor Paul Herman passed away on Tuesday, March 29. He was 76.
Herman’s death was confirmed by his representative T Keaton-Woods in a public statement. Woods announced, “We are deeply saddened at the loss of our beloved Paul Herman. A true character on and off screen. He will be deeply missed by all who knew him, and we will always remember the sound of his laughter and bold spirit. We ask that you respect the privacy of the family at this time.” The cause of death is currently unknown.
Among Herman’s most well-known film credits include gangster Whispers DiTullio in “The Irishman“, Randy in “Silver Linings Playbook“, and a a dealer in “Goodfellas“. On television, he played drug dealer-turned-club owner Beansie Gaeta in “The Sopranos” and Vincent Chase’s accountant Marvin in “Entourage”.
A New York City native, Paul Herman’s career began in 1982 with “Dear Mr. Wonderful”. Many of his roles involved playing gangster characters.
“Sopranos” costar Michael Imperioli wrote a heartfelt Instagram post dedicated to Herman, writing that he “was just a great dude. A first class storyteller and raconteur and one hell of an actor…I’ll miss him.”
by Emily Nagle
Top 5 Highest Grossing Films for Weekend of March 25-27, 2022
5. Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie ($4.6 million)
4. Uncharted ($5 million)
3. RRR ($9.5 million)
2. The Batman ($20.5 million)
1. The Lost City ($30.4 million)
After 3 weeks as the highest-grossing film across the United States, “The Batman” has been demoted by “The Lost City”. Written by sibling filmmaking duo the Nee Brothers, the film stars Sandra Bullock as Loretta Sage, a successful yet depressed romance novelist who gets kidnapped by quirky billionaire Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe), who is convinced she can lead him to an ancient treasure.
“The Lost City” marked Radcliffe’s first gig as a villain. In an interview with the New York Times, he revealed that he found the experience to be “a huge amount of fun”, despite it being physically exhausting for his fellow costars. He also added that playing a villain was liberating compared to his previous roles as the hero, explaining that there’s no pressure to act a certain way or be liked by viewers.
Another new release that topped weekend ticket sales was “RRR”. Created in India and released in Telugu language, this epic historical fiction film is set in the 1920s, and follows two revolutionaries’ time away from home before they return home to India to fight against British colonialists.
by Emily Nagle
Recently, Netflix debuted the sci-fi time travel flick “The Adam Project“. It quickly blew up on social media outlets, primarily TikTok, where videos tagged #TheAdamProject have racked up a total of 7.4 billion views. It most likely is trending due to its well-known cast members. The film stars Ryan Reynolds as Adam Reed, a time pilot from the year 2050 who, after crash-landing in 2022, encounters his 12-year-old self (played by Walker Scobell). Together, they embark on a mission to save the future. Also featured in the credits are Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner, Catherine Keener, and Zoe Saldaña.
Something I liked about the movie was the dynamic between Scobell and Reynolds. They had excellent chemistry onscreen, and the relationship between adult Adam and young Adam was entertaining. 40-year-old Adam wants to warn his younger self about the scary things awaiting him later in life, but of course his 12-year-old self just wants to know if he’ll get laid. Not to mention it was super badass to see the two of them team up to save the future.
The CGI was mostly lacking. I didn’t have any problems with the shorter effects, like the ones applied to soldiers from 2050 who have been sent to bring Adam back to the present day. In one scene, the soldiers had this really cool-looking effect applied where they morphed through a window like it was water. However, the more prominent graphics, like the scenes of the time planes, were plastic and artificial.
At times, “The Adam Project” doesn’t really know who it wants its target audience to be. It’s rated PG-13, but there were moments where it’s more like a family movie, especially the ending part with Ruffalo’s character Louis, who is Adam’s father. Back in 2022, Louis had recently died in a car accident, so when the Adams travel back a little earlier and see him again, they don’t want to experience losing him all over again. Louis and the Adams tearfully embrace at the end before heading back to their respective time periods, and the whole thing is weirdly out of place, since most of what we were watching up to this point was action-packed comedy. We don’t learn much about Adam’s relationship with his father until later on, when it’s revealed he wasn’t around much due to working a lot.
My final thoughts? Overall, “The Adam Project” doesn’t really bring anything unique to the classic time-travel film genre. It felt watered-down compared to other movies from the genre. They did name Adam’s dog Hawking to pay tribute to “Back to the Future” (and as a dog lover and a fan of “Back to the Future”, I wholeheartedly approve of that creative decision!). However, if you’re bored at home one night and just wanna grab your favorite snack and veg out on the couch to a movie that isn’t super complicated, then “The Adam Project” is perfect for you!
“The Adam Project” is available to stream now on Netflix.
by Emily Nagle
Top 5 Highest Grossing Films for Weekend of March 11-13, 2022
5. Spider-Man: No Way Home ($4 million)
4. Dog ($5.2 million)
3. BTS Permission to Dance on Stage – Seoul: Live Viewing ($6.8 million)
2. Uncharted ($9.2 million)
1. The Batman ($66.5 million)
This weekend marked the premiere of the BTS concert film “Permission to Dance On Stage”. With a limited release of only 803 theaters across the United States, the movie received a special one-day release on Saturday that grossed $32.6 million worldwide – this is more than most pandemic-era releases made in their entire opening weekends.
For the second week in a row, “The Batman” was crowned the number-one highest grossing film for the weekend. Click here to read our review of “The Batman”!
by Emily Nagle
Discovery+ and HBO Max will combine into a single streaming platform following the Warner Bros. Discovery merger.
This is a surprising, yet smart move – while companies like Disney have chosen to include streaming content from its other companies such as ESPN+ and Hulu in a bundle, combining all content into one place does seem to make more sense. With a plethora of content from Discovery and WarnerMedia in one convenient place, customers won’t need to manage as many subscriptions. As for the media companies, it truly eliminates competition.
In the meantime, the folks at Discovery and WarnerMedia have to decide exactly how they will consolidate their content into one place. Discovery CFO (and Warner Bros. Discovery’s future CFO) Gunnar Wiedenfels said in a statement that it may take a while to decide the most efficient and customer-friendly approach to this situation – HBO Max and Discovery+ boast more than 100 million subscribers combined, hailing from drastically different demographics.
“One of the most important items here is that we believe in a combined product as opposed to a bundle…We believe that the breadth and depth of this content offering is going to be a phenomenal consumer value proposition,” Wiedenfels explained. “The question is, in order to get to that point and do it in a way that’s actually a great user experience for our subscribers, that’s going to take some time. Again, that’s nothing that’s going to happen in weeks — hopefully not in years, but in several months — and we will start working on an interim solution in the meantime.”
Said interim solution may be a bundle until the new conglomerate figures out the best way to combine the two content fronts. Wiedenfels added that his vision for the new streaming service is one that is stronger than ever before, so it may take at least a few months to get situated.
Having been in talks since last summer, the long-awaited Warner Bros. Discovery merger is expected to close in the second quarter of 2022. Until then, HBO Max is available for $9.99/month with ads or $14.99/month ad-free, while Discovery+ goes for $4.99/month with ads, or $6.99/month commercial-free.
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