Culture Clips: The Play Nice Edition
Pink’s tired of all the negativity on the internet. Lashing back at online natterers who don’t like how she and husband Carey Hart are parenting their children, the pop star issued a “worldwide internet challenge” that implored people to be nicer in cyberspace. “Go ONE day without criticizing someone online,” she wrote. She added, “And […]
Good Boys Awarded With Win
Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw are two of the toughest hombres around. You wouldn’t think they’d be knocked off their high cinematic horse by a trio of tweens. But that’s exactly what happened this weekend, when Universal’s R-rated Good Boys upended Universal’s Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw for first place. Plugged In had […]
Culture Clips: The Hunt for the Truth
A swath of horrific violence across the United States may have claimed another victim—albeit one few families will weep over: The Hunt. The Universal Pictures movie, which (according to its trailer) depicts a wealthy group of elitists literally hunting down and killing people called “deplorables,” was shelved Aug. 10, with a Universal spokesman saying in […]
Hobbs & Shaw Hooks a Second Win
In the movie Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, muscle-laden Luke Hobbs grabs the end of a chain and pulls a flying helicopter—tethered to the other end—toward him. Why? Because he can, that’s why. Well, that practice came in handy this weekend. Despite being attacked by five new wide releases, Hobbs & Shaw managed […]
Hobbs & Shaw is First and Furious
Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw have never liked each other much. But when did a little mutual loathing ever get in the way of success? Hobbs & Shaw’s titular characters stopped bickering long enough to push aside The Lion King and take the weekend’s box office win. The film—the latest in the Fast & the […]
With MAD Magazine Gone, is the Future of Satire … Christian?
MAD Magazine, after 67 years of serving as America’s gap-toothed jester-king of satire, is no more. Oh, it’s not completely gone. Its creators say a year-end issue will come out (presumably at year’s end), along with the occasional special collection. But its days as an entertainment/cultural bellweather and influencer is done. Make no mistake, MAD […]
Tech Tuesday: Make Money at Home! Play Fortnite!
This just in: Fortnite Battle Royale, the wildly popular online shooter game, isn’t as wildly popular as it once was. Part of that dip is apparently the fault of Fortnite itself: Players were disgruntled with the tweaks made to the game in recent weeks and moved away from it—at least temporarily. But simple game fatigue […]
Lion King Roars to Another Win
Quentin Tarantino’s Hollywood (circa 1969) is a place of beauty, decay and brutality. A little like a jungle. But while his characters fit in that world like a hand in glove, you know who’s the real king of the jungle. The Lion King took its second-straight win this weekend, topping Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time […]
Tech Tuesday: What’s the Real King in The Lion King? Technology.
The original Lion King, released in 1994, was a cartoon of the highest order—perhaps traditional Disney 2D animation at its peak. Hand-drawn manes flowed in the animated breeze, and a generation of families flocked to theaters to watch young Simba reclaim his birthright. The film made nearly $1 billion worldwide, which makes it—even 25 years […]
The Lion King Takes the Throne
King of the Jungle? Try King of the Box Office. The Lion King, the computer-animated remake of Disney’s classic cartoon, felt the love of its fans this weekend. It clawed its way to an estimated $185 million in North America—a record for the month of July and the seventh-highest opening ever—and outdistanced its nearest competitor […]