(Welcome to The Quarantine Stream, a new series where the /Film team shares what they’ve been watching while social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.)
The Series: Rock Star
Where You Can Stream It: HBO Max
The Pitch: Oscar nominee Mark Wahlberg, who found fame in hip hop as the face and shirtless body of Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, returns to his musical roots in this ultimate fantasy daydream. The Boogie Nights star treads familiar territory in this story of a copy machine repairman who goes from moonlighting as the lead singer of a heavy metal cover band to the new frontman of the very band that he pays tribute to every week. Who wouldn’t want to see Mark Wahlberg belting out cheesy metal in a leather suit with flames all over it?
Why It’s Essential Viewing: Look, I’m not going to pretend that Rock Star is essential viewing, but it’s a pretty fun way to pass the time if you want a mindless music biz movie with a hell of a soundtrack, including both familiar 1980s rock hits and some catchy but cheesy metal songs by the fictional band Steel Dragon. Though it’s inspired by the real-life story of Tim “Ripper” Owens, a singer in a Judas Priest tribute band who was chosen to replace singer Rob Halford when he left the band, this is a totally fictionalized journey into the world of rock. The movie is all the better for it, because it allows for all the gloriously goofy clichés you’d expect from a movie like this. Read More »
So no one told you it was gonna be this way. Your job’s a joke, you’re broke, your love life’s DOA. And since coronavirus has us stuck at home in fear, it hasn’t been our day, our week, our month, or even our year. But now Friends can be there for us all over again now that the entire series is back in a streaming library. Now the show you used to watch for free, and then paid to watch at Netflix, is available to pay for all over again on HBO Max. Capitalism! Read More »
The Morning Watch is a recurring feature that highlights a handful of noteworthy videos from around the web. They could be video essays, fanmade productions, featurettes, short films, hilarious sketches, or just anything that has to do with our favorite movies and TV shows.
In this edition, see what it’s like when RoboCop and Terminator go head-to-head as playable characters in Mortal Kombat 11. Plus, watch a featurette with the cast of Space Force talking about the experience of working with Steve Carell in his first TV series since The Office, and listen to Ricky Gervais answer the web’s most searched questions about him. Read More »
Over the past days, the staff at /Film has watched as the murder of George Floyd at the hands of white police officers has led to anger, protests, and our nation’s latest grapple with systemic racism. We have watched in horror, but also with hope: only so much blood can be spilled before something, anything, changes.
For this reason, the site has decided to participate in Blackout Tuesday. Aside from this post, there will be no articles on the site today. We will be spending our day ruminating on how we can be more effective allies. We invite our readers to join us, or to educate us in how we can better understand your pain and how we can help. If you want to understand the basics, this year-old article from Rachel Elizabeth Cargle does an excellent job of explaining the core of the black lives matter movement. For something more tied directly to immediate news, former President Barack Obama laid out how these current protests could lead to real change.
If you can afford it, and only if you can afford it, the following charities and causes could use your support right now. Please feel free to include more in the comments below.
I know some readers may take issue with this. “What does a movie website have to do with any of this this?” is a message I expect we’ll find in our inboxes on Wednesday morning. What a movie website has to do with this is that we stand behind the voices of our black contributors and want to amplify them. What a movie website has to do with this is that we stand behind the voices of our black readers and want to amplify them. What a movie website has to do with this is that we stand behind the voices of all black folks, whether they care about movie news or not, and want to amply them. We have decided it is irresponsible to pretend otherwise, to mask our own pain and anger, and pretend that we cannot see what is going on the streets of our country and what is happening to our fellow human beings.
We’re doing this because black lives matter.
Are you ready for Godspeed to come to The Flash? When does Marvel get the rights to Daredevil back? What’s the status of the sixth season of Lucifer? What did Cathy Yan have to say about a Birds of Prey rumor perpetuated by an unreliable YouTuber? Which X-Men movies got canceled thanks to Disney buying Fox? When is The Batman going to resume production across the pond? All that and more in this edition of Superhero Bits. Read More »
All of Tinseltown is buzzing about Avatar, baby! The movie on everyone’s lips these days is Avatar 2, a sequel that is really happening and will really be released one day, we swear! James Cameron is currently making 500 Avatar sequels at once, and based on set pics, all the movies take place inside the YMCA swimming pool. But what else is going on in Avatar 2? What’s the hot goss from the streets of Pandora? Hollywood heartthrob David Thewlis has a juicy scoop about the sequel and he’s ready to dish!
Read More »
Even though Disney World in Orlando, Florida isn’t slated to reopen until July, the Disney Springs collection of shops and restaurants is back up and running. However, there are still social distancing policies in place, and in order to make sure guests adhere to the guidelines set by the Disney theme park locale, they’ve brought in First Order Stormtroopers to make sure people are keeping their distance from each other by way of some playful banter and crowd interaction. Read More »
The movie theater industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, and many theaters are continuing to sustain significant body blows due to their doors being closed. In China, a new report says that as many as 40% of Chinese cinemas could be forced to permanently shut down due to the coronavirus, providing an awful preview of what may be in store for American cinemas as well.
Read More »
Netflix released the entire first season of the new comedy series Space Force this past weekend. The debut didn’t fare too well with critics, landing only a 39% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes, as well as a disappointed review from yours truly, but the audience score is currently at 76% with over 750 ratings so far. Regardless of the reception, co-creator Greg Daniels is hoping to get a few more seasons to play around with the antics of the newest branch of the military tasked with getting boots on the moon, especially since the first season concludes with a couple big cliffhangers. Read More »
Cool Posts From Around the Web:
Over the past few months, beginning with South by Southwest in March, several major film festivals have either been outright cancelled or have switched to smaller, online versions in the face of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. But as restrictions begin to lessen to varying degrees around the country, the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado has announced that the show must go on, lengthening the festival’s run by an extra day in an attempt to provide more safety for the attendees.
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