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[ENTERTAINMENT] THE STORY SO FAR: UNBREAKABLE (2000)

[ENTERTAINMENT] THE STORY SO FAR: UNBREAKABLE (2000)

Spoilers Ahead for “Unbreakable”

Leading up to the release of the highly anticipated “Glass”, let take a look back at where the story began with “Unbreakable”. Starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, “Unbreakable” was ahead of its time by being a superhero movie that brought respect and maturity to the genre before the modern superhero craze we have today.

“Unbreakable” is directed by M. Night Shyamalan and stars Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson as David Dunn and Elijah Price.
Courtesy of AudioBoom.com

The story of “Unbreakable” begins with the birth of Elijah Prince (Samuel L. Jackson) in 1961 in a Philadelphia Department Store. At first, assuming the newborn has been dropped, the doctor is shocked to reveal that baby Elijah was born with broken arms and legs due to the pressure forced on him during delivery.  

Fast forward to modern-day where David Dunn (Bruce Willis) awakens in a hospital bed after a disturbing train ride. A doctor walks to David as he notices a body bleed out in front of him. Uncomfortable with the doctor’s expression, the doctor explains to David what has just happened to him along with all the other passengers on the crashed train.

David Dunn (Bruce Willis) waking up after train crash.
Courtesy of YouTube Channel Alex J

“To answer your question, there are two reasons why I am looking at you like this. One, because it seems in a few minutes, you will officially be the the only survivor of this trainwreck. And two, because you didn’t break one bone. You don’t even have a scratch on you.”

-Hospital Doctor informing David of recent events

After the memorial service of the tragic victim of the crash, David receives a “Limited Edition” branded note on his windshield reading “How many days of your life have you been sick?” Disturbed by the implications of his survival, David asks around his work and household about the last time he has taken a sick day or showed any symptoms of an illness. David’s boss informs him of his perfect 5-year work attendance and his wife fails to recall any time of David being ill.

Flashback to 1974 in West Philidelphia, where a young Elijah Price is sitting in his room scared to go outside and break another bone. The kids make fun of his amount of broken bones and call him “Mr. Glass”. Elijah’s mother (Charlayne Woodard) motivates her son to go outside by placing a gift in the middle of the playground for Elijah to retrieve. The gift is of a comic book, which start’s Elijah’s obsession with superheroes.

Back to present day, David visit’s Elijah’s comic art gallery, “Limited Edition” with his son Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark). Elijah explains to David how he has been searching through reports on accidents to find a sole survivor to make it out unharmed. As Elijah is on one side of the spectrum, with his brittle bones and weak immune system, he’s destined to find his counterpart that on the other side who healthy and invulnerable.

David rushes Joseph out of Elijah’s gallery and believes that Elijah is trying to scam them. Still having Elijah on his mind the following night, David goes into an old closet where he finds a gun and a collection of newspapers that reported on his college accident.

Refusing to give up on him, Elijah visits David at his work as a university stadium security guard. Elijah is amazed by how fate has brought David to taking a job relying on protecting people. As David reaches his post, he notices a shady camouflage dress man appearing to be holding a gun.

David and Elijah observing the stadium crowd and stopping an armed man from entering
Courtesy of YouTube channel Donnel Salters.

David tells Elijah about his instinct of knowing when someone has done or is planning to do something wrong. Later on, when Elijah spots the same camouflage man, he tries and fails to stop him, leading to Elijah falling down a flight of stairs and breaking even more bones. Elijah’s accident leads him to become a patient of David’s wife, Audrey (Robin Wright). Through their sessions, Elijah reveals his intentions with Audrey’s husband and she reveals her hatred towards violence in her life.

As Audrey explains her day with Elijah to David, Joseph gets a hold of David’s gun and points it at him to prove that he cannot be harmed. After some attempts to talks Joseph from shooting, David admits to his strange power of invulnerability and successfully gets the gun our of Joseph’s hands.

After some brief separation from Elijah, David receives a call from him explaining his realization of David being connected to him as counterparts:

“Your bones don’t break. Mine do. Your cells react to viruses and bacteria different than mine. You don’t get sick. I do. But for some reason, you and I react the exact same way to water. We swallow it too fast, we coke. We get some in our lungs, we drown. However unreal it may seem, we are connected you and I. We are on the same curve on opposite ends.”

-Elijah Prince

Recalling his past accident in college with his wife and not receiving any injuries during the accident, David calls up Elijah for help as to what he should do next.

David Dunn standing in the middle of a crowded train station with his signature rain coat.
Courtesy of IMDB.com

Wearing his signature university raincoat, David is informed to go to a crowded area and search for trouble. Walking slowly through a crowded train station, David puts out his arms and bumps into random people to see visions of their criminal intentions.

After a couple visions that David cannot stop, he stumbles across an ex-convict that has invaded a family’s home and keeping them all as hidden hostages. David follows the convict back to the house and frees the two children. David is ambushed and pushed off the balcony into the covered pool. As the cover slowly falls apart. David begins to drown. The two kids he rescued pulls him out, leading to David going back up and choking out the ex-convict.

David returns home and reconnects with Audrey. The following morning appears to be normal for Joseph as his mom and dad are simply having breakfast. As Audrey turn away to do some dishes, David points out the newspaper headline of his triumphant rescue the previous night.

The newspaper headline follow the night of David’s rescue of an innocent family.
Courtesy of IMDB.com

As the story comes to its conclusion, David visits the crowded “Limited Edition” to find Elijah’s mom pointing out to him how the villain is always drawn with larger eyes than the hero and how every rivalry can be defined as being either a physical rivalry or a rivalry of the mind.

The final scene of “Unbreakable” has David meet up with Elijah for a final goodbye. Getting in contact with Elijah for the first time, David sees visions of Elijah setting off various disasters and the infamous train derailing that David was on. Knowing how David has taken the mantle of being a hero, Elijah finally knows his place in the world as the villain. David rushes away from Elijah as a text comes up revealing the aftermath of Elijah’s master plan

“Elijah Price is now in an institution for the criminally insane”

After looking over the events of “Unbreakable” what is there to take away to hint at the upcoming events of “Glass”. The most crucial information comes from the origins of David Dunn and Elijah Price along with setting up where they have been left after this original movie. Elijah is sent to the institution and David is off to save the world. How David gets thrown into the institution with Elijah remains to be reveal in “Glass”

I’d like to wrap up by discussing the deep foreshadowing that was not discovered until the release of “Split”. Mainly referring back to Elijah’s mom’s comments to David, both of her statements remain true when looking over the advertising and relationships between the three main characters in “Glass. Elijah’s mom comments on the size of the characters eyes, which are appropriate in the new film’s poster.

“Glass” is the third installment in director M. Night Shyamalan’s superhero trilogy releasing on January 18th.
Courtesy of IMDB.com

As David Dunn, the hero, is shown squinting with minimum coverage with his eyes, Elijah Price and “Split’s” Kevin Crumb’s (James McAvoy) eyes are wide and prominent, indicating the hero and villains. Also, Elijah’s mother states how rivalry can be split into physical and mental; which each villain represents against David. Elijah rivals David with his mind while Kevin Crumb rivalry’s David with his physical Beast personality.

[ENTERTAINMENT] “THE MULE REVIEW”

[ENTERTAINMENT] “THE MULE REVIEW”

“Friendly old Clint Eastwood getting mixed up with the Mexican drug cartel”

There have been countless dramas to come out focusing on drug smuggling and the Mexican cartel. With various degrees of quality, the genre has followed a basic formula that’s in danger of running dry. While “The Mule” does rely on the same beats as other drug smuggling drama, the likably flawed performance from Clint Eastwood and a much lighter tone make the film stand out as very enjoyable.


“The Mule” is directed by and starring Clint Eastwood about an elderly drug smuggler.
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

“The Mule” is the latest drama directed and starring Clint Eastwood as Earl Stone, a deadbeat father focusing too heavily on his horticulturist work and neglecting his family. When given the opportunity to become a driver of mysterious duffle bags through Illinois, Earl quickly realized the millions of dollars worth of cocaine in each bag; along with the crazy amount of money he earns after each trip. Can he keep his drug smuggling gig going before the cops catch on to his action?

After being told never to look at the content of the bags he’s transporting, Earl (Clint Eastwood) realizes the true purpose of his new job right as a police officer pulls him over.
Courtesy of IMDB.com

“The Mule” follows the same formula as any other drug smuggling drama you’ve seen before. There’s the innocent family distant from the drug life, the dangerous gangsters ready to shoot at the slightest wrong turn, and the police procedures of the search for the mysterious driver. Where “The Mule” separates himself from other films in the genre is the likably nieve, yet competent performance from Eastwood.

After nearly a decade away from being in the front of the camera, Eastwood delivers a performance that feels appropriate for his elderly age. Earl behaves like an innocent grandfather that’s difficult not to love. From his naivety to the actual job description to his difficulty of understanding how to text feature on his phone, Earl starts off as the representation of all of our innocent grandfathers. Once he quickly discovers the amount of money he’s making and how well his naivety is grazing him along this illegal adventure, he starts to use his stereotype to his advantage. While nowhere close to the legendary performances from his long-lasting career, Eastwood brings alot of heart and soul to this basic character starting out without any affection or care towards his loved ones.

Dianna West co-stars with Clint Eastwood as his former wife that he let slip away.
Courtesy of IMDB.com

Just as Earl abandons and ignores his loving family, the supporting actors in the film are just as neglected and forgotten about. Some talented actors occupy the supporting roles and none of them leave much of an impact. The distant relationship between Earl and his daughter feels incredibly harsh with the wrong character to blame and his broken marriage with Dianne West’s character have very little justification. The closest anyone gets to leave an impact on the film is the latter half of Bradley Cooper’s conversations with Eastwood. With just two casual scenes, Cooper and Eastwood express so much bonding and chemistry with each other.

“The Mule” is a surprisingly enjoyable drama with a very charming tone of an elderly man going through this illegal journey of drug smuggling. As strong as leading character Earl is, the remaining cast leaves very little of an impact. The performances are not the issue, rather the material given is very centric on Eastwood’s Earl rather than giving any meat to the rest of the cast. While nothing to ride home about or rush out to see in theaters, “The Mule” makes for a strong rental that will keep your interest from beginning to end.


[ENTERTAINMENT] “SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME” TRAILER RECAP

[ENTERTAINMENT] “SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME” TRAILER RECAP

The brand new teaser trailer has been released for the highly anticipated Marvel sequel, “Spider-Man: Far From Home”. The trailer offers new information on the film’s plot, displays some of Spidey’s new suits, and introduces the first appearance of Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio.

Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment

Taking place after the events of “Avengers: Infinity War”, the trailer gives no reference or mention to the past movie to avoid any spoilers for the upcoming “Avengers: End Game”. As this movie has to be advertised, Peter Parker and friends are shown to have survived the events of End Game.

Spider-Man gets congratulated at a fundraiser with Aunt May (Marisa Tomei)
Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment

The trailer opens at a fundraiser where Aunt May is thanking Spider-Man to the crowd. Backstage, Aunt May and Peter are congratulating each other when Happy Hogan suddenly shows up late. Aunt May and Happy share some flirty banter as Peter is confused as to what is going on.

Following the Marvel logo, Peter is packing for his big school trip to Europe, where he purposely leaves his Spidey suit behind to ensure a normal, safe trip with his friends: “Europe does really need a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.”

MJ (Zendeya) admiring Peter (Tom Holland) during a tour.
Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment

In Europe, MJ and Peter are slowly starting to like each other with their attractive glared towards each other and calling each other pretty.  Right as Peter is talking to Ned about his realization that MJ likes him, Ned is darted and knocked cold to the floor. A mysterious figure talks to Peter about how nice it is to finally meet Spider-Man. That mysterious figure turns out to be Nick Fury: “I think Nick Fury just hijacked our summer vacation” -Peter Parker

As Peter originally tried to leave his superhero duties aside for once, his run-in with Fury has ensured that his trip will be an action-packed Spidey adventure. Various shots are shown of Spidey gliding into destruction to save the day of a burning bridge and an exploding building.

Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and SHIELD agent shooting at possible the Sandman.
Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment

A mysterious shape-shifting figure emerges as Fury and a SHIELD agent begins shooting at it. With his apparent sand abilities, it appears at first to be the introduction of the Sandman. As the trailer continuous, the mystery villain takes the form of fire and water as well, so the identity of this villain is yet to be revealed.

First image of Spider-Man’s new stealth suit.
Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment

Along with his slightly altered red and black suit that seemingly Fury give to him, Peter also is given a completely black stealth suit. As his friends are shown to have guns pointed at them, this stealth suit will play a major role in Peter having the restriction of saving the day without being noticed.

First appearance of Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) as he prepares to rush into battle.
Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment

The biggest reveal of the trailer comes from the first appearance of Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio. He’s first shown without his round helmet, but still wearing his cape and armor. Mysterio appears to be saving Peter from the fight rather than fighting against him. Mysterio shoots out a green blast and jumps right into the battle. A few moments later and Mysterio is show to be fighting with his round helmet on.

The title card plays as a quick scene follows of Peter’s friends calling Mysterio “Like Iron Man and Thor rolled into one.” Flash comments that he is no Spider-Man, showcasing his appreciation for the mask hero, right before ironically shooting down Peter randomly.

The “Spider-Man: Far From Home” trailer made the wise choice of selling it as the follow up to “Spider-Man: Homecoming” rather than the aftermath of “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: End Game”. The movie is expected to release on July 5th, 2019

[ENTERTAINMENT] HOW ‘BIRD BOX’ BECAME NETFLIX’S BIGGEST SUCCESS

[ENTERTAINMENT] HOW ‘BIRD BOX’ BECAME NETFLIX’S BIGGEST SUCCESS

If you look, you die.

That’s the premise of Netflix’s Sandra Bullock film “Bird Box.” It’s one part “The Happening” and one part “A Quiet Place” with monsters that, once seen, make people commit suicide. This means that everyone hoping to survive must be blindfolded.

It might sound ridiculous, but the atmospheric thriller, directed by “The Night Manager’s” Susanne Bier, has become Netflix’s biggest hit, with over 45 million people watching it through its first week of release.

How did this small thriller with a reported budget of only $19.8 million, become the streaming service’s most successful hit? It seems to be a combination of three elements, not including luck — Sandra Bullock’s star power, its release just before the holidays, and the countless memes being made about the movie.

Netflix releases new movies and television shows each week, oftentimes with little publicity. Because of their high quantity of content, many projects find themselves flying under the radar, just to be scrolled past on the site’s streaming interface. However, “Bird Box” star Sandra Bullock proved to be a main drawing point for audiences.

The Oscar-winning actress, who recently led the all-female “Ocean’s 8” to box office success, is undoubtedly a star. As many looked for contenders for what to watch, they saw Bullock’s name on the poster and likely wondered “What’s ‘Miss Congeniality’ doing in a Netflix movie?” Curiosity seemed to get the best of them, and before they knew it, they were watching “Bird Box.”  

“The Blind Side” actress is certainly attracting viewers to the film, as is its supporting cast, which includes “American Horror Story’s” Sarah Paulson, “Moonlight’s” Trevante Rhodes and the idiosyncratic John Malkovich.

Releasing worldwide on December 13, “Bird Box” became a prime contender for people to watch during their holiday break. As many sat around their Christmas trees looking for something to stream as a family, this film, which flew relatively under the radar before its debut, seemed like a viable option for a movie night. This was clearly not a singular thought, as close to half a billion people watched the film on its first seven days of release, but it proves how solid the marketing and release strategy was for “Bird Box’s” success.

The film’s marketing was, no doubt, important, but the streaming giant couldn’t have expected the movie to become one of 2018’s final meme formats.

https://twitter.com/shadkido/status/1082430528106778624

With its release just as winter break began, many college and high school students found themselves with plenty of free time to create different memes related to the movie, which caused a firestorm on social media. Twitter, Reddit, and Instagram were all flooded with different “Bird Box” memes, which did more to hype up the film than any preview could have.

As everyone scrolled through their feeds that became increasingly populated by memes relating to the movie, they almost felt like they had to watch it. The almost countless posts proved to be some of the best viral marketing possible, as it was all free and produced directly by and for the increasingly hard to reach “Gen Z.” Some of the younger viewers didn’t even know who Sandra Bullock was, to which Twitter did not take kindly!

After watching the movie, many decided to try the “’Bird Box’ Challenge” which involved trying to navigate through life blindfolded, just as Bullock and the characters were forced to do. While it began as a harmless joke, it was quickly taken to the next level when some took the blindfolded test behind the wheel of their car (again, straight out of the movie). Multiple car crashes were reported and many were injured, which caused Netflix to release a statement via Twitter dissuading their audience from trying the “’Bird Box’ Challenge.”

“Bird Box” proved to be a perfect storm for Netflix over the holiday season. Despite its tepid critical response (it currently has only 62% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and a 51% on Metacritic) the star power Sandra Bullock brought to the table, its release over the holiday break, and the boost in publicity the film got thanks to the memes yielded Netflix their most viewed, and most buzzed about, film of the year.

Have you seen “Bird Box” yet and, if not, why not? Let me know in the comments below!

[ENTERTAINMENT] ‘GAME OF THRONES’ PREMIERE DATE REVEALED IN NEW TRAILER

[ENTERTAINMENT] ‘GAME OF THRONES’ PREMIERE DATE REVEALED IN NEW TRAILER

Winter is officially here on April 14.

Just before airing the first episode of “True Detective’s” third season, HBO unveiled a new trailer for their juggernaut success “Game of Thrones.” 

Taking place in the crypts under Winterfell, the 90 second teaser featured three of the surviving Starks, Sansa, Arya and Jon Snow reuniting at their family’s grave. After voiceovers from their aunt and parents (the long deceased Lyanna, Eddard and Catelyn Stark) play as they march towards their family reunion, the trio see stone statues versions of themselves, potentially signifying their respective demises, or at the very least underscoring that in this show, no one’s safe from a grisly death. Jon and Arya draw their swords, ready to fight as their fire is extinguished and the winter chill comes towards them. 

This trailer reminded audiences that this is really it. We’ve got just six more episodes until “Game of Thrones” is done forever. While there are rumors that these final group of episodes will be closer to feature length than the typical hour-long installments, fans are still preparing themselves for the sure to be emotional withdrawal process of losing one of the most acclaimed shows after eight years. 

With its final season premiering on April 14, people still have the opportunity to get caught up on “Game of Thrones” with HBO Go. This show has been on the forefront of pop culture for the better part of a decade, and its finale will surely be a cultural phenomenon, not matched since the conclusions of “Breaking Bad” or “The Sopranos.” It’s seriously going to be an event, and not one to be missed. 

If you want a quick refresher of the previous seasons, I strongly recommend watching Funny or Die’s “Gay of Thrones” recaps, which were “Queer Eye” Star Jonathan Van Ness’s breakout role. His reviews are concise, funny and pretty conclusive, with each character given a ridiculous nickname and referred to as such throughout the series (for example, Daenerys is called Christina Aguilera throughout).

As it’s become my catchphrase over the last few months to my friends who are still holding out watching the Westeros series, “You’ve gotta watch ‘GoT!’”