Pop Culture Odds and Ends – Almost the Long Weekend Edition

A terrible thing happened to me – I thought today was Friday. This actually started last night and has continued through until this morning. So for a few brief fleeting moments, I thought my week was almost over. Then I crashed back to reality and realized that it’s only Wednesday. That is the worst.

I could be looking forward to the Memorial Day long weekend, but more likely I’m just ready for this week to be over. It’s been a stressful few weeks at work with a lot of deadlines in a short amount of time and co-workers that interpret deadlines as suggestions rather than gospel. I’m like the Supreme Court at my office – I can hand down as many decisions as I want regarding policies and procedures, but I have zero enforcement power. It’s frustrating, ergo I’m wishing my week away.

But even if I think/hope that it’s Friday, in my heart of hearts I knew it was Wednesday because I hadn’t posted the pop culture roundup yet. As usual, I’ve tried to compile the best that the world of pop culture has to offer from the last week. So while I come to terms with the fact that I have three more days in the office, get yourself caught up on all that you might have missed from the world of pop.

• An X-Force movie is back in development and could feature a female Wolverine.
• Here are some estimates for some of the potential armies in Game of Thrones.
• We’ve already seen two out of the three “holy shit” moments that George R.R. Martin gave the Game of Throne  showrunners after they passed the books.
• AMC ordered a docu-series on the history of comic books.
• Ewan McGregor will not only appear on the third season of Fargo, but he’ll play two characters.
• Ike Barinholtz joins the Amy Schumer/Goldie Hawn comedy Mother/Daughter.
• That The Good Wife spin-off streaming series is a go.
• The cast of Happy Endings reunited at Vulture Fest.
• Michael Keaton is confirmed for Spider-Man: Homecoming.
• The Roots dropped their first new music in two years.
• Sara Ramirez is leaving Grey’s Anatomy after more than 10 years.
• New post-Lemonade rumor: Bey and Hova are working on a joint album.
• Jay Z has actually made his first response to Lemonade on a mixtape.
• Adam Driver and Michael Palin will star in Terry Gilliam’s long gestating The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.
• Sons of Anarchy is getting a comic book prequel.
• Josh Duhamel will return for Transformers: Heather Won’t Watch This The Last Knight
• Comedy Central has renewed Another Period for a third season. (Yay.)
• Bryan Cranston’s Super Sweet 60:

 

• Univision and Netflix have teamed up for an El Chapo series. History also has an El Chapo drama in development.
• A test audience for Suicide Squad seems to have positive buzz.
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is writing a comic book about Sherlock Holes’ brother, Mycroft.
• Kanye took his ranting on Ellen to new heights.
• Chance The Rapper’s Coloring Book is now an actual coloring book.
• Thor: Ragnarok has expanded its cast – including Jeff Goldblum.
• The CW unveiled their fall schedule – now with Supergirl.
• There will be four-way crossover of CW’s superhero shows.
• A Jessica Jones character will appear on Iron Fist.
• Carol Burnett may guest star on My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
• Anne Hathaway and James Corden had a rap battle.
• Amazon’s Man in High Castle has lost its showrunner.
• Fruit Ninja is being made into a movie.

• Cary Fukunaga is in talks to direct Stanly Kubrick’s Napoleon for HBO.
• Brad Garrett will replace Fred Armisen as the voice of Krang in the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.
• Chuck Klosterman pens a piece on which rock star will endure in 300 years.
• Daniel Craig reportedly turned down a lot of money to reprise his role as 007.
• Jeff Bridges and Taylor Kitsch have joined Josh Brolin’s firefighter movie.
• Some details on Disney and Netflix’s partnership.
• Adele dropped a new music video:

 

• Hulu’s Difficult People will have a lot of great guest stars in its second season.
• Florence Welch visited and sang with a fan in hospice.
• Mike Myers is returning to acting in Margot Robbie’s Terminal.
• Margot Robbie will play the wife of Winnie the Pooh creator A.A. Milne in Goodbye Christopher Robin.
• Adam Sandler invited his doppelganger to his Netflix movie premiere.
• A&E cancelled Damien after one season.
• Epix is turning Get Shorty into a TV series. Psst – Travolta is probably available.
• Drake leads the BET nominations.
• Universal and Dwayne Johnson are making a Robert Ludlum cinematic universe.
• Members of Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy, and Cypress Hill are forming a supergroup.
• Here are the winners from the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.
• Paul McCartney invited a 10 year old on stage with him and the kid wound up playing bass.
• In defense of Jeanie Bueller, perhaps cinema’s most misunderstood sibling.
• Jodie Foster never spoke to Anthony Hopkins on the set of Silence of the Lambs.
• Ridley Scott and Andy Weir are teaming up for another movie.
• Eliza Cossio in the newest contributor to The Daily Show.

Time for some trailers….

• Beauty and the Beast:

 

• Star Trek Beyond:

 

• Ghostbusters:

 

• Independence Day: Resurgence:

 

• Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping:

 

• Casual, season 2:

 

• The Purge: Election Year:

 

• Don’t Think Twice:

 

• Nine Lives:

 

• Free State of Jones:

 

• People of Earth:

 

• The Do-Over:

 

• Sing:

 

• Sausage Party:

 

• Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location:

 

• An oral history of MADtv.  And an oral history of “Walk this Way.”
• Adult Swim has ordered a pilot from Rob Corddry about the Hindenburg’s 1937 flight. History spoiler alert – it does not end well.

• Being on The Biggest Loser sounds pretty terrible.
• James Iha will score James Franco’s Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?
• Milla Jovovich will star alongside Franco in a post-apocalyptic sci-fi film. Lucy Liu and Snoop Dogg are also in the cast. This movie is officially insane.
• Jim Davis is producing a Garfield fully animated feature.
• Twitter of the week: @oscardances
• CNN has ordered an eight-part series on the history of comedy.
• The Netflix Gilmore Girls revival has a title.
• A Gilmore Girls cookbook is coming.
• Some additional details about Ric Flair’s 30 for 30 documentary have been revealed.
• John Cena  is hosting this year’s ESPY Awards.
• A look back at the odd swing-dance craze of the 90s.
• If Disney decides to give Elsa a girlfriend, Idina Menzel is cool with that.
• Conan is back with another edition of “Clueless Gamer” – this time with some Lannisters:

 

• The Internet has now moved on to wanting Captain America to get a (specific) boyfriend.
• Here’s what’s coming and going from Hulu in June as well as Netflix. And what’s coming to Amazon Prime.
• Whitney Cummings will make her directorial debut.
• Showtime is planning to produce a documentary about John Belushi.
• Lena Dunham pulled a Beyoncé with her new book.
• Whoppi Goldberg is producing a new series about transgender models for Oxygen.
• This made my SIL happy – Brand New dropped a new song.
• Sutton Foster will star in an Off-Broadway revival of Sweet Charity.
• Willow Smith and Michael Cera made a song.

• Werner Herzog is teaching an online filmmaking class.
• President Obama has a surprising knowledge of the Finnish heavy metal scene.
• Hallmark is in for three more Mariah Carey movies.
• May 21^st is officially “Notorious B.I.G. Day” in Brooklyn.
• Blue Ivy Carter may be our future overlord, but she still does normal kid stuff like dance recitals.
• Kendall and Kylie Jenner are going to “write” another book.
• James Corden was the first to get the Chewbacca mom on his show:

• Angelina Jolie will be a visiting professor at the London School of Economics.
• Dustin Diamond talks to former Saved By The Bell co-star Mario Lopez about his stint in jail.
• Elijah Wood discusses child sex abuse in Hollywood.
• Turns out Taylor Swift has quite the Neo-Nazi following.
• Justin Bieber is kind of over award shows.
• Tamar Braxton will not return as a co-host on The Real.
• Kelly Osbourne tweeted out the phone number of father Ozzy’s alleged mistress.
• Calvin Harris (DJ, producer, and future subject of a Taylor Swift song) was in a car accident over the weekend.
• Robin Wright demanded (and received) equal pay for her role on House of Cards. Claire Underwood would be proud.

• Brad Pitt saved a young girl from being crushed by a mob of fans.
• Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
• Anthony Kiedis is recovering after being hospitalized.
• Bill Cosby has been ordered to stand trial in the sexual assault case against him.
• Contrary to what Mad Men may have led you to believe, Bill Backer was the man behind the “I’d like to Buy the World a Coke” ad campaign. He passed away at 89.
• Nick Menza, former Megadeth drummer, has died.
• Founding Beastie Boys guitarist John Berry passed away. He was 52.
• You don’t know his name, but you know his work – John McLaughin, animator of the roller coaster before movies at Regal cinemas, has died. He was 46.
• Alan Young (Mr. Ed’s Wilbur and the voice of DuckTales’ Scrooge McDuck) passed away at 96.
• Less than a week after announcing his retirement, Morley Safer has died.
• Eva Longorio married Jose Bastón.
• Henry Cavill has broken up with his 19 year old girlfriend. Nineteen?

• Kylie Jenner has reportedly moved on from Tyga with rapper PartyNextDoor. I hate that I know this, so now I’m making you know it too.
• Alexis Bledel and Vincent Kartheiser are super sneaky – they had a baby several months ago and we’re just hearing about it (and I love who accidentally spilled the beans).

We end as always with the mashups and supercuts….

• Margot Robbie uses American Psycho to detail her beauty routine:

 

• Animals cover Queen’s “We Will Rock You”:

 

• NFL Logos as Game of Thrones characters:

• Some Simpsons characters gave graduates some advice via Hank Azaria:

 

• Drive 2: The Uber Years:

 

• Stormtroopers and whiskey bottles:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEBm5GAjIzX/?taken-by=scotch_trooper

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFOyExAjIwb/?taken-by=scotch_trooper

 

• 103 years of female pop stars:

 

• This Game of Thrones-mashup introduces a new character:

 

• Metallica’s “One” played on one guitar:

 

• Game of Molds:

 

• A road trip mashup:

 

• A Star Wars/”Danger Zone” mashup:

 

• Little Rascals meets Furious 7:

 

• And finally – a Beyoncé/Hermione Granger mashup:

 

Have You Heard The News?

2013©Jay Blakesberg

Having recently seen the American Psycho musical on Broadway got me to thinking about something that I have in common with Patrick Bateman. No, I am not secretly butchering people at night in an attempt to quench my bloodlust and feel alive (well, as far as you know anyway). Rather, the lead character and I have an affinity for the pop band Huey Lewis and the News.

 

I may not dissect (ha!) their songs to the degree that Patrick does, but I do enjoy their music. I was a kid when Huey Lewis and the News was popular and I remember listening to their cassette tapes over and over again. And then…I kind of forgot about them. I got older, discovered grunge and hip hop, and the band just slipped completely off my radar for about 20 years. It didn’t help that they went into hibernation, only releasing one new album from 1995-2009 so there was nothing to keep them culturally relevant.

However, since I am now an old lady, the music of my youth is now nostalgic enough that it is getting attention again. There has been a sudden proliferation of radio stations that focus primarily on music of the 80s and 90s, which means a resurgence of bands on the airwaves that I hadn’t given a second thought to since I graduated from high school. Huey Lewis and the News was a band that has been in heavy rotation on these new stations and hearing those songs again rekindled my affection for the band. Now I look forward to one of their songs popping up, which usually happens at least once a day on my commute. I’ve even been known to jump among these nostalgia stations, trying my luck at happening upon a Huey Lewis song. When we went to see American Psycho, my only benchmark for success was that the scene above somehow be incorporated into the musical. This was accomplished, so my threat of “Huey Lewis or we riot” did not have to come to fruition.

In honor of my recent Huey Lewis and the News renaissance, here are my top 5 songs from the band. I don’t know if Patrick Bateman would agree with my assessment, but I probably shouldn’t be too worried about the approval of a fictional serial killer.

• “Doing It All For My Baby” – Fore!

 

• “Do You Believe In Love” – Picture This

 

• “The Power of Love” – Back to the Future Soundtrack

 

• “Stuck With You” – Fore

 

• “If This Is It” – Sports

 

I probably could have done a top 10 or even a top 15; in looking for the videos for these songs, I realized just how many Huey Lewis and the News songs I really and truly enjoy. It might not do much for my street cred, but the heart wants what the heart wants. If I did karaoke – and be thankful that I don’t – I’d predict that a Huey Lewis song would probably be in repertoire. It appears that he is on the retro touring circuit now, so I think I kind of owe it to myself to go see him live.

Do you have a favorite Huey Lewis and the News song? Are they a band that just doesn’t do it for you? Let us know in the comments.

The Nice Guys – A Review

Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe in a slapstick film noir that takes place in the 70s? That doesn’t sound like a movie; that sounds like a Mad Lib that is so ludicrous that it isn’t even funny. And yet those are the keywords that best describe the new film The Nice Guys that is co-written and directed by Shane Black. And as improbable as it is, The Nice Guys mostly works thanks to the chemistry of the two stars and their willingness to go all in on this project. The Nice Guys has a few problems, but it’s still a movie that is worth the occasional bump in the road.

Director Shane Black is no stranger to the odd couple, action/comedy genre, having cut his teeth in the industry on films like Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. For The Nice Guys, he places the story in 1970s Los Angeles; Holland March (Gosling) is a two-bit alcoholic private investigator who tries, but mostly fails to be a good father to his 13 year old daughter Holly (Angourie Rice) and Jackson Healy (Crowe) is a guy who beats people up for a living and longs to have some sort of purpose in this world. An investigation of the death of a porn star and the disappearance of a young girl brings these two men into collision and they wind up teaming up together to try to unravel the many layers of the case. Kim Basinger and Matt Bomer also appear.

Now, The Nice Guys had two things going for it from my perspective right out of the gate. I am a sucker for movies set in the 1970s; I have no idea why, but this particular time period I find aesthetically pleasing when depicted on film. This is kind of odd since while I did live through some portion of the seventies, I was too young to really remember any of it. So if it is some semblance of nostalgia, it is misplaced or faux. All I know is that if you have a soundtrack that is heavy on the hits of the 70s and some ridiculous clothing and hairstyles, I’m ready to meet you half way. I’m also a big fan of when filmmakers see the comedic potential of Ryan Gosling. That dude is a funny guy, but he is too rarely given the chance to flex his comedic muscles. Perhaps it is because he is also aesthetically pleasing that people assume that he doesn’t also possess good comedy timing, like that would somehow be an embarrassment of riches (see also Jon Hamm). In The Nice Guys, Gosling gets his chance to prove what he can do and he doesn’t disappoint. He’s better at absurd humor than most people give him credit for; he pulls off scenes in this movie that reminds me of what Lou Costello would do.

Gosling’s comedy game is only elevated by his pairing with Crowe, as the two play beautifully off each other. Crowe/Gosling is not a duo that I would have organically come up with, but their chemistry is just off the charts. Crowe really takes to the role of Healy and it’s perhaps his most likable performance in recent memory. While I had some inkling that Gosling could pull off some of the more slapstick-y aspects of The Nice Guys, I was completely unaware of what Crowe was capable of. He’s mostly known for his dramatic roles and the last time he strayed from that (the musical Les Miserables) it wasn’t exactly a home run. Apparently Crowe has been hiding his sense of humor, since his performance works just as well as Gosling’s and performs a nice counterbalance. Newcomer Angourie Rice makes her role as Gosling’s precocious daughter much more than it could have been and serves as the moral center of the film as well as a method for softening up the tough guy antics of Crowe and, to a lesser degree, Gosling. The trio make for an unconventional but amusing team.

The Nice Guys doesn’t skimp on the violence and mayhem; there are plenty of car chases, gun fights and explosions to more than hold up the action component of the action/comedy mashup. The action sequences are entertaining, but they also help to mask one of the issues with The Nice Guys – the plot. The deeper that they get into the investigation, the more muddled and confusing it all becomes. There are definitely some leaps of faith that have to be made on the part of the audience and The Nice Guys works best if you can think of their case as one giant McGuffin. The less that you think about it, the more enjoyable the film is. The pacing is also a little off, as things are chugging along just fine until the final act, where they try to cram too much story into a short amount of time.  There are also some occasional moments that drag, where jokes don’t quite land or last a beat too long.

Some other random thoughts….

• Gosling’s mustache in this film is an endless source of amusement for me.

• This exchange also was particularly funny to me:

Holland: Look on the bright side. Nobody got hurt.

Healy: People got hurt.

Holland: I’m saying, I think they died quickly. So I don’t think they got hurt.

 

• Considering that the porn industry is a plot point in the film, there is less sex and nudity than you would expect in The Nice Guys. But it is there (especially in the opening scene), if that is a concern.
• I’ll be interested to see what else young Angourie Rice does in the future. She steals a lot of scenes.
• Warner Brothers released this cute animated short for the film:

 

• Gosling and Crowe have been on quite the publicity tour for this movie, which is usually a red flag for me. However, it appears that the blitz for The Nice Guys is the exception to that rule. Perhaps they just like spending time together.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from The Nice Guys, but it wound up being a pleasant surprise. My mileage with absurd and slapstick humor is probably lower than the average viewer, but I still found a lot to like about the film. Gosling and Crowe are an unpredictably strong comedic pairing and they each serve to bring out the best in their co-star. There’s a lot of silliness and plenty of action; don’t think too much about the complexities of the case and The Nice Guys is a fun night at the cinema.

The Nice Guys opens nationwide today.