Entertainment

Entertainment March 24, 2017

Best of the Week: New Young Han Solo Movie Details, 'Justice League' Teased, Another 'Spider-Man' Spinoff and More

The Important News

Star Wars: Woody Harrelson , Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Baywatch, Red Nose Actually (Love Actually 2), Wish Upon, Churchill, My Cousin Rachel, Rogue One, The Outcasts, The Last Face and the new Mystery Science Theater 3000 series.

Movie Clips: Office Christmas Party unrated alternate scene.

Movie Posters: Justice League, The Dark Tower, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 IMAX and Alien: Covenant.

Music Videos: Beauty and the Beast BYU a capella medley.

Movie Parodies: John Wick with Nerf guns, Deadpool spoofs Beauty and the Beast and R2-D2 is sad in Star Wars.

Mashups: The Avengers vs. King Kong vs. Godzilla, Deadpool shows up in Logan,

Reworked Movies: Twilight as a goofy teen comedy.

Remade Movie Scenes: Domino’s Pizza recreates a sequence from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Casting Depictions:Michael Shannon as Cable.

Cast Reunions: Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones try out for another Stephen Hawking gig.

Our Features

Comic Book Movie Guides: We speculated about who Sylvester Stallone might play in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, we questioned whether Marvel’s movies and Netflix shows could ever crossover and we examined Marvel Comics’ X-Force.

Home Viewing: Our guide to everything hitting VOD this week.

and

MORE FROM AROUND THE WEB:

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Entertainment March 23, 2017

Today in Movie Culture: Imagining Michael Shannon as Cable, Deadpool Sings His Version of “Gaston” and More

Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:

Casting Rendering of the Day:

With Michael Shannon the frontrunner to play Cable in Deadpool 2, BossLogic shows us what that might look like (via ComicBook.com):

Whipped up a Michael Shannon version of #cable for @ComicBook I’m happy with the short-list bring on the announcement 😀 @robertliefeld pic.twitter.com/43olsYGDuI

— BossLogic (@Bosslogic) March 23, 2017

Movie Parody of the Day:

Deadpool and friends do their own version of “Gaston” from Beauty and the Beast in this well-done musical spoof (via Geek Tyrant):

[embedded content]

Cast Reunion of the Day:

See how well everyone from Love, Actually has aged in this TV spot for the short sequel Red Nose, Actually (via IndieWire):

[embedded content]

Movie Link of the Day:

Now that Rogue One is on video, someone connected its end seamlessly to the beginning of the first Star Wars (via Geeko logie):

[embedded content]

Vintage Image of the Day:

Amanda Plummer, who turns 60 today, gets direction from Quentin Tarantino on the set of Pulp Fiction in 1993:

Filmmaker in Focus:

Today is also Akira Kurosawa’s birthday (he would be 107 if still alive), so here’s a look at his later color films in a video by Philip Brubaker for Fandor Keyframe:

[embedded content]

Movie Science of the Day:

In honor of the new Power Rangers movie, Kyle Hill scientifically explains why Rita Repulsa’s staff might be more destructive than her monsters:

[embedded content]

Movie Comparison of the Day:

Also, Couch Tomato shows 24 reasons why the old Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie is the same as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows:

[embedded content]

Movie Trivia of the Day:

One more for Power Rangers, here’s some more trivia about the franchise from ScreenCrush:

[embedded content]

Classic Trailer of the Day:

This week is the 20th anniversary of the release of Selena starring Jennifer Lopez. Watch the original trailer for the classic biopic below.

[embedded content]

and

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Entertainment March 22, 2017

Today in Movie Culture: 'Rogue One' Compared to 'Star Wars,' a Perfect 'Logan' Post-Credits Scene and More

Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:

Movie Comparison of the Day:

See how similar Rogue One is to the first Star Wars in this side-by-side shot comparison by Zackery Ramos-Taylor:

[embedded content]

Alternate Ending of the Day:

If Logan had a post-credits sequence, it could have been like this excellent fan-made stinger starring Deadpool and our wishes for a crossover between him and Wolverine:

[embedded content]

Fan Theory of the Day:

Speaking of Logan, MatPat offers a theory on why Wolverine is really dying in the movie in the latest edition of Film Theory:

[embedded content]

Movie Trivia of the Day:

With T2: Trainspotting now in theaters, check out some trivia about the original movie from ScreenCrush:

[embedded content]

Cosplay of the Day:

Everyone remembers Little Monsters, right? Regardless, this Little Monsters cosplay is fantastic (via Fashionably Geek):

Reworked Movie of the Day:

Kristen Stewart and Breaking Dawn director Bill Condon are big deals in theaters right now, so here’s a trailer for Twilight if it was a goofy comedy:

[embedded content]

Vintage Image of the Day:

Chico Marx, who was born on this day in 1887, with brothers Groucho and Harpo under direction from Sam Wood on the set of A Night at the Opera in 1935:

Filmmaker in Focus:

This video essay looks the movies of Steven Spielberg with focus on how he uses light for both wonder and terror:

[embedded content]

Supercut of the Day:

Editor Elizabeth McCauley compiled scenes of people drinking milk in the movies. Obviously A Clockwork Orange is in there.

[embedded content]

Classic Trailer of the Day:

Today is the 15th anniversary of Guillermo del Toro’s Blade II. Watch the original trailer for the superhero movie sequel below.

[embedded content]

and

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Entertainment March 22, 2017

First Listen: Orchestra Baobab, 'Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng'

Enlarge this image

Orchestra Baobab’s new album, Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng, comes out March 31.

Youri Lenquette/Courtesy of the artist

hide caption

toggle caption

Youri Lenquette/Courtesy of the artist

One of West Africa’s most charming bands is back — again. Almost a decade after the group’s last album and nearly 50 years since its founding, Senegal’s Orchestra Baobab is swaggering back onto international dance floors with its silk, sultry songs, layering Afro-Cuban sounds with local traditions and pop styles from across Senegal and elsewhere in West Africa.

First, a little back story. Orchestra Baobab was founded in 1970 as the house band for a venue in Dakar called Club Baobab, an elegant nightclub owned by the country’s minister of finance (who was also the younger brother of Senegal’s president at the time). Club Baobab soon became one of the city’s main see-and-be-seen spots for politicians, businessmen and the city’s elite – and it needed its own band to keep its patrons dancing. Culling some of its members from the competing nightclub act Star Band, Orchestra Baobab played at its new home five nights a week, five hours at a time, with one half-hour break each evening. With that kind of schedule comes a finesse and tightness that can’t be replicated.

Orchestra Baobab called itself “specialists in all styles” – which meant playing a highly danceable blend of the Cuban sounds that already had become a smash across much of the African continent, local griot traditions, and influences from the many countries Baobab’s original players hailed from, including Senegal, Togo, Guinea and Morocco.

But eventually, Orchestra Baobab’s sleek, smooth sound fell out of favor. It was edged out by mbalax, the high-flying, drum-heavy and fast-paced style made popular by other artists, most notably singer Youssou N’Dour (a Star Band alumnus himself) — and Orchestra Baobab disbanded in 1987. Its members splintered off: Bandleader and guitarist Barthelemy Attisso, for example, went back to his other career as a lawyer working in his native Togo. (He’s since rejoined the band for big tours and several recording projects, but his legal work kept him away from this album.)

That wasn’t quite the end of Orchestra Baobab. In 2001, British producer Nick Gold — the mastermind behind the wildly popular resurrection of Cuba’s Buena Vista Social Club a few years earlier — reissued an old Orchestra Baobab album, 1982’s Pirate’s Choice. The reissue, plus some coaxing from both Gold and Youssou N’Dour, fueled a reuniting of the band, whose membership has evolved greatly over the years.

Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng is named after one of the group’s original vocalists, who died last November after a prolonged illness. For Tribute, Baobab has added a kora player from Mali named Abdouleye Cissoko, who contributes a sparkling, filigreed overlay to the band’s horn, guitar and drum-driven heft. And there are a couple of guest vocalists — both stars in their own rights — who add extra punch to this project: Cheikh Lô, who appears on the song “Magno Kouto” and Thione Seck, who left Baobab in 1979 to launch his solo career and returns on this album to revisit one of his early hits, “Sey.”

Even with all the changes in lineup, Baobab’s buttery-smooth sound remains. Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng is full of charm and easy grace, from the high-spirited opening track called “Foulo” to the sinuous “Woulinewa.” (If you want to check out the songs’ lyrics, they’re available in English translation.) Long live Orchestra Baobab — for another 50 years, at least.

Orchestra Baobab: Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng

Courtesy of the artist

hide caption

toggle caption

Courtesy of the artist