Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 1846

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT Trailer Reveals Henry Cavill’s Infamous Mustache

It’s been a long time coming, but we finally got a glimpse at the mustache that sunk the Justice League! During the Super Bowl we saw the luxurious facial hair that cost Warner Brothers millions of dollars when Paramount teased Mission: Impossible – Fallout. Though the televised slot was a short one, luckily for all you fans of Tom Cruise constantly putting his life at risk for the sake of entertainment, the full trailer has been released on YouTube.

The sixth installment of the long running franchise looks just as action-packed as ever. Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt, the long suffering spy at the center of multiple international espionage scandals. And it gave us our first proper look at Henry Cavill’s character, who’s not only sporting that infamous mustache but also appears to be a badass martial artist and undoubtably a nefarious British villain. Returning cast members such as Rebecca Ferguson, Alec Baldwin, and Simon Pegg also make an appearance, alongside new–and most exciting–cast member Angela FREAKING Bassett! Though details on the plot are still pretty thin, the trailer promises all of the car chases, explosions, and action that you’d expect from a Mission: Impossible movie.

We’re very excited to see just what Ethan and co. will be up to, especially after how joy-filled, silly, and fun the last entry of the franchise was. Are you happy to see Tom Cruise jumping out of helicopters again? Going to cry over the mustachioed Superman that could have been? Or just excited for the inevitable memes? Jump from your plane into our comments and let us know!

Images: Paramount Pictures

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David Harbour Stars in a Charming AF Tide Ad

Today is arguably the day of the best commercials of the year. And while we’re getting a lot of awesome trailers dropping today, some of our favorite celebs are also popping up on the small screen to offer bite-size doses of hilarity. David Harbour, a.k.a. Chief Hopper of Stranger Things, appeared in some utterly delightful Tide ads today and basically turned our advertising worlds upside down. The first ad laid the foundation for the Tide Ad Truth.

Channeling some of the commonly used Super Bowl commercial tropes for selling cars, beer, and more, Harbour explains that the stainless clothes you always see in commercials makes them all low-key Tide ads. However, he wasn’t satisfied to only shake up our advertising realities in his own commercial. He also crashed a commercial with the Old Spice Guy, Isaiah Mustafa. Even better, the commercial ends with the classic Old Spice jingle, which Harbour sang over with what might be his new iconic phrase, “Tide Ad”.

Giddy up! It’s a #TideAd #SB52 #SBLII pic.twitter.com/PWqLYUYWhw

— Tide (@tide) February 5, 2018

And while Harbour wasn’t there, Tide even took advantage of that brief blackout during the game. After all, clean clothes are still clean in the dark, right?

Clean clothes are still clean in the dark. If it’s clean, it’s a #TideAd #SB52 #SBLII #blackout

— Tide (@tide) February 5, 2018

And while we’ve loved seeing David Harbour hawking Tide, with the rise of the Tide Pod eating meme, we kind of hoped we’d get to see Chief Hopper giving a PSA against eating detergent. Regardless, this is a great ad and as always, David Harbour is absolutely lovable and hilarious. More Hopper on TV is always a plus.

What did you think of Harbour’s commercials? Is everything secretly a Tide ad? Let us know what you think in the comments!

Featured Image: Tide

More of David Harbour being adorable!

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A QUIET PLACE Trailer Hints at Fears to Come

If A Quiet Place wasn’t on your radar before, it will be now, as a trailer released during the big game teased a post-apocalyptic, silent world in which making any noise whatsoever draws a supernatural evil. Fortunately for the family in question, their daughter is deaf, so they’re all conversant in sign language…which may save their lives.

It marks the first foray into genre for director John Krasinski, whose previously helmed films Brief Interviews With Hideous Men and The Hollars were comedy-dramas. And yes, the guy from The Office starring in and directing a horror film produced by Michael Bay is a decidedly odd pairing. Concurrent with the trailer, a new interview has been released with Krasinski to describe the film a little more.

Actress Millicent Simmonds, who plays the deaf daughter, is actually deaf, so that her real-life perspective could be brought to the situation, adding elements Krasinski might not have thought to include. Real-life malevolent supernatural forces are, we hope, not real.

There’s also a new poster, which manages to make bathtub time look like the least relaxing experience ever:

So far, the marketing is keeping the threat well hidden and mysterious. If the storyline is compelling and credible enough, maybe it will well and truly discourage people in movie theaters from talking. In the sequel, maybe there can be a force that only hunts you when you text. And make it a trilogy with something that only hunts people who kick seats.

Are you excited for A Quiet Place? Tap the keys very softly when you comment below.

Images: Paramount Pictures

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Netflix Drops a CLOVERFIELD 3 Bombshell At the Big Game

With all of the movie trailers dropping during tonight’s Super Bowl, it takes a lot to make an impact. And Cloverfield 3, a.k.a. God Particle, just found a way to stand out from the crowd. Netflix revealed it’s picked up the rights to Cloverfield 3 from Paramount, and it’s now called The Cloverfield Paradox. Additionally, it will be coming out tonight after the big game is over. Watch a tease:



Deadline reported earlier today that Netflix plans to drop the movie tonight. While the Super Bowl ad only said that it would be “coming very soon,” Netflix’s official YouTube page confirmed its premiere after the game.  There were rumors about Netflix’s Cloverfield 3 deal last month, but it is unprecedented for a major studio movie to debut on the same day that the first trailer hit. It’s something only a streaming service like Netflix could pull off. Ava DuVernay commented on how big this is:

Woman of color-led, sci-fi thriller released worldwide day + date w/ big Netflix muscle for black director, his super producer + POC cast. No advance press, ads, trailer. Straight to the people. Gamechanger. Congrats to helmer #JuliusOnah + my dears JJ, Gugu, David. #Cloverfield pic.twitter.com/m186Hprhqz

— Ava DuVernay (@ava) February 5, 2018

Of course, we still don’t know much about the premise of The Cloverfield Paradox, but the trailer promised us answers about what happened in the first film. We also know that it takes place on a space station in low Earth orbit, and it features a cast that includes Daniel Brühl, Elizabeth Debicki, Aksel Hennie, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Chris O’Dowd, John Ortiz, David Oyelowo, and Zhang Ziyi. The amazing thing is that we won’t have to wait long for this mystery box story to unfold. That is exciting, although the crazy fan theories have always been one of our favorite parts of the Cloverfield franchise. Now we’ll just have to start guessing about Cloverfield 4.

What do you think about Netflix’s plans for Cloverfield 3? And will you be watching it tonight? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!

Images: Netflix

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Why the BLACK PANTHER Challenge Is So Important

To see yourself represented in fiction, especially through a lead character, is meaningful beyond words. That’s one of many reasons Marvel’s Black Panther will have an impact, and it’s why Frederick Joseph launched the #BlackPantherChallenge. He worked with GoFundMe to create a campaign to raise funds to take children from Harlem to see Black Panther in theaters; he got $40,000. Then, he challenged others to launch GoFundMe campaigns for their own communities to do the same, because as he says, it’s about kids all around the world. Nerdist News writer Aliza Pearl talked with Joseph about the importance of the upcoming superhero movie and gifting the opportunity to see it to youths.

Over 200 campaigns in 50 states and 15 countries have been launched.

Joseph’s challenge received support from the movie’s star Chadwick Boseman and director Ryan Coogler. Markeia McCarty asked them about the campaign. “When you make a piece of art, you hope that piece of art will affect people in a way that is substantial enough and concrete enough for them to react and change themselves and change the world,” Boseman said. “And so the fact that he’s [Joseph’s] started this and it’s caught fire just from the excitement from this movie–I mean, that’s overwhelming.”

Multiple Black Panther Challenge campaigns in different cities are still ongoing ahead of the film’s February 16 release. You can donate to them through GoFundMe.

Featured Image: Marvel

Read more about Black Panther!

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Whale Trying to Imitate Human Language Sounds Super Farty

Researchers at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile recently taught an orca to mimic a few English words–much like you’d teach a parrot–and the results are pretty spectacular to say the least. Not really because of the orca’s ability to mimic its human trainer, however, but more because the killer whale really sounds like it’s just farting with its whale mouth. Seriously, listen to the below video and if you aren’t thoroughly convinced this whale is just blowing mouth farts as a tease, then you don’t know whales. (Unless you’re a whale biologist.)



The audio clip of the orca honking its pie hole in such glorious farty fashion comes via Boing Boing; it was disseminated along with a paper in the journal Proceedings of Royal Science B. And while on the surface it seems like this is just a case of whale biologists teaching a whale how to say some words, there’s apparently a lot more going on.

According to the paper’s abstract, the researchers’ aim was to show that “the vocal variants observed in natural populations of this species can be socially learned by imitation.” And that, “The capacity for vocal imitation…may scaffold the natural vocal traditions of killer whales in the wild.” In other words, the researchers wanted to show these whales are capable of developing dialects and passing them on in a non-genetic manner.

As for the experiment itself, it seems unreasonable to call it a rousing success. Even though it’s fantastically mouth-fart filled, a huge portion of the “words” coming out of the whale’s mouth sound like squeaks. Besides that, it’s not clear how important it would be to note that whales pass on dialects non-genetically; that seems a bit superficial compared to the underlying mode of communication they use with each other. We’d need a whale biologist to make that determination.

via Morbotron

What are your thoughts on this orca imitating words and farting with its big whale mouth? Let us know in the comments below! (But only if you’re a whale biologist.)

Featured Image: Fox, dewiki / Terabyte

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First THE LAST JEDI Draft Had a Poe and Finn Buddy Mission to Canto Bight

It’s been over a month since the release of The Last Jedi, but that doesn’t stop us from jumping onto any crumb of information that drops: such as the idea of Poe going to Canto Bight with Finn instead of Rose. Episode VIII writer and director Rian Johnson shared that note from an early draft of the film in The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Ultimately, he realized the duo didn’t have any conflict so “it was just these two dudes on an adventure.”

While I’d be more than okay with watching a Poe and Finn buddy escapade, it was important to see Rose and Finn go to the casino city and track down the Master Codebreaker. During a Q&A at a recent Collider IMAX screening of the latest Star Wars movie, Johnson discussed the Finn and Poe team-up more, which you can watch in the below video.

Johnson said Poe was the hardest character to write for in terms of figuring out what his story was going to be. As he pointed out, Poe, on the surface at least, is awesome. The beginning of The Last Jedi started to reveal more depth for the character–and that he had a lot to learn. Johnson said at the Q&A, “In the very first draft I wrote of it, Poe went with Finn on the mission to Canto Bight, and the two of them were going to be together on the mission. And it didn’t work at all because those two get along so well and so it was just really boring.”

Splitting Poe apart from Finn helped the ace pilot’s story come into clarity. But still, if Poe and Finn in Canto Bight isn’t fanfic waiting to happen, I don’t know what is.

Do you hope to see a Poe and Finn team-up in Episode IX? Do you ship them? Sound off in the comments.

Images: Lucasfilm/Disney

Amy Ratcliffe is an Associate Editor for Nerdist. She likes Star Wars a little. Follow her on Twitter.

More about The Last Jedi!

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Hound Tall #41: I Fought ISIS

Imagine moving to Syria to fight ISIS with a Kurdish militia. You can’t? Well Brace Belden did just that and explains what the fuck he was thinking. With comedic guests: Janeane Garofalo, Todd Barry and Michelle Buteau. Recorded live at SF Sketchfest.

Follow @MosheKasher on Twitter!

Will You Accept This Rose? #83: Will You Accept This Flesh? w/ Arden Myrin and Erin Foley!

Arden and Erin break down a VERY MYSTERIOUS episode of the Bachelor!  Glitter Bombs! Frogging! Horny Bowling Seniors!

Arden is NOT hiding in her room- she is INVESTING IN HERSELF!
Erin is ready to put a ring on it with sexy future serial killer Kendall!
All that plus……. TWEET OF THE WEEK!!!!!!!!


Like Will You Accept This Rose? on Facebook and follow @ArdenMyrin, and @ErinFoleyComic on Twitter! Email the show at rosepodcast@gmail.com!

Music by Mark Rivers

Shaquille O’Neal Settles the Score of ’94 in SHAQ-FU: A LEGEND REBORN Trailer

Nearly twenty-five years ago, NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal lent his name and likeness to the classic 16-bit video game known as Shaq-Fu. However, the only reason that the game is a classic is because it might be among the worst of all time. But don’t take our word for it! Even the new trailer for Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn openly acknowledges just how bad the original title was. And now, Shaq-Fu is back and out for revenge…against himself?!



Playstation’s official YouTube page has released a new trailer for Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn, the squeal that O’Neal has been promising for years. We first learned it was real at the 2015 Game Awards, after O’Neal and his collaborators successfully crowdfunded the game. It took a long time to arrive, but A Legend Reborn not only looks like it will be fun; it could even redeem the name “Shaq-Fu” in the eyes of gamers.

Big Deez Productions gave A Legend Reborn a layer of polish that the original never had, and yet the gameplay may be even more over-the-top than before. Only a few seconds of footage was on display in the trailer, but what we saw looked incredibly enticing. That’s especially true for the scene where Shaq-Fu is wearing a weaponized cactus costume to unleash hell upon his enemies in the streets. Note the Icy Hot endorsement in the background!

Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn doesn’t currently have a release date, but we’re keeping a close eye out for this one!

What did you think about the new and improved Shaq-Fu? Make a few free throws and leave a comment below!

Images: Big Deez Productions/Sony

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