Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2229

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is Really Intense Starring The Hulk and Black Widow

It’s a tale as old as time: An arrogant prince is turned into a beast by a spurned enchantress, and he must find true love before a magical rose loses its last petal and the prince/beast subsequently stays in his hairy state forever. He must convince Belle, a charming young girl, to love him, while she herself thwarts romantic advances from village hunk but Gaston. Meanwhile, The Hulk, Black Widow, and the other Avengers must defeat the evil Loki, who strives to rule the earth after retrieving the Tesseract, an energy source of seemingly limitless potential.

Wait a minute, we may have just mixed up Disney’s Beauty and the Beast with The Avengers, but we’re not the only ones, as YouTuber Darth Blender did the same thing, except intentionally, with their mash-up trailer, Beauty and the Hulk.

Using clips from various Ma2rvel Cinematic Universe films and the audio from a trailer for the upcoming live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast, they’ve refocused the story to be a push-and-pull romance between The Hulk and Black Widow: “An incredible green beast called The Hulk keeps a prisoner inside his castle,” they write in the video description. “That’s when the beautiful Natasha Romanoff offers herself instead to free her father. What she didn’t imagine is that the beast were in fact a charming and sweet creature she would fall in love with.”

It’s the love story the MCU sorely needs, so check it out above, and no, you’re crying.

Featured image: Marvel Studios

STAR WARS REBELS Easter Eggs in ROGUE ONE

Warning: spoilers follow for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Jump into hyperspace and in the opposite direction if you haven’t seen the film yet.

Star Wars Rebels and Rogue One take place right next door to each other on the Star Wars timeline. As of season three of Rebels, we’re about three years out from A New Hope, while Rogue One takes place right before Episode IV. I hoped we’d see some overlap or some sort of call out to the Ghost crew in Rogue One, and when a ship that looked like Hera’s light freighter appeared in a TV spot, it seemed likely we’d get some easter eggs. Here are the six Star Wars Rebels easter eggs I spotted in Rogue One, in chronological order.

1. Ghost at Yavin 4

When Jyn and Cassian leave for Jedha, look to the top left of the ship platform outside the base on Yavin 4. Ghost is in the corner.

2. General Syndulla

After Jyn delivers the news about her father’s true allegiance to the Rebel Alliance council, listen carefully. You’ll hear a “General Syndulla” being summoned to report over the loudspeaker. Exciting! So, Hera (I don’t think it’s Cham) at least, is around until the Battle of Scarif.

3. Chopper

I noticed Chopper on my second viewing of Rogue One and wanted to clap–as it was, I did point excitedly at the screen. My favorite droid made it to the movies! When the communications officer runs to Mon Mothma to tell her the news about the activity on Scarif, watch the left side of the screen to see Chopper roll by. It’s the same Chopper that appears in the Lucasfilm-produced Star Wars Rebels online aftershow, Rebels Recon.

4. Ghost at the Battle of Scarif

As eagle-eyed fans noticed in a Rogue One TV spot, the Ghost is at the Battle of Scarif. You can see the ship several times throughout the battle. Vanessa Marshall, the voice of Hera in Rebels, provided additional voices for the film, so there’s a chance she recorded some pilot chatter as Hera.

5. Karabast!

Zeb’s preferred curse word made it into Rogue One. When Pao sees the AT-ACTs approaching the beach on Scarif, he yells, “Karabast!”

6. Hammerhead Corvette

Admiral Raddus (who, by the way, is voiced by Stephen Stanton, the voice of Tarkin and AP-5 in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels) has the genius idea to use a Hammerhead corvette to make one Star Destroyer crash into another. The ship type was first introduced to canon in the Star Wars Rebels episode “A Princess on Lothal,” when Princess Leia managed to get three of the vehicles into the hands of the Rebellion. The ship was included in Rebels as a nod to a Hammerhead vehicle in the Legends era video game Knights of the Old Republic.

These little nods made this Star Wars Rebels fan so damn gleeful. I’m proud of Hera for getting Ghost so far.

Did you spot any other Star Wars Rebels easter eggs in Rogue One? Share them with us in the comments or come tell me on Twitter.

Images: Disney/Lucasfilm

Nine Inch Nails Announce New Music Out Next Week

It looks like Trent Reznor couldn’t resist getting the band back together. Nine Inch Nails just announced a new EP is on the way and it will be in your ears in as early as a week. But before you sit around waiting for a song to drop, check out a clip of Metallica singing to deli staffers in a grocery, Blood Orange’s music video starring Carly Rae Jepsen, Solange’s beautiful performance on TV, and Common’s intense music video about mass incarceration.

Not The Actual Events EP out 23 Dec. Preorder now. 180g Vinyl and Limited Digital + Physical Component version. https://t.co/pjQuzqnFRp pic.twitter.com/ICN138MzPS

— nine inch nails (@nineinchnails) December 16, 2016

It looks like Trent Reznor wasn’t lying when he said new Nine Inch Nails music would be out before the year’s end. With barely two weeks left, the band’s frontman announced a brand new EP will be out next week. On December 23, fans will get to hear Not the Actual Events. The five-track EP was recorded by Reznor and Atticus Ross (who is now an “official” member of the band!) and is “an unexpected left turn from 2013’s Hesitation Marks.” Gird your loins. We think this will be a wild, though short, ride. [Consequence of Sound]

A clip surfaced on TMZ which may be our favorite thing we’ve seen all week. Billy Eichner brought Metallica into a grocery store for his TruTV show, Billy on the Street. A patron captured the band singing “Enter Sandman” to deli counter staff, all of whom appear to be delighted. Eichner waves the microphone around, smiling as big as can be, before moving onwards. If this is for his show, we can’t wait to see what else he has the group doing. [Pitchfork]

Blood Orange released an incredible record called Freetown Sound. Now, the group Dev Hynes leads is sharing a video for one of the album’s songs, “Better Than Me,” and it happens to have a lil’ somebody by the name of Carly Rae Jepsen in it, too. Hynes directed the video, which explains why it’s so moving. It’s so mesmerizing that you may not even notice Carly when she’s on screen! Try your luck and watch it above. [Pitchfork]

A Seat at the Table has us swooning and now Solange is wowing us once more with that material, only now in a live setting. The musician took over The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to perform two songs off of her Grammy-nominated record: “Weary” and “Rise.” The songs fall seamlessly into one another, both intimate R&B cuts that get a gorgeous presentation on the show. She and her band wore all red to match the backdrop as well as a piece of red cloth that connected them as a single unit. Solange wore a red halo, too, just to finish the look. It’s thought-provoking and striking just like the songs themselves. Check it out above and you’ll see what we mean. [Rolling Stone]

Music Dispatch is taking a short break because of the holidays, but we’ll see you back here on Friday the 23rd. Don’t worry; we wouldn’t leave you hanging!

Image: John Crawford

THE OA Mesmerizes with a Powerfully Beautiful Peculiarity (Review)

The OA is a magnificent beast.

Netflix’s new series from Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij is a stellar achievement of narrative invention that continues the pair’s creative conversation that started with Sound of My Voice, offering a slanted vision of family life, health, and mortality. The latest in a series of mystery-driven dramas, it’s opening episodes should grab most savvy viewers by the throat and hold tight for 8 episodes.

The OA posits several big questions and the promise to answer them right off the bat. Prairie Johnson (Marling) has been missing for seven years and when she returns back to her parents and childhood home, her sight has been restored and she’s gained some wicked scars on her back. She’s desperate. Searching for something. Refusing to explain where she’s been and struggling to reach friends from that time.

She falls in with a rabid high school bully named Steve (Patrick Gibson), using him to escape a de-facto house arrest that’s put in place “for her own good.” She eventually recruits a scrubby crew who meets in the attic space of an in-construction McMansion to listen to her mesmerizing life story. They meet at midnight, and they have to leave the front doors of their homes open before they arrive.

Like the best stories marked by nebulous pasts and hints at the supernatural, The OA thrives because of its characters. Prairie (who demands to be called The OA upon her return) is at the center of it. Marling is a human magnet—one of this generation’s most intriguing and engaging artists who has rebuked the typical path of sitcoms and other stardom to revel in the unusual. Her work (alongside Batmanglij) is ethereal and strange without being alienating or impenetrably experimental, and they’ve kept well within that wheelhouse here. Underneath the oddity, are people.

The OA is a character shaped and warped by accidents. The loss of her sight, the loss of her father. If we trust her to be honest in the telling, her childhood is marked by a fairy tale sensibility. It’s a riff on Cinderella complete with the wicked step-mother (a chain-smoking aunt in this case) and a sense of being meant for something great. In as much, this child dragged across the planet is a reflection of how circumstance is usually what alters our lives. Things we have zero control over come to define us as much as our response to them.

She’s a mighty woman with a torch who speaks with the pleasant timbre of a cult leader—like a gypsy psychologist who’s dipping into her own pill stash. If she has super powers, it’s getting fiercely intimate with a person immediately and comporting herself with the wisdom of a thousand-year-old philosopher. When we first meet her, she’s wrestling a rottweiler into submission, barely noticing its bear-trap bite, and when she offers up the story of her childhood, we learn that her father cured her dreams of drowning by convincing her to slip her 6-year-old body into the freezing Russian water of an icy lake.

Spiraling out from her, there’s the ragtag bunch meeting for her story: four high school kids and a teacher facing their own identity issues. Prairie’s parents, Abel (Scott Wilson) and Nancy (Alice Krige), are steely and fragile, electing to become parents late in life—responsible, beholden—to a girl riven by trauma. Like the others, they are defined by their relation to The OA. She is the cold sun at the center of everyone’s orbit.

Yet, it’s the introduction of Hap (Jason Isaacs) that pours gasoline on the plot. He’s studying extraordinary individuals who have experienced death, and he’s Jason Isaacs, so it’s probably smart not to trust him. Once Prairie falls into his orbit, we start to see the events that shaped her.

The OA is a sprawling and often intense vision, and that’s just the first episode. The opening salvo is brash and thoughtful and vitalizing, and the emerging details that follow enrich the relationship dynamics as much as the question marks that float above everyone’s heads.

Rating: 5 out of 5 burritos

Images: Netflix

All The Differences Between DIE HARD And The Book It’s Based On

Have I ever mentioned that I love almost every single thing Cinefix does? Oh, I haven’t? Well, I guess I should get around to doing so someday soon. Continuing their trend of making content I’m somehow inexplicably addicted to, comes the latest video in their “What’s the Difference” series that compares movies to the books their based on. Since it’s the holidays, Cinefix went and gave us all an early gift by tackling the best darn Christmas movie of all time: Die Hard.

By now, it’s no surprise when Die Hard content shows up around the holidays. In fact, it’s so prevalent that we don’t need to get into the same old debate where people say “No! I think [BLANK] is the best Christmas movie” because it’s been a moot argument since Die Hard was released in the summer of 1988. What may surprise some amateur McClane-iacs out there is that the film was based on a novel by Roderick Thorpe called Nothing Lasts Forever. The folks over at Cinefix combed over the movie and the book that inspired it to point out all the differences they could find. The most notable being character names, their motivations, and their relation to the hero.

Die Hard tells the story of Detective John McClane heading west to visit his estranged wife at her high rise workplace. Terrorists run amok, barefoot McClane stops them. Explosions, gunfire, and a smorgasbord of swearing along the way. Main terrorist falls to his death after wristwatch is unfastened from Holly’s wrist.

Nothing Lasts Forever tells the story of Detective Joe Leland heading west to visit his daughter at her high rise workplace. Terrorists run amok, barefoot Leland stops them. Explosions, gunfire, and a smorgasbord of swearing along the way. Main terrorist and Leland’s daughter fall to their deaths after wristwatch isn’t unfastened.

Cinefix does such a great job at these videos and, if you were so inclined to check out more, I recommend their “What’s the Difference” videos on the Harry Potter series.

Did they miss any differences in Die Hard? Let’s discuss in the comments below!

Image: 20th Century Fox

What the ROGUE ONE Trailer Differences Tell Us About the Reshoots

The Death Star has touched down and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is finally in theaters! And while we expect the first Star Wars anthology film to do quite well this weekend and in the weeks ahead, we can’t help but notice that some of the most memorable moments from the various trailers didn’t make the final cut. Where’s Jyn Erso’s “I rebel” scene? And how did these missing scenes reshape the narrative of the film? Today’s Nerdist News is transmitting the hidden plans and investigating the details!

Before we go any further, please know this up front: there are major spoilers ahead for Rogue One in the video and the post, with the video going even deeper into the movie’s biggest secrets. If you haven’t run out to see it yet, turn back now!

Assuming you’re still here, it’s time to join host and Rebel pilot, Jessica Chobot, as she examines the missing Rogue One scenes and the changes that may have occurred during the film’s heavily publicized reshoots. For starters, Jyn may have initially had a different reason for joining the Rebels at the beginning of the film, and at least one of the toys suggests that Jyn’s fate would have also been changed.

We’re also quite curious about a shot of the Tie-fighter confronting Jyn near the conclusion which was also missing from the movie. Was Jyn originally outgunned by an Imperial pilot? Or did that ship have another purpose? Now that we’ve seen the film, we’re dying to see some of these lost scenes on the inevitable Blu-ray release or even the chance to read some of the early scripts. Make no mistake, we’re pretty excited about Rogue One in its current form, but we are all very curious about what it could have been, too.

What do you think about Rogue One‘s lost moments? Let’s discuss in the comment section below!

STAR TREK’S Enterprise Crashing in Flames Makes For a Perfect Gingerbread House

The Starship Enterprise from the Star Trek franchise is one of the most famous spaceships in all of pop culture history. It is of course famous for discovering new worlds and new civilizations, and defending Captains James T. Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard from all kinds of evil alien empires and malevolent space anomalies. However, it is fair to say it is also famous for crashing into a big ball of fire onto the surface of some planet over and over again.

The first time the Enterprise blowed up real good was at the end of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, when Kirk hit the self destruct button on his beloved ship when it was raided by Klingons. The Enterprise then crashed into a fireball onto the Genesis Planet below. This was really moving and effective back in 1984, because the Enterprise seemed untouchable back then. (Kirk and crew would get a new Enterprise in the next movie. I guess in Starfleet, you fail upwards.)

The next time an Enterprise would crash into the atmosphere it would be in Star Trek: Generations, where the Enterprise-D from Star Trek: The Next Generation would plummet into the atmosphere of some planet. When the JJ Abrams rebooted Star Trek films happened, he had the Enterprise crash onto a planet not once, but twice — first in Star Trek Into Darkness, then again one movie later in Star Trek Beyond. You’d think Abrams has an “Enterprise getting destroyed” fetish or something.

To honor all these spectacular endings to the beloved starship, a fan on Reddit going by the username ejustice has created a spectacular gingerbread version of the Enterprise crashing in flames through the clouds. Because nothing quite says “Christmas” like the worst moments in the lives of the Star Trek crews. The detail on the so-called “Starship Gingerprise” is pretty amazing, and you can see that its maker even made gingerbread cookies with little Starfleet insignia on them. You can see a photo of this amazing holiday creation down below:

Like most amazing gingerbread creations, it looks so cool you’d almost never want to eat it. Well, until you smell it, then you’ll totally tear into that sucker like a Klingon targ. Speaking of Klingons, how about a gingerbread Bird of Prey next year? Just throwing it out there.

What do you think of this super cool holiday creation? Let us know your thoughts down below in the comments.

Images: Paramount Pictures / reddit user: ejustice 

POKEMON Cookbook’s Meowth Mashed Potatoes Are The Very Best

If being a Pokemon Master is your destiny, the best way to catch ’em all is right in your own kitchen. One of my favorite cookbooks released this year was the Pokemon Cookbook — it’s filled with recipes that look just like the elusive Pocket Monsters you know and love.

I love potatoes and I love Team Rocket (don’t tell Ash) and in the cookbook Meowth is brought to life in the form of fluffy, savory mashed potatoes. Jesse and James’ little companion is made with just a few ingredients and detailed slicing.

My notes:

-Instead of a mix I used leftover mashed potatoes from the previous night’s dinner. I felt like the goal was met regardless of the base ingredient.

-I skipped the potato salad part of the recipe and just focused on the mashed potato Meowth head because what’s better than a Scratch Cat Pokemon mash?

-Instead of his whole body I just made a Meowth head. This is mostly because I didn’t want to open a whole can of kidney beans just to make his feet.

Meowth Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients (reposted with permission from Insight Editions):

-2 ounces mashed potato mix

-1/4 cup milk

-10 tablespoons warm water

-2 tablespoons carrots

-1/2 cucumber

-2 tablespoons mayonnaise

-1 teaspoon sugar

-Salt to taste

-1 floret cauliflower

-2 red kidney beans

-1 prune

-1 hard boiled egg or quail egg

-Hijiki seaweed

-1 cheese slice

-Sesame seeds

-1-2 strands uncooked spaghetti noodle

Cut the carrots into thin, round slices. Set aside 2 to 3 slices for the face, and cut the rest into quarters. Sprinkle a little salt over the carrots.

Boil one cauliflower floret in hot water and remove. The boil the carrots.

Mix the mashed potato mix with the milk and warm water. Set aside ¼ cup to make two Meowth. Mix the remainder with 2 tablespoons mayonnaise, 1 teaspoon sugar and a little salt.

Squeeze out excess liquid from the cucumber and add it with the carrots to the mashed potato to make potato salad.

Make Meowth’s head and body with the mashed potatoes that were set aside earlier. Put them on a plate.

Make Meowth’s hands and feet with the cauliflower that’s been ut into small pieces and the kidney beans.

Cut the prune in half and use that with the carrot to make the ears. Make the mouth with a carrot slice and add sesame seeds to make the fangs.

Make the gold coin from a cheese slice. Use small pieces of spaghetti to make the whiskers.

Images: Jenn Fujikawa, Viz Media

See First-Person What It’s Like To Ride Bike Through Various Parts of Tokyo

Traditionally, the only way to see first-person what it’s like to pull off amazing BMX bike tricks in Tokyo, Japan is to practice BMX bike tricks very hard for many years, then go to Tokyo and do them. Things are a bit different today, though, since we can experience this, minus the tangible actuality of it, by watching the latest video from pro BMX rider Nigel Sylvester.

This video, the third in his Go! series, is shot from a first-person perspective and sees him getting on a plane bound for Tokyo before arriving and beginning his adventures. The whole thing is edited very smoothly so each scene transitions seamlessly into the next and the action never stops. He does everything from pull tricks in the streets to visit a bike shop to pose for a photoshoot to sumo wrestle… let’s just say he really made the most of his time in Japan.

Sylvester isn’t a traditional BMX star in any sense. He doesn’t compete in events—he’s never taken his wheels to the X Games — yet he managed to start a bike company with Pharrell by riding his bike a lot and using the power of the internet to raise his profile. It’s no wonder he’s doing so well, because videos like the one above really show that BMX, a pretty niche sport with an intimate but passionate fan base, can pull in a broader audience if it’s presented creatively.

Our new favorite BMX rider previously took the Go! series to New York City and Los Angeles, so check out those clips below.

Featured image: Nigel Sylvester Live

Funko Announces LOST and REN AND STIMPY Pop! Vinyls

Attention, all you loyal fans out there of the cult television series Lost — there are still lots of loyal Lost fans out there right? Despite that series finale? (I kid. Kind of.) The good folks at Funko have announced that they are finally bringing the castaway denizens of Oceanic Flight 815 to the world of adorable Pop! vinyl figures this winter.

Among the characters in the first wave are Jack Shephard, Kate Austen, James “Sawyer” Ford, Hugo “Hurley” Reyes, and John Locke. From the later seasons, there are the quasi-mystical island dwellers Jacob and the so-called Man in Black. Considering the huge amount of characters that came and went on Lost (it was the original The Walking Dead) there are plenty of options for future waves of figures. Enough to fit in your very own mysterious underground hatch even.

But those aren’t the only figures that Funko is announcing this week. The beloved characters from a cult TV show of an entirely different variety are coming next February, as Ren and Stimpy are officially joining the Pop! family of vinyl figures as well. Time to start singing “Happy, happy, joy, joy!”, because the early ’90s Nickelodeon favorites will be arriving both in regular versions, as well as limited chase variants, wearing their dalmatian disguises from their brief stint as firedogs. Each chase has a 1 in 6 rarity. Is too soon to ask for Powdered Toast Man in Wave 2??

You can check out preview images of both the first wave of the Lost figures as well as the Ren and Stimpy figures down below in our gallery.

Are you excited for these latest additions to the Funko family? Be sure to let us know in the comments below.

Images: ABC Television / Nickelodeon