By Kevin Wong on Dec 18, 2018 12:16 am
Brick by brick, Emmet fights the system.
The LEGO Movie, released in 2014, was a runaway success at the time of its release, grossing close to half a billion dollars worldwide and spawning a film franchise that now includes two spinoffs: The Lego Batman Movie and The Lego Ninjago Movie. But beyond its jokes and bright animation, what makes the film endure is its deeper meta commentary about creativity and LEGOs themselves, about the joy of unstructured play, and the importance in breaking rules once you've mastered them. The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, due out early next year, is the first direct sequel to Emmet and Wyldstyle's adventure. If the trailers are any indication, this movie will be as funny and self-referential as the first one. Here's what we know about The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part.
1. The release date is soon
The release date for The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part is February 8, 2019. This is right in the middle of "dump month," where studios typically release their smaller, weaker films, which they know won't be up for award contention. In The LEGO Movie 2's case, however, this might be strategic. It will be competing against What Men Want--the gender-switched What Women Want remake--and Cold Pursuit, the latest Liam Neeson action flick. This near guarantees it a strong opening, especially with families and young kids.
2. The old gang is back together
Every major actor from the first film is in the sequel, including Chris Pratt as Emmet (and new character Rex Dangervest), Elizabeth Banks as Wyldstyle, and Will Arnett as Batman. Morgan Freeman, who played Vitruvius, has not been announced for the sequel, but there's good reason for that if you saw the first film. Joining them will be Stephanie Beatriz, who voices antagonist Sweet Mayhem, and Tiffany Haddish, who voices antagonist Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi.
3. The old filmmakers are back too
The creative thrust behind the original LEGO Movie were Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who wrote and directed the film. Prior to this, they wrote and directed the animated adaptation of Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. They are infamous for getting fired from the Solo: A Star Wars Story project due to "creative differences" and being replaced with Ron Howard. This freed them up to work again on The LEGO Movie 2; they are credited as co-writers. One of the producers on the first LEGO movie, Dan Lin, has returned for the sequel. And the director for The LEGO Batman Movie, Chris McKay, is a producer as well.
4. The script went through rewrites
Writing the script for The LEGO Movie 2 began in 2014, with Jared Stern (The Internship) and Michelle Morgan (Girl Most Likely). Afterwards, Lord and Miller, who wrote the first movie, wrote a first draft for the sequel. Raphael Bob-Waksburg (BoJack Horseman) did a rewrite of that. And after being fired from Star Wars and returning to The LEGO Movie, Lord and Miller did another rewrite to top it all off.
5. The massive toy lines are incoming
On the most cynical basic level, these LEGO movies are glorified, feature-length toy commercials. In fact, if you go to the official LEGO website, you can get a sneak peek at all the upcoming playsets, which will no doubt coincide with the movie's release. We have to admit, Rex's Rex-treme Offroader looks pretty dang cool.
6. Invasion of the DUPLOs
At the end of the first LEGO film, DUPLO bricks (the bigger, more toddler-friendly version of LEGO bricks) invade the world. It could have worked as a non-canon throwaway gag, but instead, The LEGO Movie 2 builds off it. From the trailer, it seems that five years have passed since the end of the first movie. And because of the invasion, the characters now live in a post-apocalyptic Mad Max-inspired wasteland. Everything is decidedly NOT awesome, though Emmet still keeps his optimism.
7. A brief holiday respite
If you need a little something to tide you over until February, you should watch the short holiday special online, which doubles as a trailer for the upcoming film. In it, Emmet tries to spread some merry cheer as the world burns around him. Even in Apocalypseburg, some traditions never die.
8. How girls and boys play
According to the filmmakers, this new movie is going to deal with gender differences. How do boys play? How do girls play? And what assumptions do they make about each others' likes and dislikes? In an interview with Collider, producer Chris McKay had this to say: "What's different and similar about gender, when a boy plays vs. how a girl plays? What kinds of stories are there?... I'm really excited about where the movie is gonna go because it's about these things that are actual notions that people have that might even be unconscious biases, where people don't even realize that that's the way they're looking at the world."
9. The Systar system?
The big twist of the first LEGO movie is that it's all a big game of pretend by a young boy; the Man Upstairs is his father, who wants his son to stop taking apart, mixing, and "ruining" his LEGO sets. In the movie's trailer, Emmet and Wyldstyle travel to the Systar system (Systar? Sister? Get it?) This new film is probably going to be about the boy's sister, and how he learns to play with her rather than apart from her.
10. A dual point of view
According to McKay, this movie will have two perspectives: "Every one of our movies, so far, have been told from the point of view of one kid's imagination. The LEGO Movie 2 will be the first one told through two kids' imaginations--Finn [ the boy] and his sister. It's going to be really interesting juxtaposing those two different visions." Expect to see a tearful reconciliation. And expect sales of LEGO's girl toy line, LEGO Friends, to shoot through the roof.
By Dan Auty on Dec 17, 2018 09:32 pm
Christmas is a time for friends, family, food, and gift-giving. But for us horror fans, it's also a time for monsters, mayhem, gore, and psychotic Santas armed with axes. The last few decades have a produced a number of delightfully twisted holiday horror flicks, all of which provide some much needed darkness in the festive season. Here's some of the best.
13. Jack Frost (1996)
Not to be confused with the sentimental Hollywood family fantasy of the same name from the following year, this Jack Frost is the tale of a killer snowman who terrorises the town of, er, Snowmonton. The movie features some of the least convincing fake snow ever committed to film, a scene where a victim is crucified on a Christmas tree, and an early appearance from American Pie star Shannon Elizabeth (who gets killed with a carrot). Jack Frost boasts a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 7%, and it's a deliciously awful load of festive nonsense best enjoyed after a few eggnogs.
12. Silent Night Deadly Night Part 2 (1987)
None of the Silent Night Deadly Night sequels are very good, but the second entry is worthy of a place on the list simply because it is so, so bad. The tiny budget didn't even provide director Lee Harry with enough to shoot a full movie, so much of the running time is given over to extensive "flashbacks". Nearly 50% of the entire movie is simply a repeat of scenes from the first film, to the extent that the end of credits includes the full casts of both. The new material is so incompetent that it's utterly fascinating to watch. And of course, the movie also provided the internet with one of the all-time great memes: "GARBAGE DAY!"
11. A Christmas Horror Story (2015)
Anthology movies are a big part of horror, so it's no surprise that we eventually got a Christmas one. Set on Christmas Eve and with a wraparound that features a hilarious William Shatner as an increasingly drunken DJ, it presents a trio of ghoulish seasonal stories. Unlike many anthologies, this one intercuts the stories throughout. There's the teenage trio who discover a nasty surprise when they visit the scene of an unsolved high school murder, a cop whose kid starts acting very strange on a Christmas Tree shopping trip, and a family who are hunted by something terrifying in the snow after their car breaks down. The mix of stories and the fact that three directors are involved means that A Christmas Horror Story is tonally pretty inconsistent, but it's also nicely gory with some good twists along the way.
10. Silent Night Bloody Night (1972)
The eerie Silent Night Bloody Night played briefly in drive-in theatres 1972, before disappearing into obscurity and falling into the public domain. In the early '80s it was resurrected for the cable TV horror marathon Movie Macabare and began to play annually as an antidote to traditional festival programming. It's a tale of small-town murder on Christmas Eve, with variable acting and a sometimes bafflingly complicated whodunnit plot, but plenty of chilly atmosphere.
9. Saint Nick (2010)
Originally titled Sint but released as Saint Nick in the US, this Dutch shocker comes from the twisted mind of Dick Maas, director of such cult gems as The Lift and Amsterdamned. It is based on the legend of Sinterklaas, who, like Santa, was adapted from the historical figure of Saint Nicholas. In Maas's darkly funny shocker, Sinterklaas is a ghostly figure who turns to murder whenever his annual celebration coincides with a full moon. Like Silent Night Deadly Night many years earlier, Saint Nick caused some controversy with concerned parents in the Netherlands, forcing Maas to go to court to defend the movie's poster campaign.
8. Home for The Holidays (1972)
This creepy made-for-TV movie from the early '70s combines an Agatha Christie-style mystery with a proto-slasher movie involving a pitchfork-wielding killer. Four sisters (including a young Sally Field and Arrested Development's Jessica Walters) gather in their estranged father's house over Christmas after he tells them he believes their stepmom is trying to poison him. Home for the Holidays was written by Psycho screenwriter Joseph Stefano and produced by '80s TV soap king Aaron Spelling. Surprisingly, considering it was an ABC Movie of the Week, it doesn't hold back on the unwholesome festive murder.
7. Christmas Evil (1980)
Despite the punny title and similar storyline, Christmas Evil predated Silent Night Deadly Night by four years. It's also a weirder, creepier movie that is less interested in gory shocks and focuses more on the fragile mental state of its main character, Harry. Poor Harry had an early Christmas ruined when he saw his dad, dressed as Santa, having some illicit fun with his mom. As an adult he works in a toy factory, and inevitably becomes convinced he is the real Father Christmas, who must "punish" the bad adults in his neighbourhood. An underrated movie, Christmas Evil has a compelling, sympathetic lead performance from Brandon Maggart (who is also the father of '90s singer-songwriter Fiona Apple!).
6. Better Watch Out (2016)
The most recent movie on this list, this smart, subversive shocker can be found on the horror streaming service Shudder. The movie starts as a fairly standard home invasion horror, as a teenage babysitter and the 12-year-old boy she is looking after over the Christmas period are forced to deal with terrifying, masked, shotgun-carrying intruders. But a clever twist a third of the way in turns the movie on its head, and leads to a far more original, but equally tense next hour. Better Watch Out is marked by dark humour, strong performances, and a couple of satisfyingly gruesome kills. The holiday setting is more a backdrop than a major plot point, but it's a strong entry into the canon of Christmas horror movies.
5. Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010)
While there have been many cinematic depictions of Santa over the years, there are none like the Father Christmas of this wacky Finnish fable. When a British drilling team blast a hole a mountain, Santa's icy home is uncovered, leading to a series of encounters with his "elves", and finally the big man himself. Rare Exports is an uproarious, fast-moving horror comedy that gets crazier as it continues, but still finds time for a happy ending.
4. Krampus (2014)
The Krampus is a demonic horned creature from Austrian folklore who punishes naughty kids at Christmas. He's also the perfect holiday horror villain. The aforementioned anthology film A Christmas Horror Story features a Krampus in one of its stories, but for the true Krampus experience, this recent seasonal gem is a must-see. Written and directed by Michael Dougherty, who will next helm the upcoming Godzilla sequel, it focuses on a young boy called Max who isn't experiencing the best Christmas. With his house full of unbearable relatives and a freak storm cutting off power to his town, Max is forced to do battle with a visiting Krampus. Dougherty takes a similar approach to his festive horror as Joe Dante did with Gremlins, delivering a movie that is gruesome and scary, but also funny and heartwarming.
3.Silent Night Deadly Night (1984)
While it's not the first Christmas slasher movie, Silent Night Deadly Night is the most notorious. It's the twisted tale of a troubled young man whose parents were murdered on Christmas Eve, and who suffered subsequent abuse in a Catholic orphanage. Donning a Santa suit, he picks up an axe and gets busy. The film opened to big box office but also countrywide protests from the Planet Teacher Association, who were dismayed at the depiction of Santa as a crazed killer. It was pulled from theatres after only six days, but this gruesomely entertaining classic has subsequently found an appreciative audience at home. It was followed by four sequels and a 2012 remake.
2. Black Christmas (1974)
Black Christmas is not only a classic of seasonal horror, it's also one of the key movies in setting the template for the slasher genre that was so popular in the following decade. A group of students are menaced at Christmas by a campus killer who torments them over a phone line. It's tense and scary, and features one of the earliest uses of the now-clichéd killer's POV shot. Director Bob Clark later made another holiday classic, the perennial family favorite A Christmas Story, which features a lot less hacking and slashing.
1. Gremlins (1984)
Commercially the most successful movie on this list, Gremlins is the perfect meeting of two different filmmaking sensibilities. On one hand we have producer Steven Spielberg's vision of a classic Christmas in an all-American small town, and on the other, director Joe Dante's anarchic, satirical demolition of the festive period and all its cloying conventions. The movie doesn't hold back on the murderous monster mayhem, but still packs plenty of heart. And Phoebe Cate's Santa Claus monologue remains one of the darkest, yet most hilarious scenes of the whole decade.
By Mat Elfring on Dec 17, 2018 10:18 am
WWE's TLC PPV isn't one viewers get typically excited about. The TLC matches are a cool stipulation, but every single one of us knows it's all just a holding pattern for Royal Rumble, in order to build up Wrestlemania. However, on Sunday, December 16, WWE's 2018 TLC PPV was actually pretty fantastic, and the main event was amazing and exceptionally brutal. The show took place in San Jose, California at the SAP Center, and the card was stacked with 12 matches over the course of the evening. Yes, that is a lot of matches for a non-major WWE PPV. There were plenty of titles on the line and plenty of foreign objects allowed in these matches. TLC is a bit of a crazy beast. Check out all the matches in the order they aired. TLC Match Card: - Buddy Murphy (c) vs. Cedric Alexander (Cruiserweight Championship) -- Kickoff Show
- Elias vs. Bobby Lashley (Ladder Match) -- Kickoff Show
- R-Truth & Carmella vs. Jinder Mahal & Alicia Fox (Finals of MMC Season 2)
- The Bar (c) vs. The New Day vs. The Usos (SmackDown Tag Team Championships)
- Braun Strowman vs. Baron Corbin (TLC Match)
- Natalya vs. Ruby Riott (Tables Match)
- Finn Bálor vs. Drew McIntyre
- Rey Mysterio vs. Randy Orton (Chairs Match)
- Ronda Rousey (c) vs. Nia Jax (Raw Women's Championship)
- (The New) Daniel Bryan (c) vs. AJ Styles (WWE Championship)
- Seth Rollins (c) vs. Dean Ambrose (Intercontinental Championship)
- Becky Lynch (c) vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Asuka (Triple Threat TLC Match For The Smackdown Women's Championship)
Before this PPV kicked off, I had no expectations. I thought it was going to be pretty awful, as there were 12 matches on the card, and Raw's side of things had little to no build-up to its matches. And I was wrong. The WWE PPV ended up being quite a bit of fun, even with the shorter matches and lack of strong stories. At times, the fights didn't feel like PPV matches, but it was all fine and dandy throughout the evening, as TLC is nothing more than a pit stop on the way to Royal Rumble anyway, which in itself is a pit stop on the way to Wrestlemania. Like everyone on the internet, I have strong opinions about what happened during the WWE event, so I wrote down all my thoughts, ranked the matches and have presented them to you. Here's what I thought about all the matches during the evening at the WWE PPV, TLC. And just for fun, we're going to take a look back at our predictions to see how right or wrong we are about the show.
Buddy Murphy (c) vs. Cedric Alexander (Cruiserweight Championship) -- Kickoff Show
Winner: Buddy Murphy Our Prediction: Buddy Murphy Buddy Murphy's pants bug me. That's my first impression of this match. I know who these guys are, and I know they're going to put on a great match, but Murphy's trunks are weird. There is just a great amount of smoothness and flow to these competitors' work, something fans don't get to see too much on the main roster. Both men were great at building to a very exciting and intense third act of the match. Put them on the main roster please, along with Mustafi Ali. 8/10
Elias vs. Bobby Lashley (Ladder Match) -- Kickoff Show
Winner: Elias Our Prediction: Elias The stipulation for this match is so stupid. There is a guitar hanging above the ring, and if you grab it, you can use it on your opponent. Well, what about just using the ladder as a weapon? Last minute, the rules were changed to a setup where the winner is the first person to grab the guitar. God, this is so stupid. I love Elias, but this rivalry is killing him. He's such an interesting and dynamic performer, and he's been put in a story with Lashley, who is incredibly uncharismatic and not fun to watch. Sure, Lashley tossing a ladder at Elias was fun, but that's about it for this bout. 2/10
R-Truth & Carmella vs. Jinder Mahal & Alicia Fox (Finals of MMC Season 2)
Winner: R-Truth & Carmella Our Prediction: R-Truth & Carmella I really like the stipulation for this one, where the winners get the #30 spot at the next Royal Rumble. Way to make this tournament worthwhile, WWE. R-Truth and Carmella bring a ton of fun to this match, and the dance break with the Singh Brothers was a totally entertaining spot. Then R-Truth wore Alicia's hat. I am also into this moment of hijinks. For a match I didn't have high expectations for, this was a great way to kick off the show. Yeah, there were more gimmicky, comedy spots than wrestling, but there's nothing wrong with having a quick match like that to open up the show. R-Truth announcing they're going to WWE headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut was the icing on the cake. 6/10
The Bar (c) vs. The New Day vs. The Usos (SmackDown Tag Team Championships)
Winner: The Bar Our Prediction: The Usos I was extremely hyped for this match. These are the three best tag teams in the WWE main roster right now, and each team brings something very different to the table. For the most part, it lived up to the hype--aside from a couple of confusing moments of who was legal in the match. There were some fantastic spots where each team showed off what they were best at, and while I wasn't totally into the finish--mainly because The Bar won and I was hoping the titles would go back to The Usos--this is what tag team wrestling should strive to be like on the main roster in WWE. 7.5/10
Braun Strowman vs. Baron Corbin (TLC Match)
Winner: Braun Strowman Our Prediction: Braun Strowman Braun has a bum elbow because he had surgery on it this week, so he had some help in this match, since it's a TLC match, and there are no DQs. So Apollo Crews joined the match because… um…. Why not? It's not like Raw storylines have to make sense. Then Chad Gable and Bobby Roode showed up. Then Finn Balor showed up. Then referee Heath Slater removed his shirt and punched Corbin. Then Kurt Angle showed up. Everyone hates Corbin. Poor, poor Corbin. Sorry for the play-by-play, but this was treated more as a segment than an actual match. Even though Raw has been abysmal recently, this was a nice way to close off the Corbin as GM storyline. 6.5/10
Natalya vs. Ruby Riott (Tables Match)
Winner: Natalya Our Prediction: Natalya Ahh, the storyline which I constantly say is in poor taste. And while this match itself was pretty great, when it got to Riott rubbing Natalya's face on the table with the Jim Neidhart cutout on it, that was a bit much for my liking. It got a bit annoying with Natalya repeatedly saying things like "Don't mess with my family," and man, this match slowed to a crawl when Riott and Natalya were setting up tables. However, it was an alright match, once you ignored the fact you could hear all the spots getting called. And I loved seeing Natalya take out the Riott Squad, one by one. Additionally, this had a great finish with Riott getting powerbombed through a table, although the setup was a bit slow. While these two have been feuding for a bit, it's nice to see their PPV match felt like a PPV match and not just something else we'd see on Raw. It was very middle of the road, but I didn't expect much more than that. 5/10
Finn Bálor vs. Drew McIntyre
Winner: Finn Balor Our Prediction: Drew McIntyre Hey! A regular match at TLC! Nice! What's so confusing to me about this match was that it isn't a continuation of McIntyre/Ziggler. Yes, Ziggler was involved in the match and helped Balor get the win, but Balor shouldn't have been McIntyre's opponent for this PPV. Frankly, this felt like just another Monday Night Raw match. It was fine for both of these competitors. I really enjoy them both, but the big fight feel simply wasn't there. 6/10
Rey Mysterio vs. Randy Orton (Chairs Match)
Winner: Rey Mysterio Our Prediction: Rey Mysterio You know what this match didn't have enough of, right outside of the ring? Empty chairs. Just kidding. It had a ton. This is the eighth match of the evening, and it feels like it's been on all day. Well, at least this match had two veterans who know how to put on a good show. The Mysterio sliding spot onto Orton--who was outside of the ring--was fantastic. I also had a good chuckle when Mysterio jumped off the top rope and Orton just threw a chair at him. I am a monster. The ending came a bit out of nowhere, but sometimes, we need non-traditional finishes to throw the audience off a bit. Strangely enough, this match was a lot better than I expected and the most fun one of the evening, up to that point. 8/10
Ronda Rousey (c) vs. Nia Jax (Raw Women's Championship)
Winner: Ronda Rousey Our Prediction: Ronda Rousey Rousey continues to impress me, and that's coming from someone who dismissed her time and time again like an ignorant idiot. She's taking bumps well and doing some innovative stuff, like when she was about to be suplexed but somehow turned it into a choke on Jax. We got to see her do a crossbody from the top rope onto Jax outside the ring. That was pretty awesome. The weak spot here is Jax, as her character turns face or heel more than Big Show at this point, so who Jax is has become muddled. However, the David vs. Goliath story is one the works pretty well for this scenario. I loved seeing Rousey climb on Jax to lock in submission holds. If you would have told me back in March that I'd be a huge fan of Rousey's in-ring work, I would have called you a liar then had to eat my own words. We then got a backstage segment of Becky Lynch attacking Nia Jax, and it was the best. 8.5/10
(The New) Daniel Bryan (c) vs. AJ Styles (WWE Championship)
Winner: Daniel Bryan Our Prediction: Daniel Bryan Going into this match, I knew it was going to be great. You have to expect that two of the best performers in the company are going to put on an amazing match. Bryan has really changed up his moveset since his heel turn, and I love his ruthlessness now. There were so many counters and reversals during the match, and there was some great technical wrestling during the event. Man, I could have watched these two battle each other for another 30 minutes. What a great fight. 9/10
Seth Rollins (c) vs. Dean Ambrose (Intercontinental Championship)
Winner: Dean Ambrose Our Prediction: Dean Ambrose Commentary for this match was bad and weird, and made me want to mute my TV. The audience had lost a bit of steam on this one, as Styles/Bryan was a barn burner. It affected me as well. There was the whole thing with the audience turning on Ambrose and Rollins, chanting "This is boring," which is a bummer. I enjoyed the finish, but this was a rough one to get through. There's nothing really to say about this. It was a letdown, and it should have been the best match from Raw's roster. 4/10
Becky Lynch (c) vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Asuka (Triple Threat TLC Match For The Smackdown Women's Championship)
Winner: Asuka Our Prediction: Becky Lynch This was awesome. Lynch and Flair's match at Evolution was the best WWE bout of the year, without question, and this triple threat TLC match lived up to the hype, and it finally elevated Asuka back into the main event spotlight, where she should have been the past year. This was incredibly brutal and one of the most intense matches of the year. While I was really pulling for Becky Lynch to retain her title, the finish worked exceptionally well, even though some folks were not into Rousey interfering. For me, it helped fuel the feud between the two, which will probably all come to a head at Wrestlemania. This match could not have been put together any better. Well, maybe if WWE turned down the ring mics, so we couldn't hear all the spots being called. This truly was worth the main event spot on the show. 9.5/10
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