Nine Lives

The first trailer for Fast and Furious 9 was just released...



It's almost pointless to critique these movies anymore. They all have the same basic premise and usually end just about the same as the previous one. Basically, if you liked any of the other ones for any reason, you'll probably like this one.

I've seen most of them, so I'll likely see this one.

Whether I like it or not.

The movie opens on May 22nd.

Batman begins again

Production has started on The Batman, the new Robert Pattinson Batman movie.

Do we need another Batman movie?

Time will tell.

Koby and Gianna Bryant

Terrible news over the weekend...

NBA legend Kobe Bryant and one of his daughters were among nine people killed Sunday in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, a source confirmed to ESPN. Bryant was 41. 

Bryant was on his way to a youth basketball game with his daughter Gianna Bryant, who was 13, when the helicopter crashed. Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said in a news conference that there were no survivors, and according to the flight manifest, there were nine people on board the helicopter. 

A 6-foot-6 swingman with the ability to swing up front and play point or shooting guard, Bryant entered the NBA out of high school. In 1996, at age 18, he became the youngest player in NBA history. 

He won five NBA titles in his time with the Lakers, as well as two Olympic gold medals playing for the United States. Now fourth on the NBA career scoring list with 33,643 points, Bryant won two NBA Finals MVP awards and the regular-season MVP in 2008. He wore Nos. 8 and 24, both of which were retired by the Lakers.

So very sad.

Yes, it is.

John Karlen

Very sad news today...

John Karlen, the Dark Shadows actor who loosed a 200-year-old vampire from a chained coffin and two decades later won an Emmy Award for playing a detective’s husband on Cagney & Lacey, died yesterday of congestive heart failure in hospice in Burbank, California. He was 86.

Planned as a short-term last-chance plot, the vampire storyline, starring Jonathan Frid as the fanged Barnabas Collins, turned the failing soap into a phenomenon, providing the fledgling ABC daytime line-up with its first hit. Karlen would remain with the series until its end in 1971, playing, as did most of the ensemble, multiple characters in various centuries and parallel universes. 

Prior to Dark Shadows (which currently streams on Amazon Prime), Karlen appeared on Broadway in Tennessee Williams’ Sweet Bird of Youth, had small roles in ’50s anthology series, ’60s primetime episodic series and daytime soaps, but the Loomis role pegged him for horror through much of the early ’70s. Film and TV credits from the post-Shadows era include Daughters of Darkness, Night of Terror, The Sixth Sense, Night Gallery, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Wide World of Mystery and Trilogy of Terror. 

But his real second act came with CBS’ 1982-88 female buddy cop drama Cagney & Lacey: As Harvey Lacey, devoted, stay-at-home husband to Tyne Daly’s Det. Mary Beth Lacey. Karlen was Emmy-nominated three times (1985, ’86 and ’87), winning the Outstanding Supporting Actor trophy in ’86. He reprised the role in several stand-alone TV movies during the 1990s, including 1996’s Cagney & Lacey: True Convictions, his last major credit. 

I loved him on Cagney & Lacey. It was always nice to see he and Tyne Daly together on the show.

He will be missed.

Oh, bartender?

Patrick Stewart went on The View today and surprised Whoopi Goldberg with an invitation to join the second season of Picard (the first seasons starts airing tomorrow on CBS All Access)...



That is awesome!

They are practically forcing me to subscribe to that damn channel.

Devils!

More Schitt

I'm so glad that Schitt's Creek is back on. I hate that it's the last season.

For now, keep bringing on more Catherine O'Hara and her wigs (which she has names for).

Hilarious.

Bloodshot

The International trailer for Bloodshot was released today...



Vin Diesel appears to be playing himself very well and it looks like a lot of things will get blown up, people will get beat up, and it's likely to all work out in the end ( while setting up for a sequel).

And I'll probably see it.

We'll see how it all turns out when the movie opens on March 13th.

Morbius

The first trailer for Jared Leto's upcoming vampire movie, Morbius, was released today...



Judging by that last shot, he's obviously not one of the pretty Twilight vampire's friends.

The movie opens on July 31st.

Lucky number 13

Looks like AHS has a few more good years to go...

At TCA today, FX announced a three-season pickup of its flagship drama series American Horror Story, bringing the run of Ryan Murphy’s anthology horror series to 13 seasons. 

“I’m really excited that we were able to continue to work with Ryan, and somehow it just feels really poetic to me that American Horror Story is going to have 13 seasons. That just felt right,” FX Networks chairman John Landgraf said from the stage about the mega renewal. (AHS already had been picked up for Season 10, which is next to go into production. 

Because of the number 13’s big significance in the horror genre, Deadline asked Landgraf after the session whether AHS will be ending after Season 13. “Could be,” he said. “It will be poetic, won’t it if it ends after 13 seasons?”

I hope they bring back the Coven.

Less stabby, more magic.

March Madness

The third season of Ozark was given a launch date today...



March 27th is going to be a very good day/night for me to spend with Netflix.

More Sex

The trailer for the second season of Sex Education was released today...



The first season was really good, so I'm looking forward to watching this when it becomes available on Netflix January 17th.

Newish Mutants

A new trailer for the two-years-in-the-making Marvel film New Mutants was released today...



I'm not sure I want to watch a horror version of X-Men-type folks. But, it does have Arya from Game of Thrones...so I might be tempted to watch it when it comes on HBO or Netflix.

I stress "might".

The film opens on April 3rd.

TGIF!

Let the first weekend of 2020 begin!

Enjoyable

Vanity Fair posted a new interview with Kathy Bates recently. It's well worth the watch, if you enjoy her.

How it began

The first full trailer for A Quiet Place 2 was just released today and it looks even more tense than the first one...



Happy New Year to us!

The movie opens on March 20th.