RhysehT

 (A version of this article originally appeared on kernelnow.com / mynewslike.com) Almost exactly a year removed from the release of their cultural earthquake Avengers: Endgame (and fresh off the successful Netflix upload of cult sitcom Community where they first emerged), Anthony and Joe Russo return with Extraction , a one-man actioner that serves as Netflix’s latest big-budget spectacle. Whilst still based on a comic series – Ande Parks’s Ciudad – and starring a familiar face – the God of Thunder himself, Chris Hemsworth – this world is a universe away from superhero ensemble pieces: expensive but troubled mercenary Tyler Rake (Hemsworth) travels to Bangladesh to rescue Ovi (Rudhraksh Jaiswal), the son of an imprisoned Mumbai druglord, from the clutches of his father’s Dakar-based rival, Amir Asif. What follows is a bloody chase across the city to the titular extraction, with a heavily-armed trail of henchmen, child soldiers and corrupt police seeking to stop the duo. ...

 (A version of this article originally appeared on kernelnow.com / mynewslike.com) By rights, Trolls World Tour is a movie that should have found its way onto the big screen. That’s not exclusively because it demands a theatrical presentation, nor is it entirely because of the cruel effect that pandemic and lockdown have had on the cinema industry. No, it’s because, for various reasons even before the cruel reality of COVID-19, it had as many as four different planned release dates this year. Having now settled for a digital outlet , this sequel follows the same group of pop-and-scrapbook obsessed creatures from 2016’s Trolls , with best friends Poppy (Anna Kendrick) and Branch (Justin Timberlake) again at the forefront. As Poppy struggles with how best to be queen and her companion wonders how to declare his love for her, they’re suddenly exposed to a musically-diverse world outside of their home, Pop Village – and more importantly, a race of rival Trolls bent o...

 (A version of this article originally appeared on kernelnow.com / mynewslike.com) As the world remains on epidemic-enforced lockdown, movie fans are looking to a variety of platforms to find their filmic fix (hopefully acquiring a newfound appreciation for those that create along the way). For most, that involves streaming; perhaps to discover and re-watch old favorites, or perhaps to keep up with brand new content. Services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime are proving ripe with these fresh titles – fresh titles like Blow the Man Down . Following a successful run in last year’s film festival circuit , the film – set in the fictional town of Easter Cove, Maine – sees the Connolly sisters Priscilla (Sophie Lowe) and Mary Beth (Morgan Saylor) finding themselves in a new world where they must now run their family’s fishmongers without their recently deceased mother Mary Margaret. Oh, and there’s the small matter of the man that Mary Beth murders, probably in self-def...

 (A version of this article originally appeared on kernelnow.com / mynewslike.com) “The most talked about film of the year is one nobody’s seen.. yet.” So says the trailer for The Hunt , a film originally scheduled for release in September of last year before America’s mass shooting problem caused its delay until this past month. The intrigue over its postponement turned out to be something of a gift, creating an unusual marketing strategy that played on its delay as a reason the film has to be seen. Don’t be fooled – it may protest some innocence, but this film laps up the controversies of the real world both within and outside of its bloody plot. What no-one involved saw coming was that, like so many others , its release would succumb to the relentless and cruel pandemic that has invaded all corners of the world. In the face of this strange and hopefully short-term threat, Universal have seen fit to release this and other movies to isolated audiences early; as o...

 (A version of this article originally appeared on kernelnow.com / mynewslike.com) Looking back, it’s impossible to overstate just how much of a global phenomenon Pokémon was. For reasons that no one has been able to fully explain, the quest to catch all 151 original Pocket Monsters via video game, trading card and television was one that consumed children the world over for a few glorious, if sudden, years.  Nintendo’s franchise arguably reached its peak in 1999, when the adequately titled Pokémon: The First Movie roared into cinemas around the world. Now, over two decades later (stop me if you suddenly feel as old as I just made myself feel) comes a full CGI remake of the film. This is the twenty-fourth Pokémon movie and alongside last year’s live action Detective Pikachu , may well be the movie that has stirred the most audience interest in years. That’s largely down to its being a reboot, and whilst it’s difficult to believe you’re reading this review...

 (A version of this article originally appeared on kernelnow.com / mynewslike.com) Jack London’s The Call of the Wild , referred to as a “ legendary novel ” in the promotion for this film, has proved an inspiration to film-makers since the earliest days of cinema. The first adaptation came as a silent film in 1923 and since then at least six more have followed on-screen, starring silver screen legends such as Clark Gable , Charlton Heston and Rutger Hauer . This latest realization brings with it a very cinematic coincidence: the first film to adapt the book whilst featuring sound came in 1935, and was the last film to be released under the Twentieth Century Pictures banner before that studio merged with Fox to become Twentieth Century Fox. Some 85 years later, this new film comes as the first release under the Twentieth Century Studios name after Disney’s mega-purchase of Fox last year. It’s also a first for director Chris Sanders ( Lilo & Stitch , How to Train Y...

(A version of this article originally appeared on kernelnow.com / mynewslike.com) The Bad Batch A first look at the titular wrecking crew (source: StarWars.com) In 2013, word first emerged that Star Wars: The Clone Wars was to end. Then, in 2014, after the Netflix release of The Lost Missions, it did exactly that . Now, in 2020, the longest-running Star Wars TV show has found a place to finish its tale, once again on a streaming service in the form of Disney+. Since the announcement at San Diego Comic-Con two years ago of the show’s return, much debate has raged over what episodes will form the final twelve – exactly which storylines would be featured, and what characters would find closure within them. The accompanying trailer featured a great deal of focus on Ahsoka Tano, the series’ greatest success story, and Darth Maul, a controversial addition to the later seasons who quickly became its most compelling villain. ‘The Bad Batch’ as they first appeared in an unfini...