Month: January 2020

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James Bond will never be a woman, so long as producer Barbara Broccoli is steering the series. She said in a new interview with Variety that she wants to create new female characters in the 007 franchise, but James Bond will always be a man when she is in control.

“He can be of any color, but he is male,” Broccoli said. “I believe we should be creating new characters for women–strong female characters. I’m not particularly interested in taking a male character and having a woman play it. I think women are far more interesting than that.”

Broccoli’s comments come after Pierce Brosnan, who portrayed the legendary super-spy James Bond in four 007 movies, said it was time for a woman to play Bond. At the time, he said this would be unlikely to happen given Broccoli’s stance, and now we know why.

“I think we’ve watched the guys do it for the last 40 years. Get out of the way, guys, and put a woman up there. I think it would be exhilarating; it would be exciting,” he said.

It is rumored that one of the plot points in the upcoming No Time To Die movie will feature Lashana Lynch’s character taking over the 007 title from Daniel Craig. This has yet to be confirmed. However, we do know that Craig is reportedly planning to retire from playing James Bond after No Time To Die.

Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, and Léa Seydoux (who also appears in Death Stranding) all return to the roles of M, Q, Miss Moneypenny, and Madeleine Swann respectively. The new cast members include Rami Malek as the villain, as well as Billy Magnussen and Ana de Armas.

No Time To Die hits theatres on April 10, 2020. In other news, it was recently confirmed that Billie Eilish will sing the movie’s title song, while Hans Zimmer has been brought in to score the movie.

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When Bad Boys II took in nearly $300 million at theaters back in 2003, it seemed obvious that there would be another film to follow. And yet, over the years, a third Bad Boys movie was repeatedly pushed back, delayed, and even called off at one point when Sony dropped it from its release schedule in 2017.

Now, the year is 2020, and the Bad Boys are back. With Smith and Martin Lawrence return to the buddy cop roles they made famous. The Bad Boys they play are no longer boys, though. They’re closing in on what would likely be considered retirement age for police officers. And another massive change is happening behind the camera: After directing the first two movies, Michael Bay is not involved in the film. With all of that in mind, you might be surprised to find out Bad Boys for Life is actually great. In fact, it’s the best entry in the franchise thus far.

The story, like the film itself, picks up almost two decades after Bad Boys II. Now detectives Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) are still tearing up the streets of Miami dispensing their personal brand of over-the-top law enforcement, complete with high-speed chases, explosions, disposable bad guys, and everything else Bad Boys fans are looking for. But Burnett is retiring and Lowrey doesn’t know how to live a life without violence.

He may not have a choice, though, as a killer with a connection to his past nearly assassinates him. That sets off a fierce hunt to find out who wants him dead that not only brings Burnett back onto the job but pairs the Bad Boys with a young group of millennial cops who don’t necessarily agree with their explosive ways.

Reuniting for one last job or introducing the next generation of Bad Boys could easily and quickly become a cliche, but not in this movie. With Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah–billed as Adil and Bilall–taking over directing duties from Michael Bay, Bad Boys for Life manages to balance the explosive mayhem of the previous films with a heartfelt story about coming to terms with your own mortality.

That balance is what makes Bad Boys for Life shine brightly. While the first Bad Boys is a really good movie and Bad Boys II took the franchise even higher, they were both undoubtedly Michael Bay films. The story was often shuffled to the side in favor of massive action set-pieces with Bay behind the camera. Let’s be clear, there’s still plenty of that in Bad Boys for Life, but by and large, they serve the story and drive the plot, rather than playing like an exciting aside.

Adil and Bilall, on the other hand, never lose track of the story in the smashed cars and piles of dead villains. Instead, every bullet that flies and every body that drops only pulls Lowrey and Burnett further into their own personal nightmare as they try to figure out who wants Mike dead.

Naturally, the movie–written by Peter Craig (Top Gun: Maverick), Joe Carnahan (Death Wish), and Chris Bremner–is very funny. If you enjoyed the vulgar jokes and ridiculous situations in the previous movies, you’ll find plenty to laugh at here. And while a lot of the humor, particularly between Smith and Lawrence’s characters, hasn’t changed, some of it definitely has. After all, they aren’t the cool, young cops anymore. They’re the old guys, while the Miami Police Department’s upstart AMMO squad–composed of characters played by Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical), Alexander Ludwig (Vikings), Charles Melton (Riverdale), and Paola Núñez (The Purge)–look at them as relics from the past and take every possible opportunity to remind them of it.

Truthfully, this is one of the few places Bad Boys for Life stumbles a bit. It’s entertaining to see Lowrey and Burnett attempt to hold onto their dated approach to law enforcement, while the AMMO squad relies on technological advances and avoiding violent conflict when possible. Showing the younger officers as an alternative to Lowrey and Burnett’s outdated methods helps alleviate some of the issues inherent to a movie about two twigger-happy detectives released in 2020–the world has changed a lot in the last 17 years, and a movie that makes light of two officers using excessive force when pursuing criminals might not be received in the same way as it was in 2003. That said, as important as the younger characters are to the tone of the film, their presence lets the script go back to the “man these guys are ancient” joke a few too many times, making sure to repeatedly hit it over the head.

However, the new recruits help breathe fresh air into the franchise and help provide a reason to make future movies, should Smith and Lawrence be up to returning. And if Bad Boys for Life proves anything, it’s that they’re more than ready for it.

Even after not playing the roles for nearly two decades, the duo’s chemistry is as strong as ever in the new film. What’s more, though, Smith has grown as an actor since 2003 and that’s on full display here. There’s hatred and fear in his eyes when talking about tracking down the person who wants him dead. It’s a side of the character we haven’t seen before. Seeing beneath the smarmy playboy persona to the man he is underneath is a welcome change.

And yes, because you’re probably wondering, Joe Pantoliano does return as the police captain and is as funny as ever. However, he also plays an important role in the plot that makes him a more central element to the film than previous entries in the franchise.

Ultimately, Bad Boys for Life is better than practically anyone could expect. While it would have been easy to rely on the nostalgia of seeing the iconic trio of Smith, Lawrence, and explosions on-screen together again, the new film strives to be so much more and manages to pull it off. And what’s more, it also provides a blueprint for what the franchise could become in the future, should audiences want to see more.

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Humble’s latest bundle benefits Sweet Farm, a non-profit animal sanctuary, so it makes sense that it would bundle Stardew Valley, a game where you can raise and care for animals, with a bunch of other great titles about nature and critters. The Humble Sweet Farm Bundle combines Stardew Valley with six other PC games for $10.

As usual, Humble is offering different game tiers depending on how much you want to pay. Paying $1 or more gets you Niche: a genetics survival game, MagiCat, and Evergarden, while paying more than the average ($7.20 USD at time of publishing) adds Equilinox, Ultimate Chicken Horse, and Samorost 3. Pay $10 or more, and you’ll get Stardew Valley as well. All buyers will also get the soundtracks for Niche and MagiCat.

Once you choose how much you want to pay, you can choose where you want it to go by dividing it between the game publishers, Sweet Farm, and a tip for Humble.

Stardew Valley received a massive patch back in December that fixed a ton of bugs and added some new features, including a late-game movie theater, new 14-heart events for spouses, and fish-breeding ponds, in addition to clothes tailoring and dyeing, new clothing and items, and much more.

In addition to the latest bundle, Humble is hosting a new winter sale, with deals on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Game of the Year Edition for $15, Control for $40.19, and Astroneer for $19.49. More of last year’s best games are also discounted, including Resident Evil 2 and Devil May Cry 5 for $19.79 each, Metro Exodus for $20, and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night for $28. You can check out all of the games on sale at Humble.

Humble Sweet Farm Bundle tiers

Pay $1 or more

Pay more than the average ($7.20 at publishing)

Pay $10 or more

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Temtem, an upcoming MMO inspired by Pokemon, is still very much a work-in-progress. In its current state, there are still balance issues to be fixed, facades of buildings that need filling out, and more work to do to get the game fully up and running. But already, Temtem has revealed some clever twists on the Pokemon formula–and more than just letting you battle alongside friends.

Like every core Pokemon game, in Temtem, you start with a titular creature and head out on a journey to battle and collect more of them. In the recent closed alpha, I was able to join up with a friend almost immediately after getting my first Temtem, and it was seamless and easy to explore and battle together in real-time (though we used Discord for voice chat). The sheer novelty of doing Pokemon-style double battles alongside another human player, rather than controlling both creatures on the field yourself, was exciting–it’s something that Pokemon players have wanted for some time, and it’s one of the big features that Temtem offers as a direct competitor.

And Temtem handles it well, too, in terms of battling. Most Temtem battles are 2v2, as opposed to Pokemon, which largely has you in one-on-one situations during the story. You have a six-Temtem party of your own, and in a co-op battle, you each can use only the first three Temtem from that party with one in battle each at a time. You get to coordinate with your buddy as to what Temtem you want in your combined party, any strategy ideas, and then how you execute each turn–in short, it gets you engaged in teamwork. You can also switch out one of your Temtem during battle in favor of your friend’s, though they’ll control both monsters at once.

Some Temtem have moves that really capitalize on this coordination. While Pokemon have support moves that can boost each other in double battles, there are currently no moves in Pokemon that get a boost just because of who your partner is. In Temtem, however, some moves have “synergy” effects when the right Temtem is in battle with you. For example, there’s one move called Urushiol that gets a power and effect boost if your partner is a Toxic type. While you could use synergy by yourself, it was fun to both discover these kinds of moves and execute on a strategy with a friend.

Temtem still needs to be balanced further, but so far, it is also way harder than any recent Pokemon game, even when you’re playing with someone else. Part of that is certainly because I don’t yet know what all the Temtem are, how their types work, or any of the intricacies of the game, but we were really on the verge of death around halfway through Temtem’s equivalent of Route 1. Understanding synergy (or any of the type matchups, even) was not advanced but essential knowledge even in the beginning, which was a refreshing challenge.

The main downside to co-op, like in any game that has a non-zero amount of dialogue, is that it’s hard to coordinate when you’re chatting and when you’re reading. I ended up clicking through quite a bit of dialogue just so my friend wouldn’t get bored waiting for me, and we barely explored the towns or talked to NPCs. It made me wish that Temtem had strayed from Pokemon’s formula significantly here, since running around the tall grass and battling in co-op works well, at least in concept.

So yes, it would be awesome to battle alongside a friend in Pokemon. But more than that, I would love to see Pokemon adopt Temtem’s synergy mechanic, which could potentially add a fresh dimension to competitive Pokemon battles that doesn’t rely on going bigger and stronger–like Dynamax and even Z-Moves and Mega Evolutions before it. Double battles are my favorite format, and I also just love to see Temtem embracing it as the default, while adding a bit more challenge to suit the depth of strategy that doubles affords. Whether Temtem can fully capture my heart the way Pokemon has remains to be seen.

Temtem is scheduled to release in Early Access on Steam on January 21, 2020.

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