Month: February 2021

One Of Last Year’s Best Anime Films Is $15 At Amazon Today

What would happen if one person had the ability to control the weather? That’s the premise of Weathering with You, an anime film about a young girl who wields the strange power and uses it to her advantage. Directed by Makoto Shinkai (known for 2017’s Your Name), Weathering with You is a beautiful story that takes some surprising turns and leaves you with an ending you won’t soon forget. If you missed it when it came to theaters in January 2020, today’s a great day to snag it on Blu-ray, as Amazon currently has Weathering with You on sale for just over $15, down from its $30 list price. To get the full discount, click to apply the coupon on the listing, and you’ll save an additional $2.68 at checkout. This is the cheapest we’ve seen Weathering with You’s Blu-ray since it released.

Those who loved Your Name will find plenty to love about Weathering with You, which has a similar feel and, yes, will probably make you cry. Like Your Name, it begins with the meeting of a boy and a girl from different backgrounds: Hodaka, a runaway from a troubled home, and Hina, an orphan who becomes known as the “sunshine girl” due to her weather-controlling powers. After the two become friends, they decide to start a business where people can hire Hina to clear the sky and ensure sunny weather for weddings, parties, and other gatherings. However, the situation starts to get complicated, and they realize there could be dire consequences for wielding the power so freely.

If you’re looking for cozy Valentine’s Day movie ideas or gift options, Weathering with You would be a great film for curling up to watch with a partner. Amazon has a bunch of other great anime deals today as well, offering an additional 20% off the price of numerous anime Blu-rays. Your Name is actually included in the sale, so you could snag Makoto Shinkai’s two most popular films on Blu-ray for just over $30. Classics like Cowboy Bebop: The Complete Series and Akira are included as well. With over nine pages of deals, there’s a lot on offer, and you can check out the full sale at Amazon below.

New On Netflix This Week: Red Dot, Buried By The Bernards, And More

As the new year continues to zoom by at an impressively rapid pace, we now somehow suddenly find ourselves in the week before Valentine’s Day. Whether you’ve got a current boo or not, for the time being the responsible thing to do during COVID is to make plans that center on staying home and watching movies, TV shows, and original content on Netflix. And if not much is really grabbing you, you can also spend this week looking planning ahead by checking out the full list of 70 new movies Netflix will be rolling out throughout 2021.

We won’t sugarcoat it for you–for the week of February 7 through to February 13, there’s not a ton of new stuff rolling out. With just a scant 16 new entries coming to Netflix’s formidable catalog, the pro move to make would be embracing the fact you can only watch so many things in a given week, anyway.

If you’re looking for something that’ll help put a different spin on Valentine’s Day coming up, the Swedish psychological thriller Red Dot is a strong contender on February 11. The film is about a young couple with a child on the way looking to rekindle their marriage with a trip up to the mountains–only to suddenly find themselves “stalked by remorseless killers.” Hint: The red dot doesn’t refer to a hazardous sale, but a sniper rifle’s projected dot on a mountain caked in snow.

Buried by the Bernards, debuting on February 12, explores similarly disturbing subject matter but with a markedly different tone. This reality show about a Memphis family funeral home showcases the frictions and hardships inherent in the industry–but through the lens of the offbeat R. Bernard Funeral Services family, which years ago had a modestly viral commercial where an uncle pops out of a casket, screaming about prices. With where everyone one is in quarantine viewing, it’s always worth giving a new series a try–and this one certainly looks different.

Below, you’ll find everything coming to Netflix this week, and if you’re interested in more streaming news, check out the biggest shows that are just over the horizon in 2021.

What’s new to Netflix this week?

February 8

  • iCarly: Seasons 1-2
  • War Dogs (2016)

February 10

  • Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel
  • The Misadventures of Hedi and Cokeman
  • The World We Make (2019)

February 11

  • Capitani
  • Layla Majnun
  • Middle of Nowhere (2012)
  • Red Dot
  • Squared Love

February 12

  • Buried by the Bernards
  • Nadiya Bakes
  • Hate by Dani Rovira
  • To All The Boys: Always And Forever
  • Xico’s Journey

February 13

  • Monsoon (2019)

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The Borderlands Movie Cast Adds Another Huge Name With Jamie Lee Curtis As Tannis

Halloween and Freaky Friday star Jamie Lee Curtis has joined the Borderlands movie, becoming just the latest huge name to board the film.

She will play the archaeologist and NPC Patricia Tannis, according to multiple media reports. Curtis joins Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett (Lilith) and Kevin Hart (Roland). There is some A-list talent behind the camera, too, as the script is being written by Craig Mazin (HBO’s Chernobyl), while horror movie director and actor Eli Roth is set to direct the movie.

“Working with the iconic Jamie Lee Curtis has been a life long dream of mine, and I am so excited for her to bring her humor, warmth, and brilliance to the role of Tannis,” Roth said in a statement to Collider.

The Borderlands movie is being produced by Hunger Games studio Lionsgate, whose president, Nathan Kahane, explained that the movie has attracted so many talented people because of its “incredible script” and Roth’s vision for Pandora.

“Jamie is unique in that her characters have depth and gravitas, but are also always hugely entertaining–she commands the screen,” Kahane said.

This is just the latest video game project for Mazin, who is also working with Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann on HBO’s The Last of Us TV series. Before these projects, Mazin was known for writing the Hangover and Scary Movie sequels.

Cameras are expected to start rolling on the Borderlands movie soon in Budapest.

The Borderlands series was in the news recently because developer Gearbox was acquired by a Swedish company in a $1.3 billion sale. Going forward, 2K Games will continue to publish Borderlands games.

Now Playing: Borderlands 3 Video Review

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PSA: Make Sure You Spend Your Destiny 2 Crucible Tokens Today

Destiny 2 is seeing a bunch of changes to loot and bounties with its new content season, the Season of the Chosen. One of those changes is the end of Crucible tokens, a currency you earn when playing in Destiny 2’s competitive arena against other players. Today, February 8, is the last day before the launch of the new season, so if you’re sitting on Crucible tokens, you should turn them in now.

A bunch of Destiny activities dish out tokens, which you can spend with the appropriate vendors in the Tower and elsewhere to increase “reputation” with them. Every time your reputation rises enough, you get a loot drop from the vendor, which can sometimes include weapons and armor specific to that activity. For a lot of players, though, vendor items aren’t really all that useful. Vendor drops won’t help you increase your character’s overall Power level and the stats on armor are usually pretty low–so apart from searching for good perk rolls on new weapons, vendor drops are easy to ignore.

But at the start of the Season of the Chosen, Lord Shaxx stops accepting Crucible tokens in the Tower. And there is an upshot to spending those tokens. Even though you might not need or want the loot they supply, breaking down the weapons and armor you get earns you Glimmer, upgrade materials, and weapons parts.

So if you’re sitting on a lot of Crucible tokens, it’s worth spending a little time cashing them out. After all, you earned them by playing, and you can never have too many upgrade materials in Destiny 2.

Now Playing: Destiny 2: Beyond Light – Official Season Of The Chosen Trailer

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The Flash Is Coming To Fortnite, According To Leaks

If you’re looking for a little extra speed in your favorite battle royale, we’ve got some good news for you. It looks like the Flash is coming to Fortnite very soon. Fortnite has featured skins based on popular comic book characters for a long time now, with both Marvel and DC getting their share of love from developer Epic Games.

It’s not clear when this Flash skin will come to Fortnite, but the above leak suggests that the Flash will get a Cup similar to the other notable comic book skins that have come to the game over the years. Back in Season 4, players who participated in the special Marvel Series cups were able to win the characters’ costumes before they were sold in the Item Store. Heroes and villains like Black Cat, Daredevil, and Venom all got their own Cups.

A new Reality Log video shared on Fortnite’s Twitter account also references a “really, really” fast target, which could be a Flash reference.

Some have pointed to the upcoming release of Zach Snyder’s director’s cut of the 2017 Justice League movie (also known as the Snyder Cut) on March 18 as a possible date for the release of the Flash skin. However, it’s also possible that DC-themed cups will serve as a lead-up to the release of the Snyder Cut, and the Flash is only one of many character skins that will be revealed.

In other Fortnite news, the game’s Valentine’s Day-themed Hearts Wild event is now live. If you need assistance with these week’s challenges, check out our Season 5, Week 10 challenge guide. Fortnite developer Epic Games announced that it currently has no plans to go public with an IPO.

Now Playing: Fortnite Zero Point Story Trailer

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Robert Downey Jr. Offers Stephen Colbert A Lame Part In The Avengers

On a recent Late Show appearance, guest Robert Downey Jr. pitched and offered host Stephen Colbert a role in The Avengers. Instead of having Colbert step in to replace Downey Jr. as Iron Man (the latter made it clear last year he’s “done all [he] could with that character”), he’s got something much more lame and hilarious in mind. Check out the appearance–cued up to this specific exchange–in the video below.

“There’s an opening, right?” says Downey Jr., teasing about his departure as Iron Man. “Cobie Smulders plays Agent Hill, sometimes Commander Hill. I thought if she needed a weekend assistant, right? Cap Colbert. You have a baseball cap, and when you wear it you possess the superpower that no man has. You can multitask and you can take care of all her stuff.”

Colbert laughs and says he’d “be very grateful.” Downey Jr. promised “it’s going to go up the tree to [Marvel Studios head Kevin] Feige.”

Truth be told, it is not as far fetched as it might seem to result in a role. Years ago, Colbert–an outspoken fan of sci-fi and fantasy–had a cameo in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug playing a spy in Lake-town. At the time back in 2013, Vanity Fair published a quick piece on it, which also has some important photographic proof. Maybe he’ll show up in a similar fashion in a future Marvel movie? Or is this a super-slick tease to The Falcon and Winter Soldier, which debuted its first trailer during the Super Bowl–after all, they didn’t explicitly say Colbert isn’t in it?

Birds Of Prey Director Cathy Yan’s Debut Movie Dead Pigs Gets New Trailer

The first trailer for Dead Pigs, the debut movie from Birds of Prey director Cathy Yan, has been released. Yan’s first film made before her DC movie finally arrives this week.

The film is an ensemble comedy drama set in Shanghai, China. The movie uses a real-life incident, where thousands of dead pigs were dumped into Huangpu river, as a focus point around which Yan tells a variety of stories about life in contemporary China. The trailer is very fast moving doesn’t really provide details about what these stories are–we know there’s some dancing and a car crash–but the movie received rave reviews when it premiered at Sundance in 2019 and film fans will be keen to see the film that helped Yan get hired for Birds of Prey. Check the trailer out below:

Dead Pigs premieres on the streaming platform Mubi on Friday, February 12. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Yan admitted that it was strange to be finally talking about her debut movie four years after she shot it. “It feels a little bit like going back to my roots and going home,” she said. “I am deeply proud of the film. It feels good to finally get it out there, and hopefully, it doesn’t feet dated at all. I don’t think it does. If anything, the last crazy four years that we’ve had since I actually made the movie [have made] me see the whole movie in a different light, too.”

Yan also spoke about how the movie’s central event connects the various characters. “I was really intrigued by the network effect of it,” she said. “It made me think, ‘Well, how can that speak to and be a metaphor for the ways in which we do affect each other so much, and that our actions affect the next person and the next person, and the many ways that we are so very intersected?'”

Birds of Prey’s main character, Harley Quinn, will be seen again in the upcoming The Suicide Squad. The film is directed by James Gunn, and sees Margot Robbie play Harley alongside John Cena, Jai Courtney, Viola Davis, Michael Rooker, and Joel Kinnaman. It hits theaters and HBO Max in August.

Jurassic World’s Bryce Dallas Howard To Voice A Video Game With Salem’s Seth Gabel

Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World) and Seth Gabel (Salem) will appear in the upcoming video game Maquette, it has been announced. The pair will lend their voices to the couple, Kenzie and Michael, who provide players with details and instructions but are never seen.

Maquette is a first-person puzzle game developed by Graceful Decay and published by Annapurna Interactive, the gaming division of the film studio.

“This is about a relationship that ultimately doesn’t work out,” Howard told The Hollywood Reporter. “But it’s not a tragedy in any way, shape or form.” I think there’s something really nuanced about that that I really appreciated.”

Due to COVID-19, Howard recorded her dialogue from her New York home, in her garage over the course of one day. You can hear Howard and Gabel perform some voice lines and get a closer look at the game in the cast announcement video above.

As for the gameplay, Maquette is a recursive puzzle game set in a world where every object is both incredibly small and absolutely massive in size with a type of MC Escher feel.

“Head to the center of the world and you’ll feel like a giant, towering over buildings and walls. But venture further out, and start to feel small as things get larger and larger–to the point where cracks in the ground become chasms,” reads a line from the description.

The plot involves everyday problems in a modern-day love story where small issues can morph into inescapable challenges, and that’s where Howard and Gabel come in.

Maquette launches on March 2 for PS4, PS5, and PC.

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Xbox Director Teases Collaboration With Tesla For Halo Warthog, But It’s Early Days

After Elon Musk tweeted about his love for Halo, Xbox marketing boss Aaron Greenberg followed up to suggest a potential collaboration between Tesla and Halo.

Greenberg said on Twitter, “Sure feels like a Tesla x Halo collab needs to happen at some point!?” he included hashtags for Tesla’s Cybertruck and Halo’s iconic Warthog vehicle. In another tweet, Greenberg stressed that this is only an idea at this stage.

“If you like the idea, speak up and maybe something in the future could happen–who knows!?” he said.

Tesla’s Cybertruck was also the subject of a social media campaign for Cyberpunk 2077, with people seeing an obvious opportunity for the two brands to collide. However, it hasn’t happened yet, if it ever will.

With Halo Infinite releasing in Fall 2021, we expect Microsoft’s marketing machine to kick into full gear over the coming months, but whether or not a Tesla x Halo collaboration is part of it remains to be seen.

For what it’s worth, Greenberg also said on Twitter that if people make enough noise, Microsoft might release an actual Xbox Series X mini-fridge, but that hasn’t happened yet either. Here’s to hoping it does.

In other news, Tesla just invested $1.5 billion into bitcoin, leading to a rally in the price to bring it to record levels.

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Fortnite Valentine’s Day Themed Event Hearts Wild Kicks Off Today

The developers of Fortnite love to celebrate the passing of the seasons, and Valentine’s Day is no exception. The game’s Hearts Wild event is now live, and it has a variety of fun Valentine’s Day-themed activities for players to sink their teeth into, including the return of papercraft, some Creator Challenges, and even a new tournament.

If you’re trying to get your hands on the Lovely Outfit when it releases in the Item Shop, you have a chance to get it ahead of time. Players can grab a Duos partner and fight in the Hearts Wild Cup on February 9, with the best players in each region receiving the Lovely Outfit and Heartblast Back Bling. You have to have two-factor authentication enabled to participate though, so make sure you take care of that beforehand.

The event also brings new Creator Challenges to the game, with exclusive prizes for the teams that earn the most points. More details on that will be coming at a later date. Hearts Wild features the return of Fortnite’s papercraft, which allows players to download paper materials to build cosplay of their favorite characters. Additionally, the Welcome Hub has been festooned with flowers for the event, so check that out.

Gallery

As usual, this new event brings new Quests to the game. These challenges are themed around helping Fishstick get a date for Valentine’s, and they go live on February 11. If you’re looking for help with these week’s challenges, check out our Season 5, Week 10 challenge guide. Fortnite developer Epic Games recently said that the company has no plans to go public with an IPO, though the company may do so in the future. A leak suggests that Flash might be coming to Fortnite soon, though that hasn’t been confirmed.

Rewards for Fortnite Hearts Wild Creator Challenges

  • First place: Breathless Blades Pickaxe, Shufflly Shapes Wrap, Reel Love Spray, Perfect Match Emoticon, & Hearts Wild Team Battles Banner
  • Second place: Shufflly Shapes Wrap, Reel Love Spray, Perfect Match Emoticon, & Hearts Wild Team Battles Banner
  • Third place: Reel Love Spray, Perfect Match Emoticon, & Hearts Wild Team Battles Banner
  • Fourth place: Perfect Match Emoticon & Hearts Wild Team Battles Banner
  • Fifth place: Hearts Wild Team Battles Banner

Now Playing: Fortnite – Official Pelé ‘Air Punch’ Emote Trailer

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