Category: Games

Shang-Chi is finally here and it’s packed full of references to Marvel comics, the MCU, and pop culture. How many did yo

The tenth season of American Horror Story, titled Double Feature, is certainly off to a bloody and violent start. With the season broken up into two separate stories–one about vampires, the other concerning aliens–the vampiric tale is already stacking quite the pile of dead bodies.

The following contains spoilers from the third episode of American Horror Story: Double feature. If you’re not caught up on the FX series, it’s best you stop reading now.

The “Red Tide” portion of Double Feature follows the Gardner family as they settle into life in Provincetown, Massachusetts, not realizing they’re surrounded by vampires. These aren’t your run of the mill vampires, though. Instead, these vampires are artists who take a drug to inspire their brilliance. The side effect is they have a thirst for human blood that must be quenched.

While many in the town are very aware of the contingent of blood-drinkers residing there, Police Chief Burleson (Adina Porter) seemed to be in the dark about what was really happening. That, unfortunately, proved to be her downfall in Episode 3, “Thirst.”

By this point, two members of the Gardner family–father Harry (Finn Wittrock) and his young daughter Alma (Ryan Kiera Armstrong)–had indulged in the drug, becoming vampiric in their own right. So it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that when the chief stopped by their house to question Alma about a rash of murders in the area, the hungry little vampire killed and drained the police officer of her blood.

It was a short stay for Porter, but one she hopes left an impact on American Horror Story fans. “As an actor, I was like, ‘Ah, too soon!’ But you know, the play is the thing, and I just wanted to make the audience really fall for the Chief in what little time we had, so that when she was taken out, it hurt,” the actress told GameSpot.

Not only did the chief’s death hurt, but it also promised to send the show spinning out of control going forward. “You needed someone who was relatable and grounded when you’re in a world of folks that will do anything to be famous,” Porter noted. “You needed someone to be grounded and someone who’s not obsessed with fame. And I’m glad that the Chief got to be that person.”

Now, without that grounding force, things are likely about to get very strange as the artsy vampires try to kill each other in an effort to keep the town’s secret. Still, that said, this is American Horror Story. A dire situation getting completely out of control is to be expected. And, who knows? While we watched the chief bleed out at the hands of a little girl, is she really gone? Even Porter doesn’t know for sure. “There might be more because in our universe anything can happen,” she said.

American Horror Story airs Wednesdays on FX, with episodes streaming the next day on Hulu.

James Gunn tweeted out a PSA letting fans know The Suicide Squad will be leaving HBO Max by the end of this weekend, presumably on September 5.

Gunn made sure in his tweet to add a set photo of a dejected John Cena, teasing his upcoming spin-off TV series Peacemaker. Gunn will be producing the show alongside Cena, Matthew Miller, and Peter Safran and has directing credits for five episodes of the TV series. Peacemaker is slated to release on HBO Max in January 2022.

The Suicide Squad premiered in theatres and on HBO Max on August 6. Since the film’s release, it has earned $36.5 million at the box office.The Suicide Squad has a Metacritic metascore of 71 with a user score of 7.1 and is certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with an audience score of 82% and a 91% Tomatometer score.

In GameSpot’s review of The Suicide Squad, Mike Rougaeu said the movie was “shocking, bloody, hilarious, and heartfelt” with a lot of care put into the writing of its ensemble cast of characters and soundtrack in comparison to the 2016 version of the film.

If you have HBO Max and 2 hours and 12 minutes to spare, be sure to check out The Suicide Squad before it leaves the streaming platform.

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While Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings provided no shortage of unexpected twists for the MCU, perhaps the biggest was the return of not one but two long forgotten faces–Tim Roth’s Abomination, last seen in the Edward Norton Incredible Hulk movie, who was teased in the trailers, and another (arguably more surprising) special appearance who went on to play a core role in the film.

This article includes spoilers for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, please proceed with caution.

That’s right, we’re talking about Ben Kingsly’s Trevor AKA The Fake Mandarin, from Iron Man 3. Poor Trevor has apparently been living in the Ten Rings compound for years after Wenwu captured him with the intent of executing him. Instead, however, Trevor did what he does best and improvised some acting, which inadvertently landed him a job as Wenwu’s personal jester-slash-prisoner. Shang-Chi, Katy, and Xialing find him in the bowels of the compound having apparently lost even more of his marbles since the last time we saw him.

Speaking of, the last time we saw him was all the way back in Iron Man 3. By all accounts, Trevor was a one-off for the MCU prior to this point, which wasn’t all that surprising. During Phases 1 and 2, one-and-done villains were the trend with bad guys like Iron Monger, Whiplash, and Ultron taking center stage while the slower burn villains with repeat appearances like Thanos or Loki drifted in and out of the spotlight. However, through Phase 3 and now into Phase 4, the MCU has seemed more and more interested in looking back for self-referential pulls (think Red Skull on Vormir or certain episodes of What If…?).

Trevor’s return represents one of the most surprising outcomes within that push–say what you will about Iron Man 3, but its Mandarin twist could have been very easily glossed over and never referenced again. Wenwu even has a brief bit of exposition in this movie explaining how he watched these events from afar and thought they were completely absurd. It would have been easy to just leave it at that and let the memory of those Phase 2 choices go gently into the night with a new, more legitimate Ten Rings introduced to replace them.

But, according to director Destin Daniel Cretton, getting Ben Kingsly back on board with the MCU was as simple as a phone call–and something he definitely wanted to do. In speaking with GameSpot, Cretton explained that “yes, it really did just take [a phone call]. I feel very lucky and privileged to have worked with Sir Ben Kingsly, and the conversation with him beforehand–it was such a pleasant surprise to learn how deeply he cares about that character, Trevor, and how much he wants to see Trevor go to the next stage of his life. It was so fun to watch him get into that character, it was one of the highlights for me.”

Of course, Cretton was unable to confirm or deny whether Trevor would be making any more appearances in the MCU after Shang-Chi. Presumably he was able to leave Ta Lo with the others, but we never actually see him in the aftermath of the battle, so it’s entirely possible that he will spend the rest of his life hanging out with his little monster buddies and practicing his sonnets. Maybe that’s the best possible ending for him.

As for Tim Roth’s Abomination, we’re left with even more questions–namely what this could mean in terms of the Multiverse and the Norton Hulk movies, which the MCU has bobbed and weaved around since the introduction of Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner back in The Avengers. We do know that he and Wong are apparently working with one another, however, at least in terms of their little magical fight club racket, so regardless of when or if Abomination shows up again, he probably won’t be all that bad a guy.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is in theaters now.

The new Jackass Movie, Jackass Forever, was scheduled to be released on October 22, but due to the pandemic, it was delayed to February 4, 2022. Series star Johnny Knoxville staged his own delay announcement for the film, and it’s exactly what you’d expect.

Knoxville climbed onto a billboard for Jackass Forever and and spray-painted “February 4, 2022” onto the advertisement, high above the ground. After the person taking the video asks Knoxville to move over to better showcase the date, Knoxville does so, but asks, ‘What?’ The video then promptly cuts out, adding to the silly nature of the stunt.

Jackass Forever was delayed earlier this week as part of a wider shifting of dates at Paramount. Top Gun: Maverick is now slated for May 2022, while Mission: Impossible 7 is now scheduled for September 2022.

Jackass Forever is the first Jackass film since 2010’s Jackass 3D, not counting the Bad Grandpa spinoff. It’s led to some amount of controversy, as former star Bam Margera was reportedly fired from the production and is now suing Knoxville.