Super Bowl Hymn--Controversy Not What You Think, Conor McGregor's Film Debut is a Mess, Old Shows Beat New Releases in Streaming, Nik Cage is 1930's Spiderman? (The Five for 02/23/24)
Plus, , 90's Punk Supergroup formed over refusing COVID jabs?
[one]
The Super Bowl has come and gone, but conservative pundits are still Big Mad over Andra Day singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” at the Super Bowl two weeks ago, which has been (unofficially) dubbed the “Black National Anthem.”
Ben Shapiro and Megyn Kelly both riffed off the song being a "divisive” and “a middle finger to the country.”
Uhhh…wut?
I wasn’t familiar with the song until…well, probably two weeks ago. If you’re like me, here’s a quick overview. The song was written in 1900, inspired by both the book of Exodus and Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. Originally a poem, the words weren’t set to music until a few months later. “Lift Every Voice” became a popular song printed in hymnals in white and black churches alike…and didn’t become a “political song” for several decades.
But somehow, Turning Point USA’s Benny Johnson thinks the song should be illegal:
“Sports is woke culture, and it's really repugnant to me, and so I don't follow sports super closely,” Johnson exclaimed on The Benny Show, as first flagged by liberal media monitoring group Media Matters. “That being said, I do watch the Super Bowl for cultural moments like the Black national anthem being sung. How the hell is this even a thing?!”
He continued: “What a repugnant, degenerate thing to do, to split up a national anthem by race. That is antithetical, of course, to America. It should, quite frankly, be illegal. You shouldn't be able to do that. Is there a white national anthem? I'm not sure anyone would be very happy with that being sung.”
Where the hell does Johnson think we are, Afghanistan? Because only radical Jihad societies outlaw music.
The last verse of the song isn’t a social justice statement disguised as a hymn…it’s a flipping hymn.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
There’s never been a movement to add “Lift Every Voice” as a “Second National Anthem” to the books of US Law, but there was a proposal to deem it a “National Hymn,” which doesn’t come close to justifying the hand-wringing that’s going on with the political pundits here.
Oddly enough, no one was pissed that Post Malone sang “America the Beautiful” before the game…yes, there was a THIRD song “detracting” from the National Anthem.
It’s difficult to tell if people I typically respect are losing their ever loving minds over this out of genuinely held beliefs…or if they just want clicks, but this is the dumbest thing to happen to music since…well, Beyonce’s “country” single last week and her obsessive fans that are threatening country radio into playing it.
[two]
President Trump launched a sneaker last week at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia, which retail for $400 and are sold under the moniker “Never Surrender Hightops,” which are already sold out.
I’m baffled by the design, as to what you do with these other than dress like Carl Weathers in Rocky IV.
But…this does make Trump look more young and more hip than President Biden, and Trump did go to a swing state and speak to younger voters. There was a substantial number of “boos” mixed in with the cheering…but the fact that he’s out there doing it is a smart political move.
Oh, and the resale price? These gold monstrosities are already turning over for $3,800 and up on eBay. It’s not an election predictor, exactly, but it does show Trump coming off as quite hip in relation to his Octogenarian opponent.
[three]
Well, this is getting crazy. The Jake Gyllenhaal/Conor McGregor remake of Road House, the 1980’s Patrick Swazye classic about a bouncer at a rough bar, has nearly everything going for it: an Oscar-winning lead, international superstar McGregor (one of the most recognizable people on the planet) as the villain, through-the-roof audience test scores of early screenings, and coveted showing at the SXSW festival this spring.
But the movie isn’t even out yet, and already the wheels are coming off when director Doug Liman announced he was boycotting the SXSW screening over his film not getting a proper theatrical release, and going straight to streaming.
Hollywood loves a bare-knuckle brawl. And the town got a battle royal with “Road House.”
The reboot of the 1989 cult favorite, which launches on Amazon Prime on March 21, sparked a fierce fight behind the scenes over its release. While studio-filmmaker standoffs are not uncommon, this one featured such subplots as the involvement of a notorious private investigator, a producer given the heave-ho, a cameo from Ari Emanuel and a director going scorched-earth. Even more shocking, some of the embarrassing details began to publicly spill out in recent months, culminating with director Doug Liman promising to boycott the film’s premiere at SXSW on March 8.
In November 2021, Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy were running MGM and began negotiating with Liman to direct and Jake Gyllenhaal to star as the tough-guy bouncer, played by Patrick Swayze in the original. Joel Silver, who produced the Swayze version for MGM, was on board to bring the film into the modern era (Gyllenhaal’s character is now a former UFC fighter). At the time, MGM was making movies for the big screen, and the prospect of streaming didn’t factor into discussions. But after Amazon closed its $8.5 billion acquisition of MGM in March 2022, the trajectory of “Road House” changed.
In July 2022, De Luca and Abdy left to run Warner Bros., and the film was put into turnaround. Still, Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke quickly salvaged it and was poised to greenlight the film with a cast that also included Billy Magnussen, Daniela Melchior and Lukas Gage. Sources familiar with the negotiations say the filmmakers and Gyllenhaal were given a choice: Make the film for $60 million and get a theatrical release or take $85 million and go streaming only. They opted for the latter.
“They all took the money,” says one knowledgeable source.
So…unless some more info comes out, the cast and staff CHOSE not to put the movie in theaters, prioritizing bigger paychecks.
On one hand, Amazon would almost certainly make more money if this went to theaters. On the other hand…the people who made the movie opted for the money, so unless additional info comes to light, director Doug Liman’s “protest” is just childish behavior.
Hopefully this movie, which I’ve been looking forward to for more than a year, can still find an audience. The stats may help here—UFC is the most popular sport with American men 18-44, and McGregor’s fanbase is global and Gyllenhall’s action fare (Southpaw, The Day After Tomorrow, Spiderman: Far From Home) have all been box office hits.
But dang…it’s too bad such a presumably good film is carrying so much baggage before anyone has seen it.
[four]
People sure do like…the TV of yesteryear.
Old shows, which debuted over a decade ago, dominated the top streamed list of 2023. Several of the programs, including “Suits,” “Gilmore Girls,” and “Friends” have been off the air for years.
In a year where major strikes by Hollywood actors and writers halted the production of a lot of new content, viewers may have been inspired to revisit old favorites while waiting for new shows to come back.
Many of these shows also have a persistent nostalgia factor. The New York Times recently described “Gilmore Girls” as “an endless buffet of TV comfort food.”
Fans of “Friends” have long found comfort in the show’s familiar jokes and the studio audience’s loud laughs, even before streaming when the show was in reruns. Those same fans may have sought this comfort even more last year in the wake of Matthew Perry’s death.
[five]
Well, that escalated quickly. The full trailer just dropped for Damsel, starring Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things, Enola Holmes) as a princess who marries into another kingdom’s royal family…only to have her husband of about three minutes throw her into a pit to be sacrificed to a dragon. Throwing Robin Wright (Wonder Woman, House of Cards) and Angela Bassett (Black Panther, Contact) into the main cast certainly doesn’t hurt matters…as both tend to choose excellent projects to be in.
A lot of fantasy entertainment is just the Aldi version of Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones…but this brings something wholly original to the genre. See it on Netflix March 8th.
Before you instantly write off Borderlands just because it’s based on a video game, let me remind you how good The Last of Us was (mostly, couple dud episodes).
Still with me? Cool. I’ve been playing the series since 2009, and it’s a story that’s interesting, quirky…and quite violent (although in a somewhat cartoonish manner). The setup is that a group of ragtag misfits and mercenaries come together to find a treasure on Pandora, a planet overrun by monsters…and a cannibalistic cult. At it’s best, Borderlands is drawing from Indiana Jones, James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad and Saturday Night Live in equal measure.
You’ll have to wait until August 9th for the theatrical release, which is plenty of time to dive into the games.
The rumor mill is swirling that Nicholas Cage (National Treasure, Leaving Las Vegas) will play a 1930’s version of Peter Parker in an alternate universe in Spider Man: Noir for Amazon Prime Video.
Cage has already voiced the character in animated form. “I’m a Private Eye. I like to drink Egg Creams* and I like to fight Nazis.” I love noir (1920’s-1950’s era detective stories, classically in black & white and dealing with moral ambiguity).
*An egg cream is a cold beverage consisting of milk, carbonated water, and flavored syrup, as a substitute for an ice cream float. (I had to Google it, so thought you might not know either).
[new music]
The Defiant is a “revenge of the 90’s” supergroup made up of former members of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, The Offspring, Smash Mouth, Street Dogs and The Briggs. The band pulls from pretty obvious influences including The Pogues, Blur, and first wave British Oi! punk and ska.
Drummer Pete Parada, who was kicked out of The Offspring for not getting the COVID vaccine, describes the group as coming together because they’re “philosophically aligned,” which may be a hint that part, or all, of the members were expelled from their day jobs over refusing the experimental medical treatment.
[the next generation]
Mike Herrera, frontman for the punk band MxPx (and the final home buyer on Fixer Upper before Chip & Joanna Gaines left to start their own network), paid tribute to fellow 90’s act NOFX due to the LA band calling it quits after 40 years, turning over vocal duties to his daughter, Sierra.
It’s very rare for a cover song to appear in this publication…but this father/daughter combo sticks with you.
Until the next one,
-sth