Amazon Fire Stick — $19 Today (Prime), $39 Thereafter

Amazon Fire Stick — $19 Today (Prime), $39 Thereafter
Moisés Chiullan — Arthouse Cowboy

Amazon Fire TV has the baseline triumvirate needed for one of these boxes to work for me:

  1. responsive, fast internals (loads high-bitrate 1080p content in a snap)
  2. an RF remote
  3. an actually-growing, competitive “app channel” marketplace (still missing favorites like Acorn TV and Warner Archive Instant, but they’ll arrive)

Most importantly, it doesn’t stop working after an update (Apple), or suddenly decide it hates Hulu (Apple and Roku), or block content marketplaces that compete with them (like Apple does through “curation”).

If, like me, you’ve become a little disillusioned with…

Read The Rest

‘Imitation Game’ Clip Featuring Benedict Cumberbatch

‘Imitation Game’ Clip Featuring Benedict Cumberbatch

So, speaking of Benedict Cumberbatch, we’ve got a clip here from his upcoming film, The Imitation Game. The range that Benedict Cumberbatch is able to play in the films that I’ve seen him in is pretty incredible — and yet he still manages to impress me in this clip by playing yet another character so totally unlike any I’ve ever seen him play before.

In The Imitation Game, Cumberbatch is playing the somewhat unsung hero Alan Turning who, in many ways, is really to thank for much of what we consider to be modern day computing. But he was also fairly socially inept and awkward, as evidenced by…

Read The Rest

Benedict Cumberbatch Rumored (heavily) to Play Dr. Strange for Marvel

Benedict Cumberbatch Rumored (heavily) to Play Dr. Strange for Marvel
Mike Fleming Jr. — Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Marvel has finally found its Doctor Strange. I’m hearing Benedict Cumberbatch is the studio’s choice for the superhero pic, and negotiations are about to begin. The news comes after talks with Joaquin Phoenix around the time of Comic-Con went south, and Marvel went back to the drawing board. With names like Jared Leto and Tom Hardy also in the mix, this is obviously a coveted role. I expect this deal to make.

Great. Cumberbatch and Marvel! This should be amazing.

Now, just who the heck is Dr. Strange?

Marvel To Reveal More ‘Age of Ultron’ Footage During ‘Agents of Shield’

Marvel To Reveal More ‘Age of Ultron’ Footage During ‘Agents of Shield’
Russ Fischer — /Film

The trailer premiere for Avengers: Age of Ultron was originally set to take place during the October 28 episode of Agents of SHIELD. A bootleg leak of the trailer changed that, and Marvel was smart enough to respond to the leak with an official trailer release. So what does that mean for next week’s episode of SHIELD?

Despite the fact that the show’s second season is improved from the first, I saw a few jokes about millions of people deleting the episode from their DVR once the trailer leaked. Marvel doesn’t want that to happen, and will show some new Age of Ultron footage during the show…

Read The Rest

‘The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies’ Battle is 45 Minutes Long

‘The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies’ Battle is 45 Minutes Long
Russ Fischer — /Film

Peter Jackson doesn’t shy away from the idea of making epic-length stories, and of creating conflicts within them that match the overall scope of his Middle-Earth films. The Lord of the Rings films are known for absolutely massive battles, but the final Hobbit film,The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is the only one which actually features the word “battle” in its title. Accordingly, the actual Battle of the Five Armies will be truly massive: 45 minutes long.

MAKE. IT. STOP!

I think Peter Jackson is off his meds (still). But hey, while we’re at it, we might as well split this movie…

Read The Rest

‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ is Now on Netflix

‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ is Now on Netflix
Joshua Crabb — Reel World Theology

Sometimes, Netflix drops in big, giant, rock-sized diamonds for us movie maniacs to gobble up the second they come out. Such is the case when Netflix announced they were dropping The Hunger Games: Catching Fire towards the end of October in anticipation of the next movie, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, coming out in November. I’m excited to sit down and watch this with my wife, who was also anticipating this movie.

Catching Fire is the second installment in the The Hunger Games book trilogy by Suzanne Collins that was adapted into the second film directed by Francis Lawrence and…

Read The Rest

Early Buzz Has First Audiences Loving Christopher Nolan’s ‘Interstellar’

Early Buzz Has First Audiences Loving Christopher Nolan’s ‘Interstellar’
Germain Lussier — Film

Over the past few days, the film has begun screening for general audiences, celebrity audiences and press alike. Attendees are usually embargoed from going on social media about early screenings but that very rarely stops people. And if the reactions are positive, studios usually don’t care.

As expected some of those early Interstellar reaction tweets are positive. Very positive.

I mean, duh.

DC Chief Creative Officer Talks About Marvel

DC Chief Creative Officer Talks About Marvel
Kevin Jagernauth — The Playlist

And when it comes to DC Entertainment’s Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns, he’s got mad respect for his rivals.

“I love what Marvel does. I’m a huge fan,” he told Buzzfeed, but he’s quick to mention that DC will be taking a “different approach” when it comes to how their characters will co-exist (or not) between their big screen and small screen iterations.

Props to the man for giving credit where credit is due.

“We look at it as the multiverse,” he explains. “We have our TV universe and our film universe, but they all co-exist. For us, creatively, it’s about allowing everyone to make…

Read The Rest

‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ Teaser Trailer

‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ Teaser Trailer

Yesterday, the trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron leaked online. Marvel and Disney made a couple of half-hearted attempts to get people to take it down. Then they gave in.

But during all that, they had perhaps the best response to a leaked trailer that anyone has ever, or will ever have:

They quickly relented and realized the best thing to do was just go ahead and release the teaser trailer officially. And what a trailer it is. This thing is super serious. I’m certain there will be some Joss Whedon humor in it, but it’s…

Read The Rest