I think we are in for another pushing the main character aside for the strong, independent and diverse girl boss.
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Djimon Hounsou’s Hollywood Discontent
I read a recent article about Djimon Hounsou and how he’s unhappy with his current status in Hollywood explaining that its hard for him to earn any money now. I have been a big fan of Hounsou’s work for a long time and was a little curious of why he wasn’t getting bigger roles, so I decided to do a quick dive into his movies and see what’s the problem. After a 30 second search I instantly found the issue with his career. Hounsou has an agent that seems to only cast him in side roles.
He started acting in 1998 and the first role I remember him in was Gladiator in 2000 where he played Juba, a side character.
Biker Boyz, a movie that I’ve seen dozens of times, yet I can’t remember him in it.
Tomb Raider which I don’t remember him in.
Constantine, which I again don’t remember him in.
The Island was great and I actually remember his character, but it wasn’t one of the main characters.
Blood Diamond is where it gets interesting. One of my favorite movies and I’m surprised Hounsou didn’t walk away with an Oscar that year, but that is the kind of movie that starts the rise in stardom for most actors. BUT he followed the role with Eragon which he wasn’t the star and the movie wasn’t good.
Never Back Down he wasn’t the main star.
Push he wasn’t the main star.
He was T’Challa in Black Panther…the cartoon show. How to Train Your Dragon 2 he was the villain who didn’t get a lot of screentime. Gurdian of the Galaxy he was random robot man.
Seventh Son was bad and he wasn’t the star.
Furious 7 he wasn’t in the main group.
Legend of Tarzan he wasn’t the star.
King Arthur he wasn’t the star.
He reprised his role in Dragons: Race to Edge for one episode.
Aquaman he was a voice over.
Reprised his role of Robot Man in Captain Marvel
Shazam his character was Wizard.
Charlies Angles he was Bosley.
Quiet Place 2 he was Man on Island…..not even a name.
NBA 2K21 he was Coach Bishop
Invincible he was Martain Emperor, not even a name
Reprised his role again in What If as Robot Man
The King’s Man he wasn’t the lead
Paw of Fury: The Legend of Hank I didn’t see, but since his role was Sumo, I imagine he wasn’t the lead
And lastly Black Adam and Shazam 2 he came back as Wizard for both.
One hand, he has been in a lot of big budget and highly successful movies. On the other he is always the bridesmaid and never the bride. So what is causing this? Is it a bad agent? Is it a lack of roles? Is this just a cry for attention?
If I was in his position and I felt like I’m not getting the roles that I earned, I would make my own movies or try to be casted in some emotional movie kind of like The Whale. Maybe step into the writing, directing and producing chair and make the movie you always felt you earned. He does have an interesting story. Grew up in Africa, moved the France, became a model and then went into acting. That would be a pretty interesting movie.
So instead of complaining about your place in Hollywood, maybe take a look at how far you’ve come over the years and use that motivation to propel your career to new heights.
World War Joe
The Last of Us Season 2: Big Brain Move
HBO has done it again. First, they hired Bella Ramsey to ward off negative criticism and now the second season won’t be the whole second game. Somehow the company that gave us Velma, apparently can read their audience all of a sudden and know people are tuning in for Pedro Pascal and when his character dies, the numbers with Ramsey in the lead will start to drop. Also, the Last of Us Part 2 was F-ing terrible!
There’s a reason why a third game wasn’t made. Ellie wasn’t fun without Joel. The ending was dumb. Ellie went on a rampage of revenge on Abby because of Joel’s death and didn’t kill Abby in the end? She let her go. Ellie killed tons of Abby’s coworkers just to leave her in the end before she can land the killing blow.
I imagine season 2 will take a lot more creative liberties and spend most of the time on Abby’s story. She was interesting. I do love stories where I get to see the villain’s point of view and maybe try to understand their reasons for their actions. Realistically, HBO needs to put a time table on this and not go the Game of Thrones path of too many seasons.
World War Joe
Marvel Strike Force: Spider-Man (Miles)
I need some help from the great Mike Singeltary for this one
“Can not play with him. Can not win with him. Can not coach him. Can’t do it”
I have exhausted all my options with Miles Morales. I have upgraded him; I have surrounded him with a great group and every time he disappoints me. Clearly, I am doing something wrong with him and I don’t know what.
Miles checks off most of my boxes. He gains Stealth, has an unlockable attack all enemies move, great team ups, there is nothing wrong with his game, its just he doesn’t fit in the teams that I assemble. For that reason, I wouldn’t recommend him, but maybe you might have some ideas of what I’m doing wrong.
Reigns vs Zayn: Not Over Yet?
I said many times that I have a Love/Hate relationship with Brock Lesnar. I’ve seen many fantastic matches where he fought Kurt Angle, Eddie Guerrero, John Cena, Triple H and others, but there have been a lot of terrible matches with Lesnar as well. the bad matchres consist of German Suplexes followed by an F5 and sprints to the finish of the match. A lot of high spots that get a quick reaction, but nothing long lasting.
This match was a bad Lesnar match in reverse. Slow, painfully slow. To the point where I questioned if Sami Zayn is even a good wrestler anymore. Zayn’s last couple of years in the WWE have been more theatrical than focusing on in ring ability. Yes, he was great in NXT, but I would say the most impressive thing he did on the main roster was his feud with Braun Strowman in 2016, which was 7 years ago. Since then, he has been bottom tier on the roster, lackluster feuds and essentially struggling to hold any type of spotlight. This could very well be the first time watching a wrestler be elevated to potential WrestleMania Championship match based on emotional storytelling and not in ring ability.
All this match did was show that Roman Reigns can command an arena doing very little wrestling. Roman yelled at the crowd, yelled at Zayn’s wife, mouthed off to Zayn’s father, yelled at the crowd again. Every now and then Zayn caught Reigns monologuing and took advantage, but not for long. It felt like watching a retirment match where Zayn’s career was on the line and we saw glimpses of great moments from his past.
Of course the referee went down, bringing in Jimmy Uso to Superkick Zayn until the ref woke up. The Jey Uso hesitation with the chair was interesting, but makes me wonder if this is leading to Jey and Zayn winning the tag titles, which wouldn’t surprise me, but would be an immense letdown of storytelling. Zayn winning the title from Reigns is the only outcome that makes sense. Anything else is a massive letdown.
So what did this match accomplish? That Zayn isn’t at the level that Reigns is? That the fans will chant for you more if your parents had unprotected sex in that city? This feud is over to me. Obviously, we have WrestleMania and an unfinished Jey Uso moment of truth, but this is now Cody Rhode’s time.
Did they bring back Rhodes to win the Royal Rumble and not be the focal point. That we are getting a Triple Threat Match for the titles that again reiterates the fact that Zayn can’t win the big one? So now, they’re sacrificing Rhode’s potential WrestleMania moment for Zayn, when his moment should’ve been in Canada. What a waste.
Art work from Dream by Wombo AI Art
Simptastic Joe
You Can’t Have Two Endings
Choosing between multiple endings has become a staple in videogames today. Series like Mass Effect and The Walking Dead let you carry over the decisions from previous games into the new ones. However, those decisions and endings aren’t massively different, but still give the player a feel that their choices matter.
Games like Injustice 2 and Mortal Kombat 11 Aftermath have ruined their sequels because of their multiple outcomes. The ending of Injustice 2 lets you pick the Batman, good ending or the Superman, bad ending. Choosing Batman’s ending means Superman and Brainiac are defeated. Superman is then imprisoned in the Phantom Zone and vows revenge. The Superman ending is massively different. After defeating Batman and Brainiac, Superman uses Brainiac’s mind control ability to control Batman, and seemingly the rest of the Justice League becoming the ruler of earth.
So how would Injustice 3 start? What ending do they start with? Do you get to choose how it starts? Right there you are making 2 massively different games that the events of the previous game are vastly different. Maybe NetherRealm are buying time with their Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League videogame coming out in 2022.
Mortal Kombat hit a home run with MK9 where they reset the timeline and you got to play the game from the beginning and started a more linear timeline. MK10 was even better where they introduced the next wave of MK characters and started to give the old classics their final endings. Then MK11 happened and took away all the progress of the previous two games. The ending of that game, Lui Kang is now in control of the timeline and has the ability to red con the entire series again.
Then NetherRealm decided to reset the timeline again with MK11 Aftermath where again time travel was the theme. The issue is the endings. You can play as Lui Kang, defeat Shang Tsung, and reset history in a nice happy way. Choosing Shang Tsung’s ending makes him the ruler of the realms and going on a bloody crusade to rule over everyone. Again, two vastly different endings. There is a rumored April 2023 date for MK12, but now we don’t have a clear ending on the previous game so its difficult to tell how the next installment will begin.
Do you think NetherRealm backed themselves into a corner making vastly different endings? Let me know what you think.
SimptasticJoe
Control Your Narrative Promotion?
When I first heard of the Control Your Narrative movement, I thought this was just a wrestling faction, but I later learned this is going to be a new failing company in the world of wrestling. The company’s 3 main stars are EC3, Killer Kross (Karrion Kross) and Adam Scherr (Braun Strowman). In their mission statement, the men explained what the company is. They first took shots are shareholders and billionaire owners. Saying that owners collect wrestlers like “toys”. Clearly these men have never ran a company before. The “toys” they are talking about are employees, not friends and not members of a bigger picture. If a wrestler or “toy” is not putting in the work, not loved by the fans and making for lower ratings, then a change will be made. That’s running a business.
The letter than goes on to name drop popular wrestlers that have joined the company. Names like Moose, Matt Sydal, Matt Cardona and some no names. Now, are you telling me that Moose, a superstar in Impact Wrestling who is probably being paid very well, is planning on leaving Impact to join this company?
Who’s paying for this? You don’t have a billionaire owner like Tony Khan or Vince McMahon, you don’t have or want shareholders, so where is the money coming from? The top 3 wrestlers starting this company I imagine have some savings, so they can go a little while without getting a regular paycheck, but the others can’t. Matt Sydal was never a “run the company” wrestler. He has been bouncing around from company to company since he left the WWE. And more importantly, why would he want to leave AEW in any capacity?
I don’t know what to think about this company after reading this letter. I’m very confused with a lot of wrestling companies these days. The WWE looks like the only real wrestling company and the others are just all working together in some way.
Jon Moxley still does shows in Japan and backyard wrestling promotions, but still works for AEW. This move I find incredibly stupid because why would AEW be ok with letting one of their most popular wrestlers go to other places? More importantly, Mox went to some unknown company for his first match after rehab, kinda dulling the moment of his return. Why would Impact Wrestling be ok with Moose playing in this other company. If he gets hurt that’s a MAJOR blow to your company.
The whole promotion just seems like a great faction idea, one that would thrive on grabbing wrestlers who are lost or on losing streaks to be more, but as a company they are failing before they even got started. My prediction gets stronger when I read their website. Apparently, if I’m reading this wrong, fights (not matches) are decided by Tap Out, Knock Out or Can’t Stand……so not wrestling. Is this a better version of Raw Underground?
Another section of the website says “FTN blends professional wrestling, cinema, and harsh reality”. The cinema part throws me off. Because they are going to have live crowds. Are these planned out fist fights? I HATED the cinematic matches during the Pandemic Era for the WWE. I thought nothing had to change with the style, just put on great matches and you captures your audience interest.
If I was running this show, the first thing I would do is write up a REAL mission statement of their promotion, take it to Rumble and do shows exclusively on there. Rumble was ready to give Joe Rogan $200 million dollars to be exclusively there. I wonder how much they would pay for the exclusive rights to a wrestling promotion? I wouldn’t do shows on the road. Like NXT, I would do shows exclusively in one location. Buy a simple warehouse or property you can make into an arena and that solves where it would be. I would put the arena somewhere in the South or mid-West because it’s cheaper to buy property there. Maybe one day take the show on the road, but when you’re stating a new company saving money is key.
The next step does against everything they believe in, getting shareholders. They NEED some big money bankrolling this operation. Let’s say if the Rumble deal happens, they give, let’s say 10 million dollars, you still have a lot of things to buy. The biggest would be the location. I saw just use one because you don’t have to worry about costs of travel and you can control the environment more than using someone else’s building.
Getting wrestlers shouldn’t be that difficult. Yes, I crapped on Sydal before, but he’s a good wrestler. Not someone who can lead the company, but a suitable wrestler. Moose would be way out of their pay range, but Cardona might be a great addition. The 3 creators would be taking a pay cut for the first few months so that’ll save some money. There are a ton of unknown wrestlers and released wrestlers looking for a shot to be on tv again. If anything, this new promotion might be a way to help them. But that would be a WRESTLING promotion and not a….whatever this is.
I don’t think the Control Your Narrative promotion will be a success. The idea is enough to get some early viewers, but this doesn’t seem realistic and will fail pretty soon.
World War Joe
Adventures of Buck Wild
Does Disney know what the word “Adventures” mean? Adventures, as in more than one? From what I read online, take that with a grain of salt, the original idea was supposed to be a series of shorts, but they decided to go with a feature length movie instead. Which begs the question of why didn’t they do a series?
This movie was ok, but it did have a lot going for it. Buck Wild is a very fun character and the Lost World environment can really bring in a lot of new ideas. Wild has all the qualities of an action hero. He is brave, adventurous, kind and smart.
I didn’t fall in love with Crash and Eddie of the Ice Age series, so having them tag along with Wild felt like a slap in the face for a very exciting character. If I wrote this, Wild wouldn’t have any interaction with the Ice Age cast. I would give Wild his own 15-20 time slot where he goes on his own adventures. Maybe have the main bad guy of the movie in the show, give him the same love interest and his own rag tag group of characters to play off of and you got a show.
It seemed like an extremely simple concept which would’ve worked out for Disney in many ways. Giving Wild his own story would’ve opened up a lot more merchandising and spin off opportunity, but Disney instead decided to stick Wild with 2 of the worst comic relief characters they could find and came out with a subpar product.
Simptastic Joe
World War Joe 