rebirth, crossing over, recreation, reinvention and violation.

Last Week in Pop Culture 005, 3rd Week of October 2018

Thank you for coming! I did put in more culture this time around compared to last week. What do you think?

0. pop culture obituary: James Emswiller, Jamal Khashoggi and Danny Leiner

- Danny Leiner, May 13, 1961 - October 18, 2018.

- Jamal Kashoggi, October 13, 1958 - October 2, 2018.

- James Emswiller, 1957 - October 12, 2018. Danny Leiner passes away after a long illness while James Emswiller passes away after suffering a two story fall during a smoke break at the set of Tom Hanks' Mr. Rogers biopic. While accidents can happen anywhere or when you least expect it, I am at least comforted that Danny do not have to suffer any longer. The inclusion of Jamal Kishoggi might be jarring in a pop culture post but this is in relation to the upcoming WWE Crown Jewel PPV in Saudi Arabia. Now we know that he is killed with the ties to the government become more and more apparent, the leading wrestling giant's insistence to not outright cancel it or move it to another venue or country with the date fast approaching is just unsettling. Being the prominent US company to provide entertainment to change the perspective on the country in line with its Vision 2030 was already frowned upon last year with the Greatest Royal Rumble, now with their track record of human rights violations being brought up yet again, will WWE favours money over human decency?

1. 3-year-old cancer survivor serves as flower girl in her bone marrow donor’s wedding

A bit of a misnomer and an exception to the rule, I just want to highlight this feelgood news of a good deed from one mankind to another. To keep restoring the faith in humanity, I will include this link to a site where you can do the same. If there is chance that you could save a fellow human's life, why won't you?

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2. Daredevil Season Three is out now!

"Let the devil out."

I want to show off this beautiful poster to commemorate the release of the third season of Daredevil and being just half done for me personally, I can safely say this is a welcome distraction out of the recent wave of cancellations. Don't spoil it for anyone else (including me) that hasn't finish it yet!

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3. Destroyer <Annapurna> [December 25th]

"I just want to do one good thing." I didn't see this film coming at all and the sight of Nicole Kidman in a such an unrecognizable role teaming up with Karyn Kusama that gives us the wonderfully tense the Invitation, I believe this would be a movie not to be missed. Reminisce of Charlize Theron's transformation for Monster, Nicole is taking a page out of her book by following Charlize's Atomic Blonde with her own Destroyer, albeit with more gunfights.

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4. Horror rundown: Escape Room, the Curse of La Llorona, Dracula series & Happy Death Day 2 U

- Escape Room [January 4th, 2019] It's a concept that has been done quite frequent especially in recent years but at least this trailer showcase how they are trying to change up the formula with the 'room' itself and the contestants.

"It's a folk tale." "To some." - the Curse of La Llorona [April 10th, 2019]

With this director being pass the baton from James Wan to direct the Conjuring franchise, I am hoping for the best for this measuring stick of his potential. Based on the trailer itself, I believe this will be a success. That scene in the car is quite effective. The jump scares are to be expected but I can feel the atmosphere. - Dracula miniseries by Sherlock creators Steven Moffat & Mark Gatis for BBC and then Netflix

Since I enjoy Sherlock so much, I can have high hopes for the duo to adapt the Dracula lore successfully as well. Whether or not it is going get modernized as well or kept in the past, it's still unknown as of now. - Happy Death Day 2 U [February 14th, 2019]

The original was quite a surprising horror twist on the Groundhog's day premise with a solid lead in Jessica Rothe. Some said they have seen the intro trailer in front of Halloween screenings. Have you? - a Quiet Place sequel is being written by John Krasinski.

I Had to add this at the last minute to emphasize how great the original is and want to see where it can go next..

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5. Luke Cage is cancelled!?

Based on this 'trend', I won't be shocked to hear another show is cancelled by Netflix next week. When Iron Fist was cancelled, I can see that despite returning to form with the second season, it just couldn't overcome the negativity of its debut season. Luke Cage arguably keeps on getting better and better with his own second season especially with the Bushmaster but what could be the reason for them to cancel the series out of this excellent followup?! The dreaded 'creative differences' was rumoured to be it to come in between the writing team and the studio but I just don't buy it. The best possible outcome to come out of this is a spinoff series of Heroes for Hire or Daughters of Dragon but the worst could be nothing at all and maybe even another Marvel Netflix series to fall on the sword. What do you think?.

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6. NVIDIA fakes the moon landing to prove it was real

"One small step for man, one giant step for mankind."

I want to highlight how far the technology has gone that with the current technology, you can recreate real life event with almost photorealistic graphics and most importantly the extra graphical effects. The demo of this card showcase how they can do a real time 'ray tracing' whereby in this instance you can simulate how the sun is being reflected on the surface of the moon, the astronauts and the shuttle. You can read in details in its blog post above but this is a way to prove that that's how it looks in real life ...

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7. Post Malone & Swae Lee - Sunflower <Spider-Man: into the Spider-Verse Original Soundtrack>

Despite what you think of the artists themselves, I am just glad the trend of artists making music for features has been following up Black Panther and xyz with Eminem and Venom and now this. Whether or not the song itself is good or it is just not your cup of tea or not, at least we have memorable tunes to relate to the movies that we can groove to when we're coming out of the cinemas ...

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8. Super Drags [November 9th]

"A woman?" "A man?" "No, it's the Super Drags!"

Despite what my religion has told me, I will always welcome representation of any sexual orientation out there since life can be hard when you feel yourself to be different than others but do not have anything to relate to. This show should at least be a welcoming warm hug to those that are still exploring themselves and that everyone is special in their own ways. It may not cater to me but maybe to others ...

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9. the Kid Who would be King [February 15th]

"Who will join us?"

The 2011's (it's been that long?) Attack the Block not only introduces us to John Boyega but also to the director Joe Cornish that we have been looking forward to his followup. It is surprising that we have to wait for almost eight years for only his second directorial feature but he is looking at the premise in modernizing the King Arthur lore with teenagers as the core cast yet again, I can see him succeeding in blending fantasy with modern life just like how he did with alien invasion with modern life before ...

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10. Vice [Christmas]

"I believe we can make this work."

I almost overlook this film ... how could I forget Christian Bale as Dick Cheney?! He looks uncanny here! Another physical transformation with the help of prosthetic and good old exceptional acting talent!

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> please visit the imgur gallery for the original gallery <

~Fin~