So Far this Week… February 5, 2014

With the expansion of Hush Comics, we have decided to give bi-weekly news updates.  Anything we find news-worthy will be posted here bi-weekly.  Have anything to add?  Post it in the comments!

This week, we’re excited about several new books out, but none moreso than Ms. Marvel, which has been rebooted and features a young Muslim girl as the superhero. Read this article by The Washington Post to see why this is a BFD.

The Lex Luthor story line in the new Batman vs. Superman movie is going to be similar to something we’ve seen before.

The late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman still had a vital scene to film to complete the Mockingjay – Part II film. So what are they to do? Three words: C.G.I.

Kick-Ass news! John Romita Jr. will be coming to DC Comics to do Superman with Geoff Johns this summer. The team-up could give the Man of Steel a much-needed boost.

Voting for the 2014 Comic Alliance Readers’ Choice Awards ends soon! Go vote and feel validated!

Can anybody smell what The Rock is cooking? You can’t just Tweet out #JohnStewartCanStillWhupSupermansAss without people thinking that you will be playing the Green Lantern John Stewart in an upcoming movie.

The fairy-tale world is on fire right now – figuratively, of course. Zooey Deschanel will be producing an animated sitcom called Queen of Everything to FOX.

Long-running show Psych has been cancelled just a couple months into their eight season; the last episode airs March 26th.

Try to keep up here. The Flash’s new spin-off series, which begins filming in March, has found an actress to play Iris West, who is the love interest of Barry Allen, who is the Flash (shhhh!); her name is Candice Patton and she was in a show called The Game they also chose Broadway actor Carlos Valdez, who will play Vibe, a young and inexperienced hero who can emit powerful vibrations from his arms. He must be a hit with the ladies… Whoo, that was fast.

The next-gen release of Disney Infinity 2 will feature both Marvel and Star Wars characters. If you were looking for an excuse to buy the game, there it is!

Speaking of Star Wars, Disney has already announced that they will introduce the brand-new Star Wars Rebels series by way of original Disney Channel movie this Summer.

Sunny Day, Sweepin’ the clouds aw-Kahhhhn!!! Benedict Cumberbatch stopped by to join the cast of Sesame Street.

Bill Nye, who is like, the Guy, when it comes to science, had a debate with best-selling Christian author Ken Ham to discuss Evolutionism vs Creationism. It’s a lengthy and intelligent debate held by NPR, so get some sleep, get your grand-dad’s pipe out and watch the debate here.

It might be the news about how crappy Sochi is doing, I was just thinking the other day that there haven’t been any good movies about an Olympic tragedy in a while. Enter Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill,  who will both co-star in a film about the 1996 Atlanta bomber.

Assassin’s Creed: Freedom Cry will be its own $15 downloadable game, meaning you won’t have to buy AC4 to get in on the action. I hope they do this with every game’s DLC going forward. Arrrrrr.

FX’s Archer is about to dead a whole lot better, as The Walking Dead‘s Lauren Cohan (Maggie) will be joining the show for multiple episodes. She describes her character as “a wealthy corrupt President’s wife who is vaguely European.” SOLD.

If you’ve read our “Shut Up and Take My Money” article on RetroFit gaming systems, then you will geek out when the RetroFit TRIO comes out in the next couple months.

So… who is going to beat the living f*** out of George Zimmerman? There were apparently 15,000 people who applied to fight Zimmerman. What a scumbag… Details of the fight will be announced in a week.

Ubisoft had a little debacle with the trademark name of their high-profile game Watch Dogs when somebody had fraudulently filed to dissolve the trademark name of the upcoming game. Ubisoft is trying to correct the issue and it should not impede the game’s release.

They’re talking about another Duke Nukem game. Oh God, Why?? Just let it die!

Written by Sherif Elkhatib and Adrian Puryear

Weekend Wrap-Up January 26, 2014

Welcome to the weekly Wrap-Up of this week’s events in media and pop culture.  Missed the first half of the week?  Check it out here.  Anything we missed?  Leave it in the comments!

A real Wonder Woman Movie?  I guess we’ll see.  Read over here and form your own opinion.

Have Mercy!  A Full House will happen for at least 30 seconds during the SuperBowl.  Catch a preview here. 

Stan Lee is ending his streak of Marvel movie appearances.  Find out why by reading this article.

Rumor has it Pixar will do an upcoming Star Wars movie.  Believe this rumor?  Not so sure, but catch up on the news here.

Still riding the wave of Catching Fire?  Check out the new Mockingjay poster to get revved up for this year’s The Hunger Games installment.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 game trailer is out.  Can’t wait to play?  It will be out this Spring on pretty much any gaming device you could imagine.  Check out the video here.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park will soon get a few new additions.  In addition to Butterbeer and Quiddtich, future Wizards and Witches can stroll through Diagon Alley and enjoy a ride to escape Gringotts.  Wanna know more?  Read about it here.

The Grammy Awards are happening tonight.  Don’t have time to sit through an awards show?  Read the winners here.  And then be thankful you don’t have to watch Madonna perform.

A Phil Collins/Adele collabo? Yes, please.

Troy and Abed say goodbye 😦 You can cry, too, by watching the full ep of Community here.

Serenity: Leaves on the Wind debuts this coming week, picking up where the movie left off.  Remember to read our review this Friday.

Oh, and this happened.

written by Adrian Puryear and Sherif Elkhatib

The Wolf of Wall Street Review

Genre – Comedy, Dark Comedy

Director – Martin Scorsese
Cast – Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, and Matthew McConaughey
Alluring element – Another Leo-Scorsese team up, bowling with little people, lots of naked chicks, Jonah Hill with dentures

Check it out if you liked –  Catch Me if You Can, Wall Street, American Gangster (but funny!)

Plot – 8
Acting – 10 
Representation of Genre – 8  
Cinematography – 9
Effects/Environment – 9
Captivity – 7
Logical consistency – 8
Originality/Creativity – 8
Soundtrack/Music – 8
Overall awesomeness – 8

“The year I turned 26, I made 49 million dollars, which really pissed me off because it was three shy of a million a week.”  And that quote right there folks is the essence of The Wolf of Wall Street.  Leonardo DiCaprio plays Jordan Belfort, a man who ran one of the most successful “pump and dump” stock schemes in history.  By now, if you have eyes and the internet, but haven’t seen the film, you already know the movie is about filthy amounts of money, alcohol and drug use.  You probably also know its really funny.  You may have read that it has a major moral, and in other places you may have read it has no moral at all.   The “F” word is used in many varieties over 500 times.  And there are lots of naked people.  Lots.

In fact, there is so much debauchery going on in Scorsese’s nearly 3-hour tale, that a search for pictures to include in this article on Google and Tumblr probably deserved to be on the SafeSearch function. I am not shocked by much, but about 10 minutes into the movie, I had to pick my jaw up off the floor.  And it wasn’t because of the “F” word.  My guess is that Vivid Entertainment may be looking to Wolf for some pointers.  And if you are under 18, don’t look up Vivid Entertainment.

It took me awhile to judge this movie.  Mostly because afterwards, I felt guilty.  I felt guilty because I laughed through the majority of it.  I laughed at severe drug abuse, objectification of women, little people and regular Joes like me who got swindled out of millions of dollars.  And I kinda liked the people who were doing it.  Which is a testament not only to the actors and director, but to the writer.  The screenplay was adapted by Terence Winter, of The Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire, from the book The Wolf of Wall Street by Mr. Jordan Belfort himself.  And that in itself is a little sickening.  We are living the life of this criminal through his eyes, and honestly, I kind of liked it.  And if there is a moral to the story, it is that if any of us were in the position to make millions, we would.  And then we would do very bad things with it.

As far as storytelling went, I enjoyed how unreliable our narrator was.  There are parts throughout the movie that don’t make sense.  And then there are parts that do.  That is not poor planning, but rather Scorsese showing us that this man is a drug addict. And when in a drug-addled state, he doesn’t remember what exactly happened just right, and he is already notorious for not telling the truth in his career, so what reason would he have to be honest outside of the office, too?

I do have to give a shout-out to Jonah Hill.  6 years ago as I sat in a movie theater watching Superbad,  I never would have thought that he would turn out to be an A-list actor.  He was funny in Wolf, but he certainly has matured from his days of trying to hook up with Jules.  And of course, Leonardo DiCaprio deserves applause.  This is the first time he has really been in a comedy where he himself was really funny. This may be his moment to finally win an Oscar.

There were only 2 downsides to the movie, as far as movies go.  One was that I felt it was way too long.  There was a point in the movie where a major catastrophe happens, and I was ready for the story to be over, but it still had about an hour to go.  It was a long night.  The other was that after being told Jordan started out on Wall Street in 1987, we don’t have much of an idea of what year it is.  I had to assume based off a brief sighting of a picture of President Clinton in the background, but even then, it could have been anytime in the 90’s.  I felt that the other big crime-comedy out right now, American Hustle let us know where we were, the decorations, the music the clothes were so spot on to the period, but Wolf had a hard time showing us our time period.

The Wolf of Wall Street is an enjoyable movie.  But it is not one I will watch over and over because of cinematic greatness.  And I certainly won’t be recommending it to Grandma.

written by Adrian Puryear

Wookies vs Tribbles: Best Movies of 2013 pt. 2

Will J.J. Abrams make Star Wars too pretty? Did Jay-Z ruin The Great Gatsby? Is Jennifer Lawrence too adorable for life? Get the answers to these pressing questions in Best Movies of 2013 part 2. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram and LIKE our Facebook page for free giveaways and contests.

Monthly Movie Preview: December 2013

Oh, December.  The month of movies vying for the Oscar, the movies that didn’t fit anywhere else in the year, and the comedy to keep us laughing until the end of the year.  Here is Hush Comic’s movie preview for December:

December 6 – Out of the Furnace

Starring: Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Woody Harrelson, Willem Dafoe, Forest Whitaker, Sam Shepard, and Zoe Saldana

With such a stellar cast, there isn’t really much else to say about this movie.  Ok, ok, I’ll talk about the plot.  Two brothers are very close.  Then, one goes missing.  The police get involved, but don’t do much.  The other brother takes matters into his own hands like Batman does.  Oh my God, the guy who takes matters into his own hands is Batman!  Crazy.  Written and directed by Scott Carpenter of Crazy Heart fame, and starring a sundry of Academy Award nominated actors, Out of the Furnace is bound to be nothing less of impressive.  – A

December 13 – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Starring: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly, and Benedict Cumberbatch

Come, don’t be shy… step into the light…err, I mean… The dark movie theater, to watch the second installment of The Hobbit – Desolation of Smaug. Bilbo (Martin Freeman), Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and the rag tag band of Dwarves continue their adventure to retrieve the Arkenstone from the former Dwarf kingdom and now home of the dangerous and deadly dragon, Smaug. The Hush team is pumped to see Orlando Bloom return as everyone’s favorite archer (sorry Katniss, but you’ve got nothing on Legolas), as well as several other new characters Tolkien-ites will be excited to see on the silver screen. Previews have teased the public with glimpses of the lurking flame giant and come release day hopefully we’ll get a full frontal of the monster. In my personal history, second installments have been my favorite – The Two Towers, The Empire Strikes Back, The Matrix Reloaded (hate on haters) – and Peter Jackson’s most recent go-around is set to please. It’s going to be the best movie on Middle Earth this year – don’t miss it! – T

December 18 – American Hustle

Starring: Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence, Jeremey Renner, and Robert DeNiro

Hunger Games: Catching Fire was great – don’t get me wrong. But do you know what it was missing? Jennifer Lawrence’s boobs. And Amy Adams’ boobs. And a fat Christian Bale. This crime drama set in the late 1970s focuses on the ABSCAM project, a sting operation to help bring down corrupt politicians. Cooper’s FBI character enlists the con talents of Bale and Adams. However, the plot thickens when the grifters start their own side-hustles. This movie boasts an all-star cast and a pretty interesting story loosely based on real events. Jennifer Lawrence’s cry face in The Hunger Games drove us crazy, but she has some real emotional range and acting prowess. I wouldn’t recommend it over the other movies out this weekend, but I definitely think it’s worth checking out. For totally non-boob reasons, too. – S

December 20 – Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

Starring: Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, David Koechner, Vince Vaughn, Christina Applegate, and Baxter

I’m not usually a big fan of sequels to comedies, but I think Anchorman 2 will prove me wrong.  Following the hijinks of the news crew from San Diego, this film takes us to New York City where the gang try become number one again, but this time with “GNN”.  They say and do incredibly stupid things and in general make asses of themselves, as is expected.  Steve Carell stole the show in the preview, so he probably will do the same with the movie, and I am most definitely O.K. with that.  Stay Classy, New York? – A

December 20 – Saving Mr. Banks

Starring: Tom Hanks, Emma Thompson, Colin Farrell, Paul Giamatti, and Jason Schwarztman

Disney’s newest film, Saving Mr. Banks, is actually about Walt Disney (Tom Hanks), who tries, and obviously succeeds, to convince P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson), the author of Mary Poppins, to give the rights to make a film version of her novel.   Mr. Banks refers to Travers father, and the main inspiration for the father in Mary Poppins.  With two of the best actors to live starring, the heart-warming plot and the light humor, Saving Mr. Banks is sure to be one of the best holiday time movies to come out and will be one I definitely see this year. – A

December 25 – 47 Ronin

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Hiroyuki Sanada, Kô Shibasaki, and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa

Keanu Reeves is back this holiday season in the awesome new samurai flick, 47 Ronin. The story follows Reeves as Kai and his 46 fellow samurai sword slingers as they work to avenge the death of their master who was taken down by a military shogun (fun fact – Ronin translates to “leaderless samurai” in Japan). This story has been told and retold for quite some time now – dating back as far as the 18 century as a playwright and a most recent rendition of a 1941 film. I’m excited to see Reeves back on the big screen – his first since The Day the Earth Stood Still remake. While that experience left the average sci-fi buff wanting more, I have much higher expectations for 47 Ronin. Released film footages tout glorious landscapes, vibrant characters, badass creatures of lore and – of course – plenty of sword fights. 47 Ronin promises to deliver flashy, action-packed samurai goodness into my Christmas week and I recommended you get it in yours as well. And don’t forget fans – this story is based on true events. So when you see Rinko Kikuchi transform into a flame spitting dragon, remember that it actually happened. – T

December 25 – The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Starring: Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Sean Penn

Based off the original story published in The New Yorker in 1939 (the same year Batman first appeared in Detective Comics…. totally unrelated, but I had to…), The Secret Life of Water Mitty is my pick for best dramatic film of the year. It was actually made into a comedy movie in 1947 and starred Danny Kaye, but this is one case where I can fully endorse the remake. Starring and directed by Ben Stiller (who is in desperate need of a comeback), Mitty has been in production for nearly a decade, with names such as Mike Myers, Jim Carrey, Johnny Depp and Sacha Baron Cohen attached to it. Judging from the trailer, Stiller was a great choice. The story follows a Life magazine reporter on a journey to find a missing photo, but is really about the journey to get out and experience life. Taking on a much more inspirational mood than the original, this film is sure to make you quit your job! – S

December 25 – The Wolf of Wall Street

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Matthew McConaughey, Jon Favreau

“You can dis me all you want on a blog, or write whatever you want in this magazine and I’ll just be like, ‘Whatever, man. Scorsese thinks I’m awesome,” – Jonah Hill. Telling the story of Jordan Belford, a New York stockbroker who was BALLIN out of control. Literally, he was out of control. There was FBI fraud investigations and the mob got involved. It may seem outlandish, but it’s just the type of character that Leo knocks out of the park. Jay Gatsby, J. Edgar Hoover, Howard Hughes, Calvin Candie – all very powerful men who see everything go up in flames around them (alright, Candie was a joke). The film was pushed back to Christmas Day so that Scorsese could kill some babies to decrease the run time 30 minutes and to try to get it from an NC-17 rating down to an R rating. Should be a great showing, and do a lot to remind you of how broke and crappy you are at life. Because no matter what you got for Christmas, you didn’t get to throw midgets at a Velcro board at the office. – S

Written by Adrian Puryear, Sherif Elkhatib and Taylor Lowe

The Great Gatsby Review

THE GREAT GATSBY – Movie Review

Genre – Drama

Director (Book Author) – Baz Lurhmann (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

Cast – Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton

Alluring element – A shiny looking movie based on an American classic/10th grade homework assignment

Check It Out If You Liked – Anything else directed by Baz Lurhmann (Australia, Romeo & Juliet, Moulin Rouge)

SCORECARD (Each category graded on a 10-point scale):

• Plot – 7
• Acting – 9
• Effects/Environment – 10
• Overall awesomeness – 8
• Creativity – 7
• Logical consistency – 8
• Soundtrack/Music – 10
• Representation of Genre – 8
•  Captivity – 8
• Cinematography – 9

Full disclosure folks – The Great Gatsby is a boring book.  Just an opinion, so feel free to disagree with me!  Before going to see the motion picture Gatsby, I did my homework and read the book.  A lot of us probably had to do a book report on this classic novel back in high school, but this one never hit my curriculum.  But in true Gatsby fashion, I figured I’d “re-live the past” and catch myself up.  A fairly quick read, The Great Gatsby on the surface is quite bland.  It’s one of those novels that has a lot of metaphorical significance and contextual relevance, but my sci-fi, action-adventure brain has been so thoroughly conditioned that I didn’t really take the time to contemplate and explore the deeper meaning in the text.  Again, feel free to bash my take on all this.  However… I think those of you who appreciate the novel may not want to slam me too hard after reading the rest of the review. Before reflection, let me lay out this film.  The Great Gatsby takes place in New York during the roaring 20’s.  Wall Street is kicking ass, flappers are rampant, the Charleston is poppin’, and cars have yet to be deemed classic (the film prominently displays all these things).  This story focuses on Nick Carraway and his most interesting summer spent in the company of some most interesting characters.  Nick (an aspiring writer) ends up landing a stock exchange job in New York.  He moves to Long Island (West Egg) where he finds a humble shack nestled between the big fancy mansions of the region.  His direct neighbor, in fact, owns the biggest most lavish mansion of all New York.  Enter Jay Gatsby, a man so wealthy he can afford to throw the most outrageous and extraordinary parties every weekend.  And he does just that!  As Nick eventually finds himself in the frequent company of Gatsby he learns that this riveting and charismatic man has a most interesting angle for living where he does and in the way he does.  And it all has something to do with Nick’s charming and gorgeous cousin, Daisy Buchanan who lives right across the Long Island bay in East Egg, with her not-so-loyal husband Tom.  The story unfolds to be one of forbidden romance and secrecy that ends in a way nobody ever thought possible. So how did this boring book pan out on the silver screen?  Quite spectacularly actually.  My impatient, uncreative man-brain wasn’t overly excited at the prospect of sitting through a two-and-a-half hour movie about a slow book that took me a day to read.  What did convince me to head to the theater were the fancy, shiny shots I’d been seeing in previews as well as the fact that it starred Leo (I love me some Leo).  As the film began I started to recall the details and sequence of events in the book.  I brought to mind the semantics and writing style of Fitzgerald.  In all honesty, I was completely prepared for a literary slaughter, thinking that the saving grace would be the glamour of the cinematography and Leo’s pearly smile.  I may not be an expert on literature, but at least I’d be able to tell if Hollywood screwed the pooch on this one.  Well let me tell you fellow Hushers, I was pleasantly and profoundly surprised at what I witnessed. Not only do the movie makers stay very true to the novel, they make it better!  While I have as creative an imagination as most, the Gatsby film team does a superb job of showcasing the shear lavish, flamboyancy and pizzazz that is the underlining theme of Gatsby.  From the fireworks, to the valley of ashes, to the characters and their brightly colored attire, it is all so in-your-face you can’t help but want more!  Direct quotes from the book are used often and are delivered perfectly.  That’s real acting at its finest, old sport!  What’s even more impressive is the pace of it all.  While my reading experience could be dubbed as “slow,” this movie surely cannot.  Scenes transition quickly, plot builds deliberately, it seems that the camera is always moving (but not in a Cloverfield – make you want to vomit kind of way) and it all works to keep the audience engaged.  The other piece that made this film better than the book is the soundtrack.  Above all other aspects of movie making I always, always say that music makes the movie.  The Great Gatsby was made by its music.  I mean these tracks are ON-POINT people.  With musical styling ranging from Kanye and Jay-Z to Lana Del Rey to Nero to Louis Armstrong.  It all embodied the times while simultaneously remains modern and new!  The first thing I did after leaving the theater was download the soundtrack. But every movie has its flaws, especially ones based on novels.  I do feel that as the movie progressed it got slower.  I was on such a high for the first 90 minutes that I expected the film to keep me there.  I was lifted back up in only a few notable moments throughout the last half.  A few small details were left out and one really big one! [SPOILER ALERT (kinda) – James Gatz (Gatsby) did indeed have living parents.  His father makes an appearance at the conclusion of the novel proving that Nick was in fact NOT the only person that cared for Gatsby. – END ALERT] In the big scheme of things, though, the highlights are greater than the downfalls.  Overall, this movie was great.  Of the movies that I’ve seen this year (most of them sub-par) it was refreshing to watch something so well executed and fashioned after a classic American novel.  I definitely have a greater appreciation for the book after having seen the movie.  Maybe that’s the genetics of my generation speaking for me, but I’m okay with that.  I think the moral of this review is “don’t judge a movie by its poster.”  Or maybe it’s “a book not enjoyed doesn’t make for a movie not loved,” …or something like that. Hush gives The Great Gatsby an 84/100.  If you’ve read the book, definitely check this one out.  If not, do your 10^th grade homework that you’ve been putting off for 4 years and read the book.  Then go see the movie.  You’ll be happy you did.  Until next time Hushers!

written by Taylor Lowe