Category: Pop Culture

Ghosted is fine, actually, regardless of what anyone says

If you’re looking for a fun two-hour escape from the world, Ghosted just might do the trick.

Apple TV+ just dropped its latest original movie, Ghosted — a romantic-slash-action-comedy starring Chris Evans and Ana de Armas, and the initial reviews are, well, mixed. (The Guardian‘s Benjamin Lee called it a “catastrophically misfiring blockbuster”  and the New York Times said it was “so flimsy and so insubstantial that it’s practically vaporous.” Yikes.)

But hear me out: Critically panned as it might be, Ghosted is also a lot of fun. Cole (Evans) and Sadie (de Armas) share a meet-cute at a farmer’s market before spending the day exploring Washington D.C. and sharing a seemingly romantic evening together.

When Sadie doesn’t return any of his multiple texts the next day, Cole decides to track her down (by virtue of a tracking tile on his asthma inhaler) in England. Turns out, Sadie isn’t actually an art curator like she said, but a CIA operative smack dab in the middle of a crisis.

An adventure begins that takes them across the world as they evade mega bad guy Leveque (Adrien Brody) who is in possession of a weapon called Aztec and needs a code to unlock it.

The supporting cast of Amy Sedaris, Tate Donovan and Lizze Broadway as Cole’s family is outstanding, and there are quite a few cameos that will excite viewers. But most of all, Ghosted is just a fun way to tune out the world for two hours. It’s not going to win any awards — rom-coms rarely do — but it doesn’t need to. Evans and de Armas have enough electricity between them to power a small city, and the action sequences are exciting. It somehow works to have a former Captain America actively trying to avoid conflict only to be surprised when he finds himself in yet another jam. De Armas has proven time and time again with roles in No Time to Die, The Grey Man and Blade Runner 2049 that she’s cut out for action roles.

Ghosted had several laugh-out-loud funny moments, and at the very least, it’s 116 minutes of entertaining action featuring two very charismatic and good-looking people.

The rom-com genre has thrived with the extended options offered by streaming services, and Ghosted is no different. It’s a little ridiculous, and sure, you have to just accept that being a farmer is enough justification for Evans to be built like a Greek god. But it’s an escape and one that’s worth the time.

You can find Ghosted streaming on Apple TV+ now.

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Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney were in tears following Wrexham AFC’s long-awaited promotion to the Football League

Today, we are all fans of Wrexham.

After 15 long years, Wrexham AFC is going back to the Football League.

The Welsh soccer club – which has seen its fanbase in the U.S. grow quite a bit since it was purchased by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney in 2020 and became the subject of the FX docuseries “Welcome to Wrexham” – secured a 3-1 win over Boreham Wood on Saturday. That made Wrexham the champions of the National League (the fifth tier of English soccer) and earned the club promotion to the fourth-tier English Football League for the next season.

Paul Mullin bagged two goals in the victory, which threw fans of the club into a frenzy. Some, like bar patrons in McElhenney’s hometown of Philadelphia, cheered. Others, like McElhenney – the creator of the hit show It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia – were moved to tears.

And here’s an angle of the celebration that Paul Rudd filmed:

Here’s how other Wrexham fans celebrated…

Aimé Leon Dore’s 860v2 is the foundation of New Balance’s best sneakers in 2023

It’s about time the 860 got the ALD treatment.

Teddy Santis and Aimé Leon Dore have done an incredible job with pretty much every New Balance sneaker they’ve released.

From the handful of 550s they’ve dropped to the 827s to the 650s and so many more, the sneakers have just been top quality and they’ve given you a look at some of the lesser-known New Balance silhouettes.

But the 860v2 the brand just collaborated on is a sneaker most folks know pretty well — they just don’t know it.

This model is the base of so many of New Balance’s most popular silhouettes in 2023. And it’s finally getting a high-profile collaboration with one of New Balance’s best partners.

About time. We break that down and more on the latest episode of Special Delivery.

If Adam Driver is going to be Reed Richards, here are our casting picks for the rest of the MCU’s Fantastic Four

Yes, we’re pulling some choices from the cast of “Top Gun: Maverick,” obviously.

It’s been nearly three years since news broke that Marvel Studios was finally developing a “Fantastic Four” film. We’ve seen the iconic superhero group on the big screen before, but not as part of the MCU (unless you count that one sequence from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness).

We’ve already had a director change on the project, and MCU fans have been waiting at the edge of their seats for any sort of casting news.

This week, we got some hints as reports and rumors surfaced that the MCU is eyeing Adam Driver for the role of Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic, the group’s leader.

The Emmy- and Oscar-nominated Driver hasn’t appeared in a comic book film or TV project before, but he’s no stranger for franchise productions as he starred as Kylo Ren in three Star Wars films. Driver seems sort of perfect for Reed Richards though – we know he can play a smart guy, and he can also play someone who can be a brazen know-it-all.

If Driver is going to be Reed Richards, we have some other ideas for the rest of the Fantastic Four cast…

26 of the funniest Vine videos of all time

Remember Vine? Some of the funniest memes and videos of all time are collected here.

Hey, remember Vine?

I hope you do. Because before there was TikTok or Reels or any of those short video platforms, there was Vine.

And Vine ruled. You had six seconds of time for a video clip, which resulted in some amazing creativity and hilarity stuffed into those few seconds that you could loop over and over.

It was fairly short-lived as far as apps go — it was bought by Twitter and eventually shut down in 2017. But because you might want a trip down memory lane or to have a laugh if you’ve never seen these before, we decided to put together a roundup of the best Vines of all time, in no particular order.

Here they are:

Fans whip up incredible Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Game Boy demake

Nintendo’s new Zelda game is almost out in the wild, but fans are looking back instead with a Tears of the Kingdom demake

Nintendo’s new Zelda game is almost out in the wild, but fans are looking back instead with a Tears of the Kingdom demake mockup. YouTubers Channy and Kimberly posted a short trailer with a mix of Game Boy Color-style cinematics and Tears of the Kingdom gameplay that looks just like it came out of Oracle of Seasons.

The trailer starts with a look at Zelda herself standing in a grassy plain, before switching to Link, Ganondorf, and Urbosa in some short, slick animated sequences. These are, admittedly, rather more refined than the kind of animations that play at the beginning of Link’s Awakening and the two Oracle games, but the gameplay sample is pure Game Boy Color.

Link hops off a Sky Island and lands in a field, with a pixelated Hynox nearby and some grass squares begging to be cut. In true Game Boy fashion, the toolbar at the bottom only has two slots, corresponding with the “A” and “B” buttons – not ideal for Link’s expanded moveset in Breath of the Wild.

The map is divided into squares, the screen scrolls when you reach the edge, and there’s even a brief bit of Metroid 2-style pixel art showing Link and Zelda in the cave before the princess falls into the depths.

It’s an impressive piece and a nice bit of nostalgia for those who grew up with that style of Zelda game – and even the younger ones who found them later.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom launches for Nintendo Switch on May 12, 2023.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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The best Overwatch 2 maps ranked from amazing to ‘meh’

The best Overwatch 2 maps make the best use of every inch and create multiple paths for both teams to experiment, and we ranked them all

The best Overwatch 2 maps make the best use of every inch and create multiple paths for both teams to experiment and improvise. What that looks like is different depending on which mode you’re playing. The cramped confines of an elimination map would be a disaster for deathmatch, for example. But whatever your objective, there’s no shortage of excellent maps in Blizzard’s multiplayer game. There’s almost no bad map – almost, because Lunar Colony and Paris exist – but we decided to rank them all anyway.

At the time of publication, Blizzard just launched Overwatch 2 season 4, and the most recent map addition is Antarctica.

 

Crash Team Rumble preview: Multiplayer Online Battle Platformer?

Crash Team Rumble is an unexpectedly promising start from a genre of game I don’t usually mesh with, deftly combining MOBAs with platformers

Crash Team Rumble’s marketing left me wondering what I was in for when I jumped into the beta. The trailers made it look more like a MOBA than the Crash Bash sequel I was expecting. I’ve dabbled with MOBAs, but the multiplayer battle arena isn’t a genre I’m strong in. However, I was pleasantly surprised after spending just a short time with Crash Team Rumble and realized how different it is from most MOBA games.

Characters fall into three different role types. They can all try a bit of anything, but it’s more like the same way a goalkeeper can run across the pitch and score a goal. It’s not something you should be doing frequently. Crash and Tawna are scorers who run around the field and collect fruit. Dingodile is a tank-like blocker, keeping opponents from scoring, and Coco and Neo Cortex are boosters. Boosters are like speed types in Pokemon Unite, super fast disruptive players who just try to stop everyone else from having fun.

These roles guide players in the right direction when it comes to how to play, and a good mix on each team always brings the best results. Another blocker character would’ve been nice, but this is just the beta after all. Improvements and more choices are almost guaranteed between now and launch. There are also only three maps at the moment, but despite the lack of choice, the designs are strong in each. They’re small yet densely packed, making matches even more chaotic.

That chaos is a big reason why Crash Team Rumble feels more like Splatoon than a traditional MOBA. You still collect and score points in your team’s goal, but the battle and movement options feel more like what you’d get from a platformer. Tawna has a fast grapple that propels her in and out of action. Coco seems like she can bounce around endlessly. Dingodile can pull you in with his vacuum, and Neo can shoot you with lasers. Rumble makes much better use of the 3D space than any traditional MOBA, where players can easily use their platforming skills to escape any scuffle.

You also have some special weapons to flip the battle in your favor. The first is a personal special weapon. These charge when you complete role actions – so scoring, blocking, or supporting your team. There’s a static ranged attacker, a health machine, a big dude who shocks enemies with electricity, and a giant fruit sack. These only last a very short time, but they create the best synergies. Playing as Dingodile, for example, you may want to put a health machine on the enemy base so they have a difficult time defeating you while trying to score.

The other type comes from weapon spots around the map. You need to collect relics and deposit them in these spots, which pool all your team’s points for the common good. There’s a good balance to this setup. Things like a Junker Ball which deflects enemies for a short time may cost just eight points, while an Aku Aku mask that protects your team and rains down hellfire across the whole map will cost 30. These help bring the team together for a common goal, and give a visual clue to the strategy.

 

There were no microtransactions in the beta, and everything could be unlocked with points you get from playing. We’re crossing all our digits and hoping this continues in the full game. There’s not a lot of variation so far, true, but it’s a solid foundation to start from. Each character has its niche, no one feels too overpowered, and the different weapons come with their own synergies. Where it really shines is in the brawls, where complex 3D movement options remind you that you are actually playing a Crash Bandicoot game.

My main disappointment is with the AI. If the lobby wasn’t full, we’d have an AI character replace a human player. They were pitiful. Having one on your team almost guaranteed an instant loss. I assume this will be tweaked for the full release, but I also hope you won’t need AI teammates at all after launch.

Crash Team Rumble is an unexpectedly promising start from a genre of game I don’t usually mesh with. It brings Crash’s 3D platforming prowess in a way that feels natural and balanced, and it seems like a nice way to introduce newcomers to the genre and keep them in their lane. We hope to see more maps, more items and more characters in the full release which is set for June 20, 2023 for PlayStation and Xbox consoles.

Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF

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Which of Rebecca’s psychic’s predictions have already appeared on Ted Lasso?

Rebecca’s journey in Ted Lasso’s third season is getting closer and closer to a happy ending.

In the third episode of Season 3 of Ted Lasso, Rebecca Welton — everyone’s favorite fictional football club owner — went against her better judgment and visited Tish, her eccentric mother’s psychic.

Rebecca is suspicious of the entire process, but also at a dead end in her love life after Season 2’s failed relationships. So she indulges her mother’s wishes and tries to have an open mind, but Tish’s premonitions about Rebecca’s future weren’t easy to hear.

“I can see something. It’s in your hand — an object; it’s very special. It’s a green matchbook,” Tish says to a skeptical Rebecca, followed by babbling about a “[expletive] in nining armor,” and “…thunder and lightning and you, and you’re upside down and you’re drenched, but you’re safe.”

MORE: How this beautiful Ted Lasso scene captured the ‘ache’ of being a gay man in professional sports

Exasperated, Rebecca tries to leave without offending Tish — until she says something that strikes Rebecca’s most exposed emotional nerve.

“You will have a family. You’re going to be a mother.”

We’ve known since Season 1 Rebecca resented her ex-husband, Rupert, for not wanting to have children and even more when he told her he was having a child with his new girlfriend. It seems Rebecca’s reached a point in her life where she deeply wants a family, but worries that future has passed her by. Hearing the psychic assure her of something she doesn’t believe will come true was the final straw before Rebecca storms out of her office.

Here’s the whole scene:

As we’ve progressed through episodes since this visit to the psychic, which predictions have come to fruition in some way and which are still outstanding? Let’s dive in!