CULTURE

Is Movie Magic ... Marketing Magic?

The magic of the movies has been reduced to the magic of a marketing budget

Barbie Cast

Stewart Cook/Shutterstock

On July 21st, Barbie and Oppenheimer are set to open in the biggest box office battle since 2008’s Mamma Mia and The Dark Night. And if those two films taught us anything, it’s that we can have it all: a gritty Christopher Nolan film and a fun, fresh, flirty, female-helmed, camp musical.

So why is the entire internet pitting these two films against each other? It just may be part of the marketing strategy.

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I’ve been carefully curating my skincare routine for over a year now. Par for the course, skincare related TikToks have been flooding my FYP, selling me every trendy product on the block. Whether or not they work is a different question. I’ve fallen for gimmicks, traps, and cute packaging, but I’ve also found a solid 6-step routine.
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Film News

Did the Tampa Police Department Even Watch "Minority Report"?

The New Tampa PD initiative is startlingly similar to the dystopian film.

Turns out we're in the "Minority Report" timeline!

via 20th Century Fox

So what was it all for?

Why did we all have to squint through the dimly lit cinematography of Minority Report, watching Tom Cruise get his eyes gouged out and being forced to root for a cop, if we, as a society, weren't going to learn the one lesson it was trying to teach us: that you can't predict crime.

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FILM

"Groundhog Day" and the Strange Phenomenon of Time Loop Movies

Since Bill Murray's 1993 classic, time loop narratives have somehow become a genre unto themselves.

Groundhog Day, Bill Murray

Moviestore/Shutterstock

Andy Samberg's record-breaking Sundance hit Palm Springs is the latest entry in the storied genre of time loop movies.

These now-familiar stories involve one or more characters becoming trapped by mysterious forces that cause them to relive the same stretch of time (usually a single day) over and over and over again. The phenomenon was made iconic by the 1993 film Groundhog Day, in which Phil Connors (Bill Murray) is a jaded TV weatherman who becomes trapped in the small town of Punxsatawney, Pennsylvania for an endless recurrence of the titular holiday.

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Culture News

Is Trump Tom Cruise or Renée Zellweger in "Jerry Maguire"?

An "accidental" comparison on The 11th Hour with Brian Williams leaves us wondering which role fits ex-president Trump.

On Thursday night MSNBC's Brian Williams hosted author and activist Baratunde Thurston and Iraq-war-cheerleader-turned-Trump-critic Bill Kristol to discuss the Republican party's steps in reconciling with disgraced ex-president Donald Trump.

Many had pointed out that just a few short weeks after then-president Trump sent a rally of his supporters to the Capitol building and goaded them into a violent act of insurrection targeting our nations lawmakers, GOP leadership already seemed eager to welcome him back into the fold. Among the most desperate sycophants is House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who met with Donald Trump this week with a purported goal to coordinate an electoral strategy for expanding the regaining control of Congress in 2022.

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Culture Feature

All the Times Tom Cruise Was a Total Dick

"There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance"

Tom Cruise

Photo by Gregory Pace (Shutterstock)

Considering that he's a man who wears two masks at a time, it should come as no surprise that potential exposure to COVID-19 caused Tom Cruise to explode on his Mission Impossible 7 co-workers during filming.

It's long been known that the legendary film star maintains a chokehold on every set he steps foot on. He does all his own stunts, a decision which has regularly injured him and at one point almost cost him his life. But when held up against the countless other eerie eccentricities that make up Mr. Cruise, doing death-defying stunts like dangling off a plane in mid-flight is actually his most "normal" characteristic.

He divorced all three of his wives when they were 33 years old and allegedly believes, thanks to his Operating Thetan VI level in the Church of Scientology, that he possesses the power to heal sprained ankles and broken joints solely through touch. He also could barely read until he was an adult and has his own holiday in Japan.

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