Month: April 2021

Kevin Durant’s return to the court for the Nets had seen him almost seamlessly transition back to playing at an elite level, as he didn’t miss a shot in his first game back and looked great for the four games he played after his hamstring strain kept him off the court for two months. Unfortunately, Durant’s fifth game back saw him leave four minutes into a loss to the Heat, as he came out grabbing at his left thigh and was quickly ruled out with a thigh contusion.

While the hope is that Durant’s thigh injury won’t require him to miss too much time, it will at least keep him out for one more game as the Nets remain understandably cautious with their star’s health. Durant will join James Harden on the Nets injury report as officially out for Tuesday’s game in New Orleans, along with Nic Claxton and Reggie Perry, who are out due to health and safety protocols.

As such, it will be Kyrie Irving and company once again taking the floor as Brooklyn is nearing the stretch run of the season still without a ton of reps for their Big 3 all together on the court — although the brief time they were saw spectacular results. They, like a number of contenders, are trying to balance the need to be healthy with trying to establish a rhythm entering the playoffs, but where others have had more time together, this Nets group is still quite new to each other. Durant hopefully will return fairly soon — although it wouldn’t be a shock if he missed the third and final game of the road trip in Tampa — while Harden’s status remains fluid as tends to be the case with hamstring injuries.

The term “Florida Man” was first coined in 2013, and since then, it’s gotten a lot of mileage. We’re always hearing about some eccentric, sometimes with a creative relationship with the law, like the shirtless guy done up like the Joker prematurely declaring the pandemic over, or a certain Republican representative under investigation for ties to an alleged sex trafficking ring. Now the term is going next level, becoming the title for a new Netflix series.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the streaming giant just greenlit Florida Man, produced by Jason Bateman’s production company and starring Edgar Ramirez, hot off the Netflix hit Yes Day. The actor, who also played the title role in The Assassination of Gianni Versace, will play a struggling ex-cop who, as per THR’s plot synopsis, is “forced to return to his home state to find a Philly mobster’s runaway girlfriend. What should be a quick gig becomes a spiraling journey into buried family secrets, and an increasingly futile attempt to do the right thing in a place where so much is wrong.”

It sounds like Ramirez’s character won’t be your typical Florida Man misfit but simply a native Floridian? Who will perhaps run into an assortment of Florida Men and Florida Women? THR claims it’s aiming for a sunny noir vibe, channeling Body Heat and the first half of Out of Sight. But hopefully, it won’t be short on Florida weirdos.

(Via THR)

After years of trailers, announcements, and unfortunate delays, we are finally entering phase four in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and man is it kicking off with a bang. In addition to a fantastic line-up of Disney+ exclusive series, not just one but two highly-anticipated Marvel films are coming to theaters this year, both featuring diverse characters with zero powers but enough drive and sheer talent to compete with the best of them: Black Widow, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. However, only one of these two is making their big MCU debut, leading to the age-old question in the time of comic book movies: who is Shang-Chi? Turns out, a pretty big deal, with a story years in the making.

Shang-Chi was created in the early ’70s, as the popularity of martial arts films began to rise in the U.S. Following this surge, Marvel went on the hunt for pre-existing independent properties to purchase and adapt for their comics. The publisher ultimately acquired the rights to Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu, a pulp villain created in the early 1900s who was infamous for his arcane murders and racial insensitivity. However, Marvel quickly proved they were more interested the Fu Manchu universe’s potential rather than the mad scientist himself, and in 1973 they debuted Shang-Chi, the secret son and successor of Fu Manchu.

Shang-Chi made his first appearance in December 1of 973 in Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin’s Special Marvel Edition #15, a series that, up until Shang-Chi’s appearance, followed Thor and Nick Fury. By the time issue 17 was released, Shang-Chi had proven popular enough to merit Marvel renaming the series to The Hands of Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu, a name that would stick until the series end nearly a decade later. Over the course of that decade, the saga explored Shang-Chi’s escape from his father’s indoctrination and subsequent vow to dismantle the insidious global empire created by his family.

Much like Black Widow, Hawkeye, and even Iron Man himself, Shang-Chi is another Marvel hero born without powers who gains nearly superhuman ability through his studies. In the case of Shang-Chi, his destiny for greatness was born even before he was, when his father intentionally sought out his American mother in order to create the perfect heir. From infancy, he was trained in martial arts by both his father as well as the various tutors. During this training, Shang-Chi was raised to believe his father was a force for good in the world, a humanitarian ensuring both domestic and global peace. He was quick to obey his father and carry out his will, not realizing until it was too late that his father had deceived him.

Beyond his own stories, Shang-Chi has been a part of a number of superhero collaborations, working alongside Spider-Man, The Protectors (a supergroup of all Asian Marvel heroes), Daredevil, and even joining the Avengers after being recruited by Captain American and Iron Man. Due to his nearly unparalleled martial arts skills and mastery of Qi, Shang-Chi is often sought after as a teacher of hand-to-hand combat and has trained heroes such as Spider-Man, Captain American, and Wolverine. In addition, in the Enter the Phoenix storyline, Shang-Chi was set to become the next wielder of the Phoenix Force before refusing to take Captain America’s life, thus relinquishing his shot at the title. Honestly, with such an incredible resume, it’s a wonder we haven’t seen Shang-Chi in the MCU already — but it’s not for lack of trying.

Back in the ’80s, Stan Lee discussed creating a Shang-Chi movie or television series starring Brandon Lee and his mother, Linda Lee. Considering Shang-Chi artist Paul Gulacy used Brandon’s father, the legendary martial artist Bruce Lee, as inspiration for Shang-Chi’s design, this casting choice seemed nearly perfect. However, the project never came to fruition. In 2003, a Shang-Chi film entered development at DreamWorks Pictures, with Bruce C. McKenna and Ang Lee attached to the project, though, once again, the project never got off the ground.

In the early 2010s, Marvel reached out to the Chinese-based film production company DMG Entertainment offering to create a teaser featuring either Shang-Chi or the Mandarin that would be featured at the end of The Avengers, in hopes of launching the story of Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings they had been subtly teasing since Iron Man (2008). DMG quickly declined the offer, stating that the Mandarin’s problematic portrayal of Chinese men would put their company at risk of being shut down. However, DMG did accept Marvel casting Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery, an impostor posing as the Mandarin, in Iron Man 3, and agreed to co-produce the film.

Following the success of Black Panther in 2018 — and after repeated calls for more diversity and less Chris’ in Marvel movies — Marvel finally made the call to fast-track Shang-Chi, and we’re now less than four months away from seeing the Master of Kung Fu grace the silver screen. From the looks of the trailer, which was premiered earlier today in celebration of lead-actor Simu Liu’s birthday, the film will cover the origin of Shang-Chi with some minor changes. The largest of all of these changes is the omission of the problematic Fu Manchu in favor of using The Mandarin, real name Wenwu, as Shang-Chi’s father instead. Furthermore, director Destin Daniel Cretton said they are making changes to this character in order to not “contribute any more to the Asian stereotypes that we have seen both in cinema and pop culture.” (Also notably, this version of The Mandarin appears to be a very different incarnation than we saw in Iron Man 3.)

Want to learn even more about Shang-Chi? The Hands of Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu omnibus’ are available to purchase at most comic book retailers, albeit at a hefty price. For those willing to hold out a bit longer, the long-awaited Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will arrive in theaters on September 3.

The return of music festival announcements have seen typical summer events like Bonnaroo and Outside Lands getting pushed to the fall. Rolling Loud is never one to go with the flow, however, and has announced their festival’s gates will open just a few weeks later than originally planned. The event will now take place during the weekend of July 23rd-25th at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, FL.

The organizers were able to keep much of the lineup intact from its 2020 iteration, including Travis Scott, Post Malone and ASAP Rocky. Bobby Shmurda will serve as a special guest, along with appearances from some of the best and brightest in hip hop including Lil Baby, 21 Savage, DaBaby, Young Thug, Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Uzi Vert, Playboi Carti, Roddy Ricch, Rod Wave, Lil Tjay, Pooh Shiesty, Polo G, Ski Mask The Slump God, City Girls, Rick Ross, Gucci Mane, T-Pain, Curren$y, Fetty Wap, and Wale. Check out the full lineup image below.

“We want to extend a massive thank you to all of our ragers who have held onto their tickets,” the festival said in a statement. “Those who can’t make the new dates will have the opportunity to obtain a refund. Information on how to obtain a refund will be sent out to ticket holders later this month. We are also working on sweetening the deal for those of you who choose to keep your tickets in addition to the rage pack you already earned from the last reschedule.

The statement continued:

We can’t wait to reunite together in the pits we’ve all grown to love (and miss) so much. Many of you, like us, have been looking forward to Rolling Loud for months now. And although we may need to wait a little bit longer—trust that this comeback and reunion will be even stronger. Whether you’re a Rolling Loud veteran or a first-timer, you are about to be a part of history.

Tickets go on sale 4/23 at 12PM ET. Get them here.

Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

It’s official. Michael Keaton’s Batman will return for Ezra Miller’s solo The Flash movie. After months of carefully worded reports, and at one point, hesitant quotes from Keaton himself that he might not say “yes” to the project because of COVID, his agency have confirmed to The Wrap that Keaton will be reprising his iconic role as The Dark Knight for The Flash. In an interesting tidbit, The Wrap also reports that when The Flash catches up with Keaton’s Batman through some sort of time-travel, multiverse shenanigans, the film “will disregard the latter two entries entirely,” meaning Batman Forever and Batman and Robin starring Val Kilmer and George Clooney, respectively.

The Keaton casting confirmation arrives as The Flash enters its first day of production under director Andy Muschietti, which Warner Bros. commemorated by sharing the film’s official logo on Twitter:

Fans of Keaton’s Batman — which let’s be honest, is the best — will no doubt be glad to hear the news that the actor is locked for The Flash. Just a few weeks ago, Keaton gave an interview that sounded a whole lot like he was going to take a pass on the film, and for a very understandable reason.

“I keep my eye more on the Covid situation in the UK than anything,” Keaton told Deadline. “That will determine everything, and so that’s why I’m living outside the city here on 17 acres, staying away from everybody, because the Covid thing has got me really concerned. So, that’s my first thing about all projects. I look at it and go, is this thing going to kill me, literally? And you know, if it doesn’t, then we talk.”

Fortunately, Keaton’s concerns were addressed, and he’s now ready to fly to London and slap on a full-body rubber suit for the first time in 30 years. Holy nostalgia, Batman!

(Via The Wrap)

One of the biggest deals of the 2021 NBA trade deadline saw Aaron Gordon get moved to Denver by Orlando, as the Magic granted his trade request in exchange for Gary Harris, RJ Hampton, and a first round pick. Gordon has been steadily assimilating with the Nuggets, averaging a modest 11.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 2.5 assists in 11 games in Denver so far, but his efficiency has taken a leap, at least in two-point range, and if he regains his three-point stroke (37.5 percent in Orlando and just 28.6 percent in Denver) his game will really take off.

While Gordon isn’t averaging as much as he did with the Magic, he’s happy taking a smaller role on a winner and with Jamal Murray’s torn ACL, his presence is suddenly much more important. Gordon will be asked to take on a role a bit more like he played in Denver, with more of the scoring load shifting to him, but from a creativity perspective, everything in Denver still runs through the MVP frontrunner Nikola Jokic. Playing with Jokic is the chief reason Gordon’s efficiency from two-point range has skyrocketed, as he is now among the many beneficiaries of the star big man’s unique vision and passing ability.

For Gordon, it’s a very new world to exist in, and he recently spoke with The Athletic’s Sam Amick about Jokic’s “genius” as well as the adjustment it takes to suddenly be always on alert because a pass will come your way if you’re open (or are about to become open) whether you’re ready or not.

“He’s a genius, man,” Gordon said of Jokic, who is on track to become just the second player in league history to average at least 26 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists per game (Oscar Robertson is the other, and he did it just once). “He’s a basketball genius. That’s really what it comes down to. He’s playing it like it’s chess, seeing it three steps ahead.

“I’m starting to learn that you’ve always got to keep your eye on him when he has the ball because he’ll find you. He’ll find you. Even if you don’t think you’re open, you’re open. He’ll pass you open, which is dope. It’s just amazing to play with somebody like that who can actually pass you open and sees the game (like that), and who likes to pass and enjoys passing.”

That explanation of how Jokic throws guys open highlights the difference between a good passer and an elite passer like Jokic (or LeBron or Chris Paul, etc.). The way he anticipates openings, throwing passes to spaces rather than people, is something few can do and it opens up so much for an offense because you aren’t trying to hit open windows before they close (which happens quickly in the NBA) but instead you’re hitting the windows as they open and before the defense is even reacting, which creates better looks. At the same time, it requires everyone to stay vigilant. When Jokic is on the court, there is no cutting for the sake of cutting, it always has to be done with purpose because if you’re about to come open, the ball is going to be there.

That might be the part that makes the Denver offense so great, because all five guys on the court stay engaged in a way that doesn’t always happen. You have to stay shot ready, which makes you more likely to knock it down when the ball comes to you because you aren’t ever surprised when it makes it there.

National Geographic Presents: IMPACT with Gal Gadot (National Geographic on YouTube) — This short-form documentary series will run for six episodes to tell powerful stories of women who are leading violence-and-poverty-stricken communities. From Brazil to Puerto Rico, Michigan, California, Louisiana, and Tennessee, this series will show these women standing up while remaining unafraid to dream and lead. Yes, surfing happens, but so does a whole lot of transformation. Each episode will release weekly before debuting as a full-length documentary special on the Nat Geo channel.

9-1-1 (Fox, 8:00pm) — A drunk driver causes a deadly freeway pile-up, and Athena races to save lives while Maddie’s doing the labor thing.

9-1-1: Lone Star (Fox, 9:00pm) — A horrific car accident leads to Grace and Judd battling for their lives while their past goes into flashback mode.

Running Wild With Bear Grylls (Nat Geo, 9:00pm) — Bear Grylls is still doing his daredevil-in-nature thing, and this week, Bear goes off the map with Dave Bautista.

Pray, Obey, Kill (HBO, 9:00 & 10:00pm) — Tonight will see a double-dose installment of a five-part documentary series from investigative journalists Anton Berg and Martin Johnson in a project directed by The Bridge‘s Henrik Georgsson. Follow along while Berg and Johnson retrace what happened on a frigid night when a small Swedish village saw a woman murdered and a neighbor shot before a nanny confessed to the acts of violence while citing a strange motivation. This led to a scandalous tale of a love triangle and a link to a prior suspicious death. Yet is the whole mess tied to the local tight-knit Pentecostal congregation and its charismatic leader, who referred to herself as “The Bride of Christ”? Get ready for an unpredictable true-crime ride.

Black Lightning (CW, 9:00pm) — Anissa springs a surprise on Grace, and the FBI has Jefferson in their sights. It’s visit time.

Debris (NBC, 10:00pm) — A dangerous operation leads Bryan and Finola toward rescuing George Jones, while Maddox and Ferris have different opinions on the mission.

Breeders (FX, 10:00pm) — Martin Freeman’s starring turn in this comedy enters the sophomore season with new parenting challenges. This week, Ally’s feeling pressure, and no one’s helping her while Jackie and Jim are hoping to move to the coast.

The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon — Michael Strahan, Emmy Blotnick

Late Night With Seth Meyers — Catherine Zeta-Jones, Emmanuelle Caplette

In case you missed these picks from the weekend:

Chadwick Boseman: Portrait Of An Artist (Netflix documentary) — Following the Black Panther and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom star’s too-soon death last August, the streamer fathered an all-star team for this documentary that aims to explore “Boseman’s extraordinary commitment to his craft [and] an intimate look at the Oscar-nominated actor’s artistry and the acting process which informed his transformative performances.” Settle in for a long list of participants, including Viola Davis, Danai Gurira, Spike Lee, Phylicia Rashad, and Glynn Turman. This one will be available for a limited 30-day window, so don’t let it languish in your queue for too long.

Spy City (AMC+ original series) — Preacher‘s Dominic Cooper stars as an English spy in 1960s Berlin, right before the Berlin Wall goes up. He’s tasked with locating a traitor among the Allies or in the UK embassy, and he’s possibly surrounded by spies and double agents. He’s also dancing around the threat of nuclear war while American, British, and French troops are barely separated from their East German and Soviet counterparts. Good luck?

Monday afternoon was blessed with two of baseball’s quirkiest traditions: morning baseball and position players pitching. The Boston Red Sox hosted the Chicago White Sox on Patriots Day at Fenway Park, with an 11 am first pitch that usually coincides with the running of the Boston Marathon.

With no Marathon due to the still-ongoing coronavirus pandemic (it’s set to run in the fall) baseball was the star of the show, and Boston earned a split of the four-game series by jumping all over Chicago ace Lucas Giolito for six runs in the first inning, washing him out of the game in the second inning after getting just three outs. It was a laugher on a great morning/afternoon for baseball in Boston, and it got even more hilarious in the seventh inning when Tony LaRussa started throwing position players into the game to pitch.

With the score 10-4, DH Yermín Mercedes made his first ever pitching appearance for the White Sox in the seventh inning. Mercedes was a curious choice for the role, especially considering he’s been one of the best hitters in the AL early this season. It was actually his first ever Major League appearance in the field, as he had just one plate appearance last season after eight seasons in the minors before this spring.

Mercedes got into a bit of trouble but only gave up one run, getting some help from a lineout that became a double play. It was a bit odd to go to a position player this early in the game, but it was weird circumstances for Chicago on the morning after a 7-inning doubleheader with the starter going just 1+ inning. Which is why LaRussa went with another position player in the eighth. Danny Mendick came to the mound in the bottom half of the inning, which is where the real fun started. His first pitch? A 60 MPH “changeup” that actually plunked Marwin González. It was hilarious.

The “uh oh” on the White Sox broadcast had some real Carl Lewis vibes to it, which basically sums up the day pitching for the White Sox. González could have absolutely gotten out of the way, but the pitch floated in there from way out of the strike zone so he may have just been surprised it broke as much as it did because it was moving so slowly. But while it was an inauspicious start for Mendick, he got through a scoreless inning and Chicago didn’t have to send another pitcher out in the 11-4 loss. Mendick did get a nice strikeout on a 64 MPH pitch, though, and they tossed the ball into the dugout for a nice souvenir there.

In any event, morning baseball continues to be just delightful. See you all next Patriots Day.

Most of us did some tumbling moves as kids, from somersaults to cartwheels. A chosen few could pull off more impressive moves, like handsprings and backflips. But guaranteed, no kid that any of us knew could do anything close to the feats 5-year-old Li Jiamin can do.

A video of Li doing 80 back handsprings in under a minute (some people counted 82—it’s really hard to keep track without making yourself dizzy) has gone viral, with more than a million views on Twitter alone.

At first, you might assume it’s a looped video (I know I did). But watch the way the wrinkles build up in the side and top of the mattress. If there’s a loop in there somewhere, it doesn’t account for most of the flips, and when you see what else Li can do, the feat becomes a whole lot more believable.

Li lives in the city of Xinzhou in northern China, and her martial arts-trained father serves as her trainer. In another video filmed in the same location at their home and shared by the South China Morning Post, we can see her doing a similar number of back handsprings on a red mat on the same sofa. We also see her walking around on her hands, walking upstairs backward on her hands, doing backflips off the sofa, and more.

Li started doing flips when she was four and practices for two hours a day, according to the video. Her father says she could bend over backward after just three days of training and has been practicing daily since then.

That doesn’t mean tumbling has always been easy for Li. She works hard, even when practice becomes mundane or difficult. Her father says she almost gave up in the beginning, but he pushed her to continue until she got the hang of it, and once she was successful, she became happy and confident. It’s been a gradual process to work her way up to 80 back handsprings in a minute.

Li’s father says she is resilient and determined, which is pretty obvious. “My daughter is very tough, unlike other kids,” he told the Post. He said she always follows his instructions, even when he gives her tasks that are extra challenging, like holding a handstand for 10 minutes.

Her father also said that her extraordinary skill is due to her starting her training so young. “If she started training after the age of 12, she wouldn’t be able to do 80 flips continuously no matter how hard she tries,” he said.

Li’s goal is to break the Guinness World Record. She may end up becoming a professional gymnast, but she may not. Her dad hopes she will become a police officer or join the army. “I just want her to study hard and be an educated person, nothing else,” he told the Post.

Chinese girl performs 80 somersaults in 1 minute

youtu.be

In this video, it’s pretty clear that Li’s father is raising his daughter with a strong sense of discipline and also a strong sense of support. We see lots of positive reinforcement, and it’s hard to imagine a kid who wouldn’t be proud to show off such amazing, hard-earned skill.

As far as the Guinness World Record goes, most highly physical categories have a minimum age requirement of 16, so Li has a ways to go to be able to compete. Since the current female world record is 53 consecutive back handsprings, Li should have no trouble smashing it, if she’s able to keep up her current astonishing pace.

In the meantime, we’ll just marvel at her ability and try not to get woozy watching her flippin’ amazing flipping feats.

A surprising new poll out of Texas found that actor Matt McConaughey has more support to be the next governor of Texas than the incumbent, Republican Greg Abbott. The actor increased speculation about his plans to run for governor in 2022 last week when he said it’s a “true consideration.”

The poll by The Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler found that in a hypothetical contest, McConaughey garners 45% support, with Abbott getting 33%, and 22% saying they would vote for someone else.

Democrats (66% to 8%) and Independents (44% to 28%) broke highly in favor of McConaughey. However, Abbot still holds a decent lead over the actor with Republicans (56% to 30%).

The actor’s support in the state most likely comes from the goodwill he’s created as an A-list Texas native because he hasn’t said much when it comes to political policy.

The star of “Dallas Buyers Club” held a star-studded benefit for victims of Texas floods in February. He’s also officially joined the faculty of his alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin, as a professor in the Department of Radio-Television-Film.

The actor stresses the fact that when it comes to the political policy he’s a moderate but that doesn’t mean he’s wishy-washy.

“I’m a ‘Meet You in the Middle’ man,” McConaughey said according to USA Today. “When I say ‘aggressively centric,’ that sometimes gets parceled over there with ‘Oh, that’s a shade of gray, a compromise.’ And I say, ‘Bullshit. That’s a dare. Right now, that’s radical. You wanna be brave?”

McConaughey believes that taking a centrist approach gives people more leeway to make the best decisions.

“Because you got more agility, cause you got more adaptability,” she said. “Because there’s different situations for different sides. Sometimes the left is better at this, sometimes the right. There’s different choices for different circumstances.”

He also believes that the political stereotypes do more harm than good.

“The left thinks the right’s racist and the right thinks the left’s socialist. Well, that ain’t true,” McConaughey said. “Then you go, well, the left is for empathy, compassion and solidarity; well the right’s for resilience and work ethic and responsibility. I’m like, I like all six of those. Those are values that our mamas taught us. The right and the left don’t have ownership of those, excluding the other side.”

The only firm policy stance the actor has taken is on gun control. In 2018, he spoke at the March for Our Lives rally in Austin calling for a ban on assault weapons for civilians, restricting high-capacity magazines, and strengthening background checks.

“Those are the three main stipulations,” McConaughey said at the rally, “and to those three, I can say — if you can say it with me — all right, all right, all right.”

It’s unclear whether the actor’s lack of clear positions is a clever way to avoid alienating the millions of people who go to see his films or part of his personality. Anyone who’s seen his series of car commercials for Lincoln can attest that he seems to hold a rather abstract view of the world.

It’s also questionable whether the political center that he’s trying to appeal to actually exists. People often talk about wanting bipartisanship and more moderate candidates, but those candidates tend not to fare very well in primaries.

The poll found that Democrats prefer a progressive candidate over a centrist (51% to 25%) and only 20% of Republicans are interested in voting for a centrist.

But if he runs as an independent, all bets could be off. After all, it was both the far left and far right who wrote off Joe Biden’s centrist 2020 presidential campaign as “out of touch.” And we all know that worked out “alright, alright, alright” for the commander-in-chief.