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Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is one of the most highly-anticipated video game movies in quite some time. The first one ended up being a pleasant surprise, and news of a sequel generated plenty of excitement. They had a good foundation to build off of and the early trailers left a good impression — it even has Idris Elba playing Knuckles! Everything about the follow-up so far feels like it’s going to perfectly nail how a Sonic adventure should go, and its getting plenty of attention because of that.

With the movie set to come out in April, one of its major promotional moments will occur during the Super Bowl. Paramount released a new trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on Friday, and the trailer is meant to air on TV during the Super Bowl. It even features a funny pun involving the tails side of a coin.

The trailer itself gives us a little bit more info about what we can expect to see in the movie. As if there aren’t already plenty of reasons to be excited, we can see many iconic images such as Sonic and Tails’ plane, The Tornado, and snowboarding on an icy mountain. It even features a giant death machine created by Dr. Eggman meant to destroy Sonic. All of this looks and feels exactly how a Sonic movie should, and that’s what makes it so exciting. Hopefully, the movie doesn’t just meet the expectations of every Sonic fan, but exceeds them.

Spoilers for The Power of the Dog will be found below.

Let’s get this out of the way upfront. Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance as a very bad man in The Power of the Dog is so phenomenal, and so convincing in this neo-western, that it’ll make you want Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to arrive tomorrow, just so you can see him as a good guy again. Cumberbatch deservedly earned an Oscar nomination (as did married co-stars Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst) for his turn in the movie that really went to town on toxic masculinity, but let’s just say that the ending of the film came as a surprise to many who watched.

Benedict’s sinister leading man, Phil, ended up — despite overpowering and dominating every moment of the movie and menacing Dunst’s character even when he wasn’t onscreen — dying what seemed to be a relatively uneventful death. So, what happened, and what was the point?

Phil ended up (as the doctor onscreen confirms the greatest possibility) dying of anthrax exposure and poisoning. This arrived as news that didn’t seem believable to his brother, George, who noted how careful Phil was while dealing with animals and the possibility of infection. However, Phil had let his guard down with Peter, who was nursing a strong desire to protect his mother, Rose, at all costs. Phil, of course, had continued to express contempt for Rose throughout the film, and after Phil cuts his hand in the field with Peter, the young man appears to have come up with a plan to poison Phil by giving him contaminated rawhide. Peter has been, as we previously saw with his careful use of gloves, very aware of anthrax bacterium, and he saw an opportunity and seized it.

Although there are plenty of nuanced touches here surrounding the relationship between Phil and Peter (and much to be considered on that subject, no doubt), Peter’s decision put an end to Phil’s reign of ranch terror.

The Power of the Dog is currently streaming on Netflix.

Drake’s gambling history is sort of infamous at this point, as he’s willing to lay out huge sums on the outcomes of everything from basketball games to roulette spins, getting lucky and losing in more-or-less equal measure. Naturally, with Super Bowl LVI kicking off this Sunday, he’s got a lot of money on the line, posting screenshots of his online wagers to Instagram. In total, he’s got $1.26 million (in Bitcoin, no less) riding on the outcome, split across three bets.

He’s got $472,364 on the Los Angels Rams to win outright over the Cincinnati Bengals, while two prop bets posit his friend, Rams wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., to receive for more than 62.5 receiving yards ($393,636) and score at least one touchdown ($393,636). They’re all relatively safe bets, with payouts of $713,244, $712,457, and $846,288, respectively — the Rams have the hometown advantage, after all, and ODB has been relatively solid all season despite tearing his left ACL during the 2020 season (something Drake can relate to).

However, should he hit on all three, he’s looking at just about doubling his money ($2,271,989), so they aren’t bad bets either. His post explained the rationale behind them with the caption, “All bets are in on the family.” The rapper, like much of the country, will be tuned in with crossed fingers this Sunday.

Ana de Armas is an unexpected choice to play Marilyn Monroe, but the same thing could be (and was!) said of Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana, and now she’s Oscar nominee Kristen Stewart. The Cuban-born actress, whose scene in No Time to Die should have been the whole movie, was cast as the Golden Age of Hollywood actress in Andrew Dominik’s Blonde. The film comes out later this year, and there’s been rumors that it was given an NC-17 rating by the Motion Picture Association of America — rumors that Dominik calls “a bunch of horsesh*t.” But Blonde will have the feel of an NC-17 movie.

“It’s a demanding movie,” he told Screen Daily. “If the audience doesn’t like it, that’s the f*cking audience’s problem. It’s not running for public office. It’s an NC-17 movie about Marilyn Monroe, it’s kind of what you want, right? I want to go and see the NC-17 version of the Marilyn Monroe story.”

Dominik also discussed working with de Armas. He said that there was “work involved” in making her “sound American” as Monroe, but “she is fucking amazing — the one thing nobody’s going to complain about is [de Armas’] performance.” It’s unknown when Blonde will be released on Netflix due to theatrical release laws in France, but Dominik is hoping for a Cannes Film Festival premiere in May.

Until then, we still have Deep Water to look forward to.

(Via Screen Daily)

While other kids were playing soccer, young Donovan Carrillo had other dreams. Despite living in the warm and temperate climate of Mexico, Carrillo had a singular vision of grabbing gold at the Winter Olympics.

And now, win or lose, this passionate figure skater has already become a huge success story at the Beijing Winter Games, becoming the first Mexican to advance to the Olympic free skate final event.

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“I always wanted to be at the Olympics,” Carrillo told NBC after his performance Tuesday. “I used to talk about this dream with people. They were always laughing or telling me that it was impossible for a Mexican to qualify.”

Dreams do come true! 😍

📷: @DonovanDCarr pic.twitter.com/mtkAZMmxbM

— Olympics (@Olympics) February 8, 2022

In addition to dealing with the fact that Mexico has no competitive winter sports leagues, Carrillo was often called “a girl” for his interest in figure skating, telling the Associated Press that “they sometimes even think that to practice an artistic sport, it’s going to affect your (sexual) preferences as a person. I never thought that. I think that’s one of the reasons of why we don’t have many male skaters in my country.”

Donovan Carrillo, who practices in a shopping mall ice rink, is the first skater from Mexico to qualify for the Olympic free skate. 🥰 pic.twitter.com/qZFBl4LVYr

— Billy B (@billyburke87) February 8, 2022

Throughout his pursuit, Carrillo never let the naysaying keep him down. Instead, he became more resourceful, training alongside girls and practicing in the ice rinks of shopping malls. Imagine having to perfect your pirouette while dodging families and amateur hockey players.

Hard work and determination paid off, because Carillo found himself in Beijing, bearing the flag of Mexico at the opening ceremony.

donovan carrillo is such a vibe#olympics pic.twitter.com/D67FTX2RBZ

— 🌬 (@sanika1020_) February 10, 2022

Carrillo’s entire Olympic debut has been an homage to his heritage: blades displaying the green, white and red color of the Mexican flag, a sparkling black and gold costume designed by Mexican fashion designer Edgar Lozzano, and using music from his father’s favorite band, Santana.

“It’s something that I always try to do with my performance, to involve the Mexican culture,” Carrillo told AP.

Donovan Carrillo is the first Mexican in over 30 years to represent Mexico in ice skating at the Winter Olympics LETS GOOOOOOO pic.twitter.com/75w5UTOf6K

— Estefanía (@estyledesma) February 8, 2022

Fast forward to Tuesday (Feb 8), and Carrillo delivered a stunning, career-best, history-making performance in the short program, nailing the quad toe loop and landing an insane triple axel.

The score of 79.69 takes Carrillo to the longer free skate competition, a never-before seen feat from his country, making the 22-year-old athlete Mexico’s most successful figure skater in history.

Carrillo might have been pressed with overwhelming obstacles, but he proved to the world that dreams are worth pursuing.

Resident Evil 4 is considered one of the best video games ever made. The Resident Evil franchise has always been touted as one that helped popularize the survival horror genre. Then, with the changes made in Resident Evil 4, it was praised yet again for revolutionizing it. The franchise was able to become more action-heavy, with many of the game’s features being adopted in future entries. One change, the over the shoulder camera angle, was used until Resident Evil 7 when the franchise moved to a first-person camera angle.

Despite the newer games shifting away from what Resident Evil 4 made popular, its influence has still been very present in the franchise. Recent remakes of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 both took mechanics from Resident Evil 4 to make those games feel more modern. With both remakes being so popular, there have been rumors of an eventual remake for Resident Evil 4, but that raises an important question: How does one recreate, and improve on, a game that revolutionized an entire franchise?

According to one report from Imran Khan of Fanbyte, one way that a Resident Evil 4 remake may look to improve on the previous game is by bringing back some previously cut content, which could potentially make the game even more terrifying than the original.

The reason for this time change isn’t arbitrary. Capcom wants to adjust the tone of the remake into something spookier, taking direct inspiration from discarded Resident Evil 4 demos. That footage, which was used in early GameCube preview reels, featured Leon wandering a lonely castle, getting possessed by black smoke, and fighting off living dolls, as well as other ghostly manifestations. Some of this stuff made its way into the original game in other ways. Most of it, however, was left on the cutting room floor and direct comparisons are being made during development of the remake.

Some changes to the story, such as giving side characters bigger roles and more screentime, are also planned.

While the Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 remakes were praised for their gameplay changes, another aspect that made them so beloved was how terrifying they became. They took two games that became less scary as they aged and made them feel horrifying again. Resident Evil 4 is, for some people, when the franchise moved away from being traditionally scary and focused more on being a campy good time. That doesn’t mean it lacked scary moments, but it definitely leaned more into action and camp than horror. This reported remake, with the addition of the cut content, could bring the best of all worlds together.

In the latest episode of the Facebook Watch show (Meta Watch show?) Cardi Tries…, the rapper’s latest dilettante endeavor gives her husband Offset a tattoo commemorating their wedding day. In a twist, though, Offset suggests giving her the same tattoo, so under the watchful eye of celebrity tattoo artist Nikko Hurtado, the couple draws each other matching tattoos of their wedding date that line up when they hold hands. The episode, fittingly, has dropped just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Funnily enough, this is the second wedding-themed episode of the show, which finds Cardi B, well, trying out a new job each week and reacting with her typical unfiltered charm, highlighting the skill and talent it takes to do things that a lot of us take for granted. In her prior wedding episode, Cardi tried out wedding planning, ultimately getting ordained and surprising the couple by humorously officiating their marriage. In an even sweeter turn of events, Cardi was given the opportunity to put her ordination to use once again when a chance, missed meeting with actor Kal Penn led to Penn asking Cardi to officiate his own wedding, something he seemed pretty serious about and Cardi was certainly down to do.

You can watch the episode on Cardi’s Facebook page.

Jack Reacher is the titular character in Lee Child’s aptly titled Reacher series, consisting of 26 (!) books about the said former U.S. Army major. One of those 26 novels was adapted into 2012’s hit film, Jack Reacher, starring none other than the overly-daring stuntman himself, Tom Cruise. But, as Cruise is famously, uh, vertically challenged, many were wondering just how tall Reacher is supposed to be?

In the novels, Reacher stands (literally) at a pretty honorable 6 feet, 5 inches, and described as “extremely tall, extremely broad, long-armed, and long-legged.” Cruise isn’t exactly the first person to come to mind, as he is 5 feet 7 inches, but Child was very pleased with his performance in the 2012 feature film. Some fans were disappointed with the lack of height on their main hero. So, when it came time to cast the Amazon Prime Reacher TV show, the height of the main role was crucial.

That’s why the role ultimately went to Alan Ritchson, known for his portrayal of Aquaman on the much-loved CW superhero series Smallville, alongside Superman. Ritchson is the exact height that author Child imagined Reacher to be. So there you go! Sorry, Tom Cruise.

Ritchson also starred as a teenage mutant ninja turtle in the 2014 live-action reboot, though his height probably wasn’t crucial for his role of a teenage turtle.

Like a far-right-leaning Terminator, Gina Carano is back! It was one year ago that the mixed martial artist-turned-actor lost her chance to be immortalized as a Star Wars action figure when she was fired from her role as Galactic mercenary Cara Dune in Disney+’s hit series The Mandalorian. In August, Carano announced that first post-Mandalorian gig would see her teaming up with right-wing sh*t disturber Ben Shapiro and his The Daily Wire. And now, the fruits of their collective labors are on display for all the world to see.

The Hollywood Reporter shared the first trailer for Terror on the Prairie, a new Western that the outlet describes as centering “on a pioneering family that fights back against a gang of vicious outlaws hellbent on revenge.” Carano co-stars alongside former Justified star Nick Searcy, yet another outspoken star who has stirred up controversy with some of his ultra-conservative opinions.

Jeremy Boreing, Shapiro’s The Daily Wire co-founder, issued a statement noting that just because their media outlet is conservative doesn’t mean their films will be. “When people hear that a conservative media company has entered the film business, they’ll often assume we’re making either hyper-politicized movies or milquetoast dramas,” Boreing said. “But we have no interest in producing Hillary’s Hard Drive Part III or Christmas Romance in the Rockies. We’re making top-quality entertainment that all Americans can love.”

You can make that determination for yourself by watching the trailer for Terror on the Prairie above.

With James Gunn expanding the DC Extended Universe thanks to his work on The Suicide Squad its hit spinoff, Peacemaker, it’s a fair question to ask if the next big DC property, The Batman, has any connection to that world. Several times in his HBO Max series, Peacemaker (John Cena) makes quips about Batman, and The Suicide Squad movie stars Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), a longtime companion of Batman’s arch-nemesis The Joker. However, those characters are connected to Ben Affleck‘s Batman and not Robert Pattinson‘s new take on the Dark Knight.

Despite The Suicide Squad being a soft quasi-reboot of David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, the film and its spinoff from Gunn remained connected to the DCEU that was slowly being built by films like Justice League. In fact, while promoting Peacemaker in August 2021, Gunn revealed that Warner Bros. is no longer shying away from connecting the DC films. At least entirely.

While the DCEU continues to expand with films like Black Adam and The Flash, director Matt Reeves was given the go-ahead to create a completely separate universe for The Batman. Like Joker, it’s a separate thing with no connection to any of the DC films that preceded it, including The Suicide Squad.

“Warner Bros. has a multiverse where they’re exploring different ways to use the character … We don’t get involved in that,” The Batman producer Dylan Clark told Empire. “Matt is interested in pushing this character to his emotional depths and shaking him to his core.”

The Batman hits theaters on March 4.