DraftKings Network • November 15 2023

Sony’s Spider-Verse is building up projects with no Parker to ponder (yet)

Outside of Tom Holland’s MCU iteration of Peter Parker, the world continues to grow – even if it has no current Peter Parker to call its own. If you lost count, the Sony Spider-Verse has two Venom films (and a third on the way), a Morbius film (with a villain returning from the MCU at the conclusion), an upcoming film about long-time spider villain Kraven the Hunter, and now Madame Web due on Feb. 14th, 2024. The first trailer plays almost like a Final Destination-esque vibe as it relies on show

DraftKings Network • November 11 2023

The Skrulls continue to get the rawest deal in the MCU

Spoilers for Secret Invasion and The Marvels are ahead. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Can someone please think of the Skrulls? Some of us either have or are about to see The Marvels and justifiably will like the chemistry between Carol Danvers, Kamala Khan, and Monica Rambeau despite some shortcomings. I did enjoy it, but something irked me a bit. There have been a few MCU projects now where the Skrulls have been left hanging and used by some of Earth’s mightiest heroes. Given the immensity of w

DraftKings Network • November 10 2023

‘Coyote vs. Acme’ is the latest victim to Hollywood’s tax write-off problem

Sit back and imagine working on something for months, maybe even years. You put your heart and soul into a creative endeavor that you believe in with a recognizable movie star and classic cartoon characters like Wile E. Coyote and his forever nemesis, Roadrunner, and get to the finish line. You await a release date because principal photography has been done for a year. Then, the news is not only will it not be released, but it will be shelved forever because the studio chose to go the $30 milli

DraftKings Network • November 10 2023

The 2024 major Grammy categories belong to women and (finally) not lip service

To say that the look of the top Grammy nominations from this year is an overall rebuke of former Recording Academy president Neil Portnow’s comments that female artists had to “step it up” to get recognized in 2018 would be an understatement. That’s with a year when albums such as Lorde’s Melodrama, SZA’s Ctrl, Rapsody’s Laila’s Wisdom, and Lady Gaga’s Joanne, amongst many great pieces of work, were released.

Low and behold – the 67th installment of the Grammys got it right, and seven of the ei

DraftKings Network • November 4 2023

Rage Against The Machine’s legacy was always bigger than the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Timelessness is a concept I have been more aware of as I listen to music lately. Some of the best bodies of work not only strike specific feelings inside of me the moment I listen to them, but keep their same purpose while applying to the current times I live in. I remember the first time I listened to Rage Against The Machine’s 1992 self-title album, 1996’s Evil Empire, and 2000’s The Battle for Los Angeles, and remarkably, they haven’t aged the bit. Not just from a musical standpoint.

The fou

DraftKings Network • November 3 2023

DraftKings Network weighs in on their favorite Sylvester Stallone films

From Rocky, Rambo, The Expendables, and even The Suicide Squad, the long career of Sylvester Stallone has been with audiences for decades. Some of the DraftKings Network staff weigh in on their favorite Sly Stallone film and explain why that is.

With the pantheon of Sly Stallone performances, there’s a lot you can choose from – the first Rocky, Rambo: First Blood, and maybe even reaching back further to The Lords of Flatbush. I’m going to pull a wild card and say 2006’s Rocky Balboa. These Rock

DraftKings Network • November 3 2023

‘Elvis’ and ‘Priscilla’ view the King from distinct points of hero admiration and needed critique. It’s complicated.

I find the legend of Elvis Presley fascinating because, like many artists, people tend to keep him locked into different periods of their lives. Suppose you go to YouTube and look at the comments section of “Heartbreak Hotel” or even his intro medley to his concert in Hawaii in 1973. In that case, there are stories of generations of people pointing out particular things that Elvis either did or perhaps tweaked. It’s mythological, and there’s a difference between what we get to experience as fans

DraftKings Network • October 27 2023

Gen Z wants onscreen media to show the lives that they could have had

The millennial generation knows what it feels like to start a few steps back concerning the “quintessential pursuit” of societal success. When we were in high school, there was the horrible 9/11 terrorist attack and the war that came after it, which changed the way our lives looked. When we were in college, there was the 2008 significant financial collapse, which ruined any job prospects we were looking for. We are still recovering from that to this day – still trying to figure out if that life

DraftKings Network • August 3 2023

The dying art of movie theater etiquette

A couple of weeks ago, I went to see Insidious: The Red Door at a local AMC theater like I’ve seen many horror films. There’s something about seeing a scary film in a theatrical setting with a bunch of people that has a certain synergy to it. Though the pandemic has done a lot to change our viewing habits concerning media, the recent successes of Oppenheimer and Barbie are examples that people will show up when you give them something of quality to show up for.

So, I sit in my seat and see burs

DraftKings Network • July 24 2023

One of the biggest lessons inside ‘Barbie’ originates within Ken’s flawed thinking and lack of self-reflection

In 1961, two years after the extremely famous Barbie doll was made, Mattel gave the world Ken, named after founder Ruth Handler’s son, Kenneth. By the supposed natural order of things, Barbie and Ken were paired together (until their break up in 2004 and eventual reunion in 2011. Yes, I know this is weird talking about dolls). What if it wasn’t Barbie and Ken, but perhaps just platonic people/characters who weren’t forced together because “that’s how things have to be?”

Co-writer/director Greta

DraftKings Network • July 13 2023

If you feel as angry about your industry after the SAG-AFTRA press conference, you’re not alone

Just two days ago, a studio executive spoke to Deadline about the WGA strike and said, “The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses.” Disney CEO Bob Iger, when speaking to CNBC today, spoke of the writer and actors' strikes as “adding to the set of the challenges that this business is already facing that is, quite frankly, very disruptive.” This is the same man who just yesterday extended his deal for two years and made almo

DraftKings Network • July 7 2023

‘Indiana Jones,’ ‘Logan,’ and James Mangold’s vision of the aging hero

In a perfect world or story, heroes would be untouched by the hands of time and shielded from all of life’s unfairness and difficulties. They are the best of us, after all. You should be rewarded for acts of virtualism and selfishness for the greater good. But heroes are just like the rest of us – they age, experience loss, grapple with grief, and even fall into pits of depression. Even if any of these ailments fall upon them, we still have faith that they have the resolve to get back up one mor

DraftKings Network • May 17 2023

Martin Scorsese and the adversarial necessity between time and art

Ask any cinephile to name their favorite directors, and many of the same names will come up. There’s Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Quentin Tarantino, and, of course, Martin Scorsese (I didn’t intentionally leave anybody out. I could list names all day). Scorsese is the creative mind who has been at the helm of classics such as Goodfellas, Casino, The Departed, The King of Comedy, Taxi Driver – the list goes on and on.

Thanks to streaming services, there seems to be almost a birth of untethered c

DraftKings Nation • May 9 2023

‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ proves a trilogy finale doesn’t need a main character death to be effective

There are a couple of essential ingredients when you’re looking to wrap up a trilogy. First, there’s a beginning, middle, and end (obviously). It would be best if you had a way to wrap up the individual and macro overachieving themes in which the story began in the first place. If you look at Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne becomes Gotham’s protector with the caped crusader mantle and passes it on to live a happier life (begrudgingly) in Dark Knight Rises. On the outside, the city of Gotham is going

DraftKings Nation • May 4 2023

Missy Elliott’s legacy is as rock and roll as it gets

Rock and Roll music was birthed in genres like jazz, gospel, and rhythm and blues – fortified by legends such as Little Richard, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and Sh-boom. Some people have come to view rock music with a narrow lens of singer, guitarist, bassist, and drummer in the ilk of bands like The Rolling Stones, Led Zepplin, and The Foo Fighters. That’s not to say those bands aren’t vastly important in their own right (they absolutely are), but rock and roll is a genre th

DraftKings Nation • May 2 2023

Lovers of all things media should be paying attention to the WGA writers' strike

I’ve been fortunate to be in the realm of writing about entertainment media for nine years as well as a lifetime fan. My mind is full of timeless quotes and reenactments of scenes from my favorite film – verbatim. Even through all this time, I still have an eager and curious eye on upcoming releases like I did when I was a kid. All that wouldn’t be possible without the people in the rooms writing the storylines that hook you for weeks, make you cry, and laugh until your stomach hurts.

When we l

DraftKings Nation • April 28 2023

While we all wait for episode six, here’s DraftKings Nation’s ‘Yellowjackets’ Halftime spectacular

If you have not noticed by now, Yellowjackets season two is on a week break, and what a way to take a breather than an impending birth within a potentially haunted forest? We’re all jonesing for answers, but we here at DraftKings Nation have a little stop-gap idea. Let’s go over some burning questions that we have coming off the last episode that we hoped to be answered in the remaining four episodes of this season.

What Will Become of Shauna’s Baby?

We can all acknowledge Shauna having her ba

DraftKings Nation • April 20 2023

These AI-generated songs sap the soul out of the artistic medium that needs it most

I’m sure I’m not alone in this, but one of my favorite electronic groups of all time is Daft Punk. When the duo suddenly broke up in 2021, I was crushed. They made music on their own terms, made releases count, and had those amazing robot helmets (plus, I never got to see them live). An immediate void was created as they exited the incomparable musical partnership together. But a recent interview with co-founder Thomas Bangalter said when asked about why the duo broke up. He said, “As much as I

DraftKings Nation • April 19 2023

Ari Aster has a love for the deceptively depressive ending

Spoilers Ahead For Hereditary, Midsommar, and Beau Is Afraid are below.

Having viewed all three of writer/director Ari Aster’s feature films, I’ve concluded that the guy loves a depressing ending. Not just a simple, sad ending where it feels like all is lost – some of them have an uncomfortable celebratory vibe. For example, at the end of 2018’s Hereditary, everything that could go wrong for the Graham family does. The son, Peter, jumps out of the window to his death after he watches his posses

DraftKings Nation • April 8 2023

Am I losing it or is the Star Wars film franchise finally ready to get its act together?

It only came out more than three years ago, but 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker feels like something we don’t speak of. The film happened – retracing many steps of past lore and ignoring why audiences enjoyed 2015’s The Force Awakens worked so well. The first film in the new trilogy combined the old classics and revealed new characters we want to journey with. A former stormtrooper named Finn had a change of heart, joined the resistance, and picked up a lightsaber to fight a master of th

DraftKings Nation • March 22 2023

Nobody Wins When the DC Family Feuds

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but there seems to be more drama in the land of the DC film universe. This stems from an exclusive report from The Wrap that lays a lot of the studios' recent superhero troubles at the feet of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Shazam! star Zachary Levi would then go on his Instagram account to confirm what sources told the publication was true. Keep in mind that Shazam! Fury of The Gods was just released this weekend. The whole back-and-forth has cannibalized any (a

DraftKings Nation • March 7 2023

Rocky had the best possible sendoff for his character in ‘Creed II’

If you were one of the many people who went to see Creed III this past weekend, you would note that this would be the first in the trilogy that genuinely felt like an Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) story. That’s not to say there isn’t Rocky franchise DNA inside the story. Adonis comes out of retirement to face his most significant test, just like Rocky did with Ivan Drago in Rocky IV — and of course, the training montages and “never give up” attitude play a big part.

Besides this, the film di

DraftKings Nation • March 6 2023

‘The Last of Us’ has a chilling effect depicting how it’s bleak world affects young people

One of the quotes that stuck out to me while watching the television adaptation of The Last of Us was in “Please Hold to My Hand” when Joel and Ellie talked after the ambush as they got to Kansas City. He says to her, ”You’re just a kid. You shouldn’t know what it means to. It’s not like you killed him, but shooting.” Ellie had to think fast to save Joel because his hearing prevented him from picking up on an ambush. But sadly, she had to shoot another kid named Brian. Given Joel’s life experien

DraftKings Nation • March 1 2023

We must free ourselves from the need for everything to be in an extended universe

After seeing Avengers: Endgame with a couple of friends, I remembered talking to them after and saying, “I don’t know if the MCU will ever reach this height again.” It’s not that I was throwing stones at the mantle of Marvel – it’s just that I realized it’s entirely hard to have people reinvest in the manner they did for 20+ films and projects. It felt like the world stopped for that opening weekend, where we all saw how the Infinity Saga would end. I mean, it worked – at the time, it would beco