ATOMIC BOND
Theron gives 007 a run for his money in new thriller, writes Chris Lackner.
MOVIES
Big releases on July 28: The Emoji Movie; Atomic Blonde
Big picture: Since no one seems capable of making the longoverdue choice of casting a female Bond, we’re left with the next best thing: Charlize Theron playing a different British super spy with a licence to kill and thrill. She plays Her Majesty’s top intelligence agent, Lorraine Broughton (not as catchy as 007, but she may have Bond beat in the hand-to-hand combat and seduction departments).
Meanwhile, The Emoji Movie does for emojis what Inside Out did for emotions. Just substitute the inner world of the human brain for the inner world of … sigh ... a smartphone. The family film bills itself as “the never-before-seen secret world inside your smartphone.”
I assume most of the plot will focus on depressed digital creatures sick to death of the thought of having to store yet another selfie, put out another grammarless text, or send out another illadvised dating-app booty call.
The phone’s emoji denizens live in a city called Textopolis, and wait to be selected for use by the phone’s owner, young
Alex. But this is mainly the tale of Gene, the single emoji who wears more than one expression — “maybe I am supposed to have more than one emotion” — who goes searching for fabled “Source Code” to help fix him. Watch him and his companions journey though their phone’s Apps, such as Candy Land. (How much money did Apple and Samsung secretly front for this movie?)
Forecast: Emojis will rule the day, but I would have preferred The Emoji Movie: Atomic Blonde, in which Agent Broughton is tasked with hunting down the world’s emojis — sparing all the sad or crying emojis, of course, as a warning to the rest of them.
TV
Big event: Midnight, Texas
(July 24, Global/NBC)
Big picture: From the author of True Blood, Midnight Texas follows Manfred, a psychic on the run who ends up in the remote town of Midnight, Texas — a supernatural haven. Why vampires, witches and other supernatural castoffs would opt to live in an American state with a history of building walls, minority oppression and wanton violence is beyond me. Oh, by the way, the town happens to sit on “the veil between the living and the dead,” and something wicked this way comes; Manfred isn’t the only new game in town.
Forecast: Midnight Texas will fill the endless appetite for the supernatural, but without HBO’s pedigree. I’m hoping Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a regular crossover guest star; this place sounds like the sister city to Sunnydale.
Honourable Mention: Somewhere Between (July 24, Global/ABC). This miniseries focuses on a news producer (Paula Patton), trying to prevent a dark prediction of the future from coming true: the murder of her eightyear-old daughter. Can she solve a crime before it takes place?
“Fate is your enemy; the only way to fight her is head on” she is told. It’s like the movies Final Destination and Minority Report meet Hallmark channel soap opera. (BTW: The show moves to Tuesday nights beginning
July 25.)
MUSIC
Big releases on July 28: Arcade Fire (Everything Now); Cage the Elephant (Unpeeled)
Big picture: After an uneven, ambitious effort (2013s Reflektor), that divided fans and critics alike, Everything Now is a throwback to the sound that defined the Montreal mega-band’s early albums. That means orchestral anthems, meditative lyrics, punchy beats, soaring choruses — and music that oozes with human emotion and drama. But Arcade Fire does cycle in enough disco beats and ’80s-synth experiments to satisfy anyone who might accuse them of just recycling old musical recipes.
Debut single Everything Now, about digital-age information overload (cue: The Emoji Movie), has already achieved No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard charts. Meanwhile, Cage the Elephant puts their rock music in a cage with stripped down, unplugged arrangements of classic songs, plus a few choice covers, including The Stranglers’ Golden Brown and Daft Punk’s Instant Crush.
Forecast: Arcade Fire returns to the form they had on Funeral, and The Suburbs; a second album of the year from the Grammy Awards may be in the cards.
Honourable mention: Alice Cooper (Paranormal). The only thing paranormal about Alice Cooper is how he keeps on ticking.