Review: "Thunder Force" (Netflix)

by Christopher James

Longtime friends McCarthy and Spencer in "Thunder Force."Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer are already acting superheroes. Over their long careers, they’ve stolen scenes from the best, been nominated for Oscars (with Spencer winning in 2011), and headlined comedy, drama and horror films. There’s nothing these women can’t do… until now. Thunder Force is their kryptonite. There’s no superpower in their arsenal that can save this comedy, which is completely devoid of laughs. 

Thunder Force takes place in a world much like our own. The main difference: mysterious intergalactic rays touched down in the 80s and gave a few bad apples superpowers. These super individuals, called Miscreants, use their powers to terrorize everyone in sight. If only bad guys are given powers, how are the good guys ever going to prevail?

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Showbiz History: Fargo, La Femme Nikita, Captain Marvel, and more...

7 random things that happened on this day, March 8th, in showbiz history

1935 The Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy musical Naughty Marietta opens in theaters. It will go on the receive two Oscar nominations: Best Picture and Best Sound Recording. This is one of the first really old movies I ever saw in movie theaters as my parents occassionally took us to the local repertory theater (just a five minute drive away). The only memory I have of it is Jeanette MacDonald singing "Sweet Mystery of Life".  When I finally saw Young Frankenstein on cable or DVD many years later (I was very late to that movie) I laughed so hard at Madeline Kahn busting that song out while having sex with the Frankenstein monster. The scene is hilarious even without context, of course, but I had loved the song as a child which made the scene twice as funny. Mel Brooks was 9 years old when Naughty Marietta came out. Maybe his parents also took him to see it? 

1985 Mask, starring Cher, opens in theaters, one of that year's best films...

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Gay Best Friend: Jack Hock in "Can You Ever Forgive Me"

by Christopher James

What fun it would be to sit with Melissa McCarthy's Lee Israel and Richard E. Grant's Jack Hock in Julius.

After covering Victor/Victoria last week, we got to thinking about that great sub-section of the “gay best friend” trope - The Gay Accomplice. Often a personal friend, the Gay Accomplice loves to come up with big schemes and be at the center of mischief. The friendship between the protagonist and the Gay Accomplice can exist before the scheme, but often times the friendship starts to revolve around their shared grift. Immediately, Richard E. Grant’s recently Oscar nominated performance as Jack Hock in Marielle Heller’s brilliant Can You Ever Forgive Me? lept to mind...

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Celebrity IOU: Brad, Melissa, and Viola.

by Eric Blume

And now for something completely different.  Not sure how many folks have caught it yet, but a few weeks ago, HGTV, center of home improvement and home selling shows, launched a new program called Celebrity IOU.  The concept is that a famous person treats a loved one to a home/property makeover, working in conjunction with the network’s twin “Property Brothers” Jonathan and Drew Scott. 

Usually we wouldn’t write about this here at TFE, but HGTV got some really big guns for their first three episodes, all recent Oscar winners or nominees.  Episode one featured Brad Pitt; episode two was Melissa McCarthy; and episode three, Viola Davis...

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In praise of Melissa McCarthy, puppet master

by Tim Brayton

The Academy Awards are meant to reward great acting, not provide examples of it, but for a couple minutes during Sunday's ceremony, I'm convinced I saw the best comic performance I'll see for the rest of 2019. When Melissa McCarthy and Brian Tyree Henry arrived to present Best Costume Design in polyglot outfits designed to evoke all five of the nominees, the visual gag is already enough. In a different year or with a lazier duo it might have been all we got. But it's when McCarthy and Henry start to introduce the category that it went from silly to downright inspired.

I am obsessed with every bit of what McCarthy is up to in that clip – and it doesn't even include the best joke of the bit, when she has the bunny attack Henry's hand as he tries help her open the envelope. Part of it, of course, is that she's playing things so completely straight...

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