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Sky Cinema and NOW TV have another selection of new content coming to their platforms in March, with much of it tied in to marking International Women's Day on 8 March.
For every “Paddington” or “21 Jump Street” that turns existing intellectual property into delightful entertainment, there are dozens of failed attempts, like “CHIPS” or “Marmaduke” or “Baywatch.” Joining that latter list of disappointments is “Tom & Jerry,” a frustratingly unfunny attempt to revive the “Itchy and Scratchy”-inspiring cat and mouse as a live-action-animation hybrid. If there’s a way of taking those classic slapstick shorts and making their feline-vs.-rodent mayhem appealing over the course of a feature film, director Tim Story (2019’s dreadful “Shaft”) and screenwriter Kevin Costello (“Brigsby Bear”) haven’t cracked the code. “Tom & Jerry” isn’t an origin story, or an updating, or a revival, or even an ironic commentary. It’s not really much of anything, except an unreal melding of 2-D animated characters and real people in what’s supposed to be modern-day New York City. Watch Video: 'Tom & Jerry' Make Mayhem for Chloe Grace Moretz in Live-Action Trailer Let’s unpack those characters for a second: All the animals in this universe’s Manhattan are cartoons, from the title characters to the horses pulling carriages in Central Park to the pigeons (who also sing A Tribe Called Quest songs). Ostensibly, they’re animated so that it doesn’t look like animal cruelty when, say, someone repeatedly slams a garage door on Tom’s neck or sets elaborate traps for Jerry. That’s all well and good, but when we also get animated dogs and cats caged up at the animal-control pound, or cartoon dead mackerels being thrown around the Fulton Fish Market, it all becomes at best, not well thought-out, and at worst, rather grotesque. These details wouldn’t matter in a movie that had some kind of vision, or even in one that was consistently funny, but “Tom & Jerry” is neither of those things. Instead, it’s just a lazy way for a studio to capitalize on some famous characters it happens to own. Leading up the thankless human roles is Chloë Grace Moretz as the perpetually unemployed Kayla, who fakes her way into a temp job at a swanky hotel with a stolen résumé. She’s being hired by hotel chief Mr. Dubros (Rob Delaney) and events manager Terence (Michael Peña) to assist with the season’s biggest event, the nuptials of Instagram It Couple Preeta (Pallavi Sharda, “Lion”) and Ben (Colin Jost, “SNL”), an event that goes from gargantuan to literally elephantine with the introduction of a pair of (animated) pachyderms. Watch Video: Whoopi Goldberg Forgets She Once Starred in Racist 'Tom and Jerry' Warning The couple brings with them Ben’s bulldog Spike (voiced by Bobby Cannavale) and Preeta’s fluffy and potentially lethal cat Toots, only adding to the mayhem of having Tom and Jerry underfoot. The movie wants us to like and relate to Preeta and Ben — whether or not their wedding comes off becomes a major plot point — so it’s far more cringey than funny when the animals on hand destroy their beautiful, elaborate party. (The hotel chef played by Ken Jeong — because of course — may be a high-strung jerk, but when he chops up the gorgeous wedding cake in an attempt to capture Jerry, it’s not hilarious, it’s just, “Aw, the poor bride and groom.”) There’s a half-hearted stab at creating an origin story for Tom and Jerry: They meet when Tom, who has dreams of being a piano player, is busking in Central Park, only to have Jerry try to horn in on his action, ruining everything and destroying Tom’s keyboard. In the old cartoons, we root for Jerry, because he’s prey in danger of being eaten by predator Tom. This time out, Jerry’s an obnoxious creep, and Tom is the wronged party, but the movie still falls back on the old Jerry-outwits-and/or-injures-Tom tropes. That’s just not as funny. Nor is the wildly outsized cartoon violence between these characters when it plays out in the real world, and around real people, rather than in cartoon kitchens and living rooms. Even the pleasures of Story’s admittedly impressive set pieces (an elaborate Rube Goldberg device, a Manhattan car-and-skateboard chase) aren’t enough to beat back the tonal dissonance, to say nothing of the encroaching monotony. Also Read: 'Constantine' Reboot Series in the Works at HBO Max One could point out the film’s changing rules regarding the laws of physics, and intra-species communications — Tom and Jerry can’t speak, but they can write English and play charades — but “Tom & Jerry” certainly doesn’t care about those details, so why should we? It’s not like setting up a universe and its internal logic could be a springboard for jokes or anything. Instead, we can empathize with the talented human cast, who probably had visions of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” dancing in their heads as they flailed about the set. Sharda and Delaney probably come off the best; she radiates frazzled-bride tension, he offers a hilariously blustery stiff upper lip (covered by a mammoth mustache), and it no doubt helps that they have little interaction with Tom and Jerry. Moretz mostly goes with the flow, while Peña strains to maintain his dignity, and Jost falls back on his “Weekend Update” deadpan. As “Tom & Jerry” makes its HBO Max debut, the streaming service currently offers more than 70 of the characters’ classic, vintage animated shorts, loaded with cat-and-mouse hilarity. Any random dozen of them would be time better spent for viewers of all ages than 100 minutes of this 21st century catastrophe. “Tom & Jerry” opens in select theaters and for a limited run on HBO Max Feb. 26. Read original story ‘Tom & Jerry’ Film Review: Grating Cat-and-Mouse Comedy Puts the ‘Ow’ in ‘Meow’ At TheWrap
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The Wild Track by Margaret Reynolds review – adopting, mothering, belonging. A mother’s moving account of her struggle to adopt concludes with her daughter’s memories of finding a home
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Writ in water, preserved in plaster: how Keats' death mask became a collector's itemThe recent sale of a cast for £12,500 is a testament to the Romantic poet’s enduring legacy, on the bicentenary of his death The death mask of John Keats, on display in Winchester. Photograph: Nik Wheeler/Alamy
Australia passed a new law on Thursday that requires tech giants to pay for the news shared by users on their platforms. The law is pitched as a way to stop big tech from destroying the business model for actual news media — a legitimate problem that only seems to worsen by the day. But in a hilarious new clip, Australian political comedy outfit The Juice News argues that only does the law not protect the news industry, it appears to exist primarily to protect large scale media companies like Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. First, some background. Last week in response to the proposed law, Facebook banned the sharing of any news by Australian users. Facebook backed down on Monday, after Australian lawmakers offered a few concessions to it and Google, among them giving tech giants more time to negotiate with news outlets before disagreements are sent to an arbitrator. In addition, the law as passed also gives tech companies wiggle room, saying it “must take into account whether a digital platform has made a significant contribution to the sustainability of the Australian news industry through reaching commercial agreements” with news outlets. Also Read: Facebook, Google Required to Pay for News Content by New Australian Law The new law will be reviewed a year from now by Australia’s treasury department but Facebook has come out firmly against it unless it is amended. Google however has already struck a Murdoch’s News Corp. that’ll let it feature content from outlets like The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post and Financial Times. Now back to The Juice News which, as part of its ongoing video series “Honest Government Ads,” which roasts disingenuous media outreach by the Australian government, tore into the new law with, as we said, a really funny clip. The clip criticizes the law as an overly convoluted way to avoid closing Australian tax loopholes that benefit major companies, that in essence makes “Facebook and Google prop up mega news corporations” but doesn’t ensure that revenue will go to actual journalists instead of shareholders. Also Read: What Facebook's Ban on News in Australia Means for the U.S. “Instead of trying to fix what people don’t like about big tech,” the clip continues, “it encourages traditional media to get in on the action” by allowing media outlets to share in tech data mining, and get advance notice of algorithm changes — which would give them monopolistic advantages over smaller outlets who won’t receive those perks. We don’t live in Australia so we’ll leave it up to Australians to decide if this law is the right approach. But we feel comfortable telling this video at least is pretty damn funny and convincing. You can watch the whole thing above. Read original story Australia’s Contentious New Media Law Roasted in Hilarious Fake Government Ad (Video) At TheWrap
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HBO’s TV series adaptation of “The Time Traveler’s Wife” now has its leads. “Game of Thrones” actress Rose Leslie and “Divergent” series star Theo James will star in the project, based on the acclaimed novel by Audrey Niffenegger. Per the official logline, the show is “an intricate and magical love story, adapted by Steven Moffat from the much loved novel by Audrey Niffenegger. “The Time Traveler’s Wife” tells the story of Clare and Henry, and a marriage with a problem… time travel.” James will play Henry, a man who suffers from a physiological disorder that makes him spontaneously travel through time to different points within his own lifetime. Leslie will play his wife Clare, whose own life is upended by having known Henry at different points of his life since she was a little girl. Also Read: 'Euphoria': HBO Picks up Zendaya Pilot to Series, Drake Joins as Executive Producer Steven Moffat will write and executive produce the adaptation with Sue Vertue and Brian Minchin also executive producing. The series hails from Hartswood Films in association with Warner Bros. Television. This is the first small screen adaptation of the Niffenegger novel, which was previously made into a feature film starring Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana in 2009. Rose Leslie is represented by Hamilton Hodell, UTA, Anonymous Content, and Peikoff Mahan. Theo James is represented by UTA in the United States and Markham, Froggatt and Irwin in UK and Sloane, Offer, Weber and Dern. Read original story ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife': Rose Leslie and Theo James to Star in HBO Sci-Fi Drama At TheWrap
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