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Kate Review: Netflix Delivers Another Stylish and Hollow Actioner

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Kate Review: Netflix Delivers Another Stylish and Hollow Actioner

Extraction was a big hit for Netflix last year, so perhaps it’s not so surprising that its algorithm demanded the need for another film where a white actor who had previously played a superhero travels to a foreign land to murder countless scores of native henchmen, but it’s okay because they’re also protecting a child from that country. Kate is the result, and it’s not so much that the film is bad, as much as its approach is discomforting. The gaijin-perspective (gaijin meaning “foreigner”) doesn’t so much interrogate its outsider status as much as it simply makes the title character an interloper who’s largely indifferent towards her setting beyond wanting a particular soft drink. Tokyo exists in Kate because it’s stylish and cool, and this film wants to be stylish and cool. Thanks to the excellent lead performance from Mary Elizabeth Winstead, it almost succeeds, but the film is so married to its predictable beats and outcomes that you can’t help but feel like it’s another product designed in the Netflix lab.

Kate (Winstead) is an assassin working for agency handler Varrick (Woody Harrelson), and has been in his employ basically since she was a kid and her parents were killed. During a mission in Osaka, Kate is executing a hit, but wants to back out when the target has his daughter Ani (Miku Patricia Martineau) in tow. However, Kate is forced to go through with the assassination, and ten months later, she’s wandering the streets of Tokyo and looking to get out of the game. However, before she has the chance to leave, she’s given a direct dose of radiation poisoning, which leaves her with only 24 hours to live. Set on a mission of vengeance to find out who wanted her dead and why, Kate goes on the warpath only to cross paths with Ani again and strike up an odd bond with the orphaned teenager.

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RELATED: Thanks to ‘Extraction’, We Now Know How Many Children Chris Hemsworth Can Beat Up

While I didn’t much care for Extraction, I have to admit that Kate works better if only because its tone isn’t so dark and gritty. Whereas Extraction makes its way through slums and has its hero literally beating up children, Kate is wryer and more sardonic in its attitude. It uses the neon-lined streets of Tokyo to provide a visually inviting and electric template against to set its action. Plus instead of a stone-faced Chris Hemsworth (who is always better when films let him be funny and charismatic), you’ve got Winstead once against showing why she’s the heir to Sigourney Weaver with her tough-as-nails charm and a grin that says she could obliterate you if she wanted to.


And yet where I struggle to get past Kate is in its fetishization of Tokyo without really showing any love to its people beyond one or two characters. This is Tokyo through a white lens, and the mass hordes of bad guys are all Japanese. It can’t help but feel imperialist when you have a white character come on over to another country and just mow down lots of its natives simply because they’re the “henchmen.” That’s not to say that the character Kate or even the film itself is “racist”, but it does hammer home the point that when filmmakers make movies set in other countries, they need to do more than just say “We’re here because it’s cool.” I wholeheartedly agree that Tokyo is a stunning landscape and that the city offers rich and interesting culture, but I constantly found myself wondering why they didn’t simply cast a Japanese actor as Kate. I understand that Winstead has some star power, but the selling point here is the action and the premise, and it’s all just “content” to Netflix anyway.


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Perhaps I’m being too culturally sensitive, but the contrast of lead character to her setting overshadows everything the film does right. The action is exhilarating and it makes you wish Winstead had her own franchise (Huntress spinoff when, Warner Bros?). Even Harrelson leaves an impression despite his limited screentime, and this is a great breakthrough performance for the young Martineau. Taken piecemeal and removed from the cultural/racial contexts, Kate is a success because it does what the Netflix machine says it should do: be like Extraction but with a few cosmetic tweaks. I don’t know how that will work out for viewing numbers (keep in mind that Extraction hit just as the pandemic was ramping up, so people were stuck at home with nothing to do, although arguably we’ve come back around to that point so way to go, America), but I can see the logic behind the picture.


As I said, I prefer Kate to Extraction, but they both suffer from the same issue, which is that it’s not great to send white characters into other people’s countries, kill their citizens and then justify it because they’re protecting an innocent kid. It’s fine to use other countries as locales for action movies, but filmmakers should be more conscientious about what it means to walk around another person’s land and what that means. Just because Kate is disposable entertainment, that doesn’t mean it should treat other cultures like trash.

Rating: C

Kate arrives on Netflix on September 10th.

KEEP READING: Mary Elizabeth Winstead Responds to the Black Canary Movie, Says She Welcomes the Possibility of More Huntress

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Wait, Is Warner Bros Scrapping Its $70 Million Batgirl Movie? Rumors Are Swirling

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Wait, Is Warner Bros Scrapping Its  Million Batgirl Movie? Rumors Are Swirling

After years of anticipation from DC fans, Warner Bros finally found a way to introduce Barbara Gordon to live-action, announcing a solo movie for the hero with the developing Leslie Grace-led film. Batgirl, which finished filming earlier this year, has been scheduled to hit HBO Max sometime this year, however according to a number of new reports, Warner Bros doesn’t want Batgirl to see the light of day. Outlets are reporting that $70 million project is being scrapped after test screenings scared off the studio on the movie. 

Batgirl has been called “irredeemable” by a reported “top Hollywood source” found by The NY Post. Per the report, the movie will be “shelved,” but it has yet to be confirmed by the studio if it’s purely a rumor or a bombshell piece of news for one of Warner Bros’ upcoming DC movies.  

The Wrap backed up this report, sharing it had additionally heard via insiders that the movie “did not work” for studio executives – made by Bad Boys For Life and Ms. Marvel directors Adil El Arbi and Billal Fallah for a reported budget of over $70 million (though it may have ultimately cost the studio $90 million by the time cameras finished rolling). 

The news could perhaps be the product of the recent change in Warner Bros’ leadership, with CEO David Zaslav becoming the new big boss since WB merged with Discovery. There was some rumored talk of the previous WB chair Toby Emmerich considering Batgirl for a theatrical release rather than a HBO Max exclusive, however, but the new reports suggest the film isn’t testing to the level of a big-screen project and may be removed from getting any kind of release. 

Batgirl would not only introduce Leslie Grace’s Barbara Gordon, but is features a stacked cast including the return of Michael Keaton as Batman and J.K. Simmons as James Gordon. Brendan Fraser plays the film’s villain, Ted Carson a.k.a. Firefly. It’s arguably unheard of for a project as high-profile as this one to lose any form of avenue for distribution. 

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Apparently, a move like this is not uncharacteristic for Warner Bros’ new CEO, however, who previously shut down the failed streaming service CNN+ weeks after it launched (it reportedly cost $300 million to put together). There is some restructuring of DC projects currently underway behind the scenes, with David Zaslav on the search for a someone to fill a role much like Marvel boss Kevin Feige has at Marvel Studios. 

Coming off San Diego Comic-Con late last month, Marvel Studios announced and showcased a lineup of projects planned until 2025 including two more Avengers films, whilst DC did not bring anything from Batgirl to its panel. Instead, Warner Bros chose to only focus on Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Black Adam, both of which have set release dates later this year. Warner Bros. Discovery is set to report its earnings for this past business quarter on Thursday; it’s possible we’ll learn more then. 

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High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: 5 Feelings I Had While Watching The Season 3 Premiere

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High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: 5 Feelings I Had While Watching The Season 3 Premiere

What time is it? Summer time!

Well, that’s what the students of East High are saying in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. I know, the name is a mouthful, but honestly, this show is a whole lot of fun and if you haven’t watched it, you definitely should. The first two seasons were great, from the songs in Season 1 to the drama in Season 2, and when it was announced that the series would be getting a Season 3 and 4, I was all on board. 

Now that I have watched the first episode of Season 3, I am even more excited for the next episodes to come, and that premiere has me all in my feelings – specifically these five. 

Nostalgic  

Man, this show makes me so nostalgic for when I was younger. 

Don’t get me wrong, I would never travel back in time to then, just because I was so young and didn’t know half the stuff I know now, but there is just something about listening to the soundtrack of some of these original songs from the High School Musical movies that just get me. While we don’t get many songs in the first episode, we get the classic, “What Time Is It” from High School Musical 2 within the few three minutes of the show and ugh, the memories. 

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If you were a tween or kid back in 2007 and watched HSM2 when it premiered on Disney Channel, you know this song just as well as I do. And for years, I sang this song on the last day of school – heck, I still sing it now whenever warm weather comes around and I’m two years out of college. I love this music, and I can already tell from just this first episode that this season is going to make me so nostalgic. 

Curiosity

I’m really curious to see what they’re going to do with this camp in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. 

For those who don’t know, the first two seasons of this series were pretty much based around the first film’s premise. The show takes place in a world where the movies exist, but instead of the actors from the High School Musical cast that we’re familiar with, we are introduced to students who are auditioning for those iconic roles. And over the last two seasons, we’ve watched them grow into brilliant performers while singing in productions of both High School Musical and Beauty and the Beast, with covers and original songs all along the way. 

But the whole entire point of the first two seasons was that this show took place in the same high school where the movies were filmed. So it’s only natural to think that the second season might end up happening at the country club that was in High School Musical 2, but nope – we are at a summer camp, something that was never talked about in the original movies. 

The arrival of everyone coming to this summer camp is fun, but it makes me wonder how they’re going to include the songs from High School Musical 2 into this season when it’s not at the same location as the film, but it’s still interesting to watch, nonetheless. 

Proud 

Dude, I love Olivia Rodrigo – and I mean that. This girl has done so much these last two years and watching her in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is always a joy. 

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But what really makes me so proud of her is that I’m not even just proud of the actress, but the character as well. Nini is this young star who is a little afraid to take these big risks but she does so anyway, knowing that she has this big break she can’t lose, which was the big theme of this first episode. She goes away on this road trip with a producer over the summer so she can record songs, giving her that shot, and I am so proud of her for doing that. 

Olivia Rodrigo plays her perfectly, and while I know that her character was demoted to a guest role thanks to Rodrigo’s budding music career, I can’t help but be proud, because wow, she has blown up. It makes me want to watch her documentary on Disney+ again

Eagerness 

I know I said earlier on that I was curious as to how they’re going to really change up this season with this new location. But, about twenty minutes in, I genuinely was feeling eager to see where this show would go – specifically the dynamics of new characters. 

For two seasons, we have pretty much been surrounded by the same characters, and while we have grown to love them, I think this season was the one where we truly needed a change in not only scenery, but characters as well. And this first episode brought a ton of them in. 

One of the scenes that got me really eager to see what happens with these new characters was when Gina, Ashlyn and Kourtney, three clear as day theater kids, find out they have to share a cabin with Gadget (a new character) and two other girls – and you can clearly tell at first that they are not feeling the vibe, and you can almost smell the problems from a mile away. 

That screams great television, and it’s got me wondering how much more drama this show is going to produce over the next episodes with these new dynamics. I’m so eager to see. 

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Excitement

Seeing Corbin Bleu in the premiere episode made me very excited to see where this fictionalized version of him is going to go next. 

Usually, when it comes to the original members from the High School Musical movies, we’ll get some pictures from them from the old high school – like Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron both recently taking pics there in 2022 – but I didn’t think anyone would come back to the show. We had Lucas Grabeel and Kaycee Stroh in Season 1 but no one in Season 2, so I’m super pumped to see Corbin Bleu back for this season.

Not only that, but Jason Earles. Do you guys know who he is? The moment I saw him as Dewey, the director of Camp Shallow Lake, I practically screamed. This man is Disney Channel royalty. He was not only a co-star on Hannah Montana but also on Kickin’ It and I can’t believe he is in another Disney show and it has me so excited. 

I’m not sure how often he and Bleu are going to be on the show, but I know for a fact that those two appearing on that stage has me excited for what this season holds and I can’t wait to see what’s next. Could Zac Efron be next?

What are you guys looking forward to with Season 3 of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series? All I know is that if I don’t get a cover of “Fabulous” by Carlos in this season, I will riot. I demand it, Disney+!

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The School For Good And Evil: 6 Quick Things We Know About The Netflix Movie

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The School For Good And Evil: 6 Quick Things We Know About The Netflix Movie

Book adaptations of big-time novels always seem to go over well with audiences, and have for plenty of years, with movie sagas such as Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings taking over the box office. But, a newcomer is arriving on the movie scene, one which should have been adapted almost as soon as it came out, if you ask me.

The School for Good and Evil, an amazing addition to the fantasy genre, is finally getting its own adaptation into the film world – but not in theaters. However, it will be appearing as a Netflix movie, on the popular streaming website. However, what else do we know about this upcoming film? What is it going to be about? Who is going to be in it? There are plenty of things that you might not know, but we do. Here are some quick things we know about the upcoming Netflix film.

(Image credit: Netflix)

The School For Good And Evil Release Date Is Set For October 21

Mark your calendars, fantasy lovers, as The School for Good and Evil is going to be coming out as part of the 2022 movie release schedule! Announced with the official poster from the Netflix Twitter page, it was confirmed that The School for Good and Evil would release on the popular streaming platform in Fall 2022, specifically on October 21. 

Talk about a great addition to all the fun Halloween movies we’ll be watching during that time of year – I can always use a little good and evil in my life. 

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Sofia Wylie in The School for Good and Evil.

(Image credit: Netflix)

The School For Good And Evil Has A Star-Studded Cast

With an adaptation like The School for Good and Evil, we all knew that the cast needed to be amazing. And, luckily, there’s no shortage of amazing additions to this Netflix movie. First, let’s take a look at the two leads characters of the film, Sophie and Agatha, where the story begins. These two roles will be played by Sophia Anna Caruso, known for her role in the Broadway musical Beetlejuice, and Sofia Wylie, who stars on a Disney+  show you really should watch, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.

Wylie is especially excited for her role in The School for Good and Evil. In an interview with MTV, she talked about her part as Agatha and how she’s excited to “bring some realness” to the character that hadn’t been seen before. She described Agatha’s struggles with internal and external beauty through her own experience, saying that it’s something she can relate to and that it’s an important message to teach.

That’s something that I personally can really relate to, that voice inside of your head, how much power it has. I deal with those doubts and those insecurities. And I think I can really bring some realness to Agatha in that sense because I know, as a teenage girl, it can be very difficult to overcome that voice.

Adding on to this cast, Deadline reported that two megastars, Charlize Theron and Kerry Washington, signed on for two of the main roles in the upcoming film. Theron is set to play Lady Lesso, and Washington will portray a teacher at the school, Professor Dovey.

In addition to these two, in another article, Deadline reported that Laurence Fishburne, known for his roles in The Matrix trilogy and many other films, as well as action star Michelle Yeoh, from movies such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Crazy Rich Asians, and her TV role in Star Trek: Discovery, have stepped up to be in The School for Good and Evil. Fishburne will play the Schoolmaster – a role that sounds quite fitting for someone of his talents, and Yeoh will portray another teacher, Professor Anemone.

Also for the film, Demi Isaac Oviawe, Kaitlyn Akinpelumi, and Freya Theodora Parks will play Anadil, Dot and Hester, three young women who are a part of The Coven in The School for Good and Evil, as confirmed by a behind-the-scenes look with the author of the original novel, Soman Chainani on YouTube.

Already, this film is shaping up to be filled to the brim with some of the Hollywood elite. I, for one, can’t wait to see what they do with the material they are given, because it’s about to get magical.

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Charlize Theron in The School for Good and Evil.

(Image credit: Netflix)

The School For Good And Evil Will Follow The Bestselling Book Series

For those who don’t know, The School for Good and Evil is composed of several novels in a series. Netflix confirmed that this new movie will be based on the series by Soman Chainani, and from the premise of the film, it’s looking to be exactly like the first novel.

As confirmed by the description from the trailer for the new movie on YouTube, The School for Good and Evil is going to follow two best friends, Sophia and Agatha, who are swept into a world of trying to balance both good and evil when they are given different roles, but this in turn causes their lives to turn upside down. 

I’m already on board for a story like this. Two opposing personalities who end up being trained in styles that they thought they weren’t aligned with? Thrown into unlikely situations? Fantasy elements? My god, I can almost feel the franchise coming. Netflix has a great addition with this one.

Bridesmaids Director Paul Feig Is Directing The School For Good And Evil

I don’t think there could have been another perfect choice for the director for The School for Good and Evil than Paul Feig. The legendary director has produced some of the biggest comedic hits in the last ten years. For example, Feig directed the smash-hit Bridesmaids back in 2011, the 2016 remake of Ghostbusters, the Emilia Clarke Christmas comedy Last Christmas, the comedy thriller, A Simple Favor, and so many others.

Besides movies, Paul Feig has also directed multiple episodes of several incredible sitcoms, such as The Office, Arrested Development, Parks and Recreation, and 30 Rock. The School for Good and Evil novels have an amazing comedic element to them, and I can only imagine what a comedic director like Paul Feig will bring to the table in this new film.

The castle in The School for Good and Evil.

(Image credit: Netflix)

Finding Neverland Screenwriter David Magee Wrote The Screenplay For The School For Good And Evil

When it comes to an adapted screenplay, you always have to make sure that you find the right person to do it, because with novels, there are so many details that need to somehow make it into the movie. The School for Good and Evil found its screenwriter in David Magee.

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Magee is a perfect choice, because not only has he been around the business for some time, he’s had plenty of experience in writing fantasy, working on films such as the Academy-Award winning Life of Pi, the Disney sequel Mary Poppins Returns, and wrote the screenplay for Finding Neverland, the story of the author who created the legendary character, Peter Pan. Truly, he has great experience up his sleeves, and I’m eager to see what he’ll do with the fantastic story that is The School for Good and Evil.

The bit apple in The School for Good and Evil.

(Image credit: Netflix)

The School For Good And Evil Has Finished Filming 

As you can expect for a film that already has a trailer, The School for Good and Evil finished production for their film not too long ago. From a tweet on Twitter from Netflix Geeked, it was confirmed back in July of 2021 that filming had wrapped on the film and was entering into the post-production phases. 

Watch The Trailer For The School For Good And Evil 

If you haven’t yet seen the trailer for The School for Good and Evil, be sure to watch it now, as you won’t want to miss out on the magic. 

With an amazing cast, awesome story, and some really cool looking set pieces featured in the trailer, The School for Good and Evil is looking to be an amazing addition to Netflix’s original film line-up. I can’t wait for this movie to pop up as part of the 2022 Netflix movie schedule. I’m practically counting down the days. 

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