by Chris Delloiacono, Mike Maillaro and Jeff Ritter

This week!

- WWE gets into the S+M Business

- Stardust...you have failed this city!

Recorded live in Redding, California at Bethel Church, with additional recording at the Soundhouse, MIGHTY did not immediately strike me as a live recording. It was very polished sounding. Oftentimes in live shows the audience sound is immediately heard before and during the performance and usually very much so in Christian recordings. Replete with a full band, strings, and a choir, this album is quite a production, many times giving the songs immenseness.

Social media buzz is something a lot of studios are using to drum up hype for upcoming movies. And with Snoopy's birthday coming up on Monday, August 10th, Blue Sky Studios (in association with FOX) is encouraging everyone to share their drawing of the beloved beagle with the hashtag: #DrawSnoopy. The following thumbnail was this writer's attempt:

FANTASTIC FOUR is the fourth film and the third attempt at turning Marvel’s superhero family into a gold mine franchise like X-MEN, SPIDER-MAN and the AVENGERS. It’s also easily the worst. In fact, it might be worse than SUPERMAN IV; THE QUEST FOR PEACE. This is rarified territory. You would almost have to work harder at screwing this up than getting it right. I mean, there’s only like 600-plus issues of the comic book to mine for story and plot and characters. Pick one that is exciting, funny, a little tragic, a little heartwarming, and then go shoot it on film. No, that’s too easy for director Josh Trank. He eschewed the readily available and beloved stories presented by America’s favorite storyteller Stan Lee to make a boring, tedious, muddled mess of a movie. Fans saw this train wreck coming for years. Now it’s here, and I think the Internet owes oft-ridiculed videogame movie director Uwe Boll one hell of a big apology. Even he couldn’t make such a fantastic flop.

 Meryl Streep is an impressive figure in Hollywood. We all knew she could act. She’s been nominated for dozens of awards and is not shy about taking on varied and challenging roles. For the lead role in RICKI AND THE FLASH, Streep learned to play guitar in 3 just three months. Is that a nearly impossible task for most people? Probably not, but despite my deep appreciation of music I have neither an ear nor talent for it myself. When I heard that the Streep was playing a rocker who gave up her family to pursue her dream in a film written by Diablo Cody (JUNO) and directed by Jonathan Demme (SILENCE OF THE LAMBS) I was intrigued. It sounded like there could be a “Chick Flick” underneath the electric guitar jams, but I couldn’t pass it up.

Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara forge an unlikely partnership in this cop film / buddy film / road trip film that goes off the rails almost immediately after the credits.

Witherspoon plays Officer Rose Cooper, whom we see grow up in the back seat of her father's patrol car. This upbringing has made her a rather intense person with a complete knowledge of the codes and regulations, but not much in the way of social interaction. In summation, she's a female Barney Fife, working a desk. For reasons that defy even the plot, she's selected to accompany a detective to bring in a Federal witness to testify, so that she can accompany the witness's wife, Daniella Riva (Vergara).

For the last week or so, Blizzard has been hyping the announcement of the newest expanion to WORLD OF WARCRAFT.  The timing was pretty vital to the company.   Just a few days ago, Blizzard was forced to announce that WORLD OF WARCRAFT'S subscribers numbers are the lowest they've been since 2005.  In fact, since December of 2014, they have dropped from 10 million subscribers all the way down to 5.6 million. 

Granted this is still far more than any other MMORPG, but it still has to be the cause for some concern from Blizzard.  They made the announcement at Gamescom today for WORLD OF WARCRAFT - INVASION:

Here's the trailer for the next expansion:

Okay, go ahead and ask the inevitable question: Why in the world is CriticalBlast delving into political coverage?

Well, that's a very good question. I could say that it's technically political theater, but you'd see right through that. But the truth is that this door was opened by reality star host of THE APPRENTICE, Donald Trump. So we thought it would be fun to sort of grade the speakers tonight, based on their presentations and speaking skills, and ask you via our poll below who you felt did the best job of the evening.

Before the questions even come, we're reminded that the Happy Hour Debate winner seems to have been overwhelmingly Carly Fiorina, as Megyn Kelly bluntly laid out there. Chris wallace reminds us that the questions were submitted by the populace through Facebook.

The Rules: 1 minute per answers, 30 seconds for follow-ups. Let's see how well that gets followed!

Ryan Reynolds did not disappoint with his first full length, available to the public, ‘Red Band’ trailer for his upcoming movie: DEADPOOL. With a re-hashed Wolverine movie plot, where the hero is ‘modified’ and something goes wrong so he seeks revenge, the trailer has all the curse words and violence one should expect.

I don't really do comic reviews that often these days. It's not that I don't read comics, they're still a staple of my pop culture diet, but after writing regular weekly reviews for many years, I prefer to write about other forms of entertainment. When I heard about the graphic novel STEVE MCQUEEN: FULL THROTTLE COOL from Motor Books, well, I needed to read it and write a review. In all my years of online journalism, I've never had the chance to talk about my passion for the filmography of Mr. McQueen.

After requesting the review material, I was a little worried. What if the book was horrible? I mean, I own his movies, a replica of his jacket from THE GREAT ESCAPE, several McQueen dolls, figures, cars, you name it. It would be a shame to have to write a scathing review about the King of Cool. Or worse, what if it was a mediocre mess that couldn't inspire any emotion whatsoever? Writing one of those reviews is just not fun, at all.

This contest has ended. The two randomly selected winners are:

AL J. of CHICAGO, IL  and JENNIFER M. of CHICAGO, IL.

So you didn't make it to Lollapalooza this year in Chicago? Well, you may have missed out on all those great bands, like SCHOOL OF ROCK ALL STARS, B0RNS, PHILIP SELWAY -- and, of course, PAUL MCCARTNEY, but you can at least look like you were there.

Up for grabs this week, we have TWO of the Limited Edition Lollapalooza Skyline logo caps by New Era. We are going to randomly select two winners from everyone who fills out the form below, and each of those winners will receive one of these caps. What you say to your friends while wearing the cap is none of our business.

Reviews by Mike Maillaro, Mike Weaver, Grey Scherl, and Gina Maillaro

1602 WITCH HUNTER ANGELA #2 by Marguerite Bennett, Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans, and Irene Koh  

Welcome back to Critical Blast’s weekly look at what new comics you should check out each week.   Just a warning, I make these picks pretty much a week BEFORE I actually get to read any of these comics, so if something is a stinker, I take no blame on that.  Let's get to it! 

Comics shipping this week

Yeah, that is about as Deadpool as you can get.   Today, Fox posted a teaser up for the Deadpool trailer coming tomorrow.   Not work safe (some foul language), but really funny! Definitely very encouraging that Fox is going to have the exact right tone for this movie:

by Chris Delloiacono, Mike Maillaro and Jeff Ritter

By Gina Maillaro and Mike Maillaro

Weaver is running LARP’s at GenCon, so my lovely wife has decided to step in for him.

DC Bombshells #1

Written by: Marguerite Bennett
Art and Colored by:  Marguerite Sauvage
Cover by: Ant Lucia
Lettered by: Wes Abbott

When I saw what 13 HOURS was going to be about, I actually expected Oliver Stone to be the director. However, when your story calls for massive explosions, there's really only one go-to guy: Michael Bay (TRANSFORMERS).

So what's the controversy here? Military films based on recent history are nothing new. Perhaps it's the textual disclaimer that comes near the end of the trailer: "This is a true story." Not "based on," but "is." And depending on what the definition of "is" is, you can upset all the right people.

Bay's approach takes the viewer into Libya with a team of elite ex-military operatives who receive the call, "We need immediate assistance." When the team tries to respond, they are told "You are not the first responders. You are the last resort." In apparent defiance of these orders, the team proceeds anyway. I don't want to spoil the ending, but they don't make it in time to save the U.S. Ambassador.

In a move that is one part opportunistic, one part marketing genius and two parts trolling a fan-base, SC Films International announces plans to launch an animated feature and tv series titled:

TROLL: "THE RISE OF HARRY POTTER, JR"

Based upon the 1986 cult film, TROLL, the new animated feature will revisit the world of wizardry in which a wicked, magical troll wizard seeks to take over the world. With the help of a witch, Harry Potter, Jr can save the planet.

Academy Award winner Patricia Arquette, has been signed for the witch and child actor Baxter Bartlett will lend his voice to the young Harry Potter Jr.

Provided he isn't enchanted with a 'Babbling Curse', by a ravenous fanbase who will no doubt be angered when they discover this isn't all about 'you know who'.

There's a magic in the comic strip format that allows serious subjects to be broached with gentle humor and delivered in manageable bites. Tom Batiuk has tapped into this magic, both in his long running series, FUNKY WINKERBEAN, and with this collection of CRANKSHAFT strips entitled ROSES IN DECEMBER: A STORY OF LOVE AND ALZHEIMER'S.

Superman villains appear to be taking out their frustrations on his younger cousin.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Chris Browning, who appeared in seven episodes of SONS OF ANARCHY, will arrive in the third episode of SUPERGIRL on CBS. He will portray Ben Krull, a deadly Superman villain who wears a nuclear powered armored suit. According to the report, using the villainous name, Reactron, he'll be seeking to kill Supergirl in order to exact revenge on the Man of Steel.

Prepare for this to be a running theme.