Latest news with #fictional
The Sun
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
The Phoenician Scheme film review: This hilarious movie is a classic Wes Anderson that's more than worth the ride
THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME (15) 110mins ★★★★☆ YOU always get a quirky offering with director Wes Anderson, but there's also the fear each new film will descend into self-parody. Still, dismiss his work too quickly and you lose the pleasure that comes from stepping into one of his beautifully imagined worlds. 3 The Phoenician Scheme follows Zsa-zsa Korda (played by the always brilliant Benicio Del Toro), a wealthy and morally slippery man convinced he's on borrowed time after a series of attempted assassinations. He turns to his daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton) for help. The only problem is that Liesl is studying to become a nun, and her moral values are in constant friction with her father's shady dealings. Elsewhere, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Riz Ahmed, Scarlett Johansson, Jeffrey Wright, Benedict Cumberbatch and plenty more lend a hand in making this hilarious movie one of Anderson's best. The director's world-building abilities are, as always, front and centre. Phoenicia, the fictional setting of his film, is dazzlingly detailed, sometimes almost to a fault. The visuals are so packed that it can feel like you're watching a series of paintings come to life. Even the grittier environments — tunnels, construction zones — are captured with his trademark aesthetic flair. Adding an extra dash of weirdness is Michael Cera as Bjorn, a delightfully odd insect scientist with a thick Scandinavian accent. Cera delivers laughs and a surprising amount of heart, ranking among Anderson's most lovable side characters. What makes The Phoenician Scheme especially engaging is the way it gently tweaks the typical Anderson formula. There's a sense that he is having fun with his own rules, and that looseness brings some welcome freshness. Sure, not every moment will land for everyone. There's a lot going on, and the pacing can be unconventional. But the film shows that Anderson still knows how to evolve without losing what makes his work so wonderfully weird and unique. The Phoenician Scheme is classic Wes Anderson — stylish, oddball, emotionally rich — and also one of his more ballsy recent projects. It may be a lot to take in, but it's more than worth the ride. Linda Marric ★★★☆☆ THE Lilo & Stitch craze came out of nowhere. A couple of well-placed T-shirts in Primark a few years ago morphed into an entire generation of kids decked head to foot in blue alien-branded clothing. 3 So it was inevitable a Disney remake would be on the cards. Although this CGI one has both comic and tender moments, it's ultimately a bang average retelling of the 2002 story – leaving you wondering why it was made. Lilo and her older sister struggle to live side by side in their Hawaiian home after their parents die in a car crash. So social services come knocking. Alien Stitch – bred by evil geniuses to wreak havoc – crash lands after escaping his planet. Predictable mayhem ensues before it's all quickly tied up in a happy-ever-after ending. There are some tear-jerking scenes, and just about enough laugh-out-loud moments. And there's no bad acting, but then again CGI Stitch is often the main player on screen. B ut while my nine-year-old daughter absolutely loved it, as a parent, I wished there were some sly nods to all the adults inevitably dragged along to see it. Then everyone would have left happy. ★★☆☆☆ AFTER Mission: Impossible 7 my heart rate was so high I felt I needed beta blockers. Now, after part two of that adrenaline-filled 2023 film, I was looking for a defibrillator as the eighth and final movie in the franchise sadly fizzles out. 3 Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, it begins with a montage of flashbacks from the previous seven movies. They go on for far too long and are meaningless to anyone who hasn't watched every single film several times. We catch up with Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his crew, including Benji (Simon Pegg), Luther (Ving Rhames) Grace (Hayley Atwell) and Paris (Pom Klementieff), two months after the last film ended They are all on a mission to stop Gabriel (Esai Morales) from destroying the entire world with the AI program The Entity. So far, so humourless. And for a franchise that has always been charming and funny – as well as full of incredible action – it feels as though the script has been written by AI, too. Cruise gives some of the good stuff in the last hour with a death-defying, highly skilled wing-walk battle. But this brilliant brand really has self-destructed.
CNET
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CNET
Every New GTA 6 Character and Location Announced in Trailer 2
Publisher Rockstar Games broke a lot of gamers' hearts last week when it said Grand Theft Auto 6 was being pushed to next year. As a bit of a consolation prize, the company dropped a new trailer and shared new details about the game. The second trailer for GTA 6 went live Tuesday, and Rockstar published a treasure trove of info about the game. This includes the name of the mystery second protagonist from the game as well as some of the other characters players will interact with, and what different locales in the fictional Leonida will be available to visit. All Grand Theft Auto 6 Characters It wouldn't be a GTA game without a large cast of characters. Rockstar Games Jason and Lucia The two heroes of GTA 6. Jason Duval has been working for drug runners after doing some time in the Army. He met up with Lucia Caminos, who, as of the time of the trailer, is getting out of Leonida Penitentiary after spending some time due to some unknown crime that involved protecting her family. It's unclear if the two characters will be playable throughout the game. More than likely, both characters will have their own missions, while others will have them both be playable at different points in a mission. Rockstar Games Cal Hamption A friend of Jason's who's a conspiracy theorist. He's extremely online and spends time snooping on law enforcement. As is the case with most friends in GTA games, expect to do a few missions for him at certain points in the game. Rockstar Games Boobie Ike A Vice City legend, Boobie is a former street thug who is now a businessman with an empire spanning real estate, a strip club and a recording studio. He has a partnership with music mogul Dre'Quan for Only Raw Records, and they're looking for a hit song. Rockstar Games Dre'Quan Priest A street hustler trying to make it big in music. He used to book acts for Boobie's strip club, but is looking to make a name for himself with his music act, Real Dimez. Rockstar Games Real Dimez Bae-Luxe and Roxy are two girls who met in high school and do their share of making viral content for social media. They had a hit single five years ago with local rapper DWNPLY, and they're trying to recreate that success. Rockstar Games Raul Bautista Raul is a professional bank robber who takes a lot of risks. He could be the one to recruit Jason and Lucia for a big score that goes all wrong. Rockstar Games Brian Heder Brian is the first person we see in the new trailer. He's likely to be one of the first NPCs to use both Jason and Lucia to do some of his dirty work. All Grand Theft Auto 6 Locations Confirmed in Leonida With GTA 5 taking place in Los Santos and surrounding areas, it looks like Rockstar is going to go even bigger with GTA 6. The game's setting is the state of Leonida, the fictional version of Florida. It will include some time in the big city as well as surrounding areas, including the coasts and swamplands. Rockstar Games Vice City The heart of the game will likely be Vice City, a parody of Miami, once again a setting for a GTA game. Unlike GTA: Vice City, which was set in the 1980s, this version of the city will be very up-to-date. Expect to spend some time on the beach, in the clubs, in the Little Cuba neighborhood and at the VC Port. Rockstar Games Leonida Keys A take on the Florida Keys, Leonida Keys is going to be the place to spend some time in the water, likely running away from the Coast Guard while riding a speeding motorboat. Rockstar Games Grassrivers It wouldn't be a proper game in a fictional Florida without some version of the Everglades. Grassrivers is swamp country, where gators sneak around, and the locals are just as dangerous. Rockstar Games Port Gellhorn One of the smaller cities in Leonida is Port Gellhorn, a take on Key West. This is a rundown town where it's easier to find painkillers than a good time. Rockstar Games Ambrosia Aside from Rockstar's description, it's hard to really put a finger on Ambrosia's real-life counterpart. Although the game labels Ambrosia the "heart of Leonida," some GTA fans on the game's subreddit suggest the city could be St. Augustine or Clewiston, both cities in Florida. Rockstar Games Mount Kalaga Like Ambrosia, this is one that's a bit hard to find the real-life counterpart. Its description says it has lush wooded areas for fishing, hunting and off-roading, while also being the home to hillbilly mystics and paranoid radicals. GTA 6 is set for release on May 26, 2026, for PS5 and Xbox Series consoles. The price has not been announced.
