The Wachowski’s have had a varied and checkered career, bursting onto the cinema landscape with the groundbreaking The Matrix and then nearly crashing and burning with two Matrix sequels and Speed Racer. The siblings redeemed themselves (or not) with the outstanding Cloud Atlas, and now they are back with another stunning piece of work, Jupiter Ascending.

The question is, are viewers going to be stunned in a good or bad way? The film is definitely taking its hits already from critics and advance screening audiences, but I’m not going to be quite as harsh on the film as many people are.

The story itself goes something like this: Chicago resident Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) finds herself in the middle of an intergalactic tug of war when the Abrasax siblings squabble over which of them has the rights to harvest the Earth (and by harvest, they mean humans not crops). It turns out, however, that Jupiter is somehow genetically related to the Abrasax family, a reincarnation of the siblings’ mother. This “recurrance” gives her the rights to Earth and each of the siblings woo her in such a way as to trick her out of her property, with Balem (Eddie Redmayne) going so far as marrying her … so he can kill her and inherit the planet. But why do these people actually need to harvest humans?

The plot sounds very straightforward, but the film is defiantly not so, throwing everything AND the kitchen sink into the works. Jupiter’s protector is a human/wolf “splice” named Caine Wise (Channing Tatum), who may be unwittingly helping the bad guys. The film is also filled to the brim with other spliced humanimals, from a rat man to an absurd elephant man creature. And there are the big talking lizards as well as the tiny grey aliens. It seems that they’ve spent so much time on making each creature different that the story got lost amidst all the spectacle.

While they get so much wrong in the storytelling, the Wachowskis can always be counted on to do something right and that is definitely in the spectacle, the minute details on all of the space vehicles and planets, the kingdom hidden behind the clouds of Jupiter, and all of the various makeups and costumes. A few of the CGI shots are not quite up to snuff, but 99% of what’s on screen is just mind-blowing.

As your senses are about to overload, you start thinking about the story again and realize you have no idea at all what is going on. Most of the scenes are filled with exposition, with characters trying mightily to tell us what’s happening but in most cases it’s all for naught. Jupiter is first taken to the Abrasax sister Kalique (Tuppence Middleton in some cringe-worthy middle-aged makeup) who shows her the wonders of a special mineral bath, then she’s whisked off to meet younger brother Titus (Douglas Booth), who explains more about his nefarious siblings (but he’s still not quite coming clean with her about why Earth is so important to them).

By the time she gets to Balem and discovers the truth, you’ve pretty much given up on really understanding anything, especially as Jupiter seems to switch from one emotion to another within the same scene. One minute she’s talking to Caine, the next minute she’s got dreamy eyes and wants to make out with him. Like, out of the blue. No lead up, no banter, no sexual tension. And ignoring the fact that he’s half dog. It was very odd. And speaking of odd, I don’t know whose idea it was for Freddie to whisper all of his lines, except for when he got VERY ANGRY, but it was a very weird, unintentionally hilarious character trait. Freddie is nominated for an Oscar this year as Best Actor (The Theory of Everything) and he could very well get a Razzie nomination next year for this.

Much has been said about Tatum’s performance, that he looks bored or just disinterested but I didn’t find him to be that way at all. I think he might have been thinking he had some ridiculous dialog to recite, but he carries himself well in the big action scenes. Kunis seems too restrained, like she really should be in another movie, and in fact that other movie is actually contained within Jupiter Ascending. The Wachowski’s are huge fans of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, so much so that there is an entire, elaborate sequence that pays homage to the bureaucracy that Brazil pokes fun at. This one sequence is a comedy set-piece capped with a cameo by Gilliam himself, and it shows that the rest of the movie is taking itself way too seriously. Had the entire film been an absurd satire, I think Kunis and Tatum would have been able to loosen up more.

As it is, Jupiter Ascending is just a mish-mash of other, better (or just plain campy) sci-fi flicks like The Fifth Element, The Chronicles of Riddick and Flash Gordon, and it desperately needed more cohesion and more camp to make it something really special. We’re left wondering if the long release delay was truly to hone the effects, or if perhaps the studio imposed a lot of editing that left a potentially great movie on the cutting room floor.

Some of you may remember Jay Black from the old days of TV Squad, or maybe from the PodClack and Hungry Trolls podcasts he did for us, along with a brilliant post thrown in here and there. Or maybe you just know him as stand-up comedian Jay Black, showing up in a town near you, or even Vegas (baby)! I’ve even caught his act a couple of times, when he’s been in my neck of the woods — he’s damn funny! I love him! He’s gotten funnier every time!

And then there’s Meet My Valentine.

Airing on the ION Network Friday, February 6th — a week before Valentine’s Day — Meet My Valentine stars Scott Wolf (V, Party of Five) as artist Tom Bishop, Courtney Ford (Revenge, True Blood) as his wife, chef Valentine Bishop, and, of course, Jay Black as Tom’s best friend, stand-up comedian Mac Brown.

Now, you’re thinking, “Hey, this title sounds like it’ll be a great date movie; perfect for Valentine’s Day! I’ll cozy on up by the fire with my lady/man/cat friend and have a swell ol’ time. I mean, hey, it was written by — and stars — a comedian! What joy!” I wouldn’t blame you one bit for thinking that. Deb and I sure thought something along those lines, minus the fire part, because we’re lazy and the fireplace has books stacked in front of it.

But we’re all DEAD WRONG!

First of all, remember that good looking dude I mentioned as the main character of the movie? Right, Mac Brown — we’ll get back to him in a bit. But the other dude, Tom Bishop: it turns out he has terminal cancer, with only months to live. Still, it’s gonna be funny a funny movie, right? Because my friend Jay Black wouldn’t steer me wrong, making me think funny Jay Black would put a sad, sad movie in front of me and MY WIFE after years of convincing me he was a funny-as-hell comedian.

Alright, so what’s next? Oh yes, Mr. Bishop has an eight-year-old daughter, Phoebe, who he’d be leaving behind after he’s dead and gone. And the realization hits Tom: Valentine’s hot, and his best friend is essentially Jay Black in the flesh, except this Jay Black is single. So, “shit,” he thinks. “I’d better get a say who shacks up with my soon-to-be-widowed Valentine NOW!”

And that all sounds like it could be funny, right? Because we’ve seen Jay Black, and he’s funny. Well, it doesn’t quite go down like that. As Deb put it, this was a “five tissue-er” of a movie. At first I raised an eyebrow to this term, but then was quickly reminded that tissues were for wiping away tears sometimes.

As you begin to watch Meet My Valentine, you might be thinking this Tom is somewhat of a dick, because he barely has anything to do with his wife as it is, and now he’s muscling in to take further control of her by sneaking some new guy into her life that HE pre-approves of. Then Jay Black hits you across the face with the side effect of this: Tom — in trying to learn more about his wife that he’s since forgotten over the years — starts to pay more attention to her, causing both of them to fall back in love with each other again. Damn you, Jay Black! We were ready to just sorta despise this guy and watch him die, and now we have to care about him? That’s not funny! Crap!

I don’t want to get too much more into the plot of the movie, but you can see it for yourself Friday night (I’m told it’ll also be available on Amazon, GooglePlay, iTunes, VHX.TV, Vimeo and VUDU beginning February 7th). It’s even got part of Jay’s act, so there’s that bit of no-tissues-needed comedy to look forward to, and makes it so it’s only 99.9% of a cry-fest.

There is definitely a demographic that this movie is going to appeal to: those who LOVE a cry-fest and will not be so lazy as to keep those books stacked up in front of the fireplace, and WILL light that fire, and WILL cozy up to it with their cat friend(s). Anyone with a family and kids, though — like Deb and I — might walk away from this one wondering the same damn thing:

Mr. comedian Jay Black, why are you liking to make us cry?

The problem with true stories is that they are rarely simple. When you construct a fiction, you can add in story beats as you like, emphasize some themes and minimize others. If you don’t like a character, you don’t need to include them. But when you are writing about reality, it’s different. It’s impossible to be comprehensive, to discuss every real life facet of whatever event you’re talking about. So no matter what, some things get left out. And the “based on a true story” line is sometimes even more dangerous, because there’s always the temptation to throw in some “Hollywood friendly” story elements that aren’t really relevant, or drama that may overlook legitimate problems. This is sort of a long way of saying that it’s easy to screw it up. And … that’s sort of the case here.

Spare Parts is based on the real life story of four undocumented Mexican American students in Phoenix, Arizona. There are two primary characters here, the teacher and student, although there is just a bit, just a bit, of the other three students. Oscar (Carlos PenaVega) is a proud member of the ROTC in high school, but discovers that the military isn’t really interested in enlisting an undocumented immigrant, even one who’s basically grown up in the US. Not only that, but it may draw unwanted attention from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). We hear a few times about how deported family members hurt and impact these characters. Sometimes we even feel it instead of being literally “told” it.

But back to it; now that Oscar’s chance to help support his family the way he planned is gone, he stumbles across the idea of entering a contest. Apparently NASA is sponsoring a national robotics competition and is looking for the best water robot around (by high school or college students). So this first part of the movie is about the trials and tribulations of Oscar building his team of misfits and oddballs while also letting co-producer George Lopez do a quasi-dramatic, mildly comedic role as a teacher/mentor. George plays Fredi Cameron, a combination of the two real life teachers (scriptwriting for you) and Marissa Tomei plays a random female teacher that provides plot-required assistance. Her character was useless, because she was merely there to increase drama or attempt (and fail) romantic tension. Nothing against her, but the two have no chemistry and her character is written very flat.

Jamie Lee Curtis plays the “Lady Principal” who’s “Tough But With a Heart,” and she has some funny lines. But these are the background characters. There are three other boys on the team: brainy, weird Cristian (David del Rio), bad boy mechanical whiz Lorenzo (Jose Julian), and really big guy Luis (Oscar Gutierrez). Luis has no real story arc to speak of, and Cristian is basically just the nerdy bullied kid who gets slowly minimized as the movie continues. We do see some character beats between Lorenzo and his difficult father (Esai Morales), predictable but mildly moving. There’s some artificial drama, and some drama that feels real. The more interesting stuff (to me) is watching these kids struggle through low budgets and technical limitations to achieve great success.

But man, I didn’t think George Lopez had the “chops” for the character he was playing. He was okay, I guess, but I didn’t really buy it. Plus his romantic subplots were pointless and meh. Oscar is the primary point of view of the kids, driving the story forward because he has a legitimate desire to achieve something for his family. But unfortunately, although we get some “hitting over our heads” political talk about the problems of undocumented immigrant children, it’s really subsumed by the overly melodramatic story beats. I did some research after seeing the movie, and discovered that the real life kids had some significant problems due to current laws, but that’s only slightly touched on in a postscript note. That’s the difficulty here; you want that happy (true) ending, but you also want the “message” — undocumented kids deserve a chance too — to sink in. With all that, this movie is too forgettable for anything real, and will be quickly forgotten until it comes out on Netflix.

It’s not bad, but it’s not special.

Writer/Director Chris Rock scores a home run. I am a sap for love stories, even R-rated love stories. I don’t like the simple love stories where boy meets girl, they fall in love and live happily ever after. I like the complicated ones where everything isn’t perfect, where everything doesn’t go as planned. Where nothing is what it seems and where you always need to be ready for the next twist and turn. Chris Rock seems to have accomplished that goal with his campy, nothing is out of bounds, no-holds-barred comedy on love. Top Five is one weird, twisted fairy tale.

Packaged in a stupid bear costume, a comedian tries to take on a serious role as a Haitian Revolutionary but no one will take him seriously. With such a weird storyline, I didn’t think it would capture my attention even with its star-studded cast. I was wrong … dead wrong. Underneath all the famous comedian bullshit is a guy, a regular guy who gets typecast as an incredibly stupid, but funny talking bear named Hammy. He achieves the stardom, the money and the fame but he is somehow empty. He finally reaches a point in his life where he’s tired of all the bullshit: the drinking, the endless days on the road. He wants to settle down, get married and take on more challenging, serious acting roles. He wants his life to have meaning.

That would be a normal movie. This is a Chris Rock movie and nothing he does is normal! Shit breaks loose and everything that can happen does happen, all in one day with a little flashback magic added in for good measure. From the moment you sit in your seat ‘til you get up to leave you’ll be laughing. Some of it stupid laughing, some of it laughing that you know you shouldn’t but you do anyway, and the rest is “laughing ‘cause this shit is funny” laughing!

Andre (Rock) tries to promote his movie Uprising by going all over New York City doing appearances. He comes across a New York Times writer, Chelsea Brown (Rosario Dawson), who wants to do a piece, “A Day in the Life of Andre Allen.” He doesn’t want to do this but needs the publicity. No one seems interested in Andre in a serious role, so he is convinced to do this by his manager (Kevin Hart). The rest of the movie follows the crazy, bizarre things that happen when a drunk comedian tries to go sober and legit. But does Andre need to be drunk to be funny?

I liked the movie because it made me laugh a lot! I liked the movie because there were so many layers to it. The movie begs the question why do people get married, or better yet should someone marry another because of obligation? Andre is engaged to the beautiful reality star Erica Long (Gabrielle Union). She’s planning her fairy tale wedding for the world to see. She says the kisses aren’t real unless the public sees them. Her 15 minutes of fame are almost up. Does she care more about the wedding or the man? On the surface everything is wonderful, underneath the relationship is only held together by threads of obligation. Will Andre marry Erica? Should he?

I also like the strong but uncertain Chelsea. She asks Andre to open up and be real with her but she’s hiding behind a wall of secrets. She has to balance being a single mom with a fast-paced writer’s job in the city that never sleep, along with having a wealthy boyfriend who she feels is way out of her league. Is she good enough?

I love the strong writing of Chris Rock. With every twist and turn I’m drawn further into the fairy tale I wanted to have nothing to do with. While Andre and Chelsea are being “rigorously honest” with each other, they are still hiding behind masks that won’t let them be true to themselves or each other. They have fallen for each other like The Prince and Cinderella. Will they see the truth before it is too late?

I really enjoyed this movie. There were so many hilarious scenes. One of my favorite scenes is when DMX starts singing “Smile.” Boyfriend can’t sing but what makes this scene funny is that he punctuates each sentence with “Motherfucker!” Another favorite scene is when Andre goes home for a visit. The family starts “Joaning” on each other. There are so many cameos in this scene I wish I could push the rewind button to see everybody again! My most favorite scene is when Andre decides to leave. He starts going through a swag bag and comes across a golden shoe. I am quickly reminded of my favorite fairy tale and am left wondering if this fairy tale will come true for Andre.

CliqueClack has partnered with Sony Pictures to offer readers in Boston, Plainville, Columbia, DC and Virginia Beach an opportunity to attend an advance screening of the new family musical Annie starring Jamie Foxx, Quvenzhane Wallis, Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, David Zayas and Cameron Diaz.

Academy Award nominee Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild) stars as Annie, a young, happy foster kid who’s also tough enough to make her way on the streets of New York in 2014. Originally left by her parents as a baby with the promise that they’d be back for her someday, it’s been a hard knock life ever since with her mean foster mom Miss Hannigan (Diaz). But everything’s about to change when the hard-nosed tycoon and New York mayoral candidate Will Stacks (Foxx) — advised by his brilliant VP, Grace (Byrne) and his shrewd and scheming campaign advisor, Guy (Cannavale) — makes a thinly-veiled campaign move and takes her in. Stacks believes he’s her guardian angel, but Annie’s self-assured nature and bright, sun-will-come-out-tomorrow outlook on life just might mean it’s the other way around.

The Boston and Plainville screenings will take place on Saturday, December 13 at 10:00 AM. To download your free passes, click on the link below for the screening in your area.

• AMC Boston Common
• AMC Plainville

The Baltimore, DC and Virginia Beach screenings will take place on Saturday, December 13 at 11:00 AM. To download your free passes, click on the link below for the screening in your area.

• AMC Georgetown
• AMC Columbia
• AMC Lynnhaven

A limited number of passes are available. CliqueClack is not the administrator of these passes. No comments will be accepted.

Please note that passes do not guarantee seats at the screening. Seating is first come, first served so plan to arrive early. CliqueClack has no control over the total number of passes distributed, and is not responsible for seating arrangements at the theater.

Annie is rated PG and opens December 19.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq_gmt_4AUw

Biopics, my old foe. Why do you always try to hurt me like this? I want to like you, I want to know more about the interesting people of history. But then you go and make me all … yawn.

It is funny how envy works. A person can seemingly have a great life but be envious of one particular thing about someone else. Maybe it’s their job, or their family, or their face, or even their personality. Looking in from the outside, you may never understand it. Of course, an exception must be made for the mentally disturbed, because their behavior is not understable except by the mental health professionals, and perhaps not even them. I’m going somewhere with this, trust me.

Foxcatcher is based on a true story, where down on his luck Olympic wrestling champion Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) is asked by the odd but obscenely wealthy John du Pont (Steve Carell) to lead a team for the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. Mark is certainly talented, but he wasn’t doing well despite his gold medal win; all he really had was the support of his kind but older brother Dave (Mark Ruffalo — it’s a bit confusing, but Mark doesn’t play Mark here). Dave basically raised Mark and is a Gold Medalist himself, and is doing very well in life, getting great job offers and has a loving wife and kids. So Mark is craving to make something of himself, to be his own man and win the championship again, to prove he wasn’t just a flash in the pan. But John du Pont is a very odd person, obsessive and mercurial, supportive at times, creepy at others, and legitimately abusive still others. It’s clear that John suffers from dealing with his overbearing mother (Vanessa Redgrave), who hates the sport of wrestling and thinks of it as a “common” sport.

Eventually John invites Mark to a new facility at his Foxcatcher estate, hoping both to be a father figure to Mark and be a successful wrestler himself, if only for the older set. But Mark can’t hope to live up to John’s lofty, unfair expectations and John soon pays Dave an exorbitant amount of money to take over the training. Although Dave tries to be supportive to Mark, it’s not that simple. Jealousy abounds, but it’s not just Mark. John is also jealous, crazily so, of Mark, of Dave, of everyone else despite his wealth. Covered with prosthetics and utilizing some weird physical tics, Steve Carell is indeed excellent as this creepy guy, really making some uncomfortable scenes truly hard to watch. It’s an uncomfortable movie to watch, but then it gets dull and boring.

I had a real problem with the pacing on this one. This movie is over two hours long, but it feels much longer — some scenes went on forever and didn’t seem to add anything important. It seemed like there was just yet another crazy, odd thing John du Pont was doing, and eventually it lost impact. I stopped emotionally connecting with John and even with Mark. Channing Tatum is also really great here, not really having a lot of range in the character, but showing off a hidden rage and fury without the capability to communicate it. He had this very engaging physical way of acting, moving in an animalistic, hardened way that connected with me when the weaker script and dull direction did not.

But oddly enough, I was most impressed with Mark Ruffalo, because from the very start of the movie to the end, he made every scene he was in so much better. He didn’t say much, but his character was filled with decency and inner strength, if not the ability to talk eloquently. Makeup on Steve Carell doesn’t particularly impress me, I knew he was capable of dark characters since last year’s The Way, Way Back. And ever since 21 Jump Street, I’ve known Channing Tatum could be a good actor. Of course, Mark Ruffalo’s always been great. I remember his cop character from the excellent Collateral and his minor role in the really great Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. He was pretty great in The Avengers too. But this particular performance impressed me, because it wasn’t showy or obvious. Just engaging and deep.

In the end, I guess the movie’s okay, but really, if the strength of the acting weren’t here, I would say the movie was actually not good at all. It’s hard to have good movies based on real life events, because real life isn’t a fictional story. But keep those Oscar pools ready to go, because Steve Carell is a lock! His makeup job too.

It’s that time of year when movie fans like to pull out a classic horror film or check out something new in the genre. Times have changed over the years when it comes to horror. Before John Carpenter’s classic Halloween hit the big screen and spawned a slew of imitators that focused more on blood and gore than pure horror, scary movies were more about the supernatural. There was a spate of Devil movies in the 70s after the success of The Exorcist, and before that it was mostly monsters and ghosts that came out to spook audiences.

Recently, horror movies have moved away from blood and gore (for better or worse, mostly because of studio imposed PG-13 ratings) for more supernatural spookiness with films like the Insidious movies, The Conjuring, Annabelle and Ouija, and the July release of the 70s throwback Deliver Us From Evil, now available on home video.

The film is based on the true life stories of police officer Ralph Sarchie (Eric Bana), an everyday guy who found himself up against some very extraordinary circumstances. When we meet Sarchie, he’s investigating some bizarre crimes: odd noises in a basement, dead bodies, a mother throwing her baby into the lion pit at the Bronx Zoo. When he tracks down the man believed responsible for a murder and arresting the mother of the baby, a priest (Edgar Ramirez) shows up to helpfully explain that what is happening may not be of earthly origins. Sarchie comes face-to-face with demonic evil and ultimately finds himself assisting in an exorcism to rescue his own family from that evil.

Audiences accustomed to more high-tech horror may become a bit impatient with the pacing of Deliver Us From Evil, mainly because it starts out more like a 70s police procedural like Serpico before finally becoming The Exorcist in the last act. There’s no pea soup and no head spinning, just some stigmata and a weird neck thing (and exploding windows), so even the exorcism itself is a bit anti-climactic. It’s not a bad movie, it’s just a bit overly long and not very scary.

The Blu-ray edition of the film is certainly worth picking up if you were a fan of the film, or even if you’re just curious. The image is spotless and for a film that takes place mostly at night or in very dark settings, the presentation is beautiful. Colors are somewhat muted, blacks are nice and deep with no discernible artifacts, and it really has the look of a film from the 70s. The sound design, especially during the exorcism scene will kick your surrounds into action if you have a home theater setup. Sound effects and music never drown out the dialog throughout the rest of the movie.

Extras on the disk include:

• Audio commentary with director Scott Derrickson — Derrickson discusses the advantage of shooting the opening in Abu Dhabi, how Sarchie served as a consultant on the film and his relationship with Derrickson, why he changed the priest from Irish to Latin American, shooting in the Bronx Zoo (the first movie to do so in 30 years), working with Eric Bana and Edgar Ramirez (who initially turned down the role of Mendoza because it wasn’t interesting enough), how Sarchie lead to the production of The Exorcism of Emily Rose, the materials he gave to the actors to study and how his own fandom for the horror genre helped him make an effective horror film.
• Illuminating Evil (13:36) — Derrickson, Jerry Bruckheimer, Ralph Sarchie and others discuss how the Sepico-meets-The Exorcist story originated. Of note: The role of Mendoza was actually based on two Irish priests who were mentors to Sarchie; Joel McHale is Derrickson’s best friend and the role was written especially for him.
• Deliver Us From Demons (8:25) — Derrickson and make-up artist Mike Marino discuss the art of making realistic make-ups and Santino’s (Sean Harris) scarification. Harris often slept on set so he wouldn’t have to go through the lengthy make-up application process on a daily basis.
• The Two Sergeants (8:05) — Derrickson, Ralph Sarchie and Eric Bana discuss how the movie is a fictional story based on the real Sarchie (who never really murdered anyone). Bana also discusses how filming on location in the Bronx and studying Sarchie helped him maintain the Bronx accent, and how uncomfortable he was having Sarchie on set at the beginning of the shoot.
• The Demon Detective (9:37) — Ralph Sarchie discusses his police work and how he became involved in the field of demonology. Sarchie and Derrickson also touch on how Sarchie’s faith informs his work.

While I wasn’t a big fan of the film, I have to say the special features (including the director’s commentary) made me respect the film and what they were trying to do. Perhaps if they had gone more for the scares instead of focusing on Sarchie (and while the film is based on the real man, the story is entirely fictional), they could have had a great old-school Devil movie. As it is, Deliver Us From Evil is a bit of a mish-mash but a mish-mash that’s represented extremely well on Blu-ray.

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It is hard to believe that Arrow is now entering its third season. It seems like it was only yesterday that the Internets were abuzz with discussion of Stephen Amell and his salmon ladder. Today Arrow is a much different show than it was when it started: We’ve gained a Felicity and lost a Tommy. The Black Canary has come and gone (and will be back again) and Roy Harper has gone from street hood to Arsenal. In the meantime, Arrow has developed a rabid fan base and is the most watched show on The CW.

The show has always had a big presence at San Diego Comic-Con, and this summer was no exception. We had the opportunity to sit down with some of Team Arrow while we were there, including Stephen Amell (Oliver Queen), David Ramsay (John Diggle) Willa Holland (Thea Queen), Colton Hayes (Roy Harper), John Barrowman (Malcolm Merlin) and producers Greg Berlanti and Mark Guggenheim. As season three prepares to kick off next week, here’s what they told us to expect:

Oliver finally might have everything

Oliver will be – at the beginning of Season Three – a guy who is relatively at peace. “You’ll find a happy Oliver,” teases Stephen Amell. “Did you see me smile in the preview for season three? It’s like, ‘What’s that???’” Things are so different, that Amell and the premiere director had to figure exactly how Oliver smiled. “He got the baddie without killing him. He’s officially become a hero – that doesn’t kill and brings them to justice,” praises Ramsay. Oliver, at this point, wants to see if he can balance being a normal person and being the Arrow.

His relationships with those around him are changed as well. Amell highlights how things have changed mostly for the better – though not in all quarters – in the video. “Everyone’s in a good spot” says Amell. Most important to some fans, is his relationship with Felicity: “There is one woman in his life this year, and that is Felicity.”

But how long will it last?

“A large part of Oliver’s journey this year is dealing with whether or not he can have it all,” producer Greg Berlanti tells us. The previews that we’ve seen show us that Oliver and Felicity have a moment together, but it looks like it is interrupted. Plus his dynamic with Diggle will be altered by the latter’s new responsibilities as a father.

John Diggle: “Daddy Diggle”

“I always joke that he’s going to have a Bjorn and a Glock,” jokes David Ramsay. But the challenges of being a new father might not compare to trying to be a father and a member of Team Arrow. “Oliver is really going to have a problem with the idea that this guy’s a father and he’s risking his life everyday.” Being a father changes the dynamic between the two, especially considering what Oliver experiences in the first episode back.

“Diggle has always been the voice of reason,” continues Ramsay. Beyond fatherhood, he is also still involved with ARGUS and the Suicide Squad. “We’ll see what all of that means to the team.” ARGUS will be a big part of the story this season, especially considering Amanda Waller’s appearance in the Hong Kong-based flashbacks this year. In the present, Lila starts the season as the head of the organization, but Diggle teases a promotion might be in his future.

Balancing a “real life” in addition to their extra-curricular activities is something both Diggle and Oliver will face, but it sounds like the former will handle it better. Ramsay explains that “some of the things that Oliver wants to do, you’re going to see that happen with Diggle.”

Roy is a full-fledged member of Team Arrow

That being said, he doesn’t entirely trust everything around him (perhaps a lesson he learned from Thea). Not only that, Hayes says he doesn’t think Team Arrow should trust him. But he wants in: “the thing he’s been missing his whole life was his family, and he sees a sense of family in Team Arrow.”

He continues to deal with the fact that he is the reason Thea left, a secret he is not something going to share with Oliver or the rest of the team anytime soon. But he and Thea will cross paths sooner rather than later, much to the chagrin of Malcolm Merlin.

What about Roy’s “identity?” While he didn’t confirm Roy’s new name, he certainly stumbled over the word “arsenal” when describing all of the weapons he carries. Hayes seems excited to be going all in as far as crime fighting goes, including calling his costume “badass.”

No one was talking Thea, not even Thea herself

In a show like Arrow, you always expect a lot of vague answers when you ask certain questions. The cast here is particularly worried about saying too much (there’s a great run in the video above showing reactions when several think they may have slipped up), but to a person, everyone was steering clear of anything Thea Queen related.

“All I can say is that the Thea Queen you saw leave at the end of season is not the Thea Queen we see in season three.” Holland coyly hinted that she works with a personal trainer now and hits the gym everyday. The one thing she would say she’s not done (yet) is pick up a bow. “I’ve not … it’s something I ask about, I’m sure everyone asks about, and none of us get an answer.” She’s taken to the added responsibility, “being told to work out is great.”

But when the questions returned to the story, Holland clammed back up, “I can’t really give much information out about [Thea and Roy].”

The producers are excited about John Barrowman’s return

The producers wanted to get back the air of mystery that the first season had; one of the ways that they plan to do so is the reintroduction of Malcolm Merlin. Barrowman joins the cast full time this season, and that decision pays immediate dividends. Guggenheim explains, “we decided to re-inject [mystery] into the show, and certainly John’s character allows us to do that.” Malcolm’s agenda is mysterious, but we will get to see the second half of the scene between he and Thea at the end of season two. “A big part of the fun of season three is mystery of ‘Where is Malcolm and what is he up to?’”

Malcolm and Thea

“Her relationship with Malcolm is very interesting” says Holland. She explains that the decision to go off with someone – even if it was her father – who she knows to be a mass murderer, was a choice that said a great deal about where her character was. Considering all of the trust issues Thea has developed in the last two seasons, going with a character that she wasn’t going to bother trusting was different. “She trusts not trusting him.”

Malcolm has lost everything except Thea, and he’s going to try to control her – which might just be how he shows his love. Barrowman: “He’s got to control her by controlling her emotion … that’s the way he’s going to look at it now. He will love her, in a very different way.”

“Malcolm’s not evil … I say as I twist my ring like an evil-doer”

Speaking with actors who enjoy playing their characters is always a treat, and in a room where everyone loved being there, Barrowman stood out. He even went into character to explain his motivations, “If you think I’m bad, lets go back and look at what Oliver has done; we’re both doing the same thing and just going about it in different ways.” He is pissed about it: “I as Malcolm see myself as the hero; but goddamn it, no one is recognizing that.”

“Malcolm can control people with money, power and also his destructive techniques.”

It shouldn’t go without mentioning that the only reason I got to speak with him after a rotation or two went long, was that he offered to stay back after everyone had left and spent about fifteen minutes putting on a master’s class on what makes Malcolm Merlin tick. Since it was so good, I’ve added the entire video of that session at the bottom of this post.

Brandon Routh’s Ray Palmer shakes things up on several levels

Palmer is introduced trying to buy Queen Consolidated – which seems to be standard operating procedure for Arrow villains. Finding the right guy to do that while not coming across as such, at least not completely, was a challenge. Bertlanti:” We kind of had John Wayne with Oliver, that kind of essence, and we wanted Cary Grant.”

We’ve heard that Palmer might be a corner in a potential love triangle with Felicity and Oliver, but it doesn’t sound like things start out that way. Berlanti explains that the character is interested in, “this IT girl that went from being IT girl to being the assistant to the chairman of the company, and he’s particularly interested in her rise.”

How much will Arrow and The Flash interconnect?

To make life easier on the folks that are working on both shows, the production offices – including editing – are on the same floor of the same building. Berlanti, one those doing double duty on both shows, told us new shows end up taking more time, so the office arrangements will help.

But what about the stories? The universe is interconnected, and the characters know each other, so expect crossovers big and small. Sometimes, like in the second season episode “The Man Under the Hood,” and others where the stories – and the villains – are woven together.

This season’s theme is “Identity”

I asked Mark Guggenheim about the third season’s theme, and his answer was the most quick – and direct – answer of the day. He was especially excited that the question of identiy extended beyond just Oliver as previous year’s themes have focused mainly on the lead. But this year everyone is questioning who they are:

• Oliver: Am I Oliver or am I the Arrow?
• Laurel: Am I Laurel or am I my sister?
• Thea: Am I Moira Queen’s daughter or am I Malcolm Merlin’s daughter?
• Diggle: Am I a sidekick or am I my own man? Am I a father or a crime fighter?
• Felicity: Am I Oliver’s crush-object or do I have my own identity outside of him?

No really, John Barrowman is awesome

Since his conversation was so great, we’ve shared it all below:

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=u72B39titXw

Once you build a successful comic-book based series on a network that loves you, the natural thing to do is to build a spinoff. The Flash, along with “parent” show Arrow, represent much about what’s right on The CW these days. Grant Gustin is a perfect Barry Allen, and producers Geoff Johns, David Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg have surrounded him with an outstanding cast, including Broadway star Jesse L. Martin (Joe West), TV heavyweight Tom Cavanagh (Harrison Wells), newcomers like Danielle Panabaker (Caitlin Snow) and they have even brought in someone who knows what it’s like to be under the cowl in John Wesley Shipp (Henry Allen).

We sat down with these folks at San Diego Comic-Con this summer, and as the show is set to premiere next week, we share what they told us is coming up in season one:

Grant Gustin

You can tell that Gustin really likes Barry, “He’s just full of hope and optimism. He’s easily relatable.” He’s played so many characters that he wouldn’t want to be in the same room with (we’re looking at you, Sebastian Smythe) that it is refreshing to play someone who people like. He grew up a big (very big, says the tattoo he showed us) Superman fan, so he’s had to learn a lot about the character he now portrays. He’d originally thought about reading the entirety of the run of Flash books, until he saw just how many there were. The New 52 series seems to be similar to what they’re trying to do, and Gustin points to just how knowledgeable and accessible the producers have been in helping build the character grounded in the canon.

Gustin is looking forward to delving into some of the Flash’s extended powers, specifically time travel. They tease it a little in the Pilot, but he wants more. “I think it just presents a lot of fun storylines.”

John Wesley Shipp

Shipp hasn’t yet felt that moment of weirdness seeing someone else in the suit, but the following week was to be his first scene with Grant in the Flash costume. If that moment of “weirdness” was to happen, he expected it then. But his Flash was much different tonally then this Flash. “I can’t imagine Emmet Walsh killing Priscilla Pointer [the actors who played his parents], you know?”

You can tell that Shipp is still disappointed that his show was cancelled after just one season. “Although for a one season show, it has had an incredible life … but how often do you get to come back?” He called it an extraordinary opportunity for healing.

When asked about watching the evolution of superhero properties in popular culture since 1990, Shipp talked about how audiences are more informed, “It’s a smarter sensibility … so we can address the fact that The Flash is about speed and needs to be aerodynamic.” But he kids that the landscape is saturated with comic shows and movies now. He joked with our table that we were too young to remember it used to be all about westerns, and lately it’s CSI and Law & Order.

Shipp is taken by Grant Gustin. “He’s really sincere … he’s very real.”

Shipp says he doesn’t want the character to be “Dawson’s dad thirteen years later.” Obviously prison has changed Henry, but he thinks that it is more important to demonstrate that impact in a nuanced way, “If you don’t [see how prison changed him] that’s my bad, that’s my failure.” One of the most difficult things he experienced in prison was that no one – save Barry – believed him, including specifically Joe West, his neighbor and friend … and the man who raised Barry in Henry’s absence. That’s a reunion I’m looking forward to seeing.

Shipp points to the audience’s thirst for darker shows like Constantine and The Walking Dead as to why there’s been difficulty getting another Flash property off the ground. And while this The Flash tends to be a little darker in some areas – specifically in the Allen family backstory – it is still very much rooted in the tone of the comics. Gustin’s sense of comedy: running into himself, tripping over his feet balanced with his power, demonstrates an everyman quality that is endearing.

Tom Cavanaugh

Cavanaugh was asked about what research he might have done with folks who are wheelchair-bound. He dodged the question specific to The Flash, but talked about the work he did for a little-seen independent film called Sublime. After that, he said, working in a motorized wheelchair was a big improvement. He said that the differences in the two wheelchairs were symbolic of the differences of working on a big-budget production like the show, and a much tighter-budgeted small film.

Cavanaugh was attracted to the different layers the characters portrayed, especially Harrison Wells. You could tell too, that he was a bit taken aback by fast-paced storytelling that occurs in the first nine episodes. If there is anything that The CW should get credit for, it is helping to usher in shows that tell stories at a breakneck speed, and it looks like The Flash is going to be one of them. “Things that you might want to keep in your quiver, they’re firing those things off in a hurry.”

Cavanaugh thought he had a pretty good understanding of The Flash’s stories from the comic books, but after taking the role, he realized he was a neophyte. But producers Kriesberg and Geoff Johns have been incredibly helpful, informative and – almost more importantly – welcoming to someone who wants to learn the canon.

Danielle Panabaker

Panabaker is excited to be a part of a superhero franchise with a preexisting fan base, “It’s so cool! It’s so great because people are excited about The Flash.” Playing Caitlin Snow, who brings a lot to the table, is a big part of that. “It’s great to have a really smart woman on board who also brings that emotional, sensitive perspective.” Snow is fresh from the trauma of losing her fiancé in the accident, so has that drive to keep Barry safe. That trauma has also made her much more serious than she was pre-accident (a side of her we will get to see in flashbacks early in the season).

It doesn’t look like Caitlin is being set up as an immediate love interest for Barry, but there’s a triangle dynamic that might develop with the two of them and Iris. “Barry has always pined for Iris but he can’t have her, so he’s got to figure out what’s next? The sad scientist over here?”

Andrew Kreisberg

Kreisberg was taken by one of the decisions that Smallville made early on, showing how Clark had trouble adjusting to his powers. There is something to be said too about having too much power and becoming god-like. “We’re going to try and keep [his powers] – at least early on – as limited as we can.” But there is definitely a desire (as is apparent in the Pilot) to eventually get to some of the Flash’s more dynamic powers like phasing through matter and (gasp!) time travel. Expect a Smallville-esque difficulty in learning to contain those powers.

There was a conscious decision early on on Arrow to ground the stories in reality as much as possible (thus the mirakuru storyline). The Flash, however, represents an ability to go a step farther and open the world up a bit. Berlanti came up with the idea of the particle accelerator as a way of “building” a group of super-humans all tied to the same event. “The thing that will keep it like Arrow is the way in which people view these impossible, miraculous things,” explains Kreisberg. “We’ll never have a show, especially early on, where people are just like, ‘oh yeah … guy’s flying.’”

Kreisberg doesn’t see a lot of competition between Arrow and The Flash and the other new DC Comics properties coming to television this season. “One of the things that DC did really well this year is for all of the shows they’re doing, they are so completely different. Even Arrow and Flash are two very different shows; one is a grounded, crime, revenge, Shakespearian drama and Flash is more blue skies, superpowers.” Their approach is that they are only in competition with themselves to make quality television. But a “rising tide lifts all ships,” and he’s looking forward to seeing Gotham and iZombie.

TNT’s The Last Ship has been one of the surprise hits of the summer, drawing in over 5 million viewers in its premiere. The network brought the cast and creators to San Diego Comic-Con and even threw a big party on the deck of the USS Midway. We talked with the cast and writers of the show, including Eric Dane (Tom Chandler), Rhona Mitra (Rachel Scott), Charles Parnell (Russell Jeter), Travis Van Winkle (Danny Green) and producers Steve Kane and Hank Steinberg. This is what we learned about the show’s relationship with the Navy, the second season and more.

The Navy Way

Learning the “Navy Way” was an experience. Kane related a story where they’d written in a punishment for a character to be placed on kitchen duty, as they had seen in old war movies. One of the technical advisors, a ship’s captain, corrected that quickly. “The culinary specialists take that job very seriously … they are the ones that keep the troops fed, that keep morale up. If they saw you punishing somebody else by giving them their job, it would make their job feel like crap to them.” 

“The greatest thing about the Navy is that they’ve been studying leadership since 1775. They’ve made a lot of mistakes over the years and they’ve learned from them, codified them and are constantly updating it.” The producers wanted to make sure that history – in its own way – is represented in the show. They cannot get everything on this show perfect from a technical perspective, but they are proud of everything they get right, especially this. Kane shares a great story about the many different ways of saying “roger that,” that’s in the video.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrKeyii5lzo

Aboard the USS Halsey

Many of the actors were not particularly familiar with the Navy and how they do things. Dane’s father was an Ensign, and Baldwin’s father served in the Naval Air Corps in World War II, but everyone else received their first real Navy experience when they spent a couple of days aboard ship. The cast – and some of the crew … those that don’t get seasick – took a familiarization tour on the USS Halsey, experiencing torpedo evasion drills and shooting the 5-inch cannon fired. Dane spent time with CAPT Mike Weeldreyer and learned from him. “I got to see how he behaved when a couple things went wrong, how everything was a learning experience for him and his crew. He always asked his crew ‘what can we take away from this and how can we do it better next time?’”

Van Winkle worked with the members of the Navy’s elite fighting force that were advisors: “Michael Bay’s first request to me was, ‘Hang around the Navy SEALs on set; breathe them in.’” He expected them to be grizzled, war-heavy veterans, but was found them to be “tender, genuine and creative people.”

For Mitra, the research was different. Fortunately, she had taken an interest in virology before The Last Ship came around, “I was studying neurotoxins and their impacts classes of species … so I get the opportunity to talk to virologists every day and geek out.”

Baldwin also enjoyed working with the military. “It’s an honor to be aboard of Navy Guided Missile Destroyer … it’s been humbling and a great learning process for me … I just want to serve them well. And the virus? I ain’t worried about no fricking virus.”

Location shooting pros and cons

The entire pilot was shot on ship, but they’ve built sets after that. “You can’t ask the Navy to give you a ship for six months … they’ve got other things they’ve got to do,” kids Steinberg. They did two additional location shoots after the Pilot, for a total of two weeks. Filming obviously jumped around during those shoots, which made for production challenges. “We would doing episode two, episode nine, episode seven today … where are we?!? But we couldn’t have done that had the creators not kept so organized and had the backing of TNT,” added Baldwin.

Shooting on a ship, especially the interiors, presents challenges. Dane: “The geography of the shooting spaces are very tight. You can become a little stilted when shooting in that environment; you’ve got to learn how to stay loose.” The ships are tight quarters to begin with, but adding in camera crews, boom operators and the like makes things even more crowded.

The production incorporated the real crews of the ships they filmed on when they could. “We used the actual Navy enlisted and officers for certain roles when we need them … Who better to do their job than the guys that do their job” explains Dane.

Apocalypse Now-ish

Despite the continued efforts (at our table) to classify the show as being post-apocalyptic, the cast and producers weren’t buying it. “This is actually an apocalyptic environment; we get to see it as it’s unfolding. It’s like ‘Apocalypse Now’ … if anybody’s used that term before I’m not aware,” kids Dane. “It’s an interesting subject matter for me; I think it’s rich in story telling and the characters are great.” Steinberg adds, “The difference between our and any other show or movie is that our guys can stop it. That’s the key; the show is about the hope and these people hanging on and being heroic in the face of all odds. That’s what gives this show its urgency. It’s got a ticking clock. Every day they don’t come home with the vaccine is the day a half million people die.”

Despite the finality of the desertion story last week, it sounds like we might see another rift develop amongst the crew. Van Winkle: “We have more threats come at us, from unseen areas. The ship is its own culture, there are some rifts between power, and some rifts between what we need to do and how to do it … the typical drama that might come along with that.” This is a fairly important storyline in the book, and is ripe for adaptation.

When Dane was asked about the tension between Chandler and Slattery in the Pilot and whether or not it might come back up, “Absolutely. There’s always going to be friction between the CO and the XO because the XO is never going to fleet up and become a CO; there’s no government left. The only chain of command we have to preserve is the one that’s on the ship.”

The Navy’s reaction

The show knew that the Navy would bristle at the scene between Green and Foster in the Pilot. At the premiere in Washington, DC, the crowd definitely reacted. They had to have a couple of discussions with the Navy to share where their story was going. The point that they were trying to make, as we saw in episode six, was that is something that is detrimental to order.

Van Winkle is enjoying how the story is progressing. He particularly liked the moment in episode three, where he confesses his love to Foster, but tells her to stay away. “That’s actually become a hashtag on Twitter: #iloveyoustayawayfromme. It’s a complicated relationship and scenario, because all of us, within our fabric, there’s love … To have found love and be drawn to someone, it is hard when that is the one thing that gets in the way of my responsibilities.”

There’s a story told by several different people in the room that day about one Navy family’s specific reaction to the premiere screening. Look for it in the video above.

Command Master Chief Jeter: The Chaplin

As originally scripted in the Pilot, there was a separate character written for the chaplain (specifically in the funeral scene).  They didn’t envision the role to be one that would show up again, and saw the opportunity to cross-utilize Parnell. “We thought he’s got the gravitas, he’s got the voice and the demeanor, and it developed in the Pilot that he would become that guy and it’s become a great thing for his character to become the spiritual leader as well,” says Kane.

“Master Chief is a man of strong backbone, a man of deep faith and a great sense of duty.” He’s a stoic man, who is going through the same pain of loss that the rest of the crew is, but cannot afford to let it show, as he’s tasked with keeping the crew on the same page. He is responsible for the enlisted crew to the officers. Including the chaplain into his character makes sense.

A “loose” adaptation

The Last Ship is based on the novel by William Brinkley, which deals with a very different story. The virus epidemic in the show replaces a nuclear holocaust in the book. Dane sees very little connective tissue between the two, “We have two things in common with the book: the name of the ship and the name of the character.” A more detailed reading, however, shows a great deal more. The tension between the CO and the XO is a major part of the book. There’s also an (admittedly different) interaction with a rival Russian crew … even the excursion to the cruise ship was lifted.

Looking ahead to Season Two

“The cliffhanger for this season is going to throw everyone on their ass,” teases Van Winkle.

“The long-term plan is to save the world. There’s a lot of saving and repairing to do. That can take many different forms and shapes,” states  Time is obviously of the essence. The first season takes place over a condensed time period, but there not a plan for how much time will pass during the second season. There is a general blueprint for future seasons, but they’re open to the fluidity of the process and aren’t locked in to telling specific stories at specific times.

Would you like to know more?

The video highlights from our discussion are above, but we also have the trailer shown at The Last Ship panel, as well as the NerdHQ panel:

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv7nZk6feG8

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6JjLuSi0pI