Tony Awards 2016 Winners & Pictures

Last night at the 7oth annual theatre celebration for the Tony Awards 2016, Hip Hop musical Hamilton led the race with a record breaking 16 nominations, winning 11 awards, including best musical. The Humans, The Color Purple and A View From the Bridge also took home top honors.

James Corden making his debut as the award’s host opened with a poignant monologue addressing the tragic Orlando shooting, which took place earlier in the day.

“Our hearts go out to all of those affected by this atrocity. You’re not on your own. Your tragedy is our tragedy. Hate will never win. We have to make sure of that. Tonight’s show stands as a symbol of that principle.”

Full winners list and gallery of awards pictures below:

 

Disney Releases First Trailer for Moana

Disney studios have released the first look at their upcoming animation, Moana. Starring Dwayne Johnson, Moana tells the story of a young woman (Auli’i Cravalho) who uses her navigational talents to set sail for a fabled island with legendary demi-god Maui (Johnson).

Check out the trailer below and see the film in cinemas from December 2nd in the UK and November 23rd in the USA.

Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards Nominations 2016

The Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards will be held at the Eventim Apollo in London tonight, celebrating the very best in Metal and Rock music from the past 12 months. Big name nominees battling for honours this year include Lamb of God, Tribulation, Babymetal, Slayer, Cradle of Filt, The Prodigy, Bring Me The Horizon, Parkway Drive and Anthrax. The results announced later tonight during a star studded ceremony packed with exciting live performances will be the result of intense fan voting. Full list of nominees below, check back soon for winner details

‘Best New Band’:

Black Peaks
Cane Hill
Creeper
Heck
The Black Queen

‘Best Underground’:

Enslaved
Myrkur
Rotting Christ
Sunn O)))
Tribulation

‘Best UK Band’:

Architects
Asking Alexandria
Cradle Of Filth
TesseracT
The Prodigy

‘Best International Band’:

Amon Amarth
Babymetal
Ghost
Killswitch Engage
Slayer

‘Breakthrough’:

Avatar
Beartooth
Deafheaven
Northlane
We Came As Romans

‘Best Live Band’:

Anthrax
Bring Me The Horizon
Lamb Of God
Nightwish
Parkway Drive

‘Dimebag Darrell Shredder Award’:

Alpha (Ghost)
Graham “Pin” Pinney (SikTh)
Joe Duplantier (Gojira)
Kristan Dawson (Bury Tomorrow)
Lzzy Hale (Halestorm)

‘Best Independent Label’:

Basick Records
Holy Roar
Prosthetic Records
Season Of Mist
UNFD

‘Best Video’:

Anthrax – “Blood Eagle Wings”
Iron Maiden – “Speed Of Light”
New Years Day – “I’m About To Break You”
Parkway Drive – “Vice Grip”
Slayer – “Repentless”

‘Best Video Game’:

‘Destiny: The Taken King‘
‘Fallout 4‘
‘Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain‘
‘Star Wars: Battlefront‘
‘Until Dawn‘

Non fan-voted categories to be awarded include:

‘Best Album’
‘Riff Lord’
‘Inspiration’
‘Icon’
‘Global Metal Award’
‘Spirit Of Hammer’
‘The Golden God’

Mother’s Day Review

The Plot

Three generations come together in the week leading up to Mother’s Day in a series of neatly intertwined feelgood stories delivered by an all-star ensemble cast.

The Good

Though it’s out of season upon release here in the UK (Father’s Day is just round the corner!) director Garry Marshall gives this collection of sweet stories that surround mothers day the light and bright look it deserves. The four main stories tackle struggles with widowed fathers, divorced mothers, estranged daughters and a young couple who are just starting their lives together with their child.

To take us through the various plots, we get a typically all-star cast including Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson, Julia Roberts and Jason Sudekis to name a few. Those familiar with Marshall’s well established formula will no doubt know exactly what to expect with this third offering. Just like Marshall’s previous holiday themed rom-coms New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day, eventually the characters bump into one another in some way. Providing a predictably satisfying array of combined conclusions to each conveniently interwoven plot line.

The crucial benefit of having multiple stories and a vast cast of familiar faces is that there’s more chance of audiences finding something or someone they like, while there’s less risk they’ll notice any weaker elements or all the shameless genre cliches. In essence it’s a safety in numbers approach, pioneered by the genre redefining Love Actually and still proving a surprisingly effective trick for repackaging overly familiar saccharine material for holiday box office crowds.

The Bad

The main problem for Mother’s Day, apart from the mistimed international release, will be if audience expect anything more form this than Marshell’s past holiday-themed ensemble efforts. In truth this new film actually may struggle to even merely meet expectations of being of a similar caliber to its modestly appreciated predecessors.

Mother’s Day’s script doesn’t honestly offer much in terms of humour, even managing to make Jack Whitehall’s usually brilliant stand-up skills feel wooden and bland. This wouldn’t be as much of an obvious problem were it not for the fact that his character’s stand-up routine is used a key plot point. The only think that makes this squandering of comedy potential even more frustrating is that Jon Lovitz hosts the film’s poorly scripted stand up competition but never actually makes any jokes of his own.

The film might raise a smile or the occasional giggle from less demanding audiences and those with a particular taste for Marshall’s tame trademark comedy style. However even those who do enjoy Marshall’s ensemble holiday homages will probably find they preferred his more entertaining past efforts and would truthfully be happier re-watching Valentine’s Day or New Year’s Eve..

The Ugly Truth

If you’re a fan of the surprisingly persistent trend of holiday themed rom-com compilations, you’ll no doubt find something to keep you entertained. Just don’t expect anything of the same classic quality as Love Actually.

Review by Johnny Ellis

Preacher Episode Two Review

The Plot

Jesse tries to be a ‘good preacher’, unaware that a mysterious duo is after him…

The Good

Following its strong opening episode, Preacher continues in episode two (titled, See) with the same approach, feeding us bits of information but not handing it over all in one go. Just after having set up the world of the show two weeks prior, See kicks off by jumping back 135 years to 1881 with an intriguing little cold open in which we follow a cowboy in search of medicine for his sick daughter. It’s a short scene and doesn’t give too much away but it’s clear that this will be important further on in the series.

Back in the present, Preacher, having decided to stay with his parish after last episodes run in with the as-yet unexplained see-through alien, baptizes his congregants and continues to get pestered by Tulip as she tries her best to persuade him to accept the mysterious job she has lined up, going so far as to even kidnap him (sort of).

But without a doubt, the highlight this week is another fight sequence, this time involving a chainsaw and set inside the church. While it’s not as ballsy as the triple serving of fight sequences we were blessed with in the pilot, it’s just as entertaining and even more gory than we’ve already seen. Plus with Cassidy involved it’s obviously got some laughs in it.

On the subject of Cassidy, his character seems to be progressing slightly, with confirmation that his vampire tendencies are quite traditional at least in terms of his relationship to sunlight. While it’s not much, this tiny scene is ever so slightly heartbreaking.

And for the second time in a row, Preacher decides to use another Johnny Cash song for it’s soundtrack. This weeks selection being ‘Rusty Cage’ which fits in perfectly though is the only notable song in the episode unfortunately. Here’s hoping the Cash trend continues however!

The Bad

While the pilot had some issues which were too early in the show to truly have a bad impact on it, episode two continues the trend slightly and feels slow in its progression. It is only episode two, but as part of a ten episode season, See feels like it’s hitting some of the same beats of its predecessor and at times becomes even more confusing, particularly with its approach to the mysterious duo who seem to be intent on doing something to Jesse. Whether that’s killing him remains to be seen. If that is their intent they seem to be going such awkward ways at achieving it.

What also remains to be seen is  how exactly the climax of the pilot has impacted Jesse. Not only his newly discovered powers (which, lets face it, take slightly too long for him to discover) but also how they’ve already caused an incredible feat from the final scene of the pilot. The fate of Ted Ryerson is briefly mentioned so it’s clear that the news has travelled back, but it’s a shame we don’t see Jesse himself hearing of this. Perhaps had he heard sooner, the climax for this weeks episode would have happened sooner too…

The Ugly Truth

Preacher continues to intrigue, even if it feels like it’s slowing the pace a bit compared to the pilot. But now that Jesse seems to be finally realizing his powers, perhaps the show will start to gain the momentum it began with.

Review by Johnny Ellis