Sharlto Copley

Despite the runaway success of Neill Blomkamp’s District 9, the writer-director has faced increasingly diminishing returns as a filmmaker ever since. Whiz-bang visuals and an impressive cast weren’t enough to save Elysium, while Chappie has become better known in film circles as an internet meme (“That’s Chappie!”) than a film worth seeking out. Add in Blomkamp’s failed attempt at an Alien sequel and it seemed the director’s star had fully faded… that is, until Blomkamp announced his decision to create a serious of outrageous and expensive short films at zero cost to the public.

Free Fire, Ben Wheatley’s gangster movie that’s essentially a big group of characters played by a bunch of fantastic actors shooting and shouting at each other for 90 minutes, is about to hit theaters, and if you need more incentive than that description to go see it, a short, hilarious clip has just hit the internet.

I’ve already heard one colleague refer to Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire, in which an arms deal goes wrong and escalates into an almost 90-minute-long shootout, as a kind of cinematic high-wire act. But high-wire acts don’t last 90 minutes; watching somebody balance on a wire for 90 minutes would get pretty boring if that’s all they were doing. There’s an audaciousness to Free Fire that’s self-defeating. Yes, Wheatley pulled off a feature-length gun battle. But the result is so monotonous that I ran out of patience long before the participants ran out of bullets.

Sharlto Copley is the kind of guy you want on your side when the shots start flying, though you might not think that’s the case after seeing Free Fire. The first full-fledged American production from UK director Ben Wheatley is a wild warehouse free-for-all featuring an absolute murderer’s row of actors, including Copley, Armie Hammer and Brie Larson (among many others). In a film where every man (and woman) is out for himself, perhaps no one is more self-serving than Copley’s Vernon, a narcissistic gun-pusher who is, for lack of a better adjective, kind of a weenie. But on a stunt ranch just outside Austin during SXSW, Copley was far from cowardly on the frontlines of the paintball battle field.

It’s about time. After months of waiting, the first (red band!) trailer for Free Fire has arrived on the heels of last night’s midnight premiere at TIFF. The latest thriller from Ben Wheatley (Kill List, High-Rise) features an all-star roster, including Oscar-winner Brie Larson, Cillian Murphy, Armie Hammer and Wheatley favorite Michael Smiley in the story of an arms deal gone terribly wrong.

It took years to finally get an adaptation of Brian Michael Bendis’ Powers comic off the ground, but only two to bring it crashing back to Earth. After two seasons, Bendis confirms that the expensive and ambitious PlayStation series will come to an end.

Is it Free Comic Book TV day? Well, if the first episode of AMC’s Preacher weren’t enough to tide you over, Sony PlayStation’s Powers seems to have followed suit for Season 2. The full 2016 premiere is available online, free of charge.

Whether or not the first season of PlayStation’s comic-adapted Powers did justice to its Brian Michael Bendis origins, it looks as if Season 2 heavily intends to right the ship with an increased scale, and one of the book’s most famous stories. See for yourself in the final trailer for our May premiere, along with word of another Talking Dead-style aftershow to follow.

It’s safe to say that fans new and old of PlayStation’s Powers TV series could use a refresher on the first season ahead of its May 31 return, and Sony has just the thing. Meet the newest additions, good and bad, as the latest Powers Season 2 featurette recaps both the story so far, and what dangers lie ahead for the new episodes.

Time will tell if PlayStation’s Powers can succeed in Season 2 by leaning closer to its comic book roots, but the first clip is off to a flying start. Meet the new Retro Girl in town (the first one’s barely cold) in a new clip, as well as a look at the new comics-inspired opening credits.