See the Thrilling New Trailer for Amazon Prime Video’s ‘Panic’

May 12, 2021May 15, 2021 Sophia Soto

Get ready for Amazon Prime Video’s newest original series, Panic! The show, which was written and created by Lauren Oliver and based on her bestselling novel, will premiere on Friday, May 28. The cast includes Olivia Welch, Mike Faist, Jessica Sula, Camron Jones, Ray Nicholson, and Enrique Murciano. All 10 episodes will hit the streaming service at the same time, making it perfect to be your next binge-worthy show.

Reviews, Streaming, Video Games2 Comments

NOC Review: ‘Mortal Kombat’ is Not a Flawless Victory

April 22, 2021August 17, 2021 Mike Manalo

It’s ironic that this would be a review I’m covering following Godzilla Vs. Kong because it actually has the opposite problem. It’s great from a POC standpoint. But it’s just not a very good movie, I’m afraid. Yes, it’s my unfortunate responsibility to tell you that Mortal Kombat is a dud. It’s a bland entry to the list of barely passable video game adaptations that would ultimately leave Shang Tsung starving, because it has no real soul to suck from it anyway. While not completely atrocious, it is about as forgettable and lifeless as, say, 2018’s Tomb Raider reboot.

Movies, Video Games1 Comment

Get Over Here… and Watch the Opening of ‘Mortal Kombat’

April 20, 2021April 20, 2021 Keith Chow

In anticipation of the film’s theatrical and streaming release on Friday, April 23, Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema have released the opening seven minutes of Mortal Kombat, the reboot of the famed 1995 adaptation of the legendary fighting game. Watch it below in all its gory glory:

Books, Movies, Streaming

Amy Adams Stars in Netflix’s New Psychological Thriller, ‘The Woman in the Window’

April 9, 2021May 15, 2021 Sophia Soto

The Woman in the Window premieres on May 14, and Netflix just dropped a trailer that will leave you on the edge of your seat. Along with Amy Adams, the film stars Gary Oldman, Anthony Mackie, Fred Hechinger, Wyatt Russell, Brian Tyree Henry, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Julianne Moore. The Woman in the Window is based on the best-selling novel and adapted by Tracy Letts.

Fantasy, Streaming, Television

‘Shadow and Bone’ Official Trailer Expands the Grishaverse and Crow Storylines

March 31, 2021May 15, 2021 Laura Sirikul

Adapted from the successful award-winning fantasy novels by Leigh Bardugo, fans have been wondering just how Netflix was going to mesh the Grishaverse trilogy with the Six of Crows duology for Shadow and Bone. With the release of the official trailer, we get a glimpse of how the beloved Crows play into Alina Starkov’s story.

Movies, Streaming, Video Games1 Comment

Prepare for ‘Mortal Kombat’ with the New Trailer

February 18, 2021May 15, 2021 Mike Manalo

It’s finally here! Warner Bros and New Line unleashed the first official trailer for Mortal Kombat! And with every blood-soaking, bone-snapping moment, they’ve made it clear that this is the uber-violent gore fest that we never got in the original campy (yet classic) 1995 film! This is the R-rated brutality initially promised to us when we first picked up the controllers to our Sega Genesis and selected our fighters! And I guarantee, that’s something so many of us have been waiting so long to finally see! And at long last it is finally here. So prepare yourself… for Mortal Kombat!

Movies, Streaming, Video Games

Get Over Here, Character Posters from ‘Mortal Kombat’

February 17, 2021May 15, 2021 Mike Manalo

T-Minus 18 hours until the trailer drops for the Mortal Kombat reboot, and WB has revealed more character posters than Shang Tsung has souls! The character posters are our first glimpse at characters like Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Kung Lao, Kano, Sonya Blade, Mileena, and more! The motion posters are all on Twitter and look really epic, like this one of Scorpion:

Fantasy, Streaming, Television

Netflix Releases First Look and Character Posters of ‘Shadow and Bone’

January 27, 2021May 15, 2021 Laura Sirikul

Netflix has just released the first look images and character posters for their new anticipated series Shadow and Bone.

Based on Leigh Bardugo’s best-selling Grishaverse novels, Shadow and Bone is set in a war-torn world where lowly soldier and orphan Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li) has just unleashed an extraordinary power that could be the key to setting her country free. With the monstrous threat of the Shadow Fold looming, Alina is torn from everything she knows to train as part of an elite army of magical soldiers known as Grisha. But as she struggles to hone her power, she finds that allies and enemies can be one and the same and that nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. There are dangerous forces at play, including a crew of charismatic criminals, and it will take more than magic to survive.

Fantasy, Literature, Movies, Streaming

New Trailer for ‘Roald Dahl’s The Witches’ Magically Appears

October 2, 2020May 15, 2021 Mike Manalo

For any Roald Dahl fan who grew up in the ’90s, the original The Witches starring the incomparable Anjelica Huston, was a staple of cinematic Halloween entertainment, serving as one of the best (if not the best) Dahl adaptations ever, as well as a traumatic nightmare of kid-friendly terror that was as horrifying as it was wonderful!

Fantasy, Movies, Sci Fi3 Comments

The New ‘Dune’ Trailer has The Spice! Plus Q&A from the Cast and Director

September 9, 2020September 9, 2020 Mike Manalo

This morning, Warner Bros. unveiled the first trailer for the most anticipated movie event of the year — the long awaited, big budget adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune. Directed by visionary master, Denis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049, Arrival, Sicario), and starring literally every big name in Hollywood — Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, and Javier Bardem — the trailer gave us our first glimpse of the members of House Atreides, Arrakis (the planet commonly referred to as Dune), and of course, giant motherf**king sandworms! Given Villeneuve’s work visually and thematically, as well as the charismatic, strong leads anchoring his vision, I think it’s safe to say WB has a utter game changer on their hands! See for yourselves:

Interview, Sci Fi, Television3 Comments

Surviving the ‘Snowpiercer’ with Jaylin Fletcher

May 14, 2020May 14, 2020 Mike Manalo

On Sunday, May 17, the Snowpiercer will ride again! Snowpiercer, the new TV-adaptation of the amazing 2013 Bong Joon-Ho film, and the graphic novel the movie was based on, will be premiering this weekend. And to celebrate the premiere of the show, The Nerds of Color was able to sit down with one of its stars, Jaylin Fletcher, who plays Miles on the show, to get the skinny on the show, working with Daveed Diggs, Marvel-movie dreams, and his hopes for what audiences take away from this ambitious show:

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Books, Movies1 Comment

The Stars of ‘The Sun is Also a Star’ Answer Your Questions, Plus, a Chance to Attend the LA Premiere

April 29, 2019April 29, 2019 Laura Sirikul

The Sun is Also a Star is set to release next month! So, we got to know the stars from the romantic teen drama, Yara Shahidi and Charles Melton as they answer some questions fans have for them. From their guilty pleasures to their love for their parents, Shahidi and Melton reveal it all just for The Nerds Of Color!

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Anime, Manga, Movies, Reviews

NOC Review: ‘Alita: Battle Angel’ is Less Than the Sum of Its Parts

February 13, 2019October 7, 2019 Mike Manalo

I’ll get this out of the way right now — Alita: Battle Angel is not necessarily bad, per se. However, it is something of a disappointment and/or wasted opportunity given that the combined talents of Robert Rodriguez (The El Mariachi Trilogy, Sin City, From Dusk Til Dawn) and James Cameron (Terminator, Titanic, Avatar) ought to yield something phenomenal. I’m a huge fan of both, believing Rodriguez to be a master in the domain of stylish genre action, and Cameron to be a master of groundbreaking science-fiction. Thus, when the most I can say about it is that it’s “not bad” it should give you a good idea of how let down I was by a movie that had so much potential.

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Anime, Interview, Manga, Movies1 Comment

A Future Realized On-Screen: An Interview with ‘Alita: Battle Angel’ Creator Yukito Kishiro

February 11, 2019February 11, 2019 Mike Manalo

Film adaptations are often hard to crack, whether they are of the comic book, TV show, novel, or other type of variety. The stories being adapted may be timeless, and might lay the groundwork for a film adaptation, but hardcore fanbases are typically the hardest to please, accepting only the best out of their film adaptations to truly do justice to their passion for the material (spend any time at all on the internet if you don’t believe me). Oftentimes, we become fortunate enough to see certain types of adaptations finally begin to take a repeatable successful stride in this industry (as we’re more or less now seeing with comic book-based offerings from DC and Marvel). Then sometimes other types of adaptations, such as film adaptations of manga or anime, can take a bit more time to bake before the success stories can roll in (as we’ve seen with critical and box office disappointments, such as Dragonball Evolution, Netflix’s Death Note, or Ghost in the Shell).

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Books, Movies1 Comment

‘The Sun is Also a Star’ Trailer: A Timely Love Story

February 7, 2019February 8, 2019 Laura Sirikul

Based on the acclaimed bestseller by Everything, Everything author Nicola Yoon, The Sun is Also a Star has finally revealed their first one-sheet and trailer.

Starring Yara Shahidi (Grown-ish) as Natasha and Charles Melton (Riverdale) as Daniel, The Sun is Also a Star has college-bound Korean American Daniel Bae and Jamaica-born pragmatist Natasha Kingsley fall in love with each other over 24 hours on the streets of New York. With just a few hours until her deportation back to Jamaica, Natasha is fighting against her family’s deportation as fiercely as she’s fighting her budding feelings for Daniel, who is working just as hard to convince her they are destined to be together. In this modern-day love story about finding love against all odds, The Sun Is Also a Star “explores whether our lives are determined by fate or the random events of the universe.”

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Anime, Television12 Comments

‘Cowboy Bebop’ Changes the Game for Asian Casting in Anime Adaptations

December 15, 2018December 15, 2018 Mike Manalo

Thanks to our friends at That Hashtag Show, we’ve got some great news regarding Netflix’s casting for their upcoming Cowboy Bebop live-action series!

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Interview, Literature, Movies1 Comment

Interviewing Kiki Layne of ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’

September 26, 2018April 3, 2019 Valerie Complex

There is no question the work of writer and activist James Baldwin is timeless and timely because no matter how long ago he wrote his books, essays, and social commentary, his words are always right on time. Barry Jenkins’ new film If Beale Street Could Talk is an adaptation of the novel of the same name that works to capture the essence of Baldwin’s message of love, poverty and a broken justice system.

The film stars Kiki Layne and Stephan James as Tish and Fonny, young lovers from Harlem in the 1960s. When Fonny is accused on a crime he didn’t commit, and Tish discovers she is pregnant, her family rallies together to prove Fonny’s innocence.

With the film releasing in select theaters in New York and LA, The Nerds of Color are just in time with interviews. I enjoyed talking with the charming young actress Kiki Layne about love, family, and working with legendary actress Regina King.

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Interview, Literature, Movies1 Comment

Stephan James Talks ‘Beale Street’ and Black Love

September 25, 2018April 3, 2019 Valerie Complex

Barry Jenkins’ new film If Beale Street Could Talk is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by James Baldwin. When writing the book, I’m sure Baldwin never thought his works would be translated on screen. A conversation can also be had on whether or not James Baldwin ever thought his work would be as poignant today as it was 44 years ago. The justice system is still screwed, Black folks are still in poverty in America, but hopefully the public’s view of ‘Black love’ will change upon viewing this film.

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Animation, Television4 Comments

Translation or Whitewash? The Problem with Yo-Kai Watch in America

March 22, 2017June 25, 2020 Keith Chow

The art of “translating” a media property from one cultural context to another requires more than simple language transliteration. Translating works of art has existed from the moment people from different cultures encountered one another. But at what point does translating something for an American audience necessitate whitewashing as well? Today, we’re going to look at two animated properties available on Netflix — Yo-Kai Watch from Japan and Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir from France — to determine at which point whiteness trumps cultural context when making a kids’ show more acceptable to American audiences.

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