Rare Round-Up: Entertainment News of the Week (12/01/2024)

We’re back! Did you miss these entertainment-based rambles? Don’t lie, of course you did. Well, first of all: Happy new year! (is that even still a thing at this point?) We do hope that you all had an eventful, restful, full-of-food, drinks, and fun festive period. It already feels so long ago, huh?

As we wind down and get back into the swing of things, as are the worlds of film, music, games, books. So, if you’re at school, work or at home; allow us to distract you for a few minutes as we tell you what’s going on with your favourite things to watch, listen to, play or read.

Starting with the “watch” part of the equation, the Golden Globes took place over the weekend and as expected, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer swept the awards, landing 5 honours including Best Picture (drama), Best Director and Best Actor awards for Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr, marking the first Golden Globe for the former, and fourth for the latter.

The latest surrealist outing by “Greek Weird Wave” leader Yorgos Lanthimos’ Golden Lion-winning Poor Things nabbed Emma Stone the best leading actress honour as well as Best Picture (Musical or Comedy). Notably absent from accolades was Barbie, which took home only Box Office Achievement.

On the TV side, the ever-popular Succession took 4 awards including Best Series and multiple Best Actor accolades. Other successes in the TV world included Ali Wong and Steve Yeun both taking home their first Golden Globe awards for Beef, which also won for best mini-series.

Meanwhile, Ricky Gervais may not have hosted this year with his no-holds-barred commentary on the filmic industry (although we weren’t exactly devoid of controversial comments were we, Jo Koy?), he still nabbed the award for Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy on TV for his Netflix special titled Ricky Gervais: Armageddon.

Columbia Pictures also celebrated 100 years this week. Columbia, who are now under Sony, are responsible for some of the biggest and now most nostalgic films and franchises of all time including Ghostbusters, The Karate Kid and Spider-Man’s various adventures as well as other co-producing other MCU properties. Others include The Equalizer starring Denzel Washington and the Dragon Tattoo franchise. What’s your favourite Columbia Pictures movie?

Second Sight Films are back again providing us with, well, a second sight at cult favourites. In this case horror fans wade in as 2015s Green Room and 2020s Possessor are getting 4K restorations and limited edition set releases!

Moving onto news and new releases: The Tim Burton-helmed Wednesday, following the Addams Family daughter, is seeing physical release on DVD and Blu-ray! Netflix, who recently shut down their DVD service, usually wait at least a year before putting their stuff on shelves and Wednesday is no exception. With the physical release coming in March, it’ll mark one year and four months since it first appeared on the streaming service.

Other new releases available to pre-order now include Disney and Marvel’s The Marvels, as well as a restored 4K release of Steven Soderbegh’s 2011 medical disaster movie Contagion. Painting an eerily similar picture to what would plague the world a mere 7 years later, Contagion has had a renewed interest in recent times, and now you can experience the panic and terror once again almost as if you’re living it in real time (oh, wait).

If you’re a Whovian who is building your ultimate Whoniverse collection, you can continue to do so as BBC announced that the Tom Baker-led season 15, which ran from 1977 to 1978, is joining the limited-edition Doctor Who archive collection. You’ll be able to get your hands on the set soon, but for now, consider securing your copy before they’re gone!

On the music side, it is indeed Friday and Friday as you probably already know, means new music! This week sees new music by Ariana Grande with the lead single Yes, And? from her upcoming seventh studio album Eternal Sunshine. Brit indie-rockers The Vaccines are back with their sixth studio album Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations, US rapper Kid Cudi returns with his ninth Insano and LP sees a reissue of their fourth studio album Lost on You on gold vinyl. For you nineties kids, the new compilation album #1 Nineties includes hits by the likes of Britney Spears, Celine Dion, Cher, Take That, the Backstreet Boys, Kylie Minogue, Shaggy, Westlife, and more!

Furthermore, BRIT Rising Star nominee Caity Baser’s new mixtape, Still Learning, is coming in March. Whilst she lost out on the Rising Star honour to The Last Dinner Party, she stated:

“When I heard that I've been nominated, I literally screamed for 5 minutes and chucked everything around my room!!"

As far as The Last Dinner Party go, they also won the BBC Sound of 2024 poll, with their debut album Prelude to Ecstasy slated for a February 2^nd release.

Tell us what you’re most looking forward to this week and be sure to check back next Friday!