End Credits - December 21, 2017

This week on End Credits, it's the best time of the year: Star Wars time! On this episode we're going to review the brand new epic space opus Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and try to squeeze in some further Star Wars talk about how the new era under the mouse house has been going. Speaking of which, we'll discuss the downside of the studio merger everyone's excited about, and we'll talk about why the Golden Globes, as always, suck at picking the best movies.

This Thursday, December 21, at 10 am, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:

1) Globe Frothier. The nominations for the Golden Globes were announced last week, and even by the standards of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, things were zany. Jordan Peele's Get Out, an effectively disturbing horror movie with broader themes and implications, got nominations in the comedy and musical category, while real comedies like The Big Sick, and Girls Trip were shut out. Meanwhile, Helen Mirren was nominated for a movie no one's heard of, and Christopher Plummer got a nod for replacing Kevin Spacey at the last minute for All the Money in World. Can these things get any weirder? Probably.

2) Fox and the Mouse. It finally happened. After weeks of speculation, it was announced that 21st Century Fox reached a deal to sell much of its entertainment assets to the Walt Disney while keeping its TV channels (like Fox) and newspapers (like The Wall Street Journal). The nerd news has mostly focused on the giddiness of having the X-Men and Fantastic Four back under the same roof with the rest of the Marvel Universe, but won't this stifle creativity? Will we get another Deadpool or Logan, for example? More than that, can six major studios going down to five be seen as anything less than a loss for creative freedom in Hollywood?

3) The 'Wars' So Far. Before digging into our review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, we'll look at the Disney-era of Star Wars so far. While The Force Awakens and Rogue One established a course for the franchise to remain profitable and fun for fans, there have been some issues behind the scenes with directors; Phil Lord and Chris Miller were fired shortly before production on the Han Solo movie was supposed to wrap, and J.J. Abrams has replaced Colin Trevorrow on Episode IX. So now, having seen The Last Jedi, how has Rian Johnson set a high bar for expectations, and how has been able to innovate narratively while staying on Disney's good side?

REVIEW: Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017). It's here! Since the end of The Force Awakens in 2015, Star Wars fans have been wondering and speculating just where the saga would go in this next chapter, and it's guaranteed that this was... not what they expected. Rian Johnson picks up where J.J. Abrams left off as Rey must try and shake Jedi Master Luke Skywalker from his complacency before time runs out for the Resistance as they run from the First Order who's out to eliminate them once and for all. Allegiances are tested, expectations are subverted, and you never know where the story is going from one moment to the next. As Luke said, "This is not going to go the way you think."

End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Thursday at 10 am.