End Credits - January 15, 2020 (Just Mercy)

This week on End Credits, we shift from a star war in a galaxy far, far away to something a little more close to home. Grab a kleenex, or 10, and get ready to for a review of the based on a true story Just Mercy. We're also going to have issues of our own with awards, A.I., Star Wars outrage, and why we might finally be reaching "peak franchises" (or not).

This Wednesday, January 15, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:

All Award! The annual awards season is underway, and already we have concerns. (Not about the Oscar noms, we'll talk about that next week.) For instance, how did the Golden Globes nearly ignore Netflix even though so many of the year's best movies came from them? Also, how were the BAFTAs able to ignore such a diverse slate of great performances to nominate all white actors?

Robert Quicken. Warner Bros. announced last week that they're going to start using artificial intelligence in deciding what movies they should green light. It's a big move, but while the running of a studio isn't being taken entirely out of human hands (yet), will an A.I. be any better at predicting what movies will be hits by using data better?

Cutting Bored. You've heard of the Snyder Cut, but now everyone's talking about the J.J. Cut, some imagined edit of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker that better reflects J.J. Abrams "vision" of the film. Of course, the director himself has said nothing about an alternate cut of the film, and those "missing scenes" seem part of the regular process of film editing. So who's gonna tell the internet?

Grudge Snatch. The release of The Grudge remake last weekend has some movie pundits asking why the studio even bothered. Not only did the film bomb at the box office, but it received an F on Cinemascore, which means even the people that paid to see it, hated it. So has Hollywood entered terminal "sequel rot," and can studios cure themselves of the affliction?

REVIEW: Just Mercy (2019). In 1988, Walter "Johnny D" McMillan was sentenced to death row in Alabama for a crime he didn't commit because of some of the crappiest police work you've ever seen. And racism. McMillan's story is now brought to life by acclaimed director Destin Daniel Cretton with Michael B. Jordan as crusading attorney Bryan Stevenson, and Jaime Foxx as McMillan. But is there room at the cinema for a good old fashioned legal drama based on a true story.

End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 2 pm.