Gucci Mane is behind bars this week after attacking a starstruck Texas soldier who requested to have his picture taken with the well-know rapper.
On Mar. 17 at the Harlem Nights Ultra Lounge in Atlanta, the 32-year-old victim reportedly explained to a guard outside the club VIP section that he was in the military and then asked to get a photo with Mane. But before he knew it, glass and champagne rained down across his head.
"I was speaking to the security guard, and Gucci Mane hit me in the head with a bottle," said James, who received 10 stitches.
"I was speaking to the security guard, and Gucci Mane hit me in the head with a bottle," James told a reporter with Atlanta's WWSB Ch. 2.
As he stood in shock, another person in Mane's entourage smacked him on the side of the face. James, an Army soldier stationed at Fort Hood who visiting Atlanta for his birthday, received 10 stitches at a nearby hospital.
Two days later, the 30-year-old hip hop artist struck another fan in the face at a Philadelphia club. The victim, who hasn't filed charges, explained to WWSB that he simply wanted to shake the performer's hand after a concert.
Mane, whose legal name is Radric Davis, turned himself in to Atlanta police Tuesday evening and was charged with aggravated assault for the Harlem Nights incident. Bail was denied for the rapper, who recently served six-month's jail time for pushing a woman from a moving car in 2011. He currently sits in a Fulton County jail.
March has turned out to be a stressful month for Mane, who announced two weeks ago via Twitter that he was dropping protégé Wacka Flocka Flame from his record label. Though Mane's publicists claim the Twitter account was hacked, Flocka told MTV he will never work with Mane again.
Most children who grew up in the '80s were either a fan of or knew about Masters of the Universe. The property, based on a line of toys from Mattel, spawned a popular-if-short-lived animated TV series, comic books, a comic strip, magazines, and a 1987 live action film starring Dolph Lundgren. It is now the latest IP to get a nostalgic reboot in the form of a new blockbuster film.
Nicholas Galitzine stars as Prince Adam of the planet Eternia, who as a child is exiled to Earth to protect the Sword of Power from invaders led by the evil Skeletor (voiced by Jared Leto). Years later, Adam is now working in the human resources department of a generic company, well-versed in corporate speak but disconnected from his heritage other than a never-ending desire to find the sword he lost when he crash-landed on Earth.
Spoiler alert, he recovers the sword and is soon thereafter rescued from Earth by childhood friend Teela (Camila Mendes). Adam’s return to Eternia is less-than-stellar, as the citizens have difficulty believing he’s the long-lost prince, especially because he initially can’t harness the power of the sword. Naturally, he figures it out eventually, leading to a number of face-offs between him and Skeletor’s minions.
Directed by Travis Knight (Bumblebee) and written by a four-person writing team, the film is yet another cynical attempt at exploiting a certain group’s nostalgia without putting any effort into actually making a good movie. The very first scene of the film is a CGI-filled battle between characters that have barely been introduced, much less explained to the audience. For longtime fans, this will be no issue. For everyone else, though, it immediately signals that the filmmakers don’t care about making them care about anyone or anything in the story.
Instead, they substitute actual character development with a campy and self-deprecating vibe that’s in line with the original series. That’s all well and good if the intended audience was solely 50-year-olds, but for a movie that presumably wants to bring in younger audiences, it’s a choice that never fully comes through. Some characters try to be funnier than others, and most of the “jokes” land with a thud since the tone hasn’t been properly established.
Worst of all, there are never any meaningful stakes in the film. Adam is impervious to damage, something that would have been truly funny if commented upon, but instead is just treated as fact for no good reason. Skeletor is not intended to be a fearsome villain, as he often bumbles through scenes or line deliveries, but the lack of a truly terrible enemy keeps the story stuck in neutral. Combined with bloodless PG-13 fight scenes with no sense of realness to them, there is rarely anything about which to get excited.
Galitzine has turned heads as both a gay (Red, White & Royal Blue) and straight (The Idea of You) romantic interest, but he can never find his footing as the leading man here. The film never allows him to develop into a true action hero, so instead he comes across as a pretender most of the time. Mendes is okay, but she, too, isn’t given the opportunity to become much more than a sidekick. Idris Elba is entirely wasted as Teela’s father Duncan. Leto lets loose, which works because he’s the only character without a recognizable face.
There may be a world in which rebooting Masters of the Universe makes sense, but it does not exist when the film that is offered doesn’t even try to appeal to anyone who doesn’t have a deeply ingrained knowledge of the decades-old property. By relying on nostalgia instead of good filmmaking, the film may get good box office returns on opening weekend, but it’s difficult to imagine that it will endure.
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Masters of the Universe opens in theaters on June 5.
