Movie star Hugh Jackman may have sheathed his superhero claws for the last time as Wolverine. But now, the Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe-and-Tony Award-winning, singing and dancing sensation is just getting started as he hits the road and Houston for his new live show Hugh Jackman The Man. The Music. The Show.
Jackman launches the North American leg of the tour on June 18, 2019 at the Toyota Center followed by a show in Dallas at the American Airlines Center on June 19, making Texans the first to see this greatest showman perform live hit songs from The Greatest Showman, Les Misérables and more from Broadway and film, accompanied by a live orchestra.
While many movie fans likely know Jackman for his major film roles especially in the X-Men franchise, his star turns as P. T. Barnum in The Greatest Showman and Jean Valjean in Les Misérables spotlighted that singing prowess that musical fans have been aware of for years.
Jackman won a Tony for The Boy From Oz on Broadway and starred in the West End late '90s revival of Oklahoma! as Curly. A man so talented, he might very well be a mutant, Jackman has also released several albums of Broadway standards. A superstar of the musical stage, we’re expecting a beautiful evening of music when Jackman hits these Texas venues.
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Tickets go on sale beginning Friday, December 7. Tickets will be available in North America at 10 AM local time at HughJackmanTheShow.com.
Director Sam Raimi has gone through different phases as a filmmaker, including leading the first Spider-Man trilogy and joining the MCU with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. But he first gained notice with the gory and funny Evil Dead movies, a sensibility he’s returning to with his latest film, Send Help.
Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) is a meek and eccentric middle manager at a financial firm that’s just named Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien) as its new nepo CEO. Bradley’s dad had promised Linda a promotion to vice president, but she gets passed over in favor of one of Bradley’s frat buddies, sending her into a mild rage. Still, she gets invited along on a planned business trip to Thailand, during which she hopes to prove her worth.
Unfortunately for most of the passengers on the private plane, it crashes into the ocean, leaving only Linda and Bradley alive on a deserted island. Linda, who has privately developed survival skills, adapts quickly to the forbidding environment, while Bradley tries to revert to bossing her around. But Linda quickly understands the power dynamic has shifted, and she uses this knowledge to try to keep Bradley in line, turning their stranding into a battle of wills.
Directed by Raimi and written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, the film is the classic “so bad it’s good” kind of experience. McAdams, inarguably an attractive and charming person, is given stringy hair, an antisocial personality, and quirks like eating tuna fish at her desk to make her as off-putting as possible. Bradley, along with almost everyone else at her office, is stereotyped just as hard in order to set up the twist of fate.
When the action shifts to the island, things get even more over the top. The audience has already been primed for Linda to demonstrate her survival expertise, but the film does way more than just show her making fire. Whether it’s flawlessly building a shelter or hunting a wild boar, everything Linda does is portrayed in a slightly off-kilter manner. Then they turn everything up to 11, indulging in gore that is so unnecessary that you can’t help but laugh.
The filmmakers prove they’re in on the joke the rest of the way, including a variety of preposterous but hilarious scenarios that would cause massive eyerolls if they were actually trying to take the film seriously. While they do a great job of showing Linda’s ability to handle herself in the wild, they also show that she is somehow the only person in the world who could get a glow up after a plane crash and weeks living in nature.
McAdams, an Oscar-nominated actor for Spotlight, is way too high class for a movie like this, which makes her presence here all the more interesting. She is all-in on whatever Raimi wants her to do, and she’s at her most fun when she goes the animalistic route. O’Brien, who was great in the recent Twinless, doesn’t get as much of an opportunity to show his range, but he still proves to be an interesting foil for her.
Were it released in any other month, Send Help might be looked at as bottom of the barrel material. But with the movie year just getting started, it’s easier to forgive its outrageous plot twists and just have fun, especially since Raimi and his team put the rest of the film together so well.
