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Birds of Prey has finally hit our screens and we can’t get enough of the radical R-rated action romp. One of the highlights of the newest entry in the DCEU is its awesome action and stunt work. During our visit to London for the world premiere of the film, we sat down with the cast and director to break down how Birds of Prey became one of the most impressive superhero action movies we’ve ever seen.

With all the hype for the first female-led superhero team-up movie, it was easy to miss the fact that groundbreaking stunt person and helmer of the John Wick franchise Chad Stahelski was brought in as an uncredited second unit director on Birds of Prey. With Cathy Yan’s vibrant vision and Stahelski’s eye for bone-crunching practical action the film consistently surprises and delights with astonishing action, and the cast and director were quick to gush about the talents of Stahelski and 87Eleven the incredible stunt team behind the movie’s smash and grab brutality.

When we chatted to the film’s director Cathy Yan she explained that it had always been her intention to put action front and center in the film, luckily, it was something that producer and star Margot Robbie and writer Christina Hodson were fully in support of. Yan shot the movie in a unique fashion. The studio gave the creative team full reign over the film with no push to fit it into any particular rating. From what Yan told us, the crew hoped WB would allow for an R-rating. Looking at the first reviews and responses, that freedom and flexibility was a smart choice by Warner Bros. who recently saw huge success with another r-rated comic book movie and will likely be hoping that after the positive critical responses Birds of Prey will inspire a similar massive box office reaction.

Warner Bros.

The stars of the film were equally as excited about the intensive action training that Birds of Prey put them through. Robbie’s Harley Quinn is the heart of the movie and thus has some of the most outrageous action and biggest set pieces. The star of the film was clearly enthusiastic about the experience and the work of the stunt team who made the action sequences feel so real. She wasn’t alone; Jurnee Smollet-Bell, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Rosie Perez all eagerly spoke about how the tough regime and intense action training ended up feeling incredibly cathartic and empowering.

There’s plenty to love about Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn but the dedication to impressive, brutal, and ultimately fun practical action is something that truly makes the movie stand apart from other recent superhero offerings. As fans of stunt work and the people who make it happen it makes it even better that the cast and director spoke so highly of the team who made it all possible. Bring on the best stunt actor Oscar category; if it existed, Birds of Prey would be our top pick for the honor in 2021.

Header Image: Warner Bros. 

The post How BIRDS OF PREY Went Full John Wick appeared first on Nerdist.

With the release of DC’s Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of the One Harley Quinn), many have been wondering about one particular scene when Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) describes in detail about obtaining the perfect egg sandwich for her breakfast. The way Harley describes the egg sandwich could almost be told from a […]

The challenge of Birds of Prey — DC’s newest hero film featuring antihero Harley Quinn — was to decouple its star from her iconic anchor. Since her first appearance in 1992 in Batman: The Animated Series (Fun Fact: Harley Quinn was not in a comic book until 1993), Harley has been the Joker’s partner in crime, sidekick and lover. The Joker’s stock has never been higher in pop culture on the heels of a financially successful solo film with 11 Academy Award nominations. It’s both prime time to highlight the characters around him but also a challenge to have them stand sufficiently on their own. In that specific challenge, I’m glad to say, Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is successful.

Birds of Prey Ensemble Cast

While the Joker’s shadow looms over the first act of the film, a character more felt than seen, Birds of Prey pivots seamlessly into a place where you don’t expect his cameo, and neither do you want it. For this viewer, chalk that up as a win. Harley Quinn, played again by Margot Robbie, is fitting whether you enjoy this particular version of Harley or not. With the Joker’s absence, you would hope to fill that void with an ensemble of lesser-known characters, using the space to develop and shine. For that, unfortunately, expect to be disappointed: Birds of Prey makes the decision to skew the first two acts of the film almost entirely toward Harley Quinn, saving their inevitable team-up for the final act without meaningful development prior. The result is a ton of fun in the movie’s final ten minutes. With the thin, erratic structure of the first two acts and the fleeting backstories of Huntress, Black Canary, Renee Montoya, and Cassandra Cain, you can only wish they had invested sooner.

Even if they had, it’s hard to imagine Birds of Prey having a heftier emotional weight given the failure of its villains, Black Mask and Victor Zsasz. Cartoon cutouts of mob bosses may very well fit the tone set in the film — one that plays on Looney Tune-type antics, like setting a beard on fire to have it burst into flames in a fight — but they fail at being interesting, compelling, or worthwhile antagonists. They aren’t heavy enough to make it feel like Harley Quinn has become a force of her own. Her character’s writing awkwardly toggles between being a self-aware mastermind (she planned many of the Joker’s best heists, and we’re reminded repeatedly that she has a Ph.D.) and a waif-y incompetent who often survives fatal encounters by sheer luck.

Action and Slapstick Combine

Where Birds of Prey excels most is its action, including what should become an iconic Harley Quinn break-in scene where Harley wields a glitter-bomb shotgun that captures the quintessence of the character. It all culminates in a team action scene that combines much of what you want to see, and is full of humor, if not much heart. Most of the laughs are anchored by Harley herself. Her love for a egg sandwich makes for a great running gag, and some of the biggest laughs come from an unexpected source in Crossbow Girl Huntress as she awkwardly practices being a badass (despite being, in fact, a bad ass already). Much of the other comedy and action is of the slapstick variety, best enjoyed when you lean into the silliness of what they’re trying to do. Admittedly, I failed to laugh at the antics of setting a beard on fire in an action move, but it’s hard not to smile at Harley whipping a baseball bat and having it return to her like it’s Captain America’s shield.

Birds of Prey avoids the easy bait of making its characters weirdly sexualized. Even in shorts and fishnets, Harley Quinn lands more as “quirky” than sexy, never with a camera angle panning up her legs or highlighting her ass as we saw in Suicide Squad. Instead, Quinn, Huntress, Canary, and Montoya are action stars in a beat-’em-up final sequence that features the martial arts you expect to see, with the added bonus of thoughtful touches like sharing hair ties.

Overall, is Birds of Prey fun? In its final scenes, absolutely; everything leading up to it, well, your mileage may vary dependent on how much you value its slapstick-y approach to humor and how much you want to see Harley compared to the rest of the Birds. For its ticket price, failed antagonist, and ultimately forgettable emotional arcs, I’d save this one for a plane. Birds of Prey will undoubtedly be a seized financial opportunity in an industry proving that B and C-list characters can bring in a strong box office. Birds of Prey brings fun action and doubles down on Harley Quinn, but with Huntress, Canary, Cain, and Montoya, its focus falls short of the expectation to see them emancipated together.

Find all of Jordan Calhoun’s Rotten Tomatoes-approved movie reviews at Jordan Calhoun at the Movies.

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The post Review: Harley Quinn and the Pips is Fun, and a Letdown appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

Source: Vivien Killilea / Getty

Lori Harvey got out of a carjacking by simply just walking away. When carjackers tried to steal her whip, she tried to fight them off but then remembered a fun fact about her car.

According to TMZ, after she parked her 2020 Rolls-Royce Cullinan in the parking garage of an Atlanta complex, a man ran toward her car in an attempt to jump into the driver’s seat while she was getting a few things out of the trunk. The suspect pushed her away and before she decided to keep fighting back she realized that she didn’t have to. The 23-year-old remembered that all she had to do was walk away from the SUV with the key fob because the car will no longer drive if it is too far from it. So instead of getting hurt,  she calmly walked away.

A second suspect also pulled up and took a duffel bag out of the back seat. Harvey later confirmed that the duffel bag only had a few clothes in it so nothing of great value was taken. Since she was coming from Whole Foods Market, police hope that surveillance footage will help them catch the two suspects.

This is the second car-related incident Harvey’s been involved in in the past year. She was recently charged with two misdemeanors including one count of resisting, delaying, obstructing a peace officer and one count of hit and run resulting in property damage. She is accused of hitting a parked car and then trying to flee the scene after her Mercedes-Benz G Wagon flipped over

. She was later caught by police when she walking down the street not too far from the accident.

If convicted, she could be sentenced up to a year in prison. Harvey has not yet commented on this incident.