A Minecraft Movie Review: A Broad, Slapstick Farce

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

It was a bad idea from the start. Of course it was. “Minecraft,” first produced by the Swedish company Mojang Studios in 2011, started as a modest sandbox game where idle youths could while away their time mining wood, ore, and other materials to build whatever structures they wanted. There weren’t levels to “Minecraft,” nor any sort of quest to complete. It was, to borrow another critic’s phrase, a faffing-about simulator. The game was very popular, bolstered by its simple, cubic, pixelated aesthetic; it was a 3D version of an 8-Bit, NES-era game. 
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A generation became addicted. It swelled and swelled. A tribe of YouTubers appeared, posting hundreds of hours of Minecraft” gameplay video as they explored the fineries of mining, crafting, combining materials, and battling Endermen. As of this writing, “Minecraft” is the single best-selling video game of all time (it’s in second place if one combined every iteration of “Tetris” in their sales figures). These days, one cannot visit their child’s elementary school campus without seeing dozens of “Minecraft”-branded backpacks, water bottles, t-shirts, watches, shoes, etc. etc. etc. There are spinoff mayhem-based arcade games, TV shows, books, comics, and wax cylinders. The game has been a phenomenon at least as large as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 
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So “A Minecraft Movie” was kind of inevitable. The “Minecraft” empire was slowly slumping toward theaters for years, and it has finally landed in the form of Jared Hess’ $150 million effects bonanza. What could be done with a “Minecraft” movie? Not much, it seems. Because the game is an open-ended sandbox, there isn’t anything traditionally cinematic that could be extracted from it. There is no final boss to fight, no protagonist with a story arc, no progressively harder levels. 
As such, Hess and his army of screenwriters (only five are credited) have taken the wisest possible route with their adaptation: “A Minecraft Movie” is a broad, slapstick farce without a hint of seriousness, reverence, or coolness. The most shocking thing? It’s not terrible. 

Court Documents: Illinois Teacher Accused of Sexually Abusing 15-Year-Old Kept ‘Memoir’ About Victim

US & Canada

A special education teacher accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old student in Downers Grove, Illinois, allegedly kept notes about their relationship in her phone. After the suspect, identified as 30-year-old Christina Formella, was arrested, authorities charged her with two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and one count of criminal sexual assault against a minor, People…

Vincent D’Onofrio Says Kingpin Can’t Appear In Marvel Movies

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Entertainment gossip and news from Newsweek’s network of contributorsVincent D’Onofrio, who plays Kingpin in “Daredevil: Born Again,” seems to like the idea of his villainous character making the jump to the big screen. However, according to the star, Wilson Fisk is stuck in the medium of television because of rights issues.Read More: Chris Pratt Reacts to Absence From ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ AnnouncementAsked on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast about possibly appearing in “Spider-Man: Brand New Day or any other Marvel films, D’Onofrio responded, “The only thing I know is not positive. It’s a very hard thing to do, for Marvel to use my character. It’s a very hard thing to do, because of ownership and stuff.Right now, I’m only usable for television series. Different kinds of series, whatever it is, but not even a one-off Fisk movie or anything like that, it’s all caught up in rights and stuff. I don’t know when that would work out, or if it ever would work out at all, actually.”

Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk/The Kingpin.
Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk/The Kingpin.
DISNEY
It’s a curious answer because it isn’t immediately clear what ownership issues D’Onofrio is referring to. If Daredevil can appear in a film as he did in “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” then presumably Wilson Fisk should be able to as well.Spider-Man could be the key to the problem. While Kingpin is more closely associated with Daredevil, he began his fictional life as a Spider-Man villain, meaning Sony could possibly claim some ownership over the movie rights. However, if that’s the case, then on one hand it begs the question of how Michael Clarke Duncan played the character in 2003’s “Daredevil.” On the other, it wouldn’t stop D’Onofrio appearing as Kingpin in “Spider-Man” films because they are Sony films.Of course, considering the history of Marvel PR, it’s also possible that this is all an elaborate smoke screen and D’Onofrio is set to appear in a Marvel movie as we speak. The white lies of Andrew Garfield and Charlie Cox re: “Spider-Man: No Way Home” will never be forgotten.Whatever it is that’s keeping D’Onofrio’s Kingpin off the big screen, he’s certainly made a huge splash in the small one. After playing the character in all three seasons of Netflix’s “Daredevil,” he went on to reprise the role for “Hawkeye,” “Echo,” and most recently in “Daredevil: Born Again.””Daredevil: Born Again” streams on Disney+ every Tuesday at 9 PM ET, 6 PM PT.More Comics:’Fantastic Four’ Trailer Unveils First Look at Silver Surfer’Iron Man’ Star Confirms James Spader’s Return In ‘Vision Quest’

Lincoln Laboratory honored for technology transfer of hurricane-tracking satellites

Technology

The Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) has awarded MIT Lincoln Laboratory a 2025 FLC Excellence in Technology Transfer Award. The award recognizes the laboratory’s exceptional efforts in commercializing microwave sounders hosted on small satellites called CubeSats. The laboratory first developed the technology for NASA, demonstrating that such satellites could work in tandem to collect hurricane data more frequently than previously possible and significantly improve hurricane forecasts. The technology is now licensed to the company Tomorrow.io, which will launch a large constellation of the sounder-equipped satellites to enhance hurricane prediction and expand global weather coverage. “This FLC award recognizes a technology with significant impact, one that could enhance hourly weather forecasting for aviation, logistics, agriculture, and emergency management, and highlights the laboratory’s important role in bringing federally funded innovation to the commercial sector,” says Asha Rajagopal, Lincoln Laboratory’s chief technology transfer officer.A nationwide network of more than 300 government laboratories, agencies, and research centers, the FLC helps facilitate the transfer of technologies out of federal labs and into the marketplace to benefit the U.S. economy, society, and national security.Lincoln Laboratory originally proposed and demonstrated the technology for NASA’s TROPICS (Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of SmallSats) mission. For TROPICS, the laboratory put its microwave sounders on low-cost, commercially available CubeSats for the first time.Of all the technology used for sensing hurricanes, microwave sounders provide the greatest improvement to forecasting models. From space, these instruments detect a range of microwave frequencies that penetrate clouds, allowing them to measure 3D temperature, humidity, and precipitation in a storm. State-of-the-art instruments are typically large (the size of a washing machine) and hosted aboard $2 billion polar-orbiting satellites, which collectively may revisit a storm every six hours. If sounders could be miniaturized, laboratory researchers imagined, then they could be put on small satellites and launched in large numbers, working together to revisit storms more often.The TROPICS sounder is the size of a coffee cup. The laboratory team worked for several years to develop and demonstrate the technology that resulted in a miniaturized instrument, while maintaining performance on par with traditional sounders for the frequencies that provide the most useful tropical cyclone observations. By 2023, NASA launched a constellation of four TROPICS satellites, which have since collected rapidly refreshed data of many tropical storms.Now, Tomorrow.io plans to increase that constellation to a global network of 18 satellites. The resulting high-rate observations — under an hour — are expected to improve weather forecasts, hurricane tracking, and early-warning systems.”This partnership with Tomorrow.io expands the impact of the TROPICS mission. Tomorrow.io’s increased constellation size, software pipeline, and resilient business model enable it to support a number of commercial and government organizations. This transfer to industry has resulted in a self-sustaining national capability, one that is expected to help the economy and the government for years to come,” says Tom Roy, who managed the transfer of the technology to Tomorrow.io.The technology transfer spanned 18 months. Under a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA), the laboratory team adapted the TROPICS payload to an updated satellite design and delivered to Tomorrow.io the first three units, two of which were launched in September 2024. The team also provided in-depth training to Tomorrow.io and seven industry partners who will build, test, launch, and operate the future full commercial constellation. The remaining satellites are expected to launch before the end of this year.”With these microwave sounders, we can set a new standard in atmospheric data collection and prediction. This technology allows us to capture atmospheric data with exceptional accuracy, especially over oceans and remote areas where traditional observations are scarce,” said Rei Goffer, co-founder of Tomorrow.io, in a press release announcing the September launches.Tomorrow.io will use the sounder data as input into their weather forecasts, data products, and decision support tools available to their customers, who range from major airlines to governments. Tomorrow.io’s nonprofit partner, TomorrowNow, also plans to use the data as input to its climate model for improving food security in Africa.This technology is especially relevant as hurricanes and severe weather events continue to cause significant destruction. In 2024, the United States experienced a near-record 27 disaster events that each exceeded $1 billion in damage, resulting in a total cost of approximately $182.7 billion, and that caused the deaths of at least 568 people. Globally, these storm systems cause thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in damage each year.“It has been great to see the Lincoln Laboratory, Tomorrow.io, and industry partner teams work together so effectively to rapidly incorporate the TROPICS technology and bring the new Tomorrow.io microwave sounder constellation online,” says Bill Blackwell, principal investigator of the NASA TROPICS mission and the CRADA with Tomorrow.io. “I expect that the improved revisit rate provided by the Tomorrow.io constellation will drive further improvements in hurricane forecasting performance over and above what has already been demonstrated by TROPICS.”The team behind the transfer includes Tom Roy, Bill Blackwell, Steven Gillmer, Rebecca Keenan, Nick Zorn, and Mike DiLiberto of Lincoln Laboratory and Kai Lemay, Scott Williams, Emma Watson, and Jan Wicha of Tomorrow.io. Lincoln Laboratory will be honored among other winners of 2025 FLC Awards at the FLC National Meeting to be held virtually on May 13.

Chamber of Commerce Lobbies for More Free Trade Deals After Trump’s Tariffs

US & Canada

The United States Chamber of Commerce is attacking President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs while lobbying lawmakers to negotiate more free trade deals despite the economic devastation that such deals have delivered to the nation’s working- and middle-classes. This week, Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on foreign imports — a move that ends the decades-long free trade consensus…

Scientists Decode Secrets of Belize’s Great Blue Hole and Warn About Our Future

Science and Health

Great Blue Hole, Coast of Belize. Credit: U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) / Public DomainA new study from a team of international scientists has revealed that Belize’s Great Blue Hole contains a detailed, 5,700-year record of hurricanes and tropical storms, offering the longest continuous storm archive in the Atlantic region.
The massive marine sinkhole, located off the coast of Belize, is famous for its deep blue waters and striking circular shape. But beneath its surface lies more than geological wonder. A 30-meter sediment core extracted from its bottom has helped researchers reconstruct storm patterns spanning millennia — and their findings point to a troubling increase in extreme weather.
In 2022, researchers from Goethe University Frankfurt, along with teams from Germany and Switzerland, transported a floating drilling platform to the site. They drilled into the sinkhole’s floor and retrieved a core sample that, much like tree rings, displays annual layers of sediment.

Sediment layers reveal millennia of storm history
Based on the study published in Science Advances, each layer captured material washed in by ocean storms. Coarse sand and reef debris—brought in by storm waves and surges—stand out against the smoother grey-green mud deposited during calm years. These lighter-colored storm layers helped the team identify and count 574 separate storm events in Belize’s Great Blue Hole.

Flying over the Great Blue Hole
A giant marine sinkhole of the coast of Belize 🇧🇿
emmett_sparling | IG pic.twitter.com/DHsHV2gwV8
— TRVL Creative ✈️ (@TRVLCreative) June 14, 2020

Lead author Dr. Dominik Schmitt said the Blue Hole’s unique environment helped preserve the core in remarkable condition. The bottom layers are oxygen-free and undisturbed, allowing sediment to settle cleanly year after year.
The study shows that storm activity in the southwestern Caribbean has increased gradually over the past 6,000 years. Warmer sea-surface temperatures often coincided with more frequent storm layers in the core. On average, between four and 16 tropical storms and hurricanes passed over the region every century.
Modern storm activity far exceeds historical trends
But the trend appears to be accelerating. In just the past 20 years, the sediment reveals nine major storm events—indicating a sharp rise compared to the long-term average.

“Our results suggest that some 45 tropical storms and hurricanes could pass over this region in our century alone,” said co-author Prof. Eberhard Gischler. “This would far exceed the natural variability of the past millennia.”
The researchers say natural climate variations do not explain the recent spike. Instead, they point to ocean warming linked to industrial-era human activity. Stronger La Niña weather patterns and rising sea temperatures create the perfect setup for frequent and intense storms.
The team notes that predictions about future storm frequency are often limited by the short history of modern weather records. The sediment core from the Great Blue Hole offers rare long-term context—and a stark warning about what may come.
Their findings underline a key message: the pace and intensity of tropical storms are increasing, and the changes are closely tied to modern global warming.
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Richard E. Grant reveals racy reason he refuses to watch his own movies

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Richard E. Grant appeared on BBC’s The One Show on Friday and revealed why he refuses to watch himself back on screens in some of his biggest movies20:36, 04 Apr 2025During an appearance on The One Show tonight Richard Grant shared the real reason why he doesn’t like to watch back scenes he’s starred in – and it’s a bit of a cheeky one. The renowned English actor was being quizzed on his role in new A24 horror comedy Death of a Unicorn when he made the admission.Show host Clara Amfo had questions about why both Richard and his fellow guest Harry Lawtey don’t watch their own films. She asked the pair of actors: “Now Harry, you said that you never watch yourself back on screen. Richard, you don’t do the same thing either.Article continues below”What’s all that about? Watching yourself back?” Richard started off with a pragmatic answer, saying that by the point you are tuning in to a film you’ve acted in, “you can’t fix it”.Richard Grant made an appearance on The One Show tonight(Image: